Oh Wow, it's bread!!!

In the ongoing quest to eliminate gluten from my life once and for all I find that sandwiches are what ALWAYS brings me back.  Bread and wheat gluten and I are like dysfunctional lovers. I know it's bad for me.  He's going to make me feel like garbage, but he's SO delicious I can't stay away... 

It's really pathetic.  

Unfortunately, in the years I've been trying to break up with gluten I've tried numerous recipes and methods claiming to replicate what I missed most.  Most we're too starchy and crumbly, and often made me feel just as bad as wheat without tasting nearly as yummy.  Others just tasted bad.  Not one recipe for bread or pizza dough lived up to the hype.

That is until now!  

Behold:  Psyllium Husk Powder!  Most people know of this lovely stuff because of it's high levels of insoluble fiber.  This is the stuff in a lot of over the counter fiber supplements.  It's a dieters dream as it keeps you regular, can make you feel full, AND now, it's magically helping GF breads to taste, well, bready!  

Last night I tried a recipe from the website: www.mariamindbodyhealth.com

It was for her "Amazing Sub Rolls".  She's not lying!  They take 10 minutes to mix up, they cook quick, and they taste awesome!  Made with either almond flour or Coconut flour they're high fiber, lower calorie and relatively high in protein.  They're ALSO Paleo and Whole 30 compliant.  

I served them with Paleo meatballs and a little Daiya dairy free cheese melted on top... Oh. My.... My meatball sub dreams were answered.  

So check out Maria's website and her other recipes too'. This one's a keeper!

(Just an FYI:  This was the WHOLE sub!  It serves 2-4)

Trust the Process

As anyone who knows me is aware balance is NOT a skill that I have much of.  I have always  been an all or nothing kind of person.  In every arena, I give 110%.  Whether I'm pursuing a new hobby, training or having a good time there is very rarely middle ground.

With most things, this tendency has not had a negative impact on my life.  Quite often it's been the very reason I've succeeded.  My intensity made me a good student.  It has made me drive to always be better.  It kept me focused in the practice room in college when all the other college kids were drinking their lives away.  My drive to be perfect gives me an edge when it comes to completing tasks and reaching goals that I have set for myself.

On the other hand, my pursuit of perfection has fed a lifetime of neurosis, and the need to always work harder even when my body, spirit and mind are clearly NOT in the place to do so.  This neurosis has fueled my curiosity and my interest in sports nutrition.  I need to know how to fuel the demands that I place on my body, or at least, that's what I try to convince myself as I chew through research about macros.  More often than not my obsession is fueled by the voice in my head that tells me I'm not presenting the body that I think that I should to my clients and myself.  I don't "look the part", and I'm reading everything I can get my hands on so that I can restrict the diet that is supposed to fuel my ridiculous training schedule.

Happy Place Weight...But.. could be leaner...

I say all of this to shed light on the other reason that I started this blog.  I want my clients and anyone who stumbles upon this blog to see that trainers don't always trust the process that we ask you to.  This "whole 30" experiment was a test on me to find out if I could.  As it happens, I did, almost to a fault.  I'm proud of that fact, but I realize that my all or nothing attitude with it came at a cost to my training.  It crippled my running, and my recovery.  My cardio health faltered and my lifts dropped.  Additionally, my body comp has begun to change in ways that I'm not excited about.  BUT, I gave it the 30 days.  I trusted a process, even if it wasnt' the one I should've.  Going forward, I'll be continuing to stumble through the process of gaining balance between my training and my diet, my trainer persona and the human who loves to entertain, and my spirit and my lizard brain.   I'll be trying to feed my body what it needs 90% of the time, and what my mind wants 10%, so I can recomp properly.  I'll be trying to train, so that I am as fit, strong and lean as I NEED to be for me, without over doing it and wearing myself down.

Thank you to anyone who reads this blog, and has a comment or two.  If it strikes a cord, I'm glad, but most of all I'm thankful I am still trying, at least, to trust the process.

Creamy Chicken Tomato Soup- 6 month anniversary!

Friday was Mr. Bean and my 6 month anniversary.  Neither of us could believe how quickly it had gone by.  I find that marriage is the one thing that all of us are lied to the most about in the grand scheme of life.  We're sold a bill of goods that love and marriage go hand in hand, that they're glorious, and lovely, and never messy.  Then you get married!  I know he would agree that the first three months after our honeymoon were the hardest of our relationship so far.  So, when Friday came, and we realized that the battles had seemingly disappeared as we settled into each other it really DID seem like a reason to celebrate!

My heart felt like it would explode that day!

I find so much comfort knowing he's in my life.  My happy place is a quiet morning drinking coffee with him, kisses when he leaves for work, and BIG hugs when he comes home.  I'm content, and that is something that I've looked for all my life.  He's my anchor.  He gives me purpose, and I love him and the life we're fighting to build everyday!

That's why we started the Whole 30 to begin with.  I'm determined to have him healthy for a really long time, because we got started late in this thing called married life!  Sadly, we haven't stuck to the Whole 30 for 30 days.  Still, it's not a loss.  I'd frame our progress, especially his, as a success.  We needed more discipline at home, and on the weekends, and he needed a much more healthy awareness of how to feed his body for health and wellness, instead of purely for sport.  In that we've been successful.  I've given up artificial sweeteners, and wheat.  I've cut out dairy, and starches, and I'm getting better at eating healthy fats.  He's reading labels, and has begun to think before he eats.  So, where are we in it?

For us, the Paleo Diet is about 80% of what we want to do when we're at home.  The 20% that's left allows me to eat my oats, and have a little wine on the weekends, while making me slow up a bit.  I couldn't run train like I need to for marathons and lifting with only fruit and fat to fuel me. I bonked all the time.  That 20% modification will give me some room to fuel properly.  It allows him to have a baguette on a Saturday with his eggs if that's what he wants or pasta instead of spaghetti squash.  After all, he's not the one with the wheat issue.  For me, it leaves me feeling foggy and hungover- no more, thanks very much!

This recipe is one that follows the Paleo Weekday, at home diet we are adopting.  It was absolutely delicious, and like my favorite recipes, easy!  Feel free to modify the veggies you include.

Creamy Chicken and Tomato Soup:
Serves 8

Ingredients:
14.5 oz Can Fire Roasted Tomatoes
14.5 oz can tomato Sauce
6 oz can, no sugar added tomato paste
14.5 oz can Coconut Milk
2 lbs boneless, chicken breast
1 Onion, sliced
1 Zucchini, sliced
1.5 cups baby carrots
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 T Italian Seasoning
10 oz bag baby Spinach
Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:
In your slow cooker arrange chicken.  Season with salt and Pepper.  Add tomatoes, sauce, paste and coconut milk.  Mix together well.  Add sliced onion, garlic, Carrot, Zucchini and Italian Seasoning.  Cook on the low setting for 8 hours (give or take)

After cooking, remove chicken breasts from the liquid, and shred well.  Place back in the stew with the bag of baby spinach, and cover until the spinach is wilted.  Taste for seasoning, and adjust salt and pepper as needed. *If you find it's too soupy, and you want to thicken it to a more "stew like" consistency add 1 T of coconut flour and combine well.  Allow it to do it's thing, and in 5 minutes it'll be perfectly thick.

Recipes...

Sigh... I know this is just supposed to keep you updated on all things "Whole 30", and training, and my process, and everything.

I'm well aware, that I'm NOT a food photographer or recipe developer, but I still feel bad about posting recipes without pictures!

That said, I promised you (yes, YOU, Christine!) a few simple recipes that you can use to eat real, paleo-legal food without feeling like you're not allowed to have ANYTHING at all.  These little recipes won't keep you tied to your stove for 80 hours, either.  You'll have to trust me that they look pretty on the page!

Crispy Sweet Potato Oven Fries:

Equipment:

• Cookie sheet lined with foil
• cooling rack placed inside the cookie sheet
• 1 gallon Ziploc bag

Ingredients:

• 1-2 large sweet potatoes
• 2T Coconut OIl, melted
• 1T arrowroot powder 
• 1T cajun seasoning

Method:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Slice sweet potatoes in half lengthwise, then into 1/2" wide strips.

Place sweet potatoes in a large bowl of cold water and allow to soak 15-20minutes.  This will allow some of the starch to be pulled out into the water.  Drain sweet potatoes and dry well.  

In a separate bowl combine arrowroot powder and spices and mix well.  Place potatoes in Ziploc bag and drizzle melted coconut oil all over.  shake around until all fries are coated.  Dump in the arrowroot and spices into the Ziploc.  Shake until well coated.

Spread the fries out on the cooling rack in one layer.  Bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes, flipping half way through.  Check after 30 minutes.  Fries are done when the edges are brown and crispy and the interior is tender.

Serve with Sriracha Mayo

Oven Fried Chicken Wangs!!! (inspired by MANY recipes on the interwebs)

Equipment:

• Sheet Pan lined with aluminum foil and fitted with a bakers cooling rack
• kitchen shears

Ingredients:

• 2lbs chicken wings, tips removed and separated into flats and drums
• 2 T Coconut oil
• Salt and Pepper
• Zest and Juice of one lemon
• 1T Lemon Pepper Seasoning

Method:

(After a test run of wings where we did buffalo style and lemon pepper, we've decided in our house that lemon pepper is WAY superior.  I'll include a buffalo sauce recipe at the bottom for those that may want traditional wings!)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Separate wings using kitchen shears at the joint if desired.  Place wings in a large bowl and season well with Salt and Pepper.  Spread wings in an even layer, being careful not to crowd the wings, on the prepared cookie sheet.  Bake 45 minutes flipping halfway throughout.  (Note: turn your vent on HIGH, and be prepared to smoke up the house, these puppies throw off a LOT of fat!)

While wings are roasting, prepare the lemon pepper sauce.  In a small sauce pan melt the Coconut oil.  Add the lemon zest and the juice of one lemon.  Mix in Lemon Pepper seasoning.  

Once the wings are crispy and the juices run clear, remove from the oven.  Place wings in a large bowl, and pour over the wing sauce.  Toss to coat well.  

Serve with Sweet Potato Fries!

Buffalo Sauce:

• Frank's Red Hot Sauce (NOT THE WING SAUCE!)
• 2T Coconut Oil
• 1t liquid smoke
• 1/2 t paprika
• 1/2 t chili flake

Method:

Melt Coconut oil in small sauce pan.  Add the rest of the ingredients.  Simmer briefly, then toss with cooked wings.

These wings turned out WAY better than I ever would've thought!  I'll probably try to imitate Pok Pok's Fish Sauce wings at some point, too, but probably when the husband's Whole 30 is complete, and we add things like honey back in.


Eventually, I'll get in the groove enough to take pics as I'm cooking and prepping that I'll post them, as well.  Until then, I'll add pics of my daily life along the way so you'll kind of stay interested!

SIMON SEZ , "HELLO PEOPLE!! I❤CHICKEN!!!"

Happy Weekend, y'all!!!

Hey Everybody! It's Labor Day weekend! Guess what? I'm not sick anymore!!!! Yay! 

Mr. Bean had his side of the family in town for the weekend, which is TOTALLY a rare thing, so we got to hang out with his sister and brother and the rest of the family.  I couldn't be prouder of him.  We had lunch at Fontaine's in the Highlands, and I know that he was dying for a muffaletta.  He had peel and eat shrimp, crab legs and water with a side of sweet potatoes.  He barely even touched the sweet potatoes!  That night he ignored MORE beer and tortilla chips! 11lbs lost is a fantastic motivator, I suppose!

I love seeing him with his family.  He's so much more at ease.  It's such a rare gift, as they live all across the world.  Since his sister and brother in law moved back to town he gets a little more time with them, but with his parents in Canada, and Paul and Stef live in FL, it's hard.  We spent a some time at the park with the little angel baby, too! She's amazing... I am continuously in awe of her chubby fingers and her curious little mind!  Someday, I promise I'll post a pic, but I want to make sure that it's kosher with Mama!

The Intrepid Brothers Bean!

On Friday, I had the opportunity to go out with a few gals to hear some music.  That was a lovely time to soak up some brooding folksie stuff, and estrogen!  

Full disclosure?  I had wine.  Whole 30 approved? Nope. Do I feel bad?  Nope.  Speaking of the Whole 30, Weeeeeeell, let's talk about that shall we?  Yes.  

But first, look at how cute I looked on Friday! 

 Cuuuuuuurly!

(How You Doin'?)

So, here's the training and diet update.  I have a half marathon in October.  That means that in addition to the ridiculous lifting that I'm doing, I've been logging (oops.... trying to) at least 20+ miles a week.  What I found this past week is that in spite of eating ample calories to fuel what I'm doing, my legs are just dead weight.  Now, I know that the human body is terribly adaptive.  I also know that eventually, I might actually adapt to living on coconut oil, avocado, and the other lovely fats that I can eat on the Whole 30/ Paleo approach to eating.  I will even go so far as to say that I'm truly enjoying how I feel in the day to day state by eating Paleo.  My skin looks good, I sleep great, and I notice that I'm actually retaining water a LOT less.  

However, after 4 terrible runs in a row, with the last one (a 5miler!) leaving me feeling like hammered death, I'm going to make a couple adjustments moving forward. I'm not willing to sacrifice performance at this stage of the game even while supporting Mr. Bean in his endeavor.  I'm adding oats back in to my diet this week.  Granted it'll only be one serving a day, but I'm comfortable saying that oats were never an issue in my diet to begin with.  I'm also going to leave fruit out of the equation with the exception of post workout, and I'll be using sweet potatoes more often as well.  I'll keep you posted on how everything works out.  With these things in mind, tomorrow I will post my recipe for crispy and delicious sweet potato fries tomorrow with pictures.  

Enjoy your holiday weekend friends!  Train hard, eat clean and love like you mean it!