I Passed!

I passed, I passed! Thank you everyone who’s given me support and encouragement while I took my sweet time this past year to get certified as a personal trainer.

I’m very excited for the new opportunities that lie ahead, and also that this weight of taking a test is now off my shoulders!!

 

Kind of took a break off from my workouts this past week while I was studying like a crazy person. Tried to make up for it by killing myself Thursday and Friday, which is never a good idea…

Thursday was upper body and abs, Friday was lower body and abs. Didn’t run with my group Thursday because there was an alumni event at Paramount, and I didn’t run this morning because I slept through my alarm, so basically what I’m saying is that I’m really failing on the cardio front. BUT I did back squats, two kinds of lunges and single-leg deadlifts yesterday so I don’t know if I could run if I WANTED to.

 

Eating has been pretty all over the place… tried to be strict about no gluten this week because I’ve been feeling very bloated and squishy just ALL the time, but you know how well I do with restrictions…

 

I really do want to get back on the horse though. Going home for the boy’s sister’s wedding in a couple weeks, and naturally I feel the need to be the hottest there. I’m not competitive or anything.

Finally moving into closing weekends of the show; only 4 performances left! Maybe I’ll be sad when it’s actually over, but I am SO looking forward to having my weekends back. 7am runs are bad enough without doing a 2 hour show the night before.

Now it’s time to do some actual work for a few hours before going back to the theater. If you haven’t made it out yet, hope to see you in the next couple weeks!!! If not, maybe I’ll see you at FitBloggin’ 😉

It Starts With…

Well, I made it back from Utah in one piece!

It was cold, and snowed the whole time, but it inspired multiple topics I want to blog about and refocused my health/fitness exploration.

Today’s post though, is going to be pretty short. My focus has been on studying my ACE certification, getting interviews, and lining up new headshots since the glowing review from the manager I saw last week was marred only by my need for new pictures.

OKAY PEOPLE, I GET IT.

Anyway…

Probably my favorite part of the trip was getting to meet some personal idols of mine: The Hartwigs!

Some fun information… Melissa is actually from the city I was born in, and still has family there. Both our phone numbers still have the same zip code. We’re really cool.

Okay, she’s really cool….  I just fake it.

KILLED ME because Melissa said she didn’t have anything to wear since she’s starting to show (they’re pregnant with their first child)… girl PLEASE, you look freaking incredible.

Anyway, if you don’t know the Hartwigs, they started Crossfit 603 in NH and went on to publish It Starts With Food

It’s a pretty incredible paleo resource from a scientific standpoint, and breaks everything down so it’s really easy to understand.

If you don’t quite grasp it all though, they tour and do workshops to explain further. I could listen to them talk for hours. In fact, we did. It was our longest interview yet at around 2 hours.

Listening to them go into further detail about reasons why paleo is better for the body, I was pretty much convinced that I need to go back to eating this way.

I’ve started cleaning my diet up even more, and as long as I continue to look at certain foods as “I don’t eat this because it makes me feel like crap” as opposed to “I can’t eat this because it’s not paleo,” I don’t think it’ll affect my recovery.

Case in point, we went to Pago for lunch on the Hartwig’s recommendation, and I had me a fan-flipping-tastic burger.

Medium-Rare. Nom.

Plenty more details on the trip to come, but now I’m going to eat some lunch (seared ahi with avo and greens) and continue to prep for my audition!

But before I go…

Today is the LAST DAY to enter my Paleo People Granola giveaway, so if you haven’t entered yet: THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE.

Making A Comeback

So I even though in my porn post I said I wouldn’t stop posting food pictures completely, I kinda stopped taking them for my own mental health reasons, and thereby had none to post.

I’m happy to report to you that I’m slowly climbing back on the bandwagon.

Maybe it’s because I’m starting a new job and times they are a’changin?

Whatever it is, I have a post filled with yummy pics and recipes, all while still recapping my day; fun right?!

So yesterday I got to sleep in a bit. I’m training for my new job, but didn’t have to be there until noon, so I enjoyed a pre-workout pumpkin smoothie…

pumpkin smoothie: 1 cup carrot juice, 1/4 cup pumpkin puree, 1 tsp molasses, handful spinach, handful ice, 1 scoop protein powder, 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

I put in a solid two hour workout since I had the time… reminded me of the good ole college days. 1 hour resistance training (including heavy lifting), 1 hour cardio, lots of sweat.

Did my squats, some power cleans to press, bench press and other random arm stuff. Realized my rear delts are starting to over-develop in comparison to my front delts and chest, so my shoulders are constantly forced into a slouch… working on that.

Then put in 50 minutes of interval training on the elliptical. I’m a huge fan of the “cross country” circuit which will change not only the incline and resistance, but will also tell you to switch up between forward and backward.

After my workout it was time for lunch.

Gluten-free buffalo chicken pizza, mixed green salad, green apple, water in my spiffy bottle, and also some pumpkin spice coffee (not pictured)

Ate over at the Coffee Bean, where they brewed me a fresh pot of pumpkin spice even though they don’t normally serve it after 11. I’m spoiled.

The pizza was left over from the night before and is super easy to make… we just bought the Udi’s frozen gluten free pizza, but I recommend making your own from a gluten free dough mix (we have before) as it was kinda meh.

For the toppings, we doctored up some regular tomato sauce, sauteed up some chicken breast in salt and pepper, thinly sliced some Trader Joe’s mozzarella, I added a handful of chopped spinach, then we doused the top in Frank’s… and after about 10 minutes at 425, healthy buffalo chicken pizza is made!

Training went well… did some modules, studied the foot, had MY foot studied (I’ve been wearing the wrong sneakers for running) and took some inventory.

After that I biked back towards the boy’s apartment, but studied at Republic of Pie while he got his workout in.

today’s bootcamp circuit, my ACE flashcards and an almond milk latte

Love Republic of Pie because they have almond milk… but THEN saw after I ordered that they also offer coconut and hazelnut milk! If that wasn’t enough, they are also now offering Stumptown Coffee!!!! Next time for sure.

Speaking of beverages, tried this brand over the weekend…

Some car/van thing was actually handing these out in Portland while we were there. I tried the diet green tea, and the unsweetened English tea. I definitely preferred the unsweetened, though the tea flavor in both of them could be a lot stronger.

Finally, I bring you the best part of this post, and being that it’s National Burger Day, it’s all too appropriate…

Pulled Pork Burger

Those of you on the west coast might have seen the Carl’s Jr. commercial of the two hot chicks fighting for grill space and creating this monstrosity known as the “Memphis BBQ Burger.” However, I don’t eat at Carl’s Jr, and quite frankly don’t even like BBQ very much, but the boy wanted to make a healthy-ish version, so we gave it a go.

We bought grass fed beef and the Trader Joe’s pulled pork. Yes, if we’d made our own pulled pork with a low/no-sugar BBQ sauce it would have been even healthier, but we were also trying to save some time. I made my own crispy onions…

• onions, very thinly sliced
• milk/egg wash
• 2 T breadcrumbs
• 2 T gluten free flour
• salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder

toss lightly in olive oil and bake at 450 for 10-15 minutes or until brown and crispy

I lightly toasted a gluten free hamburger bun. Put on a perfectly grilled patty with melted organic monterey jack cheese on top. Added a scoop of pork. Sprinkled on some onions. May have added a few dashes of hot sauce for good measure. And finally, devoured.

I’ve never been much for pulled pork, but this was DAMN good. Still not the healthiest of meals, but definitely a much better option than the fast food counterpart.

Still had enough macros left for a glass of wine and some chocolate to round out my meal. It was a very good day of eating.

What are you doing for National Burger Day?