So I started this get in shape crap at 278 lbs (I know, how did I ever let myself get that way?).  I'm currently around 256.  When I got back from Lake Powell, I was really excited because I was actually around 254 but apparently I was just dehydrated because I gained a couple of lbs back after I drank a bunch of water.  So I've still got a ways to go but I'm happy with the results. Although I'm getting a little bit back into shape, I'm still very out of shape.  I realized this when everyone was hopping in and out of boats whereas I had to kind of crawl on and off so I wouldn't lose my balance.  Even the 65 year old guy was getting around better than I was.  Basically I have become the old guy that everyone has to help out with.
One of the most frustrating things is that I don't think I'm really getting much stronger because I'm still not able to do much of the heavy lifting.  I remember how well I did when I was doing Crossfit full time even though I wasn't really eating that great.  Now I'm eating good but not exercising great.  Hopefully one day I will be able to do both so I can truly measure what my results would be. 
In our WOD yesterday we did crap load of pull-ups and push presses (It was supposed to be hand stand push ups instead of push presses, but I don't quite trust my back or my equilibrium at this time).  Today I can definitely feeling some pain in my shoulders.  But that is an awesome feeling because I know it's pain from working out and building muscle, not just the pain from my spine grinding.  So it's the proverbial "Good Kinda Pain".

I'm at Lake Powell this week so I won't be posting.  I brought a book with me to read.  I know I'm only on page one but so far this "50 Shades of Gray" book is pretty boring.

Tried turkey bacon.  Didn't care for it very much.  I'm thinking that's one where we'll stick with the real thing.  If you ask me, Turkey Bacon is 6 degrees of separation from Real Bacon.  We did have turkey burgers, with REAL bacon on them, with Guacamole and wrapped in lettuce wraps.  Those weren't bad at all.  I think we'll be adding those a few times into our summer menu.
I also had a piece of whole wheat toast for my first time in over a month.  It had been so long that I almost felt guilty about it.  But it was nice to have a grain back in my life. 
I am getting to where I can do more parts of the WOD's but I am still having to stop several times and try to stretch my back out so that I don't get the shocking pinching feeling.  The stretching breaks aren't really helping my times but at least I'm finishing them.  Once again, although I'm not very patient, I think I am going in the right direction and starting to hopefully build some strength back in my core.

7/13

Am I skinny yet?  Nope?........Dang it!

I ran today!  Ok so it's not that exciting.  It was only for 200 meters and it's only because someone was on the rower that I had been using and I was too lazy to walk all the way back to the other ones. I also don't think I blew anyone away by my amazing speed.  But, that's the first time I've tried to attempt to run the track in about 10 months.  So I'll take that as a little bit of a victory because my back didn't explode.  One thing it made me realize is that no matter how good I get at the rowers and the bikes, I'm not getting a full cardio workout because I just that little run had me pretty winded and I was glad that we had to walk the rest of the track back to the Crossfit area.
We are officially done with our month of pure paleo.  I lost about 15 lbs.  Yeah, now that I'm not taking daily pictures, the weight is starting to come off.  Maybe it's like the watched pot not boiling thing.  The problem is, now that Katie has gotten so good at cooking paleo, she doesn't want to just quit.  My whole goal was to finish the 30 days in time to have a regular birthday dinner and dessert but I'm more scared of Katie than I am tempted to eat junk foods.  So on my birthday dinner Katie and I went to The Union Grill and I wanted I had the Pecan Crusted Chicken and my two sides were broccoli and broccoli.  (Ok, so one thing this diet has NOT done for me is make me more tolerant of many cooked vegetables.)  For my birthday cake, Katie made paleo blueberry muffins with a whipped blueberry topping.  So although, not exactly like any of my past bday dinners, it was still pretty good. 
So we are going to try to keep on it but maybe add some dairy back in and some of the better grains.  I'm not sure what would be the best foods to add in slowly but we're thinking things like oatmeal and Greek Yogurt maybe?  We did try plain Greek Yogurt yesterday and let me just warn you, make sure you get a piece of fruit with each bite because eating a bite of plain yogurt is not a pleasant experience.  I thought maybe I had just bitten into some week old milk that had been left in my car.  But, it's nice to be able to add some other foods in.  Any suggestions would be great on what healthy non paleo foods are the best thing to add back into the diet.  I guess we'll try different things and see what happens.
I have noticed that my workouts are starting to get a little better and my callouses are starting to come back.  I know that callouses are nothing to get real excited about but they always gave me a little bit of pride in some warped way.  Although I'm not able to do pullups like I did in the past, I can at least now do 2 or 3 at a time.  So I'm going to take that as a victory although another newer member of the class told me I was doing a good job and asked how long I've been doing Crossfit.  I think they were a little shocked/disappointed when I told them just over 3 years.  Oh well, I found it humorous. 

Breakfast of Greek yogurt with strawberries and blueberries.  The strawberries weren't quite sweet enough to make up for the funkiness of the yogurt but the blueberries did alright.  Also a left over bday blueberry muffin.  The picture doesn't do it justice cause it was actually really good.

July 9th

July 9th.  A little over the month on the paleo diet and apparently not very happy about it from the looks of things.  But down 15 lbs.

So one of the things that I try to do after the WODs to help loosen my back is to take one of the bands and lay on my back and try to stretch my legs with them.  It helps take some of the tightness off of my lower back.  So I thought that it would be good to get one for home that I could do in the evening or even sometimes when I first wake if I can't even make it out the door because of the pain.  So I explained to Katie what the bands look like that we use in class.  I told her that it's like a huge rubber band I need one of the green or blue ones because they are the strongest.  She found some yoga bands on the internet but they weren't like the ones that we have in class.  So I explained again what they look like and she didn't find any.  She said I should just get a yoga one but I patiently explained to her that those weren't the ones that we use in Crossfit and so we should keep looking.  The yoga ones weren't a full circle like the ones in class and so I didn't want them.  She said I was being stupid but I told her that those ones work and so I need the full circle ones.  She said I didn't.  I said I did.  She asked what we used them for in class and I explained how they help people learn pull ups and how they tie them to the bar.  She asked if I needed it to stretch my legs or if we had some pull up bar in our house that she was unaware of.  So I said, "shut up", and ran upstairs crying. (Just kidding, I don't "run" anywhere)

So here's my yoga stretching band that Katie bought me.  It works pretty good.  I'll use it while I'm watching tv to take some pressure off of the lower back.  I've mentioned that I feel like my lower vertebrae seems to be grinding and as I use this, it seems to take a little pressure off of them. I also still try to go to the chiropractor a couple times a week and that helps but I still need something else because some days, I can't even stand up straight.
As for the diet, we've been in our clean eating mode for almost a month now.  It's been frustrating in the fact that I can't really measure my progress in if it's making me stronger or faster because I don't really know from day to day, which of the WODs I can actually do at full strength.  If I were to do it again, I would have done something like do the Airdyne for as far as I can for 10 minutes and then do it again at the end of the month.  I also don't know how much my body fat was a month ago because I didn't get measured because I'm not part of the official contest.  I do know that the diet is working though as far as plain weight loss because I've lost 12 lbs.  So as for now, I'm sticking with my goal of losing weight and continue to try to build strength in my core.  I would love to be able one day again do hang cleans and push presses at my regular weight.  I'm getting sick of saying this but....patience.  It will come one day.  Right? Maybe? I hope?

June 1st- 275 lbs

<--- June 1st. (My idea of taking a picture a day, has quickly fizzled out. How about a picture a month?)

July 1st-263 lbs

<---July 1st.