Crossfit Tuesday, new goals and other random stuff

Goals and things

I've made some goals for myself this week, my first goal is to get back into my regular Crossfit routine, even if that involves 6:30am tram rides! Related to that, I'm going to try eating more carbs and see if that helps my motivation for everything.  I've been eating pretty low carb during the week for a while now and I started thinking that maybe that's why I have been completely sucking at workouts and have had no motivation to go.

I seem to remember doing my best at Crossfit when I was doing Leangains, which was a whole lot more carbs than I am eating now, so I am going to try for 80 - 100g carbs a day for a few weeks and see if that changes anything. It'll probably mostly be sweet potato, so I might get bored of it, but I'll see how it goes. I'm also going to really try and get 8hrs sleep, because that never happens and is a big factor in weight-loss (and also my ability to get up at 6:15am!).

So the gym owner randomly told me today that he wants me to stop using bands for chin-ups this year, so much for my goal of going down one band this year!! We shall see, I'll give it a shot and honestly I think it's more my hands holding me back than my muscles, I always drop because my hands are killing me, not my arms/back. I've read a few blogs on chin-up grip styles and I'm going to try changing my grip and see if that helps and if not then maybe try taping them. Don't think I really want to give into gloves just yet. Hopefully if all my goals for this week work and I can keep them up, then I'll be in beast-mode by the end of the year!!

This is totally going to be me by the end of the year!
(image from  here)

My other short-term goal is to find a bloody house, I didn't get the one I applied for last week either, not sure what is going on, maybe other people are offering more money than advertised or maybe landlords want the security of 2 incomes versus 1.. or maybe I have a bad reference from the place before this. I would hope not, but you never know, I'm not even sure the estate agent had any idea who was who in that house.

I'm tempted to leave that house off the application form but I'm sure they'd then question the 18 month gap in my rental history. House hunting sux when you work full time in the city and don't have a car, luckily there's been a few inspections after work that I can get to, but it would be much better if I could just take a day and drive around during the week looking at everything and get in before everyone else. Fingers crossed that something pans out this week.

My car got towed to the wrecker today :( Poor thing, she'd only done about 144,000kms, which is pretty low for a 19 year old car. I'm sad to lose her just because the front end was all squashed in, but I like to think that's it's like organ donation, all her parts will go into other cars to keep them going.  Now the long battle to save up for a new car, pity I don't quite have the budget for one of these!

Toyota 86
Image from here.

Now onto Crossfit, I've decided to keep posting my workouts to keep me accountable and see my progress.

Crossfit


WOD 1

7 x hang power-snatch (20kg)
15 x burpees
30 x kettlebell swings (16kg)

x 3

Finished in 16mins and 5 seconds and did my first set of kettlebell swings unbroken, WOO!

Strength

5 x 5 push-press, I worked up from 15kg, so it was 5 @ 15kg, 5 @ 20kg and then 5 x 5 @ 25kg (35 total).

I've lost a lot of strength, I had a look in my book and in Feb 2012 I was doing 5 x 5 at 20kg, so I haven't really progressed much, or more likely, I've regressed lately because I've been slack. Oh well, onwards and upwards!

2013 so far

I haven't posted in a really long time, like a lot of things, I just haven't had time or motivation to do it. So far 2013 has been off to a bit of a crazy, unsettled start.

I have worked out that as much as I'd like to think of myself as a free spirit, open to excitement and mystery, I'm really just a creature of habit who hates change.

It really began at the end of 2012 when I had a car accident just before Christmas and my car was completely fucked up, the accident wasn't my fault, a chick turned right without looking and I was going straight with a green light and had nowhere to go but into her car (we were both fine). It's taken until today to get it all sorted out, well, partially anyway, I know what is happening now at least but I still don't have the money from it being written off.

I had my brother's car for a week over Christmas/New Years while he was away, but since then I've been car-less, which is the first time ever since I first got a car when I was 19. It does make life a whole lot harder without a car. The hardest thing for me has been trying to get to the gym, I've had to go on the tram which really makes it that much harder to get my ass out of the house at 6:30 in the morning to get there, so I haven't been going regularly at all. I should really sort my bike out and ride there, although the prospect of doing that at 6:30 in the morning is also really unappealing! It's also hard to see Glenn at the moment too because it involves very long and boring tram rides, if I didn't get motion sick on trams then it'd be fine, I could read or use my phone, but just sitting there for over an hour feeling vaguely unwell is really tiresome.

One of the other things that's unsettled is work, my direct supervisor left before Christmas and they didn't manage to fill the position, I didn't apply because my manager (the one above my supervisor) pretty much hinted at me that there is no way I'd get it (we've had a tense relationship for a while), but then they didn't fill it, so now they've put me in the acting role and my manager seems to be encouraging me to apply for it when it's re-advertised, so not sure what happened there but she's completely changed her tune.

The problem is that the person previously doing it left in December, so there's been no handover, no process notes, no nothing! And on top of that, I'm still doing my old job as well. Luckily it's still quiet at the moment otherwise it would be a complete nightmare. Because it's a far more senior role with a lot more responsibility, I'm petrified of fucking it up and proving my manager right, so everyday is quite stressful just because of that. I think I'm doing okay, but I've realised that I have a deep-seated fear of failure that's hard to get past and has really held me back in everything. Confidence in myself is definitely something I need to work on.

The third thing that's unsettled is trying to find a flat, I've only been looking for a couple of weeks but I'm already over it. I am excited about getting my own place, but not excited about all the crap you have to go through to get there. It's also really really hard to go house hunting without a car, I've been limited to looking when my brother doesn't need his car, or going to places that have open for inspections after work and are near a train station. I've got an application in for one at the moment and I'm crossing my fingers that I get it, it's large for a 1 bedroom and in a good location, I just hope no one beat me to it or has better references than me.

I've kind of lost motivation for everything at the moment,  I'm not sure exactly what is going on but I guess I feel a bit depressed/stressed with all the uncertainty in my life right now. I like things to be stable and I like my routine and I just can't have that at the moment.I need to find my motivation again soon though, otherwise I'm going to turn into a slob, fast.

I need my Crossfit routine back, it was so ingrained before that I didn't really have to think about it, just got in the car and went, now it's a big hassle. My eating also hasn't been stellar, I think I'm still in holiday mode. I need to get back to where I was before Christmas, only eating 3 times a day, no snacks and minimal, if any fruit. I was feeling good then and I think I'd dropped some weight, now, not so much, I think I have an extra roll of fat developing over my ribs.

I have had two diet wins this week though, two nights I really really wanted takeaway, but I had some meat in the freezer and veggies in the fridge, so I ended up cooking really simple paleo meals,which turned out to be awesome and saved me money as well. It really shows that preparation is key, if I didn't have any meat in the freezer or random veggies in the fridge then it would have been pad thai or pizza for sure, but because I had the option to be healthy, I was able to take it. Weekends are always a struggle though, but hopefully I can get to a point where I can pick good choices even if we do get takeaway or eat out. I need to get Glenn on board more cuz I'm so easily tempted into being bad if someone else is!

So anyway, even though I am unmotivated and not making headway on anything, I do have some goals for 2013 which I'm going to put here so that I can check back and see how I'm going.


2013 goals

Personal

• Find a new flat
• See friends more
• Read more books
• Do uni work well ahead of time, stay organised
• Man the fuck up and get over being scared of everything
• In particular, stop being scared of failing and just do my best, at everything

Money

• Pay off credit cards
• Actually get some savings and an emergey fund
• Buy a car, or learn to live without one

Work

• Get more professional looking work clothes
• Look more professional (hair/makeup)
• Act more professionally
• Less fucking around on the internet
• Give this job a real shot and apply when it's advertised
• Find a new job if this one sucks

Exercise/diet

• Go to Crossfit at least 3 times a week, try for 4
• Eat Paleo 80% of time, for real and only break it for something totally worth it
• Make better choices when eating out/getting takeway, there are always better options!
• Sort out knee issues
• Climb that fucking rope
• Go down a band in chin-ups
• Stop thinking I can't do it and just fucking try my best

So basically, 2013 is the year of letting go of fear, trying my best and acting more like an adult. I'll keep you posted.