Woo hoo!! A Crossfit victory!!

Neat experience today. The CF Leander gang went over to CF ATX for its free Saturday workout, and Old Man Wallace came back with some "software."

Today's workout was a two-person team competition, with each team doing two rounds of Fight Gone Bad.

The format for the workout was as follows:

Two rounds of:
Team member #1 does 1 minute of box jumps, to a 24" box
Team member #2 does same
Team member #1 does 1 minute of rowing, for calories
Team member #2 does same
Both team members rest for two minutes
Team member #1 does 1 minute of push press (75lbs)
Team member #2 does same
Team member #1 does 1 minute of wall ball, to a 10' target, 14lb ball
Team member #2 does same
Team member #1 does 1 minute of 70 lb. kettlebell sumo deadlift high pull
Team member #2 does same


Largely due to having a great partner for this workout (Thanks, James Talley!!), my partner and I won the mens competition, completing a total of 496 reps. We actually got outscored by another team (I'm not sure by how much), but James and I won because we carried a heavier load throughout the workout; i.e. we pressed more, used a 24" box instead of 20", used a 70lb KB, and used a 14lb ball. The next closest team outscored us but under lesser demand.


Prior to the workout, I was really nervous about letting James down. He's younger, clearly in shape, and apparently healthy. I'm 44, still see myself as being Old Fat Mark, and have a tight right shoulder and injured right knee. Considering this, and not wanting James to be disappointed, I used all of that as my excuse for why I might hold him back.



BUT, surprise surprise...I actually held my own pretty well. I don't have our individual numbers, but I think I outrowed him, kept up with him on the press, and was probably just a little bit behind him on the wallball and KB SDHP. I'm sure he kicked my butt on the box jumps, as he just totally cranked them out like he was born doing them. I'm not so good at box jump, and this box was 4" higher than we usually use at CFL. Bottom-line is that, for a 44-year old now former fat guy, I did okay. I'm proud, not only of this win, but also of how far I have come in ten months. Total testimony to CF, CF Leander, hard work, and eating well.


This was a preparatory workout for the upcoming (Sept 25) Fight Gone Bad V, which I will blog about later. The full FGB is three rounds, which I have never done before, so I really need more of the prep work that CFL and the other local gyms are planning for us. I am nervous but very excited about taking part in FGBV.

- Mark

My dietary changes over the last ten months

Over on the Crossfit forums, someone asked me about how my diet has changed over the past ten months of doing Crossfit. Figured I should make this a blog post as well, so here we go. This is a fairly good description of the before & after. "After" really started in either late November or early December 2009.

Breakfast
- Before: Cinnamon-raisin bagel with cream cheese. Maybe a banana as well. One mug of my fabulous home-roasted coffee. Sometimes the bagel was replaced by a bowl of granola with either milk or plain (good quality) yogurt.
- Now: Typical breakfast for me is 3-4 eggs cooked in bacon fat (usually scrambled, but whatever), maybe 4-5 pieces of bacon, veggies (usually either greens [kale, mustard, turnip, collard], zucchini/squash, broccoli, cauliflower, plus an avocado and maybe a handful of fresh berries. One mug of my coffee too. Sometimes the eggs are replaced by meat of some sort; pork chops or beef.

Lunch
- Before: Lunch with the work gang. Usually sandwiches at Firehouse Subs, burritos at Chipotle, Chinese food, BBQ at one of Austin's many joints, or something battered & fried. Common theme is that my lunches almost always had a bread component, either as part of the main dish (sandwiches) or on the side (fluffy roll with the BBQ, rice with the Chinese food). Iced tea with Sweet & Low usually.
- Now: Generally, I just look for whatever is on the menu that (1) has as few ingredients as possible, (2) has as much meat and veggies as possible, and (3) undergoes as little processing as possible to create. Grains are basically gone entirely. Every so often (maybe once every two weeks) I'll allow some rice and beans into a Tex-Mex meal if the main course is too skimpy. Big-*** salads are a big part of my lunch framework, as they usually meet all three of the above criteria.

Dinner
- Before: Whatever the wife was making, which meant (and still means, for her) pasta, pizza, burritos, tacos, ground-beef wrapups (flavored ground beef baked inside croissant dough), burgers. She's a pastaholic, so at least three meals per week had some sort of pasta component, either as main course or side. A near constant was grains. A few meals per week would have steamed frozen veggies.
- Now: Same general description as breakfast, although the eggs are almost always replaced by grilled, smoked, or baked meat of some sort. My wife still generally does her own thing for meals (see: pastaholic), but every so often she'll partake of what I have cooked if there's enough of it and she's too tired to make her own meal. Again, grains are gone. Usually just water to drink. If we eat out, I follow my lunch framework.

Other tidbits:

• The most common theme throughout my dietary change is that grains have basically been eliminated.
• I've never been much of a person for sweets or alcohol. Hence no mention of having eliminated them. I really have just about absolute zero processed sugar in my diet; can't even remember the last time that I added sugar to anything. I have a drink (usually a Bloody Mary) maybe once every 2-3 weeks.
• I don't weigh/measure any of my foods
• I don't really worry about P/F/C ratios. I don't even know what they are, nor do I care.
• My grill and steamer are my best cooking friends.
• I eat when my body tells me it wants me to. I eat until it says it's satisfied. This does not mean I pack myself full. I just eat until I don't want any more.
• It's an extraordinary rarity for me to eat anything from a package.
• With exception of stuff like spices, nearly all my foods come from the outer edges of the grocery store. I want my food to be able to spoil if I don't get to it quickly enough.
• I use some salt, but sparingly.
• I eat some fruit, but not a whole lot. Usually it's berries, peaches, nectarines, or bananas.
• Every 3-4 weeks (whenever I feel like it), I add nuts into my diet. Usually almonds and/or walnuts. These are usually just snacks.
• Some dairy, but very little and very rarely. Usually just a few swigs of milk or a cup of fresh yogurt. This even means no creamer in my coffee, which I have always taken black anyhow.
• I'm also on fish oil, Ca/Mg/Zn, Glucosamine/Chondroitin, Vitamin D, creatine monohydrate, beta alanine, and I have a PWO shake of Optimum Nutrition protein powder, mixed into plain water.
• I don't drink enough plain water and need to fix that.

Hope this is useful for some of y'all. I readily admit that not everyone is willing or able to eat this way, but it works for me.

- Mark

10-month Crossfit anniversary

Today marks my 10-month "anniversary" of starting Crossfit. When I started, I was wearing size 42 jeans that had probably been stretched out to more like 43-44. I weighed ~240lbs, a very high percentage of which was fat. I was weak, had poor endurance, and was pretty down on myself because of where I had let my health go.

Today, I am comfortably in size 34 jeans. I weigh 198 lbs. (according to my cheap scale at home), and my body composition is much more muscle now than fat. I am much stronger, have better endurance, and feel totally rejuvenated -- both physically and spiritually. I feel ready for whatever may come at me next, whether it's the set of stairs that used to leave me gasping or 21-15-9 of thrusters and pullups.

This journey is far from over. In fact, it's just getting started. This time though, I have my weightlifting shoes on and am ready for it.