Stuff I Love

So... it's time to take a step back from all this seriousness and share some stuff that I'm loving right now. In case you haven't noticed, I've been going crazy lately baking anything I can sans gluten. And several of the things I'm loving right now happen to involved a lack of gluten.

Number one on the list: Nuts.com. That's easy enough to remember and remember you should because this site is AWESOME. Not only do they have an awesome selection of gluten-free products, but they have tons of other stuff for foodies. I've been buying my blanched almond flour here as well as GF steel-cut oats, flax meal and apple juice-infused dried cranberries (no sugar added). And the best part about Nuts. com? Ridiculous shipping speed. I ordered this yesterday afternoon and the box was on my doorstop before noon today. Love this company!

From left to right: chia seeds, organic palm sugar, organic quinoa (free sample! one comes with every shipment!), and puffed quinoa--which I'm most excited to try. 

Number two: Baked steel cut oats. 

You can find the original recipe for this dish here. This week I created a pumpkin spice baked oatmeal with pecans. So good and so easy! I love a meal you can make in bulk and enjoy throughout the week. It travels well (with my husband in the a.m.) and reheats beautifully. And it's warm and comforting during the cold winter. This one provides plenty of fiber, healthy fat, protein and vitamin E, courtesy the almond milk. 

Number three: foam rolling or self-myofascial release if you want to get technical. From my experience, this is a highly underused technique. I remember reading all about foam rolling when I was studying to become a personal trainer. But to be honest, I didn't try it with clients or on myself until several months ago. Even my daughter enjoys it!

If you've never heard of foam rolling or haven't tried it, you may be wondering what good it is--a good resource to learn is Perform Better, one of my favorite sites for fitness gear. Imagine being able to get a massage whenever you want one. That's what foam rolling feels like when you have tight or sore muscles. It's ridiculously good. I roll out my quads, glutes, hamstrings, calves and back on a regular basis, and afterwards I feel totally relaxed and loose. It's a great way to improve your flexibility and range of motion during exercise. Another tool for self-myfascial release is the lacrosse ball, which I just purchased last week. It hurts so good!

Number four: My Gymboss timer. This tiny piece of equipment is so cool for any kind of interval training. I've been using it to experiment with Tabata workouts as well as kettlebell training. The Gymboss timer is about the size of an old-school pager and can either clip on to your clothing or be clipped onto an armband. It will either beep or vibrate to signal the end of an interval, so you can still listen to music while wearing it--a plus when you're trying to avoid "interruptions" in the gym. The Gymboss is a great way to make sure you work hard enough during your workouts and not take too much rest time. Read more about the Gymboss here.

I love trying out new health and fitness stuff and sharing what I learn with others. Leave me a comment and let me know what you're loving right now.

Goal: Re-Focus

A casual interaction I had this morning at the gym got the wheels turning in my head again. I was nearing the end of my strength training workout and waiting for the spinning instructor to arrive for the 8 a.m. class. She was late as usual, but I really love her class so I don't hold it against her. I decided to bust through one more back and biceps superset--bent-over skiers and half-way curls--when one of my gym "acquaintances" stopped me to offer a few comments.

He told me it looked like I'd dropped about 20 pounds--since when I don't know, but I'll take it. In all honesty, I have dropped about 5 pounds on the scale in the last two months, but I really don't trust scales (Check out Pauline Nordin's blog for a great post on the value of a scale). My performance in the gym has been fantastic, lifting the most I've ever lifted while squatting and bench pressing. My clothes fit better, I'm seeing some more definition, and, probably best of all, I'm feeling less tired, which is hard to say when you have 2 toddlers running around your house.

I chatted with my gym friend for a few more minutes and then he asked me something that left me... well,  speechless, for lack of a better word: if I was competing in the April show. If I hadn't set myself the goals I did earlier in the year, I would have no idea what he was talking about. But, considering I've pretty much decided to compete in some sort of figure or fitness show, I knew exactly what he was talking about. There are two figure competitions in the state of Connecticut, both about 20 minutes from where I live, in April, that I know of.

He asked me this, and I was stopped dead in my tracks, really contemplating the answer I was about to give. I wanted to be able to say yes, but again, I had waited to long to nail down exactly what it was I wanted to accomplish this year. So I told him no, that it was too soon. But the fact that he asked me that made me want to finally figure out what I have to do to get on stage.

Why am I sharing all this you may be asking? To be honest, the reason is probably pretty self-serving. Perhaps if I make a public record of my goals I may actually hold myself accountable. Maybe if I have someone watching over me, I won't be so afraid to fail.

But beyond being self-serving, I guess I'm asking you how do you stay on track with your goals? What sort of support system do you have? Who do you lean on when it seems like giving up is the only option?

I sometimes find it hard to share my most personal goals with the ones closest to me, and maybe that is at the root of my failures. The time has come to be honest with myself and own what I want. I don't think there is truly failure when your only goal is to try.