Merry Crossfit

And just like that, it's over. Every year I say the same thing. All the planning and general busyness, over. We did have a great Christmas in the Chase house so it was all worth it. I got some new NB minimus sneakers, a Rogue rope and an Outlaw Way shirt. Bob got his bacon socks, exercise clothes and a new watch. And oh I forgot. We found an old Air dyne on the curb last weekend while driving around looking at Christmas lights. It's not a 'real' one, like those big ugly metal ones, but same idea. It's old and ugly and has probably been sitting in someone's basement for 15 years but it works and it was free. Yippee! This was the first time I ever trash picked. Seriously though, what Crossfitter would pass up free equipment? We're also getting our cage today. Where I'm going to fit all this shit, who knows. But again, for cheap or free equipment, we'll make room. All we need now is a rower and we'll have ourselves a fully equipped garage box. Now if I can get some of my mom friends (who think Zumba and walking around the neighborhood are exercise enough) to experience some pain with me. Yeah, they all think I'm crazy. My neighbor across the street introduces me as 'the one that drags the big tire down the street'. Ha! She's just jealous.

Overall Bob and I didn't eat too bad. No gluten for me with the exception of one small bite of cornbread. I LOVE cornbread so I couldn't resist. Besides, it had jalepenos in it so I had to taste it to see how spicy it was before my daughter would eat it. Yeah, that sounds good. I did have way too much sugar though. No, I didn't overdo it and in comparison to what most people eat... and what I used to eat, it was really nothing but the little I did have really affected me, along with all the dairy. Heavy cream in this, little cheese in that... ugh. I need a serious detox after this week.

Workouts have been tough to manage. I did get to do Outlaw's 12 Days of Christmas. Wow. That may have been the suckiest wod I've ever done. I'm sure it didn't help that I had so many days off, my diet hasn't been the best and sleep has been anything but restful, but I got thru it and I'll be happy to never see it come up again. It really sucks to be so outta whack. I'm a control freak. I'm organized 90% of the time and I need structure. The holidays and the sinus infection really fucked me up. I hate to be fucked up. But, I'm getting back into routine, one day at a time. I did get a few other wods in. Some clean and jerks a few days ago and yesterday was burpee day, and dare I say I enjoyed beating myself up.

Today has been 'getting my house back in order' day. Cleaning and making room for new stuff and playing Angry Birds with my little guy. He now has about 5 sets so we can make massive structures with all the pieces. Fun stuff. My daughter has been wanting to play Life all the time now. Could that game be any more complicated? Shit. I play life everyday! I'm hoping I can get a little workout done at some point today. Ride the bike or practice with my new rope at the very least. The rope spins really well but it's about twice the thickness of my old wire rope so it's like I have to start all over again. Not that I was great to begin with but now I'm back to 1, 1, 2, 1 slap. Well, out to the garage to make room for the cage. Hey, that will be a workout.

So what if I can't sit down, walk or stand

without moaning and groaning. That's normal right? I guess normal for someone who like me has been sick and did their first wod in 8 days yesterday. Oh and it included 30 bodyweight back squats. Eh, it's all good. The twisted side of me likes it. Well, not when I have to lean on the wall for support before I sit down on the pot, but the fact that I got a wod in even if I couldn't muster the energy or lung capacity required to actually finish it. (which by the way is only the 4th or 5th time in over 2 years I've done so) Hey, I got my strength done, I'm happy. I am getting a little better each day thankfully. My diet has been pretty good this week with the salmon, pork tenderloin, crock pot pork ribs and veggies. No handfuls of Captain Crunch or 'just a few' potato chips or "I'll just try one milk chocolate peanut covered treat". The neighbor made them, it was the polite thing to do right? And it's amazing how much better I'm feeling just because of the diet. Over indulgence of sugar gave me constant headaches and just an overall feeling of bloated lazy yuck.

At this point of the year I usually go thru the 'I can't wait until the holidays are over' kinda feeling because I'm usually overwhelmed with tasks and errands and last minute gift shopping. And I would be lying if I didn't say I at least partially feel that way again. But I am looking forward to the last few remaining days until Christmas this year. The kids are so excited and I can't wait until they open their gifts. I think I did a pretty good job this year. I didn't go crazy, but what I did get are things they have been asking for for months.

The weekend looks to be packed as usual starting tomorrow with Bud's Christmas play at school and party to follow. Shit, I have to bring cookies. Another task to be completed. Bob is going to try his hand at making Paleo Nick's chocolate cake. I'm going to make sugar or butter cookies with the kids for Santa. No, not real sugar cookies but they don't know the difference anymore. Then it's wrapping, tequila, wrapping, tequila and more wrapping tequila. What? I don't see anything wrong with that.

Recipe: Double Chocolate Walnut Biscotti - gluten free

Well it's baking day for me and first on my list was my chocolate biscotti. Of course I cleaned it up this year and made it paleo friendly.

3 cups almond flour - sifted to break up lumps
1/2 cup cocoa powder - unsweetened
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 stick unsalted butter - melted
3/4 cup maple syrup - room temp
2 eggs
1/2 tsp chocolate extract (optional but worth it)
1 cup walnuts - chopped (you could sub any favorite nut here)
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (Ghiradelli 60% is what I use)

Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour a baking sheet. Or just use parchment paper.

In large bowl whisk flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt together.

In another bowl (or stand mixer) mix butter and maple syrup. Add eggs and chocolate extract and mix until combined. Slowly (1/2-1 cup at a time) add dry ingredients. Once combined, dough should be pretty thick. Mix in nuts and chocolate chips. Pour onto baking sheet and shape it to form a log. Approx 12" long, 3" across. (yeah, I know what it looks like) It will spread out while cooking.

Bake 35 minutes. Remove and let cool for about 5-10 minutes. With a big sharp knife very carefully cut in 1" slices and flip them on their sides. Bake an additional 15 minutes or until they are firm/crispy to the touch. (You may want to remove the smaller end pieces after about 4-5 minutes so they don't burn) Remove and let cool completely. Store in an air tight container or eat until you bust a button.

Ok, I'm so over this

I dragged my butt out into the garage yesterday to do - something, anything to get my mojo back. But alas, it was not meant to be. I did do a few rounds of ghd sit ups and pull ups, a few kettlebell swings and some other warm up stuff but that was about all I could handle. This sinus infection will just not go away and I'm getting depressed. And to top it off the antibiotics are making me nauseous. Add to that all the running around, baking and shit I still have to do, I have not been a happy camper lately. On the bright side I am finished shopping for the family and my abs are pretty damn sore from the sit ups so at least I feel like I'm on the way back to becoming normal. Funny to think 'back to normal' means suffering from some sore muscle. So this week I guess I'll have to *sniff sniff* put my wods on the back burner and not stress over it. Easier said than done.

Oh and I found out what my allergic reaction was from, coffee. Or to be specific Peet's French Roast. I don't know why but I went two days without it then Bob made it for me yesterday (which I didn't know until after I drank it) and bam, 1/2 hour later I got hives and itchy feet. So there it is. Sorry Peet's, you're off the list.

Busy rest of the week. Tomorrow I'm having Bud's little friend over after school so I'm trying to prepare myself for 3 hours of potty talk and Transformer battles. Going to make some chocolate biscotti  and cookies on Wednesday. Thursday looks to be free right now but I'm sure it will end up becoming cleaning and wrapping day and running around getting those last few presents. Friday is Bud's Christmas show and party.... uh. Tired already. At some point I'm sure I'll make some time to get a wod in. Fingers crossed.

The dreaded sinus infection

So it's day 7 of the sickness. I finally went to the doctors yesterday to get some meds so things are looking up. Today is the first day I actually feel like I could possibly think about doing a wod, but I won't. Why? Because today is day 2 of my weird out of the blue allergic reaction. I'm a mess. Yesterday I woke up itchy then noticed my hands and feet started to swell. Great. What the hell am I allergic to? The only thing that was different was the Mucinex I took the night before. Ok. I've taken it before with no issues so..... I don't know. Luckily I was going to the docs in a few hours anyway. When I told him he said 'huh, well I wouldn't take that again'. Right. Thanks for that by the way. So last night I did not take it and I woke up with hives and my feet are itchy and swollen again. WTF! The only conclusion I can make is that I've been sleeping in the spare room (quarantine) for the past 2 nights  which were in the dryer with a dryer sheet. No, I'm normally not allergic to dryer sheets, Bob is so I'm very careful to separate our clothes, and I have been using them on my own clothes for months. Maybe sleeping on the sheets is too much? Who the hell knows but there is no other explanation. No new foods, no meds, no new lotions... I'm outta ideas. Hopefully tonight I'll be able to sleep in my own bed so we'll see what happens tomorrow morning. All I can say is itchy feet suck and the only relief would be to take Benadryl, which I can't take if I want to function at all. My body is already messed up with all the drugs I've been taking the past week I just can't take anymore. So, one more day and I should be able to get back out into the freezing garage for a nice beating.

Ok, enough whining. On a happy note I'm almost done Christmas shopping. I even got my parents stuff in the mail before the big pay extra for fast shipping rush. Yay me. We got our Christmas cards ordered and they should be here any day now. Every year for the past... 5 years or so, we do a funny card. No practiced dressed up poses in front of the tree (at least not without some smart ass saying), no family dressed in white and khaki beach pictures. Ut uh. Last year was a rock band theme with tongues out and fingers in the classic rock position and a QRC code to watch a video of us playing Billy Squire's classic 'Christmas is the time to say I love you'. Two years ago it was the kids in ohs position holding Bob and I up on a piece of wood. With Bob's design talent and a little Photoshop, it was awesome. Although we picked the coldest day of the year to do it outside so there were a lot of tears involved. I think one of my favorites was our first. Bud was about 2 months old, the Diva was 2. Needless to say our lives were a little nuts so the picture was of just a normal day in the household. The Diva in her SpongeBob pajamas with dress shoes, Bob with a coffee stained undershirt, me in sweats and slippers, Bud crying on my lap and laundry on the floor. Yep, typical day. This year I won't reveal it yet, at least until they are mailed out, but lets just say it's a Merry Christmas wish in 'person' and the kids were great. No complaints, no crying, no cursing, no technical difficulties. It was almost too easy. Maybe I should keep my mouth shut until the cards are actually printed and in my hands.

Thanks SMCF!

Well we finally made it up to South Mountain Crossfit yesterday to pick up the cage and check the place out. Much to our disappointment the cage would not fit in our SUV unless we left the kids there, which turns out, wasn't an option. But, we did not leave empty handed. We ended up with a used GHD machine which was in pretty damn good condition. What a nice surprise and even if we couldn't take the cage home that day, we still got to play around in the box with new equipment. I have very little experience with the GHD but have a feeling were are going to be fast friends. Until I over do it of course and can't move, then it will be remanded to the corner and used as a rope and band holder. While we were there I also got a chance to use a yoke. That was... heavy and next to the 'walk the plank' at the Tough Mudder, the longest 20' of my life. I did manage about 270# which surprised me. Funny what competition will do to the psyche. Thanks Lynne. ;) So overall it was a good day even if I was hacking up a lung and had the stamina of an 80 year old. Hopefully we can get back up there this weekend for a charity event. May be a tough one though since they are an hour away and the first heat starts at 8am. I think it's called Fight Gone Sandy. Check out the website if you're in the Allentown, Pa area and looking for an ass kicking.

Speaking of ass kicking. I'm still sick. 4 days now. Three of them spent sleeping on the couch at night so at least Bob doesn't have to hear me hacking all night. And let me tell you, 2am television programming sucks. I am starting to feel a little better today but have a feeling I'll be sidelined again tomorrow.

Going with bacon mushroom bison burgers tonight. Bison was on sale for $2 at Giant! Needless to say I picked up a few pounds.

Not much else going on just resting, drinking my Kombucha and playing a lot of Temple Run. Damn that game.

Christmas cage shopping

Normally at this point in the year I would say next to the words squat clean thruster, christmas shopping would rank right up there on the top of the list as words that make me ill. But this year I've actually had success with my shopping. As a matter of fact, I'm 60% done. Unheard of for me. Yeah, I know, only 60% but for a procrastinator like me, it's awesome for the 4th of December. Bob and I only buy a few small things for each other and since he wants another tattoo, I really don't have to do much at all. We are probably buying a used cage from my friends at South Mountain Crossfit so that will be part of our Christmas gift too. With some creative use of hooks and various donations of old baby bikes and strollers, I may have just enough space for it. We are building quite the little garage gym. All we need is a rower and pretty soon I'll have no excuses, except of course my own lack of will, to sub anything anymore.

Anyway, back squats were on the menu for me today. Not too bad on the weights 135-170, but they felt super heavy for some reason. Hate that. Then another round of kettlebell swings. More kettlebell swings, almost 100 today. They were supposed to be heavy for the ladies', 50 pounds but I can't swing the dumbbell with two 25# plates on it between my legs. I've tried. Not pretty. And honestly, I don't think I could do 50-60 of them anyway. The other part of the wod was ring dips. After the first round my shoulder just couldn't take it so I had to move to the box and prop the feet up. Arm killer thats for sure.

Got my 21-15-9 bumper sticker yesterday. Thanks! Although unfortunately, and I didn't know this at the time... obviously, my front and back bumpers and back lift door are not metal. Darn you Nissan and your innovative plastic/rubber/vinyl bumper design. So I'm going to trim the sides of the magnet down a tiny bit and stick it to my gas tank door. That will work.

Found a new brussels sprout recipe from The Pioneer Woman. It was fantastic. Granted she's not paleo or primal but we've used two of her 'cleaner' recipes and they have been awesome. Note: I did NOT add sugar to the balsamic reduction. If you add the cranberries in the vinegar and let them cook down you'll release the sugars in the cranberries to make up for it.

Oh and finally after a year of posting about brussels sprouts, if you haven't noticed I spell it different almost every time. Little did I know it's actually spelled brusselS sprouts. Hmmm. No wonder the spell check thingy always turned red. Learn something new every day.

Recipe: Sesame Chicken

As if you didn't guess from the title today, the sesame chicken was friggen awesome last night. I served it with gluten free spaghetti. If your pasta free, or even fake pasta free, you could certainly use it as a meat portion on a salad or even cold with a lettuce wrap. I like fake pasta with it since the pasta sucks up the sauce well. It would be a great carbo/protein load dinner if you need it.

Cold Sesame Noodles with Chicken
(modified from Cook's Illustrated)

What you need:
1/4 c toasted sesame seeds
1/4 c almond butter
2 garlic cloves - minced
1 tbsp minced fresh ginger (or jarred works too)
5 tbsp aminos or tamari (whatever soy free seasoning you use)
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar (or coconut vinegar)
1 tbsp hot sauce (or a shake of crushed reds) *most hot sauce has sugar if your strict paleo be warned
2 tbsp raw honey (or whatever sweetener you use)
water

2 chicken breasts
salt & pepper

noodles or gluten free noodles of your choice (or serve with salad greens, lettuce wraps etc)
sesame oil

3 small scallions - thin sliced
1 medium carrot - grated

How to do it:
Toast the sesame seeds in a skillet over medium heat until light golden brown. About 4-5 minutes, but keep your eye on them. Remove 3 tbsp for sauce and the use the rest for sprinkling at the end.

Mix 3 tbsp of the sesame seeds, almond butter, garlic, ginger, aminos, vinegar, hot sauce and honey in a blender until smooth. With machine running add about 3 tbsp of hot water without splashing it all over your face.

Salt & pepper and cook chicken any way you like it then once it's cool to the touch, shred it.

Cook pasta if your using it, drain and put it back in the pot and add a splash of sesame oil. If you don't like sesame oil or don't have it, it's no big deal, but add a little butter or even coconut oil so the pasta doesn't get sticky.

Then throw the sauce, chicken and some grated carrot in the pot with the pasta and mix. Plate and sprinkle green onions and remaining sesame seeds on top. Done!

If you're not serving it with pasta just mix the sauce, chicken, carrots and green onions. Plate it on top of salad and sprinkle with remaining seeds. (I would probably use a little EVOO, s&p on the lettuce before hand)


Now on to our regularly scheduled programming.

WOD was an arm killer today. Max effort kb swings, pull ups, push ups, t2b... ugh. I must say I love my new kettlebell. My previous ME for 2 minutes was 38 using a dumbbell. Today I was able to get 41. Yeah, not a crazy increase but overall they felt much smoother and easier. Unfortunately I pulled something during my t2b warmup on my left side, between my armpit and my shoulder blade. Obviously it didn't hurt enough to not do the wod, but annoying like... playing Scrabble with a 5 year old who can't spell or putting pants on over your shoes. You know you can do it, it's just challenging. Oh well, no worries.

Rest day tomorrow since we're going out with friends to the Christmas tree farm to pick out our tree and then heading over to a great little pub/restaurant afterwards. After that I'm sure it will be lots of Christmas decorating and another round of family Monopoly. My daughter loves to play but cries when she owes more money than she has. Yes, I made my daughter cry playing Monopoly. Mother of the Year right here!

CFT

So I finally got around to doing the Crossfit Total today. Always a stress inducer. Not sure why really. Maybe because it's a benchmark for where I really stand and the thought of not making any gains would really piss me off. But alas, I did in fact hit 2 more PRs. PR's?? One on my deadlift which was 225 today, a 20lb increase since September and on the shoulder press which was a 5lb increase since, shit, the summer?? The shoulder press has always been a thorn in my side so when I got 90 up today I was so happy I slammed the bar down and did a little happy dance. Ha. Didn't even try 95. Didn't want to end on a sour note. The back squat felt good at 190. I probably would have tried 195 if we had a cage (hint hint) or if Bob was home to spot me. I'm not 100% on the backwards dump with that much weight. Luckily I've never had to do that yet. I got stuck in the hole once with 185 on my back but Bob was there to help. Didn't like that feeling. Last thing I need is another stupid injury. Anyway, my total ended up at 505 which is about a 35lb increase since last time I did it in June. Happy day.

Nothing new to report, leg is still bruised and sore and yellow so at least it's on the mend. Didn't bother me at all today. I'm sure if I have to get on the ground for burpees and it hits the floor it's gonna suck but hopefully they aren't on the menu for me tomorrow.

Dinner tonight is going to be a cleaned up version of a classic in our house. Cook's Illustrated's Cold Sesame Noodles with chicken. It is a fantastic recipe. Nom Nom Paleo has a version but lacks a few of the ingredients that Cook's uses. I'll sub the rice vinegar, soy, brown sugar and peanut butter with better alternatives. If it comes close taste wise to what I'm used to, I'll post it.

I also added a link on the side to a fellow crossfitter's ebay page. He is selling 21-15-9 car magnets.. what better way to confuse drivers behind you than with a 'only other crossfiters would know what it means' bumper sticker.

Oh and a congrats and best wishes to my friends' coach (who I know and came up with a terrible picnic wod for us) on opening his new box, South Mountain Crossfit. Wish I could make the grand opening this Saturday.

wow, 2 weeks? really?

I just noticed the last time I posted was Nov 14th. Eeek. What the hell have I been doing? Well, I was.... eh, I don't remember all the details. And really who cares. I'll just start with Thanksgiving. It was great. Low key this year with only 6 of us. The food came out fabulous as usual. I ended up going gluten free on everything which wasn't as tough as you may think. I made some bread for the stuffing, subbed almond flour in the gravy and used brown rice pasta in the lasagna. Now, gluten free is not to say the meal was paleo compliant because lord knows it wasn't. But, hey, it wasn't overloaded with wheat and sugar and processed products so I'm happy. It was however loaded with alcohol. Or I was anyway. I drank way too much over the long weekend. Not that I was falling down drunk, but over a 4 day period, it was enough. Wednesday was 'oh I'll just drink the white wine since I had to open it anyway', Thanksgiving morning was bloody marys and bacon for breakfast. Bloody Marys are a Chase household tradition on turkey day. Our guests bought us a lovely bottle of tequila which had to be tested out. Friday night we had our usual week ending drinks. Saturday was a spur of the moment 'the neighbors invited us over for a beer and pasta bar' day; which of course for me ended up being more tequila, hard ice tea and meatballs and sausage. Not a good combo. I drank enough to kill a small horse but because I can handle my alcohol... most of the time, I didn't feel too bad the next day. The only exception being all the sugar in the tea and the flour in the meatballs.... which I forgot about until my stomach reminded me that night. Eh, it was all fun but I'll be glad to clean up this week with no sugar and no alcohol.

My workouts have been crappy to say the least. My schedule was so screwed up, so between that and feeling crappy from food and drink and something else... which I'm still not sure about, I didn't start to feel good until Saturday morning. I got out in the garage feeling good, ready for a good beating and it all went downhill from there. I was unloading the bar in the rack, took all the weight off one side (I know, idiot) the bar tipped, obviously and landed on my little heater smashing it into a few pieces. Shit. Moving on. After my deadlifts which went pretty well actually, I was doing my first set of 24" burpee box jumps and I missed. Needless to say I have a 4" gash on my shin and after 3 days, it's still swollen and sore as a mother. But, the Crossfitter in me continued on with my wod. Not sure if it was stupidity, adrenaline or what at that point. I did NOT however do more box jumps. Didn't have the balls to try it again. I probably won't for a little while. They are a mental game for me as it is now I'll have a scar to make it that much more difficult. Oh well, I'll get over it eventually.

Not much else going on, celebrated my 41st birthday yesterday with some much needed retail therapy, sweet new boots, a 35lb kettlebell and Crossfit jewerly from Fashletics. Nothing says I love you more than a 35lb ball of metal. And yes, I requested it. I'm nothing if not practical.

it's you and me double unders

Well, it's only been a week and Bud's finger splint is on it's last legs. I'm actually surprised it lasted this long. He says it still hurts a little but we're going without the splint today because that thing is just nasty. I have to see if I can find another one or it's two popsicle sticks and duct tape for the next 2 weeks.

Side note.. Andre Leon Talley what is with the Darth Vader outfit on The Today Show this morning. Really? You are a leading fashion expert? Ok then.

Moving on. No dizzy spells since yesterday afternoon. Still not sure what the deal was. I did eat a lot of good calories (no junk or sugar) yesterday. Although I do have a headache today which is odd for me. I used to get them everyday before I cleaned up my diet so this is either the beginnings of a head cold or I'm carrying extra tension in my neck.

WOD was good today. I made up the conditioning part of yesterdays workout. It was 2 min ME double unders which I was able to get 63 and 3 rounds power cleans and double unders. The double unders were a bit sloppy on the last round and ate up a lot of time. And I'm happy to report I only whipped myself once today in the hand. That has got to count for something. Power cleans felt ok. I did have to break every 4-5 though. They weren't long breaks, but breaks none the less.

Going with pan seared coffee marinated skirt steak and roasted squash for dinner tonight.

Nothing else to report and nothing witty to say so I'm out.

Feeling crappy

How does a week go by that fast? I can't even remember what I was doing. Oh right, playing Halo 4. Now I remember. Lost a lot of hours to that game this past weekend.

Workouts have been ok. Outlaw has been slow to post with the exception of The Way's wods, which I do do, but the scaled version. And they haven't been total ass kickers as of late but I'm sure that will change. I did end up doing about 100+ kettlebell swings the other day which wasn't fun, but not the most terrible thing I've ever done. Today on the menu is back squats, power cleans and double unders. My nemesis.

For the past two days now I've been having dizzy spells. Not quite sure what's going on with that, possibly an inner ear infection... don't know yet but it's really annoying. I took a rest day yesterday because of it, well, I had other stuff to get done, but the main reason was I wasn't feeling great. I just hope it's not the beginnings of a killer virus I sometimes get called Otitis Media. It's basically an ear infection but comes along with a hacking keep you up all night despite 4 cups of Nyquil cough that lasts for weeks. I did manage to do my back squats today but that was it. Not only did I get a little dizzy, I also felt a little nauseous. It's one thing to do a wod that makes you feel like puking it's quite another when you already feel like puking before you start.

I never got a chance to make my lasagna roll ups this past weekend. I did however make some good lamb burgers with a tzatiki sauce. Real easy. I stole the recipe from Primal Palate but altered it a bit. Just adding the mint, onion and garlic didn't seem to give the meat that binding glue it needed. It was a little too crumbly so I threw in an egg and some almond flour as well. More like making a meatball. They were pretty darn tasty with the cucumber yogurt on top but if you're dairy free, I think I would make a little greek salad type garnish with tomatoes, cucs, olives and red wine vinegar.

We've decided to cook Thanksgiving dinner here this year. 99% of the time everyone comes here and I usually cook for about 15-20 people. This year we had an option of going to my inlaws inlaws, which would be great, the kids would get to hang out with their cousins and it would be a nice time but I was stressing over the lack of gluten free, sugar free choices I would have. Not that I couldn't or wouldn't make due and enjoy the cooking/cleaning/stress free 3 day adventure that comes along with hosting a major holiday dinner, but we like to cook and we also have some friends and other family that don't cook and we don't get a chance to see that often. So today I start researching and planning and shopping and planning and shopping again. Mr Turkey is already in the fridge, Bob found a good squash recipe from The Clothes Make the Girl who I like, Primal Palate has a great gravy recipe... I'm sure everything will be great. It always is. And honestly, everything I make is pretty clean to begin with, just takes some tweaking here and there to reduce the flour and sugar count. If I see anything outstanding in my research I'll link it.

Bud vs playground equipment vol 1

I'm fairly certain anyone with young male children has made at least one trip to the ER. Bud is only 5 and we have been there twice already. Monday at school my little guy ran full on into the metal pole of the slide ladder. He had, or still has a bump on his forehead the size of another small head and apparently he jammed his finger at the same time. Once I saw the finger turning purple and he wasn't able to bend it we made our way to the ER. They did an x-ray and saw that he did in fact fracture his knuckle. Shit. Not much you can do for a finger so they put a splint on it and sent us on our way with a follow up visit to the ortho today. The ortho said the same thing, not much else to do so he re-taped it with a stronger splint and we have another follow up in 3 weeks. He thought about a small cast because Bud is a crazy, err.... an active little boy and that it would help to protect it, but said the splint should work just as well as long as he doesn't play any contact sports. Ha! Every parent of a boy will tell you EVERYTHING is a contact sport. Ok. He feels fine though, says it hurts when he bends it but now he can't so we should be good to go. I have a feeling the splint will not make it 3 weeks but we'll see.

Taking a recovery day today. My legs are fried from the front squats the other day so I'll probably just do some arm stuff, maybe pull ups, push ups, kbs and roll out. I did practice some of those skin the cats the other day. Wow. Dizzying. Almost face planted a few times but at least I'm learning to drop off the rings and not ride them until I'm almost touching the floor. Shoulder has been feeling a little achy the past few days, unsure what I did to make it flair up since overhead stuff usually doesn't aggravate it much. May have been the pathetic ring dips a few days ago.

No new items on the menu lately. I'm thinking of revamping an old lasagna roll recipe we used to eat years ago. This time I'll stuff them with some shredded chicken, red bell pepper and spinach... maybe top with a little marinara and fontina or some other yummy bad for you cheese. Other than that, been a little uninspired as of late.

Tonight is supposed to be make up Halloween for our neighborhood and it's supposed to snow/sleet/rain. Mother Fucker. Snow. Really? Ugh. Have to suck it up and pull out the snow gear I guess.

Happy that the election is finally over. Honestly I thought Twit Romney was going to win for a while there. I like Obama and hope he can improve our current situation. Only time will tell.

Where do I begin

It's been a crazy week here in the Chase household. Hurricane Sandy blew thru Monday night knocking our pine tree down, bringing branches down in the back and shredding parts of the swingset canopy. What a mess. I've never seen a tree actually fall down before. Luckily it fell onto the street and not anywhere near our house or the neighbor's car. It took about 3 days to get the yard cleaned up and all the wood burned. We have a fire pit and it came in handy. We actually spent the better part of this weekend making a fire to get rid of it all.

Can't remember much of what else happened. Halloween was postponed to this Wednesday when we are supposed to get a Noreaster. Talk about timing. Nothing spells fun like trick or treating in wind and rain and 40 degree temps. I do feel bad so I told the kids we'll go to a few houses and call it a night.

Wods were put on hold for the week while I did the yard work. And once that was done, I needed a true rest day. My body was beat, I was cranky as hell being stuck home with the kids all week with no sun and doing way too much snacking. I'm sure had I just sucked it up and put time aside to do a wod I would have felt better but I think I needed a break from that too. My diet has taken a nasty turn with all the Halloween candy and boredom. Boredom leads to snacking and although I don't buy a lot of sugary junk, we do still have kid snacks like chips and Cookie Crisp cereal. I did make gluten/sugar free friendly chocolate chip cookies and ate way too many of them. Need to fast today and get myself back on track, hopefully I can stick to it.

Bob and I did get to go out to dinner on Friday night to celebrate our 12 year anniversary. I had a gruyere, red pepper and spinach stuffed pork tenderloin with sweet potatoes and apples. Bob went with the steak, mashed potatoes and brussle sprouts. It was pretty good. Honestly, we've had better pork and steak at home, but it was great to get out to a nice restaurant with no kids and not have to cook and clean.

Todays wod was a good one. I actually went with mainsite since it looked interesting. Front squat ladder, 1 heavy, 10-20-30 at decreasing weights. Challenging for sure since I haven't done that many front squats in quite a while, let alone heavy. I can already feel my it in my thighs as I came down the stairs... they were a little wobbly. Ut oh.

Zombielantern

If there's anything worse than dish soap remnants left in the coffee maker, I don't know what it could be. I love my coffee, I NEED my coffee so I'll drink it anyway, doesn't mean I won't complain about it though.

Since Zombies are all the rage in our household this was the design for the pumpkin this year. Took me 4 1/2 hours. Although a good 2 hours of that was because I have kids to take care of and do shit for. All free hand. Me and my exacto knife.

Speaking of knives. I did have some close calls while carving this guy out and I still have all my fingers, but much to my dismay, it was the vegetable peeler that got the best of me. I managed to slice a nice chunk off my finger last night while peeling potatoes. Yeah, gross. And it hurts like a son of a bitch too. I guess thats what I get for peeling potatoes while trying to explain to my daughter's friend that I don't think she should play Limbo anymore if it creeped her out so much last time. I don't want any rabid moms breaking down my door because I let them play a mildly disturbing video game. I might not be in the running for mother of the year awards but sometimes you have to know when to say when.

Last nights crockpot beef and mushroom gravy was pretty good. I feel like it was lacking a little something though. Not sure if I just didn't use enough salt and pepper or what. I mean, overall it was a good healthy hearty comfort dish but I think it could be improved with something. I did add some chopped red potatoes for the last hour to make it more of a meal and they were a good addition. Yes, red potatoes. Call the paleo police. But I still feel like it was missing something. Eh, I'm sure I'll try it again so maybe I'll come up with that missing something next time.

Found some grassfed filet at Giant. I'm shocked that the grassfed stuff is making it's way into a regular chain grocery store. Of course I picked that up right away. Thinking, filet, sauteed spinach and garlic and some roasted butternut squash covered in raw honey and cinnamon. Bob and I are addicted to this Once Again Dawes Hill raw honey. It's not cheap and it has a very distinct taste but so worth it if you like a little honey on your sweet potatoes or in your yogurt or tea.

No wod for me, got a bunch of stuff to get done today and my lower back is screaming from the deadlifts. I expected it to so no surprise there. And the fact that my next wod looks just awful, that made my decision a little easier.

Crockpot beef and deadlifts

Crap. Didn't realize it had been a week already since my last post. Hmmm, what has happened? Nothing much sadly... little man has been sick for the past few days, I made some fabulous bacon wrapped scallops with chili butter. All I can say was wow. They were delicious and easy as hell too. The key though is good bacon. I wouldn't use the plain ole Oscar Meyer that may be in the fridge. Go for the uncured stuff, it has such a better taste which the scallops need since they are so mild.

Workouts have been tough lately. I feel like I always say that but it's true. Lateral burpee over the box jumps? Really? The burpee box jump I could do but jumping sideways onto the box, forget it. That is a recipe for disaster. The other day was 75 kb swings and like 60 shoulder taps along with tons of muscle ups. Well, muscle up progressions for me, but they still take effort. Today's wod was challenging. Ok, I didn't like it for one second but it's done. Run, pull ups, deadlift. Eeek. There was something about this combo today that made me feel sick. Not quite sure if it was pull ups to deadlifts or deadlifts to run, either way I still can't bring myself to eat anything yet. Upset with myself that I had to lower the deadlift weight but I just couldn't manage 165 for 36 reps today and that was 20# lower than rx'd! Maybe I psyched myself out beforehand, don't know but I wasn't able to do more than 1, 2 at a time at that weight. Back squats felt great today. Hopefully on the next 1RM test I'll get my 195.

Shoulder has been feeling pretty good (fingers crossed) for the past week or so. Not sure what was/is happening, if I had a minor tear or something that is finally healing... who the hell knows but it's feeling  pretty good. Not great, but better than it has in a long time. Maybe I'm just getting better at cleans and snatches and I'm not putting myself in crappy shoulder pain inducing situations. Don't know but whatever it is I'm happy with it.

Going with PaleOMG's crockpot beef with mushroom gravy today. There's nothing better than having dinner done at 11am. It literally took me 5 minutes to put it together too. Love it. I'll report back tomorrow on how it was. I'm guessing it will be pretty good. Most of her stuff is. If it wasn't, I wouldn't be wasting my time.

Going to be a long night tomorrow night. My daughter has a halloween dance party at school and I volunteered to hand out candy to the kids. Yay me for getting involved. I'm that parent that doesn't usually get involved in school activities. Hate to admit it, but I can't handle some of the over zealous PTO moms and the 'my child is the lead in the dance class, cheerleading, girl scouts and can read on a 5th grade level already' shit. I mean, what could my comback be? Well, hey my daughter can watch Resident Evil and think it's funny? Or my daughter can play the drums in Rock Band better than most adults? I don't think they would find it amusing at all. Although, I would.

Well that sucked

Nothing like a cramp in the calf to slow you down. Guess my legs didn't like the thruster to run transition. Oh well. I was really dreading todays workout as it was so that just made it even worse. 60 toes to bar, 40 thrusters and 800m. Yep, it was a fun as it sounds. I will say this, the thrusters @65 were more manageable than they have been in the past but I still had to break them up. My traps and shoulders are still tight from the 70 odd handstand chest taps the other day... which was really stupid of me, but I felt great while doing it. Handstands are challenging with my bum shoulders and weak wrists so I took advantage of the rare pain free day. I did have to take a rest day yesterday since I over did it. I think if your chest and sides hurt when you cough or sneeze, that means you over did it. I can hear the coaches from BrandX in my head screaming 'you dum dum, don't go so hard you can't do tomorrows wod'. Isn't that like, rule #2? I've never been one for rules, anyway. Maybe I am a dum dum.

Speaking of dum dums. Last nights debate was a good one. I was a bit surprised that Romney allowed himself to be bullied thru most of it and didn't focus on actually answering the questions before making jabs at what Obama did or didn't do. And I liked that Obama found his fire this time around but I'm still unsure if he can make good on what he's promising. I guess that would be the case for any politician though. Say what we want to hear to get elected then do what they want to do. As I posted on Facebook, I want to see next weeks debate in the octagon. UFC style battle would settle everything. I would love to see Romney lay out his 5 point plan before he gets choked out.

May attempt to make some pumpkin muffins today. I feel like baking. If I do, and that's a pretty big if, hopefully I'll remember to post it and take a picture.

I also have to give a shout out to my friend Lynne. She has been making her own Kombucha and she brought me a sample the other day. Apple cinnamon. It was awesome. She offered me one of the scobys, scoobies, scobies?? to try to make one myself. I'm pretty good about figuring out recipes and making good meals, but this seems to be out of my reach. Not sure I have what it takes to make it work. Well, I'm good at putting things on the shelf and forgetting about them, it's just the remembering to do the rest that may hinder me.

No thinking involved

Usually I go thru my workouts on auto pilot. Not much thinking involved other than keeping track of my reps and sets, which at times can be more confusing than it sounds. Don't lie. Everyone has missed a few here and there or done a few too many because they lost count. But during today's wod, all I could do was think. And thinking with a 150lbs on my back for 2 minutes isn't good. Depending on how you look at it, 2 minutes can seem either really short or really long. If there was any time I needed to zone out, it was today. No, I wasn't thinking things like, what am I going to have for dinner or I wonder if Grey's Anatomy was a re-run last night... it was more like, please god don't let me pinch a nerve or squash my vertebrae, I can't afford to be any shorter. But, after the first set, I found a dirt spot on the floor, stared it down and locked up until the timer went off. The high pulls and double unders were a little harder than I thought and I went light. My legs didn't like the transition between squats and jumping. Took longer than I thought I would so I was a little disappointed there, but eh, its done.

Has to put the heater on for the first time. Yeah, I'm a wimp. I'm always cold and the garage was like 50 degrees. I'm so not looking forward to the winter weather.

Weekend isn't looking too busy yet, some tree trimming, yardwork, possibly a trip to the farm with the kids and I've got to start working on my pumpkins. Every year I carve out 2 pumpkins for the kids. No, not triangle eyes and vampire teeth, more like artwork. I did Buzz Lightyear and Barbie one year. Another year it was Angry Birds and SpongeBob... they take me days to do but it's so relaxing. Well, I guess if you think skinning a pumpkin with an Exacto knife is relaxing. Hopefully I'll remember to post a pic this year.

Gotta run.

running sucks

So I finally got a chance to do my mile run and 40 pull ups wod yesterday. I can remember a time when I used to love to run. Loved it, loved the feeling of being outside alone, pushing myself, just me and my iPhone. Running a mile was a piece of cake. Just a warmup really. Now, forget it. The thought of having to do any running literally makes my stomach upset. I don't hate it per se because there are still days when my body wants to get out there and pound the pavement, I just don't have the love for it anymore. Running is such a mental game and now that I've been doing Crossfit for over 2 years, I'm used to the short intense constant varying movement. The challenge, the pain and the joy of lifting or moving weight I never thought I would ever move is just so much more fun... well, it's not always fun, but you know what I mean. Running is boring. But, I have noticed that my times although they are really slow compared to.... almost everyone else, are getting a little faster. Even at my pathetic pace I came in at 9:20. That was with no real push at all. Proof that the endurance run wods do help I guess.

I did a little more research on the KTaping for my shoulder and am trying the bicep tendonitis approach today. Sounds like I could have that and the taping is just one strip, easy to apply myself. We'll see how I feel during the night since that's when I have the most pain.

Taking an actual rest day today, no walking, running, biking, just rest. I'm not really sore at all, just worn down physically and mentally. Bob's been working a lot and has been stressed, and that wears me down too because I hate to see him like that.

Nothing fancy on the menu lately. Made PaleOMG's coffee marinated steak fajitas again last night which was good but I didn't let the meat marinate in the coffee mixture long enough... didn't have the kick like last time. Lesson learned. Tonight will probably be sketti and turkey meatballs since I saw Giada on The Today Show this morning making meatballs and now that is all I can think about. Acutally, I always think about food.

Yeah, I'm here

Just like that another 4 days goes by. Bob's birthday dinner was fabulous. Bacon wrapped filet, seared brussel sprouts and mini tomato cucumber sandwiches. Which I'm proud to say I came up with myself. No, I'm no genius just throwing together cucumbers and tomatoes, but the presentation should count for something.

If you're going to do julienned cucs remember to salt and drain, rinse then press the excess water out. Otherwise they get too mushy.

Workouts have been ok the past few days. We went from heavy and slow to faster paced endurance with box jumps, 100m, cleans and t2b. Next on the list was a 1 mile run and pull ups but it's been 50 degrees and raining the past few days. I've run in the rain before and it's one thing if it's warm out, but running in the cold rain is a different animal so I skipped a day and moved on to clean and jerks and ME hspu's, front squats and pull ups. No fun I tell ya. No fun at all. My hspu's are weak, although I'm getting better at stringing them together. I actually did a mainsite wod on Sunday. I just wanted to do something quick and dirty and burpee pull ups fit the bill.

I have to say I like the summer, but I love this time of year. Not only for the nice weather, but all the fun fall activities. Including old scary movies that run thru Halloween. Bob and I love to torture the kids with 'hey kids look at this!' then the werewolf shows up and they freak out. I know, nice parenting. We watched The Howling last night. Love the 80's horror movies. What I thought was scary as a kid pales in comparison (with the exception of classics like The Shining, The Exorcist and The Omen) to some of the creepy movies that are out now. Insidious would be one. Shudder. If you haven't seen that, count your lucky stars. It is a total creep fest... well, for most of it. The ending is just dumb.

Anyway, off to eat my chicken sausage, fried eggs and cabbage. BEST lunch ever. Well, bacon would have been my first choice but it was frozen. Then for dinner tonight, leftover bison chili which was fantastic. Bob is the chili master.

Split jerk

After about mmmm, 5 weeks, I pr'd my split jerk again. Yippee! I think if I was really feelin' it today I could have gotten 125. And you know what I'm talking about. Some days you just don't feel it. I did manage 120 which is not far from bodyweight. Maybe next month I'll hit 130. I never imagined I would be able to throw 120lbs over my head but here I am. Good way to start out the day because the rest of my wod was an ass kicker. 125 jumping squats, 100 dumbbell push presses and 75 pull ups. Eh. I had to wuss out on the push presses. Rx'd was 35 each arm. Not happening today, settled for a measly 20lbs. And I also had to resort to the band for the pull ups. Yeah, I could have done them unassisted but I would still be out there and I don't think 40 minutes would be the ultimate goal time. Like I said, some days you just don't feel it.

Getting ready to celebrate Bob's birthday tomorrow. Not sure what's on the menu but I'm sure it will involve some sort of bacon wrapped goodness and an ice cream treat. Bacon ice cream? I'll have to do some research on that.

Mark Sisson will be on Rock Central tonight exposing the common man to the primal lifestyle. Wonder how that will go over with big wheat producers? I imagine there will be a lot of 'studies' in the news the next few weeks that either A too much meat/eggs will kill you or B gluten is beneficial to the body. Lord knows we don't want the public to know the truth. Ahh, enough of that before I get my panties in a bunch.

Shrimp and greens for dinner... maybe some nice ripe cherry tomato salad on the side. Sounds good.

Recipe: Tilapia Picata

If you've ever made or eaten chicken picata you can do the same recipe with tilapia. Tilapia is a boring fish. Good for you, light, not fishy but boring just steamed or even pan seared unless you can make a hell of a salsa or sauce with it. I bought it the other day because, shit, I'm running out of ideas and didn't want to have red meat or chicken again. I was just going to pan sear it and do a lemon caper dressing but hell, thats one step away from the picata recipe I've made thousands of times. So here it is if you want to try it. It was pretty damn good with the fish.

Tilapia Picata
feeds 2 adults

What you need:
2-3 pieces tilapia
1 1/2 lemons, half of one sliced, the other squeezed for juice
1 cup chicken broth
2 cloves garlic or 1 small shallot minced
tbsp or so of capers (I use a lot since they're awesome)
1 cup or so of almond flour (enough to lightly coat the fish)
olive oil
salt and pepper

What to do:
Sprinkle fish with salt and pepper. Coat fish with almond flour. Now, almond flour is not the best in terms of coating so dredge it, pat it down, dredge again and shake excess. It doesn't need to be completely covered, but get enough on there that it will stay put. Put the fish in the fridge for like 10 minutes to firm it up.

In a non stick skillet (don't use the cast iron because of the lemon juice, acid eats the iron), heat a glug of olive oil on med/high heat until almost smoking. Place the fish down and don't move it for about 4 minutes. 3 if they are small and thin cuts. I use olive oil because it tends to brown the flour better without falling off then say coconut oil or bacon fat... you can try it but I haven't had much success with it.

Flip over for another 3 minutes or so, then remove to a plate and keep covered or place it in a warm oven, 150-200 degrees is fine. Don't stress if the breading crumbles a bit in the pan since it will be incorporated with the broth in the next step.

Add a smidge of oil, you can use coconut or whatever at this point, but I stuck with the olive oil because it was right there. Add the minced garlic or shallot, turn the heat down to medium and cook it for a minute or so. Add the chicken broth and lemon slices, scraping up the brown bits. Simmer for about 10 minutes, add capers and lemon juice and simmer for a few more minutes. Plate the fish and spoon the sauce over. Done and done. And don't be afraid to let your cooked veggies soak in some of the juice. Yum.

Not much else to report. Recovery day for me, cleaning and tons of other stuff I need to get accomplished today.

Recovery Day

I've decided I'm not calling rest days 'rest days' any more. 90% of the time I do something like walk, run, bike or body weight stuff. I think for me it's more of a recovery day. A day where I feel a little too sore to do heavy lifting and a metcon but not quite sore enough to sit on my ass and watch tv all day. The other 10% could be because I have too much on my plate and don't have time or I'm either sick or really hurting. The latter doesn't happen too often with the exception of my bum shoulder. Friday would be a good example, my lower back was pretty tight, ok, ouchy, from the deadlifts, my shoulder was hurting and my cold is still not completely gone, facing a wod of tabata sit ups and ring dips just would not be in my best interest. So run/walk it is. I guess some people would have sucked it up and gone ahead but I'm finding that my body is not recovering quite as quickly as it used to. So why hurt myself? Not sure if it's over training, diet, stress or just Outlaw's programming. Probably a little of each.

Recipe Review
As far as cooking goes I made PaleOMG's steak fajitas Friday night and they were fantastic. Love love love the cinnamon/coffee dry rub. The few subs that I made included flank steak instead of sirlion and I did not use the hot pepper, but I'm sure you could use a jalepeno or even some crushed reds if you want spice and don't feel like making a trip to the grocery store which was the case for me. The prep time is 5 minutes but it should marinate a few hours at least so keep that in mind. Could you just season and cook? Probably, but I don't think the meat would be as tender especially if you're using a flank or flat iron cut. Highly recommended if you have meat in the freezer that you don't know what to do with and tons of peppers from the garden.

Oh and if you haven't tried kobacha squash yet, do it. The skin is a son of a bitch to cut and I almost lost a finger, but it's so worth it in the end. I found out from Nom Nom Paleo that if you cut the stem out like a pumpkin first you can get the knife started in there then slice down in half. Then scoop out the flesh.

Roasted kobacha squash

1 kobacha squash cut into wedges (not too thick, go with the natural indents of the squash)

2-3 tbsp melted coconut oil, bacon fat or ghee 

1 tbsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg or ground cloves (whatever you prefer, I used cloves and it was great)

salt to taste

Toss all together and roast on a baking sheet at 350 for about 25 minutes. Flip halfway thru. Let them get a little browned but not so soft that they fall apart when you remove them from the baking sheet. But, if that happens you can scoop the flesh and fork mash it just as easily at that point. Trick the kids into thinking they are mashed sweet potatoes. Thats what I did. 

Weekend flew by as usual. Too hungover to do a wod on Saturday. Sunday I did some crazy alternating tabata wod with situps and ring dips. That was no fun. Transitions were tough in 10 seconds and fast anchored sit ups made me dizzy. Blech. Today was a heavy one. Dumbbell shoulder presses, weighted chest to bar pull ups, front racked barbell step ups and good mornings. They all felt good, but my wrists didn't like the 60 rep front rack position. Even at 55lbs, they were screaming at the end of the first set. Yeah, mobility schmobility. I just think at this point I'm as mobile in that department as I'm gonna get.

I'm back

Having a cold sucks. Not because just having a cold sucks, but because I hate missing workout days. I get all out of whack and feel even crappier when I miss consecutive days. I did need the rest though. Shame my shoulder didn't take advantage of the time off, it's still screaming at me. Not sure what I did last week to aggravate it so much but it hates me right now. And no, that didn't stop me from doing anything today. Probably stupid on my part, but a week off is enough. Sunday I did go for a 2 mile walk and yesterday (wednesday) I went for a 3-4 mile bike ride with my daughter. So technically I haven't been sitting on my ass for a week, I just haven't lifted anything other than my kids, a coffee cup and my book in 7 days.

As you can imagine, even though I was ready to get back into it today, everything felt heavy. 10 minutes of clean and jerks felt great after the first 5 or so. Then it was on to 12 minutes of 100 double unders, 7 deadlifts and 25 burpees. Eek. I thought for sure I wouldn't even be able to get thru the double unders but I managed them in 3 minutes. May sound horrible to some people but for me, that is a friggen record. The amrap was the deadlifts and burpees in whatever time was left after your double unders. I managed 2 rounds plus a few deads. Not too bad considering I haven't done deadlifts in months. Let alone semi heavy at 165# in a metcon. My burpees didn't feel too bad, I don't know but the more I do Outlaw's programming the more burpees seem like a rest period. Didn't think I would ever hear myself say that. Ever.

Oh and I just have to say hats off to Rudy, he is doing a phenomenal job over there at Outlaw between coaching his athletes, running his business, taking on this whole 'games' program and designing his own lifting shoes! Come on. They are the shit and I want a pair asap! He's a great coach and I've gained more strength over the past 4-5 months than I have in the past year. Not dissing mainsite or BrandX at all, they got me started and made it possible for me to even do Outlaw's programming. I just love the oly strength and metcon programming.

Anyway I tried to make spiced pumpkin coconut milk pancakes (since I had leftovers) the other day but they came out like shit. Had I known better I would have thrown the batter into a cupcake mold and baked them. I have a feeling they would have came out great... which I may in fact do today. Hmmm, if they work out, I'll post a recipe in a few days. And I even may try to remember to remind myself to take a picture. If I don't forget. ha.

Human guinea pig

Sometimes I wonder if I'm not just a human guinea pig. I'm willing try new recipes and report back saving everyone the hassle of trying them themselves. That is of course if you trust my judgement. Three things you need to know. I am a food snob, I'll eat anything with the exception of beets and I don't impress easily. I should have been a food critic. But they are usually fat and have to eat a lot of shitty food so that would be a deal breaker for me.

So with that, I made PaleOMG's pumpkin granola and Elana's Pantry peanut butter cookies. Well, let me tell you. That pumpkin granola is fucking delicious. My only problem with it was it did not get as crispy as I would have liked. I doubled the recipe from the get go, added more on the cooking time and it still came out a little too chewy. Oh it's still great, but it ended up like a chewy cereal bar rather than the crunchy granola I was hoping for. So, word of warning, spread it thin as you can on the cookie sheet and check underneath with a spatula to make sure it's not burning. If there is any way to make your house smell like fall, this recipe will do it. Cloves, cinnamon and allspice? What could be better.

The peanut butter cookies were good. I did not do the jelly thing, I added chocolate chips. Good stuff. The kids like it and thats all that matters.

Well I've come to the conclusion that my belly aching this past week is not the pretzels and hummus. Thank god. It's the apples. I cut them out and bingo, feel 100% better. My mother told me before apple skin can be bothersome but who listens to their mother the first time around. Apple skins bad, mom right. Sigh. At least I know what it is and I'm guessing peeling the skin will solve that issue.

My poor little guy is down for the count this weekend with a terrible cough and high fever. The kids have been in school a little over 2 weeks and we've got our first cold of the season already. Of course I usually always get it no matter what I do and I did. Stuffy head, sore throat, although I don't feel as bad today as I did yesterday. I think cutting out the grains has lessoned virus's, virus'? effect on the system. Just my 2 cents. No data to back that up but coming from someone who was always sick and always suffered from headaches, I very rarely get either too often anymore and if I do, they don't last that long. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Obviously no wod for me today taking it easy, baking some goodies, making lasagna and watching dad and the kids play football on this beautiful Sunday. And yes, I'm using real cheese and ricotta in the lasagna. What self respecting Italian would dare do otherwise.

I just have to throw this out there...

There was just a piece on the Today Show about arsenic in rice products and speaking on behalf of the FDA (who is basically does nothing) was Commissioner Margaret Hamburg. The FDA said they tested rice products are found the high levels but they're not ready to do anything about it yet so keep on eating rice folks. Almost a direct quote. Yeah, that seems about right, like I said, they do nothing. Ok, so being the conspiracy theorist that I am I decided to do a little research on Mrs. Hamburg. It literally took me 5 seconds to find out there is a tie from her to Monsanto AND big pharma. Not only is she heavily invested in pharmaceutical companies, she's a director of a medical equipment and vaccine supplier. Her advisor on, get this, food safety is a former VP of Public Policy at Monsanto. If you don't know anything about Monsanto, and I can't believe any long time Crossfitter wouldn't know about them, do the research. Watch the documentaries. It is horrifying what they get away with. A connection certainly doesn't surprise me, in fact I was betting on it and I'm sure it goes a lot deeper than a casual internet surfer like myself may find.

So why the negativity this early in the morning? I'm growing more and more suspicious of... everyone. Everyone has an agenda. EVERYONE. Do I believe in all the information I find on conspiracy web sites and the like? No. I'm not a fool. But I do believe there is some truth wrapped up in the information and I whole heartily believe any representative of big corp is going to sway the opinion toward the money instead of what is actually healthy for humans to consume. Do some research. Take the red pill. Get out of the Matrix.

Well now that I got that out of my system and got my butt beat in today's wod, I feel better. 50 pound kettlebell swings? No. I practiced a few, heavy as hell and needless to say awkward. I have to use a dumbbell, and swinging two 25 pound old iron plates between my legs just does not work when you're on the short side of 5'4". I look like I'm giving birth I have to squat so wide. Gah, guess I better bite the bullet and buy a proper kettlebell. Unfortunately I did not see the 1:1 ratio rest after each round. That would have helped I think. I had to lower the kb swings to 40# in order to keep a good pace. Oh well. Back squats felt great. Legs felt really strong today. The weight was medium 65-80%, but the volume was a bit more than usual. I'm sure I'll feel that tomorrow morning.

Nothing new on the recipe front. Probably having leftover chili tonight since Bob won't be home for dinner. Need to buckle down again on my diet. I'm not sure what has been bugging my system lately so it's trial and error time again. I fasted the other day and felt amazing. Yesterday I had my usual grub, tuna, turkey, almonds, gluten free pretzels and hummus, raisins, garbage stir fry with shrimp and chicken and about 7 mini semi sweet chocolate chips. Yeah, I know but I will not give up my chocolate. Anyway, something of that group bothered me and I have a feeling it may be the hummus and/or the pretzels. The pretzels are gluten free, but they contain rice products and a bit of other processed stuff including a bit of sugar. Please god no. I love my hummus and pretzels. So, I'll skip them today and see if there is a difference. In a way I hope not, but I also need to find out sooner rather than later.

more mobility

Fell on the floor gasping for air after today's wod. Yay! It's been at least a week or so since I've had to do that. Running, pull ups and thrusters will do that to me. Did some clean and jerks beforehand which wren't too bad even though my wrists are pretty sore. I guess the 2 days of front squats had something to do with that. It's been a long time since they've hurt this much. Guess I need to work more mobility into the routine. Gah, more mobility. Always with the mobility. Will I ever see the day when I can just do something without stretching out 20 minutes before?

Nothing new on the Chase family front. Been busy with the kids, taking the pool down and celebrating my little dude's 5th birthday. Bud's birthday was filled with Lego Mine Craft and Angry Birds. I must say, Lego have built themselves quite an empire. There is Lego EVERYTHING now. Seriously. I didn't even know there was such a thing as Mine Craft until about a month ago let alone Lego Mine Craft. Crazy. Needless to day, Bud is a happy boy.

No new recipes lately, feeling a bit lazy in that department. Bob did make some fabulous bison and beef chili the other night though. Not sure I taste much of a difference between the bison and beef, but I think it added a bit of 'richness' to the chili.

Kids are home today keeping me busy and annoyed. Gotta run.

Kimchi

Alright Sears. You called me at 6:30am to tell me my dryer would be here between 9-11. Umm. Yeah. Why didn't you just call and say hey, we'll be there sometime on Thursday because really, it means the same thing.

Wow today's wod was an arm and shoulder killer. HSPU, kb snatches, presses and romanian deadlifts. I was actually able to get up for the hspu's today with no pain in the shoulders so I was happy with that. My ROM for the hspu's was a bit shaky but I got some good ones. The dumbbell snatches are the killer for me. 75 each arm @ 30lbs. Ugh. Hate them. Actually, my right arm likes them, my left arm doesn't. All I could think of was Popeye while I was doing them. Yeah, my mind was wandering today. So needless to say after all those snatches my arms and shoulders were smoked, I could barely get 65 off my back for the presses let alone in snatch grip position. Had to lower that to 60. Still a struggle today. Shoulders were not happy. Romanian deadlifts were ok. My forearms and grip failed before anything else. I literally had to peel my left hand fingers off the bar. They tightened up so bad it was like I had no control over them for a second. Weird. I'm pretty sure that shouldn't happen but it's all good now.

In my love of all things fermented and cabbage I've moved on to the next logical step. Kimchi. It is delicious, and holy hell is it spicy, even the mild version. It does have sugar in it. Not much, less than 1g, but still, if you're avoiding sugars, look for another maker. I bought Kings since it was the only one I've seen in our local grocery store. I'm sure the natural food store or a Whole Foods would have more of a selection. I've seen a few recipes to make it but it sounds like a real pain in the ass so I'll put up with the minimal sugar content for now. It's a great side dish if you're looking for something different for lunch. Speaking of, I just chowed down on turkey, hummus, sliced cucumbers on gluten free light tapioca bread and my side of Kimchi. Yum. I know, sugar, carbs AND hummus, bad paleocitizen. Oh well. I'm sure not going to lose any sleep over it.

Off to go pick up my little dude from school then make some chocolate chip cookies... paleo friendly of course.

No Tough Mudder this weekend

What a fucking bummer. Thanks to torrential rains on Saturday the Tough Mudder was cancelled on Sunday. Think about it, the Tough MUDDER was cancelled due to.... too much mud? Really? Sounds like an oxymoron, but apparently there was big trouble at the farm where the event was being held on Saturday when the nasty storms rolled thru. There was standing water; not by design, electrical hazards, again, not by design, and cars needing to be pushed and towed out of the muddy parking area. We also heard that the location itself and the unpreparedness of the local police made for a perfect storm of a terrible experience. Tough Mudder has always prided itself on running a very safe, efficient, challenging and fun event and with all the damage done to the course on Saturday, they felt like it wouldn't be safe and enjoyable for anyone on Sunday. I get it. Safety first. Electrocutions can only be done by experienced Mudder professionals.

Things weren't all bad though. We actually ended up having a nice weekend full of family fun. We took the kids to the Baltimore Aquarium on Saturday.

While at the aquarium I had a nice salad with grilled veggies and fresh fruit. So far so good. After the aquarium we found a nice little diner around the corner from our hotel which offered bison burgers, gluten free, organic, local grassfed meat and produce. Needless to say Bob and I were excited about that. I had the bison burger with mushrooms, guacamole and bacon. Bob had meatloaf and mashed potatoes. It wasn't the best meal I've ever had, but it was a cool place and the waiter didn't look at me like I had 3 heads when I ordered a burger with no bun. Sunday we drove down to Washington DC since it was only about 40 minutes or so from our hotel. We cruised around town, checked out the White House, took some handstand photos with the monument in the background, had 13 cups of coffee and took the bus to The National Zoo, got back downtown had an early dinner at Chipotle and made our way home.

I was surprised at how easy it was to find decent meals while out of town. It's not as difficult as you would think. Obviously it takes a little research before, but really, how hard is that now with iPhones and iPads? Anyone who says it's too hard to stick to primal or paleo lifestyle while eating out is either lazy or stupid. That is an excuse for people who want to eat whatever they want and then say they didn't have a choice.

Wods the past 2 days have felt good. I guess the little 3 day break was good for me. Squats were awesome today and clean and jerks felt good at 95.. although not good enough to get thru the entire metcon in good form. I did drop to 85 to keep good pace. I am happy I CAN do 95 pound clean and jerks. There was a time, not more than a few weeks ago when I couldn't. I love Crossfit.

just keep swimming just keep swimming

It's nice to see some people still have a sense of humor. On my <cough cough> weekly visit to pick up tequila I was in line paying for my item when I told the guy, 'eh, I don't need a bag'. To which he replied, 'straw'? Nice one. I didn't think I looked any more out of control and in need of a drink than I normally do, but I guess being that he works at a liquor store, he would know.

Made the most of my kid free few hours this am although, wish I could have actually relaxed but as any mom... or dad I guess, will tell you, it's fucking awesome to go food shopping alone. It's the little things.

Had a nice little lunch (pic came out shitty) of sliced roast beef with spicy mustard and greek yogurt dipping sauce, kalamata olives and a salad with avocados and tomatoes. Then I finished it off with some sliced Honey crisp apples and almond butter. Yum. Thanks Lynne for the honey crisp apple reminder. They are definitely the best apples out there.

No wod for me. All ktaped up and taking a few rest days to heal the shoulder. Not that I'll be laying around, but no lifting for me. Need a break thats for sure.

Gotta keep moving, cleaning and packing to do and preparing some normal food for us to munch on while away. Can't rely on the hotel breakfast and lord knows what the local downtown Baltimore restaurants will have to offer. No, I didn't do my research yet but I will. Please lord watch over me and keep me away from the fast food delishousness. (is that a word?)

Run forrest run!

I really don't like running anymore. Well, today wasn't so bad, it was only a mile and I came in under 9 minutes. That is a record for me. I'm slow. Really slow. And I have no real desire to improve on that. There I said it. Feels good to get that off my chest.

So my little man started his first day of pre school today. He was so excited.

Hopefully tomorrow will bring the same enthusiasm.

I am in love with my new julienne peeler. This morning I shredded up some more zucchini noodles and sauteed them in coconut oil for about 3 minutes, reheated my leftover pulled pork and made fried some eggs. Fabulous.

Dinner tonight is going to be pizza. Gluten free of course with green peppers, onions and sliced home grown tomatoes. I just don't feel like making anything more involved than that.

Full report on the long weekends travels and Mudder next week.

First day of school

Yahooooo! Errr, I mean, boo hoo.

H was very excited to start second grade today. I suspect the main reason was only to wear her new clothes and shoes.

So Bob has his third Tough Mudder this weekend in MD. I didn't sign up this time and God dammit the weather is going to be perfect... 80 degrees, humid... if there was any Mudder I should be doing, it's this one. In the past it was the cold that beat me up the most. Well, it will be fun to spectate and stay dry for once. I'm not sure if the kids are excited as we are but I have a feeling once they see the potential muddy fun, they'll be fine. If they are recovered from their trip to Hershey. We are surprising them on Saturday with a trip to Hershey Park. My only goal is to not eat my weight in chocolate. Not holding out much hope.

Tested out a new cracker recipe today. I love me some crackers. The only problem was I didn't realize my beloved hummus was gone. Hey, I love hummus, I don't care if it's not paleo. It's awesome. And honestly, there are worst things in the world than garbonzo beans, garlic and tahini. Oh and I was finally able to make zucchini noodles last night with my new julienne peeler. I also roasted some chicken legs, shredded them and added some fresh pesto.

Taking a much needed rest day today... obviously. Body is a bit sore from the past few wods and the shoulders are not feeling great. I haven't had the Kinesio tape on for 4 days now. Testing it out to see if it does actually work. Due to the pain in my shoulder right now, I'm guessing it does. Yesterday I pr'd my back squat 1@190. I almost got 195, got down, but not far enough. Had I gone parallel, I wouldn't have gotten back up, I'm pretty certain of that. Hopefully at this rate I should be at 200 by next month... how awesome am I. Ha.

Kinesio tape and beef

So I jumped on the Kinesio tape bandwagon. I can certainly see why it's gaining popularity. It works. Unfortunately for shoulder pain, there are several different ways to tape so it will be trial and error at first. I did tape using the 'general shoulder pain' method and even in my not so perfect application, (you really need someone else to do it for you) I notice a difference. Yesterday I was able to bang out 22 UB dips in my first set with very little pain. The week before I could only get up to 12 in my first set. I still had some trouble with the one arm dumbbell snatch though... 32lbs was a bit too painful to push thru.

Finally made a new dish the other night, Asian ground beef. It was pretty good and it's nice to find another easy recipe with ingredients I usually always have on hand, with the exception of the broccoli slaw. Luckily I just happen to have it. Kudos for me. I love when I can make a dinner that doesn't require me to go to the store. The kids and I just finished making some zucchini bread again. I don't think this was the recipe I used before, regardless, it came out pretty good. I tweaked it by adding vanilla, nutmeg and cutting back one egg. If I do make it again, I would probably use another tablespoon of maple syrup too. Surprisingly the kids liked it even though it wasn't quite as sweet. Tonight I'm going with our favorite beef recipe, you guessed it Mexican Beef. Love it. Getting ready to get that shit together as soon as I get finished with this post.

Not much else happening, Bob is working overtime this weekend which means I have too much time on my hands to shop online... well, browse online and stress over making the kids healthy lunches for the new school year thanks to Nom Nom's post on school lunches. Damn her and her healthy kids! I wish my kids would eat broccoli, tomatoes, roast beef and chicken salad. I will try my best not to succomb to lunchables, bagged chips and 'fruit' snacks but I usually always cave. At least my daughter will eat apple slices, turkey, carrots and healthier stuff sometimes, and I'm not packing her Hostess cupcakes, jelly sandwiches and mini jug juices like some of the other kids. Oh well, I guess all I can do is try right?

Another reason to hate overhead squats

Ok I'll admit it, sometimes I'm a real dummy. Instead of dumping my wobbly overhead squat like a good crossfitter, I tried to save it instead. Which I did, but at the expense of pulling a muscle in my neck that screamed down to my shoulder blade like the fires of hell. I'm sure we've all done that at some point but the dummy in me decided to finish the next 3 rounds. Hey, I lowered the weight 10 pounds. I'm not that stupid. Eh. So, I'm taking a stupidity induced rest day or two. Today is number 2. My neck is feeling a lot better but I'm not able to lift anything heavy overhead or even rest the bar on my back for a squat. Believe me, I tried. I hate consecutive rest days even when I'm hurt.

At least the day wasn't a total loss though. I did score at Old Navy for the kids back to school clothes. I found a tank top for .47. Crazy. Even if my daughter wipes her ass with it, it's still a good deal.

Zero motivation on the cooking front lately. Chef salad with flat iron steak last night, shrimp and sausage tonight. Lame but easy and tasty. I haven't even made any treats which is actually a good thing.   I need to drop a few extra pounds that found their way back to me. Guess that means I'll have to hold off on the double mocha chocolate chip cookies I saw last week.

Now to get the pool cleaned up. It turned green a few days ago and I've been trying my best to get it cleared up. With the amount of chemicals I've used over the past 2 days I can't believe it doesn't look like the fucking Carribean. I'll give it one more round of chemicals if that doesn't work it's getting drained and put away for the season. I mean at this point, I'm not even sure if we should go in it. I don't want my children to end up looking like the swamp thing for christ's sake. Wasn't he a product of toxic water? No, I don't know my comic books, I'm not that much of a nerd. Give me some credit.

Sweet and spicy shrimp

Wow. Another week gone by and no posts. I just can't keep up. So much to cover, where do I begin.  Well, I've decided to buy a journal to actually write down my wods. I know, write, with a pencil? What? I don't know why, but I like it. I think it's because since I've started Outlaw's program and they do a lot of different strength work, I was forgetting what weights I had done previously. Between the cleans and snatches there are 12-14 different movements they work on... crazy confusing some days especially when they say 'go heavier than last week' or base off of 'x' date... yeah, ok, how the hell am I supposed to keep track of that unless I write it down AND more importantly it's easy to find. Duh, journal. I was keeping a ton of sticky post it notes on the fridge in the garage but that was an unorganized mess. And as a self proclaimed control freak, I can't have that.

Wods have been a bit challenging lately. I think I've fallen into a vicious cycle between upping my metcon weights, lack of sleep, not enough calories, no mobility work, extra snack foods and constantly on the move with the kids is leading to poor recovery.... eh, hopefully once they go back to school next week I'll be able to fall into a better schedule.

I did make a somewhat 'new' recipe, sweet and spicy shrimp, last week. It's from Clean Eating magazine which is awesome for those of us who eat clean but are not necessarily paleo, although this recipe is. Shame I didn't get a picture because it did look pretty. You can serve it with any green, spinach, cabbage, kale, collards... or make a taco out of it like the original recipe with shredded radicchio, carrot and cilantro. I served it over some shredded baby spinach and cabbage. The warm shrimp wilts the greens nicely.

Sweet and Spicy Shrimp
In a blender or food processor add:
1-1 1/2 cup fresh or frozen pitted cherries/raspberries/blackberries/blueberries (unsweetened if frozen)
1-2 sliced jalapenos (use depending on how much spice you want)
1- 2" piece of fresh ginger or 1 tbsp jarred
4 tsp raw honey
1/4 water

Season 20-24 raw shrimp (peeled, tails removed) with S&P,  add some oil (whatever you like) and sear 1 minute each side on high heat. Reduce heat to medium and add the cherry mixture. Heat thru about 2 minutes. Done. Oh and you can use red pepper flakes for the spice if you don't have peppers. Works just as well. 

A few days ago I made the same sauce with blackberries and served it over some salmon then used the leftover the next day for a shredded chicken salad. Both were great.

Nothing else new on the recipe front. Bob has been fighting a stomach bug for a few days so dinners have been chicken soup and a turkey avocado sandwich for me. On gluten free bread of course.

I'm not posting my wods here anymore. What's the use really. I can't search them and it's a pain in the ass to re write and/or format them from BrandX. And now that I have my handy dandy notebook (cue the Blue's Clues voiceover) I don't need to have my workouts logged in 3 different places. I may be organized to a fault but I know that that is overkill.

zucchini baseball bat and plyo box

Well where do I begin. Oh yeah, I suck. What a crappy wod today. Let me rephrase, I was crappy. I should have just listened to my body and took the rest day. My shoulders and traps are sore to the point I'm not sleeping well, eh. I shouldn't have gone with 85# on the GTO and instead of giving up, I should have lowered the weight, gotten my shit together and tried to finish out. I guess mentally I wasn't in it today. Oh well, enough complaining. At least I finished out 5 rounds. At least. 

With only 2 weeks left of summer vacation for the kids, we have been trying to make the most of it by packing lunch and heading out to the park. Fortunately we have a ton of parks and playgrounds around here to keep us from getting bored. 

On Saturday we went to a friends' house for a wod n' grill with a bunch of other crossfitters. The wod was sucky but good. Got my butt kicked which is always awesome. Nice to have a little reality check. I don't have the  advantage of working out in a box so I have to push myself. Obviously, I need to work a little harder. Noted. Food was good of course pulled pork, beef, burgers, guacamole, salad, fruit, veggies. Then there was the chocolate covered marshmallow, angel food cake, cookie and strawberry skewers. I almost went into shock just smelling all the sugar. But, I guess we all need our cheat days. I'll stick with the blueberry jam covered goat cheese thank you very much. It was a nice time and thanks to a friend of a friend, we got a new homemade plyo box too. 20, 24 and 30" I believe. Yay no more stacking plates or jumping on the old wobbly bench. Although, now I have no more excuses. Shit.

Made some breakfast bars the other day and they are great. I subbed a few things like maple syrup for the agave, coconut oil for the grapeseed and since I didn't have raisins I added chopped dried apricots and some dates. My daughter wasn't impressed, said it was too 'seedy'. My son liked them even though he said they needed chocolate chips and not the 'brown things'. (the dates) Sigh. I did try one new side dish. Fried zucchini strips. I used coconut oil, almond flour etc.. paleo friendly. They were ugly as sin but tasted pretty good. They definitely need some tweaking before I post a recipe and picture. Short of using them as baseball bats, I'm running out of ideas for all this dam zucchini. 

Wednesday (8/22)

Outlaw Crossfit
5X2,2,2,1,1 Back Squats @ 100% – rest 2 minutes.
170#
*based off 3rm

-then-
Every 90 seconds for 15 minutes (10 total rounds):
21 Double-Unders
7 Pullups
3 Ground to Overhead - 85#

Notes: The goal is to finish the effort having completed each round within the time limit, and to have done it with the heaviest possible weight on the bar. Do not use a weight so heavy that you will not be able to finish a round, but also do not underestimate. You may take weight off, but you MAY NOT add weight at any time. Score is the weight used for the final round.
1 round + 21 du + 7 pull up + 2 GTO (in the 90 second round completion effort)

finished 5 rounds - 13 min or so

Tuesday (8/21)
Outlaw Crossfit
20 minutes to establish a 1RM Snatch.
45(5) -55(5) - 65(5)
*shoulders hurt, used as practice

-then-
Run 800m
75 Wall Balls 20/14# - 12#
Run 800m
13:43

Monday (8/20)
Rest day

Sunday (8/19)
Outlaw Crossfit
7X2 Pause Front Squats (3 seconds at bottom) – heaviest possible, rest 60 sec.
125#

-then-
5 rounds for total working time:
100m Shuttle Run (10m sections)
15 HR Pushups
10 Hang Squat Clean to Thrusters @ 95/65#
*Rest 1:1

1. 3:33
2. 3:23
3. 3:26
4. 3:29
5. 3:36 = approx 17:30 working time

Saturday (8/18)

BBQ wod
3x
5 snatch - 55#
10 OHS
15 over bar burpees
20 jumping lunges
10 min

Friday (8/17)
Rest Day

Average summer day

As I sit here chowing down on my post wod eggs, bacon and cabbage, I'm really starting to regret buying my daughter a flute for Christmas last year. When played by a 6 and 4 year old, it's the most torturous sound in the world, well, maybe after 'mommy I just threw up in my bed'.

Actually did a mainsite wod today. First time in weeks. And to my surprise I almost did it as rx'd. Unfortunately I didn't realize the women's kettlebell weight was 1.5 pood, not 1 pood like I did. Bummer. My new approach to mainsite is if I have to do it, don't even look at the scaling. It's too easy for me to say, eh, I'll do 55# cleans instead of 85# like I can do. They may be a little slower, but I won't get any better if I don't force myself to work thru it. At least that is my approach and I'm sticking with it. Also did some Outlaw Way's barbell gymnastics today. Only half of it actually. The Way programming is a bit too intense for me but I still needed to do some strength before the wod. So it was snatches... again. Shoulders are a bit sore so I wasn't feeling great with the power snatch but even slightly hobbled, they are so much better than they used to be. If only I could make them look as effortless as Sage. When I grow up I want to be her.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood so fff for a bike ride to get the kids moving and out of the house, then yardwork and swimming.

Thursday (8/16)
Outlaw BB gymnastics
7X1 1 Hang Power Snatch + 1 Power Snatch – heaviest possible, rest 60 sec (exactly)
45(3)-55-65#(3)
*shoulders not feeling great today

Complete as many rounds as possible in 15 minutes of:
10 Kettlebell swings, 2 pood - 35#
10 Box jumps, 24 inch box
10 Ring dips

7 rounds even

Pulled pork

If there is anything better than the smell of a slow cooking pork roast in the oven, I don't know what it is. Ok, maybe the Thanksgiving Day turkey may be a formidable opponent but, for those of us who love that bacon smell, the pork was a winner hands down. I used this recipe from Nom Nom Paleo since I had that nice big shoulder roast I bought at the farm the other day.

The crust that formed on top was fantastic, smokey, sweet and spicy. I did miss the juice that comes along with a crock pot pork but a little leftover bbq sauce did the trick. Tonight I'm going with honey tamari marinated salmon, brussle sprouts and cucumbers and yogurt.

Not much else going on in the Chase household. Happy that AGT is back and the Olympics are finished. I'm Olympicked out. If I see Gabby or Michael Phelps again, I may just throw up.

Wednesday (8/15)
Outlaw Crossfit
12 minutes to establish a 1RM Heaving Snatch Balance.
45-55#
*stuck with 55 since I’m having a problem with the feet position. Keep kicking out even with wider beginning stance.

-then-
1a) 3XME Strict Pullups – rest 45 sec. - 10-9-5
1b) 3X10 2 Arm KB Snatches – rest 45 sec. - 20#
1c) 3X25 – Med Ball Ab-Mat Situps 20/14# (anchored), rest 45 sec. - 15# dumbbell
1d) 3X5 Snatch Grip Behind the Neck Press – heavier than last week, rest 45 sec. - 60#

Days gone by.... and meat!

Needless to say it was another busy weekend. We didn't have any plans per se, but all I know is from the minute we got out of bed Friday it was non stop for the rest of the weekend. Friday we started off the day by dropping the kids off at VBS, a trip to the meat farm to pick up some grassfed bacon, pork butt, New York strips, beef snack sticks and some eggs. (I'll post more on that in a minute). Off for the rest of the food shopping, picked up the kids, had some lunch then we took the kids, err... ourselves to see Batman. The kids just happened to be with us. They've seen all the other ones and there was no cursing and no sex, although violence aplenty. Eh, they've seen Alien, Resident Evil and the like, what's a little ass kicking? After that we followed it up with vacation bible school closing ceremonies.... which is pretty funny when I think of it now. Violence then church. Maybe we aren't such bad parents after all. By the time we got home it was 8, the kids were sugared up and smelly and we were starving for our New York strip and some tequila.

It was fabulous. Although, truth told, I did not taste much of a difference. I was under the impression grassfed meats had a little 'earthier' 'meatier' taste? Maybe it depends on the cut? Not sure, either way it was fantastic and worth the little extra. We also picked up a pound of bacon. Now there I could definitely taste a difference. I have bought uncured, nitrate free bacon before so I know what decent bacon tastes like compared to regular store bought, but damn, this stuff was even better. A definite treat.  The beef snack sticks are great too. I could eat them all day long. The farm also makes it's own raw milk cheeses which of course I had to sample. Wow. As much as I wanted too, I didn't buy any. I can't have a block of cheese in the house that is that good and not eat it. I'll have to do some research on if raw milk cheese is a little easier on the system than the regular processed crap in the store. Keeping my fingers crossed. 

Saturday and Sunday was a blur of Target, Dicks', Toys r Us, Home Depot, Giant and the dreaded mall between back to school shopping and finding a new bike for my daughter. We actually did end up buying her one and happy to say she loves it. Obviously we had multiple test rides both days as well. Nothing like squats, running and biking a few miles to get the legs going. 

Workouts have been tough lately with the exception of Sunday. Outlaw and mainsite were a rest days and I wasn't in the mood for an ass kicking hero or heavy 1RM squat test so I just did some warmup stuff, ran a few sprints and biked of course. Today's wod was killer endurance for me. Burpees and double unders. Blech. Luckily the weather is beautiful today so I didn't have the heat and humidity to deal with, just my own lack of will. It goes without saying I hate both double unders and burpees but oddly enough I was able to string together 33 du's and multiples of 15 and 20 so.. not bad. Overall it was a good one even though I hated every second. Only a Crossfitter would understand that last statement. 

No new recipes other than zucchini bread (I made them into muffins) courtesy of Elana's Pantry. The kids actually really liked them and I'm surprised considering they knew there was a vegetable in it. Now that I have about 20 pounds of zucchini in the garden I'll definitely be making more once my 5lb bag of Honeyville almond flour gets here. Yep, had to order another one already. Today I decided to make some cupcake size meatloafs... meatloaves? thanks to PaleOmg. Little disappointed they didn't come out looking like cupcakes but at least I have some quick mini protein snacks in the fridge. Why do I insist on making this stuff on IF days. 

Monday (8/13)
Outlaw Crossfit
15 minutes to practice or test a Tall Snatch.
16(5)-45(5)-55(4)-65#(3)

12 minute AMRAP of:
50 Double-Unders
7 Burpees
*Add 7 Burpees every round (Rd. 2-14 Burpees, Rd. 3-21 Burpees, etc).
3 rounds + 50 du + 15 burpees

Sunday (8/12)
10 kte
5 ohs 45#
10 kte
10 back squat 45#
10 kte
15 front squats 45# (with bottom holds)

1/2 mile 50m on 50m off sprints
4 mile bike ride

Saturday (8/11)
Outlaw Crossfit
12 minutes to establish a 1RM Snatch Drop.
60#

-then-
1a) 3XME T2B – rest 45 sec. - 23-20-13
1b) 3XME HSPU – kipping is allowed, rest 45 sec. - 11-7-8
1c) 3X20 KBS – heaviest possible, rest 45 sec. - 35#
1d) 3X5 Snatch Grip Behind the Neck Press – heaviest possible, rest 45 sec. - 45-55-55#

Afternoon - 7 mile family bike ride