222- Small Tweeks

If you've been paying attention for a few weeks now, you may have noticed that I've been making small tweeks to my life.  I am currently on a coffee hiatus- don't want to say I've given it up, but as of now, I'm not drinking it, and I don't miss it.  A few weeks ago I started trying to get one gallon of water in me a day.  About a week ago I mentioned that I was going to be changing up the way that I ate, and adding in supplements.


At the end of the month, I'll do a full wrap up of the program I've been following as far as when to eat, how much to eat, etc.  I don't want to jinx anything, but things are going really well.  I have good mental clarity, cravings are non-existent, and I'm losing weight.  Water it might be, but it still feels good to flush out my system with a full gallon of water a day.  


The bf deluxe is kind of annoyed by my new rules- leaner cuts of meat and less (practically no) salt.  But, I told him I feel good, and he's supportive.  Today during a text conversation, he was asking what the "rules" were for dinner, and I told him.  Then I texted "I'm going to be hot!"  To which he responded "I like you the way you are."  I thanked him, and said "there are more things I want to be able to do that I can't right now."  At the same time, our texts would have crossed in mid-air if that's how they worked, we said "yeah, like if I (you) slipped on a ledge and needed to pull myself (yourself) up."  This of course started a contest back and forth coming up with events in  which I would need to be able to perform a pull-up.  All of them were very realistic and pertinent to my life...like if I were to find myself hanging off a helicopter skid, or the side of a skyscraper.  


So yes, until I can be confident that I'm ready for any scenario a movie with Bruce Willis can throw at me, I'm going to keep tweeking the way I do things and reporting the outcomes here. 


In other news, tomorrow concludes Week #1 with Challenge Buddy!  I'll have a full wrap up of our first week coming soon.  

224- 100% vs. 90%

Not that you can see me, but today I'm wearing a pair of pants that I haven't worn in over 5 years.  Don't worry, they are khaki's- impossible to be out of style.  Especially for work.  


When I'm sticking to my plan of no sugar, no grains, etc., 100%, I feel great, I look better, and weight comes off easy.  When I get complacent and start allowing things to creep in (corn tortillas, etc.) and still remain about 90% good, I stall out and maintain.  It sucks that its such a fine line, but at least know where the line is!  


For your reading pleasure, how pasta not bacon makes you fat:
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1668916/pasta-not-bacon-makes-you-fat-but-how

225- Summer in February

Yesterday with clear skies and temperatures at or near 60 degrees, I couldn't help but take myself for a nice run around the neighborhood.  As I was making my way around, uphill mostly, I marveled at the fact that I can just 'head out the door and run.'  It wasn't a painful experience, but it wasn't as comfortable as when I'm used to running either.  It was just exercise, fresh air, and time to myself.


I remember when running was my sole means of exercise.  It would take weeks for me to build up to the feeling that I wasn't dying.  I felt I had to keep running nearly everyday, or I would lose that "stamina" or whatever it was.  Sometimes I would go a week or two without running, and it felt like I was back at square one all over again.  But, when I was running frequently, and actually out and able to enjoy it?  There was nothing better.


CrossFit gives me just enough of a base so that I can go out for an occasional run and not be dying, but I still don't quite feel the ease and specialization from running more frequently.  I miss that feeling.  So...there are a few things I'd like to start doing once the weather gets predictably nicer...not just this fluke weekend in February.  I'm going to start running to and from the gym- its about 1/2 mile each way, and I'm going to start running again on the weekends.  I would like to do a few 5K's this summer as well, hopefully getting under that 30 minute mark, which has been a goal of mine for a year now! 


    

226- Friday Faileo

I saw the item below somewhere on the interwebs, and it gave me the inspiration to do "Friday Faileo."  I know today is Saturday, but I thought of this yesterday, and I already had a post up.  So I'm going to try and post one of these each Friday- some item/food/activity/etc. that is completely against Paleo principles, hence- Faileo.  


This is an excellent place to start:



Two years ago, I'd be making this TONIGHT.  Two years ago, I was also 40 pounds heavier on a fast course to (if not already) Type II Diabetic.  

227- Green Tea

Big news here, I just discovered green tea.  As a good friend kindly said to me after I shared the news with her "welcome to 1999."  Totes.  I've been coffee free for over 3 weeks now, and surprisingly, after the first 5 days, it wasn't hard.  I never found myself mindlessly going to the coffee maker and filling up the coffee pot half way with water before remembering 'no coffee.'  I never found myself in the breakroom grabbing a paper cup and holding under the pump pot before remembering 'no coffee.'  I just sort of forgot about coffee altogether.  I don't know, its hard to explain, and weird because for as many years as I can remember back (15+), I've started EVERY morning with coffee.   

 

A few weeks ago, February Challenge Buddy recommended a green tea blend she liked.  BF deluxe kept trying to get me to try tea.  Finally, yesterday, I had it up to my eyeballs with my stupid half-cold (not full blown enough to miss work, but not less enough to be ignored, and 5 days already?!  Over it!) and I wandered into the breakroom and noticed green tea.  Work just happened to stock the green tea brand challenge buddy recommended, but not the type- she likes the mint green, and we only had plain green.  No worries, I found a bag of mint tea next to the green tea, and combined the two.  Crazy, I know.  I figured I wanted more flavor, so I let those guys sit in there for about a minute, and when it cooled down enough to not burn my lips off, I tried it.  The warm liquid was so soothing to my sick throat, and made my sinues feel better.  Before I knew it, the tea was gone.  It was also fantastic to drink something besides water.  Sold! 

 

I woke up today feeling so much better.  I doubt its the tea, and more of the half-cold finally running its course, but whatever.  I had more tea today, and it was delicious.  I can see this easily becoming a new obsession of mine, and isn't there something about green tea and weight loss?  Hmmm.  Slow to learn sometimes, slow to learn.

 

In other news, I felt well enough today to go to the gym, and I have no idea why after missing 4 days of CrossFit, it felt like my first day.  Always.  Must remember to not skip so many days.  They announced today a Superbowl Sunday WOD, and I'm all about that! 

228- February 1st (2nd?) Update

Last month was not my best month.  I did not catch the "new year" fever, and ended up with a month of maintaining.  Lesson learned.  Without further ado, here are the photos to prove I haven't turned into a bloated whale, I look pretty much exactly the same.


January 1:

February 1:

My goals for January were:

Focus on getting back to a clean paleo diet- too many things have been slowly creeping back in (dark chocolate, nuts, corn chips, etc.)

This didn't really happen.  Too many compromise items found their way into my day.

Drink 1 gallon of water/day

Yes!  Well, damn near close.  I'd say I averaged around 100oz a day, which is a vast improvement over the 40oz or so I was getting in before.

Weekend at home kettlebell workouts with the new toy

Yes!  Love the new toy.  I use it nearly daily, even if its just to do a few shoulder to overheads on each side.

Continue with Fish oil/vitamin D supplements

I did awesome on the vitamin D, but the fish oil thing I can't seem to make part of my routine.  I will continue to work on this, since getting Omega-3's is SOOOO necessary.  I did try to eat more of our pasture eggs, walnuts, and tuna (all good sources of Omega 3's).

I did have a few awesome PR's for the month of January, I hit a new deadlift PR of 235#, and I discovered my 30 rep max back squat PR is 125#.  Keep em coming!

As I mentioned yesterday, goals for this month are:

1) Firm up my diet - more veggies, portion control

2) Supplements!

3) continue on my coffee hiatus

4) 1 gallon of water per day

5) Shake this plateau


I'm still feeling the tail end of this cold, so I'm not feeling my best.  Hoping it moves along soon.  I miss the gym!  I checked in with challenge buddy earlier, and so far day 1 is a success for us both!  Oh, and if you thought I was kidding about her being funny, check out the comment she left on yesterday's post.   

  

229- Introducing February Challenge Buddy

I'm so ridiculously excited for February, I can hardly stand it.  First off, I have a challenge buddy!  I'll get to her introduction in a second.  Next, I mentioned the other day that I'm ready to break through this mental and physical plateau of mine with renewed structure, supplements, and of course, no grains, no sugar, no dairy, no alcohol, no coffee, and continuing to drink a gallon of water a day.  My post yesterday was really eye opening for me, and now I feel I know what I need to do.

My February challenge buddy is someone I've never met, but I've been a follower of her blog for at least 1.5 years.  I first found her blog through Jack Sh*t's blogroll, and after a few of her posts cracked me up, I was hooked.  Not to mention she is a fellow Pacific Northwester, and has such dry sense of humor, if you aren't paying attention, you just might miss the joke.  I'm so happy to have the Cilley Girl as my challenge buddy this month.  

We have laid out plans for the month out, and decided we would be taking before/after photos, and weighing ourselves.  Cilley's primary focus will be eliminating grains and processed sugars, as she's already done some Paleo experimenting and found out what foods do and don't work for her.  Dairy works for her, potatoes work for her, corn does not.  Diet coke will take the place of her 2 cups of coffee a day.  In summary, her goals for the month are:

1) record all food ingested

2) take fish oil supplement

3) incorporate more veggies and water into diet

My goals for the month are:

1) Firm up my diet - more veggies, portion control

2) Supplements!

3) continue on my coffee hiatus

4) 1 gallon of water per day

5) Shake this plateau

Tomorrow I'll post my January summary and pictures.