I like to be challenged.
Tell me I can't do something & I'll prove you wrong. One of our
first Christmas' together I asked Jimmy what foods were a Christmas tradition
& he said Tamales, but that there was no way I could ever make them.
His mom had never even made them & blah blah blah blah - I stopped
listening after that. So, I researched them for a couple of weeks, put
together instructions, a grocery list & a few spreadsheets and days later
we had ourselves some pretty awesome tamales! HA! I win! Or did he
win because he tricked me into making tamales? No...I win! Ha!
Right? Net of the story is, I like to be challenged.
I like to
be challenged but I don't like doing
challenges. I feel like I have a pretty good grip on exercise and
nutrition. I also don't eat paleo, so those challenges are usually out.
For some reason, I decided at the very last minute to sign up. I'm
glad I did...I think. I'll try to document a few things here and there
from my personal point of view - which is of a wife, mom & crossfitter who
works full time for a Fortune 50 company - trying to feed my family as
healthfully, quickly, easily and stress free-ly as possible!
6 Days
into the Whole Nutrition Life Challenge and I'm feeling
good-ish. It took me 3 days to get used to drinking black coffee
(cinnamon in it helps), stop eating birthday cake (since we celebrate 2
birthdays + an anniversary in 1 week) & realize that the hardest parts of
this challenge for me are:
-no
screens at work during breakfast & lunch
-giving up
chocolate, steel cut oats & quinoa
This also
seems like much more of a nutrition challenge than anything else since I
already fulfill most other requirements besides screens at work during meals.
No Screens
at Work: If you know me, you know I'm an "all in"
kind of girl. At work, I'm there to get a job done & that also
consists of working while I eat to maximize my productivity. I love my
job, but it is not my life (although at times it does consume a lot of my
time), and I want to get shit done in order to move on to the fun stuff asap!
You know...time with my boys, crossfit, wine...oh wait, can't have that
either. Ugh! Add another really hard thing to this challenge!
Anyway - this is a HUGE habit shift for me.
Chocolate,
Steel Cut Oats/Quinoa ... (and wine)- No description needed on
why I miss chocolate.
I had a
"paleo break-up" ~ a year ago because I was DYING in the gym! I
know my physical capabilities and limitations pretty well, and I know that the reason I
should have to stop during a WOD is because I can't breathe – not because my
muscles are tired. As I gained strength and lean muscle mass, I was
noticing that my muscle endurance was getting worse and worse. I wasn't
able to keep up with the amount of carbs my newly formed fabulous muscle needed
to work at its new capacity (it’s hard & smelly to eat 220g of carbs worth
of broccoli) & it took its toll. So, I added carbs...gasp!
Newsflash-I didn't get fat, either! Turns out, it's actually what
my body needed to continue making Gainzzzz! And now...I have to give them
up? I even have this pinterest board
devoted to them! I'm seriously debating just taking a 1 point hit every
other day so I can have a nice warm bowl of steel cut oats or quinoa/rice with
dinner.
Note: days 3 & 4 I felt that same level of muscle fatigue as when I was eating paleo, but wods on days 5 & 6 have felt much better. I even PRd my 5rm clean at 130!
I guess I’ll stop complaining
& talk about what I’m doing to be a success at this challenge:
I did some
awesome meal prep on Saturday. Roasted broccoli was by far my favorite
concoction from the weekend, so here's the (very technical) recipe:
-chop some
little green trees, throw them in a bowl
-chop some
garlic (which must be a fresh clove-or two- IMO)
-drizzle
healthy fat of your choice - coconut oil has a good high heat tolerance &
clarified butter from grass fed cows is a good choice too
-season to
taste with pepper, salt, onion powder & red pepper for a kick
-make the
bowl dance (as I tell Santi when he helps) & shake it up
-Roast at
400 for about 10 minutes
-in-SANE
deliciousness of flavor explosion in your mouth
My only
regret is that I wish I'd made more, because I was popping it like candy as I
was cooking everything else. At one point I used a piece of broccoli to
"dip" into the chili to taste it as it was cooking which was also amazing,
and broccoli is probably a little better for you than Ruffles. Forget chocolate covered marshmallows. Chili covered broccoli is the way to go!
I've also
decided that I'll keep a few notes outside of the reflection to document this experiment
experience.
I'll
always try to write in format of things I love, loathe and am learning. This is a template for a running list I keep of
things on life in general, so thought it would work here too!
Things I
Love:
-perfect
score for day 1...even though it will likely be the only one. (But I've surprised myself & have only list 1 pt. thus far!!)
-got a lot
of food prep done
-reminded
to take vitamins which I always forget on weekends
-soccer in
the yard was seriously fun “exercise” with Santi
-that I only had to give up 1
point for blue ice cream at King’s Island…I would have given all 5
Things I
Loathe:
-starting
a day of change without my usual coffee. No heavy cream = sad. I even left my
travel mug on the checkout lane at Kroger by accident on day 1.
-having to
say "no thank you" when Santi offered to share him PB&J with me.
He said, "mama I share. You take a bite." Ugh! Broke my heart!
Things I am
learning:
-I can do “performance”,
but may just deliberately subtract a point every other day or so to get more
carbs (steel cut oats, quinoa, rice). EDIT-starting to feel a little better after a few days, so will wait it out.
-I'm more
excited about this challenge than I thought I'd be.
-How to not be a sugar addict.
-how to do a muscle up
You're absolutely right. The last one has nothing to do with WLC. At all. It simply exists on every list I make.
These are things
from my point of view, but you should check out one of my crossfit
besties, Sarah, to see what she’s going through. She’ll have some good stuff for you on this
journey too!
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