Workouts for 11/21/16 - 11/27/16

The good news is I started working out again...the bad news is EVERYTHING hurts!!

So, it was time.  Last Monday I started back at the gym on a regular basis.  To say I was scared was an understatement.  Yes me, the girl who works out ALL THE TIME was scared to death to walk in the gym and get started...again...

But I did. And I survived.  And I am better for it.

I had dabbled with a workout here and there but for the last month there was nothing consistent.  I had to figure out how to not be a gym owner and I feel like I actually went through some sort of grieving process.  I suppose you could say the last month was life changing and I am finally feeling like myself again back on top of it.

I gave myself the deadline of December 1 on my actual goals in the gym.  So for last week and the beginning of this week it's just a matter of getting into the routine again.  Finding a time that works with my schedule and making myself SHOW UP!  Showing up is the hard part, once you are there you do what you have to to get it done.

BABY STEPS...I do believe that when you are trying to start something new that it takes all of those little steps to get you there...don't take a giant leap, you're more apt to fall back but a bunch of little steps in the right direction is what you need.

So, every Monday I am going to post last week's workouts along with 1 day of food - this will not only keep me accountable but will also allow you to just copy everything I do if you want to get started yourself!

4 Tips to combat muscle soreness:

1.  Make sure you take a post workout within 20 minutes of finishing.
2.  Epsom soaks.
3.  Make sure you are taking fish oil and Vitamin D (it's winter you need it)
4.  Foam rolling - stretching - voodoo floss - and lacrosse balls!

Monday November 21, 2016
WOD
5 Min Cap
3 Rounds:  12 Power Snatch, 12 Thrusters 75# (I did 2 rounds + 3 PS)
1 Min Rest
5 Min Cap
30 Burpees over Bar, 30 T2B, 20 OHS 75# ( I did 30 Burpees + 26 T2B)

5 Rep Front Squat - I did 145#

Tuesday November 22, 2016
WOD
1 Rep Clean and Jerk - I did 165#
6 Min AMRAP
25 G2OH, 30 lateral jumps, 20 G2OH, 30 lateral jumps, 15 G2OH, 30 lateral jumps, 10 G2OH, 30 lateral jumps, MAX G2OH
(This was a partner workout...we made it to 10/15 G2OH - the weight went up each round!)
2 Min 3 rep front squat - my partner did 125# 2 Min 3 rep hang clean - I did 155#

Wednesday November 23, 2016
WOD
50 Double Unders, 40 PC, 50 Pull-ups, 40 Box Jump, 50 S2OH, 40 DL, 50 Squat, 40 HRPU, 50 Wall Ball - Weights 95#, Box 20", Wall Ball 14# - RX 27:24

Thursday November 24, 2016 (Happy Thanksgiving)
WOD
30 Burpees, 30 DL, 30 Burp, 30 Clean, 30 Burp, 30 Press, 30 Burp, 30 PJ, 30 Burp, 30 Swings, 30 Burp, 30 SDLHP, 30 Burp, 30 DB Snatch L, 30 Burp, 30 DB Snatch R - (This was a partner workout in the garage...started as partners with Brooke and Brandy ended as partner with Jim)

Friday - Rest Day

Saturday November 26, 2016
4 - 6 Min AMRAPs - 1.  50 Wall Ball, 50 Box Jump 2.  50 GHD, 10 Rope Climbs  3.  50 Pullups, 50 Ball Slams  4.  50 PC 105#, 50 KB Swings - end with each athlete OH Static hold (Another partner wod...there were 3 of us;0)

Sunday - Rest Day

Wednesday - FOOD IS FUEL

5:00 am coffee w. coconut cream

7:30 am post workout (maca, chia, gelatin and creatin) and banana

8:30 am RX Bar

9:30 am Americano w. heavy whip

11:00 am 2 eggs scrambled w. spinach, pineapple and salami - hashbrowns

2:00 pm 2 chicken legs and an orange

7:00 pm paleo pizza w. spinach, pepperoni, sausage, bacon, pineapple

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Waffles

Last Friday I had to go shopping for the pizza ingredients so I could get them made over the weekend...and of course so our family could enjoy Friday night pizza night!

Jim assured me he had the babies under control as I ventured out on my own on a Friday afternoon...I had many stops to make and I was going to try to keep it under an hour in case Jim needed my help.

Because of the variety of ingredients I have to buy I have priced shopped and label read in every store from here to forever...with that being said I needed things from Fresh Thyme, Aldi and Garden Patch on this particular trip out.  It's no biggy to me... I have already read all the labels so in and out in each of these stores was my plan.


UNTIL THE ATTACK OF THE CHOCOLATE MONSTER HAPPENED!!!
When I got home from shopping...1.75 hours later, the babies were both snuggled tight in their beds so Jim helped me unload the car and unload my bags.  He began to notice a pattern that hasn't happened in our house in a looooooong time.  At every store, I purchased some type of chocolate...yep, me the I don't really like chocolate girl had bags of different chocolate.  2 -70% cocoa bars, 5 bags of enjoy life chocolate chips (they were on sale), 2 ocho bars...and a stop at Starbucks had landed me a grande americano with 1/2 pump mocha in it!!  There was chocolate everywhere!

So, being the most awesome hubby in the whole entire world (and maybe some prompting by me saying I wanted chocolate waffles) he searched high and low for this chocolate waffle recipe he made like 5 years ago.  I told you it was a looooooong time!

Enjoy these - but not every weekend!  Click here for A Girl Worth Saving Blog :  HERE

   

Chai Tea Latte

In meeting with a client the other day she asked me if she could have a chai tea latte!  She had planned on making her own and not getting it at Starbucks...

So, I decided to do a side by side comparison of what she would be consuming in calories and sugar if she ordered a Starbucks Chai Tea Latte or if she made her own:


Starbucks Chai Tea Latte (Grande - 16 oz)

Calories in a 16oz chai from Starbucks:  270 

Sugars in a 16 0z chai from Starbucks:  42

Now, knowing that there are 4 grams of sugar in every teaspoon imagine lining up 10.5 teaspoons and adding them to your drink...

In comparison:

Homemade Chai Tea Latte (16 oz)

We'll need to do a little math for this one:

Calories in 16 oz of unsweetened coconut milk:  45 in 1 cup x 2 = 90 calories
Sugar in 16 oz of unsweetened coconut milk:  <1 x 2 = 1 gram of sugar
So, 1/4 of a tsp of sugar added to your drink.

Looks the same to me!  And let's go a little deeper and see what the cost difference is!  

Box of Chai Tea (20 tea bags) = $3.28 (this would make 10 chai's)

Box of Coconut Milk 8 cups or 4 chai's = $3.38 x 2 = $6.76 (this would make 8 chai's)

8 homemade chai tea latte's = $10.04 

Starbucks Grande Chai Tea Latte:  $4.44 x 8 = $35.52

Cost difference:  $25.48 for every 8 drinks you get at Starbucks, benefits to your health: priceless!

Chai Tea Latte

Ingredients:

Chai Tea Bags

Unsweetened Milk (Coconut, Almond, Cashew)  

Cinnamon

Steep tea in small amount of water.  Warm milk in pan and use immersion blender, whisk or blender to create a frothy milk.  Add to steeped tea.  Sprinkle with cinnamon,

If you use 8 oz of milk - only use one teabag = 45 calories.

If you use 16 oz of milk - (amount used for comparison) - 2 teabags = 90 calories.

Primal Thanksgiving Stuffing

I will never ever forget...


The night before Thanksgiving, it was my job to help dad break up loaves and loaves of white
bread; there were pans sitting all over the kitchen, on top of the refrigerator, everywhere you looked you would see bread crumbs drying for dad's famous Thanksgiving stuffing.

I would be the first one awake on Thanksgiving morning, I simply couldn't wait to see what jobs dad had for me to do.  I always awoke to the aroma of that turkey already cooking, I always wondered if I got up this early what the heck time did he wake up to get all this started before me.  I remember seeing the "turkey guts" cooking in a pan.  I knew dad added all the good stuff to the stuffing, liver and gizzards and the famous turkey neck...he cooked them up, ground them and we ate every single part of that turkey.

When it was my turn to start cooking Thanksgiving for my family, I was never gifted enough to take everything from scratch and come up with that awesome stuffing my dad made every year.  So, my kids got Stove Top or Pepperidge Farm...whatever was on sale.  Maybe, it wasn't because I wasn't gifted - maybe I was a product of my environment and did what seemed to be the simplest way to get everything done.

Then, one day...not necessarily out of the blue.  I changed the way I ate.  And I changed the way I cooked for my family.  All of a sudden, my food creations would get better and better.  I was able to throw things together and create recipes.  I was able to add a little bit of this and a little bit of that and my kids were happy and they ate it!  Which made me happy!  I have this natural tendency to want to feed people, I think I get it from my dad.  And when I feed people, and they are happy, then I am happy to!


So, a few years back I desperately sought out a stuffing recipe that was grain free, gluten free all of the above...this was THE LAST thing I changed about our Thanksgiving dinner.  I would always say, "It's Thanksgiving, a little gluten won't hurt!"

So, when I found this recipe- they had me make bread and break it into little pieces to dry the night before Thanksgiving.  Please try to understand what happened to me at that moment.  Every flood of emotion, every Thanksgiving I spent "helping" my father, every smell, taste, sound, feel...came back to me and punched me square in the face.  I've never cried so hard breaking bread and setting it on trays to dry like I did that day.  I remember the first time I made it, sobbing out loud and telling my daddy, "I know you'd be proud of me now!"

You see, food is emotional.  There is always something attached.  That night, it came full circle.  I was able to carry on this tradition for my family that my dad loved so dearly.  That was obviously engrained in my soul.  I want my kids to remember someday, what I did from my daddy, and pass that on to their kids...a legacy!

SO without any further commentary:

Primal Thanksgiving Stuffing

Bread needs to be baked at least a day before so that you can set it out to dry overnight:

Ingredients

Bread

2 cups almond flour
3 tbsp coconut flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp real salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp coconut sugar (or 1 tsp honey)
2 large eggs
8 tbsp unsalted butter (or ghee)
1 cup sour cream (or plain, whole coconut yogurt)

Preheat oven to 425.  Butter an 8x8 baking pan.  Mix dry ingredients together in bowl.  In a separate bowl, mix together wet ingredients.  Pour mixtures together.  Pour batter in pan.  Bake for 30-35 min.

Stuffing

1 pound pork sausage
(bag of insides of turkey - boil and add to sausage)
2 tbsp unsalted butter (or ghee)
1 large onion (chopped)
2 large celery sticks (chopped)
10 fresh sage leaves (chopped)
1/4 cup parsley (chopped)
1/2 tsp real salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 grain free bread (cut into cubes and left out overnight to dry)
1 cup chicken stock (homemade;0)
3 large eggs

Cook sausage and turkey insides.  Drain and set aside...return drained grease to pan...add butter or ghee along with onion and celery to cook on medium heat (about 5 minutes.)  Stir in sage, parsley, salt and pepper.  Add mixture into pork mixture.  Add in dried and cubed bread.  In a separate bowl whisk chicken broth and eggs - pour this over all ingredients and gently mix until everything is wet. Pour into 8.5 x 11 baking dish and cook for 30-35 minutes until the top is golden brown.

Butternut Squash/Carrot/Pumpkin Soup

I made the best soup EVER last night...

Fall is officially here.  Our weather keeps switching back and forth.  I have turned the heat on twice only to turn it off after a few hours because it was too warm in the house.  It's that time of year you aren't sure if you should be wearing pants a coat and a scarf or shorts and a tank top!!

Dress in layers and be prepared for anything is how it goes right now!

So,  I am in the process of trying to figure out my "new schedule!"  I have to be honest, I haven't worked out in FOREVER!! Well, at least for me.  I am not sure when, or how, or even what to do or what I want.  As soon as I figure that out and make a game plan I'll be working out again.  In the meantime, I have been eating super super healthy!  I have given myself an ultimatum - by December 1 (I know seems like a long time away!)  I have to make a decision on what my future CrossFitter self is going to do.  Do I go for it in this years open?  Or, do I just do the workouts and enjoy it for a change?  Can I even allow myself to do that after going for it the last two years?  So many decisions to make, I am hoping that they just come to me ...like a message...Dear Carole, DO THIS!!  I'll keep ya'll updated on my nonsense.  (Please tell me I am not the only crazy person out there who talks like this to herself!)

So, with that said...eating super healthy.  With some of my extra free time I have been hanging out in the kitchen.  Good news is we don't have to eat dinner at 9:30 pm anymore...on our first night home dinner was ready at 7:00.  By 9:30 pm I was starving again.  I will find balance.  That night the dogs ate so early they were in bed by the time we had our dinner on the table.  Everyone is adjusting around here!  LOL

The recipe Carole the recipe:

I made some little tweaks to my butternut squash soup last night and I have decided that this is how I will make this recipe from now on.

Butter Nut Squash/Pumpkin/Carrot Soup

Ingredients:

*1 butternut squash
*6 large organic carrots (this is an item I buy organic - I am eating the skin!)
*2 cups pumpkin puree (I made my own you could always use a can here)
*coconut milk
*1- 1.5 cups chicken broth (I made my own you can find good broth to add here)
*thai curry paste (if you don't have this chili powder works too)
*cinnamon

Heat oven to 425.
1.  Cut butternut squash in half and dig out the seeds.  Fill each seed compartment with coconut milk and 1 tsp of thai curry paste.  Sprinkle cinnamon on the rest of the squash.  Put on pan.
2.  Cut carrots in half and lay on pan.
3.  Cook for 45 minutes then take the carrots out and put in your blender.
4.  Cook squash additional 15 minutes.
5.  Add pumpkin to blender w. carrots.
6.  Scrape out the butternut squash and add to blender.
7.  Add chicken broth to blender.
8.  Blend. Taste.  Add spices as needed...I typically need to add another tsp curry paste and 1-2 tsps of cinnamon.  It makes a nice spicy/sweet blend.