Asparagus

Ya Don’t Say

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Two days in a row! That’s miraculous.

I almost didn’t make the 6:30 CF Boom class and that would have been sad. I’m glad I made it but boy oh boy, I’m so sore today.

POST WARM-UP

Sled pushes

CONDITIONING

12:00 min AMRAP for: (ROUNDS + REPS)
1-2-3-4-5
Hang Power Clean ~75% of clean

REST 6 min

08:00 min AMRAP for: (ROUNDS + REPS)
1-2-3-4-5
HSPU

Since it’s been a couple of weeks, I went 10lbs lighter than 75% of my 1RM clean. This left me at 85lbs for the Hang Power Cleans. We were instructed to do the scheme reps as posted above but to drop the bar between reps. So I did 1 Hang Clean, drop the bar, 2 Hang Cleans, drop the bar, 3 Hang Cleans, etc. After I got to my set of 5, I start over. 1 Hang Clean, drop the bar, 2 Hang Cleans, drop the bar and so forth. Rinse and Repeat for 12 minutes.

Each set of 1-5 counted as 5. My final score was 30. That’s 90 reps in 12 minutes. Doesn’t sound like a whole lot, but it takes a toll. I feel like I could have pushed a little harder and maybe got 35, but breathing was hard and my grip was getting weak.

We rested for 6 minutes then moved on to the HSPU. Modifications were Ring Push Ups or Push Ups with our hands on dumbbells. I used the dumbbells and I only made it through 2 rounds of the the 1-5 set. I suck at Push Ups!

I COOKED!

eggmuffins

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I do cook often and regularly, I just don’t wanna. And it gets old and cooking the same quick things over and over gets tired fast. So although I complained yesterday about cooking, I still did. Nothing fancy, some baked chicken, asparagus and enough egg muffins to feed my troops for one day. It’s been a while since I made egg muffins but they were a super big hit this morning. Chorizo makes all the difference!

I can’t promise you, that I’ll post daily, but THIS TIME, FOR REALSIES, I’m trying to stick to it.

And then I got tired

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I was feeling pretty good Day ONE and Day TWO. But it caught up to me. The HANGOVER as Whole30 states may happen in Days TWO & THREE. And I felt it this morning at the BOOM Box. Normally after the warm up, especially in the mornings, I finally wake up. The blood is flowing, the heart rate is up and my brain starts to work. But today, I was like a slug. Moving slow. Spaced out. Eventually adrenaline kicked in but the rest of the morning has been so blah. I know this will pass but right now I just want to crawl into bed. The good thing is that I truly believe the Clean Eating is instantly helping my sad muscles recover much more quickly. I’m not near as sore as I have been the past couple of months and my body is overall feeling better for the most part.

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Many Whole30ers report headaches, fatigue, and general malaise during this part of the program. This, my friends, is completely normal. Your body is working its way through a whole host of junk it stored from the foods (or food-like-products) you used to eat. This process lasts a day for some folks, but for others it can take a few days longer. Relax, drink a lot of water, and keep making good choices. And do your best to earn sympathy and support from friends and family,
– www.whole30.com

And even though I’m feeling like the only thing I should do is sleep right now, let me tell you how excited I am that my meals are turning out great. That’s like the bright side to this nasty food hangover. The meals from Weeknight Paleo by Amber Beam are tasty and aren’t taking up much of my time. And no, I’m not getting compensated for plugging this book! LOL I WISH! Seriously though, the meals are great. And a success among all of my family… ages 10-29! Hehe.

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I still am struggling with eating breakfast after my Post Workout Meal. And I fear that I always will. I have a good time frame of 1 1/2 – 2 hours after my PWO and it’s still so hard. It’s like I don’t want to chew. And part of Whole30’s thought process tells you to not drink shakes/smoothies! Chew your food! UGH! My face hurts!

Day TWO Everything
I decided to just give you all a run down of the day instead of splitting it all up! Maybe this will be better and less boring. I hope. Maybe. Don’t leave me! 😀

You should have already seen my beautiful breakfast in yesterday’s post and I only described Lunch. Got home, hit the BOOM Box and reheated some pork for the Carnitas–Style Taco Tower. But also remembered I had Salmon I did not throw in the freezer and needed to cook that ASAP. Turned out lovely, just lovely!

BOOM Box 1/714
30 heavy Russian Swings
Used the 1.5 POOD. Not fun, but did the work

Skill: Pull Up progressions
So Coach wanted us working on the Rings! Ugh, me and rings. I have dumb fears, Hanging from those is another one of them. But I almost got Toes to Bar on those. Just need to practice.

1/7/14 WOD

1/7/14 WOD

MetCon: 8 rounds for reps of 1 min Over Head Lunges w/plate 45/35 and 1 min Burpees to the plate
Ya, I knew this was gonna hurt! I wasn’t sure how the OVER HEAD part was going to work with my wrist and well I learned real quick it wasn’t going to work. I did about 10 reps with the 35lb plate but my wrist won’t bend all the way, so I was off balance. I tried going to a 25lb plate and it was still a NO GO. So I just did lunges. I felt bad I was scaling way bad. But I totally sucked without weight too! The burpees got me. BAD. Final: 214 reps.

DINNER
So I said I came home to reheat some pork. I made the Cole Slaw that goes with it the night before. SUPER EASY. And I improvised on the “tower” part. I didn’t purchase the metal ring thing that was suggested. But I had this handy dandy cup/measure thing that I used to attempt a tower. As you will see in the pictures, it came out OK, nothing restaurant worthy but I just want to eat!

My contraption, nothing like what the cookbook asks for!

My contraption, nothing like what the cookbook asks for!

Hehe, my LEANING Carnitas tower! May not be purty but it sure is tasty!

Hehe, my LEANING Carnitas tower! May not be purty but it sure is tasty!

And what the cookbook shows! Weeknight Paleo

And what the cookbook shows! (Weeknight Paleo) As you can see I was a little heavy handed with the guacamole in the pic above!

In between reheating and trying to create a masterpiece, I cooked up the Salmon for the Herbes de Provence-Crusted Salmon with a Citrus-Herb Sauce and Asparagus in Weeknight Paleo. Besides the “juicing” of the citrus fruit, this was quick and easy. Maybe 20 minutes from start to finish. Seriously EASY and QUICK and kind of fancy looking! So yummy!

Fresh out of the oven.

Fresh out of the oven.

My attempt at making it more presentable.

My attempt at making it more presentable.

SLEEP
Working out in the evenings makes it a little harder to sleep but once I did fall asleep I was out! I woke up fine when my alarm went off at 4 am but ended up hitting snooze till 4:35! Doh!

Day THREE
So I rolled in a few minutes late to the BOOM Box…. you can’t fault me for that when I’m showing up at 5 a.m.! Coach T already has his wheels turning on what I would be substituting for the WOD. Cause it was Thrusters and Hang Cleans on the board.

Midline: 30 evil wheels
With my wrist and lack of core strength I could only roll out so far, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t putting a beating on me!

Strength: EMOM 20min 3 thrusters AHAP. Once you have past 5 minutes you must keep that weight.
I am soooo glad I can’t do Thrusters with a BAR! They are misery! But I did get the opportunity to use 20lb Dumbbells. Of course the weight wasn’t there but I’m still working up my upper body strength since it’s been slow rolling. Still sweating and still a good heart rate.

1/8/14 WOD

1/8/14 WOD

MetCon: TABATA of Air Squats, Hang Cleans 115/75, C2B Pull Ups
Sometimes I love TABATA and sometimes, like today, I don’t care so much for it. Maybe cause I was already feeling drained after the Evil Wheels. So tired! 3-2-1 GO. I started off OK with Air Squats getting 20 in the first 20 seconds, then 16, then 14, then 12… I stayed at 12. Instead of Hang Cleans, I did Power Snatch with the 35lb bar. I did like 7 on the first 20 seconds, then held out with 5 for the rest of the time. By the time I got to my BANDED Pull Ups, I was just happy to be alive. I struggled a lot and ended up with a score of 2! Boooo! Final: 12, 5, 2

PWO MEAL
A serving of pork and a serving of Sweet Potato Puree. As exhausted as I felt, the food was good and went down easy. But as soon as I got home, I was already dreading breakfast!

BREAKFAST
Bone Broth! I’ve made the broth before but with less chicken carcasses and only used it for soups and seasoning veggies. But now I’ve made it properly and now I know that drinking it by itself is beautiful. And knowing all the health benefits makes it that much more the reason to drink it! Click HERE for more info!

I also had boiled some Eggs on Sunday, so this was going to be my breakfast. I was moving slower than normal and was glad I had this back up for food. I packed 3 eggs up, a sandwich bag full of spinach and a handful of cherry tomatoes. I figured I would eat this around 7:45 a.m. on my drive in to work. OH MY the spinach was so hard to eat as well as the EGGS. I was tired of eating that I failed to eat one of the eggs. I realized I was missing my “healthy” fat also but was so over it. I think/hope I’ll survive till lunch!

That’s a Wrap!
So there you have it for this lovely HUMP DAY. I’ll have REST until Friday morning! How sweet it is! This gives me time to cook up some chicken and ground beefs to hold me through Friday and maybe through the WEEKEND. I’ll be checking in tomorrow, hoping I’m not sooo tired and let you know how any food prep went down. Until then, take that step to cleaner eating, more physical activity or just getting more sleep! Do Something! Make a Change!

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More Foods, More Beatdowns and More Airrosti

I really enjoy being in the kitchen when I have the time and right now I have the TIME… not for long when baseball season gets into gear and the boys are going full speed ahead BUT for now I can play in the kitchen and it’s fun!

Meatloaf was on the brain last night and I had 2lbs of grass fed ground beef ready to be cooked. I did a quick search on the interwebs and stumbled across Paleo Diet Lifestyle and a recipe they had on their site.

Paleo Meatloaf with Mushrooms! It was a HOMERUN in the family department. Perfect served up with Mashed “Potatoes” Cauliflower and some Asparagus.

2 lb ground beef (you may substitute with ground pork);
1 ½ tbsps salt;
1 tsp ground black pepper;
1 egg;
1 medium onion, finely chopped;
2 cups white button mushrooms, finely chopped;
1 tsp chili pepper flakes;
3 tsp fresh thyme, minced;
1 tsp fresh oregano, minced;
3 cloves garlic, minced;
½ cup homemade ketchup;
(I USED an ADDTIONAL 1/3 CUP for the meat Mixture … stephanie)
1 tbsp honey, optional;
½ tbsp Worcestershire sauce, optional;
1 tbsp paleo cooking fat;

Preparation
Preheat your oven to 350 F.
In a medium sized skillet placed over a medium heat, melt the cooking fat, add the mushrooms and saute for 2 to 3 minutes, or until soft.

In a large bowl, combine the meat, salt, pepper, egg, onion, mushrooms, chili pepper, thyme, oregano and garlic. Mix well, makng sure to break-up the meat. Add the cooked mushrooms as well. It’s very important that the mushrooms are evenly distributed to ensure the loaf bonds well.

Lightly grease loaf pan with additional cooking fat and fill it with the meat mixture. Place in the oven and cook for approximately 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine ketchup, honey and Worcestershire sauce to make the sauce for the top of the meatloaf.

After cooking for 15 minutes, gently spread the sauce on the top of the loaf.
Continue cooking for another 40 minutes.

PLEASE NOTE… I did not make my KETCHUP. I used organic ketchup from Whole Foods. While this has some sugar in it, it is better than OTHER ketchups. In the future I plan on making my own ketchup but I didn’t have the tomatoes to do so. Also I added some ketchup to the MEAT mixture – about 1/3 cup. I also left out the Worcestershire sauce because I don’t have any in my kitchen.

Ingredient Prep

Cookin' Up the Mushrooms

Ready to be MIXED!

Another Blurry Pic ARGH! But this is when I put the Sauce on the Meatloaf 15 minutes after it's been in oven. I made a little extra cause it seemed like a good idea 🙂

Meal Ready to Be Served

All I can say is "DELICIOUS"

While that was baking, I steamed up some cauliflower and garlic gloves. Once the cauliflower was done I salted and peppered it up, threw it in the food processor with 3 TBS of pasture butter and got it mixing. It turned out really nice and creamy in texture. Perfect with the meatloaf! The kids gobbled it up as did Ernie and myself. We then watched some Biggest Loser to see if “CrossFit” was incorporated and passed out!

Steamed Cauliflower Ready for the Food Processor

 

Rise and Shine (in the dark) as it was an early morning today. It’s my CrossFit day off and I decided to attend iChoosefit Bootcamp in Midlothian. It’s a good 25 minutes away from me but they have an indoor facility that I’ve been wanting to check out! One of my local bootcamp friends came along for the ride as well. We were equally impressed with Speed & Performance Training Facility. The upside to this place is that they have barbells and plates which allows for heavier lifting than the mobile bootcamp allows. It was a good beatdown today. We had everything from Box Jumps, Back Squats, Deadlifts, Sled Pushes, Running and so forth! AJ did not hold back in his beatdown. It’s a great large space with plenty of equipment. I wish I owned something along those lines.

I came home with no ambition in regards to cooking so breakfast was eggs and fruit. But I was excited for my AIRROSTI appointment. My hip pain has dramatically decreased and it appears that I have an impingement in my hip so I’ll always have to work hard at keeping myself properly stretched as well as keep up with the foam roller and ice. But the constant burn and ache is GONE. It would hurt while I was just sitting in my car on the drive home or burn if I was on my feet for too long. I definitely recommend giving AIRROSTI a try! Thank you Dr. Bertrand and Casey!

Have a WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY! I forgot to defrost any proteins (DOH!) so I don’t know what will be on the menu… probably eating out but we’ll see.