I WON!

(clearly we're not talking about the Hybrid Strongman competition here.)

no - for my second stint at the BCCC, I came in third place. While I'm very, very happy with my prize (which included tiger-print socks, a whole mess of Primal Pacs, and a $25 lululemon gift card), I'm much happier with THIS...

So a long time ago, I started P90X with PhillyGuy. We both loved it and saw some results, but I never really got my nutrition in check, so I didn't see the super-intense results I was hoping for. Hence, I never took "after" pictures with P90X. But...I sure did take before pictures.

That's me - in March 2010, just about two years ago. While I lost about 7 pounds, I put them all back on during the fall of 2010, so this is roughly what I looked like when I joined CFCC in late June 2011, and when I started eating paleo in July.

Now, after (i) starting to eat paleo, initially about 90% of the time; (ii) going through a BCCC in October 2011 where I really got consistent, gave up artificial sweeteners, and stopped eating fruit, almond butter and Larabars every day; and (iii) going through another BCCC in January 2012, where I really worked on being strict, by omitting all chocolate, nuts, cream in my coffee, and even limiting fat and fibrous/cruciferous vegetables, here's where I am now (or, where I was in early February).

Um...BAM. That's 18-ish pounds down, four inches off of my waist, a couple inches off of my hips, and so, so much healthier.

And the reality is that today, as I sit here in my bed typing this up, I'm down another couple of pounds from THAT picture, even having loosened my restrictions a bit (hello, daily coffee with heavy cream, and weekly bar of chocolate).

I kind of struggled with putting these pictures out there, since this blog isn't exactly super-anonymous, but the fact is...I'm proud of this shit. I'm REALLY proud of discovering what works for me and being consistent with it, and I'm REALLY proud that I've become so strong and kind of jacked.

So I used my $25 gift card to put towards some real colorful Wunder Unders...

...which I wore last night to work towards my goal of pulling 300lbs by June. We're getting there.

Last night involved a lot of steak, a lot of scrabble, and a lot of this:

SO GOOD.

Workout log for my post-Hybrid week:

Monday, 2/27: overhead squats, peak set of three. After a set of 5 to warm up with an empty bar - 65-75-85-95-100. 100 felt pretty good and solid, so I'm happy with that - I haven't done an overhead squatting cycle yet, so I have no idea what my max might be. Metcon: tabata ab wheel rollouts followed by tabata hollow rocks. Score is your lowest number of reps of each workout - 6 rollouts + 8 rocks = 14. MEH.

Wednesday, 2/29: oly. Snatched to 63lbs, mostly off of blocks to work on the second and third pulls. Clean & jerk to 115 - felt REAL GOOD on this. I got some new cues from Jim, the olympic lifting coach, at Sunday's lighter session, regarding keeping my arms straight and "snapping the bar like a pencil," which have helped me get my elbows around faster.

Thursday, March 1: two-a-day. I went to the gym at 7am to do the second Crossfit Games Open WOD, which was a snatch ladder of sorts. AMRAP in ten minutes, 30 snatches at 45lbs - 30 at 75lbs - 30 at 100lbs - max at 120lbs. Since my max was 73lbs, I was just hoping to get one or two at 75. Killed it - 44 total, 30 at 46lbs and 14 at 76lbs (weird loads due to working with the ladies' bar). Repeating this one today now that I know I can move the weight for so many reps, and shooting to bring my score up to 50.

Second workout: regular CFCC session. WAY more fatigued from 12.2 than I realized. Hang squat cleans, 2 on the minute each minute for 10 minutes. Started with 83lbs for the first 3 or 4 rounds, up to 93 for the rest. I could have gone up but didn't want to - holy hell was I tired. Front squat, peak of three. 103-123-143x1, failed on the second. WAY TIRED. Metcon - three rounds for time, short loop run, 25 box jumps (20"), 50 doubleunders. I scaled this to 100 singles and used the jump rope time as my recovery, since I just wanted to finish this. 12:20.

Friday 3/2: DEADLIFFIN! sumo deadlift, peak of 3. Sumo deadlifts are more difficult for me than conventional, but this day felt strong. 135-165-195-205-215-235. Happy with pulling 235 for 3 - I'm feeling better about my goal of pulling 300 (conventional) by June. (Also, my other goal of pulling 2x bodyweight is now down to 296. Woot.) Metcon: tabata row for calories. I want to punch rowing in the face, even when I'm only doing it for 20 seconds at a time. Score: 53.

happy Saturday!

PITA continued...

Oh man. My legs and my glutes have not been this sore in a long, LONG time. Tonight was 30 minutes of cardio and "pull" lifting...I planned to do my usual elliptical routine, which is the "random" program at level 11. I lasted about 40 seconds before I had to bump the resistance/level down to 7. Good grief, my butt...and my legs...are KILLING me!

So, it's been almost one week of tracking my food intake. Most days, as I said, I averaged 2300-2400 calories. Yesterday was significantly higher -- much closer to 3000 -- because we went out to dinner at Mixto. Paella, a couple of glasses of wine, and half a gigantic slice of red velvet cake will do that!

But today -- I was very surprised to see how much lower my calories were. Pretty much without trying, I'm just under 1500 calories for today. I had my usual breakfast -- Chobani, quarter cup of granola, and berries, with a large skim latte -- and lunch -- sandwich with hummus, turkey, spinach and fat free cheese on an Arnold's sandwich thin, with pretzel chips on the side. The difference, I think, is that I ate lunch much, much later, and so between running errands, the dog park and the gym, there was no time for snacking between meals, whereas typically, at work, I'll have two snacks (apple with cheese, and a pre-gym snack of Clif bar or a second latte).

Finally, I leave you with this. I had said before that I didn't have a good "before" picture, because I've been more or less avoiding cameras. And yeah, I was. But I did find this one, from a black-tie fundraiser event Mike and I went to in November at the Please Touch Museum:



The angle in this is kind of flattering (sad to say), but I think you can really see the weight gain in my face, and my arms are nowhere near as cut as they were last year. Sadly, I wouldn't be surprised if I'd put on a couple pounds since this picture was taken, but I think it gives a good idea of where I'm starting from. (I do LOVE this dress, though, and if [when!] it gets too big for me, I am SO having it taken in.)