Tag: CrossFit

A Week of Strict Paleo

Nick Momrik1 Comment

We’re doing a 30 day Paleo challenge at Survival Fitness. If you aren’t sure what Paleo is, check out the beginner’s guide. It officially started last Wednesday, but I starting eating strict on Monday to get myself going. In the first week, I’ve lost 5 pounds and dropped about 1% body fat (according to my Withings scale). I think this is the first time I’ve been under 175 pounds in a decade. I don’t want to go any lower though, because 175-180 is a good range for me. I do want to lose more body fat and put on muscle to replace it. It’s extremely difficult to do both at the same time though, especially with where I’m at. It’s going to be interesting to see how the numbers shake out over the next few weeks.

I was asked to post about what I ate during the week, so here goes. I starting logging my food on Wednesday because that’s when the official challenge started. Monday and Tuesday meals would have been very similar.

Wednesday

  • Breakfast: Eggs, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and coffee
  • Lunch: Beef roast and broccoli
  • Snack: Sweet potato
  • Dinner: Chicken breasts and broccoli

Thursday

  • Breakfast: Eggs, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and coffee
  • Lunch: Beef roast, broccoli, and coffee
  • Snack: Raw almond butter
  • Snack: Sweet potatoes
  • Dinner: Chicken breasts, beef roast, and green beans with slivered almonds

Friday

  • Breakfast: Eggs, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and coffee
  • Snack: Raw almond butter
  • Lunch: Salmon and broccoli
  • Snack: Raw almond butter
  • Dinner: Salad (it had some croutons and cheese), grilled white fish, and broccoli

Saturday

  • Breakfast: Eggs, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and coffee
  • Lunch: Salmon, green beans, and blueberries
  • Snack: Almond milk
  • Dinner: Pork chops and broccoli

Sunday

  • Breakfast: Eggs, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and coffee
  • Snack: Sweet potatoes and almond milk
  • Lunch: Pork chops and green beans
  • Dinner: Beef roast, green beans, coffee, and an egg-turkey burger-spinach muffin

Notes

  • I do CrossFit about 5 times a week, but that’s nothing new.
  • I’m drinking 90+ ounces of water each day.
  • I don’t weight or measure my portions. I generally keep my meat, chicken, and fish portions to the size of a fist, but it’s not something I watch closely.
  • When I eat eggs I usually have 4.
  • Wherever you see sweet potatoes as a snack, that’s what I eat as soon as I get home from a CrossFit workout.
  • The almond milk I buy is unsweetened. I also put some of it in my coffee, which isn’t mentioned above.
  • I’m a big fan of frozen steamable vegetables because of the convenience. I frequently eat an entire 12oz package with a meal.
  • For the week, the only thing I ate off-plan was some croutons and shredded cheese that came on my salad Friday night at dinner. The amount was so small it’s hard for me to even call it a cheat.

If you have any questions, leave a comment.

CrossFit for Hope

Nick Momrik1 Comment

CrossFit is combating childhood cancer and other deadly diseases through its inaugural CrossFit for Hope fundraiser, benefiting St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

It’s no secret that I’m addicted to CrossFit. If you know me at all, you’ve heard me talk about it or you’ve read some of my stuff on Facebook, Twitter, or my blog. When I saw that CrossFit was putting on a fundraiser, I knew I wanted to help out and could have fun doing it.

On June 9th, I’ll be doing the “Hope” workout, which is 3 rounds of:

  • 1m Burpees
  • 1m 75# Power snatch
  • 1m Box jump, 24″ box
  • 1m 75# Thruster
  • 1m Chest to bar Pull-ups
  • 1m Rest

One point is given for each rep. My goal is to get 150 total reps in this WOD.

If you’d like to help support this great cause, visit my profile on the CrossFit for Hope site to make a flat donation or a performance-based sponsorship based on the number of reps I actually complete in the workout. 100% of the proceeds will go directly to St. Jude. I’ve pledged $0.20 per rep to kick things off.

Thanks!

My First CrossFit Competition

Nick Momrik4 Comments

Nearly 70,000 people around the world competed in the 2012 CrossFit Games Open. It really is an open competition that anyone can join. It was my first CrossFit competition and will not be my last.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Open, I’ll explain a bit. Each Wednesday night, for 5 weeks, a new workout is announced online. Athletes have 96 hours (4 days) to complete the workout and submit a score online. Athletes can submit a video of the workout or complete it at a CrossFit affiliate where they can validate the score. I completed all of my workouts at CrossFit Full Strength in Phoenix, AZ, where I’ve been working out since early January. If you are ever in the area, it’s a great box with top notch coaches and a great community.

After each workout is completed, athletes get ranked according to the number of reps completed. The placing in each workout is used as a point total toward the total ranking. Low points are obviously better because 1st place in a workout is worth one point. The winners of the Open had 41 points in the men’s division and 26 points in the women’s division! Me? I had 91,945 points.

When the Open started I had only been doing CrossFit for 4 months (see how I got started), so I set a realistic goal to beat 10% of the guys. I finished 1,194th out of 1,554 in the South West region and 16,389th out of 22,174 in the world for men that completed all 5 workouts. That comes out to beating 23% of men in the South West and 26% of men in the world. BOOYAH!

Below you can see my leaderboards. In each workout the first number is my ranking in the workout and the number in parenthesis is the number of reps I completed for that workout.

I posted recaps of each workout on my CrossFit blog:

The Open is so cool because you get to see how you compare against people from around the world. Now I have a benchmark to measure against for next year’s Open. How much can I improve my fitness in the next year? The sky’s the limit.

Since the Open was 5 weeks long and I had to fit in that special workout each week, I was glad to see the end. But I have the itch to compete again in another competition as a way to push and test my body, not so much as a way to shoot for any type of win. I’m realistic about my strength and body without aspirations of being an elite CrossFitter. If I can make a version of me that is better than yesterday, I’m succeeded.

In this competition I was able to do things I wouldn’t dream of. An example came in the 2nd workout, a snatch ladder. Before the workout my PR in the snatch was 95 pounds. In fact, I had never attempted anything heavier. After easily knocking out 30 reps at 75 pounds, I spent 3 or 4 minutes failing to get 135 pounds over my head even once. I figured there was no way it was happening, but with 4 minutes left on the clock, I kept trying. Then I got it. And then I got it again and again. I managed to get 6 reps. A 40 pound PR not once, but 6 times!

I’d become addicted to CrossFit soon after my first workout on October 31, 2012, but competing in the CrossFit Games put the sport on another level for me. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year have in store. Where’s the next competition? Sign me up.