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!

Day 32, February 1: Man, I am a Mess.

Sore everywhere, tired, and overworked. This injury--yes, I am calling this now-going-on-three-weeks hip stiffness and soreness, coupled with or perhaps caused by some damage to my psoas muscle an injury--has really got me down.

I have been eating out way too often. I am not eating enough greens, or a great enough variety of protein. I know I want to dial my nutrition back in, but it is so difficult when I am eating out in restaurants so often (usually because of work.)

One day at a time, Abigail, that's what I keep saying to myself. Do the best you can. In a couple weeks, things will calm down with work and I'll be able to eat better and have more balance in my schedule.

This post is covering two days, since I didn't have any time yesterday to blog. At all.

Wednesday Feb. 1

What I exercised:

• 7 AM WOD 
• I. Russian gymnastics warmup. Ugh. Could do the ring pushups, and did a few handstands, but this was difficult because of weakness in my core. Did a tripod and that really hurt my psoas. 
• II.  OHS. I couldn't really get anywhere near my 1 rep max (somewhere around 100#). But did a bunch of reps in the 45-65# range. last set was 3x65. Felt easy, but I didn't trust my core stabilization to do any more.
• III. 5 Rounds:
  15 front squats (I subbed 15 power cleans at 55#)
  15 burpees (I subbed 10 knee pushups)
  12 minute time cap
  finished 4 + 15 + 3 when the time ran out.
  Focused all my attention on 1. reloading my hamstrings prior to each power clean and 2. keeping a strong core doing the pushups. Which was really difficult, given how I was feeling. Nevertheless, I managed to power through the push-ups, which I think speaks to my increasing upper-body strength.

What I ate:

• 5:30 AM: breakfast quinoa (with flax, raisins, and almond milk)
• 8:15 AM: post-WOD protein shake
• 10 AM: 2 eggs and a paleo granola bar
• 12 PM: while on a road trip to Vermont with some ladies from my church, we stopped at this crazy "Big Moose" store and ordered sandwiches. I asked, did they make salads, and they said no. So I ordered this greek wrap which was mostly salad with a bit of feta, and the whole thing was soaked in chipotle mayo. It tasted pretty good, not sure how much nutritional value it had :)
• 4 PM: another paleo granola bar
• 6:30 PM: meeting of Bethlehem Business Women; had a big salad, a few bites of cheese, about 2 cups of cooked cauliflower and green beans and about a 1/2 cup of tortellini with tomato sauce.

Tuesday January 31

Not really a rest day, because I worked a fifteen hour day. But I didn't get to the gym.

What I ate:

• 8:30 AM: 2 eggs and a slice of multgrain bread with almond butter
• 12 PM: Quinoa with flax and almond milk
• 2 PM: Larabar
• 5 PM: Greek salad at Panera
• 10 PM: Larabar
• 10:30 PM: 1/2 c greek yogurt and 1/4 c paleo granola

Could have been worse for a horribly busy day, I suppose. Too much sugar in those Larabars, though.

Wow, how did I get from Day 25 to Day 30? Applekale Crossfit, the Quantum Leap edition.

I am a pastor of a church, and sometimes pastors just have those days...or clumps of days...which are packed full of activity. It makes it tough for me to plan a regular schedule. I don't work 9-5. I work when I'm needed, when there's work to do. This past few days have just been that way. Somehow, I haven't been able to squeeze blogging in. Oh well, falling down on that blog-every-day thing.

So I'm pretty happy to say that even though I've had lots of work to do, and even though I am still struggling with a painful, stiff back and hip (thank you very much, Deadlifts from two weeks ago), I still managed to make it in to Crossfit three of those days, AND I took a restorative yoga class at The Yoga Loft  with the wonderful crossfitter yoga teacher Laura Garrison. That class was awesome, y'all. You should try restorative yoga sometime.

So, I will combine all my stats about food and exercise into one big boring post. I'll begin with today and then work backwards.


Monday January 30


What I exercised:

• Met with Albany Crossfit coach extraordinaire Kevin for a training session, to work on my deadlifts. We came to the conclusion that I have trouble activating my hamstrings--they are too flexible--so I am lifting with my back (and injuring myself.) We worked on my noticing when my hamstrings are engaged, and Kevin basically told me to only deadlift sumo-style until I get stronger. He had me practice deadlifting this heavy kettlebell--did you all even know we have 100 pound kettlebells at Albany Crossfit? I need to focus attention on keeping the bar as close as possible to my legs, and on activating the hamstrings as I put the bar down, so that when I am doing multiple reps I don't need to re-set and re-engage them every time.
• Kevin also had me work on back extensions, and told me to work on them every time I'm in the gym, using successively heavier weights, again, to strengthen the hamstrings.
• After we were done training, I did some volume training on pull-ups, this time doing two per minute for twenty minutes on the blue+purple bands. This is to get me closer to my goal of being able to do 5 unbroken pull-ups on the blue band by the end of the challenge.

What I ate:

• 9 AM: breakfast quinoa
• 12:30 PM: giant salad: spinach, greens, 2 hard eggs, 1 c fresh lentil and broccoli sprouts, 1 big carrot, and dressing of olive oil, lemon juice and capers
• 3:30 PM: small cashew cookie 
• 5:30 PM: post-WOD shake (almond milk, spinach, 1/2 banana, 1/2 c frozen berries, 1/3 c protein powder)
• 6:30 PM: I had a meeting scheduled at the Olive Garden tonight. I wasn't too excited about eating one of their wilty salads for dinner, so I was almost glad when I was stood up. I went over to Chipotle and ordered a vegetarian bowl (small amount of rice, black beans, all the salsas, veggies, cheese, sour cream, lettuce and guacamole). Ate half of it.
• 9:30 PM: ate the other half of the Chipotle bowl.

Sunday January 29

Rest day, though I did dance through most of the Jazz Vespers church service :) This was a very busy day for me, working from 7 AM til about 11 PM.

What I ate:

• 7:30 AM: 2 hardboil eggs
• 8:30 AM: 1/2 of a Larabar brand cashew cookie
• 1 PM: the other half of that Larabar and another whole one (Key Lime Pie, and it was tasty. Never tried that flavor before.)
• 3 PM: so starving. Went to Panera and almost without thinking ordered tomato soup and macaroni and cheese. 
• 6 PM: post-Vespers, went to the church chili cookoff, and had a bowl of chili with 1/4 c cheese and a small piece of cornbread.
• 11 PM: (after returning from an emergency hospital visit) ate 1/2 c paleo granola and 1/2 c almond milk.

Funny, a few months ago, I wouldn't have considered this such a bad food day. Now I think it's a train wreck. I didn't pack food before I left the house so I was stuck eating Larabars because I was so hungry. No good carbs at breakfast. No big salad (even though I could have had one at Panera). Mac and Cheese! yikes. 

Saturday January 28

What I exercised: That wonderful restorative yoga class I mentioned earlier. Surprisingly challenging.

What I ate: 

• 9 AM: small protein plus cashew cookie bar
• 12:30 PM: post-yoga protein shake and a coconut cream pie Larabar
• 3 PM: 1 cup cooked quinoa and raisins. No almond milk :(
• 6 PM: vegetarian bowl from Chipotle

Friday January 27

What I exercised:

• 9 AM WOD
• "Filthy Fifties" (scaled to 35's)
  scaled also by using the ballistic box turned the tall way--what is that, 12 inches?--a 25# KB, 25# push press, 10# WB, step-back burpees (hip too stiff to jump back), and tuck jumps instead of double-unders
  29:10

It was the burpees that slowed me way down. I scooted through most everything else.

What I ate:

• 7:30 AM: breakfast quinoa
• 10 AM: post-WOD protein shake
• 12:30 PM: 2 eggs fried in coconut oil, and a big salad of raw spinach with Olive Oil, lemon juice and capers
• 2:30 PM: small apple, string cheese, "granola" bar
• 5:30 PM: 2 more granola bars
• 7:30 PM: dinner out at "Tranquil" restaurant in Binghamton.  Few bites of hummus and olive tapanade on pita, baked brie, green salad, stuffed eggplant. Glass of white wine.

Thursday January 26

What I exercised:

• 9 AM WOD
• I. Split Jerk practice
  6 @ 35#, 4 @55, 2 @ 75, 1 @ 95, 1@105, 1@115!
• II. 6 sets:
  5 tough push-presses
  AMRAP pull-ups (subbed ring-rows)
  1st set: 35# and 14 ring-rows
  2nd: 55 and 12
  3rd: 60 and 10
  4th: 60 and 10
  5th: 65 and 10
  6th: 70 and 10
  I was pretty pleased with this.
• III. 500 meter row. 2:05

What I ate:

• 7 AM: paleo granola bar
• 7:30 AM: 1 c cooked collard greens and lentils.
• 10:00 AM: post-WOD shake (avocado, banana, protein powder, almond milk, ice and water)
• 11:30: another paleo granola bar
• 1:30 PM: salad of greens, 1/2 avocado, 2 hard eggs
• 6:30 PM: cooked dinner for my little nephews. Compromised: raviolis with vodka sauce and some cooked peas.

Okay, so how am I feeling, after all these really hard days of working long hours? Pretty good. I am especially susceptible to depression when I work like this, and somehow it is under control. The house is a mess, but at least I am continuing to exercise and (mostly) eat well. I ate out too much these past few days, I know, but it's tough when my work is so busy, and time with family and friends feels more importantly that sticking too strictly to the diet.

Day 25, January 25: Boring food post

Well, I am posting this because I am committed to posting every day. However, I don't have much that's interesting to say. I took a rest day today simply because I had tons of work to do. I'll be back at ACF tomorrow.

What I ate:

• 7:30 AM: 2 hardboil eggs and 1 slice of multigrain bread with raw almond butter. Since I don't eat much bread, I have to say, this tastes almost like cake. Yum.
• 12:00 PM: I was moving a friend into her assisted living today, and they insisted I eat lunch in the dining room with all the seniors. Who were hilarious. Lunch wasn't fantastic: 2 slices of bread with some lettuce, tomato, and a single slice of american cheese. Really. Who makes a sandwich with only a single slice of cheese? It came with a side of boiled, flavorless cabbage. If this is how the seniors there eat every day, I feel really sorry for them.
• 2:30 PM: one of my amazingly wonderful paleo granola bars
• 4 PM: small apple and a piece of mozzarella string cheese 
• 8 PM: 1/2 c brown rice, 1/2 c cooked lentils, and 1 c cooked collards (with onions and garlic). 

Made some almond milk for tomorrow. Also did the final rinse on some lentil sprouts, and some broccoli sprouts. Sprouting is so fun and easy and tasty. I can't believe I never sprouted before in my life...one more thing I can be grateful to Crossfit for--giving me the push to grow my own so I can add superfresh sprouts into my diet!

Day 24, January 24: Real-life application of Crossfit skillz

Hey y'all, hoping to make this a brief post because I got to get to bed!

I spent a lot of my day today helping a friend move from her senior-living apartment into an assisted living. Just the kind of job that, years ago, would have worn me out. Today, it didn't seem like much. Throwing around some boxes, lifting a TV in and out of the car, no biggie compared to the heavy loads I lift regularly at Albany Crossfit.

This morning I woke up so sore from "Karen" yesterday, my back stiff and my psoas spasming. I decided I'd be better off in the long run if I spent time today stretching and foam rolling, rather than WODing.

So, what I exercised:

• 10 minutes of foam rolling
• 1000 meter row (slow and deliberate)
• 20 minutes of pull-up volume training. Since I did so poorly with the blue band last time, this time I used the blue and the purple band, and hit one rep per minute for twenty minutes. Felt good.
• in between pull-up reps, did lots more stretching and myofascial release with the lacrosse ball.

What I ate:

• 9 AM: 1 cup breakfast quinoa (flaxseeds, flax oil, raisins, 6 oz cashew milk)
• 11 AM: protein shake (spinach, blueberries, banana, protein powder, 1/4 c coconut milk, 8 oz cashew milk)
• 1 PM: out to lunch with the church ladies to the Normanside country club, ate a spinach, artichoke, cheese quesadilla with some guacamole and salsa. And a few potato chips off the plate of the church lady sitting next to me :)
• 6 PM: Fantastic salad: lots of spinach and lettuce, 1/2 avocado, 2 large carrots cut up, 1/2 cup lentil sprouts, 2 hardboil eggs, and dressing (1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp lemon juice, and a dozen capers)

Day 23, January 23: "paleo" granola bars

For the past few weeks, I have been making my own nut milk. I posted about it here. Usually I use almonds, but today I decided to try cashews since I had a whole lot of them. Followed the same process I use for almonds. It came out really wonderful.  Tastes...like cashews. If you don't like cashews, you won't like cashew milk.

This meant I had leftover cashew nut solids. What to do with it? I already had plenty of what I've taken to calling Airquotes Granola. (because it has no oats in it. The recipe for that is here.) Didn't need to make any more of that.

I decided to experiment with making granola bars. Here's how I did it.

Turn the oven on to 300. I spread the nut solids in my trusty 9x12 pyrex dish. I baked it for fifty minutes at 300, stirring every once in a while, to dry it out. It wasn't completely dried by the time the 50 minutes was up, but it had a mealy consistency going on.

Turn the heat up to 325.

Then I mixed in a bowl:

• 1/2 c roughly chopped almonds
• 1/4 c roasted flax seeds
• 1/4 c sunflower seeds
• 1/4 c unsweetened coconut
• 1/2 c raisins
• pinch of salt

I stirred in the dried cashew solids, and spread the mixture out in my pyrex dish and baked for 10 minutes.

While the dry items were in the oven, I heated a small saucepan over low heat. I warmed and stirred together:

• 1/3 c honey
• 1/3 c almond butter
• generous shake of cinnamon
• bit of vanilla extract
• a couple tablespoons of water.

This produced a stiff mixture that held the bars together.

I removed the dry items from the oven and dumped them back into the big bowl. I took this moment to grease the pyrex dish with butter.

Then I used my clean hands to knead the honey/almond butter mixture into the dry items. I put the gooey ball into the greased pyrex and pressed it down into all the corners of the dish as firmly as I could. Baked it for 20 minutes, pulled it out and let it cool on a rack in the pan. When it was cool, I used a knife to cut it into bars. They were a bit crumbly but I cannot tell you how good they tasted. Given that my husband and I have sworn off sweets for the past three months, these tasted like heaven. I ate one, gave one to him, and then quick wrapped up the rest because I knew I could just keep eating them, all night long.

Okay, now here's the boring stuff:

What I exercised:

• Noon WOD. First time back in a week.
• Warmed up with agility ladder and climbing the cargo net. I made it almost all the way to the top. Smoked my biceps and forearms, wow.
• "Karen"
  150 Wallballs
  scaled to 10# ball
  11:50

Ugh. Its always tough going back after a break. Felt wheezy the whole WOD.

What I ate:

• 8:30 AM: breakfast quinoa (with flaxseeds, flax oil, raisins, and 8 oz cashew milk)
• 10:30: Cashew Cookie bar
• 11:30: Another Cashew Cookie bar (cashews: the theme of the day)
• 1 PM: post-WOD shake (banana, handful of spinach, 1/2 c blueberries, 1/4 c protein, 1/4 c coconut milk, 1/2 c cashew milk, ice)
• 4 PM: giant salad of spinach and lettuce, 1/2 avocado, 2 chopped up carrots, 2 hardboil eggs, and a wonderful dressing of olive oil, lemon juice, and capers
• 7 PM: protein loading--a Vega shake
• 8:30: "granola" bar
• 10 PM: 1 c cooked collards with a few lentils

My back and whole body are so tired...this WOD today wasted me. I hope I can make it through another WOD tomorrow.

Day 22, January 22: Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest

First, a church experience:

That's Sufjan Stevens singing the Bob Dylan song, "Ring Them Bells."

I am getting tired of these food-only posts! Back to Crossfit tomorrow.

What I ate:

• 8:30 AM: smoothie made of a small banana, 1/2 c frozen blueberries, 1/4 c protein powder, 1/2 c greek yogurt, 1/4 c coconut milk, big handful of spinach and 8 oz almond milk
• 12:30 PM: small cashew cookie
• 3 PM: I was starving when I got home from work. Ate 1/2 c brown rice, 1 c cooked kale, 2 oz tempeh, 1/2 an avocado, 1/4 c almond sauce
• 7 PM: after Vespers service, went out to Mr. Wasabi (Japanese food) with friends. 1/2 c seaweed salad, small green salad. Ordered the tofu curry and picked most of the breading off the tofu, ate the veggies and only about 1/4 c white rice. totally stuffed.

Day 21, January 21: This rest thing is getting boring

I've been resting for a week now. I meant to go and hit a WOD at Albany Crossfit this morning, but the combination of WAAAAY too much work to do and a pile of new snow on our steep driveway meant that I stayed home. For certain I'll be back next week as early as possible. This rest week was definitely called for but I am getting antsy.

What I ate today:

• 9 AM: quinoa with raisins, flaxseed, flax oil and almond milk (made the quinoa in the pressure cooker, which worked fantastically)
• 1:30 PM: 1/2 c cooked kale, 1/2 c brown rice, 2 oz tempeh, 1/2 c sprouts, and 3 tbsp almond sauce
• 4 PM: 1/2 cup paleo granola and 1/2 c almond milk
• 8:30 PM: went to a birthday party for a friend. Avoided the ice cream cake, but enjoyed the guacamole, the crudite with yogurt dip, the olive tapanade on crackers, the cheese, and the fruit salad. Could have been worse.

Day 20, January 20: Ball Jars

I don't think I have ever opened a can of coconut milk and managed to use part of it without spilling it all over the counter. You know how hard it is to stir natural peanut butter. Stirring coconut milk is even more difficult to do without making a mess. Even if you shake the can well before you open it, the coconut water and fat just don't like to mix.

I have a new strategy to deal with this problem. And it involves one of my new favorite things: Ball jars! Here's what I do when I open a new can of coconut milk. I pour the coconut water into a quart jar, and then scoop the fat in. I use a spatula to break the fat into smaller chunks, put a lid on the jar (I prefer the plastic jar lids to the metal ones), and then I shake it up!  Shake shake shake! When you're shaking, the extra air in the jar helps the fat to get distributed throughout the milk.

Once you're done, you can pour off the milk you are using for your recipe, and then store the rest of it in the fridge in your Ball jar. Coconut milk is a wonderful ingredient in sauces, curries, and smoothies. Only be sure to use it all within a week, or it'll grow nasty mold.

I do love Ball jars. They are so handy. I love that even though they come in different sizes, the lids are interchangeable, so that problem of "where's the damn lid for this tupperware" no longer exists. The glass jars don't absorb odors like plastic does. I use them for storing food in the fridge, dried foods, nuts, grains, even cat food.

From left to right: coconut milk, sprouts sprouting , cooked kale, almond milk, paleo granola, raw cashews.

What I ate today:

• 7:30 AM: 1 c cooked quinoa with 2 tbsp flaxseeds, 1 tbsp flax oil and 6 oz almond milk
• 12 PM: 1 c cooked kale with garlic and oil, 2 slices multigrain toast with egg salad, made of 2 hardboil eggs, 1/2 avocado and 1 tbsp vegenaise. This is outrageously good. I can't believe I've never experienced this tastiness before in life.
• 3 PM: 1/2 c paleo granola, 1/2 c almond milk
• 7 PM: 1/2 c brown rice, 1/2 c cooked kale, 1 c raw spinach, 3 oz panfried tempeh, 1/2 c sprouts, 3 tbsp "no-peanut" almond sauce sooooooooooo good.
• We're going out to a movie shortly. Will bring some trailmix to keep from eating popcorn.

Day 19, January 19

Hey y'all. I've been gone away for a bit--went on retreat and since I've been back, working hard to catch up.

Interesting link: Michael Gregory, coach from Crossfit Central, posted about his recent experiments with going vegan. There are other valid ways of eating besides paleo, people.

I decided to take a longer period of rest and recovery this week. I have been going strong (crossfitting 4-5 times per week) for about two months now, and a combination of factors made me decide that some time away would do my body good. So while I was on retreat at Camp Fowler, I did a lot of stretching and foam rolling, took a long walk in the cold, and tried to sleep (not so easy when I'm not in my own bed!) Then yesterday and today I rested some more.

Tomorrow I'll spend some time at the gym doing some active recovery, rowing, and some volume training, and then Saturday hit a WOD.

At Camp Fowler, I did manage to stick pretty closely to my diet--even though there were pancakes or french toast at every breakfast, and cookies and cake served at every lunch and dinner!--I steered clear of all the simple carbs and sugar. I stuck to the eggs and salads and bean soups etc., healthy stuff, with one gross exception: "Crack Sauce."  It's called that because it's addictive. So good!  A friend brought this on the retreat, and I couldn't stop myself from eating it, late into the evening, every evening...on crackers, on chips, etc.

Today's meals, more or less, I am back on board:

• 7:30 AM: 1 c. cooked quinoa, with raisins, 2 tbsp flax seeds and 1 tbsp flax seed oil, and 6 oz almond milk
• 10 AM: 1 Larabar brand cashew cookie
• 12 PM: 1 c cooked kale with garlic and oil, 1/2 c cooked buckwheat, 1/2 c greek yogurt
• 4 PM: 1 c vegetarian chili, 1 tiny spinach-stuffed bun from the Loving Cafe
• 6 PM: big spinach salad with 2 eggs, 1/2 c sprouts and tahini dressing
• so stuffed I can't imagine eating again. But if I do, it'll probably be a small bowl of my paleo granola with almond milk

I'm on my way up to Camp Fowler, shortly, but I wanted to post a video--a church experience for today.

I am a big fan of Shane Claiborne, and I thought this was a good summary of his message.

Shane Claiborne is coming to speak in the Capital Region in June; message me if you want to more about it.

Day 14, Jan. 14: Deads Redux

One lesson I need to keep learning over and over again at Albany Crossfit is: make no excuses.

Another lesson I need to keep learning over and over again at Albany Crossfit: leave your ego at the door.

Sometimes these lessons get in conflict with one another, and makes for a mixed-up kind of lifting experience.

It's Saturday, we're two weeks into the challenge, and I still hadn't hit my 1 Rep Max Deadlift. I was out of town the day it was the scheduled WOD. So like a good 90-day challenger I came in today at 8 AM to do it on my own.

I was feeling pretty terrified. As I wrote a few days earlier, me and Deads, we go way back, and Deads has hurt me more than once. So I am justifiably cautious. It has something to do with the way my body is built, and ancient injuries, and my body's stubborn lack of understanding of how, exactly, I'm supposed to translate deadlift theory into deadlift reality. All these factors play a part in my problems with lifting heavy. Are these excuses? Maybe. It's hard to figure out when analyzing failure is an excuse, and when it's an earnest attempt to learn from mistakes.

Thank goodness Becca W. was there and though she could have been relaxing and foam rolling while she waited for the Gymnasty Class, she wonderfully offered to help me, and she cheered me on and talked me through my nervousness. AND she helped me load my bar. She deserves extra points in the 90-day challenge for showing good sportsmanship! Thank you Becca!

So, what I exercised:

• mobility and stretching
• Deadlifts:
  5x55
  5x75
  3x95
  3x135
  1x165
  1x185
  3 attempts at 195--FAIL :(
• finished with more mobility and stretching

195 was my old 1 Rep Max. I was hoping I would at least match it today, but it wasn't going to happen. Here's where the whole zen, no-ego thing comes into play. This is the state my body is in today. It's not able to lift 195 pounds, and I need to do some deep breathing and let that ambition go.

I know I worked hard today anyway, because my body is feeling it. I am really glad tomorrow is a rest day, and I am heading up to Camp Fowler for a mini arts retreat. I will be spending two days making Ukrainian eggs. 

A few Ukrainian eggs, just so you can see what they look like.
Some of these I made, and some my daughter-in-law Terrill made.

I'm thinking, maybe my body wants a longer break than a day or two. I've been pushing pretty hard for the past couple months, and maybe my body is saying I need some extra recovery time. In any case, I'm not going to be back to Albany Crossfit til next Wednesday at the earliest, and I also won't be updating this blog. No internet access. Trust me, it's a good thing. I'll be bringing my foam roller and my yoga mat to Camp Fowler, and I'm looking forward to some luxurious stretching time.

What I ate:

• 7 AM: 2 cashew cookies
• 9 AM: Post-WOD protein shake
• 1 PM: 1/4 c cooked buckwheat, 1/2 c steamed kale, 1/2 c tofu salad
• 4:30 PM: STARVING picked up a bag of cashews in Walmarts and ate a couple handfuls
• 6 PM: playing around with the pressure cooker again, it worked great:
  garlic, ginger, onion, sauteed in olive oil;
  add 1 lb tofu cut into chunks, saute that for 3 minutes;
  add 1/4 c vegetable broth and 2 tbsp tamari sauce
  fill the rest of the pressure cooker (8 quart size) with greens--I used spinach and mesclun.
  Cook at high pressure for 1 minute (if you're using tougher greens like kale, you might want to go 2 or 3 minutes).
  Once you release the pressure, season with spicy sesame oil and extra tamari if desired.
  This whole meal took me only about 10 minutes to prepare, start to finish.
  I ate about a third of what was in the pressure cooker, mixed with about 1/2 c cooked buckwheat :)
• I expect that by 9 PM I'll want a snack, and I'll eat a handful of trail mix.

Day 13, January 13: Friday the 13th

Aren't we cute? This is a picture of Bill and me on our honeymoon in Costa Rica. 10 years ago!

Last night, Bill and I had a lovely dinner at Cella Bistro in Schenectady, to celebrate our anniversary. I had never been to Cella Bistro before, but they had some interesting stuff on the menu, and quite a few veg options. Suffice it to say I ate too much. Some crazy potato-feta egg rolls, stuffed poblano peppers (lots of beans and rice and something that approximated the kind of cheese sauce you put on mac-and-cheese), and of course, several slices of bread with olive oil. As I anticipated, this meal fell into cheat meal territory, not because of any particular item I consumed, but simply because of the quantity of food that entered my belly. Oh, and the glass of wine and the shot of Godiva liqueur didn't help.

Ordinarily, I don't think I would have felt too many ill effects from a night like that. But now that I am focusing on eating healthily, a night like this threw me off my game. Woke up this morning, Friday the 13th, feeling bleh. Didn't stop me from getting dressed and heading out to Albany Crossfit for the 7 AM class. But I continued to feel bleh--just tired, nauseous, crabby, unmotivated. Nevertheless, I stuck it out.

What I exercised:

• I. Tall cleans: 5x5
  55, 55, 60, 65, 70
  (kind of lame, I could have gone heavier, but I was feeling so yucky)
• II. a WOD I've nicknamed "Horrible"
  3 rounds:
  50 front squats at 45# (scaled to 30 front squats at 35#)
  20 pull-ups (scaled to ring-rows)
  20 ring dips (scaled to ring push-ups)
  18:55

What I ate:

• 6 AM: small Cashew Cookie, 1/2 c applesauce and 2 tsp almond butter
• 8 AM: post-WOD smoothie (6 oz almond milk, frozen banana, frozen blueberries, 1/2 avocado, big handful of spinach, 1/4 c protein powder)
• 10:30 AM: 1/2 c cooked kale, 1/4 c buckwheat, 1/2 c tofu salad, 1/2 avocado
• 12:30 PM: small bowl of white bean soup and a slice of terrific bread (prepared by a friend)
• 5:30 PM: 1/2 c tofu salad
• 7 PM:  1/2 c cooked kale, 1/4 c buckwheat, 1/2 c tofu salad, 1/2 avocado
• 9 PM: handful of nuts and raisins

I am noticing that the last couple of days, though I've been eating cooked greens, I've been missing my daily big salad...need to work that back into the food schedule. 

Day 12, January 12: Cashew Cookies!

I took some time today to do some cooking in order to prepare for the next few days (which will undoubtedly be busy). I broke out the food processor and gave it a workout, the only workout happening around here today since I am taking a rest day from Albany Crossfit.

I used some chickpea sprouts to make some raw hummus, which tastes…interesting. I made it once before, and the flavor improved after it sat in the fridge for a while. I prepared some tofu salad (ingredients: pressed tofu, vegenaise, lemon juice, grated carrots and beets, chopped spinach and scallions, a bit of garlic and cilantro, salt and pepper). And I made a whole pile of one of my favorite things, from scratch: energy bars!

I LOVE Lunabars, specifically, the “Cashew Cookie” variety. If you read the label, you’ll see there are two ingredients: dates and cashews. That's one of the reasons why I love these bars so much: there's not a lot of processed crap in them. However, they're a bit pricey, and I decided that since the ingredients are so simple, I ought to be able to reverse engineer them and make some homemade ones!

Here's what you need:

• 1 1/2 cups raw cashews 
• 30 medjool dates
• food processor
• 9x12 pan
• wax paper

Step 1: removed the pits from your dates. I do it using a chef knife. I keep all the pits on the cutting board and count them, since I lose track of how many I've pitted otherwise. Once you've got your thirty dates pitted, you can throw those pits away.

Did you hear, Trader Joes is coming to the Capital Region!
This particular package of dates traveled all the way from New Jersey.

Next, break out your food processor. I think you really need a food processor for this recipe, by the way. Chopping all these nuts and dates by hand would take forever, and a blender would just make a mess of it. Everybody needs a food processor. If you don't have one, steal your mother's or buy one from a garage sale, or spend the money on a new one. I bought this one when I was 22, and it gave me heart palpitations to spend all that money. It's still running great though! Can't imagine cooking without it!

Put 1/2 cup of cashews in the processor. Process until the nuts are a fine powder that is beginning to stick together into tiny balls.

Then pull out your pitted dates. Add them to your processor. Add another 1/2 cup of cashews too.

Today when I made this recipe, all those dates were too much for my food processor's motor. After I tried to do them all at once, I had to take about half of them back out and process them in smaller batches. But you end up with a ground mixture that looks like this:

To your last batch of ground dates and cashews, add your final 1/2 cup of cashews. You want these to be only roughly chopped, so that you'll have some bigger pieces in your Cashew Cookies. So only pulse the processor a few times.

Line a 9x12 pan with waxed paper. Put your crumbly, pasty date-cashew mixture in, spread it out evenly, and then cover with another sheet of waxed paper. Here's where you use your crossfit muscles: press down smooth out the mixture into one, giant, evenly-thick bar.

What I do at this point is stick the whole pan into the freezer for a half hour. Once it's all firmed up, remove it, take the top layer of waxed paper off, and cut your giant bar into a bunch of little bars.

I wrap my Cashew Cookie bars individually in waxed paper and store them in the freezer. This keeps them fresh for weeks. Don't worry, they are edible straight from the freezer. They are great as a quick pre-WOD snack for quick energy. 

Not only did I make plain Cashew Cookies, I also made some protein powered ones, for those times I want a little extra protein. I followed the same process outlined above, using the following ingredients:

• 15 dates
• ¾ c cashews
• ½ cup + 1 tbsp hemp protein powder
• Juice of ½ a lemon
• Zest of ¼ lemon (make sure you use an organic lemon!)

This recipe made 12 bars, and each contains roughly 7 grams of protein. The lemon juice and zest kind of counterbalances the flavor of the hemp protein. Hemp, by the way, is probably the best protein powder for vegetarians, nutritionally speaking, but it does have a flavor that takes some getting used to. I like it now, but I've been working on developing a taste for it for months.

Really, dates and cashews is such a magical combination: yum!

Now for the boring stuff. What I ate today:

• 9:30 AM: 1/2 c paleo granola and 6 oz almond milk
• 11:30 AM: 1 cashew cookie bar, 2 eggs fried in olive oil, and a piece of whole-grain toast with 1/2 avocado
• 3:30 PM: 1 slice whole grain bread with 1/2 cup of tofu salad (so good!)

My husband and I are celebrating our 10 YEAR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY today!  Wow! 10 years! So we're celebrating by going out to the Cella Bistro in Schenectady for dinner. Dunno yet what I'll be eating for dinner, but it may range into cheat meal territory...nevertheless, I'm pretty certain we won't eat dessert, since Bill and I have been competing to see who can go the longest without eating sugar, and we've been going strong for over 2 months now! 

January 11, Day 11: the dread bodyweight movement, the push-up

Ah, push-ups. Lots of push-ups in the WOD today.

I spent about half of 2011 coming to Albany Crossfit, and the other half feeling too busy to crossfit or just making excuses to stay home.  So by the time I recommitted myself to crossfitting about six weeks ago, after Thanksgiving, I was pretty out of shape.

Nevertheless, I was determined to focus and stick to a schedule. I knew that if I crossfitted even just three times a week, my whole emotional wellbeing improved. I wanted to be not-depressed this winter. Back to crossfit I went.

And...it sucked. Everything was hard. I felt like I had little strength and no stamina. And every time I finished a WOD breathing like a fish out of water, blinking up at the florescent lights, I would say to myself, "at least you didn't stay home."

I love this picture:

It was the best of WODs, it was the worst of WODs

Coach Kim took this picture on Dec. 23 during the last round of the "Twelve Days of Christmas," a horrible workout that takes forever (well, it took me about 29 minutes, but that felt like forever). You can see Albany Crossfit's version of this WOD here. When I began the round, I felt like I had nothing left. I was nauseous, dizzy, and because I was one of the few who had not finished, I felt like everybody was watching me. I did the twelve thrusters that began the round, one at a time. After I did that last thruster, I felt for a moment that dying was preferable to finishing the round.

I turned to Kim, who was cheering me on in that wonderfully maniacal way she has of cheering, and I said, "I'm done, Kim. I'm done." I meant it. I really did. I was quitting.

And then I said some expletives to myself, and I picked up my kettlebell, and I hit the 11 swings, and then did the wall balls...and kept on going, even though I wasn't sure if I was still alive or in Crossfit Hell. (you know how it feels when you're singing "The Twelve Days of Christmas" and you're like, "this must be the song they sing all the time in Hell," --well, that's how this workout felt, only about a hundred times worse.)

By the time I was doing the push-ups, Coach Brett and the inspirational Rachel B. were doing them with me.    I felt like I wasn't doing anything on my own power any longer. Brett and Rachel were pulling me along, the way a cruise ship might pull a dinghy. And I finished. 

I love this picture because it shows what is hands down, the best thing about Albany Crossfit: the support and love athletes give to one another. Brett didn't need to do push-ups with me. He was coaching--he could have just stood there and told me what I was doing wrong. Instead he motivated me by getting into the fray with me. Rachel didn't need to do any more push-ups or burpees. She'd already finished the WOD. But she did them with me and somehow, through some mysterious process, transferred her energy to me. 

However, when I look at this picture, I am also chagrined by my push-up form. I knew my push-ups were bad...but that is bad. This picture helped me make the decision to participate in the 90-day challenge. I want to do good push-ups. But it's more than just wanting to look good in pictures. It's wanting a strong core that can support my body, and strong arms that can push me back up again, whenever I should find myself on the floor.

So, I had a great opportunity, to work on push-ups today. What I exercised:

• Warm-up: air squats and gassers (formerly known as suicides)
• WOD:
  I. 50 push-ups (did them on my knees, slowly, trying to keep my core tight)
  ~rest 2 minutes
  II. 20 box jumps (used an 18 inch box, but jumped, not stepped, them all)
       20 pull-ups (subbed ring rows)
       15 box jumps, 15 pull-ups, then 10 of each, then 5 of each
  ~rest 2 minutes
  III. 50 push-ups (this time followed Kevin's prescription to do them on the rings)
  18:11 (those push-ups really slowed me down!)
• Then did a lot of mobility work as a class

 What I ate:

• 9 AM: 1 c quinoa with 2 tbsp flax seeds and 1 tbsp flax oil, and a 6 oz glass of almond milk
• 11 AM: 1 medjool date and a bite of protein cashew cookie
• 1 PM: post-WOD shake: 2 handfuls spinach, 1/2 an avocado, 1 frozen banana, 1/2 c frozen blueberries, 1/4 c protein powder, 6 oz almond milk
• 2:30 PM: 1/2 c cooked kale (from yesterday's pressure-cooking experiment, which went great!) and 1/2 c cooked buckwheat--not enough protein for a post-WOD meal, but I was eating in the car and felt funny about peeling and then eating the hard-boiled eggs I had with me
• 5 PM: 2 eggs, 1/2 avocado, 1 tbsp of vegan mayo, mashed together with and spread thickly on one divine piece of toast. This, I have to say, tasted like Heaven.
• 7:30 PM: at a music party, ate 1/2 piece gluten-free bread, 1/2 turnip, 1 c cooked kale, 1/2 c barley, 1/2 c dal, 1/2 c greek yogurt, a couple handfuls of my paleo granola. Ate most of this with my fingers, since there wasn't enough silverware to go around :) SOO stuffed.