Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Cookies. They're what's for dinner.

Yep. Betty Crocker has officially delved into the realm of gluten-free baking and is boxing up all sorts of favorites from cookies to brownies to birthday cake...and all for a fairly cheap price. Bad news. Bad, bad news.

I was at target when I came across the chocolate chip cookie box. Gluten-free? Here? From Betty? I was sold. I didn't mean to buy them, but I did. I figured I would just have them on-hand. You know, in case of emergencies....for guests....or something.

I made them as soon as I got home. I ate many of them while they were still warm. I washed a few down with some milk. I called it a day.

Following morning I did Fran on a Boat. Yep, probably one of the worse workout combos I could ask for. I suck at thrusters, I am mediocre at rowing, and linking my pull-ups seems to forever elude me. All this on a queasy cookie binge tummy.

I felt awful. Seriously. I could not get enough energy to even care how fast I was going. My form sucked. I was tired. I felt sick. I felt mentally wussy.

All this (and I firmly believe this is true) because I had cookies for dinner.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Day 1,412 (otherwise known as day 22)

Okay. It's been a while. I have to admit my excitement and exuberance for all things "Zone" has dwindled (I hear that happens when you starve to death :)

But when I realized that today really is day 22 (that means only 8 more to go!!!!), I also realized that though few of us have not had the occasional cheat (mostly due to poor planning), we are almost there!!! And I think that most of us have learned A LOT! We may not measure our food perfectly after this challenge is over, but I think most of us have learned quite a bit about portion size, eating the right ratios, and how food effects they way we feel and perform.

I for one am looking forward to getting together and binging. We can talk about what worked and what didn't and what we are going to do moving forward...and we can also eat a hell of a lot of brownies.

You in?

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Zone Dinner (kind of)

Last night, Russell and I went to 801 Franklin with some fellow CrossFitters and I attempted to follow my Zone diet. I found that it is fairly difficult to eat in the correct proportions when eating at a "nice" restaurant. I say this because I can pretty much find something to eat at Panera, Jason's Deli, places like that...(turkey, fruit cups, avocados)...but getting enough of the right carbohydrates at a "fancy" restaurant was harder than I thought.

Here are some examples of carbs featured on the menu:
potatoes (new potatoes, mashed potatoes)
pommes frites (french fries)
rice pilaf
grits
tortillas

I was surprised to find that there were no sweet potatoes...and the portions of vegetables included in the entrees would probably amount to 1/4 of a block.

So, after about fifteen minutes of staring at the menu and consulting with Russell, I ordered salmon and found it to be about the right amount for my 4 block meal. I added two glasses of wine and a couple bites of pommes frites (pretty unfavorable but I DID need some carbs)...then added the grapes off of a cheese platter. For fat, I snuck some almonds from my purse and assumed that the salmon was cooked in butter.

All in all, this was not my best Zone meal but relaxing a little made the evening more fun and I think that is just as important as having a "perfect" meal.

You may be asking yourself, "Did she cheat?" and the answer is "probably". But I didn't set out to blow it out of the water. I didn't save all 4 carb blocks for wine. I didn't touch the bread basket, and after joking with the waiter about ordering the chocolate torte, I found that they were out (probably a good thing!). So all in all, I still feel pretty good about night 14 of the Zone Challenge.

For those of you who have had a similar experience, you are still doing well! Hang in there!

Friday, August 7, 2009

Zone Diet + Fight Gone Bad

So today is a rest day but I needed to make up Fight Gone Bad...ugh. I went ahead and had my usual 2-block breakfast and then headed in to teach the 8:30 women's class. After they were through, I began FGB. This was my first time to do it as Rx'ed since before I had Campbell (and I don't even know what I did before that). In January, I did the scaled version of almost every exercise and ended up with 241. Nice score, but it hardly counts since I scaled everything so much. Today I was determined to keep things as rx'ed even if it killed me.

The workout:
I began with the 16# WB shot (which is one of my least favorite things) and managed to get 25 in the first minute. From there, I kept a pretty quick pace and scored 93 for the first round. If I could have sustained this, or even sustained something near this, I would have kicked ass. But, I could not. Instead, I fell to 69 for round 2 and 64 for round 3. My final score was 226. I was resting like crazy during the workout and having serious mental "I can't" issues.

What I learned:
I really think I was performing better when I was hungry. I know it sounds crazy, but I somehow felt lighter and more energized when I was eating 10 blocks. Now that I have been doing double fat for about 5 days, I feel sluggish and winded. It could be something else and it may be purely coincedental, but it is certainly something to consider. I think I may scale back to 1.5 times fat for a couple days and see if this helps.

Just thought I would let you guys know in case this happens to you!

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Costco anyone?

One more thing I wanted to add today...

Costco is an amazing place. You can buy like 18 avocadoes for about half the price as the typical grocery chain. In addition, they have Lindsay Natural Olives (with a touch of sea salt) in big 6 can packs (5 olives is one block). You can buy large bags of almonds as well for about $9.99.

I also recently heard that they have frozen "wild-caught" salmon in big bags. I am going to check it out today but that sounds pretty darn good to me. I have been eating more fish lately simply because its 1.5oz per block rather than 1oz of other meats.

just thought I would share :)

DAY 12: Almost Halfway There!

It is day 12 of our 30-day challenge and I am wondering how many of you are still with me. Post to comments and let us know how you are doing! I myself am spending this morning fantasizing about the epic binge night that is now just 18 days a way...

But the funny thing is...my epic binge dream is slowly changing. I no longer want to gorge myself on everything in the world that is "bad" for me...I think I would just settle for one meal where I don't measure my food! My new binge fantasy is simply going out to dinner and eating a reasonably healthy meal without worrying about how many blocks it is and whether it is in the correct proportions. All that being said...I still want dessert :)

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Does cheating count if the intent is there?

So I had a rough day. Weekend really. Russell being out of town, me covering CrossFit, huge turnouts at both weekend classes, Campbell and Pup-Pup's adventures into the fireplace, and some cute but smelly new chicks all added to the stress. Plus, (I think I may have mentioned this previously) but I am still hungry. So after class tonight, I came home and had a sleepy baby and a very, very excited puppy. Not a good combination. I finally got one asleep and one calm(ish) and was going to make my oh-so-healthy and zone-a-licious dinner when the puppy woke the baby and it all started again.

I picked up the phone. I found the number for Terry's Pizza (did I mention that not only am I on the Zone Diet but I am allergic to wheat???) and I called it.

I did!

It rang. Someone answered.

I hung up the phone.

And here is the worst part! I called back!!! And did the same thing again! I totally prank called Terry's Pizza two times.

Then I went into the kitchen and pulled out the scale and measured some turkey and tomato, some avocado, and some fruit and sat down and ate my zone-friendly dinner.

Crisis averted.