Breakfast:
[8:30]
One egg scrambled with mushrooms, red peppers, and onions [100]
tea + almond milk [25]

Snack:
[11:00]
one slice of bacon [60]
cashews [156], almonds [180], raisins [89]

Lunch: (Eaten while sitting on the lobby floor of the American Dance Institute in Rockville, MD. I didn’t pack enough.)
[2:00]
one mango [107]
cashews [156], almonds [100], dried apricots [100]
mint tea

Dinner:
[7:00]
We stopped at a Panera on the way home from Hannah’s audition. The minute we walked in the door, I panicked a little bit. I was feeling ravenous, and pretty certain that anything I ordered would be a disaster.

I ordered a grilled chicken caesar salad, no croutons, no cheese. I was hungry so I just ate it, figuring I’d look up the details of my transgression on the internet when I got home.

The calorie count was 450, so not terrible, but the dressing, according to the web site, not only is made with soy bean oil and sugar (hello, burpees), but also with propylene glycol, which Brian informs me is the same thing they put in anti-freeze. Yay. Well, at least I won’t… freeze. Or something. Sheesh.

Snack:
[9:00]
Banana chips [200], cashews [156]

Total: 1879.

No WOD. Rest.

Breakfast:
[7:30]
one egg over easy + two turkey sausage links
tea + almond milk

Lunch
[12:30]
about 3 oz leftover grilled steak with half a zucchini (was strangely un-hungry at lunch today, so I didn’t finish my steak)
glass of almond milk

Snack:
[2:00]
a handful of dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, apricots) and some almonds

Snack:
[4:00]
more raisins and some cashews
tea + almond milk

Snack:
[7:30]
kale chips (homemade in the oven with olive oil, salt, and garlic powder — a real treat!)

Dinner:
[8:00]
8 oz grilled mahi mahi with Brian’s Lovely Wilted Spinach
glass of almond milk

WOD:
5 rounds of 12 deadlifts, 9 hang cleans, and 6 jerks. I did 87#, and it took me well over 20 minutes. I was trying to keep my feet and legs from splaying outward on the cleans — which they tend to do when it’s heavy or when I’m fatigued — so that probably slowed me down a bit. WODs that are mostly heavy weight are generally slow for me.

Breakfast:
[8:30]
One egg, 3 slices of (burnt — yuk) bacon [It's what happens when you try to do a load of laundry while you're frying bacon. Not the sharpest, me.]
Tea with almond milk

Snack:
[9:30]
2 more slices of yucko-bacon

Lunch:
[12:00]
Heavenly roast pork with apple gravy, this time with some spaghetti squash thrown in for good measure.

Snack:
[1:30]
almonds, pistachios, cashews

Snack:
[5:30]
Several handsful of dried carrots
one small pear (whee!)

Snack:
[6:30]
cashews, dates, and dried blueberries (whee!)

Dinner:
[8:00]
A few bites of roast pork + spaghetti squash + gravy, but I wasn’t feeling it. I might (gasp!) be a little bit sick of it already.

WOD:
Well, the workout was hard to describe, and harder to get through. But I did. On the board were the following movements:
5 pistols (one-legged squats)/each side,
10 toes-to-bar,
20 burpees,
40 kettlebell swings (I did 40#),
60 double-unders,
80 hand-release push-ups,
and 100 lunges.

We first got three minutes to get as far as we could (I completed a couple kb swings, not many). Then we rested for a minute. Then we got six minutes to get as far as we could, starting back at the beginning with the pistols, and that time I got to the double-unders and completed like 29 of them or so. Then we rested for a minute (maybe two). Then, we were timed for our completion of the full workout. I always forget to look at my time, so I don’t remember how long it took, but I do remember taking a nap on the concrete floor in between hand-release push-ups. Oh. My. Hell.

It was a great workout!

Breakfast:
[7:00]
tea with almond milk
about 4 oz steak + one egg scrambled with some mushrooms
(As a good friend once said, “When you have steak for breakfast, your WHOLE DAY is better.”)

Lunch:
[12:00]
Roasted pork with apple gravy (still as lovely as ever)
4 sad little radishes I found in the crisper
dried vegies
tea with almond milk

Snack:
[4:00]
1 hard-boiled egg
dried vegies

Snack:
[5:30]
2 fists of baby carrots

Dinner:
[7:30]
1 rotisserie chicken breast
steamed broccoli and green beans

WOD: Olympic Lift Total [1 rep max clean and jerk + 1 rep max snatch]
clean and jerk: 108#
snatch: 73#

Breakfast:
[7:30]
About 4oz grilled steak, leftover from dinner
1 egg over easy

Lunch:
[12:00]
Spaghetti squash with marinara and sausage
Steamed green beans
6 leftover shrimp from dinner the other night
(I was hungry; skipped the mid-morning snack)

Snack:
[4:00]
Dried vegetables

Dinner:
[6:00]
Grilled chicken breast sliced with half an avocado and a hard-boiled egg

Snack:
[8:00]
Slow roasted pork with savory apple gravy (This was supposed to be dinner, but it wasn’t done in time — our pork shoulder was about twice the size of what the recipe called for.) This was DELICIOUS. It’s an amazing recipe; the gravy is the best gravy I’ve ever eaten, I believe. And I’ve eaten a lot of gravy.

WOD:
AMRAP 20: 5 Handstand push-ups, 10 pistols (one-legged squats), 12 V-ups (sit-up to a V shape). I managed 9 rounds in 20 minutes. Probably could have mustered a few more rounds, but the hand-stand push-ups are a bear, and I was often wasting time with unsuccessful attempts.

Second, I was nervous last week that I was actually gaining weight. After the first day, when I found myself very hungry, I decided that my best strategy was to avoid hunger and therefore temptation. So I spent the rest of the week loading my plate up and making sure I was snacking enough. I also spent the rest of the week feeling like my stomach was distended. Yuk. Although now I wonder if the bloat was sugar bloat from all the damn raisins I was eating. Anyway, Kelsey put me on the scale this morning after the WOD, and we found that I weigh the same as when we began last week. That was very reassuring… although I have to admit it was also discouraging, because I’m looking to take a few last pounds off here. Again, I suppose eating a bazillion dried apricots each day increased my calorie load enough that I wasn’t anywhere near a deficit.

Third, I discovered almond milk. Well, I didn’t discover it so much as Lisa whispered its lovely secret to me: lovely and wonderful. I began drinking it in my tea and now I actually look forward to my morning tea almost (only almost) as much as I used to look forward to my coffee. I also drink a small cup of it when I feel like I might be a little hungry and want some raisins!

Breakfast:
[7:30]
one mango (I ate before Kelsey gave me the bad news about my fruit problem)
tea with 1/4 C of unsweetened almond milk

Snack:
[10:00]
trailmix (sunflower seeds, coconut flakes, almonds, pepitos)

Lunch:
[12:30]
Leftover grilled steak and steamed brussels sprouts (that bag is STILL IN MY FRIDGE. I think they’re multiplying when the refrigerator light goes out or something).

Snack:
[3:30]
A few bites of some leftover pork carnitas from an old doggy bag in the fridge. They were kinda dry, so I gave up on them and
drank about a 1/2 cup of almond milk.

Snack:
[5:30]
A handful of dried vegies. Here’s the kind I really like and have been eating. I’ve done some brief research on both the canola oil and on the taro in terms of whether they’re properly paleo, and it seems (from what I’ve read) that it depends on who you ask. I suppose if Kelsey makes me do burpees for eating them, I’ll stop. But they are TASTY.

Dinner:
[7:00]
Grilled steak and chicken (about 3 oz of each) with delicious wilted spinach. [Again, Brian blessed me with his awesome cooking skills tonight and not only made dinner, but also grilled up enough steak and chicken to last me the whole week. He also is dry marinating a pork shoulder for dinner tomorrow. I'd probably live on hard-boiled eggs here without him.]

Here’s my recipe for week 2: Brian’s Amazing Wilted Spinach
[I'm offering this recipe from observation, so I'm guessing at the amounts.]

Ingredients:
1 decent-sized package of spinach. We like Wegman’s Organic Triple Washed.
Lemon juice
Balsamic Vinegar
Minced garlic (he uses the easy-in-the-jar stuff, which is a great time-saver)

In a large frying pan on medium heat, throw in a forkful of the minced garlic. Put the spinach in there. Squirt a little lemon juice (he’s used the ReaLemon as well as fresh; either is fine) and sprinkle a little balsamic vinegar over the spinach. Stir around until it is wilted to your liking (I like it bright green, which only takes a couple of minutes).

The only complaint I have about this recipe is how much the spinach cooks down. When Brian made this for dinner tonight, I ate nearly the WHOLE BAG myself. Brian put a small portion on his plate first, and I greedily scraped the rest from the pan onto mine. Then, after I devoured my whole portion, I looked longingly at his remaining couple bites and he generously gave the rest of his to me.

WOD
Helen. Three rounds for time: Row 400m, 21 Kettlebell swings @ 35#, 12 pull ups. I did it in 14ish minutes.
ALSO: I took Joshua sledding at Reservoir Hill. It was an AMRAP 45 minutes uphill/slide down. I got 5 rounds.

Breakfast:
[8:00]
one egg scrambled with peppers, mushrooms, and two links of turkey sausage
half an avocado with salsa spread on top

Snack and Lunch:
[10:30]
Two clementines
Many many handsful of dried fruits and nuts

Dinner:
[4:30]
Spaghetti squash with marinara, mushrooms, red peppers

Snack
[7:30]
Dried fruit and nuts. Many handsful.

No WOD today. Rest!

Breakfast (on-the-go to an early hockey game):
[6:30]
Tea
2 handsful of dried fruit (apricot, banana, date) and nuts (almonds, cashews, pistachios)

Breakfast #2/Lunch:
[10:30]
Two yam and apple pancakes (I should mention here that these were the last two from the original batch of “batter” I made earlier in the week. The grated yam-apple-egg batter keeps well in the fridge.)
5 or 6 or 7 slices of bacon (I lost count. Well, I didn’t count. But I know I didn’t eat the whole pack, since when I cook bacon the kids eat it as it comes out of the pan.)

Snack:
[3:00]
1 and 1/2 large Braeburn apples

Snack:
[4:30]
Many banana chips (I get mine in the bulk food section of Giant, where I was happy to find an unsweetened variety)

Snack:
[5:30]
More banana chips dipped in SALSA (Sound gross? IT’S NOT! Brian was eating chips and salsa as he was making dinner, and the salsa smelled amazing and I wanted some pretty badly. I considered just eating some with a spoon, but then I remembered the banana chips.)

Dinner:
[6:30]
Grilled steak, shrimp, green beans, and zucchini. (Courtesy my lovely resident chef. He is such a better cook than I.)

No WOD today — rest.

Breakfast:
[6:30]
Smoothie made with frozen strawberries, one banana, some coconut milk and some flax meal (I don’t know if the flax is paleo, but I always automatically add it). It was both rich and flavorless–next time I’ll add some honey.
Tea

Snack:
[10:00]
Banana

Lunch:
[12:30]
Leftover chicken salad from last night (chicken, red pepper, avocado, mayo).
Dried fruit and nuts

Snack:
[4:00]
about 5 slices of bacon
banana

Dinner:
[6:00]
Spaghetti squash with marinara, mushrooms, and red pepper

WOD:
AMRAP 20 of 15 toes to bar, 10 wallball w/ extra squat, 5 overhead squats @59#. [I made four full rounds + 15 TTB and 8 WBs.]

Tomorrow’s a rest day. I’m going to try to eat a little less.

Today was the first day that I felt a bit waivering–like I might want to bail out of this whole business. Here’s why: I think I’m eating too much. I know that sounds crazy, but I am eating a lot.  However, I’m afraid of feeling hungry, because I know if I get really hungry, I might accidentally (or desperately) eat something I’m not supposed to. So I eat when I’m not hungry to preempt such disaster.

So, day four was:
Breakfast:
[7:30]
two eggs scrambled with mushrooms, peppers, and onions
tea

Snack:
[10:00]
Banana, handful of dried fruit and nuts

Lunch:
[12:00]
Huge grilled chicken breast with peppers and onions

Snack:
[2:30]
Dried fruit and nuts

Dinner:
[5:30]
One zucchini sauteed with some ham (this was kind of gross, but I ate it)

Snack:
[8:30]
Shredded chicken mixed with some red pepper, avocado, and a little mayo

WOD:
20 minute AMRAP Double-unders. I got 967. [AMRAP = as many reps as possible; double-unders describe jumping rope where one jump clears two rope turns.]