Burpees & Boobies

Anyone who's ever done more than one burpee will tell you that they are the worst. The. Worst. Try doing them quickly in a workout with other moves and you quickly start questioning your sanity.

It's worse for girls. Repeatedly slamming a soft, sensitive part of your body onto gym mats makes for some sore girls. For a while, I'd dread the days following burpees more than the actual burpees themselves. I blamed my pain entirely on the floor...until this last weekend.

We did the Games 2010 WOD 7: 3 Cleans followed by 4 HSPU for 7 rounds. I wanted to see how my form was looking, especially on the heavy cleans, so I had Nick video tape the first three rounds. I was certainly not prepared for what I saw when I replayed the video later on. I'd post it here, but it's almost NSFW.

Now, I've never considered myself to be particularly busty, average maybe. While my opinion of their size hasn't changed, I have a whole new appreciation for their range of motion. Those girls were everywhere (and not in a good way)! I can see how a spectator would be worried that they were going to break lose, especially after seeing myself do HSPU. I'd known that some of my sports bras were more supportive than other ones, but I had NO IDEA how inefficient some of them actually were.

I can see how the pain started with burpees. The burpee is explained as the move that contains the fullest range of motion for your whole body. You literally go from standing, to laying down, to jumping...and that's just one. Think of it from your boob's perspective, they're squished onto the ground and then bounced around on your way back up. Full range of motion = Ouch! While I have no plans to inhibit the range of motion for most of my body, the girls have got to be controlled.

What's the solution to my problem? Shopping, of course! And throwing away my old bras. I'm trying out a site called Fabletics, which is almost like a monthly subscription service for workout clothes. They claim to be the less expensive Lululemon, which is enticing. The clothes are cute and I've got some coming my way. I'm sure I'll do a full reveiw. 5 stars if the bras rock and the tights aren't see through!

Progress Report: February

We had a week of retesting this week at the gym. I'm disappointed to say that I didn't hit nearly as many PR's as I would've liked to. I didn't regress, which is to my favor, but didn't experience the level of improvement that I have with some past testing cycles. It doesn't help that I was on a business trip recently that lasted over a week and only left time for one workout in the midst of it.

The thing that really disappoints me though is that I slid so easily back into a pattern of feeling bad about myself and verbalizing those feelings. I won't list all of the things I felt bad about, because that would be counterproductive, but their was quite a list.

In the interest of focusing on the positives, here are some things that have been going well for me recently:

• Pull ups! I strung three kipping pull ups together this week, proof that my upper body strength has improved

• PR on Open 13.4. Love me some clean and jerks, not so much on the toes-to-bar, but I can do them in this WOD.  Multiple people commented (positively) on my form and tone, which made me feel really good. I'm still going to need photo proof to believe them, but it's a step!
• PR on my 3 rep max push press. Go figure, the one weight lifting PR I hit this week was putting weight overhead! I added a full 10# to my max.
• Volunteering. By pure chance (or was it?) I saw that Girls on the Run is looking for coaches. This was exactly where I wanted to volunteer, so I'm signed up for a training session next week. A girl I CrossFit with also coaches and loves it, which is encouraging. I just hope that the hours they need volunteers can work with my crazy work schedule. Fingers crossed! 

I leave this post with a few articles I've been digging this week: Dear New Girl at the Gym & CrossFit Chicks - The Paradox. 

What A Difference A Year Can Make

One week ago today, I turned 26. Just a few days before that, I'd found the photo that was taken at my 25th birthday party. I hate the photo. Seeing myself when the server handed it over was truly embarrassing. It was one of those moments when you realize how much weight you've gained. I remember how I felt getting ready for that dinner, not even knowing that all of my friends were planning on surprising me. I'd practically been in tears. I felt like I had nothing nice to wear that fit my body. My confidence was close to an all time low.

Left: January 20, 2013
Right: January 20, 2014

Circle back, 365 days later and I am 100% healthier. I've been CrossFitting for almost 7 months and eat a much more clean and whole diet than any other time in my life. I've repaired friendships that I'd been damaging due to my own insecurity. I'm on the road to being financially free and my relationship with my significant other is built on love, trust, and respect. 

While I'm not looking forward to being another year closer to 30, I am excited for the progress I know I can make between now and my next birthday. 

The Great Purge of 2014

And so it begins, the year in which I will simplify my life, spend time on the things I care about, and stop letting things and characteristics that I don't have bring me down.

I've already said I want to get out of debt. This is HUGE. Being debt free would be so...freeing. Right now, roughly a quarter of my monthly income goes (or should go) towards past experiences like college, shopping, travel, etc. None of these are bad things on their own, but in the interest of living in the moment and being present in my own life, I want to shut the door on all of it. I'd rather have that quarter of my income to spend on things in the present than some shirt or pair of jeans that I wanted years ago. Or, maybe I wouldn't spend it, maybe I would take that quarter of my income in a payout in the form of free time to do what I love. I wouldn't have to make as much money so I wouldn't have to spend as much time in the office. I'd be free to follow a different path, even if that path weren't as financially prosperous as the one I'm currently on.

I'm digressing, getting way to philosophical for what I'm about to cover, so here it goes. It won't shock you, based on my previous talk of shopping and debt, but I can be a bit of a shopaholic. I like fashion and I like the feeling of putting together a totally rocking outfit. Over the past few years, I've accumulated quite a collection of clothes, shoes, accessories, and jewelry. I don't wear a lot of it, if I'm honest. I have a whole drawer of jeans, but really only rotate between 3 or 4 pairs of favorites.

I've decided that the excess must go. I cannot remember where I saw it, but someone recommended switching all of the hangers in your closet the opposite way, so that the hooks are facing out towards the door.

Once an article of clothing has been taken out to wear, the hanger gets flipped back around so its "normal". At the end of every season, you can easily tell which pieces haven't been worn. If they haven't been worn, you get rid of them.

The above photo is part of my closet. Can you tell the bar is bending? Haha. I'm excited for this purge, although I know certain items will be hard to part with. I need this method to force me to come to terms with the fact that I don't need this many clothes because I'm obviously not wearing them. It will point a finger at the excess so that I can clear it out. 

Non-closet items like jeans and tanks will be trickier, since they're kept in drawers, but I'm off to a strong start!

2014 Goals

2013 has held loads of change for me. While it has been the only year since high school that I haven't had multiple jobs (hooray for only one W-2!), much has changed in my personal life. After breaking free from a terrible relationship, I found myself growing and changing in ways that I find amazing. I found CrossFit not too long after that breakup, which catapulted my life down a new and healthy path. I'd always been interested in healthy food and being fit, but my commitment to those interests had been a roller coaster of highs and lows. Finding my physical strength gave me the confidence to make improvements in other areas of my life, which I talk a little bit about below. Goals 1-5 are areas that I want to begin/continue improving on that relate to the way I treat myself, others, and my future, behavioral goals, if you will. Goals 6-10 are fitness goals that I can work towards in the gym.

1. Eliminate debt: because, duh. So many doors would be open to me if I didn't have those extra bills hanging over my head each month. With the exception of a car payment, I'm going to attempt to pay off as much debt as I can this year.
2. Fill out the FAFSA: If I'm even considering going back to school, which I very well may be, I'll need to have this done.
3. Get more sleep: at least 7 hours a night. This means I'm going to have to go to bed earlier, and if I want to start working out in the mornings as well as in the evenings, I'll have to go to be even earlier! 
4. Cut out negative self-talk and negative thoughts towards others: How awesome would the world be if we quit thinking the worst of ourselves and others? I'm starting with myself on this one and making a big effort to stop harsh and judgmental thoughts.
5. Volunteer: In 2013, I was given $100 by my company to donate to a charity of my choice. I chose Girls on the Run because I really get their purpose.  As a girl that often felt inferior growing up, I would have loved the chance to have encouraging female coaches and friends who were all working towards a goal (and achieving it!). I want to do more with Girls on the Run in 2014.
6. Run a half-marathon
7. Muscle-up
8. 150lb Front Squat/175lb Back Squat
9. 150lb Clean & Jerk
10. 115lb Snatch

Here's to a Healthy and Happy 2014!

Spring Cleaning

My apartment is a mess! You'd think that after traveling for a month, everything would be untouched and in order, but no. For that to be true, I would have had to leave it in some sort of order, which I did not. My work schedule is always a whirlwind right before I travel, so I end up packing in a rush and everything gets pulled out.

This Saturday is devoted to getting things back in order, and I mean more than my apartment. Granted, it's the most obvious mess, but I'm also going back to the gym for the first time in almost two months to try to get my body ready for summer. I've been working on refreshing my wardrobe for spring, although I've been doing a lot more shopping than closet-purging, so there's a lot of build up right now. I haven't had time to cuddle with my darling bunny rabbit in so long either and I've missed her. She needs to get out for some exercise, but the apartment is too messy. Here I am, back full circle to the fact that my apartment is a mess.

I've had so little time to myself lately, between work and my ex-boyfriend, that I feel like there is a lot that had slipped through the cracks. I'm looking forward to having the time to maintain order around here, even if it does mean going through the weirdness of a breakup. I know I will be better off in the long run and that my stress levels will be way down in the future if I can balance my "me-time" with everything else in life a little better. If there's one thing that I learned from that relationship, it's that I need to stick up for my "me-time" and if a guy doesn't get that, he's not for me.