Monday, July 25, 2011

It's Crunch Time

I wish this post was about crunchy Paleo foods. Unfortunately it's not, but it does give me a good future post idea! First, lots of WODs to catch up on:

CrossFit Thursday 7/21
Strength:
50ft Farmer’s walks (150lbs)
Conditioning: (I was able to complete 8 rounds + pull-ups and 9.5 push-ups. Side note: my knees are SO messed up from all those push-ups on my knees... all the more motivation to be able to do real ones!)
Four 3-minute Rounds of:
5 Pull-Ups (gray and red bands)
10 Push-Ups
15 Kettlebell Swings (1 pood, about 35 pounds)

CrossFit Friday 7/22
Strength:
Overhead Squat 3×3 (50lbs)
Conditioning:
AMRAP in 10 (I completed 7 rounds just in time. Went a little light with 10 lb dumbbells, and was doing step-ups instead of jumps)
1 Man maker
2 Box Jumps
2 Man makers
4 Box Jumps
3 Man makers
6 Box Jumps

(Add one Man maker and two box jumps each round.)

CrossFit Saturday 7/23
Barbell Blitz
Partner Workout - 10 total rounds (we each did 5, plus 2 tire flips while the other person was working) of:
7 Power Cleans
5 Front Squats
3 Push Presses
It was really hard for me to choose a barbell weight for this one... my front squats were holding me back. I did my first 4 sets with 45 lbs and the last one with 50 lbs. My partner and I finished in 10:11.

CrossFit Monday 7/25
“Fight Gone Bad” –ish
3 Rounds - weights I used after the dash
1 min Wall-balls (20/14) - 10lbs
1 min KB Swings (53/35) - 35lbs
1 min Box Jumps - step ups (I should probably start getting comfortable with box jumps soon)
1 min Push-presses (75/55) - 55lbs
1 min Row (Calories)
1 min Rest
Your score is the total reps/calories completed (272. The push press bar was a little heavy for me, but I'm happy that I was almost able to do this workout as prescribed)

Check out a video of what we did in July at CrossFit Aspire! See if you can spot me self-correcting my knees coming in during a front squat.


Okay now on to the crunch time talk.

To us teachers, July is like a Saturday before a week of school. It's our time to rest and not stress about what's coming up. August, however, is more like a Sunday before a week of school. There is just so much to do in so little time!  August is rapidly approaching, which means September will be here before we know it.

How does this relate to my Paleo diet journey? It has come to my attention that if I don't lean up by September I will have 2 options:
a) Be just as painstakingly uncomfortable in my barely fitting clothes this Fall as I was last Spring.
or b) Spend money I don't have on a larger wardrobe... that I probably hopefully wouldn't need to spend too much time in before finally slimming down and fitting in my current clothes again.

If you couldn't tell by that info, I haven't seen the drastic weight loss that I was hoping for. I know I'm eating right, working out right, and actually getting enough sleep. I'm starting to get a little stressed that this may not happen as soon as I want it to, but I refuse to lose hope! I checked with my new best friend Mark Sisson about why I'm not losing weight. He gave me not just one but 17 reasons... lots of information to "chew" on! Here's my new game plan in association with Mark's reasons:

#2 You're Under Too Much Stress
I seem to voluntarily stress myself out way too much. Even though it's not the school year, I'm still finding ways to stress about September. I need to cut this out and find healthy ways to de-stress.

#8 You're Eating Too Much
I should watch my portion sizes of meat and veggies, maybe I'm just eating more than necessary. I'm also going to be more careful in making sure that I'm only eating 1 nut serving a day... bye-bye mindless extra handful of almonds! I may even need to try cutting out my serving of fruit a day to lower my carb intake, as reason #3 suggests.

#16 You Haven't Given it Enough Time
Mark says that some might get instant results from dropping sugars, grains, and processed foods from their diets, but others won't. My diet was not that different before starting this, so maybe I just need to wait for everything to kick in.

if all else fails...
#7 You Still Haven't Tried IF
Intermittent fasting. Skipping meals is not my idea of a good time considering how hungry I am come meal time, but who knows. Maybe it's the kick start I need, especially if I'm trying to curb my hunger and eat less.

A final word from Mark because he can sum this up much better than I can: "Also, know that The Primal Blueprint lifestyle is about long term goals. Though you can lose weight quickly on the PB, keep your head straight and remember that the emphasis should always be on a healthy, Primal lifestyle – not a get-fit-quick routine. You can do it, but it may take time."

4 comments:

ronnib said...

First of all, OMG! I can't believe how strenuous your workout is. Keep it up!

Second, consider that you might be eating too fast. I learned in my meditation classes that fast eating causes us to eat more. Try to slow down and chew.

Steve said...

Justin and I were just talking about this recently. Robb Wolf is always telling people that there are many versions of paleo eating, depending on what you want to achieve. If you what you want is to lean out, you *really* have to ditch the carbs, and that doesn't just mean the grains. Fruit will really slow the leaning-out process, from both a carb perspective and a fructose one. A quick look at all your great recipes tells me you probably eat more fruit than Wolf would suggest for a fast lean-out.

Too many nuts can also slow that process. And I see those *everywhere* in your recipes, which makes them delicious, but maybe not the key to a lean-out.

I know that when I first went paleo, I went kinda all-in and *really* low carb and that made me lean out faster than I would have guessed. Then, when I got down to where (or actually skinnier than) I wanted to be, I started adding "good" carbs back in, like fruit, post-WOD sweet potatoes and even a little white rice. That stuff immediately stopped the lean-out, which was what I wanted, but if it's not what you want, then I would steer clear of that stuff for now.

So, yeah, then you think, "But what in the world am I going to eat?"

I think that one of the cool tricks is to just pack extra "meal" food, i.e., meat and veggies, for snacks. Snacks seem to be where otherwise paleo low-carb folks go crazy with fruit and/or nuts. Those things are great if you are where you wanna be lean-wise, but they make it tough to lean out further if that's where you wanna go. So if you are packing meat and veggies for lunch, just pack an extra container of the same stuff for a snack.

Hope some of that helps, and good luck.

Steve said...

Oh, yeah, one other thing...protein powder. Robb Wolf is really down on what he calls "liquid food" if you have any intent on leaning out. Again, once you are where you wanna be, go for it with the post-WOD protein powder, but until then, ditch it and eat real food (meat and veggies) post-workout instead.

Kate said...

Thank you SO much Steve!! I guess I have to suck it up and ditch my fruit and nuts :( They make for fun blogging recipes, but it is super easy to overeat them... that's probably where I'm going wrong. I hope my poor nuts & almond meal don't go bad while I'm not eating them...

My new game plan is for a really low carb August. I love the idea of packing an extra container of meat/veggies for a snack. It almost makes me want to go back to work sooner.. my consistently crazy schedule would make it near impossible to veer from whatever I packed myself for that day. Until then, I'll have to rely on willpower.. yikes!