2012 October

Paleo Pad Thai Review

October 31, 2012 · By Claire · 2 Comments

Well, it’s Day 4 of the Whole30, and I have already made some pretty awesome headway in the realm of Coming-Up-With-New-Stuff-to-Eat. It’s a conundrum because as I have talked about 7 billion times, Brandon is always hungry, yet he doesn’t really like to eat meat more than two or three times a week. Because of that, he decided to keep white potatoes in his diet, even though they aren’t technically “on” for Whole30, and that is helping. But it also means that I have had to get pretty creative to come up with things that aren’t just roasted meat + stir fried vegetable, which is pretty much my paleo go-to. Luckily (well not lucky for her), my boss has been stranded in NYC all week, so I’ve been working from home, which means I’ve had a little extra time to experiment!

My first inclination was to try to come up with a bunch of new recipes to share with you guys, and that will happen to some degree, but let’s be honest, there are already hundreds of amazing paleo recipes out there. So instead, I am going to try to focus more on reviewing said recipes and talking about whether or not they are actually as good as the recipe websites they come from obviously make them out to be.

First up: Paleo Pad Thai from Health-Bent.com

Ratings:
Lived up to the hype: 10
Easy to follow instructions: 10
Ease of finding ingredients (or a reasonable substitute): 9
Strict paleo friendly (or easily adaptable): Yes
From grocery bag to table in: 20 minutes
Serves: 2
Allergens: Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Soy Free, Egg Free, Meat Free, Contains Nuts

Overall Rating: 9.5

Not gonna lie, I had my worries about this one because I’ve heard that zucchini noodles can be really watery and weird, but we had two pretty heavy meat-eating days so this seemed like a great chance to try to lighten things up a bit. I do not own a mandoline but I do have a large peeler, so I used that instead and it worked great. I will say that if you are even a slight perfectionist, it will probably take you twice as long to slice the zucchini “noodles” than any other part of this recipe will, because c’mon, it’s important for them to all look the same!

The recipe calls for fish sauce and chili garlic sauce, but I had a hard time finding a no-sugar-added version of either of those at the store. I’m sure they exist, just apparently not at the little supermarket near my house! So instead, I substituted liquid aminos for the fish sauce and used a tablespoon of Frank’s Red Hot mixed with about 1/2 tablespoon of garlic powder instead of chili garlic sauce. I also added a little water to make sure there would be enough liquid, and ended up adding a little bit of extra apple cider vinegar as well.

Brandon walked in the door right as I was finishing up, so I barely even had time to taste it before putting it to the real test: The Very Hungry Boyfriend. It smelled AMAZING but I was still skeptical about how the zucchini “noodles” were going to turn out. Luckily, my worries were quickly invalidated because the zucchini turned out perfectly, kind of like an al dente pasta, and the sauce was SO good. I am already scheming about what else I can use it with this week! Any suggestions?

Filed Under: Paleo, Recipes · Tagged: diet, fitness, gluten free, health, paleo, paleo diet, recipe, whole30

Suddenly, a Pull-Up

October 30, 2012 · By Claire · 8 Comments

How long have I been trying to get a pull-up? I mean, obviously since Day 1, but I’ve been actively staying late 2-3x every week and making Brandon do partner-assist pull-ups with me, or working on my kip, or doing sets of banded pull-ups, or Tabata sets of holding my chin at the bar, or jumping from a box to get my chin over the bar then slowly lowering myself, or any number of other things I was convinced would help me do a pull-up for at least 6 weeks now. And I have been super, ridiculously frustrated about it. I feel like if I worked on just about anything else with that much determination, I would be leaps and bounds ahead of where I started by now… but I still was only able to get up to the bar with my lips instead of my chin. So close, yet so far.

And then last night, as I was working on my kip (which usually just looks like I am flopping back and forth on the bar), Brandon came running over and said, “That was it! You just did a pull-up!”

“I don’t feel like I did anything different,” I said. “I don’t think that was it.” So I tried again. And sure enough, I did not one, but TWO kipping pull-ups!

I tried again this morning to get video evidence, but my shoulders were not as excited about giving it another go as I was. So for now you will just have to take my word for it. Ladies and gentlemen, I can do a (kipping) pull-up!

And now I would like to know: What have YOU done this week that surprised you?

Filed Under: CrossFit · Tagged: crossfit, exercise, fitness, health

Juice Fast Fail

October 29, 2012 · By Claire · 3 Comments

As many of you know, my plan for the past few weeks was to start a juice “fast” last Thursday, which would continue through the weekend, and then I would start the Whole30 today. The juice fast went well on Thursday, and I enjoyed 3 cups of spinach and apple juice before heading out with some friends and bringing my bottle of beet/carrot/apple/cucumber/ginger juice with me to the bar. Everything was fine until I got home that night and started feeling really hungry, but I figured I would just sleep it off and wake up the next morning to some more juice.

Long story short, I do not think that I did the juice fast correctly and was not drinking nearly enough. In order for a juice fast to really work, you need to be drinking 6-8 8 oz. glasses of green juice every day, and I was only drinking about 3-5. I weighed myself before heading off to a Halloween party on Friday night only to find that I had already lost 4 lbs and my ribs were definitely starting to stick out. Based on that (and the fact that I was really starting to get hungry), I decided to “allow” myself to have a few pieces of celery at the party, but the celery turned out to be a gateway drug and by the end of the night I had sampled some guac and even a little bit of buffalo chicken. Based on the fact that this party was full of amazing looking Halloween treats, I’d say I did pretty good by non-juice diet standards, but I definitely did NOT stick to my juice rule. By Saturday morning my weight was down 6 lbs. and I realized that I was not really accomplishing my main goal of the fast, which was to mentally prepare myself for the Whole30… instead, I was craving salty foods and feeling lightheaded and basically like my body was eating itself. So, I put my juicer away and fried up a few eggs.

Despite the juice fast being a total bust, we decided to start the Whole30 a day early and kicked it off yesterday. For dinner last night I made roasted herb chicken thighs with mashed sweet potatoes and a side of steamed cauliflower, and right now there’s an elk stew in the crock pot with carrots, onion, and butternut squash. So far we are both doing super well, and I have to definitely give a lot of credit to Brandon for being willing to do this with me. We have already had quite a few moments where he has reached for something (like the side of beans that was served with the veggie fajitas we ordered last night) and I’ve said, “Hey, you can’t have that!” and he looks at me with sad eyes and says, “Really? But… Ok.”

I am definitely feeling excited to try out some new recipes and track my progress over the month. So far I have only accomplished one of my 20 health and fitness goals for fall, and it’s one of my bonus goals at that: Complete at least 2 WODs with only strict push-ups. So I’m hoping that as I focus more on my diet, I will get closer to many of my other goals as well!

Filed Under: CrossFit · Tagged: fitness, health, juice fast, paleo, whole30

Brandon’s CrossFit Fun Factor

October 25, 2012 · By Claire · 14 Comments

Hey everybody! Today is not going to be an ordinary blog post- I, the aloof BF, am filling in for Claire in the first attempt as a “guest” writer. We thought it might be fun to mix things up once in a while, and for me to chime in a little of my own voice. It’s a funny thing to be an occasionally mentioned subject on a blog, especially when you encounter many of its readers in person. I’ve seen people come up to Claire and say, “Hey, are you Claire? I read your blog, it’s great to meet you!” and then sneak an awkward side glance my way, the kind everyone has experienced, the kind that says, “I think I know you, your face looks familiar, but I’m not sure, so I’m going to look away before making eye contact!” My other favorite is when Claire and I walk into the gym together- “Hi Claire! How are you this morning! Oh, hi BF.” So, now that we can set formalities aside and we’re all best friends, come say hi sometime.

Claire and I (and the rest of the gym) have been suffering since we did Kelly on Monday. From all the benchmark and Hero WODs we’ve done so far, and this being the second time we’ve done Kelly, I’ve concluded that Kelly is the disgruntled, unmercifully punishing matriarch of the benchmark WOD family. From her high ruling throne in the world of pain, she descends her suffering upon the innocent WODers with purposeful fury. I mean come on, 150 wall balls?? I’d like to meet Kelly and actually introduce her to wall balls, because anyone who has actually done them would know you don’t program 150 of them like that.

After the WOD and a good vent session with Claire that was along those lines, I determined that there is only one lift that, given a choice, I would pick wall balls over: Thrusters. But this made us curious about why some lifts give us a higher degree of suffering than others.

Suffering, we concluded, is the battle raging between psychological fatigue and muscular fatigue. I find it interesting that there have been scientific studies showing psychological fatigue will stop you before true muscle fatigue truly sets in almost every time, and it is this paradox, I believe, that is the beating heart of CrossFit.

After concluding that Thrusters and Wall Balls are about as sufferable as it gets, I started to think about what my Top 10 list of most miserable moves in CrossFit would be. Sure, everything we do in CrossFit is difficult–but it is the battle that is waged between psychological fatigue and muscular fatigue that sets these apart. It’s the, “C’mon, one more rep! But this hurts so bad!” argument in your head, when you know you can keep going, but just want to cry.

So, here, in order, are my Top 10. Do you agree? I’m really interested to know what everyone else’s least favorite move is, so we decided to turn this list into a poll. If you see your most sufferable move on this list, you can vote for it–and if you think I missed something, please let me know in the comments!

Filed Under: CrossFit · Tagged: crossfit, fitness, guest post, health, poll, workout

Just Limping Along

October 24, 2012 · By Claire · 6 Comments

Today I am literally just limping along. Monday was Kelly, Tuesday was med ball cleans and lunges, and today was front squats. Are you joking? Every time I try to stand up I pretty much have to roll over and push myself up because my quads just can’t do it anymore, and I have to walk down the stairs sideways. It’s a party.

Anyway, I read the above quote somewhere yesterday and totally loved it. I think it’s so true that many people view their bodies as something that just needs to look a certain way, instead of worrying about how it can actually perform–and I think that disconnect is the root cause of many people’s self-esteem issues and the reason most people who are overweight just bounce around from diet to diet. They are worried about losing weight and looking a certain way, but if they just focused on improving their overall health, the rest would take care of itself!

Alanis Morisette is not the first person I think of when I consider fitness inspiration, but this quote reminded me of reading an interview of hers a few years ago after she had run her first marathon. She talked about how she had always struggled with body image and food issues, but when she started treating food as a fuel, her relationship with food and her body totally changed. I can definitely relate. I used to pretty much just eat whatever was convenient–including but not limited to McNuggets, entire blocks of cheese in one sitting, and entire 2-liter bottles of sugary lemonade in one day. And then I would wonder why I had no energy and felt like crap. Surprise! I was filling my body with crap because I didn’t know any better, and I thought, “Well, I’m reasonably active, so I can eat whatever I want.”

Turns out this is really, really not true, and I am especially reminded of this today as I am about to start a 4-day juice “fast” tomorrow and then begin the Whole30 next Monday. I am really interested to see how this goes, because I know an equal number of people for whom the Whole30 has been an amazing experience as those who had a terrible time with it. So we’ll see!

That being said, tonight I am planning on going out and eating lots of crap because, let’s face it, crap food generally tastes amazing, and since I am going to be pretty restricted for the next month, I figure why the heck not. I am planning on eating a huge plate of nachos at the Mexican restaurant down the street, then heading to a nearby French restaurant for some insanely delicious chocolate mousse.

Question: What is your go-to cheat meal? Also, what is your favorite green juice recipe that I should try this week?

Filed Under: Life · Tagged: crossfit, fitness, health, inspiration, quotes, whole30

Kelly, We Meet Again

October 23, 2012 · By Claire · 6 Comments

Yesterday Coach Mike posted a photo of Kelly Kapowski on CrossFit Jai’s Facebook page, with the caption “Hint hint,” and my immediate reaction was “Ooh! A 90′s theme WOD!” Y’know, cuz it’s almost Halloween, and I have been waiting for an excuse to wear a giant scrunchie and high tops to a WOD that hopefully involves using a Skip-It and listening to Jock Jams (really, how amazing would that be!). Sadly after about two seconds of fantasizing about my dream 90′s WOD, I had to face the harsh reality that this post had nothing to do with themes and everything to do with the first WOD that made me puke and the only WOD that has ever made me break down and cry: Kelly.

The last time we did Kelly was in early July (you can read about that here). I like to think I have come a long way since then, but this is a WOD full of my greatest nemesis: Wall Balls. I hate wall balls, I am terrible at them, and whenever I see them programmed I cringe. I would rather do burpees, or thrusters, or pretty much anything other than wall balls. But alas, Kelly is 5 rounds of 400 m run, 30 box jumps, and 30 wall balls. There is no escape.

We showed up last night for the 7PM WOD, and I was feeling more nervous than I have for a WOD in a long time. It turned out to be the first time in a while where I have really had to go deep inside my head and try to convince the non-athlete who still lives there that I was capable of finishing this workout. Because there is still a voice in my head, one that may or may not ever totally go away, that makes me feel like I’m the slow, pudgy girl with glasses sitting on the bench during 5th grade floor hockey again. It reminds me that it took me so long to run a mile in 4th grade that I had to stay after class to finish, that I was always picked last for relays in gym, that my triple-jump score wouldn’t have even qualified me for the long jump finals in middle school track (why did I run track? whose idea was that?). It reminds me of all the people in my life who have meant well when they said, “You’re just not athletic! It’s fine, you have other talents!” or the time I tried to run a 5k with my friends in high school and they finally just ran ahead because they got tired of waiting for me.

These memories suck, and what makes them even worse is that 5, 10, even 15 years later… I still feel embarrassed when I remember those moments. And even though I have spent the past 7 months accomplishing goal after goal that should help me erase that feeling of inadequacy, of slowness, of not being enough, let me tell you that on the 4th of 5 rounds in a workout where I started to wheeze on the second half of my 400 lap, that voice snuck up behind me and whispered, “What makes you think you can do this after all the other times you’ve failed?”

But, once again, just like every other WOD I’ve showed up for so far, I finished. I am proud to say that not only did I go up from a 10-pound wall ball to a 14-pounder, but I took 1:03 off my previous time. I just wish I could go back in time and tell my little chubby self that it’s okay to not get the Presidential Fitness certificate or make it up the rock wall during Outdoor Ed, because eventually there will be a day when you finish 1.25 miles of running, 150 box jumps, and 150 wall balls… and it won’t even make you cry (the second time around, at least).

Filed Under: CrossFit · Tagged: benchmark wod, fitness, health, inspiration, kelly, life, WOD