Paleo Salmon Patties plus Homemade Mayo

Well, it has been forever since I've updated and written a blog post.

Not a whole lot has been going on. Life has been pretty slow, CrossFit has been fun, photography has been bumping along, and we've enjoying some special company now and then. It's been rather enjoyable. :)

Tonight, I found myself alone for supper, was hungry for seafood (which, in itself, is weird), and wanted something I could douse in my homemade mayo.

Um. Yum.

Salmon Patties

Mix:

1-5oz package of skinless, boneless salmon
1-egg
2-teaspoons coconut flour
salt, garlic, onion powder

I heated my awesome cast iron pan (I'm still working on the muscles to lift that sucker. I swear it adds 10 pounds when it gets hot!), and fried them up in butter, probably about 3-4 minutes each side.

I served it on a bed of romaine and spinach.. topped with homemade mayo, of course.

Homemade Mayo

Add to immersion blender bottle:

1-egg
2-teaspoons apple cider or white wine vinegar
2-teaspoons dijon or yellow mustard
Juice of half a lemon (this is the tastiest part!)
Salt

Then, hold your immersion blender in there at the very bottom and let 'er go.

This is a pretty detailed video, if you want more instructions: http://youtu.be/PBeyEPlHPkk

I can't believe I lived nearly two years without ever having mayo. Never again. :)


In other news, I have been struggling a little bit with digestion and my stomach. I lost my appetite the last two weeks and would finally get hungry in the afternoon a little. If I did eat in the morning, I would get sick to my stomach, bloated, and not able to eat for hours. I would get a little anxious about eating as I was always worried if it would be okay. It was rough. One night I couldn't even finish a 6-oz steak, and I lost like 6 pounds total. Yikes.

From what I can summarize, it seems like it was set off with my gallbladder after an overdose of coconut milk and avocado (learn to put the spoon down!), and settled in my stomach.

Also, my workouts were not affected until I simply ran out of fuel in the second week... but it's quite possible the workouts affected my stomach. Looking back through my detailed food/workout/sleep/"symptom" log, there's a strong correlation between a lot of core work (mainly pushups) and worse symptoms on that day. However, my appetite and the upset stomach didn't seem to matter if I worked out or not... so I kept working out in order to get a little appetite going. ;)

I explored some different therapies and techniques, adjusted the supplements I'm taking, and called in the big guns: Enzymes, probiotics, and fermented foods.

I'm feeling much better now... and it's been good for me to reign in my portion size. I can honestly say that I think a lot of CrossFitters (and people in general!) don't eat enough (see Crossfitters Eat to Perform), but I think I was far exceeding my 2500-2600ish daily caloric needs. The idea that maybe my body decided to just shut me down to use up all its stored energy has crossed my mind too. Who knows.

And all you medical people, don't worry, I had promised the hubby that if my final appointment yesterday still yielded no results, I was going to go for "tests." Who knows what that all would entail... maybe multiple doctor visits, stomach scopes, thousands of dollars in our deductible. I'm pretty confidant that I got this figured out for about $350-400.. which is a huge cost savings, not to mention not having to take any meds.


That's about it for news... take care until we meet again. :)


Oh!
PS. I have a couple links you should check out:
Why Women Should Not Run  This guy is a genius anyway, but this article is awesome. Sprints and HIIT are great, but "chronic cardio" and endurance training is extremely harmful to your thyroid. Read it. And do some intervals instead of 5 miles. Then go lift some heavy weights. Your thyroid will thank you.

Why News is Bad For You  I'm usually out of the loop, but I never feel left out. I have always believed that a person is happier without news.

PPS. It's April. And rain is expected. But I'm ready for summer. Like now. Anyone else? Sigh.

PPPS. I got 2 double unders in a row today. Woo hooo! I got so excited I threw the rope. Hah!

Life, CF, growth... and a cooking class!

Not a whole lot has been going on lately.... other than life. You know how it goes. :)

CrossFit has been going well. The Open WOD's are done, which is a bit disappointing. The best part about those is everyone in CrossFit does them... and it's fun to see how you stack up and compare.

I didn't do one of them, as pushing motions are still on the back burner for me. 150 wall balls? Ain't nobody got time for dat!

However, the rest of them have gone great.

This was 13.4:

95-lb Clean and Jerk's with Toes-to-Bar

Two of my favorite moves! What a blast.

I read this awesome article about what the Open teaches us. It's a sense of accomplishment, a measure of how we compare to ourselves, and what we can prove to ourselves. We can be proud of the accomplishments we have, no matter how humble they seem. Read the article here.

In general, I have multiple goals for CrossFitting, but I keep coming back to these main ones:

1. Have fun
2. Get strong
3. Prove myself by giving it my all and never quitting
4. Encourage others

I've had a lot of victories lately, physically. My injuries from the past have been healing.

Aside from burpees and a few light reps here and there, I hadn't done any pushups or bench-press type motions since last November. They would ignite my upper traps and neck and send me straight to migraine city. But I (weakly) did 84 of them on a 24" elevated box (along with 84 push presses and 84 situps in 15:32). Success! No migraines! Is this any more reason to head over to Valley Spine and Sport? Seriously. Dr. Alex is a genius. I was, however, sore for nearly a week with good ol' DOMS. :) I'm excited to cross off pushing and pressing motions from my list of can't-do's!

My deadlifts are back up where they're supposed to be plus my shoulders are holding up for toes-to-bar, kipping pullups, split jerks, and overhead squats. Hamstrings aren't complaining lately either! *knock on wood*

I've been photographing some different things lately too. I helped Dr. Alex update some images for his website and social media, as well as my good friends at CrossFit Appleton. It's been fun to photograph these Open WOD's and the incredible athletes getting it done. Check out some of the photos here.

Other than that, I've been enjoying time with family and friends.

We hosted supper the other evening and then played some games. I love my in-laws. :)

We also had a couple's weekend a few weeks ago where a bunch of us younger, married, child-less couples got together for games, food, and fun. That was a blast too!

In other news, winter is still. dragging. on. It's still cold, wet, and there's a chance of snow for later this week. Oh well. Summer has to come eventually, right?

Here's one of my Paleo fails from recently.. these are always fun! I saw several times online about mixing avocado with cocoa. Some people added a banana and blended it, which would have helped drastically. I'll admit that this required a LOT more chocolate chips to make it palatable. ;)

Oh, and how could I forget?!

I have been invited to teach a cooking class, for which I am super excited!

It's called "Civilized Cavemen: Gluten Free and Paleo Cooking"

Click here for more details, but this is the description:

"We might not grunt and live in caves, but we can learn a lot from our ancestor's diet of unprocessed whole foods and sustainable meats. Join us and learn how to create gluten-free, Paleo meals that incorporate fresh, local foods. We'll share an overview of the Paleo template, strategies on how to stock your kitchen, time saving tips, tricks and resources for preparing meals. Mariah will demonstrate tasty recipes that even your gluten-eating friends will love - no caves or fires required! Come learn (and taste) how great eating like civilized cavemen can be!"

I will be demonstrating a few recipes, plus doing a little educating and offering plenty of resources to make things easier. This will be fun! :)

Also, tonight I watched the documentary "Forks over Knives" about a whole-foods, plant-based diet, or veganism. I have quite a few reactions to that, and I even took notes during, so expect a post coming soon.

Anyway, I'm off to bed... Can't wait to CrossFit tomorrow morning. :)

Pumpkin and Chocolate Muffins

The other day, I made muffins for a post-WOD snack. Yay for the Open workouts!

They were amazing and everyone asked for the recipes.. so here are the links!

Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins

Double chocolate chip muffins Okay, it's actually cake, but I added chocolate chips and made muffins. :)

And maybe one of these days, I'll have a real update for you all. Until then, enjoy. :)