The Joyous 12 Days of Christmas..

12 Drummers Drumming, 11 Pipers Piping, 10 Lords a leaping, 9 Ladies dancing, 8 Maids a Milking, 7 Swans a Swimming, 6 Geese a laying, 5 gooooldennn ringssss.. WAIT. No, that's not right. I've been sadly confused all these years! Apparently the 12 Days of Christmas is in fact a much more physical and greuling endeavor than singing this catchy little song. Why you ask? Well please, by all means, let me tell you about the real 12 Days of Christmas.

Today's WOD ("workout of the day" in the CrossFit lingo I mentioned in my prev. post) was The 12 Days of Christmas. It goes as follows;

1 burpee box jump
2 push press
3 strict pull ups
4 power cleans
5 back squats
6 ring dips
7 v ups
8 wall balls
9 kettlebell swings
10 toes to bar
11 thrusters
12 jumping lunges

So you know, you'd think you just run through this once or twice like a circuit.. LOL, WRONG. This exercise in done in ladder form.

It goes 1, 2-1, 3-2-1, 4-3-2-1, .. etc until you reach 12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 working your way all the way down from the 12 jumping lunges to the 1 burpee box jump. Holy hell. This 30 minutes (give or take) was brutal. They were really trying to make up for the fact that the gym won't be open for two and a half days weren't they? ;)

Though this was incredibly challenging and few modifications had to be made, it's rewarding to see myself achieving tasks that even last week I wasn't able to. So, all y'all, go get out of your comfort zone and push yourself. Outside of the comfort zone is where the fun really begins :)

Zucchini Noods!

Hi all!! It's been a bit since my last post. Lot's has been going on. Long story short, new job, new home, new routine, the whole nine. Good news though- I'm happy with all of it. Happier than I have been in a long time so I do say the silence has been worth it.

So let's cut to the chase. Now, if you know me you know I tend to stick to a workout routine for about a year and then go on to the next. From zumba to pilates to running to lifting to competing to boxing. Not on purpose, it just seems to happen like that. Not because I don't like the workouts, I do, but because I like to try it all. I just want to do everything. That being said, I have joined a CrossFit gym! I always swore I would never crumble to the pressure and do CrossFit. Honestly, I was intimidated. It is a completely new element, something so far out of my comfort zone that I have to remind myself daily that it is real life.

Not only is it a new atmosphere, it's like a whole new lifestyle. You've got the whole new language that comes with it, acronyms and famous names of heroic people that symbolize certain workouts and lets not forget nicknames for people who push themselves a little too far.. cough cough pukie. Aside from the new language that I have pondered buying some sort of dictionary for (perhaps CrossFit for dummies, that exists, no?) there are also special diets that many Crossfit athletes follow, mainly the Zone Diet and Paleo Diet. We will touch on those in another post- there is no vague way to get into all that jazz. The workouts are like nothing else I have ever done before, at least not since I was in gymnastics eons ago.

I'll keep y'all updated on this new chapter. It's definitely challenging me in a way I have never been before, I'm constantly competing with myself to be better. That is probably what I like most about this sport, there is almost no way to halt progress. You are always becoming stronger and better,

Now, let me tell you about this bomb dinner I made tonight. Zucchini noodles with tomato, onion, garlic, spinach, crushed red pepper all topped with grilled chicken and tomato sauce mixed with a little cottage cheese. Yum. I used my Spirelli vegetable cutter to make the noodles and then cooked them on the stove top with the other vegetables in olive oil. Meanwhile I was heating the sauce in a saucepan with the cottage cheese until the cottage cheese was all melty :) Low carb, high satisfaction fasho.

Zucchini Noods a la Bailey

Serves 1

1 zucchini

1/4 c onion chopped

1 roma tomato

handful spinach

1 clove garlic

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

1 tsp olive oil

italian spices to taste

1/3 cup no sugar added tomato sauce

1/3 cup lowfat cottage cheese

3 oz grilled chicken

Cook the vegetables and spices in the olive oil on the stovetop. In a separate pan heat the sauce with the cottage cheese. Once the vegetables are cooked and the cottage cheese is melted, top the "noodles" with the sauce and grilled chicken. Viola.

Until next time, happy Monday!

B