Hey, Mr. Grumpy Pants

Well, I guess that's MRS. Grumpy Pants to you!

I am now halfway done with our Paleo challenge (which ends the night of 9/2).

I've been very consistent - no cheats so far...and also very whiny.  Maybe it's because I don't have any dairy or gluten intolerances or maybe it's because I rarely eat sugar or processed foods anyhow...but I haven't had the life-altering "wow I have so much energy and my workouts are great" feeling. 

On the contrary, I have been getting 8 or more hours of sleep every night but one, but I still feel more tired than I usually did before the challenge.  I've been very emotional and hormonal and my workouts at least the second week were worse instead of better.

But...the winner gets a prize...plus I know it's easier for Jared if we're both eating Paleo, so I'm not giving up just yet.  Only two weeks left!!!

Here's a recap of some bad and good from last week:

Monday (The Bad):

I fell during box jumps and seriously bruised my leg.  Today (a week later) it is less red and more green and purple.

Monday (The Good):

My walk to the bus from the box was gorgeous!

My medicine ball arrived!  I was like a little kid at Christmas, running around the office to tell/show everyone.  I'm gonna take this guy camping this weekend and make up a WOD to do!  (If you've got ideas, let me know!  No jumprope stuff, though.  I have one but it's made of actual rope and basically sucks.)

Tuesday (The Bad):

I felt like puking after the evening WOD...sometimes it helps if I have something to eat after...so I guzzled my protein shake and felt worse.  Oops.

Tuesday (The Good):

I RX'ed Helen!  They let me do "real" Helen (running instead of rowing) since I knew I had it in me to do the pullups.  The last time I tried an RX, it took me 20 minutes to get through 2 rounds.  And when I scaled Helen about a month ago, it took me 14:47 - so I'm now faster RXing than scaling. WOOHOO!!!

Wednesday (The Bad):

Work kinda sucked.  I spent the majority of the day fixing mistakes (mine and others'), and the system would not process my jobs for me.  I was in a MAJOR hurry to leave because I had a date with a really cute boy!

Wednesday (The UBER AMAZING GOOD):

This boy, in fact!

My best friend gave birth to her first, an absolutely perfect little guy!!!!

His name is Charlie.  Well, Charles, but I'm a sucker for nicknames and I refuse to call this dude Chuck.

Charlie with my mom

Charlie with his mom

And yes, she wore pearls in labor.  So classy!  Oh, and did I mention she had pre-made birthday cupcakes in honor of Charlie's real birth day?

Seriously, that was the hardest Paleo moment so far...I may just have to celebrate Charlie with some killer doughnuts or something in two weeks.  And sing to him.  Boy, this kid is a cutie!

Thursday (The Bad):

My major meltdown.  I don't know why, but these so often happen on Thursdays.  Apparently Thursday is my Monday.  I went out to lunch with my momma and even got Paleo approved food! 

But I forgot that club soda counts as a carbonated beverage for the challenge.  I was miffed that what is to me an excellent healthy alternative to soda was not acceptable to the Paleo gods.  Poop.

I had another long day at work, and then I went to play racquetball which shoulda made me feel better, but I felt all out of sorts and wiped out.  My game was just not "on" at all, and while usually I can play at least an hour hard core, I made it through three games (about 30 minutes) and could barely do a fourth!

Thursday (The Good):

My sweet dad prayed for me when he dropped me off after our match, but I still felt defeated and sick of feeling like crap while I'm supposedly doing something healthy.

I went inside the apartment and sat against the wall and blubbered away while I texted a dear friend for wisdom and support.  She's a gem...as is my husband, who came home, made me some food, and suggested we spend the evening watching Batman and Wonder Woman cartoons.

What?  It's not like I'm a total sucker for superheroes.  At all.

Thursday was a great reminder of how blessed I am to have so many people in my life to encourage me and point me to Christ when I am feeling overwhelmed, stupid, and helpless.

Friday (The Bad):

I was feeling stressed (what's new) about "missing" a workout.  I'd planned to tackle "Karen" on Thursday but my schedule didn't work out...plus I was so tired just playing racquetball that I thought it wouldn't be wise to have 150 wall balls as dessert.

I was hopeful that Friday evening's WOD would be a good one since I'd had two days off from CrossFit...but it was not to be.  I felt tired even during parts of the warmup (although Coach Jared had some good tips for me on my rope climbs - by which I mean rope-holds-for-dear-life-about-3-feet-off-the-ground).

I did pretty well on the strength - keeping my knees wide and really making sure to get low on the front squats.  But the WOD was something else.

From the first pull on the rower, I felt exhausted.  And of course, my mental trash talker leapt into action, telling me how much the five rounds would suck and how I'd probably have to give up.  I'd already scaled the power cleans to #75, and usually I'm pretty decent with power cleans.

But even in the first round, I could hardly link two or three at a time!!!

I even ended up using the purple band for pullups, which kinda crushed my spirit even more.  The high point of the WOD was the third round, when "Fake ID" came on and my mom and I started singing.  They never play my kind of music at the box (possibly because I'm into Sinatra, Elvis, and musical theatre?) so it was super energizing to have something I loved to workout to.  But after the song was over, I kinda plodded my way slowly to the end. 

Friday (The Good):

My drugstore.com order finally came!

I had ordered egg protein so we could be even more Paleo.

I was surprised at how little the container was...but apparently 1 scoop equals a serving, and our other protein powder needs 2 scoops to get the same amount of protein, so maybe it evens out.

I will warn you - we tried this stuff on Saturday and we both found it almost undrinkable (I mixed with water and Jared with almond milk).  I honestly almost gagged.  Sunday we put it into a smoothie with fruit and it was a lot more bearable.

And of course my favorite bars:

Weekend (one long piece of delightful):

I got a massage - the best I've had in my life.

I watched my dear friend Meghan (the blonde above) win trophies in her karate tournament (incidentally, she's the one who talked me off the ledge on Thursday).

I got to have some unexpected time in the gym with the hubby, who gave me pointers on my deadlift form.

We had date night and finally went to see The Dark Knight Rises.  I cried.

Jared did a buttload of chores and we got our fridge stocked and our apartment inhabitable.

We went to bed at 7pm last night.  Glory.


And now:

I am hanging in there with Paleo for yet another week...we will see how this goes. 

I am going to "deload" this week, which may help a lot.  For me, this means same number of workouts, but scaling everything.  The timing will be nice since the upcoming strenth session this Saturday is a deload as well.  It seems like that's what my body really needs right now - maybe it's not Paleo...maybe I'm just whupped and need to chill a little.


Well, thanks for hanging in there with me and all my happenings.  How was your week?