Whole30 Day 30 and Crossfit Session 36

Last day!

Tomorrow will be the wrap up post, complete with before and after weights, measurements and photos, and also some hideous photos of me when I weighed 107kg back in 2006, they are seriously gross, but they are a good comparison to now and it just shows you that you can lose a lot of weight, it just takes time and the motivation to change your lifestyle.

I found that it wasn't until I saw a seriously horrible photo of myself at a party (it was an actual real photo and I have no idea where it has gone otherwise I would have posted it) that I found the motivation to change my lifestyle and stop eating shit and start exercising.

I started off just walking for 30 mins a day and gradually increased that to 45mins to an hour and then bought an exercise bike and started using that as well (awesome cuz you can watch tv at the same time!). Overeating has always been my biggest issue though and it's something that I continue to struggle with and was part of the reason I started doing the Whole30.

I think the program has given me a bit more control over it and I hope I can continue it now that I'm not on the program. I do know now that there are some foods I should just really try and avoid (fresh bread is one of them) because if I have ready access to it, I just can't stop eating it.

I think anyone can clean up their eating and lose weight and get fit, you just have to hit that point where you are completely grossed out by yourself and realise enough is enough and become committed to changing your lifestyle. You have to start out with small goals and work your way up though, if you had shown me a video of Crossfit in 2006 and told me that I'd end up being able to that stuff, I would have laughed at you, hell, I would have laughed at you last year if you'd told me!

So if you are reading this and you're unhappy with your weight and think that it's all hopeless and you'll never be able to lose it, check out my pics from 2006 tomorrow, if I can do it, you can do it!

So anyway enough preaching and pep talks, back to the last day of the Whole30.

Food


Breakfast today was the same as yesterday, I brought a spare breakfast to work yesterday because I stayed at Glenn's after SOM last night and knew I wouldn't have time to make breakfast before work, so I had hard boiled eggs, tomato, spinach and avocado.

Lunch was the last of the red curry chicken and veg, snacks were a chicken drumstick, Czech meatballs and some carrot sticks.

Dinner was the last of the paleo spag bol and then some coconut milk for dessert. I also ate a couple more meatballs while I was waiting for dinner to re-heat because I was starving after Crossfit.

This is going to sound totally weird, but one of the things I love about Crossfit is the way it smells when you walk up the stairs, it smells exactly like this recreation centre my parents used to play squash at when I was a kid. I loved going there because we got to hang out in the kids play area and it was really fun, but it had this certain smell to it, which the gym also has, I dunno if it's the stuff the floor is made out of, or years of sweaty bodies, but that smell has a good association for me. Yes you can call me a freak!

Warm-up


10 x push-up (I only used 1 ab mat today and it was okay, I got 10 every time so maybe I should only use 1 in future.. except if we have to do sets of 20+!)

15 x hollow rocks - these hurt! I had to break them up into sets of 4 almost.

Repeat 3 times.

WOD


This was kind of a fun work out. We had to get in pairs and then as a pair row 5km, but the way it worked was that while one person was rowing, the other had to do 20 wall balls and 10 chin ups and once they'd finished those they would swap with their partner and keep rowing and this was repeated until you'd rowed the 5km.

I paired with one of the new girls as we are at similar levels, but then just before we started the trainer made all us girls swap around so we were paired with guys. I though that was okay cuz he'd be really quick with the wall balls and the chin ups and I wouldn't have to do much rowing, but I was so wrong! He was very slow with the wall balls and I spent most of my time rowing! He was using a 20 pound ball though (compared to my 6) and I guess it was good to get some rowing practice in, but I was buggered by the end of it!

Our time was 22mins something and I had to do 5 full rounds of wall balls and chin-ups and then I got through 1 more round of wall balls before we were done. So 120 wall balls and 50 chin-ups all up. My wall balls were good today, I didn't get yelled at to squat lower or anything, woo! I'm also using blue and orange bands for chin-ups now, which is cool.

Strength


For the remaining time we worked on deadlifts to 5 reps. We worked in pairs and the girl I was with was completely at the same level as me so that was good. We started off on 40kg and worked up to 55kg, we wanted to try some reps at 60kg but we ran out of time and all the people with 60kg bars were packing them up before we got to ask if we could try. Next time!

There was a new girl today who has been doing Crossfit up in the country and geez is she strong, she can deadlift 120kg! Crazy! Maybe one day that'll be me.

So this is what we did for deadlifts:

5 x 40kg
5 x 45kg
5 x 50kg
5 x 52.5kg
5 x 55kg

Because I took no food photos today, you can have a pictures of my arms, I am slightly obsessed with them.

Woo definition!

Whole30 day 29

2nd last day!  I'm not as excited as that exclamation mark would suggest, I like the rules, the rules are easy, sticking to something when you don't really have to is harder, but I'm hopeful that I will only eat all that other stuff if I really want to, and not just because it's there. Bacon is the exception, there will be bacon in the near future! I am also looking forward to being able to drink booze, but again, only if I really want to and not just because it's there. I am looking forward to weighing/measuring myself though to see exactly what my results were. There may even be before and after photos!

I had to get to work early today because I started Uni again and so I have to make up time for going to lectures, so my breakfast consisted of hard-boiled eggs, avocado, spinach and tomato, eaten at my desk.

Lunch was chicken and vegetable red curry and snacks were Czech meatballs, a chicken drumstick, carrot sticks and a can of salmon.

Glenn and I went to Sisters of Mercy so we had take-away for dinner, I got "Mexican chicken", which was only Mexican insofar as it had capsicum with it I think! Italian chicken would have been a better name for it. It was delicious though and came with steamed veggies. It had some cheese on top of it, but I just scraped it off, so it was probably mostly compliant.

Sisters of Mercy was alright, although realistically I could have just put a cd on at home and got a similar experience and I wouldn't have had to pay $50. I couldn't see anything cuz I am a short ass and tall people always end up in front of me and it was super smoky anyway and they didn't interact with the crowd much at all. Cool to see so many familiar faces around though, even if I didn't manage to talk to many people.

Whole30 day 28 and Crossfit session 35

Today was my first day without nuts and fruit and it went well. I didn't really miss either, except for after dinner when I wanted something sweet. I ended up eating half a can (if I'm honest it was more like 3/4 of the can) of coconut milk and then felt sick, I should have just cleaned my teeth or something instead, which is what I did after lunch instead of eating fruit.

Breakfast - Eggs, avocado, tomato, spinach and coffee. No parma ham :( The avocados I bought weren't ripe yet, so I had some frozen avocado instead, which is just weird tasting.

Lunch - Chicken and vegetable Thai red curry.

Dinner - Paleo spag bol and then some coconut milk.

Snacks - A chicken drumstick, some czech meatballs and some carrot sticks.

No pre or post Crossfit food today, only due to it taking me twice as long as normal to get home because it was raining and apparently half the trains stop working when it's a bit wet outside (it's 2012, this is not acceptable!!). I found that I didn't actually need it, I wasn't crazy hungry and my workout was good, so maybe I can do without the pre Crossfit snack in future.

I was slack with food photos today, so here's a photo of me eating spag bol and watching Son's of Anarchy.

Mmm spag bol and buff guys

Now to Crossfit:

At the party I went to on the weekend one of my friends asked me what I'd been up to and I said crossfit etc. and he said that if I wasn't careful I would become one of those people who is obsessed with x thing. I'm pretty sure he was joking, but if there was something to be obsessed with then Crossfit is a good one, it's fun, it makes you strong, it's social, you learn things about yourself and you get pushed to do things you didn't think you'd be able to do. To people who haven't done it, it probably seems crazy, but it's hugely rewarding and I would have to say it's hands down the best thing I've done exercise-wise in my life.

Today after the first part of our workout one of the trainers who is always on at me about my form said that he was really proud of me today, that I lifted well and had great form. WOO! I don't think there's anything better to hear than someone saying they are proud of your effort, it always makes me try harder to do even better.

Warm-up


Max chin-up
Max dips

Repeat 4 times

There was a shortage of chin-up bands today, so I was using red and orange bands, which is way less than I normally use, so my max was pretty poor. I think I got something like 7, 7, 6, 6 and for dips I got something like 12, 9, 7, 7.

Then we worked on our power clean and jerks. I really love doing the Olympic weight lifting, it's fun and you feel really strong doing it, even if you're lifting pussy weights!

We were either working on technique or our 3 rep max. I was going for technique because I haven't done them much and it obviously paid off given the complement from the trainer.

I started at 20kg and did about 4 reps at that weight for practice and then went up to 30kg, which was as heavy as I wanted to go, and did about 16 reps at that weight before the trainer made me try 3 reps at 35kg, which was heavy but I could do it. You would think that the worst part of the clean and jerk is the overhead bit, but for me it's actually the squat, I'm always worried I won't be able to get up and I'll fall on my ass!

Here's a good tutorial for clean and jerks for all you people out there who are desperate to get in on the fun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjeSnmLGU5c

WOD


Every minute on the minute for 15mins do 2 x power clean and then spend the rest of the time doing double-unders. So I did 30 power cleans at 30kg and then for the double-unders your score was the total for the whole 15mins, which for some people was 600, but for me was 28!!! I really suck at them, most of the time I can't do them at all, and when I can, I only get about 3 or 4 in a row before I fuck up. Oh well, practice makes perfect I guess!

This workout wasn't very complicated but it was hardcore, everyone was completely dripping sweat by the end of it!

Whole30 day 26 and 27

My last weekend of no booze!

Saturday I had eggs for breakfast over some mixed veggies from the freezer, it was actually quite tasty. We got up late so I didn't really have lunch but got some smoked salmon at the supermarket and scoffed that down at about 5pm and then had some steak and more freezer veggies for dinner. For snacks I had dates, fruit and coconut milk.

I went to a party in the evening and there was not one thing there that I could eat, all the snacks were chips and chocolate, which is fine and expected, but I was starving by the time I got home at 2am, so I ate a can of sardines and some coconut milk and strawberries, which is a very different late night snack from when I'm not doing Whole30 and would eat toast or maccas!

Sunday I did my big weekly shopping trip and then cooking fest. Unfortunately the supermarket I went to didn't have the parma ham I can eat, so I got some smoked trout instead.. however I neglected to read the label and when I got it home I noticed the second ingredient was sugar! GRR! Now I have to wait until Thursday to eat it.

I should have checked the label because I know I bought some smoked salmon a couple of weeks ago and almost got caught out, but did end up checking the label before I put it in my basket and lo and behold it had sugar in it! There are some brands that don't and why you would need to add sugar to smoked trout/salmon is beyond me, but they seem to add sugar to everything, so the moral of the story is always check the label!

On the menu this week is red curry chicken, spag bol with zucchini pasta and some baked chicken drumsticks and Czech meatballs for snacks. I've decided to cut out fruit and nuts for the last few days to see if that has any effect on my hunger levels and weight loss.

I know I've been eating way too many nuts because they're an easy snack, but they are really high in calories, and fruit seems to make me hungry again within an hour, so it's not great for controlling insulin levels and therefore weight-loss. I love fruit and nuts too much to cut them out forever, but it'll be interesting to see if it does have an effect for a few days.

Whole30 day 25, Crossfit session 34

5 days to go, woo!

Today I had to get to work early so that I could get to the 6pm Crossfit session, so breakfast was 2 hard-boiled eggs, some carrot sticks, half a tomato and some avocado, eaten at my desk.

Not very pretty, but pretty tasty!

Lunch was the last of the Jambalaya and snacks were nuts, dates, carrot sticks and some chicken. I also ate a can of salmon and some almond butter after Crossfit because I knew I wouldn't have dinner til late.

For dinner Glenn and I decided to be lazy and get takeaway, I had a Sicilian Chicken, which was a grilled chicken breast with a tomato, mushroom, olive and capsicum sauce and some steamed veggies. It was so delicious and therefore probably had all sorts of off limits ingredients in it! It did come with some potato, which is off limits but I ate it anyway, I figured breaking it with a vegetable isn't so bad.

The first workout for the 2012 Crossfit Games Open was released on Thursday and was a 7min AMRAP of Burpees, which has to be the cruellest thing I've ever heard!

The way the games work is that one workout is released every week for 5 weeks and anyone in the world who wants to can enter by either going to a Crossfit gym to do the workout or by videoing it and posting it online for verification. At the end of the 5 weeks all of the scores worldwide are compared and the leaders from each region then go to the regional competitions and then the winners from those go to the actual Crossfit games in the USA.

You only have a few days in which to complete each workout so Friday was the day at our gym and it was full of people doing burpees. I had no intention of entering but I was a bit worried that the trainers would make us do the same workout just for "fun". Luckily I was wrong! We did have to do 80 burpees though but it was over a long period of time and interspersed with other things. I think the people doing the games workout were getting over 100 burpees in those 7mins.

Warm-up


Max push-ups
15 x butterfly ab mat sit-ups

Repeat 5 times.

My pushups were 12, 8, 10, 10, 9.

WOD


10 x burpees
15 x jumping lunges (fuck these hurt!)
20 x double-unders (60 normal skips for me)
5 x shuttle runs (running a 3rd of the way up the gym and back)
90 second rest

Repeat 8 times.

My time was 32mins 51 seconds including breaks, so about 20mins total workout time.

Then we did some walking up and down the gym carrying 12 pound wall balls in each hand. If you dropped them you had to do 10 air squats, they were bloody hard to grip so I ended up doing squats every time.

Whole30 day 24

This is going to be a pretty boring post today, I didn't bother taking any food photos and I didn't work my ass off at Crossfit, I sat on my ass on the couch and played Skyrim instead.

Today was my last Whole30 Thursday, although I probably won't break it next Thursday anyway, I'll leave that til Friday.

Breakfast - eggs, my last piece of parma ham (sob!), tomato, avocado and spinach and black coffee of course. I love black coffee now, which is good because I don't think I'm going to go back to dairy, other than maybe cheese on occasion.
Lunch - Jambalaya and grapes.
Dinner - I was out of Zucchini for making pasta, so I used the left over mince to make some lettuce leaf tacos, they were pretty good.
Snacks - Nuts, dates, carrot and celery sticks, a chicken drumstick and some almond butter (way too addictive!).
Dessert (even though I didn't deserve it) - The rest of the coconut milk from last night with strawberries and raspberries.

I think I ate too much today, especially seeing as I didn't workout.

Whole30 day 23 and Crossfit Session 33

Only 1 week to go!

There was a great article on Mark's Daily Apple today about the benefits of dark chocolate, so as soon as the Whole30 is over I'm going to make sure I try and incorporate some into my diet, it'll be a struggle, but if it's for my health then maybe I can force myself! ;)

Breakfast - eggs, parma ham, spinach, tomato, avocado and coffee.
Lunch - Jambalaya and then grapes.
Dinner - Paleo spag bol (even better the 2nd day!)
Snacks - Nuts and dates, carrot and celery sticks, a chicken drumstick
Pre-Crossfit - Almond butter
Dessert - Banana and strawberries with coconut cream

See, you totally don't need to eat dairy!

Today is one of those days where I really love Crossfit, it was a fun session, the trainers were great and I felt strong. It may have also had something to do with not having to do burpees or many push-ups and squats!

Warm-up


10 x air squats
10 x push-ups (Hand-stand push-ups for the fit ppl)
10 x leg swings each leg

Repeat 3 times.

WOD 1


First we warmed up our power clean and jerks. I get all the cleans and the jerks and what have you completely mixed up in my head, so I was doing squat cleans (I think) at the start, until one of the trainers corrected me. I was kind of glad, cuz squats suck! Here is a power clean and jerk - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuUnjB3_l1g

30 x deadlifts (40kg, could easily have gone to 45kg I think)
1 lap block (600m)
30 x power clean and jerk (25kg)

WOD 2 


5 x box jumps (lowest box with a 15kg plate stacked on top.. didn't bang my shins, woo!)
5 x one armed KB swings each arm (8kg)
5 x wall balls

8 min AMRAP

I got through 5 full rounds and then was up to the wall balls in the 6th.

They're promoting this Shotz electrolyte drink at the gym, which is like Gatorade without the sugar. I tried some after the workout and it was really nice! Not sure if it's Whole30 compliant but I didn't have much of it. I was slightly tempted to ask "is this paleo" but didn't want to look like a douche!

Whole30 day 22 and the downside of weight-loss

Today I went for a walk/run after work.. on one of my days off from Crossfit... voluntarily!  This has not happened at all since I started Crossfit in November and I think the only time I've been for a run where Crossfit wasn't involved was when Glenn wanted to try out his Vibrams in NZ and made me go with him! No idea what inspired me last night, but it was nice, I went along the Elwood canal to the beach and got to see a Dachshund puppy, which was the cutest thing I've ever seen, totally want one now.

Breakfast was eggs, parma ham, avocado, tomato, spinach and coffee, lunch was Jambalaya and then some grapes and for dinner I  had my first ever paleo spag bol, made with Zucchini pasta. It was so good I think it will become a regular dinner for me now. There's really no need to eat pasta or noodles when you have some Zucchini and a julienne grater!

Delicious! I clearly need to work on my presentation skills though. 

Snacks today were nuts, dates, carrot and celery sticks and some baked chicken, and I had some almond butter for desert.

It's only 8 more days until I can weigh and measure myself and I'm curious to see exactly how much weight or cms I have lost in just a month. I know I've definitely lost some because a corset arrived in the mail yesterday that I'd ordered in January and when I ordered it I was worried that it would be too small because it was a 28" corset and I was at the higher end of the waist measurement they recommended for that size.

I tried it on last night and the bloody thing is almost too big! It looks okay if I do it up completely closed at the back, but if I lose any more weight it'll be too big. If it wasn't from England and wouldn't be such a hassle then I'd exchange it, but it was only $100 so I don't think it's really worth the hassle and extra postage required. I was also trying it on without any clothes underneath, so I'm sure those will add some bulk when I do wear it.

Having to replace your entire wardrobe is the one downside (when you have no money) to weight-loss!

Whole30 day 21 and Crossfit session 32

Ugh Monday again, it never gets easier!

I only have 9 days left of Whole30 and just one more weekend to get through without booze! I was trying to work out what the first thing I wanted to drink might be, I was going with margaritas but I'm not sure if the mix would seem way too sugary now. Champagne is definitely up there on my list too, mm bubbles.

Breakfast was eggs, parma ham (!!!!), spinach, tomato, avocado and coffee. Man is it good to be able to eat a cured pork product again!

All breakfast should include pork!

Lunch was chicken jambalaya, but obviously I couldn't put Chorizo in it, so it was not as good as normal, sadly.

Snacks were carrot and celery sticks, nuts, dates, baked chicken and then some almond butter before crossfit.

Dinner was pad thai and then some strawberries and coconut cream. If you put a can of normal (full fat) coconut milk in the fridge, the cream solidifies a bit and rises to the top and it's goddamn delicious with berries, in smoothies or just eating it with a spoon!

Zucchini noodles prior to being added to pad thai

Crossfit time..

Warm-up


1km rowing - 4mins 50 seconds

Then 4 rounds of:
15 second squat holds
10 stick rolls

WOD


"Mini Barbara"

Only 3 people in the group were picked to do the full Barbara workout, which was good because it looked hard!

10 x chin-ups (20 in full Barbara)
20 x push-ups (30 in full Barbara)
30 x sit-ups (40 in full Barbara)
40 x air squats (50 in full Barbara)

Repeat 5 times with a 3min rest in between each round.

My time was 37mins 34 seconds, but you get to take away 12 mins of rest, so 25mins 34 seconds total. Getting to rest between each round was great!

I found the sit-ups and the air squats the most challenging, I struggle to get as low as they'd like with the squats and my knees always hurt the next day, I think I have tracking issues with them or something.

The chin-ups were easy because there were only 10 of them and I've also changed to blue and orange bands, so I must be getting stronger at them, woo! I didn't rip my hands up either this time which was good, although I think that's more with the hanging knee raises.

At the end we were supposed to do 5mins of double-unders, but I had a dreadful headache at the end of the workout so I hardly did any and then drove home feeling really woozy, but some couch time sorted me out.

Not sure what was going on, I have a feeling maybe my blood pressure is now slightly too low instead of being too high, because I get light-headed when I stand up sometimes now. I'll have to go and see the doctor and get it checked. It'd be nice to come off some of my medication! Although it could be something totally unrelated.

Whole30 days 18-20 and Crossfit Session 31 (Friday)

I put off writing this all weekend and now I can't remember what I did.

The weekend was fairly uneventful, I went clubbing on Friday, which it turns out is really boring when you're stone cold sober. I think Friday was probably the first time I haven't drunk any alcohol whilst at a club for about 4 years and the last time was probably because I was on antibiotics or something. Not even dancing was fun.

Saturday was a low key day watching tv and generally slacking. I cooked roast chicken and veggies for dinner, which was damn good and we also went to the supermarket where I managed to find some smallgoods that I can actually eat! I had almost given up bothering to poke around in the smallgoods section at supermarkets because it was always depressing to see product after product with added sugar, gluten or nitrate.

Saturday was different, however, I stumbled upon some Parma Ham whose ingredient list was pork and salt, WOO! The only issue with it is that it's $7 a packet, but even though I'm on a super tight budget I decided it was worth it, although I probably shouldn't have eaten half the packet when I got home in the space of 2mins. If you're looking for it, it only seems to be available at Coles.

I love those three little piggies

Now this is an ingredient list I like to read!

Sunday I had lunch with the girls, sadly the breakfast menu had finished by the time we got there, but I had a smoked salmon and rocket salad, it had some dressing on it which was probably suspect, but I'm going to write it off, the rest of the ingredients would have been compliant, assuming the smoked salmon wasn't one of the weird ones that seems to have added sugar in it!

Sunday evening I did my weekly cook-up, baked chicken drumsticks for snacking on, chicken jambalaya with cauliflower rice, pad thai and some mince and veggies.

The Whole30 really isn't that hard, I've got into a good routine of cooking on Sundays and then not really having to think about food until the weekend, which is nice. I will be glad when it's over and I can relax a bit more, but it's not a bad way to eat and I hope to pretty much stick with it during the week when I'm done and only eat other things on the weekends.

I know I've lost weight just based on some of my clothes, but I want to lose a bit more before S&S on the 24th March, so I will keep it mostly going until then I think. I'm going to try to not go crazy when the 30 days are up too and only have things if I really want them, not just because I can. Alcohol is a different story, I'm really looking forward to having a drunken evening with Glenn, although I know that'll screw up my weight loss a bit.

Crossfit on Friday wasn't really a fun one, I don't really enjoy the workouts where we have to repeat the same things for 5 rounds, you get really sick of those exercises!

Warm-up


Max push-ups
10 Sit-ups

Repeat 5 times

My first round of push-ups was 18 (woo!) and then I got 10 the second round and then 8 for the remaining 3 rounds.

We then did some deadlifts to warm-up for the WOD. 6 x 20kg, 10 x 40kg, 5 x 45kg.

WOD


1 lap block (600m)

Then 5 rounds of
10 x deadlifts (45kg)
7 x dead-hang chin-ups (blue and orange bands)
30 x air squats

Then another lap of the block to finish off.

My time was 28mins. One of the other girls and I chose 45kg for deadlifts, which was a bit heavy in hindsight after all the chin-ups. I had to break up the 10 into 6 and then 4.  I managed to get quite low on my squats for once though which was good. The block runs were hard, I think I'm getting worse at running somehow, I always feel puffed and like it's really difficult.

Then after all this we did some max planks, my max was 1min.

Whole30 day 17

I think the chocolate cravings have finally stopped, WOO! Actually I'm not really craving anything at all, except maybe not having to cook every single meal/snack myself! I know I could find compliant food at restaurants if I tried, but it's just less hassle to cook things myself.  At least the weekly cook-up works well, until I run out of food on Fridays anyway.

Not sure what to eat over the weekend, I halved my lunch today so that I can eat half for dinner because I know I won't want to cook after Crossfit and before Cab Noc. Maybe I can cook a roast with veggies tomorrow or something, that'll give us left overs and will be delicious for both of us and compliant with Whole30.

Nothing exciting to report food-wise for yesterday, same as the last few days:

Breakfast - eggs, tomato, spinach, avocado and coffee
Lunch - meatballs and cauliflower rice and yes I finally remembered to take a photo! It's not the prettiest dish in the world, but it's really tasty!

Looks totally gross, tastes totally awesome

Dinner - tacos
Snacks - nuts, dates, carrot and celery sticks, a chicken drumstick and some tahini and almond butter

When I got home from work I made some baked nori snacks from Well Fed and then proceeded to snack on half of them before dinner, which was dumb because they were meant to stop me snacking on so many nuts over the weekend! Next time I cook them I'll make sure I've eaten dinner first so that I don't eat half the batch.

Whole30 day 16 and Crossfit session 30

Nothing very interesting to report today and I forgot to take a photo of my lunch again, tomorrow for sure!

Breakfast - a can of tuna and a pear (stayed at the boy's house and was running too late to arrange anything else)

Lunch - Moroccan meatballs, cauliflower rice and veggies and then grapes

Snacks - Nuts, dates, celery and carrot sticks and a chicken drumstick

Pre-crossfit - Almond butter

Dinner - Tacos and then some almond butter, I need to find another fat source I think, maybe coconut butter

No post-crossfit meal today because I ate dinner pretty much straight away when I got home and then fell asleep on the couch.

I can't believe I've only done 30 sessions of Crossfit, it seems like so much more.

Warm-up


2 x laps of the block (so 1.2km total approx)

For strength we did front-squats. There was a new girl starting today and she was paired with myself and another one of the girls who started in November for front-squats, she did really well for her first time actually. Front squats are horrible and this was the first session since I started that I actually got praised for my elbow position, usually it's all "elbows up Emma, squat lower" etc. etc. I was pretty pleased with it. We were working to our 3 rep max, which in my case is 35kg, my form definitely sucked on the 3rd one of each set so I know that I  couldn't really go heavier on them just yet.

WOD


Every minute on the minute for twenty minutes do:

5 x ab mat sit-ups
5 x hang cleans (14kg)
5 x box jump-overs (or box jumps in my case cuz I can't jump that far)

So basically you'd get through as much as you could before the trainer called "Abs" and then go back to the start, so if you were quick you could get all of it done well before the minute was up and have a rest until he called "Abs", but if you were like me and were struggling with the hang-cleans then you'd get halfway through the 5 box jumps and have to run back to abs.

5 reps doesn't sound like much but it was fucking tough! I actually think it was harder than the filthy fifty because you had to keep going and if you were slow then you got no rest at all between sets, I never got a rest! For most sets I got to about 2 or 3 box jumps before having to go back to abs. I am super sore today!

Here is front squat, made to look totally easy - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVNblYv02z0
Here is a hang-clean - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cChXDCNnB7Q&feature=related

Day 15 - Valentines day and the halfway point

So today was my halfway point in the Whole30 and also Valentines day. My normal idea of Valentines day involves champagne and chocolates, however, being on the Whole30 I obviously had to revise it a bit! So Glenn and I went out for dinner to Royal Melbourne Hotel (Paladin), just for nostalgia's sake and it hasn't really changed that much!

Sooo.. the big question is, did I break my Whole30.. and the answer is yes, but not too badly!

I'd had a look at the menu online to make sure there would be something I could eat and there were two options, steak or salmon, both of which I was okay with because I hadn't had either recently and steak is something I just don't cook for myself because I suck at cooking it. I ended up going the salmon option, however, which came with salad and chips, so I asked for it without chips, but I decided just to write off the hollondaise sauce it came with and whatever dressing was on the salad.  The hollondaise was pretty good, so I wasn't unhappy with my decision.

That is Glenn's cheese and garlic pizza in the
background, in case you were wondering!























My other cheat was that Glenn got me a soda water and lime, however because he didn't stipulate fresh lime, they put lime cordial in it, not tons though, so I drank it anyway. It was goood.

Mmm forbidden sugar

On the way home though I did notice that I had a slight headache and my stomach felt a bit unhappy, so maybe the cheats weren't worth it afterall?! Goddamn clean eating doing its job!

The book says that when you start re-introducing things back into your diet after you've finished you should try and re-introduce them individually so that you can gague exactly what kind of effect they have on your body, if any. So, maybe no giant pizza/booze/chocolate fest for me on 1st March :(   If I had to pick one thing to eat on 1st March it would be good quality dark chocoalte, luckily pizza doesn't really appeal to me at the moment, but it is another 15 days away!

My other meals were pretty much the same as the day before, eggs, mushrooms, spinach and tomato for breakfast, lunch was the Moroccan meatballs and cauliflower rice, which I again forgot to take a photo of! Snacks were nuts, carrot and celery sticks, a chicken drumstick and some almond butter.

Next V-day I'm so having champagne and chocolates!

Whole30 day 14 and Crossfit session 29 - The Filthy Fifty

It'll be the mid-way point tomorrow! I should really save this post for tomorrow but I might as well write it while it's fresh in my head. Work is seriously slow at the moment so I re-read my Whole30 success guide yesterday afternoon just to make sure I was on track. It has a section in it where you fill in how you've been feeling and what things you're missing etc., so I did a bit of a self assessment to see what has changed in the last 14 days.

I would say the big one is energy levels throughout the day, I don't get a mid afternoon slump, sure I get freaking bored by about 2pm, but that's because work is boring and there's only so much mucking around on the internet I can do! After lunch I used to get really sleepy and have issues keeping my eyes open, but now I feel the same in the afternoon as I do in the morning.

Another thing I've noticed is that I don't get a runny nose any more, which I am almost 100% sure was from dairy, even the lactose free stuff. I used to have coffee with lactose free milk in it before work and then on the way to work and for the rest of the morning my nose would just run and would only clear up at about lunch-time. I haven't had that issue at all since I started the Whole30, so sadly I think no more milk for me, although I really feel like eating yoghurt for some reason, so I think I'll try one when I finish and make sure I pay close attention to any after-effects.

Breakfast today was eggs, avocado, mushrooms, spinach and tomatoes and a black coffee, and I discovered something delicious today too, sprinkling fresh coriander on your eggs! So tasty!

Lunch was Moroccan meatballs from Well Fed with cauliflower "rice" and some veggies. It was damn tasty but I got really bloated after lunch, I assume from the cauliflower, so I am going to eat a bit less of it with the rest of my lunches and see how that goes. I forgot to take a photo of it, I'll do that tomorrow.

Snacks were nuts, a roast chicken drumstick and some celery and carrot sticks. Pre-crossfit was some almond butter and post crossfit was a banana because I forgot to buy sweet potato this week.

Dinner was tacos, here's a picture:

Now onto Crossfit..

Warm-up


10 x stick rolls
10 x squats

Repeat 3 times

WOD


"The Filthy Fifty"

This is one of the named benchmark workouts, which are always the toughest and this one was no exception, it might even surpass "Whitten" as the worst one I've done so far.

The trainers gave us the option of a "Dirty Thirty" instead if we didn't feel up to the fifty and I was going to take it, but then I figured that I would be really annoyed with myself if I didn't at least try and do the complete fifty. There was a 50min cut off for doing this workout and I only just scraped in!  The worst exercises were the push-press and the burpees, both of these I had to do 5 reps or so at a time so they took forever.

Anyway, here it is:

50 x box jumps (I used the smallest box)
50 x chin-ups (blue and red bands)
50 x KB swings (12kg)
50 x walking lunges
50 x hanging knee raise (should have been knees to elbows but I can't do them)
50 x push-press (20kg)
50 x back extensions (hate these)
50 x wall-ball (6 pound ball)
50 x burpees (to two ab mats)
150 x skips (should be 50 double unders but I suck at them)

My time was 46mins and 43 seconds (or 34 seconds, I can't remember). I was fucked at the end of it, I was dripping sweat all over the floor, it was gross.

My hands are killing me today because my callouses turned into blisters and then one of them ripped open a bit, niice. Here's a lovely picture:

The one on the right has ripped open at the bottom corner, it's really painful!

Whole30 weekend 2 (day 12 and 13)

This weekend wasn't too bad, although I ate far too many nuts and far too much fruit, I really need to bring other snack options to Glenn's I think because otherwise I just spend the whole afternoon eating nuts.

Dinner Friday was left over pad thai for me, which was delicious. 

Saturday breakfast was eggs, smoked salmon, tomatoes, spinach and mushrooms and it was damn tasty. If smoked salmon wasn't so expensive then I'd eat a whole lot more of it. 

Breakfast! (Sorry it's blurry)

For dinner on Saturday we had take-away and I managed to find something on the menu that was probably Whole30 compliant, or at least very close to it. It was chicken casserole thing with tomato, onion, capsicum and garlic. It was delicious and didn't look like there was anything in it I couldn't eat, although they may have put some sugar or something in the sauce. Either way, it was nice to not have to cook something!

On Saturday night I had to contend with a party, but I made it through with only a cup of coffee (the $1 7/11 coffee wasn't as bad as expected!) and some soda water with fresh lime. I have to say that it was nice to not have a hang-over on Sunday for once! There was also roast chicken at the party, which was awesome because it meant there was food I could eat, other than just boring old celery sticks.

I have still been craving dark chocolate and, weirdly, yoghurt, although I think the yoghurt thing was only because Glenn had yoghurt in his fridge and it looked gooood. Maybe if I reduced my fruit intake then I'd stop craving sweet things, maybe I'll try a day this week without any fruit and see how that goes. 

I'm still sad about not being able to find bacon I can eat and I wanted to make Jambalaya last night, but I couldn't find any Chorizo that didn't have sugar or gluten in it, damn cured meats!