The Most Fun You Can Have in 10 Minutes! (KB Fun that is)

Since starting my swing classes in January I've trained many students to increase their cardio finess levels within weeks, but few have kept training.....why? Because it's hard work! As amazing and transformative training kettlebells can be you still have to show up and do the work! I have a few students now that have put the time in and are now ready for a new challenge....

Mark and I have been training Max Vo2, every week, since it's introduction 3 years ago. I don't believe anyone has trained Max more consistenly than we have, in fact I'll go out on a limb and say that no one has trained it longer or as much as we have, which is why Kenneth Jay asked my brilliant husband, Master Instuctor Mark Reifkind to write the intro to his book, Viking Warrior Conditioning.....I even trained the "boost" protocol, designed as a peaking program for Max Vo2, for a few months last year, which I don't believe anyone else has done (it was freakin' hard!) Anyway......

Mark and I did a weekend workshop on how to train Max Vo2 a few months ago and now that I have a number of students snatching along with swinging in my classes I've added in a Max Vo2 class. Max V02 is a challenging workout for sure, but the point of training (as opposed to "working out") is to have a goal, a progressive plan for improvement. Sometimes for a race or meet, but for us non-competitve athletes, improving our fitness levels by increasing strength and conditioning. How do you know you're improving? Well, one way I decided to challenge a couple of my students was to test the SSST (10 minute Secret Service Snatch Test).

The SSST is a 10 minute "all out" snatch test for numbers. How many times can you snatch a kettlebell (12kg for women, 24kg for men) in 10 minutes, hopefully without putting the bell down, but you are allowed to put the bell down as many times as you need to. I first tested this myself a few years back and since then I've learned a number of strategies to help increase snatch numbers, but I've not trained specifically to re-test for it. I've also tested the USSST (Ultimate SSST) with the 16kg for 10 minutes! (that's next for my guys, lol).

So, this past Saturday, @ Equinox in Palo Alto, we tested for our "base line" snatch number. I went first, and then Meg, and then Gen. We all had the same feeling when it was over...."That was fun!" I didn't remember it being so much fun! Good Lord, it feels so good to do something so physically challenging in 10 minutes....it kind of gives your everyday training purpose! I'll put us all on a training schedule specifically designed to improve that baseline number in 12 weeks. We'll retest and see what happens!

Good job, no I mean, great job ladies! Let's see who'll go the distance.

For the Love of Fruit

I love, love, love......love, summer fruit! I have my favorites in this order.....


grapes, melons, cherries, figs, peaches/nectarines

Cherimoyas would be on the list except that they are extremely hard to find (they're not local), and super expensive....not to mention a little higher in calories. Let's talk about calories for a second..... I haven't eaten a banana in, oh, I can't remember when! (years though) I don't count bananas as fruit, I count them as a starch, and for that reason I don't believe "dieter's" should include them in the same calorie catagory as most other fruit.....mango is another high calorie fruit I limit myself to. I love these fruits, but as a person that hasn't yet, completely decided to break the habit of overeating, I'm just not to be trusted with these high calorie fruits. And speaking of overeating..... Not that I'm proud or anything, but I've been known to eat pounds of grapes in a day, and whole melons at a time.....yikes, did I just admit that?


I love dried fruit, raisins top my list (it makes sense since grapes top my fresh friut list....and wine.....good Lord, let's not start talking about wine!), but dried fruit needs to be closely monitored! I recently had to throw out over a pound of dried figs just to stop me from eating them, and I had to put down the package of prunes I picked up at the store the other day because I knew what would come of it....yep, if I buy it, I'll eat it......all.....and fast!



But poaching fruit in wine has become my "go to" dessert since the fall/winter because apples and pears were available, and I always have an open bottle of wine on my counter! For those reasons and for the fact that I don't keep flour in my house in case I get the urge to make pastry, cookies, or cake, lol! So, I started with those two fruits, adding a little sugar if needed, white or red wine....it doesn't matter....and then as a bonus, anything else I had in the house like,


ginger (fresh of course! this is my favorite addition)
orange juice
citrus peel (lemon, lime, orange)
cinnamon stick
any dried fruits (like rasins, lol)
fruit liquors
butter!
etc.

I eat my poached fruits over yogurt, making frozen yogurt in my ice cream machine these past couple of months....yogurt is my "new" ice cream! Yogurt is another food I buy in limited quantity because.....yep, if I buy it, I'll eat it! lol I've also used frozen sliced peaches in the winter time to poasch with red wine, serving it over zabaglione


The "recipe" for poached fruit of almost any kind is basically the same, and because the idea is to cook down the liquid you use (wine, juice, water), it needs to cook for 30-45 minutes, You an easily tell, when the liquid reduces to a thick syrup....the exact time is not important.


Peel and slice, or dice, fresh fruit (2-4 cups), and place in a 2qt pot. Add liquid ,I add wine of course), but any kind of juice (orange, apple, etc., even water if you use other flavors like ginger) 1-2 cups, along with sugar, or any kind of sweetener you want to use. Make it as sweet as you like it, sometimes I add only about 1/4 c sugar, but rarely more than 1/2 c. White sugar, brown sugar (one of my favs!), raw sugar, honey, agave, etc., but sometimes the fruit is already super sweet, so use you own judgement. Turn the heat to high, bring to a boil, lower heat and cook until done!


Fruit that is hard, because it's not quite ripe yet, is perfect to use in poaching (like pears), but in these pictures of cherries, I bought some cherries from a grocery store (@ Molly Stones, because they were on sale for $1.88lb) and they weren't very sweet.....that's why you shouldn't buy cherries at the grocery store. They always look good, but they rarely taste good. So I decided to poach them.....problem? No cherry pitter! But I poured myself a glass of wine and went to work. I cut them "north/south" around the pit, twisted the to halves apart, and then used a teaspoon to lift out the pits on the one half. Labor of love! It was worth it.



2 lbs cherries, pitted
1/4 c. sugar
1 c. red wine


ps I, personally, almost always add a good pinch of salt

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Melon


I haven't yet bought a tomato this year! If the tomatoes aren't ripe, outside in the sunshine, on the vine, then I don't buy them. But I did buy some homemade salsa at the farmers market last week which was very, very hot (damn serrano chiles, lol). I had to cool down that salsa somehow so I added a cup, or so, of diced honeydew melon.....try it! I also added some roasted corn and ate it with some grilled shrimp. The next day I added some baby greens, a little olive oil, and a squeeze of lime to the lefovers. Quinoa would be a nice addition, for sure, but I was watching my carbs, lol!





Basic salsa



tomato (or tomatillos)

onion (traditionally, white)

jalapeno (or other chile)

cilantro/garlic/lime

Add fresh fruit to your own homemade salsa, or try adding it to prepared salsa....I think it would be good that way too! Melons, mango, pineapple, peaches/nectarines, even grapes! Yum.




PS Although I like strawberries as much as most any fruit I have a problem buying it! Because it's available all year round, especially here, I feel as if the "true season" has been lost....I'm just weird that way. And besides for $3 bucks a basket, for organic, I'd rather buy something else. Strawberries (even frozen) would be super tasty poached, though!

What's it all about?

Well, here it is Friday again and I'm sitting here drinking coffee (w/cream, lol) after finishing replying to my emails, and trying to think about something to post. I have so much going on, that I could write about, in relation to food, body and thought, I'm in a constant state of overwhelm....seriously! I always have stuff going on, but I have to remind myself the purpose of why I spend my precious time keeping this blog, what is my message? Hmmnn.....transforming food, transforming body, and transforming thought.

Transforming food. I've just, in the past 2 days, started an experiment that I'm pretty excited about! I have kept food journals, off and on, mostly on, for over 3 years now, online and hard copys and I've started to compare where I was 3 years ago at this same exact time, July. It's important to compare the same time of the year because of the types of foods available in the summer months. I found alot of similarities, but the point of the experiment is to identify the differences....mostly calorically, which I knew, but in addition to that, 3 years ago I didn't have my pressure cooker, lol, and although I prepared all of my own foods, same as today, I am a much better and experienced cook, no doubt because I have continued all these years to pratice! One of the most significant similarities is that I still base my meals, first, around vegetables, eating a salad everyday (in the winter less, more like 4 times a week, replacing the salad meal with another soup, or some other hot meal, still based around a veg), in fact I still make a cabbage salad blend of veggies at least once a week, to keep at the ready.

Transforming body. In my food journals I also kept a workout long, not details of my workouts but, just that I did them.....for instance I might simply record the amount of time I spent walking that day, or swinging a bell, not how far and fast I walked or how many KB sets and reps I did. I know I train more and harder than ever these days, but it's interesting how my body has changed in the last 3 years. As I've always said, "The size of my body is determined by the amount of food that I eat, and the composition of my body is determined by my training.", and that's remains to be true! I weigh more, I eat more, I exercise more, I'm more muscular, more fit.....way more fit. I've recently come up with a new training strategy to challenge myself, to make my workouts harder, so I could burn a few more calories to help me get through this time of increased eating. (Spinning is kicking my ass by the way, lol.....I've also changed my KB workouts to increase my heart rate)

Transforming thought. When I worked at my job as a manicurist I had a particular coworker that is overweight say to me one time, "You know the thing I like about you? I like that you always say, 'I'm just one binge away from being 250lbs again.'" And that's the truth. In other words I don't act "high and mighty" because I'm skinny now(skinny is relitive, of course, lol). Make no mistake, I know one binge can start a succession of binge eating that has no limit. And that's why transforming how I think about food and eating, even training, is probably the most important part of being able to live the rest of my life healthy and happy. Action is the most important part of change, but why we chose to act, or not act is the million dollar answer to the question of how does a person finds the motivation to put into action change. And that starts in our heads. Changing how we think, transforming thought, has to be part of the equation. I remember it was a good friend that said to me once, "A persons life cannot change without them changing."....in other words, you cannot do the same things over and over (or believe in the same way over and over),and expect different results (the definition of insanity). I believe it's this victim mentality that places blame on why we get stuck, and why our lives won't change......we have to put into action change, and take responsibilty that we can, we may chose not to, but it's our choice.. She also said to me, "Whatever the mind can believe, it can acheive" (thanks Linda)


I cannot, yet, give up on my blog. I have alot to reflect on, I have alot to yet discover and put into action. I have never seen myself as a victim, instead I believe I'm one of the luckiest people I know! I believe life is good, I believe food is good.....food is life....I believe being in our bodies is good, and to do that we have connect with our bodies through exercise, we have to move them. I believe we are good. I know I am.

Off to Spin at 9:30......

Coming Full Circle....and remembering 1000 Island

When do we know we've "come full circle"? Literally, I guess, it means we take off in a certain direction and then come back to where we started....is this a good thing? Well, let me break it down.....

When I wrote this I was thinking about how I used to eat, and how I ended up more than 100lbs overweight. Then I started eating better, lost the extra weight (and then some, lol), maintained that weight for 2 years before I gained a few pounds, and then this past 1 1/2 years lost it again, gained it back....and then a little more.....and now faced with the decision of where to go from here. No, I'm not 100lbs overweight, but I'm a full size bigger than I say I want to be and I'm not moving in the direction I think I should be. So, I guess my "circle" started with dieting, and now is back to that same place, "dieting".

Having to "diet", to "restrict" only happens when you overendulge. I should be damn happy that I've been able to spoil myself rotten with some great food, and great wine in abundance. Why can't I be happy with great food, and wine, in reasonable amounts? Because I'm a spoiled baby, that's why.....that, and tons of other reasons, but let's get back to the "dieting".

Our physical bodies reflect how we live our lives. The size of our bodies reflect how much food we eat, or don't eat, and the composition of our bodies reflect the quality of our foods and how much we move...exercise, or not exercise. That's simply put, of course. Ultimately I don't want to overeat, or overexercise. and I'm working on that, lol! But for now, here I am, not really wanting to restrict my foods, or the amount of food I want to eat.....haven't I been here before? So where's the balance? Is the balance settling for a higher bodyweight as a result of eating more food than my body needs to maintain a lower bodyweight? I settled for weighing over 250lbs for a time in my life, I certainly don't want that again, but where will it stop?

Dieting can't be a way of life for me, that I know. But overeating, emotionally overeating can't be either. I'll keep you posted.

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Remember Thousand Island salad dressing? Talk about coming full circle.....back in the day......I would go out to dinner as a young girl with my family, dinner always came with a small green salad and what else? Your choice, of course, of Ranch, Thousand Island, or I-talian dressing (sometimes blue cheese), I always went for the 1000 Island.....probably because it was sweet, lol!

Well, as I was making a salad for dinner the other night, with my usual cabbage salad mix, the only protein I had ready cooked was a beef patty, so I thought, hmmnn.....hamburger.....ketchup.....what about making some 1000 Island dressing? I think you just add ketchup and pickle relish, to mayonaise (or yogurt mayo combination, in my case), and voila!

plain yogurt/ mayo

ketchup

sweet pickle relish

hot sauce

chives

I started my dressing with some leftover roasted garlic dressing (yogurt/mayo/lemon/roasted garlic), and then added ketchup, sweet pickle relish, Sirachi hot sauce, and fresh chives (because I had them).....not bad, lol!

I'm not done.....quite yet

Blogging has been dead for me, although for some reason I'm trying to hang on, maybe because it used to be fun.....blogging is a black hole.



Mark started his blog years ago, in fact he was the first kettlebell athlete to start his online training journal and many followed him, including myself. He had kept a hardcopy training journal since he started training decades ago, but in the age of computers he started blogging simply as a way to record his own workouts. It then evolved into his thoughts about training, and about how his training reflected who he was. He touched so many with his own experiences and because his nature is to teach and coach, he was always more than willing to explain further by answering questions and comments about not only his methods and techniques, but his philosophy about how other parts of life run parallel. His blog was truly the example....brilliant. I feel both of our blogs gave alot......alot of good, solid information about training. But no matter how much you give, people want more......and sometimes that's OK, until it isn't.



Mark and I get up early in the morning (around 4am) and instead of blog we sit, drink our coffee and talk until he has to go to work, or I have to go to class. We still train our asses off! In fact, every week we train Max Vo2 together on Tues. afternoons, when we don't "feel" like it, but too bad for us! And everytime we finish, whether it's a mere 50 sets, or 70-80 sets, we high five, or hug, or kiss and know that we did something great. We did, together, what most couples, most people, can't make themselves do, no matter how good their intentions are.



Although I don't write much about the details of my training, or the details about my "diet" or bodyweight, it's still a big part of my life.....it is my life. I guess I'm too busy actually living it to write about it.



Tracy's Training schedule


Kettlebells
Monday, 1 hour,
Tuesday (Max 30-45 min),
Thursdays, 1 hour, and
Saturdays (2 hours of teaching and swinging)


Bikram yoga
I used to train Bikram average 9 classes a week, I'm cutting back this week to only 5-6 classes per week (we'll see if I actually do cut back, lol)


Walking
I had been walking so little that I'm actually out of shape to walk fast or long! Many of my walks had only been 1-2 miles, as few as only twice a week. I'm changing that this week.....and I'll write a blogpost about this in more detail.


Spinning
Since I started teaching swing classes at Equniox, in Palo Alto, I can take other classes there at no charge, so I thought I would take advantage of trying the Spinning classes. I started 3 weeks ago with only one class, then 2, then 3, and now 4 per week (Mon., Tues, Thurs, and Fri)





I'm training more than ever, but I'm also eating more than ever, lol! I still cook and prepare all of my own foods, choosing vegetables as the main ingredients of my meals, that'll never change. But in addition to trying to define who I am as an athlete I'm also trying to find the "balance" of how I want to live my life by deciding exactly how much I want to "diet", and how that will reflect, naturally, my bodyweight.



More to come......when? Who knows.....but I'm not done, quite yet.

Are You Kidding?

Every so often I'm sent a link from a friend who gets emails from various individuals looking for weightloss stories. More than likely these individuals are writing their own books on this subject and they (obviously) don't have first hand experience, so they are looking for someone elses. I never responded to any of these leads, until recently. I thought, "what the heck" who knows, maybe something will come of this stuff. The last one I responded to was titled "Shedding pounds", here's the email I got back.....


"Hi Tracy,

Thank you for your response. My book is focusing on body, mind and spirit and the reasons we eat.

Can you share what life was like for you, what your journey entailed and what life is like now?"


My first thoughts were, "Oh brother! Body, mind and spirit....join the club, are you kidding? Body, mind and spirit, what the f*@# does that mean? And the reasons we eat? Good Lord, where do we start? And it's not about the reasons we eat, it's about the reasons we overeat!"

First of all the body. The "body", the physical body eats when it's hungry, no freakin' mystery there. But the "mind and spirit" (the same thing in my opinion), if I knew the one answer to the reasons why we are "driven" to overeat, why I am driven to overeat, then I'd write my own freakin' book about it! Hasn't this subject been "done to death"? Good Lord! I think that's why I've had a problem blogging lately.....people just want to commiserate about it, not actually do anything about it....and that's fine......(don't forget to imagine the violins playing, lol).

I eat what I want to eat, I overeat when I want to overeat, until I don't. I exercise, and overexercise, until I don't want to....right now I want to. I don't really care about the deep psychological reasons why. But I actually started to write a reply to her request, here's part of it......

My life.....in a nut shell.

Abandoned by a parent always looking for validation and a way to sooth the pain of all kinds of stuff, but that's probably the core emotion, validation, why wasn't I good enough?. Grew up in a low income household and had to "get while the getting was good". Always afraid of not having enough.....enough food, enough toys, enough clothing, even enough respect. I was always aware that we weren't good enough because we were poor. My mother overcompensated by making sure we were impecably clean and dressed, making most of our clothing (she, herself, a perfectionist...that's where I get it I suppose). My mother was a unwed mother in the 60's, in addition to being not caucasian, and having to deal with racism. (another reason I knew we were judged)

I remember overeating at about the age of 4 years, and from that point I was always the "chubby" kid. It wasn't until my 20's that I can say that I started overeating compulsively,

This is when I stopped. I stopped because I realized what a huge request this person was asking me for....again.....are you kidding? This person wanted me to share with her what MY LIFE was like, what MY JOURNEY entailed, and what MY LIFE is like now! If I finished this, it would be my own book....and who really cares anyway? Good God.....MY LIFE.....in one freakin' email....are you kidding? (I never finished it, or sent this part of it)

We all have "OUR STUFF", some of us have some of the same stuff, but it comes out in different ways, so what are the answers? Bottom line, I guess, is it comes down to awareness, and wanting something different enough to put into action change.

Life is good. My life is good, and I'm not kidding.


PS because of the very personal nature of this blog post I'm not sure I won't delete it....so if you get the chance to have read it I hope it provides some value to your own journey. Now, I'm off to spinning class.....

The Luxury of No Choice

I have alot of luxuries in my life, or maybe I just see my life as a luxury? I don't define my life by the things I own, but by how often I experience beauty.



What is beauty? Love, of course, I've been married to the love of my life for over 20 years now, and we are expecting our first grandchild this summer (a girl!). Moving my body, sweating, breathing, training like an athlete is beautiful.....good Lord how lucky am I to be able to swing a kettlebell for a few minutes a few times a week, go to yoga as often as I feel, and walk for miles? Food & wine, the abundance, the variety, the taste....I could keep going.... Where I live is beautiful....the sea, the mountains, the weather. Friends....although I don't have many, the one I do have (lol), accept me the way that I am, and still like me, lol! Beauty is owning a washing machine, having garbage service, finding the exact change in your pocket and never being in a hurry. Beauty and luxury is having choices.



I have many choices in my life, but one of the choices I don't have is my training. I haven't missed a workout in forever, it's not a choice....I show up no matter what I feel like. And it doesn't get easier, necessarily. In fact I think I have too much choice, which makes training a little harder, because I can put it off and easily fall into skipping it all together. For instance I'm sitting here writing this blogpost, it's 7:00am, so I've chosen to not go to the 7:15am yoga class, which means I'll go to 9:15am yoga.....unless I get busy, or lazy, or tired, or hungry....in that case I might decide to catch the 12 noon class, but knowing Mark and I are going to the 4:30pm class later today, I may decide to skip the idea of a "double" today, because afterall do I really need to go twice in one day?



And I can't tell you how many times....yes I can....every week....I want to skip or postpone our Wednesday, 1:00pm, Max v02 because Tuesday is my "all I can cook, (and drink, lol), day" I'm always nursing some sort of hangover on Wednesday, but I never miss an "am" yoga class, many times practicing once in the morning, training Max @ 1:00pm and then going back for a 4:30 practice....is that hardcore or what? I don't mess around when it comes to my workouts, that's what it takes. Besides, in your whole life, it's such a little amount of time, really.



I understand why people don't workout....been there, done that....many times and for many years. Let's see....I didn't work out for many years because why? It was uncomfortable....I didn't want to feel how "out of shape" I was. It was "time consuming", good Lord I already had so much to do....kids, job, watching my favorite TV show. It was inconvenient, it takes 10 minutes to drive to the gym....good Lord that's 20 minutes there and back...do you know what I could do with 20 minutes? I was too tired......eating junk and not exercising regularly, how could I not be? It was boring.....God forbid it's boring!



What's the alternative? Especially as we get older, we get sicker, fatter, less physical, less mobile. Those are the alternatives. I know the dangers of disconnecting from my body, and no matter how hungover I am (drinking is a choice), no matter how much weight I gain (overeating is a choice), no matter how tired I am, or how little time I make, missing my workouts is not a choice.



Life is good, beautiful and luxurious. What are the beautiful, luxurious choices you have in your life?