Check In and Start Again

This past month for me has been interesting. It turned out differently than I thought when I started on my little experiment to lean out joyfully.

Here are the new habits I worked on over the past month:

• 15-30 minute slow paced, stress reducing walks daily
• 1-4 Snatches and overhead squats daily starting at 65lbs and increasing weight each 1 or 2 weeks
• Start taking CLA supplement (supposedly good for fat metabolism)

Here are the results of those actions:

• I was successful in keeping daily walks which I just loved and connected with in ways that I didn't expect.  I used this time to connect with nature a bit more, breathe deep and be present and having some extra peaceful times with my husband when ever he joined me. 

• I didn't end up snatching with weight every day. That plan changed rapidly when I realized my squat/overhead squat form was pretty poor.  I needed to take a step back.  I spent the month doing 5-10 squats daily as close to the wall as I can, really working on keeping my torso up right. It was hard. I also spent some time hanging out in the bottom of the squat - increasing my hip flexibility.  It all felt worth while when  demonstrating air squats today in class I could feel that I have gotten better.  My torso just stayed straight up!! I want to keep this up!

• I did take CLA. I am not sure it has changed anything other than killing my appetite and making me feel sick to my stomach some times.  Not sure I am going to continue this but not sure 4 weeks is enough time to see if a supplement is working.

My measurements changed slightly but nothing worth giving the details on here.  That is almost beside the point for me. I got more out of this past month than what the numbers reflect.

The biggest gifts over the past month:


1) Finding the Perfect blog post from Zen Habits. I read it every day. I have made "I am already good enough. I am already have more than enough. I am already perfect" a mantra for myself that I turn to often. I'm focusing on doing things...anything really... because I love it and I am passionate about it, not because I have to be better. Its changing things and that is exciting.

2) I put an infrastructure in place for me to be successful in implementing the habits I wanted to work on over the past month. I set up my calendar so I knew daily and weekly what I wanted to do and had regular check ins scheduled for myself. That proved to be HUGE in keeping me on track.  I often start experiments and new habits only to have them peter out after a few days or a week.  I will definitely continue to this!! Love it.

Spending time in the next few days figuring out what I want to focus on next. Pretty pumped about it all!

My Latest Experiment - Update week 4

Week 4 updates of my leaning out joyfully (possible, right?)

Four weeks ago,  I wrote about a plan I had put together to lean up a bit for an upcoming photo shoot and some other events happening later on this year.  In that I had promised weekly check-ins, more for my accountability than your interest but here it is anyway.

Thoughts for this week:

I have been in a battle with myself this week.  The photo shoot is getting closer and I waiver between leaning out joyfully and trying to convince myself to log all my food, track my macro ratios and start taking fat burners to get to this photo shoot as lean as I can possibly get.  The struggle between wanting a super lean beautiful body and feeling the unhappiness of it to dedicate all my time and energies getting to that place. At the end of the day washboard abs, although beautiful, are not what is meaningful to me. What really makes me happy is connecting with joy through doing things that I love: good, open conversations with people, lifting heavy weights, helping people connect with health and happiness, being a cheerleader and a source of positive encouragement for others, make sure those closest to me feel loved and taken care of, being present in what ever I am doing and working to accept that I am enough exactly as I am. 

Its funny that I feel like I have to explain that even though I am not chasing 13% body fat, I am not slacking off. I am still healthy and want to be.  Just because I am not counting calories or know what my macro ratios are on a given day doesn't mean that I am busy stuffing junk down my gullet or that I have given up.  

I have been reading this Zen Habits blog post every day so far in the month of May and spending time internally processing it:  http://zenhabits.net/perfect/   Take time to read that post. Its amazing and powerful beyond measure. 

There is a paragraph in there that makes my heart sing: 

"You are now free to do things, not because you want to be better, but because you love it. Because you're passionate about it, and it give you joy. Because it's a miracle that you even can do it"

THAT is how I want to be spending my time on things that I am passionate about and because I love it.

I love filling my body with healthy food, I don't love obsessing over calories

I love lifting heavy and going to my crossfit classes, I don't love stressing if I should be doing more to be leaner

I love being present in the moment, I don't love beating the crap out of myself for not being leaner or where I "should" be.

Also from the Zen Habits post:  "A powerful realization that has helped me is simply this: You're already good enough, you already have more than enough, and you're already perfect"

Breathe and take that thought in.  :)

My Latest Experiment - Update week 3

Week 3 updates of my leaning out joyfully (possible, right?)

Three weeks ago,  I wrote about a plan I had put together to lean up a bit for an upcoming photo shoot and some other events happening later on this year.  In that I had promised weekly check-ins, more for my accountability than your interest but here it is anyway.

Thoughts for this week:

• Measurements and scale were down a bit - although waist measurements stayed about the same, which bummed me a bit. Oh well. They were down in other spots.
• These updates have been harder to post than I thought. I am putting myself out there and feel like people might think I am silly for not just bucking up and being as tight and disciplined for the next 8 weeks as I can be just to get it done.  My favorite strength coach Dan John has said "fat loss is a war" where I as I am trying to make it a joyful journey. Maybe I am delusional. Even if I am delusional, I know I am not  keeping so tight reign on myself that I break and binge.  Feeling good about what I am doing daily is really where I want to be. I guess I am realizing that for me finding balance feels more important to me than being leaner. I am taking the slow winding path to fat loss and not the war path. 

I think that is all for this week.... will provide at least one more weekly update next week.

Peace out!

My Latest Experiment - Update week 2

Week 2 updates of my leaning out joyfully (possible, right?)

Two weeks ago,  I wrote about a plan I had put together to lean up a bit for an upcoming photo shoot and some other events happening later on this year.  In that I had promised weekly check-ins, more for my accountability than your interest but here it is anyway.

I have been consistent with my walks and logging daily thoughts in my "food, mood and gratitude" journal.  I need to check back over the past few months since I have been logging that to see if there are things I notice or if there are trends to my energy.  I recently added the "gratitude" part of those journal entries and I love it.

I have been working daily on my overhead and front squat form. Doing this through reading about squats from various sources and practicing daily with the PVC pipe...facing a wall.  Some times just a few reps, some times set to a tabata timer.  Its good work. It is not with weights but I know it is good foundational work that will bring strength and growth eventually.  Below is a picture from Greg  Everett's book Olympic Weighlifiting. I hope to squat like this some day. Beautiful.

My food has been ok. There are times where I feel like I should be pushing more, tracking every calorie and depriving more but that doesn't align with my goal of doing this with balance and joy. Running down the crazy train track of depravation will cause me to crack, break and binge. I know. I have been there.

I started this week on a deliberate strength training plan to supplement my Crossfit workouts.  Happy to be under way with that.  Also this month I am giving myself a little space. I am taking a break from training clients one on one to focus on coaching on Crossfit and spend some time on some other projects.

Measurements won't be done again until Monday so I am looking forward to seeing the results. Will report in next week's blog update.

Have a great week!!

Kara

My Latest Experiment - Update week 1

Last week I wrote about what plan I had put together to lean up a bit for an upcoming photo shoot and some other events happening later on this year.  In that I had promised weekly check-ins, more for my accountability than your interest but here it is anyway.

 - Realized trying to overhead squat and snatch daily with weights requires more warming up than I thought it might.  Have been doing it mostly with PVC pipe or empty bar.  Realizing my form for both is poor. Keeping up the practice all the same.

 - Eating feels really stable and healthy right now and that makes me happy.  Although I did manage to eat my body weight in spiced nuts at a friend's bridal shower on Sunday. Oh well, back on the wagon the next day.

 - Did measurements on Monday.  Things are down from the previous month which is great.

 - Have been enjoying my morning walk - loving the early in the day exposure to sun and nature.

Pretty happy with things at the moment.  Only struggle is getting organized around a more deliberate strength program to pair with my Crossfit. I am not detail oriented like I feel like I should be for tracking what I do every week and some times I am a little low on extra energy. Oh well, buck up and do it anyway!  I know I will be glad I did.

My Latest Experiment

I often get comments from people who know me well that they admire that I am on a constant path of self improvement. I love that. I do feel in this life that I want to learn as much as I possibly can so that I can be the best me I can be and so that I can help others around me learn and grow also.  This is fits in nicely of course with my ultimate 2012 goal of "Be the most fucking awesome person you can be".

My new experiment fits right into that.  For a month or so now I have been struggling to figure out how I can prepare for an opportunity for a photo shoot in late June 2012 with out making myself crazy or miserable.  The idea of being super restrictive with food and increase the frequency with my workouts puts me at great distress.  I want to show up being proud of the strong body that I have and be at peace at with where I am at that time.

I am willing of course to make some modifications and do things a little differently to get me there in a leaner state but not push so hard and live the next few months in a state of depravation and fatigue...even if that means not showing up at the photo shoot with a visible six pack.

It finally hit me today what I want to do.  The Crossfit WOD we did today was a triplet of 9 dead lifts, 6 power hang snatches, 3 overhead squats.   For those of you who haven't tried an overhead squat it is probably one of the ultimate in abdominal/core exercises.  In doing this work out today I realized (again) that THIS is the kind of thing that makes me exceedingly happy.  I love the thought of increasing my PR for the snatch and overhead squat.  As Dan John says "if something is important do it every day" and that is what I am planning to do!

My current routine:
Crossfit 3 to 4 times per week
Sprints 1time per week (although this has been inconsistent due to traveling)
**Typically 2 to 3 meals a day depending on hunger level
Meals contain a balance of carbs, protein and fat
8 hours or more of sleep a night

 ** Have been reading about and experimenting with intermittent fasting. Two great sources for this:  Fat loss: The Truth and Eat Stop Eat

What I want to add:
15-30 minute slow paced, stress reducing walks daily
1-4 Snatches and overhead squats daily starting at 65lbs and increasing weight each 1 or 2 weeks
CLA supplement (supposedly good to fat metabolism - we shall see!)

This is something I feel like I can do with out being crazy and even better than that something I feel like I can do that will make me happy and proud. Yes, I am wanting the results to bring about fat loss but if at the end of the 8 weeks I have merely gotten stronger... then I am pretty damn ok with that too.

So I commit to checking in once a week with status and hopefully progress. They say part of success in a plan is making it public so you have to stay accountable.  So here it is! Feel free to ask me about it and throw in some words of support and encouragement.

My 1 Year of Crossfit

March 11th marked my 1 year Crossfit anniversary! Little did I know that first workout that I was terrified to even show up at would turn me on to something that would change my life. After that initial workout, I started going once a week, then twice a week and probably with in a month and a half I was going as much as my body would allow me. In that time too, Crossfit Midlo moved from the garage to its own location and continues to grow like wildfire.

What I have learned over the past year:

• You can squat below parallel- regularly. 
• I am a Tough Mudder.
• No matter what the duration of the workout...3 min to 60 minutes... It's going to be exhausting. 
• You are capable of more than you think you are. 
• Facing the scary stuff makes you grow. You will at a minimum survive the experience and more than likely thrive because of it. 
•  Never underestimate the power of a high five. 
•  There are amazing people in the crossfit community: from the women in my 8:30 class, my coaches, the other people at the box who I don't get to work out with often but will greet me warmly and cheer for me all the same, to the people and coaches at other boxes I have had the pleasure of visiting. I have felt welcome every where and work to make others feel the same. I always worked out a gym by myself and was ok with that so I was surprised by how much I enjoy the commune aspect of crossfit. 
• Lifting heavy makes me really happy. People talk about the flow when every thing else drops away and you have complete focus and joy. This is one of those activities for me. 
• Coming in to Crossfit, I thought I knew a good deal about working out. This changed how I think about everything which has benefitted me as well as my personal training clients. I like being reminded to keep a beginner's mind - always open to learning and questioning.
• As with anything you love, it is important to see the good and the bad and embrace all of it. Crossfit continues to be controversial. I do see its flaws and understand where the criticism comes from. I question. I read. I change things I need to change. All the same, I love it, I am working safely and continue to get better and stronger. 

Of course with all my lessons not only my brain has changed but my body too. I am finally building the body that I thought I could have that no other way of working out has been able to carve out for me. 

I would love to hear other people's experience and learnings from Crossfit! Please feel free to share or message me!