Attitude

This is short post about CrossFit.  While it's not technically paleo related, it's all combined in my life, so there.  

Since I started CrossFit (about 7 months ago), I've been noticing things.  Things like how many people look at what I do at CF and say "I could NEVER do that" or "I wouldn't make it past the first rep."  This doesn't just apply to CF either.  I notice many things in life that invoke this type of response lately.

These things make me sad.  I wonder "did I ever have that attitude?".  Yep, I'm pretty sure I did.  I didn't think I'd ever run a 5k in under 30 minutes or I would ever jump on a God-forsaken wooden box.  Ever.  

So... this explains that "all CrossFitters think they are elite" thing that I hear people talk about.  I don't think I'm elite.  I just have a different attitude now about what I CAN do.  To be honest, while new things (hello hand stands!) still scare the sh*t out of me, there is really nothing that I am not at least willing to TRY to do. And usually, I find that I CAN do them.  I just never tried before.

If I never get another thing out of CrossFit, at least I have gotten rid of that "I can't" attitude.  

Posing for photos, post WOD

Quick story about my first rope climbing experience:

It was a Friday morning (just over a week ago) and I was super excited about the crazy workout that was posted.  What made it even better is that two of the ladies that I had been missing working out with in the evenings were there!  I had never attempted to climb a rope before (not even in school that I can remember).  So, in practice, I was the first one to try it and I only made it about halfway up.  I decided to do the scaled version for the workout (start out lying on the floor and pull yourself to standing, using the rope).  If you were doing the scaled version, you had to do 5 reps to everyone else's 1.  OUCH.  By the end of the workout, my hands were KILLING me!  The last set had only 1 rope climb and I was determined not to have to do it 5 times, so I got on that rope and climbed to the top!  It's pretty typical of me to do my best work in the last set or minutes of the WOD.  I always seem to save the best for last :)

Hocus Pocus Let's all FOCUS!

This title comes from an old co-worker.  We used to say this after he told us all the story about his kindergarten teacher using that phrase to get the class under control.  

I've changed my focus.

Lately, I've been really focused on nutrition and Whole30 and fat loss.  Now that summer is here and I feel pretty good about nutrition, I want to change my focus to performance.  I want to really commit to CrossFit at least 4 days a week and give it my all and see some performance gains and PRs.  I plan to eat in a way that fuels these goals using the guidelines outlined here by Eat To Perform.  Here is another good article from ETP that explains why it's better to eat for performance than to eat for weight (or fat) loss.

According to the ETP calculator, I should be eating 2,258 calories per day.  This might shock some people for a 5'2" tall 130lb female to be eating that much, but trust me, I have very little problem meeting this goal! I've been doing it for quite a while, actually.  I will shoot for 100g of carbs per day.  I usually under eat on the carbs, but have been consciously adding more sweet potato and fruit to increase this.  I will try to eat at least 130g of protein (1g per pound of body weight) and the rest will be fat (apprx. 150 grams).  

I will occasionally use My Fitness Pal to make sure my numbers are where they need to be, but I hope to get to a point where I am intuitively eating to fuel my performance.  

Also, for the summer I am not weighing myself (until sometime after Labor Day).  I look forward to this summer and all it will bring!  What are you focused on right now?