Wow, I can't believe it's already been 6 months since starting CrossFit. I am so proud of what I have accomplished in those 6 months.
I had a huge CrossFit success today, which was the perfect way to celebrate! My latest fixation has been getting my first toes-to-bar (T2B). In the past couple weeks, I'd progressed to getting my feet about a foot away from the bar, and seemed to be getting the hang of the kipping movement when doing knees-to-elbows (or somewhere close, anyway). But now I REALLY wanted one because T2B were included in the fourth CrossFit Opens WOD. After obsessively watching every video on the interweb for tips since the WOD announcement on Thursday, and getting some coaching during yesterday's WOD (and getting soooo close - mere inches away!), I walked into the box today hoping for just ONE T2B. After one more dose of advice from another coach (stand on a couple plates to give a little more leverage into the swing), and BAM! First T2B!!! And then a couple more during warm-up! AND THEN 23 DURING THE WOD! I'm so psyched!
Some of my accomplishments since starting CrossFit 6 months ago:
- Movements:
- Deadlift: never done other than straight leg --> 235# in Dec (probably more now)
- Squat Snatch: never done before --> 90#
- Power Clean & Jerk: never done before --> 135#
- Box Jump: never done before --> 28"
- Rope Climb: never done before --> 3 in a matter of minutes!
- Toes to Bar: never done before --> 23 in 10 minutes!
- Handstand Push-ups: never done before --> getting down a few inches for several reps
- Turkish Get-ups: never done before --> 35#
- Overhead Squat: never done before --> 85# in Oct (probably more now)
- Double Unders: never done before --> 21 strung together; 76 in 2 mins
- Strict Press: 45# --> 90#
- Pull-ups: using green & blue band in Sept --> got one with only blue band
- Mile Run: pretty slow... --> 8:48!
- Throw downs
- Placed just about last in my first throw down
- Placed solidly in the middle of the pack at my second on in Dec
- High hope for my third one next month, and in the Intermediate division instead of novice!
It's been quite a ride for the past 2.5 years. But I'm proud to report that I'm down 69 pounds in that time!!! And CrossFit has made all the difference in my body composition.
- On 12/7/10, after 3 months of recuperation from my repeat c-section for my son, I got back on the Jillian Michael's circuit training wagon. That day, I weighed 256 (down about 20 from the day I walked into the OR, well, including a baby).
- Over the next couple years, I fought hard to get my weight down to a low of 205, but it was a constant roller coaster. For my son's sake, I stuck to a dairy-free diet for the first 10 months postpartum, which helped, but then I gained some back when I added dairy back in (come on, 9 months without pizza and ice cream?!! Payback time!). This is the story of my life - always yo-yo-ing.
- On 5/19/13, I ran my first 5K. I got the 5K bug, and did a few more that summer, including a couple obstacle courses. But, despite all that running, the weight just would not come off.
- On 8/11/13, my 38th birthday, I was back up to 221.5 after a couple back-to-back vacations (and lots of ice cream). Typical.
- On 8/12/13, I started my first month of really a strict Whole30 Auto-immune Protocol. My body was SOOO happy to have gluten and dairy eliminated, and in that month alone, I dropped 14.5 pounds down to 207. Wow. Finally finding out about my food intolerances made ALL the difference.
- On 9/24/13, I started CrossFit at 204.5 pounds (I'm still amazed that I LOST WEIGHT during our Disney vacation the previous week).
- On 3/24/14, 6 months later, I've lost another 17.5 pounds, down to 187. Granted, the rate of loss has slowed down A LOT, but I've also been putting on some muscle at the same time, and I love that I'm getting stronger. Steady progress.
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| 3/25/13 - 3/14/14 |
I am definitely the fittest I've even been in my life, and on the path to keep getting better! For the first time in my life, I feel I am in control of my body, and can achieve the goals I set for myself, and not backslide like I've always done in the past. Paleo + CrossFit is my answer. Only ~20 pounds away from my goal! Fittest by 40 should be an easy road from here on out!!!
Well, that 30-day Challenge didn't go as well as hoped. I was going really strong for the first almost 12 days, until Valentine's Day came up, and I really wanted to have a nice date night with Brian. That delicious evening of chips & salsa and margaritas marked the beginning of my downfall, which was very disappointing since I was really on a roll - I'd hit a new low of 189.5, which was amazing! Then I bounced back up into the low 190s again...seem to be stuck there.
I was a little afraid to look at the scale after returning from a girls' weekend away at the Cape with some friends. A fair amount of booze and salty snack food was consumed. However, I didn't risk getting any fried wings at the bar we went to - I've learned my lesson on that. So maybe it wasn't not too bad...
My right knee is finally feeling 95% better after 4 weeks of PT. However, now my left side is all jacked up. I've got lateral pain on my left knee, and it seems to be affecting my left hip (feels like I've been jogging) and my left calf has been sore for 5 days now, so something is pulling there too. Hoping to visit my chiropractor friend this week to see if she can straighten me out. I also tweaked the lower left side of my back during some heavy deadlifts on 3/1, and that seems to be taking a little while to get back to 100% too. Why the hell am I such a mess?!!!
My knees felt pretty good on Fri 3/7, so I did some deep squats in the CrossFit Open WOD. You had 3 minutes to do 2 rounds of a couplet of 10 overhead squats (65# RX for women) followed by 10 chest to bar. And then repeat that every 3 minutes, but adding 2 reps to each part of the couplet. I still don't have chest to bar, so I was just hoping to get all 10 overhead squats, and I did (maybe it was because I was wearing my brand new Oly Lifters - oooooh!!!)! So I was pretty pleased about that since I've never done that many OHSs with that much weight. I tried for one unassisted CTB (got about 1/2 way), then I did some pull ups with a green band. I wish I'd used a red band too since I fizzled out on the pull ups with just the green - I only got 8 pull ups in the second round. So, I just hung around and cheered on everyone else who was doing the WOD, including my sister who got in a ton of rounds!
Had an appt with my functional practitioner on Thurs 3/6. Typical news - not much change in my thyroid. My cholesterol did increase a little after laying off the fish oil supplements a little, so he said to stay on that dose. The big news was with my bodyfat analysis though. I'M FINALLY ONLY OVERWEIGHT!!! My bodyfat % dropped to 29.1 - woo hoo! And my BMI is 28.65. Back in August, they were 38.5 and 33.3 respectively - big change!!! That's almost a 10% loss of bodyfat, which is awesome. I've lost about 13% of my bodyweight, so having 10% of that as fat is awesome - I know I've lost at least 5 pounds of water weight, so that means I've definitely gained some muscle since starting CrossFit.
I finally bit the bullet and invested in a good jump rope: RX rope with a heavier Buff weight rope. The heavier rope is supposed to help me get the timing of DUs more easily since I'll be able to feel the turnover of the rope better. Can't wait until it arrives so I can start practicing! The countdown to Festivus is on! I like this pretty coral color - hope it matches my Nanos. ;) It was a little pricey to get into this calibur of rope, but at least the replacement cables are only like $10. I'll probably get a slightly lighter weight rope once I've mastered my timing.
