Fitness minus the Sugar with Jennifer Fugo

Check out my interview with fellow health coach Jennifer Fugo about how to work out and train, without relying on sugar in her piece Fitness minus the Sugar. Jennifer lead a 10 day sugar cleanse and wanted to share with her group that it is possible to train without sugar. Thanks for the opportunity to share!

Memorial Day WOD

Breakfast this morning: red swiss chard, nitrate free bacon, 2 farm eggs, and some cherry tomatoes.  This was the perfect breakfast to fuel my memorial day hero WOD at Crossfit KoP.

Murph

1 mile run

100 pull ups

200 push ups

300 squats

1 mile run

*Women 10# weight vest, Men 20# weight vest

This was the first time attempting Murph, and I decided to try it Rx (as prescribed) above, which meant wearing the 10# weight vest.  Today was hot too, it was at least 80 degrees and sunny, great weather for sunbathing not so great for running in a weight vest.  This workout was mentally and physically tough, I took Coach Jason's recommendation and tackled the workout as the a mile run sandwiching 20 rounds of Cindy (5 pull ups, 10 push ups, 15 squats).  Next time I do this, I would keep the same rep scheme but I'm remembering to tape my hands.  I didn't realize how much harder the extra 10#s would be on my hands on the pull ups!  This was a tough workout for me and the first one I did with a weight vest.  I finished in 48 minutes and change, looks like next time I attempt this I have plenty of room for improvement.

I was honored to do this Hero WOD on Memorial Day weekend.  Thanks to all our heroes, celebrated and un-named, that keep us safe!

What Does Healthy Mean?

One question I frequently get asked is "Is this healthy?" -- Which I actually find a difficult question to answer. I usually want to respond with, it depends... which is not what the person asking me the question is expecting to hear.  

For example, last week I was at a team event where we were traipsing around Philadelphia on an adventure scavenger hunt. One task on our quest for points was to find a healthy snack and take a picture of the team enjoying it. We ducked into a small convenience store in Old City, and some members on the team grabbed two granola bars listed "high in fiber" and we snapped a picture -- so that's a healthy snack, right? Back to my initial gut response to the question, it depends...


The definition of what is healthy depends, in some ways, on what you individually are doing with your food and lifestyle choices, what your current state of health is, and what your health goals are. However, there are some universal principles of healthy living that can apply to everyone - regardless of what type of food choices you follow - strict Paleo, Vegetarian, Macrobiotic, Raw foodie, Mediterranean, South Beach, or one of many other combinations and your current state of health (e.g., perfect health, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, an autoimmune disease, etc). I would like to share 10 Principles of Health with you as things that you can incorporate into your life to improve your overall health - no matter who you are.

Running Season has offically started

This year I ran the Broad Street Run, this is the 3rd year in a row that I've ran it, and the 4th time overall.  Its the nations biggest 10miler it was capped once 30,000 people signed up and actually sold out in a few days.  Broad Street is one of those runs that sneaks up on your timing-wise since its always the first Sunday in May.  It's tricky when you're training because you think that you have more time than you do, and if you're a fair-weather runner like myself - with no access to a treadmill, you probably just started running outside at the end of March.  10 miles is something you need to train for, if you want to have a decent time that is :) and speaking of training mine was all over the place this year.  The problem was that the 7 weeks leading up to Broad Street (prime training time) also happened to be what the 6 weeks of Crossfit Sectionals which released 1 workout per week and at my gym we were competing to spots individually and the top 3 women and top 3 men would be selected to represent our gym at regionals on a team.  Crossfit decided to release one workout per week for a total of 6 workouts over 7 weeks.  The workouts were tough too, and we meant to pull the top athletes to the top.  Weights were heavy and movements were technical - the workouts for sectionals were intense and pretty much limited my running training to one day per week to do a long-ish run and then if I had enough time/energy I threw some speedwork in - 400m repeats or a short tempo run - during the week.  As race day approached, I knew I could do 10 miles, I just wasn't sure how fast I'd be able to do it.  Ideally my goal was to match my time in 2009 where I ran it in 1:15 and change, but with my sporadic training that was more focused on Crossfit workouts, I wasn't sure where my cards would fall.

Seafood Medley Recipe

Following a Paleo lifestyle involves a big committment to taking the time to cook and prepare your food.  Cooking should be fun, but I often find myself in a rut, making the same things over and over again.  I recently discovered a seafood medley at Trader Joe's which was under $8 and contained shrimp, scallops, and calamari.  I made this dinner that felt gourmet but without any of the fuss or price.  Try it out from your local TJ's, I served it with sauteed spinach but you could also serve over spaghetti squash to stretch it a little farther.  It served 2, but with more substantial sides you could stretch this to serve 4.



What's for dinner at your house?

Seafood Medley

• 1 bag of Trader Joe’s Seafood Medley (shrimp, scallops, and calamari)
• 1 Shallot, sliced
• 3 Cloves of Garlic, minced or finely chopped
• Splash of white wine and/or chicken broth
• Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Sautéed Spinach

•   Bag of baby spinach
• 1 pound of cremini mushrooms (baby portabellas)
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Olive Oil
• 1 clove garlic
• Salt and Pepper to Taste 

In a shallow pan, add about olive oil, minced garlic, and sliced shallots. Cook for a few minutes until the garlic become fragrant and then shallots start to become translucent. Add the defrosted seafood medley, white wine, and chicken broth (depending on how much ‘sauce’ you want) and stir constantly. Cook for about 5 to 8 minutes until the seafood is fully cooked. Turn off heat and cover until spinach is ready.

In a second pan, heat olive oil and garlic, and add sliced cremini mushrooms. Cook for about 4 minutes, until the mushrooms begin to soften. Add spinach, salt, pepper, and cherry tomatoes halved. Cook until all of the spinach is wilted.

Plate, serve, and enjoy!