Crossfit Til I Died

I went to a Crossfit Bootcamp on Sunday morning. Our local lululemon offers a free fitness class every weekend so that you can try out different classes and instructors without joining a gym/studio, which I think is pretty cool. I tried REALLY hard to dislike lulu when I first moved here because I could not fathom spending so much $$$ on workout clothes. I still kinda think that their clothes are overpriced, but lulu has won me over as a business because the individual stores near me really work hard to be part of the overall fitness community. I still get a little teary when I think about the huge group of very loud lulu employees cheering for the runners in downtown Calgary during the marathon. It was definitely one of my favorite moments of that race.

Anyway, I've been trying to mix up my workouts a little bit for the winter because I burned myself out on running and biking to the point where I don't want to do them outside...let alone on the treadmill or trainer during the 6 months of winter here. I had never done a bootcamp before, AND I found a friend who was willing to go with me, so off to lulu I went on Sunday.

I should have known when the instructor said that this was a particularly tough workout that it was going to hurt. But, I convinced myself it wouldn't be that bad because we were using smaller weights than they use in the Crossfit gym. Plus, the total workout was only 18 minutes long, and that included 3 whole minutes of rest. No problem, right? Wrong. Oh so wrong.

The workout was a 6 minute circuit x 3. By the middle of the second set, I was dying. Literally dying. By the third set, the only thing that kept me going was the fact that it was the last set. When the workout ended, I really felt like I was going to throw up. The only other times I have felt like that were after running 18 miles for the first time and during a particularly tough set of bike intervals after eating too close to the start of the workout. Crossfit had me there in a mere 18 minutes. Ridiculously intense.

Today is Tuesday, and I am still sore and limping around from the DOMS. Ouch.

I don't think I will be joining a Crossfit bootcamp any time soon. High intensity interval training has never really been my thing, but if it's yours, Crossfit is worth a try.

Another winner

I was skeptical that this would turn out the way that all the online reviews suggested it would, but it was like some kind of magic happened in the oven.

Kale Chips
1 bunch of kale
1 T olive oil
Sea salt to taste

Preheat oven to 350F. Wash kale leaves well. Remove the stems and tear the leaves into bite-sized pieces. Toss the leaves with the olive oil in a large bowl. Spread coated kale pieces over a baking sheet lined with parchment paper in a single layer. Sprinkle with sea salt. Bake in oven for 8-12 minutes, or until the edges of the leaves start to brown. Allow to cool.

The recipe I followed said that the kale chips are best if eaten relatively soon after being made. I didn't try to store them, but I can see where they might get soggy if you tried to.

These were surprisingly similar to potato chips, and actually very tasty. I would caution that you do not need to add as much salt as you might think, as I added too much on my first try. You can always add more to taste later. Oh, and don't leave these guys unattended in the oven, for obvious reasons.

(Mock) Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

I am trying to get back on the eating right and exercising bandwagon after the past 2 or 3 months of backslide in to consumption of processed and comfort food in staggering quantities. I had my reasons, but I can't live that type of lifestyle long term if I don't want my weight to balloon out of control (which I don't). The good news is that my recent indulgences have only tipped the scale about 2 lbs in the upward direction. The bad news is that I never did lose the 5 lbs that I typically shed during the summer months. (Yes, I have a summer weight and a winter weight while living here. I am not ashamed. Also, who doesn't lose any weight while training for a marathon? This girl.) So, right now, I sit at about 7 lbs above what I consider my optimal weight. It doesn't sound like much, but it is around 5% of my body weight.

I am always looking for healthy, but tasty, recipes. I found a winner for my breakfast smoothie this morning. The recipe is modified from one I found on the Lululemon blog. I am a huge fan of anything pumpkin pie inspired, so I loved it. E thought that it tasted a little like eggnog, which he liked. I served it alongside a sweet potato and red bell pepper egg white omelet. The whole breakfast came in at around 350 calories each, including our coffee.

(Mock) Pumpkin Pie Smoothie
1 cup cooked pumpkin or squash (this is where mine was mock, I used roasted acorn squash)
1 cup milk (we use 1% lactose free milk)
1 scoop of vanilla-flavored whey protein (we buy it from Costco)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
5-6 ice cubes

Blend the pumpkin/squash, milk, whey protein, vanilla and pumpkin pie spice well in the blender. Drop in the ice cubes one by one with the blender on the highest setting. Blend until smooth and frothy.

Total calorie count for the recipe is around 300, and it makes A LOT. We split it into two generous servings.

As an aside, I often use squash in place of pumpkin in recipes. I have found that butternut works better than acorn (more flavorful), but that any kind of squash is better than the kind of pumpkins the stores sell for jack-o-lanterns. Since I have to make a special trip to have any chance of finding a cooking pumpkin (and probably pay a premium for it) and I find that squashes are smaller and easier to work with than pumpkins anyway, I usually just opt for squash. You really can't tell the difference.

My Blog Sucks Lately

I was looking through some of my older posts on this blog the other day, and I decided that I have gotten much too lazy about posting pictures to go along with my words. Most of the reason for this is that blogger is SO slow uploading photos that I can't bear to wait for it. I should, though, because it really adds a lot to posts. So, here are a few of my favorite pictures that haven't made it on here before, mostly because I'm too lazy to ever write up trip reports. Let's be honest, half the time I'm too lazy to even write regular posts either.

Unhappy white-faced capuchin at Monteverde
(One of my favorites from our trip to Costa Rica)

Me finishing the Calgary Marathon

Finishing a Jasper-Banff-Canmore bike tour
(with the best group of people imaginable)

Grizzly bear in Jasper National Park

Ruling the Roost

E is in the midst of two weeks of field work, which means that Niki and I are home alone. Every time that I'm here for any length of time by myself, I realize that I really depend on E for motivation to do ANYTHING. I spent the weekend watching crappy TV shows, reading crappy novels, and eating crappy food. I was supposed to work today, but I didn't have to, and I decided to do some shopping that I should have done on the weekend instead. (In my defense, I HATE going anywhere in Saskatoon on the weekend. Saturdays are crazy busy and Sunday business hours are limited in the best cases.) Anyway, there was no work done today. There's always tomorrow, right?

I also did some cooking this afternoon so that I can avoid that whole crappy eating thing. I made fresh salsa (YUM!) and a yam-peanut-ginger-pineapple soup. I always forget just how much E eats until I make a giant pot of something, eat my dinner, and realize that I didn't even put a dent in the giant pot of something. So, I will basically be eating yam-peanut soup for the next few days. I am thinking about trying to freeze some, but I'm not sure if I have the freezer space right now.

The weather has been so beautiful here this fall. I feel guilty that I haven't been getting outside to take advantage of it, but I have just been feeling burnt out on biking and running lately. I ran a 10K last weekend in Banff on very little training. The race was fine, but every training run up until then was basically torture. I haven't been on a bike, except to commute to work, since we went to Canmore mountain biking about a month ago. I don't even remember the last time I was on my road bike. Truthfully, I just haven't been myself lately, and it's really starting to bum me out.

Obviously, I need to get out of this funk!

Sarah Michelle Gellar

I wish I didn't, but I just love TV. Well, everything except reality TV. I was actually glad when programming started going the way of all reality all the time. There are just fewer shows on now that I really want to watch.

Way back in the day, I was a Buffy fan. I didn't watch the series from the beginning because we never had cable TV when I lived at home. However, the last season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer coincided with my first year living in the dorms. The group of girls that lived on my floor all watched, so we had a ritual of getting together in someone's room for every new episode. It was difficult for me to make friends when I went away to school, but Buffy gave me a reason to spend time with some people and build friendships. Buffy is a great show, and it's become one of my favorites of all time, probably in part due to nostalgia for my undergrad days.

Sarah Michelle Gellar has been in a few movies, etc. since she played Buffy, but movies just are not the same as TV. So, I was really excited when I found out that she was going to have a new drama on TV this year. I've watched 3 episodes of "Ringer" so far, and I have to admit that I am pretty much hooked. It's definitely not as great as Buffy was, but it's just bad enough to be good. And SMG has not aged AT ALL in the past 10 years. The show is currently playing in a great time slot to be one of my favorite shows - 9PM on Friday nights. I typically don't like to go out on Fridays because I am exhausted from working/stressing all week. I like to sit at home, make some popcorn, drink some sparkling wine (my new favorite!), and watch mindless TV. I did so last night and it was awesome.

Untitled

I think that almost everyone who reads this blog knows that life has not been kind to me recently. Without giving away personal details that I'm not sure I want out there on the internet, I will just say that the past few weeks have been painful and very emotional. Since this was something that I wanted to keep private, the suffering has unfortunately also had to be private. I won't minimize the support that I have received from family and friends because I truly appreciate every call and message that I received, but I will say that I'm disappointed that some of the people that I love the most in this world didn't even bother to check to see if I was okay. Is it really so hard to send an e-mail to ask how I am?

Fortunately, life has returned mostly to normal quite quickly. There are still some nights that I just want to throw a massive pity party, but I do my best to minimize actually giving in to the impulse to feel sorry for myself. I keep trying to remember that there are a whole lot of people in this world that have it way worse than I do. I have a lot to be thankful for, and the bad things really aren't so bad in the grand scheme of things at all.