“Me” Day

I’ve been spending some quality time with the girls over the past few days and I think Rina has appreciated spending a bit more one-on-one time with her Mommy and Daddy. Last night, she came to me with this sweet love note:

Rina <3<3<3<3 maman

Last night, I was getting ready to not be able to sleep before my night shift tonight, but the husband had arranged for the girls to spend most of the day with his parents so that I could get some alone time and do whatever I wanted with my day, including nap before night shift! #hesawesome ! I quickly changed gears and planned my day accordingly! On my to-do list:

• cook a healthy meal for night shift. During the holidays, I see a crazy amount of treats in (and out) of our break room and if I don’t plan my meals accordingly, it’s easier to fall off the wagon. Although my Whole30 is officially over since last Saturday, I have yet to have a “cheat meal”. It’s going to happen tonight with this recipe from Inspiralized

Image taken from  inspiralized.com

• Do a little laundry
• Tidy up the house
• Wrap-up Christmas presents
• knit, if I have time left-over!

While I was slowly enjoying a late breakfast, the doorbell rang. I went to open the door and it was a flower delivery!

The husband surprised me with a nice floral arrangement “just because” this morning! <3! More brownie points for him! I cleaned up breakfast, helped getting the girls ready and packed for the day and Ben drove them to my in-laws. I got going on the laundry and just finished cooking the Brussels Sprouts and Sweet Potato Noodle Bowl with Pomegranate and Maple-Sesame Vinaigrette (long title, delicious meal!) hence, where I will be breaking my Whole30 (maple syrup isn’t compliant to the Whole30). I did add some cooked chicken to the recipe for my night snack in order to bump up the protein content of the meal. I cleaned up my dishes and am now about to wrap up some presents all while attending to the laundry, and it’s not even noon yet! #score

I begged Ben to bring the girls back home for dinner as I will otherwise be away from them for close to 24hrs and I can’t remember when I’ve been apart from them for so long. At the same time, it makes me realize that maybe I SHOULD make it a point to take more time for myself once-in-a-while… Food for thought!

Enough blogging, I have a full day ahead and I plan on making the most of it!

 

 

How Do They Do It?

I woke up and made my way to the Box for the 0600 class this morning. I was sore from my little adventures with Kathleen yesterday (Thanks for the torture! 😉 ) and I could definitely feel a very tender spot in my glutes. I looked up the WOD and was sad to see wallballs in the warm-up and squats in the WOD. I wasn’t sure how I was going to handle all that squatting action with such a sore bum. Oh well, better drag that sore bum to the gym anyway.

The warm-up was ok. It was my 1st time doing wallballs in the new space on the rafters and it was an adjustment. I stopped trying after my 7th rep on the 2nd round since everybody was warming up the presses for the skill portion

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Skill: Strict press 5×3 E90s

My weights were all screwed up for this as I was looking at my push press numbers. Yeah, not doing 100# strict press anytime soon! I scaled it back down to the appropriate weight and here’s what I did. I was trying to get to 65#, but it didn’t happen:

55#-60#-65# failed my last rep – 65# failed my last rep – 62#. New PR by 2#! Lol!

WOD: Escalator 2

I was thinking of trying to do the FG1+ with 75#, but I reloaded my bar after the 1st round. It was a lot to clean from the ground and there was no way I would be able to squat that weight for 55 reps total. I lost some precious time removing the plates and settled for 65#. My SDBJ were all done at 20″, although I did a few practice jumps at 24″ and managed 3-4 without any problem. I just didn’t think I could do so after squatting and with exertion and I didn’t want to repeat a fall on my shins, so I settled for 20″. My pull-ups were all done with the red band and around round 7, I realized I could easily get back onto the bar without having to use the box or even the clip on the rig. Woot! Woot! Been waiting 2 years to be able to do assisted pull-ups with a band that offered enough resistance to help me do my reps, but without struggling to get onto the rig. Apparently, the red band or thinner is the one! 🙂 Time was called when just as I was making my way to the bar (pretty sure I was the only one left working) for my squats on the round of 9. We were to add 1 second to the 18:00 time cap for each rep missing. I ended up with 18:39 (missed all my reps for the round of 10 + my 9 squats = 39).

I was pretty bummed about my score as I felt I was totally cheating. It would have taken me much longer to finish my reps, but them’s are the rules and I did like everyone else. It’s only now that I entered my score online that I realize I, in fact, did FG1+ because FG1 was only up to 8 reps and I managed to get almost all of the 9 reps done! Yay! Not too bad after all!

I came back home and was not looking forward to the rest of my day. Ben has been leaving early everyday this week as he’s running his camps and that means I’ve been pulling extra weight with the girls. I was already exhausted from 3 WODs in 3 days and my hands have been sore and sensitive ever since I came back home this morning. I have some subcutaneous blisters from all the erg and pull-ups I’ve done this week and it means I have a hard time making a fist with my hands.

Blisters under the skin. They haven’t “popped” yet, but they are still painful

Ben must have felt something was off, he made me a coffee. The man truly knows the way to my heart. I was sad to see him leave for the day!

I managed to muster enough energy to take the girls to the playground on their scooters (that meant me having to carry both scooters and helmets back, since they refused to ride them home, lovely), make them a decent lunch and I was really hoping to be able to nap during their quiet time. I slept for maybe 15 minutes before they started screaming at one another. Nap time was over and I didn’t feel rested at all. I was sore everywhere and über grumpy. It got me thinking: how do athletes do this, day in and day out? Most of them not only train like beasts, they also need to work in order to make a living and they also have families! I had only done 3 little WODs in 3 days and my body was clearly letting me know it was done. I cannot imagine doing this 5-6 days/ week for 4-6hrs everyday! Hats off to the Games athletes!

I managed to cook some more food to prepare my return to work and I made this delicious paleo / Whole30 compliant Butter Chicken from The Primal Desire. The only modification I made was this one: dump everything in the slow cooker uncooked, set for 6hrs on high and voilà! Delicious Butter Chicken for dinner, served on top of cauliflower rice with some bell pepper.

Mandatory picture because it was delicious!

My lunch bag is packed full of Whole30 foods for tomorrow, my scrubs are out and waiting for me in the bathroom, the house is somewhat clean and I’m just waiting for the girls to be asleep before I can totally relax for the evening. Let’s pray I don’t have to wait too long!

Sorry this post is a bit late, I just didn’t have it in me to blog before now! 😉

Higher Intensity, Lower Reps

My alarm woke me up this morning and I felt like I could have used another 5hrs of sleep. Meh! I got up and instantly felt the soreness in my hamstrings, shoulders and butt from yesterday’s Beach WOD. I could also feel the bruises on my biceps and forearms from the KB thrusters. I had a feeling today was gonna be a little ugly at the gym!

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Skill: Back Squat 6×3 E90S

I had worked up to 130# the last time I did these and I was determined to attempt 135# today, but my body had other plans. Here were my reps:

110#-115#-120#-125# up to then, I had no problem. I then loaded my bar with 130# did my 1st squat and, although I struggled to come up from it, I managed my 1st rep. I couldn’t get out from the bottom on the second, so I bailed out safely. Coach Caleb came by to help me re-rack my bar and after we chatted about the weight, He suggested I go back to 125#. I did just that, did my 1st rep successfully, but had to bail out of my 2nd rep because I couldn’t come out of the bottom. It’s all good, I know my body was tired and I had that piece of cake as well yesterday… 😉

WOD: Over Under Up

I decided to go with FG1+ on this one with the following modifications in order to challenge myself:

• 75# Shoulder to overhead (I did press jerks). We had to clean the bar up from the ground and I had never used that weight for a WOD until today. My 3RM for push jerks was 80# back in January and I knew using 75# today would be really hard, but I was determined to give it a go.
• DUs (I had a feeling I would struggle to get any reps on these, but still wanted to challenge myself to doing them Rx)
• banded pull-ups with the red band only (1st time I let go of the red and purple bands combined)

To say my score was very low is the understatement of the year. I ended up with a combined total of 58, but I really pushed myself out of my comfort zone. The DUs really killed me. Here’s how my rounds broke down:

1. 5 push jerks, 3 DUs, 3 pull-ups
2. 7 push jerks, 7 DUs, 4 pull-ups
3. 5 push jerks, 6 DUs, 4 pull-ups
4. 7 push jerks, 2 DUs, 5 pull-ups

Like I said, not the best numbers, but I managed to increase my pull-ups on each rounds and finished strong with the push jerks, so I’m happy with that.

Since Rina is now done with preschool for the summer, I had the luxury of taking my time after the WOD and I even went to get some groceries. I had a plan in mind and, boy, am I glad I stuck to my plan. Ever since Tracey had us over for our little Whole30 girls’ night, I have been craving ribs (she had made a delicious recipe on that night). I perused my cookbooks and the internet and finally settled on this recipe, from Holly Would If She Could, since it is Whole30-compliant AND slow-cooker friendly. We had a bit of a break in the heat wave yesterday, but it came back in full swing today and there is no way I would turn on the oven to cook anything in this heat. The girls are having quiet time in their rooms, fans are blasting on full-speed and Béa even asked that she just stays in her diaper. Poor munchkin is HOT! As I was driving to the grocery store in the early morning, I rolled down my windows and there was a faint breeze coming in from the ocean and you could smell the sea breeze in the air. It lingered around until around 10am and every time the wind would pick up gently, you could smell the ocean. It was lovely and it made me thankful I get to live so close to the ocean that I get to smell it in the air, once in a while, without having to leave my house!

The ribs are filling the house with a lovely scent (I didn’t change anything to the recipe and used the same BBQ sauce. The only difference is I didn’t boil the sauce. Nobody got time for that and I figured the slow cooker would take care of that step for me! 😉 I will serve this on a bed of lettuce because it’s too hot to eat anything else. Tomorrow, I plan on making Salmon À l’Afrique Du Nord that was recommended from Kathleen. You can find the recipe in Well Fed by Melissa Joulwan, or on her blog here. I have everything at home to make it and using the BBQ means avoiding turning on the oven = WIN! I also plan on grilling Blueberry Breakfast Sausage on the BBQ, but I will replace the pork with ground turkey. You can find the recipe on the Whole30 FB page, in their photo album.

That’s it! The girls have decided that quiet time is over and I must go back to being a mom! See you all in a few days!

Delicious and Healthy Homemade Green Dressing

I just made this dressing tonight and slapped it on top of zoodles (zucchini noodles, sautéed in vegetable broth) and tossed a mild Italian sausage in it. Dinner was done in 5 mins and Rina couldn’t help but steal some! Perfect when you’re feeling under the weather!

  

Rina-ism #3

I’m just made zucchini bread and then I  also made crab cakes. Rina asked what I was making and if she could have a piece of zucchini bread. I gave her a slice. She comes to me later and says: “Mom, that was delicious. Can I have more chicken cake?” 

Hmmm! Confused much???

This Will Be My Year

Yep, that’s right! I have officially declared it and will make the most of it. I feel so motivated this morning, it’s incredible. It all started with getting my eating under control. I’ve been eating clean for 17 days now and I feel better than ever. I still miss my morning coffee, but I now realize it was hindering my water intake as well. I just need to find the balance between the two. Also, this morning, I stepped on the scale and saw that I was below 150lbs (149.8 lbs, barely made it, but still). I cannot remember the last time I was there. Probably after I gave birth to Rina (when I was vegan). That was one early celebration because I weighed myself before heading in for my WOD.

Last night, a fellow Crossfitter posted on Facebook that she had a new DU PR and it inspired me to finally get my act together and work on them consistently. I watched a few Youtube videos and set out to work as part of my warm-up this morning. I managed to string 2 consecutive ones x3. It’s not many, but to me, it’s double what I used to be able to do! 🙂 I was so excited and Tracey witnessed it as well and she was just as excited as I was! Lol! She’s such a good cheerleader!  I tried a few more times and could only manage 2 at a time, but I was pretty stoked with that!

Then, it was time to team up for the WOD. I teamed up with Neil and because there wasn’t enough ergs, we were on the Airdyne. This WOD consisted of many of my nemeses, but I didn’t mind, I like working on my weaknesses. I had to scale down to FG with the following:

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WOD: Rowsie Glow

25 min AMRAP :

• 0.7 on the Airdyne
• 10 burpees
• 10 TTB (I did hanging knee raise)
• 10 SD box jumps
• 10 wallballs (14#)

Partner 1 worked on the Airdyne while partner 2 did the other movements. You couldn’t switch until both partners were done. I started on the Airdyne and got going. We finished with a score of 793 (I was responsible for 393 of that) which puts me at 49.5% of the total score for my team. Very close to being equal effort put out by both of us and I’m really happy with that! I never stopped once on the Airdyne and although I didn’t get any rest between the rounds, I just kept moving as much as I could. It was a hard one, but a fun one and I was still beaming from my DUs. That has put me in a really good mood for the day. I hurried over to the grocery store to get what I was missing to make these delicious egg muffins for breakfast. I got everything ready and popped them in the oven while I went to have a shower. They were the perfect celebratory breakfast for today and I got more food prep done since I have to be at work tomorrow. I am now cuddling BeZU on the couch and I have to say, this day is setting out to be a good one!

 

Living The Life!

I have to admit, having 2 weeks off from work feels pretty fantastic! I will have gone to Crossfit 4x this week by tomorrow (3 WODS and 1 Skills Plus class) and I’ve had time to cook some pretty fantastic meals, which, in return has given results in my fat loss (almost 3lbs since last week). 🙂

Below is my favourite breakfast as of late: Nuevos Rancheros

2 scrambled eggs, 2 tbsp grated cheddar, 2 tbsp salsa, cherry tomatoes and a tangerine. Add a coffee and you’re good to go! Yum!

 

Here’s what I plan to cook for tonight:

From The Formula 40-30-30 book

To top it all off, I’ve had a really good time just hanging out with my girls and we’ve been up to some pretty cool adventures this week. We’ve had their picture taken with Santa at the mall, we’ve browsed through the toys section at Walmart and Toys R Us.We’ve put up our Christmas tree:

She’s so excited about Santa!

Christmas wonder

We’ve sang some carols:

and Rina even wrote a letter to Santa (with some help):

I’ve gotten tons of cuddles from the girls and it warms my heart whenever they tell me: “Mama, you’re my best friend”.

This morning was my Skills Plus class at Crossfit and I had no idea what we were up to, but I was ready for it! We did Power Clean & Jerk 5×2 E2M @75%. My 75% weight was supposed to be 52#, but I rounded it up to 55#. It was challenging. I need to remember to keep the bar along my body in the power clean and split a bit wider in the jerk.

Then, we moved on to the Bear complex 5×2. It was my first time actually tackling the bear complex and I was a bit apprehensive. I decided to stay at 55# for this. It was challenging, but in a good way. Again, I need to remember to keep the bar close to my body during the squat clean and actually drop under the bar to catch it. Also, I have a tendency to cushion the bar on my spine in the back squat portion of the complex and I need to remember to cushion it on my shoulder muscles instead. So much to learn, but I’m really glad I get to learn the technique in a more detailed fashion!

You see! I’m having such a blast when I don’t have to work! I also find that I’m a lot more patient with the girls too! Win-win! If only I could find a way to keep it up for the rest of my life! 😉

Easy Gives Nothing

What a busy two days it’s been.

It started off at 0700 yesterday morning for this:

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Skill: HSPU Practice (I did 5 sets of 5).

I started off with a yoga block and 5×5# plates, then I slowly decreased it to a yoga block and 3×5# plates. It was hard to do the reps and I need to remember to push my head through at the end of the push.

WOD: Mindy

I had done this one back in March and I had done so much better back then. I’m not sure what happened yesterday, but I did poorly. Maybe it was because I did 4x strict pull-ups with the red and blue bands for each round instead of 6 kipping one. Anyway, I finished with a score of 183 (6 full rounds + 3 box jumps) whereas I had done 209 back in March. It seemed like I was keeping a good pace too, conscious about not taking too many or too long breaks. I was a bit disappointed, but I still felt good about getting out there and moving.

I came back home to this:

Rina had gotten up to no good while Ben was still in bed and decided to cut Béatrice’s hair. This is what she used to look like:

and now, she looks like she’s sporting the hairdo from Dumb and Dumber. I was lucky enough that  fellow Crossfitter who is also a hairdresser had some free time to try and arrange BeZU’s hairdo today. Her fringe is still very short, but it doesn’t look as bad as it was before. I miss her longer soft hair though!  😦

Then, I had to rush home, shower, stuff my face and take the girls to their gymnastics class, grocery shopping, lunch and nap, followed with play time outside, dinner, shower and bedtime.

This morning, I was up at 0400 and I tried to fall back asleep to no avail. I finally got up at 0500 and got ready for this:

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Skill: Tempo Front Squat 6×2 E2M

I paired up with Emily and I worked up my reps like this:

65#-75#-85#-90#-95#-100#

The last rep was hard to get up from the deep squat after 2 seconds at the bottom with 100# on my front shoulders, but I managed to do it and I was quite happy to get 100#.

WOD: Jeepers

I had done this one back in August and I had scaled it like this:

• 10# wallballs
• 35# AKBS
• 200 single unders
• finished in 17:30

Having re-read my post entry for it, I knew I had to challenge myself more today. I did so by doing these modifications:

• 1000m row
• 14# wallballs (all broken into sets of 5. I had to “no rep” myself so many times! They were hard!)
• 35# AKBS (I failed 2 reps and felt like giving up altogether, but I kept at it)
• 20 DUs and 80 single skips (I managed the 80 singles unbroken).
• I finished in 19:52

We had to separate into heats and I was into the second heat. I was still chipping at it by the time the 0700 class started. I then came back home to this:
Rina had been up to no good again and decided to do some wall art with SHARPIES!!! She also decided to put “makeup” on Béatrice and it was all over her face and arms. Ben cleaned up Béa while I was attacking the wall with a Magic Eraser. I had nothing left in my arms after the WOD and it felt like a workout!

 

Bearded Béa

Sharpie wall art. It was about 2 feet long on the wall.

Once I was done and Rina was ready to go to school, Ben gave me the present of taking both girls with him for Rina’s drop-off while I got cooking on this Chili

I made a few modifications by using

• 1lb extra-lean ground beef
• 1 lb lean ground turkey
• only 3 jalapeños peppers
• I added 3 carrots 1/2lb mushrooms and 1 medium green bell pepper and 1/2lb crisp bacon

It smells delicious in the house right now and I can’t wait to eat it topped with some green onions, a dollop of sour cream and some grated cheddar cheese! It hasn’t been an easy 2 days, but then again, easy gives nothing!

Perfect Autumn Day

The day started very early with two little tiny ladies coming to join me in bed, at 0600 promptly. I had learned my lesson from yesterday and made sure I had 2 devices Netflix-ready in order to stay in bed until 0700! 😉

We then got up and I received a request from a fairy and a princess for some pancakes. My go-to recipe lately has been this Whole Wheat Greek Yogurt Pancakes by Veggies by Candlelight. I make mine with vanilla protein powder (for 1/2 the amount of whole wheat flour) and vanilla full-fat greek yogurt. There are a few things I don’t buy low-fat and greek yogurt is one of them. This recipe makes enough for 6 smaller pancakes, just perfect for the girls and I this morning.

Fairy princess helping getting ingredients out of the fridge!

We then took off for some more grocery shopping and I bought what I missed to make a version of this Roasted Butternut Squash Soup from Edible Sound Bites. I made mine a little different since I was using my InstantPot.

Perfection!

Here’s what I did:

Ingredients:

• 1 large butternut squash, peeled and seeds removed, cubed
• 1 large Spanish yellow onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1tbsp olive oil
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup almond/coconut milk
• 1tsp mild curry powder
• sea salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400˚F.
2. In a large bowl, toss the squash and onions with olive oil, minced garlic, salt and pepper. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and empty the bowl out, making sure the veggies are in an even layer. Sprinkle mild curry powder on vegetables. Roast for 30 minutes, stirring halfway through, until veggies are tender and golden brown.
3. Transfer the roasted squash and onions to InstantPot; add the chicken stock and almond/coconut milk. Set on “Soup” for 40 minutes. Let the pressure naturally release.
4. Purée the soup using an immersion blender or working in batches with a blender(I used my VitaMix and was done in no time) or food processor until you have a silk smooth soup. Careful it is pipping hot! Adjust seasonings to taste.
5. To serve, ladle into bowls and top with 1-2 tbsp pomegranate seeds.

While this was cooking, I took the girls to a furniture store to have a look at some more sectionals for our living room. I’ve seen a few that could do, but since Ben is away, I haven’t made a decision or a purchase yet. Béatrice wanted to show she was very polite upon entering the last store we went to and proceeded to taking off her boots at the door. A few seconds later, she also took off her jacket. That’ll teach me to get her to take her shoes off as soon as she sets foot in the house! I guess she thought we were in a big house since the store was carpeted and there were couches and furniture all over the place! 😉

We came home to a ready to be puréed soup and after I quickly got this out of the way, we enjoyed a little burst of sunshine after a few days of rain and went to play outside (the girls) while we raked some leaves (me). For a small property without any big tree on it, I managed to fill half of our city compost bin and I didn’t even rake the entire yard. The rest will have to wait, maybe when the girls wake up from their nap. For now, Rina has asked me to make her this hat, in purple and white:

Copyright Deja Jetmir

I must brush up on my crochet technique and cast on while it’s somewhat quiet in here!

 

 

The Return of Friday Run Day… Yay!

The weather has been very decent over the past month and I guess with nicer weather, a return of outside running was doomed to happen at one point! Oh, how I love to run (not)!

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For the skill section, I did my Hang Power Cleans with the following weights:

55#-65#-65#-70#-70#

My shoulders are still very stiff from last Sunday and I just couldn’t move fast enough from the shoulder shrug to the flipping of the elbows. Looking forward to my 5 days of (Crossfit) rest. I have decided that even though my schedule would allow me to go in on Monday, I’m not going to. I need to give my shoulders a rest, otherwise, I just won’t progress.

Seeing as my shoulders were so sore, I decided to skip the Push Press for the WOD today. Coach Caleb gave those of us who skipped the push presses 8 burpees to do instead. I did the WOD the following way:

TG+: 4 rounds of

• 400m run (or drag in my case)
• 8 burpees
• 10 back squats @55# (from the rack since I didn’t do the push press)

I finished way dead last at 17:37. I know I gave it my full effort and Mark was nice enough (or cruel enough, depending how you want to look at it) to accompany me on my last run. He said he knew I wouldn’t stop to walk if he came out with me. He knows me too well and he was right!

I had previously finished it in 15:00, but with a weight of 35#. I never know which to consider my PR. Do I go according to the shorter time, but lesser weight, or higher weight and longer time?!? Still so confused at times!

Since I am taking a little rest from the WODs over the next few days, I’ll leave you with what I’ve been cooking in preparation for my return to work tomorrow:

I made this delicious Meat Crust Quiche from PaleOMG. my sausage was turkey, thyme and cranberry and the mix is very tasty. Even Béa shared some of mine this morning! Here’s what mine looked like coming out of the oven:

I am NOT a food photographer! Trust me, this is delicious!

I also made a Chicken Mustard Stew from the PaleoLeap  Paleo Recipe Book in my Instant Pot and it was quick and easy. I browned the chicken breasts with the onion and garlic. Added the canned tomatoes  and wine and set it on poultry for 30 mins. Voilà! I ate it with a nice salad last night and it was very comforting!

Today, I plan on making the Crab Stuffed Salmon also front he PaleoLeap Paleo Recipe Book. I have been craving the stuffed salmon fillet from Costco and hopefully, this will come as a close second! I’ll let you know how it turns out!

And just because I can, I will leave you with a picture of Béa yesterday. She stole Rina’s hat and put it on her head and kept it on there for part of the afternoon. I thought she looked like a little Shriner! 😉

Goofy girl!