New Year - More Cooking

Okay so I am back... I just watched Julie and Julia, and the really inspired me to want to try something similar - mostly because I need to just try things off to increase the amount of dishes
I can make and make well... So in order to do this I decided to try and make it my thing to get through most of Make it Paleo in the new year (except for the ones calling for utensils and ingredient that I am not able to find in Denmark) - already did some of the dishes but there is no harm in doing them again...

Okay so I kinda cheated and started today already - I have poached an egg, and I succeeded in my second try - how enormously cool is that???

The dish was called Eggs Paleo, and is a modified version of Eggs Benedict - which I have never tried, so actually have nothing to compare to. This version is basically a poached egg (Hurray) on top of a tomato, with an avocado sauce and bacon sprinkles (double hurray).  

I apologize for the picture, but at the moment it is just iphone pictures - and I guess mostly just for me. I really liked the poached egg, and the dish in general, would probably use a little less lemon in the avocado sauce, but that is just my taste I guess. Also next time I would like to try poaching in broth to see if that would give more taste to the egg...

I am not quite sure about the copyright stuff, so for now I am just using this as a journal sort of thing to keep my self up to my promise. 

Oh and I am once again training for the ironman, so there will probably be a bit of that here and there as well... 

Happy New Years Everyone - I hope your resolutions are as delicious as mine :-)

1 down ? to go  

Challenge

Okay so the triathlon season is well underway, and my training is actually going pretty well at the moment. My diet however is going down the drain. Or actually thats not true, I am doing great for the most part, but then I have a giant cheat day, which often progresses into two and then all the progress is kinda lost.

So in order to get this right, and get into the best possible shape for my half ironman on June 17th and thereafter I am going to do a 30 day modified paleo challenge.

Week 1: I am going to ease into it by allowing artificial sweetener in the form of a few diet cokes and some sweetening of my breakfast smoothie. There will be no more cheat days though (read B&J days), but high quality chocolate (86%) in moderation is ok. I am going to try and track my intake this week to get a sense of the amount I eat and the macros as well. Generally you don't really need to monitor your intake on paleo (or so they say) but I kinda want to get a better idea about how much I actually consume. I have been indulging in bacon wrapped dates as a snack lately, and even though it is actually a paleo food, I got a big surprise when I tried to weigh one of them. The little delicious bastard without the bacon weighs in at about 20g which roughly corresponds to 60 calories. Add the bacon and the fact that I probably have 6 per serving (not really that filling).... hmmm definitely need to have more of those aha moments. During my long rides/runs (90min+) I am using gels and energy drink since I have to get used to those anyway. Also since my HIM is only 2 weeks away I will have to keep a somewhat high carbohydrate intake to avoid bunking in my workouts, or even worse during the race.

Week 2: Going to cut out the artificial sweetener, which will probably be a really good thing leading up to the HIM. Keep using Gels etc during my training, and keep the carb intake pretty high.

Week 3-4: Going to cut down on the carb intake for the next few weeks and mostly use it during and post workout. Increase the amount of fat that I consume to compensate.

Long run

So after a day of doing nothing I was so ready to get outside. Since the winds have been pretty tough the last couple of days I decided to go for a run and see how the ankle was doing. Figured I could do 10km and then just keep going if I felt ok. I ended up doing 16.5km without problems, except for some really tired legs. I Didn't really eat anything before going out at 2pm so I am pretty sure I was just running on low. Grabbed a smoothie from a local store and then I went to the pool for a swim workout. Definitely felt the run in both my arms (strange) and legs (not so strange) but it was good getting in the water and getting rid of a little tension.

Swim Workout:

400 warm up

200, 100, 200 pull

3*100 on base

2*200 on base

700 steady

First outside bike ride

So I have been dreading this day for a while, since my bike training (and overall training) hasn't been great. I was sure I would pay for it on my first ride with a slow pace and tired legs. And the day definitely started out that way. Was in a bit of a hurry to get out since I had a drive to Copenhagen afterwards, and had to be there to meet a friend of mine to get her keys. And as always when your in a hurry everything goes wrong:

Spend 10 minutes looking for my gloves since i was sure it would be to cold for bare hands (it's Denmark after all), never found them but figured my running jacket had long enough sleeves to make do. Then I spend 10 minutes looking for my ipod, never found it so had to use my iphone and some old earplugs. Finally I was ready to leave, and then the zipper broke on my jacket. I was ready to give up bu then, figuring I would probably have a flat tire when I got out on the road. But the weather was beautiful so I figured I could always turn around if it got too cold.

Got out on the road and did the workout my coach gave me. Has such a blast, and kept a much higher pace than I thought I could keeping an average pave of 28km/h (18.5mph). as I posted in my GOALS post I wanted to work on positive thoughts/self talk, and I actually thought about this during the ride, but I honestly don't think I had any negative thoughts. Sure there were times when my legs hurt during the intervals but I was having such a great time, and working on getting as much out of my intervals as possible, that i didn't put much extra thought into that.

So today was definitely a great day for my confidence on the bike, gave me a great start to the outdoor season, and made me look forward to the next ride. Also it made me wan't to really improve my biking, would be great to have an average speed of 28-30km/h on a normal ride.

Got on the scale today and that was not so great. 65kg. I am not going to get myself down because of that, that is where I am now, and that is just a starting point. Should be able to get down to 61kg before Jels half ironman on June 16th. I will do my best to do paleo this week, but since I am staying at a friends house I am not going to beat myself up about it too much. The only thing I am going to be strict about is not consuming any Gluten.

Bike workout (45km - 1h 35min):

15 min warmup

8*1 min hard / 2 min easy

10*2 min hard / 1 min easy

Fast pace the rest of the way

GOALS

So I am back in Denmark after a loooong travel and am getting really psyched about getting my bike out in the morning. As promised I spend some of the travel time reading "The Triathlete's guide to mental training". I am still not done with it, and will have to go through some of the chapters again when I wan't to work more on those areas but one of the things that the book had a chapter on was goal setting. So I figured, a good beginning would be to write out my triathlon goals:

Long-Term (Ultimate triathlon goal)

My long term goal is to continue to show improvement in my overall fitness and body composition, and to see a general time improvement.

Yearly (Performance and ranking goals for the year)

To complete the Challenge Copenhagen ironman distance.

Race (Goals for specific races)

Jels half ironman (16.6.12) in a time below 6 hours and 30 minutes. This would be 2 min/100 m swim, 25km/h bike, and 5.30 min/km run.

Challenge Copenhagen (12.08.12) under the time limit.

Training (goals for all aspects of preparation)

Technical:

1. Open Water swimming: Method: 2 times a month in open water
2. TT - position Method: Get aerobars mounted on bike no later than may or buy a triathlon bike.
3. Fuelling Method: Start carrying gels on anything longer than two hours + experiment with different solutions.

Physical:

1. Endurance Method: One long ride/bike/swim pr week, follow schedule more religiously.
2. Body Composition Method: Reach 58kg
3. Flexibility Method: Stretch after each run and bike

Mental:

1. Motivation Method: Evaluate each training session, how it felt, what I accomplished, how it got me closer to my goal. Method: Ask myself the following questions: What do I have to do today to become the best triathlete I can be? Did I do everything I could possibly do today to become a better triathlete?
2. Mental toughness Method: Practice using positive talk before, during and after training.
3. Visualisation Method Visualize the next days training before going to bed at night.

Lifestyle:

1. Implement Paleo Diet Method Make a meal plan for the week every saturday, stock up on sweet potatoes and easy meats, follow the guidelines from Amy.
2. Sleep 7-8 hours Method Go to bed at 22.00 on week days, and get up at the same time every day

This was quite a handfull, and I don't expect it all to go smoothly from day one, but nice to know what I would like to accomplish.

Mental training

So wen't to bed at 9.30 pm yesterday and slept until 7 am, such a great feeling knowing the alarm is not going to go off and you can just seep until your body tells you to get up.

Woke up with pretty heavy legs, which is to be expected since I really didn't eat enough yesterday so didn't really give them a chance to restitute. Definitely felt that during todays run. Heavy legs for about half the run but that gave me a chance to practice the mental aspect of it. Just kept repeating that this was good for me to experience and to take it all in.

Definitely need to work on the mental aspect of my training, since that will be half if not more of the battle come raceday. I have a book about it that I guess I could bring on the flight home, will keep you updated on how that goes as I get on with it.

Did 10.5 km without any ankle or knee pain, but feeling really hot and tired - Looking forward to having a full fridge again, Subway salads gets a bit boring in the long run!

Yay for another great day

Despite working late last night I was able to get out of bed at 6.15 this morning using only one round of snooze - yep big things are happening here in my life.

Worked a few hours at the local coffeeshop, mostly because it's nice to have a different view than the wall at the office. I don't really feel like I get a kick from coffee, I know that sounds really really bad, but I never really did I just really like the taste of it. I decided to IF until 12 since I didn't have anything except brocoli in the fridge, and the eggs at the coffee shop really do not look like eggs at all... Had a salad from Subway for lunch with extra chicken and bacon, and that kept me going until my workout at 5pm. I was counting on doing a spin class at 6pm followed by an hour or so in the pool, but my meeting was done earlier than expected so just did my own workout (same as last week since I didn't have time to print it). Afterwards I did 2500m in the pool, once again a replica of last week fit to match the distance I needed. Felt great through both, my heart rate wasn't sky high like last week since the air conditioning was back up, and arms and legs felt strong the whole way through.

Also no problem with the ankle today, legs were a bit stiff in the morning but that was to be expected... Yay for another great day.

Bike Workout:

5 min easy

6*1.5 min hard /3 min easy (Z5)

8*2 min hard / 1 min easy (Z3)

4 min easy

Swim Workout

400m warm up

300m, 200m, 100m pull

15*100m on base

One step closer to departure

So this weekend didn't go to well. I was supposed to do a spin class and a 4 mile run on friday and a 3800m swim on saturday which I didn't. Friday I ended up selling the car and once it was gone we had a massive thunder storm which really didn't make it easy to drag myself to the gym. In an attempt to make up for it I figured I would do a long run saturday and do my swim afterwards, but it was so hot and humid that I couldn't drag myself out the door, and then another massive thunderstorm hit.

I know I know it's a crappy excuse, and one which I have to throw away now since they promise crappy weather all week and I really can't take a week of because of a little rain.

Today I did a 16km (10 mile) run which started out crappy due to having eaten a sandwich and a cookie for lunch. Yep my stomach definitely wanted to punish me, making me look like I was 4 months pregnant. So I got out, and my stomach hurt so I figured I would just do a short loop and then go home, a little being better than nothing. But once I was pretty much home I figured that as long as I could run and didn't feel sick I might as well go as far as I could. Which ended up being 16 km. Bit of stiffness in my ankle on the last few miles, but no knee pain at all. So so happy I got that run done.

As for the rest of the week heres the plan:

Monday: Spin class followed by 2500m swim

Tuesday: 10.5 km easy run

Wednesday: Spin class followed by 2500m swim

Thursday: 10.5 km easy run

Friday: Spin Class followed by 2600m swim

Saturday: 19 km easy run

Sunday: Travel back to DK

Also I am planning on being somewhat paleo all week, but modified to allow subway salads etc since I probably won't have much of a chance to go to the store.

Reverse brick

For once I was so so happy that I have the opportunity to train indoor. Had a really difficult time falling asleep last night, so when the alarm clock rang I figured I would be better off getting some sleep. I know I know, thats how my mind normally gets me of the path, but this time I knew that missing the workout would mean that I had to make it up in the afternoon - NO EXCUSES. And I was ok with that.

So apparently the rain from last night wasn't enough to get rid of the heat/humidity, and as I drove to the gym this evening, I could see the lightening in the horizon. In that moment it is great to be able to train indoor and not have to worry about it.

Did a 60 minute spin class, following a program sent to me by my coach (see below), felt great, strong legs even though my heart rate was pretty high due to the heat and bad air conditioning.

Immediately after the bike I changed into my swimsuit and did 2200m in the pool. It was so great to get in the water to cool down, and I felt pretty good considering I had gone pretty hard at it on the bike. So this was a reverse brick I guess, I will probably be doing this most days next week since I'm planning on selling my car this weekend, and don't really want to have to go to the gym via metro twice in the day.

And now I can just relax and enjoy the thunderstorm, from my bed at my window - nature can be pretty magnificent.

Bike workout:

5 min warmup

6*1.30 Very Hard / 3min recovery

8*2 min hard / 1min recovery

4 min easy

Swim Workout:

400m warmup

300, 200, 100 pull

12*100 on base, with 45 sec break after every 4.

Five stages of grief

The weather today has been incredibly humid and hot, so I postponed my run to later in the evening, even though I knew there was a chance of rain. During my 10.5 km (7 mile) run I kinda went through the five stages of grief:

1: Denial: At the first few drops - "Hey a little rain will be nice since it's so hot"

2: Anger: &/%€&(%€(/&%€% A little I said

3: Bargaining: Please don't let that thunder storm get me, I'll never mess with the weather Gods again I promise

4: Depression: Could the world be any more grey?

5: Acceptance: Hey puddle jumping is actually pretty fun, and miss wet t'shirt is the new black I hear...

Great Day

So the whole paleo/primal way of living is not just a food/nutrition kinda deal, but rather an entire lifestyle. Now, I'm pretty sure the cavemen didn't do triathlons, they were way to busy waiting for the wheel to be invented. Actually endurance training is not recommended in general because our body is just not made to do this type of exercise, but if you absolutely have to go run a marathon or something like that, paleo/primal is still the way to go with a few modification. More importantly (with regards to todays training) paleo/primal advocates getting enough sleep, and we are talking at least 7-8 hours when we are talking about enough.

I have always been a bad sleeper. I find it difficult to fall asleep, normally takes me more than 1 hour after I turn the lights off, I wake up from the smallest sound, such as a spider walking across the floor (or was that a nightmare???) and I don't normally sleep longer than 8-9 if my alarm is turned off. But I have really tried to change that since new years. Turning the lights and the computer off at 10pm, drinking natural calm and getting up at the same time most mornings. And for the longest time it really worked. I slept so well, had no problem getting up in the morning for my workouts, and in return no problem falling asleep in the evening. Then I kinda fell out of it these last few weeks. So I am going to get back at it and get to bed at a reasonable time.

Anyhow last night i wen't to bed at 11 and didn't fall asleep until 1 or 2 am. So when the alarm clock rang at 5.30 am I was kinda groggy. My first thought was that I had made a mistake and that it had to be Sunday... such a nice thought... Then I remembered last nights run and that it was actually Tuesday so I pushed snooze (because an extra 9 minutes would make a difference right?). I laid there for 1 minutes and then figured this was stupid, and that I might as well get going. So I dragged myself to the pool and was in the water for a 2300m session at 6am, and it felt great. I really like swimming in the morning since it feels somewhat easier than running or spinning, and it's a nice way to wake up.

I missed the spin class in the evening, but vent to the gym and did a 53min workout provided by my trainer. At the moment the temperatures have risen quite a lot here in St Louis and my gym does not have great air conditioning, so I was sweating buckets. Felt so great after the workout, such a fantastic feeling to be able to suck it up and get something that boring over with. It's going to be great going outside. I have had a little pinching feeling on the back of my knee, but I am hoping it will be gone by tomorrow so that I can go for a run. If not I'll have to do another spin class and the do the run Thursday.

Well I'm off to fix a class of Natural Calm so that I can keep my promises... Sleep tight!

Sun is shining

So a quick update from the weekend. Saturday I dragged my butt to the pool, incredible how many times my brain can try to derail me during a 10 min drive, but I came out victorious and got in a 2800m swim session.

When I read what i just wrote it sounds like I am not at all happy with my training, but that is really not the fact. It is kinda hard to explain, but if I fall out of training in some way, my brain just starts working against me finding reasons to push the workouts to the next day etc and thus the evil circle has begun... The fact is that as soon as I get to the pool I absolutely love it. I love the feeling of being able to glide through the water, feeling strong and somewhat graceful. I love the feeling you get during a run or outdoor bike ride when your legs just does their thing, your mind can wander, and you almost feel like singing along to the music on your ipod. Spin class is an entirely different thing. I am never going to enjoy indoor training that much, and doing a spin class all I pretty much do is stare at the clock and think about how much I hate it. Luckily I will be home with my road bike in two weeks, and I really can't wait to get on the road.

Anyhow during the swim on Saturday my googles decided to go on strike and take in water on the one eye, great way to practice holding your breath for one stroke longer, but impossible to do flip turns, and then the 25 yard pool suddenly seem very short. So got home and ordered two new pairs online, hopefully they will be here in a few days.

Speaking of equipment, I kinda had to take advantage of my last few days in the US so I just ordered my first wet suit, along with a few triathlon shirts and tights. Unfortunately they will not be here before sometime next week, but then I guess I have something to look forward to.

I had planned to do an easy run on sunday, but due to the outcome of my last run I kept second guessing myself, and therefor never got around to it. I was seriously scared of going out, because I still remember the feeling of having my knee collapse under me last year, it's completely irrational. Anyways woke up to a beautiful day today, with 25 degrees Celcius outside, and sunshine, the summer definitely came to St Louis. So I skipped my planned spin class this evening and went for a run. I had planned to just do 7km (5 miles) at a nice and easy pace, and the see how it goes. But since my angle didn't bother me at all when I was half way I took the chance and kept going. Ended up doing 10.5km (7miles) without having any ankle or knee pain.

The Schedule for the week is:

Tuesday: Swim 2300m , 1 hour spin class

Wednesday: Run 7-9.5km

Thursday: Swim 2200m , 1 hour spin class

Friday: 1 hour Spin Class , Run 4 miles

Saturday: Swim 3800m

Sunday: Run 16km (depending on how the ankle and knee feels)

Hybris anyone?

So I was so psyched about getting back on track yesterday and as I wrote in my update I did manage to get my but off the couch and go for a run. Definitely felt a bit of soreness in my ankle afterwards, but went to bed with the best intentions of getting to spin class in the morning.

Come morning and both my half excuses turned into whole ones. My ankle was sore, which in itself wouldn't be enough to cancel spin class, but whats worse is that my knee is hurting when I stretch it. So I ended up doing nothing today, hopefully it will be better in the morning. I was thinking the problem might be that my arch is becoming flat. I did a quick cunsultation with Dr. Google and thats what he came up with. I am going back to Denmark in a few weeks and will get someone to look at it. If this is the problem it should be easily fixable with some sort of soles in my running shoes. Until I get a chance to have it looked at I will try and see if I can tape it up to create some sort of support. Anyhow the ankle really isn't a problem, since I definitely won't be running until my knee is okay again.

Yes I know I'm whining, but I promised myself that I would be honest from now on so here it goes. Today was a crappy day, felt sorry for myself and ended up eating ice cream for dinner, which in the long run is never going to help my knees or any other part of me. I am going to try and be positive about this and use the running break to work on my diet and just get a bunch of spin classes and swim workouts done. It will also give me a chance to get a bunch done at work before I leave in a few weeks...

So yes I'm working on getting the title of little miss sunshine. If my knee is not too bad in the morning I will go to the gym and get in a swim workout.

Me, myself and I

So it's been a while since I last posted on here, but things have been hectic and I have completely fallen off the wagon. So in an effort to get back on track I will just try and log my days in here in order to be accountable to something other than my self...

I have signed up for Challenge Copenhagen which is an Ironman in taking place in Copenhagen. I am both so psyched and so scared about this, but if I get my act together and put in the hours of training that I need I am sure I can do it. Up until now my training has been sporadic at best, but I just have to let that go and get on with it. Three things are stopping me from doing great at the moment, me myself and I...

One of many days sounds like this:

My plan for monday is to get out of bed and go to spin class at 5.45 since I really wan't to take a long day at the office and therefor won't make it to the evening class, and I need to swim as well... Monday morning alarm clock rings, and person nr one (Me) starts making excuses:

"Your tired and will not get enough out of this, cortisol levels are sky high (even though I slept 7-8 hours), sleep an hour more and go in the evening, and just do two workouts in a row..."

First mistake... The idea of having to do two workouts in a row stresses me all day and I end up skipping spin class entirely, thinking I'll just go for a run in the evening... Come evening, person nr 2 (Myself) starts talking:

"Well your not feeling too hot, and your ankle has been bothering you (half truth - more about that later) and also your knee has been acting up again (another half truth - that makes one whole truth)."

At this point the last person (I) chimes in:

"maybe it would be better to just wait and go for a run in the morning, yes I know you normally can't drag yourself out of bed for a run but hey tomorrow will be different...."

About those half truths, yes I have had a tightening in my ankle, but nothing more than I can handle on a normal 6 mile run, and as long as I just listen and don't overdo it I should be fine. Also kinda seems like it was getting better, but what do I know I havn't been out for a run since Saturday. Half truth nr 2: Yes after my run saturday I have had some locking pains in my knee, but until I actually go for a run, however short it might be, I won't know how bad it is. Also last summer I got over it by taking a running pause, so it's not a death sentence...

So anyhow I am going to try an be honest about things here, look at the excuses I come up with and actually judge how valid they are... Let you know how it goes!

Update:

So I kicked Myself and I in the but and got out for a 7 mile run tonight. Didn't bring my watch but know I was going nice and slow, definitely a bit scared of having my knee give out on me and having to walk home. Luckily that was not the case, knee held up it's part of the bargain, know if only ankle could learn a thing or two from knee... After about 3 miles it started to tighten up. The pain comes and goes, but definitely gets worse after a while, so I was happy to see the house. I really hope I can stretch it away but we will see.

Going to spin class in the morning, and if time permits it a swim in the evening after work.

Whole30 Day 3

So the plan was to take pictures of all the meals I eat during this whole30, but due to bad lightening and iphone pictures I gave up on that today. I still did fine though, just pretty much ate the same stuff as I did yesterday. Stir fry with 2 eggs, chicken and leftover roasted curried cauliflower for breakfast/lunch. A big bowl of chili for dinner and then I snacked (a bit too much) on almonds.

I had a great run this evening, thats the only great thing about Saint Louis getting colder. Ran 6.4 miles (10.5 km). This weekend I am going to visit my former host family in Pennsylvania so I will not be doing any picture taking of food this weekend. Will however still update on the food front. Then I am definitely finding a camera next week, something with a flash would definitely do wonders...

Whole30 Day 2

So today was definitely not a great day, felt somewhat sick all day, which was hopefully just lack of sleep. But I survived, and hopefully tomorrow will be better. Anyhow I am way to tired to do a longer post so here are the meals for the day:

Lunch was a stir fry of two eggs, leftover danish meatballs, and roasted curried cauliflower topped with sliced almonds. I apologize for the general lousiness of the pictures on the blog posts, I am working on finding a decent camera instead of using my iphone.

After I got home from work I had a home made larabar, which I unfortunately didn't get a picture of, but I will definitely be making that again since it is so easy and way cheaper than the original one. I was hoping that the sugar from this would make me feel better but unfortunately that never happened.

Dinner was a big bowl of "clean out the fridge" chili, which is basically just my regular recipe for chili, mixed with whatever greens I need to get rid of.

Not a very inspirational day, but hey sometimes you have to eat to live and not live to eat... Until tomorrow...

Chili

So I love recipes where you have your base, and then you just add whatever you have in the fridge at the moment. This recipe for chili is one of them. I got the base recipe from paleoplan, and then I just adjusted it to fit me. I am not good with the spice chili, so I only the spiciness from the salsa. If you have mexican blod in you veins, add some extra chili, either in powdered form or diced.

Chili

• 1 Tbs coconut oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 3 stalks celery, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 lb ground meat
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp thyme
• 1 (12 oz) jar salsa
• 1 (8 oz) can diced tomatoes
• Salt & Pebber

In a large pot, heat up the coconut oil and add the garlic, onions and celery, and sauté until the onions become glassy. Add the ground meat and spices and saute until the meat is no longer red. Add the salsa and tomatoes and let the whole thing simmer for 1 hour. In the version on the picture I have added some yellow peppers that needed to be eaten before getting all wrinkly.

Serve alone or on top of spaghetti squash, zucchini pasta, or cauliflower mash.

Whole30 Day 1

So this is day one of the whole 30 challenge. Yesterday I went grocery shopping, and got as many greens and meats as my very limited space in the fridge could hold. I gave my roommates the few things that I had that was not on the menu, which included the processed meat I have used as an easy snack, and the last few cans of diet coke (going to be tough to quit that one). My beloved protein powder is now hidden away on the top shelf, and if my roommates didn't consider me a crazy dane before they definitely do now.

My general belief with regards to meals, is that you should eat when you are hungry. Do I practice what I preach? I wish, but sometimes the snack attack feeling wins in the hunger games. Anyhow since going paleo/primal I have eased up on the 6 meals a day routine that I used to be a slave to. I used to be a firm believer in the "I will die of starvation before i get to work if I do not eat breakfast" mantra, but I have actually found out that on the days when I only work out once in the afternoon, I am really not that hungry in the morning. So now I get 15 minutes of sleep extra - win win.

So the first meal of the day was lunch. "Frikadeller" (danish meatballs) with pineapple salsa and roasted green beans, which was my leftovers from yesterday dinner. The pineapple salsa is just grilled pinaples mixed with red peppers and tomatoes, tossed with balsamic vinegar and olive oil...Yum.

The Danish meatballs are probably one of the most common dishes served in Denmark, and they taste just as great warms, as they do cold. This makes them a perfect alternative to the lunch meat I had to give away. Also ground pork is really cheap in the states which just makes it even better!

Frikadeller:

1 lb ground pork

1 medium onion, chopped.

1 egg

2 tbs almond flour

Salt and pepper

Mix all the ingredients together, season with salt and pepper. Use the spoon to make small meatballs, and fry them in coconut oil or ghee in a pan until they are cooked all the way through. The recipe can be varied by using different spices, adding parmesan or feta to the mix, or maybe some finely shredded carrots. Definitely very good. My afternoon snack was a small handfull of nuts, to complement my coffee.

After work I had a LaraBar and a two small meat balls, and then I went for a 7.5 mile run. The LaraBars are allowed since they are all natural, but they are pretty high in sugar from all the dried fruit, so I am limiting them to pre/post workout, and only one a day.

They work great as a pre workout snack on the days where I really haven't eaten since lunch since they give a quick burst of energy and take the edge of any hunger I might be feeling. I definitely have to try and make them myself.

After my run I ate a big sweet potato while I prepared my dinner. I made a big batch of burgers, fried up some squash, mushrooms and red peppers with thyme and oregano, and as a second side dish, I made a batch of NomNomPaleo's curried roasted cauliflower. I used to never like cauliflower that much, and now it is by far the vegetable I use the most.

Curried Roasted Cauliflower:

1 head of cauliflower

Olive oil

Curry

Salt & Pebber

Preheat the oven to 400F. Cut the cauliflower into small florets, toss them with a generous amount of olive oil and curry and spread them out onto a ovenproof dish. Cover the dish in aluminium wrap and bake them for 15 minutes, remove the wrap and bake them another 15-20 mintes until they start looking a little black around the corners.

Hmmm lets give it another go...

So I have been absent for more than 6 months, so this blog definitely needs a round of CPR...
Well I didn't fall of the face of the earth, just fell into sort of a funk from a writing perspective...

So in order to get back on track a small update is in order... I have been on and of Paleo lately due to a new living situation. Yes I am living in the land of plenty at the moment, and am having a bit of a difficult time trying to stay away from two delightful gentlemen - Ben & Jerry... But I really need to move past this bad boy face in my life, and on to the healthy Boys next door... So in order to do that I have decided to do a 30 day whole 30 challenge, which among other things will mean starting to take pictures of my meals again. These 30 days I will take pictures of all my meals no matter how boring they might be...
As far as the triathlon goes, I got injured - no surprise there - but after a month of somewhat rest, and pretty decent eating, I was down 10 pounds and back on track, so what better to do than to decide to compete in a triathlon (in a bit of a blurred state...plenty of cosmos were to blame). I could have gone with the short distance, but a few of my guy friends were doing that, so had to do better... Anyhow long story short, I ended up doing the half ironman, even though I had not done as much training, as my OCD would have liked me to do. It was FANTASTIC, and I was so psyched afterwards, so despite no alcohol or other good excuses I went and signed up for the full next year... So now I need to get real about that as well...

So this is the challenge, no biggie right???

Anyhow, I am happy to be back, and I will do great...So I'll be back tomorrow with a bunch of pictures and a status update!!! Oh and someone send me this cartoon, and it made me laugh so hard, so Im sharing it with the world...

Getting back on the blog track...

So it has been forever and a day since my last post since time has just been flying by. My new training regime is going really well except for just having had pneumonia and therefor done nothing but ie in my bed whining... I am such a guy when I'm sick, know for sure that I am as close to dying as ever, almost wrote down my will but felt two tired!!!
Anyway I am getting back to normal again, had a nice run this morning in sun and plus degrees so that definitely lifted the spirits op again.

On the paleo part of life I just bought the Paleo Cookbook and am looking very much foreward to trying out all the delicious recipes in it. I actually hate cookbooks where there is no pictures, but then I thought that was a great opportunity to make some pictures myself. One of the authors behind the book is Nell Stephenson who does paleo nutrition consulting for athletes. She has a great blog and it is definitely worth a read. I wish I had the money to hire her, but until I do I can make do with all her great recipes. For now I will just post the pictures since I'm not sure what the rules are regarding copying from published books. So after this mornings run I had Wild Salmon Delight for breakfast. Very tasty but a bit strange to be eating "dinner" at breakfast. The salmon gives you a bunch of omega 3's, more than twice the required amount of vitamin D and vitamin B12 - who can say no to that? At dinner I made Paleo Chicken in a Pot with arugula and avocado salad. The recipe originally called for rasberries but my local store had blueberries on sale so I just switched the two which was fantastic. They were so sweet and tasted fantastic together with the bitter arugula and the creamy avocado. The chicken turned out great as well, and since I made it from an entire chicken I will probably be eating the left overs for a while...