Paleo Challenge Day 24 + Mar 9 WOD: Open 12.3

Today's meals

Breakfast: Banana with coconut butter (OMG. Sooo good!)
Lunch: Boiled sweet potatoes with coconut butter
Dinner: Leftover pan-fried cream dory, carrot and cucumber sticks
Snacks: Leftover pancakes, singkamas, boiled sweet potatoes

When I got my 1 kg pack of coconut butter from Peter Paul last Monday, I honestly didn't know what to do with it. I'd just read that some people like using it as a substitute for nut butter, but aside from that I didn't know how else I could use it. I could've chosen to get almond butter from someone at the box, but a small bottle goes for around P150. So, again, coconut butter at P180/kg vs. almond butter at P150/small bottle? No brainer. But I'm so glad I got it. I put it on my pancakes yesterday, and this morning I ate it with my banana. And right now I'm eating it again with my sweet potatoes. Someone said in a forum that you could mix it with dirt and it would still taste good. It's just that good.

Sweet potatoes topped with coconut butter

Now that I'm using all these coconut products, I've realized how blessed I am to live in a tropical country where there's an abundance of everything coconut -- if you know where to look. So far I've got coconut aminos, coconut nectar, coconut sugar, coconut butter, coconut cream, coconut flour, and of course fresh coconut water with coconut meat.

WOD

I had a feeling the coaches would make us do the Open 12.3 workout when it was announced yesterday. It's not as technical as the 12.2 but it was still hard. It was 18 mins AMRAP of:

- 15 box jumps (Rx: 20")
- 12 push presses (Rx: 75 lbs)
- 9 toes to bar

For the box jumps I used a 12" box stacked with 3 35-lb plates (so that's 18"); for the push presses I alternated between a 45 lb bar and a 35 lb bar; and for the toes to bar I did knees to abs. My score: 6 + 6 box jumps.

Post-WOD, I worked on my double unders for a bit, and I also tried doing the knees to elbow. Turns out I need to develop my shoulder strength first. Progress is slow, but I'll get there soon enough!

Paleo Challenge Day 23

Today's meals

Breakfast: Almond flour banana pancakes with coconut nectar and coconut butter, black coffee
Lunch: Boiled sweet potato, singkamas
Dinner: Pan-fried cream dory, sauteed spinach
Snacks: Pancakes, apple

I tried a new recipe banana pancake recipe that uses almond flour, just to see how different it is from the coconut flour pancakes I make. While the almond flour pancakes were good, they weren't that good. Just okay. And since I still have 1.5 kg of coconut flour left and it's way cheaper than almond flour (P80/kg vs. P495/kg), I'll stick with coconut flour for a while.

Meanwhile, I am SO glad that singkamas (jicama) is in season again. It's my most favorite go-to snack and I could live on it day in and day out.

Almond Flour Banana Pancakes

I got my almond flour from Belen yesterday and I was so excited to use it for a new pancake recipe. I scoured the Internet and landed on Jan's Sushi Bar's recipe for Butternut Squash Pancakes. I thought it would be a great base for my favorite banana pancakes (Jack Johnson had it right about them banana pancakes). This is the recipe I followed:

Almond Flour Banana Pancakes

2 eggs

2 bananas, mashed

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

2/3 cup almond flour

1/8 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1. In a small bowl, combine almond flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and baking soda. Whisk everything together and set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs until they are frothy, then add the mashed bananas. Mix until well combined. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, mixing well enough to make sure that the almond flour is well integrated into the batter.
3. Pour the batter onto the pan by the scant 1/4 cup and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip and cook the other side.
4. Serve warm with fruit, syrup, almond butter, coconut butter, or whatever you like to put when you eat pancakes.

Notes:

• Make small pancakes so you won't have difficulty flipping them.
• The pancakes will appear to be browner than regular pancakes (sort of like coconut flour pancakes).
• This made exactly 8 small pancakes.

Paleo Challenge Day 22 + Mar 7 WOD: Rahoi

Today's meals

Breakfast: Caimito
Lunch: Scrambled eggs with spinach, boiled sweet potato
Dinner: Burgers, ampalaya cooked with eggs
Snacks: Singkamas, longan, apples, boiled sweet potatoes

WOD

It was time to hero up again today. We did "Rahoi," which is 12 mins AMRAP of:

- 12 box jumps (Rx: 20")
- 6 thrusters (Rx: 65 lbs)
- 6 bar-facing burpees

I used an 18" box for the BJs and a 45 lb bar for the thrusters. I eventually switched to a 35 lb bar after the second or third round. But hey, I've moved up from the 12" boxes, so that's gotta count for something! My score: 4 rounds + 6 thrusters.

Post-WOD, I worked on my double unders again. I think I'm starting to get the timing right.

I treated myself to cupcake a la mode again (paleo, of course) last night. And because it might be a while before I'm able to do it again, I took pictures.

Step 1: Warm the cupcake in the microwave

Step 2: Pile on scoops of ice cream

Step 3: Devour

Paleo Challenge Day 21: Almost there!

Today's meals

Breakfast: Banana, caimito, black coffee
Lunch: Fried catfish, sigarilyas (winged beans) cooked in coconut milk
Dinner: Pork sinigang with veggies
Snacks: Singkamas, longan, paleo tablea chocolate cupcakes, oranges, melon, coconut vanilla ice cream

I can't believe there are only 7 more days to go before the Paleo Challenge wraps up! I've been very good so far -- I still haven't used up any of my 5 cheat meals -- although I probably should lay off a bit on the fruits. I'm not trying to lose weight but I eat too much of those.

Last night, I was in paleo treat heaven. I got out one of my tablea cupcakes, heated it in a mug, then topped it with Fog City Creamery's paleo coconut vanilla ice cream. O M G.

Healthy indulgence!

The dark chocolate flavor of the cupcake went very well with the ice cream. Now that it's summer, I think I shall keep a pint or two of this yummy ice cream brand in the freezer. It's more expensive than the usual Nestlé/Magnolia/Selecta stuff, but it IS artisan ice cream after all.

Paleo Challenge Day 20 + Mar 5 WOD: Sprint

Today's meals

Breakfast: Paleo tablea cupcakes (2 pcs - ha!)
Lunch: Scrambled eggs, salad with olive oil, pepper, and salt dressing
Dinner: Burgers, roasted curried cauliflower
Snacks: Paleo tablea cupcakes, longan fruit, singkamas, caimito, durian chips, coconut vanilla ice cream

WOD

Pre-WOD, we were made to do 4 rounds, 6 reps per round of this in sequence:

- Dead lift
- Hang power clean
- Push press

For the first 2 rounds, we used a 35 lb bar, then for the other 2 rounds, we used a 45 lb bar.

After that came the WOD, which was 9-7-5 of:

- Power cleans
- Ring push ups
- Shoulder-to-overhead (you could choose to do shoulder presses, push presses, or push and jerks)
- Pull ups

I used 55 lbs for the cleans and 45 lbs for the shoulder-to-overheads (not even sure if this is the correct pluralization). I attempted to do ring push ups but I couldn't stabilize my arms so I did hand-release push ups instead. For the pull ups, I used my best friend, the green band. My time: 6:53.

I worked on my double unders again after the workout, and I was able to do several alternates of singles and a double under.

Post-WOD, the other CrossFit moms and I snacked on the tablea cupcakes I'd brought (which, incidentally, they said was good and didn't taste like paleo cupcakes at all -- success!) and the oranges that Lady had brought. Doc Tere then had coffee delivered from McDo, and it became an impromptu paleo picnic!

Paleo Challenge Day 19

Today's meals

Breakfast: banana, coconut milk yogurt (from brother-in-law Mario's sweet mama), black coffee
Lunch: burgers, roasted curried cauliflower, oven-baked sweet potato fries, longan, ponkan
Dinner: grilled chicken, sinigang veggies, longan, ponkan
Snacks: singkamas (jicama in English), coconut water with coconut meat, longan

My mother has revived the obligation for us sisters to take turns taking care of Sunday lunches. They were scared that I'll make them eat something paleo, and I did, but they reluctantly admitted that they loved what I prepared. All they had to do was cook rice and make gravy!

I used sweet potatoes that had white skin and were orange inside. They were a tad more expensive than the violet ones I used to get (at P50/kilo) but they were sweeter and definitely yummier.

I bought paleo ice cream from Fog City Creamery - coconut vanilla and coco vanilla with dark chocolate bits. I haven't had the proper chance to try them because there are still so many fruits here at home, but I definitely will!

Paleo Challenge Day 18

Today's meals

Breakfast: scrambled eggs and cauliflower "rice"
Lunch: burgers and cauliflower "rice"
Dinner: fried tilapia, ampalaya with eggs and tomato, banana
Snacks: paleo banana pancakes, melon, apples, oranges, coconut water with coconut meat, longgan, durian chips

Today my son's school held its annual sportsfest. I thought I'd have difficulty eating at the whole-day affair, but it turns out, all I needed was a little preparation... et voila! I didn't go hungry the whole day.

Paleo Challenge Day 17 + Mar 2 WOD: TGIF!

Today's meals

Breakfast: scrambled eggs
Lunch: tilapia cooked in coconut milk, banana
Dinner: sisig
Snacks: banana, oranges, walnuts

In my rush to leave the house on time with the kids this morning, I forgot my food. Argh! Of all the things I could forget it had to be the food. Now I'll be forced to fast. Ah well.

WOD

I've since learned to be afraid whenever 21-15-9 is written on the board. The numbers don't look like much, but you can be sure it's going to be a hard workout. Today, we had to do 21-15-9 of:

- Kettlebell swings
- Burpees over bar (you can choose between bar facing burpees or burpee bar hops)
- Push presses

I used the 12 kg kettlebell for the swings and the 35 lb bar for the push presses. I'd initially set up a 45 lb bar but after the first rep I knew it was too much for me because I couldn't steady it. My time: 11:48.

Paleo Coconut Flour Banana Pancakes

I have to confess that I am very much a pancake person, which must be evident when I post my meals. One of the things that was very hard to give up when I went paleo was pancake and waffles. See, I wake up to the heavenly smell of pancakes every Saturday morning. It had become a weekend thing for the family to spend lazy Saturday mornings eating pancakes or waffles, and I was truly, truly sad that I had to give that up. So when I got my hands on coconut flour, I scoured the Internet for the best paleo pancake recipe using coconut flour.

Among all the recipes I found, the one from Paleo Spirit seemed to have gotten the most amount of positive feedback. The first time I tried it, it came out a little too "eggy" for my taste. I made it again using a banana, and it tasted better. The last time I made it, I used 2 bananas. Here's the recipe I followed:

Paleo Coconut Flour Banana Pancakes

Ingredients

4 eggs at room temperature
1 cup coconut cream
2 medium overripe bananas, mashed (I used the kind we call "lakatan")
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp rock salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Instructions

1. Sift together coconut flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add the rock salt to the sifted ingredients and whisk together, making sure it is well combined. Set aside.
2. Crack the eggs in a medium-sized bowl and beat with a hand mixer until frothy. Mix in the coconut cream and mashed bananas.
3. Combine the dry mixture with the wet and beat on medium speed for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat the mixture again until the coconut flour is complete mixed into the batter.
4. Grease pan with coconut oil and heat over medium to low heat. When the pan is hot enough, pour batter to create pancakes that are about 3 inches in diameter (to be safe, make sure it's not bigger than the spatula you will use to flip it).
5. Cook each side about 1-2 minutes and serve.

Some notes:

• The pancakes will turn out brownish, and will look almost like they were burnt.
• They are very filling, and 3-4 pancakes is usually enough for me.
• Recipe yields roughly 20 small pancakes

Paleo Challenge Day 16

Today's meals

Breakfast: banana, paleo banana pancakes, black coffee
Lunch: pork knuckles, green salad with olive oil, salt and pepper
Dinner: spiced chicken breast, string beans
Snacks: nuts, apple

Apparently, I'm a sucker for these banana pancakes. They taste so much better now that I've tried making them 3 times. There were 3 lonely, spotted bananas on the counter so I decided to use 2 for the pancake batter and eat the last one -- overripe bananas really are good. The pancakes are still difficult to flip, maybe even more so because of the added bananas, so I might add a little more coconut flour next time. But the result was fantastic! Very light and moist, but very filling at the same time.

In other news, we won the head-to-head yesterday!!! I am sooo happy! Only one more to go! I tried scheduling it for tomorrow, but one half of the other team was sick so we said we'll do it next week, maybe Friday. We are halfway through the challenge but I think this way of eating is something I'd like to continue doing. I'd probably relax a little bit and follow the "80% paleo 20% of the time" rule, which says that you will get 99% of the benefits of the paleo diet if you stick to it 80% of the time. Pretty doable, if you ask me.

Paleo Challenge Day 15 + Feb 29 WOD: Leap Year

Today's meals

Breakfast: banana (I don't know why, but I wasn't really hungry this morning)
Lunch: grilled eggplant with bagoong and tomatoes, hard boiled egg, banana
Dinner: burgers, green salad with olive oil, pepper and salt
Snacks: paleo banana pancakes, banana, hard boiled egg

WOD

Third head-to-head today and I'm hoping we get this one (Lord, just one win, please!). It was 9 mins AMRAP of:

- 15 wall balls
- 180 ft. shuttle run
- 5 burpee hand-release box jumps

After that, there's a 2 min rest, then cash out was 2 mins of hollow rocks.

I used the 10 lb ball for the wall balls and the 12" box for the burpee-BJs. Looking at the board, I saw that my partner Dorothy almost made it to 5 rounds. She's really strong. I was able to do 3 rounds, and was 2 box jumps shy of 4 rounds. So close!

Anyway, I've been wanting to eat chocolate ever since the challenge started, and I'm now looking at some paleo chocolate cupcake recipes, thinking about how I can add tablea to the ingredients. Because I miss the taste of native hot chocolate made with tablea. I shall work on that this weekend.

Paleo Challenge Day 14

Today's meals

Breakfast: paleo banana pancakes, bananas
Lunch: fish and veggies paksiw
Dinner: burgers and stir-fried cauliflower with bell pepper
Snacks: apple, paleo banana pancakes

So we lost the head-to-head yesterday. The other team was able to do a hecka lot more than we did. Kinda disheartening. Wanna know something else that's disheartening? My muffins went bad. Yes, after only two days. Although it's partly my fault because I left them out, and now I realized I should have put them in the fridge.

Paleo Challenge Day 13 + Feb 27 WOD: Open 12.1

Today's meals

Breakfast: papaya, paleo banana muffin
Lunch: spiced chicken breast, apple
Dinner: left-over grilled pork, veggies cooked in coconut milk
Snacks: paleo pancakes, bacon, apple, paleo banana muffins, bananas

WOD

On the menu today was 7 mins AMRAP of... burpees. It is the first WOD for the 2012 CrossFit Games Open, which means that everyone who registered for the CF Games Open has to do it and post a video of their WOD on the CF Games website. After the Open, the top athletes go on to compete in the Regionals, and then the top 100 will compete in the CrossFit Games in California in July.

Anyway, we're doing our second head-to-head today, and prior to the WOD, my Paleo Challenge partner Dorothy texted me giving me tips on how to do well. I got there and saw that she'd done 85! So much pressure to do well... I was aiming to do 10 per minute so that I could get at least 70 but in the end, I did 57. And I already felt like dying! I can't believe that the top scores worldwide for girls is 136. I need to get me this shirt, maybe it'll make me faster next time:

Source

Post-WOD, I worked on my double unders. I can do a double under followed by singles now. Progress, at last! And Lady fed us again, and this time she'd brought almond flour banana pancakes and homemade bacon. Yum. After a while the 12:30 class came in and we helped out in counting reps. Till we meet again, burpees!

Paleo Challenge Day 12

Today's meals

Breakfast: fried egg and spanish sardines
Lunch: garden salad and minestrone (I didn't eat the pasta and beans in the soup)
Dinner: grilled tilapia, grilled pork, veggies cooked in coconut milk
Snacks: apple, paleo banana muffin

I felt so deprived that I couldn't eat my niece's chocolate cake so I took matters into my own hands and baked paleo banana muffins made with coconut flour. It turned out quite well, if I may say so myself. The original recipe I found here called for maple syrup but I omitted that and added another banana instead. It was moist, cakey, and a little bit coconutty. My father, however, complained that it tastes "different" and lacked sweetness.

Anyway, here's the modified recipe I followed:

Coconut Flour Banana Muffins

3/4 cup coconut flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp baking soda
dash of sea salt (about 1/8 tsp)
3 bananas, mashed
6 eggs
4 tablespoons coconut oil

Preheat oven to 400F. Line muffin pans with cupcake liner.

In a bowl, sift together coconut flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking soda. Add the sea salt and whisk them all together. Set aside.

Put mashed bananas in a larger bowl. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add oil and mix well.

Add the coconut flour mixture to the egg mixture and blend well. Mixture should resemble a thick pudding. If it doesn't, consider adding a little more sifted coconut flour. Spoon into the muffin pan and bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on wire rack.

Don't look like paleo muffins, do they?

Paleo Challenge Day 11

Today's meals

Breakfast: bananas, scrambled eggs with tomato
Lunch: fried tilapia, banana
Dinner: chicken breast, salad with vinaigrette dressing, banana
Snacks: carrot sticks, coconut water with coconut meat, more bananas

Whoa, is it Day 11 already? Feels like forever since the last time I had bread, pasta, cookies, cake, and chocolates. I miss them when they're right in front of me, like today. My niece celebrated her birthday at Shakey's, and seeing the array of garlic bread, pasta, and cupcakes almost made me forget about the challenge. But whenever I felt like giving in, I reminded myself of how I feel now that I'm eating clean. My partner and I have head-to-heads scheduled next week and I don't want to eat cake and live with the thought that I might have done better had I not had that piece of cake. I know, I'm a nerd like that.

Paleo Challenge Day 10 + Feb 24 WOD: ♥ Your Bumper Plates

Today's meals

Breakfast: soft-boiled egg
Lunch: pan-fried cream dory, carrot and cucumber sticks
Dinner: pan-fried cream dory, sauteed spinach
Snacks: carrot and cucumber sticks, hard-boiled eggs, chico fruit, walnuts, grapes, oranges

WOD

We worked with plates today and were given a 25 min cap to do 5 rounds of:

- 15 push ups (with feet on a plate)
- 50 feet of alternating walking lunges and 2 squats (hugging a plate, do a left and right lunge, then squats)
- 20 ground to overhead with a plate (tap the plate on the floor then snatch it overhead)

Since I'm still doing push ups on my knees, Pau made me use a 25 lb plate to elevate the lower part of my body and make sure that as much as possible my thighs don't touch the floor (they still did). For the walking lunges and plate snatches, I used a 15 lb plate. I had just finished my 4th round when time ran out. Boo. Next time, plates!

Paleo Challenge Day 9

Today's meals

Breakfast: paleo pancakes (apparently, one recipe goes a long way), chico fruit (sapodilla fruit in English), black coffee
Lunch: hard-boiled egg, carrot and cucumber sticks
Dinner: ground beef with cauliflower "rice" and egg
Snacks: cucumber and carrot sticks, hard-boiled eggs, chico fruit

I cut up the chico fruits and chilled them in the fridge... sooo good!

Wow, Day 9. One of the many good changes I'm liking about this lifestyle is I'm in a good mood most of the time. Does it come from the knowledge that I eat clean all the time? Maybe. All I know is, I like how it makes me feel: clean, light, strong, and chirpy.

Paleo Challenge Day 8 + February 22 WOD: Megan

Today's meals

Breakfast: scrambled eggs with tomato
Lunch: chicken and ampalaya with eggs
Dinner: leftover chicken and ampalaya with eggs
Snacks: paleo pancakes, walnuts, and carrot sticks

WOD

I met a new girl today and her name is Megan. Yes, another benchmark! It's also supposed to be our head to head with Team 1, so I really had to bring it. We had to do 21-15-9 of:

- Burpees
- Kettlebell swings (Rx: 16 kg)
- Double unders

Nice to meet you, Megan!

I used the 12 kg kettlebell for the kettlebell swings and did 105-75-45 single unders as I can't do double unders yet. I know, I know, I'll start working on them on Friday. My time: 8:44.

Oh, and in other news, I got on the weighing scale and saw that I lost 4 lbs (down to 111.8 from 116 lbs). How could that be? I thought I'd gained muscle since starting CrossFit. Maybe I'd lost that muscle after going paleo? Or maybe I just need to eat more healthy fat. I'm not really sure, but I know that I need to tweak something in my diet and exercise routine. People have been remarking that I look like I've lost weight. My mother nags me about it every time she sees me dressed for a workout and it's starting to drive me nuts.

Paleo Challenge Day 7

Today's meals

Breakfast: paleo coconut flour pancakes and black coffee
Lunch: oven-baked sweet potatoes
Dinner: pan-fried cream dory and eggplant with coconut aminos
Snacks: carrot sticks, coconut flour pancakes, and walnuts

I'm still feeling good and my energy level doesn't dip like it used to before I went paleo. There have been so many opportunities to cheat -- too many! -- but I've learned how to turn a blind eye on them. And I love that I don't get that heavy and full feeling after having a meal. I also rarely feel bloated. I could really learn to love this.

Part of the challenge involves going head-to-head with 4 other teams. The team that gets the lowest time or the most number of rounds (for AMRAP WODs) wins. And tomorrow, my partner and I are doing our first head-to-head with another team. Lord, please don't let the WOD involve running or pull ups or wall balls or sit ups (I still have burns on my butt from doing last Saturday's sit ups)...

Paleo Challenge Day 6 + February 20 WOD: Manipulate

Today's meals

Breakfast: banana and 1 piece sweet potato fritter
Lunch: almondigas (meatballs with chinese cabbage in soup) and more sweet potato fritters
Dinner: roast chicken and sauteed spinach
Snacks: bananas, walnuts, carrot sticks

WOD

I didn't feel like such a loser doing today's WOD. We had to do the following every 2 minutes for 30 minutes:

- 1 squat clean (as heavy as you can)
- 3 box jumps (as high as you can)
- 5 ring dips
- 7 wall balls (Rx: 14 lbs)

At the beginning, I set up a 55 lb bar using a 35 lb bar and 2 10 lb plates. Then I thought maybe I should do what Belen did, which was to use a 25 lb bar with 2 15 lb plates (still 55 lbs), so I got 2 15 lb plates. I wanted to be able to go down to 45 lbs if I needed to. But I forgot to get a 25 lb bar, so I ended up doing 65 lbs for the squat cleans -- at least for the first half of the rounds. For the box jumps, I finally got up the nerve to use an 18" box. For the ring dips, I used the parallettes again, and for the wall balls I used the 10 lb ball. I did the 15 rounds! Yay!

Paleo Challenge Day 5

Today's meals

Breakfast: bananas, coconut water with coconut meat
Lunch: seared tuna salad with vinaigrette
Dinner: pork barbecue and green salad with olive oil, pepper, and salt
Snacks: more bananas and coconut water with coconut meat

I met up with friends after Sunday service and we had lunch at Borough in Podium. I was kinda already starving by this time so I was glad to devour my salad, which would've been very paleo if not for the potatoes. My friends ordered burgers, sandwiches, and fries. To top it all off, as if to test my will and discipline, they had milk and cookies -- which looked very good and oh-so tempting. But no. I stuck to my resolve and managed not to use one of my 5 cheat cards.

After dinner, I made a quick trip to the supermarket and got some stuff for this week. My cart:

Eggplant, spinach, cauliflower, carrots, bell pepper, coconut milk, olive oil, and eggs

I was excited to see that they had coconut milk, because I'm planning to make paleo pancakes using coconut flour this week.

Paleo Challenge Day 4 + February 18 WOD: Paleo baseline

Today's meals

Breakfast: scrambled eggs with tomato and spinach, banana, and coffee
Lunch: sinigang na baboy with okra and kangkong
Dinner: tilapia with eggplant cooked in coconut milk and baked sweet potato fries
Snacks: saging saba, coconut water and coconut meat, carrot sticks

WOD

And the WOD? On the board it looked deceivingly simple. Emphasis on "deceivingly." It was 3 rounds of:

- 400m run
- 10 pull ups (I used the green band)
- 20 push ups
- 30 sit ups
- 40 squats

Today, it was the run that got me. I don't know why, but I felt so heavy running during the first round, and then I think the defeatist in me started winning. My time? Look:

From CFMNL's tweet

See the slowest time there? That's me - 26:44. The good news is, my time can only go lower from here (I hope) and I should have a much better time when we do the same WOD on March 17.

Post-WOD on the way home, I snacked on carrot sticks, and when I got home I made baked sweet potato fries again. The family loved it. See, paleo food CAN taste good! And they're pleased that I'm more active in the kitchen now that I need to prepare my own food.

Paleo Challenge Days 2 and 3 + February 17 WOD: Chipper

I'm thinking that I better track what I'm eating, so here's what I ate yesterday:

Breakfast: scrambled eggs with tomato and herbs, saging saba, and black coffee
Lunch: chicken tinola with young papaya
Dinner: spiced chicken breast, fresh cucumber and carrot sticks
Snack: walnuts, saging saba (fresh, not boiled this time)

For today, I didn't have time to prepare breakfast again, so I only had a banana pre-WOD.

Now, on to the WOD... it was awesome! Of course, I didn't think so while I was doing it but I felt so great after! We had to do the following for time:

- 60 double unders or 300 singles
- 50 burpees
- 40 wall balls (Rx: 14 lbs)
- 30 push ups
- 20 kettlebell swings (Rx: 16 kg)
- 10 handstand push ups

I used the 10 lb ball and the 12 kg kettlebell. My time: 18:36.

Post-WOD, Lady treated us to the paleo tacos she'd made and brought. It's just like regular tacos, except you use romaine lettuce leaves instead of taco shells. After that, we had coffee again - iced black Americano, and when I arrived at the office I had 2 hard-boiled eggs with a little salt.

Edit:
My afternoon snack consisted of one fresh saging saba and walnuts. For dinner, I had spiced chicken breast with fresh cucumber and carrot sticks, and fruits. My midnight snack was two pieces fresh saging saba.

Paleo Challenge Day 1 + February 15 WOD: Triplet and cleans

And so the Paleo Challenge begins.

I didn't have time to make a decent breakfast this morning so I just had a banana before going to the box.

Today's WOD was short and simple. It was 10 mins AMRAP of:

- 8 chest-to-bar pull ups
- 6 box jumps
- 4 front squats (Rx: 75% 1 RM of your clean/front squat)

After that, there was a 2 min rest, then 1 min AMRAP of cleans using the same weight doing the front squats.

I used the green band for the CTB pull ups, the 12" box for the box jumps, and 45 lbs for the front squats and cleans (my 1 RM for cleans is 65 lbs). No, I'm still not brave enough to try the 18" box. I did 7 rounds and 7 cleans. So-so.

After the workout I had coffee (iced Americano, straight up) at Starbucks with some of the crossfit moms, and when I got to the office I had the scrambled eggs with tomato that I'd made in the morning.

Afternoon snack: 2 pieces saging saba (cardava banana in English)
Dinner: pan fried cream dory fish and sauteed spinach
Evening snack: 1 piece baked sweet potato
Midnight snack: 1 banana and a handful of walnuts

What? The paleo diet says eat when you're hungry! Hence the snacks. Well, so far, so good! Now, only 29 days to gooo!

February 13 WOD: Clean and jerks

Today wasn't strength day but we did lots of cleaning and jerking, plus lots of sit ups, too.

The WOD was:

- 10-8-6-4-2 clean and jerks, alternated with
- 50-40-30-20 sit ups

It would be more complicated than that if you do it Rx, because as the number of reps decrease, your weight is supposed to increase. Such that on the last set, you're supposed to be doing something 1 RM (rep max), or something like that.

For those not doing Rx, the reps for clean and jerks were doubled. So that was 20-16-12-8-4 for us non-Rxers (I used the 35 lb bar). But wait, that's not all. There was a time cap of 15 mins. I made it up to the 30 sit ups, and for the first time in months, I DNFed. Sadness. :( It was the sit ups that got me, which means this is something I really have to work on.

February 10 WOD: AMRAPs galore

Today, we did 5 rounds of 3 min AMRAP of:

- 3 burpees
- 6 box jumps
- 9 kettlebell swings

There was a 1 min rest in between rounds (so that's after every 3 min AMRAP), which brings the total workout duration to 19 mins. I used the 12" box for the box jumps and the 12 kg kettlebell for the kettlebell swings. Our score was the total number of completed rounds that we were able to do in those 5 rounds. My score: a measly 11. :( I must learn to take less rests and push myself more.

Five days before the Paleo Challenge starts! After the WOD, some other crossfitter moms and I had a pre-paleo lunch binge at Old Vine. We had salad, bread, pasta, and meat. And dessert too, of course.

Pudding with vanilla ice cream

That was good. Man, I'm going to miss sugar.

February 8 WOD: Snatch skills + triplet

Thank God we didn't have to do another benchmark WOD today. We worked on our snatches first before doing the main WOD.

For skills, we did 4 rounds of:

- 3 power snatches
- 3 overhead squats
- 3 snatch balances
- 3 hang squat snatches

I used the 15 lb bar for the power snatches and the 25 lb bar for the other exercises. It made me realize how much work my core still needs.

For the main WOD, we were given a time cap of 15 mins (not 10) to do 5 rounds of:

- 7 dead lifts
- 14 knees to elbows
- 20 double unders

I was supposed to do 95 lbs for the dead lifts, but when Miggy changed the number of rounds from 3 to 5, I went down to 75 lbs. And since I still can't do double unders, I did 80 singles instead.

Exactly 1 week to go before the Paleo Challenge... tick tock, tick tock! I was able to eat clean the whole day yesterday. Let's see if I can do it for 2 days straight. On Friday, some of the girls at the box and I are having a pre-paleo binge after the 10 am class. Can't wait!

February 6 WOD: J.T.

Another benchmark hero WOD today, and it was all about the upper body.

We did "J.T.," which is sets of 21-15-9 of:

- Handstand push ups
- Ring dips
- Push ups

I still don't trust my core enough to try the band-assisted handstand push ups. I tried it once and it felt like my back was breaking. So I did the HSPUs while kneeling on a box with my head upside down. For the ring dips, I used the parallettes with my heels on a 12" box. And for the push ups, I did them on my knees again. My time: 10:41.

More people are starting to come in for the 10 am class so I think the schedule is safe... for now.

Running like a kid

In my desire to encourage my son to continue being active, I told him we'd be running today. Although I'd contemplated going to the box, spending time with my son is still my top priority. I only see him on weekday mornings so I make sure I have time for him on weekends.

He's a member of his school's football team, and thanks to a book I got on football for youth (it was a steal at P98 at a book sale) I learned that he needs to develop his endurance. So this afternoon, we got dressed and went for a (very short) run.

It wasn't a structured running workout - I'm saving that for when he gets accustomed to running. I also didn't want to pressure him into running fast. I just wanted him to have fun and enjoy the outdoors. We did some slow jogging and occasional sprints. All in all, we ran 2.01 km in 18:59 mins (at a 9:27/km pace). Today, I ran like a kid. :)

February 3 WOD: Barbara

Today we did Barbara, which is a "benchmark" WOD. These special WODs are meant for people to test their fitness. People record their time so that the next time they do the same benchmark WOD, they will see if they've improved (or not).

Barbara is 5 rounds of:

- 20 pull ups

- 30 push ups

- 40 sit ups

- 50 squats

At the beginning I was thinking of doing 5 rounds, but I changed my mind after the 2nd round and stayed with mini-Barbara, which is only 3 rounds. Although there was a 3 min rest in between rounds, it was still one of those especially kickass-y WODs. My time (not counting the 3 min rests): 21:21.

In other news, I'm having such an un-paleo day. In the morning, I had peanut butter with my banana. Then I got a salad and cream of mushroom soup with bread from Sbarro for lunch. Now, I'm having cafe mocha. And later, I'm eating chocolate. I'm as far away from paleo as I could get. No matter, I'll get back in the saddle tomorrow!

February 1 WOD: Triplet

Back when the "renegade" coaches were still there, I remember doing less lifting and more body weight exercises. But I noticed that since I started working with the other coaches, there have been more barbell work. Which is good, in a way... I guess... unless it's an exceptionally kickass workout. It's a love-hate relationship I have with those bars. I love them because I know they're helping to make me strong, but I hate them because they make me feel so weak.

Anyway, today, we were given 20 mins to do 3 rounds of what they call a "triplet":

- 10 ring dips

- 20 overhead squats

- 30 wall balls

I used the parallettes for modified ring dips, the 35 lb bar for the OHS, and the 10 lb ball for the wall balls. My time: 18:31. On the board, I saw that Nickey did it in 9+ mins. Unbelievable.

For a hump day laugh:

Please laugh :)

Source

January 30 WOD: Clusters

Lesson for the day: simple is not the same as easy. And what is up with these thrusters? I see them every week!

The WOD today was 21-15-9 of:

- Clusters (squat clean + thruster)
- Burpee to plate (jump onto a 25 lb plate)

Initially, I'd wanted to use the 25 lb bar, but Miggy suggested that we go a bit heavier since the workout is shorter than usual. Fine. I got the 35 lb bar. There was a 15 min cap but I was able to finish in 12:07. I know I still need to work on my form. If I'd had the energy, I would've done the skill WOD after. I actually like doing the Burgener warm-up.

Anyway, I'm slowly prepping myself for the Paleo Challenge, which starts on Feb 15. I prepared my lunch last night before going to bed: leftover roast chicken and cucumber. I also packed 2 bananas and an orange for snacking. And now I realize I'll have to do better than that or I'll quickly get bored with the diet. I'll make sure to put in more effort next time!

Sh*t CrossFitters say

I couldn't resist. I just had to share this. Let me just say that the guys I've met at the box aren't as douchy as they ones in the video. :)

January 27 WOD: Filthy 50

Is it just me, or are the workouts at the box getting harder and harder?! Today's WOD is called "Filthy 50," and for good reason. One of the first people I met at the box was there for the class too, and he told me that the first time he did this, he met Pukie halfway through the WOD.

Anyway, the Filthy 50 is 50 reps of:

- Box jumps (Rx for girls: 20")
- Jumping pull ups
- Kettlebell swings (Rx for girls: 12 kg)
- Walking lunges
- Knees to elbow
- Push presses (Rx for girls: 35 lbs)
- Good mornings (Rx for girls: 35 lbs)
- Wall balls (Rx for girls: 14 lbs)
- Burpees
- Double unders

But. We were given non-Rx options, so we could choose to do Dirty 30 or Terrible 20. I chose to get dirty.

I used the 12" box for the box jumps, 8 kg kettlebell for the swings, 25 lb bar for the push presses and good mornings, 10 lb medicine ball for the wall balls, and did 120 single unders (can I call it that?). My time: 23:52.

And the guy who DNFed his first Filthy 50? He did it Rx and finished with the fastest time. Way to go, Chad!

Image from CFMNL's tweet

January 25 WOD: Anti-"Taba(ta)" Wednesday

Thrusters, my old friend, we meet again.

Following Monday's crazy WOD was today's almost equally crazy WOD. Today we did a Tabata workout, which means you do a particular exercise for as many reps as you can in 20 seconds then rest for 10 seconds, and you do 8 rounds of this. For the Tabata, we did:

- Kettlebell swings
- Push ups
- Medicine ball Russian twists
- Thrusters

Insanity Part 2

The catch is, at the end of each exercise you record the lowest rep count you got for the 8 rounds. When you're done with the WOD you add them up, and that's your score.

I used the 8 kg kettlebell for the swings, did the push ups on my knees, used the 10 lb medicine ball for the twists, and used the 25 lb bar for the thrusters.

My score: 27. It was like the Kung Hei Fat Choi WOD all over again!

January 23 WOD: Kung Hei Fa Choi!

Today's WOD was special, since it's the Chinese New Year (I guess). It was special, and it was hard! It was a partner WOD, which meant we worked in pairs completing the workout. I was paired with Jia, who's a newbie too, like me. We had to do:

- 160 thrusters (80 each)
- 160 push ups (80 each)
- 400m buddy run
- 160 sit ups (80 each)
- 160 air squats (80 each)
- 400m buddy run

Insanity

We used the 25 lb bar for the thrusters and finished in 28:07.

But wait, it didn't end there. It was another member's birthday, and since Jia and I finished last, we had to do 25 burpees for the celebrant. Happy burpee?

January 22 WOD: More plyo

I arrived early again for the WOD. I'm such a nerd, I know. While waiting for more people to arrive, Pau helped me with my wall balls. He taught me the movement step by step, and although I still can't hit the red line, I can do them better now! Yay!!!

For the WOD, first we did 5 mins dynamic warm up indoors. A lot of jogging in place, high knees, butt kicks, and jumps. After that, we went outside to do hurdles, sprints, and different kinds of jumps. Then we went inside again to do tabata squat jumps. That's 8 sets of 20 secs squat jumps and 10 secs rest. My quads were on fire after that. Finally, we did a 1-min plank and another core exercise that looks like the bridge pose in yoga.

When I came home I had a cupcake and banana pancakes. Happiness.

Test run

I must confess that I couldn't really call myself much of a runner these days. The last time I had an honest-to-goodness run was October 27 last year. I did 4.03 km in 33:14 (8:15 mins/km pace). In fact, last year I wasn't really that into running. And since I started doing CrossFit, I hadn't had the energy and the time to run. Plus, I'd feel so sore the day after a WOD that I'd rather just lay in bed until it was time to go to work.

But since I didn't go to the box today, I decided to run in the afternoon. I started slow - at least that's what I thought until I looked at my watch and saw I was going at a sub-8 pace... wow! I'd planned to do 5 km but my knees started feeling a little strained so I stopped after 4 km. Truth to tell, it wasn't that I was afraid I won't be able to run if I hurt my knees - I was more concerned that I won't be able to do CrossFit if I did. Yeah, I've had a drink of the kool aid and I'm hooked!

Anyway, I ended up doing 4.01 km in 29:37 (7:23 mins/km pace). My core and legs felt strong, and I wasn't as out of breath as I used to be.

Mighty pleased about this

My biased conclusion: CrossFit works! It just does. :)

Changes

Since I made a conscious effort to be more active, friends and family have been saying that I don't need to run or work out anymore because I'm already thin. I know they mean well, and I love them for that, but sometimes I just want to tell them that I'm not doing this to get thinner... I'm doing this to get stronger!

When I first started going to CrossFit MNL in November of last year, I felt so weak. I was so nervous about the WODs that I would get a tummy ache and would want to hurl every time I walked into the box, but I sucked it up. Every. Single. Time. I took it one exercise at a time, starting from the warm up. By the time I'm warmed up, I'd almost always be ready for the WOD.

Two months after joining, sometimes I still can't believe the changes I'm seeing. My tummy is a wee bit smaller, my arms are a wee bit firmer, and my leg muscles are a wee bit more defined. And it's not just the physical changes that are motivating me to keep going. I've also noticed an improvement in endurance and strength, both physical and mental. I still question myself, especially when doing a particularly challenging WOD, but I'm better able to push through mental barriers now. All that matters is that I don't quit (or die, hah).

I know a lot of people are intimidated by CrossFit but I've since learned that it's useless to try to convince them about its effectiveness unless they try it themselves. I think I've turned off quite a number of family members and friends with all my CrossFit talk so now I don't talk about it unless they ask (but you know deep inside I'm like, "Ask me! Ask me!").

January 20 WOD: Weaver

We did another Hero WOD today -- Weaver. But for newbies and learners there was Weaver Jr., which is 4 rounds of:

- 6 L-pull ups (Rx: 10)
- 10 push ups (Rx: 15)
- 12 chest to bar pull ups (Rx: 15)
- 10 push ups (Rx: 15)
- 16 pull ups (Rx: 20)
- 10 push ups (Rx: 15)

Menu for the day: Weaver, Mrs. Weaver, Baby Weaver, or Weaver Jr.

For the L-pull ups, I had to do 10 pull ups first then 6 knees-to-chest. I did knee push ups and used the green band at first for the pull ups, but Pau made me use the black one after the second round (which made it sooo much easier).

Time cap for non-Rxers was 25 mins and I finished in 21:36. My arms are shot.

And in other news, I must be crazy... because I just signed up for the Paleo Challenge! I don't have a partner yet but they said they can look for one for me.

That's my name in green, see?

I've been reading up on it, and one of the things that intimidates me is the high probability that I would need to shop wisely for food and prepare my meals myself -- two things that I've always been too lazy to do. Let's just see how this goes...

January 18 WOD: Wittman

Today was one of those "Hero" WOD days. In CrossFit, when we say Hero WOD, it means the WOD is named after a fallen soldier who was killed in the line of duty. Hero WODs are more difficult, more ardous, and they serve as a memorial for these brave people.

We did "Wittman" today, which was 7 rounds of:

- 15 kettlebell swings (KBS)
- 15 power cleans
- 15 box jumps

Being the newbie that I am, my workout was scaled way down. I used the 8 kg kettlebell for the KBS, the 35 lb bar for the power cleans, and the 12-inch box for the box jumps.

I finished in 21:31. That was hard! 105 box jumps!!!

Anyway, I weighed myself after the workout and saw that I've gained but my body fat percentage is down from 23.3% in December to 21.5%. I sure hope the gain is from muscles.

January 16 WOD: Clean the plates

Since I am on leave and have the luxury of time just for today, I attended the 12:30 class. I arrived too early, as usual so to keep my body warmed up I practiced doing double unders. I get the instructions and in my mind I have an idea of how to do it, but my body doesn't want to cooperate. During the whole time I practiced I was able to do maybe 4 or 5, but not consecutive ones. Bah.

Anyway, we did strength today. First we had to do 2-2-2-2-2-2 (6 sets of 2 reps):

- Power cleans

For this, we started light and added weights till we had to squat clean them. That's how you know you've maxed. First set, I did 45 lbs; second set, 55 lbs; third set, 65 lbs. After that, I couldn't even squat clean 75 lbs.

After that, we did 8 rounds of the following, Tabata style:

- 20 sec plate taps (you clean the plate and jerk it overhead)
- 10 sec rest
- 20 sec lateral plate jumps (with the plate on the floor, you jump from one side to the other)
- 10 sec rest

I used the Rxed 25 lb plate. Total reps: 95.

January 15 WOD: Lots of plyo

I attended the 4 pm class today, not knowing that Sundays were plyo (short for "plyometric exercise") days. There was no prescribed number of rounds or prescribed time duration for the entire WOD.

We did 5 kinds of exercises:

- Running drills (like butt kicks, high knees, etc.)
- Square jumps
- Sprint with an elastic band (you wear it around your waist and your partner pulls on you while you run)
- Tennis ball push ups (toss the ball, do a push up while it bounces once, and catch it)
- Squat jumps

Needless to say, I was breathless and sweating like a pig by the end of the WOD.

January 13 WOD: Journey

Today's WOD was called Journey. We had to do:

- 100 overhead squats (OHS) for time, and 3 burpees on the minute every minute

That means, I realized belatedly while we were already at it, that the longer it takes for you to get those 100 OHS in, the more burpees you do -- gotta love those burpees. There were only 4 of us today, and Pau and Matt kept count of our reps. We had to tell them how many reps we did just before we do the burpees.

I used the 15 lb bar and finished in 8:49 mins. Hello, jello legs!

January 11 WOD: "I wish it was just Cindy"

While I was warming up, Miggy approached me and said he had bad news for me: they're doing away with the 10 am class. NOOOO!!! I think they're still trying to figure things out, but I hope they keep my class!

Back to the WOD. Just by looking at the warm up (which included a 250m row and 200 jump rope, among other things), I knew it was going to be a challenging WOD. And when I saw that they called it "I wish it was just Cindy," that confirmed it.

We had 10 mins to do:

- 50 kettlebell swings, then AMRAP of:
- 5 chest-to-bar pull ups
- 10 hand-release push ups (feet on 35/45 lb plate)
- 15 front squats

Then at the end, we counted how many reps we were able to do in total. I used a 12 kg kettlebell and a green band for the pull ups. Before starting, we were told that the squats were regular squats with no weights. But just as we finished, Miggy realized that we were supposed to have used weights, and would we like to do it again? Nobody agreed. Just doing those kettlebell swings almost did it for me. Who invented those things anyway?

My total score: 124. Fail. On the board, I saw someone was able to do 215, and a girl I know did 180. Wow.

Anyway, Paleo Challenge Partner Edition is coming up at the box, and I'm toying with the idea of joining. The prize is a trip to somewhere. I've been wanting to try Paleo but I'm afraid to let go of bread, pasta, and sweets.

Source

I shall think about it veeerrrry well.

January 9 WOD: Good to be back

My last workout was one week ago. I had fully intended to go to the box yesterday for the afternoon class but my son got sick.

Anyway, today we did another descending ladder workout. We had to do 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 sets of:

- Squat cleans (Rx was 65 lbs)

- Pull ups

- 4-count mountain climbers

So actually, for the mountain climbers, we had to do 40 for the first set of 10 reps, then 36, then 32, and so on. It looks like this, but you have to do it fast, as if you were running:

Source

For the squat cleans I used the 25 lb bar, and for the pull ups I used the green band.

My time: 15:07.

January 2 WOD: Starting the year right

The family is leaving for Boracay on Wednesday, so I won't get to work out until maybe Saturday or Sunday. Today's WOD was quite simple, and the coach explained that's because he wants to ramp up the intensity. We were asked to choose if we were doing WOD A or B. The exercises were the same, except that there were more reps in B. Of course, I chose A. :) We did 15 mins AMRAP of:

- 3 pull ups
- 6 push ups
- 9 squats
- 20 double unders (or 40 singles)

I did band-assisted pull ups using the green band, push ups on my knees, and 40 singles. Part of the warm up was scap pull ins, where you start from a dead hang position and push your shoulders down then raise your chest. I think that helped me with the pull ups, and -- dare I say it -- I think I'm getting better at it. It's just putting on the band that's difficult.

Anyway, I was able to do 9 rounds + 3 pull ups. Yay, me!

December 30 WOD: Making it count!

Before leaving for a lunch date this morning, I packed my gym stuff because I was planning to go to the last class at the box. After having eaten too much and consequently feeling bloated however, I was hesitating about working out. But when the lunch group broke up at around 2:45, I took it as a sign that I had to go to the box.

When I got there, the coach divided us into 2 groups -- probably because there were too many of us -- and he put me in the easier group. I say easier because the other group's WOD included 2 2-mile runs, squat cleans, and box jumps (gulp!). My group had to do 20 mins AMRAP of:

- 15 toes to bar (again with the toes to bar!)
- 12 push presses
- 9 pull ups
- 6 pass throughs

For the toes to bar, I again did leg raises; for the push presses, I initially used the 35 lb bar, but the coach saw me struggling after the second set so he gave me the 25 lb bar.

I was able to complete 4 rounds and made it up to the 9 pull ups of the 5th round. I felt good about it but my hands sure didn't.

Growing calluses

I'm starting to learn that calluses, bruises, and even wounds come with CrossFit territory. My knees have semi-perpetual bruises because of the lunges and push ups we do, and I still have scratches on my shins because of the dead lifts we did some days ago. Battle scars is what they are.

December 28 WOD

I attended the 12:30 class today (the perks of being on holiday) and we did 15 mins AMRAP of:

- 5 hand stand push ups

- 10 chest to bar pull ups

- 10 wall ball shots

- 5 toes to bar

I did modified versions of all but the wall balls. For the hand stand push ups, I did them kneeling on a box with my head upside down. For the chest to bar pull ups, I used the rings again. And for the toes to bar I did leg raises instead.

But I sucked at wall balls the most. You're supposed to hold the ball with two hands, squat, then launch the ball and hit the red line on the wall. Then you catch it with your two hands and squat again in one fluid motion, and repeat. I used the 7 kg medicine ball, and for the life of me I could never hit the red line on the wall! I generally don't like balls, especially ones that look like they're going to hit you.

I did 4 rounds and made it up to 5 wall ball shots.

Tomorrow (or maybe the day after tomorrow) is another day!

December 26 WOD + dinner

I'd been gluttonously gorging on almost everything I see on the dining table the past couple of days and that made me dread going to the box today. I was expecting a benchmark WOD since CFMNL posted that Libis will be doing "Jumbo Jackie" today. But when I got there we did a running WOD instead. I think it's because the floor was newly painted that's why we had to do the WOD outdoors.

Today was 15 mins AMRAP of:

- 5 kettlebell presses
- 100m run
- 3 tuck jumps
- 100m run
- 3 long jump burpees
- 100m run
- 6 lunges (per side)
- 100m run

The kettlebell press is supposed to be done using one arm but I did a variation using my 2 hands and a 12 kg kettlebell. For the tuck jumps, I couldn't do it right so I just did squat jumps. And even then the coach kept shouting at me, "Squat lower!" Ah, well. I was able to do 3.5 rounds.

From the box, I went to dinner with high school friends plus Neil. We had some good laughs talking about our memories of Tin. Neil took it upon himself to give Christmas gifts to Tin's godchildren, and it makes me want to cry. We miss her. The priest at her funeral mass hit the nail on the head when he said, "We are sad because we know that nobody will love us the way Tintin did."

December 23 WOD

Today's WOD was more challenging than usual. Karen said it's because they won't be seeing us for a couple of days because of the Christmas holiday! Punishing us in advance because they know we're going to stuff our faces this weekend?

Anyway, we did 15 mins AMRAP of:

- 10 dead lifts (Rx is at body weight)
- 10 lunges with plates (25 lbs for the ladies)
- 200m sprint

I did 75 lbs for the dead lifts and used a 15 lb plate for the lunges. I was tempted to go down to 65 lbs for the dead lifts but I wanted to challenge myself today, so 75 lbs it was.

I was able to do 3 rounds + 10 dead lifts and 10 lunges and I was so beat after that.

December 21 WOD

Only two people went to the 10 am class today, myself included. A lot of people seem to be getting busier preparing for Christmas. I myself can't wait for this work week to enddd.

Anyway, we worked on strength today. We did 6x3 (or was it 5? I can't remember now) front squats, starting light then working our way up. I maxed out at 75 lbs, and good thing we didn't have to clean the bar. Instead we used those things you place the bar on and you take the bar from a standing position.

Cash out was 10 mins AMRAP of:

- 10 thrusters
- 10 sit ups to burpees

For the thrusters, Rx was 55 lbs for girls but I used the 25 lb bar.

I did 3 rounds + 2 thrusters.

Miggy was there and he asked if I've been running better. I had to tell him that I haven't run since I started going to CrossFit, mainly because my muscles are too sore and stiff the day after a workout. But he said I should test it and maybe I will, this Christmas vacation.


P.S.
Also, I've been using the Tanita scale at the box and the first time I weighed myself (Nov 25) my body fat percentage was 24%. On Dec 7, it was down to 23.5%. Today, it's 23.3%. I'm not sure if that's accurate but I sure hope so. It makes me even more conscious about the food I eat. I know I have to lessen the junk but I can't help it!

December 19 WOD

CrossFit IS addictive. Something I read on tumblr said it right: Every workout makes you feel like you're dying, but at the end of the WOD you don't die so you want to go back to see if you don't die again -- and maybe do a little better than you did the last time.

Today we did a modified Linda, which was 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 of:

- Dead lifts (Rx is 1.5 of your body weight)
- Ring dips
- Power cleans (Rx is 75% of your body weight)

For the dead lifts I used 85 lbs; for the ring dips I did a modified version using an 18" box to support my legs; for the power cleans I used 45 lbs the first 10 reps, then went down and used the 35 lb bar (but yay, I can clean 45 lbs now!).

My time was 20:52.

In other news, I think it's time to look around for a new pair of crosstraining shoes.

December 18 WOD

This is the first time for me to do a weekend WOD and I almost regretted it. Almost. Warm up included an 800m run, wall-facing squats, squat jumps, and push ups... which felt like a WOD in itself.

The WOD itself was 15 minutes AMRAP of:

- 100m row
- 10 front squats
- 10 lateral jumps
- 10 burpees

Initially, the row was supposed to be 200m, but I guess the coach thought it would take up too much time since there were only 3 machines vs. about 10 people. For the front squats I used the 35 lb bar again (maybe I need to upgrade to 45 lbs next time?). The hardest was the lateral jumps. It sounds so simple: jump over a parallette from side-to-side. But it's not so easy to do when your legs are already burning from the front squats.

Anyway, at the end of 15 minutes I was able to do 3 rounds.

December 16 WOD

Good: I was the only one who attended the 10 am class and I had the box all to myself.

Bad: I was the only one who attended the 10 am class and I had the coach breathing down my neck for the entire duration of the workout.

Today, we -- I mean, I -- did a "descending ladder" type of workout. I had to do the following in sets of 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1:

- Floor wipes
- Handstand kick ups/donkey kicks
- Pull ups (I used the green band)
- Push ups
- Squat jumps

My time: 21:44. Pfft. When I looked at the mirror after the workout, I remembered this:

Source

Because I definitely did not look cute. Great way to kick off the weekend, though!

December 14 WOD

Before the WOD, we had to do 30 reps of 10-second "hollow body" holds. Basically, you lie on the floor and push your lower back down on the floor, and your legs and shoulders should be raised off the floor. The exercise is supposed to teach you to tighten your abs and glutes, which you're supposed to do when lifting weights so you won't injure your back.

After that, we did 10 rounds of:

- 10-second overhead hold
- 10 good mornings
- 10 grasshoppers (5 each side)
- 20 double unders / 60 singles

I used the 25-lb bar for the overhead holds and good mornings, but after the workout I realized I could've gone with the 35-lb bar. And I can't do double unders (yet!) so I did the 60.

I finished in 22:42.

December 12 WOD

I wasn't able to workout last Friday because I was sick. It was just a sore throat but I felt really bad, and I even had to miss work. And then yesterday I was on mommy-mode because my son's 3rd quarter exams are coming up and I wanted to review with him. Anyway, enough of the excuses.

Today was strength/skill day and after the warmup we did 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 snatches (I used the 25 lb bar). After that, we did 6 rounds of:

20 fast feet
6 side-to-side pushups (that's one per side so actually we did 12)
3 kettlebell swings (8 kg)
3 snatches (15 lb bar)

We were given 15 minutes to do the 6 rounds and I finished in 13+ minutes.

I like going to the 10 am class because there are usually only 3 or 4 of us there and there's less pressure to do as well as the other "hardcore" crossfitters. I wish they'd have a 10 am class everyday, though, so I can maximize my membership fee.

December 7 WOD

I was already sweating like anything after the warm up because it included 200 jump rope and 2x5 sets dead lifts (among other things).

Today we did 20 minutes AMRAP (as many rounds as possible):

- 3 chest to bar pull ups (I did a modified version using the rings)
- 3 dead lifts (85 lbs)
- 6 lunges
- 9 push ups (I did a modified version using boxes)
- 12 squats

I was able to do 7 rounds and had started the 8th until the dead lifts. Hello, wobbly knees!

In other news, I feel like my tummy flab has gotten a wee bit smaller. If I can only pair good diet with crossfit that would be perfect.

December 5 WOD

I just realized that this blog is turning out to be more of a workout diary.

Anyway, yesterday's WOD was simple:

- Squat cleans (35 lbs)
- Ring dips (modified)

The catch: we had to do it in sets of 20-18-16-14-12-10-8-6-4-2 in 25 minutes.

I guess it was good timing (?) that we had squat cleans because I'd just done Foundations Class last Sunday, so I was able to practice what I'd learned (??). Except that I always got berated by the coach for not having the correct form and not going low enough for the squat. But what can I do if my coordination sucks? I probably shouldn't overthink the steps to follow when executing a squat clean because I kinda do it in slow motion -- I count the steps in my head like when learning a dance step. And the coach says it has to be more explosive.

Now I know what my students must feel like when they have difficulty grasping a grammar point.

Please let me get better at this soon...

Postmortem of today's WOD

We did Collin today, which was 6 rounds of the following (with a 45-minute cap):

- 400m carry (20 lbs)
- 12 push presses (35 lbs)
- 12 box jumps (12")
- 12 sumo deadlift high pulls (35 lbs)

I think it was at the start of the 5th round when I started feeling light-headed but I chugged along and it eventually passed. And once, while doing the carry the coach shouted, "Laya! Stop daydreaming!" I would have laughed if I weren't so winded.

When I started the 6th round around 40 minutes had already passed, and I was thinking that I will DNF (did not finish) again. But no. When I came in the others were still at it even though the 45 minutes had already elapsed, and I felt a sense of dread as I mentally prepped myself to push through. I finished with a time of 48:48.

Oh, and I finally signed up, too! I'm having my first Foundations Class this Sunday. As Mo Twister would say: Good times.

Strength

It's a good thing there aren't any mirrors at the box because I don't think I'd like to see what I look like when I work out.

We did deadlifts today. That's right. We were told to do 5-5-3-3-2-2-2-1-1-1, starting a little light and then going heavier. I was able to do 125 lbs... that's more than what I weigh!

After that the "cash out" was 12 minutes AMRAP of:

5 deadlifts (95 lbs.)
9 box jumps (12")
12 push ups hands off (on my knees)

I was 2 push ups shy of finishing 3 rounds.

Source

So... I guess a lot of angels got their wings today.

Do your workouts make you nervous?

Mine do.

Today was my third time to go to CrossFitMNL and like the other day, I felt butterflies in my stomach when I thought about what we might do today. I wonder if I'll always feel this way about the WODs.

Anyway, today's WOD was Santiago. We had to do 7 rounds of the following (with a 20 minute cap):

- 18 hang squat cleans (I did a modified version using a 15 lb bar)
- 18 pull-ups (I used the green band)
- 10 power cleans (I did a modified version using an 8 kg kettlebell)
- 10 hand stand push ups (I did a modified version kneeling on a box)

There were 4 of us in the group and no one was able to do 7 rounds. How can anyone do 7 rounds of all that in 20 minutes?! I was able to do 3 rounds, and I had it easy compared to the others.