Found this on Facebook. Amusing :)
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Catching up...
There's been a lot going on in the last week and half and I haven't even had time to share it all!
On November 18th I participated in a 3-1/2 hour CrossFit Fundamentals class. I'm hooked! I went back the very next day and did a WOD that was spending 30 minutes determining your one rep max deadlift. I had never done a deadlift before, so I had no idea what to expect. I started with 95lbs (you are only lifting the bar from the floor to a straight standing position, mostly using your lower back muscles and hips to move the weight, allowing for much heavier lifts). I then tried 115, 135, 145 and finally 155 pounds! I was proud as a peacock to have lifted that much on my first night!
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| My friend Billie & I after we totally ROCKED the Turkey Day 5k |
That was only the beginning of what was to become an incredible week of accomplishments for me! I had been planning on running the Turkey Day 5k on Thanksgiving morning for the 2nd year in a row and while I had been pretty excited about it, in the weeks leading up to it I felt very unprepared and not ready. There were over 800 runners! What a rush! I was convinced this was going to be one of my worst 5k races. Last year I finished it in over 35 minutes. That's about what I expected this year. You can imagine my shock and astonishment when I finished in 30:06! That's over 2-1/2 minutes faster than my record. Also, it was the first time that I have ever ran the entire time. NO walking! My next 5k will be under 30 minutes and I will bring home a trophy before the heat of summer in 2013 stops me from running. Mark my words.
After the race we had Thanksgiving lunch with some of Husband's family. I had deviled eggs, veggies with homemade ranch, turkey, potatoes & gravy, sweet potatoes, fruit salad, cranberries and even a paleo cake that his Aunt made for us!
I have since done 2 more WODs at my local box (CrossFit Jackson) and I felt a sense of accomplishment after each one like never before! Husband has been CrossFitting since April and since he works 3rd shift, he attends the 7pm class (would be the equivalent of me going at 6am). Since April, I have been making dinner while he's gone to the gym and when he would get home (after 8pm most times), I would either have already eaten dinner or we would eat together. He really wants me to workout with him at 7pm, so I had to figure out how to make and eat dinner in that time frame. Since this is the first week we are trying that schedule, I spent time this weekend cooking up a ton of food so that all of our meals would be ready to heat & eat. Here's what I made:
Chicken Salad (with homemade mayo, grapes, salt & pepper)
Spicy Pulled Pork (I skip the sauce) Served with green beans
Smoked Beef Brisket with steamed broccoli
I also made 10 hard boiled eggs and baked a cookie sheet full of bacon.
We are nearly out of boiled eggs and the bacon is gone, so tonight I will fry up a pound of pastured pork sausage together with a dozen eggs and portion it out in the fridge for the rest of the week. We like to heat it up and top it with Frog Ranch Salsa.
These Blueberry Muffins by PaleOMG were pretty good! However, an entire cup of almond butter is a lot of money and when I think of it that way, they weren't good enough to warrant that kind of spending for a dozen muffins. Also, if I were to make them again, I would put an entire cup of blueberries in them because you can never have too many blueberries in your blueberry muffins.
The recipe says it makes 8-10 muffins, but I easily filled all 12 muffin cups. Also, it didn't say how far to fill the cups. As you can see, I filled mine about 3/4 full.
Friday, November 16, 2012
Things that make you go hmmmm....
So Hostess is throwing in the towel and everyone on the social networking sites are making a joke about it or mourning the death of the Twinkie. Some people are really upset about the jobs lost. Personally, I'm happy that the little snacks are going away. They are frankenfood. Maybe it will be a step toward people eating more real, whole foods. Or maybe not. Either way, I'm not crying over it. I do feel for the people losing their jobs, but after going through 3, yes THREE job lay-offs (where both Husband and I were laid off at the same time) in a 2-year period, I know that people will survive this.
In other news, Larabar is owned by General Mills (another maker of frankenfoods). General Mills gave $520,000 to defeat California's Prop 37 (Mandatory labeling of genetically modified food). So, some people in the whole food world are boycotting Larabar now. I'm on the fence. I think GMOs should be labeled as such, but if the proposition was poorly written, maybe it needed to be tabled and re-thought. Overall, I would like to see the labeling of GMOs on all foods as well as the labeling of BPAs. We used to eat a lot of Larabars, but I haven't even been buying them lately because they were becoming a "Food With no Brakes" for us anyway. Another company that gave money to fight Prop 37 is nestle and they own my favorite juice drink Naked. I don't drink juice often, but when I do, it's this stuff! It's a great little pick-me-up treat! I will probably think twice about buying either of these items from now on. As you can see in this infographic, there are several other big companies that you might buy from that also spent their profits to fight Prop 37. I have been working toward spending less and less of my money at the grocery store and instead spending it at the Farmers Market or other small, local businesses. This knowledge will just push me a little further away from the grocery store.
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
What is YOUR Paleo?
I've mentioned before that Paleo (or clean eating) means different things to different people. What it means to me is ever evolving. At first, I really thought that I would want to keep dairy around, but that doesn't seem to bode well with my health, so I typically avoid it. There is a great post from the Robb Wolf website called Seven Shades of Paleo. This is a great post that really reflects how Paleo is not really definable. It's just a word we all use (probably way too much) to describe our way of eating. For me, I would say I am mostly shade 5, with a little of shades 3, 4 and 7 sprinkled in. If I had to explain my way of eating without using the word Paleo, I would say that:
"I mostly avoid grains, dairy and processed foods. I occasionally indulge in gluten-free alcohol and love raw honey. I center my meals around meat and veggies and prepare most of my food myself"
My motivation comes from a few different things including (but not limited to):
- keeping my digestive health in order
- maintaining my weight loss
- supporting local, sustainable farmers and growers
Friday, November 9, 2012
Leftover Veggies for Breakfast with Turkey Sausage
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Fajitas!
Whenever I make this AH-mazing Beef Fajita recipe from Paleo Effect, I also use the Adobo Seasoning to make some Chicken Fajitas. I just sprinkle the seasoning on a couple of boneless, skinless chicken breasts and put them on the grill with the flank steak. Then I stir-fry extra veggies and and I have a couple of lunches for coming days! I take some guacamole along to top the dish. YUM!
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| Delicious lunch! |
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| Beautiful colored bell peppers and jalapeno prior to stir-frying |
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| Leftovers: stir-fried more veggies and added the leftover grilled chicken in at the end to re-heat. Dinner! |
Quick Lunch
Sometimes you just don't have time for a fancy lunch. When I make a chicken in the crockpot, I remove the meat from the bone and put it into lunch containers in the fridge. Then I grab a container of chicken and some homemade mayo and take it to work. When I get hungry, I eat the chicken cold, dipped in mayo. It's like chicken salad without the work! I also keep the small single serving cans of veggies on hand to go with a lunch like this.
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