How Carb Back-Loading Works for Birthdays!
I love birthdays. Seriously, what is better than an entire day devoted to YOU to do whatever you want? Or in my case, eat whatever I want?
My birthday weekend reminded me of how much I love D.H. Kiefer’s Carb Back-Loading plan. And if you haven’t checkout out my Hot Chicks Who Eat Carbs, or April’s 2.0 version, read them to find out how to eat carbs and look hot. For me, my birthday carb loading was in the form of lots and lots of ice cream.
So my birthday was this past Sunday but I started the celebrating early on Friday night and turned my “day” into a birthday weekend, turned into a birthday week. Seems appropriate, right? Erik and I started the night at a new restaurant downtown–Cuban Burger. Think Cuban-inspired food and drinks in a chic, almost romantic-lit atmoshpere. We loved it! I had a burger with bacon, cheese, an egg, and straw-fries on top. Not the healthiest on the menu but at least it was protein-packed. We finished the night with homemade ice cream from our local Kline’s. I had two scoops of red velvet ice cream and because the cookie dough was on sale, I had one scoop of that too. But hey, I did eat only half the bun on my burger! ;)On Saturday, I made sure to kick ass in the gym: A) I had ice cream to burn off, and B) I KNEW I was going out later that evening/night and I would want to be in prime fat burning–not gaining–mode. You see, that’s how Carb Back-Loading works. You lift really really heavy and then eat lots of carbs. The end result is fat burning, muscle gaining, PRs in the making. So Reagan, John, and Alex and I all decided to do the three SuperFit workouts that were being performed in the Philadelphia competition on that same day. We actually pulled up the competitiors’ scores to see where we would stand if we were actually participating in the competition. We had SO MUCH FUN doing these workouts together. And Erik stood by to practice using our new camera by taking pics of everything.WOD 1:
WOD 2:
WOD 3:
When we were done with the three competition WODs, Reagan and I decided to do some strength training that we missed on Friday: 5 sets of 1-rep heavy snatches from blocks. And to top off the day, we also did Outlaw’s Saturday conditioning workout: 50 burpees, 20 front squats at 80% of our one-rep maxes, and 50 burpees. For time.
I finised under 9 minutes but I also only did about 55% of my 1RM front squat—unfortunately I couldn’t clean 80% of my max from the floor. 🙁
By the end of our workouts, I feel like I not only burned Friday night’s dinner to the ground, but I was SO ready for Saturday night fun.
We started off wine tasting at our favorite local spot, Vintage Wines. Erik bought a bottle of white that we both liked (which is shocking since we’re both fans of reds) and John picked up a bottle of champagne in which we ended up using to toast in my dad’s honor–it was also the anniversary of his passing. Side note: on days that I should be the saddest, it’s amazing how I feel my dad’s presence so much stronger–and I always end up having great days. Thanks Dad!
After the wine and champagne we sampled the beer flights at a local, new brewery–3 Brother’s Brewery. The beer was great and we munched on some food there. Then we hit up one of the downtown bars for birthday shots and honestly, I was toasted before 9pm. (I really don’t drink that much.) But I was reeaallly hungry. Teaching moment: drinking leads to bad food eating. Normally, I’d be upset about this but don’t forget, it’s my birthday weekend! So I headed home to make gluten free pumpkin and chocolate cookies–not even kidding–while my friend Abby headed over with both pizza AND pumpkin pie DQ blizzards. MORE ICE CREAM!
So we ate, ate, took some more birthday shots, had a little dance party in the kitchen, and by about 2 am I was out cold. (From exhaustion and ice cream–not so much the drinks.)And Sunday? Let’s just say I finished out the day by hanging out with more friends, playing soccer, eating my favorite Mexican dish, and topping it all off with more ice cream with friends. This time, I only had two scoops of the red velvet. I couldn’t stop thinking about it! But I also had half of Laken’s banana split. She couldn’t finish it and hello, Steph never says NO to ice cream! Oh and check out this cool gift I got from Reagan!
When I got home from what I thought was my final ice cream splurge, my sis was waiting on me with a container of Ben and Jerry’s Pumpkin Cheesecake ice cream. People sure do know me, huh? I guess that’s what I get for blogging about my life. 😉 Today, I am going to squat my ass off–literally-so I can indulge in the pumpkin cheesecake bliss.
At work on Monday I walked into my office to find it decorated in balloons–my coworkers are so sweet! And my boss had homemade black bottom cupcakes for us on Tuesday! BIRTHDAY WEEK!
It kind of makes me think…I wonder if I eat all my ice cream and cupcakes on squat days, how many times can I eat “bad treats” in a week without gaining weight? Sounds like a new experiment. 😉
All-in-all, my favorite way to spend my birthday? With all my babies.
So what’s your fave thing to eat/do on your birthday? Tell us below!
For the funny pics that didn’t make the website cut, go to Strong Figure’s Facebook page to see the album I uploaded “The Funny Faces of CrossFit.”
Feature image by “Ralph and Jenny”
