Things I Love

Thing I love, number one: recently, I've hit a new level of genius (and laziness): you can scramble eggs in the microwave.

They aren't quite as tasty as pan-cooked eggs (mostly, I suspect, because you don't add any cooking fat), but it is faster since there's no cleanup required.  So, I've been bringing a little tupperware to work with me, with a couple of eggs (three if I'm not adding meat OR two plus meat of choice) and some veggies (salsa is a really good "cheater" veggie...or a handful of spinach and cherry tomatoes...and lately, SO MUCH KIMCHI).  When I get there, I break the eggs into the tupperware with whatever meat I'm using, stir it all up with a fork, microwave for a minute and 15 seconds, stir, and nuke for a little longer to finish cooking - usually another 15-45 seconds, depending on the meat.  Top with veggies of choice, and it looks like this: 

Thing I love, number two: so this morning, I'm standing there in the office kitchen chatting with a coworker, who's watching me stir a couple of eggs in with leftover smoked pulled pork and a (particularly beautiful) chunk of brisket.  I work in a small office, so everyone has noticed my recent weight loss and several people keep asking me how I did it.  I usually say that I found out I was allergic to gluten, which isn't COMPLETELY true, but generally staves off any scrutiny about "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'RE NOT EATING WHOLE GRAINS ARE YOU ON ATKINS UGH YOU ARE GOING TO DIE."  

Anyway, she's telling me how she needs to start eating better, and going to the gym, and she just can't seem to lose weight.  "It's not like I overeat!  I haven't eaten anything yet today, and in a little while I'm going to have a yogurt.  That's what I'll have today...a yogurt."

It makes me die a little bit inside to know how miserable and frustrated she must feel.  I hate having my eating choices criticized, so I generally don't do the same to others (PhillyGuy must be rolling his eyes through the back of his skull right now - but it's DIFFERENT because I LOVE YOU!), but I always feel like I have this big amazing secret I want to share with all the sad dieters existing on boiled chicken breast and Yoplait.

One of the things that's surprised me with my third BCCC is that I'm not actually getting quite as much protein as I'd assumed I was.  Focusing on gettin' SKRONGER means that I need to make sure I'm eating a sufficient amount of protein - at LEAST one gram per pound of lean body mass.  With some very rough estimating, I've been using 115lbs as my LBM - so I shoot for 120-150g of protein every day.  I figured that'd be a given.  It is NOT.

Which brings us to thing I love, number three: canned fish.

Sardines, tuna, smoked herring (what my grandfather used to call "kippered snacks"): whatever.  They don't need to be refrigerated or cooked or prepared, which means I can keep a couple tins stashed in my desk drawer.  It's a decent way to get a hit of protein - one little tin of sardines has 22g - and if you stick with a good brand, the ingredients are nice and clean.

(Incidentally...how is a serving HALF of this little baby tin?)  So we'll see.  The past week has been rough, but I'm off antibiotics now and feeling MUCH better.  I'm still taking a probiotic supplement and eating kimchi and yogurt like it's my job, but hopefully my gut flora will rebuild themselves pretty quickly and I'll be back to normal. 

Log:

Tuesday May 15: some strict HSPU work - tripod to headstand and pressing up from the bottom. THAT SHIT IS NOT EASY.  Even though I can do a few sets of strict HSPUs with light and mini bands, and can kip them easily, I couldn't even press out of the bottom with an average (green) band.  Oy.  Strict overhead press, peak of three. 45-60-70-80-85x2, failed on the third.  This is a PR, since I could never get 85 up before, but it was incredibly ugly - I went up on my toes, arched the shit out of my back, etc.  These are still on my suck list.  Oh well.  Metcon: AMRAP 7 minutes, burpees.  I got 93 - quads seizing, sweat dripping off of my face, mascara annihilated, and beating my score from the open by nearly 20.

woof.

I've been sick.  It's been a long week.  My productivity at work wasn't great last week and I feel like I'm super behind.  I've eaten my weight in kimchi and some full-fat yogurt here and there, but the antibiotics are still kicking my ass (and my digestive system) a little bit.  We traveled up to visit the inlaws this weekend and my diet wasn't ideal - I ate far more dried apricots and almonds than was necessary, but I suppose in the grand scheme of things, gorging myself on dried fruit and nuts in a movie theater beats the many, MANY other things I could have gorged myself on. 

Pretty sweet theater, though.  Why doesn't Philly have one of these?

I don't have a ton to say, except that I want to curl up in bed with a bagel or maybe some nachos.  Instead I'm going to drink a buttload of water and do my best to force myself to be a workhorse today.

Training log:

Tuesday May 8: strict press, peak of three. 55-65-75-80-80.  Yep, tripled my prior (and honestly, probably current) max.  This is not my strongest lift, but my shoulders feel like they're a little stronger than they were.  Metcon, 5 rounds of AMRAP 60 seconds wallballs (20/14lbs), 60 seconds handstand pushups.  Half-assed the wallballs.  Total reps 87, as RX'ed.

Thursday May 10: clean & jerk. 63x2, 83x2, 103x2...and then I started pulling with my arms. 103x1, 108x1, 108x1...and then two sets of 5 clean pulls at 108lbs.  Woof.  15lbs under my max.  I went to a morning class and had to rush to get to work, so I wasn't sad to skip the metcon (50 bar facing burpees for time).

Friday May 11: deadlifts, peak of three. 145-185-215-235-255.  Fast and easy to 255; 255 was heavy but still fast enough out of the bottom that I was satisfied.  Fran (21-15-9 thrusters (95/65) and pull ups): 7:40 as RX'ed.  54 seconds slower than last week's time.  Like last time, broke the 15 thrusters up into 7 and 8 - but I failed THREE TIMES to squat clean the bar for my 8th rep, which ate up a bunch of time.  Post-Fran I felt awful - sick and nauseated - not sure if it was due to the workout or to the nasty shot of antibiotics I got in my arm earlier that day, but I had a coconut water and ginger Larabar afterwards and felt much better.

Monday, May 14: another morning class. back squats, peak of 3.  85-115-135-155-175 easy.  Could have gone up to 185, but I decided to skip it and planned to take two sets in today's metcon - 20 rep back squat.  Last time we did this I did 115 and 125 and remember it being fairly easy, so I planned to do 135 and 145.  Should have done the extra work set instead, because I wore a belt and FRIED my lower back on the 135.  Easy weight for my legs, though.

Kimchi and Chocolate

Not feeling my absolute best for the past few days.  I'm on a round of antibiotics now.

Killing off all of the bacteria in my body means eating plenty of this:

Authentic (a/k/a mixed by rubber-glove-covered hand and not even remotely pasteurized) kimchi from Sook Hee's Produce.  "I put the kimchee in an extra bag for you, because it's stinky."  Yes, Sook Hee, it sure as shit is.  But it's chock full of live cultures, and I need probiotics to reestablish my gut flora while I'm killing the nasty shit off.

Yogurt, too.  Yesterday I drank my coffee black and had some full-fat Fage yogurt as my third meal of the day.  Low fat dairy is complete and total bullshit.  I don't do much dairy these days - about a tablespoon, maybe two, of heavy cream in my coffee, and the occasional piece of cheese or dollop of yogurt if I'm having chili.  But never, EVER again will I consider drinking skim milk or eating fat free cheese.

Operation: Get Strong Without Getting Fat is getting interesting.

I generally train six days a week - four weeknights, at 6:30 or 7:30, and two or three classes between Saturday and Sunday.  That means that during the week, I usually end up eating dinner around 9 or 9:15 once I'm home from the gym and have had time to throw something together.

This week, I'm shuffling my meals around so that I'm done eating for the day around 5:30 or so.  That gives me a couple hours before I work out - I don't do well working out on a full stomach.  And then, just before class, a little hit of this stuff:

 

Yes, experimenting with chocolate as actual fuel.  Instead of just "something that tastes goddamn delicious."  The idea is to break the emotional, mental, "OMG TREAT" connection, and consider chocolate, like anything else I eat, as something with [potential] benefits aside from just being tasty.

So, we'll see how this goes.  I do know I've been putting up some good numbers and have been feeling pretty lean, so if this week is a bust I can always go back to my 9pm dinners and indulgence-only chocolate.

Log (aka "HANDSTAND PUSHUPS FOR DAYS"):

Saturday May 5: first running metcon in a while.  We did some POSE running drills on the way to Washington Square park, looking like total tools the entire time.  At the park: 800m run, then 10 rounds of 10 HSPU/10 pistols, then 800m run.  I scaled the pistols to 20 walking lunges; did the first 10 HSPU's against a tree, but it took me forever so I scaled those to regular pushups.  I was pretty damn tired when it was over, but as usual wish I'd sucked it up. 25:51. I didn't track my time too closely but am fairly sure I kept my 800s under 4 minutes each, which is just fine with me since that's the longest distance I've run in a REALLY long time.

Sunday May 6: double session Sundays.  Gymnastics - strict HSPUs, 8x3 with band assistance: 1x3 average/light band; 4x3 light/light; 1x3 light/mini; 1 mini/mini (one HSPU only - failed on the second); 1x3 light/light.  Metcon: 5 rounds for perfect form of 5 ring v-outs, 5 strict L-raises, 5 handstand walkups from plank, 5 pike v-ups. Scaled to 3 rounds since I planned to stay for the regular session.  Ass whooped regardless.  Abs not so strong.  

Regular session: "Hope."  A variation on Fight Gone Bad. 

uh, woof.  Especially those thrusters.  Score: 171, as RX'ed.  

And I thought I was lousy at Fight Gone Bad.

Monday, May 7: more fun with double sessions.  Back squat, peak of 3. 95-125-145-165-180.  We haven't back squatted in a WHILE - other than the Total and a random day where we did sets of 20, I can't find anything in my log on this since December or January.  Feeling pretty confident about my goal of 200.  Metcon: AMRAP in 3 minutes of back squats (225/135), immediately followed by max unbroken kipping pullups. 21/9, as RX'ed.  And then...gymnastics...for more work on kipping handstand pushups.  I did a few sets with a full ROM and, while everyone else was doing the metcon, did 30 more to an abmat in sets of 3-5 each.

Totally Compliant

Whole30? LULZ.

Yeah, in addition to all that cream in my coffee, I really threw this concept out the window this weekend. First, there were a couple glasses of a fabulous supertuscan.



PhillyGuy and I spontaneously decided to have dinner at the bar at Amis. We enjoyed some fantastic preparations of a baby lamb that clearly died of natural causes. sausage over polenta, mixed grill with a lamb chop and some ribs, sal's meatballs, grouper. Lots of non-Whole30-approved bits, but in general, great choices.

And then this happened.



More than Just Ice Cream. That monstrosity in the front was my selection - banana chocolate ice cream (tasted exactly like circus peanuts), hot fudge, crushed peanuts, marshmallows, whipped cream. In the back, apple crumble (far superior to their much-overhyped apple pie...but then I'm not really a pie or crumble person).

We walked off the diabetes on our way back to the car.

And then it was Easter. And this was my Easter dinner, eaten on the couch over a couple games of Scrabble, several episodes of Mythbusters alternated with the Masters, and Mad Men.



I bet eating deconstructed Reese's is precisely what made Betty the size of a small house.

I skipped the gym on Sunday because I managed to bruise my left rotator cuff Saturday afternoon, somewhere during back-to-back gymnastics (many handstand pushups, a little one-armed handstanding, and some attempts at handstand walking) and regular session (turkish getups). I turkish-get-upped a barbell for the first time, starting with a ladies' bar and then adding weight. Happy with my 43lbs, but I'm thinking that's where the impingement happened. Metcon may not have helped - seven rounds of max strict pull ups (any grip) alternated with 15 hollow rocks, no resting between rounds. My score was 20 pull ups, using a supinated grip - 4 in the first round, so that's bringing me ever closer to my goal of five strict pull ups by the end of June.

This is the same shoulder I injured back in the fall. It's already feeling much, much better, but I'm still trying to be cautious with it so that I'm in decent shape for this weekend's South Philly Rumble. I'm generally awful when it comes to working out injured, and I can already tell this week is going to be a struggle - snatches are on the schedule for tomorrow, and I'm really feeling like I'm on the verge of a breakthrough with dropping under the bar. BUT. I'm already our team's weakest link, so, you know, it would be helpful to have functioning joints so that's not working against me as well. So, here's to being patient (GAH) and happy Monday, all.

Poconos Weekend

i spent this past weekend here:

doing a lot of sitting and relaxing and hanging out in the hot tub and watching the boys grill lots of meat.

It was awesome.

I really needed it - I've been super burnt out lately and my work was starting to show it. So, four days off - it's not quite as good as a "real" vacation, but it sure did the trick. We got a four-bedroom cabin in the Poconos and had a few friends come and hang out with us. Even though Mike had to work Thursday, I booked it for the extra night, and spent the day catching up on some errands.

Like taking Cosmo to the vet. Not even the fabulous seasonal window display could distract him.

Poor dude hates the vet.

But anyway - I highly, highly recommend the random long weekend. I actually felt recharged when I got back in on Monday. Fancy that.

Training log - lots to catch up on here:

Friday March 9: sumo deadlift, peak of 2. 135-165-195-225-245. Metcon: ten minute partner row for calories, alternating on the minute. Total calories - 159.

Saturday March 10: CrossFit Games open WOD 12.3. 18-minute AMRAP of 15 box jumps (20"), 12 push press (75lbs), 9 toes to bar. 4 rounds + 3 toes to bar. Fuck me, that was rough. Toes to bar destroyed my forearms.

Sunday March 11: intro to oly. Snatched up to 73lbs - I'm getting much better but still so far from being good. Clean & jerked up to 113lbs. Jerk is getting really strong.

Monday March 12: Overhead squat, peak of 1. 45x5-65x4-80x3-90x1-100x1-100x1-105x1-115x1. Having never worked up to a max on my overhead squat before, this was an automatic PR. Metcon: grip destruction. 4 rounds of 60 seconds each barbell overhead (135/95), farmers' carry with kettlebells (2/1.5p), plank. Score is one point for each time you dropped whatever you were holding, and NO CHALK ALLOWED. 1 point, as RXed (dropped the kettlebells with less than 10 seconds left in the last round...womp womp womp).

Tuesday, March 13: strict band-assisted handstand pushups. These were TOUGH this week - I worked up to a couple with light bands and one with light + mini band, with plenty of fails in there. Metcon: Nate.

20 minute AMRAP of 2 muscle ups, 4 handstand pushups, 8 American kettlebell swings (2/1.5p).

Scaled with strict pullups instead of muscleups and average & light band assisted HSPU's - 10 rounds + 2 pull ups.

Thursday, March 15: CrossFit Games Open WOD 12.4. Fuck this WOD. AMRAP 12 minutes, 150 wallballs (14lbs, 9' target), 90 double unders, 30 muscleups. I mean, FUCK. I hate wallballs but plugged through these OK - after about 30, I started breaking them into sets of 5 and just chipped away. I finished the wallballs with about 4 seconds left and couldn't make it to my jumprope in time. Also, I could barely walk for three days afterwards.

Tuesday, March 20: muscle-up transition work - I did four or five with a mini band. Metcon: 21-15-9 front squat (75lbs)/pull ups. As RX'ed, 8:53. Happy with that - front squats were easy and I only failed one pull up, right at the very end. Time for me to work on stringing more than 2-3 together - I'm going to get much faster at these.

Wednesday, March 21: intro to oly. Snatched up to 79.6lbs (weird mix of pound and kilogram plates); failed at 81.8. regardless...PR! Clean & jerked up to 51kg (about 112lbs); failed three times at 53kg (about 116lbs). One day, these lifts are just going to come together for me, I'm going to keep my chest up and not pull with my arms and drop under the bar...and I will do a bodyweight snatch and PR my clean by like 50lbs.

Crack Veggies

so, these?

they're like crack. I found them in a little store in the sketchier portion of Suburban Station (per the label..."Nutty World") that sells, well, mostly nuts. And dried fruit, and other snacky things. And these? Like crack. I'm worried that they're soaked in sugar or something, but whatever.

Good training week for me.

Saturday, 3/3. Crossfit Games Open WOD 12.2, attempt number 2. 7-minute AMRAP of 30 snatches at 46lbs, 30 snatches at 75lbs, 30 snatches at 100lbs and max snatches at 120lbs. First attempt, I got 44 reps total. This time, I blasted that away with a total of 55 reps. If you're keeping track (and I clearly am), I did my max snatch 25 times. Baller. And then I got a massage. REAL baller.

Sunday 3/4 - intro to oly. Not much snatching - just up to 63lbs and mostly from boxes. Clean & jerk up to 103lbs for a double, and then backed down and did a whole bunch of hang cleans at 73, 83 and 88lbs to work on my form.

Tuesday 3/6 - strict band-assisted handstand pushup work. Did a set of 3 with an average + light band, then a few sets of two with two light bands. Probably could have managed one with light + mini but I just...didn't try. Next week, I guess. Metcon: 20-minute AMRAP 1 strict muscle up + 1 extra ring dip, 2 skin-the-cats, 40 double-unders. Scaled the muscle-up/dip to a bodyweight pronated grip pullup + dip with mini band. Pull ups got REAL hard. 5 rounds (I think) + 5 double-unders.

Wednesday 3/7 - intro to oly. Snatched mostly from boxes again, up to 67.5lbs. More form work on the clean & jerk - doubles at 35kg (77ish lbs)-40kg (88lbs)-45kg (about 100lbs), then failed 50kg (about 110lbs) three times and backed down to a bazillion hang cleans and 55/65lbs, followed by a few hang cleans and full cleans from the floor at 35kg.

Friday 3/9 - sumo deadlifts, peak of 2. 135-165-195-225-245. Felt good. Far better than 245 felt at the Total in January. Feeling good about PRing during peak week, and hoping that we do conventional deadlifts next cycle.