Study time

I know I have not written much in the past week but I have had to dedicate my extra time to studying my crossfit certification material for this weekend. Yes that means after this weekend I will hopefully be a crossfit certified trainer! Ok now I looked back at what I just typed and got it wrong already. Here goes.....I will be a crossfit certified trainer! See how I changed that around. There is no thinking there is doing when it comes to be successful. Set you mind to something and go for it. See the only reason that statement came out like that is because there is a test involved. And I am one of those lucky people that get to experience test anxiety. You know heart racing, self doubt, all that good stuff. What is very interesting though and my husband has witnessed this through my nursing school experience. Every time I had to take a test and doubted all my abilities to pass it I ended up coming through in the end with flying colors. So why doubt ourselves? Ok, I could understand it you are thinking of jumping off a building.....that might be a good time to bring in all the doubt you have inside of you. But truly we need to believe in ourselves. Maybe not as much as Muhammad Ali who stated "I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was". But you also have to look at the fact that Muhammad was a champion. Something to be said about his self confidence and where it got him in his life. He got to the top. Where do you want to be?

We all need to be the change we want to see. I want to see people live healthier happier lives so that is what I am doing with myself. You lead by example and people will want to follow guaranteed. That is the only way to lead. Do you look at others and think "boy, I would sure like to be like that"? Well what stopping you. The hardest part is taking the first step. Ok so I have gotten off track once again but that is me. My husband said my mind is spaztastic. I think this is a new word we should add to the dictionary because there must be others with minds like mine that just keep going and going. So keep following your dreams and I will keep you updated on my certification this weekend. Very exciting! :)

Cooking for health: Don't forget your veggies!

Today I did a google search for healthy recipes. Now I am not sure who determines what is healthy and what is not but I had to say to myself are you kidding?! The recipes that came up were not at all what I should be eating and of course all seem to take a lot of effort to make. Ok, so I am figuring out there isn't a way to make being healthy effortless or at least if there is I haven't found it yet.

I have been doing a lot of thinking about vegetables lately and trying to figure out how to get more veggies into my diet and how to diversify it a little. When you buy veggies from the frozen section of the grocery store you don't have much of a selection to work with. Considering I have been healthy for a couple years now I am getting very sick of broccoli, carrots, spinach, peas, and green beans. I have been realizing I don't really know anything about the different veggies out there and their nutritional value.

Now I realize I may get off track at times but you will have to excuse me considering it is after 8pm and I am just eating dinner and yes it is close to my bedtime. Sleep is very important. So after work today I went for a massage. Then I had to figure out what is for dinner. I am already very relaxed and can't even imagine getting in front of the stove. Off to the grocery store I go (sometimes you have to force yourself to do things you don't feel like doing). Then I end up walking out of the grocery store with 5 bags of mostly fresh fruit and veggies with a few other odds and ends. They are not joking about healthy not being cheap. Over $100 later I am on my way home to figure out how to cook all this stuff. I have to say that on the way home I had all kinds of ideas going through my head on why I didn't want to cook anything and how I could just go out and get something or just go to bed which would not be good since I hadn't eaten in a while.

Let the cooking begin and let me start off by saying I still had dirty dishes from the last time I cooked. Yes I know not cool at all but give me a break I am still trying to figure out this how to do everything thing. The idea of a cleaning lady is sounding very nice but how can I afford that when I have to buy all this healthy food.

First things first and that is the veggies. Now I read an article on Web MD today about the best greens. One of the highest rated in nutritional value was kale. This is the veggie that we see as a garnish on the side of our plate but I definitely don't see anybody eating it. Doesn't exactly sound right that we are leaving something with the best nutrients and eating the stuff with hardly any.

 

So here they are kale, collard greens and ......some other leaf. Yes I have already forgotten. But who needs a name when you have a picture. Everything I have seen says wash really well. I also read somewhere to soak them and then rinse again. So I pulled a couple pieces off each one and soaked them while I got the other veggies started. I got my pan out and added some olive oil, roasted garlic, crushed ginger, onions, mushrooms, peppers, and tomatoes. Later added the greens after they were washed and sliced. I cut the think stems off to help speed up cooking.

I also added a little rose wine while sauteing. I try not to drink very often and very much but I do like a little wine or a good beer occasionally. So I had about half a glass. Then the bad part is I have to pay full price for a bottle of wine and what do I do with the wine I don't drink. Time to experiment. I have to say it didn't turn out bad at all. I also sprinkled a little goat cheese on top.

Then my other idea was some whole wheat angle hair pasta with garlic, olive oil, and pesto. This was kind of turning into a disaster in the pot trying to mix these which means I must of done something wrong so I sucked it up and put a little on my plate and just put a little pesto on top with parmesan cheese. I pay a lot of attention to labels now so I found the pesto with the least amount of sodium possible. You have to watch out for these things. The pasta tasted excellent but wouldn't of won any prices for elegance.

Next I need some protein. I bought some chicken at the store but said forget it because I also had some already cooked in the fridge. I heated up my chicken and made a cucumber dill sauce. This is a greek thing I believe but not hard to make. Greek yogurt, dill, and chopped cucumber and you are good to go. If only everything was that easy.

Meal complete: It probably won't win any prizes and I know why would someone put greek and italian together but hey it is all fresh and homemade. Full with lots of nutrients.

It just goes to show sometimes we underestimate what we can do. Now I can go to sleep knowing I did it. I had a wonderful meal and I remained calm the whole time. Even though my massage probably helped a little.

Focusing on you

So are you the type of person that frequently compares yourself to someone else? This is not always a bad thing but it can be. For some, this drives them to make themselves better without bringing them down and holding them back in the process. For others, this could be what is keeping you from achieving your dreams. This could make someone feel inadequate and never happy with their accomplishments because they never match up to the person they are comparing themselves to.

First of all you have to figure out what type of person you are. I know I am the type of person that comparing myself to others will only hold me back. I am also the type of person that is usually never satisfied with my accomplishments because I always seem to want more. It never really seems to be good enough. I have definitely been making improvements on this in my life. But making changes in your life is not easy especially when you are used to being and doing things a certain way. It takes time of drilling the new way in to eventually make it part of you. The key is just not giving up. Making sure you congratulate yourself for your accomplishments. If you notice yourself doing something you shouldn't don't get angry at yourself just change it. Like me for instance if I notice myself thinking negative thoughts or comparing myself I just need to turn it around and say something positive. Tell myself how far I have come and remind myself I am exactly where I should be at this point and time. Remind myself to enjoy the moment. Don't set your expectations to high and miss the journey. It is the journey that shapes your life not the destination. The destination would be nothing without how you got there. And if you struggle more then others along the way to your destination it just makes it that much more commendable. Don't forget that happiness is a choice. You determine what kind of journey you will have in life. Keep dreaming and believing in yourself. Make sure you enjoy the little things along the way.

Congrats Mom!

For maybe a few months or so I have been giving my mom a few tips about how to change her diet and exercise and make it better. She has been wanting to get rid of that unwanted belly fat everybody dreams about. The hard part about the belly is it is one of the last things to go. When I started losing weight I started to notice it in my extremities first, then it worked its way in. At one moment my body looked a bit deformed from my perspective at least. It is a slow process if you do it right and it takes a lot of time and dedication.

My mom has been doing fantastic with her diet and increasing her amount of exercise. She works a couple jobs and is still able to get the workout in and prepare her food for the day. When she started the process a couple months or less ago she weighed 154lbs. Now she weight 139lbs and still going. I just wanted to send a shout out to her and her great efforts. Keep up the good work mom and I am proud of you!

Remember you can do it to. If you are having trouble accomplishing your goals find support. I wouldn't of been able to change my life without great support from others. That was the ticket for me. You can find support from family, friends or by hiring a personal trainer. I know it can get expensive but remember you are worth it!

Update

So here is the story. I am suffering from a case of writers block. Every time I come up with some great ideas and things to say as soon as I sit down I can't seem to get them down in writing. I am sure glad writing isn't where I make my living because I can see how that would be very stressful and it seems the harder you try to think of something the worse it is.

So training is going really well I PR'd on my clean and jerk with 200lbs! Ok so no that is a lie but things have been going really well in practice. After the competition I PR'd on my clean at 185lbs....it wasn't very pretty but hey I stood up with it. Snatch has been a bit more of a struggle with 130lbs getting the best of me instead of me getting the best of it. But as they say patience. Which means I am going to chill out and keep chipping away and let it come. One of the biggest problems is when the weight gets heavy I think I need to change how I lift it. Instead of continuing to pull it very slow off the ground like it's supposed to be done I decide pulling as fast as possible will definitely help. Well it seems that is not the case. You need to save your explosion for the top otherwise you will have nothing left when you get to that point and guess what that bar won't be going anywhere. Tuesday I struggled with my clean a bit for the first time but I think it was more mental then anything. My mind felt so good the whole practice. Really wasn't thinking about anything and all of a sudden 1 lift didn't go exactly right so I started thinking about what I needed to do to fix it. Very wrong. During training is not the time to start thinking about what you are doing wrong it is the time to think about what you need to be doing right. After you finish you can think about those things you need to fix. When you think about something you are doing wrong your mind doesn't comprehend how you are thinking about it it just thinks you need to do that thing you are thinking about if that makes any since. But I feel my squats are getting stronger and technique is getting better. What more can you ask for? I will continue to keep working hard on my body and my mind. It will be a life long journey but I know I can do it.

So onto my cooking. I did try some other recipes but decided it might be kind of boring if all I put on here was recipes. I want my blog to be diversified and include helpful information. After the chili I had also made some double chocolate cookies. I know what you are thinking this doesn't sound anything like what I should be eating but it was a treat and they were healthy. Well as healthy as a cookie could get. Made with brown rice flour, coconut oil and not a whole lot of sugar. They still tasted very good just not as sweet as a regular cookie but didn't feel as guilty and weight has still been around 150lbs. I also made some banana walnut muffins and then I think I got too frustrated, it was time for a break. The fact is you don't have to get so crazy about it. Don't be like me and let the spaz come out. I got all freaked out about cooking until I realized I don't have to cook a fancy meal everyday. It doesn't have to be stressful it can be fun. The food certainly tasted a lot better then the plain chicken and veggies I normally eat almost everyday. So how can that be bad? I finally figured out how to relax again and it feels great. Remember don't let life get the best of you. Most things aren't worth getting worked up about in the first place. Think about this quote below a little....I am sure you have heard of it. This can be used in all aspects of life. If you have no control over something why let it mess up your life. You are how you react.

  "Grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference."

 

- known as the serenity prayer

Cooking for health: Turkey three bean chili

First of all let me start off with the fact that this cooking stuff is very hard work. It is very clear why most people don't or can't do it......now I hesitate with the word can't because I don't think it is a very good word. We ultimately can do whatever we put out mind to doing. If you have a very busy life you may need to be a little more organized in your planning and preparing. But there is no doubt that being healthy takes a lot of time, patience and money.

On that note lets move on to my chili which was one of the least disastrous things I have cooked this weekend. I took the recipe again from the Whole life nutrition cookbook, which means pretty soon I am going to need to find another cook book if I am going to want some new ideas. It is under the three bean chili recipe but I decided to add ground turkey and used a few ideas from the vegetarian chipotle chili recipe. I have to say actually cooking recipes equals a lot of trips to the grocery store and people looking at you funny when you ask them if they have something with a funny name such as kombu. It turns out kombu is a sea vegetable that contains glutamic acid which helps to tenderize and breakdown the indigestible, gas producing sugars in beans (information obtained from whole life nutrition cookbook).

Step 1:  I started the beans soaking the night before but it was pretty late. I would of put all the beans together until my husband said the black beans would of turned everything black and should be soaked separately. I actually let the beans soak until the next day until early afternoon.

Step 2:  I drained the water off the beans and rinsed well. Put them all in a pot with 8 cups water with some kombu. Simmered for 1 1/2 hours.

Step 3:  I used another pot and put on medium heat. Added 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 whole onion chopped. Sauteed for about 5 mins, then added 2 tbsp crushed garlic, 5 carrots sliced, 1 green pepper chopped, 2 zucchini's sliced, 1 tbsp cumin and chili powder,  2 tbsp oregano, 1 cup cilantro chopped, and I also added my own creation some chipotle red pepper (so yes this is some SPICY chili). I sauteed this for over a couple mins since I was chopping while sauteing so it ended up cooking longer then the instructions.

Step 4: I added diced tomatoes 28 oz, tomato sauce 14 oz, beans and water they were cooked in and 1 pack of browned ground turkey. I simmered this for about 25 minutes. Didn't add the herbamare yet but thought about adding it when I serve a bowl. Just a little to taste.

Let me tell you a little about herbamare, which is an herb salt spice and I had to go to 3 different stores to find it. Finally found it at tops food store. The only place I found kombu was tacoma boys in puyallup but it was in a soup packet so I bought that and just used the kombu.

My goal is to serve it over a little brown rice but this may take a while since I just burned my first attempt. Now you would think that would be the easiest thing to fix but when you are too busy trying to clean up the mess you made with all the cooking you kinda forget about checking what is on the stove.

Let me end this by saying how exhausted I am now and this is my weekend off. I am sure for an experienced cook it may not take so much out of them but for me this is very challenging. I have more recipes to come but that will have to be after a little relaxation time since I do have to go back to work tomorrow. At least I have a lot of leftovers building up so I will be able to use this during the week. I really do like cooking this really healthy food for myself but wonder how I will keep up. It also makes me think about the fact that I want to have kids in a few years and I want them to be healthy from the start. If I have trouble keeping up with myself how in the world will I keep up with kids. I will just take a big deep breath and keep moving on. Life doesn't have to be so overwhelming. Learning how to stay more relaxed in intense situations I am sure will save me from being quite so exhausted. As with everything in life including my workouts I use a lot more energy then is actually needed. Just one more thing to work on getting better at.

Cooking for health: chicken strips, sweet potato fries, and carrots

Here is another one of my stressful cooking moments. Now I have been thinking about it and for some reason I decide to make moments stressful instead of enjoyable. I am not sure why we (now I say we because I hope there are others out there with the same problem), like to think only about the negative things that happen. For instance my training on Thursday. I felt like I had a great training session and my mind felt clear. There was one thing that went wrong. I couldn't snatch 130lbs! And you know out of an hour training session that was the one thing I focused on. I didn't think about the fact that I snatched 125lbs beautifully or the fact that I squatted 215lbs after many reps. So last night now looking back at my cooking experience I am remembering it as a negative experience. I remember saying how hungry I was, how much I hated cooking, what a mess my kitchen was, the list goes on and on. The ending to the night was the only thing I enjoyed....yes this was eating the food! It seems if I don't eat on time I start to get a little edgy. So this means since I eat every 2 to 3 hours that could equal a lot of moments so feeding me would definitely be recommended. But since nobody else is going to feed me at this moment let me tell you how I fed myself.

When I typed out the title for this post I realized one thing that could of been improved upon my dinner last night. That is the fact that sweet potatoes and carrots are the same color. The meal probably would of been a little more well balance by picking a green vegetable but I had a craving for carrots.

We can start it off with the fact that I went to the grocery store hungry. Again this is a bad idea. All day at work I was planning on coming home and looking for a recipe to cook. So this means I got out of work had to come home and find the recipe and then go out to the grocery store. Of course there was not a parking spot in the whole lot so here I was waiting for someone to back out so I could steel their spot and I feel a bump on my car. Yes this nice gentleman decided to back out of his spot before I was out of the way. Considering this is my new car and I am madly in love with it. I got out of the car very nicely but the inside of me was about to bring out my old black belt skills. Luckily there really wasn't a mark on my car so I let him go without any bruises. Now I was reminded last night this is not using my zen like mindset. So I guess I have to get working on this a bit more. But now I am getting off track.......

I better keep these kicks on the mat and not the parking lot...Yes this is me!

So after walking around the store forever trying to find a spice they didn't have called Herbamare which I have learned is an organic herb seasoning salt. I had to settle for some italian seasoning. I did get my recipe out of a new book recommended by my naturopath called The whole life nutrition cookbook  by Alissa Segersten and Tom Malterre, MS, CN. I went by the chicken nuggets recipe but decided it was easier to make strips.

Here goes: Preheated oven to 400 degrees F. Got 2 bowls out. Put 1/2 cup hemp milk in one bowl (soy could also be used or if you are a 100% paleo kind of person I would imagine eggs or even water would work because you just need something to make the chicken wet). No it did not say this is the book I am just thinking it so if I am wrong you didn't hear it from me. The second bowl I put 1/2 cup brown rice flour and 1/2 cup almond flour. The recipe called for just 1 cup brown rice flour but I decided I wanted a little more healthy fat in the meal so I made a substitution which wouldn't be a bad idea if you were 100% paleo you could do all almond flour. If you don't know what paleo is it is also referred to as the caveman diet. You eat the foods that the caveman had available to them back in the day. So meat, vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, no sugar.

Next I took my package of chicken strips that I got from the store of course all natural, no hormones. Dipped each strip first in the hemp milk and made sure it was completely covered and then same process with the 2 flours mixed together. After that I put it in a baking pan that I had already rubbed with coconut oil. I was supposed to put my seasoning in the flour mixture but forgot and ended up sprinkling the italian seasoning on top of the strips.

Then put them in the oven to bake for 20 mins. I cut the thickest strip open to see if it was done cooking and found it was due to there being no pink in the meat.

Next I went on to cut up a bag of organic carrots I got from the store. I thought about the baby carrots that are already small but have heard they are not as healthy. Now since I had no idea what to do with the carrots, if I had taken an idea out of my head I would of boiled them in some water. Not sure how that would of turned out so to make sure I was doing it correctly I decided to look  in a cookbook I have called How to cook everything by Mark Bittman. Very good book if I say so myself. So I washed and peeled the carrots then chopped them into fairly large chunks. I place all the carrots into a pot with 2 tbs smart butter, 1/4 cup water, black pepper, I squeezed 1 small orange in the pot and put 1 tsp ground ginger. I turned the stove onto high to get it boiling and covered the pot. After it started boiling I turned the heat to medium and cooked for 5 mins. After that I uncovered the pot and turned up the heat to let it cook until there was no water left stirring occasionally until tender.

After that I fixed the sweet potato fries. Yes I could of saved a lot of time preparing everything first but I managed to do it one at a time. Which is why I didn't actually eat the food until 9:30pm. I cleaned a sweet potato and cut off the ends and dark spots but left the skin. Then I sliced it up into wedges. This recipe was under the oven fries in the whole life nutrition cookbook. I preheated oven to 420 degrees F and now that I am reading the book it was supposed to be 425 degrees which is why mine probably could of cooked a little longer but I guarantee I had no trouble eating them. I placed the sweet potato wedges into a large bowl. Added 1/4 cup olive oil, sprinkled some italian seasoning, black pepper, 1/2 tsp turmeric, garlic powder and 1 tbs paprika. I tossed it all together to try to get the sweet potato's coated well. Next I put them in a baking pan which I had put coconut oil in but that doesn't have it in the recipe and is probably unnecessary since the potato's have oil in them. I baked these for 30 mins.

Final Result: 3 chicken strips, carrots, sweet potato fries and 1 spoonful of honey mustard. (tried to find the healthiest one on the shelf)

By the way I did want to eat the entire pan of chicken strips by the time I was done but settled for 3 and it was plenty as far as my body went my mind that is a different story. One of the main problems I have found with cooking is the mess and the fact I am too tired after to clean it up so this is what my kitchen still looked like in the morning.

This is not exactly what you want to wake up to and no I won't be having anybody over anytime soon with my house in this condition. Kind of embarrassing and here i am showing it on the internet. Very strange character I am!

So I have to say this meal was very healthy and yummy. Really one of the best things I have eaten in a while considering I normally live on plain chicken and veggies. One thing I have to work on is being more prepared. The day before after training I also went to the store hungry and got very irritated at all the people with a piece of pizza in their hand only because I wanted to have something so easy. But really I don't. I know deep down inside it is my choice to live this way. The difference in how my body and mind feels being healthy makes life the best thing ever when I remember how miserable and disgusting I felt being overweight and unhealthy. Let me clear one thing up is the fact that being overweight isn't necessarily the problem. If you are healthy then the weight will take care of itself. We are all going to be different shapes and sizes and that is how it is supposed to be. We need to be happy with how we are inside and out but if you give being healthy a try with nutritious foods and exercise you will find a whole other world for yourself and I promise you will love it.