The other nights “Karnie” was completely Karnage…check this out :-p
From top to bottom: Nick, Andrew Hall, myself, and Melissa! Karnie killed us!
Karnie:
50,40,30,20,10
Double Unders
Situps
Walls Balls
Great workout guys 
K Is For Karnage…
Monthly Archives: June 2010
5 Floors, 1 POWERFUL Nugget of Information!
Most companies will train you hard to memorize their 20 second elevator marketing pitch so that in the chance that you are in an elevator with a potential client, you can efficiently “sell” your product/business to them, while their attention is all yours.
WELL, the same works with anything else. Today I was riding from the 5th floor of my building, down to the 1st. In the time that it took to go those few floors, I changed one mans view on one sweet LITTLE product, in a BIG way!
20 seconds...and GO!
The doors open on the 4th floor, I wait to see who will walk in. There stands a man, mouth wide open, mid yawn.
“Sorry about that! Didn’t mean to throw something that contagious around at you!” he says.
“Yeah! You have to be careful with those things! What were you thinking? The rainy day is bad enough!” I say, smirking.
Then he says it, “Does redbull work for you?”
Without any sort of hesitation or thought, I immediately said, “No, Redbull is terrible for me…and let me tell you about aspartame…Aspartame was actually developed when looking to make an ant poison” (Of course it was put a little more eloquently than this, with a lot of smiling!)
“Are you serious?…That’s disgusting!”
So we bantered back and forth about it for a few, and then he turned and looked at me,
“I’m really glad we had this conversation…thanks” with a smile. That was it, less than a few minutes of time, and I HOPEFULLY convinced one person to never use sweet n’ slow or splenda ever again!
I read this article about ant poison and aspartame after that conversation…I really want to share it with you! Let me know what you think!
Aspartame – The World’s Best Ant Poison
… contributed by Jan Jensen of WELLthy ChoicesWe live in the woods and carpenter ants are a huge problem. We
have spent thousands of dollars with Orkin and on ant poisons
trying to keep them under control but nothing has helped.So when I read somewhere that Aspartame (Nutrasweet) was
actually developed as an ant poison and only changed to being
considered non-poisonous after it was realized thata lot more money could be made on it as a sweetener than as an
ant poison, I decided to give it a try. I opened two packets of
aspartame sweetener, and dumped one in a corner of each of our
bathrooms. That was about 2 years ago and I have not seen any
carpenter ants for about 9 to
12 months. It works better than the most deadly poisons I have
tried. Any time they show up again, I simply dump another
package of Nutrasweet in a corner, and they will be gone for a
year or so again. Since posting this information I have had many
people tell me of their success solving ant problems with this
substance, when nothing else worked.We found later that small black ants would not eat the
aspartame. It was determined that if you mixed it with apple
juice, they would quickly take it back to the nest, and all
would be dead within 24 hours, usually. I have found that
sometimes it will kill them, and sometimes it does not. Not sure
why, may be slightly different species of ants or something.Fire Ants: We got our first fire ant hill about 2 weeks ago.
Poison did not work. We tried aspartame and the ants ignored it
until we got a light rain. It was just a sprinkle, enough to
moisten the Nutrasweet and ground, but not enough to wash it
away. They went crazy, hundreds of them grabbing it and taking
it back into the mound.
When I checked the mound 2 days later, there was no sign of the
fire ants. I even dug the mound up some, and still saw none of
them.How it works:
Aspartame is a neuropoison. It most likely kills the ants by
interfering with their nervous system. It could be direct, like
stopping their heart, or something more subtle, like killing
their sense of taste so they can’t figure out what is edible, or
smell, so they can’t follow their trails, or mis-identify their
colonies members, so they start fighting each other.Not sure what causes them to end up dying; just know that for
many species of ants, it will kill them quickly and effectively.
As with any poison I recommend wearing gloves and washing any
skin areas that come in contact with this poison, and avoid
getting it in your mouth, despite anything the labeling may
indicate. I suspect it will work for other insects such as
yellow jackets as well, but have not tested that yet.
Pretty messed up huh?? It was developed to KILL ants and other bugs…its a PESTICIDE! Just better marketed as a sweetener…If that doesn’t make you want to quit it now…what exactly WILL it take?
Annie’s Got Some Guns ;)
I’ll admit that I walked into Crossfit last night feeling pretty good about the workout. Karnie. Karnie is a combination of “Annie” and “Karen”.
Annie
50,40,30,20,10
Double Unders
Situps
+
Karen
150 wallballs for time
=
Karnie
50,40,30,20,10
Double Unders
Sit-ups
Walls Balls
Now, I feel like my strengths are probably in jump roping and definitely sit-ups, so I felt pretty confident about the “Annie” part. Wall balls, however, are not my favorite thing…and there were 150 of them on my list of things to do. HOWEVER, I made a couple breakthroughs last night! Once I started in on the wall-balls with the 8# medicine ball, Paul could tell they were too easy, and made me go up to the 10# ball. SO, that means, by the end of the workout, I had done 150 wall balls with an additional 2 extra # than I am used to. Also! When I was doing my first 50 double unders, Paul (coach) came over and was telling me that he could TELL that I was sooooo close to just breaking through and stringing like 20 double unders together. At the moment I was struggling to get 3 together, so I laughed and gasped with whatever air I had left, “Yeah right!” Sure enough, not even 5 minutes later, I strung 12 together for my first time ever. Strung another 10 together a couple of times in the rest of the workout. Amazing!!!!!!
Just incase you’re not sure what a double-under is, here ya go:
So I finished the whole workout in 22:25!! 150 double unders, 150 sit ups, and 150 wall balls (with an additional 2 pounds!), 22 minutes, 25 seconds!!
:-D TAKE THAT KARNIE!!
I HAVE to comment on Nick’s rockstar abilities last night!!! He did the first 50 double-unders with 49 (!!!!!) of them strung together. He finished the whole workout in 15 minutes!! What a STUD! 
I was talking to Melissa last night…I just dont’ know why I EVER doubt myself about going to Crossfit. I ALWAYS feel so amazing once I’m done. Yeah, its tough to get there a lot of days, and its tough during the workout…but I leave there feeling like I really did something…I’m tired, exhausted, sore and completely relaxed. I’m always in a great mood, even if its mellow…Just show up. You will NEVER regret it.
Showin’ A Little Leg
Go figure, I’ve gone the majority of my life NOT liking anything about my legs. Then enters Crossfit. I start working on getting strong, and voila, along comes a pair of legs I’m MUCH more comfortable donning a skirt in!
Then again, there enters Crossfit:
Thank you Badger. Thank you power cleans.
So, without Crossfit, I don’t like my legs, but, without Crossfit my legs don’t look like those of a 8-year-old tomboy’s either. What’s a girl to do to get some nice legs around here?!!
I’ll take the bruises
That Badger BIT Me!
How CUTE are Badgers?
SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPER cute?
Here’s a question for you, however…if you knew that Badgers were donned the “most fearless animal on the planet” by the Guinness Book of World Records, would you still think it was so cute?
There are urban legends based around Honey Badgers that they are man-eating vicious animals. They will stop at nothing to protect their babies, AND, have been seen hunting (in cooperation) with coyotes on many accounts!
Why am I telling you this?!
Last night’s workout was: Badger. This was my second time doing Badger, and this time around, I had a little bit of a better idea of what to expect. However, it has been two months since the last time I did it, which is JUST enough time to REALLY forget how much pain you were in.
The workout:
3 rounds-
30 squat cleans (prescribed for women is with 65#, but I used 55# which is ten pounds more than when I did it in April.)
30 pull-ups (I used the green band in April, last night I kipped with the blue band)
800m run (1/2 mile)
To be perfectly honest, it doesn’t LOOK like it would be a killer. After the first round, though, I was ready to pull the chute. The cleans were KILLING me, major gruntage coming from me (or at least WAY more than I typically do). The pull-ups were tough, and the run was brutal! During the run on the second round, I was so freakin’ dehydrated, I decided to take a drink of water after my first 400m. Once I started the second half of that 800m, I felt it: the first near-puking moment.
Finally, I’m on my last 400m of the WHOLE thing, I get to the end, check my time and turn RIGHT back around. I could feel it coming, and I was TERRIFIED. Here comes Evan, going to slap me five, and (sorry Evan!) all I could do was wave him away and yell “BOOT BOOT BOOT!” I took a few moments sitting down between some cars, and pulled myself together. Close call :-p
So how did I do?? 42:32! What was my time the LAST time I did it? 42:22. I did it 10 seconds slower this time. Do you think I’m sad about that? HECK NO!!! I did it MUCH harder this time (more weight, less help on the pull-ups), and I didn’t give up, even though I wanted to sooooooooooooooo bad!!! And really…10 seconds! Pssh
Fill ‘Er Up, Please!
“I don’t have TIME to make a healthy breakfast…I only have about enough time to throw a pop tart in my purse and run out the door!”
Sound like you, or someone you know? I hear this a lot, and I know all about it because I used to say the same thing! All I had time for in the morning was cereal! However, if you think about it, it takes time to pour the cereal, pour the milk, and sit there and eat the thing!
What if I told you that in 5-10 minutes you could make a meal that is PACKED with nutrients AND suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper tasty!!? Would that make you hit your snooze one LESS time in the morning so that you could start your day with a full tank of gas? If you car was running on empty, you wouldn’t have any option but to stop and take 5 minutes to fill it up, correct? Why do we think that we have the OPTION to run on empty with our BODIES? Take the 5 minutes to fill er up!
I saw this recipe on Doctor Franson’s blog a while back; they make this delicious-ness for the kids in the morning. Immediately, I wanted to try it out. Sure enough, its AMAZING!
Blend an avocado with all-natural apple sauce (organic if you can!) in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth and creamy! I sprinkled shredded coconut flakes on top of mine, and Nick wanted assorted nuts. The result?
Nutrient packed SUPER FOOD!
So what we have learned is that at every meal we should ask ourselves the following questions:
Where’s the protein?
Where’s the fat?
Where are the plants?
In the avo-apple goodness we have lots of healthy fat (avocado and coconut flakes or raw nuts), and carbs/plants (apple sauce), but what about the protein?
To make this breakfast a health promoting powerhouse, we made a tasty scramble with pork, black beans, asparagus and spinach!
"Fill er up please!"
This all took about 10 minutes to make, and honestly, it could be even less if prepped the night before. You could DEFINITELY make the avo-apple goodness the night before, which would give you a few precious moments more of sleep
Treat your body like it’s the only one you’ll ever get (because let’s face it, it IS the only one you’ll ever get!). Fill up that gas tank every morning before you hit the road!
Have a fantastic Tuesday guys
XOXO,
Jen
Now For Dessert: Push-up Surprise!
It has officially happened…
I got my first push-up! ON MY TOES!!!
The best part about it though? I didn’t realize I was doing a push-up!!
So on Saturday morning Nick and I went to the free yoga class that Crossfit was offering, post-workout. I was really enjoying the class, feeling much more flexible than usual, and noticing my recent strengths. When I used to do yoga, pre-crossfit, I couldn’t (smoothly) transition from downward facing dog into the upward facing dog. I noticed Saturday that I was having a MUCH easier time doing this!
After yoga, Nick and I helped Alexis move some of her furniture into her new apartment. After helping him carry a loveseat/chair down to the Expedition, I started telling him how excited I was that I could do the “swoop” into upward facing dog. Right there, in the middle of Bow Street, I got down on my hands and toes and showed him. Then I reset, and did another. Then came the question…
“Wait Jen….are you doing push-ups?”
“No…wait…oh my god…I am!! Do these count!?!”
“YES! They count!! Do another one!”
So there in the middle of the street, I did a few more. On my toes! Then later, in the middle of Atlantic Ave I did my first set of three! Then later, at home, I did another three….it continued like this all night. It was like discovering I had a secret power all of a sudden…who WOULDN’T want play around with that all day!?
So, it’s official I can NOW do “real” push-ups. I may regret letting anyone (including myself) know, because now I’ll have to do them ALL like that in the workouts…but for now, I’m on cloud 9
Other wonderful events from the weekend: handstands in the grass at Dane Street (I got a 1-mississippi, 2-mississippi, 3 count on one of mine!! Nick got a 4-mississippi!!), cartwheels and not caring WHO saw, jumping in the ocean with our clothes on, sitting “in the rain” sheltered by our massive tree that covers our deck (and not getting wet!), ladies’ night on Friday night, Nick’s new haircut, visiting Latitude with Nick on Sunday and PR’ing on my 3×3 back squats (125#: first time I ever backsquatted anything over 110), pressing 3×3′s of 50# (my 1 rep max used to be 50), and trivia with an awesome group of people Sunday night!
What a great weekend!!!! Happy Monday guys!
Compare and Contrast
I often get caught “comparing” myself to others. “She has been doing Crossfit the same amount of time as me, and she can KIP!” “She did that workout 3 minutes faster than me”, etc etc. Often times, okay every time, Nick tells me to stop comparing myself to others. The only person that I should ever compare myself to…is ME! Well, last night I was writing in my Crossfit journal and Nick found a napkin that had fallen out of my journal. It was a workout I had done in April, Helen. Remember Helen? I just spoke to you about her recently (Helen). I had forgotten that I had already done Helen at one point, and I believe this is the first benchmark workout I have ever done TWICE! So! That means I get to compare and contrast, which I tend to do pretty well :-p
In April, “Helen” was the first time EVER that I did a pull-up on the BLUE BAND! It was a huge day for me! To refresh your memory:
Helen
3 rounds-
400m run
21 KB swings
12 pullups
So the first time I did this was April 7, 2010. I used the blue band for my pullups, 25# for the kettlebell swings and finished in 16:23! Fast forward roughly two months: I use the blue band still (but way easier!), 35# for my kettlebell swings (!!), and I finish in…14:35!!! That is almost 2 minutes FASTER!!!! IN 2 MONTHS!!! Super excited about that
My measurements haven’t really changed, and my weight is the same its been for the last few months. HOWEVER, I know that my composition has changed. My measurements are still 34-26-38 (like they were in December; down from 34-28-40 in October), however, I can SEE the changes. My arms have gotten more defined, and bigger (but in a way I’m QUITE fond of ), my abdomen has gotten more defined, and my butt has gotten bigger, hahaha, in a good way! I have also noticed a change in my back. When I started losing weight from Crossfit last fall, I just lost a lot of fat off my back and it looked like you could play the xylophone on my ribs. Now, I can’t see my ribs are much, instead, I see muscle! Yippee!! So, take THAT 2009 Jen :-p
Last nights workout:
3×3 front squats to start off with. Last time I did front squats was the same day I did Helen last (April 7, 2010). On 04/07/2010, I front squatted 65# three times on my first try, 75# (3x’s) on my second try, and 85# on my third and fourth try. LAST night: 95# on my first try (3x’s), 100# on try two and three, and 105# on my fourth try. That is a 20# gain in TWO MONTHS! Last night, I did three in a row of, what used to be, my 1 rep max!…the day AFTER doing 300 squats!!!! Who AM I?!
Rest of the workout:
30 reps of: box jump, kettle bell swings, wall balls
20 reps of: “
10 reps of: “
I used the 20″ box last night, which is what used to terrify me! I just decided I was going to do it (up my game!). I used the 35# kettle bell, and still the 8# wall ball. So that means that everything but the wall balls were prescribed weight last night. Let me tell you, I thought I MAY die last night. I pushed myself to the max, and it felt GOOD! That is where the best gains are made, right Nick?
So excited, so proud, and SOOOOO inspired to keep going with this!!! LOVE CROSSFIT!!!!
Happy Hump Day!!!
@ss Pirates, Murph and Meat Cups…
This weekend was AMAZING. PERIOD! I am so thankful to have such an incredible group of people in my life right now
On Friday, Nick, Ryan, Kendra, Andrew, Liisa and I, met in our driveway for a trek up to Bar Harbor, Maine (only to later meet up with Kathryn, Alicia and Brent at the site). I was heading up that way for a babyshower for one of my best friends, so we all decided to make a weekend out of it. Boy, did we Our campsite was gorgeous (right on the water), lots of talking around the campfire, and TONS of laughing! But instead of recapping the whole weekend moment by moment, I thought I would break it down into major subject areas
Top of Cadillac Mountain at 5am Sunday morning
FOOD
Meat! Meat on plates, meat in cups, meat on sticks…you name it, we ate it. Lots and lots of meat.
Lobster ice cream (sample size…)
Beets stuffed with goat cheese
These AMAZING gluten-free/paleo carrot cake cupcakes with coconut frosting (I’m going to need to get that recipe from Kendra again, so I can actually write it down…those things were AMAZING)
DRINKS
Someone actually brought a french press on our camping trip. Gotta love it!! Freshly brewed coffee in the AM
“Ass Pirates”: Basically an all alcohol “arnold palmer” (alcoholic lemonade and twisted teas), but after a few, we renamed them You can’t taste a drop of alcohol. They steal ye booty.
TROUBLE
We definitely got in trouble with the park ranger for being too loud. Good ole’ Art came storming up the hill, seemingly out of the lake, all out of breath to tell us “You DEFINITELY need to quiet down now, or you are DEFINITELY out!” We found it unnecessary for such anger, and we also thought Art needed a hug. We quieted down right away though…or at least we thought. We needed to be told again…by another camper. I felt like I was in high school study hall over again when I was constantly being singled out to be quiet. I can’t help it, my voice carries! That was actually the quote I put in my “most used quote” section of my senior page.
It’s funny, the group of almost 30 year olds are the ones that are getting in trouble, not the groups of children that we (only found out the next morning) had camping ALLLLLL around us. Oops. Those kids LOVED us though by the end of the weekend…they didn’t want us to leave; probably because we were their source of entertainment :-p
GAMES
Tons of games were played this weekend; from bocci ball (the men were playing for the “most awesome guy on the campground” or something like that, us ladies stayed out of their way there, haha; ladder ball, bean bag tossing, and “the paper game” (I have no idea what the real name of this is, I’m not sure anyone does).
HIKING
While I was at the babyshower on Saturday, everyone went for a hike. I DID miss out on that hike, but I got to do one Sunday morning. Nick, Ryan, Kathryn and I went off on a hike of our own. After hearing about their “hike” the day before (which including running up the mountain), I thought I made it pretty clear that I was NOT going to be running, and that if they were going to run, I would hike alone (and I was okay with that). We start hiking, and this mountain is literally straight up I feel. The first smooth rock wall surface that comes our way, Ryan takes off sprinting. Do I stick to my plan of NO RUNNING..nope…I sprint up the rock wall myself, in Chucks mind you (maybe not that smart). There were handstands and jumping pictures taken at the top of the mountain, and gorgeous little waterfalls…and of course, more running. The last mile of the hike was a run, and I’ll admit that there was a smile on my face the whole time
Ryan and Nick, inverted
Kat and I's turn!
Serious now
The weekend was amazing, and super tough to come back. However, we HAD to come back, because on Monday morning at 10am was MURPH!! We got back from Maine at midnight the night before, so I feel I was not mentally prepared for Murph in the morning. To top it off though, I woke up Monday morning not feeling all that well at all. I had, um, women’s pains. Really bad. So bad that I was seriously contemplating NOT doing Murph, but I knew that if I didn’t at least try, I would regret it. So the plan was, I just work out for an hour (I figured it would take me about an hour and a half).
To refresh your memory of what exactly Murph is:
1 mile run
100 pullups
200 pushups
300 squats
1 mile run
I figured I would go as far as I could until an hour was over!
Well, I PR’d on my first mile run (IN PAIN!!). I got a sub-8 (7:51) mile run…NEVER before! Then, I set up the middle chunk of massive work in 20 rounds of Cindy (5 pullups, 10 pushups, 15 squats). To tell you the truth, I was totally relaxed during this section. I will ALSO tell you that I got hot enough to actually take off my shirt! Never have I done that before, and yesterday was NOT the ideal day for that (women’s pains=not so sexy belly). I just didn’t care! Finished the middle part and then took off on my final run. My legs LITERALLY were not functioning…I feel like those @ss pirates turned me INTO a pirate, I felt like I was running on wooden pegs for legs! I walked about 1/2 of the last mile, and when I turned the corner for the last 200 meters, Nick was sitting there waiting for me, to be that bit of support I needed. The second I ran through that door, I hear Alicia say “JEN! That’s under an hour!!!! 57:12!!!”
So! I did Murph (Something I was freaking out about for over a month), WITH walking in the last mile, AND not feeling well in UNDER AN HOUR!!!!! YEEEEEEEEEEEEE HAW!!! I’ll take it
The weekend only got better with a cookout after the workout, some more bean bag tosses, great food and maybe a jello shot or two and an “ass pirate”, all with some of the most amazing people I know
I hope YOU all had an incredible weekend too!! Happy Tuesday!!!
