More injuries

I've been doing CrossFit for over 2 years now. I love it. CrossFit is what saved me from my workout lull. It gave my life excitement again and a desire for competition and to make myself a better athlete. Within the first 6 months of CrossFit I set a goal to do a competition. I hadn't set a date, I definitely wanted to get into better shape, and I wanted to feel ready.

Now 2 years later, the 5 friends I started CrossFitting with have gone down to 2. So many people I've talked to about CrossFit have talked about injuries and quitting. I never want to quit CrossFit... I love it. However, in the last 11 months I've had 3 serious injuries that have set me back quite a bit. My strength has diminished (although I know that I can get that back), and my cardio is nothing like it used to be, and my desire to work out has grown a bit dim. 2 back injuries that have put me out for 3 months each time and now a hip injury that's had me out for 3 weeks now. I am depressed...just a bit. I feel old. This sucks. My husband said to me a few days ago, "maybe CrossFit isn't for you anymore." BUT I'm just not ready to hang up the shoes. I'll modify for sure, but even so --- I'll be sad thinking that I might never get to do a competition because I'm broken. Argh.

I know this sounds so stupid, but CrossFit gave me life. And lately I've been feeling so - lifeless. I miss my CrossFit Crew, and I miss throwing around heavy weight and doing crazy body weight exercises. Hoping and praying that I heal quickly and that this is not my moment to say "I'm done" with what I love so much.

February 2013

SO, as you can see - I'm not real good at this blogging thing. You should check out my Twitter or my Instagram on the other hand because those are two sites that I'm quite good at keeping up on. Ha ha ha.

What am I up to???

*I'm back to CrossFit after 3 months away due to a killer back injury. (This is my 2nd back injury in the past 9 months.) This time I'm coming back slower than ever and really listening to my body. I'm not pushing myself like I once did ---even though I did sign up for the Reebok CrossFit Open. WHAT?!? Yay, I can't believe I did that.

*PALEO... the caveman diet. Yup, I'm doing it. I started about 3 weeks ago because of health reasons. I'm not as strict as I should be. I'd like to be stricter but it's called "lack of self-control". I'm gonna need to work on that some more. I love me some good chocolate. You can follow my food journal on www.myfitnesspal.com.

*Pilates rocks! Yes, I added pilates to my weekly workout schedule and I love it. I can already see a difference in just a month. It's no shocker that my back injury had something to do with my lack of core strength, so this is really helping me to focus on form and core work. Ahhhh - I actually look forward to Friday Pilates.

*I am a gym membership whore. I need to cool it. I belong to  Lifetime Fitness, Bally's and 2 CrossFit boxes. I actually think I'm going to cancel my Bally's membership because that place has been disappointing. I'm not impressed with their lack of professionalism, their no-show instructors for group classes, and well... yay - that's all. OH but I do have to say that I was floored to see that they were selling Diet Coke to the public at the shake/smoothie bar. Yes, I do have something against high fructose corn syrup. 

*I'm working like a mad woman... and it's making me mad (the crazy kind of mad - the kind that finds yourself in a padded room). The compulsory girls had a very successful season that ended this past December. Now we're in optional competition season and the compulsories are in training season. When I'm not coaching at practices, I'm coaching at meets or trying to squeeze in a private lesson or two when I can. Burnt out and/or tired??? YES. Trying to figure out how to manage everything.

So that's all that I can think of for the moment. OR at least all that I'm going to share on a public blogging site. Follow me... add me to your blog list... or Twitter feed... or Instagram. I love my friends that I get to meet via internet. Until next time (hopefully it won't be another 9 months before I blog again) --- be amazing!!!

Memorial Day Weekend 2012

What an amazingly fun filled Memorial Day weekend! I was so SAD that it had to come to an end. Haven't posted pictures up to my blog in some time so I thought I'd show off my family and friends. 


I kicked my weekend off with a beautiful run at the park. I love Wash Park. It's about 2.5 miles if you run the inside road. I usually do that. I'm better running on pavement for some reason. You can run the outside though and that's about 3 miles and a dirt trail.

Went to two graduation parties this past weekend. Two more than I've been to in a quite some time. These graduates were special because they were gymnasts at the gym I coach at. Of course I don't have any pictures of me and them - but I do have a picture with me and one of their moms. Ha ha ha. This is my friend Jessica, affectionately known as "BiFF" to me. How is that? BFF said really fast sounds like Biff... right? LOL.

After the 2nd graduation party I felt like I hadn't seen my little boy in a few days so he and I had a park date. BUT before we hit the park we had to get a treat at Ben & Jerry's. We live about 4 miles away from a Ben & Jerry's and in the 6 years that we've lived in Denver we've not been there. So Ethan and I decided to check it out. Looks amazing right? Cooper the dog definitely thought so.

Having a few picture moments at the park together. I love my son and dog... and my time with them both. Ethan is one of the coolest little boys I know. If you ever get a chance to meet him --- you'll think so too.

No weekend would be complete without a little dancing. My friends Jaime and Paul joined me for the opening weekend of Vinyl Club's balcony. It was packed - super packed. I haven't been to a place like that in years. You know, the kind of place where you can't move because you're smashed up like sardines... and it was HOT so HOT because of all the bodies... and to think - it was almost all outside on the balcony. Whew! There was some fun dancing that night though.

So the best thing about kids getting older is that they want to hang out with their friends. My daughter Emily was invited to Elitch's for the day with one of her gymnastics buddies and my son Ethan decided to hang out with grandma. Kevin and I got an entire afternoon to ourselves! Holy cow... it was so much fun. Off to the Gaylord Street Festival we went to meet up with some coach-friends of mine from the gym.

Here's a picture of Kevin, me, Sonia and Vinicio at the Gaylord Street Festival. I tried Jamaican jerk chicken, plantaines, red beans and rice. Yes, I'm 38 and have never had any of those... speaking of - I also tried Fried Oreos at the festival as well. YUMMY! And on the way out Kevin and I visited Bonnie Brae and tried a Cappucino Crunch shake. Next time I take a break from eating healthy I'm going back for another one.

Later that afternoon we picked up Ethan and went to my friend Holly's house for a BBQ and some swimming. The only one that went swimming was Ethan because he's summer swim suit ready - unlike his mom. LOL. 

The hostess with the mostess - Holly! I love her. We met at church less than a year ago. Our friendship has been a blessing to me. I wish I saw her more but we both have such crazy schedules that it makes it quite a challenge. 

To finish out Memorial day I was invited to the LMFAO concert by my friend Deborah. It was epic - first of all because I've never been to Red Rocks for a concert in all the time that I've lived in Colorado and I grew up here... so that's like 32 years... wow. Second of all --- that was one high energy show. So much fun!

SO there it is - one very fun filled and activity packed weekend. Tuesday morning looked something like this...

"Never settle for less." -E Thomas

A parent of one of my gymnasts sent me this video a couple of days ago. I was inspired - of course. 

So I guess it's been a while since I've blogged. I tend to do that, I know. I have so much to say but just don't know how to say it at times. Right now I'm working hard to get rid of 35 pounds of me. I've been working on it for a while. I'm down about 14 pounds. It's been hard work. The past two weeks I've upped my workouts to twice a day. It's helped a lot. Two other things that have really helped was upping my caloric intake to 1700 calories a day and cutting out processed and GMO's in my diet.


I have always been successful at calorie counting, but up until about a month ago I wasn't losing and was really getting frustrated with all the hard work that I was putting in. Both my husband and a friend of mine who is a Level 1 certified CrossFit trainer encouraged me to consume more calories. I had originally been eating about 1200 calories a day. I think that essentially I was pushing my body into starvation mode because I was working out so much. At first it was a hard concept for me to adjust to. Eating more seemed so opposite of losing weight. But almost within a week or so I started to see a loss. Who knew?!? 


If you haven't seen the movie "Food, Inc." you should. It was an eye opening movie that really helped me to think about what I put into my body. Not only am I eating more calories daily, but I'm eating really good foods. I've been doing a lot of research on nutrition and on more than one occasion I read that in order to get rid of belly fat you should get rid of processed foods. SO --- I'm testing out that claim. I'll get back to you on that.


I feel really good. I drink tons of water. I'm not going hungry. And I feel like the food choices I am making are not only good for me but also for my family because I am making them eat the same way I do. I haven't had fast food, soda or alcohol in a month.


I journal - a lot. I keep a journal of my workouts and my weight loss journey. I'm working flipping hard... I like to win and I plan to win this weight loss challenge I've set upon myself.


Until next time... be amazing!!!

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Here's the thing - I'm a lot more sensitive than people give me credit for. I really do care about people and want the best for them. However, I feel like often times I take my cues from them. So if I feel like I'm getting some sort of negative vibe - then I'm less apt to open up and be friendly as opposed to someone that seems to be genuinely interested in me or what I'm doing. More often than not I seem to be misunderstood by many.

I am in awe

I believe that there are no random accidents. God places specific events and people in your life for a reason. That He gives us choices and we can decide what to do with them. I'm in awe of His awesomeness, His grace and His love - and can't fully comprehend it all... but He continues to quietly show me all three of those characteristics with people He brings into my life. And in some of my lowest moments, I need to remember - He's allowed it - to show me that ultimately He's in charge and that He wants to bring me through it. He loves me - He loves you... we have to allow ourselves to be loved and to be molded into His perfect work. Which was always His plan to begin with.

The last Sunday in January 2012

I'm feeling extremely grateful for self-control at the moment. I am about 1.5 weeks into my eating better, counting calories and working out regimen. In that time I've lost 7 pounds which continues to spur me on. I'm thankful for My Fitness Pal and Pinterest for also inspiring me. I've many more pounds to lose, but I needed a good start to help me press on. Whew!


Life is pretty good. Before church this morning I went for a run. I've been using an app called Couch To 5K . It's not so that I can train for races, but merely for the fact that I want to start running. I have never been a running enthusiast. In fact, I hate running. My friends all know this to be true because I'm very vocal about it. So when one of my workout buddy's told me to try out this app because she thought I'd appreciate running better, I decided to trust her and I downloaded it. I've got to say, I love the app, I love the program and I'm actually anxious to do the running workouts. Last week I ran 4 days. That's huge. And one of those days was a snow day!


After my run, I quickly cam home, fueled the body and go the kids read for church. I was blessed with a great message from the Radical Road series Pastor Romberger is preaching on. Came home for lunch and then decided that we should all go for an afternoon hike...something that we've never done as a family before. We loaded the kids and the dogs into the car and headed south just about 10 minutes outside of Denver to a trail that I found on the internet.

After working for 9.5 hours yesterday coaching, I was anxious for some down time and so today was perfect. I'm content right now. I tweeted the other day that there's something about the feeling of control upon your life. When I am in control of my eating and my spiritual life - I feel as though everything else in my life is manageable.  It really was a great Sunday Family Funday.