My first attempt at Granola

I've always heard it was super easy to make granola so I finally took the plunge.  As my coating I used coconut oil (melted) and agave. What ever you decide to coat in the liquid is completely up to you, I just used what I had available in my pantry. I just added dry ingredients till the liquid didn't seem to be able to coat the mixture.

Ingredients (aprox measurements**as usual!!  I am terrible at paying attention when I'm baking)

- 2 tbsp coconut oil melted
- 2-3 tbsp agave (or maple syrup if you prefer)
- 2 cups rice puffs (GF)
- 1 cup of GF oats
- 1 cup of mixed seeds and nuts (some dried currents and raisins too)
 - 1/2 cup chia seeds

Bake at 400F for about 10min or until edges begin to turn brown.
(note... it will not be crunchy or solid until after it cools off, so don't panic (like I did... thinking I made a dud batch... it turned out.. )

Was so delicious.  I also put it on my oatmeal the next day!

Lots of numbers.... Benchmark post

I've been gaining weight. Not sure why, but I do have many theories.  Hormones, my addiction to nut butters, too much wine and not enough water.  So I have vowed to do something about the last 3 things, and get the first checked.  But the weight gain, about 6lbs in the last 6 weeks has forced me to take a good hard look at what I'm doing.  Is it extra muscle from the super sets I'm doing? Am I getting enough protein? Over-training? Over-eating?

Today I worked till 1:30, had my counselling apt. from 2:00-3:00 then I went to Goodlife for my Wednesday workout.  I was planning on doing my shoulder super-set but... plans changed.  I decided to get my body fat tested. This was Sherry's common sense idea..." If you don't know something... find out silly!!!"

 I measured myself as an athlete and my number came up as 22%.  I was hoping for lower, but isn't that pretty much everyone's story?  The trainer I was talking to said that my protein intake should probably be about 120g/day... I probably get about 90g.  She figured that out because my weight minus my body fat is 114lbs.  And so normally she would recommend that amount (114g protein/day) but because I train so much she upped the number.   I'm not sure of all the science behind her recommendation and I'm sure there are tons of theories but what harm can eating more protein cause?  She also recommended that I scale back on the fats but increase my whole gluten free grains and veggies. So I will give it a try and in two weeks I will check it again and see what happens.  I'm also going to tell you about my workouts today so that I can keep a record of it.

  After stretching my stupid tight ITB and gluts I worked out on the cybex (thanks to it's introduction from my amazing friend Maxine) for 15minutes.  Doing a bit of a pyramid workout.  Incline 10, resistance 20 (4mins) - 25(4 mins)- 30(4mins)- 20 (3mins).  Which made me nice and warm for my speed work on the treadmill.  I've only ever done this type of speed work once like two years ago, but holy crap what a treat.  I was sucking wind big time.  I alternated between 1min at 5mph and 1min at 10mph... I could literally only do 15 minutes!!!  It was soooo hard!  My personal thanks to Buddy Green for suggesting I add speed work into my routine.

So here is a new goal when it comes to speed work... work my way up to 30mins.

My second workout tonight (after I came home and had diner and put the kids to bed) was a swim practise. So here it is with my times.

200 w-up
4X100 sw on 2mins (I made each one on 1:35)
200 kk
400 sw - continuous (about 75% max _ didn't get my time)
4X100sw on 2mins (I made each one on about 1:35-1:37)
200kk
4X50sw on 1min (I made each on on 0.45)
100 cool down
___________
2100m

I finished this in a little under 45 minutes.  I guess that's ok.  I wish I had a coach.  But I did get to swim with one during March break (thanks again Buddy!!!) and he said that I should establish my pace time for the 100 and then start to swim longer distances while maintaining the pace.  I think 1:30 for a 100m is a pretty good pace.  Right now I think I'd be about 1:40/100m.  

Have I completely lost you?  Have your eyes glazed over???... Don't worry I don't blame you.  I have a recipe for granola that I'll post asap.    cheers.

Oh Friday!

My alarm was set to wake me up this morning at 6:30, and in fact the baby beat it.  Today is Mark's birthday.  I was planning on going to the gym to do my shoulder workout.  But I skipped it, in lieu of getting Mark and the kids waffles for breakfast :)  Ok ok, I may not have in fact really wanted to go to the gym this morning.  My hips have been screaming at me and from what I understand from the training POV is that you don't want to over-train.  So I blew off the gym and spent the morning "shhushing" the kids and bundling them up to get them out of the house so Mark could sleep in and wake up to waffles in bed.  It actually worked out. :)  I should probably invest in a waffle iron and some white flour... but nope, no white flour and no white sugar in the house.  So it makes those special occasions when the kids get to have the stuff so much better.  Williams makes waffles for take out. It's been a bit of a tradition in our house, waffles on birthdays.  As much as I know gluten makes me sick, the smell was so amazing in the van on the way home.  I actually considered the stomach ache just to have a bite.  But no, I had my protein smoothy and GF bun with peanut butter and blueberries.  

I have to say though as a side note, I have been eating nearly 40 % more food.  At least 6 meals(and some snacks) a day.  I understand training makes you hungry but if I'm not careful I'm going to be "hauling" more of me around.  How do I find the balance?? Training, eating, recovering??? What is the secret?