The last few workouts...

So let me start by saying Happy Holidays! I know I have been absent for the last couple of days but once again I forget to come in here and write about the WOD or how I am feeling.

I think the last time I wrote was Wednesday of last week. The wife and I went to CrossFit on Thursday Dec 22nd and the WOD was:

CrossFit Westchester WOD:
“GI Jane”
For time:
100 burpee-pull-ups

We modified the pull-ups by using weight plates to help us reach the bar. I finished in 21:00 minutes and the wife in 16:37. As always I am the last one to finish the WOD. The only thing that I really remember about this WOD is that in the last pull-up my right calf cramped up and I had to finish the pull-up regardless. Also that night, Chris told me that I was going to be his "target" and that from that night on he was going to push me a little bit harder.

We rested for 4 days and ate extremely bad (Holiday food). We went back to class on Tuesday and the WOD was:

CrossFit Westchester WOD:
‎10 Rounds:
10 Pullups
10 Box Jumps (24/20)
*20 minute time cap*

This workout was BRUTAL!!! I have to say that any workout that has to do with upper body strength is really difficult for me. I guess it's my body weight being so high or I don't know what else. I finished in 19:30 and the wife finished in 16:50. Once again, I was the last one to finish.

This morning I woke up really sore and my arms were really tight. I could barely move them and even still I am in some pain.

Then finally today's WOD was:

CrossFit Westchester WOD:
21-15-9
Front Squats (155/105)
Ring Dips
Run 500m

I felt pretty good during this WOD today. Although I used 55lbs instead of the RX but I felt confident and good with the overall WOD. The one item that really killed my time was the run. I have never been a runner, actually prior to Crossfit every time I tried running my shins would hurt me really bad but now with my new Inov-8 shoes running is "easier". Today I went alone since the wife was not feeling well and was able to finish in 21:10. AS ALWAYS I was the last one to finish.

I know I am just starting and that I will eventually get stronger, faster and such but being the last one in each WOD is not really sitting well with me. I am going to try and push harder everyday. I think my immediate goal is to try and not be the last one to finish.

One last note, Yesterday I started my own 100 day burpee challenge. Every day I have to do the number of burpees that match that day. For example, day 1, 1 burpee, day 2, 2 burpees and so on. Hopefully this way I can get better and faster at doing burpees during the regular WOD's.

I know this is allot to read but I wanted to get it all into one. I know I have said this before but I feel really confident that we made the right decision by joining CF. I can already see some changes in my body and this is only the half way point of the 3rd week. Can't wait to see how I look 6 months from now.

Until tomorrow...good night! OC Signing off!

"Steve O"

So as I was expecting, last night's workout was pretty brutal. We did "Steve O" as our WOD:



CrossFit Westchester WOD:


“Steve O”
For time:
54 pushups
108 kb snatches (53/35) TOTAL
108 kb swings (53/35)
108 wall ball shots (20/14)
54 pushups

Now, very early in the WOD it became apparent to me that one of my biggest weakness are Pushups. The WOD was modified by Chris and instead of doing 108 of the KB exercises and WBS we were told to do 80 of each, however we were still going to do the 54 pushups at the beginning and at the end.

I was able to go full speed for the first 20 pushups but after that everything extremely slowed down. I really need to start working on strengthening my upper body so that I don't have to modify my puhups and continue on. After I was finished with the first set of pushups I move on to the KB snatches. Last night was the first time I had ever done a KB snatch in my whole life and let me tell you, those things are pretty hard. The back of my hand around my wrist is killing me today (along with some nice bruises). I warmed up with a 30lb KB but realized it was WAY to heavy for me so I scaled down to 18. The KB swings I actually really enjoyed but then came the WBS. I have no problem doing them it just takes good coordination and timing to get them done the right way.

Finally got to the last set of Pushups and Chris decided to cut them down in half (he was watching me the whole time and was really on my ass all night. I actually like that, and is ONE of the many reasons why I choose to work at his gym. He is a dedicated trainer but more important he truly wants to help his clients.) He told me to do 27 since he had seen how I struggled with my first set. I was able to finish in 25:19 and my wife @ 19:35. She was using the 10lb KB.

Overall the workout was a real challenge for me. I felt exhausted when I was done but more importantly I felt proud that I never gave up and that my wife and the others were cheering me on to finish.

I feel confident that we made the right decision joining CrossFit Westchester. All the trainers are excellent and the members are really supportive. I would recommend CFW to anyone who is interested in CrossFit and lives around the White Plains, NY area!

Today is our rest day. It's probably going to be more of an active rest day since we have our last minute Christmas shopping to do, so we might be walking for a while. Until tomorrow, this is OC signing out!

Second Week & Diet

Last week I promised I would post our diet and completely forgot, so here it is:

CrossFit Diet

You will notice that for our WOD days we eat more and when we rest we eat less. Now, we try to follow the diet as we have it written but sometimes we move things around. We stick to the same types of meats, vegetables and fruits. Also you will notice that before/after the WOD we have Endura (BWO) and Dynamic Greens (AWO). Endura helps you replenish your electrolites and DG is a drink that gives you over 20+ servings of fruits and vegetables, we usually have that instead of water with our dinner.

We are also taking some Multivitamins (Wellness Essentials for Men & Women from Metagenics), Vitamin D3: 2000 IU/day and UltraFlora IB/DF: 1/day. This diet is different from the Paleo diet in which it includes Dairy but it is similar as it is almost gluten free. Also, the diet is based on the Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes low-glycemic index foods,quality vegetables plus fruits and low-fat proteins with essential fatty-acids.

Now, let's get to yesterday's WOD and the beginning of Week 2!!!

Let me start by saying that I HATE BURPEES!!! Why are they used so much in Crossfit? Is it so that we get used to the "suck"? or are they just trying to torture us? I have asked a couple of the members @ the box and the majority agree that Burpees SUCK!! Actually, over on the CrossFit boards I saw a post from a member saying that they use Burpees almost as punishment. Every time they think of eating something they shouldn't they count how many burpees it wold take to burn those calories off.

With that being said, here is yesterday's WOD:

CrossFit Westchester WOD:

AMRAP 3
3 snatch (95/65)
6 overhead squat (95/65)
9 burpees
Rest 3 minutes x 4

As we are just starting we modified the weight to 45 for me and 18 for my wife. I was able to do 113 and my wife 153. You basically count each rep as one and you add them at the end of the WO. This was a challenging WOD for me because of the burpees. I was able to do my Snatches and OHD at a good pace but when it came time for the Burpees I would spend WAY too much time doing them. Does anybody have any tips?

Today's workout is going to be a tough one...I can feel it. Until then, OC signing off!

First week under our belt

So the first week is officially done. Today was our last WOD of the week and it was definitely hard:

CrossFit Westchester WOD:
Overhead Squat
4-4-4-4

21-15-9
Overhead Squat (135/95)
Burpee Box Jumps (24/20)

Have I told you guys how much I HATE Burpee's???? The initial 4-4-4-4 OHS were actually really good. I started with 65 then I did 75, failed at 95 so I went down to 75 and the last one 75. I was able to really get down on the squats I am really proud of that.

The second part of the WOD was what really killed me. I actually don't remember ever seeing the RX for the OHS so I just went with a 45 bar. We were doing it for a time but again for the life of me I can't remember. I think I did in in 11:45 but I am not sure. The wife actually did it around the 10 mark and once again I am really proud of her.

With our first week of Crossfit officially under our belt I can tell you that I am loving it!! The fact that the WOD is an "unknown" and that it is not the same repetitive stuff over and over again (even though we do allot of burpees and squats) I love it!! This week coming up we are going to switch the schedule to Mon,Tue,Thur,Fri. We will see how the new schedule works.

I will be posting our diet tomorrow so stay tuned!

OC signing out!

The 1st week is almost over

The weekend is almost here, that means the end of the first week of Crossfit. By far I have to say that we are really happy with our decision to join and start Crossfit. For the first time in my life I can say that I actually look forward to working out and going to the gym. I know this is only the beginning and there will be times where I will want to give up and call it quits but I am sure that we are still a long way from that happening.

Today's WOT was the first WOT that was not modified for us. It sound easy but TRUST me, it was NOT. Here is the WOT:

CrossFit Westchester WOD:
A. Power Snatch 3×3 TNG sets rest 2 mins
B. 20 situps OMEM for 5 minutes rest 2 minutes
C. AMRAP 8 Wall Ball Shots (20/14) *5 burpees every time you stop*

The power snatches were pretty "easy" and I was able to do my first rep with 65, second with 75 and last one with 85. I struggled a little bit in the last one but I was able to get it done. Then came the situps. I am actually REALLY proud of myself on this one, I was able to do the first 3 reps in under 40 seconds. The last I was not able to finish fully. 4 rep I did 17 and the last I did 11.

Now, let's talk about the Wall Ball Shots but more importantly the burpees. If there is ONE thing so far that I truly HATE doing are burpees. I am able to do 10-15 without a problem but every time I stopped? COME ON!! I was able to get 41 Wall Ball shots with the 20lbs med ball. I think the series were 16, 5,6,4,5,5. After that workout I actually felt like the first work out we ever did when we tried Crossfit for the first time. I felt weak, like I wanted to throw up and was exhausted.

Once again I have to give my wife big props for actually getting 59 done. She is focused and I LOVE that about her! She actually makes me look bad..LOL.

That is it for today. Tomorrow is out last WOD of the week. I have really enjoyed this whole week and believe it or not I am starting to see some differences in my upper body and my strenght.

Until tomorrow, OC signing out!

Second WOD

Today was our second WOD and I have to say that it was harder than what I expected. Here is what we did:

10 Shoulder Press (115/75)
20 Double Unders
8 Shoulder Press
30 Double Unders
6 Shoulder Press
40 Double Unders
4 Shoulder Press
50 Double Unders
2 Shoulder Press
60 Double Unders


*SUB FOR DOUBLES IS 4X SINGLES*
CORE:
Accumulate 2 minutes in an L-sit
or
30-50 GHD situps

Just like yesterday, it was modified for us by doing less weight (I started with 65 but failed the second rep so I switched to 55 and my wife did it with 18) and since we have never done Double Unders, we did singles but instead of 4X we did 2X.

Also, we warmed up with two sets of: 30 Passthrough's, 20 Pushups, 15 Mountain Climbers, 20 shoulder press and 20 Jumping Jacks. For me the hardest part of the warm up were the pushups. I was able to do the first 10 without a problem but after that I had to do them in a modified position.

My shoulders are killing and my legs are as well but this is all part of the sacrifice to achieve my goals. BTW, my wife finished the WOD in 12:11 and I finished in 15:44.

Tomorrow is our rest day but then we pick it back up on Friday and Saturday. Until then, so long!

The last few days...

I have been absent the last couple of days, not because I haven't worked out or watched my diet but more because I am new to blogging so I just totally forget to write every day but I promise I will try to stay on top of it.

So in the last few days a few things happened. First, we finished our "on-ramp" classes and are now ready to start taking regular WOD classes!! With that being said, we actually did attend our first normal class and let me tell you it was intense (at least for my standards).

Today's WOD was the following:

For time:
Run 1000m (2 laps)
30 squat cleans (135/95)
Run 1000m

Since today was our first class the WOD was modified and we only did 1 lap runs and for the squat cleans I did it with 65 instead of 135 and my wife did it with a 25 bar. I did it in 18:07 my wife did it in 14:50. Let me tell you, it was fun as hell! I can now see why they say that Crossfit could be addictive.

As far as the diet is concern I am not sure if I am going to be posting what we, not because I don't want to share with you guys but more because it will become repetitive. Maybe at a later post I will just tell you what we eat for the whole week. What I will tell you is that I am back to using the BoddyBug and my calories consumed for the day were 1794 and the calories burn were 3002. That is a calorie deficit of 1013. That means that if I maintain that deficit for the whole week, I should loose 2 pounds. I guess we will wait and see.

Last thing I wanted to share with everyone is that we finally decided on our workout schedule. We will be going to class Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. That gives us enough rest during the week and hopefully enough rest for the weekend.

Have a good one and leave any comments you might have!

The beginning...CrossFit

Yesterday I mentioned that today was going to be our first training session and indeed it was.

Today we joined and started at Westchester CrossFit in White Plains, New York. A couple of weeks back Dr. Silverman asked us if we wanted to take a look at the way his friend Chris was training and it so happens that Chris is the owner of box.

Chris after showing the Doc and us how to properly row, asked us if we want to do a basic fit test. We agreed and proceeded to do the following: 500 meter row, 40 Air Squats, 30 push-ups, 20 sit-ups and 10 pull-ups. I managed to get everything done in under 8:30 minutes, my wife was able to finish in 6:15 (kuddos for her). After that basic session we were both hooked.

So for the last couple of days I have been speaking with Chris and decided that today was going to be our first day. We arrived @ 7:00 PM and started a few minutes after that. He asked us some basic questions first as he wanted to know what our goal was for CrossFit. Then we started doing the good stuff. We warmed up with some jumping jacks, push ups, air squats and some mountain climbs? I can't remember the name.

After our heart rates were up and beating fast we dove into our first three basic exercises of the night. The air squat, the shoulder press and the dead lift. We did 3 sets of 10 reps each to try and learn the correct technique, body posture and for him to gauge what our abilities are.

After learning our three techniques, we moved into the workout of the night. We did a half Tabata. 8 intervals of air squats with 10 seconds rest in between each interval, a 2 minutes rest and then 8 intervals of kettlebell swings with 10 seconds in between intervals.

For our first workout I think we did pretty good. I really didn't count how many reps I did in each interval but I know that by the end I was struggling for air. The wife and I had a great time tonight and we are really excited about continuing and getting more involved with CrossFit.

We have our second introductory class tomorrow, so until then have a great night!

My Goals & Diet Plan

So yesterday I left off with my goals and my custom diet plan.

My goals are very simple, try to loose weight while trying to make sure that my overall body composition is optimal for my age and my lifestyle. Basically what all of that means is that I want to try and be @ 15-17% Body Fat, which equates to about 40 pounds on a total body weight of 190 pounds.

Those goals are not going to be easy to achieve but they are the goals set by my Nutricionist Dr. Silverman and my own goals.

Now, as far as my Diet Plan, part of what we did with the Doc was try and get a customize diet plan that would maximize our potential for the task that is ahead. That being said, he indicated the first month of the diet plan would do the following " This is a plan geared at putting some muscle mass on your body to help attain your body weight goal with quality body composition". The second month I believe we are going to focus and loosing body fat and start counting calories.

The "meal plan" is a 5-meal a day plan, it is base on the Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes low-glycemic index foods, quality vegetables plus fruits and low-fat proteins with essential fatty-acids. The plan includes some multivitamins, vitamin D3, ultraFlora IB/DF, Endura (for before the workout) and Dynamic Greens (for after the workout).

The diet plan is going to be easy for us to maintain since we have been basically following this plan for the past 3 weeks (without the supplements), I think the hardest part of this "Journey" is going to be our new "workout" routine...More about the training tomorrow since we are actually starting tomorrow!!!

Body Composition Report

Second post!!

I wanted to share with everyone the results of my Body Composition report done by Dr. Robert Silverman (OUR nutritionist). A quick note about the OUR comments, this blog will be used to mostly track my road to being healthy but my wife is also joining me on that road, so you will hear me talk about OUR experience.

Here are the quick results from my report (I will be scanning the full report and updating this tomorrow):

Weight in: 219 lb
BMI: 34.30
Basal Metabolic Rate: 2091 kCal
Daily Energy Expenditure: 3345

Fat:                      70.00 Pounds  32.0%
Fat-Free Mass   149.00 Pounds 68.0%

Basically what all of this means is that I am considered and Extremely overweight individual. I am fine with the results because I know that having those numbers in my head will help push harder to try and achieve my goal. More on my goals and my custom diet plan tomorrow!

Have a good night everyone!!!

First post...

This is my first blog. The purpose of this blog is to document my road to becoming a healthy person and enjoying my life to the fullest. I will try to post all of my progress with my diet, my excersise plan and my overall goal. Keep posted and make sure to check in every day to see what I am eating, what my excersise of the day was and my overall progress with my weight, body fat and health. Stay tuned!!