30 Days of Yoga - Success

Well folks, I made it to 31 yoga classes in the last 31 days. Yeah, the challenge was only for 30 days, but why not make it a full month instead of just 30 days? Plus it turned out that the yoga studio I decided to go to had scheduled a 30 day challenge as well. Perfect timing/coincidence if you ask me. They had a chart on the wall where we got to track our attendance with gold stars. I guess those elementary school years of getting gold stars next to your name for being good stuck with me. And being the overachiever that I was, I got a lot of gold stars. Most of this past month I attended class at 6 a.m. throughout the week and then a mid-day or afternoon class on the weekend. As I had mentioned, the morning class I attended was called Wake Up and Salute the Sun. It's what I would refer to as slow flow, as intense as you'd like to make it. We had a core group of 5-6 of us that showed up on a daily basis. I could tell who was there when I first arrived just by their cars. One of the women drove a orange sedan, whereas the guy who had excellent and super consistent Ujjayi breath drove a silver SUV with a yoga studio sticker on the bottom left corner of the back windshield. Anyways, we bonded over waking up so early every morning and started to feel like the non-regulars were intruders. Our class doubled in size on the Thursday and Friday before Memorial Day weekend because everyone was trying to get their gold stars. When class dropped back down to its regular size, we kept talking about how we were so surprised when there was that many people that early in the morning. It's always nice to feel like you're a part of something, and that's one of the things I enjoyed about my 30 Days of Yoga.

Another good thing about this challenge was my mood. As I mentioned in my Paleo f(x) Recap, one of the big topics was stress and how to manage it. Stress is something that all of us experience and how we handle that stress makes all the difference. Daily yoga definitely helped me with my stress management. Not only did spending at least an hour every day trying to clear my mind and focus only on breathing (while struggling to balance) give me some peace of mind, but I also found myself making time to be calm and relaxed. I took more walks. I read a book. I went to the library for some quiet time to focus. I spent more time with my friends one-on-one, and I called some of my old friends to catch up on life. I felt happy more often and one of my coworkers even commented on how I was smiling more frequently. I don't know whether this was a result of just the yoga or the fact that I was making time every day to be physically active and get a good sweat on. I made physical activity a priority and I want to continue to do so. That may mean that I'm not quite as social with friends as I might like to be, but I can notice the difference between my health and mood now and what it was a month ago.

I do have to admit that not everything improved; my flexibility was one of those things. I swear that some of my muscles feel tighter now than they did a month ago. My hamstrings and calf muscles in particular feel like they got shortened somehow. And my previously very open hip flexors now feel sore and achey often. I don't know how that all happened, but I think that part of it was pushing my body harder that I've pushed it in a while. It may also be that my form improved thanks to daily practice. My instructor said that my form got better over the weeks, and she attributed my recently developed knee twinge to my improved hip placement in Warrior 1, and there's the fact that I'm a woman... with hips... and these yoga poses were originally designed for men, who don't have hips that put extra strain on the knee joints. The solution was easy though, I just modify the pose a bit so that my heels don't quite line up, and voila, no twinge. 

So all things considered, would I do it again? Definitely. Did you make it through the 30 days? How do you feel? Are you ready for another 30-day challenge? Good, because I'm doing a Whole 30 starting June 1st. So let's jump from one challenge to the next. Let's do it!

Fed Up with Sugar Addiction

This past Friday night I went to see the documentary Fed Up with my Paleo friends. It wasn't very well advertised, but in the Paleo world, we tend to stay abreast of these types of movies, books, or news articles. Basically this movie called into question the validity of the diet and exercise dogma that we've learned: eat less + exercise more = weight loss. It makes logical sense, right? If calorie expenditure is greater than calorie consumption, then you're in a calorie deficit and you should lose weight. However, that doesn't always seem to work for us, does it? Fed Up proposes that all calories are not created equal. In particular, the documentary highlights sugar consumption, and the way that the food industries have fought against any reports or guidelines that try to restrict sugar consumption. The way your body reacts to processed sugar is not the same as how it reacts to natural sugar. There's more details that I could give about the movie, but why don't you go see it for yourself? I'll tell you my reaction to it though...

I think the biggest emotion that the documentary evoked was anger. Anger at the way the world works. Anger at the way food industries advertise to children. And anger at the vast slew of so-called "healthy" foods that doesn't seem to help people be healthy. I mean, how do you make low-fat or no-fat foods taste good when you remove the fat? Sugar... salt. We watch our sodium intake, don't we? Why shouldn't we watch our sugar intake? And have you noticed that nutrition labels never give your a percentage of recommended daily intake for sugar? Most everything else on the label shows a percentage... why not sugar?

I also felt extremely sad... to the point that I cried. No joke. There were silent tears rolling down my face while I watched stories of multiple young children who were struggling with weight. Children that tried the whole exercise more and watch your calories route, and sadly had no luck. One boy weighed over 200 pounds and had to have bariatric surgery (weight loss surgery) at age 14. 14! Those stories were very tough to watch, because I know that those children aren't the only ones suffering with obesity in the United States, or in the world. Adults and children alike are facing issues with weight, ranging from heart disease to diabetes.

Overall, I wanted to come home and throw out every single sugary food that could be found in my house and force everyone I know to watch the documentary. While I didn't force anyone to watch the movie, I am choosing to participate in the Fed Up challenge, which consists of giving up all added or processed sugars for 10 days. Considering I've done the 21 Day Sugar Detox, 10 days should be easy. Though it's concerning how many chocolate cravings I've had lately, so we'll see what happens for the next week and a half.

Want some more information? Check out this infographic. It's scary the amount of sugar we consume...

30 Days of Yoga - Day 11 and Getting Outside

If you've liked me on Facebook, you've seen a few posts over the last 11 days about how I've been enjoying daily yoga. I've attended 12 yoga classes in the past 11 days (I doubled up on Monday). I feel as though my mood has improved drastically; I've found myself smiling and dancing about and just generally feeling peaceful when I'm alone. I don't know if I can attribute this solely to yoga though. I've been trying to spend more time outside in the sun by going for walks or jogs. My doctor recently told me that I'm vitamin D deficient, something that's been happening with greater frequency to everyone these days thanks to long work hours, and even more at-home time in front of computer screens, so I've been trying to get outside as often as possible. This means that instead of heading home and plopping down in front of my computer or tablet to watch a TV show, I'll cook, or go for a walk, or read a book, or clean my room - things that will make me feel calm and relaxed. In general, I've been trying to be more active, watch less TV, and make plans with friends that don't just revolve around food or alcohol.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I've heard more and more people I know express feelings of discontent about being in constant contact with people. In today's world of cell phones, tablets, laptops, and an endless supply of messaging apps, it's hard to take time alone to just relax and sit quietly. During my freshman year of college, I took an English class that was really a philosophy class with some writing assignments thrown in. We had to write a paper on space and how technology interacts with space. Basically, what I wrote was that while cell phones and computers make it easier for us to stay close with friends and family that live far away, it also creates distance between people who live near each other. What do I mean? Well, think back to your last social outing or the last time you had someone over to your place. How many people were on their phones? Texting? Tweeting? Checking Facebook? Probably quite a few. I know that I'm guilty of it myself. Why do we feel the need to post on Facebook that we're having fun with a friend? Instead I think we all need to just be in the moment: enjoy time with friends and be fully invested in that friend/moment. I hate it when I'm talking to someone and they keep checking their phone waiting for a response from a different conversation. Hello!?!? I'm right here, in your face... talk to ME! Not that electronic box glued to your hand. That's one thing that yoga touches on: fully being in the moment. Appreciating the time that you have and focusing on yourself. I think all of this technology has caused people to lose their communication skills. I sometimes find myself feeling awkward when someone gives me their full attention. To have someone fully listening to you and being invested in your conversation is a very personal and intimate feeling; it makes you feel special and important. And instead of allowing ourselves to be a part of these types of interactions, we post on Facebook, and only feel special if someone likes or comments on your status.

So for this past week, I gave up some of my vices: TV, chocolate, Facebook messaging, and alcohol. I think the hardest one was chocolate. Not really because I was craving the sweetness, but mainly because eating chocolate at work gives me a reason to get up from my desk and walk over to raid my co-worker's stash of candies, and look at something other than my computer screen for a little while. Also, instead of using my personal Facebook account, I've tried communicating directly with friends, like phone conversations. Sure, sometimes it's inconvenient times to talk on the phone, like maybe during work hours or when you're at dinner with that special someone, but I get more joy with a phone conversation than I do with a texting conversation. For instance, while I walked back from yoga yesterday morning, I called one of my Atlanta friends and had a 20ish-minute conversation catching up with him. I was happy, talking excitedly, and bouncing around, all while gesturing wildly to myself and all of the random people that drove past me on the road. We could have had the same conversation via texts, but it would have just been my thumbs tapping away at the phone, it would have taken a lot longer to get all of words across, and I wouldn't have had the same satisfaction nor would I have been able to convey emotions or my happiness as easily. 

I urge you to try changing your routine a bit this week. Turn off the cell phone. Go for a walk instead of watching your favorite TV show. Or even better, go for a walk with a friend. Let me know how it goes!

30 Days of Yoga - Day 1

Day One of 30DoY (30 Days of Yoga) is a go! After snoozing my 5:30 a.m. alarm for 10 minutes, I made the last minute decision to go to a 6 am "Wake Up and Salute the Sun" yoga class. Luckily, the yoga studio is only 5 minutes from my home, so I had enough time to roll out of bed, throw on my yoga clothes, grab my yoga mat, and stroll into the studio. It was calming, yet made me sweat... just a little. I guess I'm used to my Krav Maga Flex class which consists of super-intense yoga/boot camp, where we may start out with rolling partner push-ups, move to partner stretches (your partner literally sits on you to help you stretch more), next to splits, and then on to inversions (this past week we worked on hand stands). So a hour-long class of upward/downward dog, sun salutations, warrior 1 & 2, forward folds, and boats isn't all that challenging. But I will say that while Flex is humorously too intense for most of us, the morning class is a great way to start the day with a peaceful and calm attitude. Now I just need to figure out how to turn off my brain and focus on my "practice." And how to maintain that calm throughout the workday. It's only day one though. Let's see how I progress over the month.

How did your first day go?

30 Days of Yoga

On May 1st I'm starting 30 days of yoga. Why? you ask. Well, I've been attending a yoga class at my Krav Maga studio for the last few months. It's only once a week, but I love going. I more regularly attend Flex than I do the actual Krav Maga classes. I guess I just haven't been in the mood to hit people lately. Anywho, I'm super stoked about starting a month of yoga. I want to get more flexible, and yoga is a nice joint-friendly, surprisingly tough workout. When I did yoga last summer, I swear I ended every class soaked in sweat. And let me tell you, maintaining an inverted pose while your hands keep sliding away from your center of balance is not an easy task.

So I'm doing 30 days of yoga. Are you with me? Email me and let me know! Let's do this!

Update (30APR2014): If you're looking for free online yoga videos to do from the comfort of your own home, there are a bunch of website that offer free videos, such as doyogawithme.com or myfreeyoga.com.

Dijon Mustard Salad Dressing

Happy Monday, y'all! The summer weather has definitely hit Texas. To celebrate the heat, one of my best friends and I went for a walk after work. LMR is currently fostering an adorable little Pomeranian, so we got a dose of cuteness to counteract the heat. I returned home to do a P90X workout, and then whipped up a hefty salad to stave off my hunger. My salad ingredients consisted of red leaf lettuce, carrots, celery, almonds, pumpkin seeds, and pine nuts. And here's the dressing I whisked together to add some extra flavor...

Dijon Mustard Dressing

2 Tbls Dijon mustard

1 1/2 Tbls extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 tsp lemon juice

1 1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper, to taste

Whisk the ingredients together in a small bowl, then drizzle over your salad.

I added some chopped prosciutto to make myself feel fancy while I lounged around in my sweats. What a wonderful Monday night!

Happy Easter!

Yeah, I'm a day late, but I hope you all had a fantastic Easter.. if you celebrate it. If you don't, you can at least enjoy all of the candy that's now on sale. Except if you're hard-core Paleo that is. In which case, go buy yourself a high-quality dark chocolate, like this bar of 75% Cacao Fearless Chocolate that I found on sale at Whole Foods. The two (yes, only two) ingredients in this bar of chocolate are organic cacao and organic cane sugar. Sure, we try to stay away from added sugar, but if you're going to have a bar of chocolate, aim for the stuff with the least amount of sugar, and go for organic. They also have a 85% cacao bar.

Anyways, in honor of Easter, I decided to cook myself a yummy breakfast. Because what's Sunday morning without brunch?

Veal Chorizo and Artichoke Scrambled Eggs

1/4 lb chorizo-flavored ground veal (Click here to find a chorizo seasoning recipe)

1/4 cup artichoke hearts, chopped (you can use frozen or marinated artichokes)

1/4 cup frozen cut leaf spinach, thawed

2 eggs, whisked

1. Heat a pan over medium heat. Break the ground veal into small bites and add to the pan. Heat until thoroughly cooked.

2. Toss in the artichokes and spinach, then add the eggs. Cook for a few minutes until the eggs are done.

Serve with a side of sweet potato hash browns and a small glass of blueberry kombucha. Happy Easter!

And in exciting news for today, I convinced myself to do the Chest and Back P90X workout today after work. I also have finally managed a headstand. I got myself up and held it for 20 seconds without using the wall for support. Huzzah! I'm super excited about it! I never knew I had a goal to do that, but after practicing inversions with my Krav Maga yoga class, that goal just developed. And today was a good start on my way to doing a handstand. I feel productive. And enthused. But now, I'm going to go to bed and get my eight hours of sleep. Sweet dreams, y'all!

Paleo f(x) Recap

This past weekend was Paleo f(x). For those of you who are unaware of this event, it’s basically a giant Paleo reunion. All of the big names in the Paleo blogosphere were there giving presentations, sitting on panels, and being friendly with all of their fans. I sat in on sessions featuring Mark Sission of Mark’s Daily Apple, Robb Wolf of The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet, Diane Sanfilippo of the 21 Day Sugar Detox, Darryl Edwards of Paleo Fitness and The Fitness Explorer, Juli Bauer of PaleOMG, Jim Laird of J&M Strength and Conditioning, just to name a few. There were sooo many awesome speakers there, that I really can't list them all.

I attended the conference as a volunteer, meaning that I saved the ~$300 premiere ticket, granting me access to all of the presentation stages, but had to work throughout the weekend. I was on the dinner prep staff as well as a timekeeper. It meant that I had to leave the conference a bit early on Friday and Saturday to set up for the dinner, but as someone who likes to be behind the scenes, I quite enjoyed it.

It seems that the latest trend in Paleo seems to be the focus on stress. My favorite session was called Hacking Stress and focused on biohacks to identify when you're under stress and what to do to relieve it. It's funny, right? To think that you have to use something else to figure out that you're stressed is so indicative of the fact that we're all under too much pressure these days. It's expected that we're all superheros and can handle everything all at once. Sadly it's true. I was using a sleep app, called Sleep Cycle, for a while to track how well I was sleeping, if I was tossing and turning, or waking up, etc. Before you start the recording app, it asks you to identify a few things about your day, did you exercise, drink coffee, drink tea, eat late, and/or have a stressful day? Last fall, after months of using the app and while my work load got heavier and heavier, my usual stress load was so high, that "stressful" became my new norm. I no longer labeled my day as "stressful;" it had to be extraordinarily stressful for me to tick that box. I think it's a terrible trend, that is affecting more and more people that I meet.

Anyways, some of the panelists said that when you're stressed, you just know; that you can feel it in your body, mind, bowels, and spirit. Others suggested heart rate variability as a way of determining when you're stressed if you've tuned out the signs because you've been under stress for so long. Alternatively, you can have your doctor run blood work, immunologic testing, etc. One thing that they all agreed on is that you have to take time for yourself to recover. And make time for sleep, and make sleep easier by using earplugs, eye masks, and orange glasses before bed to block out blue light (click here for some reading on that). A lot of them also suggested that you go outside and just be in nature.

Another interesting presentation I went to was "Maximizing Nutrient Density" by Terry Wahls, who developed a food diet that focused on getting a certain profile of macronutrients to attempt to slow the onset of secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. She ended up reversing some of the effects of her disease, and managed to improve her health such that she no longer requires the assistance of a wheelchair to get around. Incredible, or what? One of the interesting facts that she mentioned in her presentation was that in order to meet the nutrient intake of the modern-day hunter-gatherers (the Kitavans and the Inuit), someone following the typical US diet would have to consume 27,000 kcal to meet the nutrient profile, and someone following the Paleo diet would have to consume 14,000 kcal. Why you ask? Because the mineral content of the soil in which our food is grown has decreased by up to 85%. We've stopped rotating crops, and instead used pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizer. Unfortunate.

So now that I've written an essay for you, here's some photos from the weekend:

Juli Bauer doing a cooking demonstration.

From left: Sean Croxton, Carol Salva, and Mark Sisson

Friday night dinner

Friday night dinner at Springdale Farms in Austin, TX

US Healthcare: In Crisis or Chaos?
From left: Dr. Grayson Wheatley, Charles Mayfield, Darryl Edwards, Dr. Richard Maurer, and Robb Wolf

My Dinner Tribe! What a team!

Darryl Edwards and I

Flipping around the fireman's carry

And you wanna know what else is great? A fireman's carry is totally normal. We all just chuckle and say, oh, that's Darryl. We're used to our world of Paleo folks doing random things like lifting people in the air or setting up a slackline outside of the conference hall. We like lifting heavy things, playing, and running around in our Vibrams, which are totally cool to wear with a suit (yeah, there was someone wearing that at the conference).

Paleo f(x)

Well, folks. It's here. Today's the day that Paleoites and soon to become Paleoites descend upon Austin, TX to attend one of the biggest gatherings of ancestral health advocates. My day will be full of sessions presented by the biggest names in Paleo: Mark Sission, Robb Wolf, Melissa and Dallas Hartwig, Keith and Michelle Norris (the masterminds behind the event), Juli Bauer, and Michelle Tam, just to name a few. Can't make it to Austin? No worries! Two of the presentation stages will be live-streamed (http://www.paleofx.com/on-demand) throughout the weekend. Prepare yourselves for awesomeness!

I'll be volunteering this weekend, so I can't guarantee you'll hear much from me over the next few days. I'm on dinner duty until 11 the next two nights, so I'll be passing out pretty quickly after then so that I can enjoy all of tomorrow's presentations. And with that, I have to run. Paleo f(x), here I come!

W30D17

Hey, guess what? I just realized that we're over halfway through with this Whole 30. Rock on! It hasn't been too bad so far, if you exclude my Saturday Irish stew consumption, but that was a brief hiccup. I have to admit that I've been fighting off the urge to sneak a piece of dark chocolate. Notice that I used the word "sneak," because I know that I shouldn't be eating it so I feel like I'd need to hide it. I've fought off the urge for the past two nights. Want to know my motivation for saying no? Of course you do... It's the fact that I'd have to call up Jay and confess that I ate dark chocolate during a Whole 30. That's a definite no-no. And after I called him, I'd post it on here. For all of you to read. Yeah, it's good to be held accountable by someone other than just yourself.

I really need to start going to bed earlier. I'm not sure how exactly to make this happen, because I keep finding myself writing these posts and finally replying to emails at the end of each day. Because I stayed up till 11:30 last night, it took me a while to get moving this morning. I snoozed my 5:00 a.m., 5:15 a.m., and 5:30 a.m. alarms, and finally got up at 5:50 to shuffle over to my rowing machine and get a morning workout in. Note to self: Don't get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom... There is a 7' long rowing machine in your way.

Now on to the yummy stuff.

Rosemary Lamb Chop

1 lb lamb chop

4 Tbls olive oil

2 Tbls chopped rosemary

1 clove garlic, minced

2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp black pepper

1. Mix 2 Tbls olive oil, rosemary, garlic, salt, and pepper together. Rub mixture into the meat, cover, and let rest in the fridge for 30 minutes or more.

2. Heat the remaining two Tbls olive oil over high heat in an cast iron pan (or something capable of going into the oven). Once hot, add the lamb chop and sear on each side for 3-4 minutes.

3. Transfer to 400 F oven and cook for 4-5 minutes. (optional)

4. Move the lamb chops to a plate or cutting board and cover with tin foil. Let rest for 5-10 minutes. Then eat up.

ECD9: 45 minutes rowing + 15 minutes practicing inversions (a.k.a. head stands). I'm getting closer to being able to hold it for more than 5 seconds.

W30D16

What can I do with all of that chicken that I roasted the other day? Easy. Time to pull out that crock pot...

Spinach, Pepper, and Chicken Quiche

12 eggs

1 cup coconut milk

2 cups shredded chicken (for me, this was all of the meat from the wings and thighs)

1 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed

1 cup chopped bell peppers (I used red, orange, and yellow)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

3/4 tsp hot sauce (cayenne pepper)

1. Whisk the eggs and coconut together. Mix in the spices.

2. Spread the chicken, spinach, and peppers in the bottom of the crockpot.

3. Pour in the egg and coconut mixture.

4. Set crockpot on high and cook for 2.5 hours.

5. Slice into six pieces and serve.

Look at that thick slice of quiche. Isn't it pretty?

ECD8: 1 hour Krav Maga Flex (yoga)

W30D15

I woke up this morning and decided that I wanted to fast today. At the time of this post, I'll have gone without food for 27 hours. I don't know all of the reasons why, but I always feel GREAT when I fast. I have no stomach issues, no headaches, and consistent energy levels. I even worked out tonight. I did 45 minutes on my rowing machine and then spent 15 minutes doing yoga stretches and working on inversions (a.k.a. head stands).

I really need to research fasting some more, because as great as I feel now, not eating for extended periods of time is just not going to work for me. So I need to figure out what it is that I'm eating that is causing me to have lingering stomach issues. Thoughts anyone?

Roast Chicken

4 lb free-range chicken

2 Tbls olive oil

3 tsp salt

3 tsp pepper

1 lemon

4 cloves garlic, smashed

2 sweet potatoes, chopped into 2" pieces

10 carrots, roughly chopped

1 yellow onion, thickly sliced

1 bunch celery, roughly chopped

1. Preheat the oven or roaster to 350 F.

2. Rinse the inside and outside of the chicken. Pat dry and then coat with olive oil.

3. Rub 2 tsp salt and 2 tsp pepper into the skin of the bird. Make cuts in the skin near the wings of the bird and use the holes to rub salt and pepper under the skin as well.

4. Rub the remaining salt and pepper on the inside of the bird.

5. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the lemon on the inside of the bird. Then place the lemon halves and the smashed garlic cloves into the chicken.

6. Spread the sweet potatoes, onion, carrots, and celery chunks across the bottom of the pan. Use a rack to place the chicken above the vegetables.

7. Cook for 1 hour (roughly 15 minutes per pound of chicken). Halfway through, baste the chicken and drain off the liquid in the bottom of the pan; this will make sure the bottom of the chicken gets crispy as well.

ECD7: 45 minutes rowing machine, 15 minutes yoga

W30D13-14

Forgive me Father, for I have sinned... That's how it goes, right? Or at least that's what I've seen in the movies. Anyways, I have a confession... I did not stick with Whole 30 on Saturday. "Why?" you ask. Well here we go. Yesterday I volunteered at an Irish Stew Cook-off and Music Festival, which went from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. I stood at the entrance booth selling tickets from 10:30 until around 4:00, at which point I started to enjoy the festival a bit. I didn't have time in the morning to prep snacks for the day, so I eventually caved and ate some of the samples of Irish stew and chili that the various teams were making. Each stew was different, but I can guarantee that I ended up consuming wheat (flour used as a thickener for the stew) and dairy. So that's it. That's my confession. I didn't stick to the Whole 30. But let me tell you about the rest of my day.

After working for five and a half hours, I took a break to watch a group of Irish dancers (think Lord of the Dance) and then a performance by The Dead Rabbits, an Irish punk rock band. We then rounded up the voting jars from each booth and counted votes to see which team the festival attendees liked the best, and started taking down signs and tables, etc. We reached a lull where there wasn't much left to do so most of us just hung around drinking and chatting. As the sun set, and some of the folks continued to consume the beer that was free for volunteers (don't worry, I didn't drink any beer), the group got a bit louder and a bit more rowdy, which proved for a very entertaining evening. The band started an impromptu acoustic session, which was fantastic. There's something about drunk Irishmen singing that just warms my soul and makes me smile. Sure, that may be a bit odd, but I don't see how you wouldn't enjoy watching a group of men singing in harmony.

We started to disperse so two of the the volunteers and I headed into the bar that hosted our festival to hang out with some other lovers of Irish culture. While we were inside, I made some new friends. These new friends happened to be some guys from a MC. Yep, that's right... a motorcycle club. You're probably like me and immediately thought of Sons of Anarchy, but they assured me that they're really just a group of guys that like to ride motorcycles. The reason why we started talking was because I got involved in their discussion of health insurance costs. It got rather political for a while, but it still remained a great day overall.

The greatness continued today with a Paleo Meetup. We went to a restaurant that specializes in wild game, such as elk, antelope, yak, camel, kangaroo, etc. And yes, I tried ALL of those today! The restaurant gave us a couple sampler platters for our group of 25. What a turnout!

I decided on the yak burger, bunless and cheeseless, of course. It had a different flavor than beef, but wasn't so wildly different that I had a hard time believing it was a burger. Yummy. To be honest, my favorite meat was camel. It's a bit fattier and it tasted great. Try it out if you have the chance!

ECD5: 1 hour walk (+6 hours of standing/running errands at the festival)

ECD6: 1 hour walk (to/from the grocery store - 3 miles total)

W30D12

ECD4: 2 hours of Primal activity.

Today I did my first so-called Primal workout. It wasn't high intensity, but I definitely felt tired during and after it. What can I say? Running around the park and crawling over and under trees and branches can wear me out. We started off the afternoon with warm-ups/stretches and then left the running path to head into the "woods." jumped over bushes, climbed trees, and bear crawled under tree limbs. After we emerged from the wooded area, we then bear crawled across the grass to a few bleachers, where we bear crawled up and down the bleachers before jumping off of the bleachers and then climbing the chain-link fence around the nearby baseball field. Yeah, we were kind of all over the place. And we had a cop watching us the entire time we crawled around. It was a bit creepy.

After crawling around for a while, we ran/weaved through some trees before finding ourselves at a playground. Man, I miss playgrounds! I think we all need to make more time for playing. Because seriously, running around on playgrounds, sliding down slides, and jumping across bridges. Why did we EVER stop doing this. After playing around there for 20 or so minutes, we headed into another wooded area that had fallen trees everywhere. (Thanks to our last hurricane for all of the excellent trees to run on.) I felt like we were running through a bog. My feet were sinking into the mud during the times we couldn't stay balanced on trees. Let me tell you, ponds/mud/bogs are a pretty good motivator for maintaining your balance.

All in all, it was awesome. I really REALLY want to do it again. I can't remember the last time that I just played around outside. I've spent time outside doing organized activities like running or rowing, but I haven't done a random jaunt around a park picking up tree limbs and throwing them around. I've got a few scrapes and bruises to show for it, but that's kind of what I signed up for, so I'm pleased with the experience.

And to go along with new things, I tried out a new Brussels sprouts recipe. What do you think?

Lemon and Onion Brussels Sprouts

2 Tbls olive oil

1/2 yellow onion, sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

15 Brussels sprouts, halved

2 Tbls minced fresh basil

2 Tbls lemon juice

1. Heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook for 5-10 minutes until translucent.

2. Place the Brussels sprouts, cut side down, in the pan and cook for 4-5 minutes until browned. Flip and cook for another 3-4 minutes.

3. Add the lemon juice and basil, cooking until the flavors have fully incorporated. Serve and enjoy.

W30D11

I just realized that I haven't eaten any fruits for the past three days. So somehow my Whole 30 has shifted into a mix of Whole 30 and 21DSD (21 Day Sugar Detox). It wasn't intentional, but I guess I have been trying to break the habit of finishing off a meal with something sweet or dessert-like, like chocolate, fruit, or nut butter. Now I kind of want to see how long I can last before I start craving fruit.

I'm somewhat regretting my decision to say goodbye to Facebook for a while, because now I just want to ask for my friends opinions on the fitbit and other biotracking devices. Although I would really prefer a device that would monitor my heart rate and walking/running speed/distance in addition to the number of steps I've taken. Is it too much to ask for everything? Does the vivofit by Garmin cover my desires?

Basil Tuna

1/2 lb tuna steak

1 Tbls olive oil

3 Tbls fresh basil, minced

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1. Rub 1 Tbls of olive oil into the tuna steak.

2. Mix together the basil, salt, and pepper. Then spread over the tuna steak.

3. Place on a parchment paper-lined baking pan and set to broil on a rack 4" below the top of the oven. Cook for 4 minutes, then use tongs to flip the tuna over and cook for another 4 minutes. This got me to a medium-well tuna steak, which is a bit more than I wanted. It still tasted delicious though!

After cooking for 4 minutes on one side.

After for minutes, flipped.

After 8 minutes of cooking

ECD3: 1 hour Krav Maga

Of course we worked on throwing elbows again today, so shortly after starting to slam my right elbow into the "tombstone" (small pad), my partner looks at my elbow and asks "Are you okay?!?" I've got blood smeared all over my elbow and partly onto my forearm from scraping off the fresh scab from Wednesday morning's class. And there's blood on the pad as well. Lovely. So I do a few more, despite the worsening wound, and then run off to grab two disinfecting wipes. One to clean off my elbow (Ahhhhh! It BURNS!), and one to clean the pad before I switch to my opposite elbow. During one of the breaks where the instructor focused a bit more on technique, I run over to my purse where I had a roll of stretchy tape and wrap up my elbow to make sure I don't spread blood everywhere. Despite reapplying a fresh wrap after class and removing it once I got home, I have a nice red, itchy, burning rash where the tape was. Because of course, I'm allergic to tape. I know that I have allergic reactions to band-aids and medical tape, and have ever since the summer of 2003. I don't know what happened 11 years ago in the formula for the adhesive used in band-aids and all types of medical tape (including "sensitive-skin"), but over the course of one month, my grandmother up in Minnesota, my mother in Atlanta, and me in Valdosta, GA for summer camp, ALL developed allergic reactions to adhesive. What gives? The doctors didn't know what it was so they labeled it as a latex allergy and it's stuck in my records ever since, though I'm find with latex as long as you don't attach an adhesive to it.

W30D10

Well, I managed to wake up at 4:58 a.m. to get my ass over to my Krav Maga studio for their 5:25 a.m. Meta (metamorphosis/boot camp) class, followed by the 6 a.m. Krav Maga 1 class. In the 30 minutes of Meta, I did 66 burpees, 54 hollow rocks, 54 kettle bell push-presses, 54 up-down planks, and 54 Krav get-ups. We were supposed to do more, but I did move fast enough... for good reason, I was exhausted. We worked on elbows, knees, head-butts, and side choke holds today. By the time I got done with my Krav class, I had scraped off the skin of my right elbow due to throwing elbows against a pad, had gotten elbowed in the head more times that I could count, and had a slightly rug-burned neck from snatching my partner's hands away from it and out of the choke hold. Yeah, it can get a bit violent, but I always leave feeling happy and energetic. Right now, roughly 16 hours after the start of my first workout, I'm starting to feel the muscle soreness. I can only imagine what tomorrow is going to be like.

I'm thinking about getting a Fitbit. Any thoughts? Suggestions? Is it worth getting one?

Chicken and Sweet Potato Stuffed Peppers

(this is pretty similar to a recipe I posted last year, with some differences)

1 1/2 lb chicken, cut into 1" pieces

3 bell peppers, whichever color you want

1/2 yellow onion, diced

1/2 green pepper, diced

2 cloves garlic, diced

2 small jalapeno, finely diced

2 tsp chili pepper

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 Tbls lime juice

2 Tbls olive oil

1 sweet potato

1. Mix your ingredients together in a large bowl or gallon-sized plastic bag. Toss/shake until the chicken is evenly coated. Cover/seal and place in the fridge for an hour or two. Take a break, read a book, or cook other things.

2. In the meantime or after you get back to cooking after your break, heat your oven to 400 F. Prick your sweet potato with a fork all over and bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes, or until tender. Remove from oven and let cool. Then chop up half to all of the sweet potato into 1 cm chunks. Set aside.

3. Remove for chicken/veggie mixture from the oven and spread on a pan. Cook in the 400 F for 25-30 minutes until almost completely done.

4. While this is cooking, slice the tops off of the bell peppers and remove the seeds.

5. Mix together the chicken and the sweet potatoes and stuff into the peppers.

6. Place on a pan and cook for 30 minutes, or until peppers have softened.

ECD2: 30 minute boot camp style + 1 hour Krav Maga

W30D9

This round of Whole 30 isn't going as well as some of my others. Usually I feel better within a few days of starting a round of what I term super-strict Paleo. I normally feel more energetic, I sleep better, my stomach gives me no issues, and so on. My skin has gotten a bit better on this round, but it's still isn't clear. I'm not as bloated as I was the morning that I started (1" from my waist to be exact).

I guess part of it probably comes down to the fact that I've continued to consume alcohol for the last week, which means I'm technically not doing a Whole 30. While I'm not drinking on a daily basis, I'm thinking that I'd probably feel better if I cut out the alcohol completely. The problem is that I like drinking alcohol with friends. So I'm making my own rule: no alcohol Sunday through Thursday. In addition to this, I'm no longer going to watch TV shows on my iPad just before bed. I'm not going to cut TV out completely, because I fully intend on watching some of the Olympics which starts up this weekend, but not watching it while laying in bed is probably a good idea and will help me fall asleep more quickly. Starting today, I'm also cutting myself off from facebook, excluding my blog posts to my facebook page: Adventures in Paleo-land. I seem to have a lot of caveats to everything. Here's the complete list of my new rules:

1. No alcohol Sunday through Thursday
2. No TV at night, except for the Olympics, but not within 1 hour of bed time
3. No social media
4. Exercise every day -- The most important of the bunch!

According to the Mayo Clinic, exercise...

1. controls weight
2. combats health conditions and diseases
3. improves mood
4. boosts energy
5. promotes better sleep
6. puts a spark back into your sex life
7. can be fun

And based on the article "Physical Activity and the Prevention of Depression: A Systemic Review of Prospective Studies" by George Mammen and Guy Faulkner, moderate exercise can both treat and prevent depression. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2013; 45(5):649–657.

I'm really bad about exercising these days. I need a goal or some sort of punishment if I don't exercise. Which is why I'm having my parents hold me accountable. If I don't exercise in some form, whether it's a walk, yoga, rowing, or Krav Maga, for at least 1 hour per day (barring the plague/flu or serious injury), I have to pay my parents $100 each. That's $200 that I could devote to shopping or travel or eating out. And that's $200 that my parents get to hold over me. I don't like failing. And I really don't like giving my money away when I have control over the cause. Plus, if I win, my parents have to buy me a steak dinner. Yum! So wish me luck.

Exercise Challenge Day (ECD) 1: 1 hour Krav Maga Flex (somewhat intense yoga)

Spicy Pepper Frittata

6 eggs

1 1/2 Tbls coconut oil

1/2 cup diced onions

1/2 cup diced green pepper

2 minced jalapeno

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400 F.

2. Heat 1 Tbls coconut oil in a medium oven-proof pan. Add the onions, green pepper, jalapeno and spices to the pan, cooking for about 5 minutes.

3. Add the last 1/2 Tbls of coconut oil and spread across the pan. Pour in the whisked eggs, and cook for 2 minutes or until the eggs at the bottom of the pan start to firm up.

4. Transfer pan to the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until the eggs are thoroughly cooked. Remove from pan, slice, and serve. I ate mine with a quarter of an avocado.

W30D8

I'm sure I mentioned this the other day, but I've been listening to some of the interviews available through PaleoCon for the past week. I definitely recommend heading over there now to check out the interview with George Bryant of Civilized Caveman before the interview gets removed from the website. Go now! It's a really personal interview that covers some of George's struggles to turn his life around and be happy and healthy.

While I haven't had the same struggles as George, I've been thinking lately that I have an unhealthy relationship with food. I think about it A LOT, whether it's planning my next meal, or feeling bored or upset and wanting to eat something to break up the monotony. I'm also pretty terrible at moderation. One of my "healthier" weaknesses is dried mango. I used to dislike the taste of mango, but I learned that I am kind of obsessed with unsulphured, unsweetened dried mango. And though a serving size is maybe a couple slices, I can down an entire bag in one sitting, which is something like 4.5 servings. While I'm devouring the mango, I mentally tell myself Okay, this is your last piece. You really are full. You don't need another piece. So I stop, for like 15 seconds, and then I'm reaching in the bag again to grab more mango. Before I know it, the entire bag is gone and I'm left feeling slightly over-full, but also craving more. Hello, sweet tooth! It's a bit ridiculous how little self-control I have sometimes. I'm the same way with chocolate and gluten-free crackers. I can't have "just one."

I feel like I'm programmed for all or nothing. I'm good at restrictions or going hard-core into a sport. But if I let myself slip once and tell myself It's alright, you'll get back on track tomorrow, I start slipping all of the time. I had one piece of chocolate yesterday, so one more today won't hurt. I didn't actually have any chocolate yesterday in case you were wondering. This overeating trend also ties into the fact that sugars and grains are addicting. In one of the PaleoCon presentations today, the interviewee mentioned that sugar is more addicting than cocaine. WHAT?!?! And sugar is in so many things that you wouldn't expect, like bacon. There were at least five people that I talked to this weekend alone who were shocked to hear that there's added sugar in most bacon. Yep. Sorry folks. If I'm buying bacon at the store, I spend at least five minutes reading the labels of all of the brands and end up settling for whichever option is the most organic and is nitrate-free. It's tough. And I think most people in the Paleo world end up buying their meats online, such as U.S. Wellness Meat.

Chocolate Chili

1 lb grass-fed ground beef

1 onion, diced

3 cup bone broth

1 1/2 cup tomato sauce

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup grape tomatoes, halved

1/4 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/2 Tbls cumin

1/2 Tbls chili powder

1 oz. unsweetened chocolate (pure chocolate is kind of OK by Whole 30 standards if used as a spice, not a sweet)

1 Tbls apple cider vinegar

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1. Heat 2 cups bone broth and ground beef over medium-high heat in a large stock pot. Cook for 30 minutes or until little liquid remains.

2. Add the remaining ingredients to the pot, stir, and cook covered for 2 hours.

3. Remove lid and cook for another 30-45 minutes or until desired thickness is achieved.

4. Serve with green onion or avocado.

W30D7

What a disappointing Superbowl game! Normally, you'd expect the game to be much more evenly matched, right? Oh well. If you're a fan of my facebook page, you'll know that I attended a superbowl watching celebration where there were significant amounts of chips, breaded snacks, and desserts. One of my friends brought some gluten-free sugar cookies that were calling my name, but I restrained myself. I ate some leftover organic hamburger and then kept myself snacking on celery and carrots with guacamole or salsa. I'm a snacker when I'm bored, so it's always best for me to have pre-chopped veggies around for me to grab instead of chocolate or nuts. While this upcoming recipe isn't a good finger food sort of snack, it's still a good vegetable side dish that's super easy to put together.

Baked Asparagus

1 bunch asparagus

2 Tbls extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F.

2. After rinsing the asparagus and cutting off the bottom inch of stem, put the asparagus into a gallon-sized plastic bag.

3. Add in the olive oil, seal the bag, and shake until the asparagus is evenly coated. Then sprinkle in the salt and pepper. Shake again.

4. Spread over baking sheets and bake in the oven for 17-20 minutes. Serve with hollandaise sauce or by itself.

W30D6

I don't know what it is about weekends that make me feel so darn lazy. I still worked out, cleaned, cooked, and did laundry. But I did spend 30 minutes of the day just relaxing on my un-made bed. It seems as though the dryer at my house decided to stop working after I started washing my bedding. So it's taking me hours with a combination of hanging the sheets and running the dryer on timed dry to get my sheets close to being somewhat dry. Fun, huh?

My friend Jay (of Health Nuts Anonymous - go check it out!) is doing this Whole 30 with me. It's not quite the same as having a support system with you, but it's the next best thing. It keeps me a bit more accountable than if I were just doing this alone. During our brief conversation today, we talked about our communal love of chocolate and our associated sadness in not eating chocolate for the next three weeks. Can there be a version of Whole 30 that requires the consumption of a limited amount of dark chocolate every day? Please? I think that's the thing that I've been wanting the most over this past week. Especially because it's so easy to snack on. Anyways, we also discussed fish, in particular sardines. Jay has found some excellent sardines that come in olive oil with sea salt, and because the sardines have been roasted, you can eat the spine. Um, not exactly my cup of tea, but props to him for choking that down. I'll allow that it may be good for you, but I think I'm going to need to work on Paleo for at least another couple years before I make it to eating sardine spine... if I ever get there. Don't count on it.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is that even if your support system doesn't physically see you, it's still helpful having someone else do Paleo/Whole 30/21DSD with you. Sign up for newsletters, join online forums, or even just comment on blogs. Give it a go!

Paleo Hollandaise Sauce

2 egg yolks, room temperature

1 Tbls lemon juice

1/2 cup melted ghee, this should be warm, not hot

pinch of salt

pinch of cayenne pepper

1. Blend the egg yolks, lemon juice, salt and cayenne pepper on low for 30 seconds. Keep the blender running...
2. SLOWLY add the ghee drop by drop to the blender. If you add the ghee too quickly, the emulsion will fall apart and then you'll just have a yellow mess. No bueno. After the emulsion has formed, you can speed up a little bit to a trickle, then to a steady, but slow, stream. Continue until all of the ghee has been incorporated.

Poached Egg with Hollandaise

W30D5

I'm currently watching the end of the movie The Croods right now. And man, am I a sucker for happy endings. I'm telling you, there were tears, laughter, and shouting at the TV - all within the last ten minutes. I clearly get too emotionally invested in movies... and books... and really any story. What can I say? I've got an active imagination that lets me become fully engrossed in a character's life. Hence my long history of late-night bouts of reading. I just can't put the book down. Anyways, I'm getting off track. The Croods is a movie about a caveman family which must venture out of its comfort zone and experience new things when their cave is destroyed by an earthquake. It's cute and fun. I enjoyed watching the Croods run around chasing their prey and chucking rocks at each other. Give it a go if you've got some free time. I turned it on so that I had something to watch while I used my rowing machine in my room. I find I can keep myself going longer if I have something to keep myself entertained. When I'm on the water, its the changing (though familiar) scenery; at home, it's movies.

Well now that I've jumped from movies to books to exercise, let's cover food. Here's another pasta sauce that I made to go along with yesterday's meatballs.

Fresh Basil and Mushroom Pasta Sauce

1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes

1 1/2 cup grape tomatoes

1/2 cup packed fresh basil, chiffonade cut

1 small yellow onion, chopped

3 large cloves garlic

1 cup sliced mushrooms

1/2 tsp dried basil

1 tsp paprika

1 1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp ground pepper

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp parsley

1 tbls olive oil

1. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a medium saucepan.

2. Once hot (a few drops of water will sizzle), add the onions, garlic, and half of the fresh basil. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring often. (Just a little note that I like my onions to be really thoroughly cooked, meaning that they tend to be extremely soft in whatever it is I'm cooking.)

3. Add in the remaining ingredients and reduce heat to medium-low (level 2 or 3 on electric stoves). Let simmer for 1 hour (you could reduce this cook time, but I think it tastes better if you let the flavors meld).

I layered the spaghetti squash, pasta sauce, and meatballs in my Mason jar that made splitting it up into two lunches during work super easy.