Day 16: New Skills

zzzzzzzzzzzzzz......Woke up feeling physically tired and snoozed far too many times...

Seems likely this is from last night's CrossFit.  But I don't feel wrecked/sore/injured.  This is GOOD.

Could just be the sleep issue?

Breakfast

Smoothie:

• Mixed frozen berries
  
• 1 scoop Kinetica whey (Vanilla)
• ~300ml coconut milk
• dash of water 
• crushed mixed nuts on top 

Love the convenience of frozen berries, and the cold/frozen yoghurt type texture they provide  :) 

Lunch

Went to see the lovely ladies of Food Therapy again, stocked up on some goodies, inc my favourite organic coconut oil (the smell is divine), raw almonds, [paleo] stock etc etc ('The Essentials').

While I was there I perused the general offerings..

Now I don't know about you but for about 65% of the year I'm not really bothered about soup.

In fact, I used to be somewhat phobic of it.  The idea of liquid food just did not appeal (still doesnt actually, when I think about it).

However, there gets to a time in the calender when soup suddenly just works.

And that time, I believe, is NOW.

So I purchased a little selection of the various hearty organic veg soups/tagines/stews on offer (narrowed to those which were Challenge-compliant, of course).  Should see me through the week at least.  (I like having a little store of items at work so I know I don't have to rush out and buy something, which quite often won't be that great as it's not been thought out - see the er scrambled egg/salad/guacamole combo I was touting last Tuesday....?!).

Today I had:

• Sri Lankan lentil and coconut soup: red lentils, onions, creamed coconut, too dhal, sea salt, lemon juice, chilli powder, tumeric, cinnamon

This was nice.  Not amazing.  But nice.  Good kick to it.  But too smooth for my liking (baby food? - not with that chilli!).

CrossFit

Today was work on bench press.

Well, I've never done bench press before.

Mike said "You probably thought bench press was for blokes"
And he was totally right, of course.

But then, before I started CrossFit in June, I'd never done any weights, apart from a couple of thigh squeezer machine things in the gym before. (gross)

I did find the whole thing all a bit weird.  Not a familiar movement at all. - though I'm aware its sort of like a press up (which I've never been good at either!)

Got up to 25kg but started laughing before I completed the set.. Whoops.  Tried again, all good. Well.. wobbly, but the weight was alright.

And I didn't trap myself under the barbell (probably my biggest worry with this!!).. [but then I wasn't drunk, or on my own, or an idiot (?)!]

Also worked on pull ups, still doing with the blue band, but able to do decent sets of 5.  Hoping to scale up to the thinnest band soon.

5 min AMRAP 
15 KB Swings - done at 12kg
7 Toes to bar - scaled

Rest 2mins

5 min AMRAP
Wall Ball - done at 5kg, 9'
If break a set, rest or miss a rep, perform 30s plank hold

I actually quite like planks (years of yoga and pilates).  But doing 30s holds when your body's feeling beaten is, cumulatively, pretty tough.  Good idea though.

Managed 7 rounds + 1 sit up of first bit. Felt good, controlled, and worked right through 'til time (hence the 1 lone sit up!).  62 Wall Balls, in a few sets (didn't count the number of sets).  Would've liked to have been less broken of course, but looking at the general consensus this seemed like a reasonable result.  Always surprised (and/or a little bit annoyed) with how much Wall Balls get to you!!

NB I don't generally look at other people's WOD results, since its all relative, and personal to them.  But sometimes I look to get an overview of where I'm at in relation to other people.  That's fine I think that's healthy.

Tea

Really didn't have much food in by today (no eggs for example), so struggled with what to make.

I appreciate that there will be careful decisions to make in the supermarket, but it seems to me that this is one of the occasions where eating meat definitely makes things easier (though of course you still need to have it in).  i.e. quick chuck some meat on the griddle/in the pan with some spices...  Lots of scope, with few/simple ingredients.

Irrelevant really, I don't eat meat.

I do, however, as part of this challenge, eat fish, on occasion.

Seems kind of funny to me that I got through 2 weeks of the (I'd say very restrictive, in my circumstances) Challenge, without touching fish, and then I end up eating it twice in three days..  Perhaps this means that 2 weeks is the amount of time required to exhaust my imagination?

I don't think this is true, actually.  Fish is just easy (like meat - see above).

I basically made a Fish Un-Pie, i.e. the contents of a fish pie, not in a pie (and slightly adjusted):

• Salmon, cod, smoked haddock, prawns (wild, sustainably caught) in a "creamy" sauce (stock, dill, thyme, olive oil, coconut milk, a little arrowroot, seasoning)
• Creamed cauliflower (cauli, seasoning, coconut milk, coconut butter)
• Asparagus, peas, broccoli

Nice.