Thursday, February 28, 2013

Ambitious stir fry

The jury is back. Cauliflower rice is awesome, though a bit of a pain in the ass . So it won't be a regular rotational item but on occasion ill definitely be doing it. Steam it up with some baby corn, snow peas, water chestnuts and coconut aminos. It's like a real veggie stir fry. And completely paleo and healthy. The best part being that i have tons of left overs so ill be having a good lunch tomorrow.

Woohoo

Back in the saddle

Being offically back from vacation for 3 days...though it wasn't really sort enough to qualify as a full on vacation.  But anyway.  Being back for 3 days I am full heartedly back to the paleo challenge.  Its been tough mainly because I did have that dip over the weekend.  But I'm staying strong.  So far.  I have sort of come to grips with the fact that I may always want that cookie.  I'm just not going to eat it. I did think of a great treat.  That will be occuring tomorrow.  But it will be grain, legume, dairly and sugar free (or no sugar added.

It will be banana ice cream with coconut whip cream.  All I'll say for now.  If the recipie is an epic fail it may be better cause then I won't be tempted to make it a bunch.

The interesting thing that I have to report is a noticed a market difference when eating the crap over the weekend.  Though it tasted good and stuff it made me cravy more and more strongly then if I didn't eat it at all.  Like I said before I may always want to cookie but the intensity of the want doesn't really change.  Or hasn't yet.  But when I derailled it just made me want to eat everything in site...and that is even harder to control.

The other interesting thing that I noticed during the weekend was just that I didn't feel as good eating non-paleo foods.  They were good, but did really satisfy in the same way as the whole foods.  This was admittedly a surprise since it had only been 3 days of good paleo before I left.  But I guess thats enough.  I definitely believe now that I have a gluten intollerance and that I feel better when giving up grains and sugar for sure.  Willl I consider experimenting with things like peanut butter and greek yogurt.  Probably.  Because they are yummy and I question the validity that good dairy is the devil.  Will I eat lots of cheese.  No but that didn't happen anyway.  And is probably extrememly counter indicated for someone with chronic GI issues. 

But in week two of paleo land I feel less bloated, and less tired...though staying up for 20 hrs on sunday is still taking its toll. But not exsausted.  So yay there.

Hopefully tonight I will try my hand at cauliflower rice.  I'll report back later .

Monday, February 25, 2013

Walt Disney World Weekend recap

This past weekend was the Disney princess half marathon in Walt Disney world. Which of course meant I got to go to Disney world again after 17 years, yep the last time I went I was 12. Guess who was excited... This girl.

So I left Boston VERY early Friday morning (6am departure). Other then a crowded airport it was a very uneventful trip down. I made it to Orlando fine and met L who was my Disney running buddy and hang out buddy for the weekend. The great thing about Disney is the fact that if you stay at the resort they pretty much make life really easy.

An easy bus ride and we were at the corranado springs resort. Very nice hotel, though we didn't really get a chance to take advantage of much of it. Other then the fact the rooms were nice.

Our first stop was the race expo to pick up our numbers and tee shirts and stuff. It ended up being a really good idea because the line the next morning was RIDICULOUS. We explored the shops in the expo. I got some sweaty band headbands. They are very cute.

After we were done we headed to Epcot. For rides and dinner. We hit pretty much every ride in Epcot... Other then the really kiddie ones. And of course we did the Norway ride. I mean we couldn't skip that. We also had dinner in France which was tasty but not paleo. Which was a concern. It actually proved harder to eat paleo this weekend that I initially thought. But it's the first time I've even considered trying to ... So definitely could have planned better. It was hard too cause we didn't make reservations for dinner, fail on our part so we had to do quick service for both. Next time in Disney ill know better.

On Saturday it was Magic Kingdom day. Which was awesome. We did pretty much every ride in this park, except Peter Pan which jus eluded us the whole weekend and splash mountain cause it was closed. I even got my picture with pooh and tigger. At the Winnie the Pooh ride. They also had a few really new rides. A little mermaid ride where you got sung at, a buzz light year ride that you could shoot stuff... Though the staging area for that was tough cause the music was a snare drum. After half an hour it was ENOUGJ. Space mountain and Thunder Mountain were awesome. I also got a turkey leg for lunch which was fun and paleo. We stayed in the park for the light show parade and then I split because we ha to get up early. I got a pretty paleo friendly (steak, veggies and white potatoes ) dinner which I wanted to make sure to do. I mean the last thing I needed was extra GI issues on race day. And to bed we went.

Sunday after we made it back to the hotel for rest and showers we went to the Animal kingdom. I was excited about this one because it was just being built when I came last time. So it was a total new experience. It was great. Part disney part zoo. With rides. They actually had a brand new ride (opened either end of 2012 or 2013) called expedition Everest. It's a roller coaster and it awesome. We went on it twice. We also did the safari and some of the other rides. We caught mickeys parade and saw hippos. It was good. This park closed early, so we went to the magic kingdom for a little while. We repeated space mountain, mermaid, haunted house and the carousel and had dinner at cosmic rays dinner which reminded me of the jetsons sort of. Then the exhaustion completely hit so we went back to the hotel to do the important things like check Into our flights and sleep. Since we'd been up for close to 20 hrs when it was all said and done.

Regardless of sleep deprivation and any dietary faux pas... Of which there where many... It was an awesome weekend with Great company and a great athletic event.

Picture is from light snow at the magic kingdom



Disney Half princess

I am a Disney princess runner. Sort of. I made it through the half Marathon with my body And feet still in-tacked. So hurray for me.

There were definitely a few firsts for this situation. It was the first race I had to get up at 2:30 am for. Yes you read right. And because it was so early I basically woke up once an hour cause I was afraid of over sleeping. We got up and made it to the buses. It was the largest race I've ever done. The first one with corral start... We were in D. The first one with fireworks start. The first one through the magic kingdom. The first one with celebrities ( both Sean Aston and Ali (the firs female biggest loser) were there. Ok I think that's all the first. The other really funny that happened was a felt really good through about mile 4 and I started to think.. Maybe ill do this again. That could be fun. Or do the princess half again cause its definitely a very different race then any other. I mean you can take your picture with Mickey. And then around mile 5 or 6 the pain hit and I remembered why I won't be doing another big race for awhile if ever.

But a side note on the pictures with Mickey... I didn't take as may pictures as I may have liked not because I was worried about my time. But I was afraid that if I stood in a twenty minute line I'd never get started again. But I got a few goodies so I'm happy.

So anyway. I made it across the finish and gathered my ice bags. And even now a day later I don't feel too bad for wear.. All in all I'm really glad I did it. Could I have trained better and more, oh for sure. But I still did it and that is really the important thing. That even when mile 10 came and I wanted to sit down and wait to get picked up by the sweeper truck I didn't.

And I didn't walk at all from mile 12 to the end. That was tough.

But I did it :)

Ps the close up is right before mile 12... You can guess what I was thinking









Saturday, February 23, 2013

Paleo and travel

So I sort of wondered how going to Disney world would be on going paleo a week before would good. I've been doing pretty well with everything and then I jumped on an airplane yesterday morning to come to the most magical place on earth.... Yep I'm in Disney.

The day started good. I was armed at the airport with my Steve's originals paleo sticks... Basically beef jerky. And so fruit I got at Starbucks. But it was hard to find additional stuff and getting up that early meant my body was out of wack at bit. I rolled with it... Plenty of water and you can keep anything at bay.

We made it to disney and checked in the race expo. The T shirts are soooo cute. They are purple. Which is much appreciated in general because white T-shirts are ugly. I may get a tiara to wear around the park today. If I find a cute one that is. So far all were ugly ugly.

After check in we grabbed lunch at the hotel restaurant which is this Mexican sort of Buffet sort of thing. I was able to hunt down a salad woohoo.

Then we headed to Epcot. ( we're doing the magic kingdom today since its out one full day)

Epcot was awesome and similar to what I remembered. We road
The planet earth - the ride inside the ball
Nemo ride
Soar
A nature ride about technology developments in agriculture
Captain EO
Mexico ride
Norway ride - which was awesome and by far too short. Though I think we could say that about most rides.

We also walked around the works pavilion. Had dinner in France. Which was where the first slip up happened. Not horrible but I got a quiche and chocolate tart. And a diet coke. There wasn't any true paleo options there and I was basically too lazy to modify three different things to get what I needed. And all the lines for food were huge so I basically said temporarily fuck it.

After dinner we went to Norway and got my Norwegian skills on since Disney hires actual people from that country to work there... Pretty cool. Though there was definitely a few botched moments. Oh well. We also split and almost right Skole brød. The cream was wrong but pretty close.

We finished the night with a fireworks an laser show over the lagoon... Cause who doesn't like fireworks. And some shopping in the different countries until it started to rain.

Then we came home and went to bed.

Side note : I've included the previous two days meal logs to make documentation complete.





Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Day 2

Paleo day 2. And happy to report still going. Though I definitely have noticed the detox symptoms have started. I've had a headache all afternoon and ironically my skin is already starting to break out. I figured that would take a little longer. But whatever... It's good that its happening.

I was also Really really emotional today. Related maybe... Maybe not. But I typically don't let things bug me to the point of tears but today they did. I was a weepy mess largely just a compounded by everything else that's been going on.
I mean I guess I'm entitled sort of but randomly crying does sort of get in the way of things. And does make for awkward conversation. So lets just say it was not the best day ever.

But on the food front other then a lot of fruit... Doing well.

The one thing I need to work on is my lunch quantity. Because this is the second day in a row I've been hungry in the afternoon. While I manage to stay pretty fl between breakfast and lunch. So we'll have to think about what to do for tomorrow.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Nemo

We survived











Paleo day 1.

Today is paleo challenge day 1. And it hasn't been bad. The trick with eating paleo or really in eating any "special" meal plan, especially at the beginning is the planning. So I would give myself a "c" on planning for today.

Why just a "c" ? Well cause I definitely could and will do better.

Breakfast was easy because of course I was at home. I actually slept in newton last night because I didn't know if there would be a snow issue and I had acupuncture at 11 am this morning... Admittedly it was nice cause I chilled with the parents. We went to see Lincoln. Which was well done but slow moving, and I made a batch of sauerkraut. Which was good considering the paleo challenge ill be doing for the next 45 (forever)
Though I definitely didn't make enough. But I digress

Breakfast was easy cause it was at home. Then I went to acupuncture, which I knew would cause issues with lunch. Because the appointment was from 11 to a little after 12. So I was kind of hungry after but wanted to power through and go to the arsenal mall. Which I did. I got this really cute dress for when i theoretically, eventually have a date. All I need is the static guard and ill be good to go.

When I did get home I did have some quick food available... Aka left overs from last week. But I don't think I had enough protein because I proceeded to munch on all sorts of things... Paleo but still random non meal stuff.

I finished off the night with my very first intermediate yoga class ever. It was awesome



Saturday, February 16, 2013

Paleo check in

Today was paleo intake day at crossfit. It was weird going in cause I haven't been in awhile. So I knew I'd feel like everyone was staring at me. Though I know full well no one is because really no one cares. But hey can't help the feeling.

The other reason I felt nervous was because I have admittedly let myself go a little over the last month and change. Basically this year has been karmiclly bad lately. We were discussing this at yoga yesterday and there has definitely been a weird shift in energy lately that has definitely been affecting me. Not to mention so heavy shit has occurred over the last month so it's been a bit of an adjustment.

Anyway, the pictures for the check in wee awkward. I mean I hardly ever show my tummy anyway, and then to take a photo is a little weird. The weight was close to what I figured it would be... Which was high. But not unexpected, and the body fat measure was about expected.

For my benchmark I did tabata squats because of my under arm injury. Everyone else tested with Jackie

1000 m row
50 thrusters at 45lbs and 30 pull ups.

As you would imagine doing that with a little injury would be a bad idea. So I did the squats instead. Tabata anything is pretty tough and I definitely felt it after.

But I'll logged and ready to go

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Valentines day

So let me start off by saying I've definitely been a little down about V day this year. Mainly it bit a little because I actually had been looking forward to having a valentine for only about the 3rd or 4th time ever... Or a V of a romantic nature that is. I'm all for friend Vs and they make me feel very loved but the romantic kind is a slightly different level.

And I'm not talking all the corporate BS. I'm a major self admitted sap so I am very easy to squish out with. Like surprise pick up from work or watching my favorite movie or a hidden note. Easy stuff...or inexpensive stuff. But so is life and there is nothing on the romantic front at the moment. So we're just going to have a self love marathon.

Sounds nice right? There will be chocolate, there will be a trip to the gym, there will be yoga, there will be project runway. And anything else I damn well want to do this weekend.

And there will be chocolate strawberries... Or something (haven't opened the box yet) because hey I did get a valentine this year.

Love yourself first


Friday, February 1, 2013

The day I admitted that I'm not really a runner

So someone out there is probably say...wait isn't she running a half marathon in a month.  And the answer to that question is YES.  I am.  It has actually been through the training process for the the Disney Princess Half Marathon that I've finally...after a number of ill prepared I've finally admitted to myself. I ain't no runner.

The things that made me realize this. I do much better with exercise regimes that are scheduled classes. I have no problem making time for my favorite yoga class or crossfit Wod. I mean I love it but even on days that I don't want to and I just wasn't to sit on the couch. I can manage to get to a class largely I think because of the class format.

Additionally crossfit and yoga make me happy in all sorts of ways. Yoga is my relaxation, my therapy, my centering. And crossfit let's me get my bad ass on. Which both have an excellent way of helping me be the best version of me... Ok a little hokey but whatever.

Running on the other hand for long distances does not usually bring me joy. On a treadmill it never does and outside it really depends. 5K type lengths aren't bad and a decent distance but passed that it really doesn't bring me joy. If you talk to people who are distance runners they talk about a zen like experience... Which I may have achieved once.

So what does that mean. It means I'm super excited to go to Disney world and I will do my darnedest to run a good race. But if I start talking about a race longer then 4 miles ( cause I'm not giving up on the gobble gobble gobble race) please smack me or something cause its just not a good idea.

My new running goals will be for speed. Since I'm never very fast... I'm going to try and shave some time off my 5 K time.. Something measured in crossfit anyway. So a worthy and reasonable goal. And then I can say I can run... You know, away from danger, but I am not a runner.