This is Your Life

I saw this video on fellow blogger, Melissa Joulwan's website The Clothes Make the Girl. Not only is she a fantastic writer but she's also a Paleo enthusiast with a bad ass new cookbook out. If you haven't gotten your hands on a copy of Well Fed, you should! I loved this video so much, I had to put it up also. Holstee makes clothing, recycled wallets and other items but their message is way beyond that...

Getting Back to It and Fittest Games

Well I'm officially 11 days into January and 10 days into my 3rd Whole 30. I have to say that this go-round is a piece of cake really. I am not doing that great of a job as far as portion control and snacking are concerned but I haven't even really had the urge to cheat. I take it back, the other day I was really craving a root beer but it passed quickly. Random, I know. What's so fantastic about this Whole 30 though is that there are so many people who are joining me. People from the gym, people from lululemon, family members and friends. They probably don't know, but all of the people who are looking to me for support and guidance are actually helping me accomplish my goals. It's a huge responsibility to lead a group and I am holding myself to an even higher standard because of it.

I have been saying for the past few months that come January, I was really going to get my ass in gear as far as my training and nutrition are concerned. The nutrition is 100% in control and I have to say that the training is really coming along. In November and December, when my nutrition was horrible and I was juggling 3 jobs, getting my own workouts in seemed much more like a chore than a joy. I am happy to say that after a few lifestyle changes and with wholesome, Paleo foods fueling me, I have felt pretty amazing during all of my workouts. I am still struggling with my strict handstand push ups. I have so far gotten a few, but all of the work has made my kipping handstand push ups much easier. I still have my muscle-ups and now I just have to work on linking them. The most I've ever done in a row is 5 and I'm hoping to get 10! The only thing that isn't really progressing is my endurance. I still get pretty beat-down by long, light, cardio metcons, but CrossFit Katy's very own endurance expert Niki Bellnoski is going to be starting up CrossFit Katy Endurance Running again soon so hopefully those workouts will help me in those types of WODs.

It's almost time for The Fittest Games again and I am really excited and kind of nervous. Last year I ended up 9th but there was a gamut of talent missing from that competition last year. This year, I have signed up in the "pro division" which simply means I qualified as an individual for the South Central CrossFit Regionals last year. There are some amazingly studly women in this group and I am pretty stoked just to be able to compete with them. The Fittest Games has always been an incredibly well-run competition with great WOD's and an even better atmosphere. This year is sure to be no different. This year, CrossFit Katy is bringing a pretty large group of competitors and hopefully a rowdy bunch of cheerleaders. Should be an amazing time!

A Different Kind of Whole 30

A while ago, the folks over at Whole 9 Life challenged their readers to do a totally different kind of Whole 30. They wanted everyone to try and go 30 days without watching TV! While this may have nothing to do with nutrition, it most definitely has everything to do with health as a whole. Whole 9 Life isn't just about nutrition, they're about balancing life, taking the correct steps to becoming the best version of yourself. I didn't participate in the 30 Day No-TV Challenge because I don't really feel like TV is a major part of my life anyway. I enjoy at times but don't really feel like I "need" it. The thought of turning off my TV for 30 days didn't make me nervous, but I have thought of a little challenge that does!

As my friends, family, and even members of my gym will tell you, I have a little problem that involves shoes and nice athletic-wear! It seems like every time I turn around there's a new product that I have to have or a shiny new pair of kicks. Back in September when I was asked to write out my goals for lululemon athletica, I put down that I wanted to save 50% of all my paychecks. I am currently living rent-free and have minor bills to pay so this is the perfect time to sock away as much cash as possible until the not so distance future when Neal and I hope to get into a house. I did an excellent job up until December when it was time to buy presents for Hanukkah/X-Mas. I have managed to spend most of that extra savings that I worked so hard for on gifts...and not all of them were for other people! (oops!)

For the past few years, I have definitely been living in the mind-set that I don't need to worry about saving tons of money because what I make is not that significant and when I finally get that "big girl job" I will have more than enough time to make up for it so why not enjoy myself now right? News flash, I have my dream job....but it's not making me the kind of bucks that my original career had the potential to offer. So, its high time to really get a handle on my finances. Now, I haven't been completely irresponsible up until now, but I definitely have huge room for improvement. So here goes...for the entire month of January, I will be completing not only a Nutritional Whole 30 but I will also be abstaining from making any unnecessary purchases. No new apparel, no new footwear, no dining out for lunch while at work, no daily Starbucks purchases. Reading this, it seems like such a simple task, but I know it will be a challenge for me and it's something I need to do to put my life back in balance.

Now that I've got my two major tasks for the month of January planned out, its time to re-evaluate and post the rest of my yearly goals! Stay tuned!

I'm Back!

Well it's almost January and that means it's time for new goals/resolutions. One of my personal goals this year is to blog more. So here I am. My hope is to update this blog at least once a week.

The focus of this post though, is to talk about another goal on my list this year and that's my nutrition. Contrary to popular belief, I am not the nutritional perfectionist that many seem to think that I am. I did extremely well with my nutrition during the first half of 2011. I completed two Whole 30's and was feeling pretty good about everything. My body composition was where I wanted it and my workouts were getting better. How then did I let myself slip back into the habits of not making the best choices for my body and my fitness? Honestly, I don't know. I think a little of it was because I was doing so well, I thought, ehh couldn't hurt to loosen up a bit. Part of it was the advent of the holidays, and part of it was just plain laziness. The reasons really aren't that important at this point. What's important is that I am motivated to make a change. So, I am embarking on yet another Whole 30. This one will run from Monday, January 2nd to Tuesday, January 31st. My hope is that it will set me straight and put me in the right place as CrossFit Sectionals 2012 nears. Right now, I better go get that grocery shopping list ready cause it's about to begin!...

Competition Season Begins

The title in this post might be a little deceiving. For the elite among us, it seems these days the competition season is never-ending. Less than a month ago, the CrossFit Games took place in California playing host to the World's Fittest. Since I obviously didn't make it to the Crossfit Games, the last time I competed was at Regionals on June 17th, 18th and 19th. But looking ahead, I have 6 competitions and multiple other Crossfit Events written into my calendar within the next 4 1/2 months! Now, I am most likely not going to participate in every one of these events and competitions but the fact that the opportunity is there, is significant. I have been having a hard time lately with motivation. This is something that I feel resonates with many other CrossFit Athletes that I've talked to recently. I think the important thing for all of us to remember is to pick and choose our competitions wisely so that we can keep a healthy level of motivation and fun without getting burned out.

This past weekend I chose to compete at the Life As Rx Tour in Dallas, Texas along with a group of my CrossFit Katy family. For me, this marks the beginning of my Games 2012 Season. I chose Life As Rx for a few reasons. First of all, it was a chance to get out of town and focus on nothing but the competition and having a good time with my friends. When you work full-time as a trainer coaching classes 6 days a week, it is essential sometimes to take a long weekend to forget it all and focus on yourself as an Athlete and not a coach, business owner, etc. Two this was billed as one of the largest competitions at a huge venue (the 2011 Europa) with a unique opportunity to showcase CrossFit to a large group of people that were possibly unfamiliar with it. Also, I didn't go last year and regretted it.

Competing turned out to be a great decision. I had a lot of fun and got in some solid workouts. As an advanced CrossFitter, I think sometimes I get caught up in the idea that I need to always be doing complicated WOD's and movements. This weekend was a good reminder that the simple stuff is just as ass-kicking! Finished up with a 10th place finish so I was happy. In case I forgot to mention it here, my goal for this season is a Top 10 Finish in all of the events I choose to compete in. So that's one down. The next one on the list is the BCS Games in College Station on August, 27th.

CrossFit Katy's Bring the Heat 2!

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You! That is pretty much the first thing that I think about when I think about Saturday's Bring the Heat 2 Competition. Thank You to all of the Amazing CrossFit Katy members who sacrificed their Saturday to help us put on a great competition! I know I've said this before but we really do have the most amazing community. There's no way we could put on these kinds of events without the love and support from our CrossFit Katy Family!

The name did not disappoint as mother nature most definitely "Brought the Heat" but so did the athletes that took on the WOD's. For this competition we had 3 WOD's for Scaled and 4 WOD's for the Standard division.

The first WOD was a 4 rep max deadlift followed by an 800 meter trail run. I saw some amazing feats of strength as the top two males in the RX division wrestled for first place lifting close to 500lbs each! I am most impressed though with CrossFit Katy's own Steve Gonzalez who competed in his first competition last weekend and lifted 30lbs over his previous ONE rep max for a set of Four! Awesome!!!

The second WOD was a short, fast burner. 25-20-15-10-5 Box Jumps coupled with 5-4-3-2-1 Clean and Jerks. Huge shout out to Ashley Buttirini from Bayou City CrossFit! This was also her first competition AND she went RX! The 105# on the clean and jerk was no walk in the park for her, but she gritted her teeth and rocked it!

The third WOD consisted of 21 power snatches followed by a 30 meter shuttle run, 21 push presses, another 30 meter shuttle run, 21 hang cleans, 30 meter shuttle run and then 120 meters of overhead walking with the barbell! The overhead walk proved to be tough with plenty of athletes struggling through that last 60 meters but the grit and determination was unmatched. That's the thing I love about CrossFit, so many times even the athletes competing wonder at the beginning of the WOD whether or not they can complete it, but inevitably, something inside them tells them they can, no matter how hard it seems, how heavy the bar, how much it hurts, we all believe and that makes all the difference.

In an effort to embrace the "unknown and unknowable" aspect of CrossFit, the 4th WOD for RX was something that I've never seen in a CrossFit competition. It was a "floater" WOD which consisted of Max Double Unders. Athletes could perform the WOD as many times as they wanted during the day to get their top score. It was a great twist to an already great competition.

Overall, I am extremely proud of the kind of event that CrossFit Katy was able to host. I fall more in love with this sport and the people that do it every time I go to an event and our event was no different. Again, thank you so much to all the amazing boxes that sent their athletes out to brave our WOD's and the Texas heat! And of course, to my amazing CrossFit Katy Family, I love you and we couldn't do this without you. Can't wait till next year!!

Half-Full?

I read a tweet today from Compete Every Day that said "2011 is exactly half way over. You have six months to do what you set out to do this year..." Not gonna lie, it caught me a little off-guard! Can you believe that this year is half-way over?!?!

So I went back and looked at my goals that I wrote for myself back in January. Yes I know, I should have re-evaluated my goals at the beginning of April, but things got a little crazy with the gym move to the new space, new programming, etc. Not an excuse but oh well. (Maybe one of my goals should be, keep up with goals!) :) I have so far met none of my strength goals! Boo. On the bright side, I have gotten 4 consecutive muscle-ups which is 2 more than I was shooting for in my first 6 months of the year and only one shy of the 5 that I want to get my the end of the year......Bottom line, I have a long way to go if I am going to accomplish what I want to accomplish by the end of the year.

Thank you Compete Every Day for B*%& # Slapping me into reality! Goals will never be accomplished without a road-map and without diligently working on them every day!