Why I exercise (hint: it's not because I love it)

Many people LOVE exercise. My husband is one of them. Until I met Josh, I used to think that people were lying when they said that they love working out. Exercise has never come easy for me. I never considered myself an athlete, and used to joke that I would only run if something was chasing me. I was always "active," talking long walks, hikes, and occasional leisurely bike rides, and thought that because I was thin, I didn't need to exercise, or eat healthy for that matter.  I was riding the tails of my good genetics and fast teenage metabolism into my early 20's. By the end of college, the reality that I can't live on Cheerios, Chips Ahoy (the kind with the m&m's on top), and Voss' Chili-cheese dogs had become apparent.

The first changes I made were to my diet. By not buying junk food, cutting out gluten and alcohol, I lost that freshman 15 pretty quickly, but I was more sedentary than ever.  I was going to nursing school, and studying most of my waking hours. I tried Crossfit a few times, only to quit after a couple of weeks every time. It took me a long time to find an exercise regimen that works for me and that I actually enjoy.  I found that I don't do well with timed, competitive workouts.  I enjoy strength training at my own pace, with a little aerobic exercise mixed in. Still though, it can be hard for me to stay motivated. 

The biggest thing that keeps me motivated is that I want to be a strong old lady someday that everyone says, "oh, she ages so well!" It sounds ridiculous, and I'm not really that concerned with how others think I am aging, but I don't want to be a cripple! As women age, that poor posture becomes more and more difficult to reverse, and eventually... you will be that little old lady looking at her shoes all the time.  What scares me more, is that working in a hospital, I see people in their 50's and 60's ALL the time who are in worse shape than my grandmother.
Good posture is not just the conscious thought "sit up straight." It involves a ton of muscles that on a daily basis we are doing nothing to strengthen!  We sit at desks hunched over, drive hunched over and eat dinner hunched over. Then we go to bed curled up in the fetal position, and its no wonder posture gets so much worse with age!
All of the little tiny muscles in your back and shoulders, when strengthened, work with your butt and hamstrings to keep you upright! This requires upper body pulling exercises like pull ups, dumb bell rows and scapular exercises, along with strengthening your posterior chain, ie. using your butt and hamstrings.
Without a well rounded exercise regimen, we can worsen these imbalances, and end up looking like an Olsen twin.  I'm going to shoot for Ann Hathaway and hope I land somewhere in between by the time I'm 75.  The goal is to "age gracefully."

So, why do I exercise? Its pretty obvious to me.... 

Olsen twin... Ann Hathaway...

It's up to you!

Find a strength and conditioning regimen that works for you. Everyone is different, so you can't expect your friend's workout routine to be your cup of tea. At Garage Gym, all of our programming is individualized and adjusted to what works best for each client. The important thing is that you are getting stronger and healthier, not following the sicker, fatter and weaker crowd.

Some SUPER EXCITING news is that as of the end of March, I have made some small changes in my job at the hospital which has allowed me to FINALLY have a regular schedule (same days off every week), which means I have my own clients!  Garage Gym has always been a team effort between Josh and I. We are constantly bouncing ideas off of each other and helping each other out with training and running the business.  The difference between helping out and training one-on-one clients for me has been tremendous!  I am inspired by their determination and love tracking progress made.  

We are expanding even further this summer with two more awesome trainers. We have been so blessed with this gym and I'm excited to see where we're headed!

Garage Gym Snacks

So, Josh sent out an email to a whole bunch of clients who have been asking for some ideas for healthy snacks.  The problem is, he has never actually made any of these (with the exception of pancakes) and sent out ingredients lists, but no instructions!  He's on the right track, they are delicious, and are all very low in carbohydrates because of the use of almond flour and other substitutes to white flour. 
I have been procrastinating very badly with posting, as you can see my last post says Merry Christmas : )
So, to catch up, Happy New Year, Happy MLK day, Happy Valentines Day...
Lets get to the recipes!

My all time favorite:

Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake
(courtesy of FastPaleo.com with a couple changes- check them out for a ton of great recipes, or follow them on facebook for daily recipe posts!)

Cake:
1/2 C Coconut milk
2 eggs
1/4 C honey (preferably raw & local)
1 tsp vanilla
2 C blanched almond flour
1/2 C Arrowroot powder (found at Wegmans, Tom's Natural Foods, or here.)
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Nutmeg (optional)

Swirl:
2 Tbs Cinnamon
1/4 C coconut oil or butter
3 Tbs honey

Topping:
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Preheat oven to 325. In separate bowls combine dry and wet cake ingredients. Pour wet into dry and stir to combine. Pour into coconut oil or butter greased 7x9 baking pan (I use one that is 5x8, I think 7/9 will make it too thin)
Combine swirl ingredients and dollop onto cake (soften coconut oil in microwave, but not quite to liquid.)
Using a knife, swirl in topping.
Optional: add chopped nuts
Bake 30-35 min or until toothpick comes out clean.  (The middle of mine have always been gooey because the coconut oil settles in the middle. Even if I bake the crap out of it, the outside is dry and the middle still pretty moist. It tastes better that way anyways as long as you know the egg is cooked.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
This recipe is found on the back of the Honeyville Almond Flour bag, but they give credit to Elana's pantry, which is my FAVORITE gluten free recipe website.  One change I make is to replace the agave nectar with Maple Syrup because there is a lot of conflicting information on agave and the refining process. A good local Grade A Maple Syrup is as about as natural as you can get. Still, used in moderation as any kind of sugar can spike your insulin and be counter-productive to weight loss goals.

2 1/2 cups Blanched almond flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup grapeseed oil
1 Tbs vanilla extract
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 cup of dark chocolate (choc chips can totally ruin the lower carb beauty of these cookies, I smash up a Ghirrardelli 86% chocolate bar which has very low sugar and it tastes great.)

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl
Stir together wet ingredients in a smaller bowl.
Mix wet into dry.
Drop about tablespoon sized balls onto parchment lined baking sheet.
Bake at 350 for 7-10 minutes.

Variation (experimentation that came out pretty good!)
Exchange chocolate for 1 cup chopped pecans and add 2 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp nutmeg to the dry ingredients.  Reminds me of keebler pecan sandies : )

Pancakes
Although not a snack or dessert, it is still a treat! Just make sure you eat a good source of protein with these (eggs or breakfast sausage). Also, we have only made this whole recipe once and it lasted us several days. We usually cut it by half or even a quarter for just the 2 of us.  These are not like your Aunt Jemima's! Two pancakes have a lot of almonds in them and they are really filling.

3 cups almond flour
1/2 cup whole milk or coconut milk
8 eggs (another reason we cut the recipe so much)
1/2 cup of melted butter or grapeseed oil
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp baking soda
1 pinch salt

Make pancakes as usual! Just go easy on the Maple syrup on top if you are watching your carb intake.  They are pretty good plain with butter.

Brownies!
This recipe I had actually forgotten about its been so long since I've made it, but it is really good.  I got it from http://www.whatifeedrory.blogspot.com/ I'm so glad Josh reminded me of this recipe because I haven't been to her blog in a long time and she's got a lot more good stuff to try!

1 cup raw almond butter
1 egg
1/2 cup Maple syrup (subbed for agave)
1 Tbs vanilla
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
Optional: Add 1/2 cup 85% dark chocolate bits (cheaper to smash a candy bar than find good dark choc chips)

Blend almond butter and egg. Add maple syrup and vanilla. Beat until well combined. Add remaining ingredients.
Grease 8" or 9" round pan with butter or coconut oil.
Spoon in batter and bake at 350 for 20-25 min.

Happy baking!

Sweet Potato Casserole... guilt free : )

Sorry, no marshmallows in this one, but its so good you won't miss them.  Its like grownup sweet potato casserole.

5 large sweet potatoes or yams
2 apples peeled and cut into large chunks
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
1 tbs ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
4 tbs of organic grass fed butter
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 cup chopped pecans

Peel and cut yams into approx 1" chunks, boil until fork tender. Strain and place in a large bowl. While still hot, add apples, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, butter and maple syrup. Mix well. Spread mixture in an 11x7 glass baking dish. Sprinkle with pecans and bake uncovered at 350 for 30-35 minutes.

I generally cannot tolerate dairy, but a small amount of butter in a large dish like this does not seem to bother me. I have tried to sub grape seed oil, which is not bad, but not quite as good as the butter in this one.

Merry Christmas!

Thinking about 2012...

San Diego Zoo

Holiday prep is pretty much done for me... just a few things to tie up last minute, so I've begun to think about my goals for 2012. I  don't like to call  them "resolutions," because no one actually sticks to their new year's resolutions. Goals are something that you should have all the time, and the new year is a good time to evaluate where you are vs. where you want to be and make a plan to get there!  Write them down somewhere that you see often and track your progress.

My 2012 goals are:

 *  to learn yoga and be more diligent about stretching.  I  want to be flexible and balanced so that some of the movements in my workouts are easier and injury is less likely.
 *  to be present.  I have been working on this and want to get better at it. How often is your  head  full of an nonstop narrative- recounting past  events, imagining future events, etc. I have almost finished reading Ekhart Tolle's book,  "A New Earth," which makes you very aware of when you are living in the past or the future rather than enjoying and absorbing the moment you are currently in.
 *  to be able to do 5 pullups.  Confession... last year, one of my goals was to be able to do 10 pull ups.  I can currently do one very ugly pullup with a big kip.  I have lowered my standards. I will be thrilled with 5 pullups unbroken one year from now.  I blame it on my long ape arms : ) Too far to pull!  But seriously, I need to  really work on upper-body pulling strength.
 * to not sweat the small stuff!

We're having our clients write out their goals  for the new year also,  and I can't wait to watch them all  exceed them.  It is so  fun to watch everyone grow in strength, health and confidence.  Need help reaching your fitness, nutrition or health goals? Get ahold of  us!  For those who live a little further away (or  for everyone in 'cuse that thinks that driving this far is crazy) we  have an email nutrition package that  you should check out!  We also offer remote email  programming for  everyone who goes to the gym but doesn't know what to do when they get there.

I wish everyone a low stress, happy and healthy holiday season! I'll post a good Christmas recipe soon!

Roasted Beets and Carrots

So, my first Thanksgiving dinner was a success! Except for the biscuits... they tasted ok, but looked awful so I hid them in the back of the fridge and pretended like I never made them : )  The stuffing was my favorite, but if I made that on a regular basis I'd end up eating about a loaf of brown rice bread a day. That recipe will have to be filed for special occasions. 

My second favorite was Roasted Beets and Carrots....  Don't stop reading yet beet-haters!  Josh (a former beet-hater) actually said, "I can't even taste the beets, they taste just like the carrots!" Beets are so healthy and a great winter-time veggie.  So give this recipe a try!

Roasted Beets and Carrots

  1 1/2 lb carrots sliced
  1 1/2 lb beets diced
  1/2 bulb garlic crushed
  1/4 cup grapeseed oil (or any other oil rated for high heat)
  5 tbs balsamic vinegar 
  fresh thyme and rosemary ( dried will do in a pinch)
  salt and pepper to taste

Steam beets and carrots separately until tender (you can do them all together if you don't mind your carrots turning purple).  Mix all ingredients together and roast @ 425 F for 30 min or until starting to brown. Stir once or twice while roasting.  I used a big cast iron pan, but a pyrex or cookie sheet should work, just make sure the beets and carrots are spread fairly thin. 

Simple, healthy, and delicious!

My workout today:

A. Deadlift 6 reps/4 reps/2 reps with 2 min break between.
      I lifted 125/140/150 lbs!! 150 x 2 is by far a record for me!

B. Pushup 4-8 x 3, 2 min rest b/w sets.
      This sounds pathetic, but it really is an accomplishment for me. For the life of me, I have not been able to do a pushup! I have been practicing incline pushups for a long time, and recently gave the real thing a try and got 4. So now, Josh is able to program pushups in small doses in my workouts. I was able to do 6 reps, then 4 and 4 today.

C. Power clean touch and go 6 reps 65lbs
    Airdyne 10 sec fast
     repeat x 4 with 3 min breaks

 

Today's workout...

the before picture of our turkey : )

Got 17 unbroken double unders with a single between each today! that's a record for me! (jumprope)

8 unbroken dead lifts 115#
15 sec air dyne sprint
     repeat x2 with 3 min rest

10 thrusters 45#
Row 10 cals
     repeat x 2 with 3 min rest

Powell raise at a 6 sec negative

I haven't done a heavy breather in forever because I've been working on strength and unilateral stuff to work on hip imbalances, so I was gassed!  Very happy with my dead lifts though!

Spent the rest of the day in the kitchen prepping for thanksgiving. I'm working 12 hrs tomorrow so I wanted to get as much as possible done before Thursday. Also, we got our turkey today from Harold Schrock at Berry Hill Farms!! Our first non-commercial turkey... can't wait to try it!

A Garage Gym Thanksgiving!

I am so excited to cook for Thanksgiving dinner at my house for the first time!  Here's a look at the menu...

Turkey (of course)
Mashed sweet potato and apple
Stuffing made with brown rice bread
Cranberry sauce (not from a can, sweetened with apple juice, orange juice and a little honey)
almond flour biscuits
spring mix salad
Pumpkin pie with a ground hazelnut-pecan crust (never tried it before... we'll see how it goes!)
Apple-Blackberry crisp
something with carrots and beets... haven't decided yet. The in-laws won't be thrilled with beets, but I'll guilt them in to  trying them!

It'll certainly be cozy at my little kitchen table with 8 of us,  but I'm so thankful to have such a beautiful family to share the holidays with. We are  truly blessed. I hope everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving!