I've never been able to sit still....and how it led to Fencing, Karate, and Crossfit

First things first - my nails have changed. My toes are "Jade is the New Black" by OPI, a lovely forest green color. My fingers are "Bare Necessity" by Avon (I know - but this is the first Avon polish I've had in probably 20 years, and I really like it - it goes on well and wears well).

I love to read. Seriously, I will sit still for hours and read a good book. Contradictory to the title, right? Reading is just about the only thing I will sit still for. It's always been that way. When I was very young, we lived in rural Illinois on 14 acres and my brother Mike and I would play outside all the time. Constantly. I was the scrawniest, smallest kid in my class at school. My mom even took me to ballet lessons, but they asked me not to come back after the first class. Apparently when you run one of the only ballet classes in the county, and said class is always full, you can tell the parents of smart-mouthed children not to bring them back. I don't recall this, but the story is she tried to teach us to do somersaults, and I told her I already knew how to do those, and she told my mom I didn't need to come back.

In elementary school we moved to Indy, and I gained a bit of weight. I had to play inside, and it didn't work out so well. Then my mom decided I could play sports. I played little league softball - right field and catcher (I was much better after I got glasses and could actually SEE the ball) and took gymnastics. None of these things really fit my personality.When I was in Junior High, I went to Shortridge, an IPS magnet school downtown. My father started fencing at the Athenaeum building. I went to watch, and fell in love. I fenced from seventh grade right up until I went to college. I got to go to the Junior Olympics and everything.

Not that I was an amazing fencer, but each division got to send so many fencers, and there just weren't a lot of kids competing at the time. It was comforting to know that the girl who beat me in epee went on to win the entire tournament. In High School, I started at Howe, and continued fencing, but also started to play soccer. I'd always liked it, but had never really played. I played my sophomore year for the boys team, and we didn't win a single game. I was a forward - that coach thought all girls should be fast, and didn't really let me play defense at all. When I transferred to Beech Grove, I played soccer again on the boys team, my senior year. The coach there let me play defense, specifically sweeper. Oh man, can I play defense. The referees always gave me the calls, because I was just a girl...

In college, I fenced again for a while after moving back to Indy, but stopped when I got pregnant with Trent and since his dad was a fencer, I never fenced again after the divorce. (there's only one club in town) I took a yoga class as an elective, and that worked out for a while. Except for one thing. I'm a tad competitive, and there just aren't yoga competitions! You can't be the best at meditating, or stretching, or holding a pose... So I started to look for something else. My friend Amy and I decided to find a kickboxing class. We tried a few, but went to Broad Ripple Martial Arts. I took kickboxing for a while, and then started karate.

Let's talk about kickboxing. It was something I had always wanted to do. I used to watch movies with my dad, and I loved anything with Bruce Lee or Jean Claude Van Damme. I can't even count how many times I've seen "Bloodsport." I was so excited to kickbox - learning to kick and punch, and I even got my own boxing gloves! The karate class started right after, and I kept staying to watch. I decided to try karate, and loved it too! The history and formality - all the punching and kicking other people - and there was clearly a right and wrong way to do things, and there were belts and ranks and promotions....much better than yoga!

I had started coaching Middle School Girls Soccer, and the coaches all played indoor soccer together. In March of 2007, I took a bad hit to the ankle and went down. After x-rays, trips to the doctor, and physical therapy, they decided to do surgery. I had a right ankle reconstruction in December of that year. It turns out that I had ripped all the ligaments and tendons except my Achilles, and that they had calcified back together. They had to drill it out and repair them. I was back at karate for about three months, tops, when I had some bad knee pain and swelling. After trips to the sports med doctor again, and an MRI, they had to do knee surgery to move my kneecap to the correct place and screw the tendons in. That was March 2009. I would just like to say that two orthopedic surgeries in less than eighteen months is really hard - especially on my husband Corey.

Two weeks after my thirtieth birthday, my knee doctor told me I could never play soccer again, I could never run,I could never go back to karate (one promotion away from my black belt),  I could never _______. There was permanent cartilage damage in both knees and arthritis. So, I was at a loss. My friend Darren introduced me to Frank, a crossfit trainer. I worked out with him for a while, but aggravated my knee - mostly because I hadn't been given a comprehensive list of the damage to my knee. So, I rehabbed my knee. I brooded. I missed karate and soccer. My friends were doing crossfit, and loving it. They were getting fitter, stronger and enjoying it. So Frank and I talked - while I had been out, he had some experience with a client who also had knee injuries - and he thought he could adapt workouts for me. That was the end of February, and since then I've gone from twice a week to three times a week in July and eating Paleo, taking a tad bit of time off to coach, and then to five days a week. I feel great - I'm getting stronger, working out hard, and losing weight and inches. I'm down a whole pants size! (It was the one I went up with all those surgeries.)

Crossfit is never the same. You lift weights, run (pose running, it doesn't bother my knee), do gymnastics, kettlebells, row, jump rope...Always something different. But you keep track of your stats, so you can look at your growth, and workout in a group so you can kind of compete against each other. Love it!

So there it is. The story of how crossfit came to me.

Dinner...the Paleo Way

I haven't done much blogging about food lately, so I thought I'd share. It's still Fall Break and I didn't have much to do today so I thought I'd go ahead and cook. I adapted a brownie recipe from my friend Beth - the original and my updated version to come in a bit, and made dinner like I usually do. I love my Cuisinart vertical rotisserie, and make chicken a lot. Today's was seasoned with a garlic and crushed black peppercorn rub. Then I cut an acorn squash in half and went ahead and hollowed it out. I baked it at 350 for about 40 minutes. While it was baking, I browned some sausage, onions, garlic, and mushrooms. I scooped the filling into the squash and sprinkled some cheese on one for my husband. Then I turned the heat up to 400 and baked for an additional 20 minutes. Doesn't it look great? Add a salad and you  have a lovely paleo dinner.

Now for the pumpkin brownies. Here's the original recipe, courtesy of my friend Beth.
4 eggs beaten

1 c oil (I often use unsweeten applesauce)

1 3/4 c. sugar

1/2 t. salt

1 c. pumpkin

1 T. cinnamon

1 t. baking soda

1 t. baking powder

2 c. flour

1  t. vanilla

1/4 t. nutmeg

 

Combine all ingredients and put into greased bar pan (like 14 X 11)

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes

 

Icing

-Can of Cream Cheese icing

or

 -6 oz cream cheese

1 stick buttter

3 c. powdered sugar

2 t. milk

2. t vanilla extract

Beat until fluffy and spread on cooled brownies.

Now for all of you paleo fans out there, you may say to yourself - I can't eat that! So here is what I did.

4 eggs beaten

1 1/2 C unsweetened applesauce

2 T molasses

1/2 t.salt

1 1/2 C pumpkin

1 T cinnamon

1 t baking soda

1 t baking powder

2 1/2 C almond meal or almond flour

1 t vanilla

1/4 t nutmeg

Bake for 25-30 minutes - you need to watch carefully as they are moist, but you need to make sure they are all done. Of course I didn't make the frosting, and if you're super strict Paleo you'll have to leave out the vanilla. Now, they could have been a tad sweeter, I mad add a tablespoon of maple syrup to the next batch. 

This week's WODs have been awesome  - Monday was Snatch for everyone else - but I did Push Press 3-3-3 at 90 lbs, followed by AMRAP in 20 minutes of 10 kettlebell swings, 25 meter sprint, 10 tuck jumps (i did steps), 25 meter sprint. I got 15 rounds in with a 25 lb kettlebell. I realized during round 14 that since I do double unders now that I could probably go ahead and jump, but it was a little late for that. Tuesday I did Hanging Power Cleans, and we really worked on my form, so I did 65 lbs. Then we were supposed to to Tabata burpees, but I did Tabata push ups instead. I started out strong at 14, but only scored an 8. They were real chest to floor push ups though, so I'll take that. I tried a pull up with two bands, but still can't do it. I'm working toward a pull up with two bands by New Year's, so I'm hoping all the upper body work pays off! Oh, and in case you didn't realize yet, I <3 crossfit. Today I went though my closet, and got rid of several too big items. I'm down an entire size since June!

Um, the ocean is SALTY!

So my husband and I went to St. Augustine, FL to spend some time with my mom and stepdad. This was my first ever trip to Florida, and I learned a few things. I had never swam in the ocean before, and I was surprised to learn how SALTY the water was. I mean, I knew that the ocean was salt water, but I had never actually been in it before. It was super SALTY!! (I also learned that when you fall asleep after swiming in the ocean, and your hair is wet, it dries a salt line on your shirt!) Now, those of you who know me know a few things. One, I am a terrible klutz, and two, I don't generally acknowledge it. So, the very first day we were there, I decided to climb on these rocks. Then I slipped and fell, surprise!, and scraped my leg.

Perhaps this is a bad picture, but trust me, I scraped it good! I also learned lots of things. If you didn't know, St. Augustine is the oldest city in the United States. It is also home to the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, where Ray Charles attended. Also, the oldest fort in the US is there, and Ponce De Leon's famour Fountain of Youth.Peacocks live at the Fountain of Youth - white and blue ones.There are lots of exciting things to see, including this chrome pony! It's made of recycled car bumpers. I'm not really sure what this is supposed to represent, but trust me, it's pretty awesome. I mean, it's a huge CHROME PONY! It was on the side of the road, just hanging out.

There are lots of historical artifacts and places to visit, but I liked to look at the trees the best. They were all covered in Spanish Moss, and the architecture was beautiful. Very different from the midwest.

I also learned that vacationing with your parents can be fun. I suppose this all depends on the parents in question, but mine are awesome. Add that to my aforementioned super awesome husband, and we had a great time even though it was sunny and hot. I even got a tan.

My mom and I!

I was very excited to do two things once I got home - laundry (there is nothing quite like the smell of clean clothes) and cook a proper paleo dinner. I fixed brats from Royer, butternut squash and baby zucchini from my garden. Very nice!! Also - one more week of fall break, so more paleo baking to come!



Fall Break - Trent and Mango running

Blogging, Eh? Let's give it a shot.

     I teach writing. I teach reading, and I read a lot - but the whole writing thing? Not so much. Well, now, that's not exactly true. I do write quite a bit for school, but it's all news articles about things that are going on at work. Not exactly what I mean when I ask my students to write. So, here we are. Blogging.
     What do I have to talk about? Let's look at the title of my blog. I love nail polish, crossfit, and cooking. I'm currently wearing a metallic turquiose nail polish, and rocked my crossfit WOD (for me, anyway) and did 125 double unders. This is when you jump once, and the rope goes under twice.This is only the third time I've worked on them so I'm really excited about it! Especially since the doctor doesn't really want me jumping (knee and ankle surgery, I'm sure it will come up again later). We (my husband Corey and I) are getting ready to go on vacation, so I haven't been cooking lately, although I did just pick up meat from the lovely people at Royer Farm Fresh (link!!!). We split half a cow and a whole hog with Loretta - and the beef is 100% grass fed. Very exciting! The cooking thing is a bit of a challenge sometimes, becasue I try to follow primal, which is like paleo but with a little dairy. Mostly I experiment or steal recipes from my friend Loretta, who is an excellent cook.
    I also love to read, and am the only non-librarian girl in the family. I mean it, my mom, my aunt, my mother in law, and most of my friends are librarians, including my super-awesome friend Courtney, who runs a teen section. Then there are all my co-workers....English teachers. So, yeah books will feature promintenly in this blog. Also, library talk. Forewarned is forearmed.