I'm still here... promise!

I haven't forgotten you, my little blogger bugs! I've just been a ridiculous combo of tired and busy, both of which go hand in hand, I suppose.  Also, re-introducing foods I stayed away from on the Paleo challenge, and really trying to pay attention to the way my body felt as they came back...

First up: FOOD

Things haven't been bad, things haven't been great, but they've been right in the middle. I've had more than a handful of "cheat" days, with the "it's only a few bites", "it's only 1 meal", "I'll do better tomorrow", excusing myself out of accountability when it comes to my food, and just being lazy about prepping.

This is 100% on me. But it's not all wasted time.

I've learned a few things. The most important one: I have to plan and prep if I am to be successful.  And it means planning my cheat meals, too. I have to allow those things.

Other things learned -
 * I went and got myself a cupcake after talking about it for 2 weeks. I craved it. It wasn't anything spectacular.   I would have been just fine without it.
 * I loved peanut butter. I switched to Almond Butter during the challenge.  Peanut butter doesn't taste the same anymore. I keep thinking it's b/c of the amount of sugar I cut during the challenge. I'm just not digging or craving as much of the "sweet" but more of the "savory".
 * I love bacon.  This isn't a shock, but the amount of bacon I've cooked in the past month an a half is already more than I cooked all of last year. Maybe a lb every other week? I should have enough bacon grease to make my own batch of "Stuff-N-Clutter" this coming Christmas.
* My tastes have been refined and seriously, even the smell of "Grass-Fed" beef is better than anything I've used before.
* I like cooking new things - Here's a few I ventured out with during the challenge:
..... Spaghetti Squash
..... Sweet Potatoes
..... Uncured bacon (why would ANYONE go back to "cured"??? It needs no help being fabulous!)
..... Ground Italian Sausage

I know there will be more moments of "Ah-Ha!" as I continue to adjust and modify the diet that works best for me, my time, my body, my schedule. It's all pretty exciting to feel a certain level of confidence and pride about my food.  It used to be SO overwhelming, thinking I was doing something right, following the rules as I understood them, from a million different resources.  And in this, something clicked. I see and FEEL the benefits of staying away from "man-made" as far as food goes.  That being said, I will stand firm by the results and energy I get from Advocare.  Can I do it without?  Absolutely. But I want to maximize my efforts in all facets. So I am adjusting my diet and intake to represent "Advo-Paleo".  This is what I know works best for me.

Second Up: CROSSFIT Update:

So finally getting past the "I had the flu so my time and efforts really will suck for a month" feeling.  And true to form, it really did take me good month before I could feel confident, like I was making progress instead of getting kicked backwards twenty steps.

I bettered my Paleo baseline by 5 minutes.
Friday afternoon, I PR'd "Helen" by 2:20.

There's a mild amount of running in ol' "Helen", so this is a big deal for me.  But HOLY cow, it seems like it took forEVER for my heart rate to come back down, and for me to catch my breathing. I was completely spent. And I slept for crap Fri. night, too... but that's been happening for a few days. Prob. more to do with my to-do list & my poor food choices than my heart rate...

The good news, I ran all 3 400m runs. I didn't take one step of a pause / walk. I ran it all.  My pull ups, I've been using the blue band assist, and next WOD I'm moving that up to the Green / Purple assist.  This is one step closer to one of my goals for this year - Doing Green Band Assist pull ups.

Upper body strength is getting better. My push-ups are getting better, but I still lose a ton of time on those and Burpees.  I'm starting a push-up challenge w/ some ladies at the gym, so I'm hopeful that I will continue to see improvement there.

The end of April, I think, will mark the completion of my first 6 months with Crossfit. I've already spoken to my coach on upping my attendance to 4-5 times a week, so adding a day.  This would give me a M-T-W on, rest Thurs, F-Sa on, rest Sun. schedule. I find that I feel a little more "lost" on the days I don't go, but know I need to let my body recover, too.  I would essentially have an "unlimited" membership, so I could work on more foundations and goals (Double Unders, Muscle Ups, Pull-Ups), a little more "training", etc...

I'm actually excited to see how things progress.  I'm not excited about how hot it's going to be in the box, but sweating my ass off, you bet! I've got some ass that needs sweating away! ;-)

Oh, and baseball season is creeping up on us! So THAT will be fun, too!

Let's Go Rangers!