You Have To Try This Recipe

I am always on the hunt for new clean, healthy recipes.  As I scour the various blogs I read or websites I visit, when I find a good recipe, I add it to my Pocket.  I know lots of people use Pinterest for this, but I like Pocket…it just seems easier to me.  I will post to Pinterest, but when I search for recipes I’ve saved, Pocket is where I head.

Anyways, I had saved a recipe a couple of weeks ago and finally tried it this past Saturday.  The recipe in question was PaleOMG’s Pizza Spaghetti Pie.  OH. MY. GOD!  This was delicious! 

The recipe said it would make an 8×8 dish, but I had a huge spaghetti squash, and I added in some extra veggies (green and red peppers), so I filled a bigger 10×12 dish.  I was very excited because I was going to have a ton of leftovers for lunch.  Instead, my sister and her family ended up staying for dinner and we ate all but a tiny piece!  I’m sure that piece would have disappeared had I let anyone have seconds!

I had that piece for lunch yesterday at work, and I think it might have even been better on day 2 after the flavours have even more time to blend together. I used the trick of putting it on a small plate to make it seem like there was more of it! 

My picture does not do this dish any justice so be sure to head over to PaleOMG for much better images of this dish and to grab the recipe.

This probably won’t be a weeknight meal for me anytime soon, since it’s almost an hour to roast the squash, and then another hour to bake the final dish, but I will be making this again very soon. I bought all the stuff I needed when I did my shop for this week, so at some point this weekend, I will be eating this again.  I can’t wait! 

I will also be making these Oatmeal muffins from SugarFreeMom.com again. 
They are to die for!  They are so moist and tasty and hit the spot for my afternoon snack at work.  It is scary how much I was looking forward to my snack today!

And if truth be told, I’m actually enjoying one right now as I finish off this post.  I had a pretty light dinner (half a cup of spiced spinach and chickpeas and some raspberries and pineapple) so I don’t feel too bad about having an evening snack. 

Today was a day off from CrossFit. Instead I went for a massage.  It was awesome!  I’m back to the Box tomorrow. 

Seems like it’s double under week as every day so far there has been a 2 minute double under practice to start the WOD.  It was on the board for Monday’s class, but for some reason my class didn’t do them.  I’m not sure I will get that lucky two classes in a row, so I am quite prepared to slash my arms and legs all up and see how many double unders I can do in 2 minutes.  Hopefully I can get 50 in a row at some point during that 2 minutes.

The rest of the WOD should be fun!  I’ll will see how I am feeling, but I would like to try to do the thrusters Rx, and hopefully I can do the burpee pull-ups Rx too. Fingers crossed!

Now, I need to be heading off to bed so I can get my 7 hours of sleep for this week’s lifestyle component of the Whole Life Challenge. 

Happy Tuesday.

Be sure to try the Pizza Spaghetti Pie recipe!

I Did It!

Last night, before I lost my nerve, I signed up for the CrossFit Open. 

I have no idea how I will do.  I looked back at all of the Open WODs and thought I would be able to make a decent effort at most of them based on where I am now at CrossFit.  I might not be able to finish them all, but I could at least give them a decent effort.  So, I bit the bullet and signed up. 

The Open starts Feb 27, so I have a month to work on things and build my confidence.  If this doesn’t motivate me to push a little harder in class, I don’t know what will!  Wish me luck!!!

I am moving into the 3rd week of the Whole Life Challenge.  All has been going well, but I have been missing having a snack that tastes like a treat, but still falls within WLC guidelines.  I’ve stocked up on Lara Bars and they have been good, but I wanted something different.  Then, the other day, one of the other participants in the challenge posted a recipe on Facebook for an “oatmeal to go” muffin.  I love oatmeal and the recipe sounded good and easy, so I gave them a try.  This afternoon I baked a batch of 18 muffins.

My son high-jacked a muffin shortly after they came out of the oven.  He gave them two thumbs up.  I waited until just a few minutes ago to try one myself…oh my god, these are fantastic!  I can’t wait to have another one as a mid-afternoon snack tomorrow. 

Now, I need to sign off and get to bed so I can get 7 hours of sleep for my lifestyle challenge.

Have you got any good WLC or paleo treats you can share?

Have a great week!

Me vs. …

Like all CrossFit vidoes, this one is so motivating.  It makes me want to sign up for the Open so badly.  I think I’m going to do it.  And it will definitely be me vs. myself.  I’m up for the challenge.  I’m ready to push myself and see just what I can do.  For this, I think just trying is a win…and if I’m last.. well, who cares!  Maybe I’ll even surprise myself. 

Are you signed up for the Open?

Who are you competing against?

The Friday Five

Happy Friday, kids!  We made it to another weekend – wohoo! And you know what that means….it’s time for another edition of…

Let’s get to it!

1.  It’s the end of week 2 of the Whole Life Challenge.  I have been doing very well with all of the components of the program:  nutrition, workouts, mobility, supplement, & lifestyle (first two weeks it was drinking half your body weight in ounces of water).   So far I have all of my points.  That may all change tomorrow.  Tomorrow, the lifestyle challenge changes…and it really will be a challenge for me – get 7 hours of sleep a day.  Most nights I get somewhere between 5.5 and 6 hours of sleep.  Last time I did the challenge, 7 hours of sleep was a lifestyle challenge for only 1 week, i think, and I was so happy when that week was over  Getting 7 hours will not be easy.  Weekends won’t be a problem, but getting 7 hours during the week will be tough.  I will have to make a good effort to get to bed significantly earlier than usual if I’m going to keep my lifestyle points.  Hopefully I can do it.  I really could use more sleep!

2.  Today’s WOD was killer:

So, the shoulder press wasn’t too bad.  I stuck with 55# for the last 3 sets and just worked on form and squeezing everything as I pushed the bar up.  It’s hard to resists the urge to give a little dip with the legs and help get the bar up.  After the shoulder press strength work, we did some work on muscle ups.  For the first time ever, I was up on the rings.  I worked on the kipping motion from hollow body to super man.  It’s very different doing it off the rings than the pull-up bar as the rings move.  We also got a few tips about how to get the transition from the swing to get your hips up to the rings.  There is a lot going on there.  I will just stick with trying to kip from the rings for the next while. 

After the muscle up work it was down to the WOD.  Since I can’t do a muscle up, my WOD would be pull-ups and ring dips.  RX was 90 of each, but Coach said that number if for the elite athletes.  I am not one of those!  I ended up scaling to 40 of each, and I did all 40 pull-ups unassisted!  I was alternating 10 pull-ups and then 10 dips.  I really wanted to get to 10 unbroken pull-ups, but I could only manage sets of 5, and towards the end that dropped down to a few sets of 3.  My hands are killing me. I really need to find some grips or gloves to help with that.  I didn’t tear tonight, but both hands are pretty tender. 

After all of this I did only 20 GHD sit-ups as my back was feeling a little tweaky and I didn’t want to risk it.  I’m okay with that.  I still got a pretty goof workout in!  Now I’ve got 2 days of rest before going back for more Monday night.  I will need to find something to do at home to get my workout requirement done for the WLC.  I will see what time I wake up tomorrow…maybe I will go for another quick treadmill run.  We’ll see!

3.  I am chipping away at my reading goal.  I just finished reading Orange is the New Black last night.  It was really good and very different from the TV series.  I won’t give anything away, but they have taken a lot of liberty with the TV show!  With this book finished, I’m now at 2 books for 2014.  I will need to find my next book and get right to it if I want to reach my goal of 24 for the year. To keep track of my reads, I’ve created a “Books I’ve Read” page where I will list everything once I’m finished reading a book.  If you have any good suggestions of what I should add to my reading list for the year feel free to comment on my “books” page. 

4.  I think I’m taking Belly Dancing lessons!  One of my girlfriend’s saw a TeamBuy for 4 belly dancing lessons for $20. She thought it might be fun if we did it as a group.  It sounds like 4 or 5 of us are in.  No idea what I may have gotten myself into, but I’m sure it will be good for a few laughs!  I will let you know how it goes when we actually get our lesson with the Desert Belles
.
5.  The CrossFit Open is coming up.  Everyone who does CrossFit knows about the CrossFit games, and the route to the games starts with The Open. 

The Open is really just that.  It is the qualifying round that is Open to anyone who wants to enter.  Sign up on the website, pay your money, and then wait for the Open WODs to be announced and then hit the WODs for 5 weeks in a row.  Top scorers from each region will go to regional semi-finals.  The best from there go to the Games.  There is no way in hell that I will be going anywhere, but I’m considering signing up for the Open just to see how I can do and to challenge myself a bit.  Coaches at my Box are encouraging everyone to sign up. 

I started CrossFit just before the Open last year and did a few of the Open workouts.  They are tough and I scaled just about everything last year.  Since we have no idea what the WODs will be, I have no idea if I will even be able to do them RX, which you need to do to score any points.  Still, I will consider signing up. If nothing else, the Open WODs should be some pretty good workouts. 

Happy Friday, everyone.  Have a GREAT WEEKEND!

Do you have any recommendations for good books I should read this year?

Are you signed up for the Open?

Good Eats

Well, my plan to blog at lunch time has not gone well so far!  Yesterday I didn’t have a lunch to bring to work, so I had to go out and grab something.  Today I got reading my latest book – Orange is the New Black – and just couldn’t stop reading to get to my blog.  The book is not quite like the TV show, but I am really enjoying it. 

Anyways, now as I sit watching True Detective on PVR, I will try to get a quick post written.  If you aren’t watching True Detective…you should, it is so good. 

My Whole Life Challenge is going really well.  I’m eating well, getting some daily physical activity, drinking loads of water, and feeling great.  I’m sleeping like a log, and although I’m not being driven by it, the scale is moving slowly downward, and that makes me happy! 

CrossFit takes care of my WLC workout 3 days a week, hockey takes care of another one.  That leaves 3 days that I need to do something on my own.  This past weekend, I actually ran on the treadmill for 10 minutes Saturday and 12 minutes on Sunday.  That is the first time I have run outside of a WOD in about a year.  I actually didn’t hate it.  I think knowing I only had a short time to run helped.  I can do anything for 10-12 minutes!  Both days, after finishing on the treadmill, I did some work on my double-unders.  I haven’t been doing this at home, so I need to get used to my own rope.  I think I have it cut down to the size I need.  Now I just need to skip at home more regularly so I can string together a good set.  I got to 25 or so this weekend, so I’ve got a ways to go to hit my target of 50. 

Part of the reason my WLC is going so well, is I’ve been organized on the food front. I am back to planning my weekly meals.  The whole family has been involved in picking our dinners for the week.  Last night we had cauliflower fried rice at the request of my 14 year old, and tomorrow we are having African Peanut Stew at the request of my little guy (he’s 12).  I have to say that I love that my kids are such great eaters. 

Tonight we had a recipe I chose:  Paleo Tex-Mex Casserole from Popular Paleo. I spotted this recipe a few weeks ago and saved it to my Pocket to make another day.  Today was the day.  Putting the dish together was fairly quick and easy (thanks to my food processor for shredding the sweet potatoes in seconds!)  It took a little longer to cook than the recipe suggests, but it was worth the wait…Delicious! 

While dinner was great, I think this might be the kind of dish that gets better as the flavours have time to sit together.  I will find out tomorrow at lunch, since there was a ton left!  I’ve got lunch for tomorrow and then either a number of other lunches, or dinner for all of us one night this week.  And as you know, I love leftovers, so this dish is a winner on multiple levels!

Tomorrow I am back to the Box for some Snatch work and a WOD with snatches, ring dips and thrusters.  Should be fun!

I’m pretty sure I won’t be doing this RX.  I will try for maybe 65#. I’ll see how the strength part of the WOD goes and decide from there. 

Okay, I should sign off and get to bed…really I want to go read a few more chapters of my book!

Have you read Orange is the New Black?  Did you watch the show?  Do you have a preference?

Have you got any great Paleo recipes?

The Friday Five

We made it through another week! Phew!!  Hello weekend! And welcome to another edition of…

Let’s get right to it!

1.  I need to get back to regular blogging.  It’s been over a week since my last post.  And before that I wasn’t posting anything regularly either.  I’m finding that by the end of the day I just don’t have it in me to write a blog post.  By the time I get to sit on the couch and relax it is usually about 10pm at night and I’ve had a full day of work, made dinner, done some stuff around the house and gone to my 8:30pm CrossFit class.  I just don’t have anything left in the tank by the time I hit the couch.  I need to find a way that writing a post can be quick and dirty but still be interesting.

I’m starting to think I should start writing more posts on my lunch break at work.  Most days I bring my lunch to work so I could write while I eat.  I will give that a try and see how it goes.  

2.  I’m 1 week into this round of the Whole Life Challenge.  So far, things are going really well.  I lost a couple of points last weekend for not squeezing in a workout while away at my kids’ hockey tournament, but other than that, all has been good.  I’ve even earned those 2 points back by posting my scores and reflecting each day.  I’m enjoying being back on the challenge and really focussing on my eating again.  I got a bit lax and could feel it.  After only a week, I am noticing changes all ready.  I’m down 4 pounds (back to my post-challenge weight last time), I’m sleeping like a champ, and I’m eating really good food.

I’ve been meal planning and making sure I’ve got everything I need to stay on track.  One thing I need to do is find some better snacks.  This weekend I’m going to try to make a few treats that I enjoyed last time: No bake coconut brownies, pumpkin chia pudding, almond butter banana cookies and Chookies Cookies.
 

I also need to hit Costco for some Lara bars and apple chips. 
This girl needs her snacks!

3.  Although I haven’t been writing about it, I’ve been hitting CrossFit 3 times a week faithfully.    I am still totally loving CrossFit.  I’m coming up to a year and I can’t wait to keep going for another year and beyond.  Currently I’m going 3 times a week.  When I renew (i think in March), I am going to bump that up to 4 times a week.  I’m not sure I can get there 4 times every week, but the difference in cost is only $10 a month, so even if I make it only 1 extra time, I’m coming out even.  I’ve set all sorts of goals for 2014 with respect to CrossFit  and I can’t wait to get to them:  10 unbroken kipping pull-ups, 20 RX push-ups, RX Fran, Hand Stand Push Ups, and 1 dead hang pull-up.  I’d also like to start working towards a muscle up.  (see here for my post outlining them all),

4.  We’ve been drinking quite a few green smoothies.  The Vitamix has been blending almost daily. With a base of spinach, kale or chard, and carrots we add a variety of fruit and create some tasty, nutritious drinks. We are enjoying quite a few colours in our smoothies….green, pink, red, orange…and my least favourite so far, brown, that I refer to as the “dirt smoothie”. 

The “dirt smoothie” was not that good.  I tried to drink it, but just couldn’t choke it down and ended up dumping it down the drain.  I’m not sure what gave it the dirt flavour…maybe too much chard, or too much lemon juice, but really did kind of taste like dirt..or what I would imagine dirt to taste like.  Hubs is enjoying making them each morning and it’s an easy way to get a couple of servings of fruit and vegetables in. 

5.  Pull-up progress update.  As you saw above, one of my goals for CrossFit is 10 kipping pull-ups in a row.  I was at 3 for a long time, and then earlier this month got to 5 and that’s where I stand today.  Today’s WOD was a combination of hang power snatches, hang squat snatches and then some touch ‘n go power snatches.  I’m slowly improving on my snatch…especially the squat snatch.  Every class I seem to pick up another tip to help pull it all together.  Anyways, back to the pull-ups.  After class I stayed for an extra 15 minutes or so and worked on my pull-ups.  I started with a few sets of 3, then worked my way up to 5.  I was chatting with a fellow class member and she said that I’m looking solid.  Another coach-in-training was also there and I asked him how I can string more together…was there something I could do to get past 5.  He said one way was just volume…keep practicing.  He also said I should some other drills to my practice sessions beyond doing multiple sets of kipping pull-ups.. 

The first was to do eccentric,or negative, pull-ups.  This is where you start at the top of the pull-up and lower yourself as slowly as you can. 

We have done this in WODs before and I have never been able to hold myself up and always just drop down quickly.  Today I gave it a try and I did it!  I jumped up to get my chin over the bar and then took 10 seconds to lower myself down.  I was so happy with that. 

When I could do the eccentric pull-up for the 10 seconds, Coach said I could probably even get a dead hang soon.  He showed me how to use my hollow body position to help tighten things up and make it easier to pull up. I gave it a try, but could not pull myself up at all.  That’s okay…I will just keep practicing and one day it will click. 

I am still trying to get 10 kipping pull-ups in a row by the end of January.  I’ve got 2 weeks left to practice and hopefully hit my goal.  Wish me luck! 

In other news…tomorrow I’m going to a fellow Corona Crusher’s baby shower.  This will be a bit of a test of my will power as I can’t drink, or have sugar, or wheat…which means no Corona, no treats, and no cake.  Hopefully there will be a veggie tray so I can at least have a few nibbles.  Despite this, I am really looking forward to this shower.  Crushers and other friends I haven’t seen for a while will be there, so it will be nice to catch up and I’m sure a good time will be had by all.

Do you have any tips on how to make blogging easier?
Have you got any good sugar free, wheat free snack recipes you can share?
Have you ever had a dirt smoothie?  LOL 

Happy Friday, everyone.

Enjoy the weekend!

Full Steam Ahead

Yesterday I took a quick look back at 2013.  All in all, 2013 was a good year for me.  Today, I’m all about looking ahead and making 2014 even better.

My overall goal for the year is to end it in better shape than I start it.  Ideally, that means being a little lighter, a little tighter, and a LOT stronger!

While being active is a key part of that, perhaps even more important is diet and how I fuel my body.  So, 2014 is going to be another year of EATING CLEAN and ensuring my body has what it needs to keep up with tough CrossFit workouts and all the other crazy stuff I put it through!

To help get me off to a a good start with both diet and exercise, I have joined the Whole Life Challenge again. My gym isn’t participating in the challenge this time, but I have friends who go to a different CrossFit and their gym is doing it this time…and they convinced me to join with them.  It’s a bit last minute, since the challenge starts on Saturday, so I’ve got some logistical things to figure out.  I will be away with the kids at a hockey tournament this weekend, so can’t go to the preliminary measurement and workout class that is being held Saturday morning.  I looked into finding CrossFit gym location in London (where the tourney is) to see if I could squeeze in a WOD Friday afternoon between games, or Saturday morning before games.  Then I got an email from the coach running the challenge and they have set a makeup class on Tuesday night…this works perfectly for me!  So, I will be weighing in, getting measured and doing the baseline WOD Tuesday at 7:45pm.  The coach is announcing the WOD they will be doing on Friday night.  I’m dying to see what it will be.  From what I can see on the WLC website and emails I still get sent from the WLC folks, the suggested WOD this session is:

It looks harmless enough on paper, but I’m sure it will be 11 minutes of pure hell.  Starting with 1000m row should make my legs nice and tired going into 75 squats!  Fun Fun!  There is no guarantee this will be the baseline WOD I will be doing, since gyms are free to set up their own WOD.  As long as it is something that can be replicated and tracked at the end of the WOD just about anything goes.  I can’t wait to see what we will be doing!

I’m looking forward to doing the challenge again.  It will be a tough start to it, since I’ll be in hotels and eating out for all meals over the first weekend, but I’ll just do my best and not stress about it too much.  I do need to get organized food-wise when I get home Sunday.  Planning and preparedness is key to being successful in this challenge.  I learned that last time, and I plan to be just as successful at this challenge this time around!  I will have my iPad loaded with paleo cookbooks and my Clean Eating magazines and planning next week’s menu between games and while we drive to/from London.  I’m looking forward to some good eats for the next 8 weeks.

Aside from starting my year with the Whole Life Challenge, I’ve also got some help from my CrossFit box to make sure the year get off to a good start .  The coaches at the box have created a goals list for all members.  We need to fill in the Google Doc with a CrossFit goal for January and then 3 goals for the rest of the year.  This is perfect, because I had planned to set up some CrossFit related goals for the year anyways.

The CrossFit goals I’ve set are:

January Goal:  10 unbroken kipping pull-ups.  Since finally getting unassisted pull-ups in August, I haven’t practiced them as often as I should.   I seem to be stuck at only 3 in a row and then I need to drop off the bar and re-group.  I think my goal of 10 in a row, unbroken is quite doable.  Last week we had an  EMOM WOD that was 1 heavy squat snatch and 6 pull-ups.  My coach suggested I scale to 3 pull-ups so I would be able to do it and still have time to rest before the next minute started.   I was able to do all rounds with 3 in a row and even did 4 in a row the last 2 rounds.  After class I stayed to do a few more pull-ups to get closer to the 60 that the WOD was meant to have.  I managed to string together 5 in a row 4 times and then 4 in a row twice…which brought my total number of Rx pull-ups for the night to 60…right where I wanted it!  So, I am now working off a base of 5 in a row.  I’m confident I can hit 10 in a row by the end of the month.

Goals for 2014:

1. 20 Rx Push-ups.  Push-ups are another weakness of mine.  When the reps get high, I have to drop to my knees…and I hate that!  I can do maybe 3-4 solid, perfect form Rx push-ups and then it all goes to crap.  My goal is 20 good ones by the end of the year.  I will have to see if I can find a push-up app.  I should get my workouts folder on my phone…I probably already have one!
2. Rx Fran:  Fran is one of the benchmark workouts.  It is 21-15-9 of Thrusters and Pull-ups.  Rx weight for girls is 65#.  So far I’ve only ever done it with a 35# bar.  My goal is to be able to do it with the 65# prescribed weight and unassisted pull-ups. 
3. Handstand Push-up:  The handstand push-up is another killer move.  I can get up into the handstand no problem, and can dip a little bit, but can’t come all the way down to touch my head to the floor and then push myself up…I get stuck at the bottom.  For any WOD with HSPU in it, I always do them off a 24’ box.  My goal for the year is to do one at the wall.  It can be with a kip or strict – it doesn’t matter to me.  I will just be thrilled if I can do it at all!
4. 1 Dead Hang Pull-up:  Now that I can consistently do unassisted kipping pull-ups, my next goal is to get a dead hang pull-up.  Of all my CrossFit goals this is the one that I think will be the hardest.  Hopefully as I strengthen my upper body I will eventually be able to get a dead hang.  I don’t need to crank out 20 or anything…just one will do!

I didn’t put this one on the official CrossFit goal file, but I do have one more thing I would love to accomplish:  do 1 MUSCLE UP.  This is the mother of all CrossFit moves and there are some really strong and experienced CrossFitters at my box who still haven’t gotten a muscle up.  I will admit, I’ve never even tried to do one.  They scare the crap out of me.  Swinging like mad from the rings and then somehow getting your body up into the press.  I am terrified of falling off the rings during the swing part of it!  I have no idea if I will be able to get a muscle up or not, but I think I should at least start trying.

One other goal I would like to set for the year is to read more.  I enjoy reading, but just never seem to have enough time for it.  I am going to try to regularly read before bed each night – and read books, not blogs!  My goal for the year is to read 24 books.  I’ve already read one, so only 23 more to go.  I just finished reading Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn.  I had started this book a couple of times before, but never made it past the first chapter or two.  This time, once I got going, I couldn’t put it down.  I think the next book I read will be Allegiant, the final book in the Divergent trilogy.

So, there they are, all written down and official, my goals for 2014.  I’m looking forward to working hard and achieving all of them.

Have you set any goals for 2014? 

Do you have any suggestions for any good books I should read this year?

A Quick Look Back

Hello world!  I know it’s been a while since I posted and I’m feeling bad about that.  I had good intentions to get back to regular blogging over the Christmas break, but then I just got too busy having fun and chillin’ that the blogging never quite happened.  Oh well…I’m not going to stress too much about it.

Here we are a week into 2014 already!  I have to tell you, 2013 FLEW by!  Looking back, 2013 was a great year!  I went back to my January 1 post from last year, to see what my goals for the year were and see how I did on them.  Turns out I just made goals for January but I did pretty well on reaching them.  My goals last January were:

1. Lose 5lbs by March 5, 2013.  ACCOMPLISHED! I hit that magic 20lb mark and have been more or less able to maintain it for 2013.  Of course, the recent holidays were a bit of a challenge, but I’m slowly getting back on track and pretty much back to where I was pre-Christmas.
2. Physical activity 5 times a week:  ACCOMPLISHED! At the start of February last year I joined CrossFit with a 3 times a week membership. I played hockey one night a week and I”m pretty sure I was walking at lunch or doing at least one Bob Harper or Fitness Blender workout a week too.
3. Eat only clean snacks for a month.  PROBABLY! I can’t remember if I stuck to this one 100%, but I was pretty focussed on the whole workout and clean eating thing last year, so I’d guess I managed to do this one at least 90% of the time.
4. No diet soda for a month. ACCOMPLISHED! I know I did this one, because I gave up pop for quite a while and didn’t really miss it.  I switched to club soda for my afternoon bubble fix and really liked it.  Eventually I did get back on the diet soda train, but for only one a day as opposed to the 3-4 a day that was starting to become the norm.

I had other goals that I wanted to achieve last year as well:

1. Break 50 on my EWGA golf league night:  ACCOMPLISHED!  I managed to shoot a 46 one night…see here for the details.
   
2. 20 Unbroken Double Unders:  ACCOMPLISHED!  I really didn’t practice as often as I should have, but i did manage to get 20 DU at some point, so adjusted my goal to 50 part way through the year.  I still haven’t hit 50 yet, but did get 38 in a WOD at the end of November.  50 will come…i can feel it!
3. Unassisted pull-ups:  ACCOMPLISHED!!!  This is a big one for me!  August 16th was the big day.  I’m still pretty pumped about this one…so much so that I’ll include the video again!  Click the pic below to see it!
   I haven’t been practicing these as often as I should either, but I have managed to maintain them and most days can do 10, broken down into sets of 3.  I’ve set a new goal for these, but more on that in another post!

As I already mentioned, I joined CrossFit in 2013 and starting Feb 1, I attended 3 classes a week.  I think this was the best thing I did for myself last year.  I am totally addicted.

I look forward to each and every class I go to and I have gotten fitter and stronger with every class.  I’ve still got a long way to go, but know if I keep at it, I will see results.

That was a quick look back at 2013.  All in all, I’d say it was a pretty successful year.  I can’t wait to see what 2014 had in store for me. More on that in my next post!

Have you gone back and assessed 2013?

Have you got big plans for 2014?