Paleo pancakes >>> regular ones

In light of my renewed focus on nutrition, I thought it would be a horrible idea to fall into the tried and true tradition of Easter brunch at one of the many restaurants in Austin.  Instead, I invited a few friends over for an attempt at Paleo Easter.  On the menu:

• Paleo pancakes, courtesy of the Performance Menu
• Scrambled eggs
• Bacon!
• Lemon tarts, also courtesy of the Performance Menu (see earlier post)

All in all, the paleo pancakes pretty much rocked.  We messed around with various toppings: dark chocolate chips in the pancakes (awesome), raspberry topping (awesome), heavy whipped cream topping (awesome again)… all three combined, amazing.  Ryon did an awesome job with the eggs and bacon; I screwed up the flipping of the first couple pancakes, and handed that job over to Ryon, who then rocked it.

I did my first intermittent fast from 5pm Saturday through 1pm Sunday… about 20 hours.  I even ran 5k Sunday morning, while still fasting!  I can say that my performance didn’t degrade at all, I just need to remember to drink a lot more water.  I think I’m going to start a weekly IF protocol, just not sure which day — in true CrossFit style, I’m going to keep it interesting and just fast whichever day seems most appropriate.

Today’s WOD: run 5k. 22:02, PR.

On a Saturday

Warning! There are a crapload of links from this post to other places… don’t get lost!

Today is the first true rest day I’ve had in a looong time.  Like in a couple weeks, at least.  Full rest day; we’re talking at the moment, I’m laying on the couch, balcony door is open, cool breeze coming in, golf is on in the background, and it feels like Sunday to me.  Which is great, because tomorrow is Sunday, and that just means I’ve got an extra day in my weekend (I know, I don’t, but whatever).

On more Sundays than not, I tend to have an introspective, contemplative attitude.  Sundays to me mean getting ready for the week ahead, getting some last-minute errands done, and then figuring out how to hold on to those last few hours before you have to turn everything back on and re-engage with the world.  Part of that attitude has to do with me being tragically hungover on Sunday mornings, especially lately.  It’s for this reason that I usually find a way to listen to A Sunday by Jimmy Eat World (iTunes link).

Not this weekend, no way.

This weekend I’m focusing on regrouping my life from end-to-end.  As Gwen Stefani so eloquently put it,

This shit is bananas

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

My training schedule is beginning to collide with my teaching schedule, which is also colliding with my work schedule (can’t link… employer would not be pleased, let’s just say that my current job requires a lot of collaboration).  The convergence of this banananess is causing havoc in my life… I’m 30 years old, and I can’t keep up with the fucking dishes.  I mean really, Eric, the dishes?  C’mon!  Really?

I used to think I needed structure.  I’ve got calendars and schedules and all kinds of lists and shit.  There’s enough structure to build the 42-story building that’s going up next to my 4-story apartment complex.  I’m beginning to think it’s not structure, it’s simplification and efficiency.  I need to go back to what Mom taught me when I was growing up — take the dishes as an example; just put the fuckers away when you’re done, and then you’re caught up on the dishes.

So my new goal is to stay current, stay engaged, stay present.

Let’s see if I can squeeze out any extra time to pursue other goals and perhaps dreams.

Introspection over.  On to what I had originally intended to post this week.

• The Healthy/Fuck Off scale.  First off, I just recently stumbled upon Byers’ blog and she cracks me up.  This post, and the one on bacon.  The Healthy/Fuck Off scale is a scale of foods that you know are healthy and you’re cool with eating, down to foods that are totally not healthy, but if you told me I can’t eat them, I’d tell you to fuck off.  The idea being that if you can identify the fuck off foods, you can control your consumption of them and not totally block them out of your diet.  I can tell you right now, booze, pizza, some cookies, and molten chocolate cake are on low (very low) on the healthy scale and very high on the fuck off scale.  What’s on yours?
• The Performance Menu.  Anyone who tells me they don’t have time to cook is lying.  Simply lying.  Read the beginning of this post.  I cook, you can too!  And the free recipes on this site are so damn good that it makes me want to buy the book(s).  Top that off with most of them being quick… Performance Menu FTW!  I made the Lemon Tarts the other day, amazing.  Tomorrow for Easter brunch, I’d like to have a few friends over for an attempt at the Quick Paleo Pancakes.  Later this week, we’re going for the Paleo Pizza.  So many options, and you just feel good eating this stuff!
• A quick recap on wtf I did to my blog layout.  I got really tired of the time-formatted posts, so I decided to start messing around with the Interwebs and “mashups.”  As someone with an MS in Computer Science, I thought the whole mashup concept was total bullshit.  Until now.  I took the feed of my workout log from Dailymile, a filtered version of my twitter feed, and BAM! Food log and training log line the sides of this place.

I’m going to shuffle around my training and teaching schedules a bit in the coming weeks.  I’ve also got a cool conditioning class I’m starting up at Pure Austin in May.  I’m excited about the future, but it’s time to stay present and stay engaged.

–e

p.s. Jeremy tells me I need more pictures on my blog.

I Am CrossFit

Back in January, I started the I Am CrossFit Challenge at CrossFit Central: an 8-week program designed to force clients to focus on some short-term goals of fitness and nutrition. From my original post, I set some goals for my time in the program:

• Log every day of eating.  Every day. (This is actually a requirement of the program, but I’m going to make it a goal of my own, because as you can see from this blog, I suck at it)
• Improve my overhead squat so I can reliably put 95 lb overhead.
• Improve my pull-ups: I want butterfly pull-ups in 8 weeks.
• Incorporate CrossFit Endurance into my training schedule.
• Test my nutrition and CrossFit training twice: at the 3M and AT&T half marathons, where I want to PR on each.  My current PR is 1:45:51.  This is in addition to benchmark workouts we do as part of our regular CF workouts.

So how did I do?  Here’s the lowdown:

Over the last 8 weeks:

• I lost about 5 lbs in weight and 4.5% body fat.  I’m down to 174 lb and 10% body fat!  check
• I logged just about every day of eating.  This is a tough one, because it’s hard to write things down that you don’t want the world to see… but accountability is a big part of food logging.  we’ll say check, because whileI definitely missed some days, I did way better at this attempt than I have in the past.
• Overhead squat: haven’t had a chance to try this out, and I’d like to see if I’ve gotten anywhere with it.  fail.
• Butterfly pullups: I haven’t gotten there just yet, but I’m close… I’m definitely way faster on pullups than I used to be.  check-minus.
• CrossFit Endurance: I’m have a CFE cert now, and I’m practicing my Pose running.  I’ve incorporated CFE elements into my spin classes and have done several workouts on my own.  resounding check.
• Races: I had 2 half-marathons since we started.  I ran 3M in 1:43:16, which is a PR.  I ran the Austin Half in 1:4511.  Both races were below my previous half-marathon PR, and the Austin Half was about 20 minutes faster than the same race last year!  resounding check.

Now that the challenge is over, there’s no reason to stop the momentum.  This feeds perfectly into my race training for this year, and I’ve learned so much about what people can achieve in such a short time.

As a result, I’m now committed for my race season to the following:

• Crossfit 4-5x per week.
• Crossfit Endurance 2x per week per sport.
• Continue Advocare Supplements.
• Continue food logging.
• Building a community in Austin around Crossfit Endurance training for duathlon and triathlon events.

I’m excited about this… I’m getting close to turning 30, and I’m in the best shape of my life, surrounded by a ton of motivated and positive people, and I can only imagine getting better.

A couple pictures from the final I Am CrossFit WOD…

3 rounds of 400m run, 15 pullups, 7 hang cleans @ 135lb.  9:53.  In January I did the workout with 95lb in 9:50… huge improvement!

Thursday 090122… reflecting on yesterday (and beyond)

Yesterday was a trying day at work, and days like that really make you think about what you’d do if you were in the same spot.  Would you switch careers?  Would you try to find another of the same job?  Would you take whatever you can get and look in the meantime?

I think I’d look for a similar job, and start something else on the side.  The more I get into CrossFit and the more I teach at various gyms, I notice that there’s tremendous opportunity for technology to enhance the lives of us weekend athletes.

How many gym websites just suck?  Why shouldn’t you be able to comment on a class you took?  Why can’t the gym help you keep track of your workouts?  The list can go on forever…

There’s already a great social experience at many gyms, and I’ve noticed that those people tend to connect on places like Facebook, creating social networks of athletes.  Sites like Dailymile are great for tracking your workouts and creating a Facebook-like social network, but they lack the close-knit community that you see when you actually go to the gym.

Just some thoughts… obesity is a huge problem in the US, and health in general is a worldwide issue.  Technology can bring people together in the battle.  Quality content and great user experiences are few and far between on the subject of fitness, and often times the two are never seen together.

Why not?

Today’s food log

woke up at 6am, the soreness is starting to go away, and i think i’m getting over the allergies, for now (pollen count is way down, but still high).

6:00am: spark and arganine extreme into water, muscle strength.

6:20am: 3 catalyst.

6:45am: light crossfit at UT Clark Field.

7:50am: bowl of eggs, potatoes, sausage, pico.  mixed berries and kiwi.  chocolate milk.

10:30am: buffalo jerky, macadamia nuts, water.

12:30pm: buffalo wings, iced tea, fries.

3:30pm: beef jerky, macadamia nuts, water.

5:15pm: 3 catalyst.

5:50pm: 1 twinlab energy drink.

6:15pm: teach spin @ pure.

8:30pm: burger, fries, beer, and molten chocolate cake @ alamo.

11:00pm: feel like crap from 8:30pm meal.  move writstband to the left.

Today’s WOD

• CrossFit @ UT Clark Field: 10 shoulder press @ 25lb, 15 vertical jumps, 20 walking lunges; 9:26.  scaled for tapering purposes.
• teach spin @ pure austin

Primal Blueprint Sample Menu

This couldn’t be easier to do, even if you’re on the go. This is basically what I’m trying to transform my diet into, sans most sugars.

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-sample-menu/