Invasion!

One of my favorite things about Crossfit Fenway is their weekly invasion WOD. Every Saturday, Crossfit Fenway hosts a WOD in public which members can attend. Being new to Boston, I find this a great way to get to know my new home. I finally found some free time and managed to go yesterday, my first invasion WOD.

WOD: AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) in 15 minutes of:
10 push ups
Run through the fountain
10 squats

Rounds: Lost count. At least 17.

What does running through the fountain mean? Well, it means running... through a fountain. Literally. There was a water fountain located at where we were working out and the coach thought it'd be a good idea to include it in our little AMRAP. Here's a picture:

I didn't manage to get a good picture of the fountain, the water was just getting started! The topless guy is also a member of CF Fenway.

All wet after completing the WOD. Great way to travel the T. Also a good way of getting weird looks in the elevator.

WOD in the Globogym

I hate working out at a Globogym, but sometimes I really don't have a choice. I can't afford to go to Crossfit Fenway more than once a week, so I'll have to work out on my own at BU's gym every so often. Not much to talk about today, here is the WOD I did.

WOD: 5 rounds for time of
30 Double Unders
15 Clapping Pushups

Time: Around 12 minutes. Forgot to stop stopwatch.

Some notes:
On the last round, I realized I could of been much more efficient on my double unders if I had bent my knees a little more. Something to work on for next time.
Clapping push ups suck.

Living Primal: One Meal at a Time (Meatza!)

Enter the Meatza. I've been wanting to do this for a while now.

For those of you who don't know, a meatza is a low-carber's/meat-lover's adaption of the pizza, where the crust is replaced with meat instead of the usual dough. Strict Paleo followers don't tend to like this recipe because of the dairy but then again, I haven't exactly removed dairy from my diet.

Anyways, I decided to follow a recipe this time as opposed to my usual improvising. Here's a link: http://www.thehealthycookingcoach.com/2009/09/paleoprimal-pizza.html

Making the "crust" with 1 pound of ground pork, 1 pound of ground beef, cheese, and an egg



Me with the "Crust" spread out on the pan ready for the oven



After the crust finished baking, we threw on the toppings (mushrooms and red peppers) and cheese. Ready for the broiler. We did one half shredded mozzarella and one half buffalo mozzarella.



All finished.



Different Angle.



The Family

In all honesty, the meatza was more like a meatloaf with pizza toppings and cheese than an actual pizza. Nonetheless, it was still really good and definitely worth making again some other day.

Failure and Success

So today's session at Crossfit Fenway went a little something like this:

Starting off with a dynamic warm up, consisting of the usual stretches and movements, I got a small sweat going and then immediately moved on into today's skill work. The focus being muscle-ups.

A muscle up is a gymnastic movement that combines pull-ups and ring dips. Starting from a dead hang, you pull yourself up a pair of rings and then do a dip at the top. Sounds simple. It just happens to be incredibly difficult. Having never done a muscle-up before, I did a modified version where the rings were set lower so that I could start on my knees and support myself from the ground.

Then we moved onto some strength training, the low bar back squat. Here's the rep scheme: 5-5-3-3-1-1-1. I started light and gradually increased the weight, knocking out the first five sets no problem. The last two sets however, proved to be much more difficult.

Repetitions: 5-5-3-3-1-1-1
Load (kg): 50-60-65-70-80-90(failed)-85(failed)

After failing my second last set I went lighter and dropped the load to 85 kg. Unfortunately, after going down into the squat position, I couldn't get back up and had to drop the weight. I've still got a long road of strength training ahead of me (my goal is one and a half times body weight).

Me about to attempt an 85 kg back squat

I came out of the weight room pretty disappointed. I really thought 85 kg wouldn't have been a problem (most of the people were going over 100!). Now in the main room, I saw the rings that were set up for the muscle-ups practice. I figured I might as well give it a shot. Surprisingly, I succeeded, which felt AWESOME. I even managed to do two!

To Crossfitters, the first muscle-up is a grand occasion. And I couldn't help but feel somewhat proud of myself as the coach wrote "first muscle-up" next to my name on the wall. I just wish I had gotten a picture.

We finished off with a WOD, which was 16 rounds of Tabata intervals on the rower (a Tabata interval consists of 20 seconds of all out effort followed by ten seconds of rest). Our score is calculated by the total amount of meters rowed, which in my case would be 1458.

I hate Tabata intervals, and I hate rowing even more. It sucked.

Cheat Meals and Turning 18

Yesterday was my birthday, I've finally hit the big one eight. Guess I'm officially an adult. Weird.

Having just moved to Boston, I really haven't had a chance to meet any new people. Though I'm sure I will eventually, especially once college starts, just don't think of me as some anti-social hermit. I spent my birthday with my sisters, no crazy parties or night out this year (there'll be plenty in college). It was all quite pleasant.

Anyone who knows me or follows this blog knows that I have some neurotic eating habits. In a nutshell, I eat like a caveman. Avoiding foods like grains, sugar, legumes, and dairy (though I'm not too strict when it comes to legumes and dairy). But every once in a while, it's nice to take a break and cheat. It helps keep me sane.

Let's see how it all played out...

Breakfast started out pretty Paleo. I usually just have some bacon and eggs but today I felt like having something a little extra. Hence a breakfast of: chicken liver, bacon, cheese poppers coupled with a cheese omelet (I've got a thing for organ meats).


After breakfast, my sisters and I went out dorm shopping. Unfortunately, this was the only day we were all free. Not much to talk about here but here's a picture:

This is where it all starts. For lunch I had a burrito that was too big (I have yet to get used to American sized portions). With rice, beans, and sour cream, I realized that the burrito was probably Paleo's biggest enemy. But it's not over yet...


Here is the 12 ounce frozen yogurt I had for dessert, topped with brownies, peanut butter cups, chocolate syrup, coconut flakes, and fruit. Can you say SUGAR?


I was stuffed, and returned to my sister's apartment for some much needed rest. It's been a while since I've felt the afternoon dip in energy that I used to get before going Paleo. My other sister crashed and took a nap while I struggled to stay awake, replying birthday congrats on Facebook, an exhausting process in itself.

My sisters later took me to go watch the movie Inception. I loved it. Christopher Nolan is a genius. I could probably write another whole post on that movie, perhaps I will some other day.

Dinner was basically a repeat of lunch. An over sized anti-Paleo meal followed by an excessively sweet dessert. More pictures:

Breaded pork cutlets with rice, some veggies (probably stir-fried in processed vegetable oil), an egg, and bubble milk tea.

Me and my sister with a bigass bowl of shaved ice. Can you say MORE SUGAR?

My brother wasn't able to make it to my birthday yesterday so he's taking us out for yet another birthday dinner. I'll try to keep it Paleo tonight, but then again I might not.

And finally, a big thanks to my two sisters for taking me out and paying for everything on my birthday. I had a good time.

My other sister with a guitar shaped spatula and a brand new copy of Good Calories, Bad Calories. She really knows how to pick good birthday presents. Thanks.

In other news, my sister is a graphic designer and I've been talking to her about some new designs for the blog. The current layout is quite bland so stay tuned.

Living Primal: One Meal at a Time 3 (Simple Meals)

Cooking doesn't always have to be complicated. The simplest meals often times end up being the best meals. With some good basic ingredients on hand, anyone can whip out a delicious meal in a short amount of time. Here are two easy meals I had recently prepared.

Pumpkin, Pork Chops, and Spinach

I chopped a pumpkin into large chunks and boiled the chunks in water, keeping the water level low enough so that some of pumpkin would protrude. While that was cooking, I pan fried a couple of pork chops seasoned with smoked paprika and rosemary in butter on the side. I took the chicken out of the pan and cooked some spinach in the same pan with a little bit of water. When the pumpkin was soft enough, I put it on my plate and sprinkled some cinnamon on top. It ended up being a very light and colorful meal.

Chicken and Tomato Stir-fry

With a little bit of water, I allowed some tomato slices, garlic, and ginger slices to simmer in a pan , keeping the lid on, until the tomatoes became soft and mushy. I then threw in some diced chicken breasts and topped it off with mustard green. I typically cook meat before vegetables but in this case I wanted the tomatoes to lose almost all of their retained water. This really adds to the flavor of the dish. Note that I did not have to use any oil because I was using a nonstick pan and the tomatoes had also released a lot of water. I put everything in a bowl and garnished it with some olive oil and apple cider vinegar.

Diane is a Real Bitch.

I'm writing this post at Panera (a bakery). Let's see if I'll be able to resist.

My week of boxing is over and I finally signed up for a membership at Crossfit Fenway. I went with the most basic plan, allowing me to attend one class a week for 18 months. No doubt a very LONG commitment. CF Fenway also has free classes for members on Saturday mornings dubbed Invasion WODs (workout of the day) so I'll probably also go to some of those. We started off with some footfire drills, a dynamic warm up and proceeded to practice handstand push ups and deadlifting form. Then we moved on to the WOD, Diane.

Diane

21-15-9 reps for time of:
Deadlifts @ 60 kg (Rx'd is 102 kg)
Handstand Push-ups scaled down to head touching ab mat (Rx'd is head to floor)

Time: 10:15

My Deadlift Bar

I'm still not sure why I do this to myself. I'm definitely going to be sore tomorrow.

I was damn tired yet know I could of pushed harder. I wasn't even deadlifting body weight! Then again, the time range recommended for this WOD is somewhere between 4-10 minutes. Guess the scaling was pretty appropriate after all. I'll do this WOD again at some point in the future. It'll be interesting to see how I improve.

Diane: I hate you.