Sunday Spartan Workout

After watching Dave finish his first Spartan Race in Malibu (post to come), I decided to go to the local park and do a Spartan themed workout of my own on Sunday – After all, I am doing my very own Spartan Race in January!

Here's what the workout consisted of:

150 jumping jacks
15 burpees
3 X 10 dips
15 box jumps
15 sandbag squat-throws (I used a 26lb dumbbell and it works just fine!)
3 X 10 crunches
10 box jumps
3 X 10 jumping lunges
5 X 25' Spiderman crawls
Run 1.5 miles
30 burpees

Stretch

Here's a fun little revelation I had yesterday. The park I went to had no benches around to do box jumps, so I improvised... I realized that my truck would work perfectly as a box jump substitute.

It was so much fun, and so much more challenging (It's a bit higher than I was used to) and now I know I have a box for box jumps whenever I need it!!

Holiday hurdles...

I've started tracking my food again, via the my Fitness Pal app. I'm not gonna lie, my biggest fear of this holiday season is falling off the wagon. I know I won't completely, but I really don't want to lose sight of my goals. I want to continue to eat as paleo as possible, and with so many of my favorite old holiday treats showing up on store shelves its becoming harder and harder to resist. I've stayed the same weight for abou 3 months now, no weight gain, but no loss either. I am thrilled that I have managed to maintain my total loss of 27 lbs for 3 months, but my goal has not yet been reached. I'd like to lose more weight and gain more muscle, and that's a difficult battle - even without the holidays.

So I've started tracking my food again. One thing I have noticed is my metabolism. I can eat a lot more calories now and maintain my weight - as long as they are healthy nutritious calories, of course. I still avoid gluten and grains, and have a renewed love affair with cauliflower rice, but chocolate has been creeping its way back in to my daily diet, and I really need to cut back.

I am also looking into different workout routines. It's been a little difficult staying motivated now that the time has changed and its getting colder. Sleeping and snuggling under a blanket sound so much more inviting that lifting at the gym, but I haven't completely stopped. I've been focusing more on Cardio because it's easier for me to go on auto-pilot, you know... mentally check out and just get it over with. But I need to get back on the weight lifting wagon. Its good for me.

So it looks like that 6 lbs in 6 weeks challenge didn't really work out so well, but I'm not too discouraged. I didn't gain 6 lbs. In fact, my jeans are starting to feel a little bit loose, despite the lack of weight loss - but I hope that isn't from my lack of lifting. :-/

Looks like I've got a date with some dumbbells tomorrow.

Thanksgiving weekend, workouts and a Frenchie

This weekend went by in a blur and I realized it had been way too long since my last post. My main goal this past weekend was to not focus the weekend too much around food, rather, focus the weekend on working out and getting things done.

On Thanksgiving Day, Dave and I got up early to run the Arroyo Verde hiking trail just a few miles away from our house. These photos were taken after the 4 mile run with our little fur-child, Phoebe. Below the trails is this beautiful little park. After our runs I always just want to lay down on a blanket in this park and take a long nap. 

We ate with my family later that afternoon at my Grandparents. Thanksgiving isn't the tradition it used to be because my grandparents aren't very mobile anymore, so we visit them in their retirement community, and it is usually over no later than 2:00 - which is always a little bit of a letdown. You know, since nothing is open on Thanksgiving, so there isn't much else for us to do. But we did enjoy a bottle of wine and some Lord Of The Rings.... I had never seen it, and Dave was appalled, so we watch it. Haha.

Friday morning (Black Friday) I decided to forgo the shopping experience and went to a 7:00 am boxing class at the (new) gym. Damn I love that class. It kicks your butt. Definitely worth getting up and going to. I need to remember that. 

 Olive was just being extra cute this weekend so I thought I'd post some photos of her squishy mug on here. In this photo she was very serious about me getting out of bed to feed her. Googly eyes and all. Girl loves her food. Hmmmmm I wonder where she got that from?

Later on Friday we decided to put up our Christmas decorations. Mostly the tree and the outdoor lights. I do love my little tree - covered in pinks and blues and starbucks cups and owls... It's my favorite night light. I wish I could keep it up for longer than a month.

 Olive and Phoebe were very curious about what the heck we were hanging on the house.

Saturday my parents held a non-formal Thanksgiving feast at their house. It was delicious, but again, I took no photos of the food. I guess I was really serious about not focusing too much on food that weekend. We did, however, get another workout in before the last feast of the weekend. My brother Shane invited us on a little hike up the trail behind my parents' house in Ojai. It was only a couple of miles but it definitely helped with all the food we had eaten over the weekend. It was also very special because I hadn't gone on this trail since I was in junior high, so there were lots of memories on this trail. Sometime soon Dave and I have agreed to do the FULL day hike to the top of the Topa Topa mountain (the top of the mountain in the photo below - I've heard its a cray hike but totally worth it)

And then Sunday was just another day of getting groceries and things in order for the week ahead. That concludes our crazy Thanksgiving weekend! I truly enjoyed the time off and all of the time we spent on exercise and getting outdoors. It was a great weekend.

Paleo Orange Chicken with Cauliflower Rice

One of our favorite Paleo dishes is my own version of Orange Chicken with Cauliflower rice!

When Dave and I first met, we ate out a lot. Whenever we did cook, it was usually a pre-frozen Trader Joes meal that you just heat up in the skillet - and more often than not we were heating up our favorite: orange chicken. Now we have a healthy alternative to our favorite dish that is just as delicious, but waaaaaaaay better for you.

behold.....

The original recipe I got the idea from is a crock pot recipe, but one day I was in a pinch for time and had some already-cooked chicken in the fridge and did a stove top version of the recipe and it turned out AMAZING. And, if you have a little help in the kitchen, its an extremely quick and easy meal. Dave usually grates the cauliflower rice for me. Sweety pie.

The Orange Chicken:

About 3 breasts chicken (pre-baked)
2 tbsp orange juice
3 tbsp tomato paste
1/3 Cup Coconut Aminos (soy sauce substitute)
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tbsp minced garlic (I love garlic, so I use more garlic than the recipe calls for)
1/3 Cup honey
1 tbsp Sesame oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Sesame Seeds for garnish

Directions: Chop up chicken into bite size pieces, then set aside. In a medium sauce pan, combine all sauce ingredients on medium heat until blended. Let cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes, add the chicken and cook until chicken is heated throughout. Reduce heat to lowest setting and prepare the Cauliflower rice.

The Cauliflower Rice:

1 large head cauliflower (about 4 cups)
1-2 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp cilantro
1/4 cup coconut milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Directions: With a cheese grater, finely grate the cauliflower head into rice-shaped bits into a bowl. In a Large wok or saucepan, add the coconut oil. When melted, add the cauliflower and cook on medium/high heat for about 5 minutes. Add the cilantro, salt and pepper. Once the "rice" is cooked through, add the coconut milk and cook for about 5 more minutes.

Serve the Orange Chicken over the Cauliflower Rice immediately and garnish with Sesame Seeds.

YUM!

Hello Monday....

As blue as I am that it is Monday, it is a short week!! Thank you Thanksgiving!! So really, today is more like Wednesday, and for that I am grateful.

This past weekend was pretty uneventful, which is just the way I like it. The older I get the busier I seem to be, and this weekend the only thing on the agenda was Friends-Giving and a lot of football. YES!

Friendsgiving was a great success. It was a unanimous choice to do the event at our house, but it was somewhat of a Potluck Friendsgiving, which made it much less stressful.

I was so busy in the kitchen all day that I managed to completely forget to take pictures the entire night. FAIL. Luckily, my roommate instagrammed the turkey once it was ready! Thanks Chris!!

The spread was delicious. We have turkey, brussel sprouts with Bacon, Roasted cauliflower, sweet potato au gratin, mashed potatoes and stuffing for the non-paleo eaters! HAHA. Afterwards there was also Pumpkin Pie and Chocolate Pecan Pie. I must say the chocolate pie was amazing!!

* * * * * * * *

Moving right along, on Sunday I decided to get out a little bit and go dress shopping for my upcoming holiday party at work. It's kind of like our own little prom, everyone gets really dressed up and its kind of a big deal, so I thought it might be a good idea to start looking at dresses ahead of time...

I found some cute ones, but I'm not in love with anything just yet. One thing I AM enjoying very much is that dresses actually zip up all the way on me now, and I'm not even at the largest size!! That was a good feeling. If I needed any motivation to keep going, that was it. By this time next year I'm going to have the body I've always wanted, but until then, I'm going to keep enjoying these little moments of bliss in the dressing room.

* * * * * * * *
And now it's Monday (actually it's already halfway over!)
I'm already done with my cardio boot camp workout -  and boy was it a doozy. Mondays are always hard... my legs always feel twice as heavy on a Monday! Haha

Today's Boot Camp workout:

1/2 mile warm up run

10 squats
10 lunges with a hip flexor stretch

Run 0.5 miles (2 laps around park)

10 deadlifts (each leg)
10 lunges with a hip flexor stretch

Run 0.5 miles (2 laps around park)

10 "good mornings" no weight

10 walking lunges, each leg

Run 0.5 miles (2 laps around park)

10 sumo squats

10 lunges with a hip flexor stretch

Run 0.5 miles (2 laps around park)

1/2 mile cool down run

* * * * * * * * *

Stick a fork in me I'm done!!!! 

Foxy Boxing and a new gym!

Last night I took a boxing class with a good friend of mine, and loved it. No it's not called Foxy Boxing... I just called it that because it sounds funny. Haha. This class was at a DIFFERENT gym than the one I go to, and I think I've been converted. I may have to break up with my current gym. 

You see, I had recently gone to a boxing class at my current gym and wasn't all too thrilled with it. The instructor was lethargic and her enthusiasm was extremely forced and I wasn't convinced she even wanted to be there. Needless to say after the class ended, I left unmotivated and not all that sweaty. It felt more like a social hour for her and the other women who weren't there to break a sweat.

Yesterday I got an invite by my good friend Hayley to join her in a boxing class at HER gym. Life changing I tell you! It was intense!!! The instructor almost raps the moves to you to an amazing music mix that is motivating and sweat-inducing. Every inch of my body was drenched in sweat and my muscles were burning. I loved it.

Not only did I love the class itself, but the rest of the gym was exactly what I'd been looking for. I've only been at my current gym for a month, but haven't yet felt comfortable there and even though it's a very large gym, it is always PACKED, and the classes are only so-so. I haven't felt happy there, and when I saw this awesome gym it was love at first sight:

(I only got one photo, but it shows enough to get my point across.... haha)

See what I mean? There is ROOM to do things!!! AND all of the equipment here is stuff I recognize and use.... It's open for you to make your own free-weight workouts, not filled with unnecessary machines. I will have a boxing buddy because my friend goes here. I won't have to fight off giant gorilla meatheads for the weights or mirrors. Plus, because this is a gym owned by a single person, rather than a giant corporation, that also makes me extremely happy. I'm supporting someone's business, rather than being just another one of thousands feeding a corporate bank account. 

I'm gonna do it. 

I'm going to break up with my gym and start going to this one!!!

Paleo Pumpkin Pie

Every year my office throws a Thanksgiving Potluck. And every year it is filled with delicious, yet unhealthy options. So this year I had an idea, I will bring a healthy pumpkin pie option to the party! Because honestly, who doesn't love a guilt-free dessert?? I found this recipe here, and I must tell you it is one that is going in the recipe box for good. I even had a health-skeptic friend come over and try it. (she doesn't really understand my obsession with the whole "paleo" thing.... like a lot of my friends. They'll get converted eventually - haha)

Anyways she tried it and literally the words that came out of her mouth were, "If you hadn't told me this was healthy, I wouldn't have known the difference. This is REALLY good!!"

Success.

I am so excited to make this for the Thanksgiving potluck, and so excited to share this recipe with everyone that is looking for healthy alternatives to Thanksgiving desserts.

Crust:

2 cups Almond Flour
1 egg
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 tablespoon coconut oil (I melted mine so that it blended easier with a spatula)

Combine ingredients with a spatula (I didn't have a food processor, so I did it by hand. Its not difficult at all) Press crust into pie pan with your hands until the crust is even all around. Do not bake until filling has been poured in.

Pie Filling:

1 15 oz can of Organic Pumpkin
3 eggs
1/2 cup coconut milk (use the canned full-fat stuff!!)
1/3 cup honey
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Combine Pumpkin and eggs in a bowl with a spatula or whisk. Whisk in coconut milk, honey, and spices. Pour into pie crust and bake at 350˚ for 45 minutes. Allow to cool and then refrigerate for about 2 hours to set.