Wednesday, April 17, 2013

no words

I've been sort of lazy about blogging lately.  I've wanted to and at the same time not, because I just wasn't feeling the words. And now there is really no words to describe what happened at the Boston Marathon on Monday.

As an athlete, and former and possibly again, distance runner I didn't know how to feel about someone attacking a race.  I mean I grew up here.  I remember days in April vacation going out to heartbreak hill and watching people run by.  I passed out water and oranges and cheered my little heart out.  I've seen the Hoyts go by a number of times and never realized, until adulthood the impressiveness of that.

I have only watched the Marathon from the finish once.  In high school. It was crazy to watch the people stagger across the finish line with joy.  But looking exhausted.  It was inspiring.

I have never done a full marathon but having completed two half marathons I know the joy and relief that you feel when you cross the finish line.  When I did the last one, in Disney world, I will admit I almost started to cry. Partially cause it was hard, partially cause I was in pain, but largely because DAMN i did that. I made it through.  So i can only imagine the feeling that happens after another 13.1 miles are completed.  I delirium is understandable. And the horror that these athletes came to run a marathon and many are leaving with permanent disabilities.

The athletic world was rocked this week, as well as that of the city of Boston. As athletes I know they will persevere and come back stronger  and as I city I know we will too.

Do me a favor, and do something that makes you happy, and give someone a hug :)

For those that don't know much of the Boston mentality, read this

Messing with the wrong city

Sunday, April 7, 2013

my paleo challenge essay

I had to write an essay for the paleo challenge so I thought i'd put it up.  Enjoy :)


The last 18 months have been a very tumultuous one in terms of my health.    Some people know that I was diagnosed with breast cancer in November of 2011, and all of a sudden my body was not my own.  My body had betrayed me, and I really didn’t know what I could trust in terms of the signals that my body gave me.  I had felt fine, or that current definition of fine, and my body had betrayed me.  Throughout my treatment I became very sedentary and quite literally survived on apple sauce and toast; because that was the only thing I could manage. 
                I made it through treatment and had major gastrointestinal issues, compounded by the fact that I’d been having GI distress for about five years.  But I didn’t care.  Sounds weird maybe but I didn’t.  I had beaten cancer.  I was going to enjoy life culinarily and who gives a shit what happens about it.   So for a few months I lived life, but did not listen to my body.  I was still always exhausted so it was hard to know what the true signals of my body were.  I could just manage an eight hour work day, and then I crawled home and laid in bed for the rest of the night.   As someone with an admittedly large sweet tooth I had no sense of what to listen to, and indulged. 
                Around Christmas of 2012, I had an acute GI problem that sent me to the emergency room.  That started me thinking about my diet a bit more.  I started reading “It starts with food” and the scientific approach resonated with me.  But I am stuborn.  So I thought about it and didn’t do anything.
                The paleo challenge came at the perfect time.  I was mentally primed for some changes and willing to try it.  Granted the last 6 weeks have been far from paleo perfect, but I did learn things about myself, my body and my relationship with food.  Even with the coming on and off the “rails” I was able to notice internal differences between eating clean and not eating clean.  So now at the very list I make the conscious decision to eat something that though my brain may say will taste good, but make me feel like crap after.  So what pray tell did I learn?
                First and for most you are actually gluten intolerant and will feel badly if you eat it.  So don’t.   You would have thought I would have figured this out sooner but I didn’t.  I knew that certain things, bread and pasta made me feel gross. But having a sandwich didn’t bother me necessarily.  So I basically ignored it.  But in really making an effort to remove processed grains I realized in my slips that the feeling I had was because of the gluten.  So it no longer became worth it to have a gluten item. 
                Second, keep a clean kitchen.  This one also is pretty intuitive.  But took some trial and error to realize how important it was.  I am the first person to admit that I am inherently lazy.  So I realized that if its not in the house I am not going to leave the house in search of a chocolate bar, or ice cream or whatever.  So I can actually succeed if I maintain a clean house. 
                Third, cook as much as possible because the troubling days that I had during the challenge accord in part because I was out late and then had nothing to eat when I got home, so I resorted to the quickest form of calories I could find.  This was likely something that wasn’t paleo.  But if I have plenty of pre-cooked food, there is always the chance to microwave some chicken thighs and frozen spinach.   Then I’m all set.
                The final rule is if you’re going to step off the paleo wagon don’t bring it home with you.  This is a pretty common dietary technique, but one I’d never really thought about.  But it makes sense to me now.  And I noticed it was easier to get back on the wagon if there was no leftovers from my slip up. 
                What does all this mean?
I have realized or re-realized I am not perfect.  There has been a dietary improvement, and like everything in life there will continue to be improvements.  Do I think that eating completely clean will work for me.  No, it won’t.  Will I avoid gluten for the rest of my life.  You bet.  I will continue to learn and grow in nutrition similarly to how I have grown in crossfit, or yoga.  So what I know is where I’m at, at this moment.  Where I’ll be in 6 months?  Who knows. 

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

So that time I did the paleo challenge

So some of you may be wondering if I was still doing the paleo challenge from CFB, and the answer is yes. It technically ends tomorrow, so I've been going strong - ish

But since it was ending tomorrow I though t it would be good to reflect on what have I learned about myself, food, nutrition and how it all relates to me. First let me say I have been far from paleo perfect. Oh lord have I. I man I'm the first to admit that there were a number of times that my sweet tooth got the better of me, and that I let it. So that brings up what am I going to do going forward. I am still a believer that I need to no deprive myself be ause it just makes it worse. I am making a strong effort to not keep sweets in the house which will hopefully lead to less late night cravings. And only purchasing a single serving when I do buy sweets. So that the derailment will not be multiple days long because I couldn't throw it away.

This brings up different but similar (because it relates to cake) issue. I have in this last 6 weeks finally admitted that I am gluten intolerant. That too much of gluten wrecks my system for days and days. So the take home message. Avoid bread. Well duh. Does this mean ill never have a piece of cake or a cookie again. Probably not. But it will be a damn good cookie.

Another thing i noticed was processed peanut butter is CRACK. I kid you not. I mean ill admit to being a total skippy lover for years, so jumping on and off the skippy train was trick. But I didn't notice it until I went to a breakfast at work where I had fruit and peanut butter. And all I wanted the rest of the day was peanut butter.

I think the whole 9 life people were totally right.... Frankenfood

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

SNATCH TIME


Today was killer, and I say that because I'm sitting here wanting to curl up in a ball and sleep.  Sooooooo tired.  Fortunately my hands stopped throbbing but they are still sore.

What did I do you ask?

WORKOUT OF THE DAY

APRIL 2, 2013
Strength 1: Snatch EMOM For 10 Min... 3 Snatches @ 65%
WOD: AMRAP 12

5 CTB Pullups
7 Snatches 95/65
9 Burpees
So next you say...what the hell is a snatch? 
Its pretty hellah hard and there is a moment where you think that its going to clunk you on the head.  That did not happen i'm happy to report.  And I made it through both  the strength and metcon portions.  With 55lbs, and 45lbs respectively.  It was plenty  of weigh. And this is one of those moves that will KICK your ass if you're stupid about it.  So i didn't want to push it.  Smart right?

Hurrey 

Happy belated Easter Jesus

Happy day after Easter! So I feel like I haven't been blogging as much if at all about the rest of my non- crossfit life. Which admittedly, even though I'm obsessed, is actually the majority of my life. I mean I only go to crossfit for 2 hrs a week. So in the grand scheme of things I probably devote about 5-6 hrs between Wods and pre and post prep. So today I thought I'd write a little about what's been going on with the rest of my life.

Well yesterday was Easter and I actually had a lot to do. I went to church with the rents. Which was nice except for the fact that I'm still very much the girl who had cancer in her twenties.  Which isn't actually false but especially since I don't go to that church that often I get a million "oh its so good to see you's " and "how are you...concerned faces"  It gets a bit annoying even though I know it comes from a good place.  I mean its not like I deny it happened, or still don't think of ways I can pay it forward a little bit.  Actually that idea is already in the works, I'm mainly scared to get it started. But not going to discuss it incase it doesn't happen.

So anyway back to easter.  After  early church the music comity had a breakfast thing, which I stayed for a while and shmoozed a bit with my old church friends.  I will say I like going to services on holidays because at least there will be a higher likelihood of people there that aren't usually and that I'd like to see.  I got to catch up with my friend B, who went through church school with, and she now lives in DC.  So case in point.

After everyone went up for the later service I hauled ass home to start cooking.  Or continue cooling.

The lunch menu was
Slow roasted pork butt (care of www.nomnompaleo.com)
Roasted Brussel sproats and leaks with Rosemary salt (care of practical paleo)
Faux tatos with butter, leeks and garlic (nom nom again)
dark chocolate truffles (nom nom again)

My mother and aunt supplied
salad
bread
real potatoes

I thought my contributions came out great.  And a bit shout out to my mother who had to get up extra early to turn the slow cooker on.  Since it had to cook for 8 hrs.  I will definitely be slow cooking again.  I'm hoping the one I have has a timer, otherwise all my recipes will have to be cooked for 10hrs or so.  But that isn't exactly a bad thing in the slow cooking realm.

After that was all done I actually piled in the car and went over to S's for dinner Easter style.  He is much more of a culinarian than I am so we had

rack of lamb
assarages (or i have no idea how to actually spell that word.)
roasted potatoes
strawberries and vanilla whip cream.

Then it was super late and I had to roll myself home to get up for my "early " day Monday.

Very long but very good day :)