Life Dependent

So I've always been the type of person who goes to the gym and sticks to a general routine and only use the machines I know how to use to prevent myself from either A. Looking like a fool or B. Breaking a bone or injuring myself! (which both have occurred so I speak from experience!!)

BUT I'm always willing to try new things when someone is willing to teach me! Ladies and Gentleman, I give you my new found life dependent gym tool....THE FOAM ROLLER!!
Some of you are laughing and have been there done that, but this was introduced to me by the lovely crossfitters and I have two on order for home as we speak!

 What does it do and how do you use it?
Taken from men's health.com:

A.  Exercise induces microtears and swelling in muscle fibers, which impinge on nerves and vessels. Over time, this can develop into adhesions and scar tissue.

B.  Foam rolling helps smooth out these obstructions and break down adhesions, helping to increase blood-flow within the muscle.

Read more at Men's Health: http://www.menshealth.com/best-life/foam-rolling#ixzz2DZEiwXVg

A.  Exercise induces microtears and swelling in muscle fibers, which impinge on nerves and vessels. Over time, this can develop into adhesions and scar tissue.

B.  Foam rolling helps smooth out these obstructions and break down adhesions, helping to increase blood-flow within the muscle.

Read more at Men's Health: http://www.menshealth.com/best-life/foam-rolling#ixzz2DZEiwXVg

A.  Exercise induces microtears and swelling in muscle fibers, which impinge on nerves and vessels. Over time, this can develop into adhesions and scar tissue.

B.  Foam rolling helps smooth out these obstructions and break down adhesions, helping to increase blood-flow within the muscle.

Read more at Men's Health: http://www.menshealth.com/best-life/foam-rolling#ixzz2DZEiwXVg

A.  Exercise induces microtears and swelling in muscle fibers, which impinge on nerves and vessels. Over time, this can develop into adhesions and scar tissue.

B.  Foam rolling helps smooth out these obstructions and break down adhesions, helping to increase blood-flow within the muscle.

Read more at Men's Health: http://www.menshealth.com/best-life/foam-rolling#ixzz2DZEiwXVg

A.  Exercise induces microtears and swelling in muscle fibers, which impinge on nerves and vessels. Over time, this can develop into adhesions and scar tissue.

B.  Foam rolling helps smooth out these obstructions and break down adhesions, helping to increase blood-flow within the muscle.

Simply put: It helps loosen your muscles before a workout and helps prevent soreness after a workout!

Exibit A:

This is my dear friend using the foam roller after a super intense workout! Her face is saying: "Oh it hurts but it feels so gooood!"  I used it last night after a filthy fifty (tweaked for available equipment) WOD and I am barely sore. A week ago I did the same workout, skipping the roller and was sore for days!

Now check out this textured foam roller for an even deeper tissue massage!!
This is one I have on order and I can't wait!!!
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I'm Feeling that Holiday Bulge!!!

Holiday Bulge

So the truth about the Holiday BULGE is- as we all know, it’s not just the two humongous holiday dinners that can feed the entire population of Indonesia, that you feel forced to eat as to not upset grandma---its the entire season! I truly believe it’s the worlds way of getting ready for winter, gotta have that extra layer of fat to keep us warm right? WRONG!

How do you avoid it? The constant boxes of OH SO YUMMY cookie assortments or gifts of pies and wine, oh the wine! My personal secret: I keep a nice meal bar around with a chocolate or peanut butter flavor and say no thank you! Even thought I’m crying inside I know that my cheat day is right around the corner, and then I can choose exactly what I want! That is what 80/20 Plan for Life is all about! And eventually they will get sick of offering, don’t feel bad as you may get some snarls or snickering, you will feel better when you stand in the mirror and those same people stuffing their faces will be jealous!

Another silly but helpful thing I like to do, when those pounds of cookies start gathering around the break room, offer them up! I know it’s bad, friends don’t let friends get fat? Wait wait these are my co-workers and I think there’s an exception to that rule with acquaintances! So I walk around the department with tin boxes (acting like I slaved away in the kitchen and made them myself) and offer them to everyone! This get’s rid of my temptation and my constant cookie stare down in the break room and I feel like I did a good deed by passively and aggressively sharing! Happy Holidays:)

The best Part of Thanksgiving!!

After the Turkey, comes turkey soup! My favorite part!!
Here's a delicious low cal recipe that can be used with your thanksgiving left overs:

All below ingredients can be used with a reduced fat/low sodium option
-2 turkey drumb sticks and Carved turkey Breast
- 2 Large cans of Chicken Broth
-1 Can of cream of chicken
-1 Can of Beef Broth
1 veggie bouillon
1 beef bouillon
3 cups of water
4 Carrots
4 Celery Stalks
3 Potatoes
Angel hair pasta
1 TBSP Olive Oil
1 Garlic Clove
1/2 Onion
Parsley
Italian Seasoning/ Light Adobo/ Ground Pepper


In a large Soup pot bring chicken broth, beef broth, cream of chicken, water and bouillons to a boil. Add turkey and seasonings (italian season, adobo,pepper) . Finely chop 1 carrot stick, 1 celery stick, 2 tbsp garlic and 3 tbsp onion and fresh parsley. In a separate pan simmer in 1 TBSP of olive oil on low heat until garlic is light tan color. Then add to the boiling soup. Now chop left carrots, celery, potatoes, onion, garlic and add to the boiling soup. Now remove the 2 Turkey drumbsticks and remove meat pieces. (The meat should slide right off the bone, if it doesn't cook longer in boiling water). Add the drumbstick meat to the soup and lower heat to medium. Add angel hair pasta cover and cook for 15 minutes or until pasta is ready.
Turkey soup is ready to be served!
Feel free to add any additional leftovers, corn, green beans, etc.

Burpees = Death for me! Of course most WODS love to include hundreds of these...
 HOWEVER when you face adversity you must find the will to overcome! So I have vowed to complete 500 burpees a week! Not much but more than I deep down ever want to do, and I'm hoping the more I do them, the more I will learn to love them! It's something about throwing your body on the floor and then finding the strength to throw your body up in the air over and over again. Maybe if I take it symbolically as: When life tries to knock you down you rise up above and reach for the stars!!??? hmm I'll keep thinking up for a moto, I love burpees I love burpees I love burpees.

Fireman+Bra's = Interesting Combo

Unique Decorated Bra's for auction and proceeds get donated for breast cancer awareness! But the best part.....the Bra's are shown off in a runway show...not put on by women no no that's too boring, by Fireman...(with their gear ON and shirts OFF!) No it wasn't like a Magic Mike show, strickly PG, HOWEVER it was hilarious! Take a look:

You don't know until you try!!!

Soo I was a very deprived child and practically lived on macaroni and cheese and frozen pizzas! Partially because we were poor and partially because I'm so darn picky! For the first time in my life I have chosen to boldly go where no one has gone before........and try Sushi(or just me)!!

These are California roles and Chicken Tera something roles. Ready for it.....And the review is??? I loved it!! It was like an array of flavor in my mouth, my taste buds were in heaven! It was different for sure but in a good way! One thing I will do next time though is look up the calorie count, I thought for some weird reason that sushi was automatically healthy but there are some that have a high fat content, for instance the california roll has about 130 calories and 4 fat compared to the chicken one has almost 500 calories!! Yikes:/ off to the gym I go!

Guilt-less Pleasure!!

So let’s face it, when it comes to your taste buds ‘just saying no’ is not so easy! Whether you’re trying to lose weight or just generally trying to eat healthy, when you’re eyes lock on with that cookie or cake, it’s like Medusa! Your instantly in a trance and your mind triggers the taste bud memory and it takes a very large amount of will power to look away! BUT what if we can eat the very things we love without the guilt? Guilt-less pleasure is Very hard to come by so I thought I’d share with you a few I have found!

I have a Peanut Butter and Oreo love!!

And found alternative ‘healthier’ options to the real thing!

First up: PB2!

ALL Natural dried roasted peanuts with NO Artificial sweeteners or preservatives!

And I buy this all the time, it tastes pretty darn good, only downfall is you have to make it each time you want a serving, you have to add water and mix it.

Real peanut butter (2TBSP portion):

190 calories

16 grams of fat

Saturated: 3

PB2 (2TBSP portion)

45 Calories

1.5 grams of fat

Saturated: 0

They also have a chocolate PB2 (which I haven’t tried yet).

http://www.bellplantation.com/nutrition

Second: Who-NU! A nutrition filled cookie???…and to be honest I barely taste the difference!

Now before I get any hate mails, I know some people have stated that compared to oreo’s there is apparently not much difference, HOWEVER, there is No nutritional value to a regular oreo, compared to the added fiber and vitamins of Who-NU. If I was going to have a craving, I would rather have some substance than none.  Now I wouldn’t stop eating veggies and oatmeal or eat the whole box just yet though, added vitamins have a much lower value than the real thing, there are many factors to what your body breaks down and absorbs.

No Pain no Gain!!

Silly me focused so much on trying to press 85 pounds I let the bar drop too fast and landed on my collar bone! Didn’t hurt at the time since I had so much adrenaline going, but it sure is sore today! This past week bengay has been my best friend!! I think this week I’m cheating and moving onto ice!! I’m not used to such high intensity workouts and heavy weight movements and you feel like your muscles are jello by the end of it, but for some crazy reason you always want more! It’s not for everyone I must say, but for those who are looking for a challenge, this is a great one! Lesson learned- Don’t lose focus until the barbell is on the floor!!!

Believe = Achieve

If you believe you can achieve!!!

 I have recently started on the crossfit journey. If you haven’t heard of this before just you-tube crossfit games. It is high intensity weight training and cardio combined. Let me tell you I have never been so sore, yet felt so empowered in my life! I am not affiliated with crossfit in any sort of way, just a little ole newbie member. I have tried to stay somewhat active, always had a gym membership and loved to run or bike, but when I didn’t work out I noticed I would start to feel down and depressed and it became of vicious cycle of not wanting to go to the gym because I was depressed but depressed because I was gaining weight. I was also diagnosed with lupus and not knowing for years, I just thought I was always sick and my body hated me? So since then I have really tried to improve my health a great deal not only because I want to look and feel good but because I have to for my life.

So when you leave the gym after working out pretty hard, you feel pretty good right? You know you burned off some extra calories to make up for the cake you had the day before and you feel accomplished.

But there is nothing like when you complete a WOD (workout of the Day) with Crossfit.

Last night I  had the  WOD mission of the ‘Thruster Ladder’. It’s hard to explain but the ‘thruster’ is when you have a weighted barbell, mine was 35lbs and you snatch it up to your chest, go down in to a squat and press it over your head and back down, which counts and 1 rep. The ‘ladder’ portion is when every minute equals a round and that increases and equals to how many reps you do per minute. So you start out on your first minute, you only have to do one thruster in that minute, the second round you complete two thrusters in that minute and so on until you can’t complete the required reps in a minute. Sounds easy right? Not so fast, that weight feels like a ton of bricks after just a few rounds.

I completed 16 rounds of this and on my 17^th could only do 12 so that equals to 146 total thrusters with 35lb weights. (Now in crossfit world this actually isn’t a lot, but for my first time I feel very accomplished)

By the time I was on my 10^th everyone else had already bailed and it was just me and the clock. But since everyone had finished I had the entire gym routing me on. It is an awesome moment when you have people you don’t even know cheering you on and motivating you to push yourself to a place you’ve never been before. Not only do you feel like the world believes in you but you believe in yourself. I am so excited to see what else I have in store and where my mind and body can take me. Bring it on, because I believe and I know I can achieve.