Everyday we Husslin'

Trish sent me this one yesterday, Love it!

I am now obsessed with the song Jukebox Hero by Journey, check out a remix of the song below:

SOooo just like I told you, been KILLIN' it in the gym Monday and Tuesday after that 'Calorie-Packed' meal on Sunday night.

MONDAY:  Felt like a long day....came home and the power was out ugh...had nothing to eat because everything needed to be cooked.  I ate celery sticks with tuna (added miracle whip and pepper for taste, non-paleo) and a Protein Shake.  Took a nap in my muggy hot house, but at least the power came back on within 30 mins of me falling asleep and I took a rock hard nap.

Strength was 1 RM Bench Press -- I didn't do very well at this, Rob was giving me direction on how to execute it better and I feel I did worse following his instructions.  My 1RM is usually 105#.

WOD: 5 Rounds for Time
12 Full Squat Snatch 95/65
20 GHD situps

You wouldn't think this sounds so bad just looking at...but it was INTENSE...  65# isn't that heavy but its just getting the lift to flow properly is where you get stuck.  I tried to complete my 12 of each round in sets of 3.  The GHD situps I just cranked out as many as I could before getting light headed and then rested and went at em again.  The time cap was 15 mins but I wanted to finish, my Time for the full 5 rounds was 20:28.  I told Staci I wanted to set the bar for her and she completed it in 21:58, so BOOYAH!  I am glad she is back from her vacation in Nebraska, its good to have some competition and she really pushes me to do better.  Also, points out my weaknesses and what I need to improve on overall.

TUESDAY: Super Tired, but felt like I had a ton to do!  After work, I made lunch and prepared Paleo Pineapple Pork ribs!  Plus, I wanted to get the laundry started before it got too out of hand.  Finally, I was in bed napping around 2, I only got about a 2.5 hour nap before working out.  However, I took my new AMIN.O. Energy supplement by Optimum Nutrition and I love it!  I wanted to get away from all the chemicals and additives in 1MR and this was the solution to a more pure/clean energy.  The caffeine comes from Green Tea and uses BCAAs for recovery acceleration and improved focus and energy.  Plus the taste of Orange Cooler, tastes exactly like Orange Kool-aid!

Skill of the Day was to work on Hand-stand Push-ups.  I was able to do about 4 kipping and then after that my shoulders just got tired.  I want to be able to do them in actual workout, but if I am tired after 4 how am I going to complete the work when there is multiple.  I will have to scale back to using lighter bands to make it harder until I am able to link multiple kipping HSPUs.

WOD
12 min AMRAP of
12 Box Jumps 24/20"
6 Thrusters 95/65
6 Bar facing Burpees

I completed the 12 mins with 7 rounds Rx!  Murdered that.  Everyone else got about 4 rounds and a few extra reps.  My strategy going into this workout was to do everything unbroken.  I would do the 12 Box Jumps, then rest for a 5 count, do the 6 Thrusters, then rest for a 5 count, do the 6 Bar Facing Burpees, and rest for a 5 count before going on to the next round.  This strategy really helped me power through the workout and excel at it.

Bonus of the day, was that I actually got to coach 630 group!  I only had one student, Devin, but it was fine got a little one on one time an even got to stretch out with her which helped me out also.  After coaching, we practiced our 1 handed handstands.  Staci and I have come up with a challenge to see who can find the coolest/weirdest/funniest place to do a 1 handed handstand and take a picture of it.  The person with the most epic one wins!  I really need some ideas for this!?  Suggestions welcome :)

Now, back to the Pork Ribs!  The recipe I used can be found here.  These were delicious definitely making them again! However, Justin doesn't like pineapple...how can you not like pineapple, we live in Hawaii!

I will be trying out another rib recipe tonight, kind of adapted it on my own we will see how it turns out.  This one will be BBQ ribs, a little more traditional.

IPHONE 5!!!!

Happy Birthday to Me!!! I purchased the Iphone5 on Saturday, thanks to my Mom and Justin for buying it for me for my birthday present!  Best gift ever, well so far cause I love it!

I need to play around with the phone more to explore all that it has to offer.  I have added my usual apps to it, setup my email, and figured out the necessities.  But there is so much more to do on the phone, its crazy!  I <3 Apple products!  The phone is super sleek and thin, very light-weight.  I NEED to buy a case ASAP, I am so afraid to drop it.

This is the case I am going to buy:   It is the Speck SmartFlex Card case for the Iphone5

It will hold 3 cards!  My debit card, ID, and money! Perfect for a night out on the town, don't need to worry about losing anything cause I rarely lose my phone ha.  It would be the other stuff I'd lose!  I will post more about the phone as I become more familiar with it.

More Randomness-- We are actually looking into or thinking about opening an Aloha Salads, which is a restaurant here in Hawaii.  This place is SO good, it offers amazingly fresh salads and healthy sandwiches!  Everything there is made right infront of you and you can see the fresh products they use.  Everytime we go there, there is a line backed up to the door and we will wait for however long it takes because we love the food!  There are only 3 locations on Island: Kapolei, Honolulu, and Kailua.  Where we would like to open one up would be in Ewa Beach along Fort Weaver Rd, which is a very busy spot.  Also, there is a new complex coming up with a Safeway grocery store, Petco, and a few other things so this would be the PERFECT location to have one!  This would also give me a day job, but we will see maybe this would be a project for 2013.

Lastly, yesterday was a much needed rest day!  We were super lazy and laid around watching football all afternoon, then we decided to have a cocktail, and watch The League.  Again, we were super lazy and decided to go to Denny's for dinner.  I had a MAJOR NON-PALEO meal ha.  Which I looked up the calories for today and I really shouldn't have haha, oh well it tasted oh so yummy in my tummy :)

I recommend both of these items!  But not if your watching your calories haha.  Sometimes you need a boost in calories thou, I guarantee today when I go to Crossfit I'll (hopefully) murder the workout.  That is what normally happens after a huge increase in cals, my energy level skyrockets.  For all those who are like OMG you cheated on your eating...psh...don't think that way. Everyone needs to have a meal that's not-so-healthy every once in awhile, keeps us sane!  Plus, after I splurge like that I just hop right back on the bandwagon and eat my normal foods again.  Nothing to worry about.  

Rock of Ages

WOW...feels like forever since I have blogged which it technically has been since last week.  The whole just kind of flew by super fast!  I hate how that happens on my long weeks off, it goes by too fast.

The week was filled with some great Crossfit!  RECAP:

MONDAY:

Strength: Sumo Deadlift 1RM  (I was able to lift 185lbs for my 1 rep MAX, my regular Deadlift is 205#)

WOD = 25 min cap

3-6-9-12-9-6-3

Wall Walks

OHS 135/95

T2B

This was ROUGH!  But such a good workout.  Killer shoulder work.  The hardest part was obviously when you got to 12 reps...I kept thinking "It's all down hill from here..." and would repeat that in my head.  I did this WOD at 65 lbs for the OHS, 95 is my 5 rep max so I don't think I could do that unbroken especially after Wall walks.  This AWESOME part of it was I did it at 10lbs heavier than any other girl that attempted the workout and I also completed it in 23:59 which noone else finished.  I was pretty stoked about that, definitely was husslin' not gonna lie.

TUESDAY:

Strength: Back Squat  2-2-2-1-1, 85% (2's), 90%, 95% (Pretty sure I did this at 135# for the 2 reps then 145#, my MAX is 155# I am looking to improve on that)

WOD

"Ledesma"

20 AMRAP

5 Para. HSPU

10 Toes through Rings

15 Med Ball Cleans 20/14

This wasn't too shabby, the Med Ball cleans were the worst part not sure why just gassed me out.  I did the Hand Stand Pushups with bands and could do them unbroken so I need to try to do them Strict/Kipping/or with lighter bands to make it harder.  I got 6 rounds + 6 Toes Through Rings.

WEDNESDAY: No WOD, hammies were SO blasted.  Took a rest day and hung out with Trish before she left for her Cali trip.  We watched some Revenge and just hung out.  Much needed recovery.

THURSDAY:  Went to Turtle Beach with Dani and got to literally swim with a Sea Turtle SO COOL!  But also got burnt ha!  I also watched Rock of Ages (clip from above) and LOVED IT!  If you like 80s music and musicals you will love this movie too! Even Justin liked it, so it must be pretty good ;-)

I think you can see some abs here :-P

Strength: Press Tempo 5x2, 5 sec up, hold 5 sec, 5 sec down (This was hard for me, my shoulders are my weakest body part along with my grip ugh.  Did the 5 sets at 65#s tried 70# wasn't having it)

  

WOD

10 min. AMRAP

3, 6, 9, 12, 15 etc....

Hang Snatch 95/65

Chest to Bar Pullups

I only made it to 12 reps on this workout.  I did the snatch at 55lbs to practice form, 65 was just a little too heavy at a Hang Snatch.  Chest to Bar Pullups I have never done before so I did them with a red band, let me tell you it is DIFFICULT to get your chest to that bar.  A really BIG kip is needed in order to get your body up there.  Plus, who wants to bang their boobs on bar...come on now ha.  The true failure in this workout was my grip, my forearms were toasted.

FRIDAY:

Skill: Handstand/Shoulder Taps/1 hand  (This was a lot of fun!  I am getting better in my gymnastic movements so it is so cool when I can actually execute them.  I have to get better at the actual shoulder tap but I did do a one handed handstand!!!! The shoulder tap requires more confidence.

WOD  

15 min AMRAP

10 KB Snatch 24/16

10 Box Jumps 24/20

10 Ring Dips

Brutal...just Brutal.  1 pood aka 16kg Kettlebell Snatch is pretty heavy but once I got in the grove of it, I could rock em out pretty good.  Box jumps were a breeze.  For the first time ever, I did Ring Dips but I used  a red band since I can't do them strict yet.  However, it was nice to try them on the actual rings instead of using the Matador (bar) for dips.  The dips destroyed my shoulders and back between my shoulder blades...sooooo sore ha.  

SATURDAY:

Skill: Anyhow Windmill using Kettlebells (Very technical move, going to try this more to build core strength)

WOD

50 Air Squats

21 Deadlifts 225/155

21 Push Press 95/65

50 Air Squats

15 DL

15 P.P.

50 Air Squats

9 D.L.

9 P.P.

BEASTMODE!  I did this workout Rx, BOOM, it was freaking hard.  155# deadlift is pretty heavy ha, I broke it down into sets of 3.  I wanted to make sure my form was good and I was engaging my hamstrings.  Push Press I broke down into sets of 5 or 7 if I could.  The air squats were the break from the heavy lifts, the first 50 I did unbroken then the next 2 sets I did in 25s.  I finished the workout in 15:59, just dripping with sweat! 

Mustache Rides for Boobs!

On my sickness recovery day Thursday, I watched 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel'.  Starring Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, and Bill Nighy who are all older actors but they are classics!  The story line of the movie is about these elderly people trying to find a place to retire too and they stumble upon this hotel that claims to be more luxurious than it actually is in India.  The hotel is kind of a shandy but its the magic that it offers which is the most inspiring part.  It leads each character to realizations about their lives and inspires new found happiness and love!  I liked the movie, it was nice to see a change of pace in aged characters.  Not all movies should be based around the young crowd, I mean come on we look up to our elders!  Its a heart-warming story.  I would recommend it.  Plus, Dev Patal stars in the movie, the actor from Slumdog Millionaire.  I love that guy, he's cute and funny.

On Saturday, we had a fundraiser WOD for Breast Cancer Awareness month.  Its called Barbell for Boobs.  

It was a partner WOD and Trish was my partner, our team name was Mustache Rides (ha!).  The workout was 'Helen meets Grace', soooo AWESOME!  It combined the two benchmark girls so: 3 rounds of 400m partners run together, 21 KB Swings at a Pood (16kg), 12 Pullups.  After the 3 rounds were complete you then went on to Grace which is 30 Clean and Jerks at 135/85#.  I was rather nervous for the pullups, I did them kipping but was scared to link them cause of the friction on my hands :(.  I will get back to doing them, just got to get over that initial fear of it again.  I did everything Rx which rocked!  We completed in 18:44, boom sauce!  **Side note: I do want to try Grace on its own, I love the Clean and Jerk.  The actual Grace is done at 95lbs which I am pretty sure I can do.  I am not sure how my time will be on it but I'd probably do sets of 2 until I made it to 30...I am planning on trying this out this week.

After that we went up to Trish's daughter Riley's birthday party in Kailua.  It was a blasty blast at her Grandma's house which had a pool.  This house was amazing!  It is what you think of, when you think of a nice house in Hawaii.  I wish I would have taken pictures of it, such nice taste in design she has.  Plus, she is really into Halloween so there were decorations everywhere and little scare tactics placed strategically to get people!  We swam, ate pizza and salad, chilled, had cake and ice cream and some amazing cookies!  The lady who brought the cookies, owns Cookies by Design, O.M.G. are they good!  She also brought this Smore Cookie which Dani and were pleased to try!  She said to place it in the microwave for 7 seconds and it would be perfect...which it was AMAZING...I can't think of another cookie that tops it.  I named this cookie, '7 seconds in Heaven Smore Cookie'.  I will seriously name her cookies my top favorites: 1. 7 seconds in Heave Smore Cookie.  2.  The Pumpkin cookie.  Haha!  Dani would agree with me. 

 A few pics from the day:

Great Crew these people are!  So lucky and blessed we are to have met them.

Justin's 25!

Busy Fun week I had!  Wednesday was Justin's 25th birthday, I tried to make it special for him.  I wrote Happy Birthday in as many places I could think of: Text message, Ipad Notepad, an actual birthday note, on our whiteboard, and on his facebook!  I am sure he was sick of finding them...oh well I love birthdays even when their not my own its fun celebrating!  I bought him the movie 'Fever Pitch', its with Jimmy Fallon who is obsessed with the Boston Red Sox until he meets the love of his life Drew Barrymore.  He has to learn to balance his love for the Red Sox and his new girl.  It's pretty good movie and of course Jimmy Fallon is really funny.  I bought him this movie because I always get him something Red Sox for his Birthday or Christmas, he loves that shit.

He wanted to Birthday WOD and thankfully it was a BOMB one!  Hero WOD 'DT', I loved this one.  A description of it below:


WOD:
5 Rounds for Time:
12 Deadlift
9 Hang Clean
6 Push Jerk
RX: 155/105
SCALED: 115/85
In honor of USAF SSgt Timothy P. Davis, 28, who was killed on Feburary, 20 2009 supporting operations in OEF when his vehicle was struck by an IED. Timothy is survived by his wife Megan and one-year old son T.J.

Great Workout! I am pretty sure I did this at 75lbs. I probably could have done 85 but those Hang Cleans were the killer, the Deadlifts and Push Jerk were easy for me but hang cleaning not so much. I liked this one alot thou and glad that we did it on Justin's Birthday. One complaint, was that our gym really needs to make sure we are adequately warming up prior to performing heavy/technical lifts like this workout. We had done PVC thrusters for October's month of thrusters...however lifting a light object like a PVC does not warm one up very well. I would rather use a bar or do a WallBall instead. Anywho, good workout completed it in 13:48 I want to say...I will have to double check my log book.

After that a few of us went out to Chili's to celebrate.  It was Me, Justin, Jordan, Jess, Andy, Trish, and Sam.  Great Crew, lots of laughs and good eats!  I had the lighter choices salmon and two sides of broccoli with salsa, nom nom!  Of course HAD to have a celebratory drink, long island hehe and Justin got a free brownie dessert which he ate probably like 2 bites of and the rest of us dug right in!

I had been coming down with a cold and after dinner it just got worse, I crashed hard Wednesday night and slept in until 10am Thursday.  I slept for 12 hours and then I just did laundry around the house, walked the dogs, and pretty much vedged...I was not feeling 100%.  Thursday night was a great mobility class working on Squat Depth, its crazy I almost have a full class every time 7 of 8 slots were filled!  This week I am working on coming up with something for shoulder mobility which I hope will be a good one.  I have been receiving very good feedback on my class which I truly appreciate.

Friday, I intern-coached with Donna for the 8:30, 10, 11, and 12 o'clock classes.  It was a very rewarding day coaching.  The group people were working on 1RM of Push Jerks and almost everyone PR'd, it was fantastic! Also, seeing new people who had just graduated essentials go up at least 15# in the lift was incredible!  Plus, the basics and essentials class people were great.  Everyone is so willing to learn and just feed off what you say its really amazing.  I love coaching :)   I hung out with Trish that afternoon and we just chillax'd watched a marathon of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives and talked of all the food places we need to go to in Hawaii ha!  We are going to make an Abby/Trish bucket list..I am STOKED!  That night we went out to Giovanni Pastrami's downtown Waikiki with Sam and Justin's co-workers Fred and Rudy, along with Rudy's wife Amanda.  It was a fun time again lots of laughs and good food of course!

Next to come...Movie Review, Barbell for Boobs, and Riley's Bday party!

This week's Recipes and Grocery Shopping on a budget

Can't wait to get cooking this week!  I went to the Costco last night for our usual 2 week grocery shopping endeavor.  I am starting to perfect Grocery Shopping on a budget!  Here is my normal process:

1.  Make an excel spreadsheet.  In the first tab I put the name of the recipe I want to make and the ingredients needed for that recipe.  I go through the ingredients and highlight what I need to buy at certain places.  For example: whether I can get it at Costco or Foodland, basically if I can buy it in bulk or if it would be best to get more of the individual size for the item.  If I don't highlight it then I probably have it on hand at home.

2.  Next, after I list my recipes and highlight the items needed.  I move to the 2nd tab and start my grocery list.  I make two columns one for Costco and one for Foodland.  I copy and past the items in each category.  I also add generic items I need to buy that we normally get to my Costco list.

3.  Now that I have my list and recipe ingredients I am set!  I started this last night and I think I will continue this...I went to Costco with my list printed out, a pen, and a calculator.  As I picked up each item, I wrote the price of the item next to it on my list.  This way I could compare certain things as I saw them.  For example: Zucchini was $4.99 for 4 of them and Cucumbers were $3.99 for 3.  Zucchini would have been a better deal but we haven't had cucumbers in awhile so I switched it up!  Another example:  I wanted to buy Ahi Tuna, the fresh nice steaks were $20.49 and the frozen bag of prepackaged tuna steaks were $15.29, I went with the frozen I think it was more for my buck.

4.  Lastly, once I had all of my items I added them up on the calculator to see where I was sitting.  If I would need to put things back or change certain items.  My total came too $261 and some change, which was perfect!  I allotted myself $300 to spend on groceries, this left me with a little extra to spend at Foodland for the other miscellaneous items I need for my recipes.  When I went to ring up with the cashier my total came to $262 and some change, so I was very close!

5.  Our fridge is stocked now.  Just need to make a trip to Foodland on Thursday (my day off) and then I can start making some delicious recipes. The ones I plan on making which I will post more details of as I cook them and their recipe links are: Creamy Chicken Casserole, Paleo Butternut Lasanga, Paleo Pineapple Crockpot ribs, Bratwurst & German Potato (turnips) Salad, and Spicy Pineapple Chili.  I am on a pineapple kick because my mom says I need to eat more of it since we live in Hawaii ha, so might as well make some recipes with it in it.  Then when she comes to visit, I know exactly what to make!

Hope this helps to all those pinching pennies like me!  More to come this week with recipes and some pictures as well. :)

Empty Zoo...Lame sauce.

What a FUN week!  It was a short work week this week, which was super nice!

Wednesday - my first day off, I went to the beach with Trish and her 2 monkeys for most of the day! We totally didn't think we were going to get to go cause it was a super cloudy and rainy in the morning but by noon it was beautiful!  The unfortunate part was that we should've faced the sun directly because the whole right side of my body got burnt and not my left, I have a very uneven tan!  But its rather funny non-the-less.  I will even it out Today (Sunday) when we go to the beach again with a bunch of Trish's friends!  Pictures to follow :)

Thursday - Buck, Kelsey's Blue Healer was dropped off at our house Wednesday night and it was a very interesting first night.  About 3 mins after they had left, Buck peed on the kitchen floor and then our fridge! I let him outside and he took 2 poops (yes you wanted to know this), he must have been very nervous but after that he was completely fine with terrorizing sky!

I watched the movie 'Snow White and the Huntsman', Thursday morning.  I believe Trish said it best..."The best part about that movie, is the Huntsman."  The movie itself was very slow moving I thought, however I did love Charlize Theron in it she killed her part as the nasty witch.  Otherwise, the movie wasn't anything to really write home about.  Classic snow white story with a hottie huntsman in it...The End!

Yummy.

I also,went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond...love that store!  My lovely mother had sent us a wedding gift card to there so I figured why not spend it!  I bought some K-cups, ice trays, straws, and 2 nice water bottles for Justin and I.  Add to that a nice picture for our wall!  Mom said I had to get something that I could tell people, "My mom got me that!"  :)  SO, I did!  I love paintings or pictures, basically art in general...along with inspiring words and I think the one I picked out fits us perfectly.

I took the dogs for a walk, what a difference it is walking with a 35lb dog on one arm and a 12lb dog on the other!  Basically, they were walking me for the first half of the walk and once they calmed down I was walking them ha but for the most part Sky did fairly well!  Each dog is different, Buck gets excited over squirrels and Sky gets excited over people so I just have to be careful that a squirrel doesn't run by with me unaware otherwise I will be being dragged behind a 35lb dog!

My Mobility class has been quite popular not going to lie!  Out of the 8 slots I have to fill, there has been at least 3-5 people!  And Lucien doesn't make money unless there is 3 people so BOOM, I am making him some dough.  

Friday -  ZOO day!  I had told Trish that I hadn't been to the zoo yet and would really like to go.  We planned on going after Riley's field trip at her school.  We made our way down to Waikiki and ate lunch at Lulu's right by the Zoo!  I ate fairly well, I had their Lava Burger with out the bun and a salad.  The Burger had Pepperjack cheese and jalapenos on it and with the Salad I had balsamic vinaigrette.  Fairly Paleo besides the cheese which I have decided I want in my way of eating as long as it is in moderation.  What was not Paleo, was eating a few of the Kid's fries...oops!  (Whatever who cares ha, we walked enough at the Zoo to burn it off)  

On to the Zoo we went!  It was a pretty decent Zoo, not the best I have ever been too.  For some reason, most of the animals were missing!  Each enclosure we would visit it would either say "Sorry the [insert animal here] is temporarily gone but will return soon."  OR at some of them...it would just be empty, quite the disappointment!  Least we were able to make jokes at how empty the zoo was.

Horrible pic of me..I look High ha

Zoo knocked em out!

Trish and I went to CrossFit....6 days this week!  We ARE ADDICTS...the first step is admitting...the second step is doing nothing about it!  My hands have been healing up this week and I really didn't want to hurt them anymore, therefore, anything that involved pullups I did pushups instead (YUCK! I hate pushups).  Friday was the '300' WOD, which I did not like!  It was an arm killer.  

I did the 1st 25 pullups with a Purple band and the 2nd with a Green band. Deadlifts at 95lbs along with Floor Wipers. Clean and Press at 8kg.  Completed in 22:30.

Last thing I promise!  We started House Season 8 on Friday night...oh man did I miss Hugh Laurie!  I can't believe its the last season ugh but so excited to see what it has to offer!

He's SO the HOTT DAD type :)