Food

Tired Tuesday & Tex-Mex Hash Breakfast Casserole

Yup I’m tired, sleepy, and more tired. I’ve been watching Game of Thrones Season 1 and I’m allowing it to interfere with my sleep habits. Not good and I’ll probably have to slow my roll cause I fear a Crash and Burn is coming. Rest is key to recovery and I’m eating into my rest. Darn series!!

6/5/12 WOD

I still woke up for the BOOM BOX and put my work in. Back Squats were the skill/strength today. We did 6 sets of 3 at 80% of our 1 RM getting around 2 minutes rest between sets. This wasn’t too bad. I did lose strength on the last set but still pushed through the sets at 115lbs. My first set was slightly lighter because at 5am, I can’t count!

The MetCon rang a familiar tune. Plyo Push Ups and Sled Pulls!
I found a very similar workout from Feb. 21 and I remember it about killed me! If you read that post then you should really know I don’t want to do this workout. But it didn’t kill me last time so I’m thinking it won’t kill me this time around.

 

This morning we didn’t go for time, we just did work for the sake of putting in work. I recall last time we did this I thought my ass fell off during one of the pulls. But this time wasn’t as strenuous. Looking back at that MetCon in February I saw we did heavier weight, not much heavier but indeed a bigger load. I am a little stronger 3 months later so that probably helped this time around but I’m telling you SLED PULLS may be the death of me at some point. I was not made for that movement at all! I’m just glad there was no times kept today. It would have been a sad day for me on the whiteboard!

Tex-Mex Hash Breakfast Casserole
So I had some extra ground beef and I wasn’t feeling meatloaf or meatballs, what can I make? I went to the good ol google for paleo and ground beef recipes and I stumbled across two recipes that sounded great from PaleOMG. (Yes you should follow this blog, always good stuff!) The first recipe I found was Sweet Potato Enchiladas and the second was the Tex-Mex Hash Breakfast Casserole. Well I was all set to make enchiladas. I had the sweet potatoes but they were a pain in the ass to get thin sliced as the recipe called for so I bailed on that recipe and chose the casserole. My food processor can shred those sweet potatoes right up! It was quite tasty and definitely different than the rut I’ve been stuck in food-wise. I did make the homemade sauce from the Enchilada recipe and it’s below as well. We ate it for dinner but it could be for any meal really. I’m really hoping it’s good for lunch. Leftover casserole can either be AWESOME or just plain ol blah. We shall see! I also gave some leftovers to my dad. He’s been going Paleo-ish. I hope he liked it as well 🙂 I did fail to take a picture so unless lunch looks beautiful you may have to wait till the next time I make this dish.

I know shut up and give us the recipe! Here it is:

Tex-Mex Hash Breakfast Casserole

Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 25 mins
Total time: 40 mins
Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

  • 1lb Grass fed Ground Beef
  • 2 sweet potatoes, shredded
  • 1 small yellow onion, diced
  • 6 eggs, whisked
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 tablespoon bacon fat (or other fat)
  • 1 (14oz) can of El Pato Enchilada Sauce or homemade
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon oregano
  • salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
  2. Pull out a large skillet or oven proof cooking dish. (aka cast iron skillet, etc)
  3. Place skillet over medium heat, add a tablespoon of fat then add your minced garlic and diced onion.
  4. When onion just begins to soften, add your ground beef and use a spoon or spatula to break it up and combine with onion.
  5. Now use your shredding attachment on your food processor to shred you sweet potatoes. If you don’t have a food processor, just use a grater then go to the store and buy a food processor for next time. Life will be better with one.
  6. When your meat is almost cook through, add all your spices to the meat and onions and mix to combine the flavors.
  7. Now pour your shredded sweet potatoes on top of the meat and pat down then add your enchilada sauce on top.
  8. Cover and let simmer for around 8-10 minutes.
  9. Once sweet potato begins to soften, remove from heat, add your whisked eggs and stir to combine it all together.
  10. Place in oven and bake for 25-30 minutes or until eggs are cooked through.
  11. Let cool, this b*tch is gonna be hot!! The enjoy! For breakfast, lunch or dinner!!

For the sauce

Pulled from Sweet Potato Enchilada Recipe

  • 1 (14oz) can tomato sauce
  • 1/4 yellow onion, minced
  • 1/3 cup vegetable broth
  • 1 tablespoon Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon oregano
  • 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
  • salt and black pepper, to taste
  1. Place a saucepan over medium heat for your sauce. Add your tablespoon of oil along with your minced onion.
  2. When the onion becomes translucent, add your tomato sauce and vegetable broth, as well as all your seasonings. Let that cook down until it thickens just a bit.

That’s it for this Tuesday. Hopefully I won’t let Game of Thrones consume my night and I’ll get some sleep!!! Have a tremendously terrific day 🙂

Become ONE with the (pull up) BAR

Ya not so much today but getting there I guess… just really slowly. I’m such a wussbag. But in the long run, my tolerance to hanging on the bar has gotten better. It still starts to hurt before too long but not as quickly as it once did.

This morning at the BOOM Box we worked on ring rows and pull up skills. We first did MAX REP ring rows x 3. I dutifully started out RX with my legs straight and felt fine. Coach came over and corrected the width of my arms and well my RX straight legs went out the window. I had to bend my knees for the remainder of rows. I managed to get 13, 8 and then 6. Not bad but not good either.

6/4/12 WOD

We moved on to max pull ups. So far I’ve been a slacker on my pull up work and my max with the green band has been 5. I busted a whopping 6 today! It’s better than the 3 I started off with a couple of months ago I suppose. After our MAX we worked on kipping and all the work that goes into that. I’m much better at kipping but still lack the strict pull up strength to get my chin over that bar. By now my hands hurt. I’m done. I did not become ONE with the bar. Another day.

MetCon: 8 rounds of 20 sec run, 10 sec rest with 35lb bumper. So it’s a TABATA of running! Yay for running! 😦
We had 10 yards marked out with cones. We had 20 seconds to get as many lengths as we could, then rest for 10 seconds. At each cone we had to touch the ground with the weight. Keeping count wasn’t so bad today for some reason. Overall distance 32 full lengths. Although I was struggling at the end and at a loss for catching my breath my recovery time wasn’t so bad. Maybe I am getting better at this thing called running (sprinting, jogging, etc.). Maybe today was just a fluke!

Weekend Happenings, Eating, and Rambling
We are pretty much fuddy duddies as of late. Maybe because we had a break in baseball and we just needed to chill and maybe cause we are flat out lazy! Hehehe. I did make it out to Homestead Farms on Saturday and my slacker old self didn’t take one picture. It didn’t even cross my mind, new place, new people, FORGETFUL FRANK! If you live in the Keller area it’s not a bad place to check out. They have grassfed beef, pasture chicken and pork. They also have raw goat’s milk from their own goats there on the farm. There was a varied selection of seasonal vegetables, all pesticide free. They carry an assortment of beef jerky, almond butters and other items I can not clearly remember. Pictures would be helpful right now! I ended up walking out with a couple of yellow onions, a few peaches (yummo), raspberries, and beef jerky. The had some chickens outside the back of their store for people to go see. It was a cute place. reasonable priced and in the middle of suburbia. It was a little out of the way for us to make a regular trip but if you are in the area it’s a good place to visit!

My eating habits weren’t right on point but not too bad at all. We were pretty boring… nothing fancy. I did eat those peaches though. They were perfect! And I went ahead and ate a yogurt parfait and La Madeliene because an omelet just didn’t sound good at the time. I didn’t feel any ramifications from eating dairy and fruits so I felt ok with my decision.

I don’t have much to ramble about really, it just flowed well in my subtitle. Heheh. I did stumble across this blogger who shares her struggles about her kiddo and his health, behavioral issues and how removing gluten and dairy from his diet helped him tremendously. Check it out at: http://mypickyglutenfreekid.blog.com/

Enjoy this MONDAY! Make it fantabulous and be awesome at it!

It’s JUNE?!?

Oh yes it is… where does time go? Seriously. The kids are now on summer break and I am not! (Why oh why didn’t I become a teacher?) I’ve now been doing the CrossFit for 9 months! I can hardly believe it. Am I stronger? YES! Am I healthier? YES! Am I a NINJA? YES! No? Ok maybe not really but I like to believe I have some wicked ninja potential.

But also on the flip side I still deal with issues such as my weight, my eating habits and my mental state in regards to what “fit” is. I can tell you though that in the past year and a half I have come a long way, mentally and physically. And yet I still have that fat girl in my head saying ugly things. As the cliché goes, we are our own worst critic. I am extremely harsh on myself and it’s hard to break that habit. I’m dealing and I’m getting better. I just needed to get it out and let y’all know I’m human. I’m not on a soapbox or anything and I want to be clear about it. I’m always pushing the Paleo, CrossFit and getting healthy AND I’m not here to say it’s easy. I’m here to say it’s work and it can be hard sometimes and you gotta put time in but it’s all possible if you WANT it! It’s possible if you put aside your excuses – the what if’s, the but’s and the I’m really happy with myself cause I like to eat and there’s NO WAY I’m giving _____ up! I could go on and on. No time. I have kids. They won’t eat what I need to eat. My husband, My wife. NO support… blah blah blah. I hear ya. I can hear you saying it now. I’m hoping today is the day you say “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH”. But it’s the weekend Stephanie. I can’t do it now. It’s Pizza night! I’m here to tell you YOU CAN. So just grow up a little and put your big girl panties on and at least make a plan to start.

Alright Alright if you’re still reading. I’m DONE for now. I need to recap my BOOMERIFIC morning. I feel the need for some dun dun dun sound effects: Drama Button

THE CRIPPLER!

30 Back Squats (Body Weight)

1 mile run

6/1/12 WOD

Yuuuupppp! Insane right? Well my body weight is damn near my MAX Back Squat so we took a percentage of our body weight. My weight today for Back Squats was 100lbs even. Not super heavy but 30 reps is A LOT! I should have kept better time at when I finished the squats so I could gauge my run. It’s not easy taking off to run after so many squats in a row. I broke the 30 up – 1 set of 10 and 4 sets of 5. I thinkI finished somewhere between 3 and 4 minutes but I am not certain. Overall time: 13:54. One more time for those of you who don’t follow along regularly. I suck at running, I don’t like running and yes I suck at running. Unlike on Monday where I walked some of the mile due to my poor eating and the blazing sun, I’m happy to report I did not stop this time. In the past I typically don’t stop anyways but my self sabotaging eating habits really screwed me over this week. My wannabe skinny girl in my head kept saying, Coach just made you weigh in to determine backsquat and it is not a number you are happy with so DON’T STOP! And I didn’t. I forget how long it takes to rid your “clean” body of “junky foods” but I’m thinking it’s still a while. Just gotta keep keepin on!

I think the plan this weekend is to check out a local farm that’s not too far away. Hopefully I’ll be a good lil blogger and take some pics to share.

Hope y’all have a ADVENTUROUS and AWESOME weekend!

Thursday Fun!

First of all the Sweet Potato Brownies were a hit with Jonas’ friend! I was worried…with teens you never know! I’m now curious if her parents enjoyed them as well, that is if they made it to the parents 🙂

WOD
I almost didn’t make it to the BOOM BOX this morning. At some point I managed to turn off my alarm or something and I woke up at 4:49! I’m supposed to leave by then if not earlier. On top of my tardiness it was a stormin cats and dogs! So I was a few minutes late but nothing to severe.

Even better to being late my left IT band was giving me grief in the warm up. This is not good because lunges are part of the MetCon. And that’s not good why? WELL, that silly ol’ band hurts most doing lunges. I rolled it out quite a bit and it loosened up enough to get through the work.

5/31/12 WOD

Before we hit up the MetCon our Skill/Strength was Dead Lifts! Used to be a favorite and it’s slowly falling down the list of fave lifts. It was a 5 @ 140lbs, 3 @ 150lbs and 1+ @ 155lbs. I was having issues getting my knees to bend when coming back down to ground so Coach had me bring my feet in closer together. With just that little change there was much to be felt in my legs. Not bad just different. HOPEFULLY BETTER in the long run! I finished with 8 reps at 155lbs. Again feeling good but fingers may explode off my hand one day!

The MetCon was 2- 5 min AMRAPs with a 2 minute rest in between. The first part was 10 Diamond Sit Ups, 10 Lunges, rinse and repeat as much as you can. We got to rest for 2 minutes then moved on to 5 minutes of 10 Hand Release Push Ups and 10 Lunges. Rinse and Repeat. We kept track of total reps. It does get hard to keep up with the counting though. It sounds easy but when you’re tired and more tired your brain wants to stop working. My total reps ended up being 280. Not bad but one guy got 310. I felt like a slacker after that! We’ll see what the rest of the day brings. Hopefully I wasn’t too far behind the curve :/

Other news
I stumbled across a FB share of a blogger: http://www.sarahwilson.com.au/2012/03/paleo-101/

She explains PALEO very well in my opinion without being too science-y. I probably eat more meat than she does but overall I think she’s got it on the spot in regards to starting out and understanding the basics.

From there it’s everyone’s responsibility to do their own research, testing and learning on their own. We are all different. We have different food reactions, different tastes, etc. It’s a constant experiment. Don’t ever forget that. The idea is to get as close to the goal as possible every day. Some days will be on target, some days will be slightly off and you all know just by reading my stuff some days don’t even come close to any goal. It happens. We are HUMAN! Just know that you want to keep your OFF days to a minimum. Just because you screw up one meal doesn’t mean your day is done and what the hell eat like crap the rest of the day. OR WEEK! Or whatever you may be thinking. Don’t let mental justifications make you fail for the day or sabotage your day/week/month/year! Make a Change. It’s for the better.

Have a PERFECT THURSDAY! OH ya BE AWESOME TOO!

Brownies!!!

Hello Hello on this not typical day of blogging! As most of you know Wednesdays are a rest day for me and I typically stay quiet but not today as I have a special recipe to share with you.

It’s true….more BROWNIES. Now before you bash me about my sugar detox and trying to get back on track, I just want to let you know I haven’t even had a full on brownie. Just a couple of tastes for good measure. My kiddos were the official taste-testers and approvers of this show.

Now I made these because one of Jonas’ (oldest son) friends was diagnosed with Celiac’s Disease. If you are unaware of this it’s basically an intolerance to gluten. Also if you are unaware, GLUTEN is found in many products out there that you would have no idea contained gluten. This can really be detrimental to one’s health. I’m not going to go into a gluten lesson and all the badness that it can create so you’ll just have to look it up yourself or ask me via the comments section. Anyhow, Jonas’ friend knows that we strive for the Paleo lifestyle and she is definitely interested. Well my thoughtful son volunteered for me to make her a “treat” that wasn’t packaged, but made out of goodness and considered Paleo. He proposed this at the beginning of my sugar detox and I clearly told him NO. But now that I have this sugar thing under control I made a batch of these pretty darn good BROWNIES for him to share with her.

I found them via Multiply Delicious. She shared them via http://vaughangela.com/sweet-potato-brownies/ Here is the recipe:

The Good Stuff:

2 medium sweet potatoes (Steph’s note: I used Japanese Sweet Potatoes as I have read traditional ones get too mushy)
4 ounces dark chocolate
1 tablespoon honey
3 eggs
1/4 cup dark cocoa
1 tablespoon vanilla or almond extract
1 tablespoon coconut flour
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup walnuts

The How To:

Clean potatoes, peel, and cut into chunks. Boil until tender then drain and cool.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt dark chocolate in coconut oil, either in microwave in 20 second intervals or in a double pan on the stove.

Puree sweet potato in food processor until smooth.

Add all other ingredients (except walnuts) and puree until smooth.

Stir in walnuts.

Place parchment paper in the bottom of an 8×8 inch baking pan.

Pour into pan on top of parchment paper.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 – 45 minutes until firm.

Remove from oven, let cool then serve.

YUMMO! Now I left out the walnuts because I wasn’t sure of the friends feeling about walnuts. I used about 1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips instead. My next batch will include walnuts and chocolate chips.

These were a great alternative to my extra yummy but made with AGAVE nectar brownies that I made a couple of months ago. Also not using almond flour probably cut the calorie count down a lot, if counting calories is your thing. I hope the friend loves them 🙂

Have a Happy Wednesday. Be Awesome!!!

Murph, Self Sabotage and Poor Performance

SELF SABOTAGE

Oh man, I done did it. And it showed. I guess I’m just a glutton for punishment. Like any junkie I fell to the dark side! I was doing so good and was feeling so awesome. But then I indulged. My brain told me it would be fine and my brain lied to me. So I ate a few cookies, had some nasty ass tacos from Taco Bell, inhaled some ice cream, Chic-fil-a and pizza. Now this wasn’t all in one sitting but ya, I had all of this food over the Memorial Day Weekend. I’m surprised I didn’t puke my guts out. Even though I ate it all, I didn’t ENJOY it like I thought I would and it even feels like I was just eating more to see if it would be enjoyable. Not once did any of it really make my day. So yes a bunch of gluttony and no reward for it. NO happy dance. NO guilty pleasure. JUST a bunch of telling myself I SUCK and why did I do it 😦

MURPH
Besides what seems like a lot of baseball we pretty much lounged around all weekend and pigged out on food. UGH! But when Monday rolled around we headed to the BOOM BOX for a Community WOD. Since it was a holiday there was only one WOD going down and I should have figured it out what was in store but I didn’t. We show up to the joy of MURPH!

“Murph”
For time:
1 mile Run
100 Pull-ups
200 Push-ups
300 Squats
1 mile Run

In memory of Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy, 29, of Patchogue, N.Y., who was killed in Afghanistan June 28th, 2005.

This workout was one of Mike’s favorites and he’d named it “Body Armor”. From here on it will be referred to as “Murph” in honor of the focused warrior and great American who wanted nothing more in life than to serve this great country and the beautiful people who make it what it is.

Partition the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats as needed. Start and finish with a mile run. If you’ve got a twenty pound vest or body armor, wear it.

Now we did this as a team so it wasn’t as brutal as doing it on your own but it was still pretty harsh. And this all went down at 9am. It’s considerably warmer at 9 than at 5am. I was not prepared to melt during the runs. The runs which sucked! As a team we broke up the movements. Not too bad but for the pullups, band assistance was not allowed! Say WHAT?!?!? We had to have our team members give us a boost to the bar. They had to be our BOX for jumping pullups or actually hold our feet and help push us up so that we could do a PULL UP! Our time is unofficial but we finished around the 45 minute mark. Not sure where the other teams finished but it was a good team effort by all.

5/29/12 WOD and POOR PERFORMANCE
After getting my butt kicked on Monday it was time to get back to the routine. Showed up at the BOOM BOX for some Back Squats, Wall Balls, and 1 Arm KB Push Press.

5/29/12 WOD

Skill Strength – Back Squats … So this is where POOR PERFORMANCE comes in and I blame poor eating for it 100%. I’m sure my mile runs were slower on Monday as well due to eating bad but I didn’t take that into consideration then because it was so darn hot. We did a 5, 3, 1 program this morning. My weights were 110lbs, 115lbs, 125lbs. The 110 felt fine, 115 started feeling heavy and 125 was hard. I only got the 1 rep for 125! My max is 145. I should have been able to do more than 1 rep on that last round but I didn’t. I felt weak. My body and brain were weak. I blame the food. I’ve been putting in good work and it all falls apart this morning.

The MetCon was 10 Wall Balls (14lb ball) and 20 1 Arm KettleBell Push Press (that’s 10 per arm). 1 POOD was the weight I was supposed to use and it felt like 2 POOD instead. I could barely get it up! So I went down to 12kg. It was lighter but I still struggled. My wrist pain that wasn’t really affecting my workouts finally kicked in when I cleaned the KB. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t good. I definitely struggled with my right arm more than I did with my left arm. Wall Balls are the same old thing. I despise them yet I still must fight through and get it done. I had to EMBRACE the SUCK because I knew my dragging ass was all due to eating like CRAPOLA. My lesson may be learned. I’m not going to make you any promises given my track record. But I can tell you that for me it’s not worth it to get all crazy like trying to MAKE junk food make me happy. It’s not going to make me happy and it’s never going to make me feel good. As my coach asked me at the end of the WOD… “would you rather have the better time on the whiteboard or the piece of pizza?” Well this sick person, heheh healthy person I have become would rather have a better time on the board than more pizza. TRUE STORY!

Back to becoming addicted to being AWESOME because the past few days were far from AWESOMENESS. Have a Happy Tuesday. I’m struggling to get back on track. But it shouldn’t take me to long! Back at it already 🙂

Seriously OHS and HSPUs… my wrists are crying!

So it’s later than normal for my WOD recap, part of it, I’m sorry, blah blah blah.

Got to the BOOM Box for a nice little combo of Dead Lifts, Overhead Squats (OHS) and Handstand Push Ups (HSPU). I’ve grown to love MetCons that include lifting but OHS is like kryptonite for me.

That along with Snatch! So although I do not despise OHS I definitely have not found my happy place. It’s awkward, it hurts my sad pathetic wrists and I wish I could do heavier weight comfortably but I can’t 😦

5/23/12 WOD

We had 4 rounds of a 3 minute AMRAP that included 3 OHS and 3 HSPU. I could have sworn it was originally 2 minutes but I’m also half asleep at 5am. As you can see on the white board image, I didn’t get very many rounds in. Going from OHS that kills my wrists, even with my handy dandy Strength Wraps, to HSPUs is killer. My shoulders are dead, my wrists are dead, I’m just dead. By the fourth round, it wasn’t the OHS that was killing me, it was the HSPUs! Holy Crapola it was hard to knock out 3 of those bad boys.

We also worked on Dead Lifts prior to the MetCon for Skill/Strength. Coach did the math for us today so I did 3 @ 130lbs, 3 @ 140lbs and 3+ @ 150lbs. I managed to bust out 12 on my last set. As I’ve mentioned before I feel I could keep going if I didn’t feel as if my hands might literally explode! With proper mobility work put in the Dead Lifts are getting better 🙂

Day 23 – Sugar Detox
Well I’ve made it to my “extended” last day with almost flying colors. One sugar coma on Mother’s Day and no other slip ups. I’m even trying to carry forward as much as I can. I was tempted at lunch for sure. We went to one of my fave places, Ali Baba. It’s a Mediterranean restaurant that has a wonderful lunch buffet. Lots of healthy stuff to choose from and a few not so Paleo foods that I happily steered clear from….this fried pita thing called thyme pie or something like that and rice pudding (which I LOVE). I could have cheated and taken a bite or two but I’m serious about this detox. I do feel much better than ever and I realize it’s silly how much sugar I was taking in without realizing it all because I thought I eat fairly clean. So I can only imaging how much sugar I was actually putting in my body prior to October of 2011!

Now for the exciting news…

6lbs down! Woohooo! It’s not huge because I don’t have huge amounts to lose anymore. But it’s great. And weight loss was not my ultimate goal so this is an added bonus!!!

And there ya have it peoples! Hope your Thursday has been great. If not your day isn’t over, do something super fun and crazy. Laugh a lot and smile big… It’s contagious!

Maybe Just Maybe I’ll keep the Sugar Detox ROLLING!

I’ve been reporting that I’ve been feeling great this whole time with the exception of the first few days and it’s all true. But yesterday and today seem to be EXTRA good. Is it just now that my body has finally accepted this way of being? I’m not sure, I’m just saying, I’m MORE AWAKE and I have more ENERGY than I felt last week. I was already feeling great and felt fine. No Cravings. But Normal. However, the past two days I feel more alert and energized. Of course I’m still sleepy at 4:30 am when it’s time to get up but I’m not drained sleepy. And I’m not having a midmorning yawnfest. “MY” extended end date is through this Thursday but maybe I’ll just keep trucking. That’s just A MAYBE folks. And you’ll know I’ll keep you posted in whatever it is I decide.

WOD
The BOOM Box is growing and I LOVE IT cause I LOVE MY BOX! It’s great to see new faces in the 5am and 6am classes. And even thought I don’t see the afternoon folks, I know new people are coming and it’s great. I hope they make it their workout home 🙂 Enough LOVE talk and onto the workout.

5/22/12 WOD

Skill/Strength: We worked on Press today. We took 90% of our max then took 80%, 85% and 90% of that for a 3, 3, 3+ combo. After a couple of warm ups with the 35lb bar I jumped to 50, 55, and 60lbs. My last set I completed 8 reps. Not bad since Press is one of my weaknesses.

MetCon: 3 Rounds of 50 KB swings and 400m run. Have I complained about all the running we’re doing lately? hehe, YES I complain lots. But doesn’t it seem like more running than one should want to do? JOKES of course. I need to run even if I despise it. I worked with 1POOD (about 35lbs) for my KB Swings. I did all 3 rounds UNBROKEN. And well the running sucked. So I think the runs took up too much time but that’s part of it. TIME: 11:57

Well I already touched base on the Sugar Detox and I don’t want to bore you with more rambling. But I did manage to try out a new recipe. Another Blogger Friend of mine posted it from Everyday Paleo. I pretty much had all the ingredients so I made it. Simple with a slight twist take on Meatballs. It was a win for having something different. It can be found at Everyday Paleo and below as I have copied it from them. The only thing I didn’t have was Ground Pork, so I doubled up on the Beef. I served mine up on some shredded and sauteed zucchini. It was wonderful!

Mexican Meatballs served over Zucchini Faux Noodles.

The Sauce (Seafood enchilada sauce from Everyday Paleo)

Note: prepare sauce or have it simmering prior to putting meatballs into the oven.

1 medium onion, minced

2 tbsp coconut oil

2 cups tomato puree (make your own-about 4 large tomatoes pureed in a food processor)

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 tbsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp sea salt

Saute the onions in coconut oil until limp.  Add tomato puree, garlic, chili powder, cumin, oregano and salt.  Mix well and let simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring often.  Pour the sauce into a food processor and process until smooth.

Meatballs

1 lb ground beef

1 lb ground pork

1 1/2 tsp salt

3 garlilc cloves

1 tbsp oregano

1/2 small onion, minced

2 tsp cumin

Mix together all ingredients and form golf ball size meatballs.  Place meatballs into a glass dish (will probably need 2- makes about 24 meatballs) and bake at 375 for 15 min.  Then spoon sauce over the meatballs and bake for another 10-15 minutes.

Try it out. Let me know what you think about it.

That’s it for today folks. Have a MARVELOUS TUESDAY.

Happy MONDAY y’all!

Yup Monday again. Surprisingly I feel good this Monday morning. I got up a lil earlier than normal and wasn’t RUSHING as much to get to the BOOM Box. I guess taking Friday thru Sunday off was a good thing 🙂

5/21/12

Today’s whiteboard didn’t look too harsh but we all know how that ends up. We started with Max Time L-Sits hanging from the bar. I suck at anything that has to do with that damn pull up bar! After we can no longer hold the L-Sit we were to just dead hang for 1 minute. This idea is supposed to help build a better grip or MAKE YOU CRY.

I’m sure I didn’t look like this, but this is a hanging L-Sit.

At some point the crying should lessen and the grip will strengthen. I’m hoping for that point. It hasn’t arrived yet. I managed to get a Max L-Sit of 16 seconds. Hehehe. Not any sort of greatness there but I’m trying. The dead hangs hurt after you try to hold the L-Sit and my first minute I think I came off the bar twice. My second minute, I’m pretty sure I came off the bar at least 5 times. And I lost count on how many times I dropped from the bar on the 3 minute. It sucked. My hands are not happy hands.

The MetCon looked as if it may be EASY and to my surprise it started out pretty good. Coach saw we weren’t struggling enough so he doubled our reps and that did take a toll. It was 20 minutes of alternating between 8 Hand Release Push Ups (even minutes) and 10 Air Squats (odd minutes). Halfway through we weren’t dying enough so it doubled. 16 HRPUs and 20 Air Squats. Adding 8 extra pushups did the trick. It takes the breath right out of you. In a GOOD way of course. That adds up to 120 HRPUs and 150 Air Squats.

Day 21 Sugar Detox
Wooohoooo it’s the 21st day of the 21-Day Sugar Detox. I’ve survived! I’ve managed and I’ve been successful. As I said last week I’m going through till Friday. Well through Thursday! I had some dessert on Mother’s Day and my kids told me I could eat dessert if I added 3 more days to the Detox. So I did. And NOOO I don’t plan to dive into a cheesecake or anything. Just add fruit back in but in lesser quantities and have a treat every now and then sweetened with honey or maple syrup. Oooh and chocolate. I would like a piece of dark chocolate. That is all 🙂

I encourage y’all to take the plunge. Yes it’s true you won’t feel the greatest in the first few days but YES you will feel GOOD the rest of the time. I still have a couple of days before I weigh to see what if any weight loss benefits I get. I feel lighter, so with that said, weight loss will just be a bonus. I don’t CRAVE the sugary foods anymore. My taste buds don’t salivate at the thought of all those yummy but bad foods. I’ve been PALEO since about October of 2011. SO not too long and definitely not PERFECT all the way but at least the 80/20 ideal if not better 90% of that time. But even being PALEO I let the fruits and Honey and AGAVE NECTAR (which I thought was Paleo) get the best of me. I feel like this did a great help to my sugar addiction. And I know that if I let all those sugars creep back in that I can nip it in the bud before it gets out of control. I’m human, I can’t promise I’ll never eat something sugary again. But I do know that my performance at the Box in general is hindered. I want bigger and better results. Besides keeping at it and pushing hard at my workouts eating clean is the only thing that will help me in the long run.

Hope y’all have a SUPER DUPER MONDAY!

Sleeping Stephanie ZZZzzzz!

Lazy bones checking in I got nothin for ya today really. I completely missed my alarm this morning. I have no idea how I slept through it. I suppose I just dismissed it and went back to sleep but I have ZERO recollection. I just know I woke up and the room was lit up due to the rising sun! It was 6:30 am. TWO FREAKING HOURS past the time I should have got up! NO BOOM BOX for me. 😦 I was so lost this morning. So out of it. I had no idea. So ya, Go ME! I guess my body needed sleep more than anything.

Day 18 Sugar Detox
Going STRONG! I feel great, I feel awesome. Life is good. I’d like to say I’d kick sugar forever but I do love me some fruit. Give the good ol’ Sugar Detox a try folks. It’s not going to kill you, I’m still kicking. YES it takes time, YES it takes planning, YES you have to go outside your COMFORT zone. But if you can make small changes towards a bigger goal, you’ll get there. And NO I’m not sitting in my ivory tower. I haven’t been fit my whole life, I haven’t been skinny my whole life. I HAVE BIRTHED 3 children, I have EATEN food by the truckloads, I work FULL TIME, I have made EXCUSES, I lived in disgust with my own body and did nothing but stuff my face more.

I’ve been there done that. I can promise you that eating clean, eliminating JUNK and living for your future and your kids (if you have them) is WORTH missing out on everyday indulgences. Am I saying don’t ever eat a piece of cake? NO, I’m saying TRY to do something good for you and get out of old habits. Don’t reward yourself with food. Make food your fuel source, not your happy place. Please know that doesn’t mean you HAVE to eat boring bland food, it just means you have to WORK at cooking a little more. Ya I know WORK. Grow up, do work, live healthy, feel good as a result and enjoy life.

So my nothing turned into a little rant. Either your still reading or your not. It doesn’t matter. I just hope you all live for good health so you can enjoy your lives instead of being in pain, whatever pain that may be.

Have a good weekend. Take a step towards clean eating, moving more and loving life! Become addicted to being AWESOME!