Nutrition Challenge Round Up and Beginning A New Chapter

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March 25, 2015 by aprimalexperiment

After a totally silly hiatus from being in my local box (why do I fool myself into thinking I can enjoy fitness without other people around me??), I returned my 31% body fat, tired, making-excuses-for-everything, still can’t do a pull-up self to the box just in time for our annual Nutrition Challenge.  Yay – not.  Anyway, discipline always hurts but the rewards are great if your cause is enough to keep you focused through the pain of bending your will in a direction it does not want to go.

This year’s challenge theme was “All In” and man was I ever! I really and desperately wanted to see some results from my early morning WODs and restrictive food choices.  As Darin, our box-owner and early morning coach says, I needed to “dial it in.”  It’s funny but that’s how it always seems to work for me, I can’t get any result from just being generally good, like 75% of the time, but dang, if I push it to 80% things start to change with fury!

“I WHANNA WHIN!” (Read that in Jack Black’s voice from Nacho Libre)

So, I doubled down my efforts toward ensuring I was where I knew I needed to be in a couple of key areas – I mean, I’ve got a toddler over here and I’m not about to be weighing everything I put in my mouth and cooking boneless chicken breast for my family at every meal.  Here are the areas that I really focused on during the challenge:

(1) Protein intake.  For someone with a moderately active lifestyle like mine, a gram of protein per pound of body weight is a good measure to ensure you’re getting enough to support physical performance and not loose lean mass in an effort to see the number on the scale go down.

(2) Sugar intake.  Now, I don’t eat refined sugar at all – just ain’t worth it, Jack!  But, what I’m talking about here is grams of fructose and sucrose from even “good” sources like fruit, honey, maple syrup, etc.  My goal was to keep my sugar intake around or under 20 grams a day.  That is SUPER restrictive, so it’s okay to give a little every few days here to just be able to enjoy a piece of fruit.

(3) Water intake.  Come on now, this one’s easy.  Drink water.

(4) Cheats.  Nope, didn’t allow them.  Not really at all.  I don’t need that cupcake as much as I need the practice of self control.

(5) Work outs.  Four times/week at least.  High intensity, heavy weight.  It’s not a difficult equation.  Pick up heavy stuff and do things really fast.  My CrossFit box makes this formula quite a bit easier with daily programming and coaching from experienced professionals, not to mention a community of like-minded friends surrounding me:)

Here are some highlights from my meals and a sample couple of days during the challenge….

5:00AM – Wake and fill a giant insulated mug with hot brewed black tea (earl grey has been my go-to brew lately) and add between 1 Tbsp of heavy cream, more if I’m using half and half, put on my shoes (I sleep in my workout attire to minimize how much it takes to get out the door in the morning) and head to the 5:45AM WOD at CrossFit Fort Worth.

Earl Grey in the Early Morning…

I usually get back by 7AM and shower really quickly before grabbing a quick breakfast and lunch for Chris to take to work and getting Nolan out of bed for our morning routine.

Breakfast has become a much bigger deal for me now that it is my post-WOD meal.  I was never really into it much before.  I most often chop up about 2oz of a high quality ham that I get at Costco and cook that with some peppers and onions in butter, olive oil, or coconut oil in a skillet, then take it out and add two whisked eggs into the pan to make a quick omelette.  I cover mey omelettes in Franks Red Hot cause it’s amazing – Nolan calls it “picy” (think “spicy” without the “s” – so cute!)  But honestly, my favorite breakfast is still a fritatta.  Mostly because it’s so easy to make in advance.  I tried a new one during the challenge to get some extra carbs into my breakfast.  It was delicious and consisted of sauteed venison breakfast sausage, 1-2 small sweet potatoes, shredded, and about 8-10 eggs.  Best part – it lasted nearly the entire week!

Nolan loves breakfast and I really enjoy this time with him when he’s rested and into everything!

We usually do a good amount of chores and errands in the mornings, and on Wednesdays, we high-tail it outta dodge pretty quick to get to our morning Bible Study.  I never really liked Bible studies, but this one is actually a study of the Bible and I’ve found it to be theologically sound and intellectually engaging.

Anyway, Wednesdays will also find us making a pit stop at our old Farmer’s Market since it’s not too far from the church we go to in the morning.  We usually load up on everything I’ve made a list of for the week, plus any extras that Nolan sneaks into his “baby” basket that the sweet ladies there give him to carry around.  I almost always end up with extra fruit from his secret shopping stash.

I try to get him really engaged in picking out all of our fruits and veggies.  He’s still not a huge fan of anything other than meat, but he always has the options on his plate and my hope is that he will want to try stuff that he sees mom and dad eat all the time…eventually. I can kind of guarantee that he will at least wolf down one or two pieces of fruit on the way home from these trips.

Our weekly haul from the farmer’s market!

About mid-day is when Nolan hits the sack for his afternoon snooze-fest, and I get out my lap-top and get some work done.  If I haven’t already, I raid the fridge and make a nice salad or a big plate of leftovers for my lunch.  I’m usually not too ravenous at lunch since we have such big breakfasts, but I definitely try to get a good amount of protein into this meal as well.  If I happen to be having a day where food just isn’t really appealing to me, my quick fix has been a smoothie with a couple scoops of True Athlete protein powder, frozen mixed berries, and about a 1/4 cup of cottage cheese to add some extra protein and thickness.  It’s not toooooooo bad…;)

I have realized I’m kind of a caffeine addict.  It isn’t out of control, but I certainly do drink a lot of tea and coffee.  The afternoon is usually very quiet and restful in our house, even on the weekends when Chris is at home with us, and it’s a great time for me to get stuff done but ALSO a great time for the bed to look super comfy and relaxing, so I’ll usually recharge with a shot of espresso and some cream or another cup of tea, and I’ll often enjoy this with one of my favorite little treats from the challenge, grain-free chocolate chip cookies.  I ended up editing a favorite recipe of mine by leaving out the added honey for the cookie base.  Yes, it’s not as sweet, but it still has chocolate and I can always add a little stevia to my tea to get a sweet kick without overdoing it on a honey-sweetened faux dessert.

Mom enjoys an afternoon espresso with billows of whipped cream on top!

Nolan always snacks when he gets up from his nap in the later afternoon, but I’m usually too busy getting stuff straightened up, putting up laundry, or getting dinner ready to join him.  Plus, this is when he likes to watch a TV show or play outside and I like to give him some alone time during the day, so it’s a win-win for us.

While he munches on…well, anything really, this kid is a mystery when it comes to food choices…I’ll be getting our dinner together.  I try to always have a good hearty protein source, a couple of cooked veggies, and a raw veggie.  It doesn’t always play out like that, but it’s a good starting formula for our dinners.  Nolan loves rice, so a lot of times, I’ll just make a pot of that along side our other meal items for him, but for the most part, he partakes in whatever we have…at least he gets a plate of what we have, he doesn’t always eat it – crazy kid!

Steak dinner with sweet potatoes, green beans, and tomato salad – yummy!

One meal that we maybe do a little TOO – wait, no, not too much, you can’t do this too much…anyway, one meal we LOVE to make is fajitas.  I mean, come on.  They’re SOOOOOOO good.  We always make them the same – flank steak or chicken thighs and sliced onion hits the grill, then we bring out a plate of sliced red and yellow bell pepper, sliced limes, chopped cilantro, sour cream or yogurt and salsa.  The only variant is the wrapper – we usually just go back and forth between lettuce leaves and grain-free tortillas (let’s face it – they’re crepes).  Either way, though, they’re amazing.  Nolan eats all of his bits separate and EVERYTHING gets dipped in sour cream – as a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure he’s just using the chicken and peppers as a way to get more sour cream into his mouth.  He is so weird.

Being GOOFBALLS!

Nolan is an early to bed, early to rise little kid with a 7PM bed time and we are such home bodies, we almost always stick to this routine without fail, so that gives me and Chris a few hours before we’re spent for the day.  We try to limit how much of our evening we spend watching movies, though, we definitely enjoy old flicks together on the couch.  Usually we’ll do some light fun reading, do a puzzle, or sit outside and talk a little bit – it’s great to spend time alone with him during the day.  This is also a time when we grab a snack or something just to satisfy the late-night munchies (and because we eat dinner at like 5PM, so we’re genuinely hungry again before bed time!), and I judge what I’ll eat based on what the day has looked like food-wise for me so far.  For example, if I’m still pretty low on protein, I’ll grab some rolls of sandwich meat and dip them in spicy mustard, or if I’ve done pretty good with my protein intake and haven’t eaten much sugar that day, I may consider some frozen berries and nuts or half a green apple and some almond butter.  I’ll usually add in some decaf hot tea as well cause the warm drink really helps me unwind and feel cozy, but the warmer months are on us now and I have a feeling that habit will hit the bricks pretty soon…

So, how did the challenge pan out, you ask?

Well, it was awesome.  I watched the scale each week – which was difficult because I only lost about a pound each week, with some weeks jumping back up, which resulted in seeing only a 4lb difference over the six weeks of the challenge.  However, once I did my body fat test I found out the hard work had really paid off in a big way.  I had dropped down 5% on my body fat, with a 10lb decrease of fat and a 6lb increase in lean mass.  That’s hard, yall.  I mean, losing “weight” is one thing, but gaining lean mass takes WORK.

I feel FANTASTIC – and more importantly, I feel ready to get baby #2 in this body!! Hehe!

But, that’s not the next chapter just yet – so, what IS next??

Nutrition Coaching – woot woot!  I literally can’t wait to be able to see other people’s lives change in a positive way through nutrition and an active lifestyle at CrossFit Fort Worth!

Mom gets a PR on her back squat while Nolan plays in the kid’s area at CrossFit Fort Worth!

Now – let me put one thing out there – nothing, nope, not one thing can change your life but JESUS.  He is the only lasting change.  And because he is good, because he is gracious, because he is abounding in loving kindness we can enjoy healthy and delicious food, do amazing things with our bodies, and give glory to him through all of it!

So, anyway, stay in touch for some interesting updates, nutritional information, and pictures from our journey!

CrossFit Fort Worth – where the magic happens!