I have finally had a decent week of nutrition. I've been a bit lackadaisical about it since regionals, but that is over now. The Mr. has left for Michigan so I am on my own. Thankfully, he had a about five servings of our homemade stir fry in the freezer! These make for a fantastic, fast lunch or dinner. I have posted about the stir fry before, but here is a quick reminder if you want to try it for yourself!
Here is all you need:
4 to 6 ounces pre cooked meat (we use chicken, shrimp and scallops)
1 cup of spinach
2 cups of other veggies (broccoli, peppers, asparagus, mushrooms, squash, etc)
Take all that good stuff and throw it in a quart size Ziploc freezer bag. Toss it in the freezer until you are ready to eat!
When you are ready to eat pre heat a skillet pan with the fat of your choosing. We use olive oil and coconut oil. I like to add some minced garlic (and by some I mean A LOT) and pepper. Unload your freezer bag into the skillet and cook until everything is ready to go! Since your meat is pre-cooked this make the process go fast. Super bonus!
Towards the end of the cooking process we add a shake or two of low sodium soy sauce. Pour contents into a bowl and enjoy. This is an extremely paleo/zone friendly meal that takes only minutes from the freezer to your plate. If you lead a busy life and have trouble eating healthily meals because you are just "too tired to cook" try this out! Plus, clean up is easy. Another fantastic plus.
Use a Saturday or Sunday afternoon to prepare your stir fry. We usually make about ten individual servings at a time. Get to work!
I'm going to try to be better about updating! I am about to hit the one year mark in my paleolithic journey. I hope your journey is going well too!
Friday, June 25, 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Give Your Skin a Boost
We all know eating paleo has a lot of wonderful benefits. Our bodies just work better when we eat what nature intended for us to eat. No big shock there. However, there are some added benefits that certain foods give your skin that you might no be aware of. I'm big about wearing sun screen and keeping my face in the shade so I was very happy to see that I'm doing some other things to help keep a youthful glow! I stumbled across some of these today and thought I would share.
Almonds
Yes, I'm in love with almonds. They are a wonderful fat, taste great and certainly satisfy when you need something crunchy. However, did you know they also are a natural sun blocker? The vitamin E that almonds are packed with help defend against sun damage! This doesn't mean you should stuff yourself with almonds and forget the sun block, but studies show that consuming 20 almonds a day can help reduce your risk of burning in UV rays. Take a bag with you to the beach, but still keep your SPF 30 on hand!
Flaxseed
These babies are packed with omega 3 fatty acid. Omega 3's actually erase and iron out fine lines. Yes ladies, wrinkles! Who knew?
Cooked Tomatoes
I love tomatoes. I like them raw, roasted, sun dried, in a sauce, however you want to give them to me I will eat them. Cooked tomatoes, like almonds, are a natural sun blocker. Tomatoes are packed with lycopene which helps eliminate skin-aging free radicals. Cooking helps concentrate the lycopene.
Spinach
This green gem is good for you for multiple reasons. A recent study published in the International Journal of Cancer shows that people who ate the most leafy greens had half as many skin tumors over an eleven year period. Get me a salad!
Canned Tuna
I love canned tuna when I am in a crunch and need some easy protein. Tuna has selenium which helps preserve the elastin in the skin. Elastin keeps your skin nice and tight. Enough said.
Carrots
Everyone had acne as a teenager and if you didn't then I hate you. Sadly, we still are prone to it as adults. Carrots are packed with vitamin A which helps reduce the overproduction of cells on the outer layer of the skin. In short, this helps reduce breakouts. Orange power!
I got this information from the Eat This, Not That blog from women's health magazine. Here is the link if you want to surf the site.
Almonds
Yes, I'm in love with almonds. They are a wonderful fat, taste great and certainly satisfy when you need something crunchy. However, did you know they also are a natural sun blocker? The vitamin E that almonds are packed with help defend against sun damage! This doesn't mean you should stuff yourself with almonds and forget the sun block, but studies show that consuming 20 almonds a day can help reduce your risk of burning in UV rays. Take a bag with you to the beach, but still keep your SPF 30 on hand!
Flaxseed
These babies are packed with omega 3 fatty acid. Omega 3's actually erase and iron out fine lines. Yes ladies, wrinkles! Who knew?
Cooked Tomatoes
I love tomatoes. I like them raw, roasted, sun dried, in a sauce, however you want to give them to me I will eat them. Cooked tomatoes, like almonds, are a natural sun blocker. Tomatoes are packed with lycopene which helps eliminate skin-aging free radicals. Cooking helps concentrate the lycopene.
Spinach
This green gem is good for you for multiple reasons. A recent study published in the International Journal of Cancer shows that people who ate the most leafy greens had half as many skin tumors over an eleven year period. Get me a salad!
Canned Tuna
I love canned tuna when I am in a crunch and need some easy protein. Tuna has selenium which helps preserve the elastin in the skin. Elastin keeps your skin nice and tight. Enough said.
Carrots
Everyone had acne as a teenager and if you didn't then I hate you. Sadly, we still are prone to it as adults. Carrots are packed with vitamin A which helps reduce the overproduction of cells on the outer layer of the skin. In short, this helps reduce breakouts. Orange power!
I got this information from the Eat This, Not That blog from women's health magazine. Here is the link if you want to surf the site.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Reflection
The weekend is over. I honestly don't think I could have done a single thing different than what I did. Every single event I gave it 100%. I had nothing left. I have no regrets and no doubts in my performance.
In all honestly, going in the WODs terrified me. I'm not very confident in the snatch, muscle ups are brand new for me and handstand push ups come and go with fatigue. I knew WOD 2 (weighted Cindy) was going to be in my wheel house and I was right. WOD 3 I knew I could handle, but I wasn't sure how I would compare to the other competitors. Here is a quick breakdown of how the weekend went for me.
WOD 1: Max Snatch and OHS
My PR prior to the Regional was 105. I have tried and tired to get 110, but I had been having a complete mental block. I have not been able to make myself get under the bar. I hit 110 my very first attempt with a power snatch after making it to the bar and knocked out my three overhead squats. I think I had a huge smile on my face the whole time. This put me tied for 15th with about four or five other girls.
WOD 2: 10 minute Weighted Cindy (AMRAP 5 pull ups, 10 push ups and 15 air squats)
I love Cindy. She is my home girl. Add a ten pound weight vest though and anything can happen. The standard for this event was new. Chin had to break the vertical plane of the bar (no problems there) and your push ups you could "snake". Basically they let you flop to the ground and the push up however you wanted into a plank position. Kind of strange, but whatever, I went with what I know....strict push ups. I blazed through six or seven rounds and then the vest got me. I got eleven rounds total, good enough to tie me for 5th. Only about five to ten total reps separated me from first place in that event. This pushed me into 6th after day one.
WOD 3: 100 double unders THEN 3 rounds of 10 Deadlifts (185) & 100m sandbag run THEN 1000m row
Mercy. I have never hurt like I hurt during this WOD. As you know, I've been working on the doubles. Thank goodness! I hit 76 (a new PR) unbroken and got in into the rest of the WOD fast. The deadlifts felt awesome and the sandbag run was the most miserable thing I have ever done. I got onto the rower holding a 2:13 pace, I was shooting for 2:08 as anyone who was standing around The Mr. would know because all you could hear him yelling was "2:08! 2:08!" Well, 2:13 was as good as it was going to get. I finished in 10:13, good enough for 7th. 3rd place finished in 10:10. Yes, three seconds separated four places. I felt awesome. I truly surprised myself on that one. I stayed in 6th place going into the final WOD.
WOD 4: 10 muscle ups, 15 HSPU, 20 squat cleans (105) and a run.
Ok, here is where terror had been lurking all weekend. I knew this event was coming, but I couldn't really think about it until after the other three. At this point I knew if I finished this WOD in the time limit (15 minutes) I would have an amazing chance of finishing top 4. I got my turnout on the muscle up Wednesday before the Regional. I have never been able to do muscle ups AND HSPU in the same workout. I was exhausted and just praying to get through it. I hit my first muscle up and it had never felt so good. I got a bit excited and over shot the 2nd one, but that was my only miss. I kept knocking them out one at a time. I was feeling confident. I moved to the HSPU. The game plan was to knock out at least three with out breaking. Well, my very first one my feet came off the wall before I was locked out. No rep. I had to settle down and take it one at a time. I did not want to waste any reps. I didn't have much time. I ended up missing one more about half way through, but I stayed calm and got through all fifteen. I had about three minutes left going into the squat cleans. At this point, I knew finishing the WOD was a long shot, but I was going to give it my all. I knocked out fourteen squat cleans before time was called. I was elated and devastated all at the same time. I did something I had never done before, ten muscle ups with turnout followed by HSPU's! However, I knew because I didn't finish that every other girl that finished would automatically finish ahead of me overall.
Six girls finished the last WOD within time. Four other girls (myself included) made it to the squat cleans. The rest of the field, thirty three women, did not make it either past the muscle ups or HSPU's. I was one of ten ladies to make it through those horrible movements. They are huge weaknesses of mine and I DID IT. Knowing that if I had finished within the time limit I would have probably qualified breaks my heart, but I could not have done it differently or faster. I just needed to be faster on my HSPU's and I wasn't.
It is what it is. I'm proud of myself and our team and all the other individuals from CFJ! I have a lot of years left and I am just now really starting to see how good I could be and will be. This was my last time to compete in this region for a while since we'll be moving up north. I can't lie, I'm not too sad about losing the heat. The sun definitely came out to play this last weekend. However, I'm really sad that I won't be representing CrossFit Jenks next time I compete.
I met some amazing people, saw some incredible performances and had a great time. I'm taking the next month to really let my body heal and work on my flexibility and speed. I'm also giving myself a week to not worry about my diet. Twizzlers never tasted as good as they did after that last event on Sunday!
There was some incredible paleo food at the regional! Beef fajitas sans tortillas and kabobs! Lots of guacamole which always makes me happy. GSX in Fort Worth put on a stellar event, but I'm incredibly glad it is over. Now I can relax. Hallelujah!
In all honestly, going in the WODs terrified me. I'm not very confident in the snatch, muscle ups are brand new for me and handstand push ups come and go with fatigue. I knew WOD 2 (weighted Cindy) was going to be in my wheel house and I was right. WOD 3 I knew I could handle, but I wasn't sure how I would compare to the other competitors. Here is a quick breakdown of how the weekend went for me.
WOD 1: Max Snatch and OHS
My PR prior to the Regional was 105. I have tried and tired to get 110, but I had been having a complete mental block. I have not been able to make myself get under the bar. I hit 110 my very first attempt with a power snatch after making it to the bar and knocked out my three overhead squats. I think I had a huge smile on my face the whole time. This put me tied for 15th with about four or five other girls.
WOD 2: 10 minute Weighted Cindy (AMRAP 5 pull ups, 10 push ups and 15 air squats)
I love Cindy. She is my home girl. Add a ten pound weight vest though and anything can happen. The standard for this event was new. Chin had to break the vertical plane of the bar (no problems there) and your push ups you could "snake". Basically they let you flop to the ground and the push up however you wanted into a plank position. Kind of strange, but whatever, I went with what I know....strict push ups. I blazed through six or seven rounds and then the vest got me. I got eleven rounds total, good enough to tie me for 5th. Only about five to ten total reps separated me from first place in that event. This pushed me into 6th after day one.
WOD 3: 100 double unders THEN 3 rounds of 10 Deadlifts (185) & 100m sandbag run THEN 1000m row
Mercy. I have never hurt like I hurt during this WOD. As you know, I've been working on the doubles. Thank goodness! I hit 76 (a new PR) unbroken and got in into the rest of the WOD fast. The deadlifts felt awesome and the sandbag run was the most miserable thing I have ever done. I got onto the rower holding a 2:13 pace, I was shooting for 2:08 as anyone who was standing around The Mr. would know because all you could hear him yelling was "2:08! 2:08!" Well, 2:13 was as good as it was going to get. I finished in 10:13, good enough for 7th. 3rd place finished in 10:10. Yes, three seconds separated four places. I felt awesome. I truly surprised myself on that one. I stayed in 6th place going into the final WOD.
WOD 4: 10 muscle ups, 15 HSPU, 20 squat cleans (105) and a run.
Ok, here is where terror had been lurking all weekend. I knew this event was coming, but I couldn't really think about it until after the other three. At this point I knew if I finished this WOD in the time limit (15 minutes) I would have an amazing chance of finishing top 4. I got my turnout on the muscle up Wednesday before the Regional. I have never been able to do muscle ups AND HSPU in the same workout. I was exhausted and just praying to get through it. I hit my first muscle up and it had never felt so good. I got a bit excited and over shot the 2nd one, but that was my only miss. I kept knocking them out one at a time. I was feeling confident. I moved to the HSPU. The game plan was to knock out at least three with out breaking. Well, my very first one my feet came off the wall before I was locked out. No rep. I had to settle down and take it one at a time. I did not want to waste any reps. I didn't have much time. I ended up missing one more about half way through, but I stayed calm and got through all fifteen. I had about three minutes left going into the squat cleans. At this point, I knew finishing the WOD was a long shot, but I was going to give it my all. I knocked out fourteen squat cleans before time was called. I was elated and devastated all at the same time. I did something I had never done before, ten muscle ups with turnout followed by HSPU's! However, I knew because I didn't finish that every other girl that finished would automatically finish ahead of me overall.
Six girls finished the last WOD within time. Four other girls (myself included) made it to the squat cleans. The rest of the field, thirty three women, did not make it either past the muscle ups or HSPU's. I was one of ten ladies to make it through those horrible movements. They are huge weaknesses of mine and I DID IT. Knowing that if I had finished within the time limit I would have probably qualified breaks my heart, but I could not have done it differently or faster. I just needed to be faster on my HSPU's and I wasn't.
It is what it is. I'm proud of myself and our team and all the other individuals from CFJ! I have a lot of years left and I am just now really starting to see how good I could be and will be. This was my last time to compete in this region for a while since we'll be moving up north. I can't lie, I'm not too sad about losing the heat. The sun definitely came out to play this last weekend. However, I'm really sad that I won't be representing CrossFit Jenks next time I compete.
I met some amazing people, saw some incredible performances and had a great time. I'm taking the next month to really let my body heal and work on my flexibility and speed. I'm also giving myself a week to not worry about my diet. Twizzlers never tasted as good as they did after that last event on Sunday!
There was some incredible paleo food at the regional! Beef fajitas sans tortillas and kabobs! Lots of guacamole which always makes me happy. GSX in Fort Worth put on a stellar event, but I'm incredibly glad it is over. Now I can relax. Hallelujah!
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