It's been a while

So... yeah. It's not that I don't love you. I just kinda ran out of things to say, that I hadn't already said over and over. It's okay though. I can tell we are the type of friends that can go months without contact and just pick up where we left off like nothing ever happened. It happens a lot to grown-ups, I've discovered.

You get sidetracked. Life gets in the way. Things are busy. There's this family thing. And the next thing you know it's been 4 months.

But I've missed you! We should totally get a cup of coffee sometime. You know when someone else is watching the kids and we have time to talk. ... I can't think of when that might be either. So I guess we can stick to the blog.

Life happens. Schedules change. Stuff gets in the way. It's easy to let fitness and health decisions to lapse first. I know, you should see what I've been eating lately.

A month ago we moved, only about 10 minutes from our 'old' house. So to save money we decided we could totally do it ourselves. It worked a bit like a Crossfit WOD. It looked good on paper. Right before, I panicked. During, I didn't have time to worry about, I had too much to do. Once it was over, it didn't seem so bad. And I was grateful that I had been doing Crossfit, those boxes, couches and mattresses were heavy, but I managed my half. So much so that when our new neighbor asked if we needed any help, while we were carrying a heavy hutch, my husband said, "No, we got it. Thanks!"

Hmmm, Crossfit might be backfiring on me.

But during the few weeks it took to do it ourselves, we didn't have time for Crossfit. By the time it was meal time, we were too tired to cook. In fact, we were just plain ol' wore out. So it was fast food and pizza, which we all know are just gateway foods to cookies, cakes and candy.

So our healthy lifestyle has all fallen apart. No exercise, icky food. It's a mess.

It happens.

It just means we have to get back at it. Life gets in the way of your best laid plans. It doesn't mean you quit. So long as you don't quit. Time to get back at it. Even with the holidays. No reason not to start back today.

Mad Men Tricks

I started watching Mad Men last night. I'm a little late to the game, I know, but there was something I noticed right away that I feel the need to point out.

Ad people are trickesters.

It isn't new knowledge. We all know that commercials and ads are designed to get us to buy the products they are peddling. But the first episode of Mad Men shows exactly how much they can't be trusted. Spoilers ahead if you haven't seen it.

In this episode, smoking had been outed as causing cancer. (Common knowledge now, but in the 60s when 'everyone' smoked, it was ground breaking.) The ad guy and the cigarette company is in a panic because they are about to lose business, and suddenly they aren't allowed to promote smoking as being healthy.

Enter the tricks. How can big tabacco convince the buying public that their product is safe, even if it isn't? They decide to by pass saying it's healthy (because legally they can't) and they decide to play up how naturally it's made. They decide on the slogan, "It's toasted."

It brings to mind breakfast toast or fresh nuts, doesn't it? Both are things most consider healthy.

It makes me realize how much faith I put into advertising. I'm pretty skeptical to start with, but I still fall for the "part of a healthy breakfast" line from time to time. Or the milk and cookies routine. Milk's healthy after all, why not spice it up with a cookie (or 6)? Hmm. And I'm hard pressed to turned down cake with love baked in. Who doesn't want a little bite of love? It'd be down right rude to turn it down.

Luckily, I have DVR and can record any TV I watch and skip right past the ads. But they are starting to crop up other places now. The web is really starting to get a good method to advertising. And it's getting harder to avoid someone trying to convince you their products is the best.

When it comes to food and your health, do your research. Obviously don't trust the people trying to sell you their product, particularly if they are adamant about how healthy it is. Apple farmers don't have to convince you to buy apples. Truly healthy foods don't come in package. They are made by nature.

The only way to know if you are eating right is to learn about your food. The more you know...

I hate running!

My kids get corrected every time they use the word 'hate' when describing things. They obviously don't hate each other. They don't hate school. They might not like each other. And there are certainly times they don't like school. But hate is a word they don't really understand. So I remind them, that they don't hate. They just dislike.

So fine, I dislike running.

I really really really dislike running.

I do it anyway.

If it were up to me, the world would turn just fine without running, but apparently it's good for you.

Meh.

So when a workout comes up that has running in it, I start to negotiate with myself if I really have to go. I mean, I should clean the bathroom. That laundry isn't going to fold itself. And the baby kept me up half the night; I really am too tired.

Hold there. We'll come back to that.

There are so many Crossfit movements I'm not good at... yet. I could list them, but you don't have the time. What's important to note about these movements is there is always a scale down. Pull-ups to using bands with your pull-ups, to jumping pull-ups, to ring rows. Box jumps to smaller boxes, to step ups. Weight can get lighter. Those kinds of things.

You can't scale running. You can go slower. (That's me!) Or you can walk. Walking isn't running. They have their own Olympic event, so it must be true. So when there is a workout that has running. I know I have to run. I still end up walking some, especially if there is a lot of running, but the idea is to run as much as absolutely possible. I wont get better if I slack.

So back to the excuses. Sometimes if I can find a really good one, I'll cling to it. The baby is a sleep. (Never wake a sleeping baby!)

I'll be damned if the next workout doesn't have a longer run... every time.

How do they know?!

And I've used my good excuse, and my rest day, because I didn't own it. So I try not to cherry pick my workouts. Even if it looks horrible and has 200m sprints for time, it's important to stick with it. I can't get better if I don't stick with it.

Not all workouts are going to be my favorites. And if I only do my favorites, I'm never going to get better at the hard stuff. And it will always be the hard stuff.

I suspect there will always be hard stuff. My goal is to make it look easy. When someone tells me, I make a movement look easy, I think that'll be the coolest day ever.

In the meantime, I hate running, but I do it anyway.

Eating Clean

My family eats pretty clean. Some people don't really understand what that means. And it might be partly because it means different things to different people.

In general, it means not processed foods. The edges of the grocery store. Nothing out of a box.

You can add to that, organic. It makes it a bit more complicated. Harder to shop for. And if you aren't following sales, more expensive.

You can add to that Paleo, vegan or some other label. And once again it gets a bit more complicated.

Source

At my house, clean means Paleo or a version of.

Eating Paleo isn't like what the media wants people to think. It isn't a meat based diet. It's very much a veggie based diet but always with a good helping of fat and protein. The easiest (and in my opinion tastiest) source of healthy fat and protein is meat. Yum. But to eat Paleo you have to give up a handful of things that have been proven to be harmful, like grains, specifically gluten but all grains are cut out if you eat Paleo.

I also cut out dairy. Most Paleo types do. Some call themselves Primal instead of Paleo and they keep dairy. Really it's all a matter of semantics. And finding where you fit on the eating clean scale.

For me, it isn't about fitting into a label. It's about getting away from cheap, unhealthy food. It's hard to know these days with media shoving down everyone's throats what is healthy and what isn't. After all, all cereals are "part of a healthy breakfast", never mind their sugar content and the fact that their nutrients are added by chemicals, not nature. Kool-aid has less sugar than soda, don't mind the Red 40 or Yellow 5. Then there is the whole grains vs enriched wheat flour. High fructose corn syrup. Brominated Vegetable Oil. Aspartame. Nitrates.

And yet everyone still wants you to think you can eat their food product and still be healthy. But it's obvious that's just not true.

*sigh* So how do you know what's healthy? What makes a clean food?

My rules of thumb.

1. If it can be sold without a nutrition label. It's clean.
2. If the food will go bad before the end of the week, even if kept in the refrigerator. Then it's probably clean.

The rest should be eaten sparingly or not at all.

I very firmly believe that our country's obesity problem would start to resolve itself if people ate clean. No more boxed food. No more fast food. Learn to cook for yourself. By the time you wait in line at the drive through and get your meal home, you could have cooked a healthy clean meal for your family at home. And there is a lot less waste from all those packages.

When you eat better, you feel better. And you lose weight wether you mean to or not. Bonus.

Leaps and Bounds

It's crazy to think I've only been doing Crossfit for a little over 5 months. When you say 5 months, it doesn't seem like very long at all. But my memories of it makes it seem like I've been working at it forever. I think it has to do with how quickly you improve as a beginner. There are still things I can't do. Pull-ups, double unders, and box jumps to name a few. But I can do all the lift movements and I'm always getting stronger and faster.

I can run 400m without stopping to walk now. Vast improvement over the girl that barely made it 100m without falling over. I have no intentions of becoming a runner. I just don't care for it. But something I do like is rowing.

This post from back in April is about a row I did in March. It's what cemented my desire to blog more (if a bit sporadically). It's about my first 2k row. I fought every moment of that row. And while I don't remember my exact time I know it was over 11 minutes. Almost 12, if I remember right. I was terrified before starting but felt awesome when I was finished.

Jump forward to this past Tuesday. The 2k row came up again. This was the first work-out since that day in March that the WOD was just the row. I was very excited to give it another shot! I finished in 9:38.

I beat my previous record by 2 minutes. 2 freaking minutes in 5 months! That's how Crossfit works. It takes years to become a truly exceptional Crossfit athlete, but no time at all to be confident and capable. I can go into a Crossfit gym anywhere in the country and not feel nervous. I might have to scale still, but in just 5 months I've come far enough that I know I can hold my own.

2 freaking minutes off my 2k row!

Can I Crossfit at Home?

I get asked that a lot now that I talk endlessly about Crossfit. In a nutshell, yes. Sure. Whatever. Anyone can do body weight exercises anywhere (think: sit-ups, push-ups, burpees, ect.). You can even go out and buy some weights and a bar. Go a step further and you can buy a rack. And then get at it. I HIGHLY suggest taking a class or two to learn proper lifting form. You can really get hurt if you don't know what you are doing. But that doesn't mean you can't do it at home.

But honestly, all that said, my answer is no. No, you can't do Crossfit at home. As I've said many times the reason Crossfit works is the people. I'm not talking HQ. They can sit in their offices and come up with whatever marketing ideas they like. I'm talking about the people at the gym you'd be going to. And the people at the gym I go to. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't be interested. Why? Because Crossfit is hard.

It's not peddling a bike that doesn't move, watching the news with subtitles for 30 minutes to an hour.

It's very "You want me to do what?!".

I'm not the kind of person that has the willpower to do hard stuff at home alone. I suspect most people like me aren't. Otherwise we wouldn't be out of shape in the first place. So if you are out of shape and wondering if you can do Crossfit at home. The answer is no. Find a gym. It's worth the cash. And you'll meet some really awesome people.

It's those people that will push you, even if you never talk to them. If you just go and then leave. You'll discover that you work infinitely harder with someone watching than at home alone. But the best part is when they cheer for you.

Note: Not all Crossfit gyms are the same. If you find yourself at a gym and no one is cheering for you, you are at the wrong gym. Luckily, there are a lot of Crossfit affiliates these days. Even if you have to drive 40 minutes out of your way it's worth it.

AMRAP vs For Time

Generally there are two types of Crossfit workout, AMRAP (as many rounds as possible in a given time) or For Time (meaning you are given the amount of rounds and you finished when you finish). I flinch every time I see a For Time WOD (workout of the day).

I've been doing Crossfit for 4 months now. And I'm happy to say, I'm pretty pleased with my progress. I'm not doing the beginner workouts anymore for the most part. There are some movements I just can't do. Pull-ups for one. I can't even get them with a band. It's coming though. I like to think I'll meet my strength going up as my weight goes down. Box jumps is another. I think it's the same problem. As I get lighter my legs will be getting stronger and jumping up will be easier. Then there are double unders. That's just a matter of technique. But that's not really what this blog is meant to be about.

I'm talking about reading the workout and the dread that comes with a For Time WOD.

See, you can scale any workout to fit your level. For Pull-ups, I do ring rows or jumping pull-ups. For box jumps, I do a shorter box. If the listed weight is too heavy, then just go lighter. Every workout can fit every fitness level.

For an AMRAP you are given a specific amount of time to work in. I usually have less rounds finished when time it up than the rest of my class. That doesn't seem to bother me because I know I worked hard. During an AMRAP, I will pick a heavier weight or try for a harder level of a skill I'm not particularly good at. But that's not what I do during a For Time WOD.

A For Time WOD you are given a certain amount of each skill to do and however long it takes it takes. I will scale that workout sometimes too much, because I don't want to end last. There is no shame in being last. I've been last. I've owned last before by just working my ass off just to finish. And if I'm last by only a little bit, my pride is fine. But I'll be damned if I think I'm going to be last by a lot, I'll scale (almost to the point of cheating).

I only cheat myself. I've talked about cheating before and being last. It's something I think about a lot. No one else in my gym thinks twice about me coming in last. No one would ever say anything negative to anyone finishing last. It's not that kind of place. In fact, the person finishing last gets the most support because by then there are people recovered enough to cheer you on.

When it happens to me, I'm embarrassed. I'm just not ready to have that much attention drawn to me. Maybe no one is. I've never asked anyone else.

Where am I going with this? I have no idea. I just needed to get that bit out there. Thanks.