The Friday Five

Another week down, and another weekend is here!  And that means it’s time for …

Here we go!

1.  The kids hockey season starts tomorrow!  Everyone in the house is looking forward the start of the 2013-2014 hockey season.  Tomorrow we get to see who is on their teams and we start spending a good chunk of the weekend in an arena.  At least this year, it will all be at the same rink and sometimes at the same time.  Other times, it will seem like we are spending our whole day there.  Tomorrow will be one of the “whole day” days.  Nick has a game at 1pm, which we need to be at an hour early since it is the first day and the kids need to get their socks and jerseys and there is some paperwork to fill out.  Then at 3:15 Jacko has his first practice, which we also need to be at early for jerseys etc.  This means we will be at the rink from about noon until 4:30.  Nothing like jumping right into it. I can’t wait! 

2.  I’m playing what will likely be my last round of golf on Sunday.   It is our EWGA appreciation day and we are playing out at Royal Ontario.  It is a team thing, but I’m hoping I play well as we will still keep our own score.  At each hole, everyone plays their own ball and records their own score.  Then we open a little card that says how we pick the score that we record for the team.  It could be something like:  “who is the next person to have their birthday”, “who has the most pink on”, “who is wearing the most layers of clothing”, and fun things like that, that make it pretty random on who’s score gets picked.  The weather is supposed to be perfect for golf.  Sunny and 23 degrees (Celsius). I can’t wait. 

3.  I tried Kombucha!  I have been reading in lots of blogs about Kombucha and how great it is.  I really had no idea what it was and was a bit nervous to try it out.  Last weekend, I was down at Whole Foods, checking it out for the first time and I looked to see if they had Kombucha.  They did, but I still wasn’t sure what it was.  Luckily for me, there was a girl giving out samples of some other thing just in front of where the Kombucha was. She heard me chatting to hubs about the Kombucha and offered some advice.  I ended up getting 2 different kinds/flavours.  So far, I’ve only tried one: 

This was a Gingerade flavour.  It was actually pretty good.  I took a small glass before meals for a couple of days. I’m not sure I felt any different because of it – I may need to take more to get the full benefits, but I was worried I might react to it, so just started small.  I’ve got another bottle of grape flavour in the fridge and will try to drink it this weekend.  I’m not sure I will become a regular drinker, but will probably drink it on my whole life challenge since I miss the bubbles of my diet pop, and this is naturally fizzy.  It’s a bit of a treat for me now. Who knows, I may keep it up.  Here is an article from the Huffington Post that lists some of the benefits of Kombucha. 

4.  I found some Whole Life Challenge approved snacks.  I actually haven’t been snacking all that much since starting the challenge.  I’m eating pretty filling meals and don’t find that I’m hungry between meals.  That being said, everyone once in a while I do find myself wishing I had something sweet to eat.  Since sugar is out, that doesn’t leave too much.  The coaches at CrossFit posted a few challenge compliant snacks that they found in the local health food grocery store.  I picked up a few different varieties of “brownies”….although I’m not quite sure how they are brownies, since they don’t have chocolate in them!  One is only bananas and the other is bananas and guava.  I will try them tomorrow and see how they taste. 

And last, but certainly not least….

5.  I love CrossFit.  I know that is not something new.  I have been raving about how much I like CrossFit pretty much since the first day I stepped in the Box.  The workouts are killer.  They scare the hell out of me just about every day, but they are awesome.  I leave the Box knowing I have worked hard and done my body good. 

That’s only part of the reason why I love CrossFit.  The other has to do with the sense of community you feel in the Box.  The coaches are amazing.  The are so knowledgeable about the moves and I have learned so much from each one of them.  Every class I get a bit better with each movement.  But the coaches are only half of the equation.  The other half is the other CrossFitters. Everyone is so friendly and encouraging, cheering  you on for your last counts.

I’m often the last one finished the WOD (I’m old and slow, but I’m okay with that!), and so often class members who are finished will stick around until I’m done, helping me count out the last few reps.  It actually happened at today’s class.  3 rounds of 600m run and 30KB swings.  I am a slow runner, so knew I would be near the end.  I was just finishing up my last run when everyone else was done and putting their kettle bells away.  The coach came over to get me moving on the kettle bell swings.  I did 15 and needed to take a break.  By then, two other girls in the class had come over, asked how many I had left to do, and counted me down.  I know I could have finished those last swings if they weren’t there, but just having them standing close by and counting the swings off for me, gave me that extra little motivation I needed to get them done. 

I hear about this on other blogs as well – the sense of community and encouragement that you feel in the Box.  I saw this article today that just sums it up so well.  I hope you will take a few minutes and give it a read:  Crossfitters Eat Their Young – For Time.

Now, it’s late and I need to get to bed so I can get my 7 hours of sleep.  I’ve got CrossFit at 9:30, then the rest of my day will pretty much be spent at the rink.

What have you got planned for the weekend?

Have you tried Kombucha?  What flavour should I try next?

Happy weekend!

Things From The Web

Hey all!   Once again it’s been a while between posts.  I just don’t seem to be able to get to writing as often as I’d like.  Oh well…that’s life!

Here a just a few things that I’ve seen on the web lately that caught my attention.

1. Here’s a great quote I saw on a fellow blogger BOXGRL81’s site today.  I love it!  #CrossFit

2.  Earlier this week, on the Late Show with Jimmy Fallon, there was a lip sync battle between Jimmy, Stephen Merchant and Joseph Gordon Levitt.  It’s pretty good! 

Epic lip sync-off!

3.  Since I’m doing the Whole Life Challenge, I am off sugar.  I can have it as an ingredient in a savoury sauce, but I can’t have sweets or use sugar/honey/maple syrup in any recipes.  I don’t really find I am missing it and I will try to keep my sugar intake to a minimum once the challenge is over.  Here’s a little info (from www.superherbalfoods.com) on why you should give up, or at least reduce your sugar intake too.

Tonight I’ve got an early hockey game (7:30pm) and then I am hitting the couch to watch the 2 hour season premiere of Grey’s Anatomy.  Wohoo!!!   Parenthood also premieres tonight, but overlaps with Grey’s, so I will PVR it and hopefully watch it at some point over the weekend.

Are you watching Grey’s tonight? 

See you tomorrow for Friday Five!

The Friday Five

So, I’m just a bit late getting this post up on the blog.  I started Friday afternoon and then just didn’t get back to finishing it.  Oh well, better late than never, right?

#1-3 were written on Friday.

Another week is in the books, and it’s the weekend and time for this week’s edition of:

1.  I’ve had a good week with the Whole Life Challenge.  I’ve worked out, stretched, taken my fish oil, and drank at least half my body weight in ounces of water every day this week.  I’ve been close to perfect with my food as well.  I realized after I ate something that I probably isn’t a WLC approved food…but it was so good, it was worth the point!   The culprit is on the plate below:

It was the prosciutto I wrapped the asparagus in.  I totally forgot it isn’t allowed.  At least I assume it isn’t allowed due to the curing process.  I’m not sure what exactly that process is, but I would imagine there are some preservatives and artificial things done to the meat…so I will take the point hit and move on.

This week we celebrated a birthday at my office.  We have a tradition, that for your birthday, you get to pick the restaurant we go to for lunch.  Well, the birthday boy picked Diana’s Oyster Bar & Grill.  We’ve been there before for other lunches, and I knew I was going to need some will power or adventure to make it through this lunch without losing a bunch of points.  I’m not a huge fan of seafood, so I stick to pretty safe things when we go here.  Usually I get crab cakes to start (they have the best Spicy Aioli that they serve with them!) and then fish and chips as my main.  Both of those items are not WLC compliant.  So, I had to find something else to eat.  I took a step in the adventure direction and chose to have Lobster!  I’ve only ever had one lobster in my life before – at a dinner in a church basement while we were on vacation in PEI about 15 years ago.  I was okay, but I didn’t love it, so I’ve never had it again.  Until Tuesday.

This thing was huge!  Just over 2lbs, and it was awesome!  So sweet and tasty…I’m pretty sure the warm garlic butter helped, but it was really good.  I pretty much only ate the claws, legs and tail.  I stayed away from the “green stuff”.  I wasn’t quite ready to get that adventurous!

2.  I’ve discovered Larabars.  I knew these were some kind of snack bar, but I didn’t realize that they are made with only “real” ingredients.  No artificial flavours or preservatives.  They are pretty much just dates and nuts & seeds.

I tried these two flavours and liked them both.  At $2.50 a bar, they are a tad on the expensive side.  So, I am going to make my own.  In the past I’ve made dark chocolate date bars…which are pretty much larabars!  To make them WLC compliant, I will skip the honey and just go with dates and whatever nuts and seeds I can find in my cupboard.

MONDAY UPDATE:  Larabars were on sale at Costco for $12.99 for a box of 18.  So, I just bought 2 boxes rather than make my own.  I’m lazy! 

3.  Tonight I’m going Bingo Bowling!
Hubs and I are going to a hockey fundraiser for my friend Toni’s nephew’s Triple A hockey team.  Bingo Bowling is bowling (with the lanes lit up in fluorescent and black light), but instead of keeping individual scores, you play in teams and try to clear a “bingo card” with various shots on it.  So, you could need a strike, spare, just the centre pin, only the back corners, etc.  First team to clear their card wins.  This isn’t about bowling talent, it’s about strategy and speed.  I went last year and had a blast.  This year, we thought we would include the boys, so hubbies and boyfriends are coming too.  Last year I did enjoy a few Corona, which I’m pretty sure added to the bowling enjoyment, but tonight, there will be no Corona for me   This Whole Life Challenge is definitely testing my will power!

MONDAY update:  Bowling was a blast. Our team won the first game (which we also did last year) and we were in contention in just about every game that was played.  If you haven’t tried Bingo Bowling, give it a shot….it’s a ton of fun if you have a few groups of people.  I managed to stick to the Whole Life Challenge.  I drank water all night and only had fruit and veggies from the buffet.  I resisted meatballs, deli meats, cheese and amazing looking desserts and treats.

#4 and #5 were added Monday morning!

4.  I have graduated our of CrossFit Fundamentals.  My Box, CrossFit Newmarket Central, starts CrossFit newbs in a Fundamentals class.  This class does the exact same WODs as the full CrossFit classes, but takes a bit more time breaking down each lift/move to be sure we all learn proper technique.  Since I started back in February, I have been doing the Fundamentals only or combined CrossFit/Fundamentals classes.  Last weekend I took a Saturday morning Fundamentals only class and my coach said I should take the test and graduate to full fledged CrossFit.  I was getting too good for Fundamentals, and she thought I would progress more if I moved on to full CrossFit classes.  I was excited to hear this, and nervous.  I’m not young or strong like many of the CrossFit peeps.  Fundamentals was “safe” CrossFit for me.

I went to class Friday after work – a Fundamentals only class – and after class my coach did my CrossFit test. It is not a big test.  It’s basically performing each lift with a PVC pipe to show we know hat the lifts are and how to perform them with proper technique.  We went through all the lifts, and I passed with flying colours!  I am now a full on CrossFitter.  No more Fundamentals only classes for me.  In the big scheme of things, this doesn’t change much.  Most of the classes I went to were combined CrossFit/Fundamentals classes anyways.  But, now, I will be able to attend the CrossFit only classes.  It just opens up a few more options to me…and should be a bit more challenging – at least I hope it will!

5. There is a new lifestyle challenge piece in the Whole Life Challenge.  For the first two weeks of the challenge, we had to drink half our body weight in ounces of water.  This was an easy challenge for me.  I already drink a lot of water, so it wasn’t that hard to hit the required level every day.  Starting Friday night, a new lifestyle challenge went into effect for the next 2 weeks.  We need to get 7 hours of sleep every day.  This one is going to be tough.  Most nights I’m not even in bed for 7 hours, let alone asleep for 7 hours.  They did say it is total sleep in the day – so the amount you sleep at night, plus any napping during the day, must add up to 7 hours.

I found this graphic online that might help to explain why they want us to get at least 7 hours:

Friday and Saturday night weren’t a problem, since I could sleep in on the weekend mornings.  Today, I had to get up at my usual time and did not hit 7 hours.  I got about 6 hours last night.  I actually don’t remember the last time I got 7 hours of sleep on a weeknight.  Hopefully I will be able to squeeze in a nap after work to get me up to the magic 7 hours for the day.  I’m not sure it will happen.

So, there it is, my late edition of the Friday Five.

Hope you all had a good weekend. Let’s hope the week flies by!

Do you regularly get 7 hours of sleep a night?

Double-Down Thursday

Man, this week has just flown by.  Tomorrow is Friday and the weekend is just around the corner.  Wohoo!

I’ve got a busy night ahead of me tonight, with 2 workouts, so writing up a quick post on a break at work.

Tonight I have CrossFit at 6:30 and then hockey at 8:30.

Tonight’s WOD looks not too bad:

Last time we did shoulder press, I really liked it.  Hopefully tonight I will set a PR.  Fingers crossed.  Although the AMRAP looks harmless enough, I’m sure it will be killer.  They all are!  And that’s why I love CrossFit – it’s always a good workout!

I will be going right from the Box to the rink.  We are undefeated in out first two games, so hopefully we can keep the streak alive tonight.  Regardless, it will be a good skate, and there should be a few good laughs on the bench and in the dressing room.  Can’t wait to hit the ice!

At some point in there, I also need to eat something for dinner.  It might just be a larabar on my drive to the rink.  I don’t really want to eat before going to CrossFit…that’s just a recipe for disaster!

Okay, sorry this was so short, but that’s all I can squeeze in.

See you tomorrow for the Friday Five!

What do you eat before you hit CrossFit?
Have you ever seen “Pukie”?

The Friday Five

Holy cow!  TGIF!  I can’t tell you how happy I am that it is the weekend! 

Let’s get right to it.

1.  I love breakfast!  Up until the last week, I have been having an Isagenix shake for breakfast every day.  I have a Magic Bullet in my office at work, and each morning when I got to work, would throw some ice, water, and the protein powder into the bullet and whip up a shake.  It was pretty good, and I had convinced myself that it tasted like a chocolate milkshake.  My sister thought i was nuts as she thinks it is not even close to a milkshake.  She is probably right  

Since starting the Whole Life Challenge, I have been eating real food for breakfast!  And I have been LOVING it!  On Sunday I made a bunch of baked eggs, made some spicy turkey sausage patties from scratch, and roasted up some acorn squash.  Now every day when I get to work, I heat up a plate of deliciousness!  I add a half of a grapefruit to round out my meal.

This meal not only tastes great, it keeps me full all morning long.  This weekend I’m going to experiment with some more egg creations so I can eat just as well next week.

2.  I am the EWGA York-Simcoe Match Play Champion!  I played my final match of the year this past Tuesday.  It was a hot day, but I felt good.  I didn’t play my best game of the year, but I played pretty well (for me at least) shooting a 50 on the front 9.  I had a couple of bad holes, but the rest of my game was pretty good.  My playing partner, Nycole, had to give me 5 strokes since her handicap is better than mine. 

In the end I won 5 holes, she won 2 and we tied 2.  I had actually won the match on the 7th hole since I was up by enough she couldn’t win even if she won the last 2 holes.  It was night to have the pressure taken off for the rest of the round.  In the end, she won the 8th hole and I won 9th with a fantastic, long 1-putt for par!  Love finishing strong! 

Perhaps even more exciting than winning the match, I beat my friend George for the first time ever.  She did probably play one of her worst rounds of golf ever, but I don’t care.  I beat her, and did it without playing my best golf either.  Sure it was only by 1 stroke as I shot 50 and she shot 51, but a stroke is a stroke..and I won!  I need to soak up that little victory for as long as I can, because it may never happen again!  

3.  I’m doing well with the Whole Life Challenge.  So far I have a perfect score.  I have eaten challenge compliant for every meal and snack so far, taken my fish oil supplement every day, done at least 10 minutes of exercise every day (more on WOD, golf and hockey days), and done 10 minutes of mobility/stretching every day.  I even have 2 bonus points stored up for reflecting on how the challenge is going every day.  I am loving this challenge. It makes me think about what I am eating and has gotten me back on track with my food.  I’m planning menus and cooking again, and I’m loving it.  I can’t wait for Sunday when I can drag out my cookbooks and plan another week’s worth of tasty, healthy meals for me and my family. 

4.  My perfect WLC score may end tomorrow!  While I have been completely on track this week, tomorrow will be a true challenge.  It is the Magna HoeDown, and I will likely eat things that I shouldn’t and drink things I shouldn’t.  The HoeDown is a giant fundraiser put on by Magna to raise fund for local charities and organizations.  We went last year with a big group of friends and had an AWESOME time!  It was so much fun.  We had a photo scavenger hunt that turned out to be the best time ever.  Amongst our group, we would spot someone in the crowd and tell one of the gang they had to go get a picture taken with the random stranger – wearing their hat, jacket, or whatever it is that caught our attention.  And just to keep it a friendly competition, the winner of the scavenger hunt would be whoever got their picture taken with one of the Stronachs (Frank or Belinda, with Frank being the goal), would be the winner.  Part way through the night one of the girls came back and declared herself the winner, since she had her picture taken with Belinda.  Well, the night was not over, and on one of out tours of the tent (the event is held on the Magna compound under a GIANT tent), my friend Suzanne and I spotted Frank.  We’d had a few beverages by this point, so got him to stop, explained out photo scavenger hunt contest, and convinced him he needed to get his picture taken with us.  And that is how we won the inaugural photo scavenger hunt!

Maybe this year we can get one with him with his shirt off!  Seems he’s into that lately!  LOL  Click here to see what I mean. 

5.  I can’t wait to do nothing tonight!  My life is pretty busy and I don’t get many days where I don’t have something going on, so I am really looking forward to tonight.  Other than doing my WLC exercise and mobility activities, I have nothing planned for tonight.  Well, that’s not exactly true.  I plan to sit on the couch, in my comfies and watch TV.  Hubs and I have a few episodes of Orange is the New Black left to watch, hopefully we can finish the season off tonight.

Once we finish this series we will need find something else to watch.  I’ve head House of Cards is pretty good, and Sons of Anarchy.  Maybe we will start watching one of them next. 

Well, that’s 5, and now I should go make dinner.  Tonight I am making Chick Pea Curry.  I don’t really have a recipe, so I am going it.  Wish me luck! 

Are you watching Orange is the New Black? Do you love it?

Do you have any recommendations as to what we should watch next?

Happy Friday!
Have a great weekend!

A Busy Sunday In the Kitchen

Holy Cow!  What a busy day I had.  I spent most of the day cooking…and it was awesome!

After a nice sleep in, I got up an made a delicious, Whole Life Challenge compliant brunch for the family.  I had seen a few recipes online for sweet potato hash that all sounded really good, so figured I would try one of them out.  I used this recipe from Nom Nom Paleo.

The kids helped to turn the sweet potato into hash…using my new spiral slicer.  This thing is amazing!  In no time at all we had lovely shredded sweet potato.  I fried up some hot Italian sausage to go with the sweet potatoes and everyone had some over-easy eggs to round out the meal. 

This was so good!  The hash was amazing.  I will definitely be making this again.

After brunch we went out and did a few errands, and then I got right down to Sunday Food Prep.  I was on fire!  I made:

• Mexican meatballs – we will have these in some marinara sauce and served over pasta on Thursday night.  I will make zoodles for me and likely regular pasta for the rest of the gang.
• Turkey breakfast sausage patties – I will take these to work with me for breakfast each day, and the kids have their eye on them too
• Roasted a butternut squash – this will probably be used as a side dish for my lunches at work, and maybe even to snack on
• Turkey Zucchini Burgers, tahini sauce, and cucumber tomato salsa – we are having this for dinner tomorrow and the kids are really looking forward to it.  We had these this summer and they were a huge hit.  I’m looking forward to leftovers for lunch on Wednesday!
• Hard boiled eggs – for snacks
• Baked eggs wrapped in bacon – for breakfasts at work this week
• Cut up veggies for everyone’s lunches this week – green peppers, celery and heirloom carrots – all from this week’s Harvest Share box
  

I think we are going to eat very well this week!

I was going to make Wednesday night’s Orange Chicken, but it looks pretty quick, so I will just make it when I get home from work. 

Tonight for dinner we had a repeat of a Clean Eating magazine recipe that we like – Spaghetti Squash with Chicken and Pears.  This is really simple and quite tasty, and I have a leftover meal for lunch tomorrow.  Gotta love leftovers!  I forgot to take a picture of it, but did manage to get a shot of Jacko’s before he finished.  He has some parmesan cheese on his – which I did not have since dairy is one of the “not allowed” foods on the Whole Life Challenge. 

So far the Whole Life Challenge has been going very well.  I’m not really tempted to eat anything I’m not supposed to, what I am eating is all tasting very good and keeping me satisfied, and I’m drinking lots of water.  I still have to do 10 minutes of activity and 10 minutes of mobility before I go to bed.  I’m hoping to do 5 minutes of kettlebell swings and 5 minutes of double under practice.  Then I’m going to spend some time with my foam roller and hit the sack. 

I’m back at the box tomorrow, and I’m looking forward to the WOD.  It is a repeat of one we did back in May – Nancy.  5 rounds for time, 400m run, 15 Overhead Squats.  Back in May, I used 35 lbs for the OHS and it took me 22:19.  I’m looking forward to seeing how I do tomorrow.  Hopefully there is some improvement – either in the weight I can lift, or in the time it takes to finish.  Fingers crossed!  I’ll let you know how it goes.

Here’s looking forward to a good week ahead!

Did you do any Sunday Food Prep?
What did you make? 

A Soggy Saturday

Happy Saturday, everyone!

Today was a soggy day in my neck of the woods, but I still managed to have a pretty busy day.

I was up bright and early to head to CrossFit for the Whole Life Challenge nutrition seminar.  I convinced my sister to join the WLC, so she came with me.  The seminar was good and gave us a bit more insight into what we can/can’t eat and how to cope with all of it over the next 8 weeks.  They also told us that the first two weeks will be hard and we might actually feel worse…but if we can get through that, then things will get better.  We just need to tough it out.  I’m nervous, but excited.

After the seminar we went right into measurements and onto the WOD.  They took our weight (and their scale isn’t as friendly as mine), and then waist and hip measurements.  All of this gets entered into my WLC page and I will be able to compare these numbers to the measurements that we take at the end of the 8 weeks. 

After measurements, we got into line to do the WOD, which was:

WLC Fall 2013 Official Workout
Complete the following for maximum points:
2 min – Max calories on the rower
– (1 point for each calorie)
– 1 min rest –
2 min – complete as many reps as possible, repeating the following sequence:
5 push ups
15 squats
(1 point for each Push-up and Squat)
– 1 min rest - 
2 min – complete as many reps as possible of:
Sit Ups
(1 point for each sit-up)
– 1 min rest –
2 min – Max calories on the rower
– (1 point for each calorie)
Calculate your TOTAL points for all 4 elements and enter
it into your profile on the WLC site.

In true CrossFit fashion…this was a pretty tough 11 minutes!  My scores for each round were:  28, 61, 51 & 26, for a total WOD score of 166.  I have no idea whether that is a good score or not. I know my sister beat me by 6 points….but she’s super fit, so I think getting beat by 6 isn’t too bad!  Regardless, I’m not really trying to beat anyone else, just improve over the 8 weeks. 

Once I got the WOD out of the way, I really didn’t have anything that had to get done today.  It was a rainy, gloomy day, so what else do you do with a day like that…but head to the mall! 

I was a bit worried about hitting the mall over lunch hour, since I had no idea if there would be anything I could eat in the food court.  It took a bit of looking, and talking to the guy behind the counter, but I found a pretty decent lunch that met all of my WLC diet requirements.  I ended up having shwarma chicken (which the guy ensured me is only rubbed in spices and has no sugar, wheat, dairy, etc) and he switched out the potatoes and rice for bean salad, tossed salad and tomatoes and hot peppers.  All of which he promised had nothing that I’m not supposed to eat.  In the end I had a giant plate of food, and it was delicious!  I took a picture of it, but it seems to have somehow disappeared off my phone! Ugh!!!

After lunch I hit Lululemon.  I got a gift card for Mother’s Day that I hadn’t spent yet and thought it was time to go see what all the Lulu fuss is about.  I had never really been in a Lulu store before.  It was a pretty good experience!  and a successful one too!  I finally got a pair of Lulu Studio Pants.  They really are just as comfortable as everyone says they are!  I also got a couple of new sports bras – a blue and white striped “tata tamer’ and a red “flow”.  Both are very comfortable and seem like they will keep the “girls” where they should be during a WOD, or even a run!  A very successful trip, if I do say so myself!

After the mall I watched some tennis (ahhh Rafa!), and did some meal planning for the week.  I think I have quite a few tasty dishes lined up:

• a few kinds of egg muffins
• zucchini noodles
• spaghetti squash with chicken and pears
• turkey zucchini burgers
• orange chicken
• Mexican meatballs
• Chick pea curry

I still need to sort out my snacks, but I have a few kinds of hummus and lots of veggies.  Hopefully I will find a few other snacks that I can add into the mix. 

For dinner tonight, Hubs and the kids went out to RibFest with friends, but I decided not to go since I wouldn’t be able to eat anything they had there, and it would just be torture to sit and watch them eat yummy ribs and drink beer.  Instead I grabbed a zucchini, a hot Italian sausage and some spaghetti sauce (with no sugar or artificial ingredients!), and created a yummy zoodle meal:

This was an awesome dish.  I used my new spiral slicer and turned the zucchini into noodles – very cool and super easy!  After that, I removed the sausage from its casing and turned it into mini sausage meatballs and sautéed them up in a bit of olive oil until they were cooked through.  Once the sausage was done, I added the zoodles to the pan and sautéed them as well.  It was smelling so good at this point!  I added some salt and pepper and about 3 tbsp. of the spaghetti sauce and let that simmer for a few minutes.  Holy deliciousness!  I was really quite surprised about how good it tasted…and how simple it was.  I think this might become part of my WLC meal rotation.  I’m pretty sure the kids would love it as well….and they could kick it up a notch and put some parmesan on it…although it was excellent just as it was without the cheese. 

Tomorrow I plan to do a bunch of food prep to make my week of WLC eating go smoothly.  I’ll let you know how that goes!

I hope you had a fantastic Saturday!

Do you have a pair of Lulu Studio Pants?  Do you love them as much as all of my friend’s do?
Have you turned any veggies into noodles?  Got any suggestions for what else I can noodle-ize?

The Friday Five

It’s the weekend again!  Gotta love a short work week!

Let’s get right to this week’s Friday Five.

1.  The Whole Life Challenge starts tomorrow! 

So, starting at midnight tonight I will be following some different food guidelines, doing some sort of work out every day, stretching every day, taking a fish oil supplement every day, and doing the weekly task every day.  This week’s task is to drink half of our body weight in ounces of water.  This task is a good one, since most day I know I don’t drink enough water. 

I’m looking forward to the diet changes the most.  I had a summer of poor eating and I’m looking forward to getting back to eating clean.  There are quite a few things that are on the “not allowed” list (whole grains, white rice, potatoes, most dairy, sugar, alcohol), but the list of things I can eat is really big and I’m pretty sure I will be able to create lots of healthy, tasty meals using these ingredients.  I’ve opted to do the Intermediate level.  Here’s a quick guideline of what’s allowed or not.  To see the full list, click here.  I’m pretty much allowed any meat or veg I like, as long as it doesn’t contain any added sugar or artificial ingredients.  Fruit is also allowed.  YUM!!!

There is also a benchmark workout for the WLC as well.  I’ll cover that in tomorrow’s post! 

2.  I will be hitting my cookbooks, Clean Eating magazines, and all the recipes I have found online and put into my Pocket,  to find lots of delicious recipes that fit within the WLC food requirements.  I can’t wait to get back to meal planning, grocery shopping, food prep and cooking.  I did far to little of all of those things over the summer.  Seriously, I can’t wait to hit the couch with my iPad and cookbooks and start finding all sorts of delicious things to eat. 

3.  I can’t wait to use my birthday present from my family.  I got a Paderno World Cuisine Spiral Slicer. 

I had seen if referred to on many blogs and I have wanted one for a while, When my birthday was approaching. I kept dropping hints to hubby, and like the great guy that he is, he got it for me!  I opened it this morning.  This came just in time for me to use for my Whole Life Challenge cooking and food prep.  Since pasta is a no go on the WLC program, I can’t wait to turn zucchini, sweet potatoes, and anything else I can think of, into awesome noodles. 

4.  I have a massage later this afternoon, and I CAN’T WAIT!!!!!
My poor old bod is feeing it’s age these days.  I am putting it through quite a bit at CrossFit and it’s letting me know it’s not too happy about some of it.  I say too bad, body.  Suck it up.  I’m not quitting!

5. Lisa, at She’s Losing It, nominated me for a WordPress Family Award.  If you don’t currently follow Lisa’s blog, be sure to go check it out.  She is amazing.  She has transformed herself from being 40lbs overweight to being a lean, mean, fitness model competitor.  I am in awe of her determination, workout ethic, and self control when it comes to diet.  I would love to have half of her levels of each. 

I had never heard of this award before, but apparently it was created for bloggers who are part of the WordPress “family” and take the time to be supportive of other bloggers by giving positive feedback, answer questions and do so in a non-competitive way.

As with any award, there are a few rules to be followed:
1.  Display the award logo on your blog. DONE!
2.  Link back to the person who nominated you. DONE!
3.  Nominate 10 others you see as having an impact on your WordPress experience and family. DONE!
4.  Let your 10 Family members know you have awarded them. (I will have to do that later…I’ve run out of time now!)

My Nominations:

1.  Not the fat kid in gym class anymore
2.  Crazy, Sweaty Mommy
3.  Chasing the Top
4.  Little Runner Girl
5.  Mommy Go Run
6.  Taylor Made it Paleo
7.  No Longer Working On It
8.  Losing 50 Laps
9.  Veggie Bento Love
10.  Healthier, Happier, More Fit Me (this one really is family…it’s my sister’s blog!)

Phew!  That was a long post!

I hope you all have a great weekend.
Got any big plans?
Anyone doing the Whole Life Challenge?

I May Be Old, But I’m Still A Bad Ass!

So, today was my birthday. Other than a birthday lunch with my co-workers, there wasn’t much celebrating today.  Instead, I went to a CrossFit class after work and after that headed straight to the rink to play my first hockey game of the season.  We won!  Yay!  I will be celebrating with my family for a nice dinner out tomorrow night…plus tomorrow I’m getting a massage.  I can’t wait! 

I’ve had a busy week at CrossFit, and I’m hurting (it hurts to lift my arms!), so that massage tomorrow afternoon is going to be AWESOME!  Tuesday and Wednesday’s WOD made many sore muscles, but today’s WOD beat me up the worst. 

The WOD was a repeat of what we did back in May. 

In May, I used a big, thick band, a light pink kettle bell, and a 16 inch box.  I completed 206 reps.  Tonight I used a much thinner purple band, a 1 pood (35lb) kettle bell, and a 20 inch box.  That is just about Rx.  Although I can now do an unassisted pull up, I didn’t think I would be able to do multiple rounds of 8, so used the band.  It was a good decision. 

Tonight, I only did 203 reps, but all at a tougher level, so I’m pretty happy about that.  I skipped the GHD sit-ups since class ran a bit long and I had to get to the rink for hockey. 

So, here’s the beat up part….check out my hands…

Apparently 56 pull ups and 70 kettle bell swings was a bit more than my hands could take. 

I’m such a BadAss!

How was your Thursday?  One more day ‘til the weekend!!