Fuel : Coach T's Coconut Curry

Once summer is over, I'll be doing most of the cooking again.  Coach is a principal,  and has the summer off, and loves cooking, which equals easy street for me, kitchen wise.

And I am so grateful he likes cooking so much *and* loves nutrition and fitness.  I sure wouldn't be making as much of an effort to lose those baby pounds if i didn't have him on my side and in the kitchen :)

Here is our dinner tonight - sweet potatoes on the side, and Coach's famous coconut curry.

Coach T's Coconut  Curry

8-10 chicken breasts

1 can coconut milk

lots of curry powder

garlic and onion

cinnamon

salt, pepper

chop up chicken breasts, fry in olive oil with spices.  Once browned, add coconut milk.  Season to taste, and let simmer till cooked through.

Workout : Inspiration!

While we are still working out in our home gym, while the Olympics are on, we're finding inspiration watching people doing some of the same lifts we are doing.

Instead of only lifting the bar, these women can really lift! (And of course, the men are pretty good, too!)

Coach T recommends vegging out and watching - he thinks that by watching superior form and technique, we internalize better ways of lifting, and hopefully we can incorporate some of what we *see* into what we *do*.

Baby Octavia approves, as well!

Fuel : Proteiny, savoury eggs in a muffin tin!

Like most things in life, the inevitable craving for carbs can fixed with the judicious application of bacon!

Coach T loves these little "muffins", which are super easy to bake and are super tasty!

We tweaked this recipe from allrecipes.com, so it's always a little different...

Bacon and Eggs in a Muffin Tin

Preheat oven to 350.
Bake bacon on a cookie sheet (this reduces the mess!) till well done but not completely crispy. 

But a little knuckle of butter inside each muffin cup.
Curl a bacon slice around the inside of the muffin cup, and break some up to make a "bottom", too.

Sprinkle a little cheddar in each muffin cup, then break an egg into each one.  Top with jalapeno bits and a little more cheddar, and any leftover bacon crumbs.

(Coach T likes to switch up what cheeses he uses, or add in onion instead of jalapeno, or red peppers, too)

Bake in preheated oven for ten to fifteen minutes.

Delicious!!!  I have frozen these so he can grab them for a quick breakfast (when he isn't doing the intermittent fasting, which i guess will be another post one of these days...) :)  But in general, they go way too quick to save.

Fuel : Dinner Guests

So, apart from working out and nursing my baby and homeschool planning, i also am geared up for  hospitality.

I know it's not a strength for me, but i think i have found a game plan that might work :)

 (Why is this important to me?  Mostly bcz the Bible says it's a big deal.  And i believe the Bible)

So - my first step is inviting over "easy" people.  I will eventually get around to lepers and orphans (i hope!)  but for right now, i need a lot of practice with people who won't judge - and luckily my life is full of just that sort :)

Secondly, i asked for help.  My friend Amanda has cooked for huge crowds and was able to give me some really practical pointers about choosing food/selection/drinks and ways to make that end of things smooth.  (Check out my other blog for deets!)

But in this blog, on this post, i thought i'd share what is working for me, paleo wise, in having guests over.  Because it just seemed like one more insurmountable  hurdle - to have people over, but serve "plain" paleo food.  No matter how good it makes me *feel* to be in ketosis, i do not feel like a paleo chef yet!  My object is to get 'er done, and make it pretty later...

So, today, we invited over a fun family after church and here is what we served (sorry, no pictures!)

Cold roast beef with a horseradish mayo and a chili aioli (and butter)

buns

bagels

greek feta and apple salad

grapes

deli meat

cheese, sliced

chips

mixed salted nuts

pink grapefruit pop

diet coke

milk

and for dessert -  two kinds of pound cake, tuxedo cake, and our guests brought a pie and black forest cake as well.

This is very doable!  Instead of a bun or bagel, i used a knife and fork with my meat, and dipped it into the dips.

Salad, fruit, cheese, and nuts rounded out my plate, but there were carbs for regular folk :) and chips for the children.

Coffee and dessert for all who wanted it (but I'd rather stay paleo!)

It wasn't the fanciest ever table, but there was plenty to eat, plenty of variety, and best of all, no stress on my part about food, or what to eat, or feeling deprived *or* like a bad hostess...

I'd love to hear how other paleo mamas handle hospitality!

Workout : 21 Jump Street

Today's workout sounded fun!  Like Sesame  Street, but for moms in home gyms...

"Pick a spot 12 inches above where you can reach," he said.
"It will be fun," he said.

And it kinda was.

After he stopped laughing hysterically at my lack of "vert".

I tried to defend myself saying i had gained and lost 40 pounds eight times in the past seventeen years, but he has me beat there, too - he's been one hundred pounds of difference from his lightest to his heaviest.  

Anyway, here is the workout:

Four Sets of:

30 jumps to reach your spot 

(mine was a little red thingy hanging from the garage door opener)

Also, my spot was maybe 5 inches above my reach - Coach T's was a full foot...

20 pushups (Coach T did pull ups)

10 ring rows (Coach T did handstand pushups)

The pushups i think i need to graduate from girly ones to boy ones - the ring rows were made possible by two huge carabiners bought at Princess Auto yesterday :)

And, as usual, we had not only one tiny somnolent  cheerleader, but two more little girls, one who added an appropriately Olympic touch with her gigantic vuvuzela...

Workout : Powerlifting Workout

For this workout, you do need some equipment.  The good news is that if you are a busy mom who isn't too big and strong, young boys buy workout gear, then quickly grow up, leave home and rarely take it with them. So, if you want to try these exercises, you can probably get a bench and bar just for the asking on freecycle.org :). For bench press you'll also  need supports to hold the barbell and to rack it after each set.

If you're worried about getting bulky from weight lifting, maybe take a long look at the squats video i link below.  These girls are not bulky, and look downright pretty :)  Check out this website, too!  These are the female champions of the Crossfit 2012 games!


Here are some videos on form:

Coach T's tips:

When deadlifting, keep the bar as close to the body as possible, pull the shoulders back (make the chest big), keep your head up.

When doing squats, head up, big chest - let knees follow feet (i.e. point your feet a  little out to the sides, and your knees follow that invisible line your foot makes as you go down).  Squat to parallel at least (your butt gets as low as your knees - ideally!)


When doing bench press, align the bar to your chest at the bottom of the move, and press up over your face (to your eyes). It's not a straight line, it's an arc movement!  Don't let your elbows flare out, keep them tucked in close to your sides.

Workout:

Deadlift

Coach T                                      mama

135lbX10 reps                            3 sets of 10 reps with the bar!

225X10 reps

315X10 reps

365X5 reps

ran out of weight!

Squats

Coach T                                      mama

225X12 reps                              1 set of 15 reps with the bar

Bench Press

Coach T                                      mama

225X18 reps                              3 sets of 10 reps with the bar

275X10 reps

315X5 reps

Don't worry if you look  like this as you lift!

Workout : Coach T's Crossfit WOD

This workout has no real name, since Coach T made it up.  But, it got me 600 points on Fitocracy :) so it must be good! (my username is mamazee - if you wanna join me there, I'd love to hear from other moms or paleo friends :)...)

This is what we did:

Three rounds: as fast as you can!

Row 1000m 

(we have a C2 rower - but a rower is a great thing to have - it really is a whole body exercise!)

50 pushups

50 crunches 

(i did the Tupler variation, where you splint the diastasis recti)

Coach T and I took turns on the rower, and our little minions held baby O's hands and cooed at her so she would be happy...

Update on Tim F and his "Slow Carb"

Well, this is a nice start to the year!  This is working nicely so far.  I'm bringing this to the "paleo blog' which has sat unnoticed for a long time, because this latest venture takes us very close to paleo country :)

It's been ten days into the new year, and i've lost three of the 25 pounds i wanted to lose, which is pretty nice progress.

The "Slow Carb" diet that Tim Ferriss talks about in his book "The Four Hour Body" is part of what we're doing, but we're also following a bunch of bizarre sounding ideas re: fitness, cheat day, workouts and exercises (a new exercise for me :  cat vomit?  Also "myotatic crunches" - i don't know why he gives them such strange names, but they *work*, especially for a mom who's had abdominal diastasis.

All during the week we are eating "clean" which according to this regime means no white flour, no sugar, no fruit, no dairy,  no potatoes, rice, grains of any kind...  It kind of leaves us with meat and vegetables (although once i get my shipment of almonds i'm making those little "raw chocolate" balls from Serene Allison's cookbook!)

But then, on Friday, it's all rules out the window, and all the things i wanted all week long i can have :)  Last friday i ate a kind of stale, but still delicious, marshmallow square - you know those ones made with peanut butter, coconut, marshmallows, toffee chips?  The ones that were always a hit at church socials, oh, thirty years ago?  I made some "for the children" around Christmas, popped them in the freezer of the fridge and forgot.  When i found them and realized what they were (opaque tupperware!) - i shared them all out, but left a couple in  a ziplock for Friday :)....

I think i'll just do the measurements once a month, so that i'm more likely to see results, but i'm weighing just about every day (so is T)...

And we're working out every other day (we could do more, but this is doable for me right now) - i don't think we've had one workout that lasted more than 15 minutes, but they are generally pretty intense while we're working.  Hard to enter on loseit.com as they don't know what to make of crossfit workouts like Fran where you have 21 reps of something and something else, then 15 of each, then 9  of each - was that five minutes of each?  Anyway, a little guesstimating is going into logging the exercises, but this is working!

Update on half hearted paleo...

I am not a very faithful paleo girl, but dinners have been paleo pretty regularly around here, and often the two other meals are too (at least for me)...

and i'm down to the lowest weight i've been since having baby #7! So excited about that - i'm sure it has to do with a little more frequent workouts lately, too, but it's nice to see *results* when you are wanting to lose weight. I don't have a ton to lose (twelve pounds would be fine), but I remember what it felt like getting down there again after baby #6 and fitting into the clothes i bought and feeling more like me, less weighed down and self conscious...

I am also feeling more clear headed this time around. I think going 100% right at the beginning was maybe a little much for my system (although it's how it works with both dh and i - we'd rather jump right in than go halfsies at first - we're wholehearted :)...) - It's worked great for dh, but my not quite as committed version is working too... We are feeling healthy and happy, and full, and eating foods we like...

Not bad!