When life gets in the way...

I have a confession to make: I love Crossfit! It is a good outlet for me to get some "me time" away from the girls and the constant daily chores of being a stay-at-home mom on maternity leave. Don't get me wrong, I love my family and I would do anything for them, but since my hubby works long hours and we have close-to-no-relatives on the west coast with us (except from my sister-in-law), it's pretty much me all the time with the girls. I was lucky enough that, over the summer, Ben has been able to have pretty much constant 3-day weekends, but with fall approaching and his busy schedule picking up again, I will be on full mommy-duty constantly. Moreover, with fall comes rain and we will be confined to the inside of our small apartment and it will be dreadful. I'm soooo not looking forward to not being able to go outside!

I was also lucky to have had the help of a babysitter 4 days/week for 2 hrs over the summer, but she's now preparing to go back to school and the contingency plan that I was hoping for is not going to pan through, so I'm happy I will be able to save that money, but it's yet another stressor in my life. Hence why I cherish Crossfit so much! It's my little bit of insane time to myself to keep my sanity!

Since I feel so invested in Crossfit, I've decided to set some goals for myself. I've set a date to achieve those goals (December 31), but nothing is set in stone. I will re-assess where I'm at in the new year and if my goals are not achieved, they will simply roll over into the new year, so no pressure!

Goal #1: Squat my own body weight. I currently weigh 155#, but when I get closer to reaching this goal, I will reassess my weight and take it from there. It's still a long ways away since I'm currently only squatting 45#.

Goal #2: Do 1 unassisted pull-up. Not a kipping pull-up, just one, plain, unassisted pull-up. This one is also a long ways away as I'm currently using the black band (biggest band there is) to help me with my pull-ups!

Goal #3: Do a pistol squat on both legs. For those of you who don't know what a pistol squat looks like, here it is:

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Above is Karla Drummond, performing a Pistol Squat. She has gone through a Crossfit journey that is pretty amazing. I have read her entire blog over the past few weeks and she truly is an inspiration. If you have some time, go ahead and read her blog on http://crossfitkarla.tumblr.com

So there you have my Crossfit goals. As for my personal goals, there is really only one I'd like to work on. I'd like to go back to eating WFPB (Whole Foods Plant Based) aka vegan. I try not to use the word vegan because I won't be doing it for the well-being of the animals and I don't buy everything vegan (clothes, shoes, etc) and for some reason, people react VERY strongly when you say you're vegan. I don't understand why people are so negative about a healthy lifestyle...  Anyway, I was WFPB for 15 months after Rina's birth and I felt great! It sort of all went downhill when I got pregnant with Béatrice and caved into cravings. I haven't been able to go back to being fully WFPB since then and I can totally feel it: lack of energy, skin breakouts, bloated to only name a few. I want to go back to when I felt better in my life and I know it's fairly easy for me to stick to it once I establish my menus and make enough food and plan ahead. I'll just have to work more on those aspects in the upcoming few weeks. If you want to know more about it, go ahead to www.drfuhrman.com or read his book Eat to Live. It is truly eye opening! Here's what my food choices should look like and what worked for me previously:

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Now here's the kicker. I'm probably going to get a lot of hatin' from the Crossfitters out there who read me (anyone?). You see, Crossfitters in general are Paleo people. Paleo people also believe in not consuming any processed foods (similar to WFPB), but they eat oils and animal proteins and avoid grains and legumes. See their pyramid below:

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There are some similarities in the foods we consume, but I don't care for meat that much. The only meat I enjoy is ground beef or steak, but I have terrible GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) whenever I eat it, so that makes it not so enjoyable! Like I said before, I just need to plan my menus in advance and cook them (!) so as not to be left without any options when life gets in the way.

So there, you have my goals and I'm hoping that by sharing them with you all, it will make accountable and I will stick to the master plan that is my life! :)