Thursday, October 13, 2011

PR's...Ready, Set, Go!

So I have begun to realize that I am intimidated by two things revolved around workouts:
1. Early mornings and 2.Scary Front Range Cross Fit WODS (workout of the day)!

It's funny how much free time I used to have for working out, and I usually took advantage. Of course that was the pre-baby days before I had to stop focusing so much on just me, me and me. Before my baby girl Juliet,  life was such a breeze. I could compare it to eating cake.

Pre-baby = cake eating
Post baby=eating a juicy filet minion
While both are enjoyable, one can sustain you much much longer!

Since the creation of my little lady Juliet, I have had a priority shift in my time management. Workouts continue to remain very high on my list of needs as they fit right in with water, food and love. Trust me, one does not want to be around me when I don't work out.  Non worked out Steph brings out the devil in me (just ask my dear hubbo, who can testify to this).

In the most recent couple of months, sleep has began to quietly seep into that list of things I have to do. This priority change has placed a huge damper on my workouts. My usual crossfit time is 6am, which requires not only a 520am alarm clock (oh, how I do NOT love thee) but also an early morning breast feeding session for the little Kinzer baby. And believe me, any other time for work outs just doesn't happen, what with the chaos that ensues later in the day. OK for cheesy purposes, lets just call that our family time. So, it's 6am or it's a bust & that's a huge guilt producing delima currently. To be honest, it requires a bedtime of 930pm, which is difficult for me.

This recent prioritization of sleeping habits has come from two relatively reliable sources: Marks Daily Apple (web site) and Lights Out, the book. Both which say, it is better to get more sleep & get a short workout in later in the day rather than getting up early & sleeping less than 8 hours. There are so many reasons our bodies need more sleep, mostly regarding hormones and oh...small things like diabetes and heart disease! All of which just so happen to make an absolutely dreamy excuse to reach over with my naughty right arm & turn off that alarm clock.

Hence, I have fallen short lately on my cross fit workouts, so much so that if I go this seldom it's not worth the monthly debit from my bank account to pay for me just LOOKING at the WODS online. This is the point my oh-so-logical husband mentioned the other night & sent me on a rage. Ah! the truth HURTS, especially when I was fuming in the wrong direction (at him for saying it) instead of myself with this bastard right arm (see, I already told you about my devilish tendencies when I'm not working out). Thank goodness I picked a forgiving spouse, and I say this with my most perfect toothy innocent smile.

This brings me to point #2, scary WODSs. Case in point: This morning's WOD:
Three rounds:
20 burpees
30 wall-ball shots (14lbs)

But just for the record, I did go to crossfit this morning - (thanks, I did pat myself on the back already) I think it was some sort of karma for sleeping in lately because only 3 of us total went for this punishment. But even scarier than today was a couple of weeks ago when we attempted to uncover our max snatch (btw, have you warmed up your snatch lately?) And for some reason, be it my lack of barbell confidence when weights are over my head or just that I am a total wimp; I am afraid of the snatch. Yep, I said it. And my max weight showed it, only 75 pounds. yikes. And a real jab to the ego took place when I was told a prego crossfitter snatched 110pounds.

So, more recently, when we had another max lift day, I decided it was game on. I came fully hydrated, ready to rock and well fueled after a prior night's paleo dinner. It was game on, ready set go! Which leads into the name of this post: PR's and FR's. What is an FR you should ask? It means first record and it takes place when you don't have a prior weight to beat, it is also totally made up for this blog post my good friend. So I went to uncover my FR's on the following:

Overhead Squat - 90lbs
Front Squat - 150lbs
Back Squat - 175lbs

and I feel pretty good about that level of strength! I sure hope I can grow from there. Not only did I score some "way-to-go's" but I left with quite the ego boost! Thank you Crossfit for all the fun!



Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Mercury Retro - Not So Great!

Retrograde Mercury is an astrological signature for Murphy's Law ("If something can go wrong, it will"),
Computers crash,  there are unexpected glitches, traffic jams ensue, telephone service snarls up, letters get lost on the mail, machinery breaks down, new projects fail miserably. Ah, yes, the trickster Mercury is up to his old pranks again.

Personally, I do believe in astrology and all that jazz, but don't call me a fanatic, I don't live my life by the stars, I usually only gain an little understanding of myself and others with the info. Aquarius' are usually like this. I don't read my horoscope daily because there are too many sources to try to assimilate. Most of them can be categorized as nin-compoop! However, from my experience there is something that I think we all should pay attention to. It is something that happens usually 3-4 times per calendar year and is well worth noting.

Here is what I found to somewhat explain what Mercury Retrograde is. Even if you write down the mercury dates of the current year just for kicks, I promise you will be amazed. I guarantee you will notice the effects yourself without any arm twisting or hocus-pocus talks of aliens, ghosts, or spirits to convince you.

When Mercury is Retrograde

Sometimes the other planets appear to be traveling backward through the zodiac; this is an illusion. We call this illusionretrograde motion.
Mercury's retrograde periods can cause our plans to go awry. However, this is an excellent time to reflect on the past. Intuition is high during these periods, and coincidences can be extraordinary.
When Mercury is retrograde, remain flexible, allow time for extra travel, and avoid signing contracts. Review projects and plans at these times, but wait until Mercury is direct again to make any final decisions. (QUOTED FROM ALMANAC.COM)

My own personal cases in point:
1) Our flight to Minnesota was cancelled
2) Cancelled a stroller walk with play date due to a sudden sickness
3) Tried to call pediatrician today and the call was disconnected 3 times and then the woman at office could not hear me
4) Contractor was scheduled to come out for estimate today & had to reschedule. All contractors have this flakey reputation, but I am still proving my point here so bear with me
5) Texted my Dad to confirm our weekly tennis and never heard back (that one is very odd because I still haven't heard back and it's two days later)

Historically, mercury retrograde was going on in October 2008 during the big stock crash as well as during the Presidential election of 2000 when the Florida voting was messed up & Bush won the election.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Thyroid, schey-moid, who needs it?

For almost the last two years there has been a new diagnosis in my medical chart, Hypothyroid or more specifically, hashimotos. Sounds so very Asian and almost warrior-like when you put it like that. But there is absolutely nothing warrior like to this aparent auto-immunite disease. Instead of benefiting from my hard working thyroid hormones, my body rejects it like it is an enemy invader. WTF.

All I know is, my Mom had her thyroid removed before "they" thought it was worth anything (guess the good ol docs thought it was a spare part?), my oldest sister has been taking thyroid meds since I can remember knowing what medicine was and my other sister just got diagnosed with a goiter, (an ugly word for an equally ugly lump). Oh heck, even my Dad was told to take synthroid for his slightly low-level hypothyroidism recently. A double fucke to me much? Can you spell G-E-N-E-T-I-C?

I started to take thyroid meds in October 2009; against by better self after the following systems were drop kicking me in the face
1) Hair falling out RAPIDLY, I mean that I clogged the drain everytime I showered and I barely had enough hair to put in a pony-tail.
2) Couldn't get prego (AKA infertility) this one was the MAIN reason though I didn't really believe it would work until I saw that little plus sign 3 months after starting to swallow the little white pill.
3) Sheer exhaustion - Tiredness never felt so tired. I wanted to go to bed at 8pm and people made fun of me when I couldn't keep my eyes open for family events that lasted longer
4) Mood swings - Well...I don't know if I can blame my thyroid for this one, I think I'm just moody all the time, I blame my X chromosome and anything else that pleases me.
5) No eyebrows and eyelashes barely there- This two things are devastating to a woman. I would rather be a hairy beast that had to endure daily waxing rather than not have any eyebrows/lashes.
6) Weight gain - Despite working out 1-2 hours a day and never eating fast food and being an overall healthy eater, the weight was slowly adding on. And this face does not look good with the extra poundage! I am not one of those that can hide extra weight like my blessed hubby.

Those are the major ones that made them self evident, imagine what else was going on inside this human figure! Memory loss, rapid aging, neuro- stuff that I don't even being to understand. Let me just say that the thyroid is like the gas pedal in your car, you need it to get anywhere!

What does make me awfully suspicious is the rapid rate at which it seems every woman is getting diagnosed as hypothyroid. I don't trust Dr's to begin with, so this only keeps me squinting in suspicious thoughts. Don't even get me started on them saying I will never get off thyroid meds for the rest of my life. I believe I was made whole and perfect and by messing with my body unnaturally - a whole new set of ramifications are lining up to punch me in the face later.

The one hope I have is that I was once told that acupuncture helped to cure a woman who had been taking the thyroid meds her whole life. I have no idea if this person was 60 years of 6 days old...but it sounds like a long time when you word it like that!

Signing off and hoping for a CURE and not just a gay cover up to the symptoms!

Monday, April 4, 2011

WODS!

Today's WOD (FRCF) was timed at 20min - less intimidating if you suspect you might be slower than your fellow cross fitters since everyone finishes at the same time. Humph.

Today the coach asked me if I wanted to cut down the time (can you handle the 20min he asked) since it was my first day back post baby. I declined and said I would just take it easy. How else can you take it when you have been out of commission for 2 months and have been modifying your workouts for the 7 months before that?

All in all, I had the best realization while going thru the workout: I don't have to hold myself back anymore during cross fit! All this time I had to limit myself and that is no more! Now, nothing can stop me and I am so thrilled to see what this breastfeeding body can do. Woo-hoo! Bring on the HGH for muscles.

Now if only I could have a nutritionist or maybe even one of the Biggest Loser trainers in my house guarding the food and making sure I only make good food choices! What I really need is a heavy duty chain on the fridge and pantry. Luckly, I'm not tempted by fast food, coffee or sodas- I've never had any crazy cravings or addictions to them so I feel ahead of the game there. My weakness revolves around the sweets as they are my temptress. But I figure the longer I go without, the easier I will have it. I've been down this road before, and I always come out shrugging off sugar. It's just hard to make the first move. My plan is to fill myself with the good stuff: fruits, veggies and especially my newest love: baby spinach! Let it be noted that my first experience with spinach as a kiddo led me to vomit on the dining room floor and I have been enemies with the iron-rich power house ever since. However,two weeks ago, my amazing cook of a husband made a delicious batch of spinach salad and took to a friends house which left me feeling obligated to eat it. Surprisingly, I didn't gag or vomit - I swallowed every bite! And that experience began the love affair with baby spinach! Way to go husband for helping expand the pallet! Next let's work on seafood, (f'ing gross if you ask me)

So, back to the WOD: We did 20 min of this circuit:
- 4 front squats (with 65lbs)
- 8 kettle bell swings
- 12 pull-ups (assisted with bands)
I made it to 7.17 rounds with a ridiculously red face to show for it (we're talking clown red here.) Not bad but a long ways to go since the prescribed weight was 95 lbs.and I have yet to do a real pull-up.
As far as the weight goes -
I have set a weight loss goal of 30lbs. That will put me around a comfortable weight that I can maintain with my new spinach eating habit! Let it be known that my husband and I are currently on day #4 of our weight-loss off. Which means I have until May 15th to kick some serious husband butt with as many WODS as possible while taking care of a tiny newborn. Wish me luck!
I know from experience this weight will not come off without some drastic dietary changes. Sadly, exercise is not enough to get this poundage off.
I will keep you posted on the next WOD and the condition my body is in after this week :)

Monday, March 28, 2011

Back to the gym, milk in boobs and all the jiggles

This Friday is the start of the return to Crossfit. Yes, it's back to the gym, one day short of 6 weeks post baby. My fears becoming more apparent as April 1 approaches. Here they are for the world to see:
1) Boob leakage - a little known part of breastfeeding that Mom's keep as a secret. Breastfeeding utters leak milk randomly! so I fear, what if the milk decides to show up undescritely through my sports bra to show off my liquid gold
2) Boob bouncing - this is just as painful as some WOD's, the coaches just don't understand why us well- endowed ladies roll our eyes at the mention of double unders. There is just no good sports bra to put an end to the misery
3) huffing, puffy and jiggles - As stated prior it's been 6 weeks since I was about 50 pounds heavier, that weight doesn't all fall out with the baby (babies don't just fall out either.)

As for motivation (as though fitting into my pre-prego clothes is not enough motivation) my hubby and I are challenging each other to a "weight-off" to see who can lose the largest percentage of weight. We're going Biggest Loser style rather than who can lose the most pounds. It's a 6 week challenge, and he has his own methods - boot camp being one of them. I'm going the Crossfit way and am convinced that with breastfeeding, Crossfit and a modified paleo eating plan, I've got this "weight off" under wraps.