Brussels Sprouts and "Mooning the Sky"

23 days on a plant-based diet and I'm feeling great! I may have mentioned in my first post that I gave veganism a chance back in 2011 and it lasted a good 8 months. The most difficult aspect for me was allowing myself the time to prepare vegan meals. It's very time consuming! So this second time around I promised myself more time in the kitchen. The past few weekends I have dedicated a couple hours to cooking meals for the week ahead, and it seems to work out well. This weekend I made baked potatoes and brussels sprouts with olive oil, salt and fresh rosemary (YUM!).

Before

After

I just recently got a crock-pot thanks to a holiday yankee swap. And I love it! It's so easy to use, and saves me a lot of time. I've only made one recipe with it so far, beans and rice. But man is it delicious. I'm scared to try something new because this is so yummy and delicious. So those were the two recipes I prepped this weekend. Last night I toasted raw pecans, pumpkin seeds and cashews- for an easy, light snack at home. I usually keep cereal and almond milk at work for my breakfasts and I always bring 2 pieces of fruit and other snacks to keep me satisfied (rice cakes and peanut butter, rice crackers and hummus, trail mix etc). 

Enough about food, lets move on to crossfit! I competed in my first crossfit competition a few weeks ago in Acton, Ma. For only doing crossfit for 3 months, I did pretty well; 14th out of 30.  Here a couple pictures from my competition...

(95# clean, at the competition I couldn't get 2 115# in a row and now I can do 2 reps at 120# YAY)

Since then I've decided to up my game and up my workouts; I'm still doing 5 WODs per week, but I'm supplementing it with extra lifts and skills practice. 

This is the weekly sheet I'm using to keep track of the skills and olympic lifts I plan to work on each week.

 

I had a really challenging time with power cleans during the competition because I wasnt dropping underneath it, so I'm working on squat cleans every week. I'm also doing back squats or front squats every week. Every other week I'll work on three lifts from the list below. I try to work on 2-3 skills everyday.  

Sunday

Snatches     

1x5 60%  (65#)

1x5 65%   (70#)

1x5 70%   (75#)

WOD

3 rounds

20 kbs @ 35#

20 wall balls (rnd 1-13#, rnd 2/3-10#)

20 burpees

The WOD was rough, especially since I was only competing against my boyfriend Matt, who is a personal trainer and super awesome at everything. He finished in 8:39 and I finished in 11:54. 

Monday

Today was an easy day. Crossfit Newton is 25 minutes from where I live (I work in Newton but live in Somerville). Since I had the day off I worked out with Matt at his gym, Cambridge Athletic Club. 

This is one of my favorite stretches..."Moon the sky"

Squat Cleans: 

1x10 @ 60% 75#

1x8 @ 65% 80#

1x6 @ 75% 90#

1x4 @ 85% 100#

Deadlift 

1RM

PR 215#

100 Sit-ups and Sprints

Tuesday

1. Hang Power Cleans

10x10x10x10 (80/85/95/95)

 I didn't think I could do 10 unbroken at such a high weight! Michelle told me to get underneath it more "you're so straight! You're doing straight muscle-ups, try getting under the bar". And it worked, thanks Michelle!

2. 5x300m row

3. 3x2 min plank. These sucked. Don't like. 

Wednesday

Strength

Back squat

2x2 80-95% 1 RM

PR 165# (and I did two in a row!)

WOD

2 person teams

100 push-press 65# (50 each)

100 front squat 65# (50 each)

100 burpees (50 each)

Ken and I were partners. This was a hard one! well I guess they're all hard. During the squats i was grunting a lot lol. But the burpees were killer. 

Skills: push-ups, sit-ups and ab work with Grayson.