Welcome to 2013

Happy New Year! 

(I know it's long post, but it's like a RAINBOW, awesome!)

I lot of things havechanged since we abandoned the blog last year. Kelly came from behind as the most impressive Princess. Stacey got lean and sexy via chicken breasts, egg whites, and will power, Carolyn and I began an intimate relationship…with Pizza 73 and Leah… where the hell is Leah, anyway?

We’re all growing up too! Graduations and higher learning have conscripted us into duty. We are the new working generation, ready to serve you… in a minute. I’ve been all jacked up on Horse Jumping and COMPLETELY CRUSHED by this Edmonton weather. EVERY YEAR I reflect on why I continue to live here, and the best I can come up with is that it makes the Spring and Summer that much more special… How would I know if I’m lying, I’ve lived here my whole life.

I’m going to continue to make climate my scapegoat for why I abandoned strict Paleo eating and jumped on the Gluten-Free train (there are dairy and sugar passengers on this devil train). SAD 'Seasonal Affective Disorder' and my Sugar Demons teamed up to alter my logical reasoning and flabify my mid-section. The scale hasn’t changed… but I’ve since destroyed 2 pairs of jeans trying to hop my thighs into the denim. Devastating.

 (I'm hanging up my muffin tins)

To the guy at the party last week that pointed at me eating a potato chip and yelled, “Hey, hey! That’s not Paleo!!!” I’m aware. It’s a fucking ketchup chip. Is that a Rum and Coke in your hand? What tree did you pick that from? I know what Paleo is, do you? I know how great Paleo is for you but… it’s also tricky. There are no Paleo drive thrus, packages, bottles, cans or cartons… So when I’m living my life and don’t take the time to prepare (and WORST, if I get hungry) everything goes to shit and I’m sitting in bed, wrapped in a Snuggie, trying to mentally justify the ½ pound peanut butter cup that I’ve been working my through for the past 7 minutes.

So I am going to get my act together. I need to act a little more energetic until the sun can work it's way back to our country and send down those feel good vibes. This month I am challenging myself to solidify a meaningful context to enhance my success of larger goals. I am focusing on: Sleep, hydration/supplementation, and mindfulness.

My nutritional and fitness goals are to follow…

(I'm getting ready!)

Now to a few sunny additions... or addictions - I am IN LOVE with David's Tea and OPI Gel Manicures. This is how I've been getting through this brutal winter. I guess neither really have to do with Paleo, but both make me happier, thereby making Paleo easier... 

New Year, New Challenge

Here we go again! Me and Jessica just began another 30 day paleo challenge. No gluten, dairy, refined sugar... you know the drill. Christmas was hard, real hard. Too many baked goods, too many potatoes, and too many reasons to celebrate with some sugary red bull bombs. But that's all behind us now!

This morning I made a quick and easy breakfast, and literally it's the best thing I've tasted. I grilled up mushrooms, peppers, onions, celery, spinach, and bacon, then realized it won't all fit in my 2 egg omelette... Haha I just get way too excited cutting up veggies. So I threw half in my omelette and grilled up the other half to throw on top. Then added fresh avocado and tomato! So simple, so easy.

Jessica is a fantastic cook and ill be posting some of her creations this month as well. She never likes to follow the actual recipe. Hopefully we make the full 30 days... We head to south California to visit some of our besties on the 28th!

One more week!

One more week to go for me and Jessica's 30 day paleo challenge! It's been hard, and brutal. But it's been so amazing to actually be doing this for real. And no alcohol! (Which is the hardest). Jess has been awesome, she made the most amazing paleo crackers, keeps out fridge stocked with home made salsa, and makes the most delicious roasts ever. 7 more days :) and yes we've already made reservations at Von's Steak House. We're still gonna eat paleo tho! Just gonna add some red wine to pair with our steaks... But here's some meals we made this past month! We've been shopping at the farmers market every weekend as well.

30 Day Paleo Challenge

It's about that time of year again... Just kidding this has never happened. Which is why we are making such a big deal about this. People are even willing to bet their lives we will fail!
"I bet my life Kelly can't go even a week without a glass of wine!" thanks cousin...
From my occasional but very frequent glass of wine, to daily bouts of dark chocolate with a caloric intake of approx 500 calories, to ordering sweet potato fries (usually accompanying my wine)- I'm no perfect paleo princess.

Starting September 4, I along with my best friend and partner in crime (currently not an official princess) will be doing the 30 day strict paleo challenge. It's a perfect time- aka summers over- and we could not be more excited! I cannot tell you how many times we have planned and came up with ideas about this challenge over a glass of wine. And usually after the wine comes tequila shots (still attempting paleo here), and then when everything goes downhill we have shots of blueberry vodka dropped in redbull (cause who doesn't need a pick-me-up at midnight?) an hot wings on the menu. So we decided to take the plunge (not the nestea plunge do you know how much sugar is in there?!) and throw out all of the wine in our cupboards (kidding we will obvi drink it before the 4th). Time to get our hands dirty in some paleo princess cookups. Preparation is my middle name for September. Kidding Rae is but the letters are all there...

So follow along on our journey and watch me and Jessica go through sugar and alcohol withdrawals. Kidding but not really. But seriously emotions will be awry as we try and kick our sugar cravings with bowls of strawberry and avocado-cocoa pudding.

To celebrate we will be having a beach themed party at our apartment on October 5th! And you're all invited :) on one stipulation... Bring wine!

What happens when you fall off the paleo train...

Fricken Awesome Fritters!

Every now and then I find a food so good that I must eat it 4 times a week for 3 months straight (example: homemade sweet potato fries, homemade mayonnaise, Banana muffins, Antipasto...). Broccoli Fritters are my new food obsession. I was ignorant to how you can pretty much fritter any extra veggies around the house and make them delicious little buscuits/buns of AWESOME. This is where I got the starter recipe.  I then of course modified it by using the whole floret and adding sundried tomatoes. So good. So easy. So frittery!

Beast/Best Breakfast

Today was EPIC in terms of cooking/eating. It made me so excited that I am kicking up my blogging again. I have some good news to pass on anyhow! Carolyn, Kelly, Leah and Stacey all completed the 5 CrossFit Open WODs. Congratulations Princesses! I missed 12.5 because I was on my way to Calgary for my Level 1 Certification. I am happy to say I was a good little learner and passed my test! 

Now I enjoy CrossFit and I LOVE food. But, maybe it's something in the air or the lack of something in the sky (the sun)... I'm beat. I've lamented before about my waining motivation and proclivity for carbohydrate despite my nutritional enlightenment. I would sleep, I would prepare meals and I would WOD... It wasn't until the sun came out this week that I finally felt my old self coming back. I'm feeling all energetic and springy and hopeful and junk! How great is that? So while I'm on this happy train I've decided to get serious about some pretty laughable areas of my health.

 #1 - Food quantity. I'm using the food tracker MyFitnessPal to help me log both FOOD and EXERCISE. It's super handy, super easy and very informative. What I am looking for is not necessarily calorie inane but the distribution of macronutrients in a meal. It even has a handy pie chart to show you this! If you've ever looked into The Zone, this could easily transfer. So now I am accountable to my Phone App... so I try and break it all down. In this meal for instance, we're low on green/fibrous veggies (10 leaves of spinach is a pretty meagre attempt), I'll be making asparagus and broccoli tonight as compensation. 

#2 -Workout commitment - That means: Warm up Mobility, Skill Work, Regular WODs/Yoga/Physicality/Whatever and a smart Cool Down. I can't just show up and expect it to happen, planning and goal setting get results; I plan to put that certification to use and be my own Guinea Pig..

#3 - Have fun. Play. Do things because I WANT to and not because I think I should. I have the luxury of an excellent group of friends, gym mates, yogis and animals to help me further my ambitions and I have every intention of enjoying it!..

So J and I made this RIDICULOUS breakfast. Bacon, Coconut Flour Pancakes, Poached Eggs and a Sweet Potato Hash with Spinach and Sundried Tomatoes! I also made a batch of Banana Muffins (for snacks throughout the week). No lie, this breakfast kept me full ALL DAY. My snacks included Tea, a Cup of Red Grapes and one of my Muffins. At 7:30pm, I'm only now contemplating dinner. Add to that a little Backyard WOD (bookended by jogging about the neighbourhood)... It's been quite the day! I am focused I am happy and I'm excited for the rest of spring! And summer! 

I encourage EVERYONE to make a list of 3-5 things you've been planning on doing and harness the energy spring brings to accomplish something fulfilling for your mental and physical health! You're worth the investment...

CF Open 12.1 & 12.2

Maybe we forgot to mention that we are all on our Affiliate CrossFit Teams in this year's CrossFit Open. We are. Every Friday we get together at the box and psyche ourselves up for our heat. We are encouraged, yelled for, told to get back on the bar, reminded to breathe. You would think CrossFit was a team sport rather than an individual effort... If one of us does well, we share in their success; if one of us should fail... we all feel their pain. And we also got some sweet apparel, so that's added incentive!

Our results are as follows:

WORKOUT 12.1

Complete as many reps as possible in 7 minutes of: Burpees

This workout begins from the standing position. The Athlete will move from flat on the ground to touching an object with both hands that is 6 inches above their max reach. Score is total reps completed.

Caro - 88

LC - 78

Steak -85

Gil - 77

Beazlie - 77

The Armoury Owners/Coaches

Workout 12.2

Proceed through the sequence below completing as many reps as possible in 10 minutes of:

30 Snatch (M 75 / F 45 lbs)
30 Snatch (M 135 / F 75 lbs)
30 Snatch (M 165 / F 100 lbs)Max Rep Snatch (M 210 / F 120 lbs)


Caro - 62 (congrats on 2 @ 100lb snatches, sweeet cheeks!)
LC - 60
Steak - 35
Gil - 51
Beazlie - 52

Stacey has been doing her WODs in the morning and Duran is out with an injury... so until we get another pic of them t the gym... I thought I'd post this one. They look darn good and shan't go unnoticed! 

Stock up, be Happy

This is my Monday night! At home with a mug of tea, a bowl of home made trail mix and some Winter Break Road Trip on The CrossFit Journal. James Hobart, you little rascal. Cut your hair.

I make my trail mix with whatever is on hand... Today, was a wealth of Costco goodness so I threw in Almonds, Pecans, Dried Cherries and Dark Chocolate. I don't really apologize for needing a mid day snack and I certainly won't feel bad if carrots don't fill the void. A wee bag of this stuff has me set for a few days and is far superior to the processed, purchased bars I've been abusing.

I put them in these lil baggies, pop them in the fridge or freezer. BAM! Snack Packs MADE!

My Fridge and Freezer are set. This might seem like bragging, but I am MAD excited because I have been on a pantry purge of sorts recently. My penchant for eating out and ordering CrossFit apparel online, left me lacking in funds... considerably. I ate every can of tuna... every wrinkled piece of fruit... even those freezer veggies you keep on hand in case of apocalyptic type scenarios. But alas, bulk shopping has provided me with some truly exciting opportunities.

I thought I would point out what I do with my almond butter. I portion it out into little servings like so. I then throw them in my lunch and eat with an apple, some celery... a spoon (a la Tevor Skaaning)

Finally, here is the Freezer, with individual packages of meat, seafood, nuts and guacamole. Excellent stuff, especially that bacon (which I am proud to report, has been scaled back). Ultimately, I am excited to cook again and eat real food. It's exciting to find products that work for the Paleo Lifestyle... but that's kind of (completely) in contradiction of the Paleo Lifestyle. The whole point is to uncomplicate this nutritional nonsense and just feed ourselves with the fuel we were meant to run on. Finding yet another processed food product is well... missing the boat a bit. But I'm back, and happy for it. I may fall off the wagon (a close cousin to missing the boat), but I can rely on my evolutionary knowledge and conviction to pull me through. 

*I would take this time to mention the support of my friends if Kelly and Leah hadn't been eating Oreos and Ice Cream last night... battle on Princesses, battle on.

What's (in) your Beef?

Recently, while listening to the Latest in Paleo podcast, I was educated on "Pink Slime". The show's host brought up a recent article which indicated that McDonald's was no longer using the controversial meat-like substance in their food. Woah now... Have I actually ingested this? I entered a nauseating tail spin where I tried to rationalize that our just and polite Canadian government would never allow such a thing. I thied to remember what I had the ONE time I ate at a Hawaiian McDonald's. Apparently, Jamie Oliver has been preaching on this "food substitute" for quite some time. This clip from Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution depict what the stuff really is.

In essence, Pink slime is the unusable leftovers from the animal carcass after butchering. It is usually disposed of, rendered down into dog food. "Luckily" for McDonald's, some chemist discovered a "safe" amount of ammonia, that when added to this former waste product, kills all the nasty diseases (and nutrients). So there you go, that's food right? I was shocked. 

Eating Paleo, I sometimes do the 'Burger-no-Bun' on the go (JBC). While I do know that Canada's food laws are different, I take little solace in Fast Food companies' commitment to food quality. We are all well aware that Fast Food is about making a Fast Buck for many of these companies. I can no longer blindly choose meat and think I'm doing my body a favor. Just like Leah's discovery of Maple Leaf's deceitful labeling, I am disappointed and bewildered by the food industry. However, I am newly motivated by this recent realization. I eat Paleo for my health and well being, not just aesthetic results. Each time I have tried to modify the program and add in a processed product, I have had to come to terms with it's realities. The only thing that's as good as real food... is real food. In the end, it's about quality. Who can deny that homemade chili, shrimp stir fry, and chicken kebabs beat a Big Mac every time.  

In addition, to perk you all up on this Friday evening: Shit Foodies Say. Watch it.