Crossfit Makes Me Want to Barf, Or Maybe it's the Alcohol

Keysa and I hit up Crossfit Kailua again this morning.  I was worried it was going to be the same old workouts, but I was wrong.  Very wrong.  Luckily I think when the guy in charge sees people that have been there before he is going to mix it up a little.  That's good and bad news, because today we did Burpees, Thrusters and a run with the damn medicine ball.  They must do the run with the medicine ball to get you to not ever want to do an intro class again.  It's not the run itself or the weight, it's the size of the damn ball.  There is no comfortable way to hold it while you run.  So you shift it from side to side, put it over your head and on your shoulder... Hold it behind your back and two hand it in front of you, it's really just a mess.  I could barely do any thrusters and burpees, maybe cause I'm a wuss or maybe cause of the amount of nasty (delicious) food I ate last night.  Maybe both.  Before we started I had a stomach ache.  While we were exercising, I wanted to vomit.  Afterwards... yeah, still wanted to vomit.  But the thing that's cool is that you're in and out of your workout pretty quick, dead tired, you know you worked out, there is no question about that.  I'm sure it will make me better at Tae Kwon Do, unfortunately I can't afford both.  This is one of those times I really wish I was rich.
I ended up going to Crossfit on an empty stomach this morning, which was a good idea, cause I probably would have barfed.  For lunch I had some of my delicious slow cooked chicken stew.  I really need to practice getting the bones out of it though, cause I thought I did a good job, but I keep finding little pieces.  There's nothing grosser than chomping on a bone in your soup.  Also, today I added some Red Hot hot sauce and Primo Taglio Cheddar Cheese.  Quite delicious.
I also had a chance to Skype with my beautiful sisters, Anna and Arin and Arin's fiance Andrea.  And their dogs.  And took my dogs to the vet for their "pedicures" (read- nails trimmed and anal glands expressed) and bathed 'em.  Good day so far.

Whoopsie!

Just a totally unrelated picture of my dogs, Titus and Gizmo

I ate so awesome yesterday!  I ran with the dogs, snacked on baby carrots and almonds, had meatballs for lunch!  Then came dinner.  Well, really it wasn't so bad.  Dinner itself was steak and an endive barbecued on the grill with parmesian cheese on top.  Quite delicious and filling.  We threw a few banana peppers on the grill as well, just to see what would happen.  It was quite good!  Nathan came home with some fruit to cut up for a fruit salad and I threw a bunch in a glass with some strawberry rum.  And here's where things went downhill a bit.  The darn alcohol made me feel like I really wanted some ice cream and a cookie.  With fudge on top.  Oh well.  After eating that I decided to go to bed rather than raid the fridge for something else.  I'm still doing really well, I don't think I've lost any weight, but I'm swinging the pendulum back to healthy lifestyle.  It's amazing to see how far to the other side I had swung.  Exercising a little bit every day, and eating much better.  I've been through this before.  I have to wait for my body to get used to this then step it up a notch.  Then the body weight starts to drop a bit and I'll do my best to continue eating healthy.  I am starting a 30 day challenge tomorrow because today I have 31 days until the plane leaves for the East Coast.  If anyone's actually reading this, some support and encouragement would be very welcome.  I have been having a hard time keeping myself on track.  It's easier when you're able to be held accountable.  If anything, just drop a note and tell me if you're going to check in or not, then I'll be embarrassed if I say I'm going for it and don't.
I am getting super duper excited about my trip East!  I have a month to be sure that my work is covered and my doggies are well taken care of while I'm gone.  Nathan's mother is coming out here on the 3rd of November, so I'll see her for a few days before I leave.  At least he'll have someone out here with him.

Full Moon Hiking

First night time hike for me was last night.  It was a full moon so I planned a Lanikai Pillbox moonlight hike.  It was beautiful. There were a lot of cars parked at the entrance and two huge groups of people at the top, but even with all of those people it was still beautiful and serene.  There is something about being out in nature at night that I miss.  The moonrise was exceptional, it looked huge and I wish my camera could capture it.  I had to pirate some pictures from my friend Shane who joined us on our hike because his camera captured the moon better than mine.  All in all I'd say that moonlight hiking is something I'd like to try more often.

Update on Weight Loss and Fitness

Weight- 140
I was just reading through my old blog. That was a really awesome tool to help me lose weight. It helped me keep track of my goals and I have succesfully gotten myself to a really healthy weight. Somebody actually asked me the other day if I had gotten my stomach stapled. Of course that person doesn't realize that you have to be morbidly obese to really consider that kind of a procedure, it was someone who has known me for just about a year. I know I am going to be able to keep the weight off if I just continue to eat pretty healthy- which for me is still less refined carbs, and less carbs in general, plus I've cut out table sugar and ranch dressing. Drinking only water and diet pepsi has helped a lot. I have to watch out for the days when I start drinking a lot of alcohol, I tend to go in cycles with that. Last week I had wine several times in a row and for me that is a sign that I need to be careful. I'll start drinking every night again. Plus, I really try to stay away from beer. I can really pack in a lot of beers before I feel full, but I can only drink a little wine. I always try to remember the fact that I actually enjoy being clear headed, so I don't want to drink more than one glass.

I have gotten down to 140 and actually the scale has gone below 140 on several occasions. Of course, that's usually right after paddling practice, so it's mostly just water weight. I have been feeling pretty healthy. Our paddling regatta season ended last weekend in Kauai, at the states races. My Novice A crew came in 3rd behind Waikiki Beach Boys who paddled an unreal 4:03 or something like that, and Puna, who was right in front of us. We were behind them by about 3 seconds. Our time was just over a 4:18.

This past week we started long distance season. I didn't realize how different the practices were going to be. The first practice we just did triangles. A lot of them. The two next practices were pretty hard, just a lot of paddling, back and forth, without much rest. This morning we did tractor pulls again, and I did a time of 3:33. I can't remember if I beat my time from regatta season, but it's a pretty good time. Some people did 3:15 and Heather did a 3:11. Pretty awesome.

Tonight was also the Kailua Canoe Club banquet. Tayte got the outstanding paddler award for our team, I was not surprised, she's very good. Joanna also got an award for being awesome and being so consistent and motivated even though she didn't get to race this season. She totally deserved it as well. I took some pictures, they didn't come out that great, it was kind of a half-assed effort at photography tonight. When I got home Nate took some pictures of me, cause I didn't get any of me in my banquet outfit, which I thought was pretty cute.

Goals for this upcoming week:
Running Sunday with Joanna, Paddling Monday, Paddling Tuesday, Running Wednesday on my own, Paddling Thursday, Friday morning run with Ananda and Denby, Saturday practice, Sunday race and practice afterwards. Hmmmm, maybe need to take Wednesday off, might be too much.
Weight goal: scale to stay below 140 next week Saturday. (It's been wavering, going up and down)

(I've invited people to post on this blog, mostly so I feel a responsibility to stick to my goals. I would love it if people would actually join in, so feel free. If I did not invite you to blog, but you would like to, post a comment with your email address and I'll give you posting capabilities.)