concretecavewoman

April 23 Summary Life took over Monday night, ended up staying up WAY too late, missed workout in the morning, worked late at the office, boooooo. Fortunately today is going much better. Food B: coffee with heavy cream, 1/2 oz almonds L: bad stomach ache >.< had a protein bar and a piece of dark chocolate D: Half a smoothie with mango and protein powder, stomach was so fussy I couldn't drink the whole thing. 3 slices of bacon, a bunch of raw veg and zucchini hummus. Staying up late makes me queasy the next day for some reason (weird, I know) so food just wasn't seeming very appetizing. 1280 cals, 80F, 80C, 70P Lifts Nothing, boooooo. Log Done! 2/35 Life Tasks Nada

April 22 Summary Food B: coffee with coconut oil and grassfed butter (not quite bulletproof amounts, about half) L: 8 oz of homemade paleo carnitas, 1/4 c guacamole D: 1 cup coconut skyr (Icelandic strained yogurt), 1.5 c strawberries. 2 oz kale and chicken sausage, an egg, 2 slices bacon, a big helping of jalapeno sauerkraut, and 3 dates I think I was pretty low on intake. Only 1460 calories, 90F, 80C, 85P. That coffee w/coconut oil is a wee bit too filling. Lifts Strength: EMOM 1 squat clean, 1 hang clean @ 75lbs, for 6 minutes WOD: 5 min AMRAP - 5 push press @ 55lb, 5 front squat @ 55lb, 5 Toes to Bar 1 min rest 5 min AMRAP - 30 jump rope, 10 burpees Total reps: 143 Log Done! 1/35 Life Tasks Got renter's insurance changed, -and- snagged a discount on car insurance, score!

Yay, great challenge! Kudos on all of the organization that you've done thus far, and the great strides in mindful eating. Are you relocating? Totally agree on the space as a forcing function concept. I used to live in a micro apartment (< 150sq ft) and it MADE me organize (a little too much if you ask me). Not to mention that when there's less space, there's less inclination to spend money on stuff that wouldn't fit in your home to begin with! On the topic, here is a super cool documentary on tiny houses:

Thanks! I think 5 CF is going to be more of a target than a goal. If I get 4 workouts plus a run a week, I'll be very happy. Yeah, I think that sometimes a little goals/challenge break is good for the mind, especially if life is busy. You should do eeeeeeeet! It's still not -that- far away, yeah? Maybe a 40 min drive for you? I figure I'm totally gonna embarrass myself with all of those insanely strong people, but well, kinda feel like it's an opportunity right in my backyard, so why not? Haha, probably not going to do too many carbs, just whatever feels natural, like, some sweet potato or fruit on the plate with each meal but not going to go out of my way to eat carbs unless I'm feeling really tired. I've been carb overloading lately, so I think a brief cutback is probably a good thing. Oh dude, this is my life. Scene, Taking Ripley on walk: Anonymous Passerby: "Squeeeeeee! Look it's Ripley!!! Hi Ripley!!!!" Ripley: <excitable jumping> Me: "Hi" AP: (continues looking at Ripley) "...<mumble>Hi Ripley's mom</mumble>.... Ripley!!!! Hi Ripley!" Ripley: <dog>"I love everyone and everyone loves meeeeeeee!"</dog> AP: "Ripley is the cutest dog ever!!!!!!! I'm gonna give Ripley a hug!!!! Yay, Ripley!!!! Ok bye Ripley!!!!!" Huzzah! Is it scotch-o'clock already? Thanks! Yeah I'm hoping that tracking will expose underlying aspects of my training/eating that I might not have noticed otherwise, or interesting correlations. Hmmm makes me think I should track sleep quality too.

A week late to this challenge start. I've been out of town on vacation for most of the last week, and now I'm back to civilization and ready to get rolling. I skipped the last challenge in part to refocus and experiment with a few ideas for my health and fitness. One of them, the idea around which I'm centering this challenge, is that more data is way more better. I'm tracking just about everything, in hopes that tracking will trigger those not-so-subtle mental mechanisms into making good choices. I've been doing this for a few weeks and seeing some good changes. For the challenge, here is the list of items I am tracking, and their most recent data points (except nutrition ones, which aren't really start/finish data points): Weight: 158.5 Waist: 28 Hip: 42.25 Squat: 120 Deadlift: 170 OHP: 75 Bench: 100 Clean and Jerk: 100 Snatch: 70 Run Distance: 9.3 mi Pace: 11:10 (trail) On a daily basis, I will also capture: Calories Protein Carbs Fat Paleo Score (a measure of how adherent I was in any given day, normalized to 100. Will use for correlational purposes) Workout (1 or 0) Steps walked For this challenge my goals are -- Data Points: Food Eat healthy stuff and write it down. Not holding myself to a Whole30-style Paleo, just a "C'mon, you know what is and what isn't good for you" paleo. So if the occasional greek yogurt makes it on to my plate, I'm not going to flip. (+2 CON +2 DEX) Data Points: Lifts I've been doing more crossfit than pure lifting lately, but I still feel all warm and fuzzy about the Warriors, so I'm sticking to it. Hit my 5 crossfit/lifting workouts per week and one long run. (+2 STR +2 DEX) Feed the Data Monster: Log Write down all those things I listed above every day (except for measurements, which are weekly) (+4 WIS) Zero it Out: Life There are an assortment of tasks I'll need to take care of in the next several weeks. They are: - Get ready to move (packing oh noes!) - Actually move (lease was up and we decided to relocate way closer to my office. Like.... next door! No more commuting, hooray!) - Get unpacked in the first week at new apartment - Sign up for a CSA for the summer - Book plane tickets for my big bad end of year vacation - Get renter's insurance updated - Attend one of the drop-in LBEB training sessions - they recently posted about these on their facebook page. Twice a week anyone can drop in for a LBEB strongman/lifting class. Given that I JUST FREAKING REALIZED that their gym is oh... TWO BLOCKS from my apartment, I did a mega-facepalm and declared that I simply must go there before I move. Don't care if I'm weak as a kitten and will totally embarrass myself. (+3 WIS)Also, thanks Laura for reminding me about the challenge a few weeks ago! And lastly, obligatory puppy photo: Ripley ready to go to puppy daycare.

- Gut check any goals that you've set up for the week/month/year. Review the list and assess progress. - Write a letter to a friend, a real one (real friend, real letter, real paper). - Clean baseboards. Seriously, clean baseboards just change the feel of a room.

The people I know who work from home full-time spent several years at their company before they received that degree of flexibility. My experience in this industry is that fulltime virtual work is rare unless you're self-employed or a contractor. Do you already have some experience in dev or test? If not, you can check out some of the websites that act as job boards for small code projects. It's one way to build the resume and be able to work at home. Is there something barring you from relocating to a tech center or larger city?

First recipe for the paleo challenge: Sweet potato-stuffed trotters with duck fat fried shallots (pardon the terrible phone camera picture)

Week 5 Summary Hooray, I feel very good about this week. I hit almost all of my workouts, eating was very clean, and my performance is definitely improving. I think I need to run more 5ks if I plan to really ratchet up the pace, so that's a target for this week: shorter, faster runs as opposed to long slow distance. Almost all of my small tasks are done, the only thing that's left is the revamp of my entryway space, so that should be finished by the end of the week. Crossfit: 3/4 B Run: 2/2, one 5miler and one 8.7 mi trail run A Pullups: 4/5 up to 45 sec on the hang B Little things: almost complete! AMetrics: Weight: 153.5 -> 155 +1.5lb Hmm, not sure what's up with that. I did eat like a beast after my Saturday run. I'd care, except measurements are down, so I'm fine with that! Waist: 29.5 -> 28 1/8 -1 3/8" Hip: 41.5 -> 40 7/8 -5/8" 5k Time: 28:30 -> 29:00 +:30s I haven't been focusing on this like I need to. Moar 5ks! Long run distance: 5.1 mi -> 8.7 mi +3.6mi Weekly Grade: B+

Thanks! It's taken about two months to build up some strength on the big hills. When I was first on the trails, even a little 100' hill demolished me. Now I'm taking a few that are .25-.5 mi. And I agree with goodwince, being competitive would make you excellent for crossfit Gracias! I'm hoping to put it all together late this week, not that im a huge fan of IKEA's death-by-allen-wrench (also have to wait for the framed piece to get finished). Really looking forward to having this project done. Oh yeah, the avatar. I was using a 3+ year old gravatar and thought I should replace it with something more recent, and then totally forgot, whoops

Summary 2/8 & 2/9 Crossfit 3/4 Running 2/2: 8.7 miles in some nearby mountains. About 1500' of gain, 10lb pack. Took about 2:10. I'm feeling much stronger on the really steep hills Pullups 4/5 Little Things - Went to Ikea to get the last components for my entryway project. Now just need to put it all together!

Thanks! Yeah after being all tired from the run the rope just looked unfathomable. Fortunately I came home and ate half a chicken. I'm sure you could pull off crossfit! We have people of all ages in the class I go to. In fact, we all got shown up on the rope climb by a middle aged lady (and also by a kid half my age, le sigh). Hooray! I'm heading to the butcher shop today to pick up bones for the stock and a couple of trotters for trotters stuffed with potato. Thanks! I swear the trick for me was just a good night of sleep on Sunday. Everything else fell into place. My sunday nights are sacred now. Hopefully she likes the recipe!

Summary 2/7 Crossfit, at work early, home early, cooked dinner, chillaxed with pup. Crossfit: 3/4 Woo! Squats 35/5 55/5 65/5 75/5 85/5 90/5 110/3 110/3 WOD: 800m run 10 power cleans (55lb) 1 rope climb 400m run 10 power cleans 1 rope climb 400m run 12:45 Rope climbs were not awesome as I haven't done them before in the context of any other workout. I can climb a rope, but not after running 800m, so my attempts got me about 12' off the ground. I think I'll make a point to practice getting on the rope faster. Run 1/2. Long run is Saturday and I'm aiming for 10mi Pullups: 4/5 check! Other things: Woo woo, jsut got notification that the check cleared and my car is PAID OFF. That means I am *drumroll* debt free! Food: Like whoa, I wanted to eat all the things today. Managed to keep it healthy, fortunately! Breakfast: 2 egg omelet with loads of veg Snack: lara bar and 7 brazil nuts Lunch: 7 oz tri tip, 1/2 avocado, apple Dinner: half a roasted chicken (a wee one, whole foods is now selling 100% pasture raised birds, so this guy topped out at maybe 2.5 lbs). Half a sweet potato steamed, 3 c of salad with 2 tbs thai almond dressing, an orange, and 4 dates.

This made me lollercakes. It also made me think of this kstar video.

Thanks! This week is feeling wicked good, hurrah! The thai dressing recipe can be found here. It's not super strict Whole30, but you could omit the miso in favor of salt and ditch the agave altogether (I just use very little of both) and I love that it keeps in the fridge for weeks. The pork broth I buy from a local ramen shop that also serves konnyaku noodles so I can happily eat there while my friends slurp the glutinous variety. As part of my gym's 30 day challenge we have to post our own recipes each week. I actually have my own recipe for tonkotsu broth, so I'll be writing that up and taking pictures soon. Now go eat! Prock (v.): To rock all the PRs. usage: "I just procked the hell outta those deadlifts, brohim!"

Ugh, sweets, terrible terrible sweets. I definitely follow the same pattern of sweets-as-reward. I think maybe the trick is to recognize that point right before feeling overwhelmed (I've been experimenting with this as well). For example, I sometimes work very late into the evening, even though I know it will throw off the rest of the night, and usually every day thereafter for the week (get home late, don't have time to pack lunch or get my workout clothes for the next day, get to bed late, sleep in, miss workout, feel bad for missing workout, eat chocolate, wash rinse repeat). So now I'm trying to prevent that situation from happening, rather than getting into the situation and then dipping the shame-spiral in a chocolaty coating. Then again, I have -no- idea how difficult it is to manage fitness and good eating habits with kids, so props to you for making it happen! Are you doing the 21 day sugar detox? And kudos on the recent lifts

Summary 2/6 Up early, went for a run, work (another productive day, hooray!), groceries, and then home. Have to admit I skipped a bunch of errands after work because I wanted to just get home and eat/stretch/sleep. Crossfit: 2/4 Run 1/2: 4.7 mi in 52:00. The first 5k was @ 9:30, then did a short recovery jog followed by 3 hill repeats. After all the weekend trail running I've been doing, the hills were super easy! Pullups 3/5 check! Little things, nothing here today.Food Breakfast: 2 big cups of pork broth. not really a breakfast, but post run I wasn't quite hungry Lunch: 7 oz braised beef roast in adobo, 1/2 an avocado. paleo bar Snack: 10 almonds Dinner: 3 cups of salad in a thai-almond dressing, 1 huge steamed sweet potato with 1 tbs ghee, 1.5 oz salami Snack: 1 banana with 2 tbs coconut milk

Just some food for thought, here is an interesting article on the myriad reasons that women need femoral fat.

Sold plenty of cookies back in the day. Now, I'm very glad that they have the donation option, so when the sales sheet makes its way around the office I can still feel good that I helped a local kid hit her quota.

I very much agree. Oh restaurant work, I almost miss the daily movement sometimes. Re: noise, to the right of my office there are server racks and to the left, an empty office, so at least for now no one has to deal with my treadmill noise Thanks! Sleep IS good Ain't just Australia! I haven't seen one myself, just read about them online. When I worked a pseudo-government job, I jury-rigged a standing desk out of old shell scripting books (I knew they'd come in handy for something!) and got so many crazy looks. Yay yay! Gracias! I think my home enjoys it too. Since I move pretty frequently I never invest in the "homey"-ness of my apartments, and I don't think that's a good thing, since it feels so much better to come home after a long day of work to a place that's tidy.

True that. I just remember the horrible whining sound the half and half would make. for some reason the thickness/fat content made steaming the milk way noisier.

First, yay, you're a mod! Happy to have you running these here boards. Second, I kind of feel inspired now based on your habits to cook a bit extra and see if I can't get SO more on board with Whole30-style eating. He currently eats, well... whatever the opposite of Whole 30 is, though has cleaned up his lunches quite a bit (jerky instead of chips, dried fruit instead of cookies). What other food groups have you been experimenting with post-Whole30?

This is fabulous. Broccoli stems are a highly underrated food. Btw I probably missed this earlier in your thread, but what is your coffee recipe? I assume this is a riff on Bulletproof coffee?

Quick Update. Crossfit in the AM, then work (productivity, hooray!) then dinner out with friends. 2/5 Summary Crossfit 2/4 Yay! Workout: Cleans x 2, EMOM at 75% for 6 minutes. Started out with 35/5, 55/5, 65/5, 70/5 Working weight was 75 for six rounds WOD: 5 rounds of - 10 stink bug pushups - 10 deadlifts @ 105 - 100 jump rope Time - 14:14 Run: 0/2 Pullups: 2/5 Hooray! Little things -Not much here. Food: Breakfast: 2 egg omelette with tons of veg Lunch: 6oz pulled chicken in tomatillo salsa, 1 c. mashed sweet potato, guacamole and salsa Snack: apple, dates Dinner: Roasted chicken breast with skin, bowl of celery and leek soup (about 8 french fries, gasp), served up with 1 tbs mayo

Oh golly, I'm sorry to hear about your grandmother, but also, congratulations on the new job. Must have been a very conflicting kind of day How is the new job going to impact your commute? Or is there a gym near your new job so it's easier to squeeze in the workouts?