Optimum Anabolics - Day 72/Gluten Free, Dairy Free Waffles

There are times when I do not care for the internet. Today, I love it.

Not too long before my wife determined it was in her best interest to not consume dairy or gluten, I had hooked her on homemade waffles (and pancakes). My mom could make a heck of a waffle so they were Sunday morning, post-church comfort food for me growing up. But how to make them gluten free, dairy free, AND taste good had me scratching my head.

I had been craving waffles lately and then it happened. One of the blogs I follow, Mark's Daily Apple (thanks, Heather), recently posted a link to a grain-free waffle recipe. With a substitution of coconut milk for cow's milk we made it dairy free, too. Beautiful!

Grain-free Gluten-free Waffles:

• 2 Tbsp melted coconut oil
• 3 eggs
• 3 Tbsp milk (we used coconut milk)
  
• 2 Tbsp vanilla extract
• Optional – 1 Tbsp maple syrup, honey, or other sweetener (we'll use more next batch)
  
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3 Tbsp coconut flour

Simply mix everything together, and let the ingredients meld for about 5 minutes (or during your workout :-) while your waffle iron gets warm. The coconut flour seems to react better if it has time to “soak” so please don’t leave out this “melding” time.

Then, thinly spread over your waffle iron – I didn’t need to use nonstick spray for these. You’ll want to just barely cover the “hole” lumps of the waffle iron, because this batter expands a lot.

Close the iron and wait several minutes, until the steam stops coming out quite as much. If you want, you can open it to peek… it won’t hurt anything. When the steam isn’t as crazy, and the waffles are starting to brown, remove them to a plate.

The verdict? Delicious!

I would not hesitate to serve these to any waffle lover.

WORKOUT - ARMS/ABS

The Week 11, Day 2 workout included 2 supersets of arms followed by a superset of ab work.

Superset 1: DB Concentration Curls, Cable Push Downs
Superset 2: Twisting DB Curls, Dips (tricep version)
Superset 3: Plank (1 minute hold on stability ball), Stability Ball Jackknife

Total Time => 38:29

Comments:

It seems my biceps and triceps are getting significantly stronger each week.

Stability ball plank holds were tough when combined with the jackknifes (jackknives??...haha).

Mowed the lawn (again) this afternoon for some "extra credit" cardio.

DIET - HIGH PROTEIN (PLUS 1)

Breakfast was later in the morning after my workout and included waffles (see above) covered in homemade chocolate syrup (maple syrup and coco powder) and homemade bacon from my friends at Bluescreek Farm Meats. Awesome breakfast, fun pictures. :)






































Since breakfast was late today, I skipped lunch and had a mid-afternoon snack of cottage cheese and raw walnuts, almonds, brazils, and cashews.

Earlier in the day, I dusted off the crock pot (literally) and put dinner in to cook. A 3+ LB lamb shoulder roast (also from Bluescreek Farm Meats) simmered all day long in chicken broth, spices, and onions. Outstanding. I think I could have eaten the whole roast...it was that good.

Before bed, I had my 30g of whey protein isolate powder and called it a day.

Optimum Anabolics - Day 41/Mosquit-Oh! No!

This morning was a bit rough.

The pooch began barking a little after 4:00 a.m. as if the house had been surrounded by outlaws. I figured there was no point in going back to bed for just a few minutes so I headed downstairs, drove off the villains, and got ready for my workout.

I stepped out the back door and noticed a vehicle with all kinds of flashing lights making a loud noise as it worked it's way around the condo complex behind us. I figured it was one of their maintenance vehicles and didn't think too much more about it as I headed around the front to get cranking on some cardio intervals.

About 30 seconds into my first bike interval, I heard the noise (now louder) and saw the lights heading toward me in our neighborhood. I wanted no part of that so I did a quick u-turn and headed the other way, still not knowing what the heck it was.

After doing my jumping jacks, I headed out on my running interval. Roughly half way through, I turned the corner and BAM! There it was again! It was hunting me down! :)

You're dieing to know what it was, right? It was a City maintenance truck fogging the area for mosquitoes. Yep. I ran through a cloud of insecticide. COUGH! COUGH! Perfect timing, too...lungs and heart working nice and hard to get oxygen to my cells for performance during my intervals. Ahh...force that poison nice and deep into my tissues. And for what? Read on...

Once at my computer, I hopped on the net and pulled up the City's website. Turns out they're spraying predominantly to control the West Nile virus. That's still around?? With another click, a map came up showing the number of reported cases in the state last year. Wanna venture a guess? 15. In the *entire* state. That's not a typo.

How many thousands of people are being exposed to toxic chemicals in an attempt to reduce the risk of 15 people getting this illness? This, to me, seems ridiculous and totally unnecessary. It was just a few years ago that residents were having to petition the City just to get our streets plowed. But yet, they have no problem spending our tax dollars to poison us.

I may not live a toxin free life as of yet, but my wife and I are getting there. As a consumer, I get to choose whether I buy a toxic product or not. That's my biggest complaint here, I did not get to choose whether or not my part of the City got gassed.

Rant for the day is now over. :)

WORKOUT - CARDIO (HIGH INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING)

My lungs and breathing were quite good today again so I jogged and rode the bike even faster today than yesterday.

I should mention that I've been walking at a good pace for 5 minutes or so prior to hopping on the bike for the first interval.

Here are today's intervals:

• Bike, Intensity 1 (warm up), 6:15 (went over the scheduled 5:00 to avoid insecticide. BAH!)
  
• Jumping Jacks, Intensity 2, 3:00 ± (160 jumps)
• Jog, Intensity 2, 4:00 ±
• Flying Romans, Intensity 3, 45 seconds (15 each leg)
  
• Jog, Intensity 2, 4:00 ±
  
• Bike, Intensity 2, 4:00 ±
  
• Jumping Jacks, Intensity 2, 3:00 ± (about 170 jumps)
• Flying Romans, Intensity 3, 45 seconds (15 each leg)
  
• Jog/Walk (cool down), Intensity 1, 5:45 (jogged 3:40, walked 1:45)
  

Total Time => 31:30

Comments:

Abs STILL feeling those reverse ball crunches!

Left heel was good today while I was working out. I wasn't really favoring it at all this morning. It was sore off and on later in the day, however...not exactly happy about that.

Calves and feet got stretched for 2 minutes per side today rather than the usual 1 minute per side.

DIET - HIGH PROTEIN

For breakfast I had another quarter of this recipe leftover from last week. Along with the crustless quiche, I also had two pieces of grilled eggplant (see photo below), a fresh Roma tomato, half of a green and half of a red bell pepper, and 2 stalks of celery. Hey, that was a nice nutritious breakfast, huh?

In an attempt to suck out some of the poison gas I inhaled this morning, I took some Sonne No. 7. Check it out here for the scoop on this natural remedy.

Everything all together...

Mid-morning, I had a snack of raw nuts that included almonds, cashews, walnuts and Brazils. No need for anything more than that today since I had plans to meet a friend for lunch.

I met my buddy at Easy Street Cafe for a Greek lunch. This place never disappoints. I had the Greek salad with a perfect amount of gyro meat. The salad itself had iceberg (blah) and romaine lettuces, fresh tomatoes, pepperoncinis, red onion and several kalmata olives. The homemade Greek dressing was top shelf and totally makes the salad.

I traded snack places today and had my yogurt, ground flax seeds, and whey protein isolate powder around 3:30 today instead of the usual mid-morning time.

Leftovers were on the menu for dinner so I threw together a chicken fajita-style meal of grilled chicken (from the farmer's market), cut up red peppers and tomatoes, and homemade guacamole.

Dinner (blurry but still good!)...

Optimum Anabolics - Day 30/A Moment To Breathe

Since we ran most of our errands yesterday and last night turned into a late night for this old-timer (haha), we were able to sleep until 8:00+ this morning. That's late for us anymore. The day was spent doing mundane tasks around the house, paying bills, and munching.

After dinner, we took some time to chill and breathe a little. We didn't even clean up the kitchen!

I had posted a couple high school/early college photos on Facebook so we had a few good laughs at the comments that had come in. Then we went through a box from the basement that contained some old photos from birth through my grade school years and even some high school memorobilia (otherwise known as junk!).

All the high school stuff prompted me to return a call to a good friend from high school. He teaches in the district we graduated from, so he reminded me what a lot of that stuff I had boxed up all these years was about (homecoming trinkets, favors from dances, various award certificates). I figured since I barely had no idea what any of the stuff was, that it should be designated as clutter and was destined for the trash.

Crazy what we hang on to that keeps us from breathing and our spaces so cluttered.

WORKOUT - ARMS/ABS

The Day 30 workout was a repeat of Day 23 and included 2 supersets of arms followed by a superset of ab work.

Superset 1: DB Preacher Curls, Overhead Cable Extensions
Superset 2: Twisting DB Curl (arms braced against wall), Close Grip Push Ups
Superset 3: Mountain Climbers (with 5 LB ankle weights), Hanging Knee Raises

Total Time => 41:10

Comments:

My shoulders were suprisingly sore from yesterday's workout.

Weights were just about perfect.

Mountain climbers have to be one of the best ab/core exercises ever invented.

Just like yesterday, I did a 15 minute bike ride after finished up with the iron.

DIET - HIGH PROTEIN

Breakfast was an omelet consisting of one egg, two egg whites, green and red peppers, white onions and raw milk cheddar cheese. I topped it with a few shakes of the Louisiana hot sauce, too, of course.

Since I had plenty of meat on the menu for today, I opted for a breakfast dessert smoothie we'll call the "pick me up". 1 cup of freshly brewed coffee over ice, half a ton of cinnamon, a few shakes of chili powder (oh yes!), 2 heaping tablespoons of cocoa powder, stevia powder, 1 scoop of plain whey protein isolate powder, and xanthum gum all blended up until it's so thick you have to eat it with a spoon. When it reached that point, I tossed in a few each of almonds, cashews, and walnuts and pulsed a few times just to break them up and add a little crunch (and healthy fats) to the mix.

Lunch was a grass-fed beef burger wrapped up in turnip greens "buns" along with some dijon mustard and sliced tomatoes. On the side, I had a heaping portion of steamed green beans mixed up with sauteed onions and garlic.

Come dinner time (post workout), Christina and I made one of our favorite things...pizza! To keep things gluten free, we used Gluten-Free Pantry's French Bread & Pizza Mix for the crust. This got split into two pizzas...one for each of us. I topped my pie first with minced garlic that had been briefly sauteed with EVOO. Next came the homemade Italian sausage, grass-fed organic mozzarella cheese and then the veggies and mushrooms.

Here is a pre-bake pic...

















For dessert, a cut up a banana, sliced kiwi, and a crumbled Cocoa Mole Larabar all went together into a bowl and got topped with cinnamon, steel cut oats, and about a 1/4 cup of almond milk. Not bad, huh?

Needless to say, there was no need for a pre-bed snack tonight. (~:

Optimum Anabolics - Day 22/Company Comes Calling

At times it seems that our weekends are busier than our weekdays. This is something I suppose we should work on. Today was no exception.

I slept in (this is a relative term) a bit this morning and then headed right to the home gym for Day 1 of the Week 4 workouts. From the home gym, we immediately headed to one of our favorite places, First Watch, for some breakfast. What a breakfast it was (see below)!

We sipped a few cups of coffee and then headed to the farmer's market to see what produce we could get that would not have to come from the grocery. We did pretty well picking up several colors of peppers, some green onions, and an eggplant. A few of those items went into dinner later.

From the market, we ran a few other errands and shopped the grocery for the balance of our weekly meals. I swear, planning is what keeps me somewhat sane during the week. Not stressing over "what are we going to have tonight?" helps me tremendously. I believe it's also great for keeping your nutrient and portion sizes under control. All around, it's a good practice to get into.

Once we got back from the morning errand loop, I started prepping for dinner by mixing up the meatball recipe we have from Christina's grandmother. Into the fridge that went to allow the spices and herbs to blend for a few hours and then off I went to mow the grass and weed eat.

I got back inside from mowing and needed a break before resuming dinner preparations. It was a perfect time to do some therapy on my calves and feet. Ice, ice, baby! This was followed by the heating pad and the vibrating hand-held massager. I finished up my break with some email reading and then headed up for a shower.

Dinner prep continued around 5:00 and then something weird happened...a martini showed up in my hand! Huh! Boy did that hit the spot! The familia showed up around 6:30 for dinner, dessert, belated birthday wishes for my sister, and some chatting.

Everybody left around 10:30 so Christina and I slammed the kitchen cleanup in about 45 minutes before passing out. It was a long day, kids!

WORKOUT - SHOULDERS

Superset 1: Lying Cable Pullover, Twisting DB Military
Superset 2: Dip Bar Shrugs, Side DB Lateral Raises
Superset 3: DB Shrugs, Barbell Military

Total Time => 38:57

Comments:

You may have noticed these were different exercises this week. Week 4 starts a 3 week break of sorts from the beating the first three weeks puts on you. It's a welcome break, believe me!

I had to experiment some with weight ranges on the new exercises. Next week should be better.

No "extra credit" cardio this week since the calves and feet are still in healing mode.

DIET - HIGH PROTEIN

Post-workout breakfast this morning was at First Watch. This was good for my tummy! I had the Acapulco Express omelette (eggs, chorizo sausage, avocado, green chillies, onion, cheese and sour cream with salsa on the side) but skipped the side of potatoes and toast. No, no, that wasn't all I had...it was pancake time! Two banana crunch cakes the size of a car tire went down the hatch.

At this point, I'll mention that I am a total freak and brought my own organic butter from home. I try not to wear the waitress out since I put more butter on my pancakes than most restaurants have available at any given time. :-) Delicious!

Since breakfast was rather large (putting it modestly), lunch was just a smoothie of chilled coffee, whey protein isolate powder, 1/2 cup or so of homemade plain yogurt, stevia, cinnamon, and nutmeg. To thicken things up a bit, I tried a trick first brought to my attention by a good blogger friend of mine, Heather. If you like your smoothies so thick that the blender starts smoking trying to mix it, then add some xanthum gum...just about a 1/4 teaspoon is all you need. No way you could've got this smootie through a straw!

Dinner was a belated celebration of my sister's 29th (no, seriously) birthday. She had requested spaghetti, meatballs, and garlic bread. Christina and I put on a spread of just that and also added a salad of mixed greens with toppings that included carrot, scallions, black olives, cukes, and peppers from the farmer's market. To go on top of the spaghetti (along with sauce from TJ's), I sauteed up some garlic, onion, peppers, and mushrooms. In my not so humble opinion, this took a ho-hum spaghetti dinner to a new level! YUM!

To keep things gluten and dairy free for my lovely wife, we substituted quinoa flour in the meatballs and left out the cheese and made up some brown rice pasta. Very good! If you've never tried this stuff, it's worth picking up next time your looking for cure a noodle fix. Dessert was this ice cream. I thought it was just "eh", but it did the trick for Christina.

My sister's birthday cake was a mom-made fruit tart that involved oat cookies, nectarines, red raspberries, and plenty of REAL whipped cream. None of that imposter chemical stuff in this house! This was an excellent, excellent dessert! Great job mom!

No snack needed tonight!

It was time for bed since the morning was coming early to get to a 5k race.

Optimum Anabolics - Day 19/Loaded (Progressively)

I'm not sure if it was my massage or the intense workouts this week, but I slept like a rock last night. This resulted in a really productive Day 5 workout. Thankfully, again, my legs were not really needed today as they are still sore from Day 17.

WORKOUT - CHEST/ABS

2 supersets of the Day 5 workout were chest related, followed by a superset of abs work

Superset 1: Incline DB Flye, Incline Push Ups (used 2 chairs and ladder)
Superset 2: DB Pullovers, Dips - Chest version (I had to do some assisted reps here...phew!)
Superset 3: Mountain Climbers w/ ankle weights, Hanging knee raises

Total Time => 39:33

Comments:

Legs and booty were still feeling the pain! More therapeutic seat warmers required! :) Also, that vibrating massage unit got a workout, too!

This week of Progressive Loading was the most challenging thus far with an added "pump" set per exercise and very short rest periods.

I felt like I did a good job of keeping strict form, even on the last set when my muscles were pretty well exhausted and I was often winded to boot.

My weight choices were a little off from time to time this week due to the short recovery times. The bodyweight exercise were particularly difficult to navigate when it came time for the extra set. As an example, I ended up doing push ups today from a kneeling position because my arms and chest were exhausted!

DIET - HIGH PROTEIN

Breakfast (post-workout) kicked off with about 1 cup of oatgurt. Into the oatgurt base went a peeled and chopped mango and a big spoonful of TJ's raw almond butter. To finish things off, I blended up a toffee protein smoothie of almond milk, some chilled coffee, a frozen banana, espresso flavored whey protein isolate, cocoa powder and some peanuts. Once again, I out did myself! The added cocoa powder took an already fantastic smoothie to the next level of incredible!

Mid-morning snack was a 1/2 cup of yogurt, 1 T of ground white chia seeds, and 1/3 scoop plain whey protein isolate powder.

Lunch was a grass-fed beef burger wrapped in romain leaves along with some fresh salsa that was made Sunday from lots of fresh veggies. On the side, I had yet another blended zucchini salad. Not sure if I'm going to get tired of these! The recipe is here.

Mid-afternoon snack was 2 hard boiled egg whites and one yolk along with a handful of raw nut mix (cashews, almonds, walnuts, and Brazil nuts).

For dinner Christina whipped up quite the feast! The main dish consisted of sauteed shrimp that had been marinading in EVOO, crushed red pepper, garlic, parsley and some other herbs with a splash of lemon juice. On the side, she had sauteed some red onion in EVOO, salt, garlic, and pepper. Into this mix went some green beans fresh from yesterdays farmers market. Fantastic and an absolute make again meal!

As a snack before bed it's going to be a 1/2 scoop of protein powder mixed with a little water. Just a little fuel for the interval cardio workout in the morning!