What I’ve Been Eating

I’m still figuring out this whole Paleo thing. It is VERY different for me and is taking some serious getting used to, but I’ve been managing pretty well. A lot of the advice I’ve seen online and heard from other Paleo eaters is to find a few meals and eat them over and over again. That is totally not my style.

I’m just as passionate about cooking as I am about running. Maybe even more so. Leftovers and a few basics aren’t going to cut it for me.

Here are some of my eats from this past week:

Paleo burger with Portobello “Bun”, mashed curry sweet potatoes and roasted brussel sprouts.

Egg Cups – Place bacon around the rim of a muffin tin, crack egg into the middle and bake on 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Sage Crusted Chicken Thighs, Roasted Butternut Squash and Wilted Spinach, Raisin and Pine Nuts. (From Practical Paleo)

 

Crockpot Pork Loin with Cinnamon Apples.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Butternut Squash and Brussel Sprouts with Chicken Apple Sausage.

Avocado Tuna Salad, eaten in my car in the carpool line at my son’s school. I got some strange looks for that one.

I’ve also eaten out a couple of times too. The first time I went to a BBQ restaurant and ordered Turkey Breast, but I forgot to ask for no sauce. I’m sure the sauce had sugar in it. I scraped as much off as a I could and carried on.

Moe’s Southwest Grill is a good place for Paleo eating. Their steak is from grass-fed cows. I ordered a Naked Homewrecker with no beans or rice. Kind of embarrassing to say, but sooo good …

They gave me chicken instead of steak by accident. Whatevs.

I’m slowly figuring this out. It’s still super weird to be eating so much meat, but I do think that I’m seeing some results. We are heading to Disney World on Sunday for a week long family vacation. I have no idea what my eating will be like while I’m there. I’m going to try to stay Paleo for the majority of the time, but its Disney World. I’m gonna have to live it up some also.

When we get back I’m going to do a strict 30 day Paleo Challenge, and after the 30 days decide where I’m going with this whole thing.

See you soon!

Sylaward Trail Half Marathon

Today I ran my 14th Half Marathon and my very first trail race! I haven’t spent very much time at all running trails, but the few times I have done it I absolutely loved it.

My friend Barbara and I headed up to Sylacauga, Alabama early this morning for this race at the trails around Lake Howard. We ended up making much better time than we thought with the drive and then had over an hour to wait for the race to start. It was 40 degrees, which felt painfully cold so we sat in the car with the heater on until the very last second before the race started.

We did get to watch a beautiful sunrise over the water while we waited.

The race was very small, there were only about 35 entrants. Apparently that’s pretty normal for a trail race from what I’m told.

The race started and I immediately knew that this was going to be a pretty technical trail. I was under the impression that it was much easier than the trail I run close to home, but to me it actually seemed very similar. Tons of rocks, roots, pine cones and other obstacles to navigate.

The plan was to take it easy and just enjoy ourselves.

With so few people in the race it wasn’t long before it was just Barbara and I together with no one else in sight ahead or behind us. At about mile 3.5 I slipped in some mud and fell pretty hard and landed on my hip. Thankfully I wasn’t hurt and was able to keep going. Then just a few minutes later Barbara took a big fall. She tried to brace herself and ended up pulling her hamstring pretty badly. She tried to jog a little bit, but the pain was too severe so she urged me to go ahead while she walked the race. I didn’t want to leave her, and had a hard time making myself do so but she told me in no uncertain terms to go. I ran ahead to the next aid station and asked a volunteer to check on her.

I kept going alone and I never saw another person until about mile 8, when I came up on a girl that had passed us when the fall happened. I ran behind her for about a mile, but right on her heels. I think it was kinda weird for both of us … I couldn’t decide if I wanted to get ahead of her and feel pressured to go faster or stick behind her and run slower than I knew I could. Finally I asked her to let me pass and she did.

The most of the rest of the race it was just me and the woods. I paid a lot of attention to my footing and thankfully didn’t have any more falls.

My finishing time was 2:08:04 and I was the 1st Female Winner!

The awards were the coolest I have ever seen for any race, I got this handmade quilt!

I got word after the race that Barbara was ok and was walking the race still. She wouldn’t accept a ride back and didn’t DNF. Total trooper!

I had such a blast! If it wasn’t for the fear of falling and injuring myself I’d love to run trails all the time. Once this next marathon is over I may very well do that.

After lunch Quilt and I took a nice looong nap together.

Paleo Fish Taco Recipe

This is the kind of thing that makes me feel good to eat, not that greasy dinner I had last night. This is the kind of colorful, healthy plate I’m used to and just because I’m eating Paleo these days doesn’t mean that I have to eat burgers with no bun and sweet potato fries for every meal. In fact, that would be a bad idea.

At first I wondered what the differences were between Paleo and Atkins, which I did way back in like 1994 and adamantly HATE. The biggest difference I see from my whole 3 days of perspective (so take it or leave it folks) is that Paleo focuses on the QUALITY of food you are eating instead of focusing on what is not allowed. Clean eating – meats from animals that were allowed to eat their natural diets, vegetables, fruits, nuts, oils. Nothing artificial about it. Atkins for me was all about avoiding the notorious carb, and nothing more.

Wow, I got a little sidetracked there … so umm …

2 Tilapia filets rubbed with salt, pepper, cilantro and the zest of 1 lime. Bake at 400 for 10-ish minutes. (I rarely set timers just like I rarely measure ingredients). Shred with two forks.

Butter Lettuce leaves for the taco “shells”

Avocado and Tomato salad, 1/2 of a diced avocado, 1 diced roma tomato, 1 tsp minced garlic, salt, pepper, chopped cilantro.

Cabbage (shredded) for topping.

Delish, fresh and colorful.

And I promise that my blog isn’t going to turn into an “all things Paleo and CrossFit” … I’m still tearing up the running. I’m running my very first trail race this Saturday and its a Half Marathon. Super excited about that! And I’m well on my way with my marathon training plan for the Mississippi River Marathon in February. Never you fear.

Hashbrowns Full of Fail

I’m thinking maybe I should rename my blog – “Pinterest. Here let me try that for you”. I’ve been making a lot of recipes from Pinterest lately and usually they turn out well, but occasionally I find a dud. I could probably make an entire blog just testing out recipes and craft ideas, etc that I find on the site.

A couple of days ago I came across this image:

What a brilliant freakin’ idea, huh? Cook hashbrowns on a waffle iron.

So I grated up a big sweet potato, greased the waffle iron up with coconut oil … cause I’m being all cool and paleo like, and then I plopped on the sweet potato shreds and waited … and then I checked…

Awesomesauce.

Plan B: Lube up skillet with coconut oil, burn hashbrowns. Eat them anyway, with bacon and eggs.

This whole meal just felt wrong. Greasy burnt “hashbrowns”, eggs and bacon. This is foreign for me. I’m used to lots of veggies in vibrant colors. This made me feel like a fat kid again. Blech.

Not that it wasn’t tasty, because … man, it was. But it mentally took me back to my 260 pound days when I used to chow down on 2 Chicken, Egg and Cheese Biscuits and 2 orders of Hashbrowns from Chickfila every morning after I got off work. I realize its not the same. But it took me there.

I must try harder. I’m cool with eating the meat, and even the fats and oils, etc … but I gotta work my vibrant beautiful veggies in better also. While I was in the kitchen I went ahead and made up my lunch for work tomorrow.

I tried harder to make something I would actually FEEL healthy eating, this is what I came up with:

Roasted Root Veggies (Parsnips, Sweet Potato, Carrots, Onion)with Sage Chicken Sausage and Italian Tomato Kale.

Do you Paleo types ever get tired of sweet potatoes? Serious question. I see them in damn near every recipe or as a side dish I’ve come across.

Have a great night!

My 1st Paleo Day

Today kinda rocked, I have to say. I was worried last night after eating steak for the first time in forever that my stomach would be upset. No problems whatsoever though. And actually I have to say that I felt great afterwards, I wasn’t sickly full after I ate like I normally feel but yet I ate enough volume that I felt completely satisfied. I’m a volume eater for sure. I don’t care what I’m eating, as long as there is a lot of it.

I got up before the sun this morning and headed out for an easy 5 mile run at Fort Toulouse. It was beautiful and chilly. I was almost too cold the first couple of miles, but I dare not complain. I finished my 5 miles in just over 43 minutes and then headed home to make breakfast.

I had lofty plans to make sweet potato hashbrowns, bacon and eggs for the family for breakfast but Lincoln had already eaten and Tim was too busy to eat. So I made a quick breakfast for myself …

2 Chicken Sausage Links, 2 Scrambled Eggs and Sauteed Spinach w/ liquid amnios. Scrambled eggs are so un-photogenic, don’t ya think?

I was really surprised at how long I stayed full, or maybe un-hungry would be a better word. Normally I get hungry at about 11:00, and I might can hold off until 11:30 if I push it. Today I didn’t make lunch until almost 1:00.

I made a simple Tuna Salad that ended up rocking my whole world.

I ate it as lettuce wraps.

In the mix:

• 5oz can of Wild Caught Albacore
• 1 whole avocado
• Diced Red Onion
• Cherry Tomatoes – Halved
• Capers
• 1 tbs olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic powder
• Fresh Cilantro –chopped

Stir and stir and stir until the avocado becomes smooth.

I used the Pinterest method for halving the tomatoes.

How come I never thought of that?

Anyway, the tuna salad lettuce wraps were ridiculously delicious. I definitely impressed myself with that creation.

I took Lincoln to the playground to get his wiggles out this afternoon and while he played I practiced my box jumping. It was bad.

That tiny thing is what I practiced on. And it was major scary. No wonder my 4 year old was making fun of me. This just straight up terrifies the shit out of me.

This is just not something that I’m going to easily overcome. But I’ll keep trying.

Our WOD tonight at CrossFit was definitely the most intense one I’ve done so far:

Warm-up: 400m run, 10 ham swings, 10 air squats, 10 PVC passthrus, 10 KB swings (26#), 10 KB DLHP (26#) and 10 burpees. I was sweating already.

Skill: Head/Handstands Walk-ups – I almost turned around and walked out when I saw this. If there is something that (I thought) scared me more than box jumping it would be handstands. Turns out it wasn’t so bad. Whew.

Strength: 5 x 4 Deadlifts – I did 125# tonight.

And then … the WOD …

AMRAP (As Many Reps as Possible) in 6 minutes – 10 Push Presses (35#) & 200m run —  I completed 4 total rounds in 6 minutes.

then …

AMRAP in 6 minutes – 5 Sumo Deadlift Highpulls (35#) and 6 Lateral Burpees. Kill me now. I did 7 rounds. That’s 42 burpees if you are like me and can’t math.

I ripped my shorts. I grunted and groaned like a wild animal, or a woman giving birth for all my L&D friends out there. It was intense. And awesome.

I’m sure in 6 months this will (hopefully) seem like not much of anything, but tonight I’m proud of myself. 🙂

Dinner was Sesame Salmon (is sesame oil Paleo? .. I don’t even know), Bok Choy and Roasted Rainbow Carrots.

What a great day! It’s the little things that amuse me.

iPromise and Eating Meat

Let’s talk about my iPromise for this week first. My promise last week was to bring intention and purpose to all of my workouts instead of doing the bare minimum to get through it. I think I did well, I worked hard at CrossFit on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. I went to yoga on Tuesday morning and Friday morning and I made a special effort to perform at the best of my ability. I took modifications where I truly needed to, but I also tried to give everything I did a full effort try.

Running is not really an area where I ever half-do things. I have “easy” runs and on those days I really do try to take it easy but that’s intentional and for a purpose. So I don’t include running in my “maximum effort” activities. With that being said I did an easy 5 mile run on Tuesday, a 6 mile tempo run on Wednesday, an easy 5 miler on Friday and my long run for the week was a 10 miler on Sunday.

I’ve been trying to decide all day what my iPromise for this week should be, it would be easy to just make up something and go with it but I really try to put some thought into where I need to focus some effort and energy or to make a change. My iPromise for this week is that I will be ON IT all week … aaaaaand through the weekend. That’s going to be a biggie for me. More often than not I undo all the progress I make through the week by eating shitty on the weekends. And not just like a little shitty, like really really bad. So that is an area I really need to work on and I’m putting it out there for this week.

Next up …. internal turmoil …

I have been craving meat BAD for quite some time now. I really have no idea why. This is the first time that I’ve really felt like this since I stopped eating meat in 2010. Its been so intense lately that I’ve been dreaming of eating a steak. Seriously.

I’ve put some serious thought into this lately. Why did I stop eating meat in the first place? Would I be willing to change my diet if my situation changed? Would I be willing to eat meat to try something new and see if my body responds better with my training? To see if my body feels better in general? Hours of thought has gone into these topics.

I got up this morning and started working on my weekly meal plan and I couldn’t for the life of me decide what I was doing. One second I was writing things down like … steak and veggies and the next second I was marking that out and starting over. Ultimately I decided on several vegetarian meals for the week.

I do my grocery shopping at 3 different stores: EarthFare for specialty items, Costco for bulk items and Publix for everything else. I found myself staring … literally staring at the meat cases at both EarthFare and Costco today. In both stores someone approached me and asked me what I was looking for. By the time I got to Publix I decided this was just freaking ridiculous, if I want a freaking steak that bad … I should just eat one. What’s the big deal? So, thats exactly what I did.

I bought 2 ribeye steaks, some bacon and a pack of chicken sausage. And I’m going to eat it.

I also happened upon this blog post by Healthy Ashley today about the day she stopped being vegan, and many of the things that she described in her blog applied to my thinking about eating meat. I think this is a good healthy perspective that can also be applied to my situation.

So dinner tonight was …

6oz Ribeye Steak (which I cooked perfectly, might I add), asparagus, roasted sweet potatoes with rosemary, and mushrooms.

So, who knows where we go from here. Right now my plan is to do a sort of semi-paleo thing that I have been considering and see how my body responds. Basically I plan on cutting out dairy and grains (except maybe the day before long runs), but still eating beans and legumes. I’m still planning on eating some vegetarian meals and some meals that include meat. And if I change my mind one way or another, then I’ll re-evaluate. I’m kind of excited. 🙂

Bad Mommy Moments

My friend Harmony at Modern Mommy Madness wrote a post about how she nearly wiped her son’s butt with a Clorox Wipe. I’m actually quite sure that I have wiped Lincoln’s mouth with one once, in much the same scenario that Harmony described.

Anyway, her post reminded me of some funny … or horrible, whichever way you wanna look at it … bad mommy moments that I have had just today.

Lincoln woke up early this morning and asked very sweetly for breakfast in bed. I spent about 10 minutes in the kitchen cooking us up some eggs, fruit and veggies. By the time I got back to the bedroom he was back asleep. I woke him up for his breakfast in bed to which he quickly whined, “I didn’t want eeeeeeegggggssss”. I might have threatened to spank him if he didn’t eat it.

He didn’t and neither did I.

Then after I picked him up from school we went out to lunch together. I must have said “dang it”, because Lincoln quickly yelled in Zoe’s Kitchen … “DANG IT, is not a nice word! Why do you always say it?! … Just like you always say BULLSHIT”.

Ugh, thanks son.

3 Weeks of CrossFit

I have my first little CrossFit boo-boos. Awww, so presh.

See it right there at the base of my ring finger?

I haven’t decided if its a blister or a callus. But he’s cute.

Lesson learned: Don’t lift with wedding rings on.

My next specimen is:

This one is a bruise on my knee. This I earned with my pitiful excuse for a back squat, in which I fell on my ass … I think. It all happened so fast, but somehow I brought the bar over my head as to not land on it since I was falling backwards. Still not sure how I managed to bruise my knees falling backwards. But hey, I’m special like that.

I don’t think the bar landed on my knee … that seems like something I think I would remember.

Lesson learned: Umm … still working on this one. I’m thinking bringing the bar over my head was pretty stupid, that definitely seems like it could be dangerous. And ummm … don’t try to squat lower than these 90-year-old-like hips will allow?

Anyway, I’ve been doing CrossFit now for 3 weeks and I am LOVING it! I get frustrated because I’m bad at a lot of it, but some of it I’m not so bad at. And well … I don’t really care about that. Its fun, and different and I was bad at running once upon a time too.

So one day I’m totally going to be like, “remember that time that I tried to do a back squat with nothing but a bar and fell on my ass infront of everyone?”. And all my buff buddies will laugh and say, “Oh yeah, back in the olden days! Look how far you’ve come”.

Today’s Workout:

Strength/Skill – Clean & Jerk; I think there is hope here. I’m totally going to practice with a broomstick, especially dropping under the bar. Between my power clean broomstick practice and squatting all over my damn house, my husband isn’t going to know what to think of me.

WOD “Helen” – This is my first benchmark WOD, which basically means it is a workout used as a test of measurement to see how much you’ve progressed since the last time you performed the same workout.

Helen is: 400m run, 21 Kettlebell swings, 12 Pull-Ups x 3 rounds for time.

I finished Helen in 10:20.

I scaled my workout using a 26lb kettlebell instead of the prescribed 35lb, and by using the red&green bands to assist with my pull-ups. Of course the running was my sweet spot.

After working all day at the hospital, my WOD and running some errands I was HANGRY and I’ve been craving guacamole like a mofo for days. I came THIS close to pulling into the mexican place for big plate of nachos and a fishbowl margarita. But healthy girl Amanda subdued fat girl Amanda and this is what I came up with instead:

Squash “chips” and guacamole for dipping. Win/Win.

That was my appetizer. Dinner was Baked Mediterranean Cod and Roasted Asparagus:

Why yes, I do like asparagus a lot. Why do you ask?

iPromise

A day late this week, but by the time I remembered to write this blog last night I just absolutely didn’t have it in me. Honestly, I don’t really have it in me tonight either so I will make this short and sweet.

First off, evaluation of last week. My 2 promises last week were “no binge sessions” and “no alcohol until the weekend”. I did pretty well on both of those. Friday night was a mess, Saturday and Sunday I ate way too much in general … but technically I stuck to my promises. I knew the weekend was going to be tricky though because I already had plans to celebrate the Montgomery Half Marathon weekend with friends.

This week I only have 1 promise. I’ve noticed lately especially in yoga and in CrossFit on Monday that I haven’t given my all in my workouts. I’ve done enough to just get by, some of that has been because I was worn out after the race, but its a pattern that I don’t want to continue. So my promise for this week is to bring intention and purpose to all my workouts and not to just do enough to get by.

That’s all I’ve got for you tonight.

Montgomery Half Marathon 2012

Yesterday I ran my 13th Half Marathon.

As soon as I walked out of the house to get in my car, I had a feeling it was going to be a tough day. The last 3 years the weather for the Montgomery Half has been absolutely perfect. A cold front has come through on the very day of the race and made the reward for training through the hot and humid summer that much sweeter.

This year was not the same.

The humidity hung so thick in the air you could literally see it. It was a warm thick mess. The fog was so dense driving to the race that I could barely see ahead of my car.

I met up with all The Usuals about an hour before the race for picture taking and chit-chat. We ran a short warm-up together and then found our places at the starting line. The race was a gun start and a chip finish, so I lined up close to the front as to not lose time getting caught up at the back of the pack.

I know this race course like the back of my hand, having literally run it hundreds of times. I know every incline and decline, every turn, every tangent.  I’ve run the race through my mind thinking of where I can push hard and where I needed to hold back. I know that the entire first mile and a half is a steady incline and one of the hardest portions of the race. Thinking through it and knowing all this … I still messed up.

I went out entirely too fast, I ran the first mile in 7:28.

My legs were tight from the beginning, but I held fairly steady for several miles … 7:28, 7:52, 7:38, 7:46, 7:48, 7:43 …

The race course was quiet. There were few spots with cheering stations and the band through Alabama State University at mile 4-ish was amazing as usual, but other than those few spots it was lonely and boring. It has been a very long time since I’ve run a race with my iPod, but I wished I had it yesterday.

I also made the mistake of wearing new shoes to the race. I underestimated the distance, having run 13 miles week after week after week for quite some time now. I had major blisters forming.

At about mile 6, I saw my friend Drew standing at a water station waiting for me. Such a welcomed sight at that point! Of course his presence didn’t help me feel any better physically, but it was definitely a mental boost.

7:49, 8:05, 8:12 …

I have this thing about being whiny. When I start feeling whiny on a run, I honestly don’t want anyone around me. But I really do … I want to bitch and complain, but I don’t want to feel like I’m ruining someone else’s good time because I’m bitching and complaining. Thankfully I think Drew knows this about me. I all but begged him to leave me. I even tried to trick him into leaving me a couple of times so that I could sulk. “I’m not leaving you no matter how much you slow down”.

Crap.

8:07, 8:23 … One foot in front of the other at this point. Total survival mode. No more “math-ing” out what my finish time could be. Just effing finish.

Finally the amazing Dexter Avenue down hill.  … 7:54.

Less than 2 miles to go, caught up with another of The Usuals, Janie. I could tell she was having a tough time as well and fighting hard. … 1 mile to go … another mental boost knowing its almost over. And then it was.

Drew and I finished in 1:44:06 with Janie right behind us at 1:44:09.

I think this picture of Janie and I right as we passed the finish line sums up everything perfectly …

I started to freak out a little shortly after the race … my vision started fading in and out and my right arm seized up where I couldn’t lift it. My head started pounding. It took over an hour of hydrating, taking in salt, Ibuprofen and Tylenol before I started to feel better. Thankfully the headache eventually went away and with it the weird arm pain. I was able to return to the awards ceremony to collect my 1st place Age Group award and spend more time with my friends.

Next up is Sylaward Trail Half Marathon in 2 weeks, which will just be a fun run for me.