Goals Check in

So, things didn’t really go as planned. I made my last post, all set to charge toward the end of the year with new goals and 5 days a week going to Crossfit.

Then I won a free month-long cycle of Olympic Lifting training at my gym, which meant no crossfit at all! So for the whole month of November, I had a strict 4 days a week at my gym, each session was 2 hours long, and we worked strictly on the snatch and the clean and jerk, and front and back squats too. No pull-ups, no deadlifts, no box jumps or handstands or… any cardio really. Obviously this effected a lot, or really, most of the goals I had set in my previous post.

I did get a bunch of PR’s though.

After that… well, I have no excuse for after that. December came and was busy and threw me off routine. I traveled a lot, and then I lost a friend in an accident, and got really behind on projects and money and was just not in the right headspace to work hard. I got really overwhelmed and decided I needed to cut something out of my schedule, so I took a hiatus from my Crossfit gym. It was a really hard decision but I needed to be less intense about things, especially my schedule. I’m currently still digging out of a money and project hole, but I’m hoping to return to my gym in Mid-March when things are more settled. For now, I’ve been doing travel wods at home, with mostly body weight work outs. I’m focusing on my push ups and pull-ups and handstand strength.

1Rep Max:

squat clean – 105 pounds  (11/24/11)   this was a huge mental PR for me! getting over 100 was really exciting.
front squat – 145 pounds   (11/24/11)
back squat – 165 pounds
deadlift – 165 pounds
sumo deadlift – 145 pounds
press – 55 pounds
bench press – 60 pounds
snatch – 83 pounds (11/24/11)
overhead squat – 60 pounds

recently just switched to the mini-band for pull-ups
mini-band (1RM) and light band (WOD) for ring dips

Some more immediate goals (to have accomplished by jan 2012?):
-bodyweight pull-up – (still using a light band for strict, can kip with no band)
-bodyweight strict push-up – (switched from knee pushups to band assisted pushups. using a light band with strict form.)
-bodyweight ring-dip
-clean over 100 pounds

goals that may take a little longer:
-handstand push-up/walk on hands for 10 feet
-back squat/deadlift 200 pounds
-get better at stringing kipping pullups
-string double unders

re-boot

So, today I had a Personal Record on one of my lifts and wanted to go straight home and announce it on facebook. Then I remembered that most people I’m facebook friends with truly do. not. give. a. fuck. about crossfit. Still, I wanted to tell someone because I was super proud of myself and feeling great about it, and that’s how I decided to start blogging about Crossfit stuff again. I’ve been lazy about logging things anyway and it would be great to keep a closer eye on my progress. I’m writing this first post quickly and for me, rather than how I used to write which was to readers who don’t already do crossfit. I’ll start making more regular posts again with that audience in mind once I decide how I’ll be CF blogging again.

 

So here’s some basics about where I am right now:

1Rep Max:

squat clean – 98 pounds  (this is the PR I got today) (10/24/11)
front squat – 130 pounds   (10/19/11)
back squat – 165 pounds
deadlift – 165 pounds
sumo deadlift – 145 pounds
press – 55 pounds
bench press – 60 pounds
snatch – 65 pounds
overhead squat – 60 pounds

recently just switched to the mini-band for pull-ups
mini-band (1RM) and light band (WOD) for ring dips

Some more immediate goals (to have accomplished by jan 2012?):
-bodyweight pull-up
-bodyweight strict push-up
-bodyweight ring-dip
-clean over 100 pounds

goals that may take a little longer:
-handstand push-up/walk on hands for 10 feet
-back squat/deadlift 200 pounds
-get better at stringing kipping pullups
-string double unders

 

4/12-4/23, Days 30-41

once my schedule went out the window, that was sort of it in terms of the challenge. mostly because when i’m not reminded to, i don’t prioritize eating. not in an ‘unhealthy relationship with food’ kind of way, but in a ‘i’ll get to that later and then scarf down huge plates of food’ kind of way.

in this case, i finished work a week before i had to move so my last week my schedule was non-existent. i would just work on projects/run errands all day and then remember that i should stop and eat.

Tuesday, 4/12 – DAY 30
i slept in late so didn’t eat breakfast. around 3pm, i made a big plate of nachos because i realized i had a bunch of odds n ends foods to use up before moving. including chips, which were left over from zine fest weekend. definitely not thrive, but i made the thrive nutritional yeast/sunflower seed cheese sauce again. totally good.

since i had a late lunch, i didn’t really eat dinner. i went to a coffeeshop to draw for a few hours and realized at 10pm that i was starving, so i had a vegan muffin with my americano. not thrive =0(((

i got home around 11pm and stayed up late getting some packing done. i ate the rest of my nachos all crushed up in a gross mess at 2am. haha. no shame.

Wednesday, 4/13 – DAY 31
9am – on wednesday i started out great with quinoa loaded up with sesame seeds, pecans, almonds, cranberries, bananas, agave and almond milk.

then i went out for a goodbye lunch with my buddy matt. this was a huge cheat meal. we went out to yummy yummy where they have a whole menu of glutenous fake meats. the lunch special includes a vegan egg roll and soup. i ate it alllllllllll.

hello.

scallion pancakes, one of my new favorite chinese foods that leslie introduced me to

mongolian seitan. see what i mean by HUGE plates of food? i ate all of that food. no leftovers.

then we went back to matt’s house and made juice with apples, oranges, ginger, kiwi, and mangos

later that night for dinner – trying to use up all the veggies in my fridge since i was moving two days later. mushrooms sauteed in the thrive dill tahini dressing made with hemp oil, sprouts, roasted broccoli, brown rice and a big pile of spinach.

thursday, 4/14 – DAY 32
started out with quinoa and coffee probably. i always forget to take a food photo first thing in the morning.

for lunch i had baked sweet potato, ethiopian yellow split peas, sprouts, on a big bed of spinach

daniel and i went out for a final dinner and totally stuck to thrive which was pretty cool because it was super delicious and it was out at a restaurant. we went to a fancy vegetarian restaurant with lots of whole foods called mana food bar on division st. it’s kind of like a tapas place, where you order lots of small dishes. we started with an arugula, avocado salad. super simple and good.

brown rice and sesame mustard roasted asparagus. the mustard was so good. i’m going to start making asparagus with it from now on. i’ve never thought of that as something to go with asparagus.

tofu bulgolgi and red cabbage slaw

afterward we got fancy coffee at streets. i had a soy latte and daniel had a cappucino. we also got these really expensive raw chocolate bars.

then we were invited over to my nanny family’s house for one last goodbye and were greeted with vegan cupcakes! so much for a full thrive day. haha. they were deeeelicious.

daniel acting silly for rishi, my nanny kid, by pretending to eat the paper.

Friday, 4/15 – DAY 33
this was where the challenge really became a challenge. i would be on the road the next three days! i started out strong eating leftover split peas while waiting for my mom with the trailer to load up my stuff.

a banana in the car

a vegan cheat and major thrive cheat. burger king veggie burger. bummmmer. the big trailer was really hard to maneuver around and moving all of mine and my sisters stuff was pretty stressful for everyone, so i didn’t even ask for food accommodations. we stopped for fast food and called it a meal.

in the car

after moving all of my sisters stuff to michigan, my mom and i headed out with the trailer to bring me to philly, all in the same day.

a gluten free snack bar my mom had packed for me. this was mostly okay except for some cane sugar.

after ten hours in the car during torrential downpours, i started to care a little less. haha. i drank a blueberry soda that a friend had left at my house.

then i went for a full cheat and ate popcorn from a service plaza. it was pretty gross actually. dumb cheat. popcorn just smells good. it makes my stomach hurt though.

late that night, around midnight, i had a banana and almond butter

Saturday, 4/16 – DAY 34
the following day we woke up early and had a complimentary breakfast. we wouldn’t go elsewhere for food because the trailer was so annoying to move around and get in to small parking lots. i just ate what was there and vegan. definitely not thrive friendly. no fruit even.
i had a bowl of cereal with some almond milk that i had in the car.

i was obviously still starving because that was barely any food, so i caved and had a bagel with peanut butter and jelly and a cup of coffee.

a burrito from sheetz, an east coast gas station chain with made to order food stuff. it was honestly pretty gross.

that night i had a salad from a steak house. i ordered a few sides of veggies, but one side was sauteed mushrooms and onions. when i got it it was pretty clear that it was cooked right with the steak. i decided to take a chance and eat it anyway, since that doesn’t bother me ethically. however, i totally regretted it when i instantly had a stomach ache and ended up throwing up the whole salad the next morning. i’ve had lots of veggie burgers cooked on the same grill as meat, etc, but i think these veggies were straight up cooked in meat juice and my stomach couldn’t handle it.

Sunday, 4/17 – DAY 35
my first meal in philly, a tofu hoagie and sweet potato chips from fu wah. mom and i got lunch before she headed back home and this was the only place i really knew the location of, from one of my visits months before.

that night, my roommates and i made dinner together. thrive friendly! quinoa, black eyed peas, baked beans, kale salad, and roasted sweet potato.

4/18 – DAY 36
ummmm…. lets not talk about this day ok? lets just say i was excited about all the gross, delicious vegan food in philly and kind of gorged on things like vegan chicken cheese steaks, wraps, hole in the wall vegan chinese, and desserts from vegan treats like a giant cinnamon roll with tons of icing. i did not take photos for obvious reasons…

4/19 – DAY 37
back on schedule a bit, quinoa for breakfast

a big salad and celery with hummous for lunch

avocado snack

half an apple with almond butter with flax seeds

kale with portobello mushrooms and beans

4/20 – DAY 38
quinoa for breakfast

salad for lunch

carrots and hummous

banana

that night i was too lazy to cook and had a hockey game to watch, so i got a ‘vegan bike shop’ wrap from satellite cafe, which is a spinach wrap with vegan cream cheese, olive pesto, roasted red peppers, spinach and avocado added. super good. definite cheat.

Thursday, 4/21 – DAY 39
lets just say, i started out my day with a cinnamon raisin bagel with chocolate peanut butter. when you start out a day like that, you might as well just throw in the towel in terms of healthy eating for the day. i gave this day to philly good eats. no more photos as a result.

Friday, 4/22 – DAY 40
i still was in no picture taking mode, but i know i did alright. i think i had quinoa in the morning, a mango for a snack, and then at night i went to a ladies night dinner that was really thrive friendly. salad with an agave and oil dressing, bean salad, lime coconut sweet potatoes, quinoa with peas, yellow split peas (my contribution of course), and vegan gluten free mac and cheese. when i was told the ingredients of the mac, i was pretty stoked to learn that it was mostly thrive friendly, with brown rice noodles, cashew cheese sauce, and daiya fake cheese which is made of coconut oils and tapioca (it’s soy free even). pretty rad!

someone there was wheat free and someone else was soy free, so that put me in a pretty good position! even this cobbler was friendly, with coconut milk agave ice cream.

Saturday, 4/23 – DAY 41
quinoa and coffee, of course. and a banana

leftover yellow split peas, kale with nutritional yeast sauteed in garlic and coconut oil, sprouts, tomatoes and cucumbers drizzled with hemp and flax oils, salt and pepper

raw cashews and a banana for snack

ending the day on a bad note because i had babysat and then agreed to go straight to meet a friend for coffee, i didn’t have time to go home and make dinner so i ate at the cafe. i had a tofu wrap with sunflower seeds, brown rice, kale, tofu, red peppers, and some sort of dressing. mostly okay except for the wrap itself.

aaaand since i had just cheated, i went ahead and ate a vegan peanut butter cookie too. haha.

looking back, i guess i didn’t do as terrible as i had though considering how up in the air my life has been the last two weeks. sorry for my absence with this blog.

tomorrow i’m trying out a crossfit gym in philly. i’m pretty excited to get back on board and start a routine again so i can get back to being super healthy and making good decisions for myself. every time i cheated, i actually could feel the difference. wheat/gluten makes me feel so bloated and lethargic. i always assumed that was sort of exaggerated but it’s totally not.

Through Day 40

Sorry for the delay, my life has been completely insane for the last 10 days. 4/15-4/17 my band went on tour. I did my best, but definitely did not stick to the challenge. I also didn’t take any pictures. This past week provided a pretty interesting opportunity to see how well I could do with the food challenge while running in and out of my house for 14-15 hours a day. I give myself a C+

4/18 Day 36

Meat, eggs, veggies, coffee.

Had a shoot this day and was able to cook up some salmon at one point, but that’s all I ate for the rest of the day.

4/19 Day 37

Woke up early and had mango slices, some juice (juice is bad), and coffee.

I spent the day shooting Blago and rushing edits to the paper. Didn’t get a chance to eat until 4 PM, a chicken salad. Then it was off to my studio, where I stayed super late and came home without eating again.

4/20 Day 38

Slept until I had to leave, grabbed a nanner.

Ran to the suburbs, stopped for a chicken salad. Removed the croutons.

Finally had a chance to cook a real meal. Pork and asparagus.

4/21 Day 39

Eggs and meat.

Whole Foods salad bar goodness for lunch.

More grilled chicken salad for dinner.

4/22 Day 40

Breakfast.

Teacher meeting that had lunch provided. At this point I was so hungry from not eating enough all week that I gladly devoured the pizza and salad.

Was starving by 5, feeling completely stressed out, and all I could think about was eating a sandwich. I stopped for a reuben and it honestly made me feel a whole lot better. The bread gave me a stomach ache though :/

Late dinner last night when I was stuck on the South side and starving. Tacos tacos tacos. Three cheat meals in a day.

I also drank a lot of beer throughout the week, late at night while working. Unfortunately I used this as a meal substitution which is the most unhealthy thing I’ve done in a long time.

I’m getting back on track starting today.

Day 28-32

4/10 Day 28

mango, mang

beets, oysters. healthy, but disgusting.

Primal burgers. Burgers, raw milk cheese, mustard, olive oil-grilled peppers for the buns.

apple for dessert

late night snack at Ramsey’s all paleo friendly, minus tofu.

4/11 Day 29

eggs, meat.

lunch was a teacher’s salad, forgot to photograph. dinner was a pound of pork and sesame broccoli.

4/12 Day 30

catered food at the program I teach. chicken (probably had bad oils) and salad, no dressing.

Then I met some friends, drank too much, then ended up eating tacos, drunkenly. Pattern – drinking and cheating.

4/13 Day 31

Long day, no breakfast, just a cappuccino.

Chicken, salad.

Dinner – chicken salad from Big Star. Close to primal.

4/14 Day 32

Meat, veggie omelette.

Chicken. And then I went out to dinner with Ramsey, our last night together before she moves to Philly

She’ll post pictures of what we ate, so look for that later on. I was on the Thrive Diet for the evening.

Like Rats is headed out for a weekend with Weekend Nachos and Harm’s Way…we’ll see how it goes on the road!

4/7 – 4/11, Days 25 – 29

I got really behind on uploading. Things have gotten pretty hectic/busy/crazy with moving so soon. Bear with me for this big catch-up post, and multiple cheats for the rest of the week.

Thursday, 4/7 – DAY 25

6:30am - started out the day with quinoa and earl grey tea because we were out of coffee.

9am - arrived at my nanny house and ate apples with almond flax seed butter (from trader joe’s. sooo good). and a cup of black coffee.

2pm - for lunch i had a mediterranean feast! rice with mushrooms, pine nuts and olive oil (made by nanny dad), tabbouli, hummous, and falafel (i checked the ingredients, totally thrive!). i also had carrot and celery sticks to dip in the hummous.

8pm - that evening i went to see the talking back show at the museum of contemporary photography. daniel is a teacher of an after school photography program and his students’ work was on display. we went out for vietnamese afterward. spring rolls.

a curry i didn’t really like. it was vietnamese style curry which i’d never had before. kind of just tasted like a bowl full of gravy… it had tofu, green beans and taro in it.

Friday, 4/8 – DAY 26

6:30 - friday i couldn’t stand the thought of eating another bowl of quinoa. normally i alternate quinoa and smoothies back and forth for my breakfast, but i’m out of vega powder right now for smoothies and haven’t taken a minute to figure out a new smoothie concoction without it. i had a mango and a banana with almond flax seed butter, cup of chai tea.

11am - an americano with soy milk

2pm - i was starving at this point because i didn’t have a hearty breakfast and didn’t have time to snack at all during my work day. a veggie bowl from chipotle (rice, beans, quac, lettuce, salsas, bell peppers and onions)

9pm - this was such a bad eating day. i hardly ate. while at a show, i went next door and got a burrito because i realized i hadn’t eaten much all day. it was a good burrito, from el cid. not thrive friendly though because of the tortilla. i didn’t even get a photo of it.

Saturday, 4/9 – DAY 27

10am - slept in a bit and had some quinoa. quinoa was really good again after a day’s break.

2pm - snacked on raw cashews and a banana while working on things around my house – packing, filling mail orders, getting lots of little tasks done, went to the gym

5pm - this was one big fat cheat! i met leslie and sarah at ipsento to chat, drink coffee and draw, but i hadn’t eaten enough yet that day and was starving. the last thing i want to do with this challenge is not eat because there isn’t anything ‘thrive’ around. withholding food from yourself when you’re hungry is a bad idea, no matter what! it’s a completely unhealthy mindset. don’t do it. i got a veggie sandwich with hummous on naan. it was like fucking heaven in my mouth eating that bread. oh my god. i’ve had some tortilla cheats, but not a big ol sandwich. wow. naan and flatbread has always been a favorite of mine. i also made the excellent discovery that ipsento has almond milk to put in your coffee if you ask for it!

7pm - hangin out at D’s, snacked on nuts, dried cranberries and an americano with nothing in it. this is sort of funny. daniel said to me ‘all that dried fruit you eat totally is a cheat.’ and i was like huh? what are you talking about? and he informed me that it’s filled with sugar. of course, i said, but HEALTHY sugars. and he said… ‘no…. check the ingredients. actual sugar.’ and lo and behold… haha. i have all these preconceived notions about what’s health food and it doesn’t even dawn on me to check the ingredients half the time. just because it was dried fruit from trader joe’s, i figured it would be fine. doh. not ALL the dried fruit, just certain kinds.

8pm - then we made a big ol salad with lots of veggies, oil and balsamic vinegar, spices, and tofu fried in olive oil with braggs. it was really good.

10pm - we were having a night-in hang out so we decided to go get some treats. ALL of which were thrive friendly, believe it or not. the ice creams were made with coconut milk and sweetened with agave. nothing undesirable in them! not even in the chocolate coating. izze soda’s are just carbonated water and 100% juice, unsweetened. and lara bars (which i didn’t eat, i got for later) are all vegan and thrive, sweetened with dates.

Sunday, 4/10 – DAY 28

Sunday was this crazy warm day! 80 degrees, really humid and windy.
I woke up kinda early and ate quinoa and coffeeeee. i’m a robot. 9:30am.

I didn’t really eat all day because I was running around in the warm weather! I snacked on some nuts and dried fruit at the park with Leslie and Sarah. Then we finally got some real food.

4:30pm - thai from thai lagoon. This was a cheat meal because Leslie and I have a ‘girls night’ of thai food and buffy, but we probably won’t be able to fit it in one last time before I go, so we opted to at least get Thai together. mushroom wontons and spring rolls.

the three of us also did splits on three entrees! pad thai, red tofu curry, and a veggie dish with garlic sauce. everything was so good. i love thai lagoon.

9pm - after running around a lot more, stopping by a meeting, doing errands, stopping by a show, i ate that lara bar finally. delish. this whole weekend i felt strangely manic and didn’t want to slow down long enough to cook.

11pm - i had some late night hang outs with daniel, in which we both realized neither of us had eaten enough for the day, so i made us both dinner. olive oil fried tofu with braggs again, ethiopian yellow split peas, spinach and sprouts. a true hippie meal. it was delicious.

12am - we also had 85% chocolate, raw cashews, and dried cherries for dessert. my fingernails are always dirty.

Monday, 4/11 – DAY 29

i assumed this would be a cheat day (uhhh…… yeah, most days have major cheats right now. sorry. i knew it would get like this right before i moved), because i was going to michigan to celebrate my nephews 4th bday.

7am - started out strong with quinoa and coffee.

12:30pm - in the car on the way from the train station to my mom’s house, i ate my leftover split peas with my fingers. haha. starving.

2pm - had a banana

and deez nutz while i was helpin my mom run errands. she got a flat tire on the way back from picking me up from the train, so we had all this last minute stuff to deal with that made eating a little tricky.

4pm - we had some time to kill while waiting for the tire place so we went to starbucks. i had an americano with soymilk and this fruit and nut bar which was actually totally thrive (though it does have a honey in it. i’m a honey-eatin vegan). it was dates, cashews, and nuts and seeds. a nice pick me up! i picked up a bag of sweet potato chips to check out the ingredients and was surprised to find that corn was the main ingredient and sweet potato was the last. yowzers. i can’t remember what brand it was. haha. i didn’t get them.

6pm - for the bday dinner, it was all this plus salmon for everyone else. veggies and hummous, sweet potato fries, fruit salad and cooked carrots. not bad!

for dessert, everyone had birthday cake, but while running errands we stopped and got coconut milk/agave ice cream. i also thought to bring some of those chocolate mint spelt cookies that i had gotten during zine fest. i hung on to those as an acceptable cheat since the only bad thing in them was sugar, and not that much. i shared my dessert items with my sister, who just found out her baby is allergic to dairy, so she can’t eat dairy while she’s breast feeding. she really liked the ice cream and cookies even! spelt can taste weird sometimes, but the mint overpowers it.

i also had coffee with almond milk for dessert. fuck. my coffee consumption. i’m a little embarrassed by it….now that i’m putting it all down on paper. yikes.

11pm - after a pretty solid day of reasonable eating despite the trip home, i had a full on cheat at the end, in multiple ways. i had a veggie patty from subway when i rolled into chicago on the train. yeah, NOT thrive, and NOT vegan. What’re you gonna do about it? nothin. that’s what. except maybe judge me, which i’m cool with. i’ll occasional have cheats on the road, and i mean vegan cheats. i always tell people i’m a pretty lax vegan. i eat honey. i don’t always ask about ingredients when i eat out. and i’ll occasionally eat the veggie pattys from subway and even burger king when i’m on the road. i’ve even been known to eat something with dairy in it if it’s at a really fancy restaurant where i know things are sourced well and it’s a ‘culinary experience,’ if you will. these are all pretty few and far between, and it never extends to meat itself or anything i prepare myself. call it what you will. feel free to call me vegetarian.

2am - i stayed up late packing and getting a lot of little stuff done while watching dawson’s creek. i had my leftover curry from the day before, with brown rice.

I’ve been crazy busy and eating a disturbingly small amount of food. I’m going to change that starting today. I also broke my camera so most of these are from my iphone.

4/6 Day 24

Didn’t eat dinner.

4/7 Day 25

Big breakfast.

Skipped lunch, then vietnamese food with Ramsey. No wheat, but some rice crackers and rice paper:

Vietnamese food is an excellent paleo option. There are a lot of delicious salads. Later that night I consumed alcoholic beverages.

4/8 Day 26

Breakfast 1

Breakfast 2

I had an open studio and ordered a nice paleo-friendly hearts of palm salad from Irazu.

Chipotle to finish off the day. And I also drank too many alcoholic beverages this day.

4/9 Day 27

Breakfast

I did the Crossfit games workout then we BBQ-ed. Cheated on a bun for my burger, some ketchup, beers, and a cupcake. Bad bad bad.

 

Ramsey and I cooked together last night. Tofu fried in olive oil and Bragg’s. Salad below.

Flowers for dessert.

And some Coconut milk ice cream for dessert, which is paleo-friendly (other items are Ramsey’s).