Smokey Chili-Garlic Mayo (and soon to be) Grilled Pepper Aioli

After hitting the gym this morning, I decided to try my hand at making my own mayo.  I like things spicy and savoury so I played a bit with my first batch and came up with Smokey Chili-Garlic mayo.  It is really, really yummy and dead simple to make.  I just had some on a beef brat for lunch and, yeah, so good.  I also grilled up a nice looking red pepper that's going to get blended into one of the jars just as soon as it cools.

Smokey Chili-Garlic Mayo

In a food processor, blend the following until thickened.  I emptied the dishwasher while I did this.

2 eggs
1tsp mustard powder
1/2 tsp smoked praprika
2 cloves garlic
the juice of half a lemon

Then, while continuing to blend, slowly add:
1 cup olive oil
1 cup walnut oil
1 tbsp chili garlic paste

Put into a glass jar and allow to sit in the fridge for a few hours to thicken.  To make the aioli, return to the food processor and blend in one cool, grilled red pepper.  *sigh*

Ps.  Kind of enjoying that I'm posting a recipe for mayo on what initially was a weight loss blog.

Three and Six Month Goals

Three month goals:
 - Squat 250lbs for reps (preferably 3x5's but I'll take what I can get)
 - Rx 30 MU for time
 - Sub six minute Isabel

Six month goals:
 - Rx Linda
 - Strict HSPUs
 - Rx Amanda to Games Standard (jumping up to rings)

Oh, and to be half as awesome as this chicka...

 (Angie Pye)

She's also in her mid thirties and just destroyed it at Canada West Regionals.  Being two thirds as awesome as Nancy M or Jennifer D would be cool, too.  They are also around my age.

I've got a few check points that I'm working towards.  I've signed up for the Spartan Race in Calgary as part of Team Meathead.  I'm also going to do the Prairie CrossFit Challenge in September, SK Powerlifting Provincials (REALLY want to qualify for Nationals again) in November and then FrostFit in January, if Winnipeg hosts it again.

The three things that pried me off the couch...

There were three things that finally pried me off the couch.  The first was Amberly during our "Phat Club" days (oh my...) who pointed something out to me after dropping my first 20 or so pounds while eating low fat whole wheat muffins and yogurt (it's the official food of women... watch the video, I'll wait)



Back to Amberly, she asked me how much weight I could have lost if I'd actually, you know, got off the couch. So I did. With Fit to Strip. Yeah....

The next was Kat Carney, who runs the SoulCysters site posting a link to a few research papers on the benefit of resistance exercise on improving insulin resistance in women with PCOS (the couch/pizza ordering existence did me no favours - my body was like a car on blocks parked in someone's front lawn...). That got me dusting off my old copy of Bill Phillips' Body for Life book and doing bicep curls and leg extensions in my half storey.

The third, and most profound, was Mistress Krista's posts about the shaky man in the gym on her Stumptuous website. Neil has Parkinson's and has been doing intense physical exercise and heavy weight training since sometime in 2005. He's caught the interest of Parkinson's researchers with the positive outcomes he's experienced. Parkinson's and Dystonia have a lot in common. Same area of the brain, same neurotransmitter and a lot of the drugs developed for Parkinson's are used to treat people with Dystonias. The drug I had been on, trihexphenidyl, was an anti-Parkinson's agent. Reading his email exchanges (here, here and here) got me wondering if there was a better way to exercise and wondering if intense physical activity could also help me with my Dystonia. Sure enough, it did! His emails also made me realize that doing supersets with a 12lb dumbbell was maybe selling myself short a little.

Krista just posted another update about Neil. According to her post, he's featured in a video created for Professor Bastiaan (Bas) Bloem, who is a world-leading neurologist in the field of movement disorders. Oh, the link to the professor includes a great TED presentation and a really fun presentation of a guy with Parkinson's who can barely walk but can ride his bike just fine... yay for the adaptive power of grey matter!  Hmm, this could be why I can clean 135lbs for 2 reps when I'm so symptomatic I can barely stand and putting my own plates on the bar is impossible (thanks for loading my bar, Ang!).

Check it out! Dude's achieved a level of fitness that most people never will. And did I mention he's in his 60's? Yeah, pretty cool.



I know I've been yammering on about Dystonia a lot lately. But I think it's important to try and get the word out there that there ARE people out there with neurological disorders who are seeing benefits from intense physical activity. I know what it's done for me and I also know that, being without a neuro right now, no one in the medical community even knows it. I think it's worth studying and I'm so pleased that Neil's experiences are getting some attention.

I thanked Neil a few months ago for getting me off the couch. I don't know. Maybe someone with a movement disorder will stumble across my blog some day and this will encourage them to give their local CrossFit gym a call.

The clarity that comes after 5 gin and tonics...

The alternate title for this post was "So not the way I wanted to raise awareness that it's the start of Dystonia Awareness Week". Heh!

After I crawled into bed last night, post Spring Fling and 5 gin and tonics, I had a moment. Earlier that night Taryn had asked me if I was going to try and figure out where I would have placed if I hadn't had a bad day with my movement disorder and it hadn't meant taking a huge hit on the first WOD. I came in dead last on that one and even though I crawled my way up on the rest of them with a second and two firsts, it wasn't enough to make up for it. I told her I didn't' want to because it would just bum me out even more.

And yeah, I'll admit it. I was bummed out. And my ego was smarting. I'm probably a bit too competitive for my own good. I don't like it when I don't do well and I REALLY don't like it when it's because of my dystonia.

Enter the gin.

My dystonia is a part of me. It's part of who I am as an athlete. I bring it with me to every competition just like I do all of my other skills, abilities, strengths and weaknesses. I did how I did based on what I bring to the table - the whole package. Figuring out where I would have placed if I had been symptom free that day would be like figuring out how I would have placed if I was a different person altogether.

Today, I sat down and sketched out my training from now until sectionals start up again next year. I took a look at my weaknesses and where I want to go and what I want to accomplish. One of those things is showing a little more grace when it comes to being a disabled athlete.

Best kind of training day.

Gorgeous Sunday morning, friends and a big ass muddy hill...

It's you verses you

CrossFit Subzero's FunBobby posted this up on Facebook.



It's you verses you in CrossFit. I've always been really talented at tripping myself up. I think that's one of the reasons why I love CrossFit so much. After every workout, you can see very clearly if you gave it your full effort or if you're doing something that is holding you back. It keeps you honest with yourself. I've been half-assing my life too much recently. Last year at Regionals, OPT said "full effort is full victory" during his opening speech. After the open sectionals, I want to look back and know that I gave it my full effort. And it's not just about CrossFit. When I'm 100 percent committed to doing my best in competition, everything else in life kind of just lines up, too. It's like you can't go all in without it spilling over into everything else.

Having a chance to compete on CFR's affiliate team at the Games last year was an amazing experience. I want to help us earn the chance to go again.

New levels of full body destruction

Thank you, FunBobby!  Yesterday's Intergalactic Throwdown c/o CrossFit SubZero was a seriously fun competition with great, well-planned workouts.  I don't think I've ever hurt this much the day after, though.  I mean, I thought I was busted up after 7 minutes of thrusters at Sectionals but now I realize that was only a small fraction of the ouch I have going on today.  Everything hurts.  EVERYTHING!

First off, I just wanted to say it was fantastic seeing people who've never done a competition before come out and throw themselves into a three-a-day!  These WODs were some of the hardest I've ever seen programmed into a competition.  I mean, we really could have stopped at SuperBeast, given ourselves a pat on the back for taking on something that nuts, and gone home feeling damned proud for just showing up.  But then we came back to the gym for more.  And then a little more after that!  Kick ass!  There were some amazing displays of awesomeness yesterday and I am very proud of our CrossFit Regina crew.

As I mentioned, the first WOD was aptly named SuperBeast:

3 rounds of
30 double unders
20 chest-to bar pull-ups
10 chest-to-deck burpees
Then
10 deadlifts 315/205lbs (dropping bar after lockout is permitted)
10 clean and jerks 185/125lbs
for time, with 17 minute time cap

It felt like I was on the pull up bar pretty much the entire time.  C2B PLUs are still a goat for me and so I was pretty pleased that I only had two failed reps in the last round.  The burpees were easy as were the double unders.  The deads felt really heavy by the time I got to them and I couldn't string any of them together, which I had expected to do.  I've been off heavy deads and squats for a month to get the hammie healed up for sectionals so perhaps that's why they felt challenging?  The part I was nervous about was the jerk.  Originally when I read the WOD, I just read power cleans and thought SCORE!  I love power cleans and 125 is a nice weight.  The night before, I realized there were jerks.  D'oh!  My 1RM is about that weight and I've only gotten it once and it was ugly.  I got about 4 or 5 cleans but only one exceedingly ugly jerk. I honestly thought my ribs were going to pop out.  Definitely something I'll be working on between now and Sectionals (yay for Jamie and his offer of training on Saturdays!).  Afterwards, Paul came over and laughed at me saying that he thought my jerk was mostly fixed.  Only at a lighter weight, aparently!  My score was 3 rnds +11.

At 2:00pm we reconvened at the gym for Captain Intensity and Franklin.  They were as follows:

“CAPTAIN INTENSITY”
Combined score of these two events completed in 10 minutes:
4 minutes of rowing for total meters
1 rep max front squat
Notes: athlete has 5 minutes to post best weight lifted taken from rack loaded by the athlete
total score is reached by adding meters and pounds lifted
10 minute time period includes 1 minute transition from rower to squat rack and for
volunteer to clear plates off bar from previous athlete


“FRANKLIN”
Max reps in 7 minutes of
Handstand Push-ups
and/or Back Squats 135/95lbs
Notes: squat bar will be taken from the floor and the athlete has a choice of the two movements and you can split reps however you like, scoring is 1 point for a back squat 2 points for HSPU

I pushed pretty hard on the rower.  My strokes were hella inefficient but I was trying to save my legs for the squat madness afterwards and instead aimed for a strong pull with the arms and back.  I got 1035m, which I was cool with considering I'm of hobbit stock (hairy feet and short stature doesn't make for good rowing) and then went to go attempt a decent front squat.  Yep...  I way overestimated what I could do.  Tried for 175lbs and failed.  Then I just did 115 to get on the board (um, good thing, too) and then loaded the bar to 165 and failed again.  WTF!  I thought I was supposed to be good at squats.  At this point, I had little time left on the clock.  I tried loading the bar to 155 but the timer beeped before I could even get the plates on the bar.  My score was 1150.  Lesson learned.  Don't get greedy.  Start at a lower weight and built up, not scale back and get frustrated.  LOL!

The last workout was seven minutes of squats.  I can't do HSPUs strict, kipping or after sucking on a helium balloon.  So, the plan was to just squat.  And then squat some more.  And then keep on squatting after that.  Kat was awesome and came over to shout at me to keep moving.  I dropped the bar twice, once at the 5 minute mark and again at the 6 minute mark.  The quads were burning but it was the weight on my back that was getting to me.  I did 104 and that was my score.  I wouldn't have got the last four or so if it hadn't been for the cheering because all I wanted to do was never squat again.

After, Ang asked if I wanted to do one of the tests she needs to do for work.  Since it didn't involve squats, I was game!  We had to do max DHPLUs, rest one minute, max PU, rest one minute, max SU, rest one minute and then max ring dips.  She told me what the minimum numbers were (5, 30, 40 and 10 respectively) so I went for that and got it.  Good times!

Two days later, I still can't walk without looking like an old man who's crapped his pants. 

The photos are c/o CrossFit Regina and were posted to Facebook.

Coconut Chicken Soup

I've been making a massive pot of this every week for the last two months. I've yet to get tired of eating it. I don't have a pretty picture to add. Use your imagination and just picture a bowl filled with awesome. Oh yeah... Not only is this stuff delicious, the fat found in coconuts is pretty darn fantastic for you, too.

This makes a lot.  Like, I have an oversized pot that I do this in and it's pretty much full to the brim. 

1.3 kg diced boneless, skinless chicken thighs
0.6kg diced chicken breasts
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 tbsp each of dried coriander, star anise seed
1/4 cup chili garlic paste
a bag of slivered carrots (2 cups)

Roughly cube your chicken. Melt the coconut oil in a large frying pan. Add the sesame oil, chicken and spices. Allow to brown. Midway through, add your slivered carrots. Once the chicken is cooked, set the pan aside.

In a large pot, combine:
3 cans coconut milk (at Walmart, they have coconut milk that's just coconut and water - Arroy D Brand)
1 head of broccoli, chopped
2 cubed zucchinis
3 cans water chestnuts
2 chopped red pepper
1 container (2 cups) sliced mushrooms
3 cups or so of bean sprouts
3 tbsp fish sauce
chili garlic paste (however much, depending on if you want more heat)
2 tbsp sesame oil
3 cups vegetable broth (I use Kitchen Basics from Sobey's that's just veggies so its everything-free)

Cover, bring to a boil, drop heat to low and simmer for about 10 minutes. Add in your chicken mixture and allow to simmer for another 5-10 minutes. Remove from heat.

Add:
The juice of two limes
Chopped fresh cilantro.

Makes 12 servings

Maybe I'm a jerk?

Okay, maybe this makes me a jerk?



Today on Facebook, CrossFit.com posted a video of a guy named Tod doing some burpees. Go Tod! First, can I just say I think it's awesome Tod is doing burpees. Frankly, I think it's awesome when anyone does burpees.

The post goes on to claim this video is "the most motivational 8 seconds of your day". Hey, I get you. Burpees can kind of suck and it is motivational watching someone duke their way through a set. However, it wasn't the burpees, per say, that were considered most motivational but more so the fact that the person who was doing burpees had legs that ended somewhere around the knee cap.

Why do we make the assumption that physical fitness is the sole-purview of the able-bodied?

In the comments, many people posted how inspiring and amazing it was that Tod would engage in physical activity because he's got a physical disability. While I think it's lovely that people felt inspired by him, it also demonstrates that most people have made assumptions about physical disability that maybe it's time to let go of. Is it really so completely and totally amazeballs for a person with a disability to workout? I don't think so.

While our bodies might work in a different way, the vast majority of people with physical disabilities certainly can (and do!) work out. It's not like our responsibility to care for our physical selves magically absolves the moment we take on the additional adjective "disabled"? And how do you know that we don't make the same damn excuses as the rest of you for occasionally skipping going to the gym or not eating healthfully or whatever? And who's to say that the barriers some able-bodied people face with getting fit aren't as or even more challenging than whatever accommodations may be required for the physical disability.

You know what would be really awesome? I'd like it to just seem completely and totally normal for everyone and anyone to be physically active - old, young, skinny, heavy, light, tall, short, disabled or able-bodied.

Countdown

48 days until the the CrossFit Games Open begins. I can't believe it's come around again this quickly! That gives, what, seven weeks to get ready? I've got some work to do, especially on the lifestyle front, that should help me fill some of the gaps in performance. I've been kicking the bejeesus out of my cardio capabilities and gravity isn't as good as a friend as it could be to help with some of the gymnastics movements. Two skills I'd really like to work on would be fixing my jerk and getting HSPUs. I also have that lovely right hamstring injury I'm trying to heal up. Being off heavy squats and deads should give me extra time to spend on oly and gymnastics. Yay!

Even though I had a blast traveling to Edmonton last year for the sectional event, I kind of like the new format. It's less stress on the body and the pocket book. I will miss getting to meet people from other gyms and the excitement that comes from competing in-person, though.

Mmm, burgers

I love burgers.  I might dig the snow out from around the BBQ today to grill some up!

Burger Recipe
2lbs grassfed beef or bison
1 egg
1 diced red onion
2 tbsp chili garlic paste
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp ancho chili powder
2 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp salt

3 tomatoes, cut in half, lengthwise
1 tbsp bacon fat or coconut oil

1lb bacon
3 red peppers, chopped
3 cups chopped mushrooms (use a mix of different kinds)
2 tbsp bacon fat or coconut oil

Fry up your bacon and set aside.  If you've used a good quality bacon, keep the fat.  If not, you're missing out (use coconut oil instead and be sad because your burgers just got way less awesome).  Mix the first set of ingredients in a large bowl.  Shape into patties and put on the grill.  Brush the tops of your tomatoes with bacon fat and also put on the grill.  In the house, fry up your red peppers and mushrooms in the bacon fat.  When everything is cooked, place your burger on your grilled tomato and top with bacon, red peppers and mushrooms.  I also like to add a big dollop of guacamole (see recipe below).  Easy!  

Guacamole
3 avocados
the juice of 1 lime
1 clove of minced garlic (or more, if you like garlic)

Put all of your ingredients into a bowl and mash together.  Yum!

A couple of days into the new schedule

I'm a couple of days into the new schedule.  Originally, when I asked Aaron for advice on what to do next, I was going to go to Nationals for powerlifting.  Looks like that isn't in the cards for this year so a goal for me in the coming year will be to qualify for it again when I lift at Provincials in the fall.  So, this may mean another talk with Aaron to figure out if I want more oly and less powerlifting.  Regardless, it's a wackload more cardio than I've done in a while.  My cardio is still there, for the most part, but the volume is kicking my butt pretty hard.  I can barely type today as I have hand DOMS thanks to Monday's bellswing ladder.

Monday
Oly lift of the day
10 minutes of opposite oly lift on the minute
5-7 minute metcon

Tuesday
5x5 squats
5-7 minute metcon

Wednesday
3x5 press (alternate bench and shoulder... going to just do shoulder press, I think)
10-12 minute metcon

Friday
3x5 front squats
5-7 minute metcon

Saturday
Cardio Party so Painstorm or Hero WOD or a WOD with a trip to the track after.

Skill work like muscle ups, HSPUs, C2B PLUs, deadhangs, weighted ring dips, etc can all be worked into warm ups.  I've also been looking at scaling up to using the men's weight in WODs where it makes sense.  I've done it twice this week so far and enjoyed it!

Starting lifts!

Well, Tuesday was a bit of a gong show with trying out some starting numbers.  I've been drinking about 6L of water a day and, well, that's not particularly helpful when playing around with heavy singles.  235lbs for squats went up without incident (240lbs would have meant a puddle on the floor) and my depth was good so that'll be where I'll start and I'll go from there.

Squat: 107kg
Bench: 52kg
Deadlift: 120kg

Robin lent me her singlet and it fit so that's awesome (thanks Robin!).  I'm still about 6lbs over the weight class I was hoping to lift in (yay for being a woman) so we'll see if playing around with water will work.  If not, it's all good!

Edited to add:

Here's How I Did

It was a fantastic first introduction to powerlifting.  Everyone at the meet was so supportive.  Ryan and Rhea Fowler helped Tiff and I with our warm ups and Ryan Stinn explained the judging process and then did a mock judged lift with us during the warm up so we'd be used to the cues, etc.  For my lifts, I ended up going with some more conservative numbers and hit all of my squats, all of my bench press attempts but only the first deadlift.  It's a good thing I went with a number I knew I could hit because if I had missed my first deadlift attempt, I would have missed out on getting my first total.  I used wrist wraps and a belt for my lifts but otherwise lifted raw.

Here's what I did:
Squat: 112.5kg (247.5lbs)
Bench Press: 55kg (121lbs)
Deadlift: 120kg (265lbs)

My total was 287.5kg and was enough to just barely qualify to compete at Nationals this year in Charlottetown.  Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it so I'll just have to requalify at Provincials in the fall in hopes that next year's Nationals are a little closer to home!

Figuring out my lifts for Last Chance

On the very last day, I got my application in to Ryan to compete in the 2010 Last Chance Powerlifting Meet in Moose Jaw next weekend.  Robin has kindly offered to lend me her singlet and I'm trying to find a tee shirt that covers my delts and reviewing the nine million page document of rules that govern the meet.

I've been playing around with some numbers and I'll make my decision after squats, bench and deadlift on Tuesday night.  I'm just going to think about the numbers in kilos as pounds are about 2.2 times more scary.

For squats, if I get 230lbs for my 5's, I'll go for 108kg, 113kg and 118kgs.  If not, then do 105kg, 110kg and 115kg.  The first set pretty much will get me a double bodyweight 1RM!  I'd be super excited to hit that milestone.

Bench is set.  It's a very weak lift for me and the pause at the bottom makes it really hard.  I'll start with 52kg then try for 54kg and 56kg.

Deadlift is last.  If I get 255lbs for 5, I'll go for 125kg, 130kg and 136kg.  If not, I'll play it a bit safer and go 120kg, 125kg and 130kg.  I'm really wanting 136kg, though.  Really, really badly.

Bruises, scrapes and scars

This morning, I woke up to two giant shiners, one on the top of each shoulder. I couldn't remember exactly what I had done to warrant them. It took me a while to put them together with the manned up dumbbell thrusters from last night. Visually, they kind of compliment, in a messed up way, the the remainder of my muscle up tats that I have going on on the front of each shoulder. These are in addition to the fading stripes across my midsection from squats with the weight belt, scars from box jumps gone awry and some rope burns on the tops of my feet.

CrossFit is fun. It'll make you strong and fast. It'll challenge the heck out of you. It'll sure give you some pretty muscles. But, dang if you don't sometimes end up looking like you've been out wrestling a bear-o-dactyl.

Image borrowed from one of the best sites on earth - The Oatmeal. Click on the link. Thank me later with a cookie (gluten free, obvs) and your undying gratitude.

RESET!

We're doing a reset. Maybe started a bit too high with the lifts. Today's the second workout at lower weights. It's a bit hard on the old ego but if it'll get me stronger, I'll do it.

Here was my first set of squats at 215lbs last Friday before we reset. Failed the last rep of the last set. The depth was fine (wasn't sure about that) but you can see some knee action goin' on. This is 10lbs under my old one rep max so it could just be cropping up again because it was just plain damned heavy. Or it could be because I'm a bit quad dominant.



Gotta say I've been really liking using the belt for these. Feels a lot more secure and I think it's helping me to strengthen my core as it gives me something to push against.

Okay! One more time, with feeling.

Aaron, who is awesome FYI, sat us down and helped us spiffy up the plan for the next three months. Thanks, buddy! And then we went and demonstrated how fricking right he was by attempting to do oly after a heavy strength day. Yeah, our lifts were AWESOME. No, no they weren't.

Oh, yeah, and then on the ride home, we figured out that doing ring dips and bench on the same day was also not a smart plan. And we came up with that on our own. Go B Team!

Monday
General warm up
Oly lift of the day as per CFR programming
Either on the minute clean and jerks or snatch for 10 or 15 minutes, depending on the lift.
Optional mini metcon

Tuesday
General Warm up
Skill Work - muscle up
Strength Workout
- 3x5 back squat
- 3x5 shoulder press
- 3x3 power clean
- 3xmax max weighted ring dips

Thursday
General Warm up
Aaron's oly club lifting program
Mini metcon

Friday
General Warm up
Skill Work - HSPU
Strength Workout
- 3x5 back squat
- 3x5 bench press
- 1x5 deadlift
- 3xDHPLU/weighted PLUs

Also, today Paul showed me how Spealler teaches the strict muscle up. Thanks to Paul's fine coaching, I did five! Woot! They feel way better on the joints than does the kipping version. 30 muscle ups for time as rx'd is up next. It's going to likely take me well over an hour but I really want to do it.

CrossFit Stuff

So, I've finally come up with a plan from now until the end of the calendar year that really focuses in on some of the gains I want to see this year in terms of strength and skill. I'm no where near as strong as I'd like to be. And I struggle with the oly lifts and more advanced gymnastics stuff. Frankly, it's also just fun to work on things that are dang hard, too. I've got progressive strength training happening twice a week, two days dedicated to oly lifting, MU and HSPU skill work before strenth work (I've got my muscle ups back... did four last night) and two short and dirty metcons post oly lifting. Most importantly, I'm enjoying the snot out of it! I heart lifting so much. The schedule kind of looks like this:

Monday
General Warm up
Skill Work - Muscle up
Strength Workout
- 3x5 back squat
- 3x5 shoulder press
- 1x5 deadlift
- 3xmax DHPLU/weighted PLUs

Tuesday
General Warm up
Aaron's oly lifting program
Mini metcon

Thursday
General Warm up
Aaron's oly lifting program
Mini metcon

Friday
General Warm up
Skill Work - HSPU
Strength Workout
- 3x5 back squat
- 3x5 bench press
- 3x3 powerclean
- 3xmax ring dips/weighted dips

Trying to also make sure I'm doing some mobility work after each evening and foam rolling at home as well to keep things feeling good. My diet is also really dialed in right now and my recovery after the strength work has so far been rocking. Not feeling stiff, sore or tired like last time when I went to town on the nut butter. I think the additional recovery day is also helping a bit. Where I'm falling down is the shit kicking I'm giving my cardio. 'Nuff said about that. I'm getting it sorted!

Next up on the competition front is the Sask Powerlifting's Last Chance meet here in Regina sometime in December. I'm hoping to make some nice gains between now and then!

The entire disk is gorgeous...

I'll post something CrossFitesque soon enough, I suppose.

This song has been in my head lately...

Of course, it could just be stuck in my head because I keep hitting play on my ipod.

Cabbage Rolls (For Maxine)

I'm not Ukrainian or well versed in Ukrainian cooking so if anyone has any other suggestions for this, let me know.

Go get yourself some:
ground meat (bison, beef or venison would be lovely)
1lb of good quality bacon
a head of sour cabbage
a spaghetti squash
a bunch of fresh tomatoes
tomato paste
an onion or two
lots of garlic
some chili pepper flakes (or chili-garlic sauce)
sea salt and fresh pepper


1.  Fry up your bacon.  Set aside the fat and crumble up the cooked bacon.  Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Cut your spaghetti squash in half, remove the seeds, rub with some bacon fat. and roast in the oven for about 40 minutes or until the flesh is tender and you can easily flake it apart.

2. Dice up your onions.  In a frying pan, add some bacon fat, then saute the onions until they are translucent.  Add your garlic and your meat.  Fry the meat until it is cooked.  You can add seasoning to the meat if you wish (I add pepper, pepper flakes, onion powder, garlic powder and whatever else seems like fun at the time).  Remove from heat and add your crumbled bacon pieces.

3.  Take your head of sour cabbage and rinse it really well.  Separate out the leaves and set aside.

4.  Chop up your tomatoes, toss into a sauce pan along with tomato paste.  Add your spices (same as what's in the meat will work but especially something to give it a bit of heat).  Heat over low to medium heat until it starts burbling a bit and the tomatoes juice out nicely.  Remove from heat.

5. Rescue your spaghetti squash from the oven.  Allow to cool a little bit before flaking all of the flesh off of the rind.  This is your pretend rice.

6.  Take a leaf, put some of the meat mixture in the middle and a bit of spaghetti squash.  Roll up the leaf and put in a casserole dish or roaster.  Continue doing this until you run out of ingredients.

7.  Smother the entire thing in the tomato mixture, cover with some tin foil and then roast in the oven at 350 until they look, smell and taste done.  Not sure how long that is.

Enjoy!

Paleo Pesto Recipe

I am a slacker and don't actually weigh or measure stuff so the following recipe provides very little guidance about how much of what actually goes in there.  Be prepared for it to always taste slightly different each time.  This paleo pesto recipe is based on my girl Amy's recipe she shared with me a while back.  She has a kick ass blog with paleo recipes that I strongly suggest you check out. 

In a food processor (or, if you're like me, a cranky blender that's one step away from small appliance heaven), blend the crap out of the following:

1 jar of sundried tomato packed in OLIVE oil
a good couple of glugs of olive oil
the juice of two fresh lemons
a whole wack of fresh basil and oregano
a bag of walnut pieces

Eat with veggies and enjoy!

Why walnuts instead of pine nuts?  Why care about what kind of oil the sundried tomatoes are packed in?  
Pine nuts and oils like safflower, canola, sunflower, etc all have a whackload of omega 6 fatty acids and barely any omega 3's.  N6 fatty acids are hella-inflammatory while n3's are antiinflammatory.  While you need both in your diet, most people way overconsume the n6's while skimping on the n3's.  This means recovery post workout can really be a bitch as you'll be stiff, sore, creaky and inflammed all to heck and it's not great health-wise either (chronic, low-grade inflammation is associated with the development of cardiovascular disease, cancer and the diabetus).  Walnuts and olive oil have a reasonably decent ratio of n3/n6 fatty acids.  While it's not the ideal 1:1, you'll likely come out somewhere between 4:1 or 5:1, which is way better than the highly inflammatory 20:1 ratio most people get. This pesto will give you some decent fats and a lovely source of calories that shouldn't inflame the snot out of you.  Also, it's just yummy.

Went shoe shopping instead. Suck it, Robb!

Okay, not really. After phoning all the book stores here in Regina AND Saskatoon, it turns out no one has The Paleo Solution in stock yet. So, I am forced to wait until the book is delivered to a book seller situated somewhere in our fair trapezoid.

In the meantime, Chad from CrossFit Saskatoon announced the first event of the Prairie CrossFit Challenge... a killer obstacle course.  I am so filled with squee at this point, it's kind of ridiculous.  Aside from being the most fun sounding thing you can do while getting sweaty with clothes on, this puppy is right in my wheelhouse.  Lots of running and happy leg endurance (stairs, tire runs) and a bit of strength mixed with endurance (sandbag fun, farmer walk) and no lifting anything above my shoulders.  The only thing that I'm not fond of are burpees. 



To celebrate, I've called Escape Sports and asked them to hold a sweet pair of size 38 Vibram Fivefinger Treksports in champagne. I figure they will come in handy on the course and my sprints will stay clean (although still smelly) for any indoor events.

Champagne! Unlike the Continental, I've not grown impatient with the French.

Going book shopping!

Blarg. Another email from Amazon today saying they're delaying shipping of my Paleo Solution book by Robb Wolf but they've also given me the option of canceling my order. I think that's what I'm going to do if Chapters has the book in stock. I hope so because I kind of want to get my nutrition nerd on and I've got an hour or so between work ending and oly club starting up.

And while this might not be quite as awesome as the Medusa Snap (I've been practicing), I thought it was kind of lovely and made me smile. Yesterday, I nailed myself in the lady business attempting to figure out kettlebell clean and jerks and, gotta say, that didn't exactly make me feel like a kick ass e-freaking-leeeeete xfit athlete.  Ahhh, muppets.  I don't know if the Muppets can solve hunger or bring world peace but they do fix crap moods. 

Oh Snap!

You know why we do this?

Because we can't always get our hands free to do... THIS!

It could just be the raging fever.

It could just be the raging fever I have going on, but I'm kind of enjoying the new baby carrots marketing strategy. The Twitter feed is all kinds of amusing and the three ads they've debuted are good times (the one below is my favourite).

A.S. Byatt has nothing to do with CrossFit

I really enjoyed her latest interview and want to keep the link handy.

So I got up the nerve to email Robb Wolf

I've been meaning to send Robb Wolf a question for a while since he is super smart scientist and I am only a lowly professional bullshitter.  Here's what I emailed him:

"Hi Robb,

Sorry for the length of this email... 

I have tardive generalized dystonia.  I was diagnosed about seven years ago.  When I was diagnosed, I was pretty pissed off and spent a few years wallowing in self pity and take out pizza on my couch.  As you can expect, my health declined even further and I ended up all metabolically deranged.  My PCOS symptoms went from bad to worse and I also ended up with insulin resistance. 

Fast forward through the next couple of years.  I did the whole Body for Life thing on the days I wasn’t too symptomatic with the dystonia.  I eventually graduated to Alwyn Cosgrove-designed workouts and Berardi’s Precision Nutrition.  This all improved my health overall and I lost 60lbs, upped my insulin sensitivity big time and saw most of my PCOS symptoms disappear.  Two years ago, I joined CrossFit Regina and then a year ago I decided to give 30 days of the paleo diet a shot a la Urban’s Whole 30.  What’s your saying?  Oh yeah… Holy cats!  Not sure why, probably because I don’t have a doctorate in neuroscience, but my dystonia improved.  Like, a lot. 

This used to be my life.  Most days, I was functional and could even work out in the evening but demonstrated some messed up movements on occasion throughout the day.  About a week out of every month, I spent my waking hours curled up in a posture, unable to walk and, on those really terrible days, even unable to dress or feed myself.   Yay!  I’d like to say I was all stoic and brave and whatnot but I wasn’t.  I really suck at having a disability. 

Nowadays, I have a few mornings where I’m a bit slower than usual and walk with a bit of a messed up gait.  That’s pretty much it.  Most days I'm just like everyone else.  At the gym, I might find it hard to find my rhythm on box jumps and switching from movement to movement in a WOD can sometimes also mess me up a bit.  This is not exactly a hardship.  And it's certainly not always.  For example, a couple of months ago I got 23 rounds as rx’d on Cindy.  That's three very different movements, done quickly, with no time wasted during transitions.  That’s kind of a night and day difference from not being able to dress yourself.

Now, I’m also starting to figure out that the improvements aren’t static either.  Since I’ve returned from the 2010 Games (I was on CrossFit Regina’s affiliate team… see, I told you I’ve really seen improvements) I’ve kind of let the diet slide a bit. There have been a couple of accidental gluten hits, some deliberate dairy and rice exposures in the form of ice cream and sushi (yummy), and I’ve been mildly symptomatic pretty much every day.  For the last week I’m back to happy paleo eating and starting to pull out of it and feeling a bit better every day.

Any idea why paleo+CrossFit (and especially the paleo part) is making such a huge difference?  They say dystonia isn’t progressive but it can change over time.  And tardive cases are expected to see improvement up to two years after development.  I’m kind of past that.  Is it just because, when I’m eating well, my digestive system is all pleased and my body is happier so I’m just less inclined to be symptomatic?  Or is there some kind of magic happening to my brain chemistry thanks to the pseudo-science?  Or is it some kind of combo of the two?  And what about the process of learning and then repeating, ad nauseum, functional movements all with a messed up brain.  Is that doing fun and funky things to my gray matter?  Because I swear thrusters are easier when I’m symptomatic than is a more unstructured, random activity like walking leisurely through my neighbourhood to get to work. 

Any insight you could provide would be awesome.  I mean, I know what I’m doing is working for me so I’m just going to keep doing it.  But it would be fun to know if there’s any info out there that might explain WHY it’s working. 

Thanks for reading my email..."

I really hope my email piques his curiosity.  I'm kind of curious to know why the heck it's made a difference.

Luxury

I'm just taking a moment to be very, very grateful to have the luxury of eating delicious, high quality food that promotes health and performance.  Because it is a luxury.

I don't have to worry about whether or not I'm going to be able to procure food for myself tomorrow or next week.  I also don't have to make a choice of either eating food that has gone bad or to starve.  And it's not hard for me to get food that tastes good and won't result in me developing diabetes five years from now.  The stores I can easily get to carry more than just five flavours of Ichiban, some stale white bread, a few cans of Chef Boyardee and Froot Loops.  And the stuff I buy can be both tastey AND good for me.

It's a luxury to care that the food I put into my body helps me look, feel and perform at my best.
It's a luxury to care that the food I can buy was raised ethically and in a way I feel good about.

Maybe it shouldn't be.  But it is.  And I am grateful.

If only poor people understood nutrition from The Fat Nutritionist

PS.  I've been reading through The Fat Nutritionist today and found a few fantabulous posts that I thought were brazilliant (am I annoying you to an appropriate extent with an overusage of made up 'words' that are simply two words denoting similar characteritics all mooshed together?... excellent!).  Go, read and enjoy!

Eat food.  Stuff you like.  As much as you want.
The rules of nutrition.

Back when I was doing "Fit to Strip" as exercise and eating 1300 cals a day of whole wheat muffins and fat free yogurt...

Back when I was doing "Fit to Strip" as exercise and eating 1300 calories a day of whole wheat muffins and fat free yogurt, I set some goals for myself.  No, no, I didn't want a muscle up or an HSPU or to do Fran in under 4:00 minutes or a double body weight deadlift (410lbs, baby - now there's a fucking goal!).  Silly, silly you for thinking that!  No, back when I gauged all my progress on the scale, there was nothing I wanted more than to be 135lbs.

Yes, how exciting.  To go through life with gravity exerting just enough pressure upon me so that a calibrated scale would note in the morning, immediately after getting up and peeing, and while wearing no clothes, that there was exactly 135lbs of pressure being exerted on the ground underneath my stationary feet was a thrilling thought. Imagine that accomplishment!  There could be nothing sweeter!

Well, it's taken five years but today I finally got to experience that tingling thrill.  And let me tell you, it doesn't really mean a damn thing.  I am sorry to report that there really is nothing different about today than yesterday.  Or the day before that when I weighed something other than 135lbs.  Robin, did point out one special and exciting benefit.  When I'm doing body weight squats, it's super easy putting a pair of 45's on a bar. I'll let you know if she's right.

Edited to add:
I can't believe I actually typed the following sentence. 

"Since I am a couch potato with no lung capacity, I’ve been sticking with the 40 minute basic routine and will add in stripper moves when I’m ready."

Sometimes I kind of make sense...

Really, it sometimes happens. Not, like, all the time or anything. Actually, I talk out of my ass a lot - it's a skill I put to work quite often on the job site. Heh! Anyways, I belong to a couple of message boards that get traffic from people who trying to make some lifestyle changes.  And sometimes I write shit that kind of makes some sense. Or, at least it does to me, based on what I've learned over the past five years.  And then it gets bumped down the threads and eventually lost in the ether.

A few months later, I run across a similar question and have to retype whatever response I've come up with and it's never as good the second time around.

I've made a few posts over the past few days that I don't want to lose in case I want to use them again.

On Body for Life's binge/starve inducing "Free Day" concept:
Don't freaking binge then starve yourself. You're doing this to get fit and healthy. You're not doing this as a punishment for being overweight or unfit. So, stop treating food as a reward or punishment. It's neither. Food is good. It's life, it's community, it's sharing and it's fun. Celebrate food by eating good, real food. Starving yourself is just stupid and it's not going to make up for an earlier binge. It's telling yourself you're not worthy of life. And, to be honest, isn't binging just more punishment on your body? It's telling yourself you're worthless and someone to disrespect. Neither behaviour is going to bring you joy. And neither is certainly going to get you where you want to go.

On attempting to accurately gauge calories burned to calories consumed to ensure perfect two-pound losses each week on the scale:
Dr. Mat Lalonde, who is both exceedingly hot and smart, has a great quote. "You are not a bomb calorimeter."

You can't just weigh and measure the inputs and outputs and then get perfect results. Our bodies are way too exciting, interesting and complex for that. There is a whole host of wacky hormonal things going on as your body does this thing called living. On top of that, your scale weighs EVERYTHING. It doesn't show you body composition shifts. It doesn't tell you if you're retaining water that day. Yep, even those expensive ones that use bio-impedance (horribly inaccurate - FYI). It just tells you how much force gravity is asserting on you at any given time.

Stop doing math.

Your body is giving you feedback all the time. Now you need to start learning to listen to it. Focus on your actions. Are you eating food that is high in nutrients and that nutures your body? Are you constantly hungry? Preoccupied with eating? Are you gassy, bloated or constipated? These are all signs you need to tweak what you're eating. Or do you feel pretty good (i.e. hungry when you should be hungry, comfortable after meals with happy digestion). Are you moving your body and challenging yourself in ways to improve your fitness? Are you lifting weights to get and stay strong (you should be... weights improve insulin sensitivity, bone density and darn if they don't make you look pretty!)? How`s your cardio-endurance? Do you have lots of energy throughout the day? Do you feel pretty positive? Are you having fun? How do your joints feel? Are you getting stronger? Are you getting faster? If not, you might need to tweak your workouts. You'll want to make sure you're getting enough rest and recovery between workouts so you are seeing improved performance. And you'll want to make sure you're bringing it to your workouts. Lots of people make the mistake of working out longer and longer instead of just upping the intensity of what they're doing. Longer just means more wear and tear on your joints. Harder generally results in improved fitness.

The weirdest thing starts happening as you stop doing math and, instead, just get consistent with all those behaviours that promote health and fitness. Eventually, you start looking like a healthy and fit person. And that's because you are. Surprisingly, the number on the scale generally goes down as well.

Seven days!

Yep, seven days! That's all that's left to go. I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Leave it all on the floor.

I wish I could find a video that included more of OPT's speech at the start of Regionals.  He talked a lot about leaving it all on the floor at the competition.  I've been thinking a lot about that this weekend.  I think to be really happy with how I do down in California, I'm going to have to leave it all on the floor.  But it's not going to be just what I do down there that weekend.  It's also what I'm doing here beforehand.

With Regionals, I worked recovery pretty hard.  I prioritized rest, my diet was spot on for a good chunk of it and I'm so happy with how I did.  I did all I could to do as well as I could when I was there and that's all you can ask of yourself.  And it paid off with faster body weight movements, better run times and that helped my team.  For sectionals, I can't say that.  While I busted my ass on the training, looking back at the other aspects of preparation, things weren't anywhere close to ideal.  While it provided valuable information that I can use to better plan for next year, a part of me is still a bit disapointed that I didn't really go all out with nutrition, rest and recovery.  Lately, while I've been doing well with the training, I know I haven't been trying as hard as I can with keeping the nutrition in line.  I mean, it hasn't been bad, but it hasn't been as good as it can be, either.

For the Affiliate Cup, I don't want to second guess what I did to prepare.  I want to know I left it all on the floor.  So it's ON.

Also, did you hear the news about breakfast?  Not so high and mighty now, are you breakfast?

Next up, HSPUs and 95lb snatches for reps...

Got my first muscle up last night.  Could only snag the one.  Will try for two on Friday.  This was after 3x210lb back squats - something I wasn't feeling too confident about given all the cardio madness.  It was a good night in the gym all around. 


Also, 5k in vibrams may be a bit too much of a jump.  My left foot is a cranky biotch today.

Sex-ay!

My inner douchbag is coming out. This morning, I woke up with a soul patch.  It's awesome.  I may have taken a wall ball to the face yesterday and, combined with my newfound ability to bruise like a mofo at the mearest hint of a touch, I now have a purple and red bruise in the middle of my chin.

(Author's soul patch may not quite resemble photo.)

It goes really well with the bruise on my collar bone and legs from the hang power cleans yesterday as well as the gashes on my shin from failed box jumps and the rope burn on the top of my foot.  Kurt says I look like a very fit heroin addict.

Too much fish oil (I need some grass fed meat stat so I can drop my dose down) combined with hard training and general clumsiness...  *sigh*

In other news, I almost got a muscle up last night.  Must work on keeping arms in tight to the body.  Trying again tomorrow.

This has nothing to do with anything CrossFit related...

It's just awesome.  That is all.

Hey, it's Dystonia Awareness Week!

Pretty much everyone who reads my blog knows me so also knows what dystonia is but I thought I'd put something up about Dystonia Awareness Week, anyways. This common neurological disorder negatively impacts something most of us take for granted every day... the ability to move.

National Geographic is airing an episode of Extraordinary Humans that talks about dystonia. Here is a preview.

I am stupidly lucky. I maybe have a few days a month where I am symptomatic. I go from being able to bust my butt in the gym to not being able to do up my bra without help (seriously, there's something about figuring out how to get that little clasp together that gets me every stinking time... so annoying). There are many others with dystonia who are symptomatic every waking moment. Personally, I don't know how they do it. As Dunn said in the preview, dystonia is the most annoying thing EVER. It's like your body turns into a recalcitrant toddler having a temper tantrum. You tell it to do one thing, it does another. Then there is the fatigue and fog and the feeling of being trapped.

Treatment options for dystonia suck. We've got Botox (yep, we're to blame for the development of the drug that has immobilized the faces of half of Hollywood) and a bucketful of antiParkinsons meds that sort of work but not really (don't get me started on side effects - my memory has never come back properly post Artane) and there's always the super fun option of deep brain stimulation (hey, lets drill a hole in your skull!). We're kind of the red headed stepchild of the disorders when it comes to research dollars so a donation to the DMRF (DMRF Canada, DMRF US) would be awesome. That or you could just be understanding the next time you see someone moving in an odd way down the street. One of the hardest things about dystonia is how isolating it is. Part of that is logistics (it isn't so easy to get around) but mostly it's how we're treated when we're out and about while symptomatic. I think if more people knew what dystonia looked like, we'd feel more comfortable being seen that way.

And one of the bestest ways you can recognize Dystonia Awareness Week? The next time you're in the middle of a WOD (for any non CrossFitters, that's what we call a workout) and you want to die or are getting frustrated or you're not happy with your performance or whatever. Remember that it's just cool that you can do this stuff. It's just good, plain FUN!

Sweet merciful crap! CFR made it to the 2010 Games!

Regionals was another awesome experience.  Seeing so many athletes competing at such a high level and giving it their all was really motivating and exciting.  It was a different vibe than sectionals, for sure.  The venues felt a bit more charged up and you could tell the stakes were higher.  I am so proud of how our individual competitors did over the course of the three days.  Each one gave it their all and fought as hard as they could.  The represented the gym and themselves so well.

For us affiliate team peeps, the workload was a lot lighter than in individual competition and I found I was way less nervous.  It was so good knowing that I was out there with three other team members and two more were cheering from the sidelines.  I just had to go hard with light weight in short bursts, which is so different from my comfort zone of longer, heavier and being able to just keep going.  The toughest time for me was WOD 2 and watching the team kick serious ass without me!  And they did kick some serious ass, coming in third with gorgeous, consistent cleans and ring dips. 

(CrossFit Regina’s Affiliate Team... love this pic of Julie's)

So, now that we’ve earned a spot to the 2010 Games with a 5^th place finish for all of Canada (yep, pretty cool!), I’m trying to figure out what I can do over the next 40 or so days to be ready for whatever CFHQ decides to throw at us. 

I’m doing another quick lean out for the next four weeks to see if I can snag a muscle up or HSPU with another 8lbs off my frame.  What I managed to drop between sectionals and regionals made a big difference in the amount of speed I could toss into bodyweight movements.  Burpees suck way less and things like pull ups and ring dips have taken a nice, big jump. Like, a few months ago, I could manage ring dips in a WOD in singles with lots of rest in between.  Here I am post Isabel and 3x400m sprints.  It's not a PR but I'm happy with eight consecutive for shits and giggles while fatigued.