Overheard at work

Female coworker: "I wanna work out my aaabs and I wanna work out my butt. Nothing else."

Physical fitness. Ur doin' it wrong.

Now, not everyone is cut out for the mental and physical toughness that is CrossFit. However, there is a right and a wrong way to go about fitness. Unfortunately this is a pretty succinct description of all that I see to be wrong with the typical "big box" gym mentality. Aesthetics over function.

This weekend's Spartan goal: stay on the wagon. Keep Zoning. No sweets, no alcohol. We're halfway through and it'd be a shame to give up now.

Garlic

Nutrition realization for today: Garlic salt and basil make veggies so much more palatable. Don't get me wrong, I've always liked broccoli, but I've eaten so much lately it's getting old. Also helpful is Old Bay seasoning, but that's because I'm from Maryland and we're practically weaned on the stuff.

Cole Slaw

The Farm to Work program my state agency offers is one the most fantastic things ever. Each week baskets of fresh vegetables are delivered from the family farm, just south of San Antonio, to our doorstep. For just $25 you can get a huge basket of fresh fruit and vegetables. However, often the variety of vegetables includes things some might consider obscure.



Take kale. Before a couple of weeks ago I had never seen the stuff, much less eaten it. But there it was, sitting in my basket and begging to be used. Fortunately recipes abound online, however, and I found my answer in a vinegar based coleslaw, which I modified to fit the Zone.

1.25 cup kale, chopped finely
2 cup red cabbage, chopped
1.5 cup green cabbage, chopped
1 cup carrots, shredded
1/3 cup red onion, diced
1 Tbsp lime juice
1.5 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
pinch salt
pinch pepper

Add all vegetables to a very large bowl, mix thoroughly. In a small bowl whisk lime juice, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper together. Pour over vegetables and mix together, making sure the vegetables are coated well. Refridgerate for at least two hours before serving.
If split into five equal servings, each consists of 2 blocks fat, 1 block carbohydrate.

bars

Today is what Mel might call a bad day being a girl. There are a couple of mini Zone Perfect bars sitting in my cupboard, freebies left over from SXSW. Despite the fact that I know there's sugar in them I was considering giving in and eating them. After all today is a crappy kind of day, and well, they're good for you, right?

Nope. This article stopped me in my tracks. Because if I had stopped to think about what was probably in one of those bars all the highly processed crap would have come to mind. So, nevermind. I'll just keep clutching my Nalgene and telling myself I don't need the chocolate until I head off to kettlebells for a workout that I'm pretty sure will turn out to be an "at least I showed up" day.

goals

Yesterday a teammate and I were chatting and the conversation came around to being a baby rugby player, brand new to the game and simply terrible. The conversation also came around to how bad of a rugby player I was at first. I really was terrible. That first season involved lots of enthusiasm, but not much else. And I stayed terrible for a good long while with the original enthusiasm fluctuating in a reverse correlation with my frustration. It wasn't until the rest of my life was on solid ground that I started to really improve. Unsuprisingly (in retrospect) a huge part of what allowed for the improvement was fitness.

The difference between me now and me five years ago, or even two years ago still sneaks up and shocks me regularly. If I talk about my workouts or my performance in a match enough to annoy people it's not because I'm completely self-centered. (Really.) It's because in my head I still think of myself as completely nonathletic and am still absolutely amazed to discover these capabilities within myself.

For example, Monday night was our first 7s sprint workout. Bags ran up through a short warm up and got the fifteen of us started on sprints pretty quickly. She announced the first set and without even thinking about it I placed myself in the first group on the line. Next to three of my fittest teammates. Something completely out of character for the baby rugby player I was. Two years ago I might not have shown up for fitness training, choosing to wait for "real practices" to begin. Five years ago I'd have asked if you were crazy for suggesting that I even run sprints at all.

I can't pinpoint what changed. What exactly caused me to go from "I only run if something is chasing me" to "I can't have a pint even though one my favorite beers is tonight's fire sale because I'm doing the Spartan Challenge at CrossFit." Maybe it's simply that I fell in love with a sport. Maybe it's been there all along and was just waiting to come out. In any case, I know that if I of all people can do it anyone can. You get your feet wet, then before you know it you like the water so much you're up to your knees. Turn around again and you're swimming with the goal of keeping up with the big kids.

And swearing off some of your favorite guilty pleasures. I've told a few people, including a couple CrossFit coaches at last night's 'nutrition workshop.' Still, I want to put it in writing. On the internet where everyone knows and can make fun of me if I fail. Over the past four and a half months I've had pretty good results with a mostly-Zone, lots of cheating eating pattern. I want to see what I can do eating like an athlete in training.

Primarily:
1. NO sweets (including no sugar in my coffee) and
2. NO alcohol

Work in progress:
3. Eat at least as many servings of vegetables as fruit a day.
4. Decrease cheese to two servings a day.

Between unlimited kettlebells and 7s sprints the workouts will take care of themselves. However, six weeks without a cookie or a margarita will be a challenge. During the first part of 7s season. This will test my self-control and how far I've really come in the past few years...

Food

Back on The Zone. None of the wishy-washy kinda zoning stuff I've been doing since the end of I Am Crossfit. Except that this afternoon I totally fell off the wagon at the grocery store, hungry and in the chips/pretzels aisle. I ate a quarter of a bag of pretzels between that aisle and the checkout...

But, choosing not to dwell on my mistakes, I took inspiration from Mel (who is a total badass and I meant to introduce myself to yesterday, seeing as I've been reading her blog for months) and her cabbage and eggs concoction for my dinner. I sprayed a sauce pan down with Pam and sauteed raw cabbage over medium heat. (Note to self, cabbage does not shrink nearly as much as spinach, use the big pan next time.) Once the cabbage started to brown I pushed it over to the side of the pan and poured in a couple of scrambled eggs, mixing the eggs and cabbage together as the eggs started cook. Then I dumped it all in a bowl, doused liberally with Old Bay and enjoyed. About half way through I realized I was a carb short and added cottage cheese. It didn't do much for the texture, though, so next time I'll just have yogurt with my fruit.

Two cups raw cabbage
Two eggs
Old Bay seasoning
1/4 cup lowfat cottage cheese

Dessert:
1/2 cup strawberries
1/2 cup blackberries
1/2 cup grapes

9 almonds

Perservere. Overcome. Conquer.

This morning I hit the snooze at least twice laying in bed and contemplating completely skipping out on the 300 workout. Then I remember that I'd already shelled out the money for the program and I might as well just do it. Which in turn made me wonder why I pay to torture myself this way. Once at the gym I continued to wonder as my apprehension grew through the body comps (though that was better than expected) and warm up and intro. But finally my hands were on the pullup bar and we were off.

Not only did I manage to survive the Spartan workout, but I also finished within the allotted twenty minute time. The dead lifts and kettlebell clean and presses I totally knocked out, absolutely no problems. A 10 kilo kettlebell? Please. I eat those for breakfast.

Even the jumping pullups, even the final 25 reps of the day, didn't give me much of an issue, proving to myself that most of my issue there is mental. I chose to step up for the box jumps, which turned out to be a wise decision because at about 2o in my legs started getting shaky and somewhere after 30 I actually caught the edge of the box with my foot. My pushups need work, but it was the floor wipers that made me want to cry. Randall and my spotter (whose name I have forgotten...) got me through them in sets of five or four or three at a time.

Then, before I knew it Mike was calling the four minute mark, I was up and on the bar for pullups and then I was done. At 17:24.

And after a half an hour and a liter of water I was back to making silly faces.

Anticipation

It's just a workout, right? Nothing to be scared of. Twenty minutes of pain is no big deal. After all, if I can do this (multiple times) without falling on my face a few deadlifts and kettlebell presses are nothing. Right?

(Photo stolen from the fabulous and talented Randall Setzler.)

power tools

Tonight's discovery: Projects involving power tools work out best when done while wearing a tiara. (Reading the directions probably helps, too.)

I now have curtains hanging in my apartment! YAY!

300

Finding 300 reasons that my doing the Spartan Challenge, which starts in just over a week, is absolutely insane would not be particularly difficult. Much less difficult than actually completing it. This thing terrifies me, specifically the benchmark workout. Last year's video. Feel free to pause that at 34 seconds in where it lists the workout. This, my friend, makes the I Am Crossfit workout look like a short stroll to the gelato shop.

BUT I am not focusing on this. I am not focusing on the fact that I still can't do a pullup, that I hate box jumps or that just watching those floor wipers makes we want to cry. Instead I'm focusing on the fact that while it will kick my ass it can only make me better. Stronger. And hey, look, a kettlebell portion! I can do that...hell, if I can keep running and rucking and tackling during the 79th minute of a rugby match, I can do all of this. Because I Am CrossFit.