Second round of blood lab results: some progress...

I had an appt with my functional practitioner today. I had some blood tests done on Thursday, and was eager to hear the results today to see how much I've progressed since starting the RepairVite. 

Positive changes:

• signs of inflammation in my gut were less
• my body is making more T4
• Vitamin D just made it into the normal range (but should be higher)

Still needs improvement:

• Still have low T3 conversion
• Thyroid-Stimulating Hormone (TSH) was even lower
• Glucose is even lower (below normal)
• Cholesterol is even lower (below normal - somewhat shocking considering how much fat I've been eating!)
• Triglycerides are even lower (below normal)
• Magnesium was unchanged (below normal)
• Iron levels were up, but still not quite up to where they should be
• Still have signs of malabsorption due to low HCl acid in my stomach

So, I got some new supplements to help. My pill box runneth over! I had to do some serious Tetris-ing to get 2 weeks' worth of pills to fit! And that's not including the 2 supps I'm supposed to take with lunch (which I am terrible about remembering to do).

• New: 
• Lecithin (increase cholesterol): need to clarify dosage
• HemeVite (increase iron): only 1-2 pills/week 
• Thyro-CNV (increase T3 conversion): 2 pills 2/x day
• D3 (supports immune system & absorption): increase to 2 drops 2x/day
• MagneGel (magnesium): apply 1/4 tsp 1x/day to skin
• Continued:
• X-FLM (supports TH-2 immune response): 1 pill 2x/day
• Strengtia (probiotics): 1 pill 2x/day
• EPA-DHA (Omega 3 fish oil): 2 pills 2/x day
• B12 (improves energy & digestion): 10 drops (1mg)/day under tongue
• H-PLR (fights infection in gut) - 1 pill 3x/day (increasing to 2 pills/serving if I can tolerate it)
• HCL-ProZyme (supports production of hydrochloric acid) - 1 pill 3x/day with meals

We were also going to do a body mass reading, but, sadly, the machine wasn't working. I was really curious to see how much actual fat loss I'd had vs water, and if I've gained any muscle in my month of CrossFit. Have to wait until next time. He's having me take another smaller battery of blood tests before that appt to see how my T3 and iron are doing on the new supplements.

Great weekend: 5K and cake!

Well, it's been 3.5 weeks of not having to adhere to any crazy restrictions. Definitely enjoying the freedom, but struggling to eat enough veggies. I've gotten pretty tired of salads for lunch...need to punch up the veggie level at lunch. 

Brian and I did our first 5K in a while on Sunday. It was my first time running more than a mile since my 5K in Killington back in August, so I was just hoping all the cross training I'd been doing since then (and dropping over 20 pounds!) would carry me through! It was a "Spooktacular" at our YMCA, and dressing up was encouraged! There were also events for kids, so we all donned our pirate garb from my son's birthday party in September. Although I was happy that I never had to take any breaks to walk, I was a little disappointed in my time of 35:38. I really thought I'd be averaging closer to 6mph now, but that was much closer to 5mph. But I did overtake Wonder Woman in the final stretch after trailing behind her for 3 laps - that should count for something! Brian did great - he broke 30 minutes for the first time. Proud of him! The kids did great at their events too: my daughter did a 1K and really legged it out at the finish, and then they both did a cute little obstacle course. But if my coach really thinks I will be running 8 minute miles next year, I've got a lot of work to do... I think I need to work on lengthening my stride. I wish the dark, cold mornings of fall weren't here so I could still hit the high school track for some training.

On Sunday, Brian's cousin hosted a big family dinner that featured making your own pasta from scratch. Well, suffice to say, that didn't do much for me! The kids had fun making some though. Brian and I brought spaghetti squash and dug into some sausage and peppers while everyone enjoyed mounds of fresh fettuccine.

Mmmm...cake!!!

However, the dinner did give me the chance to make my first experimental baked good since I had the opportunity to bring a dessert: apple cake with coconut maple whiskey glaze. I have SO been craving some cake ever since my birthday since I never got around to having a delicious piece of frosting-laden cake that day, and have had to pass up cake at several birthday parties since! We used to make a dairy-free version of the apple cake from scratch, but since we haven't found a good nut-free wheat flour replacement, I used the Betty Crocker gluten-free dairy-free (and tapioca-free!) cake mix as directed on the box (it's at most grocery stores in the cake mix aisle). I was so excited to have a little lick of batter off the beaters...but that was disappointing - it was not creamy and fluffy like wheat flour-based batter. :( Then I peeled and sliced 6 Mac apples, and mixed them with a TB of cinnamon and 5 TBs of coconut sugar. Then I greased a bundt pan, and put in a layer of apples, then cake mix, then apples, then cake mix. For the icing, I used this recipe, but also added a TB of whiskey (although this made like twice the icing I needed, which actually worked out since I plan to make another cake for our work Halloween party this week). As soon as the cake came out of the oven, I could not wait to taste a little chunk! And oh, did it taste good!!! It kind of fell apart coming out of the bundt pan, so after piecing it together and drizzling the glaze, I also dusted it with confectioner's sugar to make it look prettier and taste a little sweeter. I did quite a bit of picking that night...and then had a good sized piece at the party. However, part way through, I could have tossed the other half. And I didn't have any urges to pick at the leftover piece we brought home. It was tasty, but I guess I got my fill of the forbidden sweet. 

The next day, I found that I felt really guilty about indulging in all the carbs from the cake and a couple glasses of hard apple cider. Not so sure I was able to stay under 100 grams of carbs that day! So, I decided to try IFing (intermittent fasting) until lunch. I really wasn't hungry when I woke up, and made it through my CrossFit WOD fine. Then I ran all over doing errands, which kept me too busy to think about eating! However, my breaking point was when my son begged to go to McDonald's for lunch after his gymnastics class - I broke my fast with a few of his french fries. For shame. Hopefully all the fat keeps the carbs from spiking my insulin too much! When I got home, I snacked on some of my home made beef jerky when I felt a little hungry. Then we had a tasty meal of crock pot pulled pork (with some bbq sauce WITHOUT tapioca!) and sweet potato fries. And, voila - when I stepped on the scale this morning, I was down another pound. So, that's 5.5 pounds in the last 3 weeks. Still a very respectable pace! 

Becoming a food label slacker...

Definitely getting lax, and need to stop it.

The other night, I wanted something sweet before bed, so I decided to make a shake. But instead of using my leftover ClearVite, on a whim, I decided to try Brian's new Primal Fuel Vanilla Coconut shake instead. When Brian saw me drinking it, he was like, "What are you doing?! That's whey-based!" Duh. Totally just didn't even think about it, even though I knew it had whey when he bought it. So I went to bed in fear of impending bloated pain or worse...but nothing happened. So, I looked on my array test again, and noticed that I was only "equivocal" on whey, meaning I was just barely inside the "normal" range. So, apparently, my body wasn't that unhappy about the whey, which is good...but what was I thinking?!

Yesterday, I bought some BBQ sauce to go with some leftover pork tenderloin for lunch. I thought I was being so good getting an organic one that didn't have high fructose corn syrup as its first ingredient. So, I enjoyed my bbq pork, and then, later, Bri asked if I ate any BBQ sauce, to which I replied, "Yeah, why?" Then he informed me that it contained tapioca (apparently I didn't read far enough down in the ingredients). COME ON!! Why the hell is there tapioca in the bbq sauce?!! I did have one strong twinge of abdominal distress later in the day - was it a reaction to the tapioca? Who knows.

I've also indulged in some corn, bananas, and other higher glycemic foods lately that I really shouldn't be if I want to be strict Paleo and really focus on keeping my carbs low (did I mention the gf df chocolate bar I found at Whole Foods?). And, I was VERY sad to hop on the scale and see it pop back out of ONEderland instead of it going the other way. So, I decided to buckle down and lay off those less desirable foods all day, and was doing well until dinner... I prepped some sweet potato fries, forgetting that Brian wanted to experiment with fried plantains. So, I ended up having a fairly high carb dinner between them both. Although I was still probably under 100 for the day. Ugh.

So, although I am definitely enjoying my freedom from the crazy RepairVite and ClearVite restrictions, I really do need to rein it in, and try to stick to the lower end of the carbs. Especially with the upcoming holiday indiscretions awaiting me!
This is dinner from last night. It was so tasty that I wanted to mention it. Roasted pork with apples (the apples were cooked along with the pork), sauteed carrots, and zucchini fritters. Yum!

Our first CrossFit Festivus Games!

Brian and I did our first CrossFit competition. And we are hooked. I'm almost tempted to do a scaled ladies-only "No Baby, Leave The Stockings On" event in December, but not sure I'd have as much fun without watching Brian compete too. And probably better to get a little more practice under my belt. And I'm a little scared of some of the events. ;)

We arrived about 30 minutes before the games began, and wandered around doing some warm-ups among all the other athletes. Because Festivus is geared toward novices and intermediate CrossFitters, there were competitors of all shapes and sizes, which made us feel a lot more comfortable! There was a group of big girls whom I initially thought must be newbies like us, but when the games started and the mc asked if anyone had done Festivus before, they all raised their hands, so I had no doubt they were all very strong since they'd already been at it at least 6 months. And they were! In fact, one of the bigger girls was the winner. So much for looking the part of a toned athlete to have the power and endurance to win these things!

Powering through the
first 35# thruster

The first event was the thruster ladder, where a 10 barbells were laid out in 8x8 boxes in order of ascending weight, and you have 1 minute to lift the weight before moving onto the next one. For me, they started with 35 pounds and increased by 10#s. For Brian, they started at 65#. They had the female novices go first, alphabetically, so I was 8th - so glad I could watch a few other girls go first! There was one tiny girl who topped out at 65#, so I hoped I could at least get that far! I hadn't done a max 1 rep test for thrusters yet, so I really had no idea how far I could go. Turned out I was able to get through 85# no problem. But when I got to 95#, I had trouble. I tried 3 times: the first 2 times, I just couldn't get enough power coming out of the squat to get the barbell up over my head. The third time, I did finally get the barbell up, but I forgot to squat. Oops. So, no rep; I was out. I really thought I could do it, otherwise, I would have given up and jumped rope to earn some extra partial points for the remaining minute. As a novice, I just had to do single unders, but it was amazing to watch the intermediate girls do double unders - each girl had their own crazy form, and although some seemed really inefficient (and aggressive!), they still got the job done! I can't wait to be able to do that - my record right now is 3 double unders in a row! Of the 29 novice women, only 13 got past 85#, so I was in good company (however, 11 of them jumped rope to get a slightly higher score than I did). Only 1 girl got to the end of the ladder, lifting 125# - strong girl. Next year, I want to be that girl! I really felt that I could have lifted more if I just had more experience. I'd only done the full squatting version of a thruster maybe a dozen times - not nearly enough. But, hey, not bad considering. Brian kicked butt on the men's novice ladder - he made it through to 135# beating 2 other guys (including some good jump roping after giving up on the 145# thruster).

Brian enjoying his 
burpee box steps

A couple hours later, it was time for the second event, which was the one I really feared I wouldn't be able to finish in time: 21 calorie row, then 15 burpees with step-ups onto a 20" box after each burpee, then 9 cleans with a 65# barbell , then 15 more burpee step-ups, then another 21 calorie row - all within 7 minutes. And I did it in 6:57!!! Holy crap!!! By the last stretch of rowing, I just had to close my eyes and dig in hard, tuning out all the people who were cheering me on (which was really nice of perfect strangers to do!). And when I was done, my chest was on fire, and my arms were DEAD. And my chest stayed on fire for a good 10 minutes - haven't felt that way since the Jillian workout where I had to sprint up a 15 incline. Apparently the limit of 7 minutes didn't seem to actually matter, but I gave it everything I could to make it in under 7 mins since I didn't know that! I actually had a better time than 12 other girls - if the 7 minute limit was actually enforced, it would have increased my ranking quite a bit since there were 9 people ahead of me in the final rankings with times over 7 minutes. Oh well. I was just very proud that I was able to blast through all the burpees without having to rest in between - that is a huge improvement from when I did the FitAthlon in June! I guess watching some burpee efficiency videos on YouTube did help, even though I kept meaning to practice more! Brian had to step up onto a 24" box and lift 95#, but he still finished in 6:42 beating one other guy. Sucks to be a guy! ;)

Finishing up my deadlifts

I felt confident that I could finish the third (and final) event since I'd already done a successful run-though at the Y in under 9 minutes: 15 deadlifts at 95#, run 800 meters, then another 15 deadlifts - all with a 10 minute limit. I got a little slower start on the deadlifts than the other girls in my heat (it wasn't that it was too heavy, I just should have gone faster!), so I was the last to start the 800m run. And, I was the last to finish, by far. I felt a little dumb when everyone was cheering for me to keep at it while on the final stretch. And when I did my last 15 deadlifts, I was the only one still lifting, so the entire crowd counted out my reps for me. Again, felt kind of silly, but that was a lot of positive encouragement coming my way! I banged through them and finished in 6:11, WAY faster than my trial run at the Y. So, despite being the slowest runner, I was still going a lot faster than the 5.5-6mph pace I usually keep while jogging. When I finished, the MC, who happened to be one of the trainers at my CrossFit, gave me a fist pump and announced to everyone "And how long have you been doing CrossFit?" To which I replied "Almost 4 weeks!" and I got a huge round of applause for being such a newbie and still doing pretty well, which was cool - I felt a little better finishing last after he explained why to everyone! ;) However, had I been in the one of the next heats, I would have felt even better - my time was better than 4 other girls (one by more than 2 minutes) so I wouldn't have finished last. Oh well. Brian had to lift 135# which got pretty heavy toward the end, especially after he ran pretty quickly - he finished in 5:19, beating one other guy.

Prik King beef stir fry

Magenta!

Once we finished our final event, we treated ourselves to some of the on-site vendor's BBQ brisket, pulled pork, and sweet potatoes while we watched the other competitors finish up. Bri also indulged in some bacon-wrapped meatballs that I skipped since they contained breadcrumbs (boo). Then, poor planning on my part - I bought tix to go to a Rocky Horror Picture Show play that night, so once we got home, we ordered some quick Thai take-out (tasty Prik King beef stir fried with red curry paste, string beans, bell peppers, kaffir leaves - never had it before...even treated myself to a little white rice), got dressed in my best Magenta costume complete with big hair & make-up, and went off to the show. I had a couple well earned drinks there, splurging on tonic with my gin - yum! I finally got to bed around 1am and slept 6 hours or so (and subsequently took a nap with my son later that afternoon). In the morning, my shoulders were pretty stiff, but that was it, really. Although I did develop a bruise on my collarbone from all the barbells I hefted into rack position there so many times. Nothing compared to the bruises that Brian had on his collarbones though! He was a mess! And he was a bit sore in the lower back too from lifting such heavier weights.

So, in the end, I finished 26th of the 29 novice girls, and Brian finished 7th out of the 8 novice guys (see the scores). We really didn't go into it with any expectations, other than the hope to just be able to finish each event. We not only finished each event, but we didn't get injured, and we didn't come in last - that's really all we could ask for! We are really looking forward to the next Festivus 6 months from now, and are hoping to kill the novice division after CrossFitting that long and gaining tons of strength and endurance!

Last CrossFit WOD before Festivus!

Busy day today. Should have planned some meals better. 

Got to telecommute, so I was able to catch the noon WOD before getting my kids from their short day of school after putting in my 4 hours of work. Brian did the WOD before work, and said it was a doozy. Last night, I told him I was kind of (reluctantly) hoping for burpees since I really should practice them before Festivus. He said I was in luck! Ugh/yay! The MetCon was a circuit of 10 pull-ups, 10 walking lunges, and then 10 burpees, and then repeat the circuit doing only 9 reps of each, then 8 reps, etc, down to 1. Man, was I beat. I was a class of 1 again today, so I got more personal encouragement from the coach (especially when taking a quick breather)! I was pleased that I was able to do it all without having to rest TOO long between circuits, and I did all the pull-ups using only a green and blue band (ditched the third band I'd been using). That, and I didn't just stay lying on the ground in defeat at the bottom of a burpee ,which did cross my mind. The prescribed weight to hold overhead while doing walking lunges was 25#, but the coach only had me do 15#. Although, in retrospect, I think I could have handled the 25# since my legs really weren't that tired. But I was sucking wind by the end of that WOD! Before doing the MetCon, the coach started teaching me about learning kipping pull-ups. First, I was just pleased that I could hang from the rack for 30 seconds (although I did feel quite a pull through my left forearm after a while). I have a lot of work to do before I can even kip, but I'll keep at it! 

I was feeling pretty beat after 3 WODs in 3 days. Now I get Thursday and Friday off to rest up for Festivus on Saturday, although I might hop on my elliptical each morning for a low-intensity session while I watch the Biggest Loser premier on my DVR. Felt like I was running around a lot today though, adding to my fatigue:

• walked my daughter to the bus stop
• up and down the stairs several times while doing 4 loads of laundry downstairs
• went to CrossFit
• picked up my son at daycare
• drove home
• walked to the bus stop with my son to collect my daughter
• brought my daughter (and son) to her gymnastics
• grabbed the kids dinner at McDonalds drivethru (I know, I know...just nuggets and apples though! And I resisted getting myself any fries!)
• brought my daughter (and son) to her soccer practice (Brian usually does soccer, but had to work really late)
• brought the kids to see their grampa to wish him happy birthday
• drove home at 7:30, just in time to give the kids baths before bed

Yeah, now that I write it all out, I can see why I nodded off for an afternoon snooze!!! Ended up just making a shake for a late lunch before running out the door to gymnastics (I would have had time to make a salad or something if I hadn't dozed off with my son while putting him down for a nap...I guess that WOD took a lot out of me!). The plan for dinner was to make some spaghetti squash with meat/veggie sauce, but that didn't happen since Brian worked late and I was out running around all day. So, I ended up scrounging around in the freezer for some food at 8pm. So many dairy/gluten things in there! Have to do some cleaning! Finally found some old taco meat, and decided to treat myself to 2 hard corn tortilla shells too. I won't lie - I missed our old way of serving them with melted Velveeta and Mexican cheese blend on top. But they were still tasty with just salsa. I actually put my food into MyFitnessPal today out of curiosity, and it was a little higher in carbs than I'd like (want to stay under 100) and definitely shy on protein. Totally not concerned about the fat though! Still amazed that I'm not hungry when consistently eating less than 1400 calories/day - I was always starving when I was anywhere below 2000 back when half of the calories came from refined foods including gluten, sugar, and dairy!

Cals 1,269

Carbs 118

protein 72

fat 51

fiber 22

sodium 1,193

Food: 

• Breakfast: 
• homemade turkey sausage
• mandarin orange
• Lunch:
• ClearVite shake with rice milk, coconut milk, coconut sugar, and cocoa powder
• Dinner:  
• 2 Ortega taco shells with taco meat and salsa
• baby carrots
• Snacks:
• banana
• a few grapes

Exercise: 

• CrossFit: longest 17:16 ever.

On my own: Provocation & CrossFitting

Well, it's been a few days since I finished ClearVite and haven't had any real program to adhere to, other than slowly reintroducing allergens. I'll be honest, I haven't been too good about following the provocation protocol of trying just one allergen 1 day, then going back to the RepairVite diet for the next 2 days while looking for adverse reactions. I reintroduced pork and nightshades (tomatoes and peppers) on Friday, and added in a hamburger and corn tortilla chips (in addition to more pork and nightshades) on Saturday. However, I wasn't overly concerned about them since I'd already reintroduced them when I went to Disney, and didn't feel any adverse reactions. I am also happy to report that provocation of alcohol during my annual girls' weekend away was also success according to the testing I did on Friday and Saturday. ;) However, I was still very careful to avoid dairy & gluten while away, which especially sucked while watching my friends fill their drunken bellies cheesy garlic bread and pizza at midnight Friday, and while making them delicious pork nachos on Saturday (especially cutting up the cheese - so easy to pop some creamy cheese in my mouth!). So, no issues this weekend (well other than what I expect from somewhat excessive alcohol consumption...).

While on our weekend away, I had a lot of fun shopping for clothes to fit my new, slimmer figure. I even bought a clingy dress to wear with tall boots! Never would have worn that before! I found 2 cute t-shirts at the Under Armour outlet. The "Fittest Chick" one caught my eye first since that's my goal here: Fittest by Forty! They were 2 for $25, so I thought the "Beware of fast women" one was another good "goal shirt" - after all, my trainer wants me running 8 minute miles next year, and I'd say I qualify as a "fast woman" by then! When I first saw the shirts, I was disappointed that they didn't come in size large, then had to laugh at myself after realizing that large people probably have no business wearing these messages! So, I tried on the mediums, and to my surprise and pleasure, they actually fit! But they'll fit even better the longer I'm on my journey when reward myself with wearing them in a few months. :) 

After getting back on Sunday, I resolved to get back on track, especially in light of my first competitive CrossFit event on Saturday! Instead of eating all the yummy leftover goodies, I froze the leftover df gf brownies for treats and set aside the leftover candy corn as rewards for my son's potty training efforts at day care. So, just being strictly Paleo right now - more like Whole30 than having the various restrictions of RepairVite and ClearVite. And I decided to get back to CrossFit on Monday since it had been 4 days since I worked out between my head cold and weekend away. Crunch time!

note my daughter's kitty drawing at the bottom

On Monday, I got another personal session at CrossFit since I was the only one who showed up for the 10am class. Which is good, because I brought the kids, and they would have been very distracting if anyone else was there. My son was good - he just sat in a corner with the Kindle and entertained himself, as I'd hoped. But my daughter, the monkey, was very excited about all the things to play with there. Her favorites were the rings, and one set just happened to be low enough that she could jump up and swing on them. The coach commented that she was pretty strong, and I told her the girl is obsessed with monkey bars! She also did some exercises along with me: Frankensteins, high skips, push-ups. The coach was kind enough to go over the squat thrust move again with me in preparation for Festivus - ended up gaving myself my first bruises/scrapes on calves and knees from whacking them with the bar. Guess I need some tall socks! Then we worked on the day's MetCon which was 5 rounds of 10 power cleans alternating with 10 push-ups to be completed in under 12 minutes. I only used 65# instead of the female prescribed 100#, and did the push-ups on my knees (my triceps were on fire!!), but I made it through in 9:43. Would have been longer if the coach wasn't on me about making my rest breaks really short! She was tough! But I was proud of my 9:43 finish (even if it was the easier level 1).

Today was strictly a weight lifting day at CrossFit. After a bunch of warm-ups (one of which was inching your feet up the wall into a handstand while trying to bring your hands closer and closer to the wall several times - ow!). We focused on finding the max overhead squat. It was my first time doing this move. Apparently, I was not squatting low enough since the coach finally rolled a medicine ball under my butt and told me to hit it each time. Wow, that was REALLY low. I felt like a bit of a wuss since I was the only chick today, and only worked up to 65# before the coach told me to drop back to 35# to focus on my squatting, while the other guys were using lots of weight. Oh well. Then I dropped to just 25# and did 5 squats every other minute for 12 minutes. It was so light that it really wasn't that hard, but I still had to focus on squatting so low each time. But apparently it was enough to make my shoulders sore just hours later. The coach advised me and Brian to take Thursday and Friday off in preparation for Festivus on Saturday. So I can't decide if I'll try to go on Wed night so I don't miss 3 workouts in a row, although I already WODed Mon & Tues...

Food (on Tuesday): 

• Breakfast: 
• homemade turkey sausage
• apple
• Lunch:
• leftover grilled chicken & green beans
• Dinner: My daughter asked to go to Red Robin. Left my tummy a little grumbly, but nothing serious... 
• Red Robin A-1 steak burger (no onion rings or cheese, lettuce wrapped)
• Red Robin fries (only ate half my side order - stuffed!)
• Snacks:
• deli turkey
• raspberries (Sam's Club had organic raspberries - who knew! They tasted even better in mojitos over the weekend though!!! )

Exercise: stopped tracking calories. I know I'm working hard!

• CrossFit Monday - lifting MetCon that had me sucking wind
• Crossfit Tuesday - strictly weight lifting

OneDerland!!!

That says it all!!! 

I made it!!! 

Woo hoo!!! 

It's been 13.5 years since I've been in OneDerland! 

Now, to make the necessary lifestyle changes to STAY there!

This day started out really crappy. The slightly sore, scratchy throat I woke up with on Wednesday progressed into a full blown head cold over night. I should have expected it from all the sneezing I did all day. I was only able to sleep until 11pm, and after trying to go back to sleep for 2 hours, my head was pounding so much that I finally gave up and looked through the medicine closet for some pills. It's probably been a year since I've taken any kind of OTC - I prefer to have my body do its thing. But I was dying last night. So, I popped a Mucinex, and I have to say, it worked wonders once it kicked in. My head is no longer pounding, but my throat still hurts and my voice is nearly gone. I ended up staying up all night, got the kids and Brian out the door, called out of work, and then tried going back to bed. However, I only slept 2 hours - that's not enough!!! I hope I really pass out tonight.

Being sick did give me the opportunity to finally try the Kombucha Green Tea that I bought 2 months ago. It seemed to be all the rage with Paleo people, so I got some even though I'm not really a tea drinker, so I never got around to trying it. But it's pretty tasty with a little honey.

I intended to enjoy a tasty Chipotle's carnitas salad with my lunch buddies today to celebrate the beginning of provocation. But, instead, I had some of the pulled pork that Brian made in the slow cooker a couple days ago, with a little BBQ sauce. YUM!

Holy crap, I nearly had a heart attack when I got the mail today. There was an invoice from Genova Diagnostics for the fecal test I had done in August, stating I owed $790!!! I freaked!!! I immediately sent an email to my doctor asking what was going on since he assured me the test would only cost me $79 and my insurance would pick up the rest of the bill. Well, my insurance paid $279 and got an adjustment of $128, and then Genova sent me a bill for the remaining $790! I called Genova, and after waiting on hold forever, I finally spoke to someone who stated that they will send me one more invoice, but then they will not make any attempt to collect the amount due. So I asked "Are you saying that I don't have to pay it?" to which she responded, "I can't say that, however, I can tell you that you'll never hear from us again." So, it appears I'm off the hook for the remaining $790. After I got off the phone, I found that my doctor had already responded to my email, stating that I shouldn't be responsible for any additional fees, and then he even had his office admin call to go over what happened since she said clients have never reported that happening before. Maybe Genova gets lucky and some people with deep wallets just pay it?!! Kind of shady... I hope the doctor's office starts warning clients about this billing process if this is Genova's new process!!! OMG. Heart palpitations. Glad I'm not taking that adrenal test today! I'd be off the charts! 

I toyed with the idea of hitting the 4pm CrossFit class, but for the first time, I did what I promised myself I would not do: made a go/no go decision based on the WOD listed on the site. Today's WOD is 3 rounds of toes to knees, burpees, and 400 meter runs. I am just not up for that. Although I'm bummed that I'm missing out on finding my max push jerk - I would have liked to known that for the Festivus Games. I hope I feel better in the morning so I can get a WOD in before leaving for my trip.

Bottom line - I need to be healthy for my ladies' weekend! This could not be worse timing!!! 

Food: not a banner nutrition day due to my head cold... 

• Breakfast: 
• skipped it
• Lunch:
• small pile of pulled pork with BBQ
• Dinner:
• slightly larger pile of pulled pork with BBQ
• frozen sugar snap peas (so sweet!)
• Snacks:
• 4 cups of  Kombucha Green Tea
• licked the spatula from the gluten/dairy/tapioca-free brownies I made of ladies' weekend. YUM!

Exercise: Sick day :(

Day 15 of ClearVite Protocol - THE END!

The end has come! No more mandatory smoothies after today! I made it!

I intended to get up and hop on the elliptical for some low-intensity cardio this morning, but I slept like crap last night thanks to a developing head cold. Stupid changing seasons. So, I ended up shutting off the alarm and finally getting a few more winks in before having to get up for work.

This morning, while packing my lunch that I had already prepped on Monday, a strange thing happened. While looking for something in the fridge, I spied a container of leftover green beans from Sunday night, and was EXCITED that I could add them to my lunch, along with some sugar snap peas! Wow, who knew this girl would be excited about eating extra veggies?!!

Although I'm officially done with the ClearVite program, I still have some shake left over, so I'll probably have a shake as a meal replacement every now and then. By the end, I actually came to enjoy them (just not when I forced to have 3 a day without any meat!). I found the ClearVite program to be harder to stick to than the RepairVite program. I just REALLY missed beef the entire time, and REALLY, REALLY hated going vegetarian for the detox week. It was probably especially harder since I wasn't incorporating any grains because I didn't want to add even MORE carbs. It really limited my options for meals, to the point where all I felt like eating was the shakes themselves, and maybe some fruit for a snack. I just couldn't get into eating servings of veggies without any meat.

However, despite the extra carbs and lack of protein all week, I finally dropped the couple pounds that had been fluctuating (although I feel like I'm a little flabbier). Today, the scale read an even 200. I got very excited when it flashed 199.5! But it wouldn't stick. But I think I'll be there by Friday (especially since I felt like I was peeing like crazy today - I wonder if it was those Beanitos chips not agreeing with me and causing some inflammation since they certainly made me really gassy)! I triumphantly declared to Brian "This is the last time I'll ever see 200 on the scale!" To which he replied, "I think you underestimate the power of ladies' weekend." Hmm, he may have a point. I'll have to fight the urge to check the scale for a good week until my body recovers from alcohol provocation. ;) But I do fully intend to continue avoiding my allergens - I've come too far to go back now! Need to figure out some food to bring... So that brings me to 21.5 pounds in just shy of a month. Not too shabby. I went shopping for some new work tops and a cute top for ladies' weekend since I am definitely getting into a clothing crisis - everything is too big! It's so nice to fit into mere size larges now. Sometimes mediums! I'm in size 14 pants now - I wonder if I will get into a 10. I've never been that small before. I got a cute leather jacket with sleeves that I'm sure would have been too tight previously - my arms almost look thin in it! And when I wandered into the plus size area for a moment, I thought, what am I doing here?! I don't need to be here!!! That makes me happy. 

Food:

My last mandatory smoothie!

• Breakfast: 
• ClearVite shake with rice milk, some coconut milk, bananas, and strawberries
• 2 links of Applegate Farms sausage
• Lunch:
• Whole Foods roast turkey with leftover cauliflower/turnip mash and herb gravy, some sugar snap peas, and green beans with onions
• Dinner:
• leftover crock pot balsamic chicken and onions
• Snacks:
• banana
• deli turkey
• a turkey sausage before bed

Exercise: Rest day

Day 14 of ClearVite Protocol; 8th CrossFit Workout

Only one more day of ClearVite to go! The doc initially wanted me to do the 3-week program, but since I'm going away this weekend, I wouldn't have made the full 3 weeks. So, he said to do the 2-week program instead. So, I'm being an overachiever and sticking it out for one more day. Initially, I was planning to do the detox phase for a couple extra days, but that got real old - not sure I could have hacked it for the length of the 3-week program. And I really wanted some of that roast chicken on Sunday. Looking forward to getting my carbs/protein/fat ratio back in order - I've definitely been eating a lot more carbs on the ClearVite program with all the fruit in the shakes, and that whole not meat allowed thing! Need to get those carbs back under 100 grams. 

It was great to be back at CrossFit this morning after having to take 3 days off during their Beast of the East competition. Had a great WOD today. I really amazed myself by doing 2 sets of 30 box jumps without falling on my face! Mind over matter! After the WOD, I hopped on a rower to see how long it would take me to get to 21 calories for the Sprint! Sprint! Sprint! round of the Festivus Games. It took me 1:20, so together with the burpees and cleans I tried on Sunday, that put me almost exactly at the time limit of 7 minutes. So, it may be possible - just really have to push through with no rest or break for water like I did on Sunday for maybe 10 seconds. I really need to keep practicing the burpees to get more efficient though. Speaking of the Festivus Games, Brian decided to go for it as well, so we're officially signed up!!! Woo hoo!!!

I also placed an order for a quarter grass-fed Black Angus after seeing a flyer from a local farm at the farmer's market. We're going to split it with another CrossFitter, so it will cost about $350/apiece. We'll each end up with "1.5 banana boxes" of various cuts of frozen meat and ground beef - not exactly sure how big a banana box is, but should satisfy our beef cravings for a while. We get to pick it up on 10/30. 

Food:

• 
  
• Breakfast: 
• ClearVite shake with rice milk, some coconut milk, bananas, and strawberries
• Lunch:
• Whole Foods roast turkey with leftover cauliflower/turnip mash and herb gravy, and some sugar snap peas
• Dinner:
• crockpot balsamic chicken with onions
• asparagus with onions
• Snacks:
• deli turkey
• grapes

Exercise: 60 mins; 700 cals

• CrossFit WOD for time; 15 min max - finished in 13:40!
• 10- Power Snatches at 35 lbs 
• 20- Pull Ups with green, blue, red bands 
• 30- Box Jumps at 20 inches 
• 40- Kettle Bell Swings at 15 lbs (? smallest bell) 
• 30- Box Jumps at 20 inches 
• 20- Pull Ups with green, blue, red bands 
• 10- Power Snatches at 35 lbs