Monthly Archives: February 2011

You Can HAVE Your Muffins AND Eat Them TOO!

Posted by beautifullystrong in recipes and tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

Wherever you are on your health journey, whether it be 100% western diet on one extreme, or 100% Paleo diet on the other (Paleo Diet: great explanatory video here!) everyone loves a little comfort food from time to time. Honestly, tell me what is better than a warm muffin right out of the oven, slathered in warm, melted butter… Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. If you’re on the end of the spectrum that is closer to 100% Paleo, however, those grain-laden fluffy little bundles of love are NOT in the cards for you…until NOW! (and if you’re on the other end of the spectrum, switching out these muffins for the extra-large Dunkin’ Donut varieties will probably add 5-10 years to your life).

 

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

I got THIS RECIPE off of EverydayPaleo.com. She has so many delicious looking recipes on that site, it is DEFINITELY worth checking out. I tweaked the recipe just a little however. I added just a little bit of almond milk, probably 1/4 cup, to make the consistency a little thinner. She said bake them for 15-17 minutes, but it took mine 27. I’m not sure if that is because of my old-school-ass oven or what…but you can start with 15 (test with a fork) and go from there like I did :)

Healthy eating does NOT have to mean deprivation…or boring, tasteless foods…

Top that tasty muffin with a slice of raw (pasture raised) butter, and as Sarah said on EverydayPaleo, and pair with a cup of black coffee and some eggs (pasture raised), and you have one tasty breakfast (perfect for someone specials 30th birthday breakfast if you want to get specific :) )!

Have an incredible FRIDAY!!!! and Happy Birthday NICK!!!!

Love,

Jen

Coming to Life…

Posted by beautifullystrong in Uncategorized and tagged with , , , , , , ,

“In life, there are no ordinary moments. Most of us never really recognize the most significant moments of our lives when they are happening.” -Kathleen Magee 

To say that this quote is significant in my life right now would be an understatement. While there is a blue whirl of chaos around Nick and I right now, in it, somehow, I’m finding serenity. This morning I got up early to drive down to the ocean and go for a run. Now for those of you who know me well, you know how I feel about running…I detest it! I dont’ really understand why people do it…it’s not fun, and it hurts…oh it hurts so bad. I truly, however, wanted to go out and run today…not because of the actual act of running, but because of what I knew was waiting for me there. A blue ocean, a blue sky, white sand, and a row of tall, green palm trees. After my run, I had the absolutely PLEASURE of having an hour-long conversation with my much-loved friend, Alexis, while I sat next to the ocean. What an incredible way to start a day, huh? :)

After talking to Alexis I started thinking about where my heart has been for the last month. Moving to a new area, a new side of the country, a new group of people, a new job, a new home, a new relationship status for Pete’s sake; it easy to get tangled up in all of that and forget what makes you happy, what makes you feel full of life. I have not been taking care of myself. I have been eating probably the best I ever have since being here, today is the first cup of caffeinated coffee I have had since being here, and I have the most consistent workout schedule I think I ever have…but I have not been feeding my heart…my soul. I wish that I could sit here this very second and list out my goals to you of what exactly it would be that makes me feel life full right now…but I’m not really sure to be honest. I’ve been so wrapped up in personal improvement of myself, how to market our new business, how to balance working with, living with and loving Nick in our new situation, how to make our name go up the pages on Google, how to create this or that; so much that I have legitimately been losing sleep over it…that I have forgotten what makes ME happy, what makes me feel full.

 I’m so grateful for my talk this morning with Alexis, for so many reasons. She is the type of person who makes you see how wonderful and beautiful and INTERESTING you are, and you can almost HEAR her heart …hear how much she cares for you and the world as a whole. She is the most affirming person I have ever met on the planet. She also, however, tends to always spark that inspiration in me that I need…she’s that gentle little kick in the ass without even meaning to be. After asking me what my favorite part of being in Santa Barbara was, and if it is life-giving…I said yes, of course, but realized that I haven’t really taken the time to see what kind of life-giving it has for me! Santa Barbara, I haven’t even really met you! So thank you Lex for the conversation this morning…I’m going to figure out what is life-giving to me and DO it…and I challenge all of you to do the same :)

Much love,

Jen

Does This Coffee Shop Smell Of…?? No…Couldn’t Be…Could It? Yes….Yes It Does…

Posted by beautifullystrong in Uncategorized

Sorry for the super random title, but I am sitting in a coffee shop, and I’m pretty sure there may be some extracurricular activity going on out back in between customers…and after watching them do handstands on the counter for the last 15 minutes, I would say I’m probably right. I thought I would share…

 

Now back to your regularly scheduled program…

 

We’ve been in Paradise for 22 days now. 22 days of cloudless, bright blue skies. 22 days of t-shirt temperatures and powerful doses of vitamin D. 22 days of vacation bliss? Not so much guys.

Don’t get me wrong, there has been plenty of sun soaking and exercise…but no vacationing yet! No wine tasting in Solvang, no bar hopping on State Street, no Santa Barbara culinary tours…and definitely no stress free days. I knew that moving across the country after selling pretty much everything we owned to start a business from the ground up would have its rough days…but I had no idea what it would really be like. I still want to be able to go out to breakfast or dinner once and a while, or not panic when every grocery store in the area is an organic, either actual Whole Foods, or a local Whole Foods kind of deal. That would be the most wonderful thing on earth if we weren’t living on an income that doesn’t grow just yet (just diminish)…you know? It took us a while to get our grocery buying routine down in Massachusetts, so I am trying to patient with our new situation. There is literally a farmers market every night but Monday. So currently, we are setting out to the two largest farmers markets on Tuesdays and Saturdays and stocking up on those days. So far, that is working really well! Everything is fresh, and we get to talk to the farmers and actually ask them how they raise their chicken or cows. Cool eh? :) One thing that is odd for me here in Santa Barbara is that you have to drive 40 miles to the nearest Target, but you can walk downtown to Saks Fifth Avenue. I’m not there yet guys…hahaha. I’m not quite at the point where I can afford to buy little necessities at boutique stores. So, for us that causes a little bit of a problem….until RECENTLY! The other day Nick and I went to check out a thrift store in Goleta (town over from SB) and TA-DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, we furnished our entire living room for under $200! A big, fluffy, squishy red Pottery Barn couch, a green vintage-looking wooden cabinet for our tv, and a beautiful wooden trunk with claw foot legs that we are using to store blankets in, but also is being used as our coffee table. I LOVE our living room now…and I was a little TOO excited about that store. Nick now loves bargain hunting with me because I am on this super happy high afterward, and uber amped on life! Ugh…but enough about money…can you tell that’s what’s been on my mind?

We’ve been meeting lots of really great people here, in what seems like a relatively short amount of time! Luckily, we were so fortunate to have an already made community from Andrew and Casey…and now we get to benefit from that too! These are those quality people who immediately you just feel comfortable around, and I am SOOOOO grateful for that! When you’re feeling like you are a stranger in a new town, it is so helpful to have a small group of people who after hanging out with them just a few times you feel like you’re a part of it all, that DEFINITELY helps. The other night Nick and I went to have dinner over a few of the bootcampers from Andrew and Casey’s class. We ate a delicious paleo dinner, and then we just all sat around talking…or laughing till tears! The night could ONLY get better if we could forage our own oranges off of a tree…so that we HAD to do! Sammy climbed up on Casey’s shoulders as he steadied her enough to pick half a bag of oranges; long legs Nick just plucked them off the tree; and then Casey decided to just barefoot climb up a telephone pole to pick more oranges, while Chelsea and I stood below catching the goods! Does this sound like my type of people….UH YEAH! :) So while this area obviously doesn’t quite yet feel like home, it’s getting cozier every day.

One thing that has stayed pretty consistent in our routines, however, is exercise. Like I mentioned in the last post, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday Nick and I are working out with Andrew and Casey at a gym in town (that just happened to be attached to a local Crossfit that is alllll outdoors!). We started off doing pretty much only strength training three times a week, and I just felt like I needed more met-con for myself; Nick is looking to gain more muscle and not lean out anymore, so doing the same routine as him would not work for me. I am looking to lean out more, while adding muscle…so on top of the three days of strength training, I’m aiming to do met-con three days as well.

Strength: Yesterday we did a 5×3 back squat. Previously, my max backsquat was 145. I was pumped about that because I could officially backsquat my own weight. WELL! Yesterday, I was backsquatting 135 lbs on a 5×3!! What does that mean?? I am most definitely way past my 145 max!!! Nick made a comment that my back looks way stronger…YES! :) :)

Met-Con: While Nick finished up another strength piece, I headed off for my met-con workout.

4 rounds: 15 burpees, 400 meter run.

Let me just put this out there…the sun makes things WAY harder! I had officially forgotten that because it’s been at least a few months since it was hot in Beverly. So yesterday, running in the sun, I was DYING! My knees were scraping against the gravel with every pop-up of the burpees. The whole thing was not so pretty, haha. I did, however, FINISH even though I wanted to give up after round 3. Have I become a pansy?? After just re-writing what the workout is I feel like that shouldn’t have been that hard…but it most definitely was!

Skill: I made a goal of getting 5 chained kipping pull-ups by summer….and yesterday I chained 3 together!! Honestly, I didn’t even try more, so many my goal has already been met. The next time I am in the gym, I will check on that for you :) ;)

So I think that is that guys! We are getting closer and closer to getting this lease closed and our sign above the door. Love you all and have a great week!! :-D

Love,

Jen

It’s Always Sunny In Santa Barbara!

Posted by beautifullystrong in Crossfit Workouts

I am not about to defend my rather puny attempts at keeping my blog updated lately, and I’m going to go straight into filling you in :)

First of all…holy JEEZ I miss you guys! I miss the support group, the comeradery, the “Jen, don’t be a pansy, do one more!” in my ear…I miss you all, each and every one of you for different reasons. For those of you who read who I have no yet met, I miss you too…I miss having you read, knowing that I have all these great influences who are going to keep me on track. So with that being said, let me catch you up!

We have made it to California!

January 18th, and we have our feet in the Pacific!

I must say that the weather here is KIND OF RIDICULOUS! When I say RIDICULOUS, let me paint a picture for you. You know how in the tv shows from the 50′s it seems as if it were the same weather every single day? Well, it’s a little bit like that in Santa Barbara. The first two weeks we were here, literally every single day was cloudless blue skies, and 73 degrees. Every. Single. Day. It was phenomenal. The first day we saw clouds here was yesterday…and I’m not going to lie, I felt a twinge of “boooooo”…

*ducking from flying tomatoes*

 I know…I know!!! Sorry to you Mass friends who are buried under 70 inches of snow.

So we have officially been in Santa Barbara now for two whole weeks! We have an apartment…a “quaint dungeon” is an accurate description. I am not complaining though, because we have a home, and from the road, there is a SICK view of the ocean :) So, while the kitchen is the size of a ring box, and it is a little on the dark side (since its half way between above ground and basement level)…it’ll do :)

We also have found a place to work! Get this…it’s on Hope Street :) How freakin’ PERFECT is that for what we’re going to be doing? We would like to believe that we’ll not only be providing health, happiness and relief from present ailments, but also hope. This place is gold…quite literally actually…it’s located in the Plaza de Oro…which translates to “the golden square”. Bada bing…bada boom! Right now we are in the negotiation phase, and hopefully we’ll be able to start demolition NEXT WEEK!!! This is really happening!!

Okay, so we started this journey together over a year ago in regards to Crossfit, so I’m going to get on with the working out piece :) We DID go check out a Crossfit out here, Crossfit Pacific Coast. We were so pumped to meet them. The second we walked in, there were people sitting around post workout, and they greeted us right away. One of the owners, Eric, came up to us and introduced himself and filled us in and got us in for a baseline test the next morning; that was the first time I had ever done the baseline test. My time for the test was 5:37 WOOOO HOOOO! I feel pretty good about that…ESPECIALLY since that was coming off of a southern food/mexican food induced coma for two weeks. Oh yeah…and did I mention we sat in a car for two weeks straight? :-p We won’t be able to get right in the gym, SUPER UNFORTUNATELY, but once we get up and running with the business, Crossfit here we come! Till then, and even after then, we are working out with Nick’s bro, Andrew. Andrew and his business partner Casey have a sweet business that we will be connected to in the business, called Innate Body Bootcamp. I feel so lucky to have Andrew, Nick and Casey there to help me get to where I want to physically. We all did a baseline sort of day on the 24th of January to see where we were weight and measurement wise, to give us something to go off of. Alright…here it is…some of my numbers!

As of Jan. 24th, 2011:

 weight: 145

bf%: 20.1%

waist: 26

hips: 39.5

arms: R 12 (sad little pipe) L 11.5

legs: R 22.25 L 22.5

So why did I share this?? Do you think it brings me joy to post these numbers? Well…it’s a lot less uncomfortable than it was in the past…but I do it so that I’m not just saying “I gained this much muscle, or lost these many inches” in so and so amount of time…how do you know?! This is my proof :)

My goals:

deadlift 200 pounds by summer

get kipping pullups…um….CHECK!!! Okay, so I kind of left this out…but not really because I’m telling you now…I GOT KIPPING PULLUPS!!!!! WITHOUT A BAND!!!!! On January 26th, I did 13 unassisted kipping pull-ups!! So that no one is confused, I need to clarify myself there…I did NOT get 13 in a row….I did one, stopped myself, did one, stopped myself, etc etc….I can’t quite string them together yet…YET I SAY :-D   My new goal though is to be able to string 5 together by summer!

get push-ups on my toes…oh man, I am reallllly flubbing up with the keeping you posted…UM CHECK!!! So, while they are super difficult…I am now officially doing push-ups on my toes!! Holy jeeeezz!!! I don’t know when that happened, but they seem to be getting a lot easier every time I do them now! :-D  New goal, doing 10 in a row on my toes by summer.

So what else is there to catch you up on? Basically we have been doing a Monday, Wednesday, Friday program with Andrew and Casey. On Mondays we are doing deadlifts and presses, on Wednesdays some sort of loaded squat, and Fridays are Oly lifting. My most recent deadlifting excursion was a 5×3 deadlift in which I did 135 for two rounds, and 125 for two, then finished with another 135. We also did presses in which I think I have BLOWN my max out of the water!!!! My max for a strict press was 65lbs before we left…well I did a 5×3 with that today!!!! I did 55 the first, 60 the second, and 3, 4 and 5 with 65lbs!! Honestly, I think I could have gone up a little!! Loveeee it! As for diet, we are in the middle of a 30 day Paleo challenge right now, and I am STRUGGLING! I have no idea why…its not like we were eating terribly before…I think it’s the coffee; we have given up stimulants. So instead of coffee I have been drinking decaf tea..ugh. I have not really noticed any changes either for some reason, and I think that is partially why I’m seriously frustrated with these 30 days…but onward I go, and hopefully at the end I’ll be able to remember why I did this :-p

Well, I think that’s all for today guys.I miss you ALL, and as always, I love to hear from you too!

Love,

Jen