Welcome to the Rainy Season!

When I was a kid, we had the BEST neighbors.  They lived on the next street, but their house was right behind ours and we didn't have a fence, so we were always running back and forth to play games, ride bicycles, dress up, and generally have a wonderful time. 

One of the best traditions they shared with us was their annual "Welcome to the Rainy Season" party - once the good old Northwest kicked off its nine month deluge, they'd have us over and celebrate with cider and popcorn and other fall treats.  It made the rain something fun to look forward to, rather than a sign that all our fun was coming to a gloomy end.

I realized that as I have become a grown up, I have stopped loving fall, which used to be my favorite season as a kid.  I've now spent 20 years of my life in the Seattle area, and I've gotten jealous of people who live in places like Hawaii and California,or heck, even Bend, Oregon, where you get to see the sun 300 days a year!

But, as is usually the case, being grouchy and bitter about the weather has only served to make me...well, grouchy and bitter.  So I decided to take back the fun and plan some good things for fall and really enjoy each season as much as possible this year.

And what better way to start than with my own Welcome to the Rainy Season party?

We'd actually had quite a dry spell around here...basically summer in this area lasts from the 5th of July till the beginning of October.  We had weeks of sun until the rain finally hit on Friday the 12th.  It rained on Saturday and when it was still raining on Sunday, it seemed the perfect day for the "party."

I went to Trader Joe's and bought a bunch of autumnal food for this week...sausages, tomato & red pepper soup, squash, pears, and even a pumpkin since I won't likely make it to a patch this week.  (Side note - I figured since I was buying up a storm I should be prepared for sticker shock...but once again, the only sticker shock I get at TJs is wondering how the heck it's so cheap and why on earth I ever shopped anywhere else!  Seriously, I almost cried at the register.)

I also stopped by Half Price books for a $1 copy of Real Simple (a good rainy day part requires reading material) and then the French Bakery for treats!

Chocolate almond croissant and guava pocket
which Jared starting eating before I could even take the photo

We had started the morning by doing a ton of chores so that we could spend the rest of the day relaxing.  I cleaned the kitchen and did all the laundry before going to the store, and by the time I returned, Jared had vaccuumed, cleaned the bathroom (bless this man's soul - I LOATHE bathroom cleaning and he almost always takes this one on), AND fixed our kitchen faucet that had been dripping for months.

We spent the afternoon "partying" away.  Jared did some mobility while I read my magazine...and then I realized he'd been holding one "stretch" so long because he'd actually fallen asleep.  We lit a ton of candles all over and used the lights as little as possible - saving money AND making it fun!  (Psst...here are some of my new faves.  I've tried all except the Buddha's Fig scent.)

For lunch, we made smoothies from The Petite Athleat - adding some protein powder for extra staying power!

I ended up skipping the chia seeds...they're a pain to clean

These smoothies are the ONLY ones
that mask the taste of this powder

Armed with smoothies, we crashed on the couch and finished up season two of Castle.

Later for dinner, Jared made broccolini and burgers.  We each used a portobello mushroom and half an English muffin as the bun for the burger...but I could only eat half my mushroom.  Not a big mushroom eater (as a kid I found them slimy and gross) but I chowed half since I know it's good for me.

As we listened to the rain that evening, we decided the next fitting activity was to bake cookies!  Chocolate chunk oatmeal blueberry?  Yes, please.

For snacks, we had cheese and crackers, and then took a cookie each to watch a little of Castle Season 3.  Thankfully we only had two episodes downloaded or we might've stayed up snacking all night!

We went to bed really early to be set for a Monday of work, but it was honestly the perfect way to end our relaxing day.  I told Jared, "Anytime we're getting whiny about the weather, we have to throw another party."  He thought it was a good idea.

You tell me:  Do you like fall?  Does it rain where you live?  What fun traditions do you have this time of year?

Ballerina 'do

One of my favorite workout hairstyles lately is the topknot/ballerina bun/fasionista blogger updo.

Okay, so maybe too fancy - but still awesome! (Source)

I work out five days a week in addition to working full time, volunteering, running a household, and trying to sleep 7+ hours a night.  Chances are, you are just as busy as I am, if not more so.  You'll appreciate that I'm ALWAYS looking to save time on lower-priority tasks (e.g. taking less time with my hair instead of skipping mobility after my strength session). 

This 'do is a lifesaver.  It takes practically zero time to create, stays in place well, and totally shines post-workout so you don't have to wash and dry your hair!  (Now the whole world knows I skip shampooing a lot.  Oops.)

FYI: I have very thick, naturally wavy hair that is on the medium-long side...so some adjustments may be necessary if you have different hair.

Step 1: Shower.  Shampoo and condition.  Towel dry.  Comb out your hair (or don't) and then put minimal product in...preferably something curl/wave enhancing.  Don't overdo it or your hair will be crunchy later.

Step 2: Bun it.  Flip your hair "upside down" and use your fingers to comb into a very high bun.  (The height will depend on the length of your hair and your personal preference.)  Secure with an elastic and a few bobby pins if needed.  I can usually make the bun work with just the elastic but I need to pin up the back of my hair since a few pieces are too short to make it into the bun. 

Step 3: Sleep on it.  Your hair should be pretty safe unless you really toss and turn a lot.  Plus your workout will thank you for a good night's rest.

Pre-workout

Step 4: Get up and head to the gym.  You shouldn't have to do a thing to your hair except maybe pin back a stray or two.  I have not run with this hair, but it has lasted me through tough CrossFit WODs and strength sessions.  (If you run with it, let me know how it does!)

Step 5: Skip showering and still look and smell great.  I highly recommend buying a stash of Playtex sport wipes to keep in your gym bag/car/home bathroom.  They are absolute life savers and work for me after ANY workout except hot yoga.  And you hair is still secure and also not all sweaty on the ends from sticking to your face, neck, or back.

Post-workout

 Step 6: Go with the flow.  After sleeping on the bun a second night, take it out the following morning for volume and waves.  If your previos sweat session was intense, you can freshen up with some dry shampoo.  Otherwise, just pat yourself on the back for all the time and water you've saved!

Day-after - so easy!

You tell me: What's your current fave workout do?  Do you skip showering to save time?  Do you have OTHER secret time-saving tips?  I NEED THEM.

Goal Post

Lest you think it's all workouts and veggies over here, I would like to wish you a happy Friday with a very happy photo:

I split this heavenly maple bar with Jared earlier this week.  Being fit is important...and so is enjoying life.  And what is life without a maple bar now and then?  Basically not worth living.

As you likely know, my husband Jared also CrossFits.  He's the one who got me to try it in the first place, and in June he got his L1 certificate and now coaches at our box. 

Yeah, he can do muscle-ups

For his own workouts, about four months ago he started following the CrossFit Invictus Competition Programming.

I like to refer to it this way: "CrossFit Invictus - When Regular CrossFit Just Isn't Hard Enough."

Basically, his WODs could eat my WODs for lunch.

I never thought I'd be joining Jared for ANY of his Invictus programming, but Wednesday surprised me.  Part of his RX included writing out goals for the remainder of 2012!

We sat down after dinner (Jared with a beer and me with wine and dark chocolate) and discussed our goals for the next three months.  Jared already had his pretty much set, but I needed some help with mine.  Because Jared's a personal trainer and CrossFit coach, he had really good input on what were some good priorities to set and how I could keep my expectations reasonable.

He ended up with 10 goals and I (the one who gets overwhelmed, like, daily) stuck with 5.

Meghan's Goals for the End of 2012 (besides saving the world):

• Sub-10 Minute "Annie" (RX) - I've currently got a sub-15 minute RX time, so this will mean practically devoting more time to my double-unders.
• Sub-10 Minute "Diane" (RX deadlifts, handstand pushups to a #15 plate) - My deadlift is great, but I can't currently do one full range of motion handstand pushup, so 35 to a plate is enough of a goal right now.
• 1 Full Range of Motion Handstand Pushup - Anytime these are in a warmup, I'll do at least some to a plate, and then a few deficit box pushups (this allows me to get full range of motion without having to use as much body weight).
• Link Strict Chest to Bar Pullups - My kipping pullups are getting a lot better, but I always need a band for chest to bar pullups.  I'll be doing more dead-hang pullups with no band mixed with trying to kip chest to bar.
• Full Squat Snatch at #75 - This will require work on my technique, strength, and also a lot of focus on mobility.  I have tight hip flexors, IT bands, and lats, so I need to devote more time to post-WOD and recovery day mobility work and yoga.

It's really nice to have some concrete, specific goals that I think I can actually achieve!  I will keep you posted on my progress...and would love any tips on the movements, WODs, or just plain motivation! 

I'm hitting the box tonight for class with my mom (Jackie is on the schedule - woot!) and then tomorrow morning for the Olympic lifting class and another Girl WOD.  Have a great weekend!!!


You tell me: Do you have any goals set for the rest of the year?  How do you find a balance between pushing yourself and keeping things achievable?  What's your favorite kind of doughnut???

Quality Control (and some CrossFit-speak translated)

When I was a kid, I took piano lessons for about 10 years.  I got fairly good, but one big problem I had was a complete lack of patience.  I wanted to be able to play each new piece at performance level or close to it...without really putting in the time required.  I hated scales and practicing, so instead my daily piano "practice" involved me blazing through Beethoven, Chopin, and the like at breakneck speed with complete disregard for accuracy.  I may not have been the most dedicated musician, but boy did I play with feeling at tempo!!!

I find many of my old tendencies creeping up in my life at the box (CrossFit for "gym").  I have been CrossFitting for less than a year, but I still have REALLY high expectations of what I can acheive in a VERY short amount of time.

And then I get frustrated and disappointed with myself.

Unrealistic goal-setting = setting yourself up to fail or get hurt.  (Not just your feelings...I'm talking your shoulder, back, knee, etc.)

This week I had a light-bulb moment that I'm pretty sure was the Holy Spirit zapping some genius into me (although I didn't see smoke or lightning).  Here it is, in fancy, mantra-y form:

I will never be the fastest or the strongest.  But if I work hard, I can have better form than anyone else.

I only started RXing (CrossFit short hand for "doing the full workout the way the coach wrote it in terms of how much weight to use and what movements to do unassisted) a few months ago, and I still can't always RX.  I was struggling to find the balance of pushing myself, but within reason. 

Taking it one workout at a time (genius, right?), I approached this Tuesday's WOD (workout of the day) with two goals. 

AMRAP 15 = as many rounds as possible in 15 minutes.  No matter how slow or fast you may be, we are all stopping at the 15 minute cut off.  The "score" will be how many times you got through the movements in the 15 minutes.

Front squats #115/#75 = You can Google front squats, but basically you are squatting with a barbell in front of you (letting it rest on your shoulders).  Guys' RX weight for this workout was 115 pounds.  Girls' RX was 75 pounds.

Pushups = You can do them on your knees, but a full pushup is required for an RX score.

V-Ups = like a situp...except way harder.  You have to get your back and legs off the ground and touch your toes for the full movement.  If it's too much, you can touch your knees.


I knew from what I've done before that I could RX the workout.  My goal?  To link each set of movements.  By this I mean, for each round, doing all 10 front squats in a row without setting the bar down; do all 15 pushups without setting my knees down, etc. 

This one was hard.  We squatted to a butt target (you have to tap it with your butt before you stand back up to make sure you are getting low enough).  I had a medicine ball and made sure to hit it every time, focusing on pushing my knees out to the sides when standing up.

I linked all the pushups in the first three rounds, but in rounds four and five I set my knees down a few times.  I made myself jump right back in, though, and really focused on keeping my core tight so I didn't end up doing "the worm" instead of pushups.

I also no-repped myself for some of the V-Ups when I failed to touch my toes.  "No rep" means you don't count it (in this case, as one of the 20) and so you have to do it again.

I was 2 V-Ups short of finishing my fifth round.  I realized later that I should have used more momentum on my pushups instead of going soooo slow.  But then I reminded myself that speed was not my goal and to stop worrying about it.

My plan right now?  RX any workout I can, but focus on having perfect form for every single rep, EVEN THOUGH it means I'll be going slower than a lot of the other folks at the box. 

In the end, this is what will keep me safe, and ultimately, if I keep doing everything right, I will have stronger & faster as my payoff.

All without practicing my scales.


You tell me: Had any lightbulb moments lately?  Realize you were pushing yourself too hard, or maybe not hard enough?  Were you a better piano student than I was?

Pancakes and a Birthday WOD

Hello and Happy Monday!  (Is there such a thing?)

Hope you all had an amazing weekend.  Mine was a whole lot of wonderful - I only regret how short it seemed!  I still managed to squeeze a lot in, though.

Friday:

I was featured as a guest blogger on Carrots 'N' Cake!  Tina was over in my neck of the woods this weekend and graciously invited me to do a guest post.  I've been a Carrots 'N' Cake fan for a long time and was stoked!

I Hero WODed with my mom:

Thrusters are so not my favorite...but I managed #85 and RX'ed the Hero WOD.  I love all the encouragement at our box - as usual, everyone was cheering me on to finish strong!

I made dinner.  Jared threw out his back this week and so I said I could make dinner if he told me what to do.

Jared: "Be sure to put oil in the baking dish."
Me: "Okay."  Later: "Should I put oil in this?"
Jared: "Um, yeah.  I already said that."
Me: "No, you said put FOIL in."

Marriage and communication - hard stuff, folks.

I ate dark chocolate.  Actually I've had excellent chocolate pretty much every day this week.  A friend treated me to a truffle after our lunch date and then Jared bought me a bunch of truffles as an early birthday gift.

Cherry something truffles - dang they were good. 
And they have sparkles!!!

Bacon maple truffles

Grand Marnier truffles

Saturday:

I got up early for our Olympic lifting/Girl WOD class.  It was a special class because the "Girl" WOD was a specially designed birthday WOD to honor one of our athletes!

Lorie in beast mode

Lorie is one of the regulars at our box - she gives each WOD her all, and she's super fun and encouraging to all  the other athletes!  It was her 46th birthday, and so we WODed accordingly.

It was pretty brutal - even the first round killed me!  But it was really fun.  I also PR'ed my squat clean! 

Lorie always wears awesome socks to class, so I pulled on some crazy socks for the WOD to get in the Lorie spirit! 

8am class sweaty but proud - Lorie's in the red

I ate pancakes.  Jared made two different kinds of pancakes from Runner's World - Aztec Warrior (spicy chocolate) and Fig Pear Walnut.  Grocery store was out of figs so we did ginger instead!

Sunday:

I ate more pancakes while enjoying brunch with some good friends.  Eating healthy is important for sure...and so is a good balance and enjoying life!  We also broke a baking dish.  Oops.

You tell me: How was your weekend?  Do you love chocolate and pancakes?  Did you break anything? 

Fallin' for Fall



My fall "inspiration board" at work - Cider week
(from Self mag), Pumpkin Push flyer, & gnomes!

Happy Friday!

Hope you are enjoying October as much as I am.  The weather here has been absolutely incredible - getting chilly, but the rain has held off for weeks now.  Makes walking to the bus in the mornings a delight instead of a chore.  School has started up again, which means I'm volunteering a couple times a month with my beloved teen musical theatre class.  Leaves are turning, my birthday's coming up (quarter century - eek!), and there are all sorts of glorious things to enjoy!


The Seattle Greek Festival:

Walking around Seattle looking at pretty houses:

Tree fort!!!

Shopping at lululemon:

Seriously, I'm in love with this blue pattern

So happy with this bag!

Pumkpin in my daily Fage yogurt!

Spaghetti squash:

Hard apple cider - checked this out per Self magazine's recommendation...holy smokes.  Incredible.  Perfect fall dinner: hard cider, paprika sausage, and spicy butternut squash:

Have a delightful weekend!  Get out and enjoy the crisp air...or stay inside with a good book! 

You tell me: What are your favorite things about fall?