Thursday, July 31, 2014

State of the Biz
 summer 2014

So I've been at VIE Custom Fitness since mid-April, and now they have been sold to a CrossFit consortium, by which I mean, three guys who do Crossfit. They say they're going to let the private trainers stay in their CrossFit empire, so we shall see. I like CrossFit and if I don't get kicked out, I'm looking forward to having access to more crossfitty equipment like plyo boxes and stuff like that. So far, no changes except my clients had to sign new waivers.

Right now I have three solid clients, all on Tuesday night. Which I love! Whom I love! Kris and I run at six from my house to the Puerto Rican flag on Division past Western and back, which is 5K, then I bike to Vie and torture Travis with tabata at 7:30 and then Nora picks up all the heavy things at 8:30.

Step one was supposed to be shoring up my four clients. How it's turned out is, I shored up three of them and picked up Thursday at the office. Not just for Thursday's sake, I have a huge project that I'm trying to get done in, say, the next twelve weeks? I really enjoy it, it's math, and I get to wear jeans and nobody talks to me because they don't know I'm there on Thursday, doing my math.

So, that's where I'm at.

I think a big thing is, there's no way that my life is supposed to be, or go, I don't have to push forward to be a fulltime trainer and I don't have to go back to be a fulltime administrator. I'm lucky that I can balance in the middle, wherever it works for me at the moment.

And also, derby. I've been having a pretty great Second Wind season, there's also no way that derby is supposed to be or go. I don't have to keep going until I achieve some gold standard, and I don't have to give up because I'm not gold material or because time's out. I can be whatever I am for as long as I want; honestly I feel like I'm turning silvery, and having fun with that. I don't have to give up derby because of something I'm supposed to achieve as a trainer. Or you know, as an adult. I am an adult, this is how I'm doing it—

knights

And my little blog, too! It doesn't have to make money, it doesn't have to get a lot of hits, there's no such thing as "missing" a post, I post when I post, it is what it is, it does what I need it to do.

Via Heal Yourself, Skeletor, my favorite self-help tumblr on the internet.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Greek Yogurt Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

peanut butter banana smoothie

I use the Bella Cucina Rocket Blender to make my smoothies.

Last but not least, actually the first thing I did this season was use up any remaining frozen bananas I had in the freezer. I really only get bananas for bout days, and bring the whole bunch to the locker room, and if there's any left I bring them home, break them up, and freeze them, one banana per container. Otherwise, I don't keep them in the house. Because fruit flies, and because I'm a princess about bananas and there's only like a twenty minute window where I will eat a fresh banana. Banana also doesn't need sweetener.

frozen banana
four big spoonfuls of greek yogurt, maybe 1/2–1 cup?
two big spoonfuls of peanut butter, maybe 2 tablespoons–1/4 cup?
enough water to cover the banana

Break up a container of frozen banana into the blender cup, then add the greek yogurt, then the peanut butter, and then water. Screw on the cap, stick the cup on the motor base, and blend for 30 seconds. Then take it off the base and give it a little shake to get anything that's stuck on the top of the cup. Blend for another 20 seconds or until the smoothie is churning freely from top to bottom.

Monday, July 28, 2014

Summer Break Chart

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT
SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP
morning morning morning morning morning morning morning
HOME
Cooking
WORK
 
HOME
Cooking
WORK
 
WORK
 
WORK
 
HOME
Cleaning
SYSTEMS
Appts
WORK
 
SYSTEMS
Bills
WORK
 
WORK
 
WORK
 
SYSTEMS
Tasks
afternoon afternoon afternoon afternoon afternoon afternoon afternoon
PASTIME
 
EEEEE
 
EEE^^^
train
EEEEE
 
EEEEE
 
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
evening evening evening evening evening evening evening
SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP

BREAKING news, get it, SW has a two-week break starting today, omggg.

What to do:

  • one more day in New Orleans!
  • bike ride
  • beach
  • pizza quest
  • Guardians of the Galaxy weeeee

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Bout Day Breakfast
 WCR Second Wind vs BERG AllStars

creole omelet, cheesy grits, and biscuit

Creole omelet, cheesy grits, biscuit, water, and coffee.

More bout day breakfasts!

Friday, July 25, 2014

Egression #165

165. These I already do! Via The Week.

Way to go, The Week, that's three for three. I really cannot endorse this list heartily enough, except the part about waking up early, geez, there's such an early riser cabal squatting in the self help aisle. I'm just going to write right here, so maybe it'll show up the next time somebody googles "does sleeping in make me a bad person," no, you don't have to wake up at 5:00 AM to live a happy, productive life. I mean, you can if that floats your boat; it's just not required. Eight works fine for me!

(Right, I don't have kids. Or really, a proper job. Or pets. Or even plants. I play roller derby at the age of forty-six. Me and the sweetie man live amazingly harmoniously crammed into 400 square feet, and he just fixed the toilet with a twist tie I think. These are choices I made, yes? And yes I am testing the tolerances of the words "successful" and YMMV, as I am wont to do.)

(The sharpest eyes will have noticed that almost all of my posts are timestamped in the seven o'clock hour, how does that happen, well, I think most of your longrunning blogs are written and scheduled ahead of time, for the timestamp I edit whatever's automatic to seven and AM, so my posts wait published for me for when I wake up.)

Anyway, here's how I do:

1) The morning ritual

I mean, right? Wake up, coffee in bed, words, tidy bedroom, tidy kitchen.

On work days it's wake up, shower, train and read redeye, breakfast and read feedly. (Take the train! Not like, train with weights.)

2) Important work first thing, with no distractions

For home days, I have cooking scheduled first thing after breakfast. Which first of all, food is important to me, and second, cooking takes energy; a thing that's important and takes energy gets the prime slot. Wow you might think, cooking instead of writing? Isn't writing more important than cooking? I'll tell you what, I thought about it. And, no. It's a very freeing thought, actually, when I'm cooking, that this is the most important thing to me. If it isn't for you, then you ...wouldn't. It's really that simple, except for the thing about you have to eat. I can't solve that for you, I like to cook so I haven't explored other options. Also cooking, for me, comes with this photographing and writing tail so sometimes that itch gets scratched when I'm waiting for something in the oven.

The distractions were more of a problem on work days. I forget how I stopped them.

3) Regroup when you slow down

So, write now? Nope! At this point, I am pooped. What I do now is eat, shower, and nap. I think the article says to revisit your hopes and dreams, you have fun with that! Totally not being ironic, I sincerely hope you have fun with whatever you do. I'm going to have fun revisiting the backs of my eyelids, or streaming something unchallenging on netflix.

[ETA @ 9:55 AM: I think this makes four for three, The Week is killing it!]

4) Meetings, calls and people stuff in the afternoon

Well, I don't do meeting or calls. Or people, haha. After my little power down, I do my little systems tasks, which are also important to me and don't take any energy at all, except paying bills does a little. Writing now? Nooope. You can see how writing is never getting done, and why not? Because it's not that important to me, rinse and repeat.

These third and fourth points aren't as salient for work, I have a task list that I chop at pretty evenly through the week. My job is pretty quiet, super grateful for that.

5) A relaxing evening

Haha, well, define relaxing. I personally like an evening to end up looking like I was beaten with sticks. YMMV! And working with clients is relaxing—if that isn't great, I don't know what great is.

And finally, sometimes, writing does happen. I mean, obviously, circumspicere, sometimes people ask me how I stick to blogging, and my secret is, I do it to relax, and the things that a lot of people do for relaxation, like spending time making small talk with other people, that... is not the most relaxing to me, so.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Greek Yogurt Mango Coconut Butter Smoothie

coconut butter mango smoothie

I use the Bella Cucina Rocket Blender to make my smoothies.

This one is sooo good, idk why I didn't think of using coconut butter before. It doesn't need sweetener, I guess coconut butter is naturally sweet? I read the label and it didn't say any added sugars. Anyway.

frozen mango
four big spoonfuls of greek yogurt, maybe 1/2–1 cup?
two big spoonfuls of coconut butter, maybe 2 tablespoons–1/4 cup?
enough water to cover the mango

Put enough frozen mango to half fill the blender cup, then the greek yogurt, then the coconut butter, and then water. Screw on the cap, stick the cup on the motor base, and blend for 30 seconds. Then take it off the base and give it a little shake to get anything that's stuck on the top of the cup. Blend for another 20 seconds or until the smoothie is churning freely from top to bottom.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Warm Chicken and Roasted Fennel and Tomato Salad over avocado

warm chicken and roasted fennel vinaigrette over avocado

So now fennel is getting the warm salad treatment, I think I can also do broccoli and cauliflower like this. TK!

a fennel bulb
a red or yellow bell pepper
a pint of cherry tomatoes
three-quarters of 1/3 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup olive oil
kosher salt
black pepper
a rotisserie chicken
avocados for plating

Heat oven to 500 degrees.

Trim and slice the fennel, dice the pepper, and leave the cherry tomatoes whole. Toss lightly with olive oil and salt in a baking pan. Roast until vegetables are softened and a little bit charred, stirring occasionally, about twenty to thirty minutes.

Eyeball three-quarters of a third cup lemon juice—I think lemon and fennel are very nice together—and then measure a third cup olive oil into the cup of a rocket blender, add a pinch of salt and some grinds of black pepper, and whirr it all together.

Take the breast and thigh meat off the chicken, saving the rest for snacks and soup, and cut it up into bite-size pieces.

Add the chicken to the vegetables when they are done, pour over the vinaigrette and toss thoroughly.

At this point, I halve an avocado and spoon over a quarter of the warm chicken salad and vinaigrette. The rest of the salad gets divided between three jars, to be sent to work with three avocados.

To serve from the jar, heat the jar in the microwave for three minutes—be careful, the jar will be hot—and empty it over a peeled, halved avocado.

Monday, July 21, 2014

Scrambled Eggs with Avocado, Tomato, and Peach Salsa

scrambled eggs with avocado, tomato, and peach salsa

You know what's real good together, tomato and peach.

Remember the basic formula for avocado salsa is: avocado + tomato + something of an onion nature + something of a pepper nature + lime juice.

I held back the onion in this, I thought there was enough going on with the avocado, tomato, and peach. The key lime juice ties it really nicely together, plus a sprinkle of kosher salt and I couldn't resist a sprinkle of cayenne pepper.

This makes a lot. I can down an avocado and a dozen cherry tomatoes easily by myself, but for this I tell the sweetie man that there's some extra interesting salsa in the kitchen if he wants.

an avocado
a dozen cherry tomatoes
a peach
key lime juice
kosher salt
cayenne pepper

Dice the avocado, quarter the tomatoes, dice the peach, and toss them all together in a bowl with the key lime juice until combined.

Then make some scrambled eggs:

a pat of butter, or a dab of coconut oil
three or however many eggs you want

Melt the butter in a skillet over low heat.

Crack the eggs into a small bowl and beat with a fork, and pour the beaten eggs over the butter in the skillet. Let the eggs set up a bit and then push them around with a heatproof rubber spatula, let them set up and push them around, and so forth, until the eggs are cooked to your liking.

Plate the scrambled eggs with the salsa, sprinkling the salsa with kosher salt and cayenne pepper.

Friday, July 18, 2014

I Will Send Outlanders Amongst You

p: i am going to put a corn remover on my scar.

m: mmkay.

p: because that's the kind of interesting person i am.

m: mmhm!

Though possibly don't try this at home, kids. I do not have the best judgment all the time about surgering myself. I wrote a short story twenty years ago, inspired by the gaping wound that used to be this scar actually, about a woman who picked a mosquito bite until her leg got infected and had to be amputated.

Egression #164

164. I'm going to do this! Via The Week.

I love post-its! Gotta get some post-its. Put them somewhere with some sharpies and when I pass by 'em, grab 'em and write down...

  • something that I'm thankful for
  • something I'm proud of
  • something I'm looking forward to
  • something I remember fondly
  • somebody I admire
...then stick 'em up! On the side of the fridge? Color-coded? Yes. Maybe shape-coded, post-its come in different shapes. Maybe flowers. Make a little paper garden...

Brb!

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Greek Yogurt Almond Butter Peach Smoothie

almond butter peach smoothie

I use the Bella Cucina Rocket Blender to make my smoothies.

I was just about to give up on Justin's almond butters, aagh, why would you put almond butter in a jar with shoulders, but they changed it to a straight-sided jar, which is acceptable. Also, this is extremely good.

frozen peaches
four big spoonfuls of greek yogurt, maybe 1/2–1 cup?
two big spoonfuls of almond butter, maybe 2 tablespoons–1/4 cup?
a squirt of honey
enough water to cover the peaches

Put enough frozen peaches to half fill the blender cup, then the greek yogurt, then the almond butter, a squirt of honey, and then water. Screw on the cap, stick the cup on the motor base, and blend for 30 seconds. Then take it off the base and give it a little shake to get anything that's stuck on the top of the cup. Blend for another 20 seconds or until the smoothie is churning freely from top to bottom.

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Warm Chicken and Roasted Brussels Sprout and Tomato Salad over avocado

warm chicken and roasted vegetables vinaigrette over avocado

I've been going through my chicken jars from last season, and they're very good. A thing about this summer, though, is that I don't sit at the front desk anymore; I have my own cube in the back office, and dang it's cold back there. So like, sometimes I'm dreading eating a crisp raw salad. And actually another thing about this summer is that it hasn't been consistently hot, so it's not so awful to turn on the oven.

SO my real idea for this salad, say if I were to make it for company, say for a nice luncheon—because that always happens—would be to make a bunch of bacon in the oven, then roast the veggies in the bacon fat, and pile the bacon-roasted vegetables and warm bacon vinaigrette over avocado halves or maybe thinly sliced avocadoes, and top it all with bacon bits. But, no, I need something that works in jars for work. Tell me though that that doesn't sound good. It does sound good, doesn't it.

Avocado napped with sizzling vinaigrette is also darn good.

1 lb brussels sprouts
a red or yellow bell pepper
a pint of cherry tomatoes
three-quarters of 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
kosher salt
black pepper
a rotisserie chicken
avocados for plating

Heat oven to 500 degrees.

Trim and halve the brussels sprouts, dice the pepper, and leave the cherry tomatoes whole. Toss lightly with olive oil and salt in a baking pan. Roast until vegetables are softened and a little bit charred, stirring occasionally, about twenty to thirty minutes.

Eyeball three-quarters of a third cup vinegar and then measure a third cup olive oil into the cup of a rocket blender, add a pinch of salt and some grinds of black pepper, and whirr it all together.

Take the breast and thigh meat off the chicken, saving the rest for snacks and soup, and cut it up into bite-size pieces.

Add the chicken to the vegetables when they are done, pour over the vinaigrette and toss thoroughly.

At this point, I halve an avocado and spoon over a quarter of the warm chicken salad and vinaigrette. The rest of the salad gets divided between three jars, to be sent to work with three avocados.

To serve from the jar, heat the jar in the microwave for three minutes—be careful, the jar will be hot—and empty it over a peeled, halved avocado.

Monday, July 14, 2014

Scrambled Eggs with Avocado Tomato Salsa

scrambled eggs with avocado tomato salsa

I guess I can post my recipe for this, it's barely a recipe but what if you don't know? And salsa is so pretty. My basic formula for avocado salsa is avocado + a dozen cherry tomatoes, because I always have cherry tomatoes on hand + something of an onion nature + something of a pepper nature + lime juice, key lime juice actually because I have a bottle of that right now. I think the above was:

an avocado
a dozen cherry tomatoes
a green onion
a tip of a spoonful of kochujang
no lime juice, because I thought that would clash with the kochujang

Dice the avocado, quarter the tomatoes, mince the green onion, and toss them all together in bowl with the kochujang until combined.

And you know how to make scrambled eggs, right? If you're too tired to click, I know that feel:

a pat of butter, or a dab of coconut oil
two three eggs, or however many eggs you want

Melt the butter in a skillet over low heat.

Crack the eggs into a small bowl and beat with a fork, and pour the beaten eggs over the butter in the skillet. Let the eggs set up a bit and then push them around with a heatproof rubber spatula, let them set up and push them around, and so forth, until the eggs are cooked to your liking.

Plate the scrambled eggs with the salsa.

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Bout Day Breakfast
 WCR Second Wind vs DCRD Dynamite Dolls

coffee with peaches and koldskal

Coffee with peaches and koldskal.

Too early to eat a big breakfast. What, this is early for me. Donuts and more coffee on the road TK.

More bout day breakfasts!

Friday, July 11, 2014

Egressions #162-163

162. I do these! Via The Week. Or well, not so much downward comparison. Why compare at all, just empathize.

163. These, too Via Fit Sugar. This is basically how derby works. How to keep it working after derby, eee.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Greek Yogurt Peanut Butter Strawberry Smoothie

peanut butter strawberry smoothie

I use the Bella Cucina Rocket Blender to make my smoothies.

I tweaked my smoothie recipe again, my formula now is frozen fruit + greek yogurt + nut butter + a tiny bit of sweetener if needed + water, but whatever, it's a smoothie, make it how you want.

frozen strawberries
four big spoonfuls of greek yogurt, maybe 1/2–1 cup?
two big spoonfuls of peanut butter, maybe 2 tablespoons–1/4 cup?
a squirt of honey
enough water to cover the strawberries

Put enough frozen strawberries to half fill the blender cup, then the greek yogurt, then the peanut butter, a squirt of honey, and here's where I'm thinking why almond milk or any milk, it already has yogurt and nut butter, add water and you have yogurt nut milk, yum. Screw on the cap, stick the cup on the motor base, and blend for 30 seconds. Then take it off the base and give it a little shake to get anything that's stuck on the top of the cup. Blend for another 20 seconds or until the smoothie is churning freely from top to bottom.

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Summer Tuesday Cooking Practice

Tuesdays, schmoosdays, I also wake up usually by eight, sometimes I sleep until nine, I get coffee in bed, do my words, get up and tidy the bedroom and the kitchen, fix up a little avocado tomato salsa and scramble some eggs. Fun fact, I always eat two hardboiled eggs and three scrambled eggs, idk, scrambled eggs look smaller. I take my plate of scrambled eggs and salsa to the couch and eat my breakfast.

scrambled eggs with avocado tomato salsa

Eventually I get up and set about making ground meat and greens, just like I've been making them all along—but a third more easy because I have Trader Joe's microwaveable rice in the freezer.

  1. Start either some Korean ground beef or Chinese ground pork in a saute pan.
  2. Also put on a pot of water for the greens. I guess for summer I like turnip and mustard greens, you will see why in a minute.
  3. By the time you put the meat on the back burner to simmer for twenty minutes, the water should be boiling for the greens. Dump the greens into the boiling water, blanch for a few minutes, and then drain and run cold water over them. Grab them by the handful and squeeze dry, then slice and dress with a little sesame oil, soy sauce, and rice wine vinegar right in their container.
  4. When the meat is done, put it into its container.

To serve: prepare a packet of rice according to the packet directions—i.e., microwave for three minutes with whichever side of the packet is supposed to be up. I empty half the packet into a bowl and put away the other half for another dinner. Add a scoop of meat and microwave for another three minutes. Add a scoop of greens and eat.

chinese ground pork, kale, and rice

This is kale, but you know, squint.

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Summer Sunday Cooking Practice

God, I love summer. I love Sundays.

Sundays whenever I wake up, usually by eight, sometimes I sleep until nine, I get coffee in bed, do my words and email my clients. Then I get up and tidy the bedroom and the kitchen, I boil my eggs for the week, eight total, and whack whack whack I cut up the week's watermelon and put three-quarters in three jars and plate the last quarter. Then the timer goes off for the eggs, I run cold water over them and peel two for my plate. Then I take my plate to the couch and have my breakfast.

eggs and watermelon

Or bowl, as the case may be.

Eventually, I get up and put the six other eggs into a half carton to bring to work.

Then I set about making chicken jars for the week. Chicken jars pretty much break down thusly:

  1. blend a scant 1/3 cup vinegar with 1/3 cup olive oil in a rocket blender cup for vinaigrette
  2. slice and dice the vegetable du semaine and a sweet or hot pepper and divide between four jars
  3. divide the vinaigrette between the four jars
  4. if you care, you can cover the jars and shake them to distribute the vinaigrette over the vegetables
  5. take apart the rotisserie chicken
  6. you can save the excess in the freezer for stock
  7. divide the chicken between the four jars
That's it, cover the jars and put them in the fridge next to your watermelon jars.

All in all, it takes maybe fifteen minutes? A half hour at the most. Not long enough for me to be hungry for lunch, so I wander off and when I'm ready for lunch I halve an avocado and a handful of cherry tomatoes into a bowl and empty a chicken jar over the avocado and tomato.

chicken asparagus jar on avocado

Where are my tomatoes. Well, I usually have tomatoes.

So if you've been counting, that leaves me with six hard boiled eggs, three watermelon jars, and three chicken jars for MWF work breakfasts and lunches. I order three avocados and a pint of cherry tomatoes at a time from der groschery mann, and divide the pint over three lunches.

Ta da.

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Summer Saturday Cooking Practice
 peaches and koldskal

Ah, the weekend. So far it's been working out that Saturdays I sleep in, sometimes way late, which for me is like ten; so I don't wallow in bed, I get up and tidy the bedroom and the kitchen and make up a batch of koldskal.

I do:
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 pint buttermilk
2 cups greek yogurt

Whisk the egg yolks in a large bowl—or even better a pitcher, which will pour better, I use my old Brita pitcher that I've been saving for years for no particular reason, I guess for this reason—with the sugar, then whisk in the vanilla and lemon juice. [ETA: I just made this with bottled key lime juice, and it's really good.] Then whisk in the buttermilk and yogurt.

To serve, cut up a peach into a bowl and pour over some koldskal.

peaches and koldskal

Put the rest in a jar for next week.

[ETA: I already changed my mind, all of the above, but for lunch after I do my lovely Saturday morning workout. You don't care when I do what, that's okay. I care.]

[ETA: I didn't do my workout, either. But I folded all the laundry and I finally washed my uniforms!]

Friday, July 4, 2014

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Summer Food Chart



Black coffee in bed.
Hard-boiled eggs with melon for work breakfasts.
Scrambled eggs with avocado tomato salsa at home.
Chicken jars for work lunches.
Peaches and koldskal at home.
Tea and peach for afternoon snack, optional.
Ground meat, greens, and rice for pre-workout dinner.
Taco Burrito Express, we meet again.
Beetlejuice for pre-workout drink.
Cococherry2O for workout drink.
Fruit, nut butter, and yogurt smoothies for post-workout snack.
Tart cherry soda and coco popcorn for Friday evening snack.

Summertiiiiime and the living is easy...

Just to keep myself from burning out on hard-boiled eggs, I make scrambled eggs for home breakfasts with avocado tomato salsa, that was good and easy to whip up.

And I save chicken jars on avocado and tomato for work lunches. Also honestly I sleep in too late on my home days to fit in all my meals, so for home lunches I just have peaches and koldskal. Or a smoothie, six of one, half dozen of the other.

I guess strawberries are done, peaches are amaaazing now. I don't think I eat all this much fruit, though. Either I eat chicken for lunch and I'm good until dinner, or I eat some form of fruit and yogurt for lunch and go straight to meat, greens, and rice for dinner.

Whaaat. I like Taco Burrito Express.

If I had a smoothie for lunch, I have koldskal for my post-workout snack. So good.

Ultimate food chart! Always tweaking...
Summer food planner for the extremely detail-oriented.