Clean eating

Holy Tornadoes Batman! And other stuff!

So I know I’ve been Slack Action Jackson as of late and I’m sorry. Life has consumed me and I’ve neglected my blogging. Please still love me, Please! Heheheh. K or don’t. It’s fine by me.

Let me first tell you, North Texas got hit pretty hard with some crazy weather … tornadoes, hail, and rain – oh my! All jokes aside, I can report from my end that we are all safe and I pray that all those affected will come out of this craziness just fine. My home was narrowly missed as were the kid’s schools, thank GOD! I don’t know what I’d do without my family!!! There was so much damage in my neck of the woods. It makes my heart sad for all those that have to deal with this tragedy. Fortunately there were not any fatalities.

So now that my unofficial news reporting is over I just have a little rant for y’all and then I’ll kinda sorta recap the past several days of the BOOM BOX.

Listen up y’all – This is not a new rant, just extended from previous ones …. QUIT saying you need to start working out or eating healthy and then just go right on and eat junk and not move at all!

Seriously?!? WTH is wrong in your noggin? Does it feel good to SAY that you need to get on top of it? Does it really? Do you feel better after you say that then eat a double cheeseburger or a lean cuisine and soda (maybe even diet soda). I see and hear it everyday. It’s not good, I want to help you all, but I know I can’t. It has to come from within you. NO matter how bad I want good health for folks I can’t make you do it. I’m not perfect. I had my junkfilled haze just recently and it took a few days to get back on the straight and narrow.

But I will tell you, just that little bit of insanity from my end ruined my world. Ruined my stomach, ruined my head, ruined my overall self. I’m still recovering. It’s not good folks. I can’t imagine feeling like that day in and day out. I know I was like that a year ago and I seriously can’t recall feeling physically out of wack but I’m sure I did and I just didn’t realize it was a direct result of my everyday food intake. CRAP! mixed with healthy stuff but in general CRAP none the less! So please if y’all really want to do something then DO IT! Just give it a go for 30 days, then plan yourself a cheat day. But at least give it a go for more than 7 days before you treat yourself. Yes some of you may go bonkers without a “cheat” day but don’t try and convince yourself 2 days in that you need that office cookie or that handful of M&M’s. It’s not helping you at all! And get moving, even if it’s walking up and down your street. You don’t have to be a die hard worker outer bee. You need to eat right, eat clean…. that’s 80% of it folks. Not 10% or 20%. Nutrition is 80%!!!!! Thanks for listening. And sorry for the ramble. I just see it day in and day out and it just infuriates me. I want to shake people sometimes … but I can’t without fear of getting smacked or yelled at, hehehe!

ANYWAYS!!! So the last time I shared my WODs with you was Tuesday last week!!! Wow I am a slacker 😀

So here goes my wrap up. It will be short and sweet I hope.

3/29/2012

Skill/Strength – Band Dead Lifts 12 sets of 3. I can’t recall the weight but it was fairly light maybe 75lbs. Not 100% sure. But what you do is drape a mobility band over the top of the bar and let it rest on the ground. You then step on the band to add resistance and knock out 3 reps quicklike.

It took a couple of sets before I felt somewhat comfortable doing them. It is definitely a unique feeling and takes some core strength to stabilize yourself. After the 12 sets, we did one set without the bands. HOLY MOLY it was sooo weird and you feel crazy strong and really feel like you execute the lift properly no questions asked.

MetCon – Yes COACH brought up Toes to Bar. Even though he knows we had enough from the Open, he still had to bust those bad boys out. Well I could only manage to get 3 TTB in so I switched to Knees to Elbows for a workout instead of just struggling. All week had been upper body and I think this day I was just tired. I only managed to get 4 full rounds in and almost got 5 round completed. I know I worked, I just hate that bar! On a side note, Box Jumps at 20″ felt really nice. I finally feel like I have some spring in my legs, NOT MUCH mind you, but some 🙂

3/30/2012

Skill/Strength – Back Squat Deload. This is something I like to see. We aren’t trying to go for max weight here or crazy progressions. We are putting in work but it’s a nice “rest” if you will.

MetCon – TEAM WOD. Sometimes I dread these and sometimes I enjoy them. This was one that I was happy to share the workload. We had the option of doing 5 Muscle UPs (hhahahha), 15 Chest to Bar (hahahahhahah) or 30 Chin Ups. Well our team consisted of 3 of us who can not do pullups at all. So we used bands to help us and had no choice but to pick chin ups. After Chin Ups we could do 5 Handstand PushUps (hahahah), 15 Box HSPU OR 30 Hand Release Pushups. Well one of team mates had neck issues that prevented her to do the BOX HSPUs so we went with the 30 pushups. And we finish off the round with 90 Air Squats. So us ladies just split the load up evenly and we finished in 16:43! Go US! It was fun and a beating all at the same time.

4/2/2012

Skill/Strength – Snatch Practice. It’s always good to practice SNATCH! It’s just such a complicated movement. We only worked with PVC and the bar. We did not add any weight but just going through the motions and working up to a full snatch is work.

MetCon – RUNNING! UGH! I almost stayed in bed after I checked the website. I despise running and this was designed to “sprint” the distances. I mean I can’t SPRINT 800m, but it’s the idea of pushing hard right? Our distance is unofficial so don’t think I’m super BEAST for getting a time of 2:32. The :24 was for the “200”, which was probably less. I think I can sprint a 100 yds in 17/18 seconds so ya. There ya have it. We rested 1 minute after each run. I hate running!

4/3/2012

Skill Strength – Deadlifts 5, 5, 5+ We had to do math and it’s hard to do at 5am. I can’t recall our weights, but I don know on my last round I just went 5. I didn’t mean to put the bar down, I just wasn’t using my brain. I had at least 2 more in me. So we’ll just go with I would have done 7 reps on my last round! Sound good? OK GREAT!

MetCon – 5 rounds of 30 sec plank, 1:00 of Thrusters and 1:00 rest. The idea was to match your max thruster count each round. Add up your rounds and voila that’s your score for the day. I managed a 10, 10, 11, 8, and 10 giving me a total of 49 @ 65lbs. Thrusters are not easy. I seriously pushed my butt off. I know I did what appeared to be a lot of standing around but I just was so out of breath and believe me .. just out of it. I don’t think I could have done more in a minute. I did know I had to push but when my push was out I dropped the bar. It’s hard to WANT to get it back up. It’s hard to breathe too! I feel I finished strong. Good MetCon!

And that’s a wrap for the WODs. I’ll close with some food shots.

If you want a quick meal that  you can partially prep over the weekend then try some sweet potato hash. I just shred up 2-3 sweet potatoes and put them in a storage container and keep in fridge. Each morning I take a handful of my shredded yumminess and saute it in one teaspoon of coconut oil. Top it with 2 fried eggs. I might add some bacon or fruit. Easy breezy and delicious!

Sweet Potato Hash topped with Fried Eggs!

And this was my lunch today. Sauteed shredded zucchini with meat sauce, 3 oz of steak and some steamed broccoli. It was  great filling lunch 🙂

Steak, Broccoli and Shredded Zucchinni topped with meat sauce 🙂

Happy Hump Day Folks! Make it great!

Suck It Up ButterCup!

Found this and LOVE it... so if anyone wants to buy it for me, feel free! Hahah!

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!

1/31/12

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!

Yes these KILLED me today!

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!

Dinner! Such a Dull Pic but NOT Dull in Flavor!

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.

Acorn Squash Getting Prepped to Bake

My Horrible Tent – I did fix it a bit but did not take pic :/

BEEF - It's what's for dinner!

Ingredients to Go with Ground Beef (that apple sure did brown super quick)

Everything sizzling and cookin' - YUM

Acorn Squash FILLED! Excuse my DIRTY oven. I just cleaned that thing a month ago1

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?

Experimenting with the Kale

All Nice and Wilty... Really Vibrant Green... Love It

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.

New Treat - No Bake Cookie

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

No Bake Cookie, More like NO BAKE TREAT - Addicting!

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!

WHOLLY COW what a WHIRLWIND weekend!

This past weekend was full of intensity, adventure and super exhaustion. Ernie and I headed out to Austin this past weekend because we had signed up to be volunteers at The Fittest Games. A good sized event for soon to be CrossFit Games Competitors and those testing their level of awesomeness against other firebreathers. Arrival time for volunteers was 6:00 a.m. and we worked non stop till about noon. It was so much fun to be there. The “YARD” as it was named was LEGIT. It was in this cool unfinished warehouse which is in development stages but raw and dirty and super badass. It’s a future home to a CrossFit as well. There were four Pads where WODs were being held throughout the day and the BEST of the BEST were out there putting all of their insane blood, sweat and tears on the concrete floors.

First Team WODs @ pad 1 (1RM clean and jerk and Max front squats)

Pad 2 - Women killing Muscle Ups

From CrossFit Tyler – I HEART NINJAs by the way!

I had a fun job by marking up the athletes with their assigned Number. We got to laugh, joke and have a good time. Even scored a cool shirt! I then had a job as scorerunner. It is what it is – take the scores to the computer peoples so they can enter everything. I got up-close behind the “scenes” viewing and met some cool people. The athletes competing were BEAST at all things. I was inspired, overwhelmed and excited all at the same time. I sooooo want to be at that level but then I think that’s soooooo far away and then I think I’ve only been doing this a few months and I didn’t come in awesome as it is so I have a ways to go but it’s doable. I THINK! I HOPE!

As we finished our assignments we were going to stick around but we opted for going out for lunch and then realized we were exhausted so we’d head out to my aunts house for rest. We did have a comedy show to attend later that evening and didn’t want to be miserable. As we were headed back I recalled a blog or someone on FB mentioning a paleo burger in Austin. Thank GOODNESS for google because it pulled up WHOLLY COW BURGERS! We u-turned as fast as we could and headed straight there.

We found it! Love smart phones. Makes life so much easier 🙂

A convenience store with a burger place or was it a burger place with a convenience store? Who knows. I needed to see the Paleo Burger on the Menu… because this wasn’t special order where they look at us weird for asking for no buns or mayo or whatever restaurants think when we order NO GRAINS. And there is it was the Fit Cross (Crossfit Paleo Burger). It’s not the holy grail of burgers I know this, but it’ going in the right direction. Local Grass Fed beef cooked up just right, slapped between portabella mushrooms, lettuce, tomato, onions, natural ketchup and mustard. It was yummy. Especially when you’re out of towners, this was a good find. We ordered one burger each to “check” it out. WIN! So we ordered two more and added sweet potato fries after we inquired if they had them. Perfect! It filled us up and we knew it was good local homegrown grass fed beef. We talked to the owner and peeps that worked there and found out that not all grass fed beef is created equal. Ranchers are allowed to grain feed the last 120 days before slaughter and are still able to claim their beef to be “grass-fed”! I had no idea! That’s how little research I’ve done. I’m saddened by the news but also now informed. So it’s an overall win.

In their convenience store - organic produce also available there.

Fit Cross Paleo Burger at Wholly Cow Burgers, Austin, TX

If you’re in Austin, then definitely check this place out. They do have a website and FB page but not a lot of content. So with that said just CHECK THEM OUT at some point.

I’m finally to today and our WOD this morning. Sled Pulls are awkward and take some getting used to and left me a little out of breath but that’s OK what would CrossFit be if it were EASY?!?

1/23/12 WOD

Out MetCon just about killed me. Was it a case of the Mondays? Or was it just flat out loserness? Not sure at this point but it was close to killing me. Snatch DL is very weird feeling. Having to deadlift with a super wide grip definitely ups the ante in knocking reps out. The weight was light “for a deadlift” at 75lbs. And TABATA to boot. Although we only did half TABATA 4 rounds vs. 8 rounds, but that was fine with me because I was going to have to push press that 75 lbs. My max regular press is 65lbs but with the “PUSH” it’s easier to get a little more weight up. I didn’t do my first round of push press because I was so spent after the deadlifts. I think I managed to get 13 presses. SUCK! We moved onto Front Squats and again it took some energy to freakin just clean it. So I wasted almost the whole first round just trying to talk myself into getting the bar up. I finally did and I was beat. I really double sucked at front squats as well. Overall REPS at 61. I KNOW I could have done more, but I talked myself out of it before the MetCon even started. Not a wise thing to do and I don’t suggest punking out like I did. I am happy I did it”RX’d”. I’ve done a few but not a lot so it feel goods when I can MOVE the weight around. I was spent but it was a good spent.

I hope you all enjoy your Monday. Make it great. I’m hoping I kill my WOD tomorrow. And I hope you meet whatever goals you have for the week. Eat Clean. Train Dirty! LOVE IT!

Fake IT till YOU MAKE IT

I know we all have those days where you just want to stay in bed all day but you know you can’t. You gotta hit the pavement running regardless. Today is one of those days. My plate is full, there’s a LOT of stuff going on and mentally I’m just checked out.

Yesterday I skipped out on my post because my Dad had a heart procedure being done and I was out all day hanging in the hospital. Dad is good. All is well. I thought about blogging from my phone because I had a lot of down time but it just isn’t the same as banging away at the keyboard. A whole day off and I’m back! Aren’t y’all excited? NO? That’s what I thought.

So I’m already blah for the day but I gotta get up and get going to DO WORK at the BOOM BOX and I just am not feeling it. I slept fine, my body isn’t falling apart so I just had to FAKE it till I made it. And that’s what I did. And it worked out alright. Now if I can just get through the work day!

1/19/12

As you see the Skill/Strength wasn’t too bad. Ring Rows aren’t so much my enemy as other movements are but they do wear you out. I managed to do 16 of the 30 ring rows with my legs straight out. But I did break down and have to bend my knees to maintain full extension and what not. At least I’ve made some progress 🙂

The MetCon was a tiny but killer doozy of a workout. Burpees with Ground to Over Head using a 35lb plate. I thought it would take me longer and in reality it should have taken me less. I paused a couple of times as I wanted to just quit halfway through. Once I was committed I was hoping for sub 3 in time…. BARELY over 3 minutes. I should have never paused!!! There’s a lot of shoulda, coulda, woulda’s in my life lately. I gotta get that under control.

I almost forgot about holding a squat for time POST WOD and I sucked at it 😦 Although all day pain is gone my hip flexibility is still not super duper and it started burning about 30 seconds in but I managed to pull out over 2 minutes. I should be able to hold it forever but I can not. I am sorely disappointed in my lack of flexibility/tolerance, etc. I really do hope it’s just my hip that hinders me and not “my head” in general.

As far as foods go, I’ve been sticking to my standard meals. I had family in town to check in on my dad and I invited them over to my house for dinner. They all are unaware of Paleo and the whole lifestyle that we are throwing ourselves into but they are aware they need to step it up nutrition wise. I thought it’d be a perfect time to share with them how YUMMY the food can be and still be super good for you. I made them Paleo Meatloaf, Cauliflower Mash and Asparagus which I posted about the other day. They seemed and acted as if it were quite pleasant and I’m hoping they truly felt that way as well. Score 1 for spreading the good health to family members. Now I just have to get them the recipes so they can get to work 🙂

The night before I attempted to cook my first WHOLE chicken. I know I’m behind in the “cooking” game. Whole chickens… that’s nothing to most, but to me that’s WORK. I thought it would be so time consuming and complicated and I have no idea why. We always buy chicken breasts… organic, cage free, etc…. spendy! So this time we bought a whole chicken even ranked better than the chicken breasts in quality and it came out BEAUTIFUL in appearance and TASTE! I only took a before picture because I was so excited at how pretty it was when it was done that I forgot to take an AFTER pic. Plus the kids were ready to test it out as well! It was EXCELLENT and juicy and overall great 🙂

A little over 4lbs

Of course I had to google on how to cook it and Everyday Paleo was there to save me 🙂

I preheated the oven to 450°, Rinsed off chicken, patted it dry. Doused it with salt inside and out (could have scaled down on the dousing though) and then added a little white pepper. I only added pepper because I didn’t believe only salt would be sufficient. NOTHING ELSE! THAT’s IT! Throw it in a roasting pan, dish, whatever and bake it for an hour. Perfection! HOMERUN!

Chicken isn't so "pretty" but it tasted GREAT. Served up with some Sweet Potato Latkes and Steamed Brocolli

So that’s all she wrote today folks. I forgot to defrost meat AGAIN, so I don’t know what dinner will be but I’ll figure it out. Have a Happy Thursday. And I’ll be seein’ y’all tomorrow 🙂

Take That Tuesday!

1/17/12 WOD

Today feels like a rant and ramble kind of day. I kicked off my day with a kick my ass workout at the BOOM BOX. Holding Back Squats for 5 seconds at the bottom… SOMETHING I’ve NEVER done before and woowowowowow it was tough! But you practice full depth and learn to love it (kind of, sort of, maybe?), well love it enough you don’t want to come back up! I managed fairly well when I got my breathing down and stopped crowding my brain with thoughts of FAIL.

The MetCon looked fairly do-able, if that’s the right word. Maybe more along the lines of less intimidating than other days. Those are the moments when I should say there’s NO SUCH THING! But I don’t, I just think this won’t kill me. Sure enough it was freakin HARD. Broad Jumps?!?!? ARE YOU F’ING KIDDING ME? for 200 ft! Major SUCK in the world of workouts. I promise. I was gassed, dying, melting, etc. I only had 3 rounds, I was spent. WTH is wrong with me is all I kept thinking. Why can’t I kill this WOD? I tried with all my might and I finished and that’s all there is to it, RIGHT? YUP, I FINISHED. All is well and life goes on 🙂 9:54 was my time and only because Grant pushed me on my last 10 KB Snatches. Glad he was there cause I would have dropped the ball. I did my last 10 unbroken and finished under 10 minutes.

Even though mentally I was defeated, Physically I felt good which in turn works on my mental state and I was feeling good overall. I got out the door in good time, early even and in good spirits! UNTIL traffic HIT…. It’s like finally everyone is off vacation mode and back to work and it was chaotic on the road, stalled cars, accidents, major traffic delays. I was HOT! FUMING! Traffic can make my blood boil. But in that boiling state sitting still on the roads, like a bad driver I’m checking the interwebs and I find this post by FitBomb about a High School CrossFit Class and there in my anger I totally let it all go as I listened about Maddy and her journey with CrossFit and Cerebral Palsy. I’ve shared it here for you to watch.

It’s truly amazing what this young girl is accomplishing daily in general and to throw CrossFit in is even more amazing to me. I’m sure she would try anything but it seems like she’s found a good place for her. Just like with any of us. CrossFit isn’t everyone’s cup of tea or KOOLAID but if you find something that works for you then DO IT. FULL ON. NO EXCUSES! You aren’t going anywhere if you keep making up crap to avoid eating right, working out… Life in general! Ya know? You hear me?

Day in and day out I hear excuses. I hear the if’s the but’s the shoulda woulda coulda’s….. Sometimes life throws you curveballs, I know. I live life too. But you gotta press on!

Out of my 3 kids, my oldest is slowly but surely grasping where I’m trying to go with health and fitness. It’s clicking and it’s amazing that’s he’s learning so young. My other two just go with the flow. If my mom “says” then cool, we dig it. But now in the past week they have been asking the why’s and what’s and opening their little brains up. I don’t just brainwash them in case you are wondering. I explain to them what I thought was right, what I’m learning now and how I feel about it all. They have a long way to make up their own minds but hopefully they see the POSITIVE impacts that eating clean and taking care of our bodies helps us all around. And well of course they eat what’s put in front of them 😛 And they do it well. So I don’t have problems when it comes to eating.

All in all, the rant and ramble and disconnected paragraph to paragraph is just another day of me wanting all of you that I know and don’t know that it’s possible to get your life in order. It’s possible to live a happy healthy life. I have my ups and downs too. I don’t want to cook dinner some nights. I don’t want to wake up from my cozy bed. I don’t want to be in traffic. But I am grateful that I do. I’m happy my family is HEALTHY and WHOLE. Not everyone can say that. We are truly blessed. And I’ll be darned that my kiddos make it through all the CRUD that goes around school (with the exception of the occasional stomach bug). I truly believe it’s because they are outside playing in the SUNSHINE and eating a variety of good foods. Same with Ernie and I… we aren’t calling in sick and feeling like poo… we are good. It’s a good life.

So TAKE THAT TUESDAY! I got this! Hahaha… until tomorrow or the next day. 😀

1000+ Views!

I finally made it to 1000 views…plus some! It’s a good feeling. I watch the stats like a psychotic person. I don’t know why I’m so addicted to seeing how many people have viewed this blog. I know there are blogs that get more than that in one day and well I’m just not there so I will take my stats and embrace them! LOL, I don’t know that I’ll ever be “cool” enough to get that many views a day :/

1/16/12 WOD

Had a good WOD today. Short, sweet and tough! We worked on Front Squats and my 1 RM was 115. I was really hoping I could get more but not today.
And for the MetCon… box jumps and straight legged sit ups… 30 seconds for each movement for 5 rounds. The first round was good and I slacked on the second round for some reason. Grant reminded us this was a sprint workout so I got on it and started moving… now wishing I didn’t slack on my 2nd round. But I did so I just had to push the rest of the way through. 120 reps total. Not bad but I know I could have had a few more reps.

WHEAT BELLY - WILLIAM DAVIS, MD

You all know I strive for Paleo and push to eat as clean as possible and discourage grains. I follow several blogs and what not that are Paleo and advise against grains including the Wheat Belly Blog but I had yet to read the actual book. This weekend we bought it and I tore through it. It’s not a long read so that was nice but there was a lot of information on what Wheat does to us. I feel assured that wheat and gluten are the enemy to everyone not just to those with celiac or other gluten intolerances. I don’t want to give you a book report because I think it’s important for you to read and soak it up for yourself. But if you are wishy washy on the issue or don’t even have a clue, then I highly recommend reading it. And at least try giving up all GRAINS, not just wheat, for 30 days. See if it changes you. You will go through a withdrawl of sorts, at least you probably will, it may last 2 days and it may last up to a week or 2 but you should just TRY. And don’t replace your GRAINS with junk… just eat more meats, veggies and fruits. If you don’t feel great and more awesome than ever then go back to your gluten filled ways. It won’t bother me one bit 🙂 Let me know if you do it or plan on doing it. Let me know if you need support or have questions. It’s tough mentally to remove the grains but in reality it’s not that hard if you’re willing to make the change.

I know that after reading the information in the book I am good without the “yummy” things that are made with wheat. Wheat Belly by William Davis, MD! Buy it! It’s good.

Happy Monday, MLK day, etc. Enjoy your day whether you have the day off or have to work it like I do… make it a happy day 🙂

New Workout Schedule means – NO REST THURSDAY!

I had become a little bit of a slacker on Thursdays and I had no REAL reason to be one I just got lazy over the month of December. But with my new CrossFit Schedule I’m OFFICIALLY on a new course.

1/12/12 WOD

This morning’s WOD was a nice little chipper. I felt pretty good the whole way through until I got to the burpees. They got to me for some reason today! I got super hot super quick and couldn’t shed the layers fast enough. Once I regrouped I knocked them right out. And reluctantly went to the sled pull… 30yds, not that far but I’m just not good at this yet. It’s awkward and it’s cold outside… I’m whiny too! Get over it people! Hahaha, yes I do realize I get a little cry babyish…sometimes ALOT cry babyish but I wouldn’t be me any other way. I finished in 8:36… Things to work on: PISTOLS (I suck at those) and PULLING SLEDs!

Like I stated yesterday, dinner would be OUT not IN so no new recipes. I won’t always try out a new recipe either I suppose but I want to at least once a week. Sometimes I may choose to be a little more ambitious 🙂 It’s been brought to my attention by Ernie and others that maybe I should consider creating some sort of Paleo catering/mealplan and in theory it sounds like a good idea but I don’t consider myself a CHEF by any means. I like to cook. I like making something yummy but I’m just a regular ol’ person. I’m pretty clueless most of the time.

So is it an idea I should really try to process or is it a wishful thinking dream maybe turn reality in the future? I don’t know. Do y’all think there’s a market out there for such? I know people do it already. It’s not new or unique but how successful/fruitful can it be? I can’t afford timewise to do it for fun and I can’t afford to do it full time if it doesn’t pay the bills… so much to think about. Chime in if you feel the need. Sponsor me maybe! Hahah, I wish. Any comments for or against the idea are welcome.

Moving on… I did have a little extra chicken on Tuesday so I cooked it up, minced it up, added chopped mushrooms, finely chopped walnuts, jalepenos (roasted and fresh), onion to make a little filling for some lettuce wraps. I like to buy the butter lettuce where it’s still attached to the root. They are giant pieces, sometimes a little flimsy but mostly durable enough. I sent some with Ernie to lunch and he kindly snapped a shot for me. I brought the same thing but I left my tomato and avocado at home so it wasn’t as pretty. Just another quick idea if you’re in a rush. It doesn’t take long to cook a small amount of chicken and sautee up whatever else and slap it in a piece of lettuce to have a quick snack or meal.  NOTE: it’s best to mince, shred chicken while fresh cooked and warm. You may know that but I thought I’d share anyways.

Easy Breezy Chicken Wrap in Butter Lettuce

So that’s it for Thursday. Back to being active. It feels good. Feels like I was productive. I KNOW I KNOW before y’all tell me, I need rest too. I do get rest. I know when to hold back. My body tells me, I promise 🙂

Enjoy your day. Try to find a ray of sunshine if your day is bad and if your day is going good then just soak it all in! WOW I’m a cheeseball! Aren’t I?

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.

Is It Friday Yet?? (I wonder how many blogs have that as a title… ORIGINAL, I KNOW)

It’s been a busy busy week and it’s only Tuesday. It’s been busy work wise and at home.

I’ve never know where to start when I begin typing. Do I start with last night’s dinner or with the WOD this morning? Blah Blah Blah… y’all don’t even care I’m sure! I understand it’s a trivial decision but I don’t like leaving anyone confused.

So I’ll start with last night’s dinner – SPINACH STUFFED CHICKEN with BACON which turned out excellent! I found the recipe online (http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_journal_individual.asp?blog_id=4574737) and I’m sure it’s been posted, reposted and modified to anyone’s liking so please NOTE you can be as creative as you want to be with this recipe.

Sizzlin Bacon


Garlic, Onions (washed out :(), and Spinach


Stuffing the Chicken Breast


A Lil Blurry... But Seasoned and Ready to Bake


Voila! Stuffed Chicken, Brocolli and Guacamole


All That Stuffing.... Yummmy!

Spinach Stuffed Chicken With Bacon

INGREDIENTS:
10 slices of “clean” bacon, (nitrate, nitrite free, etc.), divided
1/2 cup red onion chopped (I used yellow onion)
4 large garlic cloves chopped
3/4 pound of spinach, chopped
4-5 boneless skinless, organic, free range chicken breast

METHOD:
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Take 6 slices of bacon and chop them up into about 1/2 inch pieces and fry them in a med-large skillet until nice and brown. Then remove the bacon from the pan and saute the red onion in the bacon grease for a few minutes. Add in the garlic cloves and saute until the onion is translucent. Add the spinach, sprinkle with salt and pepper, simmer just until the spinach is wilted nicely, and remove from heat to cool slightly.

Then taking your chicken butterfly each chicken breast and spread filling evenly on one half of each chicken breast. Then flip the other side of the chicken back over to cover the spinach filling, and wrap each with an additional slice of bacon. Place in a glass baking dish, sprinkle lightly with salt, pepper and dried Thyme leaves.

Bake uncovered at 375 degrees for 35 minutes, then increase temperature to 500 and bake for 10 minutes more to brown the bacon. If it is not brown enough you can broil the chicken for a few minutes, but be sure to watch it! Serve and enjoy.

For more recipes visit: CrossFit Eureka’s Paleo Made Easy

Made for a good dinner and I was ready for bed not to long after. This morning was my “first” Tuesday workout in my new 4 day week at the Boom Box and I feel great!

I feel a little better at Snatch and besides not getting low enough on either snatch or cleans, I’m getting better at it in general.

01/10/12 WOD

The MetCon was fun! Yes FUN! I was giving myself a time of around 7 minutes because I haven’t really been doing any deadlifts lately. The weight was 85lbs to help ensure speed but it felt super light. Time 3:55! We have a newcomer that was there with me but he had a modified workout so it was just me on the board that early in the morning. I’m sure the rest of the day will put me to shame ESPECIALLY the high school BOYS… they blew my MetCon out of the water yesterday! Oh to be young 😀

01/09/12 WOD... Those Dang High Schoolers!

When I got home this morning post WOD I got a little ambitious with breakfast and took on some Coconut Pancakes from Mark Sissons “The Primal Blueprint Cookbook”. And they turned out quite dandy and the boys devoured the few I did make! Another win 🙂 I don’t have the book with me as I type this so I don’t have the recipe. But it’s simple and good. I did have to play with the liquids as it was a rather thick batter at first. But in the end they came out YUM-O!

Batter cookin' up - Treat like regular pancakes!


Doesn't look to shabby!


Finished Pancake! You can top with anything... Blackberries and Maple Syrup shown here.

There you have it! Not so sure I’ll be as ambitious tomorrow… but you never know! Happy Tuesday… SMILE! 🙂

Seriously?!?!?! The year HATES me already!

And I am not joking one bit. I felt so defeated yesterday. After all my proclamations of how great 2012 will be and even if it’s not I’m gonna MAKE it great. Well it freaking stomped my face in yesterday as my car DIED, just flat out DIED in the middle of the road. I was “THAT” person… broke down at a stop light with nowhere to go. All systems down folks. Fortunately for me Grapevine police showed up QUICKLIKE to help me out to which I am grateful.

Now I did know my car was coming to failure as all sorts of warnings and noises were putting me in a panic but I was still going. I wasn’t far from dealership and I just knew I would make it. As I was on the phone with the service department to alert them I was coming – complete POWER FAILURE left me hangin’ out to dry. They called a tow truck to get me, which helped a lot as well. As the tow truck shows up, the guy asks if I needed a ride to the dealer as well and as I told him yes he told me to take a seat in the truck while he hooked up my car. So I’m sitting there and I see out of the corner of my eye a giant TIRE come out of nowhere. I look up and there I see what appears to be Grapevine CrossFit. The pic I have here is a total blurrilicious terd but you can kind of tell. I should have hopped out, joined in and gave em hell but instead I sat there and watched in my sadness.

Grapevine Crossfit ... I think! Appeared out of nowhere while I was waiting in tow truck.

I eventually got rescued by my brother. And car is being fixed. Dead battery and alternator 😦 And I move on. I won’t let it bring me down. 2012 will not defeat me. But I did stumble a bit and the first week isn’t even to a close yet!!!

Onto my WOD which gives me peace and strength (sometimes!?! and sometimes it just pisses me off too, haha).

1/06/12 WOD

As you see we worked Snatch and Clean&Jerk. I am no bueno at the SNATCH but I am determined to get that lift down. It’s so intimidating. So much to think about form wise and that’s just with a bar. Adding weight gives it a whole new form of intimidation. I got a little better, we’ll see what tomorrow brings as I will attempt my 1 rep MAX :O Doh, I SCARED!
I feel a lot more comfortable with the Clean&Jerk and my workout buddy today told me I had a “pretty” jerk! LOL. That made me laugh and I told her I would document it because it was cool to get that as a compliment and never in my life would I have ever imagined that would give me a warm fuzzy inside. Never in my life would I have imagined anyone ever saying that to me so WOW .. who am I? 😀

I felt pretty good about the WOD going in but I knew it would get to me! TABATAs always do. And it was OLD SCHOOL! LOL… air squats, pushups, situps… easy breezy right? WRONG… Not even halfway through squats my legs turned to JELLO. Pushups were murderous and surprisingly I felt pretty good at situps. A total overall rep count of 241. I was feelin pretty good. Worn out but good.

As for dinner last night, it was simple. Some grass-fed steak chopped up and sauteed with mushrooms and asparagus. I failed to take a picture as I was tired, defeated and HUNGRY. Ernie and I ate like it was the last meal on Earth… maybe it was just me though. I finished well before Ernie. The kids feasted on left over chili which by the way turned out pretty good considering I was lacking a lot ingredient wise. They informed me it was tasty and they liked it a lot. I too enjoyed it for my lunch. And I also forgot to take pics. But chili is chili right?

After dinner, I was proactive again and helped the kids out with their lunches and I remembered to take PICS! Yay me. So the whole point of the pictures is that this is EASY stuff to do. We haven’t bought “bread” in a month now. I ran out of Ezekiel Bread a few weeks ago. And all of us are A-OK withOUT it! No one has revolted or threatened my life. We just move along as if this is how it’s been all along. The boys enjoy it and know they are eating healthy. They loved the spinach and had no idea it was spinach. They saw I added zucchini this time around and were excited.. Yes we are a bunch of nerdos!

Preparing the Ham Rolls

Kid Approved Ham Rolls

And that’s how the cookie crumbles! COOKIE..??? Who said COOKIE?

Hahahah I am probably the only one laughing but that is how my brain works folks. I’m weird. Happy Friday to you all! Enjoy the weekend 🙂