Chelsea

Last nights workout was a real killer. It was longer than most of the workouts, being 30 minutes long. It is also one that will be a great benchmark because it's easy to repeat and requires minimal equipment.

Warm up: Light jogging, one-legged balance practice, stretching

WOD: Every minute on the minute perform 5 pull ups, 10 push ups, 15 squats. If you fall behind the minute count, keep repeating as many rounds as possible. After 30 minutes, complete the last round that you are in the middle of.

I was able to do 6 rounds on the minute until I fell behind and then completed 17 rounds in 30 minutes. That equates to 85 pull ups, 170 push ups, and 255 squats. While I didn't feel as out of breath as some other workouts, this one sapped my strength. My push ups were done in pretty bad form.

The Scale Moves!

Finally! For the first time in about 2 years, the scaled has gone down! It shows a loss of 7.6 lbs for the week. That's CRAZY! What did I do differently? First, I made it a point to get up early and have breakfast. I ate healthier for some of my lunches. I definitely ate better dinners. I started supplementing fish oil pills. I decided to go off my Epilepsy medication.

Going off my medication was a big decision for me. I've been on it for over 2 years. I just got to the point where it became a quality of life decision. I can either continue to take the medication, hope for reduced seizure frequency, and deal with the side effects. Or, I can try to live healthier and accept a certain amount of seizure frequency while having no side effects. Weightloss or gain is not a common side effect of the medication, however after researching online, I was able to find out numerous examples of people either gaining weight or unable to lose weight while on it. I'm not sure if this has been a part of my inability to lose the last few years, but it definitely raises suspicion if after I go off of it, I lose this amount of weight combined with the changes listed above.

Despite the great amount of weightloss, I feel I can do even better. I still had a few bad meals last week. I still had a lot more soda than I should have. Looking towards this week, I will try to clean up my lunches even further, try to drink less soda, and get more sleep.

Weight: 258.0 lbs

What is progress?

One of my first workouts in Crossfit was a timed event. The goal was 100 burpees as fast as possible with a cutoff of 15 minutes. Two months ago I was only able to manage 50 in that amount of time. Last night was the first time I had tried the same workout again and what was the result? 100 burpees in 12 minutes! Yeah!!!

While my weight might have only gone down by 3lbs in 2 months, my fitness has increased tremendously. I'm really looking forward to the future and once I nail my diet down, there's no telling how far I can go.

Warm up
100 double unders/500 singles for time (500 in 9:46)

Skill
Snatch

WOD
100 burpees for time (100 in 12:00)

"When the Saints come marching in"

Warm up
High knees
But kickers
Standing broad jumps
Karaoke

WOD
5x power cleans #135/95
7x push ups
100m dash
As Many Rounds as Possible in 20 min

Scaling: I was doing 95# Power Cleans and around 130m dash. I did 8 rounds.

This was a tough workout. For me, the running was the hardest. My large stomach makes my back hurt when running and it's impossible to catch your breath during this workout. My back is sore this morning, but that's mostly because I haven't done any heavy lifting involving the back in a few weeks. It feels like normal muscle soreness, not an injury.

"Erin" AKA "Harkey"

This blog will also serve as a record of my workouts. I have been doing CrossFit for 2 months now and have seen a tremendous improvement in my abilities. I will keep track of all activities, time, weight, and how I feel after them so that I can see just how much I continue to improve.

The workout last night consisted of:

Warm up: 5mins jumping rope

50x double unders = 200 singles (or max of 3mins)
50x sit ups
800 meter run = 1000 meter row
3x rounds

For this workout, I was doing the single jump ropes because I'm unable to do double unders. The first round I was able to do all 200 within the 3min cutoff and for both of the other rounds I did around 150. Instead of running the full 800m, I ran 600m each time. This workout had a max cutoff time of 30mins and in that time I did 2 full rounds plus the third round I made it through the jump roping and 30 sit ups, which means I did not do the final 600m run.

This was a tough workout but I'm glad I did it. I was still sore from the workout on Monday, but I'm glad I came to this so that I could really try to push myself. I jumpped rope on Monday for the first time in probably 20 years and I could see a huge improvement in just 2 days. Today, my feet are the most sore. I found out that they actually contain muscles and those are heavily used in jumping, lol.

The Revolution

Viva la Revolution!!! Yes, I'm starting a revolution. However, this will be no ordinary war. While most wars are fought on the battlefield, this one will be fought in my brain. Neurons will be firing neurotransmitters at others, taking aim at the long ruling tyrant. The time has come for the people to rise up. They are taking a stand and fighting to overthrow the king neuron, the one who has it's grip so tight around the others that they follow every order out of fear. Well you know what? It's time a new fear came to replace it. One that I put into power!

It's interesting to think about weightloss as a war with oneself, but I really think it is. It all starts with a choice. Will I choose to have that soda or a glass of water? Will I choose a combo meal with fries or just the burger? Will I choose to exercise or sit on my ass in front of the TV? Weightloss is also a battle that is very much fought internally because of your choices, yet its success or failure is judged by external criteria. What is one's waist size? OMG, look at that double chin! This society places so much worth on one's physical appearance that it's often hard not to get cought up in participating yourself, tying your selfesteem to your own opinion of how you look. I'm very much a victim of this way of thinking.

I'm starting this blog as a way of self expression and introspection. By writing my thoughts down I can both gain advice from others fighting their own wars as well as keep track of the battles I've won or lost and develope better strategy for my next assault. Not only do I want to lose weight for the obvious health and psychological benefits, I want to lose weight to increase my opportunites to partake in any activity that I choose. Do I want to go climb a mountain today? Sure, let's go do it! How about a trip to hike the Grand Canyon? Yeah, dude, that'll be sweet!

I want to be able to push myself and accomplish great feats that the average person is not able to. I want to be an inspiration to others. I want to look back at my life and say wow, you really didn't settle for ordinary. I want to have NO regrets.

Hear that? The war has begun!!