Bacon-apple burgers

It's already been 10 (!!) days since my last post. Oops. It wasn't because of a lack of new meals, but because I had to attend some classes. Not that that's the best excuse, but still.

In the mean time, I started working out again, CrossFit! How I love that!! I knew I'd missed it, but after my first workout I was sure. I can't go without sports. It makes me feel beter physically, and it certainly improves my overall mood as well. Therefore, I see no reason why I shouldn't do sports. It's a good kind of addiction.

I also made a new, delicious meal. Bacon-apple burgers. I was inspired by a dish from my new cookbook, which I bought last week. It's called: MEAT. by Adrian Richardson. It's chock full of everything you want to know about meat; different preparation and cooking methods and techniques, and a number of tasty recipes. I actually went to the cooking supply store to get myself a mini-muffin tin, but I couldn't resist buying this book.
Something else they had at the store was a CrockPot. Something I laid my eye on over a year ago already, and hadn't bought yet. It might be a feminine trait, but as soon as I like something and want to have it, I'm prone to feel like I also need it. As you might have guessed by now, after another day of doubting whether to buy it or not, I ordered it. My CrockPot SCV1600BS. It'll be mailed to me next week, and I already can't wait.

Along with my CrockPot, I also ordered another 8kg-pack of grassfed beef. Which includes a whole lot of stew meat, perfect for my CrockPot. That's going to save me a huge amount of time, last week it took 6 hours to turn 2,5kg beef into 3 different stews.

Now, here's the burger recipe. I enjoyed it twice: once for dinner (with a carrot salad and sauteed onions and peppers), and once for breakfast (with eggs in a nest of kale, apple and onion).

Bacon-apple burgers (serves 3)

Ingredients:
- 500g ground beef
- 125g finely diced bacon
- 1 egg
- 1 apple
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp coconut oil

1. Add ground beef, bacon, egg, salt and pepper to a bowl.
2. Rinse the apple, peel it and discard the center. Coarsely grate the apple pieces and add them to the beef in the bowl.
3. Mix the contents of the bowl until well combined. Separate into 6 equal pieces and roll them into balls.
4. Flatten the meatballs into burgers of your desired thickness and put them onto a plate.
5. Heat coconut oil in a frying pan and fry the burgers for 1 minute on each side until golden brown. Then lower heat to medium and fry them for another 3 minutes on each side until cooked.
6. Serve with veggies of your choice and enjoy!

Tip: These taste great with a fried egg on top!

Whole 30 - Day 29

The 2nd last day of my Whole30. It's not even hard anymore.. And while it'll be over by Tuesday, I have already started planning some meals for next week, and they're all as strict as I have been eating over the last 29 days.
I'm certainly not in a hurry to add nuts and more fruits to my diet again. I do know that I will enjoy those next week, but not that much. Perhaps some berries and some walnuts. Not sure yet!


Today was a pretty relaxing day again, except for the workout I did this morning:
- 5 rounds of 7x clean-front squat-press-back squat-press
I started out with 20kg, but went back to 15kg because my clean technique was suffering from it. I'd rather do this correctly with less weight, than tiring myself out and suck at it at the same time.


Then we went on to the deadlifts! I like those much better :)
Here's what we did:
1 - 10 - 1 - 20 - 1 - 30 reps (I did: 50kg - 40kg - 52,5kg - 40kg - 57,5kg - 40kg)
Why the 57,5kg? I wanted to be able to deadlift my own weight, feels pretty awesome that you can actually lift yourself.
We finished the whole workout off with 25 pull ups.


Back home I almost fell asleep on the couch, hmm.. But after an hour of resting I felt fine again and started working on my trip planning, once again. I only need to look up a few things about Chicago and that's it!
But for now, I'm going to show you what I ate today and then I'm off to bed.

Breakfast:
Grilled trout, fried egg, 1/2 avocado and oven roasted broccoli

Lunch:
3 egg fritatta with celery and cinnamon, baba ghanoush and some oven roasted beets

Dinner:
Lettuce, carrot and beet salad with chives, smoked mackerel and sardines

Whole 30 - Day 28

I'm kind of late posting my food intake for the day today, but I just got back from the cinema.. I watched the latest (and last) Harry Potter movie and it was pretty awesome!! And even though I haven't read any of the books, nor am a huge HP fan in secret, I loved the movies!


Besides that, I also did my very first pull up from dead hang today! Cool huh? Yeah, I'm proud of it! Pull ups are awesome!
Still struggling with the double unders though.. But I got 2 today, already double the amount of what I had last week.
The WOD we did at CrossFit Twente was really tough, we did a relay race with teams of 2. I was on the Paleo team, and just because of that fact, we were awesome. (didn't win, but that doesn't matter)
We did 16 rounds of: 10 burpees, 10 box jumps, sandbag run (so every person did 8 rounds in total)
I had to start by learning how to clean the sandbag onto my lower arms and then toss it over my head onto my shoulders. My shoulders actually have bruises on them, but I did it! I love the feeling you get after a CrossFit workout; tired, yet satisfied, and because it never takes a really long time to complete a WOD, it doesn't take too long to recover from it.


As you might have figured out already; I'm all better! Luckily :) I hate it when it takes a long time to recover from a virus.. But I guess a few days of rest, taking some extra supplements and, most importantly, eating well, works magic on your body and immune system.


Well, it's actually time for bed already, so I'm going to show you what I ate today. (day 28! 2 more days to go) I just realised I ate 2 chicken breasts, 1 steak, 1 mackerel fillet and 4 eggs today. That's a whole lot of protein! (approx. 140g)

Breakfast:
Leftover pumpkin and swiss chard mash, with lamb steak, chicken breast and chives

Lunch: (post WOD)
Chicken breast with a 2-egg fritatta with some chard, spring onions, tomatoes and parsley

Dinner:
Leftover oven roasted veggies with smoked mackerel and 2 scrambled eggs with chives

Whole 30 - Day 21 & another nice WOD

Woohoo! I did a double under!! My first one, ever :)
Now all I need is a speed rope and lots of practice, and I'm sure I'll be able to do a few more soon. Perhaps I can find myself a speed rope in the USA next month.
Can you believe it? I'll already BE in the USA next month! I'll even be there 3 weeks from now. (jetlagged, but happy)


Before I keep going on and on about my upcoming trip, I better tell you about today's CrossFit WOD at CrossFit Twente! It was a lot of fun again and I had a really good time.
The WOD was pretty tough but not as tough as last time we went there.


We started with some stretching, then did 3 rounds of 15 wall balls and 5 toes to bars. At first I could hardly get my toes near the bar, but after a few attempts I kind of got the hang of the swinging and succeeded in doing 5 during the last round.
Then came our WOD; Angie!


100 pull ups
100 push ups
100 sit ups
100 squats


The only thing missing was the actual song Angie playing while we did it, but I guess it wouldn't have been too motivational since it's a pretty slow song.
When I was around my 80th sit up and my abs were burning and the question 'why am I doing this' was starting to form in my mind, Guns 'N Roses' Sweet Child O Mine started playing! Timing couldn't have been better, as that intro is the perfect motivation.

Before I knew it, the rest of my sit ups were done and I only had to perform those squats. I finished at 24:04.
Will be going to CrossFit Twente again next Saturday, and I already can't wait!


I'd almost forget to tell you about my PWO meal; I had fritatta with some carrots shortly after the WOD and that digested pretty quickly. I felt good after eating it though, didn't leave me tired at all, didn't bother my stomach.
Normally I either don't eat after a workout, or just have something small, and the biggest difference is that I wasn't tired when I got home at all, while I normally am! I just sat down for a while, then got hungry again and had 'dinner' at 3.45 PM. Quite early, but you better eat when you're hungry, right?
I then cycled to the city center to get myself some goodies from the outdoor sports shop to take with my on my trip; BPA free plastic cutlery, concentrated laundry wash and hand sanitizer. They also had a pretty cool meal kit and a foldable bowl, but I figured I wasn't going on a survival trip and that I could just get myself a bowl or plate when I'm in the USA (after all, I am going to have to prepare some meals myself). I could've bought half of the items they had in store if I'd had the money, because in those stores, everything suddenly appears to be very useful while you'd actually never use it.


Today's breakfast was inspired by Rob's recipe at PrimalFood. It was really good! Instead of using tuna, I used mackerel, which worked really well. I also omitted the salsa (didn't have any) but replaced that with some lemon juice and ground black pepper. Yum!
I served it with 1/2 tomato, a fried egg, and.... another batch of coconut baba ghanoush. I just love that stuff..

And these were my other meals:

Lunch (PWO):
2-egg fritatta with spinach, red onion and a small amount of leftover chicken, some carrots

Dinner:
Cauliflower fried rice with onion, spinach and shii-take, and 2 beef burgers with carrot and onion mixed in

Whole 30 - Day 20 & Post-WOD meal confusion

Weekend! Finally..
My last day at work was a nice one though. It was as calm as I'd expected it to be, well, except for maybe the patient who almost collapsed 5 minutes after I'd done some tests with her. I swear I didn't give her anything, really!


The strange thing is that I've been hungry pretty much all day long, despite eating quite some food. I had to get 2 boiled eggs at 11 AM, otherwise I wouldn't quite make it to lunch time. And when I got home I was too hungry to spend a lot of time cooking, so I simply chopped some cabbage; stir-fried it and added grilled salmon. After finishing that I went back for another serving of cabbage because I was still hungry.
Seems like my digestion is speeding up..


I also did some groceries tonight and couldn't resist buying another eggplant to make some more coconut baba ghanoush. It's just so tasty..
It's in my fridge now, firming up a little, and I will be enjoying it for breakfast tomorrow. How could I ever have missed this wonderful dish!? I guess making new discoveries is a good thing.


Since work wasn't busy at all, I've been doing some reading on post workout nutrition. Especially this article by Robb Wolf. It's a very useful post and made me realize that my own post WOD meal should consist of lean protein and some carbs (i.e. veggies) and little fat.
I was actually planning to have an avocado after my workout tomorrow, but apparently fat slows your digestive system, and speed is what we need post workout because we want to repair our muscles quickly. But glycogen release should be slowed down a little too, so I still do need a little fat, and.. oh, the confusion!!
Others say it doesn't really matter if and what you eat after a workout, but I'm going to give this a try and see what I feel like. After all, I'm going to CrossFit Twente tomorrow for what's most likely going to be a tough WOD!
Therefore I've been playing around with my meal plan for tomorrow (normally I just plan meals that I think I'm going to enjoy and that will include some fat, lots of protein and lots of veggies) and figured I should get most of my fat in the morning, along with protein and some carbs. Then a high protein, post workout lunch with some carbs and little fat. And a 'normal' dinner; the way I usually have dinner.
Let's see what happens.. I'll be able to tell you tomorrow!


Please note that I'm just trying to find out what feels best for my body, you could call it a little experiment. I do have this slight clue that I won't really notice a difference.. I'm usually hungry after a workout, and basically any meal will do just fine, without making me feel sluggish. What else could you wish for?


These are my meals for the day:

Breakfast:
Baba ghanoush, leftover beef strips, fried egg, a tomato, carrot and 1/2 avocado

Lunch:
Salad with curried chicken

Dinner:
Stir-fried cabbage with coconut milk and salmon


Snack:
2 boiled eggs and a carrot

Whole 30 - Day 18 & Learning snatches

I learned a new skill today! Snatches! (thanks for teaching me, Edmund!)
We started out by doing some med ball snatches as a warm up, then used an almost weightless barbell to get the hang of the movement itself before we proceeded to use an actual barbell. I used a 15kg barbell, which was heavy enough for a first time, since I'm not that good at doing really quick and explosive movements yet. But I liked it!

We also practiced some power cleans and pull ups, then did a few core exercises and called it a day. I wasn't that tired from the whole workout (except for my arms and shoulders) and instead it left me energized for the rest of the evening. (so far at least)
I really needed that, because the rest of my day sucked. Had a fair deal of stress at work, didn't feel good all morning.. Let's hope tomorrow will be a better day!


I'm halfway through my work week, so I can start counting down to the weekend again! And it's just 3 more weeks before I head to the USA.. I have to admit that I actually made a list today of things I need to pack.
And I got my laminated maps of Seattle and Chicago in the mail yesterday! Nice =)

So here's what day 18 looked like, foodwise:

Breakfast:
Leftover lime chicken salad with a tomato

Lunch:
Stir-fried broccoli and butternut squash, with 2 scrambled eggs with some mackerel

Dinner:
Pan fried turkey fillets with some roasted beets and zucchini salad

Whole 30 - Day 17

Day 17. Almost there.
So how was everyone's 4th of July? I really wish that would be an official holiday over here as well, along with all the festivities. (even if it's just for the sake of having an extra holiday)
I got 3 appointments at San Francisco CrossFit scheduled and confirmed today, and I'm all happy about it. I simply booked an 'Introduction to CrossFit' series; 3x 1 hour with a personal trainer, which they recommend when you're just starting out. I know I've already been doing CrossFit WODs a little longer now, but I'm still fairly new to it all and don't have enough experience to join in one of their group classes yet.
Training with a personal trainer will definitely benefit my technique for certain lifts and movements and, -bonus!- I get to ask a whole lot of questions and get them answered too. Not that I'm the annoying question asking kind of person, I simply like the fact that I could be.


This weekend I also realised I have a small problem.. I do not fit into some of my clothes anymore. Did I just get fat? No.. But the size of my arms and shoulders has definitely increased over the last few months. Meaning I no longer fit into certain tops, including my favourite fitted jacket.. (unless I stand up straight and don't move at all, which is next to impossible for me)
Does that mean there's a downside to CrossFit??


No!! It means I need to go shopping. What a shame...


Speaking of workouts, I just had another nice one!
Warm up:
3 rounds of 30 seconds of each exercise:
DB row / push ups / butterfly sit-ups / air squats


and then the WOD itself:
25 pull ups
400m run
21 thrusters (I used a 20kg barbell)
800m run
21 thrusters
400m run
50 push ups


My time: 18.43 (and a pool of sweat..)


And this is what went into my stomach today:

Breakfast:
Leftover roasted veggies, fritatta with kohlrabi leaves and broccoli stems, and some shredded chicken with coconut lime cream

Lunch:
2 beef burgers with stir-fried broccoli and butternut squash

Dinner:
Grilled trout with some roasted beets and stir-fried cabbage


Check out the teeth on this trout! I though it was really primal to serve it this way.

Whole 30 - Day 16

Let me first share some awesome news with you all:
I am now officially a member of CrossFit Twente!! I will only be able to go there once every 2 weeks, but that doesn't matter. (will do my other CF WODs over here)


And more good news: my bike got fixed! Yay!
Really, I haven't been able to use it for a day or so and that's been bugging me all the time. I took it to the repair shop this morning (where apparently someone was in a really bad Monday-morning-mood, his so-called 'helping' would rather have chased customers away), then rented a bike for the day (I needed to get my groceries after all) and picked it up in the evening. Wasn't all that expensive and it looks, and rides, as new!


And even more good news: I had 3 delicious meals today! Well, I actually love my food every day, but I was in a good news sharing mood..
I guess many people in the USA are celebrating July 4th now! I'd love to hear what everyone's meals look like today! Paleo, or faileo?


Here's what I had:

Breakfast:
1 beef burger, leftover roasted cauliflower and broccoli and a fritatta with broccoli stems and some pumpkin

Lunch:
Lime chicken salad with some roasted beets

Dinner:
Pan fried plaice fillets with a zucchini salad and leftover roasted veggies (kohlrabi, carrot and onion)

Whole 30 - Day 15 - CrossFit - Cancer research

And we're halfway there! I just successfully completed 15 days of strict Paleo eating, and have 15 more days to go. I feel fine, actually. Less obsessive with food, much less cravings, and whenever I get any, I don't have a hard time resisting them at all.


Today was an interesting day. Let's start with the beginning; a cool CrossFit WOD!
We started with a KB warm up:
3 rounds of:
- KB snatches (5x each arm)
- KB clean and press (5x each arm)
- Goblet squat (10x)
- KB lunge (5x each leg)
- KB high pull (5x each arm)
- KB row (5x each arm)
- KB swings (10x)


After wiping the sweat off of our foreheads (and the rest of our faces) we proceeded to the actual WOD:
A 15 minute AMRAP of: 9 deadlifts / 12 push ups / 15 box jumps.
Sounds easy, definitely isn't!
This was my first time doing deadlifts with a barbell. I used 40kg and it went pretty well, although they definitely were the hardest part of the round. I the end I came to 6 rounds and 7 deadlifts.
We practiced some pull ups afterwards and I also did some core exercises before heading home.


During the rest of my day I've mostly been reading interesting articles and doing lots of cooking. I made burgers, roasted cauliflower and broccoli, roasted a chicken and chopped a lot of veggies so I could easily use those in dishes over the next few days.
Oh and I'm also halfway watching X-Men First Class, another good movie! (I think I'm becoming a movie nerd.. Or am I just really late in realizing I am one?)


One of the articles I read was about cancer research. Someone mentioned cancer research to me, I started googling, and guess what? I found an article in which researches discovered that a low carb, high protein diet will make cancer grow less quickly in mice, as cancerous cells mostly use glucose as fuel. This already sounded pretty Paleo to me.
When I read on, I found that they however did not increase fat intake as fat could promote tumor growth as well. They purely replaced the calories the mice would normally get from carbs with protein sources. And another benefit; the mice on a Western diet gained weight, while the low carb, high protein fed mice didn't.
What else do you need to prove that a Paleo diet is a very healthy way to feed humans?
Want to read the article for yourself? Click here!


And yet again, here are my Paleo eats for today:

Breakfast:
Leftover chili lime chicken and spicy cauliflower fried rice, topped with cilantro

Lunch:
Oven roasted cauliflower (with curry powder) and cabbage-wrapped beef burgers

Dinner:
Roast chicken with carrot, onion and kohlrabi and some oven roasted broccoli

Whole 30 - Day 11

Day 11. Just had a really fun workout!
I got to choose a CrossFit WOD, and chose 'Nancy':
5 rounds of:
- 400m run
- 15 overhead squats
For time.


Our run wasn't exactly 400m, it was much more: 550 at the least. (couldn't measure it accurately on google maps..) The tough part of the workout is that the squats will tire your legs, so the running gets harder.
My time: 14:09


Afterwards I made an attempt at sled pulling! Pretty hard.. We took the sled outside and there were quite some people watching me struggling to pull the thing forward 'How many miles do you have to go??' someone asked. Of course I had to laugh and then the sled didn't move anymore at all.


Question to all of you: How do I keep 1/2 an avocado without turning brown in my fridge?? I tried adding some lemon juice, wrapping it in plastic foil.. Nothing seems to work. Help!


Here's what I ate today:

Breakfast:
3-Egg salmon, celery and carrot fritatta, with 1/2 avocado and some cherry tomatoes

Lunch:
Leftover beef stew with cilantro and kohlrabi

Dinner:
Chili lime chicken with creamy spinach


Snack:
1/2 avocado and some fresh coconut

Whole 30 - Day 8

Cool, I learned how to do a Power Clean today!

Not that I can do one perfectly now.. And the weight looked so sad.. That huge 20kg barbell with 2 teeny tiny weights of 2,5kg each.

It's more important that I get the technique right though, and I'm sure I can start adding some weight as soon as I practice those lifts more often. I also tried to do a full clean, but apparently doing lifts you usually don't do, tires your body pretty quickly.

I liked it though! Lifting is fun! I like squats best.
Someone even got me an e-book about the Juggernaut training method, which I'm going to read soon. It's supposed to be really interesting and I'll keep you posted about it as soon as I finished the book.

What did I do the rest of the day? Not much.. Some laundry, reading articles, cooking.. I simply needed to relax.

On Sundays I'm usually hungry all the time, and so I was this afternoon. I ended up 'snacking' on 1 carrot, some fresh coconut and a scrambled egg with some veggies. Somehow I craved protein. Perhaps because I've been doing quite some strength training over the last 2 days? I think so.

Temperatures will rise up to (and possibly over) 30 degrees Celsius tomorrow so it's going to be really hot for Dutch standards. I'll make sure to get to the market early tomorrow morning, and my parents are coming over in the afternoon to show me the pictures of their trip to Rome. Will be fun!

Breakfast:

Leftover chicken curry

Lunch:

Stir-fried veggies (with Moroccan style seasoning) and grilled salmon

Dinner:

Creamy Arabic steak and oven roasted broccoli

Snack:

1 carrot, some fresh coconut, scrambled egg + some veggies

Whole 30 - Day 7 & CrossFit

Here we are, on to day 7 of the Whole 30! One week has gone by and I'm still going strong.

Today might even have made me even stronger because I had my very first WOD at an official CrossFit gym! It was awesome!!

Best training ever. (so far, haha)

I didn't really know what to expect, but everyone was really nice. Everyone was relaxed, ready for a good workout.

We started with some rope jumping and then went on to the warming up. The gym's slogan is 'Your workout is my warm up'. I totally get why, because the warm up was:

3x

10 kb deadlifts

10 kb cleans (5x each arm)

10 kb snatches (5x each arm)

10 kb swings

My heart rate had already gone up quite a bit afterwards, and I started sweating. Good warm up! After drinking some water, the WOD could begin.

We did 3 rounds of Whitten:

- 22 Kettlebell swings
- 22 Box jumps
- Run 400 meters
- 22 Burpees
- 22 Wall balls

If you wanted you could scale down the workout to 15 reps of each exercise. I only scaled down the box jumps. After approx. 26 minutes, I was done, and needed to sit down to take a rest.

Another good thing about the workout, that we all did a cool down as well. That definitely helps for recovery. There even was coffee and tea afterwards, everyone was chatting for a bit, just having a good time.

So. What did I learn today?

- I LOVE CrossFit!

- Snatches and cleans (nope, couldn't do those yet)

- Snatches and cleans can hurt (I have a bruise on both my lower arms because I was too slow  in making the movement at first)

- did I mention that I love CrossFit yet?

And last but not least; my meals:

Breakfast:
Leftover lasagna + 1 avocado
You only see 1 piece of lasagna in this picture, but right after finishing it I realised I didn't eat enough (was still hungry + keeping my WOD right before lunch time in mind) and had another piece.


Lunch:
Fresh coconut (because of my huge breakfast, I wasn't that hungry and only had some coconut)

Dinner:

Chicken lemon curry (approx. 200g chicken, cabbage, onion, pepper and coconut cream)

Whole 30 - Day 5

Here's my food update for day 5 of the Whole 30.

Still going strong and loving it! My energy levels seem to be much higher and still rising. Let's see where they end up..

Going back to work today sucked.. After all the studying I had been doing I felt like it was time to relax for a couple of days, but I guess I'm going to have to do that over the weekend. Luckily it was 5pm before I even realised it, so I went on to the gym for my 300 workout. Last week it took me 45 minutes (because of the heavier weights), and today just 37 minutes. I just love improvement..
Afterwards I got myself some groceries, bought 2 whole chickens that were on sale (who doesn't love that?), and another coconut. Unfortunately this one had a really thick scalp, so it took me much more effort to crack it with my hammer. It all worked out in the end though, and of course I had a few bites of the fresh meat as well.

I also ended up moving my furniture around for a bit yesterday and am already loving the way it looks. The amount of positive change you can make by arranging the same objects in a different place is amazing. The same thing accounts for life.. Small changes, big results!

This Saturday I'm going to have my very first CrossFit WOD at an official CrossFit gym! Pretty cool, right? I'm already looking forward to it!

Ok, let's get to the food part now:

Breakfast:

Cauliflower fried rice, beef stew and 1/2 avocado

Lunch:

Salad with mackerel and scrambled egg

Dinner:

Oven roasted broccoli and shredded chicken

Snack:

1/2 avocado, coconut water and a small amount of fresh coconut meat

Whole 30 - Day 3

Day 3! Since I was going to spend most of my day studying once again, I decided I'd add in a workout as well, just to refresh my brain.
I had emailed a CrossFit trainer from the Netherlands to ask if I could join them for a workout sometime, to see what it was like. He wanted to know what I was capable of, my fitness level and he also asked my time for Fran.
Fran? Yes, Fran.. A CrossFit workout, consisting of: 21-15-9 reps of thrusters and pull-ups.


Of course I had to give Fran a try today.. (after doing lots of pull-ups over the last couple of days, yes I'm already making excuses..) My trainer looked up Fran online while I was doing my warm-up and asked me: "Are you SURE you want to do this?"
Yes, I was sure.. How else was I ever going to become a crossfitter??


I did my thrusters with a 15kg barbell, which wasn't too hard to be honest. I think I can do it with 20kg next time, when my muscles have had a day of rest before.
Then on to the pull-ups.. I was kind of proud I could do 21 in 3 sets, of course with help of my trusted rubber band.
Then muscle soreness set in and the next 2 sets of pull-ups were hard.. Although I made it!
Due to the amount of rest I took in between pull-ups and the fact that switching between pull-ups and thrusters didn't exactly go smoothly (ball rolling from underneath my ass, in need of a step-up because I couldn't reach the pull-up bars.. etc) I was slow. I'm embarrassed to put it up here, but my time was 9.17. Slooowww..
Well-trained crossfitters do Fran 3 times in the same amount of time!
Check out this video:

That's awesome, right?
Anyhow, I am going to give Fran another try soon, and I'm determined to do it much faster then. At least I now know what it's like.. The fact that the guy who did his pull-ups after I was done needed the same rubber band and did much less reps before being in need to sit down for a while did make me feel a little better, although I'm still ashamed of my result and felt out of shape..
For now, I don't like Fran all that much, but I'm going to keep practicing my pull-ups and will do better next time. One problem still stands though; how am I ever going to explain this to that guy who asked me for my time in the first place?

First things first though, and that's more studying which I should be doing now.. Those exams will be up tomorrow and I'm glad they are because I'm pretty much done with it. Why is it that as soon as you get the feeling that you have to do something, you don't want to do it anymore?


Here's what my 3rd day looked like, foodwise:

Breakfast:
Beef stew, 1 egg scramble with shii-take, broccoli stems and chives, and some leftover roasted broccoli

Lunch:
Lettuce, kohlrabi, carrot and tomato salad with EVOO and lemon juice, 1 scrambled egg, 1/2 avocado and 1/2 grilled mackerel

Dinner:
Lemon rosemary chicken, with 1 1/2 roasted onion, 1/2 grilled zucchini with paprika and a lettuce and kohlrabi salad (with EVOO and lemon juice)


Snack:
Some coconut water and a few pieces of fresh coconut meat

Whole 30 - Day 2

Day 2 of the Whole 30 has arrived. I had a really good night's sleep, felt fit as soon as I opened my eyes. Then I jumped out of bed, and.. my muscles felt pretty sore from yesterday's workout.
Might be from those DB squat cleans, I really liked those though.
The soreness wasn't that bad though, so I went to the gym this afternoon to do my regular workout. Went really well, I even added a few prowler sprints afterwards.


This morning I went to the market to stock up on veggies and fish. I bought quite a lot of food.. Including some avocados! I bought 4 of those and the guy who sold them was looking at me like 'what on earth are you going to do with 4 avocados?'.
At the veggie stall I started loading up as well, I guess the low prices make me a little greedy because I bought way too much. So I'm going to have to do some extra cooking these days and freeze some meals.
The best thing I bought was a coconut, just 75 cents for a whole coconut. One of the first things I did when I got home was smacking it (and drinking the coconut water, so tasty) and of course I had a few bites of the delicious coconut meat as a snack. It put the rest of the coconut meat in a container and keep it in my fridge, that'll certainly last me a few days.
I also chopped up a huge salad, so I'm going to have to eat a whole lot of salad these days because I don't want it to get spoiled. It's a good way to increase my veggie intake though.


These days I often watch the 2011 CrossFit Games updates online. I don't think there's anything else that can motivate you to take care of your body as much as those movies do. Check this one out:

And here's my food for the day:

Breakfast:
fritatta with 2 eggs, meat from 1 chicken thigh + leg (leftover from Sunday), shii-take, chopped broccoli stem and chives, plus some leftover roasted broccoli and cherry tomatoes

Lunch:
Leftover cabbage noodles with oven grilled salmon fillet

Dinner:
Lettuce, kohlrabi and tomato salad with leftover steak tartar and 2 eggs, drizzled with some EVOO and lemon juice

Snack:
2 carrots, some fresh coconut meat

Whole 30 - Day 1

Here it is; my first day of the Whole 30! And not just my first day; Rob, from PrimalFood is joining me as well!


I made sure my first day was a good one and started with a good breakfast.
Next up: a tough workout that would get my metabolism going for sure. I did my first WOD from CrossFit.com ever, the Lumberjack 20. Of course I had to modify the weights I used, and there happened to be a nice track around the building my gym is located in that was a little over 500m so I used that for my runs.
It was pretty hard, and it took me approx. 33 minutes to complete. I enjoyed it though!


- 20 Deadlifts (24kg kettlebell)
- Run 500m
- 20 KB swings (16kg)
- Run 500m
- 20 Overhead Squats (20kg barbell)
- Run 500m
- 20 Burpees
- Run 500m
- 20 Pullups (using a purple rubber band for assistance)
- Run 500m
- 20 Box jumps
- Run 500m
- 20 DB Squat Cleans (using 8kg DBs)
- Run 500m


I spent the rest of the day studying, cooking, doing household chores etc. Since it's been raining all day, I couldn't go outside much and that made this day slightly dreadful. Hopefully it'll be better by tomorrow!
Here's what I ate today:

Breakfast: 
Three egg scramble with onion, zucchini, fresh chives, and a few cherry tomatoes.

Lunch:
Fried chicken thigh + leg, with cabbage and carrot 'noodles'

Dinner:
Steak tartar, fried egg and oven roasted broccoli