Form 3--Renewed Passion and Drive

Saturday I had the privilege of attending the Form3 Women's World Tour at CrossFit Central and I can't remember the last time I have felt this excited about my future. The program was led by Carey Kepler, Jessica Sharratt, and Crystal Nelson...all amazing ladies!

To be perfectly honest, I didn't really know what to expect from the program when I first got into my car to make the 2 hr drive from Katy to Austin. I anticipated a lot of discussion on nutrition and fitness and how to reach out to the needs and wants of the women of my community. I did not expect to take such an in-depth look into my needs, my wants, my purpose.

As a whole I think many women find themselves constantly saying to themselves, "When I have more time I will ___.", "When I have more money I will____." I know because that is something that I am always saying, but I learned this weekend that that kind of thinking is poisoning our potential. How are we ever going to accomplish anything if we keep putting ourselves in that box?? This weekend was all about "Now, Now, Now" We even went so far as to write down everything that we could think of that was holding us back....and we burned it! It was liberating!

The rest of the day was filled with goal setting, vision boards/books, and an intimate look at what we can do today to get where we want to be tomorrow. There is so much more that I wish I could say about this program but words fail me. It is just a feeling. A feeling of limitlessness, a feeling of hope and determination, a feeling that nothing can hold me back if I make a plan to get there! I love quotes and one of the quotes that resonated most with me is from Og Mandino

"I will act now. I will act now. I will act now. Henceforth, I will repeat these words each hour, each day, everyday, until the words become as much a habit as my breathing, and the action which follows becomes as instinctive as the blinking of my eyelids. With these words I can condition my mind to perform every action necessary for my success. I will act now. I will repeat these words again and again and again. I will walk where failures fear to walk. I will work when failures seek rest. I will act now for now is all I have. Tomorrow is the day reserved for the labor of the lazy. I am not lazy. Tomorrow is the day when the failure will succeed. I am not a failure. I will act now. Success will not wait. If I delay, success will become wed to another and lost to me forever. This is the time. This is the place. I am the person."

This weekend has given me a new purpose, a new drive, a new passion.....

Today Is My Someday!

Whole 30 Round Two Results!

Well, it's over! My second round of the Whole 30 is finally over and the results are in! As I was saying in a previous post, I really don't think my first go-round with the Whole 30 did much for me. Instead of really focusing on changing my relationship with food, I concentrated on just cutting out all the technically inappropriate foods. This resulted in a severe over-consumption of fruit, almond butter, and other paleo treats. I never kicked my late-night snack habit and, as a result, did not conquer my sugar demons meaning when my first Whole 30 was over, I was right back on the sugar train. Paleo sugars of course (that's what I told myself).....but really there is no difference.

About half-way through this Whole 30, I read a great post on the Whole 9 Blog about conquering your sugar demons and it finally clicked. I think I made more progress in the last 2 1/2 weeks on then I did during my entire previous Whole 30. So without further ado.....

My Results:

Weight Before: 158.2

Weight After: 152.8

I have lost a total of 4.75 inches from my waist, hips, thighs, and arms.

I was pretty excited about the results especially the inches. Weight is a very deceptive beast and it really doesn't mean that much to me, but inches really say something.

Ok So I know you are all dying to know if I went completely nuts today on junk food and the answer is....sort of. :) I had a normal breakfast, got in a great 5:30AM WOD at CrossFit Katy and then went to lunch at Ruggles Green. I got the Blackened Shrimp Salad and a side of Butternut Squash. It was delicious but MAN there was a lot of sugar in that lunch. The salad had about 5 different kinds of fruit/dried fruit on it and was tossed in a poppyseed dressing and the butternut squash was full of brown sugar. It was good but it is not something I think I will order again because it's just too dang sweet....not really worth the cheat! And even though I was already in a sugar coma, I followed up the lunch by sharing a piece of Ruggles Green warm carrot cake with Christie.....now THAT was sweet but definitely worth the cheat! They have the most amazing carrot cake. As was expected, after lunch I felt like a zombie and was in a full-on sugar coma within an hour. I took about an hour and half long nap to sleep it off! I have never had that kind of reaction to food before. You'd think I would have learned my lesson after lunch but this was cheat day...I had to keep going! Dinner was salmon and homemade macaroni and cheese. The mac and cheese was tasty and I didn't feel quite as lethargic....just very puffy and bloated and to finish it all off I tried to eat a brownie for dessert but I couldn't finish it.

Looking back at the day, I'm not all that thrilled with my cheats. Some were good, some were ok, and some were just not worth it....and I have felt pretty terrible all day. I really think I have finally changed the way that I feel about food. My tastes have truly changed this time and I hope to never go back to eating grains, extra sugars, and processed foods on a regular basis again. I will still enjoy the occasional non-paleo treat and I definitely plan on adding certain non-Whole 30 foods back into my diet...like pastured butter (YUM!)....but as a whole, I really don't plan on deviating much. I have felt great, I am setting new PR's in the gym, and I am just a much happier more energized person when I eat this way.

There's some really exciting things happening this month. February 5th I will be attending the Form3 Women's World Tour and February 13th I am competing in the Fittest Games at CrossFit Central. Hopefully all my hard work, clean eating, and training will pay off. I feel much more prepared for this competition than I was for the All-Cities Open in Dallas. This should be a great indicator for the upcoming Open Sectionals Competitions. CrossFit Katy has some great athletes going to compete and I am looking forward to having a great weekend with some great people!

*Just for clarification, the first pic is from July after my first Whole 30 and the second pic is me now after my second Whole 30*

Are Princesses the Enemy?

I read an article today discussing the rapidly changing, often warped culture that we have created with regards to beauty and what it means to be a girl. It seems like everywhere you turn these days, women are bombarded with images of not only what is considered beautiful, but what they can buy to make themselves beautiful whether that be blue jeans or botox. Sex and the sexualization of women is used to sell everything these days! And the unfortunate thing is that this image is trickling down in watered down versions (and sometimes blatantly NOT watered down i.e. Bratz dolls) to our teen and pre-teen girls. But from where did this culture evolve? According to this article, or rather according to author Peggy Orenstein, it all begins with Princesses.

Orenstein is the author of the new book, Cinderella Ate My Daugher: Dispatches From the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture. In Orenstein's opinion it is societies obsession with this "every girl is a Princess" attitude that is setting up our young women to view themselves as worthy only as long as "they are the fairest of them all". According to Orenstein, the more a girl is exposed to this ridiculous ideal, the more apt she is to develop eating disorders, low self-esteem, distorted body image, and depression.

Another article I read on ABC News.com said that Walmart is introducing a new line of cosmetics......for 8-12 year old girls! While I personally don't see anything wrong with little girls having fun dressing up and putting on play make-up or collecting fruity-flavored chap stix alla Bonne Belle or even getting their toes done, it's something quite different for a company to market make-up to tweens for day to day wear. What kind of message are we sending these girls? That they already aren't good enough without enhancements? What if we could give our girls a different kind of beautiful?

Every day, whether I like it or not, I am a role model. I have an 8 year old step-sister. I am a part-time coach at CrossFit Katy, a gym where half of all our clients are women. I live in a neighborhood with over 10 school-age girls on my block alone, and just this year, I became an aunt to a beautiful little girl. And I take this job very seriously. Because it's my desire to change the image of beauty for all of these women and I am not alone.

I CrossFit. I run laps, lift weights, jump boxes, flip tires, do pull ups, push ups, squats, drag sleds. I use my body in all its capacity to accomplish amazing athletic feats and because of this I have thighs that don't fit into skinny jeans and shoulders that can't be contained in cute little blouses but I am beautiful. I am beautiful in a way that doesn't require Prince Charming to come and rescue me and this is the kind of beauty that I want to share with the other women in my life. Does that mean that I intend to de-sexualize the culture that envelopes us or our girls? Well, not really. Anybody who has seen me workout or compete or even sees me in day- to-day life can't miss the fact that I don't mind showing off my body. I am an avid Lululemon Addict and love nothing more than rocking out a workout in a brand-new pair of Speed Shorts or Wunder Under tights and a matching sports bra. I am proud of the muscles that cut across my back and the definition that I have in my stomach. I think it's sexy. I think muscles are sexy. I think women that lift weights are sexy. I think prescribed pull ups are sexy and handstands and muscle-ups. CrossFit has not and does not intend to eliminate the sexualization of women. I believe CrossFit aims to change the very definition of sexy into something positive and empowering and that is something that I am proud to represent. I want the women in the gym to be proud of their hard-earned muscles and feel sexy when they lift a barbell above their heads. I want my little step-sister to think that being beautiful is directly correlated to what your body can accomplish. I want women to feel empowered as I feel empowered.

I recently got a very much appreciated invitation to attend the Form3 Women's World Tour in Austin, Texas on February 5th. As taken from their website, the purpose of the Women's World Tour is to bring women of the community together, provide them with space to become inspired, motivate women to dream big, to become their most powerful dynamic selves, explore, create, and take on new territories of their life, and re excite life where staleness has moved in. It's a full day of motivation and inspiration and I hope to learn even more ways to inspire the women of my community by attending this event.

Fran-tastic!

This Wednesday, the amazing athletes at CrossFit Katy took on Fran! That's right.....that soul-sucking, leaves you breathless, everything hurts, bitch of a workout known as Fran! This workout is simple

21-15-9

Thrusters

Pull Ups

So Simple....So Painful!

We haven't tackled Fran in the gym for quite a while....June 2010 I believe and before that it was April 2010. I guess you could say Fran has been laying low, waiting to pounce out and destroy us!

At the end of the battle, we had some pretty impressive numbers. The best RX time in the gym came from Chad Morales at 2:31.....pretty sweet! Adam Heiman came in at 3:36 for the next fastest RX guys time. As for the RX girls.....I took the lead with 4:04 and Brittani Briner was right behind me with a 5:04! All in all, pretty impressive!

Personally I was pretty excited about my Fran time...the last time I did Fran was back in April 2010 and I got a 4:59.....so yesterday was a 55 second PR! I have just started mixing some butterfly pull ups into my workouts but I loose my rhythm after about 6 so I definitely need to keep working on them. If I can string more butterfly's together, I'm thinking next time.....Fran doesn't stand a chance :)

Just What I Needed!

So I knew that there were some pretty crazy things that could be done with cauliflower but this recipe takes the cake! As I was eating it, I kept thinking "there is no way that this is a vegetable!" Now I did not come up with this recipe. It's another amazing concoction from Melissa "Melicious" Joulwan over at The Clothes Make the Girl. If you're missing grains in your Paleo diet, this is the recipe for you!

Cauliflower "Fouscous" (Fake+Couscous)

I'm telling you, you will not be disappointed with this one. The texture and taste are just like a sweet/savory bowl of delicious, fluffy couscous! This recipe takes some time but it is well worth it. I twisted it slightly because I like a lot of flavor in the way of spices and I did up the amount of raisins just a bit.

Ingredients:

1 Head of Cauliflower

1/4 cup of raisins

1 shallot, diced

1 TBS cinnamon

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp ginger

1/4 cup chopped, toasted almonds

Directions:

Ok so this is the tedious part. You have to cut the florets off the cauliflower head and place them in a food processor. DO NOT use any of the stems. They don't give the right texture and texture is really important in this dish. So process the cauliflower florets until they resemble fine sand. Don't fill the food processor too full (which means you may have to process the cauliflower in two or three batches) Place the processed cauliflower in a microwave safe bowl and nuke in the microwave for about 3 minutes just to get out a little of the crunch.

Meanwhile, in a large saute pan, heat some olive oil and when it's hot, add the diced shallot and saute for a few minutes. Next add the raisins and toast for a minute. Then add the spices to the pan and toast up the spices. I know this may sound strange to some but it really adds some nice flavor to the dish. Now add in your cauliflower and stir, stir, stir. The kitchen is going to smell really good! Take the pan off the heat and stir in the toasted almonds. Serve and enjoy eating the most amazing paleo vegetable dish ever!

Changes and a Super Fast Dinner!

My last post was centered around my challenge to try and conquer my "dessert demons" (I hope everyone got a chance to check out the Whole 9 post related to this challenge) While things are still not perfect, as I'm sure this will be a looooong battle, things are looking up. It turns out that sipping a mug of hot tea after dinner really does do wonders to keep the munchies at bay. I have since cultivated quite an impressive library of tea choices in my pantry. (Organic Decaf Chai is my current fave) It really is incredible how much of a difference this one change (saying NO to my sugar cravings) has made as far as body composition is concerned. I am saving the specifics for the actual end of my Whole 30 but let's just say that in only a week of saying NO I have had more success than my entire month of Whole 30 last year. But enough about food!

Along with embracing the Whole 30 for the month of January, I made the decision to recommit to my CrossFit training. I suppose my training schedule is a bit like my food....what many people saw as a good workout routine or diet, I saw as having much room for improvement. I have not really felt like I have been putting much effort into my training since Regionals last May. Don't get me wrong, I have still been in the gym but it has been sporatic....2-3 times a week and many times I have felt like I'm just going through the motions. I definitely think that things have changed this month. I am really looking forward to my workouts again and have been getting in at least 4 days a week (usually 5) I have PR'd in a few lifts and am gaining strength in other ways too (like my consecutive pull ups) One of the things I think that is helping me get back into my rhythm is all the amazing CrossFit Women that I am surrounded by here in Houston. Without these ladies, training would not nearly be as much fun. This past Thursday night at CrossFit Katy we decided to do a little skill work:

4 Rounds of

1 minute of work followed by 30 seconds of rest at each station with a 1 minute rest between stations of

GHD Sit Ups

Skin the Cats

KB Snatches

My abs are soooooore today! Those GHD's are no joke! I love the Thursday night Advanced Class at CrossFit Katy because it gives me a chance to compete against CF Katy Bad-Ass Brittani Briner! I can always count on her to push me through any workout because she never gives up!

Yesterday, I headed over to Bayou City's Sister Location, Pin Up CrossFit to tackle a noon WOD with another Houston Bad-Ass, Susie Davis Tannery. We did the .Com WOD:

21 L-Pull Ups

20 Alternating Pistols

18 L-Pull Ups

16 Alternating Pistols

15 L-Pull Ups

12 Alternating Pistols

12 L-Pull Ups

8 Alternating Pistols

I can't do the L-Pull ups yet so I decided to do dead-hangs with a skinny band. I definitely need to work on my strength because I can do a pretty decent amount of kipping pull ups but dead-hangs kill me. Surprisingly, I didn't have any trouble with the pistols. My form on my left leg is much better than on my right but I got through them pretty easily.....and my glutes are waaaay sore today! :)

Ok so back to food. I'm going to leave ya'll tonight with a super fast, one-skillet dinner that's delicious and great in a pinch when you really don't feel like cooking but want something healthy.

Chicken, Zuchinni, Bacon Medley

1 Zuchinni, diced

1 Yellow Squash, diced

2 Pieces of Bacon, diced

1 Chicken Breast, cubed

Spices: I used salt, pepper, garlic powder, hot pepper flakes, and cayenne

Put the diced bacon into a big pan and saute them until crispy.

Add the squash and spices and cook for about 5 minutes.

Add the cubed chicken and cook until the chicken is cooked through and the veggies are soft.

Simple and oh so delicious!

Slip But Don't Fall

Well I am not perfect! Haha! Nobody's perfect right? But just in case you thought I was the nutritional perfectionist, I'm here to tell you that I am not. No, I did not fall off the Whole 30 wagon, just in case that's what you were thinking. This post isn't about falling...it's about slipping. See you can slip without falling, but it takes some muscle. Ok ok you're probably wondering, "what the heck is this girl talking about?" I'm talking about giving in to emotional eating, being beaten down by my "sugar demons", eating about as unhealthily as you can while maintaining a perfectly healthy diet...capisce?

I've been on this round of the Whole 30 for 17 days and 15 out of those 17 days have been great! In fact, I'd say the last week has been damn near perfect. I have eaten vegetables at all my meals (yes, vegetables at breakfast are delicious, I promise!), I have had my recommended pre and post workout meals carrying my tubs of sweet potato, egg, and turkey with me into the gym, i have taken my fish oil every day BUT this weekend I got beat down!

Saturday and Sunday were full of bananas, almond butter spoonfulls right out of the jar, larabars, bowls of coconut milk with raisins and nuts....ahhh you get the picture. It seemed like no matter what I ate for my meal, I just HAD to have that little something extra, that little "dessert". Now most people would not consider a larabar or banana or apple with almond butter a real "dessert" item but when your brain tells you that it's something you just HAVE TO HAVE even though you just ate a big dinner (mine was delicious steak and salad with avocado dressing) then it is dessert and you don't need it.

This is something that I have struggled with for years! I love love love food and sometimes I just have to have things.....these days my cravings are much much different than they were when I was younger. I used to geek out on late-night bowls of cereal while now I prefer a bowl of fruit and nuts with coconut milk...but they represent the same thing....my sugar demons talking to me telling me that I have to have dessert even though I already ate. Part of the Whole 30 is centered around changing your relationship with food, that part I have not conquered yet, but I am working on it.

Today was a much better day than the last two. Remember I said it's possible to slip without falling, but it takes some muscle...and I flexed it today :) I am finishing this post after dinner and even as I write this, I am already feeling the urge for that "dessert". On a suggestion from the Whole 9 Blog, I am going to try and drink a glass of hot decaf tea instead of snacking. We'll see how that goes! I look forward to the day that I don't always feel the need for a late-night snack.

So anybody out there who's fighting their own "sugar demons", keep flexing that muscle and stay on track! Maybe we'll kick their butts together!