New Gear and Goals!

Hello my lovelies! Oh how I have missed you.

All is swell here: lots of work, school, and crossfit. It’s a never ending cycle. (PS. Managerial economics BLOWS)

Anyways onto the fun stuff.

Spent my weekend in Oklahoma visiting my sister and her family! It was such a great weekend, the weather was awesome, and it was nice to just hang out and relax!

My little sister Logann and I drove up Thursday and didn’t get there till after midnight, it was a long drive in the Camaro but we passed it by listening to lots of Muse, Glee, and Mumford & Sons. We had to stop in Denton at Chipotle on the way up, duh!

Friday we went to the outlet mall, had lunch at Smashburger, picked my nephew up from school, and bought a fire pit for Candace’s back porch. Then I managed to get a wod in there home garage! Candace’s hubby made a sled with a tire and that thing is no joke.

Then I ran around the yard and chased the kids for hours which is tons of fun and a great way to stay in shape fo sho. 

After that I worked on my handstand while Candace made Chicken and dumplings aka Awesomesauce. The rest of the night was filled with time around the fire making s'mores. No better way to spend the evening for sure.

Saturday, the Hubby (who arrived at 2am Saturday morning) and I went to Dick’s in search of Reebok gear. Our Academy’s back home don’t carry Reebok. This girl loaded up.

I also got a pair of red shorts, not pictured. Those shorts are probably the best pair of shorts I've ever bought. They are a smidge short but if you are used to Lululemon's run speedy's then they won't bother you. I also think they are more comfortable then my Lulu's, the waist band is think and soft so no uncomfortable muffin top. The sports top is super comfy, maybe not good for running or box jumps, but great for everything else.

After fajitas at their local Mexican restaurant we spent the rest of the evening with my niece and nephew making more s'mores and carving pumpkins. Texans represent!

I was super bummed with the weekend ended.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my short term and long term fitness goals so I thought I would share them here.

Short term:
Back squat 200lbs (I’m at 185 right now)
Do an unassisted pull up
Be able to clean my body weight
Eat less starchy carbs
Run more
Continue to work on my 100 burpees for time (epic suckage)
Drink more water

Long term: (1-5yrs)
Get the nerve to compete in my first crossfit competition
Get my NASM
Get my Crossfit Level 1

Tonight the hubby cooked Skinny Taste's Shrimp Cobb Salad and Creamy Cilantro Dressing while I worked on my quiz. Now just relaxing with a Purple Haze (first beer I've had in AGES), carving MORE pumpkins and watching the Conjuring. SCARIEST MOVIE EVER.

Can you believe that tomorrow is Halloween already? We don’t get many trick or treaters out here in the woods but we did buy one bag of candy. And so I wouldn’t touch that candy I bought myself a Justin’s dark chocolate peanut butter cup! NOM.

Questions:

Do you have any long term or short term goals?
What do you plan to be for Halloween?

I want ripped abs not hands!

Anyone can ask me how much I love Crossfit and like 99.99% of Crossfitters I’m blissfully obsessed! That doesn’t mean that since I started Crossfit that I haven’t been caught in the gym cussing up a storm questioning why I started this brand of torture in the first place… 

But that only happens for two reasons: falling on box jumps and when I tear my hands. I fixed the box jump issue with some sweet Rigor Gear guards so lets talk about hand tears.

Nothing sucks more than hauling butt through toes to bar, pull ups or cleans and having to stop and utter some obscenities because your hand is missing skin and bleeding.

After looking around the web I have found some tips for preventing and treating hand tears.

First of all your hands rip for one of two reasons: 
1. You’re a softy and your hands haven’t had time to thicken up
2. You haven’t treated your hands to the right kind of loving.

Prevention

Contain your callouses, keep those hands sanded down and smooth. Use a nail file, corn shaver, cuticle scissors, or a pumice stone to keep those bad boys in check. I have even read about people using dremel tools… If that’s true or not I don’t know.

To quote the Crossfit Journal, “Ideally, your entire palm surface should be one thick callus with no bumps or ridges in any one particular area. In order to do this, groom your hands always after a hot shower or bath (this allows the calluses to swell up). While the calluses are still “swollen,” I take a double-edged razor and very carefully shave the dead callus bumps down a little at a time until the bumps are about even with the thickness of the rest of the hand. With my younger students, I simply ask them to get a callus stone (you can buy one at any drug store), and gently sand the callus down even with the rest of the skin. Remember, whenever you groom or shave your calluses, don’t overdo it, since you don’t want to go too deep into your skin. Always leave enough thick skin so to facilitate your workout the following day. The goal is to maintain an even and consistent thickness of hard skin throughout the entire palm.”

Keep your hands well moisturized with a good lotion when you aren’t busy wodding!

Use tape, gloves or Second Skin to protect your hands!

You can also use chalk to help protect your hands during workouts, but there is a thing as too much chalk which can lead to even more tears.

Another thing you may want to look at is your grip! Having improper grip can add to tears on your hands. Fit Bomb has a great article on this! Clicky.


Treatment

Soak your hands in salt water or in the tub with Epson salt to dry out the skin and help with the healing process.

Some people trim the torn skin, but most say leave it attached for faster healing, it is up to you. 

Use Neosporin or any other kind of antibacterial medication to clean the affected area. Some people use alternative aids like vitamin e, tea bags, and Dermabond skin sealant - but I haven’t tried those methods.

Cover the affected area, I use Band-Aid Tough Strips, I love the H shaped bandaids! They are perfect for this purpose!

Aquaphor or a thick lotion will assist the skin in recovering and speed up the replacement of new healthy skin!

So take care of those hands, remember lots of scrubbing and lotion to keep those pains away!

Todays WOD:

This girl is SORE. No joke.

The Hubby offered to cook dinner while I soaked in the tub! {WIN}

And created this delicious meal! Dinner is served! Skinny Taste Asian Edamame Fried rice & Skinny Kitchens Low Carb Chicken Lettuce wraps!

Now I'm off to watch one of my favorite shows, Extreme Makeover Weightloss Edition!

Nighty!

Questions:
How do you protect your hands?
Do you believe in gloves or no?

Eat clean, train mean, and inspire others!
-Jaren

Sources: Diamond Bar Crossfit, Crossfit New England, Examiner, and Crossfit San Jose.

MIMM #10

Happy Monday Friends! As much as I dislike Mondays, I’m glad to be back to routine after several days of holiday festivities.

So let’s talk all about my marvelous long weekend!

Thursday I got up early and ran sprints in the home gym. I had to share the TV with my niece who basically went crazy when she saw Lightning McQueen flash across the screen… I’m a sucker for Cars!

Afterwards involved lots of cleaning, cooking, and partying! We had all our immediate family and friends over for ribs, Mom’s homemade cole slaw, and grilled veggies! My friend Sarah brought Skinny Taste’s Red White and Blue Fruit Skewers with Cheesecake Yogurt Dip – which was amazing! Mom made this beauty.

Friday involved this deliciousness for lunch!!

And an evening of fun with friends and my niece and nephew.

Saturday I got up early and ran to town to make goodies for a friends party.

Nothing like a summertime cruise in the Camaro.

Then the hubby and I made the long trek down south, it was a blasty blast! Even though we didn’t get home till after two am. YIKES.

Sunday, we saw Candace and her family off back to Oklahoma… Sad business.

Then the hubby and I went to see the Heat!

It was pretty funny, I could just do without the F-word every other minute.

We did a little shopping as well at Target and Academy, my two favorite stores!

Picked up a new lunch kit so people would stop asking me if I was bringing a 12pack to work everyday. Plus it is pretty and stylish. Grabbed some more coaches tape for Crossfit wounds and new ice packs for my lunch kit since they get yucky after a while.

Can never have enough Yoga DVDs and I LOVE Jillian Michaels.

At Target I grabbed some Yes To shampoo and face wash. My little sister swears by it and introduced me to it, plus I’m always looking for ways to cut chemicals out my life. Also needed some more Stash’s green tea, and a new scrubby for my Crossfit induced callouses…

As for today, I managed to yank myself out of bed at 4am to get my butt kicked.

It has been a rainy day here in South Texas which is rare for the summer so this girl is going home and taking a rain and tin roof nap. Win.

Question:
What neat things did you pick up this weekend?
How did you spend your fourth of July?

Eat clean, train mean, and inspire others!
-Jaren

Weekend Wrap Up and a Recipe!

NOOOO! It can’t be Monday already, I’m not ready! I guess I can’t complain too much since it’s only a four day work week, which is pretty much a win.

Anyways, on this hot sunny Monday I thought I would just give you guys a little recap of my weekend!

I pretty much had the house to myself most of the weekend since the hubby had to work Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Boo.

Friday night the hubby made homemade Cajun Crawfish and Veggie pizza and we lounged on the couch and watched OZ. It was good but not one I’ll probably rewatch over and over. But I did really like the monkey!

Saturday morning I wanted to sleep in but that didn’t happen thanks to this little lady.

Such a hard life...

So I cooked myself breakfast and opted for some more yoga. Yoga is really growing on me lately. Weird.

Painted my nails!

When the hubby got home we gave the pretty lady a bath, I may or may not have stood under the water hose like a 5 year old since it was over a hundred degrees outside.

Then we headed off to the Bayou City Muscle Car meet. Dinner, froyo, and a whole lot of horse power.

Then one of my friends brought up my handstand photos so of course I had to demonstrate my mad skills.

Sunday I was a perfect mix of productive and lazy, if that’s even possible. Went to lunch with my sister, went grocery shopping for the week, and then cleaned the house only to turn around and nap the afternoon away!

But since I couldn’t let the hubby think I was laying around all day (even if I kind of was) I got up and ran sprints!

Proverbs 31:25

And cooked him dinner. I love Iowa Girl Eats Spicy Sausage Pasta Skillet and have been craving it but I wanted to make it without pasta and more veggies! And voila!

Creamy Chicken Sausage and Veggie Skillet

2 tsp of olive oil
4 oz of half and half (I used organic)
1c of chicken broth
1 can of rotel drained
1/2c of onion
2-4 garlic cloves (or more)
3-4c of broccoli
2-3c of spinach
2c of chopped mushrooms
1pkg of chicken sausage
garlic pepper
1/2pkg Italian dressing seasoning

Add olive oil, onions and garlic and cook until the onions are clear.

Add chicken broth, rotel and sausage and cook for about 5 minutes.

Add half and half, broccoli, mushrooms, seasonings and cook until the broccoli is done.

Add spinach and cook until done.

Makes about 4-6 servings.

You can put a little parmesan or goat cheese shavings on top, YUM!

Today my sister Candace from Salt Water Quilts is coming to stay the week! HAPPY! HAPPY! HAPPY! And bringing my favorite kiddos in tow for the holidays. Who knows what kind of shenanigans we will get into this week!

Question: What did you do this weekend?
How do you plan to spend your 4th of July?

Eat clean, train mean, and inspire others!

-Jaren

Ps. New banner! How do you like it?

Pss. Remember you can follow me on Facebook or Instagram, just click the icons in the top right corner. And I will love you just a little more than I already do.

What I Ate Wednesday #14

Good morning! Its another WIAW post and I'm going to continue posting like I have the last few weeks. Instead of posting everything I had in one day, I'm posting all the things I ate this week that caught my eye! This girl likes variety! 

----What WIAW isn't about----

Comparison - Judgement - Restriction - Guilt

----What WIAW is about----

Celebrating one of the glorious things we all have in common: We all eat!

WIAW is about food and fun! It's about making new friends, breaking out of a food rut, noting changes in your diet/lifestyle, inspiring yourself & others, embracing fruit & vegetables, nourishing your body with the foods that work for you, finding new ways to eat your favorite foods, and so much more <3

-peas & crayons

FROYO! from my favorite - Chiller Bee

the hubby's veggie and chicken pasta for dinner 

tilapia, broccoli and brown wild rice for lunch

went to dinner with the parentals and the hubby at BJ's Brewhouse

got the turkey burger without the buns and veggies instead of fries, yum

(sorry for the dark picture)

chopped tilapia over sauteed broccoli and spinach - happiness in my mouth

no joke

the hubby and I picked 10lbs of blueberries this past weekend

I have eaten so many blueberries over the last few days - little blue balls of yumyum

beef burger over spinach with avocado and mushrooms with sweet potato fries

sunday food prep 

took the hubby's mom out for dinner last night at Longhorn Steakhouse

salmon and veggies off the 500cal or less menu

was very very good

my daily morning snack - I'm OBSESSED with green apples

lunch at Freebirds, the hubby's favorite

burrito bowl for the win

why don't we round out this post with all my workouts for the last week

if you don't understand what they mean just ask and I'll be happy to explain

last thursday

pr'd my clean and jerk by 10lbs making it 105lbs

wahoo!

friday was our wonderful coach katelyn's birthday

(I call her sargeant katelyn but I love her because she pushes me to do things I tell myself I can't)

saturday - sporting my new Wodlove tank and Unbroken Design's belt

this week is pr week at Crossfit PRx

pr'd my bench press by 10lbs making it 80lbs

max row for 30 seconds was 134m

from today

holy crow that wod sucked, it was rough - everyone was jello afterwards 

All of these pictures can be found on my Instagram @kiwifitblog (you can click the little camera icon in the top right corner). I would love for you to follow me!

Question: What workout kicked your butt this week?

Whats your favorite fruit? 

Buns or no buns?

Eat clean, train mean, inspire others! 

-Jaren