Hip cooks at Hipcooks

This week I attended a cooking class at Hipcooks Seattle, courtesy of Goodness Knows snack squares, with a few bloggers and social media people from around Seattle.  As my blog has humble traffic and my Facebook feed is mostly filled with updates on my CrossFit workouts, I was pretty honored to be in that bunch.  Plus, I was the only guy in the class, so lunch with a bunch of ladies always works out.

I have to be honest, it started out with two faux pas on my part.  First, I messed up the calendar and put the wrong location down.  Instead of going someplace about 5 blocks from my work - walkable - we took a 15 minute drive, paid $4 to park and then drove back.  Luckily, we were ahead of schedule and were only a few minutes late to lunch.  Obviously, I was still flustered about the wrong location and when I was introduced to our host, Jenni Hogan, the first thing that came out of my mouth was "Hello. You're tall."  We've got a big flat panel TV and I've seen her do the traffic many times, but even on our big TV, she didn't seem model tall.  Evidently, she used to be a rower and she was wearing tall heels. And she's also probably the first big media personality that I've met.  I wonder if I would have been able to fit both feet in my mouth if I had been as lucky as Whit to interview Scarlett Johannsen (in my research for this post, I learned she canceled but Whit interviewed Samuel Jackson instead!).

We participated in Hipcooks Healthy, Fresh and Zingy class, making two red pepper soups and a seared tuna with fresh mango cucumber salsa.  I was a little concerned heading to a cooking class given my paleo-ish eating.  But with a name like Healthy, Fresh and Zingy I had little to worry about, although there is photographic evidence of me holding bread, gently rubbing it with heads of garlic.

I didn't eat any! Photo by @unitedstatesofmotherhood

The Hipcooks class was fun and about just cooking with your senses. No measuring, kind of a tough one for me, just doing it all by feel.  I do like a recipe as a starting point, but after I become familiar with it, I do it by feel.

I learned a few awesome things too.  When roast peppers, I usually cut them into slices before hand.  I lose the liquor, the juices from inside the pepper, so I'll be roasting peppers whole and then cutting them into slices/strips.  Our salsa had lime zest in it and we discussed using leftover zest to make citrus sugars which would make a nice hostess give or rimmer for a cocktail. I'd be interested in trying to make lemon pepper, as we've been eating a lot of chicken lately. I even learned how to pour two soups in a bowl and keep them separated and make a ying-yang look (sorry, no photos).

I wasn't the only one who was learning things - two of the ladies don't cook and they've got photographic evidence of them making some pretty good food now. And now, their friends want Kat to make it for them.

@beauraines @scoutshonor Well now they're all asking me to!! #UhOh #ImInTrouble
— Kat is my first name (@Kat_Kim_) April 12, 2013

We chatted and snacked on Goodness Knows squares. They're pretty good, not paleo, but small enough that the amount of non-paleo things is pretty negligible.  A cheat with some grains and sugars, but all in all still a good snack.  Since there are four bites in a package, I could even cheat-snack and not feel too bad about it.  Its not like its a whole slice of bread.  I really like the Very Cranberry one (the only one I've tried so far), but my kids and wife like them a lot.  Goodness Knows snack bars will have a place in my messenger bag as emergency snack food. They're currently only available in Portland, Seattle and Denver, but if you pester them on twitter, I bet you could find out when they're coming to you!

After our snack, we went back to class and made a super easy strawberry sorbet. I've made sorbet before, but it involved sugar syrups and mashed berries and my ice cream maker.  This was just frozen strawberries, some vanilla bean paste and a blender!  Throw them all together, blend till smooth and enjoy! I think that this could even be made as a one person snack, say for when a kid comes home from school on a hot summer day (if we ever get those in the Pacific NorthWest).

It was a great break from work to cook and meet and network with some cool people.  I got to meet Kerri's new baby, who was quite possibly the quietest baby I've ever met.  Hopefully, with help from Kristin and my nagging, Heather will move her blog to Wordpress.

Things are going alright

This morning, a little after 5:30 am, I was driving down the road and I thought to myself, "Things are going alright."  It was a strange thought to jump in my head at that hour, as I'd been up for less than 15 minutes and was on my way to CrossFit.

My health is great, probably best its been in a decade and my energy levels are up, probably both due in part to CrossFit and eating Paleo.  I can do pull-ups, something 6 months ago I was not able to do. I competed in the CrossFit Open (a topic for a separate post) and was pleased with my performance.

Work has been busy, but rewarding. Today's reward was a rather large stage gate approving a rather large project with a rather large capital expense and it went without a hitch (other than the negative guy who appears to be trying to waylay the project - but I can take him).

I've had recently been in touch with several friends, some with updates, some asking for advice. One buddy had to switch jobs unexpectedly, but did so pretty quickly, which was good.  I was able to provide another friend some advice for a project he's working on.  I've got a job and I'm helping other people.  Little things, yes, but they contribute to my satisfaction.

My family is healthy.  My kids are happy and enjoying their spring break.  My wife is kicking butt at CrossFit.  We've got some productive carpools so she doesn't have to drive all the kids to all their swim practices all the time.

Yeah, things are going alright.

Paleo Preparations for the Upcoming Week

The slow cooker is stewing Stupid Easy Paleo's Moroccan Chicken with homemade Ras el Hanout spices from Clothes Make the Girl for dinner tonight.  Next week's Paleo blueberry muffins from PaleOMG are baking in the oven and the chicken is already grilled.  All that remains to prepare for tomorrow is gather my clothes to change into after 6AM CrossFit tomorrow morning.  I'm able to get out of the house in under 17 minutes and start my day.

Eating Paleo requires some planning in advance, especially when head straight from CrossFit to work in the morning. Deep down inside, I'm a planner and that advanced planning and preparation appeals to me. I don't mind that I'm going to eat blueberry muffins, avocado and grilled Thai seasoned chicken tenders all week for breakfast. I do miss that there won't be bacon in there this week, but that's part of the reason I made muffins.

Here's to a new week!  Eat clean.

A strange week indeed

The week before last, was a strange one. Several of the interactions I had or observed had weird role reversals.

My wife is a hottie. When she changed her profile picture on Facebook, I wasn't surprised to see the comment that she was a MILF.  I'd agree with that statement. But what was weird was that the comment came from someone I assumed was straight and know in a social context.  Great sentiment, but not from a source I expected.

The kids and my wife went thrift shopping and somehow my wife convinced my oldest to dress up and take some pictures.  He's looking pretty fly, no?  Well, it seems that a self-identified adult lesbian thought so too (in a non-creepy way).

I've been eating paleo for a while and my breakfasts have been grilled chicken tenders, bacon and avocado. It's great, I can grill them at home for the week and bring it into the office and re-warm in the microwave and chop avocado there.  Hot breakfast, great, healthy paleo food can't be beat.  So, it turns out that a vegetarian co-worker said, while being serious, "Looks like a healthy breakfast!" It was like 80% meat!

Lot's of role reversals here, but there wasn't a full moon. What do you think was going on?

Paleo eating, CrossFit and Business...

I realized that I've slipped a bit in posting a new blog each week, but I do have some things to write about.  This week, I'll write about Paleo eating and CrossFit and I'll bet you probably saw those coming.  But I'll hit another topic, that I rarely write about, business.  This whole post stems from a business trip I took 2 weeks ago for the full week.

If you're a long time reader (I know I have some regulars, even though I'm not so regular, so thank you), you might recall I used to work from home. I'd make occasional trips to my company's office, day trips or on rare instances, an over-nighter.  Now that I've changed companies, my travel has been different. This trip was a full week, which adds complications to eating paleo and doing CrossFit.

I was a little concerned about how I would be able to stick to my strict paleo challenge during this trip.  In the end, I realized it wasn't so hard after all. You do have to read the menus and be ready to ask for items to be excluded. I was in Arizona and when I went to the local Mexican restaurant, I had to turn down the chips and the tortilla with my dinner, and avoid eating the cheese covered beans.  In fact, when my plate came out, my fork went for the cheesy beans first and then I realized the error of my ways.  "Hold the cheese and hold the potatoes," was the standard addition to my breakfast orders at the hotel restaurant.

Group lunches during our meeting were a little hard, but I foresaw that and I made sure to bring some paleo friendly snacks to tide me over during the day.  The meeting organizers did a good job of trying to meet everybody's special diet needs, though one day instead of sandwiches, I was given a salad.  I could have just eaten the inside of a sandwich!

And I've found that in the west, specialty diet restaurants are becoming more prevalent. I've found restaurants in Portland and now Phoenix that cater to paleo lifestyles among others.  A quick search helped me find Nourish 123 and so a buddy and I went there for dinner one night.

Fish tacos in a jicama shell. How cool is that? And to top it off, I didn't need to ask them to hold anything or make any substitutions. I just ordered from their menu with the little Paleo icon.

CrossFit was a little more difficult. Our schedule was a little unpredictable, so I wasn't sure that I'd be able to get to an evening session at one of the local CrossFit boxes. But I made sure to workout (the first evening and then 3 more mornings), but it wasn't nearly as intense and I did skip one morning.  It just isn't the same, working out in a little fitness center (really a room to hold elliptical machines and treadmills), without music and without the motivation of my fellow 6AM'er CrossFitters.

My return flight to Seattle arrived at 5:30pm. I went straight to Cascade CrossFit and met my wife and youngest kid there. I was 16 minutes late, which earned me an 80 burpee penalty (I did 40 before the WOD and 40 the next day), but it was great to get a good CrossFit WOD in.  And in fact, that burpee practice helped me prepare for the CrossFit Open 13.1 WOD, but more on that later.

Thanks for reading this far and getting through all the CrossFit and paleo stuff. Although the trip was long and took me from my family, my own bed and my CrossFit box for a week, it was a good business trip.  But the neatest thing was that I got to spend several days with a CEO and see how he thinks about things when he is on the shop floor in the weeds.

I was impressed how he would listen to the associates tell how they did their jobs and every time, he'd ask them, "What can we do to make your job easier?"  Yeah, he had his own ideas, but he would actively seek that feedback from the associates, because the associates do the job day in and day out.  It was great to see that a CEO isn't that much different than you and I; they're people too. In fact, I ran into him in the elevator of our hotel as I was going to workout and he said that he didn't have that discipline to workout when travelling.

We all have our own strengths and weaknesses and through listening to others and learning from each other, we can all become stronger.

Week 4 - 30 Day Paleo Challenge

Week 4 (I'm behind in posting) of the 30 day Paleo challenge started with the SuperBowl and my birthday.  But I kept to the strict paleo with a great mix of paleo and non-paleo appetizers for our SuperBowl watching party.  Kale chips and beet and sweet potato chips and guacamole make me happy. I made some non-paleo things to keep the kids happy too, pizza pillows and I tried my hand at twice baked potatoes.

 I got these wonderful chocolate paleo cupcakes with my birthday dinner.  They were a great treat and I'm grateful that my wife went out of her way to make something paleo compliant.  Strict paleo is a bit more complicated to eat, since you're being strict. Duh.

During Week 4, I decided to join Ash and some of his friends on a strict paleo challenge from the Super Bowl through March Madness.  I had done 3 weeks already when I made the commitment to join them, so I felt I could go a few more weeks.  But that threw a wrench in the gift from Kid3.  Quite possibly York Peppermint patties are one of my most favorite candies and most definitely not paleo.  They're sitting on my desk waiting for these challenges to end, and then I'll dole them out slowly.

Week 3 of my paleo challenge ended with the first Beer Thursday for my team at work. And then it started to recur. There have been some good beers brought in. When I'm done with the Super Madness CrossFit Paleo challenge, this will be a cheat night for sure. At least just a little taste.

I enjoyed my free birthday coffee from Starbucks, a Maui Mokka reserve.  It was made on the Clover machine and was quite a nice cup of coffee. It was priced at over $4 (so it had better had been good), but I'm not sure I'm willing to pay that price myself.

So, Week 4 ended with a few days left of my original paleo challenge and me starting a new one.  At this point, its getting routine to eat this way, but sometime in March there is going to be some beer and pizza for sure!

Starting Week 3 of the 30 Day Paleo Challenge

This week starts week 3 of Cascade CrossFit's 30 Day Paleo Challenge. I think I've figured out how to get by without my non-paleo cheats and discovered some nasty secrets about our food.

Breakfast used to be the very non-paleo oatmeal.  I've started pre-making some chicken and bacon and bringing it to the office. With half an avocado, it makes a delightful breakfast.

Another one of my cheats has been a Muscle Milk protein shake as my post workout nutrition.  The first week, I tried a fig and banana smoothie. It tasted okay, but didn't have very much protein, only coming from the almond milk.  But it seemed like it was too much (naturally occurring) sugar and not enough protein to support the crazy CrossFit WODs.

As that week ended, I thought about using pasteurized egg whites. They're safe to eat raw and several of the manufacturers have recipes for smoothies on their websites. I ended up making my own concoction and have been drinking that post workout.

Coffee Banana Protein Smoothie

1 banana, broken into pieces

1/2 cup pasteurized egg whites

1/2 cup almond milk

1 heaping tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 cup cold coffee

2 heaping tablespoons almond butter 

Combine in a blender and blend until smooth.

Making the smoothie is something I have to do in the morning, so it has changed my morning routine a little.  When I was using the protein powder, I was able to put it in my bottle the night before and then add water after CrossFit.

I've also noticed that different almond butters act do a better job of thickening than others.  The all natural, only contains almonds almond butter seems to require more than my local grocery stores natural, no mix almond butter. 

Food manufacturers sneak wheat into all kinds of things.  The smoked almonds we were eating, had wheat and soy added to them.  What is up with that?  It made them non-paleo and I've switched just to roasted almonds.  Yesterday, I tried roasting my wasabi almonds.  The first batch was a bust and the second batch didn't last long enough for pictures, though the wasabi taste was muted during the roasting process. I've got to figure out how to get more wasabi in there, post-roasting, and make it stick to the almonds.  That's one of the things I'll work on during week 3, I think.

So, two more weeks to go.  With some small changes (from paleo-ish to strict paleo) and some pre-planning, eating paleo is okay. I still feel good and with as much energy as before.  Living clean takes a little bit of work, but it seems worth it.

Quick script to remind you to stretch

Late last week, I hurt myself a little bit doing hang clean and jerks.  I over-extended my arm when bringing weight down between reps.  I think it had more to do with limited mobility, the fact that I drive a desk all day long and how I sleep with my arms curled up on my chest.

My coaches said my front rack needed work and I needed more mobility in triceps.  So, at home, I've been working on my front rack and triceps stretches.  But at work, I needed to make sure I did something too.  So, I wrote a quick little script to remind me to stretch every so often, with a pop-up window and an alert sound.

As a prerequisite, other than the normal packages installed in an Ubuntu 12.04 Desktop install, the
vorbis-tools package.

Find your desired alert sound.  You can find many sounds in
/usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/
/usr/share/sounds/gnome/default/alerts/

Create the file, stretch_reminder.sh using your favorite text editor.  Step it up and use vi!

#!/bin/bash

# Alert with sound and popup to remind you to stretch

ogg123 /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/system-ready.ogg &

zenity --warning --display=:0.0 --text="It's time to stretch." 

exit 0

Schedule the script in your crontab

$ crontab -e

and then enter the following line
*/30 8-17 * * * /path/to/your/script/stretch_reminder.sh > /dev/null >&1

The crontab entry as written will run every thirty minutes, between 8am and 5pm and won't email you success (or failure) notices each time it runs.

This script has been running all week long for me at work and its been great. I do a few stretches for my forearm, right there in my chair and by the end of the week, I was almost as good as new.  I didn't miss any CrossFit time and I was able to get through my days without pain!

Could I Be A Paid Blogger?

Ahh, the irony.  Just last week (or maybe the week before), I got an email asking if I wanted to blog for Eden's Fantasy, an online adult retailer.  That same week, my wife, whose blog does bring in some income, was asked if she would be willing to review gear for Seattle Backpackers Magazine or had any gear that needed repairing at Rainy Pass Repair, a leading Gore-Tex and gear repair company located in Seattle.
While Heather has a far greater reach online than I do, I think that somehow, we got the marketing demographics all messed up. Sure, there is a place for adult toys in my life, but I'm not sure I'm going to write about it online.  But the outdoors, I'd be super happy to try out new gear and share my experiences.  And when she mentioned gear repair, I was able to jump up and grab my hardshell pants and show her where I had a rip in the cargo pocket and in my seat.
Maybe the outdoor gear reviews were just the Internetz helping combine two of my resolutions, dates with Heather and get outdoors at least once a month. I'm not sure if she's accepted those offers or not, but I think that she should!
I turned down the Eden's Fanstasy blogging opportunity, too. So, I'm still not a paid blogger and rest assured that the toys that get written about here will be geeky or classic toys.

Starting the Paleo 30 Day Challenge

Today, I'm starting the 30 Day Paleo Challenge.  Our CrossFit box, Cascade CrossFit, is challenging its members to eat strict paleo for 30 days.  Well, as I say often during a WOD, "I can do anything for x more minutes," the same thing applies here. I can eat strict paleo for 30 days.
I've been eating pretty clean, paleo/primal for a while now and have made it a new habit.  I have 4 cheats that I've got to figure out what I'm going to during this challenge.

1. Protein shake - After CrossFit, I have a Muscle Milk protein shake. Its convenient, because I put the powder in a bottle the night before and use water from the box. I shake it while I walk out to my car and drink on the way to the park and ride.  I get that post-workout protein and nutrition.  I'm searching the web for some protein shakes I can blend at home before I go. There's going to be a lot of bananas, dates and almond milk in my future.
2. Blueberry Crisp Clif Bars - On the way to CrossFit in the morning, I eat half a Clif bar.  It helps pre-fuel me for the day's WOD.  I'm going to switch to Lara bars for the challenge.
3. Oatmeal - This one is tough. I've been eating oatmeal for breakfast for years.  It helped me reduce my cholesterol and I lost about 10 pounds by just making that switch for breakfast.  Its also convenient, because I don't eat until I get to the office.  I'm going to try Paleo Butternut Squash Porridge and the Morning Glory Muffins I made.  I've made enough that should last me for breakfasts for the week and will take them to work. If anybody has any good breakfast suggestions that are non-egg and easy to take to work or prepare, please leave them in the comments! 
4. Greek yogurt - I like the consistency of the greek yogurt and its been an easy way to round out my breakfast at work.  Since dairy isn't paleo, its out.  I'm hoping with squash and fresh berries and coconut milk that keeps me sated through the morning.

The rest of the meals, I've got covered. Lunch has some leftovers from our pretty paleo dinners. I've got almonds and apples for snacks.  Dinners are at home and paleo.  I think that breakfast has been the hardest thing to switch to paleo.

Wish me luck!

Just a Wednesday dinner

This week, Heather and I worked it out that I would cook dinner on Wednesday and Friday.  About mid-day Wednesday, she called me to say that she was going to make a stop at Fred Meyer, and if I needed anything, which I did.  It was all there in our shared Remember The Milk groceries list, so she said she would get it all too.  I was planning to shop after work, so it was nice that she was able to combine it to her trip.
Except she hardly shops at Fred Meyer at all and had to look all over the store for the things on my list. She told me last night that it took her past all kinds of processed foods, which she found to be really gross, as we've made big changes to the way we eat in our house.  I was grateful that she picked up the things we had on the grocery list - it was a great collaboration.
She did, however, get what I asked for on my list.  I had cut and paste some ingredients right from the recipe and didn't know how expensive they were.  I probably would have downgraded the steak from boneless rib-eye to something a little more affordable, but she went ahead and got it for me.  It was a nice steak and made Wednesday dinner quite nice.

Pan-seared rib-eye steaks with porcini and rosemary rub and roasted acorn squash with pomegranates and roasted pumpkin seeds. Photo by Heather.

Growing up, I hated squash, with a passion.  I think it stems from how the microwave was so popular in the late 70's and 80's.  You can microwave squash and its "done" in about 15 minutes.  Or you can roast it in an oven for about an hour plus time for pre-heating. The time investment is worth it.  I've grown to love roasted butter nut squash, so I decided to branch out and try a recipe from Sunset Magazine.
As we're eating Paleo-ish and I really enjoy cooking and am quite the recipe clipper, I'm always on the lookout for recipes that just happen to also be paleo.  The Roast Squash with Pomegranates, Honey and Roasted Pumpkin seeds had all the right stuff, and Heather had bought some pomegranates at Costco, so I decided to give it a try.  I'd never eaten delicata squash before and unfortunately, my grocery store was out of it.  It might be an earlier winter squash.  But I made it with acorn squash instead and it was great.  In fact, as a testament to how good it was, Kid 2 actually had seconds of the squash!
As Heather and I were talking about the steak she bought (at $10 per pound), she said that she would just season it with salt and pepper and cook it.  But I had a recipe from the Seattle Times for a porcini and rosemary rub for the steak.  Again, this recipe was paleo out of the box and was pretty easy to prepare.  It did require some marination time, but since I was making a later dinner so the kids could get home from swim practice, I had extra time.
The steak is quite simple to prepare. I ground the porcini mushrooms into a powder in our spice grinder (yes, we have a dedicated spice grinder, with a washable tub) and mixed it with finely chopped rosemary.  With a little salt and pepper, it became a rub for the steak. And a tasty, tasty rub it was.  Then, the steaks were pan fried.  We like our meat on the rare side so I did 6 - 8 minutes per side plus some time for resting afterwards.
The steak was a hit and luckily there were leftovers, so Kid 1 and I both had a pretty fancy lunch the next day at school and work!
I'm willing to bet that the rub would work well with a less expensive, marbled cut of steak. As I have enough dried porcini mushrooms to repeat this, I just might try it out.  Or if you have any good suggestions to use porcini mushrooms, leave them in the comments!

Resolutions 2013

It's that time of year when people make New Year's Resolutions. The past few years, I've not made any resolutions. I've realized that its not about setting a goal or objective, but these resolutions are about making a new habit.  Sure, they start with a goal (lose weight, get my finances in order), but whats really important is creating a new habit.

Goals and New Habits for 2013

1. Master Double Unders - Last year I started CrossFit and I couldn't do a single unassisted pull up. I worked on them after working out and after 4 months, I could do 10 unassisted, un-interrupted. And if there are more in a WOD, I can continue, breaking them up into smaller sets.  This year, I'm going to master Double Unders (goal). Most of the time when I get a double under, or maybe 2, I mess up the next one because I'm surprised.  So, I'm going to practice Double Unders 3 times a week (new habit).
2. Stay hydrated (goal).  Because I'm doing working so hard in CrossFit, I need to drink lots of water.  I'm going to drink 3 quarts of water a day (resolution). I've got this pretty well ingrained and I carry a quart water bottle with me all the time.
3. Get my digital life in order (pretty generic goal).  I want to make sure I have good backups of my data and will rely on cloud storage for this.  I do want to make sure I can share my media with the devices within my house. (Not sure where the habits are here - we'll have to see how this one goes).
4. Update my blog regularly (goal). I'm writing about once a month now (it feels less than that) and I'd like to write at least two times a month. I don't feel that I can commit to weekly.
5. Get outside to nature (hiking, snowshoeing, camping, backpacking) (goal) once a month (habit).
6. Eat more fish (goal).  We've started eating paleo (habit to continue) but at least once a week (new habit) I want to eat fish.  Fish are a lean meat too!
7. Schedule monthly (or more frequent) date nights with Heather (habit).  Ironically, we met for coffee last night. What a way to kick of this new habit. 
8. Get our finances in line.  Heather and I need to work on the specifics of this one, because this is one we'll have to take on together.  If I were the King of the Universe, we'd have a budget that we stick to and a plan to pay down our debt.

As I was writing my list of resolutions, I realized that there were some good habits that I started in 2012. As a result I've identified several habits that I want to maintain.

Habits to Maintain

• CrossFit - I currently go 4 days a week (and run at least one of the other days). Its made such a difference in my fitness level and I'm going to continue this.
• Reading
• Continue to eat paleo-ish. Cheat only when its really worth it.  Its related to CrossFit. I'm feel so much better when I'm fueling myself properly.
• Maintain inbox zero - It is the digital and managing all the inputs is crucial.  It doesn't mean I'm going to read every message, but I'm going to rely heavily on filters, Gmail's Priority Inbox, and my to do list (get it out of the inbox and on to the list to do it at the right time).  This goes hand in hand with GTD, which I've blogged about many times already.

What new habits do you want to make in 2013?

DailyMile, I'm moving on

I'm a big believer in collecting data to track performance and for making decisions. I've been doing the same thing with my fitness activities, which up until a few months ago, was primarily running.  I would track my routes, distances and times on DailyMile.

Recently, I started CrossFit and my ideas of fitness have changed from simply distance, rate and time (though its a great basis for motion).  Fitness for me now includes:

1. Cardio-vascular and cardio respiratory endurance 
2. Stamina
3. Strength
4. Flexibility
5. Power 
6. Speed 
7. Coordination
8. Agility 
9. Balance
10. Accuracy

DailyMile is a great site, but it can't track these.  I've started Olympic lifting and kettle bell work and my progress includes increasing the weight on these exercises.  In just a few months, I've gone from not being able to do a pull-up on my own to where I can do 5 pull-ups after a WOD!

It's not that Daily Mile is a bad site, but I want to track more than just distance, rate and time.  Its a great site if you are a runner, walker, rower, biker - any of those distance and time kind of sports.  DM is great, I found the community quite motivating to keep me running regularly.

As a CrossFitter, I need to track more than that.  I've started tracking my performance and improvement with Beyond The WhiteBoard.  I have a community of CrossFitters at my gym, Cascade CrossFit and the people who come to the 6am session.

On BTW, I can not only track my activities, but also my hydration, sleep and nutrition.  It doesn't have the same social component as DM, but I can still push my updates to Twitter. 

I'm not walking away entirely from DM, I still run 2 days a week, so I'll double post those (and hopefully not push them to Twitter) and when we do some distance based WOD, I'll probably post those too.

DailyMile has been great, but its time for me to move on.

Scotch Eggs - they can be breakfast food

Recently, we've been changing our diet to one with a more paleo-ish leaning.  While it's a change to dump the pasta, beans, rice, its not that big of a deal. Sure, I cheat and still eat oatmeal, but instead of filler carbs, I've got to eat filler vegetables.  We've discovered kale and I think its great and am a little bummed if we don't eat kale at least once a week.  But that's not the topic I want to write about today.

I've been surfing the web checking out paleo recipe sites and have seen mention of Scotch Eggs. Evidently, they're a common treat at UK convenience stores and picnic fare. I've never seen them in the US, but when you wrap things in meat, they can only get better.  As they're supposed to be breaded and deep-fried, I had to change a few things to make them paleo friendly.

Last night, I hard boiled the eggs and made my sausage mixture. It took a while to wrap the eggs in the sausage and don't forget, they need to be peeled first.  The scotch eggs need to refrigerate for at least an hour, but I let them chill overnight.

Scotch eggs waiting to chill - picture by Heather

This is the recipe I started from, but didn't want to use any grains.  As its a baked recipe, I could avoid some of the additional fats.  I'd seen fried cauliflower used as a substitute for bread crumbs, so I decided I'd give that a try as well as finely chopped almonds as the "breading."

I took a head of cauliflower and chopped it finely with the food processor. In a pan with butter and olive oil (yes, I was channeling Ree Drummond here), I fried up the cauliflower crumbs. They browned nicely and had a good crispness.

The three on the right side are with fried cauliflower, the two in the back with almond crumbs and the white ones on the left are with raw cauliflower. I decided to try that and see how they'd brown in the oven.

After 20+ minutes of baking (and they might have been a little red on the inside), I had a tray of Scotch Eggs.

They were pretty big and almost a meal in itself.  We ate them warm for breakfast and when the kids came home from swim practice, they polished the remaining 4 off!

There went my lunch plans for Monday. Scotch Eggs seem like a good paleo lunch and portable food.

I made my own sausage mixture of ground pork and turkey and spices (from the recipe) but I think that this could be made with chorizo or with some kind of chopped up bacon "sausage."  I'm going to have to check out what sausages might be available that I could use for a different flavoring outer shell.

Forging Elite Fitness - I am a Crossfitter

I have started CrossFit. At the beginning of July, my wife and I went through Cascade Crossfit's fundamentals course and though it smoked me and I was sore after every session, I wanted to come back for more.  So after a vacation in New York City, I signed up.  And in order to make sure I get to work on time, I attend the 6am session!

I really like CrossFit. The idea of functional fitness really attractive, but the old soldier in me finds it rather motivating.  First thing in the morning, pushing your self with a team of supportive people, that just cannot be beat.

Some Things I Really Like

1. Every day is different. This won't get boring, but I'll get stronger. The coaches will be able to find a set of muscles and pair it with some exercises that will make it stronger.
2. I find CrossFit exercises incredibly motivating.  Some of them remind me of the "punishments" my Platoon Sergeant's would meet out on my soldiers when they messed up. Now, I pay someone to tell me to do them. What a great place!
3. Just because I've lead a fairly sedentary life for the last 12 years, doesn't mean I can't do CrossFit. Every workout can be modified - I can't do hand stand push-ups, but by putting my feet up on a block and pushing vertically, I can work the same muscles with a lesser load.  Someday I'll do handstand pushups, someday.
4. There is a core of 6 AM'ers who come every day there is a session. When there is a group of people expecting me to be there, it helps cement the commitment.  It's like being part of a team.
5. With the paleo-ish changes we are making to our diet, I'm eating better with far more vegetables taking the place of empty carbs and with all this exercise, I'm drinking much more water than I usually would.  I've even gone as far as to carry a 1 liter bottle in my messenger bag with me all the time and have even been known to refill it from my water glass at a restaurant.
6. After going for 5 sessions, I'm already more fit.

A Few Things I Don't Like

1. I drink less coffee.  I really enjoy the taste of coffee and when I was working from home, I'd easily have 8 shots of espresso in a day.  Now, because I go straight to work from CrossFit, I don't get to enjoy my espresso machine as often.  And when I get to work, I don't drink coffee because I so need to rehydrate with water!
2. It changes the way I do my morning chores.  I've got to make sure the dishwasher is emptied and Heather's coffee maker is preppedbefore I go to bed, with a lunch made (that I all too often forget) and some clothes selected for work the next day.
3. I don't see my family as much in the morning.  Being a 6 AM'er, I'm out of the house by 5:35am, CrossFit and then straight to my van pool.

I really enjoy CrossFit and look forward to the next session.  With the kids' swimming starting up next month, I'm going to have to make some tweaks to get it all in, maybe some evening sessions, but none of it is insurmountable.

If you find this kind of stuff motivating, you should check out CrossFit, too.  You can find CrossFit all over or if you're close to Issaquah, check out Cascasde Crossfit. And if you're on DailyMile, you can follow my workouts there too!

Cooking without Heather

If you read my wife's blog or follow her on Twitter, you've probably read that we're making some changes to our diet.  As she puts it we're eating Paleo-ish. Our house has no bread in it and our consumption of 2 gallons of milk every 3 days has been replaced with almond and/or coconut milk. Since we're not using grains as filler, we've been eating many more vegetables to take their place.

It was a big change in our diet and though I've not totally removed grains (I still eat my oatmeal for breakfast and have had a few slices of pizza and some beer), I do feel just as good if not better.  And my recent cholesterol test has shown significant improvement as well.

But a few weeks ago, my wife went on a trip to Harley-Davidson's corporate headquarters with other women bloggers.

As you know, I enjoy cooking, so I planned out our meals. That was important considering I still had to work and the kids had summer league swim meets each night.  But I tried to stay true to the paleo-ish diet we were taking on.

Day 1

Cumin Crusted Salmon Summer Salad (recipe on AllRecipes.com) with Apricot Brulee from Health-Bent

I found the recipe for the salmon years ago in a newspaper insert and have made it several times. Its a nice combination of salmon and salad. The citrus dressing gives the meal a light, bright summery taste.  To make this all the more vegetable-y, I added a diced red pepper to it.  It was fast to make, in fact, I prepared it in two batches. The first was for Kid3 and me, who ate earlier, followed by Kids 1 and 2 who were at swim practice and got home later.

The brulee was fun to make because I got to use my kitchen torch (in fact, that's a theme that carried through from the original poster's blog as well).  What also made it neat was that I was able to use some of Heather's organic, alternative sweeteners, in this case, coconut sugar.

Coconut sugar is much like brown sugar, though not as moist and not quite as sweet.  I'm not sure of any other nutritional differences from regular (likely beet) sugar...

Day 2

Smoked Tri-Tip with a Coffee-Spice rub and Chipotle Coleslaw from Sunset Magazine

The weather was great and we were going to have a picnic dinner at the swim meet that night, so I decided to smoke tri-tip.  I had the time, because I was working from home while Heather was travelling, but I didn't pay enough attention to the tri-tip. I followed the recipe and smoked them for 2 hours, but that was too much for the tri-tip steaks. I think the recipe was intending larger tri-tips (or a more attentive cook).

When they came out, they were well done, but luckily not overly dry.  At the last minute, I made some Chipotle Guacamole to help them slide down.  Nice and smokey and the coffee flavor was great to get in the evening as opposed to just the morning with my espresso.

Day 3

Day 3 was a busy day. Not only was there work, the ferrying to activities and the swim meet, but Heather was returning home this afternoon.  It was Kid3's turn for a swim meet, but we just weren't going to be able to be home to make a healthy lunch.

I asked Kid1 what Mom would do and he suggested some healthy options (subtracting the mayo and sauces) for lunch at Burger King.  Surprisingly, BK had added some yummy (and bordering on not bad for you) menu choices of salads and sweet potato fries.  It kept me in the paleo-ish arena and I wish I was indulgent enough for the bacon sundae.  They also had wifi which was great for getting some work done while I was out.

After picking Heather up, I packaged dinner so we could eat at the swim meet. We got to the swim meet for his last event but didn't eat there. Keeping to the paleo-ish diet, we had

1. More smoked tri-tip
2. Left over Chipotle Coleslaw
3. A Syrian roasted red pepper vegetable dip
4. Watermelon Salad with Vidalia-Onion Vinaigrette 

Not as much a hit, but I got credit for lots of vegetables, especially as veggies served as the dip transport mechanism.  In my house, I'm the only one who really likes savory watermelon salads. Kid2 will eat them, because she loves anything that has to do with watermelon, but that salad wasn't well accepted. Nor was the dip.

Oh, well, you win some, you lose some.

A Recent Business Trip

I tried to keep up the good diet on a recent business trip. Instead of going to the Waffle House or one of several fried chicken restaurants, I shopped at Publix market.  I think I was able to get healthier options than at a restaurant at about the same or less than I would have paid eating out.  I wonder how often expense reports have grocery store receipts submitted with them!

Lesson's learned Backpacking

Many people will wander the Earth to find themselves, go through some rite of passage. A little over a month ago, my son and I went backpacking on the Taylor River, and I learned a few things.

• Some things are better at re-energizing a kid than others. Grabbing a quick snack, stopping for lunch, going to the bathroom and even changing his socks, were far more motivating than sitting down and taking a break. Maybe its the dread of putting the pack back on when you're resting, but some stops put a bigger spring in his step than others. 
• Don't doubt your kids' cababilities. They can probably go further than you give them credit for. My 10 year old son carried a 28 pound backpack for 6 miles on Day 1 and 11 miles on Day 2 of our trip. And I didn't cut him much slack - he carried his stuff as well as some of our common gear. While we did eat the food he was carrying first, he still carried the tent poles and the rain fly (both pretty important in the state of Washington). And on top of all that he brought a full set of clean clothes for day 2 which is an oddity when we're at home with his full closet. 
• We all know already that kids love sticks, often to parents' chagrin. Along the way, Kid3 picked up a "sharp stick" that became one of the most important pieces of "gear" my kid carried. He used it when scrambling up steep slopes, it was a pointer for the map. You can even see it in his hand in the picture below. We even turned around a short distance to go get it when it was left behind. Once. The final time it was lost, we realized it after about 15 minutes of walking. But it wasn't that traumatic of a loss. 

• I did try to make this a learning exercise for Kid3 and teach him how to live in the outdoors. As we were hiking, I shared with him how to not attract animals to our campsite and how hanging a bear bag is a great activity. Usually, hanging a bear bag takes many attempts, so it serves as after dinner entertainment and to warm you up before you go to bed. Not so with my football playing son. On the third throw, he had it over the branch. And when we needed to lower it to get our toothbrushes, he just decided to re-hang it with similar ease. Take football players backpacking with you. 
• You don't need as much stuff as you think. On this trip I carried as much weight as I do on a day hike (I pack heavy) and I had more food, parts of a tent and a sleeping bag. I didn't carry as many backup pieces of clothing and relied on my water filter quite a bit. On a typical day hike, I'll carry 3 - 4 liters of water, but this trip, we each carried 1 liter and an empty water bottle. We did refill several times during the trip, but that's easy as water is so plentiful in the Pacific Northwest. 
• This was the first trip I went on with my new backpack, the REI Mars. My daypack is pretty simple and is about 13 years old. There have been quite a lot of improvements in backpacks, in particular the now common stretchy mesh pockets on the side of the packs. They're perfect for holding water bottles and easy to get the water bottle while walking. I stayed so much more hydrated on this trip than other trips. 
• I really love being outdoors, rain or shine. We were lucky that Day 1 was a great day - not too hot, but still sunny. On Day 2, the clouds never quite cleared and by 10AM it was starting to sprinkle on us. We were generating enough body heat hiking that we didn't stop to put any wet weather gear on for several hours The rain didn't matter, it was just so great to be in the outdoors. 

It's good to just get out and walk around.

Child Safety, mobile phones and T-Mobile

Earlier this week, I went to an event a the downtown Seattle T-Mobile store, hosted by Jenny, and learned about how T-Mobile uses their technology to help parents keep their children safe. It's especially pertinent because school is wrapping up for my kids. With no school, I'm not always guaranteed that on Monday at 9:30 AM they'll be at school. They now have the time to go other places and given that they're older (the oldest is learning to drive), they have more ability to go more places.

There was no tear gas at this party and still Carly was not there. Hey, I can hope right? But I did get to meet lots of other cool bloggers, some of them for the first time in real life and enjoy some nice snacks, including cupcakes!

After a long day at work, my phone died and there were no more photos for me.

T-Moble has several cool apps for keeping your kid, their phone and their account safe.  They demo'd a Google Latitude like FamilyWhere that works for non-smart (dumb ole) phones.

They also had a really slick web based tool  to limit account usage, using a slider bar to allocate minute, messages to the different phones on your families account. You can even use it to provide basic filtering (kid, teen, adult) to the phone's internet access.

And unlike my phone provider, these were services on the whole families account and most were free!

I rely heavily on similar third party tools, not those provided by my carrier.  This allows me to maintain the functionality provided by the tool and switch providers, which I've done in order to get the phone I want.


Like many good social media events, there were swag bags and prizes. My house now has more screaming, flying monkeys!  Kid3 won a raffle prize, a cupcake making kit, pizza gift card and ToysRUs gift card (a good prize for us) and did a happy dance. I'll be doing a happy dance when he makes us cupcakes!

All in all, Jenny threw a good party and I learned some about T-Mobile! A good night was had by all, and my carrier has some competition.

Taylor River Backpacking

Last weekend, Kid 3 and I went backpacking up the the Taylor River, near the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River. It was a great weekend and we saw great sights and had a good time together. I'm glad that he's interested in it and I can foster a love for the outdoors.

Plus, backpacking is a good fitness activity. He carried a 20 pound pack, mine was 38 pounds and we walked 17.3 miles!  It was an excellent activity because he's trying to make a weight cut off for tackle football (we don't want him squashed by middle schoolers).

Trip planning was kind of tough - I really wanted to go to an alpine lake and I was familiar with some places in Snoqualmie Pass, but all these were above 3000' and there was still snow there. I wanted this trip to be a good experience for Kid3, so I wanted to not camp in the snow. I called the Forest Service and they recommended the Middle Forks area.

Surprisingly, I did not have a map of this area, it was the one local map sheet I didn't have. The area is covered in lakes and the elevation was below the snow level and its less than 30 miles from my home!  Call your Forest Rangers, they really know the area and can give all kinds of suggestions.  Aside from actually going on this trip, calling the Ranger was the best thing I did.

Saturday morning, we left the house at 8:30 on the way to the trail head.  Though it was close, the last 12 miles were on one of the worst roads I'd been on in a long time. The pot holes were easily 4 to 6 inches deep and required threading your way through them. I spent a lot of time driving on the wrong side of the road, but that was where the road was the best! And to further complicate matters, I was driving my MINI, which isn't known for its ground clearance.  But, I never bottomed out once. Nor did I ever get out of first gear, either.

Kid3 and I shouldered our pack almost at the trail head as the signs were a little misleading.  The road is closed at the trail head, but the signs announcing it make is seem like its right where the signs are.  It was only an extra quarter mile, so it wasn't a big deal.

We started crossing the Taylor River bridge and the gentle uphill, so slight we barely noticed it, hike into the woods.  We took our time and I showed Kid3 how to read the map and terrain associate using the river. We missed the trail to Marten Lake, but we were headed to Lipsy Lake and Otter Falls, thinking we'd make camp there.

We ran into a few other day hikers and they were seemed excited that we were going to do a father-son overnight.  In fact, we ran into one of my co-workers, his wife and dogs and we hiked with them for a while.  Some other hikers took our picture at Marten Creek Bridge (which was good, because I'm terrible at taking self photos, but I did have my mini tripod).

We hiked on to Lipsy Lake and did find the cut off at about 3.5 miles. There is a hard to find sign (did not see this), but we could hear the falls and someone had marked the area with some mylar balloons.  Its a short, uphill (about 400') cross country movement, but you can't get lost.  Just go uphill towards the sound of the water.   As I walked up, I started to see what I thought was the normal gray Washington sky. I could hear lots of rushing water, but I had no idea where it was and knew that I wasn't that much higher above the lake.  As the trees thinned and opened up above the lake, the gray I was seeing was a gigantic exposed granite slope with the water flowing down it. It was just beautiful.

Can you imagine otters sliding down this? Its like a giant slip and slide.  Look closely on the left, there is a group of 3 or 4 people, so you can get an idea of the scale.  It's easy to get to, so we decided that we'd have to return here with the rest of our family. Maybe they wouldn't stay overnight, but we had to share this with them.

We were thinking we'd make camp at Lipsy Lake, but decided to push on a little further, to check out Big Creek Falls.  The forest on the far side of Lipsy Lake is pretty dense and the terrain is pretty steep, so there weren't many good places for a tent. Plus, the lake was crowded! This weekend was a beautiful one and so there were lots of day hikers and dogs swimming in the lake. Sure I had a water filter, but I didn't want to test it on the stirred up silt of the lake.

We started on the 2 miles to Big Creek Falls and I was starting to scope out camping spots.  The Taylor River starts to pull away from the trail and the area between is a little flatter, so I was able to find a few spots that we could camp at.  I saw one and decided that it was the spot and unbeknownst to me, Kid3 made a mark in the trail so that we could find it again. It turned out to be useful and was a good landmark even on our return trip.

Big Creek Falls is less of a water fall than Otter Falls, and more of fast water crashing over rocks under neath a cement bridge, wide enough for large trucks. It was a strange place to find this type of a bridge, 5   miles in.  Evidently its left overs from a previous day, when there were ambitious plans to develop the area.

We set up our tent with a nice view of the creek right out the door, refilled our water and enjoyed a nice snack of cheese and crackers.  After picking our way across the creek, we tried to get down to the Taylor River itself. It turns out, our exploration found ourselves in a network of streams and some rather dense foliage, so it wasn't as simple as "keep Big Creek on our right side" to get back and find camp. We explored and climbed over fallen trees and under thorny branches, but never made it to the river.  We were exploring a little light, so we turned back.

We played a few games of chess, both of which I lost and then got started on dinner.  Dinner was dehydrated chicken pasta alfredo and green beans, both of which were surprisingly good.  I think that food tastes better in the out doors.

Kid3 was getting excited about getting into the tent, so before we did that, we hung our food and other good smelling things in a bear bag.  Usually, hanging a bear bag is an activity that will 1) kill some time, 2) provide some entertainment and 3) if you're cold, warm you up.  Football is paying off, Kid3 threw the cord and carabiner over the branch in just 3 tries. It was quick and easy. And in fact, instead of lowering the bear bag to put our toothbrushes in it later than night, we just pulled it down and he threw it back up there.

We got settled in the tent, a little early, so we played some more chess and planned out our next day.  We had missed the trail to Marten Lake and we thought that we might try to find that on the way out, so I plotted its location in my GPS.  We also thought about going to Lake Snoqualmie and Kid3 came up with a plan that we'd get up at 2 AM and start on the trail. Early to bed, early to rise!

The sun was quickly setting, but it was still light outside and he asked me, "is the tent bright because its white or that there is still sunlight outside."  A few hours later, when one of our rolling around woke us up, it was totally dark in the tent, "I can't even see with my eyes open." It was a new moon that night, so there was no illumination other than the stars.

I took advantage of this trip to teach Kid3 LNT principles (he carried out his own bio-waste), some map reading and terrain association, how to cross streams safely, among other things.  We both went to the "bathroom" before we went to sleep and refilled our water bottles so we'd have fresh water in the morning.  We kept our flashlight and headlamp in the little pockets of the tent and made sure that our sleeping bags weren't brushing the wall of the tent, to avoid getting wet from condensation.

But with all my expertise, I was the one who had to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom again (I guess I was keeping well hydrated).  Even with my headlamp, the fact that I wasn't wearing my contacts made it rather hard to see.  But I made it to our designated spot and back to the tent, with out tripping or getting too cold.  I did wake Kid3 up to let him know I was going out, but he didn't wake up when I came back in!

We woke up the next morning, at about 6:30 because of the sunlight.  We made our breakfast skillet and started to pack up. By 8:15, we were on the trail, loaded packs and a spring in our step. Because we got an early start, we decided that we'd try for Lake Snoqualmie.

I knew that we'd have to add about 1800' in elevation in about 2 miles; a little steep (and much steeper than we'd done the previous day). I knew that we'd have to turn around by noon to ensure we got back home in time to make sure my wife didn't worrry about us.  As we went up and up, we came across a pretty large, fast moving stream. This stream wasn't on the map (the latest revision is 10 years old), nor were the switch backs that went up to avoid the stream.  Our movement started to slow, because of the elevation gain and the increased number of blowdowns across the trail.

We were still keeping a good pace, considering the trail conditions and our load, but it became apparent that we wouldn't make it to Lake Snoqualmie.  In a lightly sprinkling rain, we turned around and headed back down the trail, after going almost 2 miles up the trail.  We talked about how we could get to Lake Snoqualmie in a three day trip (or as I learned later, its a shorter approach from the Skykomish side).

We did stop for buffalo chicken wraps for lunch, to change into dry socks, but on the way out, we covered 11 miles! I was impressed by Kid3's endurance and we talked about what we could do for our next trip and that he needed some real boots, with better tread, support and water resistance than the shoes he was wearing.

He had fun and seemed to be interested in going again! I had a great time on the trip and look forward to backpacking with him again.  We'll get to Lake Snoqualmie one of these days.

You can see more of the photos from our trip on Flickr.

Trail Information: Otter and Big Creek Falls

Red Eye Flights are great and stink at the same time

I've done some work related travel to the Mid-West recently. My trips start from Seattle and end in smaller towns, not the big hubs like Atlanta or Chicago, so I'm destined to have a layover and a connecting flight.  Red eye flights have some advantages, but they also come with some disadvantages.

The Good

1. Security lines are shorter at the airport
2. You can sleep your way across the country (you'd be asleep anyways at home)
3. You miss less time with your family.
4. It doesn't matter the quality of your hotel bed, you'll be so tired you'll sleep anywhere.
5. If you're a frequent flyer (which I'm not), you're more likely to get upgraded.
6. Sunrise viewed from a plane is beautiful.
7. Because you spend one night on the plane, you need to bring fewer clothes and save on a hotel bill.
8. Good reason to expense a non-stop flow of coffee drinks.

The Bad

1. Its really hard to sleep on a plane. This can mitigate the benefit of #2 above
2. By the end of the day at your destination, you're wiped out.
3. When you show up at work in the morning, people expect you to be rested, which you are not.
4. Makes for some long days.
5. You miss out on the snacks and drinks because you're asleep.
6. Once you get home, not only do you have to catch up on the home things you missed, but sleep too.

What do you think - red eye or not?