{dial it in and tighten it up}

Today it REALLY begins and what a rotten week for it to begin.  Thanksgiving.  Food, food, food and a short week at the gym.  Yikes!  Today my coach says to me, "It's a big week.  We have to lose one pound!" Coach B is "going against the grain" with me and losing weight this holiday season instead of gaining.  It is so great to have somebody to be accountable to.  Posting my intentions and my progess here for all to read is also great motivation.  If I can do this during the holidays it should be a piece of cake to stay on track when it comes to nutrition the other eleven months of the year.

So, I checked my calendar to take a peek at the week and see what I have to work around and when I will fit my cheats in.  My plan was 2-3 cheats/week, but this week is going to be a little different considering Turkey Day.  I think it is obvious that my cheat is going to be on Thursday and I am laying off the lattes and saving up to have one Friday morning when my sister and I brave the craziness of Black Friday.  Tangent . . . yes, I am one of those crazy people that gets up in the middle of the night to brave the cold and the stupid crowds of people.  But, I really don't go for the deals, I don't arrive at stores an hour before they open, I don't turn my shopping trips into a CrossFit sprint workout with a steel cart, leaping over small children and narrowly missing elderly women in the waffle iron aisle.  I go because my sisters and I have been doing it almost every year since I moved back to Montana and it is fun, silly time with my sisters.  (The best part about the following pic is the lady sprouting out of my sister's head.) 

Black Friday 2009 . . . the alarm went off at 3:20 a.m.

Anyhoo, I digress!  So, back to what I was saying, my cheat is mostly reserved for Thanksgiving Day and I'm going to have a latte Friday morning.  Now even though Thanksgiving is considered my cheat I'm going to be trying some Paleo recipes to go along with Thanksgiving dinner.  I don't think my dad will buy into it so I will still be doing most of the traditional stuff, too, but I am pretty excited about this.  I am going to make some mock mashed potatoes from cauliflower (we do this occasionally and they are YU-MMY!), green beans sauteed with garlic and bacon in leu of green bean casserole and I'm trying a Paleo stuffing recipe (this is a leap for me because it has bacon and sausage in it & pork mostly gives me the heebie-jeebies) I recently found on a blog.  Don't worry I will be sharing these recipes in a future post as well as the recipes for the two things I am not even going to try to find a Paleo replacement for.  My Dad's recipe for Sweet Potato Balls and French Silk Pie.  Sometimes you just have to go with the bad stuff.

Enough with my plan for the week and onto my lunch for today.  I am going to confess that I DO NOT like to cook, I am a baker at heart.  My husband does most of the cooking and has been pretty much feeding me since we joined CrossFit Flathead about 18 months ago.  But, in my effort to eat better, more consistently I am making an effort to do my share of the cooking.  So today in between my workout and picking up at pre-school I made a mad dash to the grocery store to pick up some veggies.  I didn't have much time, but grabbed some yellow squash, zuchinni, bok choy, baby bok choy (simply because they were so cute) and mushrooms.  After I fed my son and his friend a less friendly heart-healthy lunch (you gotta do that when they have a friend over!) I got to work on my lunch and below is what I came up with. 

 

Lunch ala Trina

(I'm guessing this may be the name of many of my lunches.)

Simple really and not even worthy of being called a recipe.  I sauteed and then slightly steamed broccoli in some olive oil and chicken broth.  Next, I added red peppers and garlic, tossed in the crispy parts of the baby bok choy (really, so cute!) and the mushrooms, added a splash of low-sodium soy sauce (Gasp!  Soy sauce?!  Get over it.  I'm more primal than paleo. That's in my 20%) and then add the bok choy leaves.  I slid all that yumminess onto my plate and cooked up my chicken in some olive oil and the goodies in the bottom of the pan from the veggies.  I then weighed out 3 oz. of chicken and put it on top of my veggies, sliced up an apple (because I can't seem to eat a garden of veggies in one meal to get all my Zone blocks in so sometimes I have to add some fruit earlier in the day) and presto!  I made my own lunch!  I'm such a big girl.

So, that's what I've done so far today.  Planned my week, actually cooked a meal and stayed mostly warm (it is 8 degrees).  I hope all your goals are moving forward how you would like them to.  Only you can make them move in that direction!  Have fun preparing for Thanksgiving!

Progress report:  Diet is going pretty well today and I had a great workout this morning.  Cleans . . . I really want to work on my technique in this lift so today was perfect.  95# Cleans and Chest-to-Bar pullups, 15-12-9.  I stayed pretty steady, the weight didn't feel terribly heavy and I could feel when the lift was decent.  Learning to recognize when something is right in my own lifts has been a long, ongoing process for me.  I'm learning to pay closer attention and that makes my effort in the gym more productive.  Now if I could quit being so hard on myself the rest of the time. ;)  Quiet in the peanut gallery! :D

{you gotta have a plan}

You have to have a plan when you set any goal. With no plan you set yourself up for failure and what is the purpose in setting a goal if your chances of success are cut short right from the start.  So with that being said, I have a plan for my "Go Against the Grain" goal and really it is a pretty simple one. 

• 5 CrossFit workouts/week


• 80% Paleo/Zone diet.  Minimal grain, legumes and dairy (this is where the 20% comes in)


• Three meals and two snacks/day


• Try new Paleo and Gluten-Free recipes and post at least one/week on here.  (I have a sissy camera so pictures may or may not be included.)


• Share recipes and links and blogs that support the healthy lifestyle I choose to live.


• Drink more water


• Look at my calendar on Sundays and plan my cheat meals for the week. 2-3/week.

But,  like any well laid plan sometimes it doesn't always go as planned.  So on those days I am going to put it behind me and jump back on the wagon.  There is nothing you can do about that empty bag of Boy Scout Chocolate Covered Caramel Corn once it is empty. ;) (If you ask me about this later I will feign ignorance!)  Put it behind you, be disciplined and pick right up where you left off.  There is no waiting for Monday to get back on track.  The next meal is where you get back on track.

Progress Report:  I stepped on the scale this morning so I know where I am starting at to track my progress.  Today was so-so.  I didn't eat as much as I should have, nor did I drink enough water.  I'm still not feeling 100% from my migraine yesterday and nothing sounded good and when I did eat it upset my stomach. :(  What I did eat fell in my 80% of good whole foods, so it could have been worse.  But I still have time to drink more water and get some rest before tomorrow's WOD.  I'm guessing I'll need it! (I just checked out tomorrow's WOD at CrossFit Flathead, "CrossFit Total". Yes, I will need the rest. Ugh!)

My workout felt great despite still having some slight side effects from the migraine.  I pulled the garbage can over by my rower just in case because the warmup didn't leave me feeling that confident that my protein shake would stay down.  But, stay down it did and "go down" went my 500m row times from February.  Total I took 54 seconds off my 4x500m row.  I'll take it and run, well, er, row????  So one day post-migraine+lack of sleep+lack of food+slightly dehydrated=PR.  I can't wait until I'm feeling 100%!  I don't recommend that little equation to success in the gym.  Today was a fluke, it rarely works in my favor.

So, what goals have you set for yourself?  Make them challenging, but at the same time they should be attainable.  Be disciplined and reach your goals.  You will be stronger in the end for it!

 "Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination."  ~Fitzhugh Dodson

 

{going against the grain}

While doing a little search on the good 'ole Google machine today I was surprised to see that research has shown that the average person gains only about one pound during the holidays.  This is contrary to popular belief that a person will gain 5-10 pounds between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  One pound is far better than 5-10, but really no weight gain is even better.  One pound isn't much, but this becomes a problem when this pound is never taken off and these "one pound" holidays start to add up.

I workout very consistently and hard and I try to eat well at least 80% of the time.  But, I am going to confess that I have had a bad food attitude as of late and I haven't been eating all that well.  (Damn those Boy Scouts and their Chocolate Covered Caramel Corn!)  So, in true Trina form, this holiday season I am going to go against the grain of holiday weight gain and lose a couple of pounds before the New Year.  I know I am going to get some of the same remarks I always get when I say I want to lose a couple of pounds, "You don't need to lose weight!"  I do when the weight is body fat and not muscle and I know where I want my body fat percentage to lie.  I consider myself a CrossFit athlete like everybody else in our gym.  I want my body fat to represent the athlete I strive to be in the gym.  Body fat percentage for an athlete is 14-20%.  I am on the high-end of this, possibly one percentage off.  It isn't about losing weight because I think I am overweight, it is about losing body fat that is keeping me from performing at my best in the gym and it is losing body fat as a result of eating food that is healthy and good for my body.  I am the only one that can take care of my body and make sure it lives a long life free of disease.   This doesn't mean I probably won't enjoy some holiday treats, because a healthy lifestyle is about enjoying life, as well.  I strive for about an 80% Paleo/Zone diet.  I'm working on eliminating dairy, but that has been a struggle as it is perfect latte season with Winter descending upon Montana.  So that will have to remain part of the 20% of my diet.

So tomorrow I "go against the grain" and will work hard to go against what the general population does.  I will lose while they gain and in being a loser I will win! :-)

Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports.
~Greg Glassman