Yup I need to SUCK IT UP! I’ve been a bag of whine and defeat lately. My body was so spent that I was leaning against the wall while blow drying my hair this morning! I do hit my WODs the best I can and I do want change but I’ve been letting my brain discourage me lately. I realized that this morning, hence the SUCK IT UP BUTTERCUP. Am I still complaining on here… HELL YES! It’s what I do best but I understand I’m just hurting myself this way. So I am putting forth the effort after this post to stop beating myself up!

Today’s WOD did get me…. DAMN YOU BAR PUSHUPS! Let me begin with skill/strength first which gave me a boost of confidence for a whole minute… IF THAT! Handstand Push Ups! I have yet to master this skill. So we practice and we practice by stacking some bumper plates and throw and abmat on top. So we stacked it high enough for me to feel pretty confident in myself. Easy. I had to drop a whole centimeter, LOL, Jokes but it was rather easy and definitely confidence boosting. Well it can never just stop at easy so we replace one plate with a thinner plate and attempt more HSPUs. I still got it! Wooo… but again nothing close to full depth. Now I must rest with my head on the abmat and push from there. Guess what? I did it! 5 reps NO Problem! And now we remove the thinner plate to just the one plate and the abmat. I got 1 sad little “strict” push up and I was out for the count. Still a little confidence but when put to push past my limits I was at a fail. I know I have made major progress towards this movement so I’m not completely defeated but my HIGH was taken down a notch.  And we’re only on skill/strength!

The MetCon (key in dramatic music). 5 rounds for time… 5 Power Cleans (75lbs) 10 Bar Pushups! And this is when weakness overcame and I was sucking bad. Power Cleans – I got those. Towards the end I wasn’t getting my elbows up high enough so it took a little work but I was feeling pretty good and looked forward to the Power Cleans! I knocked out my first 10 bar pushups pretty ok. It’s the rest that killed me. It’s the rest that sucked up all the time and all my energy. What is a Bar Pushup? Well it’s when you put your hands on the barbell (pushup position), stabilize yourself (cause it rolls) and you knock out pushups. Chest must touch bar for it to count. I had about 7 NO REPS! ARGH! Misery! By the 5th round I had to do them one at a time. I had no strength left. I finished just under 10 minutes! I wasn’t even looking at clock because that would have brought me down more Finished in 9:59. And then I just laid there. I thought I was learning to appreciate pushups and I wouldn’t say I love them but I don’t despise them… NOW after bar pushups I am reevaluating my relationship with the pushup in general!

I am not however reevaluating my love for food! I tried out a couple of new recipes! And they were yummo! I had ground beef out for dinner and had a couple of acorn squash. There must be something wonderful to make and I did find a recipe on the Whole9 Blog. They had stolen it from someone and now I have stolen it from them. I did not have dried cranberries but I did have dried cherries. So I replaced that one ingredient 🙂 And I doubled the recipe so we would have leftovers.

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 1 acorn squash
• 1 pound grass-fed, organic ground beef (ground turkey would work, too)
• 1 chopped onion
• 1 finely-chopped apple (we used a Braeburn, but find something local-ish)
• ½ cup chopped cranberries (fresh, not dried)
• ¼ cup chopped pecans
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp oregano
• ½ tsp sage
• unrefined coconut oil
• salt, pepper

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to ~400 degrees.
• Cut the acorn squash in half, and scoop out the seeds and any stringy stuff.
• Place the squash cut side up in a large baking pan, and put a tablespoon of water into each “cup”, and pour ¼ cup of water into the bottom of the pan.
• Loosely “tent” the pan with aluminum foil, and bake for 30-35 minutes.
• While squash is baking, chop the onion, apple, pecans and cranberries.
• Saute the beef and onion in a little coconut oil for 2-3 minutes, then add pecans, cranberries, and herbs. Add salt and pepper. Do not completely cook this mixture.
• Pull squash out of the oven, spoon the mixture into the “cups” (heaped to overflowing is okay).
• Bake uncovered for another 15-20 minutes.

Mine came a little overcooked on top. I should have paid better attention. But the rest of the meat mixture was perfect!

In addition the squash I had some Kale. I had never made Kale other than in “chip” form so I searched the interwebs yet again. Nom Nom Paleo had a good simple recipe. I did add mushrooms because I LOVE mushrooms and it turned out quite well!

Quick and Simple Stir-Fried Kale and Bacon

Here’s what I gathered for the recipe:

1 bunch of lancinato kale, leaves removed and thinly chopped
3 slices of bacon, cut in 1/4” strips
splash of Banyuls vinegar (the original recipe uses a squeeze of lemon)
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions:

Cook bacon till crispy, Add Mushrooms and let sautee for a couple of minutes. Add Kale in a bit at a time, letting it wilt some before adding more. Once it’s all wilted, add a dash of vinegar (I USED RED WINE VINEGAR). Voila! It’s done. Simple enough right?

I was ambitious last night but not too ambitious so I wanted to make a quick sweet treat. I found a gluten free recipe for NO BAKE COOKIES. NO offense to the creator but I’d rather just call them No Bake Treats as they aren’t really “cookie” like. But still super tasty and addictive. I found this recipe on Gluten Free Fix. I substituted ALMOND BUTTER for the peanut butter.

Gluten Free No Bake Cookies

• 1/2 cup butter or coconut oil
• 1 cup honey
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup natural peanut butter (ALMOND BUTTER)
• 3 cups unsweetened coconut flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

1. In a pot, combine butter, honey and cocoa powder.  Bring to a boil, and boil for 1 minute, whisking constantly.  Remove from the heat.
2. Stir in peanut butter, salt and vanilla.
3. Stir in coconut flakes.
4. Scoop cookies onto a parchment lined sheet tray.
5. Refrigerate to set.
6. Store in an airtight container in the fridge up to 1 week and freezer up to 1 month.

*yields 3 dozen gluten free no bake cookies

I’m pretty sure you could add just about anything to these that compliments the main ingredients and you will win. So give them a try. Big win in our house and easy to eat more than one so you gotta be careful!

Alrighty then, that’s it for this Tuesday. Remember to SUCK IT UP and just DO WORK! There’s no whining in CrossFit and there shouldn’t be any in LIFE. See ya mañana!