Airborne

Gilli killin' the box jumps during last night's workout.

Day 3 on the Zone! Thank you all so much for the support you are showing each other. It really makes a difference to know that we are all in this together. If anyone feels inspired to take this a step further and make participating in the CrossFit Games the end result of all this work, you should sign up and join Kristy and Scott who will be participating and representing CrossFit Santa Cruz! Anyone interested? Check out the CrossFit Games new site for more info, interviews and to sign up!

Here is my Zone meal plan for tomorrow:

Breakfast: 3 blocks
1/2 an apple sliced with 1 1/2 tsp almond butter on them
Spray a pan with minimal olive oil and sautéed crushed pepper with minced garlic and add 5 cups of spinach and let steam under a lid. Add 1/2 a chopped tomato to the spinach and use as filling in an omelet of 1 whole egg and 2 egg whites. Melt 1 oz of grated cheese on top.
1 1/2 cup of sliced strawberries on the side

Lunch: 3 blocks
1 piece of sprouted whole wheat bread toasted with 3 tbsps of avocado spread on it. Heat up 3 oz of leftover steak and put it on top for an open faced sandwich. Drizzle lightly with balsamic vinegar.
1/2 orange

Snack: 2 blocks
5 cups of chopped romaine, 1 cup of sliced cucumbers and 1/4 of an apple chopped up, 1 hard boiled egg sliced, 1 oz of string cheese (or an oz of your favorite soft cheese, for variety) cut into small pieces, with a small splash of olive oil and some balsamic vinegar

Dinner: 3 blocks
4 1/2 oz salmon that is seasoned with sea sail, pepper and lemon juice and grilled or pan fried in light olive oil (make sure to measure out your ounces after the salmon is cooked).
2 cups of steamed cauliflower with balsamic vinegar sprinkled on top
1/4 of a cup of corn cut off the cob
1 1/4 cup of sliced cucumbers seasoned with salt
9 almonds
1/2 cup of frozen grapes for dessert

Snack: 1 block
1/2 zone bar

-M

Workout: Here is yesterday's workouts picked to help show your progress with the Zone:

1 mile run for time

Max pull-ups without leaving the bar

If you didn't get to complete these yesterday, try to fit them in some time this week in your warm up and write them down so we can compare your score in six weeks.

Comments

[Gloria Jean]

Mallee, it is so helpful that you are posting what you are eating everyday. That has been a huge help! I even copy them into a Word Perfect file and print them for a folder to keep in my kitchen (next to my new food scale). Guess what? I even ate a little breakfast today. That is a huge deal for me. I've been going to CrossFit for a year now and today is the first day that I've had anything but water and coffee before a workout. I'll let you know if I feel any different.

[Gloria Jean]

p.s. anyone want to call Michelle or Annie over at Central and tell them to sneak in 'Fight Gone Bad' so that I can get an official time? Either that or someone email me when you are sure that you will be doing one of the 7 signature workouts and I'll come over to the westside that day:

gjstanger@gmail.com

[Heather]

Yey for breakfast. Gloria, I'm interested to hear if you felt any different during your workout and/or if you notice a difference or will notice a difference in the next few days/weeks.

I'm still hurtin but I know that time will pass and I will survive. The weird, floaty hunger that lives in my abdomen, chest and head reminds me a lot of how I feel when I'm backpacking and don't bring enough food. The only difference is, when I'm backpacking all I have to do is put one foot in front of the other and no thinking whatsoever. I love that part.. and the scenery as well, of course.

The good news is, after a 105lb deadlift felt like 205 lbs this morning, Danielle helped me recalculate my blocks. Turns out I get 11 instead of 10! YAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYY!
Actually, I'll be doing 12 today because I'll be working until 10:30pm.

How's everyone else doing? I love reading your posts so keep em coming :)

[Kristy A.]

Hope everyone is still going strong. Yesterday's Fight Gone Bad was a lot of fun, Mallee. Thanks! I have a goal for my improvement now. I want to share a delicious dinner Scott discovered: corn tortillas, chicken, and Monterey Jack cheese with either nuts or peanut butter on the side/dessert. Each 6in tortilla is a block, and if you toast them, then add toppings, then melt, they turn into tortilla chips (crunch and all). Delicious! It was a quick toaster-oven meal after class with store bought oven-roasted chicken that will last us a few days.

Also, steel cut oatmeal is amazing. You can go savory (ex. add chicken) or sweet (add fruit) to make it breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Danielle told us to try it out in such an easy way: bring 3cups water to a boil, add 1cup steel cut oatmeal (not rolled oats), cover, take off heat, and let sit overnight (I think I got that right--Scott is the chef in our household ;) ). In the morning, stir it up, microwave it for a minute to heat it up, and enjoy! It is fabulous and more favorable than most grains if I remember the chart...

Keep going strong everyone!

[Angel]

working out this afternoon was a trip. i was all spacey and dizzy after every deadlift. though i did murder my previous PR by 15lbs so that's good. then i busted out 20 max pull-ups which also was a PR. huh. this whole crossfit thing sure is working. =) i'm still hungry but not quite as cranky as i was on the first day. i'm figuring out how to space out my food intake throughout the day. that's one of the hardest things for me. 10-11 blocks gets used up quickly! i think a 3 block breakfast works for me on days that i'm working out and then when i come home to have a good 1-2 block snack. i just had 1 1/2 oz. of deli-style chicken breast, 1oz of avocado, and 1/2 cup of grapes. it really hit the spot and i still have room to breathe (eat) the rest of the day. yay! i love reading every one's posts and sharing this experience with all of you. it really helps. keep it up, CFSC!

p.s. heather, isn't it amazing the difference between 10 and 11? *smile*

[Heather]

Nice job Angel!

[Angel]

thank you, heather. =) these last 3-4 weeks have been somewhat surreal with everything "clicking" and just how much stronger i am all of a sudden. i've been working hard and trying to show up and shut up, so a little pay-off is nice. not that i'm going to let up and go soft or anything. i know i would NOT be where i am today without all the support (in all it's forms) from the crossfit santa cruz crew. thank you all from the bottom of my heart. for real, ya'll are such an amazing community/family and it will be SO hard to leave. i'm here now though and i'm soaking it all up while i can. i'm looking forward to seeing how being on the zone effects my performance and overall health. it's hard, but i love a challenge. okay, i'm hungry again... *grin*

[hollis]

To Get Back THE FAT question.

A balance is caloric intake is what we are looking for. The table below shows the breakdown:

Item Grams Calories Total Percentage
Carbs 9 4 32 40
Protein 7 4 28 30
Fats 3 9 27 30

What does that mean?

Even lean meat has some fat in it. Let's
say 1.5 grams. This means that when we
eat lean mean we can add 1.5 grams of fat
to balance out. If we have a fat free meat source then we can add 3 grams of fat. Also if we have a fat cut of meat we don't add fat.

What, if any, kind of no fat protein is there?

[Scott A.]

I always used to think tofu when I've read about the fat in the protein thing but looking it up now it appears that even has some fat in it (enough to include it in the 1.5 g per fat block group). Personally I only really use the 3g number when I'm consuming an all in one food like a zone bar.

Keep up the great work everyone!

[Leif]

Like I recommended yesterday, some beef and turkey jerkys don't have fat (or only 1 gram of so) and go great with 176 cups of sprouts.
Also, non-fat Fage yogurt, some tofu (i think), egg whites.
Like you said though, it seems even the leanest meats have some fat in them due to the cellular structure of muscles. You could try eating a fellow zoning crossfitter with an extremely low body fat percentage. If you got them right after one of your workouts they would already be nicely marinated in a brine of their own sweat too.
hmm.
This got me thinkin though. In humans, males typically have a lower body fat percentage than females. Is this also true with other animals that we eat, and would the fat percentages also be different when comparing the same cuts of meat from a male and female animal? i.e. would a pork chop from a male pig be leaner than from a female one?
That's it. From now on I'm only eating meat from male animals. The vegetarian feminists may not like it, but my fitness demands it.

[Heather]

Leif, I must say, you don't talk a lot, but when you do, it is very creative.

Deb, where are you? I miss you already.

[Mallee]

Gloria, I'm so glad you're doing this with us! Danielle will be running both of the 10am classes on Sat and Sun and anyone who missed one of the benchmark workouts this week can make them up then. I'm sure she will run something else for those of you who did them all!

Great job everyone! It sounds like you are are hanging tough through this difficult begining part!

Deb, I too am wondering where you are!

[Mallee]

Hollis, thanks for the info on the fats. Just so you all know, when I post my meals I am aiming more towards the 1.5g of fat per block right now. That's the minimum that my body needs to be in the zone for the first two weeks and then I'll look at how it changed my performance (I think it might actually make it worse) and adjust from there. I am not as lean as Patrick who is struggling with 2x fat right now. It may be almost impossible for him to go 2 weeks on such a low fat blockage. And, the point for me too is to take it beyond where I should be into the uncomfortable place of not getting enough and then slowly bring my fats up 1 block more a week until I hit the perfect amount. This is like a science experiment for me, and I'm the ginny pig!

Heather, I'm glad you redid your blocks and got more food!

[annie]

Gloria...
Good job so far. I've been watching you, just like I said I would. And as a matter of fact, FGB is on the list for next week.
All you other CFSC Crossfitters: GREAT job. It is always better to suffer in numbers--why we love Crossfit classes so much. I'm sure your results will be phenomenal. I always say it, but maybe one of these days I'll try the Zone.....

[DebS]

Ok...Deb reporting in.

I think "it" happened...I hit the wall or something like that. Was to get up at 6 this morning and head to the 7am CFSC class. But there was no way. I was so fatigued and achy that I stayed in bed to sleep "one more hour"...yeah right...four hours later I woke up, feeling like I had lead jammies on. Since the day was half over, I decided to just take it off since I'd be working this weekend.

Decided though I wasn't letting the fatigue deter me from staying in the zone while home today. Oddly enough (at least I think it's odd) is that I haven't been that hungry today. Eaten only two meals. Hopefully that is okay as I'd had that stomach feeling like someone described in an earlier post.

Long story short...I'm still in this and will be dragging my &^% @$$ in to class tomorrow AM. Hopefully the worst is over. It's been a comfort to get on here and find out though that the "elite" have struggled with fatigue as well. Nice to know I'm "normal". (No comments Hollis!!!)

[DebS]

Annie, if you're not Zoning, what the heck are you doing to maintain that petite mass of leaness?

[Mallee]

Deb, good to hear you listened to your body and took some rest time! I suggest that you eat your blocks even if you are not hungry. Your body is getting used to these changes so just keep your hormone levels as consistent as possible and things should even out for you. See you tomorrow!

Hi Annie, thanks for the support!

[Heather]

THE ONLY THING that got me through today was knowing that I am not the only one suffering through this initial adjustment. During the last 5 hours of my 16 hour day I was in the constant presence of tacos and burritos, rice krispy treats, m+m's, potato chips, popcorn, oreos and cheese and crackers. I floated through it all (literally as far as my brain feels right now) with my two block soup dinner and my one block cheese and tangerine snack. And now I am going to bed and can't wait to get up and eat in the morning!!!!!

Deb - good to hear from you :)

[DebS]

Whether it's a case of misery loves company or everything's better with friends, I agree with you Heather. Not having to do this solo is making all the difference.

Hope today is better for you!