Posts Tagged ‘Food’

Case of the Mondays

Posted: July 30, 2012 in Challenge, Food
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It’s Monday, weekend is over. The opportunity to sleep in is gone sigh. Oh well, time to make the best of it. I had another sleepy Sahoor this morning. Nothing too exciting food wise. I had some of the left over pasta and then had the same omelette I usually make, 2 eggs with 3 egg whites and onions/tomatoes. I drank over a liter of water. I also had a paleo muffin that I made the night before. I needed to eat more though considering I had workout tonight but we’ll just blame that on a case of the Mondays. It’s interesting though, I found myself craving coffee today when normally I never drink coffee. For those that are coffee drinkers, coffee can be Paleo compliant but it has to be drank black. No sugar or cream! Personally, I prefer the alternative of Teavana tea. They have some great flavors and most of them have really good health benefits. I recommend checking it out.

Here was tonight’s workout:

Back Squat
1 x 1 x 1 x 1 x 1 (weight should be 95% of your 1 rep max)
 
then…
5 Rounds
5 Push Jerks, 145 lbs
25 Double Unders

I did ok in today’s workout. I was interested to see if I had lost any strength since Ramadan started. I was able to back squat (around 300 lbs) 95% of my 1 rep max without too much trouble. This was great news for me! I did feel a little weak for the rest of the workout but that’s probably because I didn’t eat enough this morning. I wasn’t able to do the push jerks consecutively after the 2nd round because of dizziness. I started to drop the bar and start from the ground. No big deal.

Biggest take from today is that my strength hasn’t gone down!

For Iftar I made a beef dish today, Bunless Burger. I have ground beef patties that I keep frozen for busy days like today. I can pull them out, put them on the stove or microwave them and I have something to eat. The patties are mixed with tomatoes, chaat masala, paprika, chili powder, salt, egg, and lemon juice (uhm, it’s a little spicy if you can’t tell). I put the patties on top of a bunch of lettuce, added some tomato, cucumbers, and spicy mint mixture (chutney) to it. I ate it with a fork and knife while I drank another liter of water.

I was still a little hungry so I munched on a few blueberries later. I also snacked on some gluten-free jalapeno hummus with baby carrots. I like spices if you haven’t noticed.

I promised a good beef dish and I know this wasn’t exactly spectacular. I will make something good with beef at some point this week. Scouts..honor?

 

Oxymoron Bites, Success

Posted: July 29, 2012 in Food
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I’m going to go ahead and deem Oxymoron Bites day a success. I started this morning by making some Paleo Pancakes. Even though half of them broke apart on me while trying to flip them, they tasted amazing. (You think I could get IHOP to make their pancakes Paleo?). Anyhow, I was a little concerned if they would get me through the day but they did ok. I don’t think I would have been able to workout with just the pancakes for Sahoor, I would have needed to add some more protein and fat to the mix. Nonetheless, a great alternative to the typical egg breakfast I had been having. The only problem was, I didn’t sleep after eating them. I’m not sure if it was the pancakes or that I just missed my window of opportunity to fall back asleep but I was wide awake for good. No bueno.

Then later in the day I decided to make some Paleo muffins. I honestly had no idea how this was going to turn out. The idea of a healthy muffin sounds ludicrous to me but it was worth a shot. Here is what I used to make a batch of 6 muffins:

    • 1 cup almond flour
    • 1 tsp baking soda
    • 1/2 tsp sea salt
    • 1/2 Tbs cinnamon
    • 1/2 cup of pitted dates (in honor of Ramadan)
    • 3/4 cup shredded coconut
    • 1/3 cup grounded up walnut
    • 2 bananas
    • 2 eggs
    • 1/8 cup coconut oil
    • muffin tins

Before you start mixing anything, pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Then, combine the almond flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl. Use a food processor to blend the eggs, dates, bananas, and coconut oil. Combine most mixtures into a large bowl and mix it up. Add in the walnut and coconut shredding and mix it up real good. Pour the mixture using a spoon into the muffin tins. Place them in the oven for 25 minutes at 350 degrees. Pretty simple and straightforward to make if you have all of the ingredients ahead of time. Here is how it looked before the mixture entered the oven and then after they were done:

They don’t rise much so fill the tins up if you want the trust muffin look. The taste reminded me of banana bread but the coconut gave it a new angle. I ate one as a dessert today and plan on eating one for Sahoor tomorrow. It’s a great snack for cravings but I would still avoid eating them too late. The bananas and dates do contain a lot of sugar so it could affect your sleep and digestion.

So with the snacks covered, I decided to make Paleo Chicken Alfredo for dinner. It involved using a type of pasta I hadn’t heard of before, kelp noodles. It can be found at global food stores. Aside from that, the recipes calls for several powders that I didn’t have so I decided to make my own:

    • 1 lb of chicken breast, diced
    • 12 oz. of kelp noodles
    • 2 tsp olive oil
    • 4 cloves of garlic, minced
    • 2 tsp of cilantro
    • 1/2 tsp onion powder
    • 1/4 tsp garlic
    • 1/4 tsp salt
    • 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
    • 1/4 tsp of paprika
    • 1/4 tsp of chili powder
    • 1/2 tomato, diced

Add olive oil to a large skillet over medium heat. Once the oil is warm, drop in the minced garlic and let it saute for a few minutes while stirring it around. Add the chicken to the skillet and mix around until the chicken is done. Add the kelp noodles to boiling water for a few minutes. Drain the water and move the noodles to the skillet and add in the cilantro. Cover it up and let it simmer on low heat for about 30 minutes.

Place the onion powder, garlic powder, sea salt, black pepper, and paprika into a blender and blend. Place some olive oil on a hot pan and add this mixture to it. Stir it around for a few minutes and add in the tomato. Stir it for another minute or so and then place this sauce into the large skillet with the chicken and pasta. Mix it all up and then cover it up. Leave it on to the stove to cook for another 10-15 minutes or until the noodles are tender.

I need some extra spice so I added sriracha sauce to it:

I made enough for the whole family and everyone seemed to love it. They aren’t paleo eaters so they put some alfredo sauce on it but oh well. It tasted good without it and filled me up. Regular pasta leaves me with a tummy ache if I’ve been eating Paleo. This however left no such feeling. Success in my book!

It was a fun day trying these recipes out for things that are generally diet killers for any athlete. However I showed you here that eating healthy doesn’t mean that you have to stick to rabbit food. With a few substitutes and creativity, you can make the same foods your friends do but maintain your washboard abs!

 

Oxymoron Bites

Posted: July 29, 2012 in Food
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Today I’m going to try out what I call oxymoron bites. Oxymoron because they will be things like “Good for you pancakes” (huh?) and “healthy muffins” (seriously?). I want to show that eating healthy doesn’t mean you have to munch on lettuce and dry meat all day. You can still have all the tasty snacks and dishes you normally crave but you just have to find some alternative ingredients. The goal is to have those dishes be healthy but still taste great so you stay motivated doing this. This should be interesting.

Oh but first, I want to talk about my cheat meal night. I knew it was too good to be true. I should have just stuck with what I was doing. The dish I ordered ended up being over a pound of cheese wrapped in bread. Who eats this stuff?? Barf. Needless to say, after eating clean for over a week straight, it’s hard for your stomach to process that or much less even desire it. Sadly, my 2 other Paleo friends who ordered the same thing and myself, took a few bites and left the place hungry. Oh well, lesson learned!

Now back to the present. For Sahoor this morning I made banana almond pancakes:

2 bananas
2 Tbs almond butter
1 egg
2 Tbs coconut shreddings
1 Tbs coconut oil
Blueberries

Put the bananas and almond butter in a bowl and start smashing/mixing. Add in the egg and coconut shredding and stir it up until it’s a fine mixture. Heat up a non-stick pan and put a little bit of coconut oil in it. I recommend keeping the stove on a lower setting because they do cook fast.

My trick for making pancakes is that I put the batter into a measuring cup so I can pour evenly using the spout. Pour the mixture into the pan making a circle no bigger than 3-4″. I say that size because the bigger the size, the harder it is to flip. I have no trick for flipping and you will see my sad attempts at flipping shortly. Once the batter starts cooking, add in the blueberries to one side of the pancake. When the edges start turning golden, it’s time to flip. Once they are flipped, let them cook until the backside gets to the darkness level you prefer and take them off.

Flipping was an epic fail but the taste was amazing. I honestly think they tasted better than regular pancakes and I didn’t even need butter or syrup! Here is how they looked:

image

So there you have it, “healthy pancakes”. Don’t tell me your sweet tooth cravings are what’s keeping you from eating healthy! More to come later today!

Game Plan Juxtaposition

Posted: July 28, 2012 in Challenge, Food
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For CrossFitters, a workout at the gym can affect your mood and your whole well-being for the day. A good workout can relieve even the greatest stress on an athletes mind where as a bad one lingers around like bad gas. Yesterday was one of those bad days. I modified the met-con to make it a bit easier since the programmed one was fairly long. Here is what I did:

3 rounds for time
Run 200 meters
10 Push Press 95#
10 Toes to Bar
2 Rope Climbs (15′)

Aside from not running fast enough, keeping my rhythm while doing toes to bar, or maintaining proper correct technique while climbing the rope, I just couldn’t keep my intensity up. I came home frustrated and feeling weak. It took me a little while to compose my self even when I got home. I started to write a post about the experience last night but I had writers block from the frustration and weakness I was feeling so I decided to leave it for today.

I was able to sleep in today, finally (actually) catching up on my sleep and had a thought occur to me. I had somewhat of a game plan coming into this and here I am 8 days into it, completely disregarding it! Instead of doing more strength WODs, I’ve taken on some difficult met-cons all week. All the while, lying to myself about being rested enough. I had 4 solid points that I wanted to stick to on my game plan post and I find my self already disregarding a lot of them. I think ambition is getting the best of me. I see a fun WOD on the board and I feel like I should be taking it on. When I walk into that gym, it’s as if I forget that I haven’t eaten or drank anything since 4 am or how little I’ve slept this week. It’s the power of CrossFit and it’s a great feeling but I need to keep my circumstances in mind. Time to refocus.

Now that I’ve let that out, time to talk about what I ate last night. I made chicken with eggs and cauliflower:

    • 1/2 lb chicken breast, diced up
    • 2 eggs
    • 1/2 tsp of sea salt
    • 1 tsp of chaat masala
    • handful of cauliflower, chopped up
    • extra virgin olive oil

This was very easy to make. I added the oil to a hot pan and then dropped in the cauliflower for it to satuee. In the mean time I marinated the chicken with salt and chaat masala for some kick. Once the cauliflower was starting to soften up, I added in the chicken and stirred it around. Once the chicken was done cooking, I placed it on a plate, added the remaining guacamole I had left from the day before, and added some vegetables to it:

1.5 liters of water washed it down. I snacked on a bowl of watermelon a little later in the evening. Simple enough. Now if I can only stick to the game plan for everything else…

Focus!

TGIF

Posted: July 27, 2012 in Challenge, Food
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It’s Friday! Jummah Mubarak to all. I don’t know if it’s because it’s a Muslim holy day or the fact that I know I get to sleep in tomorrow but I feel great. I had a solid breakfast, decent amount of sleep, and a lot of water intake. I still have to work on going to sleep at a decent set hour though. Not sure why I can’t seem to do that. Any suggestions on creating a sleep schedule would be much appreciated.

Quick update on times – Sahoor today (cut off time to eat) was at 4:41 am and Iftar will be at 8.25pm.

I did change up how I regulate the amount of water I am drinking and that might be what’s helping my energy level. Last night I drank a 1.5 liter bottle of water after Iftar and then I filled that bottle up this morning and drank another 1.5 liters. I ended up drinking a few more glasses outside of that but this way I know that I am getting at least  100 ounces of water for the day. Every drop of sweat counts when I workout in this heat so I need to make sure I hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!

Sahoor was pretty similar to yesterday but I added an extra egg since I didn’t have anything leftover from the night before. Also, instead of avocado I added the guacamole I made last night. Eggs and guac = amazing. I have had a few non-guac eaters make a face of disgust at me when they see it but I urge everyone to try it. In fact I urge everyone to make it themselves. It’s so simple and really is one of the best snacks, health and taste wise, you can have.  TRY IT!

Oh and yes, I know the toast isn’t Paleo. It’s wheat bread but it’s still no good. I will probably only have it for another day or so until I try out some Paleo substitutes this weekend. The substitutes will include the oxymoron I talked about the other day. Stay tuned!

Master the Fatigue

Posted: July 26, 2012 in Challenge, Food
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Fatigue got the best of me last night so I didn’t post the workout or what I had for Iftar but I’m back with some extra energy!

With the lack of sleep catching up and another busy day at work, I was a little nervous about the workout at 7.30pm and preparing a Paleo dinner. I felt the fatigue but I pushed myself to go to the gym. The thought did cross my mind for a quick second about skipping the workout but I pushed that out of my head. I told myself that if I could get through this workout, I could sleep easy and then rest the next day. I made it home in time to change for the gym and start dinner preparations. However, since the days are getting shorter and Iftar was going to be at 8.27pm, I was in a bit of a schedule bind. Luckily my sister stepped in and finished making my dinner once I left for CrossFit. Thanks Sis!

This workout was taken from the masters competition from the CrossFit Games this year. Factor in my lack of sleep, food, and water to the mix and it made for a difficult workout. I took longer breaks in between reps than usual but even holding on to the pull up bar became a challenge. I didn’t have a solid game plan of how I was going to scale this down but half way through I knew I couldn’t finish the whole workout. My coach had me scale the reps in the second half.

For time:
10 Deadlifts (275 lb)
20 Pull Ups
30 Box Jumps (24″)
40 KB Swings (53 lb)
50 Double Unders
40 20 KB Swings (53 lb)
30 15 Box Jumps (24″
20 10 Pull Ups
10 5 Deadlifts (275 lb)

I didn’t feel any weaker which made me happy. I was able to deadlift that weight for that many reps without a problem. I felt the exhaustion though and that made me take longer breaks to feel less dizzy. I made a video of the workout so if you aren’t a CrossFitter you can see what the movements look like. It’s purpose is to show the flow of the workout so I edited out my breaks and complete reps.

For Iftar I made another chicken dish, Chicken Apple. Here is what it took:

  • 1/2 lb-ish of chicken breast, diced
  • 1/2 tsp of sea salt
  • 1/2 of ground pepper
  • 2 Tbs of coconut oil
  • 1/2 1 large apple
  • 1/2 Tbs of Chaat Masala

To make this, you season the chicken with the salt and pepper. Heat up a pan and add the coconut oil to it when it’s hot. Cook the chicken for about 10 minutes and then grate an apple into the pan. Stir it up until the chicken is done. Place it into a plate and sprinkle the chaat masala on top. I added some fruit salad to the plate as well as lettuce and cucumbers.

I made this with half an apple, but looking back, I should have used a full apple. It had a bit of sweetness to it but the full apple would have given it the altered taste I was looking for. The chaat masala dominated the sweetness of the apple so I mixed in the fruit salad as I ate it. I managed to drink over 1.5 liters of water too. I snacked on some small plums after dinner as well.

Since sleep was getting the best of me, I decided not to go to the mosque for Taraweeh prayer. Instead I did my prayers at home and called it a night. Day 5, done!

Sleep Adjustment

Posted: July 25, 2012 in Challenge, Food
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I knew this would happen sooner or later but looks like lack of sleep is catching up to me. It doesn’t help that I skipped on sleeping well the week leading up to Ramadan. I don’t sleep very much as it is but the timing of Sahoor has really thrown me off. I also am not a napper. It comes down to self discipline though and it can be done. I just need to be in bed by a predetermined time instead of challenging my brother to a FIFA tournament or deciding I can make progress on a work project at midnight. Time to refocus and plan better!

With that said, Sahoor this morning was a challenge to get up for. I cracked open 2 eggs and then added about 3 egg whites to a pan. I added some diced onions, tomatoes, and chili powder and mixed it all up. When it was nearly done, I diced up some precooked chicken patties and added it to the pan. I washed it down with a glass of cranberry juice, a few glasses of water, and a protein shake. I performed my morning prayers and went straight back to sleep until I couldn’t hit snooze any longer (stupid app that makes you do math problems to shut off your alarm).

It was a quick breakfast but I think it will do. I am excited about the workout that my gym has posted for today. My only concern is the amount of water I drank. I don’t think it was enough so I will have to see how I feel and make adjustments to the workout as necessary.

Home Turf

Posted: July 24, 2012 in Challenge, Food
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I want to start by saying that I appreciate all of the positive feedback I’m getting. Every remark is making me stronger in this venture and is really motivating, so thank you! If you want to receive updates when I post entries, add your email address in the box to the left

So just like that, the quick trip is over and I deem it pretty successful from the challenge point of view. I was able to eat pretty Paleo and use what was available in the hotel gym to perform a CrossFit workout. I made it home right before the last CrossFit class of the day at my gym so I was able to join in on the fun. Today’s workout was:

“Cindy”
AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) in 20 mins 10 mins
5 pull ups
10 push ups
15 squats

I modified this classic CrossFit workout to be 10 mins instead of 20. I managed to complete 9 rounds. I felt a little dizzy after round 7, probably because of all of the walking in the heat today and lack of sleep, so I decided to end at 10 mins. I might have been able to go for more after a minute or two of rest but I decided not to push it yet. I can feel my body adjusting to working out without food and water so I’m hoping I can start tackling more difficult workouts soon.

For Iftar, I didn’t have a lot of time to prepare so I whipped up some quick Coconut Chicken. It took almost no time to prepare so it’s great for a busy day. As usual, to open my fast I had 3 dates. Here is how the coconut chicken was made:

  • 1/2 lb chicken breast
  • 1/4 cup shredded coconut
  • 1/4 cup almond flour
  • 1/8 tsp of sea salt
  • 1 egg
  • 2 Tbs coconut oil

Almond flour is a real treat for Paleo eaters, it almost feels like cheating. It’s a gluten-free substitute for flour and tastes great. I’ll attempt some Paleo muffins this weekend using almond flour. Healthy muffins, sounds like an oxymoron but we’ll see how it turns out.

Anyways, to make this you place the shredded coconut, almond flour, and sea salt into a bowl and mix it up. Crack the egg into a small bowl and beat it. Dip the chicken into the egg bowl and then coat it with the coconut/almond flour mixture. Heat up a pan and put the coconut oil in it. Place the chicken on the pan and fry it until it’s cooked. Simple and done! Here is how it turned out:

It had a great sweet taste that you don’t expect when you think chicken. It confused the taste buds for a minute. I added some salad to it and chugged on a lot of water, including a Vita Coco Water to restore my electrolytes. It was a lot of food so I didn’t finish it. I did get hungry later on so I’m eating the rest of it now. So much for leftovers.

So I know this has been a lot of chicken dinners but I promise to switch it up with some beef coming soon. Stay tuned!

Ramadan on the Road

Posted: July 23, 2012 in Challenge, Food
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Today was the first day I had to eat out this Ramadan. The plan was to carefully research and find a Paleo friendly place. However, life happened and there was limited time to find the perfect place. My fate was left in the hands of Yelp and it landed me in a Irish pub with more baseball memorabilia then the MLB Hall of Fame. It was too late to turn back so I had to make do with what was available. Turned out to be ok. I was able to watch the Nationals game (Go NATS!) while I scoured the menu for something somewhat Paleo friendly. For those of you who have eaten at Irish pubs, you know that finding something healthy is nearly impossible. When you are faced with a situation like that, you have two viable options. Almost every restaurant will have some sort of salad selection. Pick one that is heavy on the greens and contains some sort of protein in it (avoid 6 lbs of ranch dressing). After all of the walking today, I was spent and a salad just wasn’t going to cut it for me. So the next option is to head on over to the gluten-free portion of the menu. Gluten is a type of protein that is added into grains and wheat to add texture, flavor, and thickness. It’s also difficult for the body to process, so for a healthy diet it’s something that should be avoided. Most restaurants will have gluten-free options these days so be sure to ask for it.

I ended up getting a shrimp dish that was served with roasted red peppers, tomatoes, a healthy serving of broccoli served on top of linguine. It had some oregano and other spices in it and it looked like it was made with olive oil. I later had some mixed fruit to satisfy the sweet tooth.
No pictures of food tonight, the food came out right as Iftar hit and I wasted no time attacking it.

The Workout

You and I both know, traveling is one of the best excuses to skip a workout. Not for a dedicated CrossFitter though! As a CrossFitter, when you travel to a different city, there is almost always a CrossFit gym that you can drop in at. They will almost always take you in as if you are a regular and it’s fun to see how other gyms operate. However, a couple of things hindered that option for me today. One is that my schedule simply didn’t match up with the workout sessions of the local gym. Second, as a drop in, I’m not so sure how a coach would feel with me making up my own WOD as a guest if they had an intense met-con programmed. So this leaves me with two options. I could either do another body weight workout in my room, or… the dreaded hotel gym..

Ignore the grandma on the elliptical and avoid eye contact with the guy doing 600 bicep curls and you will be just fine:

“Hotel Woes Chipper” for time
15 dumb bell thrusters 70#
10 push ups
15 dumb bell push presses
10 squats
15 med ball thrusters
10 sit ups
15 dumb bell cleans

With this day in the books, time for the hard part. Waking up for Sahoor and finding a place to eat at 4 am…

Tale of a Traveling Fast-er

Posted: July 23, 2012 in Food
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Today I have to make a short business trip to NYC. When a Muslim is traveling, especially through different time zones, they are not required to fast that day. You would skip that day and then make it up after the end of Ramadan. Now this rule was established when long distance traveling was done via a camel in the blistering sun, where it took all day to go 30 miles. I, however, am sitting in an air conditioned Amtrak Acela train and will be in NYC in about 2 hours. I think I’ll be ok. The challenge is going to be finding Paleo friendly food, especially for Sahoor tomorrow morning. The other challenge will be to find a suitable place to workout. I’ll rely on my friends in the city and trusty www.yelp.com for assistance on that.

I knew I would have to walk extra today so I adjusted my Sahoor meal accordingly:

  • 2 eggs plus 4 egg whites, scrambled with tomatoes and onions. Added some hot sauce and chili powder on it for flavor
  • Whey protein shake
  • A glass of cranberry juice
  • Cup of Teavana White Tea with half a spoon of Rock Sugar
  • 64 ounces of water

(I’ll upload pictures of Sahoor meals when I am little more used to being up that early and am not eating with one eye closed)

I ran out of gaucamole last night or I would have added that to my meal as well. I didn’t make any more since I knew I would be traveling and I didn’t want it to go bad. As you can see my tolerance for liquids has increased in the morning. I will continue to increase that if my body allows it.

Tonight’s goal will be to avoid all of that delicous NY pizza and other great (not so great for you) food the city has to offer. If  this wasn’t only day 4, I would make today a cheat day.I’ll explain more what that means after we have some solid Paleo days under our belt.

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