Crossfit Endurance and Cleanse...the first week!

There have been some Ups and Downs this week.  Some days and workouts that I am proud of and some that I wish I could have back.

We will start with Crossfit Endurance. 
Basically, for six mornings per week I kill myself doing functional strength work for what comes out to be approximately 15-20 minutes.  Then in the afternoons 3-4 times a week I am focusing on a run workout and 1-2 times a week a bike workout.

I was skeptical about whether this morning workout could possibly be hard enough with it being that short.  After all, I have been through numerous rounds of p90x and p90x+ and Chalean Extreme.  That was skepticism was quickly over after my Monday morning workout left me sore for two days.  As an example of this morning workout here is what I did last Monday....3 rounds for time of 15 kettlebell swings, 15 ring rows (I don't have rings so I did dumbell rows), 15 Power Snatches (which I had to look up how to do on the internet) and 15 toes to bar (I did the best I could and ended up with hand blisters by the end even with gloves).  It took me 15:30 to do.

Other things that have shown up in my morning routines include: Power Cleans, Pullups, Pushups, Deadlifts, Double Unders with the jump rope (which I can't do but am working on), box jumps, Good Mornings, Press, Wall balls, Lunges  All in one week. 

These are tough workouts, but I feel like it is a great way to start the day and I have loved the variety and loved trying out new moves.  I can't testify to how it may or may not improve my performance or overall strength, but I plan on giving it quite a bit of time so that I can give it a good review.  (Looking at doing it mid-August through mid- November)

In the afternoon for my run workouts, which can be swim/bike/run/ or row workouts I have done... 
*a 60 minute tempo run,
*2 by 5 minutes with 2 minutes recovery and then 5 by 1 minute with 30 seconds recovery,
*a mile run time trial (it was a total of 3 miles with warmup and cooldown)  I ran a 7:05.11 and hope to get under 7 minutes next time and that HURT!!
*10 by 30 second hill repeats

*bike workout of 22 miles (I added extra miles from the given workout)  with 6 by 3minute pickups in it.

I do have a longer run on tap for this week.  I was a little sore at the beginning of the week from my Sunday OLY race and so did not feel great for the early runs, but with a little extra rest I felt very good for my mile time trial last weekend.

The 21 day Cleanse
I am on my second round of my 21 day cleanse after doing the first round in February.  I am to eliminate animal products, alcohol, gluten, added sugar, and caffeine.
I am struggling more this round than I did the first round.  I think in February going meatless and all the different foods that came into my life were so new that I really embraced it more fully.
I did very well through the week last week.  Stuck to my plan, didn't have any of the eliminated foods and actually dropped quite a few pounds.  Then the weekend struck.... and this was NOT good.

I won't say I fell off the wagon, but I Lizzie had a cross country sleepover on Saturday and 9 pizzas were ordered, and I was hungry and did not take time to prepare myself a meal.  So 3 pieces of olive pizza later, I was not very proud of myself.

There were also snickerdoodle cookies in the kitchen on Saturday and Sunday...need I say more (although it was only 2-3 cookies).

Other than that, it has gone pretty well.  Meg had a softball picnic yesterday, so I packed my own food to take so that I could avoid the cupcakes, pizza and chips.
We had a birthday party on Friday and so I packed my own food because chicken was served. 

My day usually consists of:
Breakfast: steel cut oats/blueberries/ground flax/sliced almonds/low sodium V8
snack: almonds/cashews/dried apricots
lunch: big salad with lots of veggies
snack: Larabar
dinner: see below

Two dinners that were very tasty and followed the cleanse are pictures below:

quinoa with sun dried tomatoes (Tosca Reno's clean eating) sauted vegetables with beans, and peaches from the local orchard

cauliflower with tomatoes, apple salad, scrambled tofu

One of the keys to being ready for the week is preparing my salads for the week on Sunday.  I also try to plan the meals for the week and then go grocery shopping.

I am hoping to have a great week this week, and then at the end of the 21 days I won't be changing much.  I miss bread, and I miss the occassional glass of wine. 

Congratulations to Jon, Mandy and Mary who all raced at Timberman this weekend!!  All bloggers that I follow.

I have officially signed up for the Columbus HALF marathon on October 17th.  John is doing the Full and Matt is also doing the Half.  I am glad to NOT be training for a fall marathon after running one in 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2009.  I WILL be training this winter for Boston marathon 2011, which I am already qualified for!!  We booked our Boston hotel this weekend.

How is your nutrition plan going?  Are you at a place that you feel comfortable?

Day 21-what's next?

First a little debriefing of day 19 (Friday) and 20 (Saturday):
Friday was a typical day. Donuts at school which are not even an issue anymore. Ate the typical and had some leftovers from the week for dinner. I did have a 2 by 2 piece of the family's homemade whole wheat pizza, so a little gluten and a little cheese.

I had been a little apprehensive for Saturday to come all week long. I had a 16 mile run planned and the furthest I had run since Columbus marathon in the Fall was 12 miles. The turned out to be sunny and about 30 degrees, and I have to say my run was a JOY. I ran out in Amish country, very few cars, a few Amish buggies. I felt great until the last 1-2 miles. Pace was better than expected. No issues with my knees or hips. I think this diet is helping with the inflammation. I was a little sore the rest of the day and this morning, but after 16 miles that is to be expected.
Of course, after burning over 2000 calories on my run, I needed a little extra as the day went on. I had a chocolate almond smoothie from the Thrive Diet book in the afternoon and a homemade energy bar.
We went to 5pm Mass and then had to go directly to see my neice in a play at 7pm, so dinner was a bit of an issue. I brought an apple and a Larabar and a bottle of water, but was starving...so I had stopped at Subway for my daughters. Lizzie got a veggie delite and so I had about a third of her foot long. Again gluten, and it had ranch dressing so some dairy. I also then had some popcorn at the theatre, with butter so more dairy.

I think to take care of those problems I just needed to bring more food with me, especially after a long run day.

So here we are on the morning of DAY 21.
When I started I was hoping to:
* get control of my cravings, which I feel I have for the most part

*lose a little weight, as of this morning I have lost about 7 pounds in these 21 days

*become more conscious of what I was eating before putting it in my mouth. I think I have improved on this. I want to continue making progress on this.

*see how some changes in my diet would make me feel. I feel like I have MORE energy, my skin is clearer, my body seems like it is recovering quicker from workouts, I feel lighter and my mood is better.

OTHER things that I did not expect:
I did not expect to feel like I wanted to give up all animal products for good. It had never crossed my mind that I would become a Vegan. Because of how I feel, and because I am immersed in reading The China Study, The Thrive Diet, and Quantum Wellness I do not feel like I should go back to animal products. It is partly for humane reasons, but mainly for health reasons.

I am not going to be an EXTREME vegan, which may offend vegans out there. I may have a piece of cheese pizza every once in a while. I may have soup that is made with Chicken Stock, or has cream in it every once in a while. I may have buttered popcorn. But in general these will be things I will avoid.


So...what's next?
When day 22 comes tomorrow, I will have 50%caf/50%decaf coffee beans in my coffee maker (Actually I am trying it out right now as I type this) and so reintroduce that small amount of caffeine into my diet.

I will reintroduce a glass of wine once or twice a week.

I will still avoid added sugar as much as possible. I will keep gluten to a minimum, but will reintroduce a piece of whole wheat bread now and then.

So for the most part, things will not change. My typical day will continue to be:
oatmeal
almonds/dried apricots
Big leafy salad
apple/energy bar
dinner of lots of vegetables and a little bit of grain (quinoa/brown rice...)

Hoping to keep out between 'meal' snacks and after dinner snacks. After dinner I will have Teavana tea as my evening 'treat'.

Hoping to lose another 7-8 pounds for vanity and to help me run faster.

I also want to continue to make progress on making my diet healthier. In the Thrive Diet Brazier talks about trying to stay as RAW as possible. He also suggests NO soy. He has some very different recipes in there. I want to continue making progress toward eating HEALTHIER. even more leafy vegetables, less of anything that is not WHOLE foods...there are lots of improvements I can make.

I would highly suggest people that are out there thinking about trying this to JUST DO IT. 21 days is such a small percentage of your life. You can do this for three weeks. Plan your meals, prepare some things on Sunday, as you walk out the door have something that you can eat if you are going to be out for a while.
See how you feel.

as I posted on my facebook status yesterday...not perfection, just progress!

Day 7- the end of one week already!

workout: 73 minutes on the bike with some pretty hard intervals. This was the third hard workout day in a row and my legs are tired.

nutrition:
bf: steel cut oatmeal/blueberries/protein powder/ almonds slivers/agave

green tea on the way to the meet

at Megan's gymnastics meet, left home at 6:45am and home at 2:00pm Again took my bag of treats which included almonds, Larabar, orange, water bottle

at 2pm: vegetable soup and a gluten free English muffin with almond butter

Accelerade in my water bottle while doing my bike workout

dinner: roasted vegetables (beets, potatos, brussel sprouts, carrots, turnips, onion, a little olive oil, minced garlic and dried rosemary cooked covered for about 45 minutes at 375 and then no cover for another 20 minutes.) I will be having leftovers of this as the week goes on.

also some brown rice with salsa

While watching the Superbowl I had a little blue corn tortillas with avocado/salsa. But didn't have much.


At Megan's gymnastics meet this morning I was really hungry, even after having a filling breakfast before going. I think the 11 mile run yesterday and not eating much caught up with me. But... had my almonds and Larabar and that took care of that.

I have a Math meeting all day tomorrow. We were told there will be donuts for breakfast and lunch will be served. I am sure there will be nothing served for lunch that I can have, so my lunch is packed. I think I am beyond the donut pull.

One week into this and I already feel like I have made good progress. I have been 'leaning' into this for 2-3 years. Diet has become cleaner and cleaner. I have read all kinds of information on nutrition, books, blogs, websites. I just needed something to get me over the edge. I needed to find a way to feel totally in control of my cravings and urges. This has really help with that problem, at least so far.

I leave with a quote from Kathy Freston's Quantum Wellness book, as she discusses doing the 21 day cleanse:

"...any time you disrupt a pattern or meet a challenge, you create an enormous space for a quantum leap to happen"