Lot of really awesome changes for me since the first of the year and start of the challenge.
The general store in my village (I live in a postcard) does a fresh fish order each week that comes from the fish market in a nearby wealthy tourist and second home-heavy town. We’ve taken to buying from them and eating fish at least twice a week. The program is relatively new and I hope it stays because I love it so much. We’ve always been weekly fish people, but this has us trying new things, and the salmon we get through them is a thousand times better than from the grocery store.
Additionally, we’re getting all of our beef from the farm down the road now. We haven’t depended on them completely because they freeze everything at slaughter and it’s harder to tell what it looks like, so we’ve always been lazy/indifferent and grabbed steaks from the grocery store when we were in the mood for it. This change comes as a result of @T3hPwnisher’s focus on grass-fed and the reading/thinking I’ve done as a result. So I’m eating a LOT of good food.
I’m not going to hit my weight loss goal, but I feel fantastic and have to keep stopping to admire the definition that’s coming slowly but surely.
I seem to have been able to transfer some of my running obsession over to the weights, which change comes primarily from prioritizing walking as the best recovery activity. I find I’m enjoying it in and of itself as a low stress activity rather than thinking of it as an injury response.
I’m loving the protein drinks and have gotten better and better about getting my protein in. A problem that’s caused is constipation, which I’m working through currently (psyllium, bleh). I’m ready to start increasing calories, which will come in the form of carbs, so I think that’ll fix it.
I shifted my attention, as planned at the beginning, from diet to workouts at the beginning of April, and am in a really good place with those in terms of both organization and intensity. I like all the things I do currently. I wake up motivated.
The diet has become a no-big-deal part of my life, but I’m excited about bringing calories up slowly. This morning’s half of a light english muffin was delightful. I can’t wait to eat the rest of it, maybe tomorrow.
I have to laugh, though, at the “getting stronger” thing. I sometimes struggle now to lift my 30 oz water out of the cup holder in the car, and for a while there my grip was absolutely destroyed. But okay, if this is what stronger feels like, I’m in!
First 4-5 days were a rough transition for me (hunger and headaches), I believe “keto flu” is what people call it. But good after that. @QuadQueen can probably help you transition into this smarter than what I did…
And if that’s too many shakes, you can swap some out with some lean meat, veggies (for bulk and fiber), and fish/flax oil. Zero carbs, and fats from omega-3s. Or just eat grilled salmon and mackerel.
I thought I was eating enough protein, but I’ve seen unexpected muscle gains while getting leaner. Pressing strength has dropped a touch, pulling strength has maintained/improved.
And therein is the rub. One of the best ways to get a stronger press is a bigger belly. Having a wider abdominal circumference gives you a more stable base to press from. Even if we add more muscle, when we get leaner, we can reduce pressing poundages. Or, we can also simply get fatter and somehow get “stronger” because of that, haha.
@EmilyQ so awesome to see your progress, and it brings me such delight to know I could play any role in the process. Good food really DOES make a huge difference
I wholeheartedly agree. I’ll read something on diet somewhere and think… “Hmmm… maybe that makes sense, but I better find out what @QuadQueen thinks first.”
I really appreciate these check-ins. I get caught up in life and occasionally lose sight of the overall awesomeness of participating in the the Transformation Challenge. It’s fantastic seeing people chasing a variety of goals, and, most importantly, all the community support.
I’m down about eight pounds from the start of the challenge. I’ve only cut cals by 200 or so per day, but have been focusing on increasing my daily number of steps…I’m up to 12k or so. Whether I look significantly different, I have no idea…I’ll have to suck it up to snap a photo for comparison before developing a plan for the final push.
Feeling pretty good. Need to lose about 10lbs for a BJJ tournament in July, but that shouldn’t be an issue. Going to start adding cardio this week and see if I can drop 5lb between now and June 1. To date, training has just been weights, KBs, grappling and heavy weighted med ball workouts.
Just wanted to summarize my Crossfit Open and Quarterfinals experience. The QFs wrapped up this Monday so I’m done with the competition.
Overall, I finished 1198 out 9527 competitors in my group (about top 12.5%). I am happy with this, especially given I’m relatively new at Crossfit and have some glaring holes in my game.
I learned from the Open that if you’re strong and fit enough, you can overcome a lack of technique to advance to the Quarterfinals. For example, I still can’t really do double-unders, but yet chipped away at them and did well enough on the other workouts I could still advance.
I learned from the QFs just how much room I have for improvement. I am not very good at the olympic lifts, and really need to improve if I want to keep getting better. This is really my main weakness: moving heavy weights on cleans, jerks, and snatches. I did pretty well at handstand push ups, which used to be really tough for me. I am good enough at things like rope climbs, toes-to-bar, and muscle ups. Other movements, like burpees, pull ups, rowing, box jumps, etc… are just engine and I’m fine in that category.
It was certainly a great experience to compete and test myself at the QF workouts, which are just another level of hell. Glad to be back in my normal routine again, and a year later I’m sure I’ll be back posting that I have the same weaknesses and wished I had worked on them more.
It’s 4:30 and my friends will be here for a wine and apps party in an hour or so. I am eating a quick plate of obnoxiously pale food - chicken, cauliflower, and 1/2 cup rice - in an attempt to limit less cut-friendly food to reasonable portions, and also provide a base for the alcohol. This will hopefully allow me to make better decisions about both as the evening progresses.
Although I’m prepared to make poor choices if necessary (lol) because it’s girls night, which is important.
