CHANGE IS GOOD

One day at a time

2009-08-18T08:40:00.000-07:00

I just noticed my last post was on May 5th For those of you who know me, you know what a challenging spring and summer I have had both in my personnel life and my set backs I have had with my back and the surgery I had. Well this week, everything feels like it is coming back together and I am expecting a full return to my training and active lifestyle beginning in September.

So 1 goal I want to start working towards is riding the Seattle to Portland ride next year. I am hoping to find a few others that will be interested and start training for it by doing some weekly rides that range in different distances and difficulty. If anyone is interested in doing the ride next year, let me know.

Other then that, I just can't wait to get back into the gym and get my fitness level back up to where it used to be. However, I am not looking forward to starting off and becoming all sore like I did when I first started. haha

I have a slack line being delivered to my place today. I don't remember if you have seen people using these before, but they look like a lot of fun and good for the core and balance. I figure that I can start using this now as it is low impact but will still be a challenge.

Anyways, it feels good to know there is an end to all the bad luck I have been having and I want to thank all my friends who have been so supportive and continue to give me words of encouragement. I look forward to seeing all of you back in the gym!

Working out and feeling fine

2009-05-05T19:29:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile since posting. I have been extremely busy for the past month so hopefully I can get back into blogging a little. My work outs have been going really good. I have been going through a cutting phase in my diet and have lost about 15 pounds in the past 3 weeks. Now before you start freaking out and thinking that is too much in that short amount of time, let me say that I don't believe this is for everyone and when I did this I followed a strict diet and was still eating 6 times a day and was strategically adding carbs, fat and protein where needed. The great thing about this is that I was able to still have great work outs and don't feel like I lost any strength in the process. Usually that kind of cutting will result in loss of muscle and energy. But because of the foods and supplements I was taking it worked out great.

So anyways, I am looking forward to finishing up my dieting and start eating like a normal human again. I have been dieting now for about a year and a half and have lost 150 pounds. I can't wait to get back to eating normal. I love the foods I am eating now and won't change that, but I will not have to be so strict anymore.

Yoga photos

2009-04-12T21:11:00.000-07:00

I posted a while ago about doing a small photo shoot with a friend of mine up in Seattle. Well I finally got the chance to do it on Saturday. The weather was crappy and we were able to get in a few shots between rain storms. The location isn't what we had planned but with the weather being iffy we took what we could get. Here are a few of them.

Check up

2009-04-07T20:17:00.000-07:00

So I decided to to go do a couple things today to see where I am at medically speaking. I scheduled a physical with my Dr. and also scheduled a hydrostatic body fat test.

First off at Dr., things went really good and I am looking forward to getting all my blood work back to see how things like my blood sugar levels and cholesterol levels are doing. They were pretty good the last time I had them checked but I am hoping for a very good report back.

Then I went for the hydrostatic test. This was the first time I have done this type of body fat test and everyone tells me it is the most accurate way to measure body fat. So the day before I started working out at Recreate Fitness back in November, I got my body fat tested and I was at 35%, well after a little over 5 months I am at 16%!!! The test came back as 179 lbs of lean (muscle, bones, organs) 35 lbs of fat. Which for my age and build puts me in an ideal bmi. That is probably the first time in my life I have ever heard that.

So in a little over 5 months at recreate, I lost 25 pounds and 19% body fat! I wish I knew how much lean muscle I have added...

Work out:

Skill:

10 heavy kettle bell swing - 24k/28k/36k

play fetch with a 30 pound d ball 3x

Work out:

Partner work out: 30/30 6x

jumping pull ups

wall ball 20 lbs

rope snaps

sprints

AMAZING DAY!

2009-04-06T20:53:00.000-07:00

From sun up till sun down, I was in a fantastic mood today. The sun was shining and the air was so fresh that I could not stop smiling all day! My car even broke down today and as it was being picked up by the tow operator all I could do was crack stupid jokes and comment on what a great day it was. I don't think he usually gets that response when he picks up someone's broken car. :)

Went out and snapped a few pictures this evening of the waterfront. I didn't have a lot of time because I got down there a little too late for the good light, but still enjoyed myself.

Had a great work out this morning. It is short but probably one of the hardest work out we do there for some reason. It was row, slam, run! All of them are a sprint and try not to get sick! haha

Work out:

skill:

Front Squats

5 sets of 5....got up to 165 is all today. I struggled with form last time and I wanted to work on it this time. They felt much better then our last cycle.

5 sets of ring rows...put feet on box this time and really liked it, made it much harder.

WOD:

row 250 meters

20 ball slams / 20 lbs.

sprint to end of parking lot and back.

3 rounds for time.

1:49 / 1:54 / 2:04

Hiking

2009-04-05T05:32:00.000-07:00

I stopped into REI yesterday to pick up a small gift for a friend for his birthday yesterday. While I was in there I started looking at back packs and hiking equipment because I keep toying around with the idea that I want to jump into it this year. Well after having dinner with him and his friends last night and hearing some of their stories and advice,I really want to start hiking. I have always loved the outdoors and walking trails, but for whatever reason I have never followed through with actually going out and doing it! I live in the Great NW for goodness sakes! It isn't like I can't find anywhere interesting to go. Between all the great places within an hour of Portland and all the trips I make up to Seattle there are probably hundreds of easily accessible challenging trails. I want to find ones that are challenging and scenic so I can also do my photography while I am hiking. I am curious to find out how my fitness level will work out on some of these difficult hikes/climbs. I am sure I am in for a rude awakening! So now the obsessing and research begins and equipment, trails, safety, rules, what to bring, etc... Good thing I have some good friends that are very experienced with hiking and climbing to give me some advice.

Work out:

Partner work out -

6 times sprint around the building

6 times heavy med ball carry

100 double kb swing. (ended up using a 44k kb) long story! haha

100 ball slams 25 lb ball

100 med ball passes

6 times mini leg circuit

6 times row 250 meters

Katie was an awesome partner! I think our time was 25:21

Food:

oatmeal

1 can of tuna fish and two corn tortillas

banana chips

crackers

a lot of Lebanese food (was really good)

Jami knows

2009-04-02T07:13:00.000-07:00

Of course yesterdays post was an April fools... Those pancakes looked good in that picture though. I might need to make some this weekend.

Work out:

travel-
burpees
pushups
modified wall push ups
sit ups
tgu
went to the small gym in the hotel....
lat pulls
press
tricep extensions

food
smoothie
trailmix
turkey sandwich, fruit
protein bar
sushi

A new plan

2009-04-01T09:49:00.000-07:00

I give up! All this eating good is too hard for me. I think I am ready to go back to eating bad and just sitting around. So I decided to start it off right with a nice big breakfast as you can see in the photo of what I ate this morning. That was some good stuff, I think for lunch I am going to head over to McDonalds for a couple Big Macs and fries! I haven't had anything like that in over a year and a half. Then for dinner...hmmm Maybe a whole pizza or someting will be good. Ohhhh then desert! I am definately going to have to go out and find some Pecan Pie!

Tonights work out will consist of me trying to walk up to my hotel room after eating all this food.

Yesterdays Work out:

Swimming....I don't know how many laps I did, but my arms feel a little like jello this morning. Plus I really need to invest in some goggles, my eyes are burning from the chlorine still.

Yesterdays food

oatmeal

trailmix

large chicken salad

ahi, asparagus, bread

Progress is Progress

2009-03-30T20:24:00.000-07:00

I didn't realize it until today but today was my 6th day in a row of working out. The last time I did that I was hurting bad for a few weeks afterwards. This time I feel great and that is even after a long day of snowboarding yesterday. (which was flippin amazing!!) So now, I am going to to be heading back out of town the rest of the week and do some other things such as hot yoga, swimming, and just doing body weight exercises in the hotel.
So, I am glad to keep seeing progress like this even though it is small....I couldn't do that 2 months ago without feeling totally wrecked! We will see how I feel after doing work outs while I travel.

Work out:

Warm up:
2 rounds:
5 halo
5 around the body
5 good morning
5 spinal wave
5 goblet squat
5 clean&press
10 push ups

Strength:
thrusters
2 warm up rounds of 5, then 5 work sets of 5 reps, followed by 5 pull-ups:
warmed up with 45lb. bar. 95/95/95/115/95
Pull-ups: 5/5/5/5/5

WOD:
As many rounds in 15 minutes of:

7 Med ball cleans (25lb.)
7 burpees
run around the block
finished 6 rounds

Food:

6am oatmeal/flax/glutamine/protein
9am trail mix
2pm half of a chicken sandwich from subway
4pm trail mix
8pm tuna steak, asparagus

Slackline

2009-03-28T21:26:00.000-07:00

So I saw this "Gibbon Slackline in a magazine and it looks like a lot of fun. I am hoping to pick one up before summer for something to play around with outside at a park or something. It would be fun to bring into the gym too and wrap it around the big posts and try some balancing core stuff with it. Anyways....here is a video.

Work out:

Skill:

5 get up sit ups each arm 35/25/25

8 DH pull ups 3x

5 pistols each leg 3x

WOD

Ladder 10 -1 partner work out

Row 1000 meters

Wall Ball 20 lb

Ball Slam 20 lb

Box jumps (big box)

Ring Rows

Heavy med ball walk 80/90/100/100

Food

oatmeal

fruit and cheese

banana/choc drink

trailmix

Ate crappy today!

TGIF

2009-03-27T20:48:00.000-07:00

Had a really good day today! Nuff said! :)

Warm up:
2 rounds:

Med ball complex 20 lb
15 pushups
5 spiderman

Strength:
BB Hang Clean - 2 warm up sets of 10 or 5, followed by 5 work sets of five + 8 knees to elbows +10 halos

barbell hang cleans: 75/95/105/105/105

WOD:

Partnered with Devon

3 rounds:

Row 250m
Double KB rack hold (24k) while partner rows
Sounds easy, but that was tough!
6:46

Food

6am oatmeal/flax/glutamine/protein

9am trail mix

11:30 greek salad with a side of chicken

3:00 2 string cheese

6pm oatmeal/glutamine/protein

Getting back to photography

2009-03-26T20:54:00.000-07:00

I haven't been doing much photography lately, mostly because the weather has been so bad and I like to do most of my shooting in natural light. I am going to be shooting a friend of mine and a couple friends next week doing yoga up in Seattle. It will be a nice jump back into it and will be something a little different then I am used to. Should be fun! Hopefully we can come up with a good area to do the shoot at and the weather cooperates.

It felt great to get back into the gym today. I wasn't expecting such a hard work out though. Anytime I see burpees or running I know that I won't be setting any land speed records. So I accepted that before even starting the work out and really tried to have good form on everything. It was one of the tougher work outs I have done in quite awhile. It felt good to finish it.

Work out:
Warm up-
3 rounds:

10 around the body
10 halo
10 goblet squat
100 jump rope
Row for 20 calories

WOD:

10 burpees
15 db snatches each side (35#)
20 med ball slams (20#)
25 2-hand swings (24k)
1 Bear crawl length
1 lap around the building

5 rounds 32.29

At home - Rowed 2000 meters

Food-
6:30 oatmeal/flax/glutamine/protein
9am trail mix
12:30 Turkey sandwich
7:00 5 oz chicken, 1/2 cup brown rice, 1 cup of broccoli and cheese

Back in Portland

2009-03-25T20:05:00.000-07:00

I am back from Chicago now and looking forward to getting back into the gym tomorrow. I did mange to get in a work out Tuesday morning, just did a lot of body weight exercises and leg circuits. I didn't eat really good while I was gone, since I was at the mercy of where ever the people that were driving too me for food.

I went to Lou Malnati's for dinner last night and had a slice of Chicago deep dish pizza that was incredible, it is a good thing I don't have a restaurant like that around here.

Anyways, not a lot to update on, I was 1/2 off my diet for 3 days and I feel pretty slugish right now. Looking forward to getting back to normal.

Goals needed

2009-03-21T20:18:00.000-07:00

Ok folks after completing my goal of lifting double my body weight I am in need of my next goal. I have some small goals I have been working on that are more long term, but I want something I can achieve in the next month or two to keep pushing along. So here is my dilemma....I am thinking I don't necessarily want it to be a "strength" style goal because I tend to go a little nuts and could end up injuring myself. I am thinking or something that might be more endurance/strength. Here is where I struggle the most....

Running (Right now I have no wish to do any distance running.) Going twice around the building at a time is about all I want to run right now. But I would like to get faster in my sprints.

Core. My abs are still pretty weak and on things like the power wheel and atomic push ups, my back begins to sag causing some pain.

My grip. Doing things like 10 minute snatch drills, long kettle-bell circuits, rope climb....I seem to lose my grip and my forearms feel like they are on fire.

Legs - I am getting stronger, but those leg circuits kick my ass.

So those are just some areas I want to improve....but I still need a goal to shoot for. Any ideas?

Work out:

Skill:

5 windmills each arm 25 lb.

5 get up sit ups each arm 25 lb.

5-8 pull ups. ( I did not do these...I got some strange pain in my arm today)

WOD:

Partner work out

8 laps around the building

8 mini leg circuits

8 bear crawls

8 250 meter rows

Time 24:51

Thanks to John B. He was an awesome partner today and really kept me moving. Also, thanks to Jami C. It was sooo hard to keep up with you on the run today. Thanks for the push!

Food:

7 am oatmeal/flax/glut/protein/almond butter

9am trail mix

noon 1 can of tuna/1 tortilla/feta cheese

3pm - 4 pm 1 small jamba juice, a few crackers

6pm - whole wheat couscous, salmon, asparagus

Last Dead-lift for awhile

2009-03-20T18:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I couldn't resist the temptation. I was thinking about it all morning and decided I was going to attempt lifting double my body weight (430). I decided to see how I felt and Nathan talked me into trying 415 which is 10 pounds more then my PR from last week. I figured if I felt good I could do an extra set to get my goal of 430. So on my 4th set, I did 395 and as soon as I lifted it I figured I could not go any heavier. It was frickin heavy!!! So then I put on 415 and it took me forever to get my mind right...I just couldn't get psyched enough to lift it. Then it happened!!!!! The little push I needed and as soon as it happened I knew I was going to lift it. It was all thanks to Tina...she went over to her music and put on "Eye of the Tiger"!! Ok, you may laugh but to any guy my age.....you know that song gets you psyched! hahaha (I can't believe I am admitting that.) Anyways, I pulled the 415 and it went up easier then the 395 and felt better then my 405 last week. So as soon as I put it down, I said....I am going for the 430. Tina was even kind enough to loop "eye of the tiger" But this time I wasn't so psyched, I couldn't stop thinking about how much weight 430 was and almost decided not to lift it, but I heard a little voice in my head telling me that I could do it and I had to try and give it everything I had. So when I lifted it......it was slow....it was ugly....it was even kinda funny....but I got it up and down and I am going to count it! :)

Work out:

Strength

Deadlift 3/2/1/1/1/1

225/315/365/395/415/430

with x-chop to halos /35lbs

I didn't do much of the WOD. I spent most of the class Dead-lifting.

Food:

6am oatmeal/flax/glut/protein

9am trailmix

noon a piece of birthday cake

3pm food substitute protein drink

5pm tilapia / steamed veggies / brown rice

Double Kettle-Bell push press

2009-03-19T19:51:00.000-07:00

Felt great to be in the gym today and do a lot of kettle-bell work. For strength today we did a double kettle-bell push press. We did 5 sets of 3 paired with jackknives and spidermans. I made it to the 80 pound kettle-bells and was able to push press them ok....bringing them back down to the rack position was a little more difficult. Nathan gave me some good advice to try and absorb the kettle-bells on the way down instead of staying so rigid. I will give that a try next time we do those.

Tomorrow is our final day of the dead-lift for awhile. I am not sure if I am going for more weight or staying where I ended up last week. I guess we will see how I feel when I get in there. I really want to go for lifting double my weight...but that would be a 25 lb. jump from my max last week.

Work out:

Skill:

5 rounds

double kettle-bell push press 20k/24k/28k/32k/36k

12 jacknives

5 spidermans

WOD

How many rounds in 15 minutes? 5

Each arm with a 16k

5 kettle-bell swings

5 snatches

5 thrusters

run 1 lap

Food:

6 am oatmeal/flax/protein/glutamine

9am meal replacement drink with glutamine

noon chicken and pear salad

4pm grapes and string cheese

6pm chicken, onions, cheese, 2 small tortillas

Early Thanksgiving

2009-03-19T05:53:00.000-07:00

In times like these when there isn't always a lot of good news out there. It gets hard to find things to get excited about. I was helping out a young woman yesterday who's car broke down on I5 and seemed to have nothing bad luck going on in her life as we talked a little while waiting for her father to come help her. I was there almost an hour with her and all she did was cry and talk about how miserable life was. Anything I tried to say to cheer her up was immediately followed up with a negative comment. When I left, I was kinda sad that such a young girl has such a negative outlook on life. I hope that something or someone will turn her life around.

So anyways, long story short....it made me realize how thankful I am for the people in my life and what a positive impact they have on me. I have such wonderful friends and family although I don't get to see a lot of them as often as I would like. It is great to keep in touch through all of todays technology...face book, email, texting, etc...

Work out: ( Copied from Nadine...thank you. Too much to type.)

Warm up:

3 rounds:

10 halo
10 around the body
10 goblet squat
75 jump rope

WOD: Core Grind

Station 1 (3 rounds):

3 Sandbag get up or TGU (kettlebell 25/25/35)
6 Knees to elbows
Broad jump from 1st to 3rd beam and back
Rest 1 minute

Station 2 (5 rounds):

Power wheel crawl from door to 3rd beam (5 times)
10 Power wheel curl
Rest 1 minute

Station 3 (4 rounds):

10 Double KB front squat (35/35/45/35)
Run around building
Rest 1 minute

Food:

breakfast smoothie

10 am trail mix

noon ahi sandwich and steamed broccoli

3pm meal replacement drink

7:30 laughing planet burrito

8:30 1 brownie

It's Working

2009-03-17T13:57:00.000-07:00

“You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you." ~Brian Tracey

I was forced to give the people at one of my branches some bad news today and it was pretty hard to go through the day with a good attitude. I thought about what I wrote last week about how people are effected by the way I carry myself and my attitude. So all day I tried to stay upbeat and keep smiling and it really helped I think. I was able to think clearer and because of that I came up with an idea to help create more of a positive spin on the news rather then it just being all bad. The news was still bad to them but it could have been a lot worse. They will never know that....but I do and I feel good about helping them out, even if they don't know it.

Work out

Swam last night then did 4 rounds of:

Mini leg circuit
10 burpees
20 sit ups.

Food:

8am smoothie
10am trail mix
noon bbq chicken (no skin) corn bread and slaw
3pm food supliment shake
9 pm CPK Salad

Staying on track

2009-03-16T13:53:00.000-07:00

Ok, so if you remember last week I talked about not getting on the scale for a week and just eat good and stay active. Well I ate just about as good as could be expected last week in my opinion and when I got on the scale on Sunday I lost 1 pound. Now at first I was thinking...1 pound? WTF!! I felt like I lost 5 pounds after having such a great week. I have to admit, I was a little discouraged but after thinking about it for awhile I remembered what an amazing week I had in the gym and how strong I felt. (Until Saturday...that is a whole other topic.) So really the way I ate and felt last week probably had a lot to do with how good I ate. It is hard for me, but I have to stop worrying about the scale, my fitness is what is more important to me right now then what number is on the scale. If I keep eating like this and keep having weeks in the gym like I did last week, that should be enough to keep me going.
I am traveling a lot the next 3 weeks so my work out schedule and eating will be put to the test. But I am staying POSITIVE!!! I will do good! : )

New PR today

2009-03-13T21:01:00.000-07:00

So at the beginning of the Dead-Lift cycle we are doing at the gym. I had a goal of lifting 400 lbs. by the end of the cycle. After the week I have been having and how good I felt I decided to give it a try today and see if I could do it. On my final set I was able to lift 405 for 1 rep. It was not easy and was not pretty but I am so glad I got it and now I can go into the final week of it not having to worry about reaching my goal.

Other then that, last night I went up boarding with David and had some great runs, I am feeling more and more comfortable at higher speeds on the board. It did get very cold and windy up there though but other then that it was a lot of fun.

Work out:

All I did was pretty much Dead-lift

3-3-3-1-1-1

I think it went 225/275/315/375/395/405

Food:

7 am otameal
9:30 am trail mix
noon turkey sandwich
3pm meal replacement drink
8 pm burrito from laughing planet

Daaang

2009-03-11T20:58:00.000-07:00

Great endurance work out tonight. I really like these type of work outs because they are just as much mental as they are physical. Not a lot to say about it except it was hard and you just had to get in there and do it. Overall I was pretty happy with my performance, it looks like I need to work on my med ball cleans a little, I struggled there and was hunching over way to far.

I still feel really good this week and have no pains to speak of and my energy is higher then it has been for a long time. I am not sure what has come over me this week, but I hope it is here to stay. : )

Work out:

5 Rounds for time

25 two hand swings ( 24k )
20 Ball Slams (25 lb.)
15 Med Ball cleans (25 lb.)
10 box jumps
5 knees to elbows on the bar
Run 1 lap around the building

Time: 24.51

Food:

7 am oatmeal
10 am trail mix
1 pm 1/2 turkey sandwich with extra turkey
3pm meal replacement drink
8:30 2 corn tortillas, 4 oz chicken, 1 oz cheese, onions

Get off the Scale

2009-03-10T22:02:00.000-07:00

I know it is only Tuesday, but I feel so good this week. I didn't sleep the best last night but still made it through the day just fine and hopefully I will get a full night sleep. I like the food choices I have made the past couple days and plan to keep eating clean as much as I can the entire week. I am actually hoping for a good weight loss this week....even though it hasn't been my goal lately, it would be nice to see a good drop. Now I have to say, I have been pretty bad about weighing myself constantly to see where I am and if one day made a difference. Well, a friend of mine talked to me last week and she told me how unhealthy it is to get on the scale every day and convinced me to go this whole week without looking at the scale. So, I am 3 days into not looking at the scale and won't look at it until Sunday.

Great work out in the gym tonight. I struggled a little and tried to make it harder then I should have. But I have a hard time turning down a challenge. :)

Work out

Skill:
5 ring dips
1 arm kettlebell clean and press. 20k fir 3 rounds Tried 24k on my last set and could only get a couple on my left arm, but got all of them on my right.
double KB rack walk. 3 rounds of 24k 1 of 36k

WOD Tabata 20/10 6 rounds

Jingle Jangles ( sprints)
jumping pull ups
rope snaps
mountain climbers (held rest in a plank)
burpees ( held rest a couple rounds in a plank)

Food

7am oatmeal
10 am trail mix
12:30 laughing planet burrito
4:00 protein mix, water
8:00 veggie salad with nuts

Great day!

2009-03-09T21:22:00.000-07:00

Thank God I used the power of positive thinking today. It seemed like the first 3 or 4 hours of work today I was faced with bad news and more bad news. I faced every challenge with a smile and a positive attitude and it was amazing how I was able to handle the issues. So even with all that......I had a great day! I even had a coworker ask me what I was so happy about, because he said he has not seen me smile so much before. hahaha What an eye opener that is....I noticed because I was in such a good mood..coworkers came into my office more and just talked, and then they were smiling too. It was contagious. Sometimes we don't realize how our mood and facial expressions can effect others. I guess I better check myself more often before I walk into work, I want more days like today!!! : )

Ok, then getting in the gym was a lot of fun tonight, I was waiting all day to get in there and work out. I felt so good....so much energy and just couldn't wait to attack the WOD. I couldn't have asked for a better WOD....we did 5 rounds of rowing for calories and ball slams....1 minute at each station as hard and fast as you can. I got partnered with Amanda M. she was a great partner and did an awesome job! We both went pretty hard. I gave it just about everything I got and was totally spent by the end....what a great feeling!

Food:

6:30 am oatmeal

9:30 am home made trail mix

12:00 Half or a turkey sandwich with extra turkey

3:30 protein shake

8:00 chicken, a little cheese and corn tortillas

Be Positive

2009-03-08T21:41:00.000-07:00

"Our lives are not determined by what happens to us, but how we react to what happens to us, not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events and outcomes. It is a Catalyst…. a spark that creates extraordinary results."
~- Anonymous

That was a quote I found that kinda hit me recently. I see it happen a lot in the gym and in life. By nature it seems most of us have a hard time believing in ourselves and having positive thoughts that we CAN do something. A positive mind can change so much in our everyday lives and it can come from anywhere and the chain reaction that you will get from having a positive attitude can change your life.

A small challenge for everyone this week (including myself) For those of you who work out...I want you to try one thing that has been hard for you to accomplish in the gym or at whatever sport you do. When you go to do that one thing...have a positive thought, think in your mind that you can do it and imagine what it will look like and feel like when you do that one thing.....and then do it! After that, try it with your job, with a relationship, in anything you do this week...try and keep that positive attitude and see where it takes you.

health is back

2009-03-07T19:36:00.000-08:00

It was great to work out with no back pain today. Those days off really made a difference. I still had a difficult time breathing today because of all the crud in my chest, but at least I know that will go away.

After talking to Ben today, I am thinking of switching up my diet a little bit and see if I can't shock my system a little and make some changes. I am going to read more about it tonight and see if it is right for me. I will keep you posted if I change it up. ( Change is good )

Work out:

Skill:

10 2 hand heavy kettle-bell swing.

5 weighted get up sit ups

WOD: Partner work out

50 ring push ups

100 wall balls 20 lb

8 bear crawls

row 1000 meters

6 mini leg circuits

100 sit ups

50 pull ups - deadhang

Food:

6 am Oatmeal

9 am homemade trail mix

1 pm sushi

7:30 8 egg white omelet

Back in the Gym today

2009-03-06T19:34:00.000-08:00

After being sick all week and not working out for 4 days it felt great to get back in the gym. That sickness might have been just what I needed to convince me to rest my body for a few days. The last couple days all I wanted to do was sleep to try and get over the bug I had. When I got into the gym tonight and started moving around I realized that this was the first time in probably a month that my knees and back weren't bothering me. I still felt a little lethargic because of my sickness but my body felt good.
We did Dead-lifts tonight and I got to 365 on my 5th set. It felt good but had a problem keeping my upper back from rounding. I know how to fix that and need to focus a little better next time.

Anyways, I am looking forward to the next couple days and getting back to my normal eating, sleeping, and work out schedule.

Work out:

Dead-lift 5 sets of lifts paired with 5 knees to elbows. Final weight was 365 for 3 reps.

Rope climb
Dot Drills
Double unders
power wheel

Food:

9 am Smoothie
2 pm oatmeal
7 pm burrito

Sick Days

2009-03-04T10:31:00.000-08:00

Well it finally caught me. After seeing all of these people all around me from day to day get the flu bug, I came down sick Monday night and it feels like I have had a fever ever since. I am out of town right now which is probably good for my family so that they don't catch this junk. So, I have just been going to work and going back to the hotel and trying to sleep this off.

No workouts for me since Monday morning and I probably won't be working out until Friday. I think this will be the longest break for me in 4 months. I am already missing it, but I know I need to rest up and get better first.

Food choices have been prety good while up here. Some eating is out of convience but is still not too bad for me.

Sunday Classes at RF

2009-02-28T19:06:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow we are starting the Sunday 10:00 am class at RF, Nathan and I will be co-leading the class for a few weeks to help me get my feet wet, then I will be flying solo. We were originally thinking that a couple people might show up at the start of this and it would take awhile to catch on. Boy were we mistaken...It sounds like we are going to have over 20 people there tomorrow. It will be a lot of fun and I am excited to be working with everyone who comes in on Sundays.

So yesterday I took a day vacation day and went up to Timberline with some friends for a day of snowboarding. The conditions were amazing and it was blue sky the entire day. I felt really comfortable on my board and am finally getting used to going fast and not worrying so much about falling.

Before we went up I worked out in the 6:30 am class because I didn't want to miss out on doing dead-lifts. I have been nursing some back pain all week so I decided to take it easy and go a little light. I was not happy about going light, but it was my own call because I do not want to get a bad injury. I remember kind of being in a bad mood that morning because I couldn't give 100%. I hate having to take it easy in anything I do. Anyways, I don't remember how the progression went, but after the 3rd set of 5 I think I was around 275 and I didn't have any back pain but I did have a strong pull in my glutes....but no back pain. So by my 5th set of 5 I made it up to 315 and knocked it out with no problems. It felt so good that I thought about doing another set but, realized I should just be thankful I got to 315 with no pain.

Then we hit the mountain all day and I thought for sure when I woke up this morning that I would be in a lot of pain. Well, nothing...I felt better this morning then I did all week. My back got a little tight by the end of the day today, but I am wondering if that tight pull in my glutes actually helped my back out.

Kettle-Bell push press

2009-02-26T19:55:00.000-08:00

Like I have said before I always enjoy work outs with Kettle-bells. For our strength/skill today we did 1 arm push presses with the KB. I like the focused muscles this hits and I feel like I get a lot stronger with my press when we do these, like it gets easier every time to increase weight each week. I was able to go up from 32k to 36k today on my fifth set. Even though I was able to lock out every time I felt like I didn't have as much control on the way down, so I will probably stay at that weight next week and try a new technique when racking it that Nathan suggested.

I got my Freedbord from the UPS man today and gave it a try tonight for a little while. It is hard, but I started getting the hang of carving before I started getting too cold and hung it up for the night. Only fell one time....right on my butt! That kinda hurt....hahaha

Busy day tomrorow! Working out at 6:30 am and then hitting Timberline for a day of snowboarding! I am so psyched to get up there. They have gotten sooooo much new snow this week.

Work out:

Skill/Stength

1 arm kb push press 5 on each arm 20k/24k/28k/32/36k

10 plank rows 20k 5x

5 Spidermans 5x

WOD

run 1 lap

3 TGU each side with sand bag.

10 weighted situps

Heavy med ball carry 75 lbs. 90 lbs.

I got in 2 rounds

I keep getting my a$$ kicked by girls.

2009-02-24T20:21:00.000-08:00

Great night at the gym! I pushed pretty hard, pretty much to the point I could have lost my lunch in the 4th round. GOOD STUFF! hahaha
We did 4 rounds of a 30/30 work out, this is the kind of work out that is up to you to decide on how hard you want to push. I just happened to jump into a group with someone that I do not know very well but found out that that she is very competitive. As much as I tried to keep up with her on sprints there is just no way she was going to let me pass her. It made the work out fun and it probably pushed me harder then I normally would have gone. : )

Work out:

Skill:
3 TGU's each side
10 power wheel roll outs
8 ring dips

WOD: 30/30 4 rounds

JPU
burpies
row
bear crawl
sprint

Food:

Oatmeal, flax, glutamine, protein
Protein, water
chicken spinich, blackbean burrito from laughing planet
protein, water
1/2protein bar

A Few Words on Glutamine

2009-02-23T18:52:00.000-08:00

I am not sure if I have discussed Glutamine before, but it is something I have been taking for about 4 months now. You can read about the help it provides for intense training below. But some of the other things that aren't listed is the fact that it strengthens your nails and hair. My nails used to crack pretty easy but since taking this stuff, they are much stronger and healthier. Read below, the experts can explain everything a lot better then I can.

•Most abundant amino acid in skeletal muscle often
depleted due to training,stress and poor diet.

•Can be utilized to repair trained muscles and support
the natural production of human growth hormone.

•Supports the immune system.

•Allows for more intense training sessions.

•Involved in more metabolic processes than any other
amino acid.

•Speeds recovery and prevents muscle wasting.

Produced in the body naturally, Glutamine is the
most abundant amino acid in skeletal muscle and is often depleted due to
training, stress, and poor diet. Research indicates that bodybuilders, fitness
and strength athletes, and other active people often do not produce enough
Glutamine within their liver to restore critical Glutamine levels within a
reasonable time frame following training.
Glutamine is involved in more metabolic processes than any other amino
acid. Glutamine is converted to glucose when more glucose is required by
the body as an energy source. It serves as a source of fuel for cells lining
the intestines. Without it, these cells waste away. It is also used by white
blood cells and is important for immune function. In hospitals, Glutamine
is used for patients that have severe burns to speed recovery and prevent
muscle wasting.
Supplemental Glutamine can be utilized to repair trained muscles and
support the natural production of human growth hormone, which is
important to muscle recovery and gains. Glutamine can also support the
immune system, and allow for more intense training.

We did a partner work out today. It was a lot of fun and a great work out. I know I will be feeling that in my abs tomorrow.

Work out:

Partner work out
1000 meter row
50 ring rows
100 double KB cleans / 35 lbs.
100 sit up med ball pass / 20 lbs.
50 knees to elbows
two handed walking KB swing / 45 lbs.

Food: After a bad weekend, I am back on my plan....here is a more detailed description of what I am eating and what supplements I am taking.

6:30 am 3/4 cup oatmeal, flax, glutamine, 30 grams of protein (maxpro)
8:30 am 1 scoop Max Gourmet, glutamine, 8 oz water (meal replacement drink)
9:30 am 1 scoop ISO Extreme with 8oz water (quick release protein used before and after work out)
11:30 am 2 scoops of ISO Extreme + 2 scoops of Max ACM with 16 oz water (quick release protein and triple carb complex/loader)
12:30 pm Turkey sandwich - 6 oz turkey, hummus, lettuce, onion, tomato on whole wheat bread.
3:00 pm 1 scoop Max Gourmet, glutamine, 8 oz water (meal replacement drink)
6:00 pm CPK - Waldorf chicken salad...contains field greens, grapes, apples, candied walnuts, blue cheese and a Dijon dressing that I keep on the side and use sparingly.
8:00 pm 1 scoop of maxpro ( weigh protein ) with 8 oz of water.

Freebord

2009-02-22T18:29:00.000-08:00

Spent the day trying to relax the body. Did a pretty good job of it, we went out and did a little shopping and saw a movie. Then I came home and thought of different ways to abuse my body...hahaha See video below! I WANT ONE! : )

Work out: NONE!

Food:

Oatmeal, glutamine, flax oil, protein
protein, water, glutamine
greek salad from Panera
strawberry smoothie
a bunch of Almond M&M's during the movie
oatmeal, glutamine, protein

Deadlift Day round 2

2009-02-20T21:22:00.000-08:00

Dadlift Friday!!! I love the deadlift....got up to 305 x5 on our fith set today. Still had more in me, but playing it safe for now and just keeping good form and making sure I don't get hurt. I saw some people going heavier tonight then they ever have....I think there are going to be a lot of new PR's at the end of the cycle. Some people are already doing more in their 2nd week then their 1 rep max at the end of the last cycle.

Work out:

Deadlift ( I can't remeber the pregression) 5 sets of 5....last set was 305 for 5.

WOD

dot drills
hip slaps
power wheel
double unders

Food:

oatmeal with stuff in it. hahaha
protein, water
chef salad
half protein bar
laughing planet burrito and a few chips (feeling bloated now)

The Basics

2009-02-19T21:44:00.000-08:00

So I have been getting a lot of questions about how I lost all the weight. I wanted to give everyone a couple basic things I did and still do that were key for me. Keep in mind this is before I started working out. While working out it is important to add more protein to your diet.

1. Eat something every 3 hours. This will keep your bodies metabolism moving and is key to losing weight no matter what kind of diet you are on. Here is an example of a day of eating every 3 hours....

6 am - 1 whole-wheat English muffin with 1 & 1/2 tbsp of unsalted almond butter

9 am - 1 oz of unsalted cashews, 1 string cheese, apple

noon - Turkey Sandwich with mustard (no mayo) and lettuce/tomato

3 pm - 5 low sodium triscuts, 1 lowfat yogurt, celery

6pm - 5 oz of fish or chicken, 1 1/2 cups of steamed veggies, 1 cup of brown rice

That is a pretty organized day and you really don't want to eat after that last meal....if you need something have another fruit or a string cheese to get you by until you fall asleep.

2. Drink at least 64 oz of water a day....it is pretty safe to say that not many people do not drink this much water and it is VERY important not only for weight loss but our bodies recovery.

3. Stay away from heavily processed foods such as fast food, frozen dinners, fruit in cans, etc...anything that has a lot of preservatives in it. Try and eat things with an experation date on it and try cooking for yourself and plan your meals out.

4. Stay away from salts. Try and eat low sodium foods.....things that are under 500 or 400 grams per serving.

These are the basics of what I did. Sticking to it is obviously the most important thing. You can work so hard during the week and lose 2 pounds ( which 1 -2 pounds is a normal weight loss) and blow your diet on the weekend and gain back those 2 pounds you worked so hard on in 1 day. So if you do go off of your plan try and make decisions like eating every 3 hours, drinking water, and staying away from salt.

Feel free to ask more detailed questions or ideas....I have been doing this long enough that I have a few ideas up my sleeve. ;)

Work out:

kb Push press 16k/20k/24k/28k/32k 5 each arm
plank rows 20k 5x

15 minute WOD

run 2 laps
10 pull ups
Finished 4 rounds

Food:

oatmeal with supliments
water with protein
baja chicken salad from Grand Central bakery
water with protein
6 oz of chicken
2 cups of steamed veggies

Bounced Back

2009-02-17T22:43:00.000-08:00

What a strange day. I think I ended up with a little food poisining or something because I flet like crap all morning and then ended up haaving a small gaul bladder attack that lasted about 30 minutes. Thank God for taking that pain away, those usually last a good 4 hours or more when they come on. You are all going to think I am crazy about this, but my Dr. said I should have my gaul bladder removed, but she said I can't do anything physical for 6 weeks afterwards. She has no idea how depressed and miserable I would be if I couldn't work out for 6 weeks! hahaha So I do a good job of controling it, but like I said...whatever I ate the night before probably did it to me because the meat I ate looked like a mystery. ughhhh So after lunch today I started to feel good again and all my sore muscles that I woke up with were gone.

I was still dreading going into hot yoga tonight because of how hard it was for me last night, but for the first time I made it through the whole class without stopping to rest. So all that whining I did this morning about how sore I was can be thrown out. I am so happy with these quick recoveries...I hope they last!

I am heading back home tomorrow and back into RF, my home gym. YEAH!!!!!!

Work out

90 minutes of hot yoga

Food

4 eggs, 1/4 cup oatmeal
protein, water
CPK Waldorf salad
protein bar
chicken pho with about 12 oz of chicken.

Hurtin' Dude

2009-02-17T08:30:00.000-08:00

I think having all this energy can work against me sometimes. I have a hard time listening to my body sometimes when it is screaming at me to stop because my mind is saying go for it you can do more. Last night was a good example of this as I got out of my car to walk up to my hotel room my legs were hurting!! It wasn't like they were just a little sore....my calves hurt, my hamstrings hurt, my butt was cramping and my quads were still on fire from the hot yoga class I just finished. At that point my body was talking to me louder then my mind. When I hit the bed last night I was out like a light. When I got up this morning I felt a lot better and my legs feel pretty fresh again. My knees definately do not, but I think that is mainly from falling on the ice while snowboarding on Sunday. I am just going to have to becareful the rest of the week and see if I can get them to heal up.

Anyways, love all the stuff I am doing and amazed that I can do it all still. To think that a little over a year ago I would be out of breath just bending over to tie my shoes and if my legs were sore it was because I walked up a flight of stairs. hahaha CRAZY!!

Work out:

Skill -
8 weighted lunges
10 plank power wheel
1 other thing I cant remember

WOD:
30-20-10

*run 2 times around the building then*
2 hand swing 24k
goblet squat 24k
push ups
mountain climbers

Did 90 minutes of hot yoga in the evening.

Food:
Oatmeal, flax, glutamine, protein
Protein, water
chicken salad from applebees
protein, water
smoothie
protein bar
Chicken pho and a spring roll

Great weekend!

2009-02-15T20:42:00.000-08:00

I had a great weekend. Here is the quick run down:

Saturday was 80's day at the gym was a blast! We got some great photos, I will post some later. The work out was tough and I felt those heavy med ball cleans in my legs the next day.

Did some things with the family and had a wonderful dinner with my wife at Mama Mia's for Valentines day.

Sunday I spent snowboarding with some great friends from the gym. The day was perfect.....the conditions were awesome and we got a lot of really good runs in. I am just exhausted from the boarding today so I am going to keep all of this really short.

Bottom line! It was a Fantastic weekend and was full of laughter, great friends and one sore body!

Food:

I ate when I could and what I could. Not horrible, but not great either. I even had to turn down a leaf of lettuce from Tiff and ate a protein bar instead. :)

Deadlift Day

2009-02-13T19:32:00.000-08:00

We are back to dead lifting again at the gym. HOORAY! We started off light today and worked on form. It felt really good to get back over the bar. I am setting my goal at 400 lbs by the end of the cycle. My old PR was 375 and it was shaky. The last time we did the cycle I was not worried about form and bounced the bar a lot to help get more reps. I plan on taking good controlled motion this time and really focusing on having good form, because with the kind of weight we will be lifting, it is easy to injure yourself if you get sloppy.

Workout:

Strength - Deadlift 5 sets of 8
170/190/210/230/250
12 jackknives after each round

After that I worked on rope climb and did the powerwheel. I have a nasty rope burn under my shin from climbing. I hope it doesn't rub in my boot while snowboarding on Sunday.

Food:

Oatmeal, flax, glutamine, protein
protein, water, glutamine
chicken salad, nuts, cranberries
protein,water, glutamine
6 oz talapia, 1 cup of brown rice
1 skinny cow icecream

Push Press PR

2009-02-12T20:46:00.000-08:00

After last weeks attempt at Push Presses I wasn't thinking I was going to break my PR going into our last part of the cycle. I only got to 165 last week. I felt great once I got into my reps and everything just started coming together. I made it to 200 lbs. for a 1 rep max. It felt really good to break into the 200's.

On the gym's blog they posted some Before and After photos of me and said some very nice things. It is great to be a part of Recreate Fitness and have so much support from Nathan, Tina and everyone else there. I could not be getting the kind of results I am seeing anywhere else. So many people came up to me and congratulated me on my success. It was great to hear and it just makes me want to keep up all the hard work I am doing. My life has changed dramatically in the past year.....even more so in the past 3 months since being a part of RF. I can't see what the next couple months has in store.

Work Out:

Strength-
Push Press 135/135/155/175/185/195/200
10 x-chop to Halo

WOD 2 rounds

3 TGU
kb plank row 20k
10 weighted push ups

Food:
oatmeal/protein/flax/glutamine
protein/water/glutamine
chicken gyro
protein/water/glutamine
chicken/veggies/brown rice
protein/water

Night Boarding

2009-02-10T19:30:00.000-08:00

I am headed up so Ski Bowl tomorrow for some night boarding with David....I can't wait to get up there and into some of that new snow. Hopefully the roads will be clear, my car sucks in the snow and I really don't want to have to chain up.

I subscribed to a new magazine that I am excited about. It is called "Clean Eating" This magazine is packed full of recipes that I actually want to make and totally fit my current eating habits.

I had a busy day today so I got up early to work out. This was my first 6:30 am class...not sure I will be doing another anytime soon. I just could not get into it that early. hahaha Class kicked my butt today.

Work out:

Skill - 3 rounds/ 5 dead hang pull ups / 8 ring dips / 5 swing, hi pull, snatch

WOD: Tabata

double kb clean
push ups
JPU
rope snaps
row

Food

5 am oatmeal, flax oil, glutamine, protein
9 am protein, glutamine, water
noon laughing planet burrito
2:30 protein, glutamine, water
4:00 a few triscuts and a string cheese
6 pm chicken curry and veggies, brown rice
6 pm fruit smothie with protein

Building Blocks

2009-02-09T17:47:00.000-08:00

Below I copied some advice for building muscle from some websites that I agree with and the things listed below are the basics of what I have been doing everyday to help my performance. I always make sure I have a good amount of protein in me at least 30 minutes before a work out and I always take equal amounts of protein and carbs and 16 oz of water within 30 minutes of completing a work out. Everyone is different and need different things but this is what has been working for me the past couple months and I am sticking to it for now.......

***You can only build muscle if your body is in the correct anabolic balance to allow growth to take place. Intensive exercise is clearly an important part of the muscle building process but achieving the maximum muscle mass depends on putting the building blocks in place. This is achieved through sound nutritional practices so you need to be aware of the following anabolic enhancing principles

Protein is the basic raw material needed to build muscle. Protein supplies the amino acids that the body uses to repair and build muscle following intensive exercise. Aim to consume 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight each day from food like beef, fish, poultry, eggs, milk and whey. Spread the load over at least six meals to derive the optimum benefit and avoid overloading the liver.

Carbohydrates are needed to energize the muscle building process. Carbohydrates stimulate the release of insulin which pushes the amino acids into muscle cells to begin the process of repair. The body uses carbohydrates as a source of energy - consume too little and the body will steal protein that would otherwise be used for repairing and building muscle. Aim to consume 1.5 to 2 grams of carbohydrate per pound of body weight each day from foods like brown rice, vegetables and whole wheat bread.

Get plenty of rest both in terms of adequate rest days between training sessions and sufficient sleep. Your muscles won't grow if you don't build adequate recovery time into your training program. Similarly, you can only optimize your body's levels of testosterone and growth hormone if you spend enough time sleeping.

Consume quality supplements to support a sound nutritious diet. For most people it should be enough to add protein and l-glutamine to your daily diet.

Drink plenty of water. Failure to drink sufficient quantities of water will lead to dehydration and adversely affect your muscle mass. Don't forget that muscle is 70% water so a generous intake will maintain muscle volume and help growth.***

We had a great work out today. I think sometimes these short WOD's kick my butt more then some of the longer ones because I am able to go all out. This was a fun one!

Workout:

Strength - Deadlifts....we were working up to our 1 rep max today. I am nursing a tight groin muscle so I was pretty nervous to go heavy. I got to 205.

WOD
30/24/20/16/12/8/4/2

ball slam - 20 lbs
Kettle bell snatch 16k

Time 8:47

Food:

6 am - Oatmeal, flax oil, glutamine, protein
9 am - protein, glutamine, water
1pm - chicken gyro
3pm - protein, glutamin, water
6pm - 8 oz tuna steak, 2 cups of steamed veggies
9m - Protein, water

Fight Went Good

2009-02-07T20:01:00.000-08:00

Finally the hype is over and things can get back to normal. We did the Fight Gone Bad benchmark today and it was a lot of fun. I was there for all 3 classes so I got to see just about everyone make their way through the workout and it was amazing to see how hard everyone pushed. It was really cool, I could not wait to get in there and do it. ( I ended up doing the last class of the day.) So anyways I was paired up with Sean and he did awesome. He came out just flying and his ROM was flawless. He killed his old score! I always like working out with Sean, he is a great motivator and really knows how to get more out of me when I feel like stopping. So....I was up after him and I tried to stay steady...I wanted to get at least 20 reps per station except for the rower, I wanted 10 - 15 there. I can't remember my scores per round but I stayed pretty consistent. On my third round after wall ball and sumo deadlifts I got to the box jumps and I seriously did not think I was going to finish without losing my breakfast. Luckily I made it through the last 3 stations and felt pretty good. Anyways, it was a lot of fun and lot of people did amazing today. Eva impressed the hell out of me. She kicked ass!! :)

This might get a little lengthy....So the past week was a fun and challenging week for me. I stayed so busy all week it felt like the week just flew by. I wanted to try and stay active as much as I could this week to kind of see where I am in my fitness.

So it started out last Saturday with a very good partner work out. Then Sunday I spent the day snowboarding for basically the first time ( some previous posts explain that) and that got me sore!!!!! Then Monday I did the 7:30 work out and drove to Seattle for work and then that night I tired out Hot Yoga for the first time and continued to do that the next 3 nights after work while I was in Seattle. Then I drove back on Thursday and hit a RF work out at 5:30. Then the next morning I did the 7:30 am work out at RF. Then Saturday morning did the RF work out FGB.
Through all of this I was super strict on my diet and felt great even though it was a somewhat challenging week my recovery time was great and my energy was up!

Also....I lost about 5 pounds this week through all of this, usually that is too much to lose in a week but if I am working this hard and not cheating in my eating habits I am not worried about it. It would be different if I was constantly hungry and lost the weight by not eating enough, but that is not the case. If I was not eating enough, I could not keep up this kind of energy and do these work outs. So in the past 5 weeks, I have lost about 18 pounds and am continuing to get stronger.

Workout:

3 rounds, 1 minute at each station with a 1 minute rest between rounds

Wall ball
Sumo Deadlift High Pulls 75 lbs
Box Jumps
Push Presses 75 lbs
Row for calories

Score: 316

Food:

5:30 oatmeal with protein/flax oil/glutamine
9:00 protein bar
10:30 protein drink
12:30 5 triscuts, 2 string cheese, a yogurt
3:00 HUB..hummus with veggies, Bavarian pretzels, pear and nut salad with chicken
7:00 protien and milk

Glad to be back!

2009-02-05T20:12:00.000-08:00

I worked out early Monday morning at RF and then headed straight for Seattle for 4 days. I got back tonight and hit the 5:30 class at RF.....I basically only missed 2 days but it seemed like forever. So it was great to get back in there tonight. It was a good tough work out tonight that had me gasping for air by the end of the 3rd round. That is a good sign that you gave just about everything you have. Thanks to Matt G., I spent myself early trying to catch him. He did awesome tonight and kept all 3 of this times under 2 minutes.

We also did push presses tonight and I just wasn't feeling strong while doing them. I should have backed off on the weight and got some better quality lifts in. That is just not a strong lift for me yet, I need to work more on the technique before trying to go any heavier.

So it was a great night and it felt really good being back!!

I am looking forward to fight gone bad on Saturday. I hope all of you are going to be there, the more I look at the work out....it doesn't look any different then a lot of the other things we have been doing week in and week out. Nathan has done a great job getting us all prepared for these 5 exercises and I am looking forward to giving it my all.

Work out:

Strength:

5 sets of 3 push presses and 8 ring rows

135/155/175/185 attempt failed

WOD

Sprint 3 rounds for time - rest 3 minutes between rounds

Row 250 meters

20 ball slams / 20 lb ball

spring to end of parking lot and back.

Times: 1:54/2:04/2:11

Food:

Oatmeal with protein and 2 eggs

protein and water

chicken salad

protein and water

San Sai / 6 pieces of tuna sashimi, 3 pieces of tuna nigiri, small salad

protein and water

Fight Gone Bad Explained

2009-02-05T06:57:00.000-08:00

I am looking forward to this WOD on Saturday. Here is a good video about it.

Quick Post

2009-02-03T20:06:00.000-08:00

Hot Yoga was good, I laid there in the practice room for 30 minutes before the class started and I fell asleep before it started.....for some reason I kept dreaming that I was swinging a kettlebell and I kept throwing my hands in the air while I was sleeping and jerking myself awake. The heat in there does feel good. As soon as I started the class though I was sweating a lot more then I did last night. I dropped 5 pounds during the class. I am sure I already replenished that 5 pounds with water and dinner. But it is just amazing how much you can sweat out in 90 minutes. Okay, I am sure you all don't want to hear about me sweating.....I am going to bed. hahaha

Work out:

Still in Seattle....Did 90 minutes of Hot Yoga

Food:

2 eggs, 1/2 cup oatmeal with protein
protein, water
salmon salad
protein, water
chicken salad

Hot Yoga

2009-02-02T20:54:00.000-08:00

What a day! I woke up this morning very tight and sore from snowboarding on Sunday. I go in and took the 7:30 class at Recreate Fitness and felt great after the warm up and had a really good work out. I got a new PR on my front squat...225 for 1. I struggled for that rep and kinda lost my form. It was messy....I definately let the weight psyche me out. But I will count it. :)

From there I drove up to Seattle to work up there for the next couple days. A friend of mine has been raving so much about "hot yoga" and the studio she goes to up in Federal Way. So I decided to give it a try tonight. It was tough to stay in that kind of heat but I stayed in the room the whole 90 minutes. My friend thought that it was about 108 or 110 in the room tonight which is hotter then normal. ( my luck ) About 30 minutes into it I started to feel a little queezy and dizzy which they say is normal and just had to lay there for about 5 minutes until I felt a little better. All in all it was good and I enjoyed the deep stretches. My training at RF really helped me for 2 reasons.
1. Strength obviously.....there were a lot of squat like positions and I was able to hold them solid.

2. Mental toughness...I never really thought about this too much before but the past 3 months at RF, I have learned to keep pushing myself and telling myself that I can do it even when I feel like I can't take it anymore. That really helped my tonight because a few times I thought, it was too hot, I couldn't get a deeper stretch, I can't breathe right.....but I pushed through all those things....got my mind focused and made it through. So, I liked it...but I can't see doing it all the time. I am going to do it again the next couple nights while in Seattle for my work outs.

Work out:

Strength. Front Squat 3/3/3/1/1/1 with cross chop to halos.
135/145/155/ 175/205/225

WOD:
15 minutes of

10 2 hand swings
10 2 hand kb flip, catch, squat 35 lb.
10 box jumps

I did 10 rounds.

Food:

Oatmeal, protein, flax, glutamine
protein, water
chicken salad
protein, water
chicken salad with fruit and cheese

Snowboarding Sunday

2009-02-02T05:59:00.000-08:00

YEAH!!!! No broken bones! I had such a great time with David, Devon and Tiff up at Ski Bowl yesterday. We get there and I decided to take a lesson when I rented my equipment. The price for the lesson, rental and lift was only $54.00 which I thought was a pretty good deal. So as I did the lesson the other 3 went off and did a few runs and I got some good tips on some basics....mainly how to get around with one foot in the board. So when I was done with the lesson we met up and up we went on the lift to do my first run. I got off the lift with not a huge problem, well for me, I did almost take out David. hahaha So we get strapped in and off I go and all I could do was stay on my toe side. Devon and Tiff came down and gave me some good pointers and all of the sudden it just all made sense and I was able to make it down without too many falls. The more we went down the faster I got and the easier it got to get in control. I think I got in 7 runs and they got in 11 total. The only thing that hurt when we left yesterday was my left butt cheek...but around 9 last night I think just about every part of my body was stiff. :) Then waking up this morning there was a lot of cracking and popping going on. This mornings work out should be interesting.

I couldn't have asked for a better day and such great friends to be there with to help me and encourage me. I will definitely be going back and I think I am starting to feel an addiction coming on. For those of you who know me, you know that is not a good thing as I seem to get a little obsessed. hahaha

Devon, got some good pictures, once they get them posted on their blog I will put up a link.

Thanks again you guys!!

At omic push-ups

2009-01-31T22:13:00.000-08:00

For those of you who haven't seen Recreate Fitness, the gym I work out at....here is kind of a birds eye view of half the gym.

I had a great time at the gym today and even had some fun shooting some photos with Matt and Tina during some of the classes. I think Tina is catching the camera bug, she seemed to have fun trying new lenses and playing with different angles. She got some really cool shots.

I got a new PR in class today. I did 20 kipping pull ups, my previous record was 15 on Jan. 3rd. I think my hands gave out before anything else, I need to toughen up these small little dough-boy hands. :)

Sean was my partner for the work out today and we were cruising right along. ( We even found a way to keep good form and still shave a few seconds off our wall ball time. ) But then we hit the atomic push ups and for what ever reason we thought we had to do 100 instead of 50. I think we just about hit 100 and I think it was Devon who pointed it out to us. We were struggling through those last 2o or so towards the end. Oh well, it was a great chest work out and I am sure my chest will be sore tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, I am attempting snowboarding for the 1st time in 12 years and back then I only went twice. The first time I thought I was getting the hang of it until I bit it really bad and someone came up to help me and said, " Are you okay? That is the worst accident I have ever seen!" The second time was much more enjoyable because I took a lesson and made it through the day without wiping out. ( I can't say that much for my brother in law who spent half the day getting x-rays from his fall) Now that I am thinking of all this, it probably isn't too smart of me to go tomorrow since these bad accidents seem to follow me around on the slopes. LOL I am going to take it easy and just enjoy the snow and friends. I will let you know if I made it back in one piece tomorrow.

I can't remember the whole work out because I had to run out after class and didn't write it down. But it was good and long and hard! :) Just the way we like them.

Food:
6:30 am oatmeal with protein, glutamine, flax
10:15 am protein, water
11:30 am protein bar
4:00 pm celery, almond butter, protein and water
7:00 pm crab salad, cheese, fruit
8:00 pm eggnog bread pudding

Spidey does the Alligator

2009-01-29T18:15:00.000-08:00

Spidey is the man, he can do the alligator on his fingertips! hahaha

We did push presses today and they felt really good. I have been staying kind of light because of the lower back pain I was having while doing this lift. I knew the pain was from the bad form I had when bringing the weight back down after the press. So, I finally figure it out and was able to start moving back up in weight. I finished off my fifth set at 175, but I felt like I could have moved up to 195. I think we have a couple more weeks of this, I am hoping to get over 200 by the end of this lift.

Workout:

Strength: 5 sets of 3
Push press 115/125/135/145/155/175
5 dead hang pull ups 5x

WOD:

Run 2 laps
30-20-10
DB deadlift - 30 lbs
DB pushpress - 30 lbs
Run 2 laps

Time: 8:40

at home...rowed 5000 meters in 21:10

Food:
6:30 - Oatmeal with my stuff. :)
8:30 - protein, water
11:30 - protein, water
12:30 - Chicken Gyro / light sauce
2:30 - 3 celery sticks, 1/4 cup almond butter, protein water
6pm - telapia, asparagus, steamed veggies
9pm - protein, water

Name that work out!

2009-01-28T19:01:00.000-08:00

It's time to play....name that work out! I am not sure if Nathan has a name for this yet, but it needs one.

I really liked this work out, it is one of those WOD's that make you feel good to finish. I felt really good today after taking a day off for rest. Between the cert, and travel I was feeling pretty out of it so I didn't work out on Tuesday. I woke up Tuesday morning down in Medford and you know that saying, "Listen to your body" well when I got up, I heard more popping and cracking then I think I have ever heard from my body. So I took the day off and woke up this morning feeling great! Thank God!!!

Work out

Row 1000m
50 pushups
50 2 hand swings / 24k
50 jumping pull ups
50 sit ups
50 med ball cleans / 20 lbs
50 kb high pulls each arm / 35 lbs
50 ball slams / 20 lbs
50 ring rows
250 jump rope

Time was 28:55

Food:
6 am - My normal oatmeal
9 am - protein, water
noon - Beat Salad, cheese, walnuts
3 pm - 1/4 cup almond butter, 3 celery sticks
6 pm - 8 oz chicken, 2 cups of cooked veggies
9pm - protein, water

Jackie

2009-01-26T18:49:00.000-08:00

We did "Jackie" today for a benchmark work out. It was a great work out and was pretty happy with my time. ( I think it was 10:04) I don't have anything to compare it to yet, but it felt like a good start.

Work Out:

Front Squats 135/135/145/155 all were 5x
spidermans

"Jackie"
row 1000 meters
50 thrusters 45 lbs.
30 pullups

Food:

oatmeal, glutamine, flax oil, protein
protein, water
chicken salad
protein, water
ahi tuna salad

Barbell Cert

2009-01-25T20:01:00.000-08:00

I completed the Basic Barbell Cert this weekend over at Crossfit hel with Mark Rippetoe teaching. We went over so much information in about 19 hours of class time, there is a lot to soak in but with Mark's books he gave us, I can look a little deeper into some of the topics. So Saturday we did the back squat, press, and bench press. Then on Sunday we did the Dead lift and the power clean. Mark went into so much detail of the skeletal system and positioning of the bar, and how to lift and what to lift with, etc... It just all clicked and made sense. Way too much information to talk about right now. It was great experience to learn these lifts and then also to coach them. I really like that style of teaching. Here is the order in which I liked the exercises from best to least.

Low Back Squat 45/45/95/135/165/185/185 all x5
Dead lift 135/135/225/275/275 all x5
Press 45/45/95/115/115/135 all x5
Bench Press 45/45/90/185/225/ allx5
Power clean 45/45/95/105/105/105 all x3

I am wiped out after this weekend! Hopefully I will get a good night sleep.

Food over the weekend was not so good. I ate when I could eat and it wasn't always the best. Back on it tomorrow!

10 Minute Kettlebell-Snatch Drill

2009-01-23T21:37:00.000-08:00

So today was a "play day" at the gym...basically work on techniques and such. I ended up doing a 10 minute kettle bell-snatch drill that I have been wanting to try. So it was competition rules...do as many kettle bell snatches in 10 minutes without putting the kettle bell down and only switching arms one time. Nathan set me up with a 16k competition kettle bell and off I went. About 3 minutes into this thing I started thinking, "what the hell was I thinking" My shoulder was on fire by that time but I knew that if I switched now I would not be able to do do 7 minutes with my other arm. So I pressed on and I think there was about 5.30 left on the clock I switched to my right arm. Again, 2 to 3 minutes in on my right and it got rough.....by the last minute I wanted to put it down so bad...I could no longer open my hand in the rest position because it was cramping so bad and so did my forearm. Tina started counting down that list minute for me which really helped and I was able to complete the whole 10 minutes. When I was done.....I was done! I got 119 I think. It felt good to accomplish that though. I highly recommend trying it sometime. :)

Food:
oatmeal with the usual.
chicen sandwich
protein, water
steamed veggies and 4 oz of chicken, 1 piece of home made bread.
protein, water

Kettlebells / Recovery

2009-01-22T20:26:00.000-08:00

I love doing the Kettlebell lifts. Tonight we did one arm swings and snatch. I used a 20k comp bell and felt good, in fact the snatch seemed to go up fairly easy when I kept proper form for the whole 15 minutes. I am hoping that we will try a 10 minute snatch challenge soon. I would like to see if I can go 10 minutes with only 1 arm switch.

So next time I get the bright idea of doing 6 days in a row, please slap me!!! What the *%#$ was I thinking? Today's work out was the first one since last Saturday that I felt like I was getting my strength back. I had worked out on Monday and Tuesday and took Wednesday off. I may have been fighting off a cold or something too, all I have wanted to do the past 4 days was sleep. I was still and tired coming into tonights work out but by the time we got done with out push presses I was fired up and ready to attack the WOD. Now I feel hyper and probably won't be able to sleep good tonight. :)

Workout:

Warmup
3 rounds
5 Windmills- 35
5 overhead squat with kettlebell- 20
Farmers walk- 32k

Skill
Push Press 6x5- 135/135/155/155/155/135
Cross chop to halo- 10 / 35 lb

WOD
How many rounds in 15 mins?
5- L 1 arm swing
5- R 1 arm wing
5- L arm snatch
5- R arm snatch
10- pushups
12 rounds with 20k kb

Food:

6:30 Oatmeal, glutamine, flax oil, protein
9:00 protein, water, glutamine
12:30 a little calamari, chicken salad
7:30 oatmeal, protein
( not a good day for my diet )

One arm rope climb

2009-01-20T21:49:00.000-08:00

I was taking a look around at some rope climbing vidoes today and I came across this guy doing a one arm rope climb. Check it out.

Work out kicked my ass today. Still a little confused why....I usually like the Tabata drills.

Skill

Dead hang pull ups. 5/5/4/4
dips 5/5/5/5
KB snatch 5 each arm - 22k/28k/28k/32k

WOD
"tabata" (20 sec. sprint 10 sec. rest.) 6 times at each station

Bear Crawl
Combative rope
S.D.H.P KB 24k/24k/24k/24k/45lb/45lb
jumping pull ups

At home : Rowed 2000 meters for Fat Elvis

Food:
6:30 Oatmeal with protein, glutamine, flax oil
9:30 protein with water and glutamine
12:00 Chicken salad
2:30 Fat Elvis (wow that was good)
6:00 8 oz Ahi tuna, 4 asparagus spears, salad
9:30 protein, water, glutamine

I second Sean's post

2009-01-19T21:14:00.000-08:00

Great work out tonight, I have really been trying to make sure I have good form in my work outs for two reasons, the first was because I wanted to make sure I didn't injure myself and the second goes along with what Nathan talked about a few months ago in class and that was that the WOD's are not a race, he would rather see us use good form and finish last then see us be sloppy and finish fast. Some people can do both.....good form and finish fast, it is a beautiful thing....someday! :) Also, Sean has been talking about it in his blog a few times the past couple months ( you can read here )and since I started really watching my form and trying to get full range of motion I have seen huge gains and feel much stronger.
So I just wanted to second Sean's post...for me it seems to be the best way to hit these work outs. I still struggle through some things with form, but I really appreciate Nathan, Tina and the other trainers correcting me and setting me straight.

Work out:

Skill:
5 rounds of barbell front squats.
Ended up at 145#'s on my last set.
10 ring pushups.

WOD:

7 rounds
7 med ball cleans
7 burpees
7 ring rows
Time: 11.53

Oh, and Trevor reminded me.....2 minutes of Beam Ball. :)

Food:

7 am oatmeal with protein, glutamine, flax oil
9 am protein, water
11:30 chicken sandwich
3:00 protein, water
6:00 protein, water
8:00 8 egg whites omelette, broccoli, mushrooms, salsa

And on the 7th day he Rested!

2009-01-18T08:25:00.000-08:00

What a week! First off I was happy to get on the scale today and see that I lost 3 more pounds this week. So I went to RF 6 times in a row this week kind of as an experiment. I wanted to see how my nutrition would help my recovery time in between work outs. I did good until Friday night and after we went all out on that row it took a long time to recover. On Saturday's work out it caught up to me, I was exhausted and put up crappy numbers for the WOD. So I am going to go back to 4 work outs next week and maybe rotate that with a 5 every other week. So today is my rest day, I am going to relax and try not to do too much. Although it is nice outside, it would be a good day to do something out there.

Work-out:
Skill
DB Cleans ( I think ) got up to 50 lb DB's
pull ups

WOD
1 minute at each station / 4 rounds / 3 min.rest between rounds

Box jumps
DB Thrusters (30 lbs)
Slam Ball (20 lbs.)
row for calories

Food:
Toast with peanut butter
oatmeal with protein, glutamine, protein, flax oil
protein, water
Broiled telapia (love that recipe), asparagus, brown rice
protein, water
toast
chicken breast, pasta, marinara

Beam Ball for time!

2009-01-16T21:18:00.000-08:00

What a fun night at the gym! Nathan introduced some of us to "Beam Ball" at the end of the work out. I can't explain it, you will have to experience it for yourself. All I can say is it is fun and exhausting all at the same time. Look for it in the 2012 Olympic Games. :)

So tonight we did a benchmark 500 meter row. Sean and I have been talking about technique and damper settings for a little while now so now it was time to put what we have been talking about to the test. So Sean, Ben and I decided to row together at the same time....rowing next to these guys got me psyched up and I knew I had to go all out to keep up with them. So Nathan counts us down...3....2....1......GO! Sean busts out of the gate just flying! I was thinking in my head....Damn this guy is fast, I look out of the corner of my other eye and here goes Ben...holy crap...these guys are animals. So I pick it up a little knowing that I don't have that kind of stamina yet I started pulling hard with my back to get anything extra. So we get to the last 100 meters and I put everything I had into it and by the last 50 meters my butt started cramping up and I was going to start slowing down until I hear Tiffany and Nathan screaming at us to keep going! After hearing them yell the meters just went quick and we were done.
Ben - 1.27.6 ( I think)
Sean - 1.27.8 ( I think)
Aaron - 1.28.8 My previous PR was 1.39. I was shocked!!

After that, we were all spent and couldn't do much for about 15 minutes. It was great to row with those guys, but I don't want to do it again anytime soon. :)

Food:
7:30 Oatmeal with protein, flax oil, glutamine
9:30 banana / 2 string cheese
11:30 6oz low sodium tuna, 1 tablespoon low fat mayo, 1 tablespoon grainy mustard, 2 pieces of romaine lettuce and 2 pieces of homemade whole wheat bread.
3:00 protein, water, glutamine
4:00 2 pieces of string cheese
8:00 chicken salad
10:30 protein, water

photos and a little fitness

2009-01-15T10:55:00.000-08:00

`So as a few of you know one of my hobbies is photography. I was talking to Matt G. tonight a little about it and made me realize that I haven't been spending much time behind the lens. I thought I would put up a few photos that I took while Shannon and I were in Europe this year. We had such a great time and I love going back through some of these photos and reminiscing. Hopefully someday we will make it back.

I am on my 4th straight day of working out and I am going for 6 this week. I think after this I am going to give my body a rest and cut back to 4 work outs. I think my diet is really helping because my recovery time is really good, my body feels pretty refreshed before the next work out except for a little stiffness in my knees but by the time we finish our warm up that is gone.

Workout:

Skill (5 rounds)

push press /last round was 165 5x

cross chop to halo 35 lbs.

WOD: (3 rounds for time)

run 2x around building

12 db push press 30 lbs

8 burpees

10 Knees to elbows

Time: 14:02

Food:

7:30 3/4 cup oatmeal with protein, flax oil, glutamine, water

10:30 1 banana and 2 string cheese

12:30 Chicken salad, vinaigrette dressing

4:00 Protein, water, glutamine

7:30 Chicken Salad with pecans and apples. 4 oz. frozen yogurt

Power Endurance!

2009-01-14T12:38:00.000-08:00

I have to admit, I saw this workout on the board and was a little worried..especially if you look down and see what I ate for diner at 5:00 and then I worked out at 6:30. But I have to say, I loved that workout. I think that might have been one of the toughest work outs I have done yet at RF. I feel really good and have a lot of energy right now, I am not sure if it is the change in the diet or just pumped from the workout. Either way I feel great!

Workout:
(mini leg circuit - 10 air squats/5 lunges/5 jumping lunges/5 jumping squats)

run around building 2 times
bear crawl the length of the gym
mini leg circuit
25 pull ups
100 Russian twists 16k
100 mountain climbers
mini leg circuit
25 1 arm snatches (each arm) 16k
50 push ups
75 2 hand swings 24k
mini leg circuit
row 100 meters

Time - 27.51

Food:

6:30 1/2 cup oatmeal,glutamine,flax,1/2 scoop protein / 6 egg whites with 1 yolk
9:00 protein, water
11:00 Tuna sandwich made with 6-oz. can low sodium tuna fish, 2 slices whole-wheat bread, 1 Tbsp. fat-free mayo, 2 leaves romaine lettuce.
1:00 protein, water

3:00 banana, 1 string cheese
5:00 8 egg whites and 1 yolk omelet with 1/2 cup raw broccoli,fresh salsa,little bit of cheese,mushrooms
8:00 protein, water

Diet change up

2009-01-13T14:57:00.000-08:00

I am going to experiment with a couple things in my diet the next couple days to try and give myself a little more boost in my workouts. Tina pointed out to me that I am probably not getting enough fat (good fats) in my diet. The only real source I was getting was the flax oil that I was putting in my oatmeal. Which is an excellent source but I was only getting about 15 - 20 grams a day total when I should be getting between 30-35. She was totally right and made a lot of sense, so I am going to try to find some good sources to add through my day. Hopefully it will balance everything out. Thanks for the advice Tina!

I cooked up some Tilapia tonight and I had to share this recipe. Shannon loved it so much that she is putting it on her blog too I think. :) This was very easy to make and it was awesome!!! I really suggest you give this a shot. It took me about 15 minutes to make from start to finish too. We are definitely going to be making this more often.

This will serve 8 people
INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup butter, softened
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon celery salt
2 pounds tilapia fillets

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat your oven's broiler. Grease a broiling pan or line pan with aluminum foil.
2. In a small bowl, mix together the Parmesan cheese, butter, mayonnaise and lemon juice. Season with dried basil, pepper, onion powder and celery salt. Mix well and set aside.
3. Arrange fillets in a single layer on the prepared pan. Broil a few inches from the heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Flip the fillets over and broil for a couple more minutes. Remove the fillets from the oven and cover them with the Parmesan cheese mixture on the top side. Broil for 2 more minutes or until the topping is browned and fish flakes easily with a fork. Be careful not to over cook the fish.

The workout was great today, I am loving the new gym more and more every time I go in there. We did shuttle runs as part of our WOD and all I thought about before doing them were how much I hated them back when I played football in highschool. Well, I ended up liking them a lot during the work out. It was nice being able to sprint in the gym, even though I was trying to keep up with Jami....Man she is fast!

Skill: (did 2 rounds)
Turkish get up /25lb/35lb
Heavy KB swing /26k/28k
Jackknifes - 12
farmers walk with KB 32k/32k

WOD:

4 rounds 40/20 - 90 second rest in between rounds
Shuttle run
rope snaps
heavy jump rope
double kb clean and push press - 22k all 4x
superplanks

Food:
6:30 3/4 cup Oatmeal/protein/flax oil/glutamine
9:30 protein/water
12:30 Med. Salad with balsamic dressing and some frickin awesome olives on it. (good fat) :)
3:00 protein/water
5:00 Broiled Tilapia, 1/2 cup steamed brown rice, 6 stems of asparagus
7:00 protein/water

At least 1 gallon of water.

Front Squats

2009-01-12T18:27:00.001-08:00

Today was my first attempt at doing front squats. It was quite the learning experience, I think I was getting the hang of it by my last set. The last 2 sets Nathan got me to find a good spot for the bar but I have a hard time keeping my left knee from leaning in while I push out of the squat position. I will get it though, my last set felt pretty good. I need to work on opening up my hips too. They have been very tight lately.

The WOD was short but tough, we did 10 minutes of rowing for calories and slam balls rotating every minute. When I started 2 and 1/2 months ago I did a one on one training with Nathan and he had me do rowing and slam ball and if I remember right he had me row 250m and do 10 slam balls.....well I finished the first round of rowing and slam ball and I almost started pukin' so we stopped there. So it was a little gratifying to knock out 10 minutes at a pretty hard pace.

Work out:

Skill
Front Squats 65/95/115/135/135
8 ring rows 5x
5spidermans 5x

WOD

10 minutes - rotate every 1 minute and combine numbers for score
rowing for calories 94
slamball 20 lb ball 104
total 198

Food:

6:30 Oatmeal/flax oil/glutamine/protein
9:00 protein/80z water/glutamine
12:30 Chicken Gyro
3:00 protein/8oz water/glutamine
5:30 4 oz chicken, 1 cup steamed string beans, 1 piece of homemade trail-mix bread
7:00 protein/8oz water/glutamine

The new gym

2009-01-11T07:43:00.000-08:00

I had a lot of fun on Friday helping out with the move. It was great to see how many people helped with the move, I think with that crew we could move my entire house in an hour. It was pretty cool and sad to see how fast we emptied out the old gym. I am going to miss that small space but "Change is Good" and the new place is awesome! I look forward to getting back to the Olympic style lifting again. The only thing I have really done so far is the Dead-lifts so I look forward to learning more.

So last Sunday I got refocused now that the holidays were over and recommitted myself to my nutrition. I had no cheats all week until Saturday which I plan to make that my cheat day. Anyways, I am happy to say that I lost 8 lbs. this week! Obviously that number won't happen every week but it is good to know that the exercise and nutrition lifestyle I am doing will work. I still have about 20 pounds to lose, but I am not worried about the scale. I know if I keep it up, it will fall off.

Worked out Friday and Saturday. I think that marks 8 weeks of working out 5 times a week.

I will get back to recording them on Monday.

Food intake was good. If you look at what I ate on Thursday it is exactly the same for Friday except that I ate Shrimp instead of Chicken.

Saturday my cheat meal was 1 sushi roll and 5 pieces of Tuna sashimi. Other then that, I am pretty much ate the same things as the other days but with no protein drinks as snacks.

Still Learning

2009-01-08T20:59:00.000-08:00

I was getting pretty good at pacing myself during work outs lately.....until today! I am not sure but when I was doing the KB dead lifts and 250m rowing sprint....on my last set I went all out and when I was done rowing I couldn't get off of the rower because my butt muscles cramped up on me. I am guessing between the leg circuit yesterday and then going heavy on the kb lifts and then pushing so hard on the rower my muscles said, that's enough! Then we went to the wheel thing and did leg curls and plank inchworm things on that. By the time I made it to the 3rd station for turkish get ups I started feeling like I could puke if I didn't slow down. I think Nathan has a good knack on picking people out who feel that way. I thought I was looking normal and resting and he walked right over to me and asked if I was going to puke. hahaha He has a gift! :) Anyways, I only completed 2 sets of the 3rd station because I was spent. Great work out though! Love those grinds.

Workout ( I am going to have a hard time remembering this)

Med ball circuit 2x
15 push ups 2x

WOD
Grind
4 rounds of each

double KB deadlift 24k/28k/32k/36k
row 250m

Wheel thingie:
Plank inchworm ( I dont think that is what it is called)
leg curls

3 turkish get ups each side
10 kb plank rows 16k
I only finished 2 rounds of this.

Food

6:30 am oatmeal with protein/flax oil/glutamine
8:30 am 8oz water/protein/glutamine
noon Chicken gyro with light sauce
3:00pm 8oz water/protein/glutamine
5:30 pm 4 oz salmon, 2 cups of steamed veggies, 1/2 cup of steamed brown rice, 1/2 piece of home made jalapeno bread (very good)
8:00 pm 8oz water/protein/glutamine

Kettlebell competition

2009-01-07T20:07:00.000-08:00

So this is what we will all look like if we lift our kettlebells, eat right and take our vitamins right? If anyone does end up like this, please don't come to class in a speedo!!! haha
Anyways, I have really liked working with kettlebells and have started looking into some of these competitions that are held. While they are kind of boring to watch videos of, I am sure actually doing the competing would be a great experience. I would like to try and do a couple competitions someday. There is a lot to learn about techniques and strategy...and not to mention I just need to get stronger.

The gym work out was great tonight. We did every one's favorite thing....Leg Circuit! I have grown to like the leg circuit even though I still struggle through it, I think my form has come a long way. I also know my legs need it, I have always had such weak and scrawny legs.
We also worked on our 1 arm swing, hi-pull, snatch. I moved up to 24k for the first time doing this. It was a big difference and I can tell at that weight you better have your form right or you will feel it.

Work out:
Skill
10 Partner Kettle bell swing - 24k 4x
5 kb swing, hi-pull, snatch - 24k 4x
10 plate squats

WOD
4 rounds
Leg circuit
15 kb swings - 24k
15 pushups
Time - 17.03
Food:

Breakfast - Oatmeal/protein/glutamine and 1 banana
snack - protein and water
Lunch - Subway 6 inch chicken breast sandwich on whole wheat
Snack - protein and water
Dinner - 4 oz chicken/peppers/onions/asparagus

Lots O Water!

rest day

2009-01-06T20:47:00.000-08:00

Not much going on today. In Seattle today...worked, went to a movie, went to dinner and now I am watching the biggest loser and blogging. Man there are some big people on there this season. Maybe I should have held out before losing all my weight and applied for the show. hahaha

No work out today.....rest day

Food

Breakfast - Oatmeal/protein/glutamine
snack - protein and water
lunch - pear salad with grilled chicken and 1 piece of bread
snack - protein and water
dinner - seared ahi/half cup rice and salad with pecans

Made it to the pool

2009-01-05T20:26:00.000-08:00

I had to head up to Seattle today for work. I wanted to find something to do after work while I am up here so I decided to find a swimming pool in the area to give swimming a try. So I found one and went at it for about 30 minutes. Now, I am no Olympic swimmer by far and if I am going to keep doing this I have a lot to learn. But by the end, I was pretty exhausted and felt good. I think I will stick with this while I travel for awhile and see how it goes.

Workout

Skill
5 rounds
5 /1 arm kb clean and push press 22k/22k/28k/32k/32k
weighted lunges / 18lb/18lb/25lb/25lb/25lb
8 ring rows 5x

WOD
30/20/10

25 DB Thrusters
24k 2 hand swing
pushups
Time 10:04

30 minutes of swimming

Food:

6am - Oatmeal/protein/flax oil/glutamine

9am - protein/water

11:30 - Chicken Salad

3pm - protein/water

6pm - Chicken, veggies, fruit

80/20

2009-01-04T11:07:00.000-08:00

You know it was a good week at the gym when you wake up on Sunday morning and just about every muscle in your body is sore. hahaha Well it wasn't quite that bad, but I am still sore from Friday's leg circuit. Then of course on Saturday's partner work out I tried to push pretty hard to keep up with my partner Sean. He was great to work out with and kept pushing me to do more at times when I was feeling sluggish and thought I couldn't push it. Thanks Sean!

So Shannon and I were out with some friends last night and we ran into Tiff and Christina at Bartinis and it was pretty funny because Tiff jokingly asked me how I was going to manage drinking Martinis and watch my calorie intake at the same time. I quickly reverted back to something I heard earlier that day about the 80/20 rule......with a twist. Eat 80% good all the time and 20% of whatever you want the rest. I think I used the whole 20% last night for the whole week! hahaha Actually a friend of mine who is a competitive body builder has lived by eating really good during the week and pick one day to blow it. That doesn't mean go out and gorge until you drop....but if you crave that pizza, burger, etc.... Have it on that day, he said it is really important to do that. I thought he was full of it, I thought I could eat perfect all the time and I found out that is not as easy as it sounds. You need that break to enjoy food, God knows there is so much good food in Portland to enjoy. Oh and Tiff...just in case you were wondering, I did row this morning! hahaha

Work out

Skill
max pull ups - 15 kipping
max push ups - 40

WOD
partner work out with Sean

1500m row(500,500,250,250)
10-1 ladder
push press(30lbs)
mt climbers
box jumps
ring holds for 2min
18:46

Food
Breakfast - oatmeal/flax oil/glutamine/protein
snack - protein/glutamine/water
lunch - San Sai - 1 sushi roll, small greens salad
snack - 2 dot size cupcakes from St. cupcake
There was no real dinner, lets just say from 3pm until 1 am I ate the following,
1 banana
1 slice of pizza
2 Coors light
half of a salad
a few chips with artichoke dip
2 martinis
fruit and cheese fondue
2 pieces of seared ahi tuna

Changes in 2009

2009-01-03T07:08:00.000-08:00

So I have never been one for "New Years Resolutions" but with a name on my blog like "Change is Good" I had to come up with at least an idea of what I want out of this year. Not necessarily goals set in stone, but more of an outline on things I want to accomplish. I stumbled upon this video this morning that I thought was really good and should help when you are setting goals for yourself.

Getting back to these ideas, the gym is a gimme. I am already committed to going to the gym 4-5 times a week and have done so the last 2 months. RF has become an addiction! hahaha So some things I want to do that are fitness related in 09 outside of the gym are...

1. Try new "sports" A few of you have already given me some good ideas. A few that I want to do within the next couple months are snowshoeing and indoor rock climbing.

2. Hiking/backpacking. I want to climb to the top of Mt. St. Helen's and try some challenging hikes like that. I also want to do some easier day hikes with my family and help them stay active.

3. Keep improving the foods I eat and the foods I give my kids.

So that is some basics things that I have been thinking about. Good luck to all of you in 09! Remember...CHANGE IS GOOD!!!

WOD for Jan 2.

20 Heavy 2 hand swing 45lb/24k/28k/24k
row 250m - 4 times

Leg circuit - 4 times
10 jackknives - 4 times

3 turkish get ups - 1 time
10 knees to elbows - 1 time

Food:
Breakfast - Oatmeal with flax oil, glutamine and protein
Snack - protein, glutamine with water.
Lunch - 1 egg with a light english muffin and 1 banana
snack - 2 slices of homemade bread
Dinner - chicken, black beans, corn, cheese over 1 cup of brown rice
snack - small frozen yogurt

Happy New Year / Recipes

2009-01-01T20:40:00.000-08:00

I was watching the video that Tina created of Recreate Fitness and 2008 that she posted to the blog today and it just amazes me how far they have come in basically one year. Since I have only been coming for a little over 2 months it was great to see some of the transformations that people have made from when the started till now. Thank you to Nathan, Tina, Melissa and all the other trainers for the great work outs in 2008 all of you are truly inspirational. I can't wait to see the changes that are in store for me in 2009.

What a way to start off the new year with a great work out. We did the 20/10 work out which is very hard but I really like the format. I am usually absolutely spent by the end of this type of work out and today was no different. My forearms, biceps and shoulders were toast by the end....it was all I could do to just keep a grip on the rings for ring rows. As a matter of fact as I am sitting here typing this I am watching my shoulder have muscle spasms. hahaha

Recipe idea

So I had this idea and I don't know how or if I will keep it up, but I wanted to pass along quick and easy dinner ideas that we eat here at home. I am all about easy and cheap cooking. A lot of what I make at home I kind of just toss things together and most of the time they turn out pretty good and pretty healthy. If any of you have recipes to share, I encourage you to post them on your blogs or pass them on to me, I am always looking for new food ideas at home. So I am going to start this off by posting a meal that I ate a lot of while losing weight.

Main ingredient Shopping List: (serves 2)
Frozen or fresh shrimp ( I use frozen shrimp from Costco )
Frozen or fresh veggies (I use frozen mixed veggies )
Frozen steamer packs of brown rice

What I do is cook my shrimp on a George Foreman grill, if you don't have one you can just add a little bit of olive oil to a fry pan and cook for about 4 minutes on medium heat each side or until pink. Cook 16, that will be 8 for each person which equals 4oz of shrimp for each person. (Also, if you don't like shrimp, use chicken.)

We steam our veggies but you can buy some good frozen steamer veggie packs now that you can just throw in the microwave. You want to end up with about 2 - 3 cups of veggies to split.

Same with the brown rice, just throw it in the microwave it comes out great.

When the shrimp and veggies are done and hot, put them in a mixing bowl and add 2 teaspoons of Curry powder and 1 teaspoon of black pepper and mix it all together like you are tossing a salad. Then put a cup of rice on each plate and split up the mix. I like mine over the rice. Well that's it. As you can see everything is basically just heating up the food and serving it. From start to finish it takes about 10 to 15 minutes to make. This meal gives you a good balance of protein, starch, and vegetables and is low in Sodium. Let me know what you think.

Tori Allen

2008-12-30T19:56:00.000-08:00

I don't know a lot about climbing, but seeing what this girl can do at such a young age is incredible. I am guessing she is the Tiger Woods of Woman's climbing. I am sure that some of you who climb already know of her. I was just blown away how fast and fearless she is at such a young age.

Back to the real world....I woke up this morning with some tight shoulder muscles. (You know that great feeling you get when you know you worked out hard. ) :) After my work out today, I was feeling pretty loose and then after about an hour in front of the computer at work, somebody walked in my office and when I turned my head to talk to them I heard about 10 loud popping noises come from my neck. It sounds like a Chiropractor was doing an adjustment on my neck. The guy that walked in even heard it from across the room and just laughed. I think I am due for a massage. Anyone have any suggestions of good masseuses in the area?

Workout

Skill
Weighted pushups 10@10#/10@15#/10@15#/10@15#
Dips 4 sets of 5
Lsit for 30 seconds / 3 times

WOD 45/15 for 3 rounds
planks
double kb clean / 16k
renegade lunge / 35#
side to side jumps
xchop to halo / 16k

At home - Rowed 5 20 sec sprint as hard as I could and rested for 10 sec. and then did the same thing with jump rope

Food
Breakfast - oatmeal with protein and flax oil
snack - protein and water
Lunch - 2 egg veggie omelet with fruit on side
snack - protein with water
Dinner - Chicken, corn, black bean, salsa thing that Shannon made with Brown rice. (very good)
snack - 1 skinny cow
Good water intake, about 64oz

Calorie intake

2008-12-29T17:53:00.000-08:00

Through this whole weight loss venture I have been going through, I have never tracked how many calories I intake in a day. So this morning I decided to try and track how many calories and how much Protein I eat in a day. So by my best calculations I ate about 1500 calories and 150-170 grams of protein. I eat a lot of the same things every day, with small adjustments here and there, so if I can stay around that number I will be pretty happy. I am kind of in a happy place with my diet right now, not necessarily because I am losing weight, but because my recovery time between work outs and my energy level is way up from what it was a month ago. So I am going to stick to what I am doing right now with my diet and hopefully the improvements will keep coming.

Work Out:

Skill - 5/5

dkb push press 35 lbs./ 24k / 24k / 28k / 32k (best I remember) I had issues with my left arm locking out the 32k.

pull ups (kipping)

wod

3 1 minute rounds/rest 3 minutes at the end of all 3

2 hand kb swing 24k

ball slam / 20 lbs.

db thrusters 25 lbs. I started at 30 but had horrible form, so I dropped down to 25 and tried to get a better squat.

Total reps 66/68/72 (best I can remember)

Food

Breakfast - Oatmeal with protein and flax oil

snack- protein with water

Lunch - Lettuce and chicken

Snack - protein with water

Dinner - taco salad made at home/ grapes

Lots of water!

Shopping Day

2008-12-28T22:07:00.000-08:00

No work outs to speak of today unless you want to call side stepping through a busy wall a work out. :) The kids wanted to spend some of their Christmas money so we first headed down to 23rd where my youngest found a hat she had to have at the Dapper Capper or something like that. Then off to Wa. Square mall, the place was a mad house and the busiest store we walked into was the Lego store, the line to the register was to the entrance of the store when we got there. My youngest daughter totally got into Lego's this past month which is cool for me because I loved Lego's as a kid and she lets me help. hahaha My middle daughter found a game she wanted for her new DS and found other things she wanted but couldn't stand to part with her money. LOL

I am hoping to get out and do some hiking and photography soon.....maybe this week since I will have some days off. I will post some here if I do.

Breakfast - Oatmeal with protein and flax oil

Snack - protein and water

Lunch - Laughing Planet southwest burrito

Snack - Jamba Juice

Dinner - Oatmeal with protein

Saturday's Partner work out

2008-12-27T22:13:00.000-08:00

It was a fun work out today, I was partnered up with my wife Shannon for the first time and I was very impressed to see the big jumps she has made since starting her Recreate a month ago. I kept telling her to slow down and pace herself, but she didn't really need it, she did an awesome job pushing herself. In fact I don't think she would have been able to finish the work out a month ago. It is great to see how far she has come and how much she enjoys working out now....I am very proud of her.

I felt really good today after the work out. Around 4 pm I decided to do some rowing sprints and jump roping to kill some time. Nathan taught me how to set up time intervals on the rower, that is so much better then trying to sit there for 30 minutes and row.

Shannon and I went to Grand Central Bowl and played some pool for a few hours tonight and was able to avoid eating their awesome nachos! I think I am getting back on track...hopefully!

Breakfast - Oatmeal with protein and Flax oil

Snack - 1/2 protein bar

Lunch - 6 oz chicken, 1 cup of brown rice, very small salad

Snack - protein and water

Dinner - 5 oz chicken, 1 cup of veggies

Drank plenty of water

Back to "Normal"

2008-12-26T19:53:00.000-08:00

As much as I enjoy the holidays I am glad that they are pretty much over and things can get back to normal. Since I was in Seattle for 3 days and pretty much eating what others made (which was delicious) or eating out, I really felt like crap. I was getting headaches every day, which I used to get all the time when I was eating bad and overweight. I used to make sure I had Excedrin with me all the time back then. Today I ate good and prepared or ate the food I am used to. I love my oatmeal every morning!!! :)

It was also great to get back to Recreate Fitness. I hadn't worked out there since Monday and I was really missing the place. It was a great day to come back too, we did a 6 round 20/10 workout and I really enjoyed it. It was very challenging as all the workouts were but really liked the format of this workout.

Skill was 5 rounds:
10 Heavy Med ball cleans. (I got to 60 lbs.)
5 pull ups.

Work out was 6 rounds of 20/10
Row
Med ball cleans
Rope
push ups

Food:

Breakfast - Oatmeal with protein
Snack - Half or protein bar
Lunch- Chicken/Fruit Salad with minimal dressing
Dinner- 4oz shrimp, 1 1/2 cup veggies
Snack- Protein drink

Rope Climb

2008-12-23T22:37:00.000-08:00

Since I was in Seattle still today, I went to Rainier Crossfit early this this morning for a work out. Great gym and very friendly people there.

The work out was 3 rounds;

Row 500m
25 push presses @ 65 lbs
1 rope climb

I had never done the rope climb so Kurtis (Rainier owner) showed me a few different techniques on how to do it. I got about half way up on the rope before I started losing my grip and decided to come back down. He showed me a modified rope climb which consisted of me laying on my back on the floor and pulling myself up with my arms and then lowering myself back down. I think when Recreate moves into the new gym they are going to have climbing ropes eventually. I am looking forward to that, as hard as climbing that rope is....I can see that it is one of those things that will be rewarding to know that you can do it.

Food Today, lets just say too much....we started our 3 days of Christmas today and even though I did not eat as much as I used to and made better choices I still ate bad!

Seattle

2008-12-22T21:23:00.000-08:00

Well believe it or not, we braved the "blizard" and drive up to Seattle today. Everything just came together and we made the drive. I am glad we did because it gives us a little time to relax and get ready for the 3 days of Christmas ( hitting other family members holiday parties) I am going to visit a Crossfit facility in Puyalup for a work out in the morning. Hopefully the roads won't be too icy to make the trip out there.

We made it in for the 7:30 class this morning, I thought for sure it was going to be cancelled but I am so glad they didn't. (Thanks Nathan and Tina) I know it was getting pretty bad after we left though, the roads were getting really slick.
WO was a Mini Cindy ( 12 minutes) I ended up tearing the skin on my palm on the last set of pullups. Other then it stinging a bit I am sure it will be fine.

Breakfast - oatmeal with protein
Snack- eggs and potatoes
Lunch- Fresco Burrito from taco bell
Snack-a few crackers and M&M's on the drive up
Dinner- Chicken Salad with flat bread

Ice Ice Baby

2008-12-21T20:23:00.000-08:00

You know you were humming this song or your sang it when someone was mentioning all the ice we have today. hahaha What can I say about today? That was pretty crazy having that glaze of ice over all that snow from the day before. I know I almost landed on my butt a few times when we went out. Other then that, today was a rest day and boy did I need it. I woke up this morning and my shoulders and calves were so tight that I was moaning getting out of bed. My calves haven't been this sore since I started Recreate 2 months ago. Love that burn!!!!! I was just glad it came when I had a rest day to recuperate.

Breakfast- Oatmeal with protein

Snack - Protein with water

Lunch - Tuna Fish sandwich, Banana

Dinner - 4 oz Chicken and Broccoli

Water intake was good.....I got at least 1 gallon in.

Loved the snow!

2008-12-20T22:07:00.000-08:00

It was great seeing all the snow today. We got about 8 inches at our house and it was surprisingly easy to get around town today. I went in for the early work out today just in case the 10:30 class got canceled because of the snow.

Skill was max pull ups. I think I got 13, which totally wasted me for the partner work out. My shoulders were wasted after doing the pull ups and the medicine ball clean and press yesterday I think. When we started the partner work out and I got to push ups, it felt like somebody put 50 extra pounds on me. It was all I could do to get 15 push ups. I made it through the work out, but damn it was tough.

Breakfast- Oatmeal with protein
Snack- Protein with water
Lunch- 1 Sushi roll fromSanSai
Snack- Cupcake
Dinner- Pizza
Snack- Almond m&ms

Breaking PR's

2008-12-19T21:31:00.000-08:00

Skill today was 6 rounds of Medicine Ball Cleans and 5 ring rows. I matched my old PR but with not as much trouble as before. 5/50, 5/60, 5/70, 5/80, 5/90, 5/100.

Then we started off our WO with a 500m sprint on the rower. My old PR was 1.42. I rowed a 1.39 today. That was tough!!! Then I worked on pull ups and dips. My old PR was 5 good pull ups. I did 8 today. So, I was pretty excited, these are little steps but I am psyched to keep seeing progress.

Breakfast-Oatmeal with protein

Snack- protein with water

Lunch- Pear Salad and veggies with hummus

Snack- 1 cupcake from St. cupcake. (yummm)

Snack- 4 salted carmel candies

Dinner - 1 bowl of chicken noodle soup with a piece of bread.

Snack- 4 miniture york patties.

Do I even have to mention that I feel like crap after all that sugar!

Looking forward to the Saturday work out!

ADVICE NEEDED!

2008-12-18T20:11:00.000-08:00

Lets Get Physical!

Now that I am starting to get more in shape I have been thinking of taking up some kind of sport or something to keep me active next year and will be fun and rewarding. I started running as a sport last year but found out after about 3 months that my body is not made for that. I am still too heavy and my knees were hurting when I started running 7 miles 3 times a week.

There are so many active people at Recreate Fitness, I was hoping that some of you might throw me some suggestions of something physical or athletic to work towards next year. There aren't too many things I won't try, so let me know some things you have done or are doing and maybe an accomplishment I can work towards. Just leave a comment on here maybe and let me know. THANKS!!!!

No work out today. (rest day) Did 500m sprint on rower 4 times.

Breakfast-oatmeal with protein, 1 banana
Snack- 1 crossaint
Lunch- Laughing Planet Southwest Burrito
Snack-2 string cheese, 5 triscuts
Dinner- Chicken Salad with fruit. hummus with bread.

Hash in Portland

2008-12-17T17:48:00.000-08:00

Such a clever name for a restaurant in a town filled with hippies. hahaha Here is their website HASH I stumbled upon this place on my way home from work today and decided to stop in for a late lunch. I had their zucchini press sandwich that was very good. They use fresh sustainable ingredients in their foods and make all their own sauces and breads. If you ever want to get out of the city and try something new, I would suggest trying them out. I am thinking of going back for breakfast this weekend because their breakfast menu looked amazing.

At the gym....
4 x
20 squats
10 lunges
10 jumping lunges
10 jumping squats
then for fun, throw in 10 atomic pushups!

This was part of our workout today and as hard as it is, I do enjoy doing it. I think this is the 3rd time doing the leg circuit and I can see huge improvements from the first time I attempted it. This is one of those workouts that you feel for awhile. :)

Not the greatest day of eating...

Breakfast- Oatmeal with protein
Snack- protein with 8 oz water
Lunch- zucchini sandwich with fruit
Snack- 100 calorie pretzel snack, 15 triscuit thins, 1 string cheesse
Dinner- 5 oz chicken, 1 cup of peppers, 1 cup brown rice,
Snack - (my boss sent me some harry and david chocolates) 1 truffle and 3 oz of chocolate covered cherries. (UGH!!! Tis the season though.)

Got it

2008-12-16T19:56:00.000-08:00

I picked up the rower tonight! I am not sure I am going to get a chance to row tonight at this rate, my kids and their friends have been rowing for the past hour. We will see how they feel tomorrow. :)
The kids school is closed again tomorrow, at this rate they are going to have a 3 week vacation. We will see what we get tonight, I have heard anything from rain, sleet, dusting of snow, 6 inches of snow, ice storm, snow for 4 days.....I guess we won't know anything until it happens.

Breakfast-Oatmeal with protein
Snack- protein with 12 oz water
Lunch- Lamb Gyro
Snack - protein with 8 oz water, 10 mini race cakes
Dinner - 6 inch Turkey Sandwich from Subway.

What a Concept

2008-12-15T16:43:00.000-08:00

Thank God the roads cleared up enough for me to make it to the gym this morning. Poor Shannon would have had to suffer through me sulking all day if I would have missed my workout. hahaha The workout part of class was rowing for calories and Slam Ball. Great work out in such a short amount of time.

For the past couple weeks I have been browsing Craigslist for a Concept 2 rower for my home and I am so excited that I have found one in excellent condition for a good price. My evenings after work have been pretty uneventful since winter has rolled around and I have been itching to do some sort of workout instead of sitting around watching tv and feeling lazy. I should be picking it up within the next couple days. YEAH!!!!

Breakfast- Oatmeal with protein
Snack- protein with 12 oz water
Lunch- tunafish sandwich ( I use 1 can low sodium tuna with 1 tablespoon of lowfat mayo)
Snack- protein with 8oz water
Dinner- (Panera) Chicken Noodle Soup
Snack - 8 Almond M&Ms 4 oz of frozen yogurt

Snow Day

2008-12-14T16:54:00.000-08:00

This picture is one I took just outside my home this morning. We ended up with about 4 inches. I like editing some landscape photos to look more retro.....like I did with this one. Some people like it and some don't but it kind of takes me back to my childhood and the photos that my parents had in their photo albums.

I love seeing all the snow but now I am wondering what it is going to be like tomorrow and if the gym will be open in the morning. I guess that shows how addicted I am to working out. My main concern about tomorrow is whether or not I will make it to the gym. hahaha

Breakfast - Oatmeal with protein

Snack - Max Gourmet protein with 8 oz water.

Lunch - Tuna fish sandwich

Snack - handful of raisins, hand full of small crackers

Dinner - 2 pieces of pizza

Snack - Protein Shake

Partner Work Outs

2008-12-13T18:41:00.000-08:00

I have just recently started doing the Saturday partner work outs, I think this is my third class. All I have to say is that I am so spent after these work outs because I push myself so hard, so that I don't slow my partner down. Matt and I were talking about this after the work out today and we were talking about the dead lifts we did yesterday and he was saying how he was pushing himself to lift as much as John and I. Well at the same time all I was doing was trying to keep up with him. I guess that is why we both killed our old PR's. I have never thought of myself as a very competitive person, but I am finding now that when I see people going heavy or putting up a fast time on a work out, it just makes me want to push harder and get to that level. After a couple small scares this last week that could have lead to injuries I know that I need to slow down and really work on form and technique.

Breakfast - oatmeal with protein

Lunch - San Sai (Best Sushi I have found) 1 Sushi roll and small Oriental Salad.

Dinner - California Pizza Kitchen 1/2 of their Waldorf Chicken Salad with dressing on side. (Used very little)

Snack- 1 string cheese, 1 yogurt, 8oz of water with protein

3 bottles of 16 oz water.

Weigh In / Maxed out!

2008-12-12T10:09:00.000-08:00

I have decided to make Friday's the day I weigh myself to see what kind of progress I make during the week. Now, I know that it is not all about the numbers I see on the scale right now. I am gaining muscle through these workouts so I know that I need to tell myself that it is ok if I don't see a smaller number on the scale every week. I am more concerned about looking at the scale and seeing a 5 lb increase because it seems to head that direction every time I look at junk food. :)

So in September of 2007 I weighed 350 lbs. (I don't recognize that guy anymore) Last Friday (12/5) I weighed 231.6. This morning I weighed in at 228 even. I was very strict on my food choices this week and it paid off. My big problem is snacking after dinner and I didn't do any of that this week. Mainly because I didn't want to get on here and admit to it! hahaha I am hoping to get down to 225 by Christmas and stay there for the rest of the year, because I know that it will be tough during Christmas with all the great food my family cooks during the holidays.

We did MAX dead lifts tonight at the gym. Last week I maxed out at 3 reps @ 305. So I walked in there hoping that I could get 330 and if I am lucky get 350. Well, I got to 375 on my last rep!!! I was pretty excited except for the fact that it was the ugliest single rep I have ever done. haha Everyone was breaking their PR's tonight it was a lot of fun. Congratulations to Matt C. for lifting 400! He shattered his old PR.

Breakfast - Oatmeal with protein

Snack - 1 scoop max gourmet protein with 8 oz water

Lunch - Chicken Gyro with light sauce and a banana

Snack - Apple and 1 scoop max gourmet protein with 8 oz water

Dinner - 4 oz Shrimp, 1 cup mixed veggies, 1 cup Brown rice

6 or 7 16 oz bottles of water

Work out

Max Deadlifts

Free time, worked on pull ups mainly.

Organic Beer?

2008-12-11T19:35:00.000-08:00

I am not sure if many of you have heard of Hopworks Urban Brewery but I have gone there twice for lunch now and the salads are very good. The vegetables taste like they are fresh out of a garden. I highly recommend the hummus appetizer, it comes with a little bread and a lot of fresh vegetables, it was delicious. Here is their website Hopworks I wish there were more restaurants that were more health conscious like this one.

Melissa was our instructor at the gym tonight and did a great job. I hope that Nathan and Tina could relax on their vacation knowing that they have great trainers to support them. Maybe they won't wait a whole year to take another day off. :)

Breakfast - oatmeal with protein

Snack - 1 scoop max gourmet protein with 8 oz water

Lunch - 1/4 cup hummus with veggies and a small chicken salad with minimal vinaigrette dressing.
Snack - 1 scoop max gourmet protein with 8 oz water

Dinner - oatmeal with protein

Work out:

Skill

7 minutes of kettle bell snatches

Work out (grind)

10 Mr. Spectaculars
20 ring swings
4 times

20 kettle bell swings
250m row
4 times

Rest Day ( I hate rest day)

2008-12-10T17:27:00.000-08:00

My work out routine right now is working out 5 days and rest 2 a week. Today was one of those rest days. :( I know that rest is key because your muscles need time to recover, but I wish I was in the gym instead.

Breakfast - 3/4 cup oatmeal with protein powder

Snack - 1 scoop Max Gourmet protein with 8 oz water

Lunch - Small chicken salad with minimal (maybe 1 tsp) of balsamic vinaigrette dressing

Snack - 1 scoop Max Gourmet protein with 8 oz water

Dinner - 4 oz of grilled chicken, 1 cup of veggies, 1/2 cup of squash, 1/2 cup of brown rice.

Half Day

2008-12-09T19:09:00.000-08:00

I was trying to burn up a little vacation time today and ended up only working a half day. (Sweet) I was getting a little bored at home though and was itching to get active and decided to go outside and practice some double unders. I am getting them but having a hard time putting a string of them together. I am hoping to buy a Concept 2 rower after Christmas and use that when I feel the urge to do something physical.

I said I was going to add some short and long term goals to today's post. Well I came up with a couple short term ones, but still need some ideas for long term goals. So here is what I want to do by January 1, 10 pull ups straight without dropping off the bar and or 50 push ups.
Right now, I can do 5 pull ups and I can do 30 push ups.

Breakfast - 3/4 cup oatmeal with protein

Snack - 1 scoop max gourmet protein with 8 oz water

Lunch - Subway flatbread chicken sandwich with veggies and minimal sweet onion sauce.

Snack - Apple and 1 string cheese

Dinner - 4 - 5 oz of shrimp and 1 cup of steamed broccoli

Water - 7 - 8 16 oz bottles

Great work out today, it was just what I needed.....very aerobic. The first couple times I did some private sessions with Nathan I almost got sick and we are not even talking full work outs. I think the first work out he had me do was row 250m, 12 wall balls, 12 ball slams 4 times and I don't think I even made it through the first round and had to go outside because I thought I was going to puke! So it has been a few weeks since I have felt sick during a work out so I decided to test myself today on our last round and see if I could go all out and not get sick. The good news is I didn't get sick, but for about 30 minutes afterward my stomach was not happy! hahaha I guess I better keep to pacing myself for awhile longer. :)

Workout:

Skill was:

10 weighted push-ups
5 weighted pull-ups
5 ring dips

Workout was:

40 seconds on/ 20 seconds off

row
rope snap
bear crawl
jumping pull-up

Starting off on the wrong foot

2008-12-08T19:40:00.000-08:00

As far as my eating went today, I did good and am happy about my choices.

Breakfast - Oatmeal with 1 scoop of MaxPro Protein

Snack - 1 scoop of ISO-Protein

Lunch - Small pear salad with Chicken

Snack - 1 scoop of Max Gourmet with 8 oz of water (protein/carb replacement)

Dinner - Large salad with chicken - minimal homemade dressing (basalmic vinegar, olive oil, dijon mustard, minced garlic)

Water - approx. 7 / 16 oz bottles.

1 hour of work at the gym...here is where I had a little scare. We were doing lunges with kettlebells in the clean position and as I went down on my left leg I got a sharp pain through my thigh. I was fine to finish the work out and forgot about it. Well about 3 hours later when I was getting out of my chair at work I felt the pain again. It hurts to the touch mainly, I am sure I just have a small tear in my muscle and will have to watch it as I go.

Work out was:

Skill:
5 rounds of

5 - 1 arm kettlebell push press
8- ring rows
5- spidermans

Workout was:
5 rounds

20 seconds of each exercise
clean
hi-pull
lunge
push press
front squat
row

rest 2 minutes between rounds

The Big Idea!

2008-12-08T08:36:00.000-08:00

So back in September 2007 I started losing weight by joining LA Weightloss. The plan was easy to follow and with the support of my family and friends I was able to lose 125 pounds so far. Last month LA Weighloss closed their doors here in Portland, but thankfully I think they have taught me enough to keep losing the weight on my own. I still have 30 or so pounds I want to lose and am very confident I will do so, even though I haven't weighed that much since I was 16 years old.
In October I started working out at RecreateFitness here in Portland and have found myself addicted to the work outs we do there. The owners and trainers are amazing and the results I am seeing so far in such a short amount of time have me convinced that I am in the right place. I am sure you wil be reading more about these workouts as I go along.
So as I go along here, I am going to try and post what I eat every day (which may be a lot of the same food) and a brief look at my work outs. I need to come up with some short term goals and long term goals to shoot for as I move ahead. I will try and have those set by tomorrow.

Peace out!