in my last few moments at a 27-year-old

I’m going on a cruise in less than a week… and I am ridiculously excited. In fact, I’m sort of ridiculously excited about life in general right now… I just want to jump up and down!

Here’s the scoop…

1) I’m kicking a fair amount of ass at this entire learn how to lift things up and put them back down thing. To be honest, my upper body strength is pretty shameful and I need to work on it a lot. However, my squat form is pretty fantastic, and I’m at “olympic” depth. Working on building up the weight. Right now I’m doing my 5×5’s at 100lbs – have a max at 126ish. I’d really like to get that up to my body weight.

I’m also learning the clean & jerk and the snatch. I’m at around 86lbs on the clean & jerk. I feel like I don’t quite have the right technique yet – I still sort of strong arm the bar up to my shoulders rather than getting under it like it should – but at least there’s progress. I’ve only done the snatch 2 times now, so I’m at about 60lbs (maybe?? can’t remember) on that. On Thursday’s workout, a guy across the gym remarked “she looks like a weightlifter” – which given that it’s a crossfit and Olympic weightlifting gym only, is a high compliment. Later my trainer said, “By the way, every time I make you do this type of lift I’m trying to convince you to come train with our team…” She’s on an Olympic weightlifting team – oh and has a bunch of pacific coast records for her weight class. Oh and has placed 3rd at nationals in the past. So while I’m nowhere near actually joining (I need to get more in shape/stronger/more sure of those lifts before I consider), it’s the first time she’s actually invited me to train with the team, and I was pretty excited. 🙂

2) I’m going on a boat! A HUGE boat… to paradise… with amazing friends. And they’re getting married on the boat… 🙂 SO exciting!!! 7 days of amazingness ahead. I’ve never owned so many dresses – or bathing suits for that matter – in my life.

3) I’m on week 2 of what I like to call my “partial low carb – partial paleo” diet. And by diet I mean change of lifestyle. I’ve dropped a couple lbs in about 10 days. Some of that is likely water weight, but I’ve already noticed a huge different in how I feel and how I think about food. I chose a hybrid approach for a couple reasons – there are aspects of both diets that I find appealing, but I know I couldn’t stick to either if I followed them exactly. Maybe someday I’ll switch to full paleo, but the goal right now is to ease into changing my relationship with food. Here are my general rules:

a) Eat a shit ton of protein. Lots of steak, bacon, chicken, etc.

b) Avoid (completely if possible) grains. No bread, no rice, no potatoes, no baked goods.

c) Fruit carbs don’t count. However… try to limit intake of high carb-fruits. But I’m totally allowed a banana every day if I so choose.

e) Beer carbs don’t count. They just don’t – don’t question me.

f) Legumes (peas, peanuts, etc) are allowed in moderation.

g) Dairy (really, cheese) is allowed in moderation.

h) Drink more water. But I can still have my coke zero, too.

So I’m eating a ton of steak, bacon, grilled chicken, almonds, almond butter, raspberries, blackberries, eggs, brussel sprouts, broccoli, etc. The great thing is it all tastes wonderful and this seems like a lifestyle I can actually stick with. I also feel like I’ve got more energy, and I don’t get hungry nearly as quickly as I used to. Surprisingly, I don’t miss bread at all. Unless it is directly in front of me… 🙂 And the really great part for me is I feel good during workouts. I used to have high carb meals on workout days occasionally, and without fail I’d feel like crap and feel like I was going to throw up. No longer!

4) Work. Ok so this is the one area of my life that isn’t awesome right now. Which is fine, because it WAS awesome for all of 2011. The high was bound to come down at some point, right? So I’m hanging in there… still soul searching on what’s next. I should probably just take a leap and stop second-guessing myself all the time. I’m pretty notorious for it. Anyone who’s read my diary for any length of time is well aware of that…

So there we have it. Weather’s been gorgeous lately! Also I really like our new friends… it feels good to have local friends again.

(indecision)

P.S. you’re welcome