Apples n Bacon: A marriage made in heaven

I bought a great paleo cookbook the other day and it totally inspired me! Sometimes that's all you need!

Unfortunately, this new-found inspiration didn't have such a positive effect on my kitchen.

First up was a pulled chicken crockpot recipe, it looks disgusting, but it's a party in my mouth!

Pulled Chicken:

2 chicken breasts, cut up into pieces
1 can diced tomatoes, no added salts or herbs
1 red onion diced
4 carrots, diced
2 green onions, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 handful mushrooms, diced
1 zucchini, sliced
1 tbsp chili powder
S & P to taste


Combine all ingredients into a slow cooker and cook! I had it on all night and I had the weirdest meat dreams. I won't be doing that again.


I also added 2 lamb sausages in there crumbled up. Mighty tasty.

Next up, I mixed some berries, watermelon, and nuts in a bowl for an easy pre-workout snack. Or as an addition to some protein for breakfast.

Next, a super amazing salad that I ate in 2 minutes, so ignore the photos; there wasn't much left to take a picture of.

Super Delicious Paleo Salad:


3 handfuls spinach
1 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 cucumber, diced
1 avocado, diced
3 hardboiled eggs, diced
5 slices bacon, cooked and diced
1 large granny smith apple, sliced, skin on


Dressing:


1 tbsp dijon
2 tbsp olive oil
5 tbsp paleo mayo
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
S&P to taste
1 stalk green onions, diced


One more thing that I made where I didn't take a picture because I ate it too fast was "Paleo Workout Pancakes":


1 ripe banana, mashed
2 tbsp almond butter
2 eggs
1 scoop whey powder


Mix well and fry in coconut oil! So delicious. I ate these cold during my workout, and a bit after. The banana replaces your glycogen, and the whey helps prevent you from going catabolic.


Here is an excerpt from the above mentioned book:
"The food that you eat before a workout is to fuel your body for the even it's about to do. This type of fuel needs to be light, relatively quick asimilating, and produce a lower insulin response to avoid a spike in hormones and thus a crash during your workout. A meal that contains some good fat (avocado, flax oil, seeds, nuts), lean protein ( tuna, white meat chicken and turkey, tilapia) , and low glycemic carbs is best ( berries, apple, citrus). Once you have completed an athletic event, it is extremely important to refuel your body and provide it with the necessary ingredients to recover. During a long or intense workout, your body uses its glycogen storage and breaks down muscle fibers. Your job postworkout is to supply your body with the necessary building blocks to reconstruct muscle and store glycogen once again. The two food groups that are most useful at this time are protein and carbs. Additionally, it might be necessary to rehydrate and replace losts electrolytes. A meal containing a lean protein source and a higher-glycemic carb (sweet potato, apple sauce, mango, melon, grapes)  is a perfect recovery meal. Fat, post-workout is not necessary and is best left for a meal two or mroe hours after the post-workout meal."



Talk tomorrow!

Bad days

You win some and you lose some, right? After having a string of great lifting days, it was bound to happen, I had a bad day. My heart wasn't in it, my body was tired, and I wasn't commiting to the lifts. I did get new 1 RM's for the snatch and the jerk, but they weren't even close to what I had hoped they would be.

That workout ruined my whole day yesterday, and it made me soooo miserable. Ask Rocky, he had to spend the day with me, and I was NOT a happy camper. Then he showed me our old 1 RMs from May, and I instantly felt better. Though my results from yesterday didn't seem huge to me then, when compared to results from a few months ago, they were quite impressive! Bad days are bound to happen, but what makes you great is how you let it affect you and how you react to it. I ruined a whole day yesterday moping around feeling sorry for myself, maybe I should have researched snatch techniques and practiced, etc.

Even if it was only a small gain yesterday, atleast it was a gain right?! Heck, Im not going backwards, so I'll take a little step forwards!

Don't be too hard on yourself, any step forward is a step in the right direction!



On a side note, I had completely cut out fruit and all other carbs from my diet as a recommendation from a friend, but I don't believe in not eating fruit, so I am bringing that back into my diet. Helllllo apples and berries, I've missed you guys!!! :)

This is my vice. Apples and natural peanut butter.

Optional Day

 Hey guys! So today was a nice sort of active rest day. We did a core circuit workout, 50 seconds on, 10 seconds off for about 15 minutes. Some of the workouts included toes to bar, side plank holds on bosu, L-sits, and weighted back extensions. Afterwards, was 10 rounds of double under tabatas. My double unders have gotten worse over time, it's really weird. I went from being really shit at them, to being pretty good, to even shittier. It makes no sense and it's incredibly frustrating. Afterwards, were some weighted vest suicide runs where I proceeded to fall down and roll my ankle. Apart from the last bit it was alot of fun. I also worked on my chin-ups, as the pictures above showed. My legs are a bit tight, so I hope they loosen up for Sundays 1 RM lifts of jerks and snatches. Big numbers, big numbers!

On the food front, today was very uneventful:

Breakfast Pre-workout (5:30 am) : 1/2 chicken breast sauteed in coconut oil with some seasoning + 1/2 cucumber, 1/4 avocado,     1tbsp walnuts
Workout (6:30): 2 cups green tea, 1 scoop BCAAs, 1 scoop Vega Sport
Post Workout (8:30 am): 1 scoop whey with water + 3 eggs with green onions, mushrooms, smoked salmon + 1/2 red pepper.
Snackage: BBQ chicken- 1/4 chicken, ground turkey, 1 orange, 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds, 2 stalks celery
Lunch (2:00 ish): 1/2 lb ground beef mixed with zucchini, red pepper, onion, and garlic.
Dinner (9:00): Greens with bacon, turkey, chicken, eggs, and avocado.

I felt so tempted today by dessert. It is sooooo hard to be surrounded by delicious desserts and not eat them. I kept trying to think of reasons to rationalize eating them, like "to celebrate my new job, to celebrate my heavy lifts, new PR's!, it didnt rain today, and blah blah, the list is endless". But instead, I thought about how great I would feel tomorrow if I didnt eat it. So I just ate some bacon, I feel better already!

I am very tired today so I need a good nights rest before a long day at work tomorrow! Talk to you guys soon, hopefully with some new personal snatch records!

 LITTLE HEALTH MONSTER IS BACK!

Hey guys! I'm back and better than ever! So many great changes have happened in my life, and I couldn't be happier. Im so excited to share them with you.

Me on a bike trip I went on with my beau Rocky, yes, that's his real name

He's super human. He has to be, with a name like Rocky.

1) I am a certified personal trainer working out of Goodlife Fitness!

2) I will be certified in Crossfit and Darby Training Systems! So exciting!

3) I did my first Crossfit competition, and didn't do too bad! (9th place)

4) I've gotten hurricane strong, when I think back to my past training, I have no idea what I was doing.

5) I've moved out on my own and met some really great people! My crossfit training team is like my new family. I love them all! We're currently training for the Element Open Team Competition, should be fun!

6) I've gone strict paleolithic, and it has helped with my stomach issues and I've never felt this good!

That's alot to take in, it feels like my life has done a full 360. Even though I went through a really rough patch earlier this year, I wouldn't trade it for the world, because without it, I wouldn't have gotten to this happy spot.

So, Ill get right into the good stuff: TRAINING! Right now our crossfit team is in our first of three phases of training, and in terms of strength, the results are through the roof for me. I've added about 10-15 lbs on all of my previous 1 RM's for deadlift, back squat, clean, jerk, and snatch. The only thing really holding me back is my bench press, it just isn't changing. But that's for another post. So far, our workouts start with a strength component, which have progressed from 5 x 5 to 5x 3, to 5x 1's. It's usually bench press and cleans, snatches and jerks, deads and squats. After the strength work we have one or two WODs (workouts of the day--> a stupid crossfit term), which vary all the time.

As my strength has gone up, conversely, my metabolic and speed work has gone down. Not quite the results I was aiming for, but I'm just going to have to step it up on the WODs.

Todays workout was: 5 sets of 1 RM for deadlifts and back squat. I ended at 215 for deadlifts, and 170 for backsquats. I felt like I could have gone higher, but by that point I was just exhausted. You really stress your neurological system when you lift at your max like that. Next up was the WOD. Twelve minute AMRAP (as many rounds as possible--> yes, another stupid crossfit term), of 20 wallballs (12 lbs), 15 overhead squats (65 lbs), and a heavy prowler (100 lbs). I have turf toe, so the prowler was really killing me, but it was a great workout.

Ill keep the site updated with my daily training and improvements from now on, hopefully you'll see me cleaning 150 lbs by September. :)

The diet has really complemented the training. I feel like I wouldn't have been able to get these results had it not been for being paleo. I know, its a huge shift, FROM VEGAN TO PALEO (now thats a true 360), but I wouldn't go back. Yes, I have to rationalize in order to eat the meat, and yes, I really am going against my morals, but it's something I can stand doing.

As an example, so far today this is what I've eaten:
 Pre-workout (5 am): 4 eggs fried in coconut oil + 1/2 avocado + 1/2 cucumber
                                  1 scoop vega sport, and fish oil
Workout:                   1 scoop BCAA's mixed with green tea and lots of water
 Post- workout (9 am) : 8-10 oz pork chop in coconut oil with cayenne + 3/4 cup broccoli and cauliflower
                                     10 almonds, 1 scoop whey mixed with BCAA's



I have to stretch it out before my back seizes, and I have to bring the bears out. Talk to you guys soon :)

So glad to be back!