Day 10 – Wednesday

Breakfast – Smoothie with almond milk, blueberries, coconut flakes, and protein powder.

Lunch – Salami, string cheese, apple and almond butter.

WOD: Skill Work: Deadlifts 5 x 5 @ 225#. 4 Handstand push ups, 8 clean & jerks, 95#, 12 burpees. 3 rounds. It was a tough one. i don’t remember my time. I will have to look. I decided that I would do the HSPU all the way down this workout, no matter how long it took. I did it, even though I had to kip a few of them.

Dinner – Sloppy joes with lettuce as buns.

Day 11 – Thursday

Breakfast – Smoothie with almond milk, blueberries, coconut flakes, protein powder.

Lunch – Ham & Salami, Green Beans.

WOD: Went to Flathead Fitness. Did some squat work. Then did 5 x 5 at 135# which felt really heavy but that’s ok.

Dinner: Had an ambulance meeting so I grabbed some turkey at the grocery store, had a paleo kit and an apple.

Day 12 – Friday

Sleep = horrible. I was up from 1 am until 6 am on an ambulance call so I decided to sleep in a bit and then go to work. I was unable to work out because I was exhausted. Just went home and rested. Breakfast – Egg souffle thing with blueberries on top.

Lunch – Apple and almond butter. Didn’t eat much because I ate breakfast at like 11 am.

Dinner: Had leftover sloppy joes with lettuce.

Day 13 – Saturday

We decided to go to the Griz game. We stopped and got breakfast at Buns by the Lake and I had a breakfast burrito with egg, cheese, sausage and a tortilla. I woke up feeling pretty rested.

Dinner – Leftover sloppy joes with lettuce.

Day 14 – Sunday

Slept really well. Didn’t get up until 10. Then went to town and ran some errands. We had lunch at the Montana Club. I had a buffalo chicken wrap which wasn’t very good. I felt horrible afterwards. Didn’t really eat dinner either. Had an apple with almond butter on it.

Day 15 – Monday

Time to get back into the routine. I slept horribly and wasn’t feeling very good this am. I decided to take a personal day and not go to work but work from home instead. I had an egg soufle for breakfast with blueberries on it.

Lunch – Breakfast burrito with cheese, egg and sausage

WOD: Warm up was hip and shoulder mobility. Then 150 jumps and 10 double unders. I was feeling tired and worn out before the workout even started.

WOD was a long one:

30 Walking Lunges

20 Pullups

30 DB Swings 55/40

20 Push Press 75/45

30 Wall Ball 20/14

20 Power Cleans 75/45

30 Pistols alternating legs

20 Ring Dips

30 Sit ups

20 pullups

30 burpees

Total time was 13:23 which I was happy with. It was tough though. I wanted to die halfway through. I did the walking lunges as one set, the pullups as one set, the dumbbell swings as one set. Then I broke the push press into two sets but never set the bar down. The wall balls were horrible…they are my nemesis…it took like 4 sets. The power cleans were light but I keep pulling with my arms instead of using my hips. I did them in 2 sets. The pistols weren’t as bad as I thought they were going to be. I did 15 and then it was sets of 5.  The ring dips were two sets of 5 and then a few sets of 3. The sit ups were all one set but made me want to vomit. The pullups were one set again and the burpees were HORRIBLE! I finished though.

Now hopefully for a good nights sleep!

Breakfast – Smoothie with almond milk, protein powder, coconut flakes, 1/2 cup blueberries.

Lunch – Salami and ham and 1 stick of string cheese. Jicama.

Snack – Gluten free, fruit juice sweetened cookie. I had to try it when I saw it at the health food store. It was surprisingly good!

Warm Up: I went to the globo gym first to work on some shoulder mobility stuff and thrusters. I have been having a hard time with heavy thrusters because I don’t know how to breathe so I thought I would play with it a little. 10 reps @ 45#, 10 reps @ 65#, 10 reps @ 65#, 10 reps @ 85#, 5 reps @ 95#, 5 reps @ 95#. The 95# I struggle with but was able to do the set of 5 smooth.

100 single jumps, 20 double unders, 5 pistols each leg, 10 burpees, 10 wallballs, 10 clean & jerks with the bar.

WOD: AMRAP 7 minutes of 12 box jumps 18″, 8 deadlift high pulls 65#. I didn’t think that would be that bad but oh it was! I was able to do most sets of the box jumps strung together. I jumped on the tire. For some reason mentally I can do the tire better than the box. The deadlift high pulls are hard for me but I got through them. I need to learn to use my hips more on them. 7 rounds + 12 box jumps + 4 deadlift high pulls.

Dinner: Leftover pork pot roast.

Breakfast – Leftover egg souffle thing.

Lunch - Salami, Ham and Cheese, apple, nuts

Snack – Paleo kit

Warm Up: I realized I am supposed to be posting my warm ups as well.

Hip and Shoulder mobility, 100 single jumps, 20 double unders, 5 pistols each leg, 10 wall balls, 10 clean and jerks with the bar.

WOD: 9 Toes to Bar, 6 Ring Dips, 12 Pullups, 15 Wall Balls, 5 rounds. It was a tough one. I seem to suck at wallballs and I didn’t ge the kip for the toes to bar until after the workout was over. I need to practice my wallballs. I seem to want to vomit when I am doing them, something about looking up and moving up and down just doesn’t agree with me. I finished in 13:23 and was pretty happy with that.

Cool Down: Stretching

Dinner – Yummy yummy chicken curry “rice” in which the rice was cauliflower that was steamed and then put in the food processor.

Off to soak in the tub and go to bed!

Saturday – had a great workout in the morning. 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 of Strict Pullups, Power Snatches with 65# and Jumping Lunges. It took me 17:51 and I did all the pullups in single sets, no kipping. The power snatches were definitely hard as my arms were really sore but I got through them. The jumping lunges surprisingly got me!

Breakfast – breakfast wrap with eggs, sausage and cheese. And yes it was in a flour tortillal. Oh well.

Dinner – Went out to dinner. I was proud of myself. I had a salad and picked off the crutons and had a hamgurber with no bun.

Then we went and watched roller derby. It was awesome! I think I might want to give it a try.

Sunday – I experimented with a new recipe. I made an egg souffle thing with eggs, coconut milk, vanilla, cinnamon, blueberries and walnuts. It was definitely good.

Snack – hard salami and cheese.

Dinner – pork cooked in the crock pot with onions, garlic, tomatoes and a salad with lettuce and spinach with olive oil and vinegar.

Dessert – 1/2 pommegranate and a piece of dark chocolate.

Breakfast – smoothie with almond milk, mixed berries, walnuts, protein powder

Lunch -…um…forgot to eat it. Yeah, it was that kind of day. I know that this is horrible for me but some days it just can’t be avoided.

Snack – Yes I did have a snack. String cheese, nut bar

WOD: Bench Press 5-5-5-5-5 then 3 rounds of 21 dumbbell swings, 12 toes to bar. The bench press didn’t go so well. My left shoulder is still not helping much with weighted bars. I did 105# for all 5 sets of 5 which was dissappointing because I used to be able to bench press my body weight (125#) for reps. Oh well. Gotta keep working on that shoulder strength. The mini met con took me 3:23 with a 25# dumbbell. My foreams ached pretty bad after the toes to bar.

Dinner – Leftover stuffed chicken and Steve’s Paleo Crunch for dessert! Yum.

Ingredients

• 8 large chicken thighs
• 6 T. olive oil (divided)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1/4 C. finely chopped celery
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 medium apples, cored, and chopped
• 1/4 C. raisins
• 1/4 C. chopped walnuts
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 t. dried tarragon

Directions

Instructions

1. In a medium size frying pan, heat 2 T. oil.
2. Add onion, celery, and garlic.
3. Sauté about 3 minutes, until onion and celery are tender.
4. Remove from heat.
5. Add apple, raisins, walnuts, and eggs; mix well.
6. Preheat oven to 350F.
7. Prepare chicken thighs by pulling the skin away from the meat without removing it.
8. Stuff apple mixture between the skin and meat.
9. Arrange chicken pieces in a foil-lined 9 x 13 x 2-inch baking dish.
10. In a small bowl, combine the remaining 4 t. olive oil with tarragon.
11. Brush over chicken thighs.
12. Bake, uncovered, basting every 15 minutes, for 1 hour, until chicken is tender

I woke up this morning for the first time in a while feeling somewhat rested. I had a busy day ahead of me.

Breakfast: Smoothie with almond milk, walnuts, mixed berried, protein powder.

Lunch: Chicken, pea pods, lara bar

WOD: I went to the gym to run but instead did a bunch of stretching and working on strength exercises for my shoulder. Then I did some back squats I did one set of 10 at 95#, Set of 8 at 115#, Set of 6 at 125#, Set of 6 at 135#, Set of 5 at 145#. Then a bunch more stretching.

Dinner: One of my favorites because it is easy and yummy. Spaghetti made with spaghetti squash and buffalo hamburger and tomato sauce.

Now to soak in the tub again and prepare for tomorrow. Thank goodness it is Friday!

Breakfast: Smoothie with blueberries, almond milk, shredded coconut, protein powder.

Coffee with cream in it – I so needed this today!

Lunch – 3 egg muffin thingys with egg, spinach and sausage. Pea pods and carrots.

WOD: 3 rounds of 21 ring dips, 15 strict pullups, 75 squats. My shoulders were already not feeling great and the left one was a little sore. I decided to give it a try though and knew that I could switch to ring dips with a band part way through if I needed to. I finished all of the ring dips as Rx’d…even if they were down to one at a time toward the end! Time = 17:31

Dinner: Stuffed Chicken. Chicken thighs with apples, walnuts, onions, raisins stufffed inside and baked. It was off of PaleoPlan.com which is a great resource even if you don’t follow it to a T.

Snack – Yogurt…I needed something for a treat. It was plain greek full fat.

Hopefully tonight will be a better night of sleep. I have iced my shoulder and now off to soak in the tub for a while.

Today started out badly. I was woken up no fewer than 4 times during the night by the dog who had to pee, then had to bark, then had to pee, then had to bark….then at 6 am he decided he wanted to share the pillow with me…dog breath in the face is not pleasant to me. So I decided to turn the alarm off and sleep in…WRONG…the phone range at 7:00 and so it was time to get up. So needless to say I was very cranky, grouchy and overall not very happy.

Breakfast: Smoothie with 5 strawberries, 1 cup almond milk, 1/2 cup coconut flakes, protein powder

WOD: Worked out at noon because I have a massage at 5 pm. Workout was 1 rope climb, 7 thrusters, 5 rounds. Doesn’t look too bad on the board. I was surprised. We decided to do the thrusters with 80# which was heavy for my shoulder. Surprisingly the rope climbs were the hard part and my shoulder hurt through them a little. Finished the workout in 6:12…probably shouldn’t have rested as much as I did. I broke up the thrusters in rounds 4 and 5 and probably should have just bared it.

Lunch: Chicken, Carrots, Pea Pods, Almond Butter

Dinner: Had two ambulance calls and so it was late before I got home. I cooked up 4 eggs and had that with some string cheese and a handful of cashews for dinner. Not the greatest but not horrible. Day two is over with at least and I didn’t cave when I was having a bad day and eat something that I shouldn’t.

As my coaches have always said, I can give them 110% during the hour that I am at Crossfit but what about the other 23 hours of the day? I need to fix those other 23. I am hoping to get a few things out of this entire process:

     1) To look better, feel better and perform better

    2) To not be as tired when I wake up in the morning and to be able to keep going throughout the day

    3) To see improvements at Crossfit

    4) To see improvements in my health and attitude

So I guess we will see. I know that I eat out of stress and habit…when I am stressed I eat bad for me things and then I end up even more upset. So let’s see if I can put an end to that.

There are a few things I have decided that I cannot live without and because of my past bad associations with food I am not going to give them up. I am not trying to “paleo-ize” my diet but instead readily admit that there are certain foods that are not “strict” paleo but that I will keep in my diet for ease and convenience as well as my own sanity. A few of these things are: 1) green beans – I know that they are a legume but they are green and I like them so I am going to eat them. 2) Dairy – this was something I never let myself eat before because of the dreaded “fat” so now that I am not worried about the fat I am going to eat this. I will attempt to limit it to one dairy item a day and it will always be full fat. 3) Salt – yes, true paleo does not allow this but I need it for taste. 4) Protein powder – no the cavemen didn’t have it but I do and in a crunch I figure it is better to have some protein than none. 5) Bars like lara bars in a pinch

So, day one is now coming to a  close. Here is what is looked like:

Woke up at 7:45 feeling tired. My back hurt and I had to get up 3 times during the night to pee and once to let the dog out.

Breakfast: Smoothie with banana (I know it isn’t the greatest but I like it for a change once in a while), coconut flakes, protein powder, almond milk, handful of almonds and tsp of cocoa powder. Meal grade: A- (good balance of protein, carbs and fat. The banana isn’t the greatest carb because of the high fructose content but it tasted good. The cocoa powder isn’t the greatest either but there is 1 carb in it and it does have anti oxidants.)

Lunch: Chicken with mayo, worchester sauce, pickles. Jicama and carrots. Meal grade: A- (needed to eat more fat, canned chicken isn’t the greatest but a good source of protein and quick.)

Snack: Was starving about 3:30 so I had a lara bar because it was the only thing I could find in my desk drawer. Need to plan better in the future.

WOD: Worked out at  6pm. Warm up: hip and shoulder mobility. 200 single jumps, 5 handstand push ups, 10 pull ups, 3 x 5 bench press with dumbbells, 10 toes to bar. WOD: Diane – 21-15-9 of deadlifts and handstand push ups. Prescribed weight is 160#. I used 160# and one ab mat for the HSPU. First workout of HSPU since my shoulder injury. They felt pretty good. Set one got all of the DL in one set, 10 HSPU no kip, then had to break them down into sets of 5. All 21 were strict with no kip. Set two, got all of the DL in one set. HSPU did 11 strict and then had to kip the last 4. Set three, got all of the DL in one set. HSPU did 5 no kip and then 4 with kipping. Finished in 7:29.

Dinner: Made a huge salad with chicken, mozarella cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, onion, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and italian spices. YUM!

Then spent 30 minutes in the bath in epsom salt reading before getting back to work.

So there we go. One day down and a kabillion more to go! And now I’m off to bed to hopefully get a good nights sleep.

Finally ads that exemplify what beautiful truly is. I have always attempted to hide my “huge” shoulders because of the comments I get. After being involved in Crossfit and seeing the gorgeous women who are the role models of the crossfit community I now have learned to love my shoulders. So what if I have a hard time finding dresses that will zip all the way up…athletic clothing will always fit! I would rather have my shoulders than skinny shoulders. “Strong people are harder to kill, and more useful in general”