Protein smoothies?!?

Yesterday I had a deload session with a trainer at the gym. That was interesting. I am sore today. I tried drinking a plant based protein smoothie post-workout and it was extremely disgusting. I thought I had put all good stuff in it too: spinach, banana, cocoa powder, coconut milk. No. It was horrible. I drank half, then threw the rest away. I am not one to waste food normally, but omg. I wanted to throw up.

Today was a rest day. I'm trying to eat sensibly these days since I'm 4 weeks out from my meet and still have about 2 lbs to cut. I'm going to Vegas in a few weeks and then there's Thanksgiving! But I am SO determined to get into this weight class. I KNOW I can do this!

Less than 5 weeks

Yesterday and today I had a little bit of sugar and wheat. It tasted good, it was intentional, I ate it mindfully. But both days I have felt irritable and impatient. So is it worth it? I am not sure. Maybe a little. I even needed a nap today.
I also stopped drinking coffee on Saturday because I think I am having an allergic reaction from it. My workouts haven't been that great since then =( I'm going to keep trying my 5x5 this week though as my last week, then I am not sure what I'll be doing. But for sure the last week of the meet, just resting!

5x5 squat PR!

Today was an awesome food and workout day. I did my first 5x5 attempt EVER of 167.5lb squat. And I did it! I was sooo happy and excited. The only thing was my last few reps were really painful. I knew that my form was starting to suffer, and I rounded my lower back a little because I was just trying to get the weight up. Then I tried doing AMRAPs after and my last two reps I felt like I had tweaked my lower back. I did a lot of stretching after that.  And told myself that AMRAPs are good, but not worth it! I was trying to get more than I did last time. No, not again. Too close to the meet! Time to put my ego in check!!!

Then I went to one of my favorite breakfast/brunchy/lunchy places, Opera Cafe.

I had the spicy shrimp and salmon salad with goat cheese instead of feta. OMG that thing was humongous. I ate all of it and was too full to eat dinner. So next time, I will just package up half of the salad. Their desserts looked amazing too. But I was seriously too full to partake.

Thinking about my workouts for the next couple of days. Definitely need to bench. And deadlift! And maybe another squat session this weekend. Get it, get it!

1st bench attempt 92.5lbs

When I woke up this morning, I was a little disappointed that I was hardly sore from my double lifting day yesterday. WTH! And I did amraps after both squats and deadlift. So then I'm getting breakfast together and I'm thinking out loud on whether or not I should work out, and my daughter goes, "I think you should go mommy." That was so supportive of her =)

So I made my preworkout (coffee, collagen, coconut milk), took her to school, then headed to the gym for my first bench attempt of 5x5 92.5lbs. I was able to get 5/4/3/3/2. That was rough! I would so love to be up to 100lb 5x5 on bench before my meet. I have a month!

So much lifting!

This was a pretty good weekend. Yesterday I finally conquered 90lb 5x5 bench. And today, I got 165lb 5x5 squat and 240lb 1x5 deadlift. Today is the first time in over a month I've done two heavy lifts in the same day. My last training round, it took me 3 attempts to finish 165lb squat so I was happy I was able to get it this time after only one attempt. Yay!

I also got to go to Cucina Enoteca yesterday with one of my mom friends. I've been wanting to go there for a few years now and I'm glad I finally did. The restaurant was colorful and bright and earthy. Their menu was creative and the food was delicious. My favorite things were the raw oysters and the dessert I got which tasted like a soft dark chocolate bar with a dollop of chantilly and almond brittle, which was a bit hard to eat because it kept sticking to my molars. It was incredibly rich. I was only able to eat 1/4 of it. That whole dining experience was just amazing. And I didn't even drink alcohol! I was a little tempted but then I was totally fine with sparkling water. I really love bubbly drinks. They're so festive! It's like all the fun without the hangover. Kinda. But enough for me for now =)

Chugging Along

This has been a pretty good week, in terms of stress management. I don't feel like I've over scheduled my life and I don't feel like things are chaotic. Saying no this week is really working for me =) For example, my daughter had a field trip today to a butterfly farm and I usually go on her field trips, but when I found out it was going to be 90 degrees, I decided that wasn't going to happen. I already know that hot weather makes me irritable so it's probably best for me to not be around a bunch of 6 yr olds.

I've been eating really well too. Yesterday we made Paleo breakfast biscuits that got extremely flat while baking and looked like cookies when they were finished. We had them this morning as breakfast sandwiches with egg, bacon, and spinach, and my daughter loved them. I thought they were ok. Not really the buttermilk biscuity flavor I was going for. But I know not to expect that since it is Paleo. But maybe next time I'll try blanched almond flour.

I also made this really delicious lemon thyme chicken yesterday. I need to post that recipe. One of these days!

Today's workout was my 1st 5x5 attempt of 162.5 squat. This is where I failed before I deloaded the first time on squat for this training round. The best I did before I deloaded on 162.5 last month was 5/5/3/3/2. And today I was able to get 5x5! Yay! When I was training for my first meet, the last 5x5 squat I got was 165. I feel like squats have been really hard for me this training round. I don't know if it's because I weigh about 5lbs less than I did before. Should that really make that much of a difference? I don't understand why my bench and deadlift are getting better though, but my squat is now, but progress on it wasn't what I expected. Oh well. I'll take the progress now! LEAN GAINS!

1st day back

Well here I am off whole30. Baking is back in full swing. We tried a new recipe for Paleo carrot muffins, yum! Sweetened with only dates.  That got me thinking... I think I want to try and make chocolate with date sugar. Next project?

2nd attempt today for 5x5 90lb bench. I got 5/5/5/5/4! Damn that LAST rep! I drank half the amount of coffee that I did before my last heavy workout, and today I felt better. Not as jittery. I'll play around with that more. I am also considering teecino or yerba mate. Or maybe puerh tea. That stuff is strong!