My Paleo Life

Short Term Goals

happyfred — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 09:43:39 +0000

Okay, last post was a bit lame in that my goals are not very firm. Read an excellent article about goals here.

So, I’m going to set some quality short term goals. They are:

5 strict pull ups

10 dips

Body weight of 90kg

All of the above by the end of May. Currently my best is 2 pull ups and 5 dips.

Goals

happyfred — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 12:38:57 +0000

So, I’ve obviously not kept up the food and exercise log. Tracking everything you eat is much harder than it seems.

Okay, so what’s been going on? Food wise I think it’s been much the same as before. I have lowered the amount of dairy I’ve been consuming however it’s still there. Scale weight hasn’t changed actually. Measured in at 93.1kg today which is exactly the same as a month ago. It’s fluctuated a kilo or so in the last month but it pretty much looks the same. I’ve been going to Crossfit apart from this last week, which I’ve had off, for two reasons :- We had quests stay with us and I was up late entertaining, had a bit to drink a couple of night too. The second is that the wife and I had our first child four weeks ago and I’m just not getting enough sleep. Crossfit five days a week is tough without enough sleep. I really needed a break and I’m glad I took the week off. Enough of the excuses, here’s the plan:

I’ve been thinking a lot about what my goals are. I think some clear goals as to what I’m working towards might be beneficial.

Long term.

Do the Crossfit WODs as rx’d.

Advanced level on the Athletic Skills Levels.

Competence at the basic gymnastic skills. Stuff like planche, walking handstand, basic rings.

Medium term.

Hmm, not sure what to put in here. I’m thinking that once I reach my short term goals I will start mostly strength gymnastics training. I think that gymnastics strength training will be the core of my training once I reach my short term goals.

Short term.

First thing I think I need to do is lose my excess body fat. Most of the athletic stuff that I suck at is body weight stuff – pull ups being a prime example. It’s hard to know what my ideal weight would be but I think that 85kg should be a starting point for me. I think at this weight I will be able to asses what my body fat percentage is. At 85kg I will be reasonably lean. That’s 8kg I need to lose.

Basic strength exercises such as – pull ups, dips, handstand push ups.

So, how will I go about this?

In regards to the weight loss I will do the following: Remove dairy from my diet. Add in a few more vegetables, that I’ve been omitting lately and think about keeping a slight calorie deficit. My weight has been stable and I have been eating a lot of fat! I think a slight calorie deficit is required to lean out. I’m also going to start doing a lot more NEPA. I’ve really been neglecting that the last few months. I will stand at work and take walks at lunch time and in the evening with my family.

With the exercise I will keep going to Crossfit 5 days a week. I think this will help me work up to my short term goal of being proficient at the basic body weight exercises. What does that mean? Not 100% sure about that… lets put down: 10 strict pull ups, 20 kipping. 20 dips, 10 handstand push ups. I’m also going to put up the chin up bar at home and practice pull ups at home. I’ve ordered some rings too!

I’m going to set myself four months to complete my short term goals. That’s 2kg a month and 2.5 pull ups a month too! Let’s do it!

Daily Log – Friday 19 March

happyfred — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 02:38:24 +0000

Food

5:30am – Coffee with coconut milk.

8:30am – Leftover Thai chicken soup from yesterday.

12:30pm – Omelette with bacon

Exercise

Hurdle practise.

Power Snatch practise.

Tabata – 1/2 box jumps (32) 1/2 ring rows (43)

Daily Log – Thursday 18 March

happyfred — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 02:34:30 +0000

Food

5:30am – Coffee with coconut milk.

8:30am – 4 Egg Omelette

12:30pm – Beef soup with some pork ribs

5:30pm – Thai Chicken (hen) soup. Coconut milk added during cooking. Ate a couple of the mushrooms in the soup.

7:30pm – Frozen berries with some coconut milk and a couple of handfuls of nuts (walnuts, almonds).

Exercise

Daily Log – Wednesday 17 March

happyfred — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:39:01 +0000

Food

8:30am – 4 Egg Thai omelette, 1/2 a capsicum and some left over roast lamb. Black coffee with coconut milk + 3 drops vitamin D. handful of nuts.

12:30pm – handful of nuts. 2 cups of tea.

5:00pm – Beef soup with some carrot, cabbage and 1 avocado. Handful of nuts.

Exercise

Didn’t go to Crossfit this morning. Only the 2nd session missed in 6+ weeks. Haven’t slept well for the last 3 nights and was feeling a bit run down, therefore decided to give it a miss.

Understanding Crossfit terminology

happyfred — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:57:40 +0000

This blog is mostly for me to keep track of my progress. That said my one and only reader, who doesn’t Crossfit, has commented that he doesn’t understand the terminology.

The best place to find out what an exercise is is at Crossfit.com, exercises and demo section. If you can’t find it there than Google or Youtube. Be careful with Youtube as sometimes the demos suck and technique is poor or incorrect.

Here’s something for fun.

Athletic Skill Levels cont..

happyfred — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:46:53 +0000

Before Crossfit this morning did:

Medicine Ball Cleans x 10. I did all 10. Interestingly Coach commented that I shouldn’t be doing them. He reckons it doesn’t really help to learn the clean and can actually stuff up my technique with the bar. Interesting. I can’t say I really think the exercise to be that valuable but did want to tick it off the skills test list. I like working with the bar.

Pull ups. I did 1!!! It was strict and got far enough over the bar that I’m happy to count it as 1.

L-Sits. Worked on these a bit too. Up to 7 sec.

Daily Log – Tuesday 16 March

happyfred — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:38:02 +0000

Food

5:30am – Coffee

9:00am – 4 egg Thai omelette with onions & leftover pork ribs from yesterday. Steamed broccoli and zucchini. Black tea.

10:30am – Coffee with a large spoonful of cream

3:30pm – 6 grapes

4:00pm – Pho, beef and chicken combination minus the noodles.

5:00pm – Glass of coconut nectare.

6:30pm – 1/2 cup of papaya and 2 mangoes.

9:00pm – 1/2 cup frozen berries and 1/2 cup nuts (almonds, walnuts, pistachio)

9:30pm – 1/4 cup coconut milk with 4 drops Vitamin D.

Already seeing the benefit of the blog and recording what I’m eating. Can see that even though I wanted to go without dairy I’ve still had two serves in the last two days. Also need to stick to one cup of coffee a day, the second one didn’t make me feel good. Trying to minimize fruit however killed two mangoes and some papaya. Also hard to pass up the nuts.

Exercise

Olympic lifting skill day.

Front Squat, Hang Clean and Hang Squat Clean.

Good session, realising how much I need to engage the lats and upper back. Also focus on straight arms.

*Coach commented that this week would be mostly lifting and skill work, maybe one metcon in there somewhere. This is perfect timing as it’s my 7th week and a perfect time to have an ‘easy’ week. Excellent programming.

Daily Log – Monday 15 March

happyfred — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:35:21 +0000

Food

5:30am – Coffee with coconut milk

9:00am – 3.5 leftover bbq sausages & raw vegetables (red cabbage, capsicum, radish, carrot)

10:00am – Caffe latte

12:30pm – Sashimi – salmon and tuna

1:30pm – Caffe latte

6:30pm – Left over lamb roast and pork ribs. Side of Greek yogurt, 1/2 avocado, carrot and some olives. Three strawberries.

* Sashimi was due to a lunch meeting, not particularly hungry. Removing dairy however the yogurt was a leftover

Exercise

Conditioning

2 x max handstands: 2:11 & 1:46

2 x max ring holds: I can’t hold for very long, maybe 10 or 15 sec, did about 5 rounds.

1 x scoop complex: Couldn’t make it all the way through

WOD

Rack pull 3x3x3x1x1x1:

90x100x100x110x120x120

Back squat 5x5x5x1x1x1:

80x80x80x90x91xFailed at 93 PR 91kg

Athletic Skill Levels cont..

happyfred — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 23:54:33 +0000

Before Crossfit started this morning I managed a couple more skill tests. Also got my deadlift and press numbers off the board.

Deadlift 3/4 x bodyweight. My PR is 105kg which is 113% of my current bodyweight 93kg. I think I was actually 92kg when I lifted that, no matter.

Press 1/4 x bodyweight. My PR is 55kg which is 59% of my currenct bodyweight 93kg. As above I think I was 92kg when I lifted that.

Static hang 30sec. Did this okay, hanging from the chinup bar. Not sure what you’re supposed to be hanging from?

500m row. 1:54min. Time to beat is 1:55.

L-sit 10sec. I only managed 5sec. Need to work on this obviously. I remember when I started Crossfit 6 weeks ago I couldn’t actually do it at all!

Spoke with my coach about not being able to do any pullups. Asked him if I could / should do something extra. He said that I should keep training and not worry about it. I’m worried.