01/30/2011 Paleo Challenge Day 24

The scale

I spent a little time today at REI buying jackets in an XL size.  They are a smidgen on the small size, but I fit in them standing up.  In any case I feel the emotional need to start clearing out the XXL clothes which are too big now, and replace with XL cuts which actually fit me.  

XXL jackets and shirts fit loose, and at times are too big, in fact I have a pair of Levis that when I wear I look like an old guy trying to look cool with his baggy jeans.  I don't want clothes that are too loose because I think loose fitting clothes gives you the ability to gain weight without much in the matter of negative feedback.  When your clothes start to get tight you say oh fuck I’m getting fat let me watch what I eat.  If you have enough room to gain significant amounts of weight, it just makes the uncomfortable change seem a part of normal life.

I wore nothing but sweatpants when I started to gain weight…that fucking wont' happen again.

With that being said the ever-fluctuating weight is frustrating.  It’s baffling.  When I weighed myself yesterday I weighed 264 lbs, when I weighed myself this morning I weighed 261 lbs.  I don’t know what to say, other than fuck, and I can’t figure it out.

I won’t spend too much time stressing about it, but it just reinforces the fact that weightloss I hard, and every time you figure something out your body dynamics change and then makes life difficult.  It’s either a product of bad genes, or the innate adaptability of the human body.

After the Paleo Challenge I’m toying with the idea of 1 meal a week, as a cheat meal to shock the body.  I don’t know if this is lunacy or a good idea, but I may try it if things don’t change the next week and half.

WoD

Started my morning off at the first WoD with the combined Patriot and Potomac groups.    At the 5:30 am session there were 40+ people, yet with all things considered Dan and Kevin did a good job.  I don't think as a coach you can prepare yourself for double the number of athletes in a particular class, fortunately the type of people who gravitate towards CrossFit are motivated, and smart, which makes this type of transition easier on the staff and owners of a gym.

We worked on Front Squats for the powerlifting portion of the WoD, and then a short 7 minute metcon which when you read seems innocuous, but turns out to be poison.  I ended up partnering with Matt R., and Eugene for the squats.

Matt was on his “deloading” week of Wendler (more information on Wendler here) so he did a few sets of back squats in-between our warm-up.  The program was designed by Jim Wendler a power lifter and is called the 5/3/1, which is done over 4 weeks with lifts 3-4 times a week on a series of core lifts, back squats, bench press, deadlift, and standing press.  The idea being that during the cycles of training you do weights which are a varying % of your 1 rep max, ultimately the program is designed to increase your strength in these core lifts. 

Eugene and I worked at similar weights and ended up doing 4 sets of 2 at 175lbs and 3 sets of 2 at 185 lbs.  There is video below from the third set of 175 lbs and my last set of 185 lbs.  I’m just happy I can hold 185 lbs in the racked position.

The deceptive metcon was programmed for 7 minutes, and two movements.  A reasonable amount of weight, and a motion that I’m comfortable with, a great number of people either have shoulder issues, or are uncomfortable in the overhead squat position, it doesn’t bother me, but I haven’t done enough of them to really know how much weight I can handle.  I have no problem squat snatching 115 lbs, so I figured 115 lbs for the overhead squats would be more than doable; the prescribed 135 lbs just seemed a hair out of reach.

The Overhead squats were followed by 10 bar facing burpees, which I think was supposed to mean we were facing the bar and jumped over the barbell, but with the number of people in the class we did bastards, which means you jump laterally when coming up.

I was able to do 4 rounds plus 1 rep but I will admit a good deal of my bastards looked like skips.  Here is video.

Meals

Paleo Meals Day 24