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. :)

Chocolate pancakes, the weekend, and why I CrossFit

What a great day today!

It's 1-rep max week at CrossFit this week... score! :) This means I should be in bed right now and not blogging. Oops. It has been an interesting few days, though, so I wanted to tell you all!

Today we tested cleans (squat cleans) and power cleans. I managed 120-lbs for both, which was awesome. There's nothing like everyone cheering you on as you're struggling to stand up. :) Coincidentally, that was a 5-lb PR, so that was awesome. Then I got my butt handed to me by the WOD, which was squat cleans and pullups.

Honestly, today was the first time I ever got close to losing my breakfast. I think I ate too close to working out. And it was one of those exhausting, on-the-brink-of-tears finales. I'm far too stubborn to quit though.

On that thought, over the weekend, it was brought up at the photographer's lunch table that I was a powerlifter. An older lady turned to me, wrinkled her nose in disgust, and asked why.

Oh, all the reasons I could have said, but I gave her my megawatt-endorphin-smile (see photo below), and simply said "Because I love it!"

Then the heavy-set, vegetarian older lady next to her proceeded to carry on about her life, husband, circumstances, how she was the strong one in the marriage and he was dragging her down, blah, blah, blah, for the rest of the meal. So I got to thinking about why I work out. Why I lift. Why I Cross Fit.

Because...

That first moment I bent over at home to get something out of a cupboard, and I felt my glutes fire as I stood back up.
I can help my husband move furniture.
I can move furniture myself.
I can kindly thank the gentlemen that offer to help me with groceries... and then decline while chuckling inside.
I can stand at a wedding show all day long without my feet hurting.
I can open sealed jars easily.

...and the big things:

There is no greater feeling than discovering my mind and body are powerful.
Pushing myself to the limits always yields results.
Each success brings more self confidence.
Every new measure of strength helps me walk with my head held higher.
Nothing can bring me down when I am assured in myself and my abilities.
If I am determined enough to get through a workout that nearly has me puking and crying all in a span of 15 minutes, I can get through anything in life.

I don't know what image the word "powerlifter" brought up in her mind, but I'm imagining it was fat, hairy balding men grunting, snorting, listening to heavy metal, and bench pressing.

In short, the reason why I do what I do is for the quality of LIFE.

Moving on. Mini heart-to-heart done.

Here's my official new member picture from awhile ago:

They insisted on taking it post-WOD. Lovely. And me being the photographer: "Can I see it? Ew, it's blurry! .... oh, wait. That's perfect." ;)

After the WOD today, there were free 10-minute massages by area students. It was awesome. I was trying out the the panorama feature on my phone finally. And I love it. Except for poor Inna here in the first one...

On a slightly related note, we got news a bit ago that we're moving to a new, huge space in June this year. I'm super pumped!

After that, it was the usual groceries, then back home. And then the dog ran away from me (again). Sigh. I wanted to strangle her. Yesterday she was mad at me for leaving her all day while I was at the photo convention. I didn't think she held grudges...

As I was rushing around to eat lunch and get ready for my chiro appointment, the doorbell rang in the middle of my shower. The dog was barking, the doorbell was ringing, there was pounding on the door, and I managed to throw a few towels on to go kill whomever was at the door.

Turns out, it was the Fed Ex guy with my newly repaired camera body and lens. Okay, I guess that was worth the hasty shower. 

Welcome home, my lovelies. I can't wait to use my new and improved lens!


The rest of the afternoon was pretty normal.

Speaking of normal. Or the absence of normal. This was a crazy weekend! Friday night started the WPPA (Wisconsin Professional Photographer's Association) spring convention which continued each day until Monday. The speakers were great, and it was fun to reconnect with some past friends and meet some new peers!

This was the view from the skywalk looking farther into downtown Friday evening.

And this was the speaker on Monday.. he talked about weddings, sales, marketing, and we had great fun learning from his posing and photographing demonstration. He's incredibly talented.

He started out with a bang... I loved this thought: Do you live to work? Or work to live?

Going back a day, Sunday offered another lovely wedding show.

These really sap the energy out of me... but I love it. I was told by two different future brides that I was their favorite photographer they had talked to that day. Another couple came back and asked if they could look through my albums some more because they liked my work so much. Talk about heart-warming!! I could hardly fit through the door to leave from my big head and inflated ego. ;)

And I haven't changed the teal and green at all.. because I get so many positive comments and feedback. "Oh, you're the teal and green lady!" Yes! My branding is working! ;)

Monday evening, I also had a wedding professionals networking meeting where I got to see a lot of my friends/other vendors from the wedding show and catch up with them. It was great.

The bummer part was, Joel was working out of town all week, and only home for the weekend. Thankfully I was still able to see him in the evenings, and he even helped me set up at the wedding show. I love that. :)

Okay, so back to today.



I was hungry for pancakes this evening. Again. It seems like an every other day thing since being off the Whole 30. Weird. I'm keeping them clean though.

So, I loosely followed this "recipe."

Ingredients:
1-ripe plantain or banana
1/4-cup nut flour (I used hazelnut this time, as the store was out of almond. Don't get me started on that.)
2-eggs
1/2-tsp of baking soda
1/4-cup cocoa powder
2-3 drops of vanilla stevia (optional)


Directions:
They're pancakes, not rocket science. ;)

1. Blend. I used my awesome immersion blender. Buy one. Make this. And squash soup.
2. Cook them. I heated my pan, put coconut oil in, and poured the batter in.
3. Flip and top them with any variety of berries, fried apples or bananas, coconut milk, coconut cream, pure maple syrup, nut butters, etc.
4. Enjoy.

I worked hard for those frozen raspberries. They were on sale at the store, so there were only a few bags left. I had to step up and nearly crawl into the freezer to grab some! I can't let a great deal on my favorite organic frozen berries go to waste.


Now.. off to bed finally. Tomorrow's lift is the snatch and power snatch! Woo hoo! :)


PS. I turned off anonymous comments. I hope you can still comment if you like, but I was getting sick of the spam. Let me know if you have issues.

PPS. I stumbled across some pictures the other day from New Years' Eve. Those will have to get on here soon. Along with our ugly sweater/men-cook-the-food-potluck from Valentine's Day. Fun times.

PPPS. And this was a great article. But I can't pin it due to lack of images. Boo! So it's linked here for me to remember. Food Logging, What I Learned

PPPPS. Kidding. ;)

Day of Love

Here's some visual chocolate...

just a few things I thought were funny that popped up in my news feed today!

My Valentine's Day went pretty well...

I treated myself with chocolate and sugar for the first time since doing the Whole 30 back in January. Yum!!

This chocolate is amazing. And so is the macademia/brazil nut butter. And so was the cocoa cashew butter. :)

The hubby sucked it up and took me to Serious Burger. He doesn't really like it that much, but between the whole birthday thing and Valentine's Day thing, he obliged. :)

It was delicious! :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Day 4 of "Rest"

Today is the 4th consecutive "rest day" for me.

No working out. No cardio. Just a little stretching and rolling.

And this morning, I had a massive migraine. I haven't had one this bad since the day I drove home from Iowa after Justin's funeral.

Actually, I haven't had a migraine at all since probably last summer when I really cleaned up my eating and dropped most of my weight. A migraine is usually my body's way of telling my brain to knock off the torture.


Remember that whole "taking a break" thing? I have been trying, honest!

Granted, it has been a rough last few days. Here's the highlight reel:

Last Thursday evening...

The essence of the story is my awesomeness. In other words, I'm an idiot.

Pretty sure I braced myself, which completely helps my shoulder issues. Oh? No? It makes it worse?

We just heard today that the estimate was approved by the insurance company. Good deal, since apparently for that year of Cobalt, they will total the car if the damage is greater than 71% of its value. I managed to slide in with damages at 61% of the total value.

Yikes. My poor car. Fortunately, I was "fine," the other guy was really nice about everything, and even the cop was a sweetheart. Can a guy cop be a sweetheart?

I may or may not have jumped off my chocolate bandwagon that evening. I had been chocolate-free for months. Months, I tell you!

But like I said on Facebook, sometimes this is how you make lemonade out of lemons.. ;) And sometimes, just sometimes, there are experiences in life where cussing and chocolate are required. And wrecking your favorite car ever when your husband's out of town is one of those times.

So there was that. Friday was fairly normal. Aside from, you know, fallout of an accident and spending hours on the phone with different people, housework, prepping for a wedding, and trying desperately to get caught up with proofing. I might have had 2 more squares of chocolate.

Saturday was a wedding. Sore muscles + holding a camera all day = torture. And there was Justin's birthday. Which actually came and went with a lot more "sweet" and a lot less "bitter." Also, love it when the hubby starts some projects on Saturday evening, resulting in 1:00am bedtimes. UGH.

Sunday was pretty normal, but also prepping for company. Plus a mental crash. All the lovely exhaustion of the weekend combined with this:

Oh, it was good. Grandma B makes amazing pie. But. I only ate 2/3 of the piece, and the results were nasty. Mood swings, I was "out of it" the entire afternoon, and I was feeling panicky and overwhelmed while thinking about the coming week. Definitely not a healthy stress response.

I told my darling hubby (thanks again for loving me, by the way) to remind me about that experience if I ever. want. pie. again. Seriously. It was that horrible. I have sworn off pie. Okay, well except for a bite or two of pumpkin at Thanksgiving. ;)

Monday was decent. I had a chiro treatment. Oh, that was awesome. Then normal computer work.

Or at least I thought so until today. And this nasty migraine.


So, dear body... What in the world? Why the migraine after nearly a year? Too much stress? Not enough sleep? Too much chocolate? All likely, I suppose.


Anyway, on a lighter note. I am pretty excited for the rest of this week: an ordering session, an engagement session, and my last wedding in a row on Saturday. The rest of the weddings I am photographing are a little more evenly spaced throughout the rest of the summer/fall, so that will be great.

Plus! The hubby is working around home this week. Ahh. What a wonderful break from his out-of-town work. :)

A random from last week: I hadn't worn this top since high school! So despite the facts that it's too big and horribly out of date, I wore it anyway. :)

I had so much fun grocery shopping just for myself... and then I found out the hubby would be home this week, so it was off to the grocery store again!

Well, happy Tuesday. Hope your week is off to a great start!

Ack! Not my pantry!

Sorry. I've been on a blogging rampage recently.

By the way, it's my mom's birthday today! :)

This is one of my favorite pins on Pinterest. (Yep, still addicted.)

Source: happythings.tumblr.com via Mariah on Pinterest

:)

You can look me up on Pinterest too, if you want. Disclaimer: I'm annoying. I post a lot of recipes, workout things, and even links to articles I find interesting. You were warned. http://pinterest.com/mariahbaseman/


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Okay, time to get honest.

One of my friends* at the gym posted a photo of his pantry.

*By friends, I mean one of the trainers that CrossFits, eats Paleo, and is knowledgeable about most everything relating to health, nutrition, and fitness. He owns socks that say "bacon" on them which makes him a pretty cool guy. Someday he'll rule the National Republic of Bacon, and I'll be a loyal citizen. He's the one to "blame" for my very own Paleo/protein/fat interest (and therefore, revolution), as well as introducing me to the Tough Mudder idea.

Thanks for helping me along my fitness/health journey, John. :)

Check out his blog here. Or like him on Facebook. You won't regret it. (And yes, that is a non-compensated recommendation. Sheesh.)

His pantry:

This was very inspiring to me. My instant thought: Ack, not my pantry! That's where I store all my "unmentionable" food items. Don't catch a glimpse of my chocolate mint almonds!

Goodness, might as well just publish my food log to the entire world to see when I sneak a handful of my hubby's Rice Chex. By the way, that stuff was created by the devil. Sweet cereal doesn't tempt me... but Rice Chex? Wow, it's a weakness.

So, no judgements, please. I decided my pantry needed a good cleaning, and this is what I got rid of (never mind that most of these things had been in there for over a year):

I also scoured my cupboards, pitching and tossing things like cake mixes, Lipton pasta sides (really, what was I thinking?), macaroni and noodles to no end, and a brownie mix.

Oh, the brownie mix. Never mind that it's probably 2+years old. It's just the thought of fresh, crumbly brownies hot from the oven. The promise of what the brownie mix holds out. Oh well, that was tossed also!

And guess what? I'm still too embarrassed to take a picture of my pantry. Sigh. It's those dang chocolate mint almonds.

But this is a step in the right direction! You wouldn't believe all the room I suddenly have in my cupboards. No more whining about lack of space here!

Today.

Today has been an interesting day...

Yesterday left me feeling discouraged in myself from a variety of different things. My negative conversation, my eating for the day (Red Lobster and Olive Garden in the same day plus a Starbucks and maybe even a teaspoon of ice cream with chocolate sauce.. insanity!), my emotions. Ugh. I was already thinking about being alone for the remainder of the week, with just my dog for company.

I woke up this morning, excited to see the sun shining. It quickly disappeared, though, and negative thoughts filled my brain. About yesterday, mostly.

But, we've heard a lot recently about our "daily task," and that thought crossed my mind as I got ready for the gym. I felt really strongly that my daily task for today was to feel thankful. Thankful.

So in the car, I began to make a mental list of all the things that I am thankful for. Yes. This sounds trite and overused. Especially in this month that's supposed to revolve around thankfulness.. or is it revolving around holiday preparation, retail sales, and crazy mall drivers?! Heh. Goodness.

After just 10 minutes of thinking about all that I was thankful for, my mood had changed. My complete mental status had changed. I became thankful for the fact that I was even privileged enough to get to spend time with my family/friends and being able to dine out at restaurants. I was grateful that my incredibly loving husband has a job that supports our little family well, and allows me to work from home. I was thankful for fellowship with such a wonderful group of people.

The list went on... the love and support from my family and my second family (otherwise known as in-laws :D), my health and strength, my business, my clients that have been soo supportive, and even things like the house we own and the cars we drive. Random little things that make me feel like I live a luxurious life (like my iPhone, my training sessions, the coffee I drink in the mornings).

I even was thankful for my dog, even though I found another intentional "accident" on the floor this morning. I suppose that's what I get for being home for a total of 10 minutes in 12 hours. :)

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a positive person. Determined, yes. Optimistic, no. However, I still can't get over how my entire day changed after adopting this attitude! My stop at Verizon (which by the way, the best time to visit is right after they open on a Monday morning), workout at the gym, short grocery stop, and everything after that has been... improved, I guess is a good word.

So, I've had a very productive day... mostly mentally. :)

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On a side note, I made up my lunches for the next... 2 weeks? I don't know if I've ever shared this on here, but this trick has been instrumental in keeping my food log decent.

I make my own "taco salad" every day. I make up turkey burger and brown rice ahead of time, and then warm up a bit of each every day. I add spinach, cottage cheese, and salsa, mix, and devour. ;)

Well, today I took some pics for ya'll.. I know. I'm sweet like that.

I like to make my own seasoning rather than use taco seasoning.. have you seen the salt and msg in those?! These are the ingredients I use... I like it super spicy, and I'm actually going to be phasing the salsa mix out, but using up a few packets that I have left. Ahh, cumin. I could live on it. You might remember my little love affair with "Mexican" style foods from this post about my amazing enchiladas.

I always start the brown rice first since it takes so long to cook. I use a mixture of long grain and short grain because I like the different textures. Honestly, I like the short grain better, but figure the long grain might have some better health benefits..? I don't really know.

A little trick I learned online... somewhat saute the spices, rice, and oil before adding water. Apparently this seals in some of the flavor. I typically use safflower or grapeseed oil. Just have your water ready to pour in, as it doesn't take long for the spices to burn.

When you pour in the water, you'll think that you've wrecked your pan forever. I haven't yet.

I always stir it after it gets to a boil again.. and then cover and simmer for 45-55 minutes. Apparently you're not supposed to stir it at all in between that time. I guess I over-anal, though, so I always give it a good stir at least once towards the middle of the time.

Meanwhile, I start the turkey burger (I buy the ground turkey breast vs. the regular ground turkey. I don't know why.) and get that cooked. Then I pretty much add the same spices to the turkey.

I usually add a little water to help the spices get evenly spread out, and then just cook the water off. That doesn't take long.

Then I separate that into a few dishes (one to freeze, one to refrigerate), wash dishes, drink my coffee, check my facebook, and then my rice is done!

A non-flash image of the rice.

Mm. I'm getting hungry again just looking at this. Then I separate that into freeze and refrigerate dishes, wash my pan (and my stove top... I don't profess to have tidy cooking skills!), and I'm good to go for about 2 weeks!

This has really helped me keep my lunches the same (which by the way, you have to really enjoy what you eat when you're not eating as much) and regulate my intake throughout the day.

These are a few random things that get me through the day, too... I just find I have to count out my serving before I start eating. ;)

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Anyway, this has been a long post. But one more random photo:

I'm starting to get some "guns" and muscle tone in my shoulders.. But I got a nasty bruise this morning from these hanging straps when I do a "toes-to-bar." You're supposed to hold onto the pullup bar and swing your legs up, while keeping them straight, to get your toes to the bar.

I've been doing these with straps, though, because my grip lasts about 8.7 seconds. So your elbows go in the straps, and you do it that way.

Guess I'll have to do them the real way from now on!! :P

This is what a toes-to-bar is supposed to look like: