Weekend Highlights and a Stellar Opportunity
(Photo credit: musetracks.wordpress.com)
Happy Monday, everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was busy, but good busy. Saturday, I had an all day DVRT certification at my gym, which went from 9:30am – 6pm. We learned different assessments, progressions, techniques, cues and much more. It was a ton of information, and both mentally and physically fatiguing, but very valuable in more ways than one. Afterward, Jesse and I were really worn out, so decided to go out to eat. Then, we went home and relaxed for a bit before going to bed. I slept like a baby and it felt amazing to finally get a good night’s sleep. I hadn’t slept well in three nights because of my cold.
Sunday, I woke up refreshed and feeling better. My head felt less stuffy and heavy, and my cough was much better too. I drove to Recreate in the frozen fog (which made me a little disoriented) to help coach class, and then afterward, spent the rest of the day running errands, doing laundry (was way behind because our dryer broke, but our new dryer was delivered on Sunday), making 24-hour yogurt, making pork shoulder in the slow cooker (recipe to come!), getting all my ingredients in order for my treats at Cultured Caveman, and working on my taxes (what can I say, I got a head start).
Today, I have no school, in honor of MLK Day, but have enough to keep me busy. I’m replenishing my treats at the food cart bright and early this morning, meeting my friend, Laura, later in the morning for breakfast and conversation, doing homework, cleaning, cooking and either going to yoga in the evening or taking a rest day. That’s still to be determined.
In other, more exciting news, I have an awesome opportunity starting this week. On Friday, I took a leap and reached out to someone in the health/paleo/fitness world that I respect a lot about a potential mentor-ship opportunity. This person is Jason Seib, who owns Clackamas Physical Conditioning (about 25-30 minutes from me) and runs Everyday Paleo Lifestyle and Fitness with Sarah Fragoso. He also has a book coming out on March 5 called, The Paleo Coach, which I anticipate being fantastic. You may recall, that I attended one of his seminars this past September in Grants Pass, Oregon. I did a couple recap posts about it, which you can read here and here. I was also fortunate to interview Jason this past fall as an industry leader for one of my assignments in school.
Anyway, Jason surprisingly emailed me back within an hour of receiving my message, and asked if I could stop by his gym that very afternoon to chat about what he could offer me. Long story short, I’m going to be hanging out at his gym at least once a week to work with and learn from him! I get to join in on initial assessments, nutrition coaching, training, etc. This experience is going to be beyond valuable and I can’t wait to start soaking things up. To start, he is going to assess and train me (cool, right?). Additionally, we have a project in mind, but I need to hold off on talking about that for now. Oh, and I even got to meet the infamous, Deb while I was there. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out the following posts from Jason:
http://everydaypaleo.com/attention-scale-addicts-part-2/
http://everydaypaleo.com/deb-update/
http://everydaypaleo.com/the-giant-women-experiment/
I’m so excited and proud of myself for reaching out to Jason. This is something I’ve been thinking about doing for a while now, but for some reason, was a little nervous about doing so and held back. I think part of it is because I respect him so much and feel slightly intimidated, but I knew that I couldn’t let a potential opportunity pass me by. Seriously, his gym is 25 minutes from me…how could I not take advantage of such proximity?
Do you create opportunities in your life? What is something that you’re excited about right now?
How I spent my Tuesday
I’ve been getting inquiries as to what my typical day looks like, so thought I’d give it a go. What’s laid about below is pretty typical, except I usually have school. It’s finals week, so my class schedule is different and actually, two of my classes ended last week. I don’t work at the gym on Tuesdays, and without school, I had a lot of time to do as I pleased. This felt great after all the end-of-term studying and chaos. I thought about posting this on Wednesday, but want to be consistent with the days I do and don’t blog, so decided to wait until today. Please know, some of these photos were taken on my iPhone, so pardon the grainy quality. Anyway, here’s how I spent my Tuesday this week:
- My alarm went off just before 5:30 a.m. My yoga clothes were already laid out from the night before on my dresser, and I got dressed in the dark. Then, I went to the kitchen, drank some water and took my Green Pasture’s fermented cod liver oil — cinnamon tingle flavor. This stuff actually tastes really good and I look forward to taking it every morning. Is that weird?
I got up about 10 minutes prior, but this is what time it was when I was messing around in the kitchen.
Green Pasture’s fermented cod liver oil. Note: this is a reused photo from the day I bought this stuff. If you look closely, you’ll see the plastic wrapper is still on it.
- I left my house at 5:45-ish and drove to my nearby yoga studio, Root Whole Body, for power vinyasa class from 6-7:30 a.m.
My yoga studio, in the dark. I’ve been practicing at this studio for over 4 years now. Root also supplies Green Pasture’s fermented cod liver oil, which is where I bought mine. They recently started carrying it, thanks to the in-house holistic nutritionist.
- I loaded up my car with my bag full of ingredients for my date/nut treats at Cultured Caveman before going to yoga, so I wouldn’t have to go back home. The new cocoa mint flavor sold out at the Hawthorne location in one day, so I needed to come in and make some more. You can learn how to make the cocoa mint truffles/bites here.
Cultured Caveman, Alberta Street location. Note: this is also a reused photo from the summer. They aren’t open early in the morning when I come in. I couldn’t get a photo this specific day because there were people working on some stuff in the cart pod.
- I went home and made breakfast, while watching The Wonder Years on Netflix. I love this show. What’s funny is I never actually watched this show when it was on, but adore it now. I have a thing for old sitcoms. I do recall watching it occasionally at my friend, Sara’s house, in elementary school though. We’d usually watch it in bed at night. I remember being jealous that she had a TV in her room.
The Wonder Years.
Breakfast of champions. Two sunny-side up pastured eggs with chives, 1/4 of an avocado, chicken breakfast sausages, apple slices and bulletproof-style, hot cold-brewed coffee. I also ate some almond butter with my apple slices.
- Checked emails, blogged, perused articles and checked reporter inquiries for NightWave Sleep Assistant (I do freelance writing for them), listened to Everyday Paleo Lifestyle and Fitness podcast, social media stuff, etc.
EPLifeFit podcast with Sarah Fragoso and Jason Seib.
- Showered, but didn’t wash my hair. There was no point because I knew I was going to Recreate later.
- Hand washed some swimsuits to take to Hawaii with me. I don’t like hand washing much, so these suits have been in my hamper since summer. I didn’t really have any need to wear them, obviously.
Swimsuits that have been sitting in my laundry basket since my trip home to Michigan this past summer.
- Attempted making coconut flour cocoa banana bread. It tasted pretty good, despite falling apart when I tipped it out of the pan (should’ve let it cool a bit before doing so). It still needs some tweaking though, so I will not be sharing the recipe at this point.
Oops. Remember how I just did a post (this very day, actually) about recipe blunders? I ate that whole little chunk that broke off, plus a little more to even out the end. I don’t like things uneven. I liked it with coconut oil spread on top.
- I wasn’t too hungry for anything else after eating a bunch of banana bread, so just ate some deli chicken slices and 1/4 of an avocado. Oh, and a spoonful of coconut butter too.
Avocado and deli chicken slices.
- Started packing for my Hawaii trip.
- Drank some Tulsi Holy Basil Tea and then a little later, some GT’s Synergy Kombucha (Trilogy flavor, my favorite) while watching A Charlie Brown Christmas on Hulu. During this time, I also looked through some cookbooks.
Chill time with some kombucha and A Charlie Brown Christmas. Oh, cookbooks too.
- Drove to Recreate for Jesse’s Primal Recess class from 4:30-5:30.
Recreate Fitness.
What we did in class. It was fun, playful and hard work! Especially the sloth traverses … those are tiring.
- Stopped at Food Front Co-op on my way home to pick up a couple ingredients for dinner. I also decided to buy a baby wreath while I was there. We decided against getting a little tree because of traveling and our two curious cats. We’ve yet to introduce them to a Christmas tree. I love the smell of Christmas trees and will miss it this year, since I’m not going back to Michigan for Christmas. I thought this would help … it’s no tree, but better than nothing.
My cute locally-made wreath. Now, I just need an over-the-door hook for it. It smells so good!
- Made dinner and ate with Jesse when he got home, around 6:45.
Dinner: flap steak with kale and a delicious mustard sauce. Recipe to come!
- Watched a couple shows on Hulu with Jesse while drinking some more Tulsi Holy Basil Tea. Then, I drank the other half of my kombucha from earlier. I also finished folding laundry from earlier.
- Showered and got ready for bed. I was in bed just before 10 p.m.
That’s it folks. It’s nothing super exciting, but some of you asked, so I shared! It’s good for me though, and that’s what matters, right?
Everyday Paleo Workshop Takeaways
Here are some interesting tidbits I jotted down at the Everyday Paleo workshop with Sarah Fragoso and Jason Seib this past weekend. I had heard some of these things before, but others were new. Either way, I thought I’d share 20 various knowledge bombs with you. This list could have gone further and actually, I tried to cap it at 10, then 15, but finally I just said screw it … I’m going for 20. It’s all about sharing the wealth and spreading the good word!
(Photo credit: http://www.onlypaleo.com)
- Paleo is a life plan. It is not a diet, it is not calorie restrictive. It is a lifestyle!
- During the first two weeks on paleo, people (especially those with high levels of systemic inflammation) experience what’s called, “low-carb flu.” People feel sick and lethargic during this time because the body wants glucose and is not tapping into fat stores yet (not fat-adapted). During this time, people sometimes revert back to eating carbs because they think it’s what their body needs. Tough it out and shortly after those first 10 – 14 days, the clouds will clear and you’ll start feeling better! But you have to tough it out and know that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.
(Photo credit: http://www.dietdiva.com) Don’t give in to that bowl of cereal when you’re experiencing the low-carb flu! This will soon pass and you will feel so much better!
- We are not predisposed by our genetics, but the foods we eat can increase our predisposition (i.e. eating foods that cause inflammation like grains, legumes, etc.).
- No other animals do a special diet. Humans are the only species that diet, and the majority of the time, it is not effective or people end up gaining back everything they lost and more. It can be argued that the original human diet is paleo.
The Giant Panda (Photo credit: Wikipedia). Pandas don’t go on crash diets to fit into a dress for a wedding. They eat their natural diet, as should we!
- We don’t cure infectious diseases, and frankly, will never be able to (or at least it’s highly likely that we won’t).
- 70 – 80% of your immune system remains in your gut, and leaky gut is the root cause of every autoimmune disease that has ever been tracked back.
- Zonulin, a new drug that has not been approved yet, is purposely meant to give people leaky gut, so that other drugs (i.e. migraine drugs, etc.) are better absorbed. This is absolutely insane and if approved, many people are going to get hurt! Sadly, it will most likely be approved.
- We have not and never will evolve to eat grains.
- There is no such thing as an essential carbohydrate. We have to have essential fatty acids and essential amino acids, but again, there is no essential carbohydrate.
- Dairy is a growth promotor and promoting more cells increases the chances of something going wrong (i.e. cancer). Also, we are the only mammal known to drink another mammal’s milk. If you choose to eat dairy, opt for grass-fed and full-fat fermented products. Things like heavy cream and butter/ghee tend to be benign for a lot of people, but it’s all dependent on the individual.
- Grain-fed meat is pro-inflammatory. If you cannot afford grass-fed, pastured, organic meats and can only eat conventional, that’s still better than eating bread. Just opt for leaner cuts of meat in this case and increase your intake of fish oil.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
- Toss the word willpower — it’s not necessary and goes along with diet! Again, this is a lifestyle and a way of eating for optimal health. It is not a diet!
- “Blaming cholesterol and saturated fats on heart disease is absurd!” — Jason Seib
- Grazing does not allow for metabolic flexibility.
- You don’t get to decide what your body does first when making lifestyle changes. Some people lose 5 lbs first, others stop having migraines or have an increase in energy. Everyone’s body responds differently to diet/fitness.
- You are going to make excuses if you’re not ready.
- The opposite of fat is HOT, not skinny! Hot is physically capable and healthy. You have to do something sustainable if you want to improve your health, get more attractive and reach this point (yes, that means diets are out!).
(Photo credit: http://www.queensweat.com)
- If you fall off the wagon, get right back on! It’s always worth getting back on, otherwise you’ll never truly know what good health feels like.
- Why get your kids on board? It decreases the chances of health risks later in life, improves current health, improves behavior (this one is huge!), and ends food battles. Get them involved and let them help in the kitchen — delegate responsibilities (i.e. mixing in the spices), give them kid kitchen tools, let them make choices, name that dish, etc. All these things get kids excited and teach them about their food! I don’t have kids right now, but when I do, I definitely plan to do these things.
- Lift heavy weights, especially ladies!
Note: This video is not from the workshop I attended, but is from a previous Everyday Paleo workshop Jason and Sarah hosted.
Weekend Recap
This past weekend, Jesse and I had the privilege of attending an Everyday Paleo workshop with Sarah Fragoso and Jason Seib in Grants Pass, Oregon at CrossFit GP. We signed up back in July and have been looking forward to it ever since. Anyway, Friday evening, we made the 4+ hour drive south to Grants Pass. This is the farthest south in Oregon I’ve ever been and the closest I’ve been to California as well. I was so tempted to stay longer and explore beautiful Grants Pass and the Rogue River Valley, and then maybe go into California. Jesse and I didn’t plan for that though and were trying to go the cheap route, plus we both had to teach in the morning. Another time, I suppose, but it really is beautiful down there.
We stayed at the Travelodge in Grants Pass, which provided a clean room and a bed, along with a continental breakfast. I figured the breakfast would be mostly bread and pastries and sugared cereals, and boy, was I spot on. We ate a couple fresh orange slices and walked out the door.
Bowl of sugar anyone?
How about some “heart healthy whole grains”?
We walked right next door to the Black Bear Diner. I had a good laugh over this place and boy, did it remind me of Northern Michigan. It also reminded me a bit of Big Boy, a restaurant that’s all over Michigan. Jesse and I were both able to find things to eat. I ordered some hot tea, a 3-egg omelette with avocado, spinach, mushrooms and chicken, and a side of fresh fruit instead of potatoes and toast. I made sure they didn’t add milk to the omelette mixture and emphasized ‘no cheese’ on my omelette.
Black Bear Diner in Grants Pass, OR.
Jesse walking up to the restaurant.
The omelette I couldn’t eat. There was cheese inside and on top, underneath all the goods, and they forgot my spinach.
I was excited when my plate arrived and saw that everything looked great … or so I thought. As I was seasoning my omelette with a little salt and pepper, I noticed some white stringy stuff that blended in a bit with the omelette. After putting my fork into it and pulling it away to see a long white string attached, I knew it was cheese. I had to send it back and couldn’t even take one bite, but a short time later they returned with my new omelette and this time there was no cheese!
After breakfast, we drove over to CrossFit GP for the workshop, which started at 9 a.m. (and went until 3 p.m.). Walking up to the gym, I recognized Sarah’s husband sitting at a table checking people in. Jesse and I quickly grabbled some seats and were happy to see many other people in attendance. Sarah kicked off the workshop and from there, she and Jason took turns covering various topics. I was excited to find out that Jason lives right near Portland, in Clackamas, and owns a gym called Clackamas Physical Conditioning. Here, I thought he was from NorCal Strength and Conditioning as well (Robb Wolf’s gym, where Sarah also coaches), but come to find out, he’s our neighbor! During a private conversation with Jason and Sarah, Jesse and I spoke with them about collaborating in the near future and Jason offered for us to come check out his gym (take a class or sit in on the free nutrition class he offers, which is an abbreviated version of what he covered in the workshop). We chatted about some other things and it so was rad to have that one-on-one time with them. They’re such great people and an awesome team.
From left: Jesse, Sarah, me and Jason.
The workshop flew by pretty quickly, but covered a lot of topics and allowed for ample Q & A time. We covered Sarah’s story, paleo nutrition basics, getting started, paleo science basics, paleo survival guide, family matters, making it happen, and sleep, stress and how not to be a mess. There were many other subcategories within these topics including eating out, insulin resistance, athletes, autoimmune protocol, aesthetic goal conundrum, maybe foods, why feed your kids paleo, and so forth. At the beginning of the workshop, Sarah even threw a meal into the slow cooker that we got to eat at the end (slow chicken curry). It was delicious!
As I mentioned, Sarah and Jason are an awesome team. Jason has extensive knowledge and understanding in biochemistry and science and knows a lot of the nitty gritty stuff. Sarah has a lot to offer in terms of getting started, getting your family and kids on board, juggling kids, schedules, work and cooking, recipes, etc. Their knowledge and experience pair together really well.
Six hours later, after the workshop ended, Jesse and I sadly, had to head for home. Next time we drive all the way down there, we are going to stay at least one more day to explore. Needless to say, it was a great trip and workshop, and we left with more knowledge, insight and excitement. I love the life I lead and am so grateful for this lifestyle!
For more info, check out Sarah and Jason’s website eplifefit.com. They also have a Facebook page, Everyday Paleo Lifestyle and Fitness.
