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.