Day 11 - 11P2G - Sleep Already!

Winning!

Great day! Long day! Rope climbs made it into the HD workout today… and I’m super excited that it did. I was one, maybe 2 pulls from the top today. I smoked all previous attempts and even had Robert ready with the camera just in case. I lost my footing right before this picture was taken and couldn’t recover from it. Rope burns on both legs getting back down, but I was safe and they were right… you simply don’t fall from up there, you just don’t. I did a mini-celebration then finished the AMRAP… I didn’t make any more attempts for the day, one is all I have in me and then the bruising and burns set in on my shins.

Dinner

 Input: Pretty mellow day for eating. Rue and I finished the leftover pancakes for breakfast, instead of lunch I snacked throughout the day on the lunch items I brought to work, chicken and fresh guacamole, a nut pack, and some grapes. I got a call from the furniture store delivering my munchkin’s bed so I rushed home to open the door for them. We had dinner at 5:30P. It was a great dinner, I took some of the leftover sun-dried tomato chicken from dinner last night, chopped it up and added it and some of the tomatoes to a pasta sauce, I put it over noodles for J&R and I enjoyed my portion over a sweet potato. We had a side salad and some organic carrots, great dinner!

Output: Noon HD @SWEAT360.

Warmup with jogging and drills, 5x5 Kettlebell snatches on each arm. Then a 12 minute AMRAP (As many rounds as possible) I think I did 6 rounds… ??? I was so excited from the rope climb I lost track. After round one, I chose the 4 mini climbs instead… for these, you sit on the ground and climb the rope to a standing position and lower yourself back down. The AMRAP was: 1 rope climb (or 4 minis), 7 Burpees, and 10 Box Jumps.

Random: Today was exciting for Ruthie since her new loft bed arrived. Ruthie has been a co-sleeper, well since day one of her life… we had a brief 6 months just before she turned 4 where she slept in her own bed every night but then she worked her way back into ours. Don’t get me wrong, we love co-sleeping with her, but I also miss sleeping peacefully with my husband too. When Rue is in bed with us, I sleep in mommy mode, and every sound or move she makes I hear it, it makes for not so great sleep for me, but it’s been 5 years so I must be getting adequate sleep or at least close. We ordered her bed, that she picked out about a month ago and she has been telling us that as soon as it arrives, she will sleep in her own bed forever… Well it arrived today, at 5:30P and after we had dinner, Rue and I spent the entire evening putting it together. As soon as her Bennie Bear was in place, she climbed in, said goodnight, turned out her light and went to sleep. Hurray!!!!

For some reason, I remembered a challenge I had given to some friends during one of my many attempts of doing a weight loss challenge. I had done some research on sleep and I’m not sure what article this came from so forgive me for not being able to cite the right source but for kicks I found the challenge I had sent out and copied and pasted it here. I don’t get “points” for anything I’m doing now but maybe I should… remembering to and actually getting some good sleep is so beneficial to a weight loss plan and to good health overall. Soooo random copy/paste from an old weight loss challenge I was running and participating in…. enjoy!

Sleep Already!
Getting too much or too little sleep may widen your waist! That’s right Goldilocks: Getting seven to eight hours of sleep is juuuuuust right. People who sleep less or more are likely to gain 11 pounds over a six year period by making no other changes. Skimping on sack time decreases the appetite-suppressing hormone leptin and increases the appetite stimulating hormone ghrelin. What’s more… overindulging means less time moving.

The challenge: Get at least 7 hours of sleep nightly. Points: 1 point per day this is achieved. Report in your daily journal or in a weekly journal which must be received no later than Tuesday 9/2.

Tips: if you have a hard time getting to sleep (me) try these techniques… who knows they might work for you…

1. Pull your hair (not kidding) I watched a study on Oprah not long ago where the scientists said that by pulling on your hair you can actually trigger the nerves in your head and stimulate it in a way that actually helps you turn off all those other things going through your head, allowing you to fall asleep quicker.
2. Fade to black: Apparently the 2nd most common reason people have a hard time falling asleep is because of light in the room. (the 1st is anxiety). Make your room dark, use blackout shades or wear a blackout sleep mask… and oh yeah, turn off the TV and unplug the night light.
3. Get the right pillow for your sleeping style, and replace your pillow every 12 to 18 months.
4. Quietly listen to music with beats similar to your heart rate, 60 to 80 beats per minute. Check out bedtime beats CD’s www.bedtimebeats.com or try some white noise, like waterfalls or rushing river waters.
5. Score a new pad… it might be time for a new mattress or mattress pad (I know it is for me) Make your bed comfortable and you will toss and turn much less throughout the night. 
6. Change your alarm clock… apparently clocks with blue toned digital displays block melatonin production, keeping you up… if you can see your clock and are having trouble falling asleep switch to an amber light instead. (the orange).
7. Down your dog. Mans best friend could be sleeps worst enemy…

Not getting enough good sleep can actually stall your weight loss. So sleep already!

Day 10:11P2G -- Pancakes & Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Bake

Breakfast

Quick Paleo Pancakes

The dryer is working or at least it appears to be for now… Yay! Hopefully that ends the drama for this week. Food for today was fantastic; I had a late breakfast while waiting for the repair man, of the Quick Paleo Pancakes… I’m not sure what I did different, but they were even better today. The consistency was, well, pancake like. I followed the recipe exactly and made my quick berry compote for the top. Perfect. Lunch was a simple left over chicken warmed with a side of fresh avocado and for dinner we enjoyed for the first time Sarah’s Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Bake from Everyday Paleo. http://everydaypaleo.com/2011/03/09/sun-dried-tomato-chicken-bake/  I followed her recipe, except that I wasn’t paying attention at the grocery store and bought a 6 oz jar of sun dried tomatoes instead of an 8.5 oz jar, and mine were not julliane cut, so I cut them myself. I lost a little of the olive oil in that process but I think it turned out fine. We enjoyed it with a green salad, fresh fruit, and my not quite paleo family added some mashed potatoes and everyone was happy. No crazy activity today, I had to miss Poweryoga @ SWEAT360 but I’m still planning some stretching and inversion before bed.



Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Bake



Dinner

Leftovers Yummy!



Day 9 - 11.5 lbs to Goal: Tuesday: A Lot a Tabata

Roasted Cajun Butternut Squash

Am I the only one that thinks eating will make a headache go away? I don’t know why I think that; maybe it is because if I’m having a caffeine withdrawal headache some espresso usually cures it. I’m proud to say that today, even though I had a frustrating morning and a ticked-off induced headache, I stayed on plan. I did have to stop and think about my food choices and I even noted to myself that food isn’t going to help and drank more water instead. I kept the food choices simple and finished up some leftovers, no wasted food for us this week.

Input:


Breakfast & Lunch

 Dinner for breakfast, the squash just looked too good not to eat this morning, so I cut it in half, heated it up, added some turkey roast and enjoyed it with a cup of coffee. Ruthie boiled egg and a Larabar for a snack. Drank some liquid vitamins in water, then had a repeat of breakfast for lunch but finally finished off that turkey roast… that was a lot of meals with one roast… It was good but I’m kind of glad it’s gone… now I can work on a new recipe. ½ Banana and a raw nut pack before my workout and after stopping at New Seasons on my way home, I didn’t feel very hungry for dinner. I knew I was hungry but after a nice hard workout the hunger was masked a bit. I decided to keep it simple, I sautéed some of the Healthy 8 Chopped veggie mix in a little olive oil, a lot of veggies, added 2 eggs and made a scramble and added a dollop of guacamole. It was fabulous. I may or may not splurge on a little dessert tonight, I picked up some dark chocolate coconut bliss bars… I’m currently not hungry so maybe I will save it for tomorrow.



Leftover Scramble for Dinner

 Output: A Lot a Tabatta
A little jogging, ladder drills, and dynamic drills, then a fast hard AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) in 10 minutes. I completed 8 full rounds with about 15 seconds to spare and breathe…

8 Rounds in 10 Minutes of:
7 KB Swings (54lb KB for me)
7 Slam Ball shouldering (40lbs round 1, 30 lbs remaining 7 rounds)
15 Bodyweight Squats (fast)

Then comes the Finisher: Tabata Sit-Ups

SWEAT360 - HD 5:30P

Tabata is eight 30 second rounds of as fast as you can for 20 secs and 10 secs of rest. You are supposed to go as hard and fast as you can and count how many you get then on each round after you try to meet or beat your original count. Full range sit-ups, my counts: 11, 11, 10, 10, 10, 10, 9, 10

Great workout! I needed that. No rope climb attempts today… I’m rightfully exhausted.

Why I will never buy an appliance from Best Buy ever again!!!

It started when we purchased the front load washer/dryer combo for our new house, nearly 3 years ago… Delivery and install was included, however when they arrived, they considered placing them in the right place installed and would not actually install them. My dad drove up from Eugene to help me install them, not that it was difficult hooking them up but thanks for the nice install Best Buy.


One month later… I noticed that the main reason we bought this particular unit, it’s efficient dryness sensing, that automatically senses when your clothes are dry so as not to over dry them, wasn’t working. How did I know this.. because it wouldn’t shut off and our clothes when it did shut off were hot like fire. We called the customer service who sent a technician about 2 weeks later. We simply put it on the Normal cycle for 40 minutes so that it wouldn’t over-heat while we waited. When the technician came the first time. He immediately said… it’s not the dryer it is the venting. We then argued about the venting because the manual reads that it needs to vent within 50 feet of the dryer and it was venting 28 feet away. Didn’t matter to him… it was the venting and nothing could be done. Nice… oh and he refused to reinstall the vent hose (put it back on) and said and I quote, “When your husband gets home, he can put this back on for you.” Are you f-ing kidding me? was he saying that because I’m a girl, I can’t put a tube on a receiver?!?! I actually complained about that one… A-Hole!

I placed the hose back on the dryer.. and we continued to use it on normal for about a year then poof it wouldn’t start. Called Best Buy Geek Squad, they sent, oh my gosh, the same technician out. Turns out the fuse that controls the heating element blew, he says because it’s not venting properly making it too hot and thus the sensor-technology won’t work. I said we haven’t used the sensor technology because it has never worked and we don’t want to fry our clothes. He replaced the fuse and still said our venting was too far.

Okay fine, my sister and I headed for the crawlspace and were about to re-vent it entirely, but found an indoor method where it vents right into water inside. It seemed to work but it gave far too much moisture in the air to continue long term. Oh and because it was venting only 2 feet from the dryer I turned the sensor back on and guess what… it fried my clothes… smoke literally came out of the dryer. Nice. Back to normal 40 minutes for us. The moisture got to be too much so I actually re-vented the dryer into our entry way 5 feet from the dryer. This lasted about 6 months… fast forward to now… 3 weeks ago… it wouldn’t turn on again.

I called Bust Buy geek squad – they can send a tech out but It can’t be for a week. Same technician comes… I recap the entire issue and my belief that it is a lemon from the beginning the sensors do not work it over heats, and now it is vented 5 feet away… he doesn’t ever remember being here in my house. Really??? I can understand not remembering the situation but no recollection of ever being here??? Last time he was here he saw my inversion table and talked to me about it for about 10 minutes… but now, this is the first time we’ve met… interesting. This time there is no comment on the venting instead, the fuse has blown and the heating element grounded itself so he needed to get two parts to fix it and would be back Saturday AM to do the work.

Saturday was my anniversary and both Jeff and I had plans in the morning… I canceled my plans and waiting for the technician to come or call… at 10:30A I called to find out that the part didn’t arrive so we need to reschedule. WTF!?! Thanks for calling me Best Buy so that wouldn’t have to reschedule my plans… I’m pissed and reschedule for Monday AM. I’m told that if I don’t hear from the technician to call them by 9A. at 3P on Saturday , I get a call from a random parts person letting me know that we need to reschedule the Sat AM appt because my part didn’t arrive on time… Really? No kidding…

Monday AM… I’m doubtful for some reason that I will hear or see him in the AM so I head out to take Rue to school and go to work, at least for the morning. I get a call at 9:20A. The technician is sick today so we need to reschedule for tomorrow instead. Look dude, I’m sorry that you are sick, but schedule another freakin’ person!!! I go to work and proceed once again to move my meetings around and make Tuesday available to working from home… I just want to get this over with…

Tuesday AM…. 9:30A I call Best Buy because guess what… I didn’t get a confirmation from the tech yet. They try to call him and leave him a message, come back to me on hold and tell me that he should call me in the next 20 minutes or so but in 30 minutes to call them back so they can try him again. I have a mtg to attend via phone so I wait an hour and call them back at 10:30A I have to explain the situation all over again, and tell them, I just plain need to confirm he is coming I have another meeting at 11a so please get him on the phone. I then wait on hold for 17 minutes… I get call that goes to my voicemail, then a txt msg from my husband saying that Best buy called them and they need to reschedule… I hung up on the call I was currently on hold for as they were clearly NEVER coming back. check my VM and got an actual Oregon person from Geek Squad telling me that we need to reschedule for today because the technician is sick! Insert head explosion here!!!!

I call her back and in as reasonably kind way as possible I completely freaked out!!! Turns out he is the only technician for this area… his next available appt is Saturday. NO! I asked to speak to a supervisor, they are sending their Washington tech to my house in the morning and if I don’t hear from him before 9:30A I am to call him back directly. How much do you want to bet… he won’t know how to get needed parts to fix my dryer and he will come out here, then have to reschedule???

Thank goodness I paid for the extended warranty for the Lemon that is my dryer… and thank goodness it is so energy efficient and has such great customer service…

New Dated Goal!!!

My ultimate goal has a lot more to do with health than a number on the scale.The real goal is to be healthy and pain free and be able to do whatever I want to do without that nagging inside voice that tells me , "I shouldn't do this, I can't do this, this is going to hurt so much tomorrow... " and mostly to be able to play with my daughter and not have her know that Mommy is in pain. It has been a long 3 years, but I can say that right now in this moment, I can... my goal  has been acheived. I'm not in pain. But it is a continual battle and each day is different. I have to be so careful in my workouts and my daily movements, and sometimes I have setbacks, but for the most part, Charlie Sheen, "I'm winning". I thank God everyday for the strength He has given me and for my drive and persistence to keep pushing forward. But all the mushy mushy stuff aside... there is that one number, that I thought was so far out of reach, that suddenly seemed reachable towards the end of last year. I was 4 pounds from "the number on the scale" that I hoped for. Only to slowly and steadily move farther away from it. With my progress last week and my renewed Paleo vision, I think I have the opportunity to reach that goal. Today I scheduled my yearly bloodwork and checkup that my employer funds as part of our health and wellness program. It is one month from today. Friday April 29th. There are no special anniversaries or birthdays between now and then, well there is Easter, but over the last few years I've gotten really good at the large family functions so they don't scare me or throw me off track anymore. Plus, eating Paleo, I can eat, and I like to cook so it just gives me a reason to try a new dish. So, I have 31 days to lose 12.8 pounds... That's aproximately 3 pounds a week so I need to shoot for 4 pounds a week which is honestly doable. 12.8 pounds is my lifetime goal, but it's not all the extra weight on my body that I have to lose, it is a personal goal set much lower than the possible loss for my body. Wish me luck, I will need it.

Design change... ugh!

In an effort to make the blog look nicer... I totally messed it up... sorry. I do have more room now to post pics, so future posts should look better but it totally messed with the previous posts and I can't figure out how to return it to the previous settings... LAME!

D8:14:12.5P2G - Monday



The ingredients

Great start to a new week. I even experimented with a new recipe all my own. Okay I looked at a few recipes to get an idea for what I wanted to make and started making the “It can be this Easy – Roasted Root Veggies and Chicken” recipe from everyday paleo but when I did a scan of what I had to make in the house… I started changing it up a bit to meet my needs and what I had ready to cook.

Chicken & Smashed Butternut Squash
½ Butternut Squash, peeled and cubed
4 chicken breasts
2 TBS Coconut Oil
Garlic Powder, basil, tarragon, black pepper, and sea salt to taste
Nuts & Seeds (Trader Joes Omega 3 Nuts & Seeds snack pack)
Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400. I use Demarle cooking products and if you’d like to too, my friend Julie sells it… let me know and I will hook you up, because it rocks! Put the cubed squash in the baking pan or in my case my Demarle bakeware and add 2 tbs coconut oil. Demarle does not need any oils or non-stick anything… the coconut oil is actually for taste and added good fat. Place the chicken breasts over the top of the squash and season to taste. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Remove foil and bake for additional 15 minutes.

In the oven



after chicken was removed from the top

 At this point you can enjoy or… you can take the very moist ready squash out and mash it then add the nuts & seeds pack and sprinkle with cinnamon.



Smashed Butternut Squash

 The recipe made enough for the three of us, plus I cooked the other half of the squash at the same time by adding a little coconut oil and sprinkled it with a cajun spice mix... (I can't wait to have it for lunch tomorrow). We ate all the smashed squash and had chicken but we have enough left over chicken for 2 or 3 more servings... great for snacks and future salads this week.




Other food for today:

Breakfast: n/a


Dinner's Ready

I had a large Americano on my way to work and at work, I brought some chicken sausage to enjoy for breakfast but never got around to heating it up to eat it. Instead I went from meeting to meeting then rushed off to the gym for my noon workout. Not a good idea, and I won’t do that again tomorrow.

Lunch: Turkey Roast Salad


Leftover Turkey roast… gotta use the leftovers… I will probably finish turkey tomorrow, sorry if it is boring but the reality is that I repeat a lot of meals as I don’t like to waste food and easy and healthy is what helps me stay on track. I warmed the turkey and added it to a mixed green salad loaded with chopped veggies, and a tomato salsa, this was a very large salad and hit the spot. 



Turkey Salad



Snack: smashed dried bananas. YUMMY!!! Another café Americano at 4P… uh oh… that might keep me up.

Output: TRX @SWEAT360

Three rounds of 11 different TRX exercises… TRX on Mondays is challenging. I decided to give the Rope one try and only one try… 2 good pulls is all I had, but I think I have this footing thing figured out… it won’t be long before I’m at the top.

Ruthie Bee bits…

While I was preparing dinner tonight, our little chef wanted to make a couple creations of her own: hard boiled eggs and dessert for her and daddy. Other than the removal of the boiled eggs from the stove, her two creations were entirely all her own and she asked me to post these recipes for her.

Boiled Eggs by Bee

Add water to eggs in a pot, bring to boil, reduce to medium and cook for 15 minutes. Cool in running then cold water. Remove from pot. Refrigerate. Crack one egg and peel and rinse. Cut in half length wise with “sharp” knife being super careful. Add small sprinkle of sea salt and crushed black pepper and eat.

Random Dessert by Bee



Dessert for two by Bee

One Strawberry Jello snack cup added to plate and chopped up. One large strawberry cleaned and chopped up and added to jello. Top it with whip cream and add a side of one orange, peeled. Perfect for sharing with Daddy.