Clean eating

Competing Everyday

That’s been on my brain as of late, mostly because a couple of months ago I received a COMPETE EVERYDAY wristband that I stare at everyday and just recently I was gifted a nifty COMPETE EVERYDAY shirt. “Compete Everday, BECAUSE I HAVEN’T REACHED MY LIMITS”. It’s perfect.

I’m sure the word “compete” is a turn off to a lot of people. It sounds like work. It sounds hard. Why do I want to compete everyday? Competing everyday doesn’t have to be tedious, it should be fun, it should be YOU vs. YOU, not you vs. that magazine ad, or the scale or you vs. anything but YOU! I look at my wristband and although I don’t always hit the mark in making myself better in my eyes, I do really have to reflect and tell myself that YES you are making yourself better. Yes you push your limits.

Some days my limits are set lower but some days they are set high and I push them. I have to remind myself that I get up 4 out of 7 mornings before the sun comes up to go kill a workout and stay busy the other 3 days. I strive for clean eating. I strive to be a good parent. I strive to better at life always. And I do. And I also tend to get lost in it all and whine and complain and whatever else but at the end of the day I do COMPETE. And certain days it’s truly an aggressive action but it’s not always aggressive; it is however wanting more, it’s wanting to be better for me, which in turn helps me to better for a lot of other people. It feels good, self-empowerment. I hear a lot of people say, “oh I’m not competitive” or “i’m passive, i don’t compete” But I’m not talking about team sports. I’m talking about life. Most people have desires and wants, and unless you come from the land of the rich, most things don’t just fall in your lap. It takes work. It’s takes want to. It takes competition. Sure I like to compete in general, it’s how I’m wired but I know not everyone is wired that way. I compete always, in my head! And sure I know how to relax and enjoy the simple things in life. It’s called balance. Find your balance but also find your drive. Find COMPETITION.

The BOOM Box was full of my weaknesses this morning and I was really having a hard time finding my want to. It’s true and that’s what inspired my ramblings. I showed up to work but was I there to PUSH? I was but I didn’t want to at the time.

Skill/Strength: 3 x 10 Ring Pullups. MODIFIED to Ring Rows. The movement is not HARD for me but I don’t have a lot of reps in a row. By the 3rd set I had to bend my knees to get solid reps in. My problem this morning was “hanging” for too long. Instead of just fighting through, I’d hang and lose power. And in that 3rd set I forced myself to push through all 10 reps. Granted they were even more modified but I think I won that battle by not stopping.

10/23/12 WOD

MetCon: 30 Pull Ups, 20 Wall Balls (14lbs), 10 Shoulder to Overhead (85lbs), 20 Wall Balls, 30 Pull Ups. All upper body. All weaknesses in my book! So coach didn’t want us using bands today for Pull Ups so MORE Ring Rows it is… at least I had a warm up session! Before we started we warmed up our STOH with Push Presses, Push Jerks and Split Jerks. The RX weight was 105 but that’s really pushing past limits and I wanted to finish the WOD! So I worked up to 85lbs which isn’t light for me but I cleaned the bar fine and felt I could at least do 10 reps right? Even after Pull Ups and Wall Balls! LOL, Yes I was convincing myself it’s doable.

I knocked out 10 Ring Rows, then 5, then 6 and then I don’t know what till I got to 30. I suck at Wall Balls and really dragged ass on those. Got to the STOH and pushed out 5 but lost momentum and dropped the bar. I sure as hell didn’t want to Clean it again but I did and decided I would SPLIT JERK the remaining 5 reps. Well I was doing great and did my 5th rep, dropped the bar and moved to Wall Balls. Coach NO REPPED me!!! ARGH. I didn’t step together and show I had control on the last rep! It was a mindless act, I didn’t do it on purpose :/ But I had to Clean the bar again and do that last REP! ARGH! NOW onto Wall Balls, I threw that damn ball up there, hit the mark but was unable to catch it on the way down. I was done! I struggled through the 19 reps left! Hahah, I ended up knocking them out in sets of 5 but it was a sad sight. 30 Ring Rows left and I could only bust out a handful at a time. Time: 11:14. Those damn WALL BALLS, I let them get in my head and take up too much time. One day I will own Wall Balls!

Food Front
In regards to FOODs, back to Paleo and Clean Eating for sure, but not entirely back on Sugar Detox. In truth most foods I have been eating are without sugar. It’s only been 2 days but I’m already feeling that much better. I know it’s a mental state as well but my body is definitely loving me more! Nothing exciting. But everything is tasting so much better!

Barbells For Boobs/#Occupy Boom
This Saturday Oct 27th @ 6pm! The workout is GRACE (30 Clean & Jerks for time). If you been keeping up with me, then you know you’re invited. I want you to come out and experience all of this FUN I write about day in and day out. If you would like to be a part of this event please visit the link on the right and donate at least $30 to mammograms in action. Even if you don’t want to participate, donations are welcome to support my efforts in raising money for Barbells For Boobs ツ! I’m still at $40 of my $100 goal. IF you can help, click here. Any amount is welcome. Thank you for your support.

Barbells for Boobs is a non-profit breast cancer organization whose mission is to provide funding through the Mammograms in Action @ Grant Program for qualified low income and uninsured women and men who need screening and/or diagnostic procedures in the prevention of breast cancer.

#OccupyBoom will follow B4B. Not sure what’s in store but I know it will be team workouts and loads of fun. Come see us be crazy!

Have a beautiful day peeps. Remember to be AWESOME. Today I challenge you to Paint something. I say this only because we got to paint pumpkins last night for the kids and it truly is fun. I suck at painting and in the end we did a lot of gluing but it’s a good time anyways. So go be creative and have some fun.

Simple Cooking with KALE

Taking notes from fellow bloggers (Martha, Jennifer), I’m making a small attempt at being more HELPFUL than being more about ME! Heheh but you can’t have AWESOME without ME so hopefully I take on this task without the ramble. Ok I ramble that’s a given, you’ll just have to follow along as best you can! It’s my rest day from the good ol’ BOOM Box so why not post a recipe. I haven’t shared a recipe in quite a while because frankly we get busy in our house and food, although delicious, gets boring and repetitive.

For my dedicated readers you know I rarely talk about my work life, maybe not at all now that I think about it. I am a graphic designer for a housewares company, Dexas International. We manufacture/produce all sorts of kitchenware, gadgets, etc. No this isn’t an ad for my company, just giving you some back story. Well this month’s social media topic for us is KALE!

And as most of you no I’m not a CHEF and I’m surely no pro at all things Kale but I do cook it semi-regularly at home. There are different varieties but I usually use the plain ol’ green or red tipped versions. It’s the SUPERGREEN of greens. It’s all sorts of good for you. I’m not going to go into all the details of kale but check it out for yourself. Maybe start HERE and Google away. It’s almost daily that I get poked fun of by my co-workers for my clean eating. Throw out the word Kale and it’s a circus, then I realized that maybe they are just intimidated by it. So I got to thinking that maybe others are too. So I have a super quick recipe for you to use. This is good especially if you are on a time crunch. TIME is what I lack in all aspects of life so having a side dish to go with dinner that can cook super fast is IDEAL in my world!

This is KID APPROVED and hopefully CO-WORKER approved as well. Please NOTE my kids LOVE LOVE LOVE veggies so it’s not hard to please them but they really do like this simple ingredient, super quick side. I’m pretty sure I’ve discussed this dish before in previous posts but I never broke it down or had many pics to share.

Ingredients:
Bunch of Kale
2 slices of Uncured Bacon (nitrate free, no/low sugar)
1/4 cup sliced/diced onion or more to liking
Himalayan Salt (or preferred salt) to desired saltiness
Pepper
Garlic Powder (or real garlic if you have it on hand)
Red Chili Powder (OPTIONAL but if you want a little kick! A+)

Now what?!?
Get your skillet/pan heated up
Cut up bacon into small slices or bits and toss in skillet
After bacon is slightly brown add onion and sautee till bacon starts getting crispy
While bacon and onion are cooking prep/wash kale. I just tear it from the main hard stalk and tear up into smaller pieces. Rinse thoroughly and wait for Bacon to get a little crispy
Add Kale to skillet. It will look like a lot and depending on your skillet size you may save half Kale for later or wait till Kale wilts down before adding more.
Season as desired using above seasonings or whatever flavor profile you prefer
Once all the Kale is wilted down, you are READY TO SERVE!

Kale tore up and ready to be rinsed off.

Kale stalks NOT used for cooking! Not real sure if they are good to cook or not actually but not for this recipe!

YUM BACON!

Brown the Bacon a bit before adding Onion. Then let cook together tiill Bacon starts getting crispy!

Toss in rinsed Kale right on top of bacon and onions. At this point is when I add my seasonings. Let simmer than stir away as it wilts down.

As you can see it goes from A LOT to not A LOT. This was about half a Kale bunch.

Ready to SERVE!

OR READY to PACK up for LUNCH!

I made this in the morning before work and it took me less than 20 minutes to prep and cook. Maybe even 15 minutes. I didn’t look at the clock but you get the gist. It’s quick and easy! Cook it while you’re sauteeing some chicken. Add leftover roasted chicken or serve it with Fajita meat. The options are endless. And it’s a WINNER in our house.

So go forth and be AWESOME! Eat some KALE!

Confidence… Where are you?

Last week we had that Power Clean WOD, it has left a bad taste in my mouth and I’m sad because I really enjoy Cleans. I can not find the confidence to drop under the damn bar. It’s truly frustrating. I understand the movement, at lighter weights I can do it but once I put any sort of weight on the bar I FAIL. I can muscle it all up but that’s not the point. Coach knows I can do it. I feel I CAN do it but when action is required I shut down. And I don’t do it on purpose! This morning was a much better showing than on Friday, but I still wasn’t in good form.

Skill/Strength: 4 x 200m sprints. Well shitfire… my hips burned on all of these runs which in reality was a 50m sprint and 50m run and 100m jog. I couldn’t keep up the pace today. Overall I just felt weak.

8/28/12 WOD

MetCon: 8 Rounds 3 Hang Cleans @ 85lbs, 3 Bar Facing Burpees
Like I said up front, Cleans are my kryptonite right now. I am still feeling the aftermath of last week and disappointing myself. I was determined to not have the same failures but I was slow to pick up the bar today and just lacked confidence. After a fail in the 3rd or 4th round, I finally got pissed off enough to just do the work. I wish I had gone into the WOD with that mindset. I know I should ALWAYS be ready to kill it but it took me a bit to wind up. With that said I can’t be upset with my time. By the way, HANG CLEANS not the same fun as POWER CLEANS. Time: 6:37

FOOD
I’ve been trying to be better prepared for the week food-wise. Granted it’s only the second day of school but I got dinner out pretty quickly last night because I had my skirt steak already marinating from Sunday, had a chicken defrosted and ready to roast and have ground beef and sirloin ready to go for this evening. It’s work but I’ve been trying to be efficient. Hopefully I can keep this up without getting burned out. Thankfully the kids are super helpful but again it’s only Day 2 of the school year. I did manage to get a picture of their lunches today. Yay for CLEAN eating!

Roasted Chicken, Cherry Tomatoes, Hard Boiled Egg, Carrots, Grapes, Berries, Peaches. I did realize a little too late that they needed some GREEN foods but I forgot. Sigh!

Have a super day. And you all know it, say it with me: BE AWESOME!

Yes I’m a GIRLBABY … sometimes!

This week has been full of wah wah wah, I know! I think I’m allowed to have a pity party every now and then. And I feel very deja vu about that intro. I’ve probably said something very similar in past posts! At least I’m admitting my faults at the same time and not just sitting here say WHY is this happening to me? And I thank you for putting up with me even if that means you aren’t reading my crybaby petty complaining. I still have people that show me the love and encouragement on the Facebook! And for that I THANK YOU!

As this week comes to a closing I can re-iterate that my eating is tons better than last week. Although my body parts still feel inflamed, the pain is subsiding. Clean eating does a body GOOD, I PROMISE! And although I’m dragging ass at the box I’m still putting forth max efforts. We have a competition coming up in 3 weeks that I am excited about. Well some days I’m more excited than others because some days I’m just nervous thinking about it. It will be fun at least and hopefully we suck less than others! Hahaha! So my goal for the next three weeks is GO HARD or STAY HOME! And I plan to go Paleo 100% if possible – maybe 95% for all you literal peeps just because we aren’t cave folks and I sure as hell ain’t hunting down anything. I typically stick to a 85-90% clean eating range so 100% isn’t a major leap but it’s a leap! And I’m just talking food here. I’m not talking about giving up the beauty of modern times, technology, etc. I’m referring to eating clean, pasture raised, grass fed, chemical free REAL FOODS!

So now I’ve made my declaration I hope most importantly to not let myself down because I want to be better for me but also for all you that read along regularly. I am human, I do make mistakes, I do go off the grid but it’s all about accountability, right? So pray I will be successful. It’s not easy, I will never say it’s easy because life likes to throw you curveballs!

Moving on to today’s WHITEBOARD.

7/27/12 WOD

Skill/Strength: 3 rounds of 10 for Pistols (one legged squats) and Banded Push Ups
Good news! I finally did Pistols on the ground! I did however use a 15lb plate for counter balance and I could only do them on my right leg but hell ya I was happy. My left leg is sad and gimpy and I was having troubles on the box and on the ground. There’s a painful point in the bending of my knee that hurts like a mofo. Once my IT Band crosses the inflammed bursa sack I’m fine. But it’s the whole OH SHIT IT’S GONNA HURT point that I try to avoid. So Coach is having me do Pistols “backwards” if you will on my left leg. I start out sitting on a med ball. Left leg is flat on ground with heel against the ball and right leg is being held straight out. From there I attempt to stand up. This still hurts but not near as bad as squatting down. I managed to get reps in this way and with more mobility work, eating clean and what now I hope to remedy this whole IT Band issue!

This is how a pistol SHOULD look like.

This is kind of how I did them but with a bumper plate instead of weird KB
looking thing.

I way underestimated Banded Push Ups. My silly self thought a Green Band would be fine! Hell to the NO, I did maybe 5 and Coach gave me a blue band. Still not easy but do-able.

MetCon: 10 Rounds of TEAM 40yd KettleBell Suicides and 80yd sprint
We had teams of 2. The goal was run suicides while carrying KBs. Cones were set up every 10yds for 40yds. If you don’t know what suicides are you are lucky. You run down to first cone, run back to start, run down to second cone then back to start, etc. You may see people doing this at a basketball court or on a football field. It’s a butt whoopin no matter how you do it. Carrying an extra 35lbs well that’s plain ol SILLY and a butt whoopin! I felt gung ho and ready to GO H.A.M. but after the 2nd cone I wanted to just go HOME. I struggled. There is no good way to carry a KB and run, not one good way at all. That’s 200yds carrying a KB and then 80yds sprinting (hahahha, I could not sprint at all) times 5! I apologized to my teammate for sucking. He was going strong and would keep us a little closer to the team we were racing against but I kept slowing us down. Time: 17:40

This weekend will be ALL REST weekend and getting my ass in gear for better eating. I hope you have a Fantabulous Friday and Kick Ass weekend. Enjoy life! I demand it! And everyone with me in chorus: BE AWESOME!

Is it NAPTIME yet?

I went to bed later than normal and I felt it this morning. But maybe it was just yesterday’s WOD that I was feeling. I was dragging when I got to the BOOM Box but that didn’t last long as we had a nice jog to wake us up. As much as I didn’t want to go it was good to wake up the limbs and get the blood flowing.

7/12/12 WOD

For our Skill/Strength we worked on mobility. Today’s choice was HIPS or SHOULDERS. Well I NEED to work on both but shoulders were the winner for the day. And boy did we work on those shoulders. Coach had us all lay down and put our arms out to the side of us and raise our fingers to the ceiling (L-shape). We then lowered our arms to the ground to our sides without letting our shoulders come up off the ground. We were told to remember that position. The killer part was laying on the ground next to a barbell and putting the end of the bar on your shoulder and rolling it back and forth. Then using your leg to put more weight on the bar and still roll it back and forth. MY SHOULDERS WERE DYING! My right side is much more tender/sensitive/WEAK than my left side but after doing both shoulders we re-tested getting our arms to the ground and both of my hands touched the ground easy breezy. Below is a Mobility WOD video that is similar to what we did this morning. It does wonders but hurts like a MOFO!

MetCon: 3 Rounds of 15 Burpees, 10 Pull Ups and 5 HandStand Push UPs. Not too many movements and lower reps this should be a quicky WOD and it wasn’t too long, I still struggle too much with the pullups but I didn’t wuss out as much as I normally do. And since I don’t have a RX HSPU we did a modified version. We put our heels up against the wall, bent over and had our hads at just the most uncomfortable position to do a push up. Those sucked but not as bad as pull ups. Time: 6:51

I stuck around to work on Double Unders. It was a pretty big fail as I was just off today in stringing together a good set. So I called it a day at the BOOM Box.

Last night.
I waited till the last possible second to cook dinner. Ernie works out late so I try to time dinner for when he gets home. But in my procrastination I had to come up with a plan ASAP because of course I had no plan! So with ninja like quickness I got broccoli cut up, tossed it with olive oil, himalayan salt, pepper and red pepper. Baked that at 450° for 15 minutes. Got two grass-fed steaks seasoned and going on the stove and prepared a last minute effort at some Cauliflower rice. Nothing like my faux Spanish rice or Asian fried rice. I got some chicken broth heating up in a pan, got the cauliflower shredded up in my handy dandy food processor. I dumped what ended up being a lot of “rice” into simmering chicken broth and realized I needed more broth. I don’t have measurement but it was probably a cup of broth that I used. I got that simmering and put a lid on it. While that was going, I chopped up some baby carrot and onions to dump into “rice”. I added some salt, pepper and Kerrygold butter and put the lid back and and let it simmer away. Probably for 15 minutes. Just keep checking for the broth to be absorbed into the cauliflower “rice”. I don’t know if I was just really really hungry or if it was that damn good but I loved it! I took an pic but as you know it’s nothing professional.

Tomorrow is my rest day but I’m thinking I may take a jog around the neighborhood… THINKING only at this moment but probably won’t happen, we’ll see! BE AWESOME! It’s Tuesday, wooooohoooo.

NOODLE limbs and NOODLE food

My arms are noodles. And my hands are dead. If I had to rush and lift something heavy off of someone I would be useless! Hahaha, what are the odds of me having to save someone like that? Hopefully not good because I would be of no help.

The Boom Box had this little gem of a workout for us on the whiteboard –
Skill/Strength: DU practice then Max DUs in 5 minutes. I really thought I would get more than 168 but I did not. I could barely string 10-12 together much less get a good solid 30-40 in a row. I think I stopped caring at the halfway point and was just hoping time would speed up. I wasn’t happy I couldn’t get my double unders controlled. But ah well. There’s always a next time.

6/26/12 WOD

MetCon: 4 ROUNDS of 1 minute Bar Hang, 10 sec transition, 1 minute DeadLift Hold (135lbs), 10 sec transition

BONUS: 5 Burpee Penalty for every time you drop off the bar or drop the bar at the end of the 4 rounds.

I’ve learned over the months to not underestimate the WOD on the board. I used to do that a lot and really get the crap beaten out of me. Today that silly little thought really started creeping in. I was sure this would be hard but really it didn’t sound THAT bad. Uh ya, how about after 30 seconds of hanging on the bar was I ready to die. I would not be good in a torture type situation. I would sing like a bird. This my friends was torture. (And please I’m not diminishing the fact that people really do get tortured and it’s a terrible thing. This is for entertainment purposes only. And it’s sad that I have to say that cause there are some people out there that are too serious.) Moving on to the Deadlifts. Well the weight was easy to get up but easy to HOLD, hell no! It sucked! I dropped it twice on the first minute out of pure shock on much it sucked. I dropped the bar once each round for the rest. I dropped A LOT while hanging on the bar. I am unable to suck it up and look past the PAIN at least when it comes to my hands. So at the end of our 4 rounds I had a total of 12 drops which meant 60 Burpees lay before me. I didn’t rush through them but I didn’t drag ass either. I look forward NEVER to any similar workouts. The end!

JOKES JOKES it’s not the End.

I have SWEET POTATO noodles to talk about!! We are always stocked up on ground beef and I was going to do my standard meatballs with zucchini pasta but I thought I’d mix it up a bit. I had recently read about SWEET POTATO noodles but I didn’t really follow up on it. It was just a FB status. After some googling I found it posted over at Civilized Caveman Cooking. It was easy enough and was pretty darn tasty!

Sweet Potato Slices. After you slice them on the mandolin you cut them into thin strips aka NOODLES!

Meatballs over the NOODLES 🙂 YUMMY!

Ingredients:

2 Medium Sweet Potatoes or Yams, long in shape
2 Tbsp Grass fed butter, I used salted
1-2 Tbsp Sage
1 Tbsp Cinnamon
Sea Salt for taste

Process:

Wash your sweet potatoes under cold water and then peel
Once peeled, CAREFULLY using your Mandoline, slice your sweet
potato lengthwise into thin strips
Once sliced, use a knife and cut them to about 1/4 inch thickness and set aside
Melt your butter in a large state pan over medium heat and add in all of your sweet potato “noodles”
Continually stir and cook until the sweet potatoes are cooked through to your liking, about 5 minutes for me
Sprinkle with your sage and cinnamon and mix well
Transfer to a plate and Enjoy

Instead of cinnamon and sage I substituted himalayan salt and garlic powder. I was serving meatballs over this and it turned out pretty darn good!!!

Now it’s the end. Hopefully you are making life AWESOME. Have a torture free Tuesday!!

Sumo Summer!

Yup it’s a lame title. And I don’t care what you think! Hehe. I do care. Just like me please 🙂 Or don’t cause ya I don’t care. I was at a loss for creativity which happens more often than not. We did Sumo Deadlifts. It’s the 2nd day of summer. It seemed to work. And instead of editing forever, I just went with it. Why am I still explaining myself. I’m slightly crazy in case y’all haven’t figured that out!

I am still seriously sore from Monday and Tuesday’s workout and then we’re slapped in the face with 3 600m RUNS and Sumo Deadlifts!!! Are you kidding me? All day yesterday it never dawned on me that my ribs felt like I got beat because I did 100 situps on Tuesday. And my legs are dead from Sprints. I really didn’t think it would take a toll on me like it did but I’m still achy.

At least after the warm up, my legs started feeling better which is a good thing. Skill/Strength was to work on the Sumo Deadlifts. It’s a much different movement than regular ol’ deadlifts. And I feel much stronger at these which is an awesome feeling. I didn’t ask, nor have I researched on whether or not that’s typical – to feel stronger on Sumo’s vs. Regular. But I did feel pretty good. We worked our way up to a good weight for the Metcon.

MetCon: 600m run, 10 Sumo Deadlifts, 600m run, 10 Sumo Deadlifts, 600m run…. RX weight was 165 for the ladies and I went 10lbs lighter. I probably could have gone that heavy but that 10lbs would have been much more of a struggle as I was already struggling with the 155. And believe me after running a 600, my legs were not happy! Anytime running is involved I’m generally not happy. I do it for the better good of myself and my body, not my brain and piss poor attitude! Time 11:20

06/21/12 WOD

I did much better at the second set of Sumo Deadlifts. Not sure why exactly. Maybe I was too tired to think which in turn allows me to just DO.

Useless info
With my new found free evenings I can be way more productive in the kitchen! That’s a bonus indeed! I managed to roast a chicken, cook broccoli two ways for the rest of the week, get the kids some sauteed sirloin, mushrooms, onions and tomatoes and be done by 7:30! Who am I? There are some nights that kids are eating less than ideal and Ernie and I are eating closer to 9:30 because I’m just finishing dinner at that time. I know this freedom won’t last long, we have football coming up. As much as I know I can do pre planned foods for the week, I really like fresh cooked food. I’m a snob like that I suppose. Or maybe I suck at food storage. Who knows.

Also I finally bought into fancy waters… And I mean just paying the extra money for them for now. I haven’t bought into the idea fully just yet. I’m sure there’s good things to Alkaline Water with Electrolytes but I’m not sure how much more beneficial it will be for me. Anyhow we are buying out Albertson’s stock regularly of AquaHydrate. I need to do research, consistently drink the stuff and just self test for me. We’ll see how it goes. If I remember to do so I will keep you posted. If I forget just yell at me or something to share how it goes. It’s not cheap so we’ll see how long this lasts! LOL.

See y’all tomorrow. Have a T-REX kind of Thursday! Which of course is AWESOME!

Toes To Bar Thursday

And I actually didn’t suck as bad as I normally. This thing called PROGRESS is awesome! Don’t get me wrong I wasn’t in beast mode or anything, just better than my previous TTB attempts.

As always I never give you a constant flowing blog to read. I jump around. So let me start with the beginning of our 5am fun at the BOOM BOX.

For Skill/Strength we worked on Muscle Up technique. I’m nowhere near getting a MU but practice never hurts. We worked with the rings lower to the ground and used bands to support us. We sat on the band and stretched out horizontal like lying down but eleveated, letting the band hold us and then use our hips as our power to get to the rings and still stay horizontal. I searched the interwebs for a picture but I didn’t find one straight away so I gave up. I had this movement down pretty ok the first couple of tries but then something happened where my brain stopped working and my body went wonky and lacked coordination. We then moved on to sitting up and getting our feet under us. I had good technique for 2 attempts and then just lost it. It puts a lot of strain on my shoulders and I had more fails than I wanted. But it was definitely great to work on those small but super important movements.

Nowhere near this movement for me but this is for those of you not sure what I’m talking about when I say Muscle Up.

The MetCon was 10 min AMRAP of 5 TTB and 10 Double Unders. I dread the TTB but I managed to remember to borrow Ernie’s hand grips (which helped tremendously). I did much better than I ever have with TTB. My first couple of rounds they weren’t bad at all but I did lose that grip toward the end and I just can’t hang on and bust those out. Double Unders – I got those down now! Now 15 isn’t alot but I did 8 of my 10 rounds unbroken so it’s nice to feel “good” at something 🙂 Total Count: 10 Rounds + 4 TTB

Nothing else to report today. It’s rainy and blah outside but I still feel good! Eating clean does a body good folks! Try it out! There’s a couple of pics below to show you the sort of things I eat during the day while I’m at work. Have a glorious Thursday!

Typically a snack. Pasture Chicken Eggs and Pork Belly = YUMMO!

Tex-Mex Hash Breakfast Casserole, Salad and Buffalo that a coworker shared. It was cooked perfectly!

Top Sirloin Kabobs that I didn’t Kabob, just stir fried in a skillet, nice Steamed Broccoli and some Cherry Tomatoes = Happy Tummy!

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!!!

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.