Knife Skills

It is one of my beliefs that good knife skills are the foundation of a good cook. You can only become a good cook with practice, and practicing is the only way to develop good knife skills. Which comes first? Well, I believe they come simultaneously. Because I so much wanted to be a good cook, I had to cook. To cook, I had to chop. To chop, I had to use a knife.

One of the first cooking "lessons" one learns is "Mise en place", it's French for "put in place". Before you try any recipe, especially for the first time, it is highly recommended that you put all of the ingredients you need together, in one place, before you start cooking. This way once you start to assemble the recipe you already have everything right in front of you. This also helps to not forget any ingredient or step. I haven't "mised" in years...yikes...but I used to and that set me up for some good habits.

Although I no longer "mise" (meese, rhymes with cheese!), I'm still in the habit of doing the bulk of my chopping and dicing before I turn on the stovetop. Because I use so many fresh vegetables, easily 2-4 times what most people use, it takes me 10-15 minutes on average, but sometimes as long as 25-30 minutes to prep just the vegetables for my soups and stews. Salads don't take nearly as long because most of that is shredding, and taking 20 minutes I can prep salad ingredients to last a week.

Last month I got this idea to try and make a truly vegetarian chili using no tomatoes (it's winter for God's sake, lol), and no beans, but loads and loads of veggies. I used beets and beet stems to make the chili red, along with the standard ,onions celery, carrots that go in everthing I cook. Fresh chilis, of course, jalapenos, pasilla, and red bell. Oh, and a butternut squash (I learned that from Fawn). The regular chili powders, spices and garlic. It came out OK, not great, but good...I'm not going to lie!

Hot and edible are the only requirements I have for a new recipe! Because of the beets and butternut it was a bit on the sweet side and I felt lacked depth. I helped it a little by adding a bag of frozen yellow corn (I know, I know, it's winter for God's sake).....a little ground meat wouldn't have hurt either, lol.

I'm very proud of my knife skills considering I've never been formally trained, Rachel Ray has nothing on me! I often see food prep, especially chopping and dicing as a form of meditation. I get just as much satisfaction from cooking and preparing my meals as I get from eating them. I will always choose to "eat in", saving my money for more good wine and a few pieces of Lululemon...how luck am I?

top picture is a 12 x 18 inch sheet pan with all of the veggies in the bottom picture diced and ready to make "vegetarian beet and butternut chili". middle picture is me stacking and dicing jalapenos.

Hope...everyday of every year...

Here is a blogpost I wrote almost 4 years ago....really? Four years?

Hope for the New Year

So much has happened to me in the last few weeks, in the last few days, I can only wonder what this next year holds for me. Two years ago today I was happy. My life was good. Yes, I was fat, but I never defined myself by my weight. I always felt that I was smart, talented, and had a good life. I enjoyed eating alot of food and took responsibility for the results of that. In fact, besides being phyisically uncomfortable at times, I felt the biggest drawback of being so overweight was the judgement other people had about me becausde of my size. I felt invisible, not respected, and I did feel shame about my weight.

Being Mark Reifkind's wife, many times I wanted to hide. Married to a personal trainer, and being so overweight, I remember asking Mark, when he would want to introduce me to a client or friend ," Did you tell them I'm fat? You need to tell them I'm fat, because I don't want them to be surprised." I felt bad for him because I didn't want my weight to be a reflection of him. After all, should the "Worlds Best Personal Trainer" have such a fat wife?

I knew I had it in me to lose the weight and start exercising, I just didn't want to. Why? I don't even know the answer now. I think everyone knows how to lose weight. The question is why don't you want to? I, personally, don't think it matters why. You and I have the rest of our lives to try and figure that out, if we want to. It doesn't change the fact that 2+2=4. In otherwords, the fact is if you count your calories, eat less than you do now, and start some sort of exercise, you will lose weight. You don't need me to tell you that.

Instead of scientific facts, what I want to offer is hope. Hope that you can recover from being overweight. Hope that you can recover from being out of shape. Hope that you can recover from being ashamed. Hope, so you can feel healthy, strong and proud. And that you can also come through it looking and feeling better than you ever have before.

That's what training kettelbells has done for me. I tell everyone that my diet (food) changed the size of my body, but kettlebell training changed the composition of my body. And I wouldn't of believed it until I experienced it. Kettlebell training has given me hope. Hope that I can keep the weight off and feel and look great. Sometimes I think if I only would of known about KBs 10 years ago I might never have gained so much weight. I hope that you find the motivation this year, and if I can give you any, I will. If you have already found your motivation, like me, I hope you keep it going strong.

**********************************************************************
So much has changed, and then again nothing has changed. Back then I knew I had the answers...and now, sometimes, I find myself looking for the answers....forgetting I already have
them.

The day I shot the video for "4HB", I remember Tim Ferris telling me about the possibilities of being invited to appear on some of the morning talk shows like the "Today Show", or "Regis and Kelly" to promote the book. Someone commented on "Oprah", and Tim commented back, "Oprah calls you, you don't call Oprah!"

That's when it hit me. What am I looking for? I needed to stop looking, instead let "it" find me.


Mark found me.

The weightloss found me.

Kettlebells found me.

If Oprah is supposed to find me then, lucky for her, she will! lol

All of these things found me because I had hope and belief. I knew I would have all of these things. I didn't know when, and I felt impatient at times, but I always trusted that I was not wrong about what a special, smart, talented, and deserving person I was. I had to stop concerning myself with the details.

Last year I weighed around 150lbs, the year before around 132-135lbs. I had gained almost 20 lbs. 20lbs is alot of bodyweight, and it can turn into more quickly. I felt depressed for the first time in a long, long, long time....about my bodyweight! Heck, I wasn't this depressed when I weighed 250lbs+! I felt like I failed because I was no longer "tiny". I was no longer "a size 6 all day long". What did I do?

Well, I went back to what I already knew. My standard answer to the question, "How did you lose all of that weight?" was, "I stopped doing what was making me fat." So, I stopped doing what was making me 150lbs! I started eating a little bit less, and changed the composition and calorie density of my meals. I lost 10lbs before my Febuary re-Cert and have kept it off for a year now. I was eating too much of the wrong things, and I finally let what I already knew find me again.

I have never, for 1 second, been afraid of being obese again. I am not that person anymore. When I found myself weighing 20 lbs heavier I was pissed off, but not afraid. I was pissed off because I really thought that I really liked being thin and fit, or should I say feeling thinner, and feeling more fit? But it turns out I liked eating and drinking more! Lucky me. Here I am, approaching 2011, 5 years post 120lb weightloss. I currently weigh around 140lbs. Originally my "dream bodyweight" was 142lbs! I eat what I want to eat, I drink what I want to drink, I train as much as I want to train...and that's probably too much, lol!

I'm the first person to admit that I don't like defining new beginnings to the calender year, but as we approach January 1st 2011, let us all embrace the hope that it's never too late to realize our potential. Our own unique, incredible, unbelievable, achieveable physical potentials. "Training is the source." (Mark Reifkind).

PS for potential motivation and inspiration please take a look my blogpost archives at http://www.tracyrif.blogspot.com and also in the archives of this, my 2nd blog http://www.tracysfoodandthought.blogpost.com/. Pictures above: this year playing "This little piggy" with my precious Sophi, and one year before, Xmas Eve with Sophi!

The Story of 10x10, and The 5x6 Christmas Workout

When I first started to train kettlebells, sets and reps, traditionally, is how one keeps track of the work completed, or of the work yet to be done, so that's what I did. Ten swings. Only ten swings....ten was hardly anything! Then it hit me...10 sets of 10 swings was 100 swings....100 swings! No one was doing hundreds of swings at the time (that I knew of), but I knew how deceiving a big number like 100 was. How you ask?

In my 30's I learned how to cook by taking classes at a cooking store/cooking school called Home Chef. I volunteered to assist and help prep all of the food and ingredients for as many classes as I could at least 2-3 days per week. One of my duties before class started was to set up the chairs for students. I had to set up 50 chairs....wow, fifty! That seemed like alot people for such a small room, until I saw the pattern.... Five rows of 10 chairs! Five rows of ten? That was nothing....five, so close to one, and ten, so far away from 50. At that moment I realized that 50, or even 100, was no where near the grand number I thought it was.

Well, now that I have been teaching the kettlebell swing for more than 3 years, in my experience most people start the same way I started, with the goal of a set of 10 swings. Seems so little...unless you're the one learning for the first time! The next goal is another set of 10 swings....and then another set of ten, and then another.... This comes way before interval training. A beginner always takes the rest they need until their level of fitness catches up with their ego!

Good news? A few sets of ten add up quickly, and before you know it the possibility of doing hundreds of swings within 20-30 minutes becomes a regular occurence.

The Story of 5 x 6

What can be easier than 10 x 10? 5 x 6, lol In this case I'm not talking about 5 sets of 6 reps. For this workout I'm talking about 5 repeated sets done in 6 rotations for a total of 30 sets, giving me the 30 minute workout I was looking for this past Thursday morning. Lucky for me each set took 1 minute (30 sec work/rest), so 30 minutes flew by. All I had to concern myself with was completing a group of 5 sets, six times.

Getting the work done uses the same concept of breaking it down into more seemingly managable segments. It was so managable I had to repeat it again with my Sat. class for the second half of our workout. I thnk I'll keep this "5 x 6" training theme for while, so look for more to come!

Christmas Workout

15 minutes of equal work to rest swing intervals including double swings (300 swings)
15 minutes of Max Vo2 30 sets of 8 (240 snatches)

"5 x 6"

dbl sw, dbl clean x 8 30 sec work/rest x 5 (rotation #1)

dbl cl, dbl strict press x 6, 30 sec wor/rest x 5 (rotaion #2, video below)

dbl sw, dbl clean x 8, 30 sec work/rest x 5 (rotation #3, same as #1)

dbl cl, dbl push press x 6, 30 sec work/rest x 5 (rotation #4, video below)



dbl sw, dbl clean x 8, 30 sec work/rest x 5 (rotation #5, same as #1)

dbl cl, dbl jerk x 6, 30 sec work/rest (rotation #6, video below)





30 minutes of dbl swings and presses

Total workout 60 minutes

Video posted on my last blog is of the dbl sw/cl set in rotations #1, #3, #5

I Love Doing What I Hate Doing

This morning, Xmas Day, 7:30am....I taught a modified Holiday Class schedule. Why? Because Saturday is one of my hardest training days, one of my most anticipated and important training days of the week. The fact that it also coincides on the same day as Christmas is of no concern to me. If it wasn't a kettlbell day, then I would be in a yoga class....as I have been in previous years.

I will happily post todays workout tomorrow, but for now I wanted only to post a fraction of my workout, along with a couple of pictures to show a comparison of how far I've come in a few short years.


This mornings workout, with two out of three of my consistent training partners, Sabina and Mina.... We did a little bit of everything. Swings, Max, and doubles. I will post the complete workout in the next blogpost. The theme of the workout today was "I love doing what I hate doing"....doubles! Doubles are freakin' hard! Double snatches, double swings, double presses, and all variations of the double press.

This time a few years ago I could never imagine what I would be doing, or looking like, or feeling like....Xmas is what dreams are made of. Looking at how far I've come, how much I've changed in such a short time, and how I've made the impossible seem, NO, be possible, I feel like my childhood idol, Shirley Temple, in "Poor Little Rich Girl"!

Freakin' lucky me!

Pictures above; Teaching my advanced class on Xmas morning 2010. 5 years previous , 12/21/05 in the hills of Santa Cruz at a Xmas Brunch. (take into consideration the width of my waistline...seriously! Size 22/24 to a size 8. I remember having to find something decent to wear that day....argh! I hated my only option...I looked horrible and I felt horrible!

Video was taken this Xmas morning, 12/25/10

At a Crossroads

Tim Ferris sent me a few still pitures taken when we shot the video trailer to his book, "The 4 Hour Body", and to be honest I was....well, I was not all that enthused.... But I'm not going to pick apart all of the little details of what I looked like....instead? I love the look of the beads of sweat that accumulated on my upper lip (they did have me swinging for minutes at a time on top of a roof, with the sun beaming down on me, while wearing a long sleeved jacket.) And, for God's sake...I am 47 years old! Any woman transitioning from her early 40' to her late 40's knows what I'm talking about! I managed to turn back the hands of time physically, and mentally, but the camera doesn't lie! And to be honest, packing on over 100lbs+ in my 20' snd 30's didn't do me any favors. But you know what? I starting not to care.....that much, lol! It's not 2006 anymore, and I'm not 42 years old. I will never be 100lb+ overweight again, and thanks to training kettlebells, I will always be more fit than 99% of women my age, or even 1/2 my age.

Anyway, the point of this blogpost is that in 2006 I was completely anonymous and it now seems light years before. As we approach 2011, I'm not a young chick anymore, and I'm not exactly anonymus. Here I am on the inside cover of a best selling book, and the only female in the national video trailer for that same book. I have my first article published in Pavel's newsletter that goes out to, how many thousands of readers? A photo shoot with a national womens magazine, along with the release of my first DVD just a couple of months earlier....can it get any better? And all at the age of 47!

So at the end of 2010 I've been feeling like I'm at a crossroads....

I've been a bit fuzzy this past week (or 2, or 3!) with all the great and fabulous things that are coming my way, I've also had some crazy weird things happen, but today the fog started to lift. Surprisingly, or not surprisingly, as I started to read Tim's book, The 4 Hour Body, I'm beginning to remember how this all started and what this has all been about for me.

Originally because I had not yet read it, I couldn't really understand the connection I had with the stories in this book, except that I lost a bunch of weight and I used kettlebells as my main form of fitness. I now understand why The 4 Hour Body and I have such a close connection and I can't wait to share some of my thoughts and insights here on my blog in the next few weeks. But in the mean time, if you don't have a copy of this book, get one!

Picture above; Larger than life close up of me, taken the day I did the taping for the video trailer "The 4 Hour Body" Middle picture; The inside front cover of The 4 Hour body....notice how my pictures are above of Casey Viator, a legendary bodybuilder (if you don't why he a legend, read the book!) Below; Oh, and I had to post the video one more time!

Roasted Butternut Squash and Cottage Cheese Smoothie

OMG...my favorite smoothie these days is roasted butternut squash and cottage cheese!

I came up with idea last week when I found that I was "treating" myself to a eggnog latte practically everyday (*see note). I was at the grocery store and saw egg nog in the dairy section and thought...hmnn, instead of buying a coffee drink everyday, I can turn it into a meal by making my own protein eggnog smoothie!

I've also been kind of hooked on cottage cheese lately....it must be a "salt" thing. I thought, instead of using yogurt, I could use cottage cheese making it more like cheesecake, lol! Always trying to turn meals into dessert, aren't we?

When I assembled the ingredients for my brand new concoction I started to read the ingredients listed on the eggnog carton....first thing I see? 195 calories per 1/2 cup! 195 calories per 1/2 c.? Good Lord...there is no way I can make this taste eggnoggy, with only 1/2 c., unless I used some vanilla yogurt. But there was already so much sugar in the egg nog....whoops, wrong! High fructose corn syrup...no sugar.

Make no mistake....I am not so much of a "NO high fructose corn syrup" snob that I was not going to try and make a smoothie anyway....this one time. But I am enough of a snob to know that I would have to throw the rest out. There are too many better choices....but not for me, at that moment, when I had my heart set on an eggnog smoothie!

Needless to say, I was right. After adding the cottage cheese and 1/2 c. egg nog, it wasn't near sweet enough, or egg noggy enough. I ended up putting a couple more tbls of egg nog, a pinch of cinnamon and, oh yes....some frozen mammy fruit to try and save it. "Ma-may" fruit has a pumkin like color and consistency, and that's when I got the idea to use butternut squash. Unfortunately my innocent little experiment probably ended up over 500 calories (I may have even added a bit of maple syrup too...yikes).

The next day, lessons learned from the previous day, I started with

1 c. cottage cheese (203 cal)

1 c. roasted butternut squash (82 cal)
2 tbl maple syrup (100 cal)

pinch of cinnamon

1 c. of ice

1/2 c. water to loosen it to my desired consistency....voila!

under 400 calories

To be honest, it wasn't quite sweet enough, even with 2 tbl maple syrup (100 cal), so today I used 1 tbl maple syrup and 1 tbl brown sugar. Slightly better, but I wouldn't call it sweet. But that's OK. It is still yummy enough to look forward to making and drinking, in fact it's whats for lunch regularly...for a while at least. No more egg nog lattes! And the trade off is so much better.

Here are the nutritional differences between yogurt and cottage cheese.

1 c. 2% plain yogurt

154 cal.

3.8 gm fat

17.2 gm carb

12.9 gm protein

172 mg sodium

1 cup 2% cottage cheese

203 cal.

4.4 gm fat

8.2 gm carb

31.1 gm protein (!)

918 mg sodium

Ok, ok, so I admitted it had more sodium, but I sweat enough to allow for a bit more! The biggest differnce is in the amount of carbs and protein. Just FYI!

(note) When I order a small size eggnog latte, and I have the barista fill the cup 1/2 way with plain coffee first, so when they fill the rest up with the lowfat eggnog mixture it really only gives my coffee an eggnog flavor....full on eggnog is seriously sweet! (in a good way of course)

Another "100"

Here is the high volume swing workout Sabina and I did this morning.

You may notice, starting with the 2nd rotation, that every rotation from that point begins with the same 4 sets of 2 hand swings. I trained my first rotation with the 12kg, and then I progressively increased the weight of the first four sets, to next the 14kg, and finally ending up with the 16kg for the remainder of the workout. It was my plan to go up to the 20kg, but I couldn't find my car keys and the 20kg was locked inside! Believe me though...it was fine!

The second part of each rotation is done with a lighter bell, as the sets start at 100 reps in the first rotation, increasing by 20 reps per rotation until 200 reps are reached. All of these sets are done using my progressive swing ladders.




1st rotation includes the warm up w/12kg

10 sets of 10, 15 sec work/rest (100 swings, your choice)

20 tr
10 swing transfers (20 reps)
5/5 x 2 (20 reps)
10 swing transfers
20 tr

100 rep set 2 1/2 min. work, 1 min rest

2nd rotation

14kg
10 2 hd sw, 15 sec rest
20 2 hd sw, 30 sec rest
30 2 hd sw, 45 sec rest
40 2 hd sw, 1 min rest

12 kg
20 tr
10 swing transfers
5/5 x 4
10 swing transfers
20 tr

120 reps, 3 min. work, 1 min rest

3rd rotation

16kg
10 2 hd sw, 15 sec rest
20 2 hd sw, 30 sec rest
30 2 hd sw, 45 sec rest
40 2 hd sw, 1 min rest

12kg
20 tr
10 swing transfers
5/5 x 2
10/10
5/5 x 2
10 swing transfers
20 tr

140 reps, 3 1/2 min work, 1 min rest

4th rotation

16kg
10 2 hd sw, 15 sec rest
20 2 hd sw, 30 sec rest
30 2 hd sw, 45 sec rest
40 2 hd sw, 1 min rest

12kg
20 tr,
10 swing transfers
5/5 x 2
10/10 x 2
5/5 x 2
10 swing transfers
20 tr

160 reps, 4 min work, 1 min rest

5th rotation

16kg
10 2 hd sw, 15 sec
2 hd sw, 30 sec rest
30 2 hd sw, 45 sec rest
40 2 hd sw, 1 min rest

12kg
20 tr
10 swing transfers
5/5 x 2
10/10
20 2 hd sw
10/10
5/5 x 2
10 swing transfers
20 tr

180 reps, 4 1/2 min work, 1 min rest

6th rotation (video shows this rotation)

16kg
10 2 hd sw, 15 sec rest
20 2 hd sw, 30 sec rest
30 2 hd sw, 45 sec rest
40 2 hd sw, 1 min rest

12kg
20 tr
10 swing transfers
5/5 x 2
10/10
40 2 hd sw
10/10
5/5 x 2
10 swing transfers
20 tr

200 reps, 5 min work....done, now rest up!

Total 52.5 minutes
1500 swing reps

I had no idea of where I was going until I got past the first 10 sets of 10...that's my usual warmup. After the first set of 100 I saw the vision...so the pattern was set. I knew the workout would not end until we got to 200 reps.

This is another "100" workout because every rotation starts with 100 2 hand swings...even though the other sets have more than 100. Roughly 660 of these reps were 2 hand swings.

Live Your Life With Arms Wide Open

"Live you life with arms wide open"..... These lyrics to the song "Unwritten", by Natasha Bedingfeild, are my current favorite. Here are all of the lyrics.....




I have been blessed.

Born to an unwed mother in the 60's...abandoned by my father....in fact, never to lay eyes on him....I'm currently 47 years old.

My mother, in her teens, and a young hispanic woman, somehow inherited a bit of class....enough class to keep me and my older sister clean, well dressed, and educated. (I like to think I also inherited a bit of that same "class").

At around the time I was 4 years old I started to become "chubby".... I have one memory of being around the age of 10, parking myself next to a bowl of potato chips at a party.....sneaking chips at every opportunity.

I realized early on that I was not like my "skinny" friends, or my skinny sisters. In fact I realized I was the only fat person in my entire family. In my entire elementary school. Maybe in the entire world.

In my elementary years I could not do alot of the physical things my friends could do....like cartwheels...what kind of kid can't do a simple cartwheel? A chubby kid, that's who.

But I always knew that I was in the wrong place....I was not this fat person.

So, I caught the "perfectionism" disease. Throughout my life I've tried to prove that I was "better than"...."smarter than"....."as good as"

I was driving to work this morning and this song came on the radio.....I had just heard this song yesterday on my way to yoga class......I sang along, with passion for the words, and then I started to think about what these words meant to me, in my life today....."live you life with arms wide open" were the lyrics that stayed with me.

I don't think that anything happens by chance.

What do these lyrics mean to you?

"Unwritten"

I am unwritten, can't read my mind, I'm undefined (you decide who you are)
I'm just beginning, the pen's in my hand, ending unplanned (...plan it now, it's up to you how the story ends...)

Staring at the blank page before you (lucky you...you can decide who and what you want to be....it doesn't matter what you've done, or not done....start again, start over, erase your mistakes, the past over. The only thing that matters now is your future....and the future is now)
Open up the dirty window (the window to your future is only cloudy until you claim clarity...YOU claim clarity!)
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find
Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it (It's here...NOW.....stop reaching...it's here now)
Release your inhibitions (dont worry about what anybody else has to say...screw everybody else)
Feel the rain on your skin (feel life!)
No one else can feel it for you (again, screw everybody else!)
Only you can let it in (YOU are in control...you are not a victim)
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips (no one else has walked in your shoes)
Drench yourself in words unspoken ("drench" yourself...lose yourself in the possibilities)
Live your life with arms wide open (surrender)
Today is where your book begins (everyday is a new beginning. Reinvent yourself )
The rest is still unwritten (this is your life....never apologize for being who you truely are)

I break tradition, sometimes my tries, are outside the lines
We've been conditioned to not make mistakes, but I can't live that way (everybody makes mistakes...embrace the mistakes as long as you can find value in the lessons learned)

.....

Open up the dirty window (the dirt is all of the negative stuff we hold on to...)
.....
Release your inhibitions (let go)

Feel the rain on your skin (feel the life, feel your physical body asking for health and vitality)

Live your life with arms wide open (accept your greatness)

Today is where your book begins (today is the first day of the rest of your life!)

The rest is still unwritten (.....but it's becoming clearer....you are worth it, you deserve it...we all do)

Back To Basics via 4 Hour Body

I can't even begin to write about all of the stuff going on......

Obviously I have some part in he book, "4 Hour Body", which has a release date of 12/15....a week away, and I have to be honest and say that I haven't read it because I'm still eagerly awaiting my copy...but having read Tim Ferris's last book, "The 4 Hour Work Week", I have a pretty good idea of what to expect.....maybe!

Anyway, thinking about what may be in the book, I decided to re-visit some of my old training methods...still every bit releveant, of course, but I've come such a long way since by adding much more advanced interval training as well as more complicated choreography.....but still the original training ideas are the foudantion of everything I do now.

This morning I started out training with one of my best clients (and you'll see her in my next two videos) Sabina....She's always "game" for whatever I have on my agenda...today? 1000 swings, done "old style", or should I say "Tracystyle"?

Here's the thing....will you show up and do the dirty work? The "dirty work" is plain and simple rep after rep, after rep. Will you do 1000 swings on your own? Well I will! Why? Because there is nothing else I could do in less than 1 hours time that will burn more calories (fat), or build more muscle and cardio endurance in less time than the kettlebell swing....period.


Old Style Tracyrif 100 rep swing combinations

1 st rotation

20 2 hd sw
20 tr
1 sw, 1 tr x 10 (20 reps)
5/5 1 hand swings x 2 (20 reps)
20 2 hd sw
2 1/2 minutes work/1 min. rest

2nd rotation

20 2 hd sw
1 sw, 1 tr x 10 (20 reps)
5/5 1 hand swings x 2 (20 reps)
20 tr
20 2 hd sw

2 1/2 minutes work/1 min. rest

3rd rotation

20 2 hd sw
5/5 1 hand swings x 2 (20 reps)
20 tr
1 sw, 1 tr (20 reps)
20 2 hd sw

2 1/2 minutes work/1 min. rest

repeat, in order, 10 times = 1000 reps (ends with the 1st rotation btw) Bleeping Hell! When I'm dripping sweat in a 45 degree garage, sucking wind, even with a 1 minute rest period....well, you know it's a freakin' hard workout!


We warmed up, and "cooled down" with 10, 20, 30 , 40 2 hd swings with equal work/rest for total of an additional 200 reps.


1200 swing reps in less than 50 minutes time...oh, and I used the 16kg.....


Here is the link to the original workout, more than 2 years
ago....http://tracyrif.blogspot.com/2008/04/me-and-marla-marlas-combination.html



OK, so 1200 + swings down...now? My own workout! I started to tape a portion of a high volume swing/snatch workout that I want to replicate this weekend in my 9:00am Saturday class.....but I didn't get the camera angle right and I chopped off my head!




You will have to wait until Saturday to see the evil I've come up with!



Life is so freakin' good. oh....and right now I've got an upsidedown turkey in the oven...pictures and blogpost to follow....

Cheesey Cheese

This afternoon I did a photo shoot for Womans First Magazine! I'll post more about how it came about another time, but for now, here are a few pictures Mark took from this afternoon.

Modeling for pictures is hard! Good Lord, thank God I watch America's Next Top Model, lol....smize girlfriend, smize!

I don't know how many photos were taken, but how many different ways can a girl smile? The bottom photo is of me being purposely "cheesey" for Mark!

The photo shoot was taken in Meg's kitchen...so a big thank you goes out to Meg, but Meg's dog Clancy is the one I should thank the most.....poor little girl....flashing lights and beeping beeps....she ended up hiding in the back yard away from all of the commotion.

Saturday Lab

Before I write a new blogpost, let me say this....it's killing me that I can't keep this awesome video trailer as the first thing that anyone that comes to my blog sees....so don't be surprised if I post it every week....what can I say? My ass has never looked so good....speaking of my ass. This morning I wore the same Lululemon tights I wore in the video to teach class...my way of commemorating the national video trailer for "The 4 Hour Body".....





OK, so I've been summoned by Pavel to write a "Training Tip" and article about my DVD, "Programming the Kettlebell Swing", for his newsletter next month. Hmnn....what is my "training tip"? Well, I've come up with something new, as well as original, that follows my philosophy on how to train high volume swings...

I admit that my HV KB swing classes are not exactly full....that's because it's just too bloody hard! But seriously, when a new idea, routine, method, or workout comes to me, guess who gets to be the guinea pigs? (and I do use the word "pigs" lightly, lol) My swing classes get to test out all of my theories! First of all, I want to test them on myself, but what fun to get to take other people through the same experience.

Let me say this....I will be sore as S#!T tomorrow because I tested my training tip out on my first class, my third class, and my fourth class! Good Lord....I would never advocate trying something new that many times if it's never been tested before! Good news...you can read about it next month and you will see it demonstrated in the next video Mark and I are already scheduled to shoot, this next January!

As I mentioned I tested out my new theory in my 1st, 3rd, and 4th classes...what happened in my 2nd class? High volume snatches of course!

This workout is way too complicated to describe exactly....but for the "hardcore", here it is....

12kg first rotation

1 sn, 1 tr x 16, 30 sec rest (1 minute workset)
2 sn, 1 tr x 14, 30 sec rest
3 sn, 1 tr x 12, 30 sec rest
4 sn, 1 tr x 10, 30 sec rest

18 sn, 1 tr x 18, 30 sec rest (1 minute workset...same combination as first workset, but at a faster pace)
5 sn, 1 tr x 8, 30 sec rest
6 sn, 1 tr, x 6, 30 sec rest
7 sn, 1 tr x 4, 30 sec rest
8 sn, 1 tr x 2, 30 sec rest

Now there's a pattern emerging....and it may be explained in more detail in a video workshop....but if anyone is truly interested in duplicating this workout, I will be happy to break it down via email.....simply request it.

12 kg & 14 kg 2nd rotation

1 sn, 1 tr, x 16 w/14kg, 30 sec rest (1 min. workset w/heavier bell)
2 sn, 1 tr x 14 w/12kg, 30 sec rest
1 sn, 1 tr, x 16 w/14kg, 30 sec rest (1 min workset w/ heavier bell)
3 sn, 1 tr, x 12 w/12kg, 30 sec rest
1 sn, 1 tr, x 16 w/14kg, 30 sec rest (1 min workset w/heavier bell)
4 sn, 1 tr x 10 w/12kg, 30 sec rest

1 sn, 1 tr, x 18 w/12kg, 1 minute work, 30 sec rest (1 min workset @ faster pace)
5 sn, 1 tr x 8 w/12kg, 30 sec rest
1 sn, 1 tr, x 18 w/12kg, 1 minute work, 30 sec rest (1 min workset @ faster pace)
6 sn, 1 tr x 6 w/12kg, 30 sec rest
1 sn, 1 tr, x 8 w/12kg, 1 minute work, 30 sec rest (1 min workset @faster pace)
7 sn, 1 tr, 4 w/ 12 kg, 30 sec rest
1 sn, 1 tr, x 18 w/12kg, 1 minute work, 30 sec rest ( 1 min workset @ faster pace)
8 sn, 1 tr x 2, 30 sec rest


3rd rotation

1 sn, 1 tr w/14kg x 16, 30 sec rest (heavier bell)
2 sn, 1 tr w/12kg x 14, 30 sec rest (faster pace)
1 sn, 1 tr w/14kg x 16, 30 sec rest (heavier bell)
3 sn, 1 tr w/12kg x 12, 30 sec rest (faster pace)
1 sn, 1 tr w/14kg x 16, 30 sec rest (heavier bell)
4 sn, 1 tr w/12kg, x 10, 30 sec rest (faster pace)
1 sn, 1 tr w/14kg x 16, 30 sec rest (heavier bell)
5 sn, 1 tr w/12kg x 8, 30 sec rest (faster pace)
1 sn, 1 tr w/14kg x 16, 30 sec rest (heavier bell)
6 sn, 1 tr w/12kg x 6, 30 sec rest (faster pace)
1 sn, 1 tr w/14kg x 16, 30 sec rest (heavier bell)
7 sn, 1 tr, w/ 14kg x 4, 30 sec rest (faster pace)
1 sn, 1 tr w/14kg x 16, 30 sec rest (heavier bell)
8 sn, 1 tr w/12kg, x 2 (faster pace)





the end....

So, in the true sense of the Saturday Laboratory....I tested weight and speed in combination with high volume snatches. Over 45 minutes of snatches...the total number is yet to be determined....but the exact rep count doesn't matter....you still have to show up for the next workout!

Another 2 Seconds of Fame!

It's only two seconds, but it's a good 2 seconds! Here I am, the only female in a national video trailer for Tim Ferris's newest New York Times Best Selling book, "The 4 Hour Body". Tim interviewed me for his book last year, and it turns out that my story of how I lost over 100lbs, and transformed my body in the process, made the final cut with my own chapter!

Tim telling me a bit of his vison for the video trailer to give me some ideas of what to do....swing, right? lol

Looks legit huh? What a trip! It's a bigger trip now that it's a reality.... Me! Involved is something this extraordinary is nothing short of....extraordinary! Lucky me.