Easter post

So, this post has two purposes....one, to wish everyone a very blessed Easter. He is risen, yes indeed.

1 Peter 1:3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...

The other purpose is to catch everyone up a bit on running and fitness and all that stuff.

The newest element I've introduced to the mix is Crossfit. I'd actually been intended to check it out for a long time, very intrigued with the concept and how it worked. The week before last, when I had a bit of time off, I decided to go check it out and the little baby mini-workout I was put through kicked my butt up one side and down the other. Strangely enough, I decided that this was *exactly* what I needed. So I signed up for the introductory "Onboarding Class", which is a series of six sessions that are designed to carefully introduce one to the major components of Crossfit.

So last week, I did three sessions and I'm pretty much hooked. This is hard stuff - very intense bursts for relatively short periods of time. Warm-up at the beginning is a good 10-15 minutes, but the workout itself is only about 30-40 minutes. Lots of weight lifting, about a bazillion squats. A healthy sweat + elevated heart rate + intense strength training = pretty good stuff. If I can figure out the financial end of it, I am definitely going to stick with it.

I've also really shaken up the eating plan. From the beginning of February or so I had been tracking all of my food and keeping it generally under 1800 cals a day, but not paying a whole lot of attention to the composition of those calories. I lost a bit of weight, but then it completely stalled out, for several weeks. So last week I really tightened it down - using a "mash-up" plan using concepts from the Zone diet and the Paleo diet - very low to no refined carbs (bread, pasta, rice, added sugars) and more significant amounts of protein and healthy fats (avocado, nuts, olive oil). And boy, does it work - at least so far: 9 lbs. down since last Sunday. All of the food I've been eating is stuff I really like, so I honestly don't think it will be difficult for me to keep this up, even incorporating it into lifestyle eating - which is entirely possible. I mean, how could it *not* be possible, if it means eating all sorts of veggies and fruits, not giving up the meats (which I love) and not having to worry quite so much about fats? I'm not even going to completely give up the grains - an occasional serving of rice or a peice of toast, or even having a small piece of birthday cake and a muffin every once in a while - the key, obviously, is moderation.

The next thing I need to figure out is incorporating a reasonable running schedule into the Crossfit schedule. And making sure I don't lose momentum with the new eating plan.

Happy Easter, everyone.