Garlic

Nutrition realization for today: Garlic salt and basil make veggies so much more palatable. Don't get me wrong, I've always liked broccoli, but I've eaten so much lately it's getting old. Also helpful is Old Bay seasoning, but that's because I'm from Maryland and we're practically weaned on the stuff.

goals

Yesterday a teammate and I were chatting and the conversation came around to being a baby rugby player, brand new to the game and simply terrible. The conversation also came around to how bad of a rugby player I was at first. I really was terrible. That first season involved lots of enthusiasm, but not much else. And I stayed terrible for a good long while with the original enthusiasm fluctuating in a reverse correlation with my frustration. It wasn't until the rest of my life was on solid ground that I started to really improve. Unsuprisingly (in retrospect) a huge part of what allowed for the improvement was fitness.

The difference between me now and me five years ago, or even two years ago still sneaks up and shocks me regularly. If I talk about my workouts or my performance in a match enough to annoy people it's not because I'm completely self-centered. (Really.) It's because in my head I still think of myself as completely nonathletic and am still absolutely amazed to discover these capabilities within myself.

For example, Monday night was our first 7s sprint workout. Bags ran up through a short warm up and got the fifteen of us started on sprints pretty quickly. She announced the first set and without even thinking about it I placed myself in the first group on the line. Next to three of my fittest teammates. Something completely out of character for the baby rugby player I was. Two years ago I might not have shown up for fitness training, choosing to wait for "real practices" to begin. Five years ago I'd have asked if you were crazy for suggesting that I even run sprints at all.

I can't pinpoint what changed. What exactly caused me to go from "I only run if something is chasing me" to "I can't have a pint even though one my favorite beers is tonight's fire sale because I'm doing the Spartan Challenge at CrossFit." Maybe it's simply that I fell in love with a sport. Maybe it's been there all along and was just waiting to come out. In any case, I know that if I of all people can do it anyone can. You get your feet wet, then before you know it you like the water so much you're up to your knees. Turn around again and you're swimming with the goal of keeping up with the big kids.

And swearing off some of your favorite guilty pleasures. I've told a few people, including a couple CrossFit coaches at last night's 'nutrition workshop.' Still, I want to put it in writing. On the internet where everyone knows and can make fun of me if I fail. Over the past four and a half months I've had pretty good results with a mostly-Zone, lots of cheating eating pattern. I want to see what I can do eating like an athlete in training.

Primarily:
1. NO sweets (including no sugar in my coffee) and
2. NO alcohol

Work in progress:
3. Eat at least as many servings of vegetables as fruit a day.
4. Decrease cheese to two servings a day.

Between unlimited kettlebells and 7s sprints the workouts will take care of themselves. However, six weeks without a cookie or a margarita will be a challenge. During the first part of 7s season. This will test my self-control and how far I've really come in the past few years...

Food

Back on The Zone. None of the wishy-washy kinda zoning stuff I've been doing since the end of I Am Crossfit. Except that this afternoon I totally fell off the wagon at the grocery store, hungry and in the chips/pretzels aisle. I ate a quarter of a bag of pretzels between that aisle and the checkout...

But, choosing not to dwell on my mistakes, I took inspiration from Mel (who is a total badass and I meant to introduce myself to yesterday, seeing as I've been reading her blog for months) and her cabbage and eggs concoction for my dinner. I sprayed a sauce pan down with Pam and sauteed raw cabbage over medium heat. (Note to self, cabbage does not shrink nearly as much as spinach, use the big pan next time.) Once the cabbage started to brown I pushed it over to the side of the pan and poured in a couple of scrambled eggs, mixing the eggs and cabbage together as the eggs started cook. Then I dumped it all in a bowl, doused liberally with Old Bay and enjoyed. About half way through I realized I was a carb short and added cottage cheese. It didn't do much for the texture, though, so next time I'll just have yogurt with my fruit.

Two cups raw cabbage
Two eggs
Old Bay seasoning
1/4 cup lowfat cottage cheese

Dessert:
1/2 cup strawberries
1/2 cup blackberries
1/2 cup grapes

9 almonds

food and fitness

The Zone has its ups and downs. Weekends are when I'm the worst at sticking to it. And most days I only manage to get three or four meals Zoned. But I keep telling myself that it's a start. Better than nothing. Today for a very late breakfast I had eggs scrambled with feta, spinach, and avacado. Quite tasty. And I've found that roast beef and provolone with fruit and almonds is my favorite lunch. Greek yogurt is too expensive, but it's sooo good.

Rugby practices start a week from Monday. My activity levels will go way up as our coach has been reported to be gleefully thinking of inventive fitness torture. And I'll be thanking Crossfit.

40/30/30

Just under a year ago when I started the kettlebell class at CrossFit Central Jeremy, who was my coach at the time, tried to convince me to start Zone dieting. No way was I ready to be that serious about things. I was just there to get in better shape for rugby, not to win a triathlon or even lose weight, as I told him vehemently. (I tend to push back when people try to push me into things.) Over the summer I started to consider zoning, even more once rugby season began and I could physically tell my nutrition wasn't up to par with what I was putting my body through.

Still, even that feeling wasn't enough to get me over the hump of actually bothering to measure my food and worry about conforming to the zone-prescribed macro-nutrient proportions. Tonight I'm still not sure about it. Food shouldn't require a calculator. Nor should it take over half an hour to make a salad. But, I decided if I'm going to do this I Am Crossfit thing I'm going to do it right. And, like any lab procedure or fitness movement, though, I assume one gets better with experience.


3 Block Dinner:

• Salad (2.65 oz spinach, 0.5 cucumber, 2 slices ham, 1.5 oz feta cheese, 2 T (1 ounce) avacado)
• 2 Triscuits
• 3 cashews
• 1 cup milk

What I learned:

• It takes a heck of a lot of spinach to get to 5.333 ounces (1.333 cups) worth.
• Food shouldn't require a calculator.
• The right amount of spinach is way more filling than the zone equivalent of Triscuits.
• This is going to take some will-power and time and mindfulness.
• That left over pumpkin bread is looking really tasty, even after a delicious salad.

Rocktoberfest II

Second Rocktoberfest pledge: Baking. I have a fairly large number of friends with October birthdays. And I'm going to make cupcakes for each of their celebrations that I attend.

Recently I discovered a dark chocolate cupcake recipe that is fabulous. I made it for a work potluck and they went over quite well, so I think that's what I'll make for my teammates' post-rugby practice birthday drink up at our sponsor bar.

Tuesday's workout was killer - eight rounds of 20 seconds hand to hand kettbell pass-offs, followed by eight rounds of the same, but power swings, then snatches, then sprawls into a high pull. I managed everything except the snatches with a 16kg kettlebell. I'm getting there...

Sidenote - the pumpkin ice cream at Amy's Ice Creams is amazing.

Rocktoberfest

For whatever reason I keep thinking I'm going to leave work (13 minutes and 20 seconds) and walk out into a chilly, dim late fall evening. Despite the fact that it is most definitely still summer here in Austin. I think my body has decided enough with this weather, if we can't have it for real, we'll fool ourselves. Even Denver wasn't as deliciously cool as expected. Not incredibly hot, and the changing Aspen's on the drive to Boulder for Sunday's match were lovely, but it was nothing like I had hoped. Then again, pretty much nothing about the month of September, much less that trip, was. On the bright side, the beds in the hotel were fantastic and the pitch in Boulder was downright lush. An "oh, please tackle me" kind of lush.

October isn't starting out so great either, for a variety of reasons. I am, however, going to attempt to celebrate Rocktoberfest along with The Modern Gal. I pledge that I am going to do my best to make that 16 kg kettlebell my primary weight. I may not be able to press 16 kilos by the end of the month, but I will at least be able to snatch it. That will make me feel like I rock.

Also, I pledge to come up with another pledge for Rocktoberfest...

Plus, DQ has Pumpkin Pie Blizzards for the month of October. I'm going to see Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist tonight with friends. Iron Man is out on DVD. Sunday I get my birthday cake during Pattie and Carrey's house warming. Not to mention that I get to play lots of rugby during the month of October. Fun, low-stress rugby with our B-side, starting as eight man.

*I know I'm not blogging much. Keep up with me on Twitter instead.*

overheard at work

State employee #1: "Well, I didn't know you liked mayonaise on your hotdogs."

State employee #2, in the most incredulous voice possible, "Who doesn't!?"

yuck.

yummy

It's a good thing it's rugby season, because I keep getting lost browsing through the yummy, butter-laden recipes posted by The Pioneer Woman. With pictures no less. Lots and lots of photographs of scrumptious, fattening, stick to your ribs food. I cannot wait to have my own kitchen again. Somewhere to make a mess without worrying about how many dirty cat paws have been on the counters, or using someone else's knives or looking like an idiot making a mistake. (I make a lot of mistakes the first time through a recipe.) Because, oh my does that pot roast look amazing. Not to mention the shrimp penne. Or oh! oh! mashed potatoes...

Can you tell I'm a little hungry here? Like I said, it's a good thing my physical activity spikes during rugby season, because I feel like I gained a couple of pounds just thinking about making any of these, much less eating them.