1st workout, and food...

Soooo, I survived workout #1 yesterday. It was hard but I loved it. I like challenging myself, pushing myself to do more than I think I can. It went something like this...

Did various forms of jumping rope for 5 minutes with 10 second breaks each minute.  Did some squats and something called a paleo chair squat (I think) for 2 minutes - that was tough! That was just the warm up! The actual workout was 20 squats while holding a 15lb plate, 20 situps and 20 jump rope.  We did as many reps as possible (AMRAP) for a total of 15 minutes.  I managed to do almost 3 full reps.... was jumping rope when the buzzer went off. The first rep wasn't horrible, the 2nd I was starting to die and the 3rd I was wishing I was dead LOL. Oddly enough, the sit ups were the easiest for me.  The biggest issue I had was that the squats made my legs feel like jello so when it came time to jump rope I couldn't lift them up!!  Once the 15 minutes was up we went into the stretching portion and that finished up the workout.  It was hard, but it felt good.

I am pretty sore today, not even gonna lie! Last night I took a hot bath with Epsom salts and I took some extra magnesium before I went to bed, and today I've been drinking lots of water.  I'm not as sore as I thought I'd be, thankful for that!

I meant to take a "before" selfie but forgot, so all you get is the sweaty "after" selfie today!

Meals from the last 2 days -

Monday 4/9

Breakfast: egg whites scrambled with spinach, oatmeal with blueberries
Lunch: salad with cucumbers, tomatoes and tuna. Brown rice with salsa
Dinner: ground pork and sauteed cabbage, seasoned with braggs aminos, ginger, red pepper flakes, garlic, onion, salt and pepper.  This was delicious!
Snacks - not pictured - turkey meatballs, almonds and peanut butter.

Tuesday 4/11

Breakfast: cottage cheese, spinach and toast
Lunch: mini beef patties, roasted potatoes and cucumbers
Dinner: shrimp, sauteed veggies, spinach and onions.
Snacks: protein shake, turkey meatballs, almonds and peanut butter.

I bought this bag of veggies at walmart and will be buying them again, they're really good!

Groceries, meals and food prep.

Today's grocery haul.  We didn't need too much since we overbought last week and still have meat and veggies in the freezer.  Not shown in the picture are some things I got at the farmers market - tomatoes, blueberries and potatoes.

One of the things both Zach and I are struggling with is getting our 2 protein snacks in each day.  We'd rather get it from food vs. a protein shake, but I may end up going that route eventually. We decided to make a big batch of Turkey meatballs tonight, that we then packaged up in the portion sizes we need.  These are delicious! Ground Turkey, onions, lots of garlic, salt and pepper.

Last but not least, my meals for today. 

Breakfast: Seasoned ground beef,  sauteed spinach and toasted Ezekiel bread.

Lunch: Spinach topped with shrimp, roasted potatoes, and hot sauce. 

Dinner: Taco salad - lettuce, tomato, cucumber, seasoned beef, pico de gallo, avocado and greek yogurt. 

I did eat a greek yogurt for a protein snack as well.  (And by eat I mean I choked it down.  I really dislike yogurt of any kind.)

That's a wrap on Day 1! Tomorrow is the first exercise day. I'm both excited and nervous!

Orientation Day is here!

Today is the day, the day I go to the gym for all the initial "stuff".  The weigh in, the before pictures, the official overview of the meal plan, etc...  I'm excited but still a bit terrified. Zach has been going for a week now and he's come home and told me everything they've done.  Lord help me is all I have to say.  This challenge is seriously going to be a CHALLENGE.  Here's a snippet of our convo yesterday afternoon.

Me: What did you do today?
Zach: We ran 250 meters, did squats, the bike, rowing machine, (and something else I forgot).
Me: Oh!  That doesn't sound to bad. I can do all that stuff!
Zach:  Mom, that was just the warm up.

I kinda wish I could have seen the look on my own face LOL

Wish me luck!  This is the start of something wonderful because 6 weeks from now I am going to be in so much better shape, stronger and lighter <3

Some of our meals

I don't officially start this challenge until next Monday but since Zach started today I am doing the meal plans with him.  Not doing it 100% til next week so I may have a few things that aren't on plan, but I'm not listing them to avoid confusion.  Here's a few things we've eaten this week, and a picture.

Breakfast:
Egg whites scrambled with spinach and onions.
Oatmeal, egg whites and spinach

Lunch:
Chicken on a bed of spinach, cucumbers
Tuna salad on Ezekiel bread, side of cucumbers and tomatoes

Dinner:
Taco salad.  Lettuce and spinach topped with ground beef, avocado, pico de gallo, and a plash of lime juice.
Chicken, fajitas style - cooked with onions and peppers. Side of avocado.

Snacks - handful of almonds, veggies, small piece of fruit.

I was very worried going into this that I was going to starve to death. Yes, I can be dramatic at times, but I seriously hate being hungry.  I'm sure there's some deep seeded reason for this and if I really cared why I could pay some therapist too much money to figure it out....but who has time for that...  I am very happy to report that Zach and I are both finding that this is a lot of food.  So much that we haven't even been able to finish a few of our meals.   I'm honestly shocked! And happy  :)

I've done something crazy...

Admit it, none of you are surprised by that statement right?  I mean it is ME we are talking about, and I've been known to do some off the wall stuff so....  But this is legit nuts ya'll, even for me.

On April 7th I am starting a 6 week challenge at Middleburg Strength and Conditioning, a crossfit gym (or "box", as I have been told they are called).  Yes, I said CROSSFIT, and yes I said 6 WEEKS. Told ya I did something crazy!!  It involves a strict meal plan, a shit ton of accountability with the trainers and other members of my group, and 3 one hour workout sessions each week. Quite honestly I am not so sure I am going to survive this!  Ok ok, I know I will survive, but it is going to completely kick my ass physically, and I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't scared that I am going to be hungry for the entire 6 weeks.  

My decision to do this is something I have been thinking about for a few weeks.  Not exactly crossfit, but something to ramp up my exercise routine. I love to walk and have been jogging a bit lately, but I need something to push myself further. The actual signing up was pretty spontaneous. It also wasn't very well planned out.  After I did it I looked at my calendar and realized that during the 6 week period I will be out of town 3 of the weekends.  It's going to be impossible to stick to the meal plan exactly, but I'll prepare ahead and bring the food I can and just make the best choices when the meals are out of my control.  Good thing I love salads!! There's some pretty high stakes involved in finishing this challenge that I will talk about at another time, but those things will keep me on track if nothing else does. 

One other thing before I go.  Zach is doing this with me, so that is making this 100x easier mentally.  He still needs to drop a few pounds before he ships out in May, so when I mentioned I was going to do this he signed up as well.  He is starting a week ahead of me, so tomorrow. He only has 5 weeks left before he leaves so they made an exception for him with the challenge. We spent Friday night going over the guidelines of the meal plan and then came up with one for the week using them. We have both been successfully eating low carb for the past 6 weeks, so making this change is a little tough, but we got this. Yesterday we went grocery shopping and then this morning we portioned everything out.  Then we had pizza rolls for lunch and are now headed to the County Fair to have funnel cake and pet the baby goats :) Tomorrow it's game on!!