The final count down!

This is the last week of the Performance Nutrition Experience(PNE) and it will officially end on Wednesday June 27th for me. A lot changes occurred and it was definitely an experience all worth the struggles and excitements. I will attempt to beat my time on the PNE WOD that was done to start this experience and if I'm not to embarrassed I'll show my before an after pictures.

This is also a short work week. My family is prepping to take a 4-day Yosemite trip and I'm so giddy like a kid going to Disneyland. I had planned this back in February and believe me we got lucky to get some campsites next to each other. It will be my daughters first camping trip and our first as a family. I can't wait to see the majestic granite structures, sky scraping sequoias, glistening waterfalls and lush green meadows. If my photo skills are up to par I will give everyone a peek at what I'm talking about.

Today's WOD: Mt. Everest Simulator

3 Rounds for time-
Run 100 Meters
50 Air Squats
Run 100 Meters
50 Push Ups
Run 100 Meters
50 Sit Ups
Run 100 Meters
50 Mountain Climbers

My Time = 26:47

Whew, what an amazing weekend!

Before I recap my weekend I want to give a big thank you to all the family and friends that supported me with a donation to the Relay for Life event. With all your contributions I was able to reach $435 for our team, Powered by ME*, which by the way, was also the largest fundraising team in the entire event. Woohoo! Our team also took home the "Most Engaged" award for fundraising and participation. This could not have been achieved without all our team members and support from family and friends. This year's relay marked the eleventh month of the passing of my wonderful mother, Tess (Ma-ma). Although she's no longer here, we remembered her with our family getting together and honoring those that have survived and remembering those that had passed. Her spirit will continue to live on.

It was hot, but that didn't stop all the people to come out and support. Our 6th year was as successful as the past five and as with every year there are always some fun events. This year was a team tug-o-war. We didn't win, but we sure gave one big fight. Here's a video and some pictures:

Here's the Powered by ME* team (start and 24hours later)

Honoring my late mother by gathering together

Our youngest members:

My pride and joy who resembles her "Ma-ma"

Thank you friends Jon, Renee, and Alex for coming out

The fight til the end

Our captain(left), exuding the leadership she took from her mother, *Miyo Eshita, and passing it down the generations.

Concludes by honoring those that survived and remembering those that passed.

 Again, Thank you all that have supported. Have a great start of the week!

Tear it up

Here's my little one getting her WOD on after us. She loves coming to watch us suffer and then she gets to have fun.

Today's workout was unusual. Not because we did a total of 110 pullups and 55 handstand pushups, but because 6 out of 7 of us tore skin off the palms of our hands.

Today's WOD: Hand-Pull reps for time

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 Handstand Pushups

20-18-16-14-12-10-8-6-4-2 Pullups

My Time = 17:24 Rx (that's my second workout where I was able to do handstand pushups rx'd)

Since I forgot to Blog yesterday, here's my workout at least.

Yesterday's WOD: Lung burner

3 rounds for time

20 Box Jumps 24"

30 Kettle Bell Swings (KBS) 53#

40 pushups

My time = 13:23

summer is here!!!

How did you start your summer of 2012? Did you know today, the summer solstice, is the longest day of year and the shortest day of the year is the winter equinox in December? If you didn't, now you know. I spent my start of the summer out with some sun and dirt. I went off on a mountain bike ride that I can access from my home and it was a great workout. This ride wasn't epic because it was only a little over 6.5 miles, but it was monumental for me. I was never able to ride to the peak of the trail without stopping and today was the day I made it to the top. I've accomplished a goal that I had set for myself back when I decided to get fit and healthy back in October 2011 and I can't be any happier. Summer is off to a great start and I can't wait for what lies ahead.

Here are the stats of my ride:

spicy

Today was as normal as can get. Wake up, work, workout, blog, and sleep. Eating happened in between. Dinner was picture worthy, in my opinion. Here it is, nice and spicy. Louisiana style pork sausages, baked sweet potato fries, and roasted zucchinis.

WOD: "dead-run"

5 rounds - 3 min work, 3 min rest (6 min total/round)
Run 400m
225# deadlift (max reps)

My Results: 20, 20, 20, 20, 21 = 101 total (I average 1:45 for the 400m run)

LT...Hall of Fame San Diego Charger - GO BOLTS!

I found out some great news yesterday. After a 2-year stint away from San Diego, my favorite football player, Ladainian Tomlinson will come back for a 1 day contract and retire as a San Diego Charger. If you can't tell, I love football and I love the Chargers! I named my dog Charger and I was once a season ticket holder. I even got my wife to like and watch football with me, that's when I knew she was the one for me!! (haha) The day after our wedding we celebrated by watching the opening game at Qualcomm Stadium. I've had so many great memories watching the Chargers and I always talked about LT, the greatest running back in this modern era. So hats off to my favorite player LT and what an amazing career he had.

This week will be particularly different. I'll be working out 5 days straight because I have the American Cancer Society's "Relay for Life" event this Saturday & Sunday. I have to be disciplined, dedicated, and determined to get it done this week and that's been my motto for a while now. My food intake has to be on point with the highest of quality and I have to make sure I listen to my body. So after a busy Father's day weekend, I'll be back to filling my head with knowledge from the ISWF book.

Today's WOD: FRAN!!! (Benchmark)

21-15-9

Thrusters (95#)

Pullups

My Results = 5:23 (woohoo that's 2:15 off from my last time.....hell yaaaaaa!)

Happy Father's Day

Shout out to all the Fathers out there! I'm thankful for my father, father-in-law, and being a father myself. I have the best daughter in the world. I received a priceless art piece from my one and only! Our gift to my dad was something special too, a canvas print of his two favorite granddaughters.

Today we celebrated with my side of the family and went bowling. We had so much family fun. My little girl had her first try at it and here's a great capture of me showing her the strikes, actually more like gutters.

Oh yes, so what did I eat today? I ate a lot of meat! To get it off my chest, I was not 100% compliant. I celebrated, as a father should and I don't regret it, but I had to open and honest. I had some beers, Fat Tire to be exact, a bite of some nacho fries, a piece of truffle chocolate, a bite of a churro and a bite of strawberry ice cream. All in all everything tasted as it should and the beer was refreshing on a hot so cal day. As dinner time came, it was back on track with some grilled chicken and broccoli. No harm, no foul! Happy Father's Day.

Saturday fun and then some sun!

I didn't see the sun when I woke up so I decided to train instead of hike or bike. Today's WOD was all out fun in tabata circuits. Watch the video.

My family and I spent the rest of the day with the in-laws celebrating Father's Day. We had an amazing surf and turf lunch with filet mignon, salmon, grilled veggies, salad, and fruit. Sorry no pictures, but trust me it was delicious! We then decided to have some fun in the sun and take a dip in the pool. Thank you mama's and kiddos, it was great day!

Activity dilemmas

Look what came today?! An early Father's day gift to myself, It Starts with Food book. I need to fill my brain with more health knowledge. Look no further, all the info is right in this book.

On the other hand, I always get this activity/outdoors excitement as summer officially approaches. Have I mentioned I love where I live? Southern California, especially Orange County, should by far be the best area for me and my family. Why? First, the obvious, weather is fantastic and we all know everyone else is jealous besides Florida and Hawaii for the most part. Secondly, for geographic reasons, our proximity to the beach and mountains. I can hit the beach or mountains in any direction I choose in as little as 30 min. In August of 2007 I climbed to the peak of Mt. Whitney, 14,500ft the tallest point in the 48 states, and the by the evening I was down in Huntington Beach at sea level, can't beat that!

So I'm contemplating what I want to do this weekend. It's father's day weekend and I'm now in the ranks, so I get to choose. Hike, Bike, or train? I'll keep the outings short because I'll be spending the remaining day with my lovely family.

I need the sun, I want some sun, but I cook and turn red, I don't tan! I need to get rid of a darn farmers tan (its bad) that I got when watching the the pros ride at the Tour of California. Be alarmed my arms are skinny and bright! YES, bright, i barely have pigment!

WOD: Balls to the wall, upside down!

For Time
25 Wall Balls (2'fers)
4 HSPU
20 Wall Balls 20/14 (2'fers)
6 HSPU
15 Wall Balls (2'fers)
8 HSPU
10 Wall Balls (2'fers)
10 HSPU
5 Wall Balls (2'fers)

My Results = 16:44 RX baby (first time to complete a wod w/ HSPU rx'd woohoo)

rest granted

As all Thursday's go....today is my rest day from working out. I've been pretty strict with myself for taking rest days and it sure has helped me a lot. I recover better and I have that fire inside to get after the next workout, all with just 1 day rest. Why do I like that? I just do and those are the benefits, or consequences, of Crossfit and it's community.

So todays breakfast and lunch were the normal routine, omelette, leftovers, and fruit. Dinner on the other hand was a something new, we grilled some pork chops. On top of that, we tried a whole new vegetable not usually in our household, eggplant! We grilled that too and it came out pretty darn good. I love summer, you can't go wrong with grilling.

I'm back, pardon my absence.

Monday started off normal, but by the evening something miraculous happened. My younger brother, Phil-n-Good, had committed to workout! He had just graduated from school and now has more time on his hands before he steps into the real working world. He's broke as a joke, as with most students, but he wanted to try crossfit and I let him have it. I'm not a level 1 certified trainer but I sure have coaching experience. I actually coached my brother when he began high school, so it felt natural to help him out and give him some pointers. I have a good sense of how the body works with my biology background and current job, working for an orthopedic medical device company, so giving instruction on how to squat, lunge, stretch, jump and push was good practice for me. It will help me be a better speaker when having to talk about a specific topics and it also brought back memories of coaching, which I absolutely loved. By the end of the workout my little brother got his butt kicked, but I think he liked it and is willing to endure more to get back in shape.

Tuesday, was to no surprise, "the same old thang," breakfast, work, lunch, workout, dinner. Since riding my bike, both mountain and road, last week, all I could think about that day was more biking. Now that the days are getting longer I can basically ride until 8pm. Now I have a balancing act, wod or bike, because doing both would just drain me. I figured I should enjoy the so cal summer and just make biking my wod, it's just too darn fun not to bike and I get the best of both worlds. The only repercussions of biking a lot is a sore bottom, if you know what I mean.

So what's in store for today, Wednesday? Not much, just staying focused on my loving family and health. That's my goal everday and it will always be my priorities. I'm excited for a book which is a surprise because I don't read often but it should arrive tomorrow. This book is sure to help educate me in my healthy lifestyle as well as my family's. The title is "It Starts With Food" and it was written by Dallas & Melissa Hartwig, the founders of whole 9, the program I currently follow. I've mentioned them in the past but they're always worth noting as it has changed my life. Hopefully I can read this book quickly and share my thoughts. So again if you're looking for a change, look no further. Happy hump day to all! Oh ya and here's breakfast this morning. Yes, that's tapatio!

Today's WOD:

Part 1:
Power Cleans
3 Consecutive Reps every 30 seconds for ten sets. 60% of 1RM

Part 2:
3 Rounds for time:
5 Power Cleans 165 / 115
7 Burpee Broad Jumps 7'/5'

My Results = Part 1: 135#, Part 2: 3:06

Camp Pendelton Mudrun

Congrats to the wifey and her mama friends for completing the world famous camp pendelton mudrun! I became their photographer and gave a few cheers. I celebrated with them by having my first beer in over 2 months. It tasted sooooo good! Now it's time to start the week strong! Let's go!

Chill day

And that was that. Are you having a good weekend like me? Live it up!

Workout was a morning road ride to the beach and I still ate clean for the day.

Whole & Natural food just did wonders for me...

Absolutely amazing and I'm not talking about the view above. What am I talking about? My blood test results. My company hosted a benefits health screen for the employees and their family members (no children). This was done to help alleviate the staggering increase of healthcare costs to the company and the employees. The last time I had some blood work was 6 years ago. I never bothered to re-test myself because I "felt" healthy, how naive of me. Back then I was overweight, had high cholesterol, high LDL (bad stuff), low HDL (good stuff), slightly higher than normal triglycerides, and pre-diabetic glucose levels(I loved candy).

Today was, by far, more than surprising. I'm normal weight for my height, finally! I have normal blood pressure; my total cholesterol was less than 100 mg/dL (meaning the machine can only detect 100 or greater, so basically my levels are undetectable), LDL was super low (also undetectable because of the sensitivity of the machine), HDL was normal within range (higher is better, but I'll take normal), triglycerides were well below normal (more like optimal), and my glucose levels are normal within range as well. So what does this tell me? According to my blood test, I'm healthier than I've ever been, OPTIMAL. My goodness, they can't even obtain a total cholesterol to HDL ratio because no exact number could be given it just stated less than the lowest value. FYI, normal cholesterol levels is for any value less than 200 mg/dL and I was less than 100 mg/dL. I'm ecstatic and who said eating eggs daily is bad for you because of the cholesterol? I don't think I'm alone when I say that I was nervous going into the screen because I didn't know what to expect. If results were not in my favor, then I'd have to rethink what I'm doing for health, but now I don't need to. What I need to do is continue on with my current lifestyle and keep monitor myself. Self-awareness is key and I'm ulitmately responsible for myself and that's it.

Thank you Canyon Crossfit, trainers and members, and Whole9Life for guidance. It was up to me to succeed and I'm headed that way.

Workout: 8+ mile Mountain bike ride to enjoy the so cal sun.

The after ride meal was just right. A salmon burger protein style with a side of sweet potatoes.

Relay for Life and the fight against cancer

Hey readers (the very few of you),

Today's topic is a little different. It hits closer to home and does relate to reasons why I chose to participate in Canyon Crossfit's Performance Nutrition Experience, that consists of the paleo lifestyle. It's about CANCER and I absolutely hate it.

I'm writing to you all today requesting for support in the Fight against Cancer. For the past 6 years I have been involved in a Relay event with my wife and family in memory of her grandmother's passing of Ovarian cancer. This year, I'm relaying in memory of my mother, Tess Javier. I have great passion to give back to the community because of my family history with cancer and I've devoted myself by participating in events and even deeper through my career in science and research. That's why I have chosen to fight back by participating in the American Cancer Society Relay For Life® in the city of Walnut on June 23-24. For 24 hours our team will walk for a cure.

I Relay because...

...I do it for the ones I love and need love.

...It means so much to me.

...I want to support survivors.

...I want to remember fighters.

...I want you to be aware.

...Cancer is tough, but together we're tougher.

...without hope there is no fight.

...it's a part of my life.

...I will be part of the cure.

...I love my mom, grandmother-in-law & family.

This year, hundreds of thousands of people will hear the words "You have cancer", and there's a good chance that some of them will be people we know and love. In October 2009, I was struck with the harshest of news that my own mother was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer and succumbed to the disease almost 2 years later. I use life's hardest trials and tribulations to stay positive, give support, and look towards brighter tomorrows. This event has touched me deeper than it already has. I am here to help fight cancer through the work I perform, the support my family needs, and the participation of awareness through community events. We have all been touched by cancer in some way ... and we all have the power to make a difference.

I want to invite you to join me in the fight against cancer by making a donation in support of my efforts. Every amount, no matter how small, makes a difference and provides hope. You can also sign up to join my team and learn more about Relay and how it's changing lives.

To donate on my behalf please click My Support Page and select "Donate on my behalf". Thank you in advance for your support. Together, we will celebrate, remember, and fight back.

And a quick bit of today...here's a paleo meal that has a lot of flavor. Thai green curry chicken. Made with chicken breast, coconut milk, Thai kitchen all-natural curry paste (whole 30 approved), broccoli, and peas.

WOD: Fran's evil triplet sister

Run 1200 Meters
50 Barbell Thrusters
30 Pull Ups
Run 800 Meters
25 Barbell Thrusters
15 Pull Ups
Run 400 Meters
15 Barbel Thrusters
9 Pull Ups

My Time = 20:41 (I made up for my dismal time on yesterday's wod, I really got after this one today.)

 

This "Paleo" thing works....but I don't like that word.

Paleo or Paleolithic diet has exploded upon the CrossFit scene. It's all crossfitters talk about when it comes to diet and fitness. It works quite well for me and I'll keep saying it until something changes. I've had more energy, amazing fitness performance, and my goodness...satiety. OK yes I'm human and I'll want to have some pizza, especially if it's from Porky's, but I feel the majority of what I eat is making me feel...well normal. I don't have aches and pains, unless it's from a crazy workout, don't get food coma, and don't have mid afternoon lulls where I just wanna curl up and sleep. I do my absolute best to avoid grains, added sugar, legumes, processed food and dairy. I eat when I'm hungry and until I'm full. I don't have to count calories, I just read ingredients. I limit the amount of process foods(ie. boxed food) and eating at restaurants isn't as hard as I once believed although it is on the pricier end. I won't even get into the details, but the Paleo recipes we've made are very very very DELICIOUS. So when people ask me, "are you on a diet?" My answer should be "YES, but it's not just a diet to lose weight." I'm really trying to make it a part of me because again it flat out works. Sure there's restrictions. but that's for everything and if there wasn't, then you or I would be another stat of America's obese. I'd rather pay now for whole and natural food than get bankrupt on medical expenses because I didn't take care myself. Trust me, chemotherapy and medicine is far more expensive than the quality of food you can buy.

So here's 10 reasons why I agree with this style of eating.

So why don't I like that word Paleo? Because the smart marketers will take it and run away with something so clever to make dollars and deepen their pockets. Quite simply: Paleolithic = old ways vs. Neolithic = New ways. Paleo = caveman vs. Neo = modern man. Therefore I'm a modern man trying to hone in on old ways by eating whole natural foods. This diet should now be considered Whole & Natural eating. No need for latin words, just plain english. Get it? Got it? Done.

Meals: Breakfast omelet, the amazing salmon meal from last night, and a taco-flavored chicken salad for tonight. Throw some fruit and nuts in between. Also started on some new fish oil.

Got home and a special something was waiting for me. New kicks baby, just in time for today's workout.

WOD: nine-oh!

Complete 5 Sets
90 seconds of:
5 Split Jerks
90 second of:
Max Double Unders

My results = 155(5), 155(5), 165(5), 165(5), 175(5) and 335 total double unders

So here's some websites I like reading and pulling information, aside from the dry science-y stuff.

Whole9Life - where it all started

Fitbomb - Normal guy, living a normal life.

Nom Nom Paleo - Fitbomb's wife who cooks amazing food

Paleomg - makes good paleo treats

Robb Wolf - a paleo nerd I like reading. why? because my background relates to his.

June gloom...case of the Mondays.

Clockwork...June comes and there goes the sun, nonexistent. Monday was well....Monday, nothing too exciting. Same ole same ole. Until..... Dinner!!!

Do you see what we had?!?! An accidental culinary miracle at the Javier kitchen. It was to die for (almost everything she makes is)...and just to think that some restaurant would want to charge $30+ for such a plate. Ally pan grilled salmon in some olive oil, skin down. Midway through the cooking she realized she couldn't flip the filet. She had some ingenuity in her quick thinking and decided to wrap some foil over the grill pan. So in the end we had a pan grilled-steam salmon filet that turned out to be....excellent. The veggie portion was a new choice for us and a perfect compliment. We had roasted baby bok choy, seasoned with garlic salt, pepper, and drizzled olive oil. To top it all off was some fresh mango-avocado salsa. As if the plate didn't need anymore highlights, this salsa dots the i's and crosses the t's on this meal! BABOOM and that was dinner... but wait I'm lucky again since she always cooks extra and now I also have lunch tomorrow. WINNER!

WOD: 50's chipper

For Time:
50 Box Jumps 24" / 20"
50 Ring Rows
50 KB Swings 53/35
50 Sit Ups
50 Hang Power Cleans 95/65
50 Push Ups
800 Meter Run

My time = 21:24, a bit disappointed with my time because I wanted to beat 20 min, but I got caught up on the ring rows and push ups. For some odd reason I would have rather done pullups. Oh well just exploited more weaknesses I have to work on. 

Whoa...what a Sunday

Slept in and woke up at 7:15am this morning and I could barely move. My body was definitely sore as heck from yesterday's morning workout. I don't think I've ever lifted heavy in a long metcon workout. I'll say it again it was freakishly brutal, but for some reason I really liked it. Something must be wrong with me.

My wifey loves weekend breakfast since I make my everyday omelette for our family. This mornings omelette included some onions, pasilla peppers, spinach and some organic natural breakfast pork sausages. We included some ripe avocados and salsa for more the heck of it. Lunch was leftovers and for dinner we had some grilled chicken, like we do every Sunday, with some broccoli, avocado, and yams, roasted with a hint of coconut oil. YUM!

Earlier in the day we had a special photo shoot. I'll give a teaser shot. Hope everyone else's weekend was great.

NO WOD. But since I am participating in the burpee challenge, I did complete them this evening.

Pure Brutality

My saturday morning team workout. What a way to start the day. It was painfully amazing.

WOD: "wanna think I'm Rich Froning"
250m run with 45# barbells or plates for each team member
40 thrusters 135#
Same run
80 burpeess deadlifts 135#
Same Run
120 back squats 135#
Same Run
80 clean & jerks 135#
Same run
40 thrusters 135#

Our team time = 42:41

100 burpees completed! We headed out to run some errands after I got home and had some good meals as you can see in the pictures. On our way home we did our weekly stock up of food. We have some good ones planned.

BTW, I finished an amazing book, "The Lone Survivor." It was written by Marcus Luttrell, the navy SEAL that survived a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan. It was a detailed account of his SEAL team where he was the lone survivor. Lieutenant Mikey Murphy was the lead officer who had made a courageous effort to save his team. He has a hero workout now named after him called "Murph," which we complete on memorial day. I have a whole new understanding and respect for our armed forces. Again, thanks to them for their services.

Canyon Crossfit's Fitness Challenge