Cheatin’

Yesterday, we went out to eat at a little pizza place with some good friends of ours who sadly moved away today.  I decided to have a cheat meal and indulge in the pizza.  I didn’t feel an ounce of guilt. 

In the past, whenever I had a cheat, I felt incredibly guilty.  I would be hard on myself and regret it for the rest of the day.  On the flipside, sometimes I even thought “Well, I ruined my entire day with that one cheat meal.  Might as well eat like garbage the rest of the day.” 

When you’re committed to clean eating, it’s ok to have a cheat once in awhile.  It’s perfectly normal and totally expected.  I believe in cheats, which I prefer to call treats, once in awhile for two reasons.  1. Everyone has their favorite foods.  It’s good to have those once in awhile for sanity as well as success in one’s clean eating journey.  Enjoying our favorite foods makes us happy.  2. I know for me, when I eat a favorite food that’s not on the clean list, I tend to feel pretty miserable afterwards.  It just reminds me why I choose to eat clean. 

So there you have it.  Enjoy a treat once in awhile.  ONCE IN AWHILE.

More Paleo Pancakes

I.love.pancakes.

I combined a couple different recipes to make this batch. I also doubled the batch because I was feeling pretty hungry and I like to have leftovers for work.

Ok, here’s what we’re working with:

2 OVERLY ripe bananas
4 farm fresh free range eggs
About 1 cup almond butter
About 1 tsp cinnamon
About 1 tsp baking powder
About 1.5 tsp vanilla

After mixing up this business thoroughly, the batter was looking pretty thin so I added maybe 1/4 cup almond flour. That seemed to do the trick. Play around a little with measurements. It’s pretty tough to mess this one up.

I used a 1/4 cup measuring cup to drop the batter onto the griddle. I also added a few dark chocolate chips to a few of the pancakes just for fun.

In the past, I’ve also added blueberries, protein powder, and flax seed. One could also add a little sweet potato,  pumpkin, or apple for some extra POW.

I love this recipe. One of my favorite recipes for my day off. Also pairs well with a hot cup of coffee. I dig it.

Strong vs. Skinny

“I need to go on a diet so I can be skinny.”  Everyone is always talking about wanting to be skinny. Really, skinny isn’t always the best option.  I recently did a poll with some of the guys at work.  I showed them a picture of a skinny woman, then showed them a picture of a CrossFit woman who was fit.  Each dude one chose strong & fit over skinny.  Most of them commented on how the strong & fit looked healthier. Skinny looked too skinny.

Strong & fit doesn’t always mean skinny.  Furthermore, weight lifting doesn’t always mean bulky.  I feel like I’m strong & fit, but not skinny AND I’m not bulky.  I go the gym just about every day.  I eat clean about 90% of the time.  I have seen the pounds and the inches drop and my body become more toned.  Still not skinny.  I don’t have a skinny build.  Each person is built differently.  I have seen a lot of my “skinny” friends become strong & fit just as often as I have seen some of my bigger friends do the same.  With strong & fit the goal, it doesn’t matter what size you are or what size you end up. 

If you search for motivational quotes or pictures, you will find an over abundance of pictures of abs with some sort of motivational quote on them.  I will never post pictures like that.  I want you to strive to be fit…whatever that looks like to you.

It’s easy to want to look like the skinny people on tv, but once you stop trying to compare yourself to the pictures on advertisments and start working on you, life gets a lot better. 

Crispy Sweet Potato Rounds

The other night, my medic partner had the idea to slice up a sweet potato and cook it in some butter, along with some asparagus. We seasoned the veggies with salt, pepper, and a little seasoning salt.

Pretty simple. Pretty tasty. The nice thing about the butter is the flavor. Sweet potatoes and butter are delicious friends. Also, the sweet potatoes get ever so slightly crispy the longer you cook them.

Another fun thing about sweet potatoes is that they can be sweet or savory. You commonly see sweet potatoes with marshmallows and/or brown sugar. Not so clean. My favorite way to eat sweet sweet potatoes is with a little butter and a little real maple syrup. Delicious for breakfast. My favorite way to enjoy savory sweet potatoes is with butter, a little salt, and a little pepper. The perfect side.

I love the flavor of sweet potatoes. I don’t like to weigh it down with processed garbage. Food tastes so much better when you don’t consume piles of processed food and a bunch of sugar. Keep it clean and simple. It’s a delicious way to live.

Just make sure to enjoy sweet potatoes sparingly. They’re full of all sorts of vitamins and minerals, but they’re also called sweet potatoes for a reason. Be mindful of those sneaky sugars.

Summer Salad

I have been pulling a lot of hours lately. Sometimes it’s kind of tough to choose clean food options. I found this salad at the hospital cafeteria. Strawberry Pecan Chicken Salad. I packed it in my lunchbox for today, along with my Steve’s PaleoGoods Wild Berry dressing. Complimented my salad perfectly. I love that stuff.

CROSSFITTERS READ THIS

Another post on massages.  Yesterday was massage Monday.  I was feeling chatty, so I talked a little bit about CrossFitters and massages with my massage therapist. I know she has worked on a few CF’ers in the past, so I asked her if she has noticed anything differently with people who CrossFit vs those who don’t.  The main thing that she has noticed is significant upper back tightness and knots.  She went on to say that since CrossFit is big on core strength and a lot of times WODs incorporate quite a bit of shoulder and upper body movement, the athlete’s back is usually a mess.

This is the part where I encourage you to get regular massages.  I have noticed a tremendous improvement with my regular hot stone deep tissue massages.  Really, you are missing out if you don’t get them.  Also, I highly recommend mobility work as well as foam roller/lacrosse ball work. 

Check out Kelly Starrett’s website HERE as well as his book “Becoming a Supple Leopard.”  The book is pretty legit.  Take care of yourself.  Take every chance you can get to prevent injury.

Guacamole

I.love.guacamole.

I saw this one on Facebook as well and have been craving guacamole since.This recipe is pretty standard and simple to make. I’ve been making guacamole this way for awhile.

What you need:
3 avocados
Onion
Garlic
Salt
Jalapeño
Lime
Cilantro

This particular recipe calls for red onion. I used yellow. I added about half of an onion, 1 medium sized Jalapeño (diced and seeds removed), about 4 garlic cloves, and a few squeezes lime juice. Basically adjust quantities to taste. The recipe is really just a guideline.

Cut, chop, dice, mash, eat. Simple enough.

I used veggie chips to dip into the guacamole. Terra brand is the one I use. It’s pretty clean for the most part. They’re a good gluten free, veggie based alternative to tortilla chips.

Guacamole is dangerous. I could eat this stuff all day.

Recipe HERE.

Paleo Pizza Boats

I love zucchini. I especially love using it in place of bread. I saw this recipe on Facebook earlier this week and made a note to make it asap. My husband LOVES pizza boats, so I welcome this clean version for me.

First, get yourself some zucchini. I found 2 medium sized ones. Slice them length wise then scoop out the innards. In the meantime, brown your meat. I used one pound of hamburger. I also threw in some garlic, onion, and Italian seasoning. The recipe called for curry powder and thyme, but I decided to do my own thing. I added the meat mixture, as well as the chopped zucchini insides, to some canned pizza sauce that I found at the store. I typically make it from scratch, but for the sake of time, went store bought. Make sure you check your labels if you go with a store bought sauce. Sugar is sneaky.

Line up the zucchini boats on a nagging sheet. Fill up the boats with the meat sauce. I sprinkled a little parmesan on top as well. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 400°.

I did end up with extra meat sauce on purpose. I filled up the empty pizza sauce jars and froze the extras.

I’m excited about this recipe for 3 reasons. 1. It’s crazy easy to make. 2. I love when recipes substitute vegetables for breads or carbs. 3. It’s delicious.

Zucchini is the perfect thing to use as the boat to hold the meat sauce. It’s very mild, almost flavorless, and softens up quite nicely in the oven. I plan to make this often.

Original recipe found HERE.

Summer Bodies Are Made in the Winter

“Summer bodies are made in the winter.” 

I had heard this from someone awhile ago and didn’t give it much thought.  Recently, it has been coming to mind quite a bit. 

I think so often we are looking for quick results.  I’m sure we’ve all been there. “If only I could lose this last 10-20 pounds…” “There’s that wedding I have in a few months” or “hey, spring break is in 4 weeks” or even “I really need to get rid of this baby fat.”  The key is to get rid of all of those fad and crash diets.  In my opinion, a fad diet won’t get you anywhere.  While you may drop the weight, you will be hungry ALL.THE.TIME and you will most likely gain the weight back.  Plus, you are probably depriving your body of the good stuff that it craves and needs.  Drop the word “diet” and replace it with “lifestyle.”  To me, the word diet is temporary (The reason I call it the Paleo way of eating or the Paleo lifestyle vs. Paleo diet…it’s misleading).  If you’re looking for weight loss and want to do it in a healthy manner, it takes time. If you want it to work (and stick) make it a lifestyle change.  

There is a reason that I use the J word and call this my Paleo journey.  It’s a continued work in progress.  There have been plenty of frustrations and plateaus, but I know that I’m making healthy choices and I feel pretty great.  That’s what keeps me going. 

When I started eating clean, I just wanted to be healthy.  I wanted to feel better.  Weight-loss was an added perk.  Down 15 pounds in about 6 months.  Our anniversary is in September, and we have a 10 day beach vacation in Mexico planned with some friends.  I’ve been doing the clean eating thing since January.  My poolside body will be ready by September. 

It takes time, but it’s worth it. 100% worth it.