It’s been an awesome weekend and I’m spending my extra day of the weekend relaxing on the couch with the pup. 

Went to the gym on Saturday to find a WOD of Death by KBS and Pull Ups. Made it through round 9 and then had to hold plank forever while Lauren went beastmode through round 13 or 14.. I don’t know I blacked out in plank. Eeesh. Still exciting that my pull ups are getting better.. was hoping to get through round 10 so not too far off. 

Then my brother, his wife and my nieces arrived in the afternoon. So exciting to have them visit Milwaukee. They went to a wedding on Sunday and the girls stayed with me. I took them to the zoo and tried to buy my position as favorite Auntie with pony rides. I’m pretty sure it worked. 

Then we went for some frozen yogurt at a new shop by my house.. just to seal the deal. 

I’m now convinced that after this 30 days is over, I will reintroduce sugar into my life as a performance enhancing drug. The dance party we had after the frozen yogurt was off the charts, I credit that to the sugar they consumed. I, on the other hand, had a strawberry before we went to the sugar store so I wouldn’t be so tempted to eat their frozen yogurt. Natalie only ate about half of hers, but I was a good paleo girl and threw the rest away. 

I stocked fruit in the house for the girls, and I had 2 bananas left. So I ate half of one with some almond butter today. It was glorious. I don’t feel bad because my rule was 1 serving of fruit per week and the strawberry and half banana are the only fruit I’ve had in the last 11 days. I kind of love that fruit is such a treat now. It tastes so sweet!

No Murph for me today. The gym was only running 9 and 10am classes and I still had the girls. It’s for the best. Today was a scheduled rest day and running 2 miles on my ankle probably would have been ill advised. I still deeply appreciate all of our service men and women, I just couldn’t Murph to prove it.

“Man, you’re getting strong.”

                   A male co-worker while looking at my arms. 

THIS. MADE. MY. DAY!!!

I mean come on people, I haven’t been strutting around the office in sleeveless shirts flexing my arms to have people not notice. 

That’s a lie. I haven’t really been flexing… a lot. ;)

The rest of the conversation turned into me talking about how huge my legs are getting. His response, man I need that I have chicken legs. 

Me: Squat

Him: Then my back hurts.

Me: Squat with proper form. 

Happy long weekend everyone!!! I’ll be leaving work with a smile on my face. It’s the little things. The nieces arrive tomorrow. Full on Auntie Time this weekend!! Can’t wait!

So yesterday, a friend asked me how this 30 day challenge was going for me. I said good and very proudly stated that I’m not even really having sugar cravings. I should have knocked on every piece of wood in this office. 

Today, right now, as I type I am having a wicked sugar craving! I thought I was hungry, and was thinking I’d swing by chipotle on the way home since I was too hungry to wait to cook my own food. Then I realized, chipotle didn’t sound good. GASP! CHIPOTLE HAS NEVER NOT SOUNDED GOOD TO ME. 

That’s when it hit me! I’m not hungry. I’m craving sugar.. lots and lots of sugar. Chipotle doesn’t sound good, but a big old candy bar does. (gross). I’m onto you sugar craving, and I am stronger than you are. So, suck it.

Biologically speaking, this week should be the worst for cravings… (sorry boys, TMI, I know). I was actually surprised this didn’t happen sooner. 

I’m 7 days in. Thus far I have had no fruit (except avocado/tomato which I don’t count). I’m gonna see if I can keep it up, I want to eat as little fruit as I can manage during this 30 days. If I can ignore my cravings this week of all weeks, I should be able to hold strong the rest of the 30 days.  

Just got this email:

All,

Jason thought it would be good if we went for a team lunch.

I have attached a menu for Off The Clock on Howell ave that serves sandwiches…

We are looking at May 30 or 31.

Please let me know if this works for you.

Thanks

Jan

I’m not trying to be a pill, or maybe I am, but my entire team knows how I eat. Of all the restaurants in all the world, let’s go to a sandwich shop. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, let’s say I was a vegetarian and everyone knew it, NO way would they suggest going to a steakhouse. 

Sigh. I’m not going to say anything to my “team” and I’m going to find a way to make it work (read: order a sandwich, hold the bread.. and then come back to the office and stuff myself with veggies.) It’s just frustrating and tumblr is my outlet, deal with it. 

Today I learned of the passing of a mentor of mine from my first job after college. She was young (in her 40’s) and taken too soon. She was a partner at my firm and retired early due to her sarcoidosis. The sarcoidosis ultimately caused heart failure. She passed yesterday and is survived by her husband and two teenage sons. I learned a lot from this woman and as a successful, professional woman I always admired her. She touched the lives of many and will be deeply missed. It had been a long time since I had seen her. The last time we spoke was after we both had left the firm. She called to tell me my facebook account was hacked. We talked briefly and made “plans” to get lunch when she was feeling better. I wish we could have had that lunch.

I had never heard of sarcoidosis. But as I did some research, I was struck by the links to celiac and autoimmune disorders and I couldn’t help but wonder if the western diet hadn’t played a hand in all of this. There is no known cause or cure for the disease, but there’s something in me that just can’t shake the thought that a paleo lifestyle likely could have helped her. Part of me feels guilty for having that thought right now because it feels like I’m pushing an agenda. The other part of me is angry that the government and doctors and anyone you meet on the street is still pretending grains are a health food, when if we could move past grains we could likely spare many people this kind of pain. 

Life is short. Sometimes too short. Live your life to the fullest.

Rest in peace Sabrena, thanks for everything. My thoughts and prayers are with your family. I hope they are finding comfort in the end of your pain. 

 I have a feeling I will post about the breakroom a lot. So I’m going to pretend its a show.

Anyway, I saw my old lunch in the breakroom today and I had a revelation! (No actual photos because that probably would have offended the girl consuming it). 

Turkey Sandwich on a Deli Flat. You know.. these things:

It had cheese and I suspect probably a dot of Mayo. It was accompanied by some fruit and a Light n’ Fit Yogurt. You know, this 0 fat all sugar concoction:

I was totally judging this lunch. I wanted to reach out to this girl and say I used to be you! I can help! Instead, I kept my mouth shut and now I’m blogging about it. (nobody likes unsolicited advice) I used to eat that exact lunch 5 days a week. I used to be hungry. The revelation I spoke of was this:

I wasn’t eating that because I enjoyed it!! I was eating that because I thought it was healthy and would help me lose weight. This meal was never satisfying or all that delicious. I will now use it as my example when people ask me how I can “give up” so much to eat Paleo. Who’s giving up what?! I had an awesome hot lunch of homemade Cincinnati Chili with spaghetti squash. I’m full and it was delicious. I was giving up more before I was paleo than I ever feel like I am today. I’m healthier today than I was then AND I get to eat things that make me feel good and I enjoy. It’s like I won the food lottery!!

Take that paleo haters!

So, I’ve been trying to do a lot more mobility work. And, since I spend my life at my desk I’m doing a lot of it at work.

I keep a lacrosse ball at my desk and every day I try to do the following exercises:

• Roll my feet
• Seated pigeon (place ankle on opposite thigh, try to get your knee parallel)
• Tack my hamstrings (Wedge ball between hammy and chair find a good spot bend and straighten leg)
• Roll my quads (I have a little foot rest under my desk. I put my feet on there and wedge the ball between my desk and my quad.)
• Roll my calves (Using seated pigeon, I push the ball into my calf, roll it a bit and do ankle circles.. good one for conference calls when I don’t need my hands)
• Roll out my wrists and forearms. 

Some of this was in that hour long video I posted, but since I suspect not everyone watched it, I thought I’d summarize.

Now, if only I could find a way to get more upper body done too… The lower is nice because nobody notices I’m doing it! 

A co-worker just noticed a barbell burn on my shoulder. (He obviously didn’t identify it as that). Add that to my list of battle scars… this warm weather is making it harder to hide these.

Also, I’ve never had a barbell burn before. But that’s definitely what it is, you can see the knurling marks. Maybe because I was sunburnt and low bar squatting? 

Between my torn up hands, constant bruises on my shins, jump rope marks, and now the barbell burns, I’m fairly confident I’ll be single for a while. 

crossfitfelony replied to your post: Today I’m feeling…

Who punched you in the face?

Haha. No one. It’s the name of my coffee.

STRONG!

I don’t know if it was the punch in the face or the 3 days rest (or perhaps both) but actually felt pretty strong during this morning’s workout.