Crossfit Day 6!

I learned something new about my husband today :0) At the gym I learned he had never before, EVER in his life, jumped a rope. Guess we are still technically newlyweds still learning about each other ;0)

Tonight's work out - killer, even though it sounds easy! It was our first official "WOD" (workout of the day) with a class. It helps that it takes a minimum of 6 to make a "class" and there are 5 of us in the family LOL, but anyways...

We did the Annie workout, modified, which consists of:
25-20-15-10 and 5 rep rounds, for time:
Jump-roping
& Sit-ups
Which equals 75 of each of the above, except for my 16 yr old, he did the FULL workout doubling all reps above, for a total of 150 of each - ahhh to be 16 again! LOL

Our Warm up was:
800 meter run
& 30 air squats

Here are our official times for the work out:

Me: 11:35
Hubby: 11:40
16 yr old son (full workout): 8:50
14 yr old son: 7:50
13 yr old daughter: 5:31

I took forever to get the sit-ups done and my hubby took forever to jump rope, so I thought us ending so close, and especially me first, was really funny. We balance each other out, what can we say :0)

Crossfit Day 5!

Our family completed a modified "Murph" today for Memorial day at the gym. Hopefully next year we will each be able to complete it as individuals, at least that is MY goal! We ended up doing more than what it would be if we divided it by 5, but a long ways from what it is meant to be.

In memory of Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy, 29, of Patchogue, N.Y., who was killed in Afghanistan June 28th, 2005.

This workout was one of Mike's favorites and he'd named it "Body Armor". From here on it will be referred to as "Murph" in honor of the focused warrior and great American who wanted nothing more in life than to serve this great country and the beautiful people who make it what it is.

Our warm up was:
5 broad jumps
10 Air Squats
3 Burpee's
(Rinse and repeat x2)

"Murph" Workout:
1 mile Run (we did 200 meter run)
100 Pull-ups (we used a PVC pipe, 16 yr old used dumb bells)
200 Push-ups
300 Squats
1 mile Run (we did 400 meter run)
*Added a 3600 meter row to make up for the run being shorter

I'm starting to reach the point where I'm wanting to exercise more. It's funny how that creeps up on some of us once we actually START exercising. There have been a few programs I've done where the day between the workouts I was like...hmmm maybe I should go do more. I can see how some people get addicted to exercising, especially if they don't have a lot of other outside responsibilities and only work. I think I'll be bumping my workouts up to 3 days a week next month. 

I'm also loving the people that go to my gym. They are always stopping me and telling me how great I'm doing and to just hang in there. I tell them the truth, I don't plan to quit and I'm loving it...but I know how rough I look and I can imagine how much it looks like I struggle so I can see why people might not think I am enjoying myself LOL There are a couple that kinda look irritated when they see my family of 5 coming through the doors...but we're staying out of everyone's way and they'll just have to get use to us, because we're not going anywhere anytime soon! :0) 

Crossfit Day 4!

I'm exhausted! School (summer semester at college) started up again last night, I worked all day, went and exercised, now I'm working on school work but taking a quick break to post so I don't forget what workouts we did.

Warm up:

500 meter row (super easy, but it was our first time rowing so he just wanted to give us a feel)
40 Lunges (I could not do the last 20)
30 Air Squats


Work out:

50 Kettle bell Squats
50 sit up/crunches (I started with 20 crunches but couldn't do them very effectively so moved to sit ups)
50 push ups
600 meter run (jog/walk for me)

This is what you look like when you do Crossfit in 90 degree's. It's not pretty, but it's worth it. No, the mouth is not posed, it's literally open like a fish, thirsty for water. Time to shower and find mental strength to make dinner and then do school work.

As Dr. Seuss says, "Whether you think you can or you can't, you're right!" - I CAN

Crossfit Day 3!

I'm posting this a day late, but better late than never. I had issues with actually tracking my food in my tracker yesterday. I have been trying to use My Fitness Pal to track it, but it was having major issues loading yesterday. I stayed where I wanted to stay though, so that is good. I also have been bad about taking pictures...mainly because I run a daycare and it's hard to snap pics of the meals sometimes LOL 

Instead I fell back on the old tracking program I was using called LOSE IT! When I say fell back, I should probably explain. I was using LI! to track (when I was being good) but when I started doing Crossfit I couldn't find any of the exercises in there so I checked MFP. Well, I noticed at that time my calories were WAY off from what LI! said they should be. LI! said I should aim for 1629 calories, and MFP says 1280. I played with a few calculators online and they all said 1200's or so also. And of course, me posting this is reminding me I wanted to talk to my trainer about it last night so I will shoot him an email since he did my weight and measurement/body fat % yesterday and would probably be able to lead me in the right direction as to which is more accurate. 

Anyways, eating was good yesterday...but the part I wanted to really focus on was the exercising :D Yesterday's workout consisted of:

30 air squats3 front elbow plank's at 1 min each 

Upped our jog/run to 1400 meter run (I had to walk the last 400, my legs were shaking too much on me)

40 Kettle bell squats 

40 box steps (Hubby and the kids did jumps)

I feel like my run is getting stronger, although it's still laughable to passerby's I'm sure, it's definitely getting easier for me and my endurance is lasting a lot longer. The exercises pushed me, but I didn't wake up as sore today as I did the first day, so that's great! My family is loving it so far!

The cost of Crossfit...

On the weekends I won't be posting too much. We have pretty busy weekends, and Saturday's I'm pretty much gone all day. I also use Saturday as my day to enjoy a few not so healthy things to keep my self from binging on them due to lack of availability so I don't post my foods either. I don't go hog wild or anything, but for instance yesterday was my daughters 13th birthday party so I enjoyed a slice of cake and a cup of root beer. 

So one thing I've been thinking about is the cost of Crossfit. A lot of people say working out and eating healthy is too expensive and that's why they don't do it. That's just an excuse, one I've used many times myself. Working out is free. Eating healthy is more expensive than processed crap, but it's worth it. Take the beef tips I made earlier in the week as an example. Sure, they were more expensive than hot dogs and mac-n-cheese, but it lasted my entire family for two meals, and I ate leftovers for lunch for three days. I don't do this with all meals, but if it's good and the taste is not getting tiresome than it's a great way to stretch your bucks. 

So last Thursday was day 2 of CF. It was our 2nd time going up there, the first time is a free session, so we actually signed up and paid our membership fees. I paid while my husband and children went to the car. When I got back into the car I told my husband how much it was. He was a little shocked. I told him that with our fast food eating habits, which was WAY too often, we are essentially paying for our CF membership in about 2 weeks. When we are working out, we won't WANT the fast food as often. 

Last week is another prime example of that. I cooked every day! This is nearly a miracle in and of itself, sadly. I don't particularly enjoy cooking, even though I'm a good cook and the meals are always worth it! It's honestly just a matter of being lazy. During the winter I use my crock pot a lot. Mainly because it's nice to have that home cooked meal simmering all day and filling the house with such gorgeous aroma's, but it's also nice to have dinner done earlier in the evening and not having to stand in the kitchen cooking after a long days work. 

I guess basically what I'm saying, is that CF might be expensive, but when you actually sit down and break the cost down it's really not. When the cost is broken down for my family, at my particular gym, we are paying about $45 per month, per person to attend 2 days (this will increase, but for right now we're starting slow and building up - heck, yesterday *Saturday* was the first day we were walking mostly normal because of the lunges we did on Tuesday LOL). Around here you are paying almost that for a regular gym membership and the difference is, we are essentially getting personal trainers built into this price. And again, the bottom line is that we would spend about that in two weeks if we were eating fast food, if you figure $5 a value meal for at least one meal a day. When I broke it down to my husband like that, he totally got what I was saying and agreed that we'd eat out once a week, Saturdays, with a few exceptions for special occasions thrown in.

It's all a matter of putting your priorities in order. Is that dollar menu more important than exercising? That's up to you to decide.

Until next time...

Day 2 of Crossfit!

Day 2, not as bad as I thought it would be, and although I'm still sore I have to admit, working out again did make it hurt less (until I got home and had to walk up 5-6 stairs to get up the deck and to the door lol). 

I did:

30 Sit ups

30 squats

& a 1000 meter run. 

Getting a baseline measurement for the run was the goal today. I forced myself to do the 200 meter's each time (instead of the 200/100/100 I did last time). Even if I had to walk, I did them. I want to look back at this time (8:35, don't laugh...only I'm allowed to do that LOL) and SEE the improvements I'm making over the next few months - even if it just means I'm walking the walking parts faster! I keep telling myself, as embarrassing as some of these numbers are, this is REAL and the only way to measure REAL achievements is to test the same thing over a period of time and see the progression. 

Eating was good today, but I'm not gonna lie...I had 4 Reece's Peanut Butter Cups. It's ok, tomorrow is another day and I've only drank water for the past week (other than fat free chocolate milk with breakfast this morning and dinner tonight), so I'm still super proud of myself! Maybe I've kicked this Pepsi and Sweet Tea habit :D I didn't take pictures of my foods today because it was mostly a repeat, but here is what I ate:

Breakfast: Banana & fat free chocolate milk (8 oz). (I know I need more at breakfast time, but I just have a hard time eating early).

Lunch: Leftover Beef Tips, some brown rice as well as some Broccoli.

Dinner is cooking, but it's going to be Turkey sausage (like Kielbasa), wild brown rice, and a TON of stir fry veggies (just the veggies, no sauces).

I'm beat, looking forward to a shower after dinner and then crawling into my bed to watch some t.v. and pass out, I'm exhausted!

Until next time...

Definitely feeling it!

WOW! We are definitely feeling the burn today. The only one who isn't is the 16 yr old who is in the best shape of us all. We are feeling the burn in our thighs (mostly front, but depending on what we're doing the back as well), butt, and abs. Everyone decided to try and do a lunge to see if it would make their legs feel better...everyone but me that is...and it was the funniest thing I've ever seen. Getting down hurt, getting back up was nearly impossible LOL As soon as I post this entry, I'm going to soak in a hot bath tub and then go to bed! I slept like a baby last night though, and that was really nice.

My food has been really good today. I woke up craving an omelet. Since I only had one daycare kid until 10:30 he and I decided to venture to IHOP where I enjoyed a simply fit spinach, tomato, mushroom omelet along with 1 1/2 slices of wheat toast and a bowl of fresh fruit. It was DELICIOUS, and totally hit the spot!

For lunch I had a split meal. I was still pretty full from breakfast, but I'm trying to get into the habit of eating smaller meals every 3-4 hours or so I took 1/4 of a cup of rice and 1/4 cup of beef tips from dinner last night and ate that. It was even better today!

The second part of my lunch was a quick salad. I had a can of lean ham that I shredded and mixed with 1 laughing cow low fat Swiss cheese wedge over the baby green salad mix and about 1 tsp of honey mustard dressing on top of it. It didn't taste that great towards the end, so I won't be doing this mix again LOL I guess some things just aren't meant to be combined ;0)

For dinner we had leftover beef tips, this time served over Smart Taste wide egg noodles instead of rice. We also added some Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce, my FAVORITE! Not as good as with the rice, but less calories so that was nice :0)

And now...my hot bath is calling my name. Day 2 of Crossfit!! I'm excited to go and learn new stuff. I'm just hoping I can actually walk better tomorrow LOL

Crossfit Day 1!

Consider my butt kicked! I honestly can't even fake the smile, but I feel it inside. LOL So proud of my family for getting out of our comfort zone and kicking butt together - ok, so we didn't officially kick anyone elses butt except our own, but isn't that the most important one to kick when trying to get healthier? :0)

 

I can't even tell y'all how excited I was all day waiting to go to the gym. I ended up getting off work early, and immediately jumped into my gym clothes - ok, when I say jumped, it really took me like 15 minutes because I was trying to secure "my girls" so I didn't embarrass myself LOL I didn't expect it to be easy by any means, in fact, I would've been disappointed if it was! But I'm excited for where we will be going physically and mentally with this journey. I know I'm in this for the long haul, and my family has promised me a month with an open mind.

With that being said, it truly did kick our butts. The only one who didn't look completely whopped leaving was my 16 yr old, who is already in pretty good shape. We did the warm ups and then some stuff outside. It was pretty crowded inside and the people helping us were very friendly. 

So here is what we did our first day:

15/10/5

Situps

Lunges

Outside we did a timed activity (this may be an every visit kind of thing, I don't know...we will find out soon enough!). My time was 9:44...which may not sound that impressive, but I was sure impressed, even if I felt like I was going to puke at the end, but that's the point, right - push yourself as far as you can! LOL

We did (same reps as above):

box jumps  (on huge tires - mine as scaled to a cinder block)

200 mm runs (I did 200 the first time, then 100 the next two times)

Good Mornings (I didn't use weights for this)

Although I was able to do all of the warm-up they had us do, I struggled with the portion outside. I did all of the box jumps and we had to adjust my run after the first 200 mm. The good mornings I did crossing my hands over my chest, which I have to admit was still kicking my butt! I know I'm gonna feel it tomorrow, but I already can't wait to return on Thursday. :0)

Lunch (no sauce, just a little bit of fresh salsa, 4 oz. 80/20 ground sirloin, 1 cup large elbow noodles, 1 wedge of laughing cow cheese)

I did not get pictures of the other food but here is what I had:

 

Snack was an apple and a string cheese before my work out

Dinner was sirloin beef tips with 1 cup of rice and 1 cup of California vegetables.

 

How do you figure out the nutrition information?

I can't figure out how to get the nutritional information for these beef tips...any suggestions? Google is not my friend right now either. I buy my meat packaged and often it has the nutrition information on it, but sometimes it doesn't. How do you figure out what the nutritional information is if it's not listed? Surely there is an easier way than Googling and getting 50 different answers. 

Daily Accountability

One thing that works well for me is having accountability. I use to do this via vlogging, but I simply don't have the time to maintain that...then I get discouraged and just quit all together. So, this is what my menu looked like today; well, at least part of it - allow me to explain.

For breakfast I had 1/2 of a sausage and cheese biscuit and a hash brown from McD's. I can honestly say this was not the intention when I woke up this morning. Before I knew it I was at McD's and ordered out of habit, paid, got the meal, drove off...then it hit me...WTF did I just do?! The intention was to get an oatmeal and a yogurt parfait, NOT a sausage biscuit. So I ate only half of it. I realize that fast food is nowhere near as good for me as home cooked stuff but I was taking my sister to an appointment this morning and the routine got thrown out of whack, which will happen from time to time, so I had good intentions. I dropped her off then stopped by...excuses, excuses...poor planning (although this came up last minute that she needed a ride) is what it was. I will be making some quick "pop 'em in the microwave" breakfast meals over this weekend and freezing them so I have no excuses next time something pops up!

Lunch was great! I had a grilled chicken salad with organic Mixed Baby Greens, some shredded cheese, banana peppers, and Ken's light honey-mustard dressing.

Dinner was a homemade burrito with 80/20 lean ground beef, fat free refried beans, tiny bit of shredded cheese, and 1tbsp light sour cream. (No pic)

For snack today I had 5 very large strawberries. They were SO good!

If I get hungry again before bedtime, I will make me another, smaller, salad - minus the chicken. So before I get negative comments, I want to say, yes, I know this is not the greatest meal day with the way it started, but LOOK at how I turned it around. AND, I also tracked all of my food AND measured it instead of just fixing a plate.
 

I also have to say...I was a little happy to see that the way I make my homemade burrito without measuring stuff is actually less amount of calories so that was kinda cool!

I wasn't worried about trying to re-calculate my calorie intake or weighing myself for today or tomorrow because I plan to get measured, weighed, and figure out how many calories are recommended for me while doing CF when we hit the gym tomorrow night after work. 

Can I just tell you how excited I am to start this?! I wonder if everyone feels this way, or if they dread it. I know come tomorrow night I will be tired as hell, but I am so excited about starting it tomorrow. I didn't go into this before (I don't think), but we're doing this as a family as well. Myself (morbidly obese) and my husband (slightly overweight) and then my teenagers, a son 16 (already has some awesome ab's but hey, family time!), a son 14 (overweight and pretty lazy like his mom and step-dad), and my 13 yr old daughter (overweight as well) will be there as well, but our gym has a 14 and older policy so I told her she can work on jumping rope and other things while we work out. Our hopes are that they will have little things she can do to help improve her health as well - but we'll see how it goes tomorrow. I know this particular gym is really family centered, so even if she can't participate she can learn a lot by watching.
 

Anyways, I guess that is enough for today. I know a few of my friends are reading and not replying on here, but thank you for the support and encouragement I've gotten privately! It's much appreciated! This time tomorrow I'll be huffing and puffing - eeeee!!

What makes me think I will succeed at Crossfit?

Some people may be wondering what makes me think I'm going to succeed at Crossfit. I mean I'm considered morbidly obese and have battled weight all of my adult life.

I'll tell you; COMMITMENT! The fact that Crossfit is about challenging YOURSELF while using functional moves, means that it is left up to me to succeed or fail. And as some of you may know, I don't handle failure well in the rest of the areas of my life - I fight to succeed - and I refuse to allow my health sit ideally by when it's ONE thing I can control in this life. 

In the past I've tried many things and of everything I tried, I enjoyed things that pushed me and challenged me the most. Sure, Sweatin' to the Oldies and Zumba was fun, and YES they were challenging for me! But, I really did enjoy my time with martial arts, Tae Bo, and Body for Life more. I think it was because I pushed myself outside of my boundaries with people who challenged and pushed me that made me enjoy them more than other things I've tried. 

I've proven to myself things I can't control on my own because I don't have someone there challenging me and pushing me to do more because they trust me more than I do. From what I've read and see of the CF lifestyle, the community is something that will help me thrive. 

I'm very excited at seeing the transformation of my body. Do I ever expect to have a perfect body? No, but then again I feel there is no definition of perfect. Perfect for one person is not perfect to another. My goals are pretty open ended because I hope once I reach one, there is another I want to strive for. My first goal, lose FAT. This is a long term goal because this weight didn't come on overnight. I've always said, I didn't care what number the scale said, as long as it was muscle and not fat.

A few other goals I am aiming for:


No fast food! This is something my family desperately need to get rid of, COMPLETELY!


No Soda/sweet tea! I'm a southern gal, sweet tea is my crutch. When I have a bad day, I turn to Pepsi or chocolate. 


START EXERCISING REGULARLY! My goal to start with is to attend our CF gym twice a week. I know this may not seem like much, but let me tell ya, after so long of not exercising and now doing CF, these two days are going to literally kick my ass. Sadistically, I'm looking forward to it. 

So, in a nutshell - I just want to be healthier and I'm going to start with making what may seem like small changes to some of you, yet for anyone who has been in my shoes, you know this is going to be a real challenge.


Until next time...I know I'm not afraid for this challenge. I'm embracing it.

Why "TooCute2BeFat"?

 How did I come up with that name and what does it mean,

 for ME?

 

Well, A long story short: I was visiting a weight loss support website and they had a bulletin board. One of the member's had the nick name "too fat to be cute" (or something of that nature). I thought to myself, "Man, she is hard on herself!" keep in mind, I didn't know anything else about her - these were just the thoughts in my head when I saw her username. 

Even though I'm considered "Obese" I still think I'm sexy as hell! I feel sexy, I can still pick up guys when I go out, (if I wanted to) I don't hide in a shell and my personality just ROCKS, if I do say so myself! I remember thinking to myself, "I'm glad that I have security, love, and happiness in my life...even though I'm fat". 

Not that the other woman DIDN'T have these things, but the user name...I don't know, it just made me sad. I often hoped that she was happy with her life and herself, no matter what her APPEARANCE looked like. 

And then I needed to think of a user name for another bulletin board. I got tired of my regular screen names involving "Mom", "Daycare" and "NC" - not that I don't like those; they are a part of me, but, I'm doing this FOR me, I need an independent name, something to keep me motivated, yet show my personality a bit. 

And then "TooCute2BeFat" popped into my head. I thought, "oh that would be cute (no pun intended!) I'm too cute, to be fat"! I'm losing this weight (among a million other reason's) so that my outside reflects my inside personality. 

I'm cute damn it, and the world is gonna know it.

It wasn't for a few hours (or maybe even a days!) until I logged back into the original site, and I saw that user name again and I thought, "AH-HA! That's why it popped into my head"! And ever since then I've been known as "TooCute2BeFat"  for my weight loss journey. A journey that has taken me through many different programs, diets, and exercise routines. If you did a Google search on my username, you'd find many different things linked. You'll see many attempts, some failed and some successful - but obviously nothing has stuck.

Sadly, it has started and stopped countless times...like most weight loss journeys, I suppose. But so far, I haven't gotten past my 'ultimate' high weight and I guess that does say something :0) I thought I'd tell the story of how I chose my nickname online, because often I have people ask why I call myself fat? Why? Because I am. I'm not afraid to admit it. And being fat isn't bad, I'm just choosing not to be a statistic any longer. 

Sure it's gonna take some time, and I think *honestly* that once I reach goal, I will be choosing a different name. Not because I wouldn't feel that way anymore but because I wouldn't want to unknowingly offend someone who is on the plus size, who doesn't realize I've 'been there done that' by using this name anymore.

If I saw a Skinny woman using the nickname "TooCute2BeFat" I'd think "Man what a self-absorbent snot." Is that a double standard? Possibly. Do I care? NOPE! :0) It's just my opinion.