END OF 10 WEEK PALEO CHALLENGE....'HELEN' REVISITED AND 'WHAT NOW'!

Well, this afternoon today we had our final weigh in and measurements for the Paleo Challenge, which has officially ended as of now!  And we had to repeat 'Helen', our WOD of the day to see how much quicker we were than on day one!

This past week hasn't been the best for me.  I succumbed to the flu/sore throat/cough/cold thing which has been circulating....and had no energy much for a couple of days.  I've had the slightly sore clicky wrist thing this week, plus reasonably intense DOMS on Monday, Tuesday and even slight DOMS Wednesday due to last Sunday's really fast 2.5 hour hill powerwalk lol!  Bottom line was I decided not to train this week.  I felt guilty about that as our training totals go toward our teams training totals.  I pushed it particularly hard week 8 and 9, and reasonably consistently most of the time except weeks 3-4, (where I fell off the wagon somewhat!)  Last weeks weight gain.....I know it's silly but peeved me!  And Monday despite eating tea at like 4pm, but eating some honey and about 100g icecream for throat.....I still was 800g more than the day before!  Eating was off a bit all week as well, but I did take care not to overindulge too much cause of the looming team weigh in today.

Anyways:
Day 1: 84.1kg    Today 81.9kg
Day 1 bust: 110cm      Today: 107.5cm
Day 1 waist: 95.5cm    Today: 89cm
Day 1 navel: 103cm     Today: 97.5cm
Day 1 hips: 103.5        Today: 97.5cm, (sad navel is the same as my hips!)
The thigh measurements I had on my hand had rubbed off, - but each thigh was up about half a cm! 

'Helen' time Day 1: 13:38      'Helen' time today: 11:20
'Helen' WOD is a 400m run, 21 kettlebell swings and 12 pullups repeated 3  times.  I had to repeat the scalings I had on day 1 which were: 8kg for the kettlebells and the easiest jumping pullups.  I was a bit tentative about today's workout cause of my slightly weaker feeling wrists, and with not training for a week.  Oh yeah, I 'wasted' about 10 secs chalking sweaty hands lol!

There are of course differences with measurements with whoever measures you!  I'm sure I pull the tape slightly firmer than the girls today lol, which takes charge of a further 1-2cm.  Weight is very similar to the end of week 2....hmmm!

I do have to say my 'Helen' time and form is significantly improved with is awesome.  Measurements down a bit, - but very similar to the end of week 2! 

As for my weight, - I feel a bit short changed to be down only 2.2kg (which feels piddly) in all honesty.  Whenever I did, (either with an online trainer or self made) 12 week 'challenge' I could always seem to 'blitz' those.  My best effort was going from 85.9kg down to 71.8kg in 12 weeks, - all my own doing/no trainer!  I still got away with drinking too much wine, even diet coke/bourbon, missing some sessions but being reasonably consistent, all round fitness went up.  But I generally always lost at least 8kg on a 'kinda serious' 12 week challenge which I saw out to the end and started in the vicinity of 80kg.  My efforts for this 10 week challenge have at least matched, if not bettered efforts in other challenges I've done.  Yes, - there were little binges I ate at times I didn't admit to, and yes, a written down 'glass' of wine often meant a bottle.  A bottle COULD of been a huge glass, - we didn't have to write the mls of wine we had!  Even so, I used to be able to get away with this stuff, train half consistently and drop weight big time but not so much now!  Yes:, they say Crossfit builds muscle which is heavier of course, but I'm pretty much 20kg heavier than just over 2 years ago when I seemed to get to 62kg, (my young days ultimation) when I was only trying to maintain under 68kg!  I don't feel valid using the 'muscle' excuse!

My results today were average of the crew but good on the workout improvement.  I did want to blitz this thing on the scales though lol and more with the measurements!  However, in general am happy.

WHERE TO NOW:
* I am wanting to stick to Paleo ways in a sort of 70/30 way, - I do like the food, beliefs....I do love fresh veg, protein, minimal nuts and seeds, fresh fruit etc.  I do want to still include wholegrain bread in my diet, (but maybe 3 days a week if desired instead of everyday), and oats, the occasional brown or basmati rice if I make sushi particularly, but otherwise a little as a carb serve if training hard plus quinoa etc occasionally.  If I desire a scone or muffin made with white flour, as long as I'm happy with it and their aren't too many of such things in a week for my liking, that will be fine.  I know my thing is if I feel 'on' I genuinely desire general 'on track' food, no sugar etc.  But if 'off', I want everything now!  But for my own good, I need to stay mindful and in control of that.  That is similar to what I did on the Paleo challenge although I did have my binges, particularly after too much wine.
* I achieved the 10 weeks with no diet soft drink, no regular soft drink or no packaged fruit juice, cordial etc!  I managed that without too much effort and will defo keep this up! 
* Alcohol, - it's still a sore point for me.  No drinking alcohol/relaxing alone EVER as of tomorrow.  It could be a sad thing that I have a habit of playing on the internet relaxing, with music, with a wine or beer which can drastically escalate!  That part of my life is over now!  Also, if I choose to drink socially, (with others who are drinking), - I will stick to either half a bottle of wine max, or 3 beers (stubbies but if at a pub I could bend it occasionally to pints), or 100ml spirits, (thinking vodka, mixed with soda water and freshly squeezed lemon or lime, - that is nice).  I am sure very occasionally I may slightly go over this, that is fine, but it needs to be rare and for a special occasion!  I don't want altered sleep patterns or hangovers ever!
* I am wanting to keep up a relatively, (for me) heavy workout schedule, - either 2 Crossfit a week plus a skills session or 3 WODs a week.  Add to that, I would love to say 20k running but may accept 15k running per week now, plus a swim of at least 1.5k.  And really need to start bike riding, - even a 20k ride a week or brick 'run/ride' session'.  In addition to that, about 3 times a week in the evenings I like to randomly get down for a few sets of pushups/lunges or squats/tricep dips/shoulder work/plank....say as a study break or while listening to TV, each of those sessions lasts about 15 mins and creates some burn.  I want to work on consistency, achieve some PB's and aim to achieve a pullup unassisted in say the next year amongst stuff!  And want to enter runs, some duathlons and triathlons.  Plus I do quite a bit of incidental activity mostly so I should burn reasonable calories lol!
* For the workout schedule to work, - I need adequate rest, - at least 7 hours lights out, and don't want this deterred by too much alcohol, or even too little food close to bed time.  I know sometimes I can eat lightly, - say 120g chicken with a garden salad or stirfried veg, sometimes including a half fist of kumara, lemon juice at 5pm, have Crossfit at 7pm, eat either a small tin of tuna or another 100g chicken, maybe a little salad or an apple after Crossfit with water, then still hit bed but feel supercharged and barely sleep sometimes!  I don't feel hungry, but not full either, just too alert to want to sleep.  But I eat lots more in the morning, including more carbs and it takes a while to get alert sometimes.  May practice some tweaking to this if I find sleeping too scarce within the next weeks.
* I have made a totally firm decision to drop my weigh ins and measurements back to once a month.  And I will take my weight and measurements on the 19th of each month, - it's my birthday, and the 19th signifies lots of birthdays in my family!  If I'm not home on the 19th, no dramas but it will be the morning I'm next home.  I still think once a week is too regular...if wanting to see a good trend.  1 month, if being consistent properly in all areas, it's reasonable to see a result in the right direction I think.  This month I buck the trend and will use my measures and weight from today.  I got on my scales this morn which I know are within 100g of the Crossfit ones!  Am aiming to smash at least 3kg by 19 Sept, (to bring me to the 78.9 or less), then at least 2kg per month that follows, - should have me sub 75 by summer almost lol!  I don't know about ellusive 62 but sub 75 is still really exciting me right now!

Another long winded one this was!  Till next time!

Pip :-)