Quick Post

Lots of interesting stuff going on, but unfortunately I am short on time tonight. So here's today's breakdown:

Breakfast
left over Chicken & Tofu soup from the Tofu House
2 eggs poached in the soup
1/3 banana
small handful roasted cashews

Snack
1/3 cup cottage cheese
1 cup watermelon
handful mixed nuts (walnuts, almonds, cashews)

Lunch
1 cup sauteed mixed greens (kale and collard)
4 oz rotisserie chicken
1 Medium Gala apple
handful mixed nuts
1 small clementine orange

Snack
2 oz turkey lunchmeat
1 slice swiss cheese
handful nuts
1 small clementine orange

Oceanside CrossFit WOD: Grace (30 Clean & Jerk @ 135#) - 9:58 but I concentrated more on form than time. Still, the last time I did this workout I did only 106# and it took me 8:55.

Dinner
4 oz crock-pot chicken
1 cup mushrooms
1/2 cup roasted butternut squash
1/3 banana
1 1/2 tsp peanut butter
3 small squares dark chocolate
1 small glass of shiraz

All Good Things Must End!

Call it! Time of death: 1830 hours, Friday, 12 Dec 2008. That date marks the premature end of yet another nutrition experiment. The No Sugar/No Grain Train has come to a screeching halt. While I'm disappointed that I didn't make it all the way until Christmas Eve, I won't call it a complete failure. I learned a bit about myself in the short 2 week life of the challenge.

First, let's talk about what brought on the death of the challenge. All week long both Amy and I struggled with urges to eat sweets. It started with that gruelling WOD on Monday. I was so smoked from that workout that I felt I "deserved" something naughty for surviving. We held form though and refused to compromise. The rest of the week though, that thought was still in the back of our minds. Also, I was not sleeping well. I was going to bed too late and waking up too much throughout the night, so by the end of the week I was exhausted and my defenses were really starting to crumble.

Thursday night we finally broke down and decided to dig into that caramel, nut covered apple that had been sitting on the counter for a week. We cut into it and Amy immediately declared it inedible. I didn't even get a bite. The apple was just simply no longer ripe or fresh, it certainly was not worth the guilt that would follow. At that point though I was past the point of no return, I had to have something. So, I dug into "The drawer" and pulled out some dark chocolate and had several chunks with a glass of red wine. That helped.

Amy also confessed that she had eaten some quiche and half a donut at work on Thursday. So, it was clear that the wheels were starting to fall of the challenge, the writing was on the wall.

By friday the fridge was starting to look a little bare and our protein options were running thin. I broke down and had a Purefit bar for a snack at work, Chocolate Brownie, no less. The final death nail came down Friday night when we decided to go out for dinner and then hit Barnes & Noble. Initially we were going to go to Outback Steakhouse and order off the Gluten Free menu, although we both admitted we would have had a hard time resisting the warm bread and butter, but we were going to try. We got to the restaurant a little later than anticipated and the wait was 35 minutes and I was starving. So, we decided to hit Chipotle. I didn't even try. No bowl for me, just give me the damn burrito in the ginormous ass tortilla and don't skimp on the rice. Hell, I'm even gonna wash it down with a little bit of Coke. If you're gonna fall, fall hard. We then went to B&N and of course finished that off with a trip to the Starbucks where we sat down to a decadent chocolate fudge cupcake, small red velvet chocolate truffle cupcake and a chocolate peanut butter cookie. Mmmmm...it was good. Didn't feel guilty, but did feel a bit sick. Definitely over did it.

So, now that the challenge was dead, now what? Just jump in with both feet and start pigging out on grains and sugar again? Not exactly. My goal now is to stay as sugar and grain-free as I can. I felt good when I was doing it. I feel like I leaned out a bit more, not that I really needed to, but I think I did. Saturday we went out for Thai food and requested "no rice". It was still a damn good meal, and I got plenty to eat. We learned something from this challenge. I also think it puts us in a good place for the Oceanside CrossFit 60 Day Zone/Paleo Challenge that will kick off after the New Year.

Okay, so I'm sorta caught up. I'm going to try to keep up with the blogging and logging my food and workouts. Should be interesting over the holiday, but that's what this is all about.

One workout worth noting over the last few days: Saturday we hit Angie (100 pull-ups, 100 push-up, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats) and I finished in 16:36.

Relying on the will power of others.

Jeff nearly killed us in the gym tonight. Check out the WOD for today. At first glance it doesn't look that bad, but trust me it was gnarly. The whole "As Many Rounds" idea was a joke. Not many people were able to complete more than one round. I hit two on the first go, but that was the only one. Of course, Jeff had 3 sets where he went 2 rounds, but other than that everybody was glad to finish one round and then have a little more than the one-minute rest. After the workout I was pretty obsessed with "rewarding" myself for surviving a grueling workout. We have a peanut covered caramel apple in our house that Amy got from work. She kept saying she was going to eat it tonight and I was trying to "be good". After dinner, I was still hungry and the walls started to break down. I asked Amy if she was going to eat something and to my surprise and dismay she said "no." Well if she wasn't going to cheat then I guess I couldn't either. Dagnabit! Oh well, Christmas will be here soon enough and the cheating will be in full effect.

Breakfast
1 cup low fat yogurt
2 small persimmons
1 tsp cinnamon
2 egg cheese omelete

Snack
~2oz grilled chicken breast
1/2 cup blueberries
handful of mixed nuts

Endurance Workout - 38:00 trail run, fairly hard pace (approx 4.5 miles)

Lunch
~4oz leftover pork tenderloin
1/3 cup butternut squash
1/4 cup turnips
Salad - 1.5 cup broccoli, 1 small cucumber, 1/2 c sweet peppers
Balsamic vinaigrette
Clementine Orange
Small handful mixed nuts

Snack
2 hardboiled eggs
1 clementine orange
handful mixed nuts

Oceanside CrossFit WOD - linked above, I completed 7 rounds, ugh!

Dinner
~4oz leftover enchilada chicken
1.5 cup roasted zucchini and squash
1/4 cup black beans
small amount of chopped red onions
chopped cilantro
sprinkling of shredded cheese (approx 1/2 oz)
Small cup of 1% milk

Snack(non-cheat)
3/4 c grapes
1 cheese stick
small handful peanuts

Cheat Day Recovery

Saturday ended up being a monumental "Cheat Day". We had a previously planned dinner party for Saturday night, so we knew going into this challenge that Saturday night was going to be a no holds barred affair.

The day started off well. I had a good breakfast (pictured above). It consisted of leftover enchilada chicken, topped with 2 scrambled eggs, chopped red onion, and chopped cilantro. Could have stepped it up a notch with some avocado and a sprinkling of cheese, but this did me just fine. A couple good cups 'o joe and I'm ready to hit the gym.

Things went well at the gym. We helped out with the intro class at 8 am and then got ready to hit the WOD ourselves. Saturday's WOD included a fair amount of snatches, so I decided to drop the weight from the prescribed 95# and went with 80# so that I could work on technique. I was able to keep the intensity up rather high, but not sacrifice form too much to get there. I think it was a good idea to go with the lighter weight.

Lunch we stayed pretty much to the challenge, but it was after lunch that things started to fall apart at the seams. One thing we didn't plan for was being invited to a retirement party for a good friend's Dad. Mark's Dad is from Guam and it was sure to be a Chamorro cuisine blowout. Since we left Guam in 2003, Amy and I have only had Chamorro food one time, and it was a rather diappointing experience. This party did anything but disappoint. From the moment we got to the party it felt like I was back on Guam. The neighborhood, even though it was San Marcos, the people and of course the spread. They had everything: red rice, pan de leche, various types of kelaguen, ribs, chicken, empanadas and the creme de la creme, a whole roasted pig.

Amy and I tried to control ourselves, considering we knew we had another party to go to in just an hour. On my first trip through I had a small serving of red rice, pan de leche, chicken, drief beef, shrimp kelaguen and beef kelaguen, a spicy empanada, and of course some of that roast pig. I put a healthy serving of finideni over all of it and sat back and enjoyed. From the first bite of red rice soaked in finideni I was transported back 5 years to my last good Chamoru meal on Guam. Everything at this party was very authentic and very good. The shrimp kelaguen was fantastic and the beef kelaguen was loaded with peppers. The pig was roasted perfectly. I actually didn't make a second trip, but I did finish off Amy's red rice and pork, but I had to go back through the line to get some more finideni. Man, I miss that stuff. I also tried a traditional coconut, jellied dessert type thing. Everybody raved about it, but it wasn't my thing.

We would have loved to stay at the party longer, but we had a tapas dinner party to get to. Time for more food, ugh! We zipped home quick to pick up our offering for the party and we were back at it again. The tapas were plentiful, too many for me to recall. We brought puff pastry with bleu cheese baked in and topped with prosciutto wrapped figs, yum! There were also some spicy shrimp, tasty potatoes, scallop ceviche, a prosciutto and tomotao sauce bruschetta and some other things I don't recall. Plenty of great wine was flowing as well. I controlled myself pretty well on the wine. Only had 2 glasses, plus a small taste of the chocolate port that we brought. I lost it a bit on the dessert. Somebody brought two huge boxes of chocolate covered macadamia nuts, those always remind me of being a little kid and eating box after box of those, so of course I ate way too many chocolates. I also ate several of the brown sugar & cinnamon melt-away cookies that Amy baked. They were quite a hit, even though Amy was quite disappointed because they didn't exactly melt in your mouth. Needless to say, by the time we rolled out, I was hurtin'. Belly was full and I was ready for bed.

Today was recovery day. We stayed in the zone and stuck with the no-sugar/no-grain rule. I even avoided all the naughty teasers at Costco. Amy struck gold with crockpot again tonight. We had pork tenderloin that she spiced with a smoky paprika and garlic and threw in some cubed turnips and butternut squash.

Was going to try to get a run in today, but that fell by the wayside as we made an unscheduled trip to Ikea and then a picnic at Mission Bay Park.

Time to get back at it tomorrow. Oh, the damage from last night's cheating resulted in a morning weight of 156.2. Good thing I'm not obsessed about my weight

Crockpot Enchilada Chicken

Today was a really good day. I had a meeting with my Commanding Officer and he wants me to head up setting up a battalion gym. Since I get to create it, it will be based on the CrossFit model. I honestly believe that CrossFit is the program that is best suited for getting our Soldier, Sailors, Airmen and Marines in top fighting shape. I'm really looking forward to taking this on. I have been looking for an opportunity like this since I checked into this command and the timing couldn't be any better since I just got my level 2 certification. Now, I just need a space to call a gym and some equipment to fill it with. Ah, details.

3 days into the no-sugar/no-grains challenge and things are going fairly well. I have had food dreams the past two nights though. Wednesday night it was pizza and last night it was steamed white rice. In both dreams I realized as I was serving myself the food that I wasn't supposed to eat it. Fairly traumatic, but I'm surviving. Actually, it's not that hard. I think the biggest thing is that I'm a bit hungry throughout the day, but I think that's just a part of getting back into the Zone proportions. I had been pretty lax about how much I was eating lately and now I'm paying the price. Performance-wise I'm still doing well, I have not noticed any degradation in energy or performance in the gym. Tomorrow is a planned cheat day since we have out Tapas dinner party to go to and we were invited to a retirement party for someone from Guam. We are sure to be surrounded by red rice and probably some Lumpia and I'm sure that the marinade for the short ribs will have had plenty of sugar in it. Self-control, that's what it's all about. I'm not that good at self-control, but that's what it's all about.

Breakfast

1 cup cottage cheese

1 cup grapes

handful macadamia nut pieces

Snack

1 oz deli turkey

1 cheese stick

honeycrisp apple

handful mixed nuts

Lunch

Salad - lettuce, tomato, onion

1 can albacore tuna

Newman's Own Olive Oil Vinaigrette

Mixed nuts

Snack

2 over hard eggs

Naval Orange

small handful mixed nuts

1/2 hour before dinner - 1 tsp peanut butter

Dinner (see photo above and recipe below)

~4-5 oz chicken breast

1/2 avocado

1 cup roasted yellow squash

1/4 cup tomatoes

handful of cilantro

diced red onion

Small glass of Williamson Wines 2004 Cuvee

Amy's Newest Crockpot Creation

1 large can of Enchilada Sauce

3 large split chicken breasts

1 medium onion sliced

a bunch of garlic cloves

Yellow squash sliced into 1/2 inch pieces

Avocado

Red Onion finely chopped

Cilantro

Tomato chopped

Combine first 4 incredients in crockpot. Cook on low temperature for 8-9 hours or until chicken is fork tender. Once chicken is done, shred with fork.

Drizzle squash with olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Spread on baking sheet and roast @ 375 degrees for 20 minutes.

In a bowl add roasted squash, top with shredded chicken and a healthy portion of the broth. Add remaining ingredients. Pour a nice glass of red and enjoy.

Didn't block this out, but it would be easy enough to do. The entree alone is rather low in carbs, but the glass of red helps boost the carb content of the meal a bit. Would have been good with a nice salad, but we were way too hungry for that kind of effort.

Hold the Sugar, Hold the Grains.

Time for a new nutrition experiment. There has been a fair amount of buzz on the CrossFit Forum about no-sugar and also no-grain/no-sugar challenges. Amy and I finally decided to bite the bullet and jump onboard the no-sugar/no-grain train. We weren't strong enough (or maybe we were just honest with ourselves) to start this before Thanksgiving. We decided to wait until all the family had left and there was some semblance of normalcy about the house again.

So, what's the challenge? It's pretty much as simple as it sounds. Between December 3rd and December 24th we will do our best to not consume any thing that has any added sugar, or any grain products. So, this means no table sugar, no corn syrup, no high fructose corn syrup (pretty much try to avoid that at all costs anyway), no brown rice syrup (Clif Bars) no artificial sugars, no honey, no maple syrup. On the grain side, well pretty much anything that is a grain: wheat, oats, corn.

The hardest part of this challenge will be not having any bars for snacks. I will typically have 1 bar per day during the week, either a Clif Builder Bar, Think Thin Bar or now our new bar is the Purefit Bar. The other hard part will be not having oatmeal. I like to eat oatmeal 2-3 times per week and a fave in the Hollingsworth house is oatmeal with peanut butter and a touch of real maple syrup. Aside from that, I have been eating a fair amount of dark chocolate lately and my favorite salad dressing, Bragg Healthy Vinaigrette, has honey in it, so that's out.

So, what have I been eating? Here's the breakdown of my diet and my workouts for the last 2 days.

Breakfast 12/3 (weight 153.6)
1 cup lowfat plain yogurt
1/2 cup mandarin oranges
handful of macadamia nut pieces
3 oz roasted chicken

Snack
1/2 cup cottage cheese
2 small persimmons
handful macadamia nut pieces

Lunch
5 oz salmon fillet
3 raw carrots
1 orange
handful of nuts (walnuts, almonds, macadamia)

Snack
1 oz deli turkey meat
1 cheese stick
Honeycrisp apple
handful of nuts

Oceanside CrossFit WOD: Tabata - GHD sit-ups, Bottom Squats, Ring Rows, Handstand push-ups

Dinner
approx 5oz Pork Shoulder
some eggplant pieces
even less Bok Choy
2 tsp peanut butter right off the spoon and into my mouth, mmmmmm peanut butter

Breakfast 12/4
3 Eggs Scrambled
1 cup lowfat plain yogurt
1/2 cup cinnamon applesauce
48 almonds (yes, I counted them)

Snack
2 oz roasted chicken
2 medium raw carrots
handful mix nuts

CrossFit Endurance WOD: Tabata Run @ 10.5 mph

Lunch
5 oz pork shoulder
1 cup cauliflower
2 stalks celery
Balsamic Vinaigrette
Orange
Handful mixed nuts

Snack
2 oz roasted chicken
1 medium apple
handful mixed nuts

Oceanside CrossFit WOD: 5 rounds Press/Push Press/Push Jerk @ 95# (low round 5 reps/high round 6 reps)

Dinner
2 oz pork shoulder
2 oz roasted chicken
sauteed mizuna
Salad w/ red leaf lettuce, boston lettuce, tomato, cucumber
Newman's Own Olive Oil Vinaigrette
2 small glasses Williamson Winery '04 Cuvee

Got me a Level 2 and a Fran PR

Wow, what a turkey day holiday this was. I had 6 days off total (gotta love the Marine Corps) and I was more tired going back to work today than I was at the beginning of the holiday liberty period. It was a pretty action packed week, however.

Started off with welcoming the in-laws into town. The Seester-in-law came down last weekend, and watched Piper so that Amy and I could attend the Olympic Lifting Seminar at Oceanside CrossFit. What a great day of instruction that was from none other than Coach Mike Burgener.

On Tuesday, Amy's Mom and Step-Dad flew in from Seattle. Piper was beside herself she was so excited.

Wednesday was a low-key day. Mostly shopping for the big day on Thursday. Amy and I hit the gym for a lovely WOD of 150 Burpees. Time to see if the 100 Day Burpee Challenge paid off. It did, and how. My previous time on this workout was 10:30, I finished this one in 9:42. Amy took more than 6 minutes off her time finishing in 12:57.

Thursday morning we got up early and started preparing our feast. Since it was a small gathering, we did not have an extravagant menu planned. We had shrimp cocktail and hummus for appetizers, nothing says Thanksgiving like mashed garbanzo beans with garlic and chives. The main course was Turkey, stuffing, sauteed kale and salad. We finished it off with my pumpkin bread pudding with ice cream and Amy made chocolate brownies with a pumpkin, cream cheese mousse topping. Quite yummy, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

After the early morning preps and getting the turkey into the oven, Amy and I zipped over to the gym for a Turkey Day WOD. Jeff surprised everyone by treating us to "Fran". I didn't see that one coming. Amy and I expected that it would be a small group being Thanksgiving Day and all. We were quite pleasantly surprised to see the gym chock full. It was so full we had to run 3 separate groups to get everyone through. Neither Amy or I felt like this would be our day to PR Fran. I picked up the bar and warmed-up with a few thrusters and all I could think was UGH. Somehow, I mustered up the energy and fire to bust out a 30 second PR and finished in 4:05. Guess it was because I went toe-to-toe with Jeff, who also PR'd with 3:10 and Danny, who PR'd as well. Amy wasn't so fortunate. She just couldn't find her groove and finished somewhere in the 8 minute range.

Saturday and Sunday I spent at CrossFit Coronado going through the CrossFit Level 2 Certification. Unlike other certifications, this is a real deal, no gimmies test. The idea is to test one's ability to teach the 9 essential exercises that are fundamental to CrossFit (squat, front squat, shoulder press, push press, push jerk, deadlift, sumo deadlift high pull and medicine ball clean). The instructors were relentless and demanded a lot from us. It was a very challenging course and I am very proud to say that I passed and I am now a Level 2 Certified CrossFit Trainer. Unfortunately, about 1/2 of the attendees are not able to say that. The grading process is very stringent, but also very objective. I was very impressed with this cert.

Monday was supposed to be a relaxing day. I took Piper and the in-laws to the New Children's Museum. Piper and the in-laws had a blast. Unfortunately, I was exhausted and just couldn't get into the swing of things. It's a cool museum, a little smaller than I anticipated, but lots of fun things for kids to do. I owe Piper another trip to the museum when I'm in a more playful mood.

It's time to go back to work so I can get a little rest.