Hurts so Good

Oh Crossfit, I believe we are doomed to be star-crossed lovers with a love-hate relationship that knows no bounds. The best part of Crossfit? Walking back up the ramp, completely out of breath, after the WOD is over. Like, whoa, I just did that.

The worst part of Crossfit? Oh, just about everything else. The anxiety of checking the Facebook page to see if they posted the WOD for the day yet, the terror that strikes at 5 p.m. when they have NOT posted it and you have no idea what you’re in store for, the drive to Crossfit wondering at every light if your car will make all of the right turns to actually get you to the physical location, and the list goes on.

Now, I’m making Crossfit sound terrible, and it is isn’t. When I started Crossfit, I had recently moved and no longer had my gym nearby my house, and not only that, but I was in a gym rut. I would go and do intervals on the treadmill, use a few of the abdominal machines, maybe a couple of the arm machines, not make eye contact with anyone, listen to my own music and drive home, along with the lack of accountability? Ha. It was like being alone in a crowd of people. To my misfortune luck, a few friends from the social sports leagues I play on decided to try Crossfit out and join.

So I tried it out for the free week. I had never been so awkwardly sore in my whole life. It was interesting and different, but what did it for me was the comradery. I’m slapping high fives with people I don’t even know, I’m sweating more than I’ve ever sweat before and so is everyone else and no one cares, the trainers always push you just a little bit further than you’re comfortable with, which makes you realize just what you can actually do and the insane sense of accomplishment you feel when you’re done.

It’s almost scary. In a good way.

We recently moved and got a ridiculous amount of new equipment. Here are some pictures of our new facility:

The coaches did such an awesome job in such a short amount of time. Hello people, you think you hate moving? Try moving weights. Enough said.

Ooops, and here are the WODs from the past three days. Needless to say, I’m very sore, mostly shoulders.

Xfit WOD 12.16.13

Xfit WOD 12.17.13

Xfit WOD 12.18.13

I like to post these, it makes me feel even more accountable. Sorry if I’m boring you!

Any other questions about Crossfit, acronyms, workouts, etc.? Ask away! I’ll answer to best of my newbie knowledge.

Want to come and check it out? Do it, just take a sip of the koolaid..

By the way, these are the coaches last Halloween as the guys from Magic Mike, jus’ saying..

Yesterday in photos!

Yesterday was a pretty typical weekday for me, so I figured I’d share my hectic typical workday with you. Warning: today’s food consumption was not typical, well, maybe typical for a rushed Monday morning and not packing lunch the night before..

Breakfast was a quick stop at Starbucks for a cold pressed juice and a plain toasted multigrain bagel which I later put pb2 on.

Look at all of that fruit! And the whole thing was only about 200 calories. It was awesome. God knows how much it was.. Thanks for the gift cards fam!

Work, work, work.. Then lunch at noon, which was leftover butternut squash soup and a slice of leftover old forge pizza (eggplant, spinach, tomato, garlic, no cheese. die..) from the weekend. Sorry, no pic! Ate it before I remembered.

Next, running errands on the second half of my lunch break. Then coffee at three, done with work at five.

Typically on non sports days I go to crossfit at 6:15. There is a 5:15 class that I sometimes take advantage of, but my friends all go to the 6:15, so more errands (grocery shopping at Wegman’s on Mondays always) before crossfit.

By the way, you sucked yesterday Wegman’s. They were out of a quarter of the things on my list! I NEED my red curry paste!!

So, truth time. I haven’t been to crossfit in about a week and a half and I was mildly terrified to go yesterday. And I was right about it. It sucked big time. Here was the WOD:

Truth be told, push-ups are my kryptonite. Horrible. And squats kill me too. Like not walking properly for days. Needless to say, I used a ten lb plate. I think I made it about five and a half rounds. I suck. Shut up.

After crossfit, race home (usually get home around 7:45) to have a protein shake and start dinner (and watch Jeopardy of course). Here’s a list of recipes I’ve been eyeing up:

But of course, by this point I’m exhausted and I go with a staple in our house that the boy loves. Quinoa stir fry with garlicky kale, red beans, Wegman’s soy sausage crumbles, garlic, a little chili powder and a handful of sun dried tomatoes (last ingredient was new this week). It rocks. Plus there’s always leftovers. 🙂

Then a little couch time, knitting, bob’s burgers, svu, can’t beat it. And of course this:

Bed by ten-thirty? Yes please!

And so it begins..

Why hello, didn’t see you there.

My name is Katie (Katherine for short) and I’ve been contemplating entering the blogosphere for some time now. I’m obsessed with reading fitness, health, & vegan blogs and gained so much inspiration from them that I figured I could share my take on the world as well, which in turn might inspire someone else.. blah, blah, blah.. So yep, here I am. Welcome to my crazy world.

First things first – I HATE writing. So creating a blog makes perfect sense, right? Right. I thought so too.

My intentions for this blog are recipes, workouts, lots of pictures (probably mostly of my dog – obsessed.), and some general ramblings. This is probably the most I will ever write in one blog. I mean, who really wants to sit there and read paragraph after paragraph of someone else’s life? Not me. I probably lost a few of you already, so here’s a picture of the best thing that ever happened to me.

Well, now he looks more like this..

And maybe a little of this..

That may or may not have been Halloween. I dress my dog up. He loves it. Get over it.

So yes, you have officially been introduced to Sir Berkeley James, know as “Sir” or “Berk” or “Get back here!” for short. He’s a 4-year-old Goldendoodle from good old Amish Country, PA. He likes long walks on the beach, a nice glass of red wine by the fire place and dirty half chewed nerf footballs. You will see a lot of him on here.

Okay, what else? Oh, so there’s the other love of my life. Can’t forget about him. This is Mr. Clean, oh, I mean Bill. Oops, I forget sometimes.

Isn’t he adorable? No, but seriously, he’s pretty awesome. Like, he even does the dishes. Melt..

To be fair, here’s both of us at one of the billion weddings we went to over the summer. He’s a stud. Obviously.

Hmm.. What else? I suppose there’s somewhere in here to make an “About Me” sections, so I won’t go in depth into that here. Here’s the CliffsNotes..

• Vegan, LOVE to cook. There will be many recipes and pictures.
• It’s all about Berkeley, we just live in his world.
• This is my best friend since third grade, Larisa. She’s crazy awesome. (This is at our Senior Prom I believe. Classy.)

• I play organized Adult dodgeball (amongst other sports). It’s awesome. Shut up.
• Structural Engineer in North East PA. I make things stand up, I don’t make them pretty, therefore we are highly underappreciated in our industry. Poor me.
• Recently drank the punch and joined Crossfit. It’s horrible awesome. I’ll share the horrible fun workouts with you everyday. Berkeley does Crossfit too..

• We brew beer, we go to tastings, we are in a Beer club. We’re the real deal.
• I like wine too.
• The only professional sport I will watch is Football. Go Eagles! I have never been to a live game, and I lived in Philadelphia for 7 years, go figure.
• I bite my nails. Still. I’m 29. Gross.
• I want to like running but I seriously hate it. Like with a passion. Double Gross.

Well, that about sums it up. Welcome and make yourself at home.

Dodgeball tonight.

Hooray!

Shut up.