Sunday Morning Romantic Eggs Benedict for Two

(Tastes Better if you bring it to your significant other in bed with a cup of coffee and a vase w/ a flower)

By S. Young

Ingredients:
4 eggs
1 Large Tomato cut into thick slices
4 slices of cooked Nitrate Free / Sugar Free Bacon or slices of your favorite approved meat
1 sliced and peeled Avocado

Sauce:
4 egg yolks
Pinch sea salt
Pinch Cayenne
Dash of Paprika
½ Lemon
2 T melted Ghee

Directions:
Cook 2 eggs for each of you (4 total) over medium, season to taste.
Meanwhile, In a blender/ food processor combine 4 egg yolks, sea salt, cayenne paprika and lemon juice and blend on medium–high setting till sauce thickens. Lower speed to medium and slowly add melted ghee.

Assembly:
Once the eggs and sauce are done get out 2 plates. On each plate layer / stack 2 slices of tomato, ½ of the sliced avocado, 2 pieces of cooked bacon, then 2 eggs. Drizzle sauce over the top.

Feed each other in bed!
(Just an FYI to all you 8WTC’ers, this recipe submission by Steve is EXACTLY what we are looking for in order to earn your full 5 bonus points. It includes a cropped picture, ingredients, instructions, and some commentary. Each individual can submit one recipe to patrick@mbscrossfit.com for an additional 5 points)

MBS 8 WTC 1/2 Potluck and Recipe Contest!

When: Sat, October 11th from 11am-1pm

Where: In the gym after the 10am class finishes up

Can you believe we are already 3 weeks into the challenge?! Hopefully by now you are mastering label reading, learning new foods and how to cook with them! Three weeks in means we are only 1 week away from the MBS 8 WTC 1/2 Potluck and Recipe Contest! A chance for those with their social media food porn to really show off and let us see if it is as good as it looks and win prizes! To RSVP and for more details about the potluck and contest click here password: MBS8WTC.

Contest or no please join us for good food and even better company at the MBS 8 WTC 1/2 Potluck and Recipe Contest on Sat, October 11th from 11am-1pm! Please RSVP by by clicking here (password: MBS8WTC) to sign up for a dish to share and/or the recipe contest.

If after reading all the info at the links above, please let me know if you have any other questions!

Cheers,

Meriah McLeish
meriah@mbscrossfit.com

Workout of the Day
15 minutes: Front Squat, 7-10 x 1 rep @ 70-80%. Take short rests and try to get in as many reps as you can in the time. No higher than 80% because we are looking for speed.

“Diane”
21-15-9 reps for time:
Deadlift
Handstand pushups

L3 - 225/155 lb.
L2 - 185/125 lb.
L1 - 155/105 lb.

EXTRA CREDIT:
400 Meter Sprint
Rest 1:1
300 Meter Sprint
Rest 1:1
200 Meter Sprint
Rest 1:1
100 Meter Sprint

Post your scores to the whiteboard.

Ok, so I am going to try and give you a simple way of finding an answer to “how much do I eat?”

What I am doing here is giving you a starting point. I’m assuming you either haven’t ever tracked how much food goes into your face, or it’s been so long that it might be a good idea to find a new baseline. Once you have this starting point, you will optimize, or make changes as necessary, to better align for your goals - body composition improvement, performance, strength/mass gains, etc.

The formula that I use here is pretty simple.

1. Find your Lean Body Mass. How you do this is take your overall weight and multiply by your body fat %. If you don’t know your lean body mass, it is fine in most cases to use an estimate or use pictures to get a rough idea (mostly work/family safe I think).

2. Next, eat the correct amount of protein, based on your goals:

- Maintenance - 0.6 or greater grams of protein per lb. of LBM (LBM x 0.6)

- Performance - 1 or greater grams of protein per lb. of LBM (LBM x 1)

- Strength and/or mass gains - 1.25 or greater grams of protein per lb. of LBM (LBM x 1.25)

Disclaimer - This part can get tricky…I could probably spend the next 6 hours of my day defending and explaining those prescriptions above. But, this is just a VERY rough way of getting you to a starting point.

So, for the examples above, a 185-lb. male with 20% bodyfat and roughly 150 lbs. LBM:

Maintenance - 90 or greater grams of protein daily

Performance - 150 or greater grams of protein daily (see picture above)

Strength/mass gains - 185 or greater grams of protein daily

Again, it starts with finding your Lean Body Mass. You can use some pictures to estimate your LBM. Or, you can do taping or hydrostatic weighing like the Body Fat Truck we had at the gym on Saturday.

3. Finally, fill in your carbohydrates and fat

Carbohydrates:

If your goals are, in this order, to 1. lose bodyfat, then 2. increase performance, then you will make sure carbohydrate sources are very low in sugars and starches. Vegetables will need to be on your plate at every single meal. Veggies to fruit ratio should be 3 to 1 or more. Fruits, juices, and starches are NOT your best options, especially on a daily basis. You should be eating under your LBM number in grams of carbs per day.

If your goals are, in this order, to 1. increase performance (ie, lift more weight or go faster in the WODs), then, 2. lose bodyfat, then you are fine to add more fruits and starches into your diet. Pay attention to getting those carbs before AND after the workout sessions and before bedtime. Vegetable are still very important. You should be eating over your LBM number in carbs per day.

Fat:

The majority of your fat comes through your animal protein sources. As you can see in the picture above, by eating 150 grams of animal-sourced protein, I also took in 95 grams of fat.

The thing with fat is that it’s pretty hard to overdo it on a paleo diet. Of course, you could sit down and eat a whole tub of almond butter. But, other than something like that, I find it rare to feel like I need to eat more after having a good serving of fat.

So, I approach fat as an additional energy source. After making sure I hit my protein and carb numbers based off my goals, I just squeeze in as much fat as I can for extra fuel. If I feel like I’m tired through the day, I increase fat.

Additional disclaimer - This blog post does NOT substitute talking with your coach or physician about your situation. All of the above is based off my personal experience and observations, and again it is a VERY rough way of finding a start point. There are many other ways of doing it..ultimately, it’s up to you and playing around with it.

Workout of the Day
20 minutes: High hang squat clean,work up to 1RM

“Grace”
For time:
30 reps of clean and jerk

L3 - 135/95 lb. (only use if clean is greater than 225/155 lb.)
L2 - 115/75 lb.
L1 - 95/65 lb.

Extra credit:
3×10-15 reps of GHD hip/back ext

Post your scores to the Whiteboard.

Congratulations to the Burkes!

Welcome baby boy Blake Burke was born yesterday afternoon. Momma and baby are doing great.

Recipes from you

These recipes come to you from the kitchen of the Kati and Matt S.

Crock pot balsamic roast
Ingredients
2 lb top round beef, or any roast
Sea salt
Paprika
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Black pepper
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 sweet white onion, sliced
½ cup balsamic vinegar
8 oz tomato sauce
½ cup water
2 tbsp white wine
I add a couple sliced bell peppers about half way.

Process
Season roast on both sides generously with salt, smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper.
Heat coconut oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Sear each side of the roast for 3-4 minutes. Place sliced onions in the bottom of the crock pot and put seared meat on top of the onions.
Combine balsamic vinegar and tomato sauce in a bowl and mix well, and then pour over meat in the crock pot. Add the water and white wine to the pan and deglaze. Pour this mixture in crock pot as well. Cover, set to low and cook for 6-8 hours.

Spaghetti with roasted red pepper sauce
Ingredients
1 lb ground beef
1 spaghetti squash
1 bell pepper, roasted and diced
1 serrano pepper, roasted and diced
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
20 oz tomatoes, diced
6 oz tomato paste
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried oregano

Process
Cut spaghetti squash in half long-ways and scrape out the guts like you would a pumpkin. For faster cooking, place the halves cut-side down in a Pyrex dish in ½ inch of water, pierce the outer skin a bunch of times with a fork, cover, and microwave on high for about 12 minutes or until the outer skin can be easily pierced with a fork. Alternatively, you can bake the spaghetti squash in the oven for about an hour using the same face-down method in ½ inch / 13mm of water. Allow spaghetti squash to cool and use a fork to scrape out the inside strands.

In a sauce pan over medium heat, sauté onions, garlic, and peppers in the oil of your choice, until onions are translucent. Add ground beef and sauté until beef is cooked through. Add in all remaining ingredients and stir well. Cover and simmer 10-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Plate the spaghetti squash and spoon the sauce over the top. Serve.

Announcements

Please help us get the Heat Slots filled for this Saturday. We will try and get everything organized so it goes as smooth as possible. If your team hasn’t signed up, please do so ASAP. We are closing registration Thursday. Tomorrow night and Friday lunch are the only times we’ll be doing the Pre-Challenge Huddles. If you can’t make it, make sure you get filled in by your teammates.

Tomorrow night we will have the owners and chefs from Caveman Chefs (previously the Caveman Cafeteria) serving us appetizers. Come see/taste the difference in what you do with “paleo”, and what a real chef can do. Caveman Chefs is offering all challengers $50 off their monthly meal plan with no set up fee, a $75 value. Email Patrick@mbscrossfit.com to take advantage of that rate.

Personal testimonial - Janelle and I have been on the Caveman Chefs meal plan for the past 6 months and we can’t say enough about the quality, taste, and convenience of their food. When you factor in gas, time to prepare, and risk of missing meals due to “getting busy”, their meal plans are a lot more affordable than you’d think. Come taste their food tonight and/or shoot me an email to get set up.
Workout of the Day
Snatch
Find your 1 rep max.
then
Extra credit:
Using a fat bar, find your double-overhand deadlift 1RM in 10 minutes. Double overhead means palms face towards the body (not switch grip). Must stand fully with hips and knees at extension. Log your score!

Post your scores to the whiteboard

Fried Plantains

From Shirley: So most of y’all know I’ve started the diet portion of the Whole Lifestyle challenge early because I’ll be out of town for most of the time you guys are doing yours. Two weeks in and I’ve lost 7 lbs. Being a bit lighter feels much better during met-cons, that’s for sure! (Slight slip ups and therefore slowdown on the weight loss the past couple days because my Dad is here visiting and he insists on cooking ridiculously delicious non Whole 30 approved food that I can’t resist.)

I came up with this as I was trying to make plantains for my little one, they smelled so darned good I tried some, adding a little drizzle of honey. Plantains are low on the glycemic index. Heating them via any method brings out the sweetness a little bit. Go easy on the honey, as it’s ok on the ‘lifestyle’ section of the challenge but not the ‘performance’ section.

Ingredients:
1 plantain; semi ripe. Should be mottled brown and yellow in color.
*be sure they’re ripe enough or they’ll be tough instead of nice and soft.
2 Tbsp. coconut oil
Cinnamon
Honey

Directions:
Melt coconut oil over medium high head in a saute pan.
Slice plantains about 1/8 inch thick.
Once coconut oil is melted, add plantains to the pan. Cook approx. 2 min on each side or until golden brown.
Remove from pan and place on a paper towel lined plate for a few minutes to remove some of the excess oil.
Place plantains on a plate. Sprinkle with cinnamon and drizzle with honey to taste.
Eat the bejezzus out of them.

Workout of the Day
EMOM x 10
Even - 8-10 feet elevated ring rows
Odd - 8-10 Strict weighted dips (ring or bar)

20 Minute AMRAP:
200 Meter Run
10 Deficit HSPU (2 plates/1 plate)
12 Toes to Bar
30 Double Unders

Extra credit:
GHD medicine ball chest toss
3×20 with a partner, 4-10 lb.

Post your scores to the whiteboard.

Good Morning Beautiful

Besides waking up to Janelle and Payton, this gorgeous little number is what I look forward to nearly every morning. Out of curiosity and possibly the fact that some of you might get some enjoyment out of it, I broke down my “standard” first meal into ingredients, cost per meal, and nutritional facts. I’ll also show you how having this simple template still allows for a lot of variety. This is an awesome, low-cost breakfast, that provides up to 1,000 calories for a perfect start to your day.

Ingredients
3 Eggs cooked over easy or medium
1/2 Avacado
2 Slices of nitrate-free bacon
2 TBS of Coconut oil to cook the eggs in
2 TBS of Almond Butter
1 Banana
1 Coffee

We will typically buy cage free eggs with no hormones or antibiotics. Another thing I look for is the added Omega 3’s. Other than that, you can keep it pretty simple. Expect to pay around $4.00/dozen. Also, make sure when you cook the eggs, to not overcook the yokes. If you can stand it, leave them runny! The yoke is where most of the nutrients are, and when you cook them buggers to a crisp, you are losing all the good stuff.

Coconut oil can be purchased pretty much anywhere and it is a great source of healthy fats. We buy the large tub from Amazon, but always end up with extra small jars as well, as we buy them while on the road. If you haven’t tried coconut oil and butter in your coffee, you need to try that. Google Bullet-proof coffee.

You can find all sorts of bacon. We go with the nitrate-free stuff. It costs about twice the regular bacon, but Robb Wolf said to eat nitrate-free, so that’s what we do.

Instructions: (15 minute prep time)
First, get the pot of coffee going! Next, heat oil in the pan. Crack eggs into pan without breaking the yolk. While eggs cook, put bacon into microwave bacon cooker and put into microwave for 2 minutes (I usually cook 5-6 slices at a time, so you might have to check if 2 minutes is right for 2 slices). Wash avocado skin and cut into half and remove seed. Prepare plate with banana, almond butter, and avocado. As the eggs and bacon are done, add them to the plate. Pour a cup of coffee and grab your fork!

A lot of Energy and Not a lot of Dough
Despite providing around 1,000 calories, this meal will cost you around $4.00. The eggs end up being the most expensive part of the meal at about $.33 each. Almond butter would be next about about $.65 for a serving. And, if saving some money doesn’t get you excited, the nutrition facts will. As shown, you are getting a vicious amount of calories here…and these are the good kind. Here’s the nutritional breakdown:

Protien - 31 grams
Carbs - 42 grams
Fat - 81 grams
Total Calories - 975 kcal

Fat = energy
You might be looking at those 81 grams of fat and getting concerned. Good fats, especially eaten in the morning, will help keep your insulin steady through the mid-morning hours and keep you from wanting to binge eat at 9am. They provide steady energy and keep your mentally focused through the day.

Changing it up

Obviously, not everyone needs 1,000 calories before 9am. This meal can easily be modified to include more or less eggs, bacon, or removing or adding more fruit depending on your energy needs during the day. Additionally, you can swap out the protein source to keep things fresh. For example, remove the eggs and add a piece of steak or smoked salmon. Instead of a banana, you can do an apple, orange, or my favorite, berries.

Conquering breakfast each morning gets your day started on the right foot and gives you plenty of energy to attack all your other adventures throughout the day. Let me know what you think!

Other notes - Personally, I like to make the call whether it’ll be a 3 or 4 egg day each morning. I’ve even called for 5 eggs. Mostly, I just base this off “how hungry am I?, then make the appropriate decision. Also, I’ve messed around with adding and lessening the carbs. With a single piece of fruit or berries, you are looking at around 40-60 grams of carbs. I’ve done double that, and I’ve done next to nothing, but what I’ve found is that 0 is not enough, and 120 or more is way too much (getting too many carbs in the morning makes me hungry all day and leads to roller coaster energy all day). If I could summarize this meal into a single sentence; eat 30-50 grams of protein, 30-50 grams of carbs, and as much fat as you want.

**This Saturday, August 9th we will be doing the 31 Heroes Workout. Make sure to grab a partner and join us. We will be doing the workout in all classes.

Workout of the Day
AMRAP 20 minutes:
3 Hang power cleans
6 strict ring dips
9 box jumps, 32/24″
27 double-unders

L3 - 185/125 lb.
L2 - 155/110 lb.
L1 - 135/95 lb.

Extra credit:
With a partner, 400 meter sled drag (180/135 lb.)

Post your scores to the whiteboard.

Shirley’s Summertime Zucchini recipe

I didn’t know what else to call it, other than maybe ‘What to do with the extraordinary bounty of zucchini coming from your garden.’ I just threw this together trying to use up the zucchini and SURPRISE it tastes great! Since I made it up on the fly, the recipe is a little on the casual side. You can add more or less of anything to suit your tastes.

Ingredients:
3 zucchini
2 lemons, also shave some of the zest from one of the lemons.
A handfull of pine nuts (toast them first for richer flavor.)
Goat cheese
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Directions:
Julienne (thin spaghetti like slices) the zucchini with a mandolin slicer. You could try it by hand but that would take you the majority of the day. The center core of the zucchini will be mostly seeds; discard those pieces. They taste fine but their consistency will be mushier.

Toss the zucchini with a little bit of salt then place the zucchini in a paper towel lined bowl and let it sit for about 45 minutes. You might want to change the paper towel half way through. This will draw some of the water out of the zucchini. If you skip this step it will come out soggy.

Sautee the zucchini in a little olive oil on medium high for about 20 minutes. Toss with fresh squeezed lemon juice (add a little zest of the lemon too!), salt and pepper and top with goat cheese and pine nuts.

Workout of the Day
Work up your snatch to a heavy single. Use roughly 80% of your daily single for the workout below. The weight should be enough to be challenging, but not so much that you are missing repeatedly.

then

On the minute for 20 minutes:
1 snatch (power or squat, whatever is greater)
5 wall balls (heavy)

Extra credit:
AMRAP Air squats in 3 minutes

Post your scores to the whiteboard.

July is National Blueberry Month!

Of all the fruits, these little gems deserve their own month! A tiny little powerhouse of a fruit, blueberries are full of fiber, antioxidants and have recently been shown to preserve age related memory loss. Also, certain compounds in blueberries can reduce the risk of colon and ovarian cancer. They’re super portable and kids love them too! To pick the best ones, look for berries uniform in color. The larger berries tend to be juicier and sweeter than the smaller more tart ones. Buy them now, at their peak of freshness and if you don’t eat them all… but why wouldn’t you… you can freeze them without worrying that they’ll loose many nutrients.

Paleo Blueberry Cobbler
Recipe courtesy of Primallyinspired.com

Raspberry and Spinach Salad

This is one of my favorite summer salad recipes. I like to add grilled chicken to make it a more complete meal. Recipe courtesy of PaleoLeap.com

Ingredients

• 3 tbsps olive oil
• 2 tbsps raspberry vinegar
• 1/4 cup fresh raspberries, crushed to a puree
• 8 cups baby spinach
• 2 cups fresh whole raspberries
• 4 tbsps walnuts, crushed
• ½ red onion, finely chopped
• 3 kiwis, peeled and sliced
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preparation

1. In a small bowl, combine all the ingredients for the vinaigrette: olive oil, vinegar and crushed raspberries. Combine well. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
2. In a large salad bowl, combine the remaining ingredients: spinach, raspberry, walnuts, kiwis and onion.
3. Drizzle with the dressing, toss well and serve.

Workout of the Day
Spend 15 minutes working a single bar up in weight on each of these movements:
Body weight back squat ladder
Rest 5 min
3/4 body weight push press ladder
Rest 5 min
1 1/2 body weight deadlift ladder

For the ladder pattern, perform 1 rep the first minute, 2 reps the second minute, 3 reps the third minute, continuing as long as you are able. Use as many sets as each minute as needed.

Extra credit:
Practice getting over the short and tall wall for 10 minutes

Post your scores to the whiteboard

Summer Vegetable recipes

Broccoli is one of the easiest vegetables to grow. It requires only a moderate amount of watering and will grow in almost any soil. Here in Colorado it also stands a good chance of re-sprouting next year if you cut it back well at the end of it’s growing season.

Rich in vitamin C (a great antioxidant and supports collagen growth) and vitamin K, (supports blood clotting and is now thought to lower risk factors for osteoporosis) broccoli is also loaded with fiber. Your colon with thank you.

There’s no better way to serve vegetables than with bacon! Roasting the broccoli lends it a nutty flavor that’s a grand departure from what you would expect. If you’ve never had broccoli this way, get your taste buds ready for a savory adventure!

Recipe adapted from Nom Nom Paleo

Ingredients:

• 2 bunches of broccoli
• 5 peeled cloves of garlic
• 4 slices of bacon (I added more bacon because you can never have too much bacon.) cut into bite-size pieces
• macadamia nut oil, avocado oil, melted ghee, or melted lard
• salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Cut up my broccoli into florets.
Toss all ingredients together, adding the oil last.
Pour onto a baking sheet, making sure it’s only one layer deep or it won’t cook evenly.
Cook for 30-35 minutes, tossing once or twice through the cooking process to ensure all pieces are browned evenly.

If you want a little extra zip, before serving top with crushed red pepper, grated parmesan cheese or a squeeze of lemon.

Workout of the Day
50 Hang Power Clean
then
Run 800

L3 185/120
L2 155/105
L1 125/85

Extra Credit:
Tabata mashup of
Front rack hold*
Toes to bar

*Add 50% to your hang power clean bar and put it on the rack. On each 20 second interval remove from the rack into the front rack position (like you were doing a front squat) and hold for 20 seconds. (with no squat).

Post your scores to the whiteboard.

Ladies and gentlemen, start your gardens!

The best way to ensure you’re eating fresh organic vegetables is to grow them yourself. Colorado lends itself to rich soil and temperate conditions perfect to grow your own garden. With a little sweat equity you’ll be saving money and eating locally this summer. But get going… you’ll want to get your plants in the ground by Memorial day at the latest to ensure a good long growing season.

A couple of times a month I’ll be posting recipes to help you utilize your harvest. Got a recipe you’d like to share? Email shirley@mbscrossfit.com

Green Beans with Sherried Mushrooms and Fried Shallots
from Seasonal and Savory

*Note: Though sherry is a grain free vinegar, it may contain a significant amount of sugar and is therefore not technically considered paleo. And then there’s the butter and heavy cream… we just won’t mention that.

Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 15 mins
Serves: 8

1. Place the cooked green beans in a serving dish and keep them warm until the toppings are ready.
2. For the shallots, break up the rounds into individual rings before you cook them, so they will crisp up more as they fry. Heat the olive oil over medium-high in a medium skillet. Add the shallots and cook, stirring frequently, until the rings get brown and start to look crispy. Do not let them burn, but let them get nicely browned. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with a little salt.
3. For the sauce, heat the butter over medium-high in a large skillet. Add the mushrooms, garlic, white pepper, and salt, and cook, stirring frequently, until the mushrooms are softened. Increase the heat to high and add the sherry. Cook until the sherry has mostly cooked off, and there is only a little liquid around the mushrooms. Add the cream and cook, stirring frequently, until the sauce has reduced enough to easily coat a spoon.
4. Pour the mushrooms and sauce over the green beans, and top with the fried shallots right before serving.

Workout of the Day
AMRAP in 9 minutes:
7 hang power cleans
10 alternating pistols*
*Use an appropriate modification if needed. No air squats allowed.

L3: 225/155 lbs
L2: 185/120 lbs
L1: 135/95 lbs

Extra credit:
Run 1 mile for time

Post your scores to the Whiteboard.