I Make "The Rockin' World Go Round!"

After contemplating about it for a year,  I made the life altering decision to get bangs. 



Chub Girl with new bangs
on her way to work!



Yes, yes laugh all you want, it's a big commitment!  But so far I am loving the change although it is rather drastic.  Thankfully working out hasn't been an issue with hair in front of my face since I have been rocking some awesome sweatbands and totop it off  I added some leg warmer to the mix.  I mean if you are going to rock a look, I say go all in. 

Last week I mentioned that I needed to put a screeching halt on my offensive eating habits and I was finally ready to take this on.  Before I began the cleanse, I needed to take stock of my chub, therefore to make it official I had my new trainer strip me down to my unmentionables and take my measurements.   Can I just tell you how awful it is to stand in front of a mirror....after a workout...with no makeup on...in your underwear.  Seriously shoot me, then of course seeing how huge you are on paper isn't fun.  (14 in arms? Seriously?  47 inch ass? Ugh.).

The Legend, SirMixaLot

I used to comfort myself with the wise lyrics of SirMixaLot who said "36-24-36 only if she's 5'3"!" so if I stayed in those parameters I would be in good shape.  Now I'm too much woman to seek comfort in this classic song... Not cool.  I guess I'm moving on to 'Fat Bottomed Girls' as a new anthem.

Well after gathering myself from the trauma, I headed to Costco to load up on some bulk sized fruits and veggies and lean meats. I even managed to not sample everything in sight! Off to a great start.   When I went home I made the first healthy meal in a long while of Tilapia with salsa and fresh avocados... instant heaven.  I forgot how much I love fresh meals.  With all the chaos at work and life I have been eating whatever was available and my sensitive stomach did not handle this well.  But after my Tilapia lunch I remembered what it felt like to feel satisfied and not my usual feeling of disgust.  It has been 6 days since I started this cleanse and I haven't felt deprived at all. When I have a sweet tooth craving I load up on raspberries or an apple and the occasional unsweetened dried fruits at the office.  Having loose leaf teas in the afternoon has helped eliminate my need for a snack, I usually have a fruit flavored tea like peach.  But honestly anything from Teavana is incredible.

Now that I feel better about myself and my stomach isn't killing me all day from something horrible I decided to eat, I have been upping my performance at work.  I feel like I have been on my game in meetings and my ability to juggle an insane amount of work hasn't seemed as difficult.   Now I can be a woman who is taken seriously without having a button burst from my pants to kill the illusion!

Now back to work!

Chub Girl

A New Season, A New Me

Well it's finally happened, after four years of putting in the time, I received my official promotion yesterday!

I couldn't be more excited, and it couldn't have happened at a better time since the family could use some good news these days.  I am very fortunate to absolutely love what I do and love the company I work for.   I think it makes all the difference in the world when you can get excited to go to work every morning.  And trust me with a long commute you need to have some deep motivation to get on New Jersey Transit every day.  

Since the holidays I have had to turn my focus from the gym to work.    Working late nights and into the weekends has made me so  drained that I can barely make it to my bed let alone the gym.  Thus why I had to switch my evening workouts to dawn.  This is the only time I can guarantee that I don't have a meeting... unless I get a call from our international offices to throw everything off... But nevertheless after working out every day for the last two years I don't want to lose my momentum after making so much progress.    This seems to be keeping my stress at bay and hopefully my growing waist line will once again begin to shrink.

Yea, so... Speaking of progress or should I say lack of progress.   I have been eating HORRIBLY.  Ever since I stopped Jenny Craig, my portion control has been going bonkers.  I pretty much start every day the same way,  Alex makes me an amazing omelet while I scramble to get dressed.   I head to the city and start my workday,  by 11am I am already starting to think about lunch thanks to my dear friend Ekin who starts asking everyone what we are doing for lunch.  I should mention that she is a Turkish version of Aubrey Hepburn (Gorgeous, skinny, and the best eater I've ever seen… seriously, she can give a frat boy a run for his money).  Actually now that I think about it everyone I sit around is gorgeous, skinny, and always eating. Damnit!  How is it I am the only one that needs to diet all the time!  

Anyway I digress... By the time the group figures out what we are going to eat we are so hungry that we pick a meal that doesn't involve salads.  Then it's back to the chaos of work...  In the late evening I head to the train absolutely starving. I always do a lap at Penn station for a snack and every time I come up with nothing.  My only options are hot pretzels, Nathan's, Taco Bell, or pizza... Even in my binge modes I wouldn't reach for any of this, especially when you see the calorie count on the menu (1500 calories for a hot dog?!)   A few hours later when I finally arrive home, I reach for whatever will go down the fastest and lately it's been terrible things like Ramen or whatever frozen food I could zap in the microwave.   I miss having plates of fresh food!   Obviously my next health move will be to get back in the habit of cooking on the weekends so I have something easy to grab.

 It's amazing writing this all down and seeing how easy the solution can be.   Now that I see that I can solve one of those issues, come this weekend I will start cooking large quantities of chicken to grab after work. 

 It's all about baby steps!  

One more quick update, last week’s Crossfit challenge was horrible for me!  The challenge was:

18minutes AMRAP: (as many rounds as possible)

 15 Box Jumps at 20in

12 Push Press at 75lbs

9 Toes to Bar


This is what it would look like if I was the best
in the world at Toes to Bar.  Meet Annie Thorisdottir.

 I have terrible core muscles and the most fragile hands ever so trying to get my toes to touch (think monkey bars and swinging your feet up to hang)the bar  was the hardest thing imaginable.  In all my years at crossfit I have never been able to do this.  So my goal was to get one!  I watched dozens of people fly through this workout! And when I started I was really fast at box jumps and the presses (like within 1 minute) giving me 17 minutes to work on Toes to Bar… well I got one! Then two!  But then after 16 minutes of being told “NO REP!” my shoulders were throbbing and I was doing more damage than it was worth.  So I had to stop.  Final score 29… worst in my group (the best being 246). SADFACE!  But on a positive note, it was a new PR!  This week the workout is bananas… 150 wall balls, 90 double unders and 30 muscle ups.  Although I am pretty awesome at Double Unders I doubt I will even reach this point of the challenge.  But we will see!! I will update you next week!

-Chub Girl

The Morning Panic

I’m sweating, I have knots in my stomach, I can't sleep.  This can only mean one thing...  Wednesday has arrived.

Thousands of athletes around the world are experiencing the same burst of anxiety as me, knowing that in a few hours the announcement of the next Crossfit Games workout will be posted.   You would think after two years of pushing my body to do things I never thought possible that I wouldn't get nervous.  Yet every morning when I walk into the gym I get that anxious feeling in the pit of my stomach and the Games have only heightened this feeling.

Last week I got an ego boost with the snatch test by taking the top spot among my little group which was nice after coming in last place the week before.  This also jumped me up a few thousand spots on the overall Leaderboard (ok I'm still 15797th place but at least it's not the last page, right? )

Like many of my friends, we can only pray that this week the workout isn't a movement like Muscle-Ups (something I can't even attempt).  I'm assuming that this will happen at some point but I would hate to not be able to participate in a workout!  So let's keep our fingers crossed for something I am awesome at... Double Unders!

Today I did 7 minutes of quick single jumps with the rope.  It was a great warm-up and I was able to go a solid two minutes without having to take a break, this has been helping me with my Double Unders which nowadays I'm getting about 20-25 turns per attempt. (if I'm just focusing on this movement and not doing a WOD).    Man, I'm really banking on this being the 12.3 workout!

So what else has been going on in my little life... Work, work, work.  These last few months have been ridiculous, so we decided to go on a hiring spree.  Hey, I do what i can to help the unemployment numbers drop! VOTE CHUB GIRL 2012!!

But on a serious note....Does anyone know any amazing (and I'm talking best in class) presentation designers?  Skills would require you to be an incredible storyteller, have a good foundation in marketing/brands, and of course design skills ( PPT, Adobe Suite, Keynote).  Seriously if you know anyone please let me know, it would be saving me from an early onset nervous breakdown!  

Chub girl!

Back from the Dead

It has been a long month, and I know I have been completely slacking on my blogging.   So let me catch you up!

Over the last few weeks, I have been forced to learn how to manage stress.  This has really been the first time in my life where I felt I had very little control and the spinning was making me nauseous.  I figured out very quickly that not making time to have good meals was a big mistake, on top of being incredibly busy I was now sluggish and grumpy.   And to make matters worse, all this not eating wasn't helping me lose weight!  Damnit!   So obviously I am doing something wrong. 

I decided to shake things up a bit in my life, I took a month off at my gym and stopped Jenny Craig.  This might have been for financial reasons more than health but it turned out to be very good decisions.   Instead I have been running on my own and checking out new gyms with my coworkers and other friends.  On top of all this the Crossfit Games have started and a bunch of us at the office decided to join in as a friendly competition. This is a six week competition where once a week a workout is announced and you have 5 days to complete the workout at a Crossfit Affiliate (TripleThreat and NYC) who will judge you on each rep.  So far we have tackled two of these workouts.  This was going to be pretty exciting since I just received my Nike FuelBand which tracks my calorie burn..... whooo!!

The first week (12.1) of this competition was 7 minutes of Burpees... burpees are the devil, and I am not friends with this devil.  For the last year I have been trying to perfect this movement, Crossfit 732 does an excellent job at training you for this, when I addressed that I wanted to work on it, Bryan worked with me to bring my knees forward for a quicker standup.  It helped a lot.   So the last time we did 100 burpee workout it took me 25 minutes... in this Crossfit Games workout I did 58 in 7 minutes.  That's some good progress.   I was by far the worst in my group of friends who all averaged between 75-110.   But considering I am awful at these, I took my 58 as a win!  However seeing my name at the bottom of the list in my office was NOT OK!  Yes I have an ego, and I can stand being second to last, but last place?  NO WAY JOSE!

So this week was a godsend, the 12.2 workout was Snatches... no one in my group has ever even attempted this lift, so right away I was confident!  The official workout was:

10min ARAP (as many reps as possible)
30 reps @ 45lbs
30 reps @ 75lbs
30 reps @ 100lbs
30+ reps @ 120lbs

I took three days to retrain myself with the movements and tried to remember everything I learned last month with the Olympic Lifting Coach, Vlad.   High elbows and explode!  (thanks Amber and Sean for drilling it in my head!) So when i arrived at the affiliate I was pumped and ready to rock the shit out of this workout... when I saw the first round of people go, they only managed to get around 30reps, so I knew I had to take my time and pace myself.   I ended up getting 57 reps.  I am sooo pissed that I couldn't get 60.  I know i had it in me... but so far its the best out of my group.  So i will take that for now!  

After that event,  I saw a group of Homeland Security guys walk-through the door.  These guys were the real deal, their necks were thicker than my leg (that says a lot cuz im a chubster).  The trainers let us stay and try out the WOD which was a little nuts but I kept up with the boys which was an ego booster.

WOD:
3 rounds (one minute on each movement):
45lbs Thruster
45lbs Overhead Hold
Single Jump Rope
Double Unders
Sandbag Squat
Side by Side Jump
Rower
15lbs DB Clean & Jerk
Wall Balls
Jump over wall ball

I survived! I was ready to redo the Snatch test however the trainer started yelling at me for overdoing it... and when i looked at the clock and realized I had been working out for three hours straight, he was right!  OOPS.

Now I am going to head home and then to the movies and have a cheat meal.... then its buckling down on my couch (probably with a heat pad on my back) and doing some work for SXSW.  

-Chub Girl