I've Got My Namaste

I started Bikram Yoga this month and am currently taking part in a 30-day (30 classes in 30 days) challenge.  That first day was exhilarating!  I've taken many yoga classes in my lifetime mostly involving Vinyasa Flow. I'd never experienced Bikram when I signed up for it and for the challenge.  I only knew that a few of my friends love it and that it is hot!  Hot like 105 degrees hot (Although today I noticed that the thermostat read 108.6 degrees!).  Considering this heat, I was concerned (though not greatly) about breathing, claustrophobia, and vertigo.  But mostly I was concerned about keeping up the commitment.  I know myself.  I know this is a challenge for me.

Day one went lovely.  Fears negated, I didn't have a problem with the heat, didn't have a problem breathing, didn't get claustrophobic, and didn't experience vertigo.

On day two, I was fatigued.  This was to be expected, getting back into some sort of physical activity usually carries on me for a few days even if I've slept well.  This is good.  This is change.

Day three felt good but day four struck me.  I cried through most of class.  Positions were difficult, muscles and tendons were sore, the extent to which I had let myself go was horribly apparent.  I had to let it go.  And, I did.   I left it there on the yoga studio floor.

Since mid-June, I've taken a renewed approach to eating clean.  For me this means doing more research on eating Paleo.  My household has been largely Paleo for a few years now but since a flu over the holidays, I had slipped off my strictness and had allowed daily consumption of bread back into my life.  Regular amounts of bread is not a  good thing for me.  I see an immediate difference when I introduce or eliminate bread from my diet.  And boy do I love to eat bread!  I love toast with my coffee, or buttered toasted bagels.  This is a great discipline for me for resist the temptation of good bread.  But, I did it.  I may indulge from time to time but mostly I avoid it and I certainly don't allow it into my home.  Sure, there are many other things that I am addressing at the same time, but bread has been my greatest immune system assault.

So, with this combined effort of eating clean and daily Bikram, I feel a tremendous difference.  The weight is shedding slowly.  My endurance and breath is improving.  My definition is returning.  My endorphins are kind to me.  

I joke that I brought my luggage to yoga class with me and set it down on my mat.  This because I am 44 years old now.  When I went through this in CrossFit, my friend Rob sent me a CrossFit Journal article about age and the life span of injuries you accumulate over the years and how you address this in your workouts.  Its simple fact that we accumulate a list of challenges and so we need to face them, work through them.  I've mentioned a short list of these personal challenges above, but I more recently encountered a couple more and big ones at that.  Two years ago, I stopped CrossFitting, hiking and yoga-ing because of extreme pain in my ribs, lower back, hip, and emanating around my side, through my groin and almost all the way down my right leg.  The more fitness I pursued, the more pain I encountered, but not during the workout.  The pain would wake me in the middle of the night, like a dagger in my ribs, bringing me to tears and eventually sobs and cries.

Deadlifts at Paradiso CrossFit (2010)

The doctor said, "Oh!  You've got quite a case of arthritis in your back and a nice little sway in your lumbar.  Did you know you have lumbar scoliosis?"  At this point in my life, I had been expecting the arthritis but the scoliosis took me by surprise.  Once I got past the shock and to the point of acceptance, it was, however, nice to have an answer, nice to have something to work with.  

But I have to tell you, that pain is a major bitch.  I set-out to conquer it.  And when I CrossFit my ass off or yoga regularly, the pain remains.  My attitude and proclamation is such that I would rather be fit and in pain than to sit around crying about it and in pain.  No matter what I do, the pain is there, so it is better to fight through it.  

Sit-ups at CrossFit Zen (2013)

So this is where I am in my Bikram and clean eating regimen.  Every day when I attempt a Bikram position, the position comes easier for me.  As I check my position in the mirror, I see a me that is changing shape.  I don't yet feel lighter, but things are definitely moving.  And, Sunday afternoon I put on a blouse that I hadn't fit into for about 3 years.  Happy me!  I keep pursuing the clean eating.  After discovering that my new found love for peppers in my morning scramble was actually causing [night shades] inflammation that was waking me in the night with stabbing pains in my hand and feet, I simply made another adjustment, eliminated the night shades, and in a few days time the pain subsided.

I'm pushing through.  My body hurts but my mind and my mood is benefiting tremendously.  

With that, I share with you a little something that one of my mentors shared today.  A moment of thankfulness for all that I've got, a message from Nina Simone:  

Time! --> 30 Days Give-or-Take the Last 10

For the past month (from April 19th through May 19th), we have been participating in a 30-day Paleo Challenge with our CrossFit box people.  And while I usually would not participate in an all-or-nothing challenge, this time I did.  Well, we did.  Garrett and I decided to attempt it.  We started one day late and gave it our best effort.  We broke about the time Mothers Day came around when I decided to order a chocolate ganash soufflé for dessert.  I'll call this a gateway dessert because other things clearly followed.  While we do not view this as a total failure in nutrition, we did technically fail the all-or-nothing challenge because either you did it or you didn't.  Either you got an A+ or an F.  There was nothing in between.  And, that is ok.

What the Paleo challenge did for us was to reveal a way of nutrition that we would like to follow closely but not, at this particular moment in time, strictly.  This is not to say that we will go all nutty and drown ourselves in grain, sugar and dairy products (isn't that a lovely bathtub style vision?).  But, we are not going to beat ourselves up if we decide that maybe today we will go ahead and have a smidgen of raw sugar in our espresso.  We will not feel worthless if a bit of blue cheese would just really make this salad perfect today.  And, in the world of Paleo nutrition, we will not fret over choosing the lesser of two evils when deciding to use either cow's milk or soy milk in our espresso as well.  

We have, in fact, changed our dietary intake drastically this year by no longer buying cereals or potatoes or rice. We've brought home a hell of a lot less cheese and milk and butter.  No more are the days of buttered toast and sugar drenched espresso for breakfast followed by a dinner that included either a potato or a rice each and every time.  We have made a tremendous start and that is good enough for us for now.  We will continue to strive for better as we always do.  Right now, right here, this is good enough.  

Aside from just knowing that this is a better way to eat, how do we feel?  We feel lighter, faster and more agile.  We feel less lethargic when we CrossFit.  There is more gumption and less panting.  My asthma, while still a pain in the ol' gluteous maximus, feels less threatening.  I can tell a difference in my total energy between when I eat Paleo and when I don't.  And, I'm talking about the next day or two from when I ate.  It carries over and carries on for a period of a couple days.  

Here is a sampling of various meals that have happened for us over the latter half of our challenge (please note that ketchup, cheese, creamy dressings and added sodium are are not Paleo):

But, clarity came for me during this challenge when I began to receive comments about my appearance and how good or different my appearance was from the past.  Things like, "I can see it in your face." or "I see a change in your shoulders, your posture and across your back." and "I just have to tell you how good you look, Dione."  I'd say it is the Paleo but I would also say it is the CrossFit and the hiking.  There is a happiness that all of this brings to both me and Garrett.  And, lastly, I would say that it's the folks at my particular box, Paradiso CrossFit, that bring us smiles.  I love this group.  I appreciate how they challenge us and how they inspire us.  They live the example that we are now living and through this example we rise to the challenge.  There is a lot of laughing that goes on with this group and I look forward to spending many many years with them.

I'm Hike-a-licious.

If I haven't mentioned it before, my husband and I are preparing to hike for a mere six days straight in the Austrian Alps.  This hike is to occur in July of this year.  On July 10th-ish we will join our friends Rob and Petra on the 21st day of their hike in the Alps which will have covered points in Germany, Austria and Italy.  As a group, we will finish up the hike in six days as we head northwesterly back toward Germany.

To say the least, Garret and I are greatly concerned that we will hold the group back.  In order to minimize the amount of backholding that may occur, he and I have been training.  We have been CrossFitting and we have been hiking.  I am fully immersed (though I always feel as though I could be participating more) in CrossFit while he has dabbled in the on-ramp program at our box.  We have developed a habit of hiking together on Saturday mornings while I have also developed a habit of hiking at least one other time through the week (thank you, Lizzie and Heather!).  For me personally, this makes four to five days per week where I am kicking my ass in some sort of physical challenge.

Combine all this physicality together with our participation in our box's 30-day paleo diet challenge and these three things seem to make for a fulltime job in themselves.  Every day is consumed with thoughts of "How am I going to challenge myself physically today?  What am I going to eat today?  What am I not going to eat today?  How often am I going to eat today?"  We are ever referencing the Paradiso CrossFit website and Nutrition Blog and those blogs and Facebook pages of our PCF cohort.  In fact, I feel like a food-ophile carefully scanning images of everyones breakfast, dinner and snacks - having food envy and moaning in delight over things like sauteed cauliflower in place of rice. 

Garrett and I have faced obstacles because neither one of us considers ourselves very good cooks really.  He can throw down on some fish or stirfry and I get requests for fried chicken or banana bread, but to say we feel competitive as chefs in this Paleo challenge is not going to happen.  So, as I've said before, we do the best we can.

Things that I have discovered about myself this week:

1) I can't sautee asparagus to save my life.  There is a fine line between delightfully tasty and just damn soggy.

2) I have attempted twice to hard boil a dozen eggs and both times, though hugely varied in approach, I managed to pop, clank, explode and otherwise abuse the shells of my unsuspecting protien delights.

3) Salt is just damn necessary in some recipes.

4) Espresso requires either a smidge of milk (soy or the moo kind) or a smattering of raw sugar.  We have both declared that we will give up one or the other but not both.

5) No matter how hard I work or how disciplined I consume, Garrett (who is doing far less than me physically) has already reached his high school weight and is concerned that he may lose too much.

And, on a more positive note:

6) Meat rocks!

7) Avocados are a welcome flavor (this one is for you, Rob) in most dishes.

8) Tuesday morning Farm Fresh To You produce deliveries are one of the highlights of my week.

9) I surprisingly don't really miss my breads, rices or potatoes.  I certainly don't miss the way they make me feel.  And, when I think I want them, I simply remind myself how they bog me down and interfere with my CrossFit performance well into the next day (Funny, I used this same psychological trick on myself to stop smoking nine years ago). 

10) Breathing is awesome!  Achieving proper breathe is what plagues me the most in my workouts.  I have increased my lung capacity greatly in the last year and am still way behind the curve.  I am excited to ultimately work my asthma away.  When that day comes, trust me, you will know of it!

The days and days of Paleo menus have begun to blur for me.  There have been moments where Paleo was near impossible but, more so, Paleo is more accessible than you might believe.

Friday night Truxton's Gilly Burger of sin.  Notice the dark looming atmosphere.  Dione was a bad bad girl.

I'm not sure when this happened but it came compliments of Garrett (as do most of our Paleo creations) and it was dreamy!  That's apples, avocado, walnuts, butter lettuce, baby romaine, grilled chicken, etc. in that there bowl.  Mmmm...

Garrett's plate of wild atlantic salmon on a bed of fresh spinach with grilled zucchini. 

Breakfast for two days in a row of leftover browned turkey with onions and bellpeppers cooked in an omelet. 

My plate of salmon and zucchini minus the bed of fresh spinach because I simply could not fathom another mouthful of spinach goodness yesterday.

So, we eat, we drink, we crossfit and we hike.  Most importantly, we live.  We are not idle and we are not complacent.  Certainly, we are no longer ignorant of the possibilities out there for us.  And, sometimes, we rest.

Day 2 and Day 3. Not as pale as Monday.

I was speaking to a friend of mine a couple days ago when he informed me that I need to step it up now.  I'm out of the on-ramp program at PCF and I'm familiar with hiking local Los Angeles area hikes.  Now, in preparation for our hike in the Austrian Alps in July, I need to lengthen my hikes and increase the frequency.  I need to CrossFit more.  Considering my box is committed to a 30 day Paleo challenge, I need to also step-up my nutrition.

People, this is hard work. 

Day 2 of the Paleo Challenge

Ok kids, I'm doing the best I can here.  Tuesday morning I worked with what I had.  It wasn't until late Monday night that Garrett and I actually decided to pursue the challenge.  This meant that we didn't yet get the opportunity to buy the necessary groceries.  My answer to that?  Leftovers!  Breakfast consisted of some leftover TJ bacon (I know, sodium) with two eggs prepared in a tiny bit of olive oil.  On the side were strawberries.  My beverage was a double espresso - NO sugar, NO milk (I religiously drink a cappucino).  This breakfast made me very happy.  And, yes, I missed my buttered toast.

I don't remember what I had for lunch but I think it included one of these and some hard boiled eggs and maybe some walnuts. 

Dinner was the ultimate challenge for me (us).  We went out for a family dinner with Garrett's family.  We went to Salt Creek.  When the bread was set on the table, I moved it away.  I ordered a salad but didn't even realize it had a little bit of feta cheese on it.  Oops.

For the main course, I substituted farm fresh veggies in place of the fries that would go with my baby back ribs.  Ok, I think I screwed up here too because the ribs have sauce which I'm sure included sugar and some other stuff non-Paleo.  Oops again.  Oh, and I didn't follow it with creme brulee.  I actually believe that skipping the creme brulee is illegal in some states.

Day 3

W.O.D. (Work-out of the Day, if I haven't explained this already.)

"Ontario Sectional Day 1, Event 2"

As many rounds and reps as possible in 12 minutes of:

5 Deadlifts (235/150 lbs)

10 Pull ups

5 Ring dips

On Monday, Diso helped me through my last on-ramp/first main W.O.D. (this was my fault...I didn't realize I was officially non-on-ramp now).  Because I was the only on-ramper that morning, we made the best of things and I ended up getting to have a personal session to full W.O.D. strength.  See previous blog post for details on this.  This means Wednesday was truly my first mainstream W.O.D. where I got to work-out with the big kids under the direction of Zeb. 

I came to Wednesday's W.O.D. fully recharged and ready to go.  I think I did alright.  I made it through four rounds with the assistance of some of the largest rubber bands I have ever seen in my life.  The workout was great!  Oh and I officially put my name and my weight on the Paleo Challenge sign-up sheet at my box.  It is a really big effing deal for me to put my weight out there for people to see.  Look at me!  I don't even know who I am anymore.

For breakfast - two hardboiled eggs, two raw carrots, one orange and a double espresso.

For lunch - another challenge because I was working at a friends home, we went to In-n-Out.  I had a double burger (NO cheese) with grilled onions (NO sauce or ketchup or anything sugary like that) in a lettuce wrap.  NO fries and NO shake.  My friend took amazement in this spectacular display of discipline.

For dinner - the PCF potluck would have been awesome if I weren't entirely exhausted and covered in cat hair.  Garrett actually prepared something for us to take to the event but I was just too tired to attend.  We stayed home and ate ground turkey with fire roasted onions and peppers topped with avocado.  A nice end to a long day after which I promptly went to bed to rest before an early morning hike.

Nobody ever said healthy was easy.

Day 1 - Paleo Dinner

For dinner we had Trader Joe's marinated Maui style beef shortribs and avocado wrapped in butter lettuce together with a side of sauteed asparagus.   Mmmmm good!

The Paleo Challenge calls for absolutely no alcohol.  Garrett didn't seem too concerned about this tonight when he grabbed his Gargoyle IPA.  So, there you have it.  Anyone else challenged by the no beer aspect of this?

Going forward I will combine the food journal into a one-day summary.  Goodnight. 

Day 1 - Paleo Snack?

Peppered Genoa Salami, Strawberries and Walnuts. 
I gotta go shopping.

Take it to the Limit

Today my box (Paradiso CrossFit) is taking on a Thirty Day Paleo Challenge. This challenge requires a 100% commitment to the Paleo Nutrition plan. The plan is that if you are taking on the challenge, to go into the box and work through "Fran." Better still, take a cold hard image of yourself before embarking on this grand endeavor, weigh yourself and then throw away the scale. At the end of the 30 days, it would be ideal to do "Fran" again and compare outcomes for improved athletic ability. I'm guessing you would have to dig your scale out of the trash can as well for a bit more comparison. What's cool about doing this with an entire box of people (I just got a crayon box visual, sorry) is that you are not the only one researching how to go about this. Everybody is searching and asking questions and shopping and cooking and submitting their own ideas on how to best go about the challenge.

My husband and I are a day short. We had a crazy and strange week/weekend that didn't allow us enough prep time for this challenge. So, we have not officially committed to the group challenge. Yet, we are following from afar. Over the last week, we have followed closely all the PCF blogs including the vast amounts of comments. I call this "the conversation." And, a quick overview late Sunday night brought new inspiration for us to ingest.

This challenge is coming at a pivotal time for me, personally, as I have officially completed the On Ramp Program portion of my CrossFit training. I will no longer be coddled though certainly the support is always there but it is time for me to truly step-up my CrossFit game. Yeah, I'm a little scared. Now I get to play with the big kids. And let me tell you, those kids are incredible! They are incredibly talented and they work incredibly hard. I have tremendous respect for each and every one of them.

I'm not going to do Fran. And, I'm not signing up for the challenge at the box. But I am going to face the challenge as best I can. You'll see evidence of that here. You'll also see my WOD's and my response to "Regularly learn and play new sports." Oh yeah, and some insight on my (and Garrett's) training for six days in the Austrian Alps. That trip happens in July 2010.

Ok, todays W.O.D. -->

3 rounds for time of:

Walking lunge, 100 ft
50 Squats
25 Back extensions

I was on my 3rd round at squat 20 when an asthma incident began to rear its ugly head. Well, it had already started to gnaw at my throat and lungs, but now it was threatening a full assault. That was when I told Diso that I had to stop (or this would get real ugly real fast). So, I didn't get my time to that point but I'm pretty sure it was around 1/2 hour and that's a pretty long time. My body ached and my lungs hurt and my throat was dry and I felt the pangs of vomit a-brewin' together with the onset of the asthma monster. However, I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. These workouts are tough but I am anxious to see an improvement in my breathing. I am challenged to the max of my physical and mental abilities. And, I love it.

I came home and did something terrible. Well, the espresso wasn't bad but the two slices of buttered toast were far from Paleo. After a rest to gain a sense of normality, I countered the days events with a beautiful Paleo lunch - 2 eggs scrambled, 5 pieces of bacon seasoned with Mrs. Dash Original on a bed of romaine and butter lettuce. A quick consultation with Assassin revealed that I neglected to include a proper carb and my answer to that was a fresh apple. I am feeling better now but my head still hurts from the lack of oxygen during my workout.

I am preparing my grocery list this afternoon for my Paleo shopping spree. We shall see how this one goes. Feelings? I am both terrified and excited. What a great opportunity!