Good morning!
A huge THANK YOU to everyone who participated in the Twitter chat with Wayfair yesterday. I appreciate so many of you coming out for it. I hope you had fun!
So, do you want to hear what woke me up this morning?
Mal riffling through our bed looking for his wallet.
I bet you’re wondering why his wallet was in our bed this morning. Oh, because he was a tad excited late last night when he remembered registration opened yesterday for the 2013 CrossFit Open. Mal jumped out of bed, grabbed his wallet, and then proceeded to register from his cell phone. He must have fallen asleep just a few minutes later because his wallet was lost in our bed this morning. You guys think I’m obsessed with CrossFit? My husband is obsessed with CrossFit.
Ok, I registered for the Open first thing this morning.
Yay! Let the Games begin!
Even if you’re new to CrossFit, you can compete. The Open is open to everyone and it’s a ton of fun! Everyone gets so excited for it and most likely your box will be doing the workouts, so you might as well join in. It’s also cool because you’re doing the exact same workouts and competing against some of the best athletes in the world. I also like to see where I stack up against other CF athletes!
*Edited to add: In order to post a score for the Open, you need to do the workout as Rx-ed, but the first workout of the 2012 CrossFit Open (7 minutes of Burpees) was do-able for even beginners and you can still do the workouts scaled at your box along with everyone else. Even though I couldn’t do all of the workouts as prescribed last year, I still loved being part of the competition!
Breakfast
Yesterday morning’s breakfast was a tasting plate of sorts. I baked some Date Nut Sweet Potato Muffins the night before, so I wanted to have one for breakfast. I toasted it, spread some butter on it, and then paired it with a hardboiled egg and some blueberries.
I love muffins for breakfast. Actually, I pretty much love anything sweet and carby for breakfast. (Pancakes? Hello!) But, when I eat a meal like this, which usually doesn’t have a lot of substance (read: fat and protein), I inevitably end up hungry a couple of hours later. So when I was creating these muffins, I made sure they had all sorts of healthy fats and protein to fill me up and satisfy me for hours and hours.
Date Nut Sweet Potato Muffins
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup mashed sweet potato
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- 1/2 cup almond butter
- 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup chopped dates
- 1/2 cup walnuts
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350*F.
- Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and blend well.
- Coat muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray (or use paper liners) and divide batter among six cups.
- Bake for 35 minutes or until muffins are cooked all the way through.
- Allow to cool before serving.
Makes 6 muffins
Three Questions Thursday
Here’s this week’s edition of Three Questions Thursday! Keep those questions coming!
When you mentioned that you were taking VSL#3. I looked into it and it sounds like something that would really help me with my IBS. But when I looked at the price, I was pretty blown away. Does your insurance cover it, or do you buy it through Amazon every time? Do you think it’s worth it? Does it really help?
VSL#3 is expensive! Sadly, my health insurance doesn’t cover anything, but I found Amazon to have the cheapest prices.
I *think* VSL#3 helps. I have UC, which is an autoimmune disease, so it’s hard to know what is really helping and what isn’t. It’s the only thing (besides drugs) that my doctor said might help, so I’m taking it and hoping for the best.
A few weeks ago, I actually started to increase my dosage of probiotics to see if having more of those good bacteria would help my colon. I also recently started taking Natren Healthy Trinity, which is a little cheaper than VSL#3 and sold at Whole Foods. I read a lot of UC forums to see what helps others and a bunch of people mentioned having success with this probiotic. I also read that it’s good to mix up bacteria strains every now and then, so I usually take 1-2 capsules of the Healthy Trinity and 2-3 capsules of the VSL#3 each day.
I see that you eat a lot of spaghetti squash. Your meals look so good! My question is how do you make it?
I do love spaghetti squash! Check out this post: How to cook spaghetti squash!
I know you were plagued with running injuries in the past. I have completed several half marathons, would like to complete a full someday! I was just wondering, have you noticed a difference in your body running-wise since you have started Crossfit? A lot of my “injuries”, I quote it because they are always overuse type stuff not like torn ACL or MCL etc (had that in high school running track!) and a lot of it is caused by my hips not being in line and muscle imbalances in my legs. Long story short I wan to get stronger to run stronger and longer, do you think Crossfit is a good option?
YES! Holy goodness, YES! CrossFit will make you strong all over. When I ran a lot, I had one injury after the next due to overuse. The programming in CrossFit is so amazing because it works all different parts of your body””constantly varied, high- intensity, functional movement. CrossFit is never the same thing twice, so I don’t have those overuse issues anymore. Plus, I’m a zillion times stronger and more fit nowadays. Back when I was running a ton, I could run for miles and miles, but I couldn’t do much else. Now I can do all sorts of crazy stuff””rope climbs, pull-ups, Olympic lifts, double-unders, headstands””which makes me a better athlete overall, so my race times have actually gotten quite a bit faster without much (any?) training.
Question of the Day
Would you rather: eat a sweet breakfast (pancakes, muffins) or a savory breakfast (eggs, bacon)?