Still in the cave

I've fallen off the paleo wagon a little but I am still probably about 65-70% paleo.  I am going to ramp it up a little to try and lose a little more lard and the Lenten vow to give up chocolate and sweets is helping to keep my sugar intake down.  I have discovered a couple of brilliant recipes that are healthy but yummy so I don't feel as if I am missing out.  The first is the paleo pancake for which I shall be ever thankful to the lovely Jules Hawkins.  I have had it for brekkie virutally every day for the last couple of weeks - in various forms.  It goes brilliantly with bacon and a trickle of maple syrup, sausages, avocado and berries, and even this morning with fried, diced chorizo, peppers and courgette (for want of nothing else being in the fridge).
The recipe is really really really simple - for one person, take 2/3 banana and 1 egg, blend them into batter with a hand blender (or you can use a goblet blender for larger amounts), melt butter in a little frying pan, put a ladle of batter into hot frying pan - make pancake.  There should be enough for two pancakes and they taste blissful.  I have tried them out on friends and family - my especially fussy ones and they have all given it the thumbs up, even after initial scepticism.  My 4 year old niece Holly, who may be the fussiest person on the planet after her little sister Lottie, described them as "too delicious" and insisted I make some more.

The other thing I have discovered is paleo pad thai - I have to confess that thai and indian food are one of my many weaknesses, and I still haven't been brave enough to attempt cauliflowe rice.  However zoodles are the answer to my prayers when it comes to noodles.  Thin slices of courgette made with a sharp vegetable peeler or mandolin- maybe we should call them coudles over here?  http://www.health-bent.com/sides/paleo-pad-thai and I topped mine with some king prawns fried in butter and a few chilli flakes - totally delicious. 


I have also started to use model farm to deliver meat and veg.  I ordered the month freezer pack and a large bag of veg in the morning and it was delivered that evening.  They deliver in Bristol every Wednesday and I was amazed at the value for money.  It's all organic and the beef and lamb is grass-fed.  The pack was enough for me for three months, with a huge chicken, a pot roast, a leg of lamb and pork, plus a couple of packs of braising beef, a whole load of mixed flavour sausages, two large pork chops, 6 little lamb chops and 2 packs of minced beef.  Good thing I have a new freezer in my sparkly kitchen!  The veg bag was actually a sack nearly the size of me.  Loads of potatoes, parsnips, carrots and a turnip, plus beetroots, leeks, onions and a cabbage.  I couldn't quite believe it, and they threw in 6 free range eggs as a welcome gift.  I suppose I don't really have an excuse now not to fuel myself properly for my workouts.
 
 Talking of workouts, the intro video for the Open WOD 13.2 says "this will show how fit you are" uh oh!  I managed to get onto the 0700 class, which means I have seen 0600 twice this week (this may be a new record!).  10 minute WOD - 5 shoulder to overhead , 10 deadlifts, 15 box steps or jumps as many rounds as possible - the introduction of steps has caused all kinds of controversy on the crossfit discussion threads I can tell you!!  The RX was 34kg for girls - and as my workout log said 25kg is my 1 rep max for the shoulder press I was looking at 22.5kg but Andrew persuaded me to go to 25kg as that was the masters RX (I think for this competition Masters are over 55 but I'm claiming it because I'm not in the competition), and in order to do the whole think RX I had to use a 20 inch box although I was allowed to step rather than jump as there wasn't a hope in hell I could jump on the 20 inch box (it's my 1 rep max).   Watching the intro video was a real help so I managed 1 box jump short of 7 rounds (note to self keep going when the countdown reaches 1, you'd be surprised what you can manage in 1 second).   I'm now full of the joys of spring, a combination of the sunshine, warmth (well it's not subzero), and nailing a workout RX(ish) for the first time ever.  The great thing about crossfit is that everyone knows each other and there is an amzing sense of camaraderie so if you do well or work particularly hard you walk out with lots of congratulatory messages ringing in your ears - you don't get that in your bog standard gym :-D