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.