My Sunday Prep Day

by karen | Mar 26, 2013 | Life as an Athlete

After posting the fridge pic on Sunday there was great questions about how/what/when I do my weekly food planning/shopping. I’m grateful for this feedback because it allows me to help you stay on track! Therefore below is how I have my food for the week!

Most Saturdays I got to the Barton Creek Farmers Market to refill my kombucha bottles at the Buddhas Brew Table/Booth. . Its only $2.25/bottle if you bring your own, vs the $3.49 you pay in the stores. I get 7 at a time. This allows me to drink one that instant and then have 1/day until the next trip. I could drink this stuff all day! I don’t even know what flavor I’m drinking when I get it, but it doesn’t matter, it taste so good! I then make a loop checking out all the booths, most of the time stopping for kale at the Johnson’s Backyard Garden. I have bought many of other things from them, but nothing as consistant as kale (this is all of course till my garden starts producing).

On Sunday’s I go to the grocery store/Sprouts at some point. Because I go every Sunday, I have made friends with MOST every one that works the Sunday shift. Enough to say hello and where they feel comfortable asking me for fitness advice. The manager always speaks to me. Its awesome!

I’m a single so unless I have something specific I want to cook, I normally get the same thing, for the most part. I think about breakfast….bacon and eggs, duh! I get cage free eggs and nitrite and nitrate free bacon.

I think about snacks; AM and PM. My morning snack normally consist of baby food and one of the Justin Almond Butter Packets. However I gave up nuts for lent so that hasn’t been happening, so it has been baby food and either a boiled egg or nitrate free turkey deli (bought at the deli counter not in the fridge section). My PM snack is normally my kombucha, just depends on my workout and my schedule.

Post WOD is an Advocare Muscle Gain Shake and a kill cliff if I have earned it.

Next is lunch. I have a kale salad EVERYDAY and I look forward to it EVERYDAY. I have a base of kale (vs. lettuce), berries, dates, grass fed beef, avacado with oil and balsamic vinegar dressing. Its so yummy!

Dinner is normally a meat/fish and some sort of squash. I try to do a fish since I eat chicken in the morning and beef at lunch. Little extra Omega3s never hurt. I have fallen in love with squash of all kinds so that is good! Sometimes I have some sweet potatoes, depends on my workouts.

I make sure I have ingredients for all of this. Like I said I eat ALOT of the same thing, but I find all of it yummy! Plus, my food is alive and if I don’t eat it, it dies! After I unload the grocery’s I go to work drinking my kombucha for the day.

I slice the squash in half, face down on a pan and put it in the oven with the sweet potatoes (if I got them that week) all for 45mins at 350. I then put the fish in a pan and add them to the mix when the timer has 25-30mins left. This means there is fish, squash and potatoes in the oven at once. While they are cooking I wash and slice the berries leaving them in the colander. I wash the kale and split it up between 5 large salad tubs. I add a 1/2 c. of betters to each tub. I slice 4 dates/salad in to quarters and add them to each salad .

Next I’m back at the stove I cook the grass fed beef in a pan and then put it in a colander to cool catching the grease/fat to add to the top of Duke’s dinner that night. While that is cooling, I cook my eggs; 3 at a time (with paleo powder) (3/day = 15 eggs/wk). I put those in 5 separate containers. When that is done I cook bacon…in the microwave on a special bacon cooker. I always burn it on the stove so I gave up doing it that way. I put 2 strips of cooked bacon into each container. Yes my eggs are already cooked for the week. I’m still alive and I have been doing this for some time now so it must be okay, LOL!

When I am done with cooking breakfast, the stuff in the oven is pretty much done. I pull it out and let it cool. While it is cooling, I add 1/2 cup of the cooled grass fed beef to each salad tub. I close the salad tubs and put them in the fridge. I add the avocado and oil/balsamic vinegar the night before I eat the salad. The egg/bacon combo should be cooled, those containers are closed and put in the fridge. I then lay out 5 containers for dinner. I put a piece of fish in each one and then add squash and/or potato to each. Close the container and put it in the fridge. These will be pulled out and heated up when I get home in the evening. I also add avocado and balsamic vinegar, and paleo powder to the mix after I have heated them up.

I’m I’m feeling really organized (this week I was), I went ahead and put a baby food and 1-2oz of turkey in a container and put them in the fridge. Just trying to make my mornings as easy as possible.

I know have good nutrition for each meal. I don’t have to think about anything when I get home and my nutrition is on point. The whole process (minus the store shopping) takes about 1.5-2hrs and it is worth every second. When I leave my house at 5am EVERY morning. Meals are already prep and i just put them in my nifty lunch box and I’m ready for the day.

In the morning I make my coffee/tea/pro shake, put my containers in the lunch box and head out the door. Its a no brainer. Please let me know if you have any questions I’m happy to help and offer as much guidance as I can!

13.3 Done and Done

by karen | Mar 25, 2013 | Life as an Athlete

(Pic by the famous Brian Sullivan)

13.3 Done and DONE! Over half way through the open…Whoo hoo!! I was really nervous about the open especially after my 13.1 performance….both times. You can read my blog post on that and understand why. When I let go of my ego and started having fun the WODs became easier and I started doing better. ANYWHOO…13.3 was a repeat of 12.4. Which is:

12min AMRAP

15o Wall Ball (aka “Karen”)

90 Double Unders

30 Muscle Ups

My first thought was, “well we escaped pull ups one more week”. My thought was, can I beat last years score of 246 (6 muscle ups)? It is what it is. I knew last year, I was first off the wall and 1st to the rings…I had to be, I needed more time on the rings. This year I’m a different athlete. I went back and found my blog post from the 12.4 to see what I did before I got to the rings. Since there wasn’t a tie breaker, I didn’t know what my “Karen” score was. But I had blogged about my reps, etc. I was successful with wall ball and DUs so I was going to copy that break up. I told my judge and coach my plan and told her I was going to make the counting easy for her. Like 12.4, I broke up my wall ball into sets of : 50, 25,25,25,25. 4:56. Double Unders were broken up like 12.4 as well…50, 20,20. I made it to the rings at 6:26. My goal was to get more than last year and if I was lucky 250. Thank goodness I had Jess as my judge/Coach. She knew they were going to be one at a time. However I needed them to be consistant. I rested for a hot sec before I knocked out my first one. Came down, shook out my arms, chalk and went for another one. After I did my 7th one, I told Jess, “Goal completed, I beat last years score”. Happily I completed this pattern for 13 muscle ups before the 12mins ended. I had a goal to get 7!! Not only did I beat last years score BUT I did more than double my number of MUs. I was ping ponging off the walls after this WOD! That day, I didn’t care where it placed me in The Open (I care today, LOL). I did 13 muscle ups, one of my not so strong moves! I was PUMPED! This attitude WILL continue into the next round not only because I felt that I did okay, my mom who is also competing in The Open will be doing it with me!  13.3 Done and Done…On to the next one!!