Day 34, February 3: progress report.

We're about a third of the way through the challenge, and I thought this would be a good time for me to evaluate how I'm doing on my 90 day challenge ground rules and goals.

First, the ground rules.

• whole foods are best

I'm doing all right with this one. My consumption of prepared foods, and junk foods, has been drastically reduced, and I've definitely increased the amount of veggies I've been eating. Of course, I could improve on this by eating out less and cooking at home more.

• vegan is best (though I will continue eating some free-range eggs, greek yogurt, and small amounts of fancy cheese)

Not doing as well with this one. I would say I eat more than "some" free-range eggs (2 a day most days) and while I do consume small amounts of fancy cheese, I continue to eat mediocre cheese on a regular basis. 

• raw is best (I will be using some recipes and advice from Brendan Brazier's book on the Thrive Diet)

I have incorporated some aspects of the Thrive diet--growing my own sprouts, making my own almond milk, making my own energy bars. I definitely think these have improved my health--and it's fun, too. But I could certainly up the percentage of raw foods I eat each day if I were to spend more energy on preparing meals. Tough to find the time.

 

• eat a big salad every day

I'd say I'm at about 75% on this one. I definitely eat more salad now than I did prior to the 90 day challenge. 

• sleep 8 hours (or more) each night

Ugh. Not succeeding at all with this one. Sometimes my goals conflict with one another, and trying to find time to exercise, and cook, and blog, as well as getting my work done and keeping the house in some semblance of order, means that I often shortchange my sleep.

• crossfit at least 3, better 4 or 5 times per week

I'd say I'm succeeding with this goal, even though I've been struggling with this recent injury, and I've been learning a lot about scaling appropriately.

• when in doubt, cook something

I am not 100% certain of what I meant when I formulated this goal. However I have repeated it to myself on many occasions: when I was feeling stressed, when I wasn't sure what to eat, when I had a long day ahead of me, etc, and it's been so helpful. In the past, I might have just pulled something out of the freezer, or I would have just left the house with nothing. Now I have more food around in general, so I have more leftovers and tasty things to bring with me in my lunchbag.

• write down: what I eat, what I exercise, and how I feel

I've been surprisingly good at this one too. I've been keeping this blog, and I keep a journal. Haven't missed a day in my paper journal (have missed some blog posts, but hey, somethings gotta give sometimes.)

• always bring food and water with me when I leave the house

I am doing better with this one than I ever did before in my life. At a minimum, I nearly always have Larabars and a water bottle in my purse, but I often have more. This is definitely a good new habit. I know it may seem I eat out a lot, but compared to how much I ate out before, I've cut my eating out down by half. So hooray for that.

Now for my goals:

• be consistently using the 20 inch box and 14 lb wall ball

Well, I'm making strides towards this goal. It may not seem so daunting to other people, but just being able to use the Rx'd box and wall ball on a regular basis sounds to me like a pretty fierce accomplishment. I am generally a very cautious person who cuts myself a lot of slack. I know it's going to take more than increased strength, it's going to take increased self-confidence and willpower. 

To get closer to my goal, I've been practicing taller box jumps when I'm outside of class, and these days I feel pretty comfortable using the 18 inch box, even in WODs. I feel pretty sure I'll be on the 20 inch box by the end of March. 

As for wall balls, the 10 lb ball has definitely gotten lighter and easier to manage, but the 14 lb ball still feels unwieldy, and I'm not too accurate with it. For now I use the 14 lb ball if it's a low # of reps, but a high # of reps (like with Helen a couple weeks ago) I still fall back on the 10. Something to continue working on.

• have 5 unbroken pullups on the blue band

I've been doing volume training on pullups once a week, and I am definitely seeing progress. This week I did 2 per minute for twenty minutes on the blue+purple band. If I keep this up I'm fairly certain I'll make this goal by the end of March.

• run a 5k without walking

Ummmm...haven't done much running at all, lately. Ran 2 miles without stopping about a month ago. It was a challenge though. I did agree to run the Freihoffers run this year with a friend, and I think that'll get me motivated once the weather warms up. I am always going to find running a challenge, I think, but that doesn't mean some running isn't good for me. 

One thing I am doing to work towards this goal is just generally improving my breathing. I have noticed some improvement in my stamina too. I am cautiously hopeful that I'll be able to make this goal too, though it won't be easy.

A couple more comments. 

1. My husband and I set up a challenge for just ourselves over three months ago. We decided to compete to see who could go the longest without consuming sugar. So far we are both still going strong! This I think has been very good for me, because I have additional motivation to not cheat, not even a little (I don't want to "lose.")
2. I pointedly did NOT set the goal of losing weight in the 90 day challenge. However I still want to report that I've lost six pounds since January 1st. woot!

Now on to the boring stuff.  What I exercised today:

• 9 AM WOD
• warmed up with stretching, as the russian gymnastics warmup was beyond me.
• 3-3-3-3 strict presses
  65-65-70-70
  those last two rounds at 70# definitely felt challenging. For the longest time, 70# was my one-rep max. I can remember doing presses with Heather Bishop Field, back when she was still at Albany Crossfit, and us both hitting 70# for one rep and then failing on 72#. It felt pretty darn good to be able to hit 3 at 70#!
• 15-12-9-6
  power snatches (scaled to 45#)
  KB swings (scaled to 25#)
  babying my back still by going light.
  Still, this WOD felt great--finished quickly, in 6:24. Love me some snatches.

What I ate:

• 8 AM: apple with almond butter
• 10 AM: post WOD shake (1/2 banana, frozen berries, 2 handfuls of raw spinach, 1/3 c protein powder, 8 oz almond milk)
• 12:30: Lunch at the Bangkok bistro. Had about 1/2 c white rice and 1 c tofu, plus a ton of veggies and a few noodles off my mom's plate. Loved their green curry sauce (what I ordered) and the basil curry (what my friend ordered).
• 6 PM: made dinner with my family, mom and dad up to visit for a couple days. consumed 1/2 c quinoa, 1/2 c brussell sprouts, a big salad, about 1/2 c corn that Kari cut off the cob and froze last summer...delicious. Also ate a homemade paleo "granola" bar.