Pulled Pork and BBQ Sauce. Also, Cookies!

I never really thought much about BBQ sauce until it became the subject of my gym’s latest Paleo Cook-off Challenge. Really good meat rarely needs to be smothered in sauce, and since most of the BBQ sauce I have ever really liked is high in sugar, why bother? I’m glad I did bother, because I discovered something Paul and I both really love, and it’s a lot easier than I thought it would be.

But first, here is a recipe for pulled pork that if, after reading this, you ran out to gather ingredients so you could make it right this very minute you would be so very, very happy. And that’s a guarantee. It’s my own riff off the Garlic Pulled Pork from Mark’s Daily Apple. I think the crock pot method yields a far more tender meat. Plus there are less ingredients that take four minutes to prepare – yes I actually timed it. The only drawback is it takes ~16 hours (maybe less) to cook so patience and planning is required. I will make this again this week and get pictures.

Garlicky Crockpot Pulled Pork

• 4# pork shoulder roast (or butt). Do yourself a favor and have the butcher remove the bone so you have 4# of meat and fat. Do NOT trim the fat.
• 2 Tbsp kosher sea salt
• 2 Tbsp dried granulated (not powdered) garlic
• 1 Tbsp freshly ground pepper
• juice from 1 large lime
• 6 cloves of fresh garlic, peeled
• 2 large onions, chopped

Make a paste out of the salt, granulated garlic, pepper and lime juice. Rub on the roast. Put roast in crockpot. Make six thin slices all over deep into the pork and secure a clove of garlic into each cut. Slice the onion and throw on top of the roast. Put crockpot on low and forget about it for anywhere from 10 – 16 hours. As it cooks, the roast will be making a wonderful juice, which you can spoon over the meat as it’s cooking from time to time. When it’s done being cooked in a crockpot, there is no need to “viciously attack it with forks” (as Mark describes). You just sort of tap it gently and *foomp* it will fall apart.

Trust me, this pork is perfect without any sauce at all and it took every ounce of strength I posses not to devour the entire pot by myself. (Okay, so I am being a little melodramatic about that.) But since you’ve got all that time to kill, might as well make some BBQ sauce. I consider this to be “primal” rather than strictly paleo, since that particular label seems to attract the ire of purists who would argue there was no maple syrup (for example) in the Before Times. Whatever. It’s tasty and good and has a whole lot less sugar than what you’d find in a store-brought brand, which is good enough for me.

Smoky-Sweet Chipotle BBQ Sauce

• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 large onion
• 1 6oz can tomato paste
• 1 c beef stock (next time I plan on using 1 c of the stock yielded from the garlic pulled pork, if I make them both together again. But if I do that I’m cutting back on the salt in this recipe and adding to taste at the end)
• 1/4 – 1/2 c fresh-pressed pineapple juice (no sugar added, like Lakewood, find at Whole Foods)
• 3 Tbsp chili powder
• 1 Tbsp chipotle pepper paste*
• 2 Tbsp dijon mustard
• 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Tsp sea salt
• 1-2 Tbsp maple sugar powder
• 1 Tbsp dried granulated (not powdered) garlic
• freshly ground pepper to taste

Process onion and garlic cloves in food processor until minced fine.

Yeah. You're gonna wanna stir that.

Combine onion and garlic, along with the remainder of ingredients, into a medium-sized sauce pan and mix well. Bring sauce to a gentle boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, until thickened to preference (20-30 minutes). Stir frequently and adjust spices to taste. Smother onto a big pile of meat and dig in! If there’s any leftover sauce, it can be stored in refrigerator.

* About the chipotle pepper paste: I make this by dumping several cans of Chipotle in Adobo Sauce in a food processor and whirring until it’s a paste. Because it is so damned potent and hot it will kill any microbe that comes within 100 yards of it, his paste can be stored indefinitely in the fridge, so process several cans at a time. You’ll use it in a lot of stuff probably. We do. Just be careful if you’re trying to avoid wheat or gluten: some brands use flour in their adobo sauce. Just read the label – Moreno has a little sugar, but no wheat.

Finally: Cookies. I don’t bake much, haven’t over the past year or so since I tend to focus primarily on fruit with cream or a few squares of dark chocolate if I am in the mood for something sweet. But sometimes it’s a really nice treat to have some chocolate chip cookies onhand. I’ve messed around with several different versions and this one is my favorite. I brought about three dozen to our cook-off last night and they were gone in minutes. I’ve settled on coconut flour rather than the more popular almond flour for several reasons:

1. it’s significantly less expensive,
2. you use less since coconut flour is absorbs liquids like crazy,
3. baked goods with coconut have a really nice texture to them,
4. coconut flour baked products feel and taste lighter than do almond flour versions
5. for some reason it’s easier for me to moderate my intake of coconut flour baked goods. What I’m driving at here is I have a tendency to scarf down almond flour baked goods in a nearly indecent way and I don’t do that with coconut flour products
6. finally there’s something about almond flour having a heavier ratio of 0-6/0-3 fatty acids which can be pro-inflammatory for some people, but you smarty pants chemist-types are going to have to weigh in on that one since I don’t care enough to get the facts entirely straight. I’m just throwing it out there. Probably they’ve gone over this topic to death on PaleoHacks if you’re interested.

Chocolate Chip Cookies (with coconut flour and pumpkin)

Dry Stuff

• ½ c coconut flour
• ¼ tsp sea salt
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• 1½ cinnamon
• 1/2  c dark chocolate chips

Wet Stuff

• ¼ c butter, softened (or coconut oil)
• ½  c canned pumpkin
• 3  eggs
• ¼ c honey
• 1 ½ tsp vanilla

Ingredients.

Preheat oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with silpat or parchment. Coconut flour products will stick to pans no matter how much you oil them, so parchment is a must – silpat is even better!

Whisk together the dry ingredients in a small bowl. Whisk together the wet ingredients in a larger bowl. Mix dry ingredients into wet until dough is smooth and no lumps remain. Let dough stand a minute or two to thicken. Dough should be soft but still hold its shape when scooped. If it’s too thin, add coconut flour no more than a teaspoon at a time. If it’s too thick, add a bit more butter or coconut oil or pumpkin.

Coconut flour cookie dough will be soft but will hold its shape when scooped.

Drop cookie dough by spoonfuls onto silpat­lined baking sheet. They won’t spread much while baking so it’s okay to cram them on the sheet.  Bake at 350° for 20 – 25 minutes. Cookies will be set and the edges will be slightly browned. Remove from oven and transfer to a cooling rack. If you let these cool completely before storing, they’ll get a bit crispier. If you want them to stay soft, don’t let them cool all the way.

Okay now I'm thinking I should really invest in a decent camera if I want to do food posts. These look delicious in real life, I swear!

For my next iteration of this recipe, I’d like to find something to sub for the pumpkin. It’s really tasty and does well for adding body an moisture to dough, but it’s still very much a cold-weather food, at least to my mind. Maybe tweaking the spices or something.

I Get Disturbing Google Search Terms, and a Good Book.

One of my favorite parts of checking my blog stats, besides making sure my three fans are still there in spite of my failure to update this thing on a regular basis (thanks guys!) is seeing what search terms lead traffic to my site. Here is the latest disturbing glimpse into the minds of the people of Internetland. Behold:

• “cat pushing body“
• “cat with face pushed against glass” Okay, this? Freaks me out a little. What causes a person to want to see this? No, seriously. What? And, do I really write about my little beasts so often that my blog shows up in searches for cats? Cripes.
• “bacon inocent x” I haven’t clue what this person could be searching for. Any ideas? How awesome is it that my blog shows up in searches about bacon though? That is right and good and proper and makes me very happy.
• “i’ve upped my attitude, now up yours!” This one is my favorite. I’m totally stealing it and am going to use it tomorrow. At least once.
• “naughty stained glass” Heh.

These are search terms have shown up in the last week. I don’t even want to wade through the crap people have searched for since I started this. I could be there for days.

Daily Weekly Monthly Bi-Monthly Update

I’ve been busy going to Maui, parking my butt by the pool, drinking a bunch fruity alcohol drinks, lifting heavy stuff, eating good stuff, eating some not-so-good but really yummy stuff, painting, working, having a blast and NOT updating my blog. Sigh.

One of my favorite parts of parking my butt by the pool is all the time it leaves me to read. Usually I go in for floofy stuff like Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire Mysteries but this time I managed to stretch my brain a little with Gary Taubes’ new “Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It” and it is amazing. I am planning to write a review of that and yes I actually typed that with a straight face. Don’t let’s hold our breaths for that, is what I’m saying. Just go get the book because it’ll take everything you think you know about diet and exercise and how both of those things affect the way our bodies manage adipose tissue and turn it on its head. It’s an easy read and fascinating.

Remembrance

I’ve been chewing on this post, I, Veteran by Adam Glass on and off all day. Though I can’t imagine he intended this, I was bawling by the fourth paragraph and didn’t stop for a long, long time. If rough language offends you for some reason you might want to skip it because he doesn’t mince words. On the other hand, his passionate and razor-sharp narration lays bare his heart and offers poignant insight as to what life for some of our service men and women is like. Besides, you can’t really describe experiences like his without it.

My life as a veteran was pretty far from his: I was in linguistics, not law enforcement. I was surrounded by mostly egg-heads, spooks and good-natured smart asses, not wretched human detritus, criminals and thugs. I suffered little trouble and enjoyed a lot of camaraderie, as well as some very interesting, non-life threatening work. We were in between wars, and I lived in an urban setting about as far from the front line as you can get. I’ve never been anywhere near a theater of war. Holy hell, in my early 20′s I was a walking disaster. I shudder to think how I would have fared in that environment.

One of my Army buddies and I were talking about how odd we feel whenever someone thanks us for our service on Veteran’s Day. I know I took an oath, made some sacrifices, but still. Okay I’ve tried to finish this paragraph like six times now and everything I’ve written just sounds lame. Go read Adam’s post.

And to all our service men and women, past, present and future, I offer my heartfelt gratitude to you and think about you a lot. Not just today either.

 

Enjoying the Journey

Wow, time flies.

I have this crazy desire to account for the weeks I’ve been AWOL from the blog, but I’m sure the three people who read it (hi Mom!) already know where I’ve been/how I’ve been doing anyway, so who cares? Mostly I’ve just been enjoying myself, is the short version:

• CrossFit: Good and steady.
• Diet: On and immensely enjoyable.
• Social Life: Fun.
• Art: Okay I seriously need my ass kicked about this because I haven’t been doing nearly enough of it (see above re: Social Life: Fun.)

But part of the reason I’ve been AWOL – behold my keen self-awareness! – is that a lot of my posts ended up taking so long to write. My goal is to write more often but shorter stuff. Good luck to me with all that.

Yesterday’s WOD was a fun AMRAP of 12:00 of

• 5 pushups
• 10 wallballs (10#)
• 15 kettleblell swings (16kg)

E and Julie play Indo Board Catch, not yesterday's WOD though.

I smashed that WOD with 8 rounds!  I was next to this guy and just kept pace with him. He’d zoom past me on pushups, but I’d catch up with him during the wallballs. Worked pretty well for both of us I think.

The strength portion was snatches, 3-3-2-2-1-1-1. I still am not entirely sure what I’m doing so I got myself up to 75# and worked on my form as best as I could, trying to follow my coach’s directions (butt down, chest up, lock arms, get under bar, etc.)  I guess I’m doing okay but it feels so awkward still. I figure I’m ahead of the curve ball just sticking to it and not getting too frustrated. As my Dear Husband says, I “suck at sucking.”

Pithy, no?

But he’s right; if I’m not really great at something right off the bat I have a tendency to just give up pretty quickly. The problem is, if never let yourself fail you never see where your limits are, or what you need to work on. It’s hard to get better if you only stick with things that come easily. True of a lot of things in life but it’s so evident in CrossFit workouts. So one of my goals recently is to “Embrace the Suck.”  Easier said than done, but nothing worth doing is easy. Hey, at least it’s enjoyable.

Links:

• Speaking of, “Embrace the Suck” and other rules that CrossFitters live by
• Amazing Artwork based on children’s drawings
• Twinkies: still not fit for human consumption. Sorry.
• Instead try these Primal Holiday Desserts that won’t mess with your gut. Best Chocolate Chip cookie recipe I’ve tried.

Weekend Recipe :: Pumpkin Pie Bars

Is it getting cooler where you are? It is here and I am loving it! I just hope that autumn sticks around for a good long while. It’s my favorite season (until spring!) and last year we had this gorgeous weather for exactly two weeks before it started dumping snow. So I’m trying to make the most of every minute, and part of that means recipes with pumpkin!

I got the idea from Shelley at This Primal Life. Her Primal Almond Butter Pumpkin Brownies boast only five ingredients – in fact the first five ingredients of this recipe almost exactly, though I adjusted the honey down a bit and find them plenty sweet. Then I just added pumpkin pie spices – boom! Done. There isn’t any chocolate in it, which is why I’m calling them “bars.” But you can add chocolate chips to it of course! You might even top them with Josephine Svenblad’s Coconut Whipped Cream for something really fancy.

Paleo Pumpkin Pie Bars

Ingredients for Paleo Pumpkin Pie Brownies. I used walnuts for this batch.

Preheat oven to 350. Grease up an 8×8 brownie pan with butter or coconut oil.

• 1c. almond butter (I like the fresh-ground kind for the slightly gritty texture)
• 1 egg
• 3/4 c. canned pumpkin
• 1/4 c. of honey (adjust up or down a little to taste)
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1 t. cinnamon
• 1/2 t. nutmeg
• 1/4 t. ground cloves
• 1/4 t. ground ginger
• (or just 2 t. of “Pumpkin Pie Spice”)

Optional:

• 1/2 of a bar of Ghirardelli Intense Dark Midnight Reverie 86% chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 c. chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans probably best)

Mix all ingredients together with a fork, until it has an even consistency. Pour into pan and bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for a while (good luck with waiting!) and enjoy!

Here are some sites I cruise a lot for recipes and food ideas:

• Primal Matriarch. AndreAnna is a fun soul and gets really creative in the kitchen. She is more primal than paleo, meaning she just uses more dairy than strictly paleo folks.
• This Primal Life. I found Shelley’s blog through Mark’s Daily Apple. She doesn’t update it regularly, but she has some great posts.
• Nutty Kitchen. Josephine Svenblad has an endless supply of recipes for every meal. I love this site!

Donate to a Great Cause, Win an Original Oil Painting

Only three more days till the annual Crossfit Fundraiser, Fight Gone Bad (FGB). And only three more days for a chance to win an original oil painting!

I recently joined the Flatirons CrossFit gym in Boulder. If you’ve never heard of CrossFit, it’s a challenging and fun program characterized by a quick intense Workout Of the Day (WOD) that builds strength, speed and agility. “Fight Gone Bad” is the name of a classic CrossFit WOD (some of the WODs have interesting names), and each September, CrossFitters from across the country get together at their affiliate gyms and perform the workout to raise money for some important charities.

This year FGB is raising money for three causes: The Lance Armstrong Foundation, the Wounded Warrior Project, and the CrossFit Foundation. I will be raising money specifically for the Wounded Warrior Project. You can read more about these organizations, as well as the actual workout my team and I will be doing here.

My goal is to raise $500 by September 25, which is the day we do our workout. I originally had a goal of $200, but got such tremendous response I upped it to $500.  Please consider donating to this great cause and helping me reach my goal – even $5 or $10 will help tremendously and they have made it really easy to donate. This is the first year that I am on the team and I’d like to really go in there strong. I am participating in memory of my father, Robert Gerleman. He died of lung cancer several years ago and was a veteran of the Vietnam War.

Win an Original Oil Painting

As an added incentive (we all love those right??) I’m doing a giveaway. Everyone who donates gets a chance in a random drawing to win a framed “daily painting” oil sketch of their choice. If you’re not sure what kind of painting to ask for, don’t worry, I will help you brainstorm!

Click to donate or find out more about my FGB team.

Thank you!

Wednesday WOD Update :: “The only easy day was yesterday.”

This week’s WODs have been really tough. The good news is my strategy of hydrating beforehand has been effective with the parchedness, leaving me free to deal more gracefully with the workouts themselves. I’ve really needed that advantage this week. One of the paradoxes of CrossFit, as far as I can tell from listening to the folks who’ve been doing this for awhile, is the stronger and more conditioned you get, the tougher the workouts get. But probably that’s because you end up working harder too. Or maybe it’s just because really, the only easy day was yesterday.

Last Wednesday’s WOD:

Front Skwat
1-1-1-1-1
12-9-6 reps @66% 1RM

My 1RM (my first for front skwats) was 125#, and I did 75# for the WOD.

Friday’s was 9-7-5 reps for time of:

• Muscle ups (for me, 15-9-6 rounds of each jumping pullups and burpees)
• Squat snatch 135/85# (65#)

Monday’s was, for time:

• 100 Pull-ups (2 bands)
• 100 Push-ups
• 100 KB Swings 24/16kg
• 100 Stick jumps 24/20″

We could partition that fire-breathing monster however we wanted. I did five rounds of 20 reps each of the exercises, except for the end when I was doing good to eek out five pullups at a time. I finished in a little over 25 minutes and I was pretty happy about that. (Frankly I’m just thrilled I didn’t pass out.) What else can I say about it besides it sucked? I mean, look at it.

Aaaaand today’s Parade of Pain was 5 rounds for time of:

• 7 Hand Stand Push Ups (14 push ups each round for me since I can’t do HSPUs yet.)
• 7 thrusters 135/85# (55#)
• 7 Toes to Bar (I actually did some this time!)
• 7 deadlifts 245/160# (105#)
• 7 burpees
• 7 KB swings 32/20kg
• 7 pull-ups (2 bands.)

Finished, again, a little over 25 minutes. I can only describe my performance here as grinding through the workout, hammering it out one rep at a time. It was my first time doing thrusters and I think in a less intense WOD I could easily have upped my weight.

I’m pretty fatigued of pull ups and push ups and I hope dearly to not see either of them for a week or two. There are other parts of my body that need some lactic acid buildup to balance out my lats, what whatever the heck else is all up in my back and arms. But I’m not holding my breath. Though, having had a workout that called for the kind of numbers Monday’s did has changed my perception of what is “a lot.” The workout we did today “only” called for 35 of each exercise, broken into 5 sets of 7, so I had a completely different mental attitude going into it. Not only is my perception of what is “a lot” changing, the ideas I have about what I’m capable of doing are completely rearranging themselves right in front of me. Very cool.

I’m taking a break until Saturday, when we are doing our Fight Gone Bad fundraiser for the Wounded Warrior Foundation. Speaking of…there is still time to donate to this fundraiser via my page – if you do, you’ll be entered to win a free painting. Free! Painting! C’mon, you know you want one.

Ten on Tuesday :: Artists I Love

Supposedly this blog is about art too, not just bloody ripped palms and caveman cuisine, so today’s Ten on Tuesday post is dedicated to some modern(ish) day masters I admire. This was a really hard post to write! How could I choose just 10 when there are literally hundreds of painters who take my breath away? The selection is random and in no particular order, and I haven’t even begun to cover everyone. But I hope this makes your day a little more beautiful, because to me, that’s what this art thing is all about.

1. Quang Ho
   

   Quang Ho, "Seated Figure with Red Shawl"

   I’ve had the good fortune to study with Quang and have traveled far and wide to see him demo a painting. I consider him one of the most brilliant painters of our time, as well as just a phenomenal teacher and nice, nice guy. His subject matter varies quite a bit since what attracts him to paint may be different from day to day. He may be interested in making a color statement, or describing the relationship of simple shapes, or maybe even an extremely complex arrangement of texture and edges. I’m still rediscovering new things about what he taught in his workshop, but probably the thing I value most is the idea that even mundane objects can be made beautiful by the careful handling of line, value, color and edge.

2. Laura Robb
   

   Laura Robb, "Teapot with Orchids"

   Laura’s work has a real “peek-a-boo” aspect to it. She really likes to play with lost-and-found edges, and it makes her subject matter all the more interesting. For example, follow the contour of the white orchid at the bottom right. See how that left-most petal comes into focus and out of focus? That’s what I mean by lost-and-found edges. We artists use that technique liberally to create rhythm in a painting so we move your eye where we want it to go. We’re tricky like that! Laura also uses such a rich yummy palette of warm reds her work is irresistible to me.

3. Graydon Parrish
   

   Graydon in front of his "Cycle of Terror and Tragedy"

   I wish I could find a better picture of Graydon’s allegorical tribute to the September 11th terrorist attacks, “Cycle of Terror and Tragedy” because I’d bet just about anything it’s going to be viewed as one of the most important works of the 21st century. It is over 18 feet long (took him over four years to paint it!) and is one of the largest realist paintings ever created in America. You can read a more in-depth review of the work here, and you can find more information about Graydon here. If you are ever in New Britain Connecticut, it would be well work the trip to the New Britain Museum of American Art to see this.

4. Rose Frantzen
   

   Rose Frantzen, "Crysalis" Oil and Stained Glass

   Another painter of allegorical figures is Rose Frantzen. Rose can paint the heck out of anything: portraits, landscapes, classical figures, still lifes, whatever. She incorporates other materials into her paintings from time to time, such as the stained glass into this oil painting “Chrysalis” which is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.

5. Robert Liberace
   

   Robert Liberace, "Crouching Figure"

   Robert handles dynamic human movement better than just about anyone I’ve ever seen. And lookit those skin tones. How it goes from pinkish on his neck to ochre-y on his shoulder to ruddy on his forearms and hands. Robert is someone I’d give my left eyetooth to study with some day.

6. Tibor Nagy
   

   Tibor Nagy, "Heritage"

   I know literally nothing about this guy, except for the fact that he lives in Slovakia and he doesn’t say much about himself.  I’m really curious about him though and wish he’d just spill. His works, which look to be entirely painted with a palette knife,  are usually accompanied by some poetry written by a mysterious “Ria.” I don’t normally go in for poetry, Ria’s seem to suit his paintings well.

7. Kevin Beilfuss
   

   Kevin Beilfuss, "Christie's Balalaika"

   Kevin’s paintings are like mini-explosions. This is a great example of why people paint instead of just take photographs. Not that I don’t love photography; I do. But the alternating passages of masterfully controlled edges with expressive brushwork is just so exciting to me and photography will never come close to capturing that. Kevin zeroes in on what he wants to show you (in this case, all of the model’s flesh – her ankle, her wrist and hand, her face and shoulder) and lets the rest be loose. But don’t be fooled. Loose is just how it looks, not how it’s painted.  You can bet every value and color was carefully chosen, each brush stroke thoughtfully executed.

8. Josh Elliott
   

   Josh Elliott, "Swiftcurrent Afternoon"

   We artists love to point out that what we’re REALLY painting when we paint that model, that landscape, that apple, vase, or whatever, is light. And we’re absolutely correct. There is warm light, cool light, reflected light, direct light, diffuse light, steady light, neutral light, changing light (plein air artists, holla!) and it effects absolutely everything about the way you paint. If you don’t understand this, you’re going to have a really hard time painting anything really successfully. But Josh is an artist who really understands what it means to paint light and if you take a spin around his website you’ll see what I mean by that.

9. Alyssa Monks
   

   Alyssa Monks, "Soft"

   People: this is a painting. A painting. At 48″ x 72″‘ it is a gigantic painting. Now I know I extolled the virtues of painterly painting above when describing what I like about Kevin Beilfuss’s work, and this is obviously more hyper-realistic, but still. She paints lots of self-portraits with her face smooshed up against a foggy shower door, or half submerged in water. The images are sassy and complex and just damned impressive. Also, yes, gigantic.

10. Nicolai Fechin
    

    Nicolai Fechin, "Eya" 1933. Eya was Fechin's daughter.

    Russian-born Nicolai Fechin lived and painted in a time when doctors would regularly prescribe relocation to the desert as a means to combat tuberculosis. This is how he found himself in Taos, New Mexico after leaving New York in 1927. He spent much of the remainder of his life in the New Mexican desert, and found himself fascinated with the indigenous tribes in his area. He is known for his portraits and his ability to capture the model’s essence. There’s about a million more things I could say about this master’s work, but you really just need to go see.

Maybe I’ll have to turn this into a regular feature. What do you think? Or should I stick with coconut juice and kvetching about painful WODs?

Wednesday WOD Update :: Skin on Palms Totally Optional

Been going to CF regularly since my last WOD update several weeks ago, save for last Wednesday I took off to nurse cold or whatever it was that knocked me on my rear. I was too sick even to watch much Buffy, usually my show of choice when I’m in a TeeVee kinda mood. Some highlights, revelations and random thoughts since then:

• 
  

  That hurt a little.

  Hit a new Deadlift PR of 210#. Up from my previous 185#.

• Got down to one band for pull-ups. Monday I did about 50 of them during the WOD, yay!, and I’m getting close to doing one without a band at all. I can just feel it.
• Hey, speaking of “I did nearly 50 pull-ups Monday,” did you know humans have three layers of skin on their palms? Currently I have two in some spots. That’ll do for now I guess. One of my friends has much bigger spots of two-layeredness on her hands so I shouldn’t complain.
• New-Skin hurts like hell, like thrusting your hand into a bucket of fire. I try to avoid doing things like that normally.
• So I’m trying Emu Oil instead. I’ll have to report how that goes but so far it’s less painful than the New-Skin.
• Sprinting sucks beyond the telling of it, but I hate regular running even worse.
• Somehow I’m able to suck it up though and just do it without too much bitching.
• I don’t need to wait until I’m completely over being sick to go train. ~90-95% is good. But I should probably avoid cocktails. When you’re very nearly over being sick, workout: good; cocktails: bad. Got it.
• I got a double under finally! In fact the total double under count for my entire life (7, not in a row) has been accomplished within the past week. We’ve been doing double unders as part of our warm up lately. Watch out!
• Why does weight-lifting gear for women always need to involve pink of some kind? I’m looking for weightlifting shoes but all the ones for women are pink. Or gray and pink. Dear God, why???
• I suppose I’m going to have to buy men’s shoes and hope they fit okay.
• It’s been so dry here and the hardest part about each workout for the past few weeks (besides, you know, all of it) has been I feel so parched I can barely breathe. It’s completely miserable. Clearly I’m not getting enough water, so I have something else to experiment with. Yay!

Ten on Tuesday: Ten Reasons I Love CrossFit

My CrossFit compadres and I showing off our wicked pistol form. Also, we are falling a lot.

I’ve been CrossFitting only a few months and already I am what you might call a FanGirl of the sport. Here are the top ten reasons why:

1. Real Training for Real Life. All the movements done in Crossfit are functional and transfer to real life: squats, lifts, push ups, pull ups, lunges, running, jumping, overhead movements, etc. They’re much harder than isolation exercises because they mimic real movements that life demands. CrossFit is basically training for a full and active life. So for example when you have to raise a huge wooden beam over your head while building a deck, you’re good to go. Or when you’re out hiking a 14-er and happen across some folks in dire trouble you have plenty in the tank to help them out, without too much additional strain.
2. Scalability. Workouts are scaled up or down from what is prescribed, depending on fitness level and ability. CrossFit is challenging if you’re a beginner and it’s challenging if you’re a seasoned athlete. Since I’m not yet a seasoned athlete I’m taking others’ word for it, and I see that it’s true. I watch people who have been doing CrossFit for years and though they have mastery over their form, they are still busting their tail. I have a lot of confidence that this will NOT get boring!
3. Variety. Save for the named benchmarks we do every now and again, every workout has a slightly different focus and requires a different set of skills and strategy. Kind of like life. Huh.
4. No Mirrors in the Gym. Hey, I’m not gonna lie – generally I like mirrors a lot, but while training I find them horribly distracting. The inward focus required to perform well and keep moving when the workout gets tough is crucial. Plus, while CrossFit athletes look incredible, vanity seems antithetical to the overall culture. Nah, mirrors don’t belong there. Just lots of good solid stuff to jump on, climb on, lift, throw and flip. Plus some gritty dusty chalk. And it’s not like I need a mirror to check my form since I have a Coach for that. Which brings me to…
5. Personalized Coaching. Our coaches have trained lots of successful athletes in their careers, so in my opinion they’re often in a better position than I am to determine what I’m capable of, and they know how to push me to get there, without pushing too much or burning me out. When I’m satisfied with 200# for a deadlift pr attempt they may tell me I can do 210# easy. Sure enough, they’re right. What an incredible motivator. They train me in a way so my old injuries are slowly healing (yay shoulder!) and there is always a watchful eye for form, so I know I’m minimizing any chance of creating new injuries.
6. Intensity and Brevity. Our warm-ups are harder than most organized exercise classes I’ve ever taken. Truth. The WODs might look simple, and most of them are short, but they’re brutal, and a crap-ton more effective than hours on a treadmill, on a trail, or bike or anything else I’ve ever tried.
7. Competition. With myself, with others, with the clock. Having lived in the kumba-ya-ya capital of the universe for the past decade I didn’t realize how much I missed the simple sense of urgency and focus brought about by having something or someone to beat. Maybe that something is my previous PR, or that someone is running up behind me and I don’t want them to catch me. Or maybe it’s that I REALLY want to finish my round before the timer goes off. Whatever it is, it makes me strive to go a little harder, do a little better than I did before.
8. Support. In spite of said competition, the outpouring of support in each workout is truly remarkable. People take genuine interest in your progress and share tips on how to make things work better. Everyone’s in it together and cheers each other on. It builds a lot of…
9. Community. I don’t feel like I’ve joined a gym as much as I’ve joined a community. When I was in the Army, the folks I went to basic with, or language school with, or jump school with, we all had a special bond because we had seen each other through some challenging tasks. So maybe it’s something similar. Whatever it is, I really like all the folks I’ve met so far. Just good, solid people from all different walks of life who share a penchant for intense physical activity and…
10. Paleo. Almost everyone at the gym eats paleo and it’s nice to be around people who just get me with the eating. My husband gets me and is paleo too but most of my friends, not so much, even though they’re unfailingly polite. They’re just not interested. Which is cool, but still… My first day there, I asked our coach if he had any special tips for dealing with muscle soreness, like a recovery drink or something. He told me he preferred red meat, or some sort of saturated fat. Amy, a new friend I sometimes work out with suggested I try coconut juice. I thought, “Wow…I’m home!” They have paleo eating challenges, they ran a paleo eating scientific study last year, and lots of folks share recipes, ideas and food. Other gyms might have fruity smoothie bars but our gym has a grill for Pete’s sake. I mean, how cool is that?

So these are only my top ten. I have more, but I want to hear what you think!