Blue Cheese, Beer & Baseline Crossfit

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined." -- Thoreau

This weekend was the first day of summer and June 21st brought with it beautiful weather. In April and May when the weather was still touch a go it was easy to stay focused on health.  I found myself turning down plans to eat healthy at home and hitting the crossfit gym 4x a week without fail.  In addition during that time I was doing the whole30 and I was laser focused on figuring out what foods make me feel my best. I can honestly say I have never felt as amazing as I did during those 30 days. Now that it is officially 2 days in to summer and 77 days in to healthy eating/regular crossfit, my schedule is a bit hectic and I am finding that I am facing new challenges. Balancing social activities (Dating, Volunteering, Cornhole league, Wine time) with eating real food and Crossfit.

I had a jam packed weekend with girlfriends, and may have overdone it a bit on eating front as I was not feeling well at all last night. I may have learned a valuable lesson about off-roading the healthy eating too much in only a few days.  Dairy and Beer do not love me despite my love for them and 90/10 eating quickly can become 50/50 eating if left to my own devices.  In hindsight may have been a bit liberal with the eating this weekend, I think I let the 15 pounds I have lost (as of 6/21) go to my head a bit. With 4th of July on the horizon it was good to experience this now so that I didn't ruin other more important weekends by eating stuff that makes me feel awful.  I need to summon my inner whole30 and remember that events are about the social interaction not how much blue cheese one can eat over a weekend (gross).  Wine and Vodka are a go but Beer is not worth it.

11 weeks in to Crossfit and while I feel fitter and can personally see a difference it never hurts to have metrics that keep me informed of my progress.  I keep a black composition of all my workout times and weights that easily helps me see progress.  Last week, the WOD was the Crossfit Baseline which is:

For Time:

500m row // 40 Air Squats // 30 Sit Ups // 20 Push Ups // 10 Pull Ups 

Fitness Levels Chart:

Men, Women
3:45, 4:40 Elite
4:30, 5:35 Pro
5:15, 6:30 Expert
6:15, 7:30 Collegiate
7:15, 8:30 Intermediate
8:15, 9:30 Novice
9:15, 10:30 Beginner
10:00, 11:00 Cut-Off

I managed to do the baseline in 8:16 which puts me at an Intermediate level, I was impressed with myself as it's easy to get discouraged when you are new to Crossfit.  I of course scaled the workout with bands and boxes to make the push-ups and pull ups doable at a beginner level, but I still pushed myself to full effort.  I actually thought the air squats would be the easiest part with everything else being challenging but when you get off the rower your legs are in no mood for squats (ouch).  In addition to the baseline workout, there was skill work around dead-lifting which still scares me a bit but I am definitely getting much better at it, it is easily becoming my second favorite lift behind Strict Press.    

What are your best tips for socializing while healthy eating?