Getting back on track

Okay, it's been a while since my last post. Here's an update... or confession. After I gave up on Paleo in August due to my budget constraints I felt defeated. I strive to be a super woman and having to choose penny-pinching over healthy eating made me feel less than super. So what did I do? I ate.

That's right, I let myself backslide into old habits. I ate crappy food, I wasn't exercising regularly, and I was staying up late watching TV and sleeping late in the mornings. I completely undid all of my hard work that it took to get into my routine. My weight fluctuated up 7 pounds and luckily back down 5.

The one good thing that I did during this time was stick pretty close to my budget. I had to say no to a couple of things that I wanted to do including the Warrior Dash and the Color Run. I was really bummed because those were two things that I really wanted to do but by not doing them I saved at least $120. That money went to paying off one of my medical bills, half of another, and finally (though begrudgingly) paying off some money I owed Comcast from when I cancelled my service with them.

So, thanks to my budgeting and the money Ken's been bringing in from work picking up I am ahead of my budget plan. I am even more pleased to say that I am back on track with my eating too. I'm not going quite as rigid with the Paleo this time. I haven't completely cut out dairy but I have limited it greatly and I've kept red potatoes for now. I'm trying to make more of a gradual transition to make it a little easier.

Last Saturday I got up early and headed out to the downtown Memphis Farmer's market. It was a chilly morning. Yeah that's right, I've lived in the South long enough now that I think 40 degrees is pretty chilly. I brought half of my food budget money with me. I got some grass-fed ground beef and brats from Claybrook Farms, organic grass-fed bacon and beef roast from West Wind farms, Butternut squash and spaghetti squash, tomatoes, green onion, yellow onion, apples, and pears from a couple of the other farms. I also got one of the best coconut cream pies I have ever eaten in my life from Downtown Pie Company. That pie was my farewell to sweets. It was a pretty good haul and I left the market feeling excited. I had bought healthy food grown locally and stayed under budget.

I've done pretty well this week. I've had butternut squash casserole for breakfast every morning this week except yesterday and this morning. Yesterday I had eggs, strawberries, pineapple, and grapes. This morning I had eggs and my delicious farmer's market bacon. I would have taken pictures but I practically had to fight the cats off for the bacon.

My lunches were Meatloaf with the farmer's market ground beef. I omitted the ketchup from the recipe and it was great with out it. The apples were my afternoon snack. Monday and Tuesday I had chicken nachos with corn chips (I've read arguments for and against corn chips).  Wednesday and Thursday Salmon with roasted red potatoes. Last night I had 2 plain brats and 2 carrots cut into sticks. Tonight I think I'm going to attempt to make the spaghetti squash with homemade pasta sauce. I'm hoping it turns out well.

I still haven't gotten back into my exercise routine yet. I did go to Pilates this week but that's all I've done. I need to get back into my routine of getting up early and working out before work. I really want to go back to Crossfit but it's just not in the budget yet. I have a free gym at my disposal at work so I need to take full advantage of that.

I'm getting back on track and my current goals are 1. No candy this Halloween, 2. Getting back to exercising 1 hour a day 5 days a week and 3. If I lose 10 pounds before Thanksgiving then I will give myself two days of enjoying all of the Thanksgiving goodies I want. If I don't it will just be Turkey and veggies for me.

I feel better when I'm eating better and exercising. I have to remember that no cupcake/Dairy Queen Blizzard/pizza is worth backsliding or more importantly my health. Sure it's okay to indulge every once in a while but it's not okay to let it become habit.

Before I end my post I have to give a shout-out to my sister Sarah. I am so proud of you! You look amazing. Your results have inspired me to keep with it even though it's not always easy. Thanks to you and all the other readers for keeping me accountable.

Decisions, decisions, decisions

Well, I made it through 2 weeks of Paleo. It was tough and I had a few cheats but I think I did well. Between the diet change and the Crossfit I lost 10 pounds.

Unfortunately my month of Crossfit is coming to an end this week and I don't think I'll be continuing it at this time. I'm also not going to be able to continue the Paleo at the extremes I've been doing it either. While I was hoping that I would be able to continue with both of these changes while staying within my budget it is just not possible at this time. Paying off debt and staying within my budget is my top priority at this time. I know it sounds crazy to put budget over health but I have a free gym available to me at work and I'm going to try to continue with the principles of Paleo for as many meals as I can afford to. It's really sad that unhealthy food it so much cheaper. I'm trying not to see this as a failure but a success to stay on budget.

On the upside I found a really great butternut squash recipe that I made tonight and am going to enjoy for breakfasts this week. I'm also greatly enjoying the brats and ground beef I bought from local Claybrook Farms. It's super delicious grass-fed beef raised right here in Tennessee.

I'm really hoping that I can keep up the momentum I've got going again with my weight loss. I'm just 30 pounds away from the 100 pounds down mark. Fingers crossed.

Paleo - Week One

Well, I'm really diving into this crazy "cult" (in Robb Wolf's words). I finished reading the Paleo Solution, I listened to a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience with Robb Wolf as the guest (check it out, free on iTunes) and made it through my first week of Paleo. I started Saturday the 11th. It's not my first attempt at Paleo but I felt more focused and more dedicated to really trying it this time.

I'm not going to lie. The first week was TOUGH. First problem, I was on call at work so the added stress of that make it tough but I stuck it out and did fairly well. My only cheats were; 2 packets of Italian dressing that I stretched across 4 salads and this last Saturday I made some Paleo cookies with Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (gluten, dairy, & soy free) and coconut flour.

I felt really tired most of the first week and there were times that I wanted to throw-up just thinking about eating another vegetable or piece of meat but I am adjusting. I also only went to Crossfit one day last week and it was a day when they had to close early so class was only 1/2 hour. I really didn't do any other physical activity all week but I just felt drained. I did some major sleeping over the weekend and I felt better today.

At about 4:15 pm today I had a surge of energy which is weird for me (especially on a Monday afternoon). I felt like I just wanted to get out of my chair at work and go for a run. I was looking forward to Crossfit to see how I managed with the eating changes. I started out my 400 meter run pretty sluggish and my pull-ups weren't great either. I did okay with my squats but my rowing was pretty decent. I'm chalking up my sluggishness to being off for a week.

I made my first batch of paleo mayo/ranch tonight. I didn't turn out great but not horrible either. I didn't have lemon juice so I used apple cider vinegar. It was...well...vinegary. It helped me to eat my carrots tonight.

Friday is payday and my team at work always goes out to lunch together so hopefully I can make it through that experience with flying colors. I think I'll be safe as long as we don't go to a pizza place because

A. pizza places rarely have much on the menu besides pizza

B. I have a weakness for pizza

I'll keep you posted on how week two is progressing.

P.S. Did I mention I was out of my weight loss slump. Down 10 pounds!!! Go me :)

Tough but Necessary

Man, this was one tough week. Here's a breakdown of my workout schedule for the week.

Monday: Crossfit 6:00 PM - 7:10 PM
Tuesday: Crossfit 7:00 AM - 8:05 AM
Wednesday: Pilates 4:30 PM - 5:20 PM
Thursday: Crossfit 5:30 PM - 6:35 PM
Friday: Day off
Saturday: Crossfit 10:00 AM - 11:05 AM
Sunday: Yard work 1:00 PM - 4:30 PM

Okay so it may not look like that tough of a week but Saturday's Crossfit was crazy. We had to do 200 meters of lunges while carrying a bar with or without weights. For every 10 lunges we had to do 10 clean jerks. I was excited because I didn't finish last though I was carrying much less weight than the two people behind me. After I finished up my workout Ken and I decided to go to Shelby Farms to play a round of Frisbee golf. I'm still not very good but we had a good time. It took us about 2 hours since I had to make so many more throws than Ken.

I woke up this morning in pain. My butt muscles hurt so bad from the lunges (sorry). It hurt to sit so I figured it would be better to get moving today. We could neglect the yard work no longer. Ken mowed and weed-wiped while I raked and bagged leaves, acorns, and all the other weird crap that comes off our trees. We worked for 4 hours but finally finished. By the time I got done I could barely move. I'm sure I'll be in a world of hurt tomorrow.

On the food front, I started reading The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf last week. I'm about halfway through and really finding it interesting. I had started reading The Paleo Diet by Dr. Cordain about a year but honestly it was a little too sciencey for me. I am really enjoying Robb Wolf's writing. He mixes the sciencey stuff with some humor and makes it a little easier to read.

So I've decided to give it a shot. I started Saturday and so far so good. I had eggs for breakfast on Saturday and Sunday with fruit on the side. I had a salad for dinner last night and tonight I had eggplant dipped in egg and flaxseed meal with homemade Marinara sauce with Turkey. It was actually really delicious. I'm cooking a roast with vegetables to have for lunches this week.

Honestly I was a little worried to try this since we are living on a tight budget right now. I recently read Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover and it inspired me to make a budget and get in better financial shape. It's hard to decide between financial fitness and physical fitness but I'm going to try to do both. It'll probably be tough but I want to stop taking medication someday if possible and I also want to get out from under debt. So I'm going to give it my best. Wish me luck...I might need it.

Happy Anniversary to Me!

I can't believe it was a year ago that I first started my juice fast after seeing "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead." Yeah sure, juice fasting was less than successful for me but I see it as a starting point. A point where I realized, "Man, I'm in really bad physical shape." I'm proud to say too that even though I failed at juice fasting I didn't throw in the towel completely. Instead, I picked up that towel, started going to boot camp classes, and used that towel to wipe my sweat away.

When I started boot camp in September I couldn't even run round the block without stopping and walking but I didn't stop trying. I dragged my butt out of bed every morning Monday through Friday at 5 AM (yes, there is a 5 AM too) and kept trying and by my birthday I was able to run a mile.

I'm not going to pretend this last year was easy and I'm certainly not going to pretend that I was perfect (I ate some ice cream yesterday at work...bad, bad, bad) but what I'm proud to say is that I am healthier. I have slightly better eating habits than I did a year ago and I definitely have better fitness habits. I weigh 55-60 pounds less and I'm not stopping there.

So what did I do to celebrate my Exercise-iversary? I started a month of Crossfit. What better way to celebrate right? I have to admit I've been planning on going for months now. I would look at the schedule and think,"I'll start tomorrow" but then I would chicken out. Once August started rolling around I decided that there was no time like the one year mark to take the plunge. I was so nervous the first day. I had seen those Reebok Crossfit commercials on TV several times and I had done some research (thank you Google) and it looked really intimidating. Sure I had been working out for a year but could I handle this?

My first night  we started out with rowing and I though "YES! I've done this before". Let's say it was the easiest part of the whole night. The next exercise was chins-ups, really playing to my strengths (sense the ever so subtle sarcasm). They gave me a band to assist me like in the picture to the left. I couldn't even pull myself all the way up one time. It was pathetic but he counted my 6 lame attempts and we moved on.

For our timed WOD we had to do 30 knees to elbows (see picture to the right, I probably looked like the second guy), 30 burpees, and 50 squats. They assigned me 20, 20, and 40 since it was my first day but I probably ended up doing about 60 -70 squats since I couldn't really get my form right so I kept having to re-do. It was really tough and while it was happening I couldn't help feeling like my last year of exercising had gotten me no where. I felt so weak. Everyone was so nice and encouraging though and I left thinking, "you have to crawl before you can walk." The last year I've been learning to crawl and I took my first step at Crossfit and it was tough but I'm going to keep trying and hopefully before long I will be walking.

Today was my second day of Crossfit and it went a little better. Not my smartest idea but I decided to walk there since it is only 1.5 miles from our house. By the time I got there I was a little sweaty from the humidity. We started out jump roping to warm up and then pull ups. They gave me two bands today and I was able to pull myself all the way up 8 time.

Then they told me we were going to do handstand push-ups. Fear swept over me. This was one of those workouts I had seen during my research and frankly dreaded. I've never once in my life done a handstand and the thought of breaking my neck or head scares me. Luckily, it wasn't as bad as I expected. As a newbie they gave me a box like in the picture but I got to kneel instead of stand. I wasn't able to get my head all the way to the ground but I got close a couple times...I think.

We then worked on clean jerk (I think). Everyone was using the bar no weight to practice, they gave me a PVC pipe...good idea. After we practiced for a while they gave me a 15 pound bar to use for the WOD. We had to do 8 reps in 12 minutes. Each rep consisted of 2 clean jerks, 8 box jumps, and 10 hand release push-ups. I was also pretty afraid to do the box jumps, I kept imagining myself not making it and falling on my face. While practicing the trainer came up to me and said, "Aim for the middle and don't fear you're not going to make it. Know you are and when you do stand tall." Damn these people are motivating. And I did do it. I wasn't able to do all 8 reps in the 12 minutes but I did finish my 7th rep right as the clock was ticking up to the 12 minute mark. Everyone else was done, of course, but came to cheer me on. It was really nice and I walked home proud...and shaking slightly from fatigue.

Off again, on again

So I have been enjoying Kickboxing for the last several weeks. All I can say is Kickboxing has been kicking my butt. It has been a great workout and there have been many a day that I woke up VERY sore, but the good sore...like you worked a muscle that hasn't been used...well maybe ever. I might consider continuing on with it if it isn't too expensive but I am going to give Crossfit a try first. My last day of my 30 day trial for Kickboxing is coming up next week and then I will start up at Crossfit Barlett for 30 days.

I enjoyed the month of June so much because I finished two of my prescriptions at the end of May and went for the whole month without having to take any medication. I went in at the beginning of June for a re-check on my Thyroid level. I waited two weeks with no call back on my results so finally I called my doctor's office any the nurse said, "Oh, no one called you? Yes, you need to continue taking the Levothyroxine and the Metformin," however, I had never been given a prescription of Metformin. When I told the nurse she sounded surprised and said she would send over that prescription. Then she proceeded to really sell me on it by saying to take less for the first couple of days as it would probably give me a stomach ache. YEA!

She was not kidding either. I'm not sure if it was the Metformin but after I finished my workout this morning I had a horrible stomach cramp that lasted for 20 minutes. Not positive it was the medicine, it could have been from the sit-ups I just finished doing. I guess I will find out tomorrow if it happens again. I didn't read all of the side effects in the pamphlet in hopes that the hypochondriac in me wouldn't know therefore causing me not to have any of them.

So now I'm back to taking medication and honestly it kinds sucks. I'm not very good about remembering to take medicine and the Levothyroxine is annoying because I have to take it a half an hour before I eat my first meal. Sure, that doesn't sound that bad but I already have to get up at 4:30 AM to get to my workout so now I have to either get up even earlier or eat really fast right before I go. Oh well, it's just the way things go and it makes my brain have to work a little harder in the morning to remember what I need to do.

I will definitely post again when I start Crossfit so look out for my review of that in the coming weeks. I'll be interested to see how sore it makes me. Hopefully I will survive it.  :)

Kicking Bags and Taking Names

A while back I got a coupon for $19 for one month of unlimited Kickboxing classes. I have a tendency to get bored easily if I do the same workout for too long so I figured this would be a good way to mix things up. I went to my first class on Wednesday morning.

I arrived at the facility 10 minutes earlier so I could give them my coupon and fill out any paper work. I got in  and the filled out a short form which was pretty nice because usually when you start at a gym you feel like you're signing your life away. The instructor wrapped my hands and gave me a pair of boxing gloves. He told me to remove my shoes, which seemed a little weird at first, and go stand next to a bag.

We started out running laps around the mats. I found running barefoot actually quite enjoyable. After we ran several laps we did several jump jack type exercises and push-ups. Once we completed that we stretched and got right into the boxing. Punching and kicking the bag was actually really fun. It would probably be a great class to go to after a stressful day at work. The instructor came by once and told me to "Pace myself" which I found rather humorous. I think he figured I was a workout newbie. It was a really fun class and I'm excited to go back Friday morning.

I woke up this morning to find that almost every part of my body hurt. I was fairly surprised because I workout pretty regularly but I guess since this was a different type of work out that accounted for the soreness. I find these days I'm usually happy to wake up sore because I know I got in a good workout.

I had another visit to my doctor today for a blood work re-check. I had been taking the thyroid medicine for  30 days and I just finished it up so they wanted to come back by to see if that resolved the issue. I guess if it hasn't I'll probably have to continue taking it. I'm hoping that everything will be back to normal and I won't have to do that. I really hate taking medication (though who doesn't, right?).

*Sigh* Some days I feel like bedtime comes so quickly. Well, it's time for me to pack my bag for the morning and get to sleep. Got to get up early and hit the bags.