crossfit du jour

Warm Up:
X2
10 dislocates
10 OHS
10 pull ups
10 good mornings
10 dips
2 instep lunges
10 squats

Skill:
snatch drills

WOD:
Crossfit Open WOD 2

In 10 minutes:
30 Snatch (M 75 / F 45 lbs)
30 Snatch (M 135 / F 75 lbs)
30 Snatch (M 165 / F 100 lbs)
Max Rep Snatch (M 210 / F 120 lbs)

Results:
30 RX
21 55lb

I'm excited that I was able to RX the first. I used 45lbs last time I did Isabelle (30 snatches for time) and I actually knocked some time off of that, although I don't remember how much. I was under three min and my Isabelle was 3:19. I record my WODs because I'm supposed too but I never thought I would get so much joy out of beating a time. Def. inspiration to keep logging and logging well. You probably don't know this, but Thursdays are my rest day. If you did know this, you get the follower of the year award. Seriously. Tell me in the comments and I will make you a reward - but be warned my photoshop trial ran out and it'll be made with paint and I'll expect to see it in your next post if you claim it! LOL. Anyways, I wasn't going to go in today but a fellow crossfitter had in his status how he did and that he was going to re-try it tonight. Not a good idea but his hootspa (totally wrong spelling there) inspired me and I decided I had to give at least one crossfit open WOD a go. I'm really glad I did!

Here are some pics I've taken but been to lazy too upload:

The barbell I used for the 7 min, each min on the min 2 deadlifts and 7 burpees. This is 130lbs.

My collarbone bruise after one of our push press workouts.

I painted my nails today. I'm not good at this kind of thing so I think they turned out really well! 

One of my valentines day presents. Last time I got flowers I gushed about how beautiful the lilies in the bouquet were and hubby, being as sweet as he is, remembered and got my a bouquet of my favorite!

Pump Up Song: Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya - Dropkick Murphies

crossfit du jour

Warm Up:
10 dislocates
10 push ups
10 double unders
10 hip rotations
2 10 sec pigeon pose
10 side 2 side lunges
10 good mornings
10 double unders

Skill:
5-5-5-5-5
deadlift, for 50-80% of 5 rep max

WOD:
"Renegades of Squat"
for total number of reps, X3
1 min front squat
1 min rest
1 min back squat
1 min rest
1 min air squat
1 min rest

Results:
DL: 115
Reps: 189
weight: 65lbs (both front and back squats)

So everyone in the last workout last night was whining about how sore their upper bodies were and written on the board beside the title of this workout were the words "you asked for it!" I couldn't help but laugh. Muscles just on the inside of my hipbone are sore, muscles I didn't know I have, which is a good sign. Going down the stairs to my apartment my legs almost gave out, and after the workout while bending over to put my shoes on, they actually did. Long story short: awesome but deadly workout. I love that I get this kind of burn when in all actuality I was only working out for a total of 9 minutes. Also, I didn't take any pictures like I thought I would, but I did my warm up with my gas mask on. I need to get used to doing challenging things with it on for training this summer so I figure I'll start wearing it in the warm ups and then maybe work up to doing some other things with it on, maybe a run or skipping intervals or something.

I was all grumpy because I have class until 9 tonight when I looked at the course website and realized.. I don't actually have seminar tonight! It's next week! Hoorah! Dishes and homework it is! And maybe some birthday present shopping for hubby.

Hubby is turning the big two - seven on Saturday and I've been trying to figure out what to get him. He said he wanted (TMI) me to get something sexy but I think thats too cliche and is better off as a surprise anyways so I said no. Instead I'm going to surprise him with rock climbing lessons at a local indoor place. He's mentioned a few times that it looks cool and it's something he's wanted to try. I hope he's excited! I also want to find him a really fancy cupcake because he's been trying to eat clean as well but he was a cook for a long time and really appreciates a good dessert. So much to do, so little time!

forgive me blogger, for I have sinned

I was really iffy on wether or not I would even post this, but after some time to think it through I figured what the hell. It's my blog and hiding the truth isn't going to change it.

I have been eating 100% paleo / clean for a little over a month now. The gains have been astronomical and since late December I have lost 12lbs (142 - 130) while still gaining muscle. The changes in my body are insane. While exercise has a lot to do with it, clean eating has been the moving force behind everything.

With the obligatory positive intro in place, it is now time to get to the nitty gritty.
Lately I have been craving some of my old favorites like MAD. I felt like if I didn't figure something in, I was going to give up and go back to my old habits. My solution is one many of you will scoff at - a 3 day cheat.

I chose to space my cheat over such a long time period because there were a lot of foods that I'd been craving and I wanted to satisfy all my itches (I know, not really reasonable) and I wanted to make sure that I was doing it in the healthiest way possible as opposed to one uber binge-fest (I have issues with binge eating and hope it is something I never do again).

Friday:
Throughout the day, I had a granola bar, 5 junior mints and kraft dinner.

Saturday:
Throughout the day I had hawaiian pizza, a chocolate chip muffin and an ice cap.

Sunday:
Throughout the day I had bread and butter, a poutine, and a cream egg.

Although I don't track, I did this weekend and kept in my calories each day. I made sure that everything I ate that wasn't a specific cheat that I had allowed myself was extremely high quality.

I exercised Friday and Sunday, but needed to keep at least one weekend rest day.

My findings:
Things taste different now, not as good as I remember (although many still yummy) and not as satisfying. Especially with the ice cap I had a HUGE energy burst - often resulting in me behaving like a buffoon in public - and then a massive carby crash. After each thing I got a little nauseaus, and especially the pizza almost made me vomit.

I will report at the end of the week on wether this was a good idea that curbed my cravings or not, and wether it had a large negative effect on my weight and fitness.

Although the paleo challenge I'm in is still on, when it ends on March 5th I think I will introduce a cheat meal once per week so that I don't feel the need to do something as drastic and likely damaging as what I did this weekend was.

What Worked:
- spreading out the 'cheats' to avoid a binge
- consuming high quality foods for everything aside from the cheats
- exercising: I feel this helped offset the carb crash just a little bit

What Didn't Work:
- eating so much garbage in a short time has me feeling a little sick
- doing it while still being in the paleo competition, lol
- one of the main authors on the paleo diet says that you can see the benefits of paleo by eating 100% paleo 80% of the time. I think cutting out everything is a great plan, but being the weak-willed woman I am it is important to have more foresight than I had in this past month.

Another thing:
Hubby and I weren't supposed to see each other this weekend. He got back from the field late Friday and the weather was so bad I asked him not to come down. But then Saturday while on my way to the school library to do some work, I turned right instead of left. Then left instead of right. And soon I was on my way to his town. 4 hours later I was there with little more than a couple of school books. I have a key to his room so I hid in a corner and asked him to go to his room and see if he could find something I left there. Scared the poop out of him - was awesome. It was nice to do something spontaneous and see the look on his face when I got there. It made me feel so special to see how happy I could make him, and I made him feel special as well by surprising him by doing a four hour drive just so we could spend 24 hours together. Well worth it. I look forward to next weekend (he'll be turning the big 2-7!) and we'll be able to spend the whole thing together.

what do you think of the cheat weekend - good or bad? what would you change? is it possible to eat 100% clean 100% of the time?

I'm thinking I might get a new asshole with this one ;)

Spring Chick 6

Last weeks goal results: I did my crossfit, didn't do my vitamins, ate in front of the TV a couple of times, drank lots of water, did not run.

Last weeks mini challenge: was no caffeine and I'm proud to say that I made it. No coffee, no diet coke, not even any decaffeinated tea.

This Week:

Weight: 132    down 1.2lbs from last week

1. go to crossfit 5 times, do at least one cardio workout, one push up workout, one deadlift workout
2. take vitamins every single day
3. Spend more time at school doing work
4. Eat nothing but Paleo Feb 4. - Mar 4
5. incorporate at least one run into my workout

This weeks Mini Challenge: all water, all week. but ma, I just did this! my own fault for depriving myself tea. We'll see what happens!

Week 5 Review Probing Questions.

Best moment: Hoping on the scale at crossfit and seeing a 5lb loss

Not so great moment: Starting my period early + having to deal with it being an awful one.

Any funny stories: Guy at the gym called me sweetheart + I showed him up with my squats.

Are you where you hoped you would be in this journey: No.

Tell why or why not? I'd have liked to have seen a bit of a bigger loss this week. It's not anything thats upsetting my though because I know that I haven't set concrete enough goals.

Would you like a buddy for the last 6 weeks of the challenge: That would be super cool

Anybody wanna chat online sometime: I don't know how outside of comments, lol

This weeks workouts were:

1 strength training at the gym

5 crossfit workouts

I'm so happy with my unlimited pass to crossfit. I brought hubby to the class on Saturday, which is always more of a teamwork fun class. We were on opposite teams and it was a blast competing. Hopefully this and the paleo challenge are what it will take to bump me into the best shape of my life. I'd say my resting weight is like 140-145, and my lowest in my adult life is 128 after the week in the field at my basic training. I couldn't eat any of the food except the bread without getting sick, so at the weight I'd been literally starving, stressed, sleep deprived and overworked for 2 weeks with a weekend off. If I can get to that weight in a healthy way.. That'd be crazy. It's so close!

crossfit du jour(s)

Forgive me blogger for I have sinned, it has been four days since my last post.
I've been really busy, so reading but not commenting. I apologize, I know commenting is the most important part. The weekend is finally here so I'll be updating on my week, this is a long one so feel free to skip it!

Exercise:
Wednesday:
Warm up: 10 body rows, ring dips, ring push ups, wall squats, dislocates, tire flip + jump
Skill: Max effort sumo deadlift high pull: 5x5, 60lbs
WOD: for time
30 handstand push ups (modified on box)
40 pull ups (modified purple + red band)
50 kettlebell swings (12kg)
60 sit ups
70 burpees
Time: 21:03


Thursday:
Warm up: 10 dislocates, good mornings, overhead squats, walking lunges w/ dumbell shoulder press, pull ups X2
Skill: 1 rep max clean + jerk, 75lbs
WOD: for quality (not timed)
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Ring dips (modified w/ purple band)
Toes to bar
Results: Not pretty


Friday:
Helen
3 rounds of
400m run
21 kettlebell swings (12kg)
12 pull ups (purple band)
Time: 20:36
Down 1.5 min from last time
Also, last time I rowed instead of running, which goes by a lot faster.

They say you can tell a crossfit girl apart from others by her hot body, nasty hands. This isn't to say I think I have a hot body, but I DO have nasty hands from this week.

Eating:

Because I'm doing the paleo challenge at crossfit I've been eating clean this week.

First is haddock + steamed carrots/broccoli/cauliflower. Second is turkey bacon, green stuff + egg fried inside a bell pepper (so good!), last is plain old chicken stir fry. I don't have any recipes, it's basically just meat, veggies and herbs / spices I like. Loved them all. 

Personal Life:

For valentines day, I went out yesterday and bought hubby some really nice boxing gloves. I wanted to write on them but decided to hold out in case for whatever reason he decided to buy himself a pair between now and valentines day. BUT, then he said that since we can't be together on valentines day anyways lets just celebrate this weekend. So I wrote xoxo on the left and I love you on the right, under the curl of the fingers so no one would know it was there except for us. Romantic, right? When I was done I asked him how the gym had been (he'd gone to the gym) and he answered 'Great! I got myself a pair of boxing gloves this morning so I used the heavy bag! I'm so mad!!! I always ask him to tell me when he buys things and he never does.. So now I'm stuck with a really expensive pair of gloves that he doesn't even need.. And I went balls to the wall wrapping them too, yes that is a tissue paper flower..

since I was pretty mad about the money I wasted, I bought myself a sweater at crossfit today. I really wanted it, and I'm going to ask hubby to give me the money for it since I wasted money on gloves for him where a simple text could have prevented it. Hopefully then he'll learn to f*cking communicate with me. It's his money and I don't want to tell him WHAT to do with it, but for example, he bought an xbox from a friend a couple of weeks ago and only told me on Sunday. What if I had bought him an xbox? Or what if we had needed that money for something important? I mean it's only been a couple months since I had to spend my entire savings on new brakes for the car.. Anyways, thats my rant.

Even though I ended on a bad note, overall it's been a great week. Hope it's the same for everyone else! xx

workout du jour

Crossfit
10 reps light weight
5 reps medium weight
3 reps heavier
2 reps heavier
3 sets of 1 rep max

for
back squat, press and dead lift.

Max:
Back squat: 95
Press: 55
Dead lift: 175

I know I know I'm an IDIOT. I've been whining about hurting my back w/ deadlifts and there I go and do them in a W.O.D. for my one rep max - even worse. To be honest it was the back squats that hurt my back, thats why the weight is so low. We modified so that on the continuous reps of my DL I was dropping the weight and picking it back up at the bottom as the lowering was putting more strain on my back than I liked. To be honest the deadlifts weren't that bad and I made a huge effort to keep my form and had my trainer spot me.

Thats two things I can strike off of my goals for the year:
Raise deadlift one rep max
Join boxing

I signed hubby and I up for the Saturday crossfit class so we will be going together for the first time. I'm really excited! :)

Sitting Back after a Really Long Day

Todays Itinerary:

0700: wake up
0900: History of the Middle East
1100: Film + History
1400: Stuffing food in self
1500: History of the Middle East
1600: Run home and change
1700: Film + History
1800: Meeting with bosses
1930: Meeting ends early, HURRAY!
2000: Boxing
2141: Home sweet home

Awesome day all around although a little exhausting. I ate clean except for two mini quiche just now. You know how it is - us bingers binge at night. Not that I really had time earlier. The meeting went well - except I found out I'll be playing army this summer instead of doing second language training, which is what I had been hoping for. Hubby and I decided he'll call to wake me up every morning, since the only thing that can actually get me out of bed is his ringtone, knowing that my "are you up? good morning. i love you." is coming. Boxing was a blast, I went with the girl I met last night and we're going again tomorrow. I also have crossfit at 0930 tomorrow. I'm going to take some time to read and comment on some of the Spring Chick blogs out there, but I have a LOT of housework to do ( I ripped my apartment apart somehow in my rush to get ready for my impromptu boxing sesh last night) and then some research for two stupid assignments for stupid classes coming up at the end of the month. Bah humbug on that part.

Also, the tags: Even though it was probably random I'm actually really flattered I got tagged... TWICE! But each time I try and sit down to do it I keep going to bad places in the answer - which is weird - but I decided that as much as this is (mostly) anonymous and a safe space, I want to keep the karma pretty clean for now. Maybe I'll share my unhappy place someday. But for now, I'm sorry to the two that tagged me, but know you made my day :)

The Immigrant Song from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

This makes me feel almost as BA as Lisabeth, which makes me want to kick ass. I love the beat and I love that its a woman singing! Also, I think the part where she yells kind of sounds like a war cry which is awesome.

SCC Check In #2

Last weeks goals:

1. record EVERYTHING I eat via myfitnesspal app. be honest.
2. run this weeks 5k harder than last weeks (replace 4.5 with 5 and 5.5 with 5.8)
3. 2x weight workouts, core and upper body. done

Last weeks starting weight: 137 lbs.

This Weeks Goals:

1. go to crossfit three times, work out at the gym at least twice.
2. Take my vitamins (multi, fish oil, C + calcium) every single day.
3. Don't eat a single meal in front of the TV
4. Track my meals at least during the weekdays
5. Pamper myself. Dress nicely for class + moisturize all over at least once a day. Paint toes.
6. Drink 8 cups of water a day minimum

This Weeks Starting Weight: 138

Last week was a bit of a mix. First, I weighed myself on my moms scale for the original weight which has always been a couple of pounds more forgiving than my own, so I'd consider this week a 'weight maintained'. I tracked most of my food, but because I was often coming back the next day to update it I know there are things that I forgot to include. I did not run another 5k this week so thats a failure all around.

To achieve this weeks goals I will:

- sign up for xfit classes in advance + have hubby call me to wake me up on those days (my new school schedule means that I will have to xfit in the mornings instead of after supper)

- lay out my vitamins in my daily pill container and leave it on my desk/table where I intend to eat my meals.

Those pills are all as huge as they look.

- Eat at my desk/table

- Always carry my phone, plan my meals so that I can track before hand.

- Take a half hour each night that will be dedicated to myself, the things I want and need.

- Carry my 4 cup water bottle at home always and my two cup water bottle while out, always. Figure out a system to mark how much I've had without always having to break out the phone.

I think if Freud got anything right it was his concept of oral fixation. I am (was, have been, whatever) a smoker, and I carried that bottle everywhere drinking constantly. I eventually chewed the top off so there's no more water seal and I can't take it around with me anymore - its always spilling. Being the lucky girl I am, hubby surprised me with the pink one at Christmas. And I.. Well, I surprised him with a red one!

You know it was an accident 'cuz it's impossible to be this cheesy on purpose.

The goals have been made. Lets do it!

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.

walking down by the water front

Since it was only minus 2 today I thought it'd be nice to do something outside. Originally the plan was to hike up to the towns lookout point but it was closed because of the snow. Improvise! A nice half hour walk down by the water front. Although it was only minus two the wind by the water was still a little harsh.
Lots of fun though! And afterwards we went to Marks Work Wearhouse where hubby got himself a nice warm flannel and got me a nice (10$) shirt!

Me standing on the outdoor stage. I'm the little black dot.

Hubby sliding on a patch of ice.

A shot of the grass + water behind

Hubby and I. I was hoping to keep this blog anonymous but I really like this picture, so, shh ;)

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

spring chick: the beginning + two rants for the price of one.

It's here it's here it's finally here!

This weeks goals:

1. record EVERYTHING I eat via myfitnesspal app. be honest.
2. run this weeks 5k harder than last weeks (replace 4.5 with 5 and 5.5 with 5.8)
3. 2x weight workouts, core and upper body.

This weeks starting weight: 137 lbs.

Rant 1: I've decided to record everything I eat this week but I haven't set any restrictions caloriewise. Via the blog spinachleavesandsugarsnappeas.com/ I found the website My Body Gallery. Here you can input your height + weight and see other girls your size, or your ideal height + weight and see how you want to be. It was kind of an eye opener. I'm not overweight but I'm right on the brink. And telling myself over and over that no real girls my height can be skinny, not without starving, just isn't true. These girls just really never eat processed foods, chips, chocolate, whatever (or they have wicked metabolisms but that beats my point).

I carry my weight in my stomach, my family has huge risk for heart disease, heart attacks, other heart problems. My mom has had (but conquered) type 2 diabetes while I can think of three members of my extended family who have it or died from it. I NEED to get healthy now, while I'm so close, while I'm so young. The longer I put it off the harder it will be. 

I'm going to watch what I eat honestly and pick a diet according to what I need. If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them. Paleo is a great diet but it requires not only time and effort but knowledge and I'm afraid that realistically, at this time, it just isn't right for me.  I am going to search for the plan that is and make updates to my goals as needed.

Rant 2: My fiance and I are both military and are posted to bases 4 hours apart, and he doesn't have a vehicle. This means that throughout the year we get to see each other on weekends and occasionally one of us will get about a week off. When the holidays come, however, we get THREE STRAIGHT WEEKS together! It's amazing! The only other time we've have three weeks together was when he had mono haha. But it ends in 7 days. I don't like excuses because they've never helped me reach any goals. However, when I was searching myself to try and figure out why I was struggling to choose goals I could commit to this week it was this, that I didn't want to miss any time with hubby on his final week here. I'm sorry if my lack of dedication in this weeks goals is disappointing to anyone, I really am, but once again this is the right choice for me. :)

Now, off to go snuggle my man!

Recapping 2011

The Good:
April: GOT ENGAGED!
May: Successfully completed 2nd year of university
August: Graduated Basic Military Training
September: Started 3rd year University, made some new friends who love history as much as I do.
October: Turned 21, started crossfit!

The Bad:
May: Lost some friends. I list it here because there were good times, but for the most part cutting these people out of my life was a GREAT choice and I'm a better person for it.
August: Bad news about stress fractures
October: Fiance missed my birthday because his unit went to the field for a month. Hate long distance.
November: Got really bad strep throat the day of a ball that hubbys unit hosts. He HAD to go so I had to stay in the shacks, alone, with the beautiful 200$ dress that I haven't gotten to wear at all this year. Shown on the right, but mine was red.
December 1st: My dog Gracie died. She was over 14 years old, had been with my family over two thirds of my life. I'm still incredibly choked up over it so thats all I'm going to say here, until I'm ready.

The Night:
Hubby and I spent the night in flannel pajama sets, mine purple his blue, and housecoats. We watched Jaws on Spike, which I had never seen before and so I was yelling the whole time (GET OUT OF THERE!!!!!). For supper fiance made home style breaded haddock and steamed vegetables - amazing. I wish I had taken pictures. And although I was expecting a lot worse we only ate a half bag of chips with dip.
Perfect night spent with my perfect man, I couldn't be happier :)

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

One Resolution Acheived, and it's only NYE

One of my goals for this year was to pick up a hobby, probably knitting. I decided to start out making a small scarf for my hubby to wear out in the field (they can wear just about anything out there in the winter, as long as the color matches their uniform).

I stopped by wal mart on boxing day and picked up some camo wool and knitting needles and got to work.  Unfortunately my nana lives about 5 hours away so I didn't have her help. She's awesome at knit and crochet because her mom used to own a wool store. Instead I used this video off of youtube that I found very helpful. It shows how to cast on, knit, cast off. The basics.

There were some SERIOUS problems with my little project. First, I thought to be big enough a scarf needed about 50-100 knits. Turns out it only needs about 12 and so I wound up knitting the scarf width-wise instead of lengthwise. This and my general lack of knitting skills made the scarf really short and really curved. To combat the shortness I added a button on it, to fasten through one of my many dropped-stitch holes. This 'mistake' was actually a great thing, and my fiance -who doesn't normally wear scarves- likes this size of it so much that he wears it almost every day. My next knitting goal is to make him another (longer) scarf with one row knit, one row purl stitches. I want to master the purl stitch so that I can move on to other, non scarf projects! So far I haven't been to good with it and I had to unravel a good five inches of knitting haha.

UPDATE:

I took the first step and emailed the boxing club I was hoping to join in my town. Will soon found out if this is something I can afford and if the scheduling will fit with my classes! Can't wait.

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/