I’ve been so lazy about posting an update about how Crossfit is going but it’s been really great and I love it. I’m officially finished with the crossfit foundations part of the program and am now in regular group WOD classes 3-4 days a week. I’ve now been to four group WODs and it’s a little more intense than the foundations program, enough that I’m starting to get sore all over again. Because it’s now a group workout though I seem to push myself more to keep up with the rest of the class so I think that has a lot to do with the increased intensity. I’d say my strong points in Crossfit are definitely the lifts. I’m surprised at that because I always thought I had no upper body strength but the lifts really use your entire body strength, core as well as momentum so I’ve been using the prescribed weights and sometimes can go up higher than that. My favourite lift is the Split Jerk because you can go with an impressive amount of weight and look really strong but the weight is being lifted by your core, not just your arms and I seem to have a strong core and good strength in my legs and hips. Plus its fun once the timing of your movements comes together.
My worst, WORST in Crossfit are Turkish Get Ups and skip rope. The Turkish Get Ups frustrate me to no end because I can’t seem to get the coordination of the movements down. At the point where your supposed to pull your leg forward into a lunge is where I get mixed up. My leg drags and it doesn’t feel like a smooth motion and I just hate them because I feel stupid doing them.
Skip rope I can do but it’s not smooth and graceful and I use a lot more effort then I should be using because my skips are too high and well..um…I get mommy bladder. Any of you moms out there will know what that is. My bladder just doesn’t like the jostling up down movement very much even though I never have a problem while running. I haven’t had a ‘problem’ yet, but it takes everything I have in me not to release the flood gates if you know what I mean. All this week my classes have included Double Unders which I still can’t get so I end up having to do 60 skips while everyone else does 20 Double Unders, all the while holding my bladder. Thats the exchange rate and it doesn’t seem fair. I also dislike burpees and wall balls but I can get thru the workout and suck it up ok and they get easier from class to class.
My Pull Ups are definitely getting better. I still use the thick band to assist me but I can use the skinny green band if I’m only doing 5 pull ups total or less. I can’t wait until I can do a pull up without the bands. I know I’ll eventually be able to do them but it feels like my muscles need to wake up a bit. Park visits with my kids now always include me practicing pull ups on the monkey bars which is so much easier because the bars are smaller and easier to grip and your closer to the ground. I can at least do something called negatives on the monkey bars where you lower yourself down very slowly. Thats apparently supposed to help train your muscles. Dips (not with rings) are much easier and I can do those without a band if I’m only doing 2 but with a green medium band if I’m doing more.
Body wise I have definitely seen changes in the last 6 weeks. My weight has gone up about 4lbs which my trainer insists is great but it makes me feel nervous. I can definitely feel a lot of new muscles which is what the weight gain is attributed to. My thighs have gotten a bit bigger but more toned. I was warned by my trainer that the one thing women seem to notice is that the quads get bigger. I thought that because mine are already quite big that it wouldn’t happen to me but alas, they are indeed bigger. I’m having some fit issues with pants in the last two or so weeks. My Astro WU’s are the right size leg wise but the waist is too big and they slip down with running quite a lot. Yesterday was embarrassing doing my run in a large group WOD all the while pulling up my pants every 10 seconds so I think I may get some Groove Crops soon. My jeans are tight in the thigh but the waist now slides down and I’m constantly tugging up at them. I used to be on the smaller side of 10 in pants and could fit some 8’s (DSP’s, pique grooves) but now I’d say I’m a solid 10 on the bottom thanks to the thighs. I’m overall happy with the changes in such a short time as far as new muscle goes but I’d like to get rid of some of the fat and drop some sizes and to do that I need to bite the bullet and adjust my eating. Yesterday was my first grocery shopping trip where the cart had 100% Paleo dinners. I’m not going to totally cut dairy out just yet because I need it in my coffee in the morning and also I like to occasionally have cheese and yogurt but I can really reduce my dairy a lot by taking cheese out of recipes and only have it as a snack once in a while. It’s going to take a lot of effort since I wont be changing my kids diet and I want us to still eat mostly the same meals together with only slight variation and without them seeing typical ‘dieting behavior’. I think dinners will be easy but lunch and snacks will probably be hard since you can’t exactly carry around a drum stick to gnaw on while out and about with the kids so I’d like to find a good paleo cookie/kid friendly snack that I can pack and take with us.
Work in Progress
 |
| Doing ‘Grace’ 30 reps for time. Not a pretty picture. |
23 comments
AWESOME PICTURE!!!
Look at you!!! Awesome pic. I love this post. Its funny because Nicole and I had a discussion about "mommy bladder"…I was telling her I get that and I haven't even had kids. Our coach overheard and said she gets it too and she hasn't had kids either. So don't worry, we're in it together!
Double unders are hard. I'm pretty good at skipping rope now but its taken weeks of practice to not hit myself in the face. The coordination will develop pretty fast though!
I can't wait to try split jerks. I haven't even tried them but we practiced them today and yesterday.
Re: pant size – I went up a full size in all my bottoms with the addition of heavy squats and DL. Its funny – I was doing almost no leg work last winter and wore a 6 in all pants. This year, when I came back to them, they were soooo uncomfortable! One size up and BAM, perfect fit 🙂 The nice thing about lifting is to proportions it gives you – Vtaper to small waist but then a booty of steel. The problem is it makes the fit of clothes really annoying.
I have trouble now finding shirts that are wide enough for my lats without being loose in the tummy. My lifting friend swears that lulu is not made for people with a wide back. I agree with her to some extent, but I'm NOT WILLING to give it up!!! Love it too much. The coaches commented on all our lulu gear today in class…THEY JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND, right? 🙂
Can't wait to read more! I'm glad you surprised yourself with the natural lifting pro you are!
You look strong! Good for you!
HI Lulumom–
I have been lifting weights for about 2 years now and I have noticed that even though I am solid from the ankles up because of lunges, squats all my pants and skirts fit me tight though I am down 7lbs! I wear an 8-10 in all my bottoms but my bottoms are tight around my tights and rear because of the weights. But keep it up–I feel wonder and look that best I have ever looked!
Ok! I'm officially inspired to do crossfit! I've gotten in worse and worse shape since my last half marathon (I haven't run in over 2 months)!! I need something to inspire me… I think this might be it! Now… where can I take crossfit classes?!
Unsweetened coconut milk works well in coffee too. I'm in day 7 of my paleo challenge and giving up dairy wasn't so bad.
Egg cupcakes, nuts, dried fruit, paleo friendly beef jerky, celery or apples with either almond or sunflower bitter work well as snacks.
I have "mommy bladder" too and am not a mother. If they are double-unders in a workout, I pee a million times beforehand and wear a tampon. It really helps. The surgery to fix it is not a big deal, but you have to restrict exercise and carrying heavy things for 6 weeks afterwards. My job (gardening) and not wanting to miss crossfit are keeping me from looking into it.
Yes, unsweetened almond milk and coconut milk is surpisingly good in coffee (I switched over from 1% milk). I've been researchig and found that some people doing Paleo eat plain greek yogurt.
About dairy and coffee. Get the unsweetened vanilla almond milk. I cut dairy out of my diet (MOST of the time :-), and that does the trick for me in coffee.
Admire you so much. Spinning is my major form of exercise right now but getting at little disappointed at the changes in schedule at my boutique studio. I'm seriously thinking of changing to CROSSFIT.
I am so impressed. You are rocking those lifts! I got to tell you though, eating is 80% of the battle. Doing paleo is a lot easier than you think. Love your posts, keep them coming. 🙂
I'm so happy to hear youre doing well in crossfit lulumum! Just keep going and you'll improve really quickly!
Does anyone have more info on new gratitude wrap colors and when they are coming out
@ANON 6:55AM
I just bought bought two gratitude wraps off of the website (I'm not sure what size I am).They're on there-only black, but all sizes. US site.
I would be cautious in assuming the weight gain is muscle. While CrossFit has you lifting heavy it'd be virtually impossible for any woman to gain that much muscle in only six weeks. That's very difficult for a guy to gain unless he is eating perfectly cleanly, getting tons of protein and creating a calorie surplus. Anyone that tells you otherwise is giving you false information.
More likely you're swollen and retaining water. If weight loss and fat loss is you're goal I would be paying attention to that. If I'd gained anything more than a pound or two in the first 3-6 months of CrossFit or my clothes felt tighter I probably would have quit. Your trainer needs to understand your specific goals and not be celebrating when the scale moves in the direction you don't want it to.
Sounds like you're really enjoying it (which is awesome) but be sure to keep your goals in mind and not get caught up in the CrossFit hype!
lulumum: i'm SO glad you're posting about crossfit! I've really been wanting to learn more about it and now I can live vicariously through your experiences, haha!
Definitely VERY inspiring! I'd love for you to share some paleo snack/meal ideas sometime 🙂
Good for you!!! And thank you so much for posting about your increasing weight and thigh size… you have no idea how much better that makes me feel. I started triathlon training about a month and a half ago and have been getting SO frustrated and upset because my weight has gone up 4-5 pounds and none of my pants are fitting. I figured I would whip myself into shape and drop at least 5 pounds but it doesn't seem like that is going to happen. I know I'm definitely in better shape than when I started and am feeling stronger for sure. I've also noticed a ton more muscle in my legs. It's just been a frustrating journey… especially when all the triathletes I see are so lean. Muscle burns more calories than fat right? So perhaps that will come in time. So so so thankful to hear that I'm not the only one and that this is actually a GOOD thing somehow. Thank you!! 🙂
I think it's a very pretty picture – I love to see women lifting weight over their heads. You look strong and you look like you are going to get stronger. Stay with it – it will change your life.
You are totally right that you need to focus on the diet to see real weight loss. It's amazing and wonderful that you're getting so strong, but it's still totally math – calories in vs calories out – that leads to weight loss. I can't do paleo (I need to be able to have simple carbs when my blood sugar gets low), but I saw major weight loss when I started tracking my food. The first two weeks were annoying, but it definitely got easier, and made me more mindful of what I was putting in my mouth, which I think is useful no matter how one is eating. The diet stuff can be hard, but when you're ready to make a change in how you eat, it becomes so much easier. 🙂
Is that you in the photo, lulumum? If so, geez! That's so cool! I wish I could pick up weights like that!
This "growing of the thighs" is common when women begin lifting weights and working out & causes many of them to quit when this occurs because it is the opposite of what you want to happen, but stick it out and it will be worth it. Good for you for not quitting 🙂
good for you!!!!! keep up the GREAT work! 🙂