Changes and a Super Fast Dinner!

My last post was centered around my challenge to try and conquer my "dessert demons" (I hope everyone got a chance to check out the Whole 9 post related to this challenge) While things are still not perfect, as I'm sure this will be a looooong battle, things are looking up. It turns out that sipping a mug of hot tea after dinner really does do wonders to keep the munchies at bay. I have since cultivated quite an impressive library of tea choices in my pantry. (Organic Decaf Chai is my current fave) It really is incredible how much of a difference this one change (saying NO to my sugar cravings) has made as far as body composition is concerned. I am saving the specifics for the actual end of my Whole 30 but let's just say that in only a week of saying NO I have had more success than my entire month of Whole 30 last year. But enough about food!

Along with embracing the Whole 30 for the month of January, I made the decision to recommit to my CrossFit training. I suppose my training schedule is a bit like my food....what many people saw as a good workout routine or diet, I saw as having much room for improvement. I have not really felt like I have been putting much effort into my training since Regionals last May. Don't get me wrong, I have still been in the gym but it has been sporatic....2-3 times a week and many times I have felt like I'm just going through the motions. I definitely think that things have changed this month. I am really looking forward to my workouts again and have been getting in at least 4 days a week (usually 5) I have PR'd in a few lifts and am gaining strength in other ways too (like my consecutive pull ups) One of the things I think that is helping me get back into my rhythm is all the amazing CrossFit Women that I am surrounded by here in Houston. Without these ladies, training would not nearly be as much fun. This past Thursday night at CrossFit Katy we decided to do a little skill work:

4 Rounds of

1 minute of work followed by 30 seconds of rest at each station with a 1 minute rest between stations of

GHD Sit Ups

Skin the Cats

KB Snatches

My abs are soooooore today! Those GHD's are no joke! I love the Thursday night Advanced Class at CrossFit Katy because it gives me a chance to compete against CF Katy Bad-Ass Brittani Briner! I can always count on her to push me through any workout because she never gives up!

Yesterday, I headed over to Bayou City's Sister Location, Pin Up CrossFit to tackle a noon WOD with another Houston Bad-Ass, Susie Davis Tannery. We did the .Com WOD:

21 L-Pull Ups

20 Alternating Pistols

18 L-Pull Ups

16 Alternating Pistols

15 L-Pull Ups

12 Alternating Pistols

12 L-Pull Ups

8 Alternating Pistols

I can't do the L-Pull ups yet so I decided to do dead-hangs with a skinny band. I definitely need to work on my strength because I can do a pretty decent amount of kipping pull ups but dead-hangs kill me. Surprisingly, I didn't have any trouble with the pistols. My form on my left leg is much better than on my right but I got through them pretty easily.....and my glutes are waaaay sore today! :)

Ok so back to food. I'm going to leave ya'll tonight with a super fast, one-skillet dinner that's delicious and great in a pinch when you really don't feel like cooking but want something healthy.

Chicken, Zuchinni, Bacon Medley

1 Zuchinni, diced

1 Yellow Squash, diced

2 Pieces of Bacon, diced

1 Chicken Breast, cubed

Spices: I used salt, pepper, garlic powder, hot pepper flakes, and cayenne

Put the diced bacon into a big pan and saute them until crispy.

Add the squash and spices and cook for about 5 minutes.

Add the cubed chicken and cook until the chicken is cooked through and the veggies are soft.

Simple and oh so delicious!

Slip But Don't Fall

Well I am not perfect! Haha! Nobody's perfect right? But just in case you thought I was the nutritional perfectionist, I'm here to tell you that I am not. No, I did not fall off the Whole 30 wagon, just in case that's what you were thinking. This post isn't about falling...it's about slipping. See you can slip without falling, but it takes some muscle. Ok ok you're probably wondering, "what the heck is this girl talking about?" I'm talking about giving in to emotional eating, being beaten down by my "sugar demons", eating about as unhealthily as you can while maintaining a perfectly healthy diet...capisce?

I've been on this round of the Whole 30 for 17 days and 15 out of those 17 days have been great! In fact, I'd say the last week has been damn near perfect. I have eaten vegetables at all my meals (yes, vegetables at breakfast are delicious, I promise!), I have had my recommended pre and post workout meals carrying my tubs of sweet potato, egg, and turkey with me into the gym, i have taken my fish oil every day BUT this weekend I got beat down!

Saturday and Sunday were full of bananas, almond butter spoonfulls right out of the jar, larabars, bowls of coconut milk with raisins and nuts....ahhh you get the picture. It seemed like no matter what I ate for my meal, I just HAD to have that little something extra, that little "dessert". Now most people would not consider a larabar or banana or apple with almond butter a real "dessert" item but when your brain tells you that it's something you just HAVE TO HAVE even though you just ate a big dinner (mine was delicious steak and salad with avocado dressing) then it is dessert and you don't need it.

This is something that I have struggled with for years! I love love love food and sometimes I just have to have things.....these days my cravings are much much different than they were when I was younger. I used to geek out on late-night bowls of cereal while now I prefer a bowl of fruit and nuts with coconut milk...but they represent the same thing....my sugar demons talking to me telling me that I have to have dessert even though I already ate. Part of the Whole 30 is centered around changing your relationship with food, that part I have not conquered yet, but I am working on it.

Today was a much better day than the last two. Remember I said it's possible to slip without falling, but it takes some muscle...and I flexed it today :) I am finishing this post after dinner and even as I write this, I am already feeling the urge for that "dessert". On a suggestion from the Whole 9 Blog, I am going to try and drink a glass of hot decaf tea instead of snacking. We'll see how that goes! I look forward to the day that I don't always feel the need for a late-night snack.

So anybody out there who's fighting their own "sugar demons", keep flexing that muscle and stay on track! Maybe we'll kick their butts together!

Trying to Live More Like Ziggy

I have a dog. Yes this is one of the only times you'll catch me calling him a dog. He's more like my baby and I, very often, refer to him as a person (which Neal likes to point out to me) I absolutely am completely in love with this little guy! Today while I was walking him around the neighborhood it kind of dawned on me that Ziggy really does have it made in the shade. Don't get me wrong, I know he's spoiled but I'm not really talking about that. I'm talking about all the other things that he's got going on. There' a lot that we, as humans, can learn from Ziggy.

1) There's absolutely nothing better than a good nap!
I mean have you seriously ever watched a dog sleep. They don't have a care in the world. They're not tossing and turning while their minds are running over all the things they should be doing. They are right there in the moment....and forget about time. If Ziggy feels like it's time for a nap, then it's time for a nap! I know most of us, myself included, that happen to have one of those rare days when a nap is actually possible feel like it's the last thing we need to do...I mean come on..there's a laundry list of chores or things we could get done. Who has time for naps? But maybe, just maybe we should embrace those little moments and allow ourselves to indulge....take that nap...the dishes can wait!

2) Exercise is supposed to be fun!
Ziggy doesn't run around the backyard chasing a big rubber ball because it's good for his health. He does it cause it's a blast! To him nothing is more exciting then getting a chance to chase that ball....except for maybe swimming. :) This is probably the main reason why I CrossFit. Yesterday at Pin Up CrossFit, we did a WOD that involved 5 sets of 10 "wall walks" which requires you to lay on your stomach with your feet touching a wall and then walk your feet up the wall and your hands back until you are in a full handstand! Yeah it was tough...yeah I sweated my face off...but you know what..it was kind of fun! This past Saturday at CrossFit Katy, they had a medicine ball relay where members of each team took turns tossing the med ball as far as they could and then ran to get it to be the first team to cross the finish line! What other workout routine lets you have built in fun like that? It sure beats the hell out of blindly running on a treadmill.

3) Love should be unconditional
Every time I come home, even If I've just walked down the street to the mailbox, Ziggy greets me like he hasn't seen me in years! Even if I were to take away his favorite toy, make him sleep on the couch (gasp!) or never give him another scrap of table food....he would still love me like that. He doesn't care if I haven't slept, my clothes are a mess, I'm stressed to no end, I look like hell...doesn't matter, he will always love me like that and that is truly an incredible thing. If only we could all love as unconditionally as Ziggy.

So I guess this post is a little random but sometimes i think we could all stand to stop and put our lives in perspective a little and think about what kind of stuff in our lives is really important. It's easy for things to get overwhelming sometimes but thanks to a little black dog, I always come back to where I'm supposed to be!

Whole 9 Trainer's Workshops

Wow what a day! First off, yes I am aware that I am a complete nerd and that normal people don't get excited at the thought of spending an entire Sunday talking about strength programming, nutrition, food logs, and how to implement all of these in your life and gym! But what can I say...I am not a normal person! :) Yesterday, I had the privilege of attending the Whole 9 Trainer's Workshop at CrossFit West Houston and it was fantastic!

We spent the morning with special guest Dutch Lowy discussing strength and conditioning with a focus on programming and how to program the most effectively to tackle whatever weakness you are trying to better. It was very eye-opening. If you are unaware, I actively participate in some of the programming for CrossFit Katy and am very excited to implement some of Dutch's suggestions in the gym. As far as my own training is concerned, I am most interested in testing out Dutch's theory on Strength vs. Strength Endurance. The idea is to obtain a 1 rep max (usually he uses the back squat or front squat) rest 5 minutes or more and then load the bar with 85% of your 1 rep max and see how many reps you can complete. The idea is to be around 5 reps. If you can't get to 5 reps then you need to work on your strength endurance, if you are way over 5 reps then you need to work on your pure strength. Dutch did say that there is a caveat in that if you are a woman, this equation might not work for you because women tend to be able to do more reps of 85% of their 1 rep max than men even if they need to work on their strength endurance....however, I still want to give this a try and see how I stack up.

During lunch, Dutch took us through a Snatch-focused Olympic Lifting class which was great. Though I have been lifting weights since high school and I have been exposed to the clean and snatch regularly, I do not put enough time into training these two lifts. Hopefully I can take the technique critique that I received and use it to better those lifts.

After a delicious lunch of tilapia, chicken, and veggies provided by Perfect Fit Meals, we got down to the nitty gritty! First of all, I definitely regret not going to the Whole 9 Foundations Lecture on Saturday. Yes, I have been to the Foundation Lecture before (last May) but it would have been nice to get that refresher. Oh well...next time for sure! For anybody that is unaware (or hasn't read my previous blog posts) Whole 9 is a nutrition, fitness, and lifestyle consulting company founded by Melissa Urban and Dallas Hartwig. Though they have a home-base in Salt Lake City, they spend much of their time traveling around the country conducting workshops that are mostly nutritionally focused (lucky for us)! The Trainer's Workshop is for people interesting in taking their nutritional knowledge base to the next level especially when it comes to sharing that knowledge base with clients, friends, and family. I feel like I have learned so much in such a short time. One of the most important things that we focused on was how to make nutrition an integral, if not mandatory, part of our gym and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that CrossFit Katy is doing so many things right! We have a nutrition blog, we do a few nutritional challenges a year, we talk to our clients. But there is so much more that we can do and that is exciting! But before I can implement things at the gym, I want to implement them in my own life. Like Melissa and Dallas said, you gotta "walk the walk". If I can't follow my own advice, how can I expect anybody else to?

The first thing on my step to success was measurements and signing up for a free Fit Day account. Look, I HATE weighing and measuring my food! HATE HATE HATE....but it really is the only way to analyze a diet. Where I've gone wrong before I think is that I have known in my mind what I'm "supposed" to eat, weighed it out, and then eaten it. But that doesn't really tell me anything because as soon as I lose the food scale...my portions go way up. So this time around, I am going to instead weigh and measure the food that I normally eat in sizes that I normally eat and see what that looks like. This way I can really get a clear picture of how much I am eating and can hopefully make some changes. I also am making a new pledge to consistently get my fish oil (the best fish oil comes from here!) and to eat my pre and post workout meals. I have said it before but I am saying it again...I, Leah Goldstein, will remember to eat my pre and post workout meals!

So, that's what's on the agenda for the next few weeks. I am 10 days into my Whole 30 and am refocused. Time to hit the grocery store, prep some veggies, and keep it up! On a side note, my dad's fiance, Christie, has been taking on the Whole 30 challenge with me and has so far lost over 10lbs in 10 days! Pretty spectacular stuff! :)

4 Days In

Well it's been four days of Whole 30-ing for me and I definitely think this go-round is much much easier than the last time I did this which was back in June. One of the biggest obstacles to successfully completing a Whole 30 is that you need to be prepared...always! Meatloaf is something that is easily assembled the night before and can be kept in the fridge until dinner time. The problem with conventional meatloaf recipes is that they take forever to cook! I don't know about you but I don't have an hour and a half to cook my dinner when I get home after 7pm. By cooking the meatloaf in muffin tins, you can cut your cooking time down considerably. This recipe is one that I put together on Monday night for dinner for Tuesday. All I had to do on Tuesday night after CrossFit was pop this in the oven and it was ready in 25 minutes! I paired this with some steamed veggies and I was set!

Mini Meatloaf

Ingredients:

2 lbs of ground meat (I used organic ground veal and bison)

1/2 cup each of diced onions, bell peppers, and celery

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350

Saute the veggies in the olive oil for about 10 minutes to soften them up (otherwise you'll get hard veggies in your meat!) and let cool for a few minutes before mixing.

In a large bowl mix the meat and veggie mixture and season with a little salt and pepper

Separate the meat mixture evenly into the 12 spots in the muffin/cupcake tin

Bake for 25-35 minutes

Paleo Poor

I came across this article from the Whole 9 Website on how to eat "Paleo/Primal" on a budget and I think it's a fantastic post. There are many, many people whose biggest argument against being able to eat Paleo is that it costs too much. While costs is a legitimate concern, there are plenty of tips and tricks on how to stretch your budget to fit this lifestyle.....and ultimately, taking care of yourself will end up saving you thousands in medical costs in the long run! Trust me, if there's anything I've learned from nursing school, it's that most of the hospitalizations that I've seen could have been avoided with a healthy diet and exercise. Happy reading!

Paleo Poor by Whole Life

New Year's 2011

Happy Happy New Year!

This year went out with a bang at the Bayou City CrossFit New Year's Eve Party at the Omni Hotel! It was a great evening with fun, friends and plenty of dancing.....and maybe one too many vodka sodas! ;-)

I've spent this first day of 2011 thinking about all of the things I'd like to accomplish this year. I don't really like the idea of Resolutions. Resolutions have a tendency to be too broad, unmeasurable, and not specific enough...you know where that's headed don't you? This year, instead of making a list of random resolutions, I'm making goals....specific goals. I've done a post in the past that talks about goals and how to set them...and yes I even made some goals, accomplished some, but let far too many slip away. For 2011, I've decided to start from scratch. So here it is folks.

Remember from my previous goals post....goals need to be S.M.A.R.T. That is goals need to be:

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Realistic

Time-Bound

I'm not going to post and discuss all my goals. There are many and I've divided them into 3, 6, and 12 month goals. I have them typed up and posted in my apartment where I can look at them every day. One goal though that I will share with everyone is that I am taking on another Whole 30 this month. The over-indulgence of the holidays is officially over and I think the best way to kick start my healthy year and detox from all the crap I have eaten over the past two months is by going headfirst into a Whole 30. I am also very excited to be able to attend the new Whole 9 Life Nutrition Seminar this month at CrossFit West Houston. Since I've already completed one Whole 30, I think this go-round will be a lot easier and I have a few tweaks this time that I will be playing with that I did not play with last time which included limiting my fruit intake and nut/nut butter intake.

Today was an excellent start to my Whole 30, I slept in until noon....(damn vodka!) so lunch for me today was two pieces of natural bacon and two eggs. I had raisins for a snack and dinner tonight is going to be stuffed butternut squash.....this recipe is Fantastic!

I encourage each and every one of you to make your own 2011 goals. It's never too late to get in shape, eat healthy, save more money, show more love....set those goals and go get them!