World O’ Hurt

I feel a little achy and sore/tired in a good way from Crossfit. Continuing to hop back on the good eats bandwagon!

Iced Tea of the Day: I combined Kuchika and Sencha in the teamaker today. I felt that the large amount of Sencha I made yesterday (it was a strong brew!) might have over-caffeinated me for Crossfit, resulting in mild dehydration. However, I mostly blame it on my diet from Wed-Sun of last week.

Breakfast:

• One Large Hass Avocado
• Two Cups of wonderful Anderson’s Coffee:
  • Ethiopian Yergacheffe
  • Indonesian Sulwesi

Lunch: At Andiamo. Inexpensive, yet very very good italian food. A good value. I notice that I don’t like eating out as much these days. I was determined, however, to eat as right as I could, and believe that anyone can make “good enough” choices under any circumstances. It’s just willpower, like NOT eating a whole box of donut holes ( )

• Glass iced tea (unsweetened, lemon)
• Shrimp stuffed with crabmeat and wrapped in prosciutto. How can you say no to a dish like that? The suspect part of the dish was the white wine and shallot sauce. I have no doubt it had sugar, and probably flour or cornstarch as a thickener. I should have asked for it on the side, but  at any rate I didn’t have too much of it.
• Still hungry when I got home (there were only 4-5 shrimp) so:
  • Remainder of a tenderloin fillet my roomate didn’t finish
  • One large Hass Avocado
  • Feel great!!

It’s important to eat when you’re hungry, as long as you’re hungry for the right reason. Yesterday’s Crossfit workout was very intensive, and left me work out. I’m not really sore, pre se, it’s a feeling of being drained. When you’re out of fuel, gas up, but for gods’ sake, use the right fuel.

Snack:

• 4 Stalks Celery with Almond Butter

Dinner:

• Big-Ass Salad™ with tenderloin, mixed field greens, spinach, bell pepper, celery, gorgonzola cheese, walnut-balsamic vinaigrette.
• Kiwi and Strawberries

A gorgeous week. Time to start it off right after five days of hedonic carb-fests. Ever wonder if it’s possible to eat a whole box of donut holes? Well let’s just say that it is.

Ice Tea of the Day: Sencha Fine

Breakfast:

• Fast day. Last meal was at Sunday, 6:30p
  • Ample Coffee: Anderson’s Arabian Mocha

Lunch:

• Fast Day!

Dinner (9:30-10pm). That made it about a 27-hour fast.

• I cooked up a number of Costco Tenderloin Fillets and some flank steaks I’d been marinating for a few days. Plenty of meat to finish out the week!
• Tenderloin Fillet, cooked medium rare. Crusted with salt and cracked black pepper
• Big-Ass Salad™ with field greens, spinach, celery, red bell pepper, garlic-herb feta cheese crumbles, all with walnut-balsamic vinaigrette.
• Wonderful Kiwi and Wonderful Strawberries to finish up.

My sister is in town! That means that the good diet is going to go out the window for a few weeks, but I think I’ve saved up enough karmic credit to let myself go for such a special occasion. I’m trying to balance out the caloric intake with some judicious fasting. So far, lots of restaurant food. I’m none the worse for wear though!

I watched a short movie at Crossfit Journal ($25 a year and amazing information) last night regarding implementation of the Zone diet in Crossfit. It struck me how little an elite athlete such as Pat Sherwood truly needs to maintain his body. Indeed, I recall a research scientist on a podcast saying that our body does not process more than 20g of protien at a time for hypertrophy, with the remainder being deaminated and used for fuel. In comparison to the austere meals of elite athletes, I overeat.

On the other hand, I truly enjoy cooking delicious, healthy fare and eating a lot of it at a sitting. I can’t say that it does me any harm. As much as I love working out, I do believe that there is a point, as Dr. McGuff says, that fitness diverges from health and wellness. I believe that there is an important emotional component for me in putting together beautiful meals. Slabs of turkey and gobs of mayo are sustainence (although I believe him wrong about the canola oil) for sure, but to me they do not a meal make.

Breakfast:

• Huevos Locos with Bacon
• Watermelon
• Three cups of amazing Anderson’s Coffee: Panama Boquette, with a few cups brewed double strength

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)

The shoulder feels better by the day, every window in my house is open and I’m working on several patent filings. Question: How could life get any better? Answer: By adding delicious, home cooked meals that don’t come out of a fucking box:

Iced Tea of the Day: Moroccan Mint. The right tea for the weather. There’s snobbishness for you; weather-tea pairings.

Breakfast:

• Three cups of delicious Andersons locally-roasted coffee:
  • Mexican Fair-Trade Organic
• Eight-egg frittata (no I didn’t eat it all by myself!): Goat Cheese, oven-fried bacon, red bell pepper sauteed in garlic and bacon grease

The weather keeps getting better and better here in Austin. Right now it’s a perfect 81′, sunny with a light breeze. A perfect day to laze about with the Windows open, reading a book, or blogging for that matter.

Note to self: I need to stick a fasting day in this week. Probably Friday…

Iced Tea of the Day: Gunpowder Organic. I really like this stuff, it’s a great go-to tea especially in the summertime.

Breakfast. I didn’t really get hungry til like 11am, so while I did break the fast, it’s not exactly breakfast:

• Three Egg Omlette
  • Ribeye sliced paper-thin and briefly sauteed in coconut oil
  • microplane grated cheddar-like fancy cheese (no label on it. It was very very sharp and very very good)
  • 1/2 a large Hass avocado, sliced into thin strips
  • Salt and pepper
• The other half of the Hass avocado with salt and pepper
• A little bowl of blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries

Lunch/Snack:

• 1/2cup of mixed nuts

Post-Crossfit Snack (I do this maybe once a week to take advantage of the benefits of whey consumption. Otherwise I am rather lukewarm on the concept of supplemental protein. EvoPro has nothing but the whey and casein. (and artificial sweetener, but we don’t live in a perfect world) No meal replacement garbage):

• 1.5 Scoops Cytosport EvoPro Whey/Casien Protien (About 35g worth. Remember the body burns anything in excess of 25g of protien for fuel by deaminating the amino acids)
• Two ripe, juicy nectarines

Dinner:

• One Chimmichurri-marinated chicken breast, grilled on the Egg, with extra chimmichurri on the side. Absolutely delicious and packed with antioxidants!
• 1/2 a large Hass avocado with salt and pepper
• Mixed berries (blue, rasp) and cantaloupe

Alright, after a letdown of a previous week, where I petulantly ate like crap in reaction to my injury, and happily ate like crap, in reaction to several festivities, I’ve decided to get on track this week. Even for a fervent and dedicated Paleo adherent such as myself, resisting pasta is pretty god-damned difficult! At least I have more margin for error than the average American!

Iced Tea of the Day: Spring Thunder. It puts the lime in the coconut and drinks them both up.

Breakfast:

• Three cups of amazing Anderson’s Coffee:
  • Ethiopian Yergacheffe
  • Mexican Fair Trade Organic
  • Panamanian
• Four eggs scrambled “Huevos Locos” style.
• Bacon (cooked on my Big Green Egg last night)
• One large Hass avocado

Lunch/Snack:

• 1/2cup of mixed nuts.
• One succulent nectarine

Dinner:

• Return of the Big-Ass Salad™:
  • Mixed field greens
  • Baby spinach
  • Thinly-sliced ribeye steak
  • Orange bell pepper
  • One large Hass avocado, diced
  • 4 celery stalks, sliced
  • Feta cheese
  • Pine nuts
  • walnut-balsamic dressing

This is the end to what hasn’t been the best week for me, physically and mentally. I hope the rest days I’m giving my shoulder are enough to give it a head start toward wellness. I don’t like taking too much time off of working out, and feel that my shoulder injuries happened just as I was hitting an incredible stride with my training. I’m pretty much chomping at the bit, wanting to go 100% again, but know that I can’t. Since the shoulders are involved in almost every movement we do at Crossfit, I need to find a way to heal them and get them stronger.

Iced Tea of the Day: TBD

Breakfast:

• Skipped, I think I’ll fast today.
• New Coffee Flavors!
  • Arabian Mocha
  • Panama
  • Flores