World O’ Hurt

A fast day for me today. I am thinking that one of my weekly fast days will be on a workout day. It feels odd and strangely invigorating to work out on a Crossfit/conditioning day, and brings an intensity to the workout. Which isn’t to say that it’s easier, it’s not.

Ice Tea of the Day: Sencha Fine. Refreshing, grassy.

Breakfast:

• Fasting, but three cups of delicious Anderson’s Mexican Fair Trade Organic Coffee, one or two of them brewed double-strength…

Lunch:

• Fasting.

Dinner:

• Big-Ass Salad! Ribeye, greens, spinach, celery, feta.
• Raspberries and blueberries.

I spent most of Saturday being inspired by the Crossfit Central Fittest Games Challenge. My shoulder prevented me from actually participating in the event, but I wanted to be there to lend my support to my friends, help the event run smoothly, and to get a really sweet t-shirt for free (finally: An event shirt that doesn’t suck! See below pictures to see the shirt!). Watching the level of competition and fitness reminded me not only of how far I’ve come, but also how far I have yet to go.

Saturday

Breakfast:

• Skipped. Fast day.
• No coffee

Lunch:

• Skipped.

Dinner (you’re going to like this!). Every once in a while I like to cook great food! :

• Grilled salmon, lightly crusted with sea salt and freshly-cracked black pepper
• Tenderloin fillet, cooked a perfect medum-rare over hardwood charcoal
• USDA Prime Ribeye Steak, grilled medium-rare (but crispy on the outside)
• Spinach, braised in lemon olive oil, caramelized onions, and minced garlic
• roasted garlic-horseradish mashed potatoes (22 garlic cloves, 1/4 cup fresh-grated horseradish root), skins on, lots of butter and half-and-half.
• 

  Wimpy kitchen torches don't caramelize for shit. Go big or go home!

  Homemade espresso-vanilla bean Crème brûlée (Made with Anderson’s Ethiopian Yergacheffe beans, and real vanilla bean (no extract)). A faulty oven rack collapsed while the majority of the ramekins were in the oven, causing some custard to spill and some water to get in the custard. I was ready to toss them all but baked them anyway. I’m glad I didn’t give up! They set and turned out mostly wonderfully.

  

  Fun with MAPP torches.

I think this is honestly one of the best meals I’ve ever had, restaurant or no. Knowing that my and my friends’ efforts yielded such fantastic food made it all the better!

Sunday

Breakfast:

• Three eggs, scrambled in bacon grease and sauteed garlic. Before cooking, I forced the eggs though a sieve to give them a different texture. The resulting eggs were pillowy and smoother than usual. Man did it take a lot of time for the egg to drip through the sieve though!

Lunch:

• A handful of mixed nuts.

Dinner:

• Nothing as exciting as Saturday; just some thinly sliced ribeye over mixed field greens, spinach, sliced celery, red bell pepper, and avocado, all in a walnut-balsamic vinagrette. That’s right, a Big-Ass Salad™!!

Yes, I am aware the formatting is fucked up on this post. I’ll bring it up with the theme designers. Photos with MAPP torch were taken by Bubbles!

Wine and Blowtorches: A dangerous and wonderful combination. Professional caramelizer on closed course. Pleaes don't drink and caramelize.

Burn baby burn!

Voila! topped with gently crushed raspberries and blueberries, as well as fresh homemade whipped cream (no canned shit in my kitchen)

I had a fairly calm weekend this week. The weather has been gorgeous, and I need to make more time to get out there. My mountain bike, neglected in my garage, beckons to me to mount up and get out on the trails. I need to anyway, since I’m running Muddy Buddy again with Eric!

Lately, my appetite hasn’t been what it usually is. I’m getting full with less quantity of food. I think I’m recognizing that I actually eat a lot more food than I require to keep healthy and nourished. This week, I’m going to experiment with keeping the portions down and the food more diverse. Of course, it could also be trying to eat my normal portion size on days I’m not working out!

Iced Tea of the Day: Kukicha Roasted. This is one of my very favorites. This is a leftover jug from last night (Kukicha has very low caffeine so it’s good for nighttime chuggin’) that I’m polishing off. I’ll probably brew something else later…

Other Iced Tea of the Day: Moroccan Mint, the Miles Davis of teas.

Late, Late Breakfast, or Early, Early Lunch, Depending on How You Look at Things:

• Three cups of delectible Anderson’s Coffee (Costa Rica)
• Four eggs scrambled in coconut oil with sauteed garlic and caramelized onions.
• Cup o’ Mixed Nuts
  • This is a combination of a bag o’ raw walnuts and a plastic jug o’ macadamias, cashews, pecans, brazil nuts, all from Costco. While the walnuts are fantastic, I’m less than thrilled with the mixed nut jug. The nuts are heavily salted (gross) and contain cashews, which I’m on the fence about. The walnuts I’ll buy again, but I’ll finish out the jug and consider it a failed experiment…

Snack:

• Celery and Almond Butter

Dinner:

• Medium-Ass Salad™ with mixed field greens, spinach, red bell pepper, sliced USDA prime Ribeye, and Feta and Gorgonzola cheeses
• Smallish fruit bowl: Cantaloupe (perfect, by the way), blackberries, blueberries.

A lovely day in Austin, TX. I feel sorry for those who work from office buildings all day. I would have to say that the biggest perk of my job is the fact that I can work from home, especially this time of year. An open window and cool breeze take the sting out of sitting in front of a computer all day.

Iced Tea of the Day: Green Tea Berry Burst. I didn’t feel as embarrassed drinking this tea as I do typing its name.

Breakfast:

• Huevos Locos
• One large Hass Avocado with salt and pepper
• Three cups of delicious Anderson’s Ethiopian Sulawesi coffee

Lunch/Snack:

• Celery with Almond Butter (this is so good it’s almost a dessert!)

Dinner:

• Grilled Lamb Loin Chops with Mediterranian Rub/Marinade (olive oil, garlic, oregano, thyme, sage, parsley, rosemary)
• Kiwi, blackberries, Pluots
• Various cheeses (Derby, Wensleydale)

A case of the Mondays indeed! Today was a spectacularly shitty day outside. Cold-ish, gray, and later on, wet. In order to let my body recover from the abuse I gave it at the hands of some pretty awful food, I made this the first Intermittent Fast day of the week.

Ice Tea of the Day: Tropical Cyclone

Breakfast:

• Skipped, due to intermittent fast.

Lunch:

• Skipped, due to intermittent fast

Dinner:

• So glad you asked!
• Big-Ass Salad™ featuring USDA Prime New York Strip grilled to perfection (a sear on the outside, a delightful medium on the inside). Sliced Celery, Diced Red Bell Pepper, a light sprinkling of Gorgonzola Cheese and plenty of cracked pepper as spices.
• One Large Hass avocado
• One Pluot
• Blackberries
• Blueberries

On the salad I ended up using just walnut oil as a dressing (I was talking to my roommate and totally forgot to get the vinegar out of the fridge or use it. I only noticed halfway through eating the salad. Something was missing, but not in an unpleasant way. I generally use balsamic vinegar for my acid in dressings. It is marvelously sweet, but can also overpower some of the flavors in a salad. The salad without vinegar was a bit more nuanced. I dont know if I’ll use more acid-free dressings, but I will certainly reduce the amount of vinegar I use in the future!

Since I had a huge dinner last night (and as usual didn’t feel particularly good for it), today will be my second Intermittent Fasting day of the week. This is how I got to 7.5% body fat.

Iced Tea of the Day: Green Tea Lemon Drop. Despite the effiminate name, this tea is pure testosterone, baby.

Breakfast:

• N/A

Lunch:

• N/A

Dinner:

• Frittata: Asparagus, Parmesan, Fresh Herb (Basil, Parsley, Tarragon), garlic, onion.
• This is a delicious and fairly easy dish. As usual, the most time-consuming portion of the recipe was caramelizing the onions.

A fantastic day in Austin TX. The sun is shining and the temperature is just about perfect. I have to say, the best thing about working at home is being near a window and being able to open the window. The cool breeze really helps keep the work doldrums away. It’s almost enough to make me forget that in just a few short months, Austin will be hotter than a blast furnace.

Iced Tea of the Day: Moroccan Mint. This is the green tea that made me love green tea and make it every day. Better for the summer, but good anytime!

Breakfast:

• Skipped, not really hungry.
• Three cups of aromatic Anderson’s Coffee: Costa Rica

Lunch:

• Half of a leftover New York Strip (I cooked four), sliced thinly, eaten cold.
• One large Hass Avocado

Post-Crossfit Snack

• One scoop Cytosport EvoPro Protein (Vanilla flavor, about 28g protein)
• About a cup or so of blackberries. I have to say these were the best blackberries I’ve ever had. Huge, plump, bursting with flavor. The texture was almost like puddin’. Simple incredible.

Dinner:

• The other half of that New York Strip. Sliced thinly, eaten cold
• One large Hass avocado
• Yeah it was the same as lunch, but I’mve been very very busy at work. It just goes to show you that healthy meals are very feasible even on the run.

It’s another dreary day here in Austin. It seems that Spring has come early, and with it it’s typical rainstorms, cool-but-not-quite-cool-enough temperature, and cloudy skies. But that’s no excuse not to eat a great breakfast!

Iced Tea of the Day: Japanese Cherry

Breakfast:

• Four eggs, “Huevos Locos” style.
• Leftover sausage, sliced width-wise and fried in coconut oil til they look like lil’ sausage “coins”.
• One large Hass avocado, a little salt and plenty of cracked pepper
• Wonderful Anderson’s Coffee:
  • Three cups Costa Rican

Lunch:

• Medium-Ass Salad™ tipped with Gorgonzola cheese

Dinner:

• One large New York Strip steak, seared to perfection. Chile Olive Oil, Sea Salt, Cracked Pepper.
• Big-Ass Salad™
• Celery
• Cantaloupe

It’s a dreary, pretty gross Monday here in Austin. The cup of delicious Anderson’s coffee in my hand both warms and brightens the day somewhat, and I find myself especially glad that I enjoyed the company of my great friends yesterday with great food and great weather. I suppose I could be grateful that this weather didn’t blow in yesterday!

After the smorgasbord of food yesterday, I’m going to start the day off with my first intermittent fast in a while. I haven’t done a full 24 hours in a while (I’ve done a few 18 and 20 hours fasts), so I’m actually eager to get back on the horse. Nothing makes me feel quite as good as a nice fast. It’s like a full system reboot. The fact that today is both a Crossfit and a Kung-Fu day makes me wince a little, but like others, I’ve noticed that it makes my workouts more intense…

Iced Tea of the Day: Spring Thunder, one of my favorites! It puts the lime in the coconut and drinks them both up…

Breakfast:

• Skipped. Intermittent Fast day!
• Three Cups Delicious Anderson’s Coffee:
  • Two cups Kenya Extra Fancy
  • One cup Costa Rica

Lunch

• Skipped. Intermittent Fast.

Dinner:

• Leftover Garlic-Chile Shrimp
• Leftover Ribeye Steak
• Big-Ass Salad
• Various and Sundry Fruits

Today should be amazing. We are having my good friends Bryan and Andrew over for dinner tonight! Bryan is the guy who pretty much inspired me to start cooking for myself (after several amazing meals at his house!). But why get ahead of myself? A delicous prelude follows:

Iced Tea of the Day: Kukicha Roasted. I still love this stuff. So

Stir-fried shrimp

different than every other green tea. (I guess technically it IS so different. Whatever. It’s good, try it.)

Breakfast. Sometimes in all the hustle and bustle of everyday life, we take the simple things in life for granted, like bacon grease:

• Delicious peppered bacon. I didn’t expect much out of the HEB house brand, but it delivered in spades. Here’s to pleasant surprises!
• Four eggs with ample cracked pepper, scrambled in, what else? Bacon grease! An express train to Tasty Towne USA. Population? ME!
• Two double-strength cups of Anderson’s Indonesian Sulawesi. Bracing!

Lunch:

• Skipped, in anticipation of an amazing dinner!

Dinner:

• Oh boy, here we go…
  

  Fore to Back: Cherry Stilton, Blueberry Wensleydale, Derby w/ Elderberry Wine, Tinteon Cheddar w/ Shallots and Chives, Sage Derby

• Cheese Plate:
  • Waterford Water Crackers
  • Sage Derby
  • Wensleydale Blueberry
  • Cherry Stolton
  • Derby with Elderberry Wine
  • Shallot and Chive Cheddar
• Tuna Steak
  • Marinated in soy sauce, lime juice, salt, black pepper, extra-virgin olive oil.
  • Seared at 650′ on my Big Green Egg
• Shrimp
  • Marinated in cornstarch, soy sauce, sesame oil, minced garlic, and last but not least, crushed red pepper. Seared at high in my Breville electric wok in sesame oil,
    

    Tuna Steaks

    heated up by sauteing tried chiles before adding the shrimp.

• Sausages from HEB Central Market
  • Kielbasa
  • Andouille
  • Buffalo
  • Can’t remember the 4th
• Pork Loin
  • Glazed with Mustard, thyme, garlic.
  • Roasted in Chicken Broth.
• 

  Delicious Sausage

  A tasty Malbec and a pleasant though slightly insipid Pinot Grigot (white wines are grody).