Less Bread, More Veggie Juice

I’ve lost 50 lbs since I started cross-fitting and eating mostly Paleo, and suddenly I’m on a plateau.  This is a serious plateau.  It’s one of those zero-grade, perfectly flat plateaus that one might encounter in a physics problems:  “Imagine a perfectly flat plane.”  This is like all of Kansas rolled into my metabolism. This is like I’m on Family Feud and the topic is, “Top 100 people surveyed, Things That Are Flat,” and the Number One Answer is “My Weight Loss.”  * & **

jen before and after picsSee? I want to keep going! I want another, better “after” picture where I’m wearing size 12 jeans and looking all hot and stuff. (Size 12 jeans is my goal size right now.)

So I turned to friends and also to the internet for some learning and inspiration.  Because surely there has been at LEAST ONE PERSON IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD who has hit a weight loss plateau and somehow overcome it, right?

As it turns out, I am not alone! Here are the most common suggestions I found after examining many sites devoted to weight loss and getting past plateaus:

1.  Keep an accurate food journal and count calories for a while; you’re probably overeating for your new lower weight which now requires less energy to maintain.  You may also be having little “cheats” here and there which all add up.

2.  Seriously, track your food in a journal and see what you’re really eating these days. Tweak as necessary.  Are you having too many carbs? Not enough carbs?  Too much fat? Not enough fat?

3.  Mix up your workouts to boost your body into burning fat and calories in new ways. For example, focus more on cardio “fat burning” style workouts and less on heavy weights – do more reps with lighter weights when you incorporate weights into your routine.

4.  Make sure you’re getting enough water, sleep, and stress relief.

5.  Try intermittent fasting.

6.  Maybe you’re eating too few calories – again, the food journal can help.

7.  Maybe you’re not exercising enough.

8.  Maybe you’re exercising too much (this can overtax the body, increase cortisol, and actually make it harder to lose fat.)

9.  If all else fails, get your hormone levels checked.

After I wrote this down, I though: This is definitely a nice laundry list,  and I deserve extra points for the fact that there are several OPPOSING ideas on there! Too many carbs? Maybe too few carbs? Too much exercise? No..too little exercise!  Figuring it all out could be the experiment from hell!

But I decided to go through the list and determine which of these things would be the right place for ME to start, based on my own health and activity levels.  And here’s my current plan of action:

  • Keep an accurate food journal to determine what I’m eating – my problem would be too many calories rather than too few, too many carbs and the wrong kind of carbs, and possibly too much fat. I’ll watch those things carefully.
  • Be sure to drink enough water every day.
  • Keep getting enough sleep.
  • Get to the gym 3x/week, but not more (I need the rest days for sure!)
  • Try to attend more fat-burner classes and focus on less weight/more reps.
  • Do walks or bike rides with my daughter to the park every night.
  • Have less coffee, more cinnamon tea & jamaica tea.
  • Stop having all the “cheats” I’ve been sneaking in (yes, guilty here) – Girl Scout cookies, pizza, energy bars with gluten, slices of bread with butter, extra spoonfuls of Maple Almond Butter, French Fries, etc.
  • No intermittent fasting, but I’ll add in more green juices (I’ve been slacking off on them lately)

Writing it down like that makes me realize that my plateau may be coming mostly from the unhealthy snacks that keep making it into my diet lately.  For several months I was VERY strict; I’d take cucumbers with me to pizza places and I would not eat a single chip if a bag of them made it into my house.  But lately I’ve been slacking, having mouthfuls of junk here and there, and it’s adding up.  I need to start being more strict about Paleo, and keep my cheats to one cheat meal here and there, not a continuous stream of cheating every day.

One of my favorite quotes about the food journal comes from Jillian Michaels, who says on her blog, ” Truth be told, I mostly think of plateaus as a myth. My philosophy on weight-loss plateaus is that someone claiming to have hit one isn’t paying enough attention to detail. When you first start a diet and fitness program, you make drastic changes — maybe you gave up soda, started counting points, whatever — your body responded to that and you lost weight fast. To continue to lose weight, you’ll need to create a consistent calorie deficit, which means you’ll need to start paying attention to what really matters — how many calories you’re consuming and how many you’re burning. The only way to track this accurately is to count calories at every single meal.”

I don’t want to count calories forever, but it helped me at the start of my weight loss journey by opening my eyes to how MUCH I was eating.  Once I got into the swing of Paleo, I found that I could eat almost whatever and as much as I felt hungry for, as long as it was Paleo, and still lose weight. I hope that will still be true if I get back to strict Paleo eating!  But for a while I’ll track my food and calorie count to stay honest to myself about what I’m putting into my mouth.

I don’t know about you, but the “get enough rest” really resonates with me. There are people I know who can and do work out daily, completing hard workouts! — but I can’t. Three days of cross-fit a week is right for my body at this point.  Maybe a year from now I’ll be doing 4-5 workouts a week, and that would be great, but right now I need to listen to my body.  Although I push hard during each workout to be stronger, faster and lift more,  I don’t want to push past my body’s recovery limits.

And although I love lifting heavy (because it’s something I’m starting to be good at!), I’m taking seriously the suggestion about incorporating more fat-burning style workouts into my exercise line-up.  I hope that will increase my stamina as well as helping me to burn more fat. (Live in the Phoenix area and want to join me? My gym is called Made In Crossfit.)

Here are a few of the websites that I found especially useful when investigating plateaus and how to overcome them:

Marks’ Daily Apple – Advice on Weight Loss Plateaus

More from Marks’ Daily Apple on Losing Weight

Overcoming Weight Loss On Paleo from PaleoPlan

Crossfit Fire’s ideas – AWESOME Graph of “badass-ness vs. effort”!

PaleoNoPaleo’s article on Tara Grant:

If you have suggestions on what worked to help YOU get through a plateau when you were already eating mostly Paleo or gluten-free, and already exercising regularly, I’d love to hear them!  We can all learn from each other, hopefully.  Best of luck to you, wherever you are on your path to health and fitness!

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Footnotes: * Other answers might be “that soda that sat on the counter for a few days before you got around to throwing it out,”  “the Earth, prior to Pythagoras,” and “not the surface of water in a glass pipette, because it forms a meniscus.”

** Did you ever watch the REALLY old Family Feud shows at your Grandma’s house on her grainy reception TV, fascinated and horrified by how Richard Dawson kissed ALL THE LADIES in such a gross, lecherous way?

Cross-Fit Competition

Goblet squats, shoulders to overhead lifts, burpees, box jumps, pull-ups — I was exhausted from all of this, and I was just the photographer!

MIC group at competition web

I spent last Saturday, January 11th, at the CrossFit Now gym in Tucson owned by Michael Moseley where they were holding a competition to help raise money for the Arizona Homicide Survivors Fund in honor of the victims of the January 8th 2011 Shootings.

I was there with my friends from the Made In CrossFit Gym, which is  owned by Oscar Garcia and managed by trainer Caterina D’Agrosa, and I was eager to watch the competitions and take pictures of the MIC competitors. Two of the other MIC competitors are also trainers at the gym – Dominic Denton is already a level 1 certified trainer, and and Roman Ortega is shadowing him now and will start teaching soon.

oscar jumping 3 web

Oscar Garcia, owner of the Made In Crossfit Gym,  competing

There were four events that each competitor had to complete, and each  focused on different skills.  One of the workouts consisted of double-unders, burpees and box jumps while a second alternated rowing for calories with goblet squats.  A third consisted of lifts and pull-ups, and the final one was a combination of squats and overhead lifts with successively higher weights.

Oscar and Dominic had scouted out a good location to park the MIC truck the night before, so everyone from our gym got to hang out in one of the best “tent city” locations (each gym grabbed a spot along the sidewalk on the street outside the gym) — we had a shady tree and we were very close to the entrance.  Folding chair and coolers made it look like a day at the beach, but the athletes didn’t get such a relaxing time, since they had to do all four of those brutal workouts throughout the day.

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Oscar, Claus & Caterina enjoy the cool morning

harper and grandma web

Gymnast in Training!

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Caterina, Oscar, Levi and Dolores near the MIC truck

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Caterina and Forest in between events

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Resting on the MIC truck (who knew it was so comfy?)

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Roman and Vida relax between events

A DJ played loud music throughout the day and there were a few booths set up to sell food, shirts and sweat bands next to a jumping castle for the kids.  The place was full of fit bodies wearing the logos from their respective gyms, but it was a friendly vibe too — everyone was supportive and cheerful.  It was definitely a family-friendly day, even though the kids got tired after so many hours of being there.

claus and charlie web roman and vida 4 webdenton family 3 web dolores and family 2 web harper 2 web michael and family 2 web ortega family 1 web

Oscar did the work of three people, since he was competing, coaching, AND cheering for everyone from his gym!

cheering for forrest weboscar lifting 3 web

 

stretching web

Caterina did a great job keeping everyone organized and offering coaching and advice throughout the day. She even handled the occasional photobomb with her usual grace.

paola 8 webgina and cate web

caterina and photobomb 2 web

Some of the athletes expressed anxiety about being watched and photographed by so many people, but they all did well despite the crowds and the audience watching every single movement they made.

Here are a few more from each athlete.

Oscar Garcia:

oscar with kettlebell 4 web oscar rowing 2 web oscar pullups 8 web oscar lifting 20 web oscar lifting 10 web oscar lifting 4 web oscar lifting 2 web oscar jumprope 2 web oscar jumping 6 webDominic Denton:

dominic with kettlebell 2 web dominic rowing 1 web dominic pullups 3 web dominic lifting 11 web dominic lifting 6 web dominic lifting 3 webRoman Ortega:

roman with kettlebell 3 web roman rowing 1 web roman pullups 2 web roman pullups 1 web roman lifting 9 web roman lifting 3 web roman jump rope 3 web roman burpee webAbby Loebenberg:

abby with kettlebell web abby warming up web abby on rower 4 web abby on rower 2 web abby lifting 6 web abby lifting 3 webPaola Moreno:

paola with kettlebell 2 web paola pullups 1 web paola lifting 5 web paola lifting 2 web paola 2 webMichael Mowry:

warming up web

michael lifting 13 web michael lifting 10 web michael jumprope 3 web michael box jump 5 webForest Redlin:

forrest with kettlebell 4 web forrest on box 5 web forrest on box 3 web  forrest lifting 4 web forrest lifting 3 web forrest jumprope 1 webGina Nyberg:

gina warming up 2 web gina lifting 4 web gina lifting 1 web   gina jumprope 2 web gina burpee 1 web gina with kettlebell 7 web gina with kettlebell 8 web gina on rower 7 web

At the end of the day the athletes were completely drained, but it was amazing  to watch them give 100% of what they had in the competition. It was inspiring to see so many fit people, and I felt motivated to keep working hard and eating healthy to get into better shape myself.

Thanks to Oscar, Caterina, and all the competitors - Oscar, Forest, Gina, Dominic, Roman, Abby, Paola, Michael.  You did a super job!  And a huge thanks to the CrossFit Now gym in Tucson for sponsoring and hosting the entire event.  And all of us spectators did a great job too.  :)

cheering web

jane 2 web jennifer and caterina web katie web levi 1 web lori 2 web lori and vida 1 web martha 2 webbeto webNow everyone gets to relax and recover…and get ready for what’s next on the horizon, whether it’s another competition or just the joy of staying in great shape at Made In Crossfit.  

oscar and guys web

 

 

CrossFit Photography

My latest photography project has intersected with “real life” in an interesting way: I’m taking pictures for the Made In Crossfit  (MIC) gym in Tempe, and I’m also working out there.

priscilla 23 cr bw webOscar Garcia (below), the owner and lead trainer, is enthusiastic and positive, and tries to help motivate each gym member.

MIC pic 4 bw cr webI brought my studio lights and backdrop equipment to MIC to take portrait shots, and also visited  various classes to take candids of the athletes. It’s been an amazing experience to meet the gym members and get to know them better as I take their pictures. I’m also working out at the gym 3X/week.  My exercise goals are to get stronger and lose weight. My photographic goal is to get the very best crossfit website pictures possible, and with athletes like these, my job is easy!

Ortega 27 web

Ortega 39 bw web

caterina 10 web

 

MIC pic 33 bw webMIC tires 9 bw webluz 4 bw web

Oscar has three other certified CrossFit trainers who also teach classes and coach the athletes during workouts.

First up is Caterina:

caterina 13 webAnd then there is Dominic:

Dominic 23 bw2 webAnd George:

George 24 bw2 webEach trainer has a unique perspective and set of skills to share with the gym members, and each trainer is encouraging and friendly.  They ensure that each gym member receives personal coaching and feedback on technique. They also  verify that everyone is is using the right form, and will walk around during classes correcting stances, demonstrating the right way to do each movement, and offering encouragement.

Members are encouraged to push themselves in a healthy way — beginners use modifications so they do not injure themselves or tire too soon  trying to perform advanced moves, and the competition is mostly with yourself (although there is friendly banter among the gym members about WOD times.)

The atmosphere in the gym is one of friendliness and support.  Members hug each other hello, chat about their families, and join together on purchases of speed ropes or WOD repair lotion to save money on shipping.  It’s not a meat-market, and it’s not competitive in a negative way — everyone is very welcoming and encouraging to old and new members alike.

Now you may be wondering: Jennifer, do you look like these people yet? And the answer is, well, NO.  And it doesn’t matter.  Nobody judges you here on how you look — just on how hard you work, and whether you give 100%.  I’ve heard several personal success stories from the fittest gym members about how they’ve lost 50+ lbs and gotten into the best shape of their life, and it’s VERY encouraging.  People like you even if you’re overweight, even if you don’t have defined triceps, and even if you can’t complete a WOD. It’s all about supporting each other and working hard.  And I love it!

In the 3 weeks I’ve been working out here, I’ve:

  • Learned what WOD means (Workout of the Day)
  • Learned how to do cleans, snatches, and wall balls
  • Lifted more weight than I thought I could
  • Done 100 situps in a row
  • Completed some tough workouts and felt exhilarated and proud afterwards (although also very sore and shaky!)

I hope that it will be ME, in a year or so, sharing MY success story to a newcomer, and I’m willing to put in the work to make it happen.  And while I do, I have these friendly, amazing athletes around me to offer support and encouragement.

If you’re debating whether you should CrossFit, I say: Try it!

Below are a few more  examples of some Made In Crossfit athletes during their portrait sessions and regular workouts. I hope these pictures inspire you to continue giving 100% at your next workout!

 

priscilla 24  bw3 web luz 6 web Lucy 3 webAimee 10 bw web Angela 8 web Brenda 26 bw web Dolores 13 cr web Elizabeth 8 web Eric and Lorena 2 bw2 web Martha 17 web Martha 18 web  Brenda 21 bw webElizabeth 4 webMartha and Dominic 6 web Vicky 1 web Vicky 12 bw webMIC 12 BW web baseline 3 web MIC pic 76 bw web

Thanks for reading, and enjoy your next workout!