Monthly Archives: March 2011

How do you make Crossfit more intimidating??

Posted by beautifullystrong in Uncategorized

So as of today, I am the newest employee of Lululemon in Santa Barbara, CA (part-time, along with being Wellness Coordinator of Santa Barbara Family Chiropractic…how LUCKY am I?!?!!)!!! I don’t want to give too much of my video away, so I will spare you the details…

 I have finally found a job where I can do Crossfit and get paid for it!!! What TOOK me so long?!!!? :)

Happy Birthday Casey!!! Thanks To Your Life…My Bum Is Thoroughly Sore!

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The Birthday Boy!!

Meet Casey: the driven, enthusiastic, barefoot walking, paleo eating, co-owner of Innate Body Bootcamp  BIRTHDAY BOY!!! Yesterday Casey turned 25, so what this typically means is 25 burpees today for Casey! Well, Casey’s not exactly like other people I know…and Nick hit it right on the head when he designed the perfect workout for us all to do together at the gym for his birthday…burpees were of course included :)

When we handed the sheet of paper over to Casey, with a list of 33 different exercises on it, and told Casey to remove 8 of them he didn’t want…and then explained to him that we would be doing 25 reps of the 25 chosen workouts…Casey couldn’t have been happier! He may have even said a time or two that this is the coolest birthday present he’s ever had…ooooh Casey :) :)
So after very thoughtfully removing one exercise after the other, making sure to keep the toughest ones instead of eliminating exercises that he knew would…excuse my language…suck, this is what we had left:
 
CASEY’S BIRTHDAY WORKOUT!
25 reps of the following:
BURPEES
pushups
squats
pullups
good-mornings
deadlifts with 1/2 body weight
dips
knees to elbows
box jumps
double unders
bear crawls (10 years equals one rep)
broad jumps
windshield wipers
handstand pushups (modified)
single unders
high skips
bench press with 1/3 body weight
reverse hypers with 25 pounds
supers mans
hollow rocks
candlesticks
1 single 25 sec. handstand hold
jack knifes (v-ups I think are the same)
1 single 25 yd. sled pull with 2/3 body weight
1 single 25 yd. sled push with 2/3 body weight

 

If that seems insane to you…it’s because it is!! We set a 45 minute time limit, and didn’t quite finish  (well, I think Casey did)! Nick wanted to finish, so I finished up a few of the exercises I had left…broad jumps and bear crawls (leaving only 2 things left over: windshield wipers and handstand pushups)with him. I was pretty much dreading the bear crawls the whole time, that is 250 yds of bear crawling…freaking ridiculous! Well, the issue that popped up was one that I never even considered!!!! I burnt my palms, and blistered them! It was 80 degrees yesterday, and walking around on hands and feets for 250 yds on smoking hot pavement will JACK YOUR PALMS! On a happy, excited note however, I did my 25 pullups sans any assistance!

I loved everything about that workout. I loved the fact that I reached that exhaustion point where you feel so tired that you’re literally a walking zombie in between reps, and then you muster up every bit of strength you have in your body to do one more rep with the best form possible…and then go right back to being a zombie. Repeat. I love that feeling…I love knowing that I have worked my body to the absolute maximum! I was talking to my friend Alexis this morning on the phone, and she had me ROLLING…but one of the things she said was that doing a workout like that is kind of like what it would have been back in the day (paleolithic day that is). If you were being chased by a bear, you would be taxing your body to the max, for however long it took to get away! You wouldn’t get to a point where you were so freakin’ tired, then stop and say, “Hey Yogi…my body has reached its max now…I think it’s time we take a break…what do you say?” Heck NO!! You would keep moving those legs until you KNEW you were safe! For Casey’s birthday workout, we had a list of tasks to accomplish, and we didn’t stop until we either A) finished, or B) put in our 45 minutes of work!

So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY (yesterday) Casey!! My bum will be remembering your birthday for the next few days at LEAST :-D

On the subject of birthdays…tomorrow is MINE! :-D Woo HOO!! I’ll be 28! So, Casey had mentioned something about doing 28,000 pounds of work…he may have said 2800, but I heard 28,000 :) For right now, however, I’m not sure what it is we’re doing, but know that I will definitely fill you in afterward :)

Have a beautiful day!!!

Love,

Jen

I Think It’s Time You Knew…

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

…that your pal, Jen, here can make one meannnnnn salad!

I’ve been holding out on you guys…and I apologize! I AM, however, going to make it up to you RIGHT NOW by letting you in on how it is that I create these culinary masterpieces!

It’s simple, any good recipe needs a little structure, so…

…the breakdown.

Pick one or more (if noted) of the following categories:

LEAF:

Kale (alarm alarm!!! this is my most favorite leaf on the planet! There are so many positive benefits from kale, and other dark leafy greens…like calcium retention! Milk is NOT doing our body good guys…), spinach, chard, lettuce (all kinds), arugula, beet greens, the tops of Brussel stalks (so tasty!!), Bok choy, cabbage (why not?)

VEGETABLE (pick as many as you want!):

cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, snap peas, string beans, peas, onions, broccoli, celery, fiddleheads, peppers, celery, cauliflower, aspargus, shallots, GO CRAZY!! add some sweet potato chunks if you want!

FRUIT:

I usually only pick one fruit (I know a few of those “vegetables” are technically fruits (tomatoes, peppers…which I find kind of weird, and still consider them vegetables :-p)

strawberries, blueberries, black raspberries, raspberries, grapes (red or green!), apple chunks, pomegranate seeds, clementine, or anything else you’d like to try..honestly…GO CRAZY!

FAT:

I LOVE adding HEALTHY fat to my salad, and I usually do so in more way than one! Pick TWO of the following if you will :)

nuts! (almonds, pecans, walnuts, macadamian nuts, brazilian nuts, hazelnuts, etc etc. I have read that the two top winners for nuts are macadamian nuts and hazelnuts…they have the highest amount of monounsaturated fats of any nuts!! which is GREAT guys…go for these if you can!), avocado, coconut chips (which might be weird unless it was a fruit salad…if thats the case, then YES YES YES!!), olives

MEAT:

Make sure no matter what you’re putting on your salad for meat (protein), that it’s healthy! Typically I put the following on my salads: Trader Joes all natural chicken sausage, tuna fish, hard-boiled eggs (or even fried!), chicken, grass-fed beef or steak, nitrate free bacon :)

DRESSING:

I always, always do three trips around the bowl of extra virgin olive oil, and balsamic vinaigrette. If this isn’t something you’re into, but trust me its delicious, check out Brianna’s dressings..CRACK…CRACK I SAY!!!

So, today I made a salad that consisted of: kale, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, cooked onions, avocado, tuna fish with dijon mustard (in lieu of the mayo, ick), macadamian nuts, red grapes and dressing…results???…

PS: Think salads are only for dinner and lunch? No way…check out this good looking BREAKFAST SALAD!!!

Weekend Fuzz

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Everyone has days here and there where their heart is a little heavier than usual…

…and on those days, its a good idea to remind yourself of all that is right in life.

Well folks, I’m having one of those days.

Moving across the country has been harder than I thought…because honeslty, I didn’t think it would be hard at all! To be perfectly honest! I thought, I’m moving to CALIFORNIA…and I’m going to be with NICK…and his brother lives there so we already know people…

well, those are all true statements…but I was not at all prepared for all the “other” stuff…I’m fully aware that I was just plain delusional to think that it wasn’t going to be tough…ha!

So what do I do to self-sooth? Ha, I’m not quite sure yet to be honest…but I’m going to start with this list of warm-fuzzies, and see where that leaves me…

GRATITUDE!

I love that I’m sitting in my living room right now, in March, with the door wide open all day…and even though its less than ideal weather for Santa Barbara (windy and cloudy) its still incredible! and like 60 degrees :)

I love watching Nick Araza dance to anything Michael Jackson (he’s doing that as we speak, and its KILLING me)

I love my new red Pottery Barn couch that we bought at a thrift store for basically NOTHING!

I love Glee..period.

I love my phone chats with people I love…and I miss you guys all the time :)

I love…have I mentioned getting tan in winter??? :)

I love when I have a “wordpress.com” email in my gmail, for two reasons….it means I have a new blog comment from one of you fine people…but if it starts with wordpress.com, and not comment@wordpress.com…that means its a NEW person who has never commented…and I love hearing from ALLLL of you!!! So pile it on!

I freakin’ LOVE coconut butter…do not confuse coconut butter and coconut oil…while both are incredible in their respective ways (and I will elaborate on the next one why coconut oil is so incredible), coconut butter is a tasty, beyond tasty, treat you can eat right out of the jar! Eat it…it’ll change your world!

I love the new beauty trick I’ve recently learned…best moisturizer ever???? Coconut oil!!! When you’re in the shower, or when you usually wash your face, wash with whatever you usually use (I use Dr. Bronner’s…) and then use just a pea size, or even less, of coconut oil on your face. You would think that it would leave your face feeling oily…but it doesn’t…rub it in well, and in 20 minutes ask someone to touch your face…like satin guys. Seriously. Also, I get this really great glow from my skin right after I put it on…it’s incredible. Give it a try…you’ll probably love it :)

I love shopping at farmers markets…and there is only one day a week that there isn’t one here in Santa Barbara.

I love that we were sooooo fortunate to have Andrew here already, and that he has such incredible people in his life, who we are so lucky to get to spend our time with too! :)

I love that no one looks twice when you walk barefoot into a restaurant here…

I love hippies :)

I love that because of the two previous “I loves” I feel like I’m living exactly where I should be living!

Sometimes it just takes a moment to remind yourself that life is pretty awesome…even when you can’t see the forest through the massive tree that’s all up in your grill.

Talk to you tomorrow :)

Much Love,

Jen