Let's this garden started/ birthday downtown.

 I promised pictures of my garden starts quite a while ago.  Here's what looks the best:  my wheat grass.  Too bad I'm too scared to juice it.  It looks pretty, but I've got too deeply rooted memories of doing wheat grass juice shots with my mom --and struggling not to retch --to actually USE the wheat grass.  Maybe I'll pony up before it actually grows seed heads on it and attracts a threshing machine...

 

 Here's my real garden starts.  They were looking fantastic, but then I got a little carried away with the liquid fertilizer, and think I choked my tomato plants with the salts.  The peppers look like they love it though.  These are just the stuff I start early.  All of my squash, corn, beans, I put in later, as seeds, and the lettuce and spinach and peas, and onions, are already in!  Look at my onions !(OK --but don't look at my weedy raspberry patch next to it.)

 

 For my birthday my mom and Jeff asked me what I wanted, and what I really wanted was another weekend downtown.  Salt Lake City may not be the biggest, most cosmopolitan city in the world, but it's got a great deal of international influences because of the Mormon church headquarters there, and has a great feel to it.  We were going to go about a month ago, but my husband got second degree burns all over his hand trying to help a little girl last month --I'll write about that some other time --so we couldn't really go.  Anyway, my mom took the kids for us, and Jeff covered hotel as my present, and the rest we put into our date budget (yay!).

 We stayed at this beautiful Marriott.  I was pushing for the "category 5" one because they had great pictures of their weight room online, and this one only showed cardio machine city.  I know it's nerdy of me to always choose hotels based on their weight room.  But eventually I realized I was making Jeff annoyed, so gave in to the "category 4".  Guess what?  BEAUTIFUL weight room!  No free barbell, but hey, they had a Smith machine at least, and dumbbells, and and and...  I was vindicated for being nice. 

 They even upgraded us to the Vice Presidential suite which was gorgeous with a big screen TV, separate bedroom, and dining room. 

 

 We talked about going to a movie, but decided to go to the planetarium for a dome show because we can't do that here.  We saw Led Zeppelin (which was a little before my time musically, but U2 was sold out).  Honestly? I think these shows are where graphic artists go to practice and figure out screen savers.  BUT, we were sitting next to a group that had had a few beers, and knew all the words to all of the songs.  They kept saying "I LOVE this song" and singing in little quiet voices and cheering and they made ME have a good time!  It was like being with my friends in high school at parties where I was drinking sprite and they were a little goofy on alcohol.  Funny that I'd be nostalgic about that sort of thing.

 We also finally went to "The Melting Pot" for dinner.  I voted to skip the entree, and just share an appetizer and dessert, because why do you go there? For the cheese and chocolate of course!  Who are we kidding?  We got the Artichoke Spinach Cheese, and the Dulce de Leche and Dark Chocolate with sea salt (the iodine of which had me buzzing all night --I didn't even think about it duh!).  I highly recommend this place.  Unless you're vegan.  Then avoiding the cheese would just make you sad.  Hooray for free night!

 

OK, it kind of turned into free weekend, and I have the extra pound and a half to prove it.  Worth every ounce.  We went to Red Iguana the next day for lunch.  Not the prettiest place, but then, that's kind of the charm.  Think Frieda Kahlo meets Tijuana.  

The best thing --and I mean the BEST, is their selection of "Moles" (say it mo-lay.  I'm not talking about small furry animals here.)  I could eat anything with these sauces.  I could drink these sauces.  The only problem was that after I tried the sampler plate, I wanted all of them with my dinner.  The waiter broke down and weaseled me two different sauce cups --so nice of him.  We didn't box up our leftovers, but I took every drop of that stuff home to my mom as a thank you.  Kind of a wrench to give up :), but I'm going to try to recreate them at home.  They use so many cool ingredients: pumpkin seeds, dark chocolate, golden raisins, pine nuts, tomatoes, chiles....

We also went to the University of Utah's Museum of Art.  I really didn't care for the Smithson exhibit  as he was "obsessed with the idea of entropy".  Really?  Entropy? There were pictures of him pouring glue down a hill, and piles of dirt on the floor as art.  Right.  I was much more interested in the Helen Levitt photographs, and the ancient Chinese dishes and vases (did you know they thought bats were beautiful decorative animals?), and the old European holy family paintings. I always love those --where they make the infant Jesus look like a tiny man instead of a baby --and sometimes there's the infant John the Baptist too carrying a cross 5 times the size of him.  Fascinating.

But yeah, I came home quite a bit more ummm-- substantial --if you will.  Silver lining?  PR on deep back squats of 115 for 5 reps when I got home! 

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100 grams of spinach. Or, how to use up 10 pounds of cocoa powder in three months.

 

 I've had a couple of friends ask me about my green smoothie.  There are a lot of great recipes out there, but I wanted one that had exactly what I was looking for: something super yum with a full scoop of protein powder, low calorie, and using enough greens to make it worth my time  (I use about 100 grams, which looks like the blender above --about 3 big handfuls).

 Enter my best frienemy: cocoa powder.  Love it, but the caffeine isn't super good for my Graves.  When it kicks in, I use carob powder which I must confess isn't half as satisfying.  I use 14 grams or so (about 2 T.)

 My other secret weapon: Flavor oils (extracts).  I've collected a ....few.  You can find them in candy making stores.  My favorite for this shake is a small drop of peppermint oil.  I've got a great mint bed growing behind my house, but at 7 in the morning, I never want to trek out there to pick some.  If you use fresh --which is also really good, just do 3-4 leaves.  Mint is strong.  My other favorites are coconut flavor --a whole dropperful, or a drop of almond. 

Add a scoop of protein.  Here are the ones I use --except for the soy.  I buy the soy isolate in bulk at the health food store, and don't pay for the sugar and flavoring.  I just use this jar thingy to put it in.  Hemp protein is the best for you, and tastes the worst.  I still use whey a lot.  I know to avoid casein protein for the cancer studies linked to it, but whey I'll do.   I then add 1 3/4 cup water, a dash of salt (I salt everything for balance.  I lose a lot of salt in exercise)about 4 ice cubes, and some Nunaturals stevia (although I've forgotten it on ocasion and I swear it still tastes good).  Blend it up and slurp it up.  So yummy.  I literally look forward to it as a treat. 

Here's the recipe in a nutshell:
1 3/4 cup water
3 ice cubes
14 g. (2 T.) cocoa powder
100 grams spinach (about 3 packed handfuls)
scoop protein powder --25 grams protein
stevia to taste
drop of flavor -try peppermint, coconut, almond.


Stats: 28.3 grams protein, 9.8 grams carb, 4.1 g. fat, 161 calories (using the eas whey protein).

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A short history/update of nearly everything

 

Sorry I've been slacking lately in the blogging department.  I've been writing a lot for myself at night, and somehow it takes away the need to blog as much I guess.   I've had a lot of birthdays around here, hence a LOT of cake!!  My brother's birthday was in February --ergo the caramel frosted carrot/coconut cake.

 

My neighbor's birthday --thus an orange chocolate cake with chocolate dipped orange slices, dark chocolate drizzle, and citrus cream cheese filling (I went a little crazy on that 'cause it was a birthday present.  then I pirated the picture from my friend's blog because I suck :) ).

Finally Tia's birthday cake which was a banana cake with homemade whipped cream frosting, and strawberry sauce and filling. 

With all of that cake making, I've been getting some intense workouts in luckily.  Upped my deadlift again (!) to 165, and I got 5 reps in instead of a shaky one rep.  I also started rotating in Chad Waterbury's workout that's made for people wanting to lean down without a strict cutting diet --just to minimize damage.  It's kind of a HIIT program mixed with some heavy weights.  I'm still doing my heavy lifting days, but just use these on days when I teach a weights class and want some cardio (cake cake cake!!!) and a little lifting to keep my muscles stimulated. I'm loving it (no that's not a McDonald's endorsement).

I'm letting go of my BYU classes after this semester because I'm starting to get a few clients to train in my home gym, and it's getting to be a little much.  It makes me sad to let them go, but I think it's a good decision.

OK, me me me --I know I've got other people in my family too right?  For Tia's birthday she just wanted clothes.  We gave her a budget, and I thought we'd have to go shopping at least three or four times to spend it.  Nope.  All gone the first night, and the first store.  Sigh.  I wonder who that girl's mother is.  Ari got up in church today to speak for the first time and did fantastic.  I was so proud of her.  Kai is getting a little crazier and more rambunctious every day.  I hope the weather warms up permanently soon so he can GO PLAY OUTSIDE!

OK, that's all for now, but next post I'll show you my garden plans and seeds (yay seeds!  little tiny packets of possibilities!) .  Also, I should say that my DREAM garden plans for this year would involve a full time gardener, and a ton of concrete.  Oh well, I'll suck it up like I always do.

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PR deadlift! ....and still working on those squats.

Had some major carb loading last night ---unplanned, but hey, might as well use it the next day right?  Anyway, I had a great workout this morning!

The video above is from my back squats, and dang if I'm still not going below parallel!  In subsequent sets I turned my toes out and got down lower --according to my husband who was watching me, but no video --I was too tired to balance my phone on the leg machine again. 

Here's what I did today:

Assisted Pullups (I'm getting really close on these!) 5 sets of 5
Squats: 95 lbs (down from my fantasy land 155 --it makes a difference with a fuller range of motion!) 5x5
Deadlifts (conventional and from the floor) :115 --5 reps; 135 --5; 155 --4; 160 (!!!!) --1 (with my husband behind me yelling at me to go go go!)  sooo proud of that deadlift.  Usually I can do about 140 and I whine and cry about it.
Shoulder press: 20's/5 reps; 25's 5,5,5,5.
Barbell rows: 70/5; 90/5; 90/4; 85/4; 85/3   --I'm also proud of this, because obviously it was right on with the weight.  I always tell my clients/students, if you fail you win.  I kept pushing to my limits here. 

Last week I did  3 sets of ten for my lifts, and I think changing it up a little pushed me through some barriers.  I have to state here too, that i know these aren't super heavy lifts for some girls, but the whole point of weight lifting is to get stronger, not compete with anyone else (although some girls have really inspired me to know I could do more than I ever thought I could).  I'm getting stronger and it makes me happy!

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Catering a winter party.

 

 I did a wedding lunch last summer, and decided that was my last catering job.  I love the creativity, and the sense of accomplishment, but it seems like my Graves disease gets really bad whenever I have a job.  It really is a high stress situation where the forgetting of one tiny detail, or the mis-scheduling of half an hour can ruin an event.  However, I've got a friend that can talk me into anything, and she asked me to do her husbands work party.  I did their last party and posted about it here.

 

 They did this party instead of a Christmas party, but we obviously couldn't use Christmas decor, so decided on a winter wonderland-type theme.  I'd done this as part of a party at the University of Utah years ago with my sisters.  I've got a big curly willow tree in my neighborhood that I was able to beg branches off of, and we painted them silver, stuck them in hurricanes filled with salt, and poked a mini flashlight into the middle to shine up into the branches.  Then I took a bunch of glittery fabric and sewed table runners for all of the tables.  Sigh.  I was covered in glitter for a week and my floor still looks like the silver brick road, but it looked pretty nice anyway.

 We probably could have used a little garland or something between the chafing dishes too, but it slipped my mind.  At least all of the chafers were silver :)

 Pork medallions with apples, cranberries, and cherries.

 Tuscan rolled chicken with feta, sun dried tomatoes, pinenuts, and fresh basil.

 Garlic-rosemary roasted red skinned potatoes.

 Balsamic roasted vegetables.

 Strawberry - Wonton salad with strawberry balsamic vinaigrette.

 Dessert!  Raspberry White Chocolate cheesecake, and Chocolate Caramel Decadence layer cake.

I split this job with my catering partner and we each took half the work.  This made a HUGE difference in being able to handle this job, but I still had a bad week or two with the Graves.  I bought a Bodymedia Fit --which is kind of like a bodybug (it tracks the calories you burn all day and night ), and the day before the party I burned 2900 calories.  That's not a typo.  Granted, I was working pretty hard, but that's kind of outrageous a calorie burn for someone my size.  Day of, I burned 3349.  Luckily, I'm getting back to normal quickly.  I taught my weights class, and moved all day yesterday cleaning dishes and the house after a week of neglect, and although I had 200-300 more steps than Thursday (the day before the catering job) I burned 300 calories less.  That tells me I'm getting back on track which is good.  I have an appetite that goes through the roof when I'm Gravesy and I'm a lot more impulsive in my eating, not to mention the heart stuff and anxiety.  I finally feel a little calmer this morning.

I have to say though that Friday night was so fun!  It was hard work (did I mention 3200 calories!?), but I just love doing that stuff.  Maybe someday when I get completely healthy I can take catering back up again regularly.

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Sick.

Sorry I haven't posted.  I got sick.  If you don't know me very well, I have hyperthyroidism --Grave's disease.  This is where my immune system goes crazy, starts attacking my thyroid, and makes it hyper --just like a six year old boy on red 40. The only good thing about it is that I burn calories like crazy.  That also happens to be the bad thing.  My body likes to burn muscle as it's first fuel when I'm sick, so all of my strength gains kind of go down the toilet.  My body fat percentage goes up, and my muscle goes down.  I also can't sleep, have a resting heart rate of around 100 beats per minute, and I feel anxious and dizzy all of the time.

The bummer is that I've been in remission for months --almost a year.  I've had little flareups, but nothing that's made me go on meds for over a week.  I'm pretty sure it's diet.  My diet has been really clean since last year's competition, and my body has rewarded me with good health.  Then Christmas hit, and with it extra treats and extra stress, and down I go.  I'm also guilty of not taking care of it right away.  I should have gone on my anti-thyroid pills when I felt the first symptoms, but in the back of my mind I think I wanted the extra leeway with calories.  Isn't that awful?  It's like I was slitting my wrist to get lower blood pressure.  It doesn't make sense.  Now my metabolism drops because I have less muscle, AND I'm used to eating more because the Graves dialed my appetite through the roof, not to mention the possible damage to my heart.  My only excuse is when I'm sick I'm more impulsive and don't think things through as well.  It's a common symptom and I'm claiming it.

So then about two weeks ago, I got sick sick with a cold/laryngitis thing and then I've been really suffering.  I've shown up to teach my classes in street clothes to keep me from doing it with my students, and I've kept myself from doing personal workouts because I've felt like I just wasn't recovering.  I couldn't kick it. It's been so frustrating!  I've felt like a big fat disgusting slug.  Isn't that funny how quickly your personal identity can change in your mind?  Just a month ago, I was at Jeff's goal weight (Ok. little explanation here --I have a goal weight 4&1/2 pounds lower than what Jeff thinks is healthy for me --he'd be just as happy with me 10 pounds heavier or whatever, but I asked for help in reaching a goal so we bet a big screen tv against clothes shopping money that I'd get there.  He says "there" is 4.5 pounds higher than where I say) and now I'm back up 3 more pounds.  Sigh.  I know when I go from maintenance calories to deficit I lose 3 pounds in water right away, but there's some muscle loss there too, so once I start lifting again it will go up anyway.  Does that make sense? 3 down with water, 2-3 up with water back in my muscles and literal muscle fiber growth.

But, last night I slept with no coughing fits, and the thyroid thing is slowly coming back to normal, so I'm LIFTING TODAY!!! I'm so excited.  Wish me luck in getting back to normal please?

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Jeff and I sneak out snowshoeing

 

On the district calendar it said that Tia and Kai weren't going back to school until the 4th.  For some reason that calendar was wrong? and everyone seemed to know that except for us.  Whatever.  Anyway Jef and I were happy because he still had the day off work and we could go snowshoeing together.   All y'all that live here in Utah take this kind of stuff for granted, but where I grew up it looked like this in summer:

 

This in spring:

 

This in fall:

 

...and this in winter.

 After 20 years living here, I'm still not used to this in winter:

 The sun was shining, and Jeff and I didn't even wear real coats.  We used poles, a lot of the trail we went on hadn't had anyone on it before us, and the poles helped with balance.  Most of the time it was just us and the snow.  We did run into Karla and her crazy dogs, and one other couple, but that was over the course of almost two hours.

I still can't believe all of that beauty was real. Do you know when you're experiencing something -say you're eating a piece of cheesecake, and it's so good, you're afraid you're not experiencing it deep enough?  That's what it was like for me.  I kept trying to memorize and internalize how beautiful it was.  To "drink it in" as Anne of Green Gables would say.

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