exercise

I'm going to have to stop posting this crossfit du jour bull - poop. It is taking up far to much space and I imagine anyone who follows me is only a hair away from clicking the unfollow button because I'm always blowing up their feed.

With the said I'm going to - and I'm sure we've all heard or said this before - do one last one!

Thurs:
Normally my rest day, went to badminton with dad again and played at least 6 games. So fun and I'm going to have to look for a pick up league around my school.

Fri:
Drove in the worst weather of the year 2 hours to get to crossfit, was no dissapointed.

Warm Up:
X2
10 dislocates
10 pull ups
10 step ups on a box equal to or higher than your hip
30 single unders

Skill:
max push ups

WOD:
AMRAP
10 push press
10 KBS
10 box jumps

Results:
PP: 45 lbs
KBS: 12kg
box jump: 20 inches
Rounds: 9 + 5PP
Max Push Ups: 19

last night

My dad plays badminton. He was a champ in his day and trains champs. Ya I'm bragging a little and you can hold it against me but I'm proud of him. I'm at my parents house for weds-thurs-fri during my reading break ( those days chosen because they won't interfere with my crossfit sched. how depressing). Dad was going to badminton last night and I asked if I could join. We spent about two and a half hours there playing games (obv. there were also rests). I lost a lot of my junior high badminton skills but my newfound fitness made the whole thing a lot easier and I did get a couple of good shots in. It was really nice being able to move around the court for the entirety of a game without getting tired or giving up. It was really nice being able to clear it from the back end of my side to the back end of the opponents side. It was really nice hanging out with my dad and his friends (although we both agree, this one guy was a dick. He told me my school/degree/job are all worthless and I should switch to his sons everything. I can tell you right now the majority will tell you his sons shit is all worthless so.. nanananana). But yes, overall great night and it was something functional where I can compare my before and after and it was great

I realized I'm on this fitness journey not to look a certain way (although that is an added benefit). I want to be more effective. I want to be strong. I want to be able to physically do all of the things that people, especially men, have told me I can't do. I want to hear the naysayers, and then not only prove them wrong but do better than they themselves can.

why do you do this?

home sweet home

After a long and, frankly, wonderful vacation, I am finally back to my apartment. Hubby will be here with me until Sunday. Yesterday was pretty hectic, packing all of our clothes and Christmas presents, getting here, unpacking, cleaning out all of the old food, replacing it, cleaning up the house, etc. etc.

My parents are coming in their truck to deliver my beer fridge from residence as my apartment is very small and only came with a beer fridge, hot plate, toaster oven, etc. so I find I don't have enough place to store food. Hubby decided he'd be cooking for my parents and is trying out his new slow cooker and is making beef burritos and maple meatballs. I can't stop eating the meatballs, I've been sneaking them all day. They are AMAZING!

I finally got to try out my juicer. I'd wanted to since I opened it Christmas day but decided I'd wait until I was home. I got that cute little container at the dollar store. I cannot believe how amazing fresh juice tastes. I'm really lucky that I got this baby.

Eating has been okay. I've been tracking but since most everything that is homemade that I'm eating is not the healthiest of food, I'm afraid that the calorie suggestions on MyFitnessPal aren't all that accurate. At least I'm always trying to chose the highest one to play it safe.

Now that I'm back in my apartment there really are no excuses. I'm going to re-evaluate my new school schedule and workout when I'm going to be getting in my crossfit workouts + workouts at the gym + doing p90x videos at home. It seems crazy tight but in reality if I start getting my butt out of bed before, say, 1 in the afternoon I'll have hours of free time that I didn't have before. Looking forward to my Sunday night weigh in and setting good, solid goals for the week.

workout du jour

Interval training:

Warm up: 2 rounds of Sun Salutations - they feel GREAT.

10 rounds 2 min skipping 1 min rest

break

warm up: 4 min sparring

5 rounds 30 sec pushups 30 sec rest (15 full start, avg. 3 full rmdr.)

break

warm up: 4 min sparring

10 rounds 30 sec sit ups 30 sec rest (avg. 20 sit ups / round)

break

15 min sparring

Todays workout was so so cool. The gym closed early so we missed it and I thought there would be no exercise today. We're staying at my parents house for the holidays though, and I thought to myself wouldn't it be awesome to move the cars out of the garage and use that as our gym? (I live in Canada and I'm sorry - today it is way to cold to work out outside). Well I was right and it was cool. And it was nice because my parents came out to see how we were doing. It was an awesome place for sparring. My jab is getting some power behind it and I'm improving my hook too. So thankful hubby enjoys working with me on it because I find boxing so, so fun. He boxed when he was younger and has a lot of matches under his belt. We're starting to work on footwork too and by the end of it I was making HIM move around the garage!

Anyways, today was an all around great day!

I did pretty good for food choices (aside from 5 pieces of licorice, which I dutifully tracked!). We'll see how the rest of the night goes :)

Todays Pump Up Song:

it came on a couple of times throughout the day today and each time hubby and I stopped to silly dance, including vulgar hip thrusts, the robot and moonwalking. All around awesomeness :)

Hope all of the Spring Chicks had as much fun as I did today! xx

- Desperate Student

workout du jour

I thought I would share my outfit today as it was entirely Christmas presents. The pink shirt was from my parents, the yoga pants were from Dad to Mum but they were just a little too small. I get her workout clothes that are just a little to small until she can fit them again (she's doing the elliptical twice a day so I'm sure I'll lose custody soon). Okay, on to the workout!

1 hr Elliptical, 600 cal, 5.3 miles
Unfortunately this is all I got to do today. The hubby is still having major problems with his knee but refuses to use anything but the treadmill, and so was hurting too bad after an hour to keep on. I totally respect where he's coming from, I'm not really a fan of the elliptical, but I know my limits. My lower body is feeling the last few days and and hours worth of cardio i don't particularly enjoy is better than none.

This is my hand grippy thing. I really have no idea what it is actually called, nor what I should be calling the exercise that you do with it. All you do is squeeze it. You really feel it in the forearms. I need to do this because my pullups get slowed down by my weak hand grip. It was another Christmas present, from my lovely fiance. I'm going to make it my goal to do minimum a hundred squeezes per hand per day. Since I didn't do any form of weights today I'm going to aim for 300/hand. I'll let you know if I make it tomorrow ;)

Being New Years Eve and all I'm not expecting to eat clean tonight. Food is a tricky subject for me, I really don't like diets. I like to eat clean for the sake of training, but I also like to enjoy food. So that is what I'm going to do tonight. The hubby is making supper which will be great - he is an amazing cook. And dessert will be my weakness, chips and dip! Yum.

Song of the Day:

Dance (A$$) Remix with Nicki Minaj - Big Sean

It's pretty vulgar, consider that your warning! But for my ladies working on their backside, it could help get that last little bit of effort out of you that's been hiding just out of reach ;)

Happy New Years to everyone! xx

- Desperate Student

It's Ten O'Clock in the Morning..

My fiance and I decided that from this point on in our break we're going to go to the gym together each day. Yesterday I did a 5k (I know you could just scroll down and read that but it feels nice to say). He did some running, lifting and the jacobs ladder machine but then we ducked out early because his knee hurt.
About a month ago now he was playing flag football with his unit when he was hit (funny, I thought the point of flag was no contact? not how he tells it). It got worse for a week until he had to go to the doctor who gave him a chit to last until christmas holidays. It scares me that it's still bothering him despite how long its been, especially since I just found out my dad will probably need surgery in his knee after hurting it in a badminton competition about a month ago.
So the injury is the reason that I am letting Mat sleep in despite it being 1040 in the morning. Maybe some rest will make it feel better and then on top of that I can convince him to hit the elliptical or the stationary bike instead of the treadmill.
Another thought: I've seen a lot of runners call the treadmill the 'dreadmill'. Anyone know why? Just curious, I love the tread.

Since I have some time to kill waiting on my sugar bear I'm going to share my injury history.
Two summers ago I was doing my basic training with the army and I had to stop midway through because of severe pain in my feet. It took them a while to find the stress fractures and by the time they realized what was causing it they had spread to my shins, as well. Stress fractures are a bitch. There really is no treatment except to get off of them for.. oh one to ten months. You heard me right. I left basic to go back to school for the year and TEN MONTHS LATER I have healed up a LOT but still not 100%. So I've been off training for almost a year. On top of that the only way to prevent stress fractures is to do the exercise that causes them, slowly building up, as STRESS fractures are caused by EXCESS STRESS on the bones from jumping into training to fast. So when summer came around this year and it was time to go back to basic, I finished it this time but with.. you guessed it.. MAD STRESS FRACTURES! My last x-ray is in august and I took it easy for a month (I'd pushed through on SF for four months that summer, I really felt like taking a break). Then I got back to the grind. I have CAP next summer which I hear is much more demanding than basic. I will not make the same mistake I did last year, babying myself and then going into training in terrible shape.

PAIN IS WEAKNESS LEAVING THE BODY

Today when I'm on the 'dreadmill', I'll be picturing this, which is by far my favorite:

photo credit: reasonstobefit.tumblr.com/