Food, Glorious Food!

~ Oliver, the Musical ~ 

I cooked so much food yesterday. So much food...

I don't know what happened on what should have been a lazy Sunday afternoon, but I woke up in a egg (I cracked about 25 of those suckers) & steam daze around 20:00 last night and somehow I had lost 4 hours of my day.  Now, don't get me wrong, I've pre-cooked before, but this was on another level:  9 dished (10 if you count the tart I made earlier the morning).

Changing the way we eat has made us so much more adventurous in the kitchen, but hell it feels like we are spending half our lives in between buying groceries & cooking it. We leave for work at 6:30 / 7ish in the morning, straight to Crossfit afterwards and then probably get home at around 19:15. Add in the making & drinking of a protein shake and a much needed jump in the shower and it's 20:00. Then you have to cook, eat, clean & dish up for lunch tomorrow. On loop. Forever. 

I recently acquired the Paleo book (and no, this doesn't just apply to Paleo peeps) "Well Fed Paleo Recipes For People Who Love to Eat".  There was a wonderful section on how to prep for the week, and then using your already cooked food (be it meat or veg), put together a "hot plate" in 20 minutes. Yes please thank you! Here's a bit from the book:

"I’m not going to lie to you: At first, it was a huge annoyance.  [Yup] I was bitter. [Yup] I complained a lot. [Tripple Yup] But we both stuck to our guns, and soon it became routine. Our kitchen is now habitually stocked with healthy food, and it’s not much more work than our previous, lazy, more destructive ways. 

As the new shopping habits took hold, it became painfully evident that if we were going to take our health and longevity seriously, restaurant meals were not going to cut it. I was going to be spending a lot of time in the kitchen. For the first few weeks, I did. I felt like I was on an endless loop of chop, cook, eat, wash, repeat. It was tedious. 

But then I remembered the lessons of my dad’s restaurant kitchen and came up with a plan to keep us stocked with food, without driving myself mad. Now, just one big, weekly shopping trip and one Weekly Cookup keeps us happily fed all week. 

To forage all the ingredients for that food, my husband does one giant shopping trip on Friday afternoons, and I spend about two hours [phffft] on Sunday cooking for the week. With most of our food already cooked, meal prep on an average day takes about 30 minutes total: 10 minutes to pack my food for work and 20 minutes to throw together a delicious dinner."

So last night I donned my dirtiest shirt [I am a walking mess], put Lorde & Linkin Park on shuffle & started taking out everything I would need. I had to briefly stop to re-arrange my whole kitchen so that there was enough counter space, but the washing machine made do in a pinch.  Finally I morphed into what I though was a mixture of Nigella (sans the boobs) & the cute little pucka Brit and I was off multitasking like a pro. In all honesty, I think it was a lot less sexier then I imagined it to be, covered in spilled tuna juice & goopy egg white.

Here's the list: 

• Creamy Chocolate & Coconut Pie (Avo, Cacao, Coconut, Coconut Oil, Honey, Coconut Milk) 
• Caramelized Onion, Bacon & Mushroom Frittata
• Bacon, cherry tomato, rocket & a pinch of pecorino egg cups
• Mint & Coconut Tuna cakes
• Spiced Beef Koftas
• Roasted Vegetables
• 3kg Roasted Chicken
• Sweet Potato Mash
• Breakfast Pizza (mince "sausage", tomato, onions, peppers, mushrooms, sweet potato) Frittata
• Slow cooker Honeyed Pork Shank with some beans & stuff...I started getting gatvol...

In the end it was quite a cathartic experience. I had the confidence to try out new tastes, textures & ideas even though we are now one whole pot lid short & one honey induced blister richer. Hopefully this lasts till Wednesday...

I know it's cliched as hell, but I cannot get enough of Crossfit. It makes me want to vomit a little in my mouth every time I do it but dammit I want more. Not only are you pushing yourself to your limit every time, there is this wonderful sense of camaraderie - everyone here is suffering / enjoying / hurting / laughing. And everyone is willing to help. 

Remember how easy this shit was when you were 7?

I've started practicing my bar muscle-ups (jumping from a box still) and have made that my goal for end February - 1 bar muscle up.

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These are my People

~ Rodney Atkins ~

Isn't it just the most amazing feeling when someone "gets you"?  It's so tiresome defending your way of life to other people (and sadly mostly to family) that when you sit between people that are in the same boat, the universe gives a little sigh of pleasure. Be it people that want to loose weight, trying to eat healthier or doing exercise it's so much easier to communicate with these like minded souls.

I get excited when I up my front squat to 80kg. That's.Alot.Of.Fucking.Weight. I should be damned proud that my body can do this, instead I keep it to myself. Perhaps I'll post it on the Sleek Girls page, not even on the Sleek Geek page cause some of my acquaintances will see it & I'll get comments like this...

I have to look at photos of parties, gardens, children, shoes, boob selfies... and somehow me holding a weight above my head or stating that I went to the gym offends their being.  I'm desperately trying to stick to my eating plan and all they want to do is go out drinking and eat chips & potato salad. I hate that little pause over the phone when I ask if someone is bringing a green salad. You would think this nation is built upon starch...

 

Is it worth keeping these people in your life? I know it's difficult, but yes, they do have a place in your life. My friends are different & weird & wonderful & that's what makes them my friends, and they in turn love my other weird & wonderful quirks. I love my friends, but I need my online communities & my gym buddies: we support each other, we celebrate each others successes, and gladly lend a helping hand to one another when things are going down hill.

A prime example of this happened on Saturday. Our box organized a workout on the beach and for once PE's wind played along beautifully. Afterwards we all went for breakfast - and 99% of the group had some sort of query for the poor, poor confused waiter.  Is there mayo on the wraps? Salad instead of chips.  How many eggs in the scrambled eggs? Is it three? Cause I want three. Exactly three. Make sure it's full cream milk. Fresh orange juice, no, not out of a bottle fresh, actual oranges. And not once did anyone at the table look at one another funny. It was normal. It was amazing.

Since adopting Paleo I have become much more adventurous in the kitchen. Sunday night is now becoming Paleo Pancake night. Topped with berries & macadamia nut butter it was a wonderful healthy treat.

I have entered (along with thousands of others) into the Crossfit Games which starts end February. We are training hard - I've come to embrace sweaty wet underwear and a stinky body. 

After a brief WTF moment last week ("three weeks clean eating - nada to show") I have seen the light, between my legs. Hahaha... I don't care for a thigh gap, it's just nice to see my legs taking some sort of shape. Any shape. I spent the rest of the night pushing a hockey ball through the hole.

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New Sensation

~ INXS ~

So, the Christmas tree has hardly been packed away and we're (most of us) already back at work and stuck in the hamster wheel. Time really is a terrible thing. How is it possible that 4 hours at work (an eternity) can feel so much different from 4 hours watching series (but, I just started episode 1, how can this be the finale).

During these last 2 weeks, I've built stuff from all our scrap wood, gone red & then tamed it slightly, entered competitions, had my measurements taken, freaked out on Sherlock Holmes Season 3 (I love that man's cheekbones), completed the multitude of Vitality Q's for points & drank copiously when we had to mingle with family...

I was somewhat ambivalent about the results of my measurements... October'13 saw me at 24% body fat while January'14 kicked me in the teeth with 24.8%. Along with some caliper readings actually increasing and a 3kg increase in weight! My tummy area actually increase in cm's - shock! horror! Yes, yes - same person, same calipers. Seriously?  Hours & hours of Crossfit & my tummy is still flabby? 

One word - kitchen. That's what let me down.  Eating healthy 80% of the day for 70% of the week helped me get strong, but it definitely did not help me lose weight.

The only thing that saved me from driving straight to Wakaberry and asking them to open the tap over my face was the fact that my thighs, calves, triceps & chest decreased in %, and that the 3kg that I I picked up was 80% muscle.  

This lead to Boyfriend and me starting with Paleo, that changed to Paleo Reboot, to no, let's just do Paleo cause that's what we're gonna stick with at the end, to Zone cause that's the "official" crossfit diet, to Zone/Paleo, back to Paleo cause I was over counting Zone blocks pretty quickly.  There was also a brief detour to Low Carb High Fat, which can either be Paleo or not Paleo... 

Basically we are now on what people call Paleo - a 80/20 Paleo. We still have diary (full cream milk), but apart from now eating eggs or leftovers in the morning instead of oats (or nothing) there's not much of a difference to how we have been eating. But we've been strict - on the 4th we cleaned out our cupboards & fridge & just got on with it. Basically we are going to eat good food, and not eat bad food. Follow whatever diet/detox/lifestyle you want, but that should be bottom line.

The 2014 Crossfit Games Opens will start in February & I'm so ready to compete. I would love to go to Regionals (only the top 48 ladies from the Open go through to Regionals, and then 1 lady goes through to the Games). So training & nutrition are all geared towards being able to optimally performing when the time comes.

We participated in our first mini competition on Saturday - the Philippines Fund Raiser.  Wow, what a long (from 9am - 3pm) & rewarding day!  Not only did we do our part to help out some people in need, we also smashed our Personal Best weights on the strength section - my stats are looking pretty great if I don't say so myself:

• Back Squat - 102kg (up from 100kg 3 weeks ago)
• Dead Lift - 105kg (up from 90kg)
• Strict Press - 40kg (up from 37kg)
• Snatch - 40kg (up from 30kg)
• Clean & Jerk - 55kg (up from 50kg)

On the flip side, we pretty much felt like death warmed up the next day.

I entered the Sleek Geek Challenge as well as a Port Elizabeth based body transformation competition. PE ladies have from January to June to participate in this weight loss competition and stand the chance to win a boudoir photo shoot from Elsje D Photography - yes please!

Some holiday meals below.  Made my first poached egg this morning - cling wrap & a washing peg (I didn't have any elastics...).

So, yes, a lot of "resolutions" were made, but it doesn't need to be 1 January for you to change your life. Make the decision today.

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