Late!

Slept til 11:30, so I got my day started fairly late. Hit the Farmer's Market, then met my workout buddy for a brutal, albeit brief, workout, and then had lunch. Tomorrow will either be the official workout or another hike, depending on the weather and the state of my legs.

I just wrapped up my workout spreadsheet for May, and I'm proud to report that I didn't miss a single one - nor did I miss any of the weekday Karate workouts. (I have never had any intention of going to the Saturday ones unless there's a specific reason.) My diet hasn't been quite so perfect, but it's been pretty damn good, and I'm pleased with my overall progress.

Tomorrow I'll get my official June starting stats and re-run my Zone numbers based on them. I don't expect a significant change - my overall body fat percentage has only dropped a point or so - but I want to make sure I've got it all done right. It's been a good month, and I look forward to stretching it into a good summer!

The Crossfit Total

The CFT is the strength benchmark for Crossfit - it's best of three attempts at three different lifts. It comes up every month or so, and today was the day. I'm happy to report that despite my slacking since February, I actually got a new personal best score.

The squat was one I'd been having technical trouble with - I wasn't going deep enough - but I got past that in January. This time, I did ten pounds better than January and I think I could have gone higher. All that leg work in Karate is paying off! The overhead press went well, too - I matched my personal best, although I couldn't quite pull off the attempt at 5 pounds higher. The deadlift was a bit lower than my best, but only a bit. My first attempt was 185, which was fine, then I tried 205 and failed it, then tried it again and succeeded by the skin of my teeth. My best on the deadlift is 215, although my best in the CFT was 210, so between that and my successful squat I actually scored 5 points more than my last CFT.

The best part is, I did this the morning after a particularly brutal practice. Thursdays practice is run by an ex-football player who's really into the conditioning side of things. Lots of leg work, both stances and kicking. I like her practices, but they really wear me out. I was a little nervous about making heavy attempts this morning, but it all turned out ok.

My diet is still a little ragged - I went out for lunch yesterday and it was definitely a cheat meal - but I'm half a pound down again this morning. Looks like I might hit my target after all! I only have 6.5 more pounds to hit my first milestone, and I think my target of mid-June might prove to be pretty reasonable after all.

The Scale Moves In Mysterious Ways

Despite having given in to cravings and eating an entire bag of (organic, all-natural, at least) tortilla chips yesterday, I'm at a new low this morning. *shrug* I'm glad, but it's hard to get that excited when I really don't understand the reason, nor can I feel confident that it won't all come back tomorrow.

Today was a rest day for Crossfit, so I got to sleep in an extra hour and a half - much appreciated. Karate last night was fun, pretty active, but not as painful as last Wednesday, which is nice. I suspect tonight will be the hardest night. I have managed to learn to count to ten in Japanese, which earned me some surprise and praise last night - it's not all that hard, but I guess white belts usually don't.

Having slept in, I'm now way behind on my breakfast - I should go take care of that!

Hump Day

Ah, strength training. I much prefer it to cardio or circuit training. I'm not far off where I was for the shoulder press, either, which felt really good. My shoulders are sore from punching targets last night, but it didn't stop me from putting up some decent numbers.

I'm definitely PMSing - I was hungry all day yesterday, in a way that's typical for this part of my cycle. I definitely didn't eat as correctly as I should have, but as there's no really unhealthy food in the house, I'm not too worried. I keep good dark chocolate on hand for just such emergencies :)

Speaking of being hungry, I'm going to go make something to eat!

In the Dark

I set up some new bookshelves in my bedroom in such a way that they block the light from the window. It's lovely when I'm sleeping, but there is a downside - I found it unusually hard to pry myself out of bed this morning. Of course, it didn't help that I had a particularly brutal circuit planned at the gym. I got through it with good form, but my endurance still isn't that high.

It occurs to me that I'm just about due to start my period, and that is probably contributing to my overall slow weight loss. Water retention for hormonal reasons is no joke! I am going to re-run my Zone numbers next weekend, as it's been about a month, but otherwise I think this is a pretty reasonable plan so far.

Looking forward to karate tonight. I was thinking last night that as physically ready as I was for the extra time off, I would have gone had there been class.

Cheating

I had a dinner last night that almost wasn't a cheat meal, but not quite. I'll have to forgo cheats during the week. I regret that extra two pounds of water retention, because today's workout would have been easier without it - although in retrospect I'm glad I skipped the pullups on Saturday, because it would have made today's workout doubly difficult. Today's workout involved muscle-ups, which are a pullup that transitions into a dip - so you start hanging below the bar and end up braced above it. I had to cheat like mad to do it - I sat on the floor with the bar above me and used my legs to push up through it. I just don't have the strength to do anything like an unassisted pullup, let alone a full muscle-up. Even with the modification, they were damned hard.

I got a lot done yesterday around the house, and today my goal is to give it a thorough cleaning. I went to the store yesterday as well, so I should be set for food for the week. I am glad I don't have karate today, although I'm looking forward to going tomorrow. White belt class has been very productive - and fun!

Rest Day

I did end up taking a 8-ish mile hike yesterday, so I'm doubly excited to have a full rest day. The extra day off karate tomorrow will help, too. The most strenuous thing I'm going to do today is go to the gym and get in the hot tub.

Nothing else of note happened yesterday - I ate reasonably well (fresh peaches and cottage cheese - yum!) and otherwise was lazy. I look forward to repeating the performance today.

Long Weekends Rock

They just take so much of the pressure off of Saturday mornings. I hit the farmer's market first thing, and, although it's not a rest day, skipped the workout (mostly running) in favor of a nebulous plan to go hike town lake later today. It's been so nice, and I could definitely use the sunshine!

This weekend my goal is to get the house really clean, and to stop by Lowe's and pick up a bunch of things to make bits work better. (Thanks, Mom and Dad!) I have no intention of having any cheat meals - or at least none worse than the egg-n-cheese breakfast tacos I had this morning.

Finally Friday

Yesterday was just as bad as Wednesday - lots of slooooow kicking, lots of stance work. Thankfully, this morning's crossfit was a simple core strength workout. I used the lowest scaling and am infinitely grateful, because my legs are fried.

I felt better yesterday - went out for sushi for lunch, actually - but still oddly un-hungry. I'm not exactly complaining, but it is strange. My water loss does indeed seem to be over, and I'm down just half a pound from yesterday, which is about normal. I'm still hoping to get another pound and a half or so off this week, to catch up to where I'd be without the massive salt spike, but I'm not going to die if it doesn't happen. I'm also not going to have another cheat meal quite that epic for a while - it was fun to indulge, but I don't think the second drink and the chocolate peanut butter shake were worth the extra couple of days of mild annoyance.

Happy Thursday!

Last night's practice was brutal - lots of stance work, lots of kicking. Good stuff, but I could barely walk by the end of it. I felt a lot better this morning, though, and fortunately my crossfit workout wasn't leg-focused. Still quite tiring, and I'm glad Monday I won't have karate, but I'm doing ok.

I had an omelet for breakfast yesterday instead of my usual shake, which was lovely, but I felt vaguely nauseous and un-hungry all day. I had a small lunch, forced down a snack so I wouldn't faint during practice, and then had a shake for dinner (while soaking in the bathtub, actually.) I feel a little better today, but definitely not super-hungry as I would expect. I imagine my body's just adjusting to the workload.

Finally dropped the last of the water from my cheat meals, and I'm back down where I was the end of last week. It looks like I'm still right on target overall, which is what I'd hoped. I finally got around to fiddling with my chart so it actually shows my trend line correctly, and it looks good - other than the one spike from Saturday's adventures, I'm solidly dropping. I should hit my first milestone by the second week of June, at this rate (16 pounds down.)

Resting!

Mmm, the extra hour of snoozing was most welcome. I'm still going to karate tonight, so it's not a full rest day, but it's lovely nonetheless.

I had my week's cheat meal yesterday - Indian food - and as a result I'm still holding steady, weight-wise. I'm hoping that I see a pretty substantial drop over the next couple of days as I eat nothing but good stuff and get rid of a lot of the water I'm holding.

I'm probably going to have to hit the store again some time this week - it appears I overestimated how long my salad greens would last, and I'm running low on green stuff in general. Guess I should finish the broccoli...

Happy Birthday?

That wasn't a very happy workout... ow. I'm pretty well wiped out - very glad tomorrow is a Crossfit rest day.

Karate last night was fun - I can see that I'll be able to go longer once or twice a week within a month or so, as my endurance improves. For now, an hour is plenty, particularly when it's supposed to hit 98 degrees today.

I spent half the day yesterday... ah, "shedding water" is probably the delicate way to put it, and I'm about halfway back to where I was before Saturday's epic saltfest. The extra block with dinner seemed to work fine, and I think I am going to hold here for a week or two and see how it goes.

Ow.

That was the most efficient trashing of my upper body that I've every participated in. I'm not going to be able to raise my arms tomorrow.

Still bloated from the weekend, but I expect most of it to drop off today. Weekends are always a little iffy for me, food-wise, because my schedule is just so much more irregular. Yesterday was lovely and relaxing, though - something I desperately needed.

I thought about my blocks and realized that I really haven't been doing 12 blocks, I've been doing 11. I'm going to add another block in, either as another one in my midafternoon snack or one more at dinner, to bring me to 12, which was my target in the first place. Next weekend I'll re-evaluate.

The Morning After

Last night's cheat meal proved somewhat more epic than I'd anticipated, with not only dinner but pool and a movie after, so I'm quite substantially bloated this morning. Sprinting wasn't exactly the most fun I've had with my clothes on, but at least it's over now.

Other than dinner, yesterday's food as a whole was pretty nonstandard, with breakfast tacos (eggs, meat, cheese) and fruit for breakfast, a snack in between, then Mexican for dinner. I'm not worried about it, because it was planned, but I'm looking forward to climbing back on the wagon today - I could definitely feel the difference.

Going to revisit my blocks at some point today. I'll post the results tomorrow.

Rest Day

Ironically, I'm out of bed by 8AM on my rest day, but I slept like a log for nine or ten hours, so I'm not complaining. Today is going to be physically relaxing and I have a substantial cheat meal planned tonight, which I'm looking forward to.

One other thing I get to do today is go to the Farmer's Market, which I desperately need, because I'm out of just about everything. The timing is pretty much perfect, actually.

My weight seems to be following a surprisingly consistent two-steps-forward, one-step-back pattern. I'll drop a bunch, gain half of it back the next day, hold for one more day, then drop a bunch more. Sort of odd, but hey, it's working! I do expect all the salt from tonight's dinner to throw me off, though.

So far, so good! I'm pretty pleased with this round of getting myself together, and look forward to being able to sustain it longer than usual.

Friday!

I hate Friday itself, but I can't wait until tomorrow. It's been a strenuous week, and tomorrow is a full rest day, finally.

I did my running and core work this morning, and had the same feeling I've had all week - that I should be able to go harder, longer, than I am, but still feeling absolutely wiped by the end. I'm hoping my perception and my performance start to sync up better in the next few weeks.

Karate was fun last night. I'm really enjoying it, and glad I decided to follow up on that whim. I'm going to shoot for three or four days a week - I might take one day off to match my Crossfit off-day if I feel like I need the recovery time, but otherwise I like going every day.

Food was fine yesterday, although I definitely plan to re-evaluate my blocks. I need to up my exercise coefficient a notch or two. I'm down again, weight-wise, and while I have a salty cheat meal planned for tomorrow, I think I'll be right at two pounds if not more lost by Monday - I'm down three as of this morning.

One other thing I did yesterday was sign up for John Stone's June "100 Challenge" - it's been a useful tool in the past, and since I'm daily blogging anyway, I might as well use it.

Sound and Fury

I woke up some time last night to some horrendous banging - seems there was a hailstorm. Not the most pleasant thing in the world to try to sleep through. As a result, I woke up five minutes before my alarm went off, wondering if the power had gone out and if I should get up and check. Fortunately, it hadn't, and other than a tree branch that was drooping precariously over my car, all is back to normal.

Cindy was obnoxious this morning - my quads are plenty stressed as it is, and more squats, even unweighted, isn't what I was hoping for this morning. My pushups are also pretty pathetic. But other than that, it went about as I expected - about 25% off from my best on that workout.

Karate last night was good - it was a proper class, if a small one, and we did some interesting drills. Half the fun is actually seeing other human beings in person, of course.

Still ok on the food, although I was ravenous last night and my dinner and my snack sort of blurred into one another. I think I'll see where I am sometime next week and recalibrate - I may need to go up a block or two because of the extra workouts. I may have two cheat meals this week, depending on whether we make it out for lunch or not, because I have dinner at a Mexican restaurant on Saturday, and I'm not going to bother to worry about diet at Maudie's. It's fine, though - I'm definitely on track to be two pounds down this week, and that's all I want.

Hump Day

Heavy deads this morning - I'm not where I was, certainly, but I'm not completely out of range either. It'll probably take me a couple weeks to get back to my peak, but that's it.

Karate last night was a treat - it was entirely one-on-one with the head of the school. Not physically strenuous, really, but I feel like I have a grip on most of the basic movements now. I'll probably go either three or four days a week until I get to the point where the intensity is higher and I need more rest.

Had that chicken yesterday, and, like all chicken, it was tolerable. I wish I liked it more. Otherwise, nothing interesting to report on the food side. I'm getting pretty accustomed to the Zone and it's really easy.

I was somewhat surprised to see that I'm pretty much at the same weight I was yesterday - I'd expected to regain some water. I'm going to need to keep an eye on it and make sure I'm not losing too much, too fast. No knee-jerk reactions, though - I'll need at least a two-week pattern before I worry, and last week doesn't count because of all the excess water.

Something New

It appears that my concern about my weight was premature, as I'm two pounds down from yesterday. That's probably mostly water, again, and it's probably a bit low, but it's reassuring nonetheless. Today being a rest day, there was no workout this morning.

Yesterday was interesting - about halfway through the day I got a wild hair and decided to sign up for a free karate lesson at the local women-run dojo. The class was last night, and while it was incredibly uncomfortable to do the stance work on my sore legs, I had a good time, and I've signed up for two months. It's not super-cheap, but it's a flat monthly fee, and they offer classes five days a week. I'm thinking it'll be a good way to do my core work and get me out of the house and among people some more, and I've always wanted to study a martial art in earnest.

I cooked the chicken last night, but didn't actually eat any - by the time I got back from the class I was too hungry to wait an hour, so I just had sliced turkey instead, and wrapped the chicken up and stuck it in the freezer when I was done. I'll have some of it today instead.

Targeting My Weaknesses

So of course, I complain about pullups and promptly have to do many, many more. They still suck. It's a good thing tomorrow's a rest day, because I'm sore all over.

Yesterday's food was fine, if a few blocks short (I slept in and decided not to try to make up for the missed meal.) I've held steady, weight-wise, for a couple of days. If I do for another day or so, I'm going to re-run my block calculations and make sure I did them right. All told, though, I'm a hair over five pounds down from last week - probably four of which was water. Easy part's over, now I'm going to have to scrap for my two pounds a week. Bring it!

Lazy Sunday

Is any day really lazy when it starts out with heavy overhead squats? I dunno, but the squats felt pretty good, actually. Used the foam roller a bit afterwards, because I am, in fact, a masochist. I'm not sure what effect it will actually have, but anything that hurts like that has to be good, right?

The fish last night was splendid, and I look forward to finishing it for lunch. At some point I need to thaw the chicken breasts, too. I don't actually like chicken, but I really need to find a recipe I don't hate, because it's a good source of lean protein.

Coming to the end of the first week, I'm confident that I'm off to a good start.

Cheat Meals

So, here's my logic on cheat meals: I know I'm going to do them anyway, and it's much less frustrating if I plan to have one once a week. Today was this week's cheat meal, and it was awesome. I feel very full now.

I did my Crossfit this morning with my regular weekend workout buddy, and it sucked. Hard. I've lost a lot of ground on upper-body stuff, and the pullups were not all that successful. I'll get it back pretty fast - I've only been lazy for two months, after all - but in the meantime I'm cranky about it.

After brunch we went to the local farmer's market and I stocked up on fruit and veggies, got some lovely local milk, and got a filet of snapper for dinner tonight. It wasn't cheap, but it was such a fun environment - and the food looks sooo good - that I'm going to do that more often.

Steady As She Goes

Held steady, weight-wise, from yesterday - although dinner last night was a soup made with bullion, which is a LOT more salt than I've been eating all week, and I frankly expected to be retaining more water. Today is a rest day, so I lounged around in bed for an extra hour, which was most pleasant. I'm thoroughly sore.

It's been a very productive week for me on a number of levels. One of the reasons, aside from my long-term goal, that I wanted to get my act together was that when I'm eating crap and being a couch potato, my energy levels are nil and I get nothing done. I feel pretty good about the work I've done this week, and look forward to nothing but improvement.

Day 3

Not a morning filled with inspiration. I missed my last snack yesterday, and I think that's partly why I feel kinda woozy this morning. Did fine at the gym anyway, though - it was hard, and I had to collapse on the bench afterward, but I feel pretty good about it.

Sushi yesterday was yummy, although I think the rice was a little too carb-y and I got hungry pretty fast afterward. Dinner was steak and salad - no complaints.

Must eat now - I'm off.

Sprints!

Sprints are HARD. I'm not a terrible runner, considering, but it's been a long time since I did any sprinting, and I'm bad at it. It certainly felt like a workout, though.

Still shedding water, which is nice - the instant feedback makes these first few days easier. I finished the fish yesterday and had a nice cold dinner of deli turkey, fruit, and cheese. Tonight I'll be cooking the steaks, which should give me a few more options, and lunch is sushi!

I'm still feeling like I'm getting plenty to eat, and haven't had any overwhelming cravings yet. This is a nice contrast to the last "diet" I tried, South Beach, which had me nearly homicidal by the end of the first week. I have a day job in which I'm paid to be friendly and approachable, and that particular side effect was not at all helpful.

Children's Week

I did the Children's Week quests yesterday - both quests with my rogue, and the lower-level Horde ones on my belf. They haven't changed at all, but they're still a quick way to get a neat little pet and pick up a couple of flight paths if you've been lazy. I'll probably do it on my Alliance paladin as well, because... well, I have this extra ice cream, and it'd be a shame if it melted.

Instant Gratification

I love the for-once-I-didn't-eat-crap instant two-pound loss when I finally eat reasonable food. It's just water, but it feels so good!

This morning's workout was Elizabeth, who hammered home just how much ground I can lose in two months out of the gym. Even hang power cleans were nearly beyond me, let alone full cleans. I'll be blissfully sore tomorrow.

Yesterday was a good day overall - I got all my meals in, I believe I did them all correctly, and didn't feel hungry or in need of caffeine at all. I'm just on the far side of the physical detox from a two-a-day energy drink habit, so that's kind of a relief. The baked fish experiment last night went reasonably well, and I'll finish it for lunch. Next project - find something to do with chicken breasts that I actually like.

Off to finish my shake and take a shower!

Checking In

I haven't posted in months not because I haven't been playing, but because I finally joined a WoW guild, and they keep me busy. It's actually a RL friend's guild, and they're a crazy bunch of roleplayers. My rogue has been raiding Karazhan pretty regularly and is wearing quite a few epics, and my Alliance paladin has been recreated and powerleveled to the mid-thirties. My belfadin has been neglected somewhat, but gets Scarlet Monastery runs when we get sick of Alliance.

I may or may not write more regularly; I haven't decided yet. Our guild is blissfully drama-free at the moment, so it's not like I have a ton of great stories to tell.

Day One: Shopping

I just got back into town last night, so I had pretty much nothing at all in the house. I had protein powder, peanut butter, half a cup of blueberries, and some oatmeal for breakfast, and felt remarkably peppy for a Monday morning. For lunch I went to the grocery store after perusing the food lists in Enter the Zone, and lunch turned out to be some sliced turkey, a salad, and a glass of milk. I got a lovely-looking fish for dinner - now I just have to learn how to cook it.

I was all jazzed to start Crossfitting again, but today is a rest day. Ah, well, I'll probably be better off going tomorrow after a day of real food anyway.

Overall, I'm feeling pretty good. I have a lot of work to get where I want to be, physically, but I'm going to get there. My short-term goals are to keep with the Zone for three months and not miss any Crossfit workouts if I can possibly help it for that long as well. That will put me at the beginning of August, and that's usually a good time for me mentally.

What It's All About

I'm not really a vain person. My wardrobe consists of free t-shirts from work events and several ratty pairs of jeans. I wear one pair of Nike Frees everywhere from the trail to interviews. I haven't cut my hair in two years. And I'm not terribly obsessed with my waistline, except in that it makes it that much harder to do pullups.

However.

My ten year high school reunion is next year. I haven't seen 99% of those people since graduation (and I don't exactly miss most of them.) I have a vision of stalking into the gym, picking out whichever of the hot chicks actually came out since high school, crooking my finger, and stalking out again. That would be FUN.

It's not terribly likely to happen with my current catassing, couch-potato, whiskey-drinking self. I've worked out on and off (more off than on) and alternated between eating really well, moderately badly, and extraordinarily badly, for the past nine years. Add in an 8-month whiskey binge that added 50 pounds, and I need to do a bit of work.

So, here we are. Some goals, in handy list format:

- During my more diligent periods, daily updates in some public place have helped a lot, so I'll be updating this every weekday and probably most weekends.

- For the moment I'll be doing Crossfit (modified for my actual capabilities, of course) which is a three day on, one day off program.

- I'm going to stick to the Zone diet for at least three months and see how that goes (I had a Zone-appropriate breakfast and feel fabulous, so I'm down with it so far...)

- I'm going to track my weight daily with the Hacker's Diet tracker to keep an eye on trends.

- I'm going to stick with this until the date to the left, or until my high school reunion, whichever is later. This is the hard part.

I may add a few more goals, just as sort of a life-tracker thing, but for the moment I need to groove in a few of these habits, so that's where my attention will be.