Cauliflower "pizza"

Cauliflower pizza crust - first try! 

Sage sausage, mushrooms, onions, plum tomatoes, cheese. 

Semi-cook cauliflower (6-7min in oven) then mix in egg, cup cheese, spices. 425 deg in oven for 15 minutes. Brown crust. 

Add toppings. 

Put back in oven for another 10-15 minutes.

#alittlebitbetter

Some recent bites...

Merry Christmas! I hope you and yours had a magical holiday season filled with love, health and laughter. 

Some bites of late! #alittlebitbetter

Low-carb homemade Tom Khah soup

Mojo chicken stirfry with kale and baby bok Choy 

Stuffed peppers with sage-sausage, mushrooms, spinach and pesto

Stuffed salmon with red peppers and feta and spinach, baked Brie with peach preserves and spices and pecans, shrimp Piri Piri in zucchini pasta

Shabu shabu

Baked salmon, broccolini and sweet potato "fries"

Brewster oysters with Mom's homemade mignonette 

Our Christmas tradition - fresh lobsters and raw oysters. All picked up from fishmongers around the Cape

Speaking of fresh - Nantucket bay scallops with raspberries and fennel salad with leftover mignonette as dressing. Diving!

Time to reset!!!!

Bad girl. I have fallen off the wagon face-first. Moving had us eating out all the time, tons of takeout and almost zero gym. Haven't really been grocery shopping with the move in over 3 weeks! We both are craving a reset back to our good ways so tomorrow we are back to basics. 

Disgustingly fried and yet delicious. We decided to go big for a "last meal" to remind ourselves how bad the belly will feel after. 

Amazing - tried a pomelo for the first time for breakfast:

M "king of the world" at the grocery store. Don't try this at home ;) it's hard to steer but very funny 

Our glorious new grown-up sized fridge packed with healthy food to start our week - we are back!!!!

#alittlebitbetter

Thanksgiving Perfection

I want to write about yesterday as a way to remember how lovely and perfect it really was. Yesterday was one of the best days of my life. 

I woke up for the first time in a space that I now own. Our mattress on the floor of an empty room with painting tape still hanging from the ceiling, a sheet hanging over one window and boards from our bed frame blocking the other. A cat sleeping by my head happily purring, my love sleeping soundly next to me. Cool in the house with a big puffy comforter to keep us warm. And quiet. Quiet outside that thanksgiving morning with the exception of the purring and deep breaths of sleep. It was incredible. 

We layed in bed for hours. Looking up articles about stores that might be open on thanksgiving, checking email, reading silly things - just taking and laughing with no real place to go. 

Eventually our growling stomachs motivated us to come out. Our space is a disaster of boxes and furniture in the wrong room and chaos and on this, our first morning, it makes me so happy. We drive to find food and discover a Vietnamese grocery store that is somehow open despite the blue laws as explore the store with fantastic fruits and fish and smells and items we cannot yet identify but talk about trying anyway. We buy some supplies - a few new things like a pomelo and a cousin of baby bok Choy and head back to the car excited to come back there again soon. 

Off again to find a restaurant to feed us soon. Wandering down to Newbury street towards the heart of the city we found Joes and scored M a thanksgiving plate (I no longer have even a stitch of guilt now about our food for the holiday - we both had bites of turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and peas so voila we have fulfilled our all American tradition) and I noshed on gluten free chicken picatta with a blue cheese stuffed olive martini and we laughed. We had filthy moving clothes on, packed in with out of town guests in their finest and locals looking for some place to go and we enjoyed each other's company with a sense of freedom of time and no place needed to go that we haven't felt in weeks. It was lovely. 

We finally made our way back to our new neighborhood and eventually into the basement to clean out the junk left from the sellers and their old dirt. Our new upstairs neighbor came down for a bit and said hello and gave us some gossip while we cleaned. Once we had made a great dent for the evening we went back upstairs, I quit lying to myself that I was going to unpack enough boxes to find cooking implements to make us a first homemade dinner and called for mediocre Chinese food at 930pm. 

We sat on our little love seat (couch doesnt fit through the door to get into the living room) and watched biutiful (great movie but really heavy and dark) and ate junky Chinese food and sipped water from solo cups and I broke down and cried with joy. 

We bought the wrong size shower curtain so I cleaned the bathtub, having seen no clean water in two days it couldn't go on any longer, and we both giggled as we sprinted past our curtainless windows to the big bathtub and squeezed ourselves in together. With finally clean hair and warm hearts we climbed into bed with a furry purring cat and a warm puffy comforter. 

Yesterday was just perfect and I was/am filled with such appreciation and gratitude that I saw the perfection while in the moment and remembered to stop and savor it. I hope I never forget the simplicity of the magic that filled my heart and mind by just appreciating all of the little things. 

So grateful. Wishing everyone joy and peace and love. Hoping we can all always remember to look for it in the simplest of places. 

#alittlebitbetter

Wednesday

15MMA warmup on elliptical

3x10 hip abductors and adductor

60 sec plank

120 sec plank mix up

Supermans 

Crunches

3 x 400m run with 1 min in between 

Row row row...

17 minute MMA setting warmup on elliptical

1 round
Partner effort, one rows while the other rests, switch until all rounds are done
Row 50-40-30-20-10 calories 


22:05

Ab-Fab Friday

16 min warmup

15 back extensions

14:38

Back at it...

16 min warmupKettle-buck
For time
21x Double unders (L 63 singles)
21x Box jumps (24/20 inch) 
21x KB sumo high pulls (72#M/8k L)
21x Back extensions 
21x Push-ups 
21x KB snatch, each arm (35#M/6kg L)
21x Broad jumps 
21x KB swings (72#/8kg L)
Row 21 calories 
19:46 L19:30 M



Boston fun

Boston Skyline on my way to NH Wednesday

Last minute invitation to enjoy the Boston Symphony Orchestra Thursday. Wagner, Motzart and Brahams and an after-party to meet our new Music Director. Lovely!

Head of the Charles from Memorial Drive

Watching friends play at a parkour clinic in Somerville - random but so fun

Thursday morning gym

15 minute warm-up

Max rounds in 15 minutes

5x DB thrusters (40#/15#) M/L

10x Mountain climbers 

15x KB swings (53#/26.4#)

7 rounds 14:45m M

7 rounds 15:40m L

Catching Up

Sunday

Hit the reservoir for some outdoor time! Quick jog around the pond - gorgeous and nice and brisk. 

Monday

Quick one!

Jog to gym to warm-up

3 rounds

25 double arm heavy rope swing 

20 sit-ups

15 push-ups

10 pull-ups

5 box jumps

L 10:45

M 8:58

Jog home

Whole 30 Days 8-9

MONDAY: Day 8

Breakfast - handful of almonds, banana, coffee with almond milk

Lunch - leftover chicken curry (mmmmmmmm....)

Dinner - M made stuffed peppers with grass-fed beef, sweet potato shavings, red pepper, pecans, egg, and love. Huge delicious dinner bomb!

 TUESDAY: Day 9 and HOME INSPECTION DAY!
(cue trying not to stress snack!!!)

Breakfast - Few almonds before the gym. Met up with my friend Cindy for breakfast and asked them to create something (instead of breakfast sandwich) so had two eggs, slice sausage, tomatoes and sliced avocado. Awesome and hearty. Coffee with almond milk and a cup of tea.

Lunch - heading to home inspection - few more almonds. Around 2:30pm when we finally finished headed to a local bar and had a chicken cobb salad with no dairy and oil and vinegar dressing.

Afternoon - ADMISSION - I was totally NOT hungry at all. I just ate because I wanted a treat and 'deserved' one after being so good and making it through the home inspection. Found these and thought it would be a nice change (also while at grocery store talked myself out of buying medjool dates to have at the house as that would lead to snacking whereas this was one little treat).

 Lunch - feeling something lighter. Oven roasted salmon cooked over two pieces of bacon I had left just for a little flavor (didn't really add anything). Zucchini 'pasta' with garlic, onion, lemon, spinach and grape tomatoes. Topped with an invented tapenade (M's idea) - chopped up olives, garlic, onion, dijon mustard, S & P. Not a bad outcome!

Still chugging along. Still a little miserable, but getting much better and snacking urges are going away. Coffee with coconut milk is tasting better. Still none of the euphoric happy-happy-joy-joy 'I feel so amazing' that others online seem to report, but again the clothes fitting better is keeping me focused and in the game. It's possible too that #Whole30 combined with purchasing a condo isn't the best combo, because I'm stressed already. Although, on second thought, having rules about what I can and can't have is probably saving me a zillion calories in lo-carb but calorie bomb snacks and martinis galore. Hmmm...maybe I'm on to something here....

#alittlebitbetter

Tuesday

15m warm up MMA setting

3 rounds

21x Wall ball (18#/10#)

21x Push-ups 

21x Sumo deadlift high pull (95#/40#)

Row 500m 

L 19:15 M 17:06 

2 rounds short on time

Whole 30 Day 7

Ok ok - I caved - there is no way I want to go 30 days without a weigh-in to monitor progress. I will do the rest but that's the one thing. 

So, week one: DOWN SIX POUNDS. M down THREE. Oh, I guess it isn't so terrible after all...perhaps will now work on complaining and bad attitude? 

SUNDAY DAY 7

BREAKFAST:

Two eggs, two pieces of nitrate-free bacon and two slices of avocado with coffee and coconut milk. 

LUNCH:

Leftover veggie salad with olive tapenade and lemon olive oil

DINNER:

OOOOHHHHMYYYYYGOOOOSHHHH. Make this. Make this now. Crock-pot Chicken Masaman Curry with cauliflower "rice."

Shut the front door it was awesome! 

#alittlebitbetter

Monday Monday Monday!

3 rounds

5x Renegade man-makers (35#/20# DBs) 

15x KB swings (50?#/22#)

Row 500m 

M 15:00 / L 19:22

Whole 30 Days 4-6

THURSDAY Day 4:

Tired. Grumpy. Hungry.

BREAKFAST: egg 'muffins' and a banana

LUNCH: 'no bun no fries' from our restaurant at work

DINNER:

Pork loin, roasted sweet potatoes, rainbow swiss chard with onions

FRIDAY DAY 5:

Woke up feeling HUNGOVER today. M did too. Terrible headache, exhausted, both slept through the alarm for the gym. Not nice. So odd. We both spent 15 minutes googling possibilities of a sweet potato hangover or half-joking that the cat fed us drinks while we were sleeping. What the $%^& good is not enjoying a cocktail for 30 days if we are going to wake up feeling like we got schmammered the night before? Almost all of the negatives without the fun. Great. Needless to say we were pretty pissed this morning and really missing some greasy food and sugar-bombed coffee. Yes. I get that this is missing the point. We didn't do it alright?! I'm just saying...

Breakfast: plum, mix of cashews and pecans with some salt

Lunch: salad from the restaurant Chicken Cobb without cheese with oil and vinegar

Dinner: bunless burger from FOUR BURGERS with fried egg on top and a side salad with oil and vinegar and dijon mustard. 

DYING for a treat, so at the movies instead of popcorn and a diet soda (my usual treat) I brought mixed nuts (no peanuts) with a vita-coco

SATURDAY DAY 6:

Breakfast: bowl of cashews, coconut shreds and a few strawberries mixed together

Lunch: green salad with shredded chicken, olives, cauliflower and shredded carrots, oil and vinegar

Dinner: Pot roast with bacon (slow-cooked), celery, carrots, onions. With a side of asparagus and artichoke hearts.

I have been struggling with beverages, missing the different flavors. I didn't realize how much I would miss that. I've been crushing as many different flavors of club soda as I can find. We have also been really craving foods that we normally wouldn't eat. Example, Saturday night we nearly caved when we both suddenly wanted chocolate chip cookie dough ice-cream (mint chocolate for M) AND ruffles chips with french onion dip. We were literally both GIDDY talking about it and I think both waiting for the other to just say 'screw it' and sprint to the corner store. This is crazy.

I am getting a little sick of all of the cooking. M is getting sick of doing so many dishes. We are spending all weekend in so we're avoiding temptation. Damn this Whole30.

I know it's good for us, enjoying some of the new recipes but tired. Tired of cooking. Tired of reading labels. Tired of no sauces on anything. Tired of being one of those obnoxious 'oooooh we don't eat that we are paleo, mmmmmmk?' people. I actually watched Ted talks yesterday debunking paleo as not being authentic to the cavemen at all. So mentally we are not doing well with this.  All this complaining and we're not quitting yet? Why you ask? I have no idea. Just that we said that we would do 30 days so #$%^& it we are going to do it. $%^&*^%$!!!! 

Arrrrrrrgh #alittlebitbetter

Whole30 Day 3

Uuurgh. Why was this so hard?!

1. Balboa

3 rounds

100x Jump rope singles 

Run 400m 

10x Body-blasters (Burpee-pull up + knees to elbows) (L: burpees, pull ups (60/70/80)

(-Submitted by Chad McBroom-) 

M 24:00

L 26:37

So hard but good. #alittlebitbetter

Day 2 Whole 30

WHOLE 30 DAY 2: Tuesday, October 1

BREAKFAST: Monday night I made egg mini-frittatas to make breakfast happen a bit faster. But dairy free? No cream and no milk in these (*sigh* missing lo-carb, but also realizing how many extra calories that is)?!

8 eggs, splash coconut milk (unsweetened), italian chicken sausage (comes pre-cooked and don't forget to read the labels of the different brands), swiss chard, onions, asparagus. Dropped all solid ingredients into the muffin tins, used the baster to get the egg/coconut milk mixture (with bit of salt, pepper, nutmeg, red pepper and parsley dashed in) into the muffin tin.  Baked for 35 minutes at 375 degrees. Could have gone maybe a few minutes less?  RESULT? Still delicious. Consistency was a little different without the dairy, and a little less filling, but the combo of the veggies and the chicken sausage was nice and they have held up well in the fridge. Strawberries (about 4 medium berries) as a fruit. Yummmmmm I have missed Strawberries. One cup of Mango black tea.

Tried black coffee from the Caf' at work. Now free coffee is nothing to complain about (wait for it...) but it's delicious with cream and a ton of splenda so it really tastes like a sugar bomb instead of coffee at all. I tried it black. It is not my thing. That's the nicest thing I can say. At work I am going to have to stick with tea..

LUNCH: takeout from Amhreins in Southie. Roasted turkey salad with no cheese and oil/vinegar. Missing the avocado we were hoping for, but the egg was nice. Romaine lettuce, O/V, an egg, carrot strips, onions, S/P, roasted red peppers.

We were out condo shopping during lunch and then ran back to work for a meeting so I didn't start to eat until nearly 3pm. I will admit, I was completely moody, grumpy and irrationally nearly in tears. I have no clue if I can blame this on the diet, house shopping, busy work day, halving the caffeine I normally have, or what...but I was pathetic. Eating helped a lot. 

DINNER: After snooping around Pinterest a bit looking for ideas, I came up with this one on Sunday. It was pretty easy to make, super flavorful, and the ONLY thing I would do differently next time is to find a sugar-free hot sauce I could add to it (or make one to add).

LETTUCE TACO WRAPS: 

Rediscovered my little Cuisinart processor. Beautiful for this!

• Brown chicken breast, one onion and garlic in a pan. Once it's browned, add chicken broth (watch the ingredients), juice of two limes, and a splash of coconut milk to cover the chicken. Simmer for 30 minutes or so until you can shred the chicken with a fork. *disclaimer: i meant to do this with the crock pot in the morning but forgot. That would have added to the juiciness of the chicken.
• Break 1 head iceburg lettuce into "shells"
• In the Cuisinart chop up shredded carrots (about 1 small carrot), handful cilantro, orange pepper, few stalks of celery (adds volume and nearly no calories) and set aside.
• In a separate bowl mix a small handful of cashews and unsweetened coconut flakes
• Slice an avocado into small pieces.
• Shred chicken and remove from the broth
• Mix it all up in your little shells and enjoy!

We also decided that the broth was so good (and with great nutrients/protein leeched from the chicken from what I've been reading) that we would add the leftover shredded veggies to it and have a cup of 'soup' to finish off the meal. Delicious!

Bon appétit!

Overall day 2: feeling pretty good. Discovered that great coffee we have at home with a touch of coconut milk does the trick and doesn't make you feel like you're completely missing out. Very nice. A little moody and headachey today which is strange, but feel like I'm less puffy in the middle today. 

#alittlebitbetter