I drank the CF kool aid

I finally succumbed to the pressure that is CrossFit. A while back I had joined for a short time and ended my membership due to school being my priority at the time. Also, this was while I was deep in my disorder. AKA double whammy negative sh*t storm.

I joined the same affiliate again for the second round and am loving it. I can officially say I drank the CrossFit kool aid. First off I’d like to comment on how ridiculous that phase sounds. Ridiculous but I kind of like it. You know what else I kind of like? The Harney & Sons Hot Cinnamon Spice tea that I’m currently drinking. Mmm. Anyways, did I say I have ADD? No seriously. Truth.

The main thing I’m loving about the gym I belong to is the programming. My coach and I discussed injuries (past/still lingering – more to come), medical, and goals. We decided that I will do the strength portion of each workout and then swap out conditioning for either an additional strength or mobility depending on how I’m feeling. For example yesterdays workout was…

 

• Warm up/mobility
• Bulgarian split squat: warm up sets and then 3×6 work sets
• Nixed conditioning and instead did 3×6 romanian deadlifts
• Ended the workout with 10 breaths in a deep squat and some foam rolling

 

All this strength stuff is my “specialty”. I’ve always found that I really enjoy lifting and would love to compete one day in powerlifting, note I say one day making sure not too soon into my recovery process. I realize that I can’t do much more than ponder the ideas of competition at this point with only being a few months into recovery and weight restoration. It’s a risky slope, and one I’m not willing to fall back down.

My relationship with exercise is one I struggle with because it is such a passion for me but also I can’t ignore the fact that I’ve also gone to the obsessive side of things. There has already been a lot of work done around this topic and I do hope to both share more on this blog and look into it more for my own knowledge. As I noted in my manifesto, which by the way has it’s own page now… I think it’s really important to keep evolving as a person, which is exactly what I intend to do.

 

Have you tried CrossFit?

Strength work or conditioning? Or, both?

GO BUY HOT CINNAMON SPICE TEA

WIAW: the first

This week I decided to jump on the What I Ate Wednesday bandwagon. It sounded like a good idea. Who doesn’t love food porn? Who doesn’t like to see what other people are eating and find new things to try out? I know I’m completely guilty of all the above.

Today’s post is more of a What I Ate favorites edition, I figured it’d be a nice way to kick off for the weeks to come. Plus you all can see what I’m slightly obsessed with. Although I’m pretty sure we already know both coffee and almond butter hit that list. Oh they hit that list with quite the bang.

Thank you, Jenn over at Peas and Crayons for hosting

Breakfast

Eggs and zucchini scrambled in coconut oil. Chicken sausage.

Berries.

I really do love them.

Coffee tea.

Full plate lunches and dinners. All about the full plates over here. [excuse the recycled picture… it just looks so darn tasty.]

More eggs, greens, broccoli, sweet potato, and my beloved coconut butter. The bomb I tell you.

Even some full Pyrex containers for good measure. AKA I was at work

Sweet potato mashed with coconut oil, spinach which ended up being steamed spinach…, and chicken sausage. Plus a Lulu bag hanging out in the back for #lululunches

… And now I’m hungry and wanting berries plus coconut butter. Or almond butter. Yeah, that sounds good. Hmmm the possibilities.

Eggs for lunch?

Ever tried passion tea?

Do you participate in weekly WIAW posts?

A manifesto for my life

I was looking through old journals, you know those notebooks that keep piling up but tend to never be looked back through? I decided to take a peak, I wanted to see how much I’ve grown and where I still struggle. While going through I began to notice certain patterns, specific phrases or words, and ideas that really stuck out to me. From this I decided heck why not create a manifesto for my life.

I mean who doesn’t love a good manifesto?! For one, the Lululemon one printed all over their bags is a favorite of mine – but still I wanted something more personal. I wanted something that was original to me.

Over the past few years I’ve really began to develop my own niche. I know what I like and you best believe I know what I don’t like. The things that make me happy and things that just piss me off. With that being said I do believe in constantly pushing yourself and evolving as a person. It’s always good to look into new things that spark an interest, and let go of things that no longer serve you.

For right now, this is my manifesto.

Do work. Fight hard. Live good. Stay focused. Don’t worry. Lift heavy. Food is fuel. Enjoy movement. Be mobile. Laugh. Don’t save anything for the run back. Push yourself, mentally and physically. Stop and listen. Drink water. Tell people how much they mean to you. Work for it every.single.day, Do deadlifts. Allow rest. Espresso is always better than coffee. Take action. Be humble. Be even more humble. Don’t even consider giving up. Take naps. Eat good food. Enjoy good food. Trust people. Say thank you. Slow down when need be, speed up when you can. Ask for help. Give when nobody is watching. Practice lifting form. Form > weight. Constantly work on mental strength. Ignite passion. Leave the past behind. Don’t quit, can’t fail.

 

If you were to write a manifesto for your life, what’s one thing that would definitely be included?

What do we have in common?

The ability to focus

What really is the ability to focus? It is to accomplish the task at hand? It is to hold a solid conversation? Is it to make sure you get to bed at a decent time by not becoming hypnotized to the TV and/or computer? Ok maybe not “and”, if someone can focus fully on TV and computer at the same time, that’s simply skill. Anyways… my point is that what does it really mean to focus? I’m not sure if any one really knows the answer to this because it’s so diverse. For me focusing means that I am able to get my school work finished, but it also means focusing on recovery versus the eating disorder thoughts. Focusing is deep breathing when I feel my anxiety creeping in, it is not wasting my time and doing what needs to be done.

I think the idea of someone’s ability to focus doesn’t get enough credit. I mean really, not everyone can sit down and finish a project or motivate themselves to just get through a hard spot… Which brings me to my next idea, do the ability to focus and internal motivation play hand in hand? I vote yes. Wait nope, YES. To put it as simply as possible, if a person isn’t able to motivate themselves then will they be able to focus on what they need to accomplish? Probably not. They will most likely just go through the motions, doing the minimum require but never going above and beyond. It’s almost like living sub-par. One foot in your life and one-foot with all the hopes and dreams of what life would be like if your were really internally motivated and happy with what your life is.

Our thoughts become clouded on a daily basis with what we want to be doing, what we should have done, what we wish we could do if one x, y, or z would just fall into place. The thing is x, y or z will never fall into place unless we put them in place. It’s truly in our control to self motivate, focus, and achieve the things we really want for our lives.

Perfect example of our thoughts becoming clouded which in turn affects our life – this last Tuesday I was going through my usual morning routine but little things kept happening. I spilt my coffee, my back account wouldn’t let me log on, my ankle (story for another day) was not doing so well, and my mind was in a funk. I was headed to a 9am appointment and hit traffic. Now this is where the situation could have gone two separate ways. One way is I could have called where I was going and just not worried about it, if the traffic dissipated I’d be fine and if not re-schedule. I didn’t do that, because my mind was already clouded with negative. About 20 minutes passed and I had moved around 50 feet. 100 feet tops. I felt my anxiety raising and wasn’t able to stop it in the moment. I pulled a U-turn (as did pretty much everyone else) and headed back home. Tears began streaming down my face, anxiety rising even higher, shaking, trembling, and screaming. Full blown anxiety attack in the works due to the way I handled a specific situation.

I understand that it’s extremely hard to re-focus thoughts after negative emotions are already in play but sometimes it’s the only way out. Focusing comes from within. Looking back now I see that if I had made sure I was calm before driving to my appointment and just re-scheduling right when I realized traffic wasn’t moving the situation would have probably ended much differently. It’s all in our surroundings and mindset. Mental clouding has a huge play in our day to day lives, our self motivation, and our ability to focus.