Who knows what day it is? And, what to do with the leftover almond pulp when making almond milk?

I guess when life got tough last month, I stopped blogging for a while. I haven't stopped logging what I eat and what I exercise--I keep a daily journal and sort of obsessively log all those facts there. But I was boring myself with the posts about what I'm eating. Its pretty boring...quinoa...steamed veggies...smoothies, smoothies, smoothies...

My plan is to continue blogging when I have something interesting to share. This post come to update a recipe I posted a few weeks ago about making granola bars. I've been tweaking my recipe over time, and I think the new and improved version (below) is much better than the one I posted here. They're vegan and paleo, and are held together by honey, almond butter, and chia seeds, which when soaked in water turn into a sort of goo that can stick vegan baked goods together.

I make almond milk frequently (I no longer buy almond milk from the store, since it’s so easy to make myself).  Anybody who makes almond milk knows, however, that there are leftover almond solids, a fibery dry pulp. It feels sort of sinful to compost them. I read on the internet that they can be used in baked goods, but I had had difficulty finding recipes. I devised the following recipe myself. It makes a chewy, crunchy, seedy sort of cookie that’s not very sweet, but not terribly bad for me either.  

I came up with this recipe when my husband and I were competing to see who could go the longest without eating white sugar. These cookies satisfy my desire for sweets without ingesting too much high-glycemic junk like white flour or sugar, and they are also gluten-free and vegan.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Airquotes Granola Cookies

Almond solids left over from 2 batches of almond milk (approx. 2 cups)

½ cup chopped raw cashews

½ cup raw sunflower seeds

¼ cup roasted flax seeds

Tsp cinnamon

A few shakes of nutmeg

½ tsp salt

½ c raisins

½ cup dried cranberries

¼ cup dried coconut flakes

½ cup + 2 tbsp honey

½ cup almond butter

Capful of vanilla extract

3 tbsp chia seeds

¼ cup + 1 tbsp water

Coconut oil or non-stick spray to grease your cookie sheets

Large baking dish (like a 9x14 pyrex), 2 cookie sheets, large mixing bowl, small sauce pan, small bowl

****************************

Preheat oven to 300. Use the convection setting if your oven has one.

Spread the almond solids in a large baking pan. Break them up as small as possible if they are clumping together. Bake for 30 or 40 minutes, stirring occasionally, for as long as it takes for the almond solids to dry out and brown just a little bit. Remove from the oven. The point of this step is to dry out your almond solids, and it turns them into a sort of almond flour.

Turn heat on the oven up to 350, using the regular (not convection) setting.

In a large mixing bowl, combine cashews, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and almond solids. Stir well. Put all this back in your baking pan and spread it out evenly. Bake for 15 minutes.

Spread a small amount of coconut oil on your cookie sheets, or spray them with non-stick spray.

While your nuts are baking, combine raisins, cranberries and coconut in your mixing bowl.

Combine chia seeds and water in a small dish. Stir occasionally, until the seeds have absorbed all the water and a gooey sort of paste is formed.

In a small sauce pan over low heat, combine honey, almond butter, and vanilla. Stir well and frequently until you see tiny bubbles forming around the edge. Remove from heat.

Now comes the fun part! Wash your hands well. Put your nut mixture into dried fruit mixture and stir well. Add honey/almond butter and chia seed goo and knead them together with your hands until a sticky dough sort of forms.

Form the dough into cookie-shaped circles. I do this by squeezing a handful at a time in one hand, and then pressing and flattening it out. It takes some time to get the hang of this. Alternatively, you can press your dough into a greased pan and then cut it into bars once it’s baked, but I find that they hold together better if you take the time to form them into cookies.

Bake 17-20 minutes, or until browned around the edges and on the bottoms of the cookies.

Day 47, February 15: Pitying my friends with kids

I'm technically on vacation this week because I've got some family stuff going on, and I need to be available to look after my four-year-old nephew, Jack. He's staying with me for the week. I love the little guy, and he's a lot of fun, but he is tiring. And it's tougher to eat healthy when he's around. Already my husband is pretty particular about what he likes to eat, and when you factor in Jack's particularities with my sort of extreme pickiness, it gets difficult.

Two days to report on, here. First, today: Wed. Feb. 15.

What I exercised:

• 12 PM WOD.
• Warmed up with some rowing, jumping pull-ups and squats
• I. snatch balance. Went light (35#) and worked on technique. Kevin told me something I'd never thought about before: keeping my elbows forward when I am holding the bar will help me to push the bar straight up. And it made keeping my balance so much easier! WOW!
• II. WOW 4
  60 bar-facing burpees
  30 OHS (65#--scaled to 35#)
  10 MU (would have scaled to ringrows, but I didn't get this far)
  10 minute amrap: got 60 + 25 OHS
• III 50 push-ups--every time you rest, do 15 airsquats
  I did 3 sets of airsquats. push-ups on the rings.

What I ate:

• 8 AM: breakfast quinoa (with raisins, almond milk, flaxseeds and flax oil)
• 10:30: paleo "granola" bar and a half a cup of my freshly made cashew milk
• 1 PM: post-WOD shake (lots of spinach, 1/2 banana, 1/2 c frozen cherries, 1/3 c protein powder, 1/2 c coconut milk and water)
• 4 PM: pretzels, carrot sticks and celery sticks with 1/3 c homemade hummus
• 7 PM: 2 c steamed broccoli, 1/2 c cooked rice and barley, 1/2 lb baked tofu (made my own marinade of sesame oil, soy sauce, lemon juice, garlic and ginger)

Yeah, I somehow skipped a meal in there somehow.

How am I feeling today? this morning I was feeling pretty tired and foggy, and I attribute it to last night's meal (more on that later) and the cashew milk I made this morning. The cashew milk tasted SO GOOD and yet afterwards I had a sore throat...I am wondering if it was an allergic reaction. I so don't want to be allergic to cashews, but if I'm honest with myself I admit that this same reaction has happened before. It only seems to happen with raw cashews, not the roasted ones.

Post-WOD, though, I felt great, better than when I went in. Had a great time playing in Schenectady's central park with my nephew.

Now for yesterday's info: Tuesday, Feb. 14. 

I managed to completely avoid the valentine's day chocolates, though it was tough reading on Facebook and people's blogs about their dark chocolate indulgences. Nevertheless I stayed strong.

What I exercised: 

• 12 PM WOD
• "Barbara"
  5 Rounds
  20 pullups (scaled to 10 ringrows)
  30 pushups (scaled to 20 ring pushups)
  40 abmat situps (scaled to 30)
  50 airsquats (scaled to 30-25-20-20-20) these felt the toughest on my sore back.
  3 minute rest at the end of each round
  35:20

What I ate:

• 9:30 AM: breakfast quinoa (identical to every other day's)
• 1 PM: post-WOD shake
• 2:30 PM: egg salad (about 3 eggs worth) and a piece of multi-grain toast
• 4 PM: paleo "granola" bar
• 7 PM: 3 pieces of homemade cheese pizza

Yeah...pizza. Made it with my nephew, and it tasted pretty darn great. And then once we had made it, I just couldn't stop eating it...So all this is to say, I have sympathy for my friends with kids, who are managing to serve healthy meals even some of the time. It's tough to stay focused and strict when there are picky children to worry about. 

Day 45: Feb 13, 2012, a Visit to Crossfit Kings Point

Greetings from Delta flight 945 en route to Albany NY. I haven’t posted in quite a few days because I’ve been on a trip to Florida for work. We were staying in a pretty fancy-schmancy hotel near Disney World, the Buena Vista Palace. I didn’t have any Disney experiences this time around, and that was just fine with me. I had a fabulous time tooling around Orlando with friends in in our rented electric-blue mustang convertible. 

The rest of the Floridians thought we were crazy, I’m sure, for putting the top down during the wintertime, but we didn’t want to waste the opportunity to get some sun and windswept hair.

Outside of the conference and time with friends, the best thing that happened on my trip was a visit to Crossfit Kings Point on Friday. Took some courage on my part to walk through the doors of a completely alien crossfit. What if all the athletes were out of my league? What if they were mean to me, or rude? What if they ignored me completely? But of course the people were awesome and welcoming. Within five minutes many of them knew my name, and I knew theirs. They asked me questions about my home box. Once we started hitting the strength portion of the WOD (bench presses), it felt eerily familiar to Albany Crossfit: there were people shouting my name and encouraging me, and praising my efforts.

I haven’t bench-pressed in quite a long while—probably six months. We were hitting a 5x5, and on my last set I attempted 85#. I failed—but I did hit 2 reps first. 5x75# felt pretty manageable. I probably could have done 5x80#, though who knows?

After we bench-pressed, we all did “Helen” (3 rounds: run 400 meters, 21 KB swings, 12 pull-ups). As soon as I saw that was the WOD of the day, I started feeling real nervous—I haven’t been running much at all the past few months. Rowing yes, running no. Plus it was HOT out. Nevertheless, I knew I could do it, just might take me a while. I scaled down to a 25# KB and used a green band for pull-ups. Felt funny and old-school to use a band in a WOD—at Albany Crossfit, we’ve begun subbing ring-rows for pull-ups nearly all the time.

So I finished last—that made me feel like I was at home too. Took me 14:15 to finish. It was hard, mostly because of the heat and my asthma was acting up. But I did it!

How am I feeling? Pretty good—loved seeing my friends from around the country. Traveling is hell on my back, though. When I left for Florida a few days ago, I was really feeling like my back was on the mend. Now as I write this post on the flight home, my back is screaming epithets at me. I’ve got a tennis ball that I keep rotating among the worst spots in my lower back, and this makes my confinement to this tiny airplane seat barely bearable. I can’t wait to get off this plane and onto an ice pack. I am cautiously hopeful that a good night’s sleep in my own bed might help my back to calm down again.

What did I eat these past few days? Truthfully, I didn’t write down everything I consumed. I tried to stay within the guidelines of not eating sugar, and focusing on whole foods whenever possible. I did okay with that. One of the first stops I made when I arrived was at Whole Foods Market, where I purchased some hard-boiled eggs, egg salad, cooked quinoa, greek yogurt, fancy cheese and fruit. Looking back I wish I had bought more veggies, but I thought those would be more available to me on the fly. I did manage to eat big salads from Sweet Tomatoes (this salad bar chain that’s real popular in Florida) twice during the four days down there. Another couple meals were salads from the hotel restaurant, which I supplemented with the aforementioned proteins from Whole Foods.

During the day I ate all right, but at night (when people were congregating in the hotel bar and drinking) all will-power broke down, and twice I found myself stuffing myself full of crap like fried mozzarella and chips with salsa and mediocre guacamole. AND of course I had my share of wine and tequila.

One thing I have become critically aware of during the 90-day challenge is how much the culture surrounding me affects my eating choices. When I am surrounded by crossfitters, even though I am not following the paleo diet, I am still making much better eating choices. But in Florida, surrounded by stressed-out and frenetically-networking pastors, I made quite a few more questionable nutritional choices. If it hadn't been for the 90-day challenge and my still-ongoing competition with my husband, there is no doubt that I would have ingested lots and lots of sugar. There is nothing like feeling tired and dehydrated to make a person crave ice cream. 

I’ll tell you what, I am looking forward to this coming week. I am not really working and can focus my energies on enjoying my time with my nephews, getting my life organized, cleaning my house,  and eating well. 

Day 37, February 7: the ghosts of gym class past

When I walked into ACF this morning, I was surprised to find that the warm-up involved throwing balls against the wall and then trying to catch them. No, not wall-balls, I am fine with those. Kevin wanted us to stand 20 feet from the wall and throw lacrosse balls against the wall, and for the sake of accuracy get them to to drop behind the pull-up bar, only to bounce once before we caught them. Ha! I didn't even catch one once. I was, however, amusing to the rest of the class as I chased my lacrosse ball all over the room.

It was definitely shades of elementary school gym class, and it wasn't fun. I was a good student in school, but I nearly always got mediocre or flat-out bad grades in gym, basically because my attitude sucked. And my attitude sucked because I was deathly afraid of hurting myself and of looking foolish in front of others. Dodgeball, volleyball, kickball, baseball, basketball...I hated them all. I had so much anxiety about gym class, that just walking into the school gym would cause me to knot up in all kinds of ways inside. Maybe that's why when we Albany Crossfit first made the double-wide room, it made me feel agoraphobic when I entered it the first time. It brought up all my childhood anxieties and paraded them back through my consciousness.

So this morning's warm-up, with it's ball tossing and catching, wasn't easy for me. I know that while I am a mature 37-year-old in many other parts of my life, I am often an emotional 11-year-old when I'm crossfitting. We are all working our own stuff out, exorcising our demons. I know that when I am struggling with jumping rope, or pull-ups, or running laps, there's more going on than just me being out of shape or unfamiliar with the movements. There's often some emotional component in play.

So to my fellow Albany Crossfitters, know that if I am annoying or weird around you, it's probably because some deep childhood issue. It's some issue I've been carrying around in my cells, my muscles, my guts...and as I learn and grow and get stronger, that issue has got to be literally worked out, squeezed out of my body. It feels so difficult that sometimes it's enough to make me want to quit. I never do, though, because I know that those deep issues could eventually make me sick or even kill me, if I allow them to stay in my body.

ANYWAY, I started this post meaning to simply blog my activity and eating for the day. Better take care of that too.

What I exercised:

• 11 AM WOD
• aforementioned lacrosse ball warm-up
• 21-15-9
  KB swings (scaled to 25#)
  Box jumps (scaled to 3 45# plates)
  burpees (no scaling, and man, these felt tough today. But at least I did them. I haven't felt capable of burpees for the past couple weeks, guess this means I'm feeling a bit better.)
  10:24
• Then we did some gassers with some agility training thrown in
• then lots of foam rolling and stretching

What I ate:

• 7:30 AM: 1/2 granola bar (what's in these? all nuts, seeds, and raisins, with just a bit of honey. They're paleo.)
• 8:30 AM: 2 hardboil eggs and half an avocado
• 10 AM: small cashew cookie (basically the equivalent of a medjool date and a tbsp of cashews)
• 12:15 PM: post-WOD shake
• 2 PM: just starving. Ate 2 cups of raw kale and tofu salad and 1/2 c cooked quinoa
• 9 PM: small apple, 2 oz amazingly delicious and stinky cheese, 1/2 c raw sprouts
• 10 PM: another granola bar

I know, too many nuts and not enough veggies. 

Day 36, February 5: Protein Powder

Me and my food processor, full of the ingredients for protein powder.

I love my Crossfit coaches, even though they sometimes give me a hard time about being a vegetarian. My oldest, most-favorite coach, Jason, the owner of Albany Crossfit, recently looked at this blog and commented that my protein intake looked low. Some days this is true, especially when I go out to eat too often (quality vegetarian proteins are harder to come by in most conventional restaurants). But I did want to highlight that at least on most days, I get some quality protein in my smoothies.

For the past few months, I have been making my own protein powder. I do this (rather than buying a pre-mixed powder like Progenex or Vega) for two reasons: 1. I absolutely detest the flavor of stevia, which seems to be in nearly every protein powder, and 2. I'm saving money.

I found this recipe on one of my favorite websites, Daily Garnish. Its a blog by a vegetarian athlete, Emily Malone, and she posts lots of great recipes that make me happy. Emily and her husband reverse-engineered the Vega protein powder recipe, and posted it here. If you're interested in knowing more about the ingredients included in her protein powder, and the nutritional breakdown, look at the original post.

The recipe calls for hemp protein powder, which is a solidly balanced vegetarian protein (though it does need to be imported from Canada!), but also includes ground flaxseed and PB2--powdered peanut butter--for additional protein sources. It also includes spirulina, chlorella, and maca, which are superfoods that have many nutritional benefits. I can source everything except the PB2 from my local natural foods co-op store, and I can buy it by the pound, so I never need to buy more than I actually need to make the recipe.

I pretty much follow her recipe, except that I sub almond flour for the PB2 powder (I love peanut butter, and eat it sometimes, but I am trying to cut down.) I compared the nutritional profiles of the almond flour to PB2, and they're about the same. I also leave the stevia out entirely. I find that once I blend the powder with some frozen fruit, the smoothie is plenty sweet enough for me.

So what do I put in my smoothies?

• 1/3 c Daily Garnish protein powder (contains about 14 grams protein)
• 1/2 frozen banana and 1/2 cup frozen berries
• about a cup of homemade almond milk  OR a cup of water +1/4 cup coconut milk
• 2 big handfuls of raw baby spinach
• optional: flax oil, ice, greek yogurt (to boost the protein content)

I blend all this stuff together in my blender-ball bottle using my hand blender. (don't put the blender ball in until you're done blending!) I take it with me to Crossfit so I can drink it and boost my recovery immediately following my workouts. I then try to have a high-protein meal an hour or two later. 

Now for the boring stuff. This post covers two days of eating, since I didn't have enough time to post yesterday.

Sunday February 5

I'm never able to crossfit on Sundays, since they are only open in the mornings, and I kind of have to work, like EVERY Sunday morning.

What I ate:

• 7:30 AM: 2 fried eggs and a small apple
• 1 PM: Larabar
• 2:30 PM: went to Honest Weight Co-op to do some shopping. Bought 1/2 c curry cashew tofu salad and 1/2 c quinoa salad and ate them in the car.
• 4:30 PM: homemade paleo granola bar
• 6:30 PM: 1 oz cheddar and a few crackers
• 8:30 PM: 1 c cooked quinoa with 2 tbsp raisins and 2 tbsp toasted flax seeds, and 2 cups raw kale, cabbage and tofu salad. Recipe also from the Daily Garnish, found here. It was okay, though I am just not a fan of the raw kale. Maybe it'll improve the way coleslaw does after it sits a day in the fridge.

Saturday February 4

Another very busy day with my family, my band practicing, and then my band performing. AND getting ready for church the next day. So no time for ACF :(

What I ate:

• 8:30 AM: protein shake (recipe as above, with the optional 1/2 c greek yogurt added)
• 12:30 PM: lunch with family. 1/4 lb tofu, panfried in olive oil with garlic and tamari, 1/4 c cooked quinoa, 1/4 c eda mame, big salad with lots of broccoli sprouts
• 4 PM: paleo granola bar
• 6:30 PM: at the church party at which my band played, ate: 3 devilled eggs, 1/2 c seven layer dip (you know, with the cheese and beans and guacamole and salsa, etc), about a dozen corn chips, 2 c green salad, and a cup of veggie noodle soup
• 9 PM: another granola bar

How am I feeling? Definitely better than a couple weeks ago, though the back is STILL stiff and tired. I am noticing that my posture is just sucky. When I sit for too long (either in the car while I am driving or in my office desk chair, or even propped up in bed on pillows), when I get up I am still feeling pain. I have got to work on developing some better postural habits.

Day 34, February 3: progress report.

We're about a third of the way through the challenge, and I thought this would be a good time for me to evaluate how I'm doing on my 90 day challenge ground rules and goals.

First, the ground rules.

• whole foods are best

I'm doing all right with this one. My consumption of prepared foods, and junk foods, has been drastically reduced, and I've definitely increased the amount of veggies I've been eating. Of course, I could improve on this by eating out less and cooking at home more.

• vegan is best (though I will continue eating some free-range eggs, greek yogurt, and small amounts of fancy cheese)

Not doing as well with this one. I would say I eat more than "some" free-range eggs (2 a day most days) and while I do consume small amounts of fancy cheese, I continue to eat mediocre cheese on a regular basis. 

• raw is best (I will be using some recipes and advice from Brendan Brazier's book on the Thrive Diet)

I have incorporated some aspects of the Thrive diet--growing my own sprouts, making my own almond milk, making my own energy bars. I definitely think these have improved my health--and it's fun, too. But I could certainly up the percentage of raw foods I eat each day if I were to spend more energy on preparing meals. Tough to find the time.

 

• eat a big salad every day

I'd say I'm at about 75% on this one. I definitely eat more salad now than I did prior to the 90 day challenge. 

• sleep 8 hours (or more) each night

Ugh. Not succeeding at all with this one. Sometimes my goals conflict with one another, and trying to find time to exercise, and cook, and blog, as well as getting my work done and keeping the house in some semblance of order, means that I often shortchange my sleep.

• crossfit at least 3, better 4 or 5 times per week

I'd say I'm succeeding with this goal, even though I've been struggling with this recent injury, and I've been learning a lot about scaling appropriately.

• when in doubt, cook something

I am not 100% certain of what I meant when I formulated this goal. However I have repeated it to myself on many occasions: when I was feeling stressed, when I wasn't sure what to eat, when I had a long day ahead of me, etc, and it's been so helpful. In the past, I might have just pulled something out of the freezer, or I would have just left the house with nothing. Now I have more food around in general, so I have more leftovers and tasty things to bring with me in my lunchbag.

• write down: what I eat, what I exercise, and how I feel

I've been surprisingly good at this one too. I've been keeping this blog, and I keep a journal. Haven't missed a day in my paper journal (have missed some blog posts, but hey, somethings gotta give sometimes.)

• always bring food and water with me when I leave the house

I am doing better with this one than I ever did before in my life. At a minimum, I nearly always have Larabars and a water bottle in my purse, but I often have more. This is definitely a good new habit. I know it may seem I eat out a lot, but compared to how much I ate out before, I've cut my eating out down by half. So hooray for that.

Now for my goals:

• be consistently using the 20 inch box and 14 lb wall ball

Well, I'm making strides towards this goal. It may not seem so daunting to other people, but just being able to use the Rx'd box and wall ball on a regular basis sounds to me like a pretty fierce accomplishment. I am generally a very cautious person who cuts myself a lot of slack. I know it's going to take more than increased strength, it's going to take increased self-confidence and willpower. 

To get closer to my goal, I've been practicing taller box jumps when I'm outside of class, and these days I feel pretty comfortable using the 18 inch box, even in WODs. I feel pretty sure I'll be on the 20 inch box by the end of March. 

As for wall balls, the 10 lb ball has definitely gotten lighter and easier to manage, but the 14 lb ball still feels unwieldy, and I'm not too accurate with it. For now I use the 14 lb ball if it's a low # of reps, but a high # of reps (like with Helen a couple weeks ago) I still fall back on the 10. Something to continue working on.

• have 5 unbroken pullups on the blue band

I've been doing volume training on pullups once a week, and I am definitely seeing progress. This week I did 2 per minute for twenty minutes on the blue+purple band. If I keep this up I'm fairly certain I'll make this goal by the end of March.

• run a 5k without walking

Ummmm...haven't done much running at all, lately. Ran 2 miles without stopping about a month ago. It was a challenge though. I did agree to run the Freihoffers run this year with a friend, and I think that'll get me motivated once the weather warms up. I am always going to find running a challenge, I think, but that doesn't mean some running isn't good for me. 

One thing I am doing to work towards this goal is just generally improving my breathing. I have noticed some improvement in my stamina too. I am cautiously hopeful that I'll be able to make this goal too, though it won't be easy.

A couple more comments. 

1. My husband and I set up a challenge for just ourselves over three months ago. We decided to compete to see who could go the longest without consuming sugar. So far we are both still going strong! This I think has been very good for me, because I have additional motivation to not cheat, not even a little (I don't want to "lose.")
2. I pointedly did NOT set the goal of losing weight in the 90 day challenge. However I still want to report that I've lost six pounds since January 1st. woot!

Now on to the boring stuff.  What I exercised today:

• 9 AM WOD
• warmed up with stretching, as the russian gymnastics warmup was beyond me.
• 3-3-3-3 strict presses
  65-65-70-70
  those last two rounds at 70# definitely felt challenging. For the longest time, 70# was my one-rep max. I can remember doing presses with Heather Bishop Field, back when she was still at Albany Crossfit, and us both hitting 70# for one rep and then failing on 72#. It felt pretty darn good to be able to hit 3 at 70#!
• 15-12-9-6
  power snatches (scaled to 45#)
  KB swings (scaled to 25#)
  babying my back still by going light.
  Still, this WOD felt great--finished quickly, in 6:24. Love me some snatches.

What I ate:

• 8 AM: apple with almond butter
• 10 AM: post WOD shake (1/2 banana, frozen berries, 2 handfuls of raw spinach, 1/3 c protein powder, 8 oz almond milk)
• 12:30: Lunch at the Bangkok bistro. Had about 1/2 c white rice and 1 c tofu, plus a ton of veggies and a few noodles off my mom's plate. Loved their green curry sauce (what I ordered) and the basil curry (what my friend ordered).
• 6 PM: made dinner with my family, mom and dad up to visit for a couple days. consumed 1/2 c quinoa, 1/2 c brussell sprouts, a big salad, about 1/2 c corn that Kari cut off the cob and froze last summer...delicious. Also ate a homemade paleo "granola" bar.

Day 33, Feb. 2

Hey y'all, just another quick post to log my eating for the day. This was yet another long day when I ate out for work. I managed better than I did yesterday.

What I ate:

• 8 AM: 2 eggs fried in coconut oil, 1 slice multigrain bread with 1/2 an avocado
• 12:30: Big arugula salad (with onions, pears, and goat cheese. managed to avoid most of the croutons.) This was at the new "Milestones" restaurant in Glenmont. Pretty tasty salad.
• 5 PM: 1 c greek yogurt, 1/2 c homemade unsweetened applesauce and 1/4 cup paleo granola. Yummo.
• 9 PM: another slice of multigrain bread with 1/2 avocado

What I exercised: nada, unless you consider moving elderly ladies' walkers in and out of my car all day long "exercise."

How I'm feeling: better than yesterday. Way better. Whenever I sat for too long I got stiff, but when I was up and moving around I almost felt normal. Maybe I will feel better again someday. The problem with pain is that it lies to you and tells you to abandon hope that you will ever be pain-free again. 

Looking forward to tomorrow's workout of presses, power snatches and KB swings!