No Sugar Challenge Day 4: Still going strong!

It has been an interesting week. I have one cat with some disease that causes her body to eat away at her teeth. I have another cat with a failing kidney. And I hyper-extended my wrist. We will all three be fine, I am sure. But it made me think a lot about what happens to your goals when you allow yourself to get distracted mentally. My workouts have been sloppy and it has caused a bit of a backslide. Three months ago at a tactical strength challenge I did 136 kettle bell snatches at 35 pounds in 5 minutes. Last night I put the bell down after 10 reps. My muscles are fatiguing faster. My brain wants to stop sooner. A little pain in my hand and I am ready to quit. I haven’t put in the extra effort lately and it shows. Unacceptable. You can’t expect the same performance without putting in the same amount of effort.

Time for that to end. This weekend I am going to a training camp at Front Range CrossFit where they are going to beat us up for four days. Long overdue. I am going to suffer for my slacking. I had my hand x-rayed and it is just a little bruised bone or a tiny strained muscle. It is what it is and it is up to me to make the best of it whether it hurts or not. So I guess my main goal for the weekend is to put everything I have into it and come out of it ready to work. I have already recaptured that passion I had in the Fall and now I just need to back it up with hard work. That said, I’m going for a run…

The rumor that my gym is having a 30-Day No Sugar Challenge was true. And they decided to make it interesting. To participate, you have to bet $100. If you make it, you get your money back. If you don’t your money is dispersed among the people who did. The rules are simple. No added sugar or sugar substitutes of any kind (honey, syrups, agave, Spenda, etc) and no alcohol. Naturally occurring sugar in stuff like fruit and milk is allowed. But if the nutrition label includes any type of sweetener or alcohol in the ingredients, it is out. Officially the 30 days starts today but I started Saturday. After many restless nights and feeling terrible during several workouts over the past month or so I couldn’t wait. If I can manage 30 days I can manage 32. I normally don’t go through a whole day without sweeteners of some kind but I think putting up the cash will keep me from going into auto pilot.

It is hard to believe 2010 is already over. Not surprisingly, I have been thinking a lot about all the goals I made the past year and how they all turned out. If someone asked how my year went I would not have a good answer. Some things were amazing, better than I ever thought possible. Other things went horribly wrong, worse than I could have imagined. My goals changed a lot. I added so many short term goals I don’t even remember them all. And some of my long term goals changed or were completely forgotten. There were even goals I should have set but didn’t. Very important ones. It does no good to reach a destination if you don’t stop once in awhile to make sure you are on the right track. So this week I am doing a bit of a post mortem. I am reading back through my posts to see what went well, what failed miserably, what I forgot about, and what I did not think of last year that will make 2011 the best year yet.

Yesterday morning I made a new batch of cookies to redeem myself for Thursday. Then Todd and I conquered Big Brother before heading to my dad’s house for a pizza bake off. Originally we were going to have it at my uncle Edward’s house with everyone. But with 25-30 people coming and only one oven they decided to have us come over AFTER dinner instead. So my sister and I went to my dad’s and had one of our own. Gayle made a meat pizza with Italian sausage and ham that reminded me of the way my Mom used to make pizzas. I found a recipe for pizza that took 2nd in a Best Pizza In The World competition in Italy and bested Bobby Flay in a ‘Throwdown with Bobby Flay’. It came out great! My sister brought a Nick-N-Willy’s pepperoni to make sure her kids had food they would actually eat. Yum. I think I might do the same thing with my college buddies for our annual reunion in March. After pizza we headed to Uncle Edward’s for treats and beer and hot apple cider. We listened to the Miller Family’s amazing musical talents as always, one of Grandma’s favorite things. Then played Pictionary which was actually a riot with that many people. Some of the simplest ones were the most challenging. How do you draw a hole? Hehe. Here is Grandma trying to draw an olive:

And in the final moments of 2010 we completely trashed their house with confetti to bring in the New Year.

My resolve failed me. I skipped CrossFit yesterday to bake cookies. Luckily, I accidently bought vanilla extract instead of vanilla rendering the frosting almost inedible. Between that and the fritti episode on Christmas Eve, maybe its a sign.Date night was on yesterday. In the afternoon Todd played XBox while I made cookies. Then we went for a much needed massage. Our plan was to have Mexican food at Si Senor for dinner but it was closed so we ate at Casa Allegre instead. Not the same but good enough. WIth all the snow it was a great night to go home and bundle up. We went straight to the basement to play XBox. We tried for an hour to beat a special ops mission on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 called Big Brother. We kept getting all the way to the rooftop where the helicopter picks up the guy on the ground before he gets killed by a swarm of soldiers. Ugh! So frustrating. We ended the evening by watching Despicable Me. What a great day. We spent the entire day in our sweats. Even at dinner. Hehe.

The other day I saw this kid at the grocery store standing in the checkout line with his mom. He had on baggy pants and a snowboarding jacket. He had the rim of his Oakley hat pulled over the top of his sunglasses. I have seen people do that outside to keep the snow out. But in the store? Seriously? I only glanced at him for a second but my first thought was… punk kid.

I saw him again today. His mom was holding his hand. He is blind.

…and that was my lesson today in humility.

Christmas morning Todd and I wake up early and turn on all of our Christmas lights. Breakfast is Cinnabon. (This year we split 1 and saved the other for later). Then we open the presents we put in each other’s stockings. The main things Todd got for me included a new Billabong hoodie, a sweet new hat, and he custom designed a new case for my iPod! I got him a new sweater but it fit weird so we still have to shop for him. I also got him a grill press and four nonstick egg rings because he loves to make bacon and eggs for breakfast. We got each other little stuff too. Like I bought him a chunk of marzipan shaped like a pig. In Cozumel our very Mexican scuba instructor told us the story of his sister who raised cows and ‘porks’. It still makes me giggle. Normally we also open our yearly Christmas ornament but after wrapping presents late Christmas Eve, Todd thought it might be nice to open it early this year. It was his year to find one and he did not disappoint. 

Next we headed over to his sister Nicole’s house for brunch and to watch Gus ride his new Jeep or ‘Gleep’ as he calls it. We unwrapped our presents to each other so it was Christmas all over again. Gus put on my Santa hat and declared himself to be Santa Claus. Santa brought me a teapot, pajamas, a gift certificate to World Market. Todd got a photography book by National Geographic, sweatpants, pajamas, and a gift certificate to Mike’s Camera towards printing and framing one of his photos. We gave the girls a basket of spices and treats from Savory Spice where we went shopping a few weeks ago, Nicole’s husband a beer-making kit that supposed to taste like Fat Tire. And his dad a new jacket for work. My favorite present was the one Nicole thought of for Todd’s parents. She had all of their old family video tapes put on DVDs. I can’t wait to see them.Finally we went to my dad’s house for Christmas Round 3. Gayle’s whole family and my sister’s family came over which made us about 19. There was no room for all of our stockings to be hung by the chimney with care so they were hung on the staircase.The kids had a gift exchange and then it was time for dinner. Guess what we ate for Christmas dinner? The turkey I won at that Earn Your Turkey Challenge at MBS! It was delicious!!! After dinner the kids went off and played and the bigger kids opened each other’s gifts. My sister got us gift certificates to play paintball! Sweet! And my dad made a generous donation to the Ramirez Shopping Fund that was much appreciated.The day is over but the season is still on. For one thing we have these gift certificates to still shop for. More importantly, though, between Christmas Eve and three rounds of Christmas Day, we have still only seen half the family we have in Colorado. We still haven’t seen the Fort Collins, the Grand Junction, or the Arvada crowds yet. But we will!

Christmas Eve at Grandma’s is one of my favorite days of the year. Every year I head to her house first thing in the morning to help her get ready. My main job is to make the fritti, little fried balls of dough dipped in honey. It is a long process that starts early in the morning with boiling potatoes and ends in the afternoon with dipping the fritti in honey. 

This year I made a mess more than I helped. First of all, we couldn’t find the fryer so I tried to make them on the stove. The oil was much too hot and never cooled off enough so they browned too fast and came out doughy instead of crispy on the outside. Then, I started to heat an inch of honey in a pot. Too busy chatting with my aunt to pay attention, the honey boiled over. All we could do was turn off the burner and watch it form a 1/2 inch black cake on the burner. It took an hour to get all the black scraped off her glass top stove. Failed mission. Still edible but not my best work.

While I was in the kitchen managing the disaster recovery effort, Todd was out running secret errands. I wondered what he could be up to at the very last minute. When he got back I found out he had taken my car to get it detailed! It looked so pretty! What a guy!

Usually we have a crowd of 20 or so but this year with just my dad and Gayle, Aunt Jeannie and Sue, my sister’s family, Todd and I, and Grandma, we were only 11. But the rest went as always. Dinner starts with Zoupe a la Zonde, a meatball soup in a clear broth with cheese and croutons. A pasta dish of some kind, spagetti, gnocchi, ravioli, etc. This year Aunt Jeannie made lasagna with home made noodles. Mmm. My sister Kim made the Christmas salad with spinach, avocado, nuts, and cranberries.

Just after dinner, Grandma’s friends and neighbors for more than fifty years, The Palmers, come to the door and sing Christmas carols. Mrs. Palmer and her husband had twelve children who all married and had children of their own. So there is usually quite a crowd. They come in and gather around the living room for coffee and cookies and sing a few carols before heading home. And finally we open just a few presents to get us all in the mood. Sigh… So many memories of Christmas Eve at Grandma’s house.

Missed you, Mom!

I need to either make or buy an ugly Christmas sweater for next year. I had heard of ugly Christmas sweater parties before but the idea seems to have exploded this year. Even our gym had an Ugly Christmas Sweater workout yesterday. The gym owners, Patrick and Janelle had the right idea with their sleeveless sweater vests.

Even their dog Gracie worked out in an ugly sweater:

Sam lost a bet at the girl’s Christmas party so her outfit for the workout had already been chosen for her. A lovely red Christmas bra.

Not many people chose to actually workout in a sweater though. One guy in our class sucked it up and put on a full sleeve hideous pink sweater for the whole workout. Good for him! We are supposed to be tough! None of this ‘oh, but i might get too hot’ stuff.  Next year, I am totally in.

Anyway, the workout we did was this:

The 12 Days of Christmas:

12 Rounds For Time executed just like the song:
1 Handstand Push Up
2 KB Snatch – 53lbs(boys)/35lbs(girls)
3 Wall Balls – 20lbs/14/lbs at 12 foot target
4 Box Jumps – 32”/24”
5 Thrusters – 75lbs
6 Air Squats
7 Abmat Sit ups
8 Ball Slams – 40lbs/30lbs
9 Double Unders
10 Pull ups
11 Squat Cleans – 115lbs/75lbs
12 Burpee wall jumps

Explanation: The first round is just 1 handstand push up. The second round is 2 KB snatches and 1 handstand push up. The third round is 3 wall balls… and so on. Just like the song.

Very fun workout but I just now realized I was supposed to have used the 14# wall ball and only used the 10#. SHOOT! I HATE when that happens. All that work only to find out that I short changed myself. Grrr. Moral of the story: Pay attention.

With all the holiday fun I am still making time for CrossFit. On Tuesday I found my 1 rep max on overhead squat, a lift I really wanted to improve on. Last time I did it was in April. I tried 85 pounds and fell flat on my butt. Tuesday I did 105# without too much difficulty. Yes! It wasn’t strength that made me fall before. It was flexibility and balance. When I get in a squat position with no weight, my heels on the ground, and my back totally straight, I have to fight not to fall over backwards. Putting my arms straight over my head makes it worse. I always used to think that people who lifted weights just wanted bigger muscles or to be better at sports. When someone mentioned wanting better flexibility or balance lifting weights was never the first thing that came to mind. I usually thought of yoga. But overhead squats require an incredible amount of balance and flexibility in your arms, legs, hips, and ankles. I bet people who are really good at overhead squat have no problems doing downward facing dog. I still can’t do it with my heels flat on the ground or my back all the way straight. But some day.