Quick blog post – and a shout out to Michelle for reminding me to post this!
A few weeks back, I posted that I was going to try the Haylie Pomroy Fast Metabolism Diet (that post is HERE).
So here’s what happened. The first week I didn’t lose any weight/body fat, but I started to feel a lot better. If you didn’t read that post, you eat different food in three Phases during a week (Monday & Tuesday, then Wednesday & Thursday, then Friday, Saturday & Sunday) to address metabolic issues.
By the 10th day though, things had really started to change. My energy was way better and my “stress handling capabilities” (meaning, not crying at the drop of a hat) were also way better. I also have rosacea, and my husband even noticed that the redness around my cheeks was about half what it usually is.
Then, of course, I went off the eating plan.
I didn’t go off because I was bored, or because I was stressed out, or because of any number of other things. I went off because my husband and I purchased a couple of condos out of state that had to be demolished and re-built, and so we went off to do that for a couple weeks.
I actually tried to stay on the eating plan while I was gone, but it’s so tough when you’re not home. Especially not only “not home” but not even close to home. You know how it is – we were working 8-10 hours a day on these condos, running to Home Depot, Lowe’s, back to Home Depot…(you get the idea), gutting, replacing electrical, blah blah blah. It’s not the ideal situation to not, say, have a cocktail and something soothing at the end of the day.
The interesting part, though, was that I actually did stay on the plan in a half-assed way, because it’s quite easy to do that. But the no coffee, no alcohol, no fat on 4 of the 7 days went out the window. Also it’s super hard to do things like make a green smoothie or purchase specific veggies when you’re not on your home turf.
This is just a quick blog post to say that I will be re-starting on Monday. If you’re reading this and looking for an eating plan – I’d really recommend it. As you probably have seen, I’ve worked my way through a number of eating plans in the past few years, but this is the one I’m the most optimistic about. Not only is it pretty easy to do, but I think it will be easy to stick with even after the 4 weeks are up. After that time, you can add back in the things that were disallowed if you want (e.g., soy, corn, dairy, alcohol), and/or go off the “phase eating” all together. But as I saw these past two weeks, I actually think that staying on the eating regime even afterwards will not be that difficult.
So that’s my update – sorry, no photos, but I have about 10,000 emails to answer and I really just wanted to post a quick update, and also give ya’ll notice that if you’re looking for an eating plan, why not join me on Monday???HERE is a link to the book in case you need it.
2018 UPDATE! Use London Broil steak, cut against the grain (e.g., cut parallel to the short end, not the long end). It is WAY less expensive than skirt steak, and works just as well if not better.
Recipe:
1 gallon Ziplock bag
a cookie sheet (must have a lip) or two
a cookie cooling rack or two
aluminum foil (to wrap around the cookie sheet)
For every 1 to 1 1/2 pound meat you need:
1/4 cup tamari (gluten-free and organic is only pennies more . . . hint hint!)
Juice of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 teaspoon onion powder (or onion salt, in which case use garlic powder)
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt (see above – if you want to substitute garlic powder, use onion salt – or if you use powder both times, double the salt added below)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper (or less if you don’t want it spicy)
1/8 teaspoon sea salt or Himalayan pink salt
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (or less if you don’t like it spicy)
1/4 teaspoon red sumac (a Lebanese spice I use in everything – this is totally optional but if you find it and use it, you’ll be stuck on it too 😉 ).
Start with Skirt Steak.
1-1.5 pound packets of skirt steak
Our local market sells packets of skirt steak in 1-1.5 pound vacuum-sealed packages. These are fantastic, because you can buy a bunch of them at once and freeze them if you’re not going to use them – then when you want some steak, you can take them out of the freezer and throw them right into the sous vide, bringing them up to about 90 degrees “and holding” when you’re at work. (If you don’t have a sous vide, you might want to read my blog HERE.) When you get home, heat up a cast iron skillet super hot, scorch them on each side for a minute or so, voila, done.
But today, these are for jerky.
The photo shows four 1.5ish pound packets. With this recipe, you can double or triple or quadruple or ??? the recipe without any issues. The smallest of the packages in the photograph is just over a pound – the largest is 1.5 pounds. So I’m quadrupling today. Because my butcher’s packages are always about 1 to 1-1/2 pounds, I always figure one package = one “set” of the marinade ingredients listed above.
If you don’t have a market that has these packs, but you do have a market where you can talk to the butcher, just bring him the photo from the blog and say you’d like one of these, please. 😉 It’s not expensive meat – some butchers cut it up to make fajita meat, but it starts like this.
The recipe by and large comes from Haylie Pomroy’s book The Fast Metabolism Diet, which has some great recipes. This one is particularly good.
I started down the Fast Metabolism Diet road last week, and though I haven’t lost any weight, my energy is really good, and I feel great. I blogged about what it entails HERE.
You can use any “meaty meat” – halibut, turkey, buffalo, etc. – but it works particularly well with beef.
My issue with jerky is that it always contains some form of sugar, and/or some sort of preservatives. I’m sure there are jerkies you can order without these, but they’re probably immensely pricey. This recipe is so easy, it’s ridiculous not to make your own.
Cut the steak into 3 strips (against the grain).
skirt steak before cutting (about 3 feet long or so)
The photo at left is what a skirt steak looks like out of the package. I don’t have a “selfie stick” and even at the end of my condor arm I could barely get it all in the picture. It’s like 3 feet of meat.
If there is any obvious fat, trim it off – but this is a very very lean cut of meat.
The fat you see in this picture doesn’t count as “fat” by the way – that’s just “marbling.” You may, however, run into a bit of fat that run all the way through the meat – particularly at the “fat” end of the meat – that’s what you want to cut off. But to give you some idea, I did not have any in all 4 of the steaks that I cut up before writing this blog.
Get your kitchen shears, and cut the strip the “long way” (against the grain). Your steak will be meatier on one end and less so on the other. So that means you’ll have three strips on one end, and usually as you cut, you’ll wind up with only two strips on the other end.
this is the meaty end of the skirt steak – as you can see, I get 3 strips on this side.
I keep these in as long of strips as they go. (Yes, I’m juvenile enough to sort of make a game of it – like trying to peel an orange in one strip of rind.) Sometimes you hit a weak spot in the meat, so that “strip” breaks off – it’s not important. But if you’re using a full skirt steak, you want the width of the strips to be about 1/3 of the strip at the “fat end” or 1/2 of the strip at the “skinny” end. It’s not rocket science, just do your best 😉
marinade ingredients
Mix up all the other ingredients into the Ziplock.
Take the ingredients from the above recipe (multiplied by however much meat you have), and put them into a Ziplock. Take it from me, if you use a Ziplock with the actual “zipper” it’s a LOT easier to turn it upside down and shake it than if you use one that you just “press” together. No need for the excitement of the entire marinade and meat concoction slipping out on the floor when you shake it ‘cos you didn’t quite get the tracks of the bag to match….
A gallon Ziplock will take up to four times the recipe above, if you’re wondering. If you’re doing more than four times the recipe, I would use a couple of Ziplocks, but you only need one up to a quadruple recipe.
Again – the thing I really like about this recipe is that there is nothing sweet in it. Honey, sugar, whatever. And it’s delish. Trust me here.
Shake the marinade to mix it together.
Plop all the meat into the Ziplock.
Once you have all the strips in there with the marinade, seal the Ziplock almost all the way. Then squeeze down on it so that you get all the air out of the top little opening you’ve left.
Then seal it tight.
meat in marinade, all air squeezed out.
Now turn the Ziplock over and over to be sure the marinade gets to all the meat (like I said, this is the exciting part if you aren’t completely sure about your Ziplock zipper…)
Put the Ziplock into the refrigerator overnight (at least 8 hours, but better if it’s overnight).
Whenever you open the refrigerator between then and cooking time, give the Ziplock a few little tosses to move the marinade around on the meat. It will settle on the bottom side, so you want to be sure you let all the pieces get evenly marinaded.
After 8+ hours, drain & discard the marinade.
Squeeze the meat (while still in the Ziplock) to get it pretty dry. The easiest way to do this is to get the bulk of the marinade out first, and then zip the zipper back up most of the way, and squeeze the marinade out the “spout” by rolling it up from the bottom. This is similar to what you did when you were letting the air out to seal it, before putting it in the fridge.
You don’t want to pat the marinade off, but you do want to squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can, because you’re going to be dehydrating that meat, and more liquid = more time.
Take your cookie sheets and wrap them in aluminum foil.
You’ll need about two sheets and two cookie “cooling racks” for about each 3 pounds of meat, give or take.
Because the marinade and fat from the jerky is going to drip onto the aluminum foil, you may want to spray a little coconut oil in between the cookie sheet and the foil. I’m not sure if you have ever had this happen, but sometimes the foil “adheres to” the cookie sheet. So you might want to put a Pam-esque buffer. Personally, I use what are called “baker’s sheets” over my cookie sheets. They are PFOA-free silicone, non-stick, re-usable, and work like a charm. But as most folks don’t have these or do as much in-oven baking/roasting as I do, I am using aluminum foil in this recipe.
Put the cookie cooling racks on top of the aluminum foil, with their “feet” folded in.
If your sheets and racks are the same size as my sheets and racks, the racks will fit inside the lip of the sheet with a pretty good amount of room to spare. That will come up in a second.
If you’re only doing 1x of the recipe (silly you, you’re going to eat all that jerky before anyone gets home . . . 🙂 ) then you can likely use one sheet, or use two and leave more room between the pieces.
one rack, set up – about 2 to 2-1/2 lbs.
Put the meat on the racks, cutting it to size as you go. It can be close together, but shouldn’t overlap.
Although the recipe I used stated that you have to have the meat strips 1/4″ apart, they shrink up a LOT. So, I snuggled them up close, and as I checked the jerky, I was able to move them farther apart as they shrank. If you leave the strips long, be sure to tuck the ends down into the pan, so that they drip into the pan (not onto the bottom of the oven). That said – I’d still put down aluminum foil in the oven anyway, just in case. 😉
Remember I mentioned the space between the rack and the sheet? I personally actually laid a couple strips along the “long side” of the sheet (between the sheet and the rack) and then another along the “short side.” The jerky drips a LOT as it’s dehydrating, but that basically means that about 1/2 way through, you’ll be able to move those strips up to the rack and out of the drippings.
As you can probably tell, I’m not too fussy of a cook 😉 I just wanted to be sure that you knew that everything came out just fine when I did things this way. I wasn’t interested in doing two batches, because that’s a lot of time. So I made it work. Also, to give you an idea, I’m doing 4x the recipe this time around (I did 3x last time), and I’m still going to use the same setup. They really do shrink up a lot as they cook.
Bake the strips uncovered at 200 degrees for about 3 hours.
At three hours, you want your oven timer to go off so you can check on them. If you have two pans of strips, this is the time to swap the bottom pan for the top pan. It’s also time to re-arrange the strips as you may need. You can taste one, but they’re not going to be close.
4x the recipe in the oven, so about 4 to 5 pounds of meat.
If you have some other situation – more strips down the sides/off the rack or some such, you’re going to need to get them up on the rack as soon as you can. So you might be checking more than just once at 3 hours and once when “nearly done.” But this is what I did. At 3 hours they had shrunk in enough for me to get all the strips that were off the rack onto the rack, plus I was able to re-arrange them to allow a bit more room between all the strips.
Bake the strips for about another 3 hours.
I say “about” because I have a convection oven, and mine were done at 6 hours total. If you don’t have a convection oven, I think it’s going to be more like 7 hours. Leave the temperature the same, don’t cover them . . . just do what you just did, and come back 3 hours later and check on them.
You’ll know they are done when the meat is dry and leathery. And you can’t stop eating it.
Remove from the oven and cool completely before refrigerating or freezing in an airtight container. (I just took the cookie cooling racks off the pans and set them aside until the jerky was cold.)
If, that is, you can make it that far, and don’t eat them all as you’re waiting for them to cool. 😉 .
On this Haylie Pomroy eating plan, the first two days are basically fruit/veg/grains/some protein, then the next two are strictly veg/protein (with protein as the snacks – enter the jerky), then the last three days are a lot more relaxed with fruit/veg/protein/grains.
I made the jerky on the first of the middle two days, and actually weighed out how much 3 ounces was, to be sure I got the snack portion right. Yeah . . . then I weighed out 6 ounces, to get the lunch portion right . . . and another 3 ounces for the next snack . . .
leftovers from last week. NomNomNom 😉 I think I have to have one…And YES, this is all that’s left of 3x the recipe 🙂
It’s very addictive, and so easy to make!
By the way, the aluminum foil is going to be coated with a thick mixture of hardened on marinade, fat, etc. While the jerky is cooling, get that off the cookie sheet and throw it away. (As I use baker’s sheets, I just hit them with super hot water and this slides right off, then I pat the sheet dry, and hang it to use for the next roasting/baking extravaganza 😉 ) If you have a dog or animal that might go through your trash, I recommend crumpling it up into a ball and zipping it into the Ziplock that you marinated the meat in. It’s harder to smell that way 😉
Any questions…?
And..speaking of recipes…tonight is roasted chicken night – if you didn’t catch it last time, HERE is the recipe for the easiest and best roast chicken in the Universe 😉
Whenever I think about my rapidly expanding lower body self, I seem to hum this song. (Perhaps because I have an ever-expanding “bass,” and very little “treble”…Why can’t fat go where you want it?) As I’m typing this blog, I’m humming this song. So I thought I’d share a little earworm with ya.
That done…
When we last left our heroine, she was lamenting the fact that no eating plans seem to work . . .
The end of last week, I saw my chiropractor and my doctor. My doctor prescribed something for the hip/glute/back issue that I’ve been having, that addresses sciatica. Now, if you want to immediately feel ancient, just let someone tell you that you have sciatica. I think it’s right up there with gout and cataracts. He asked if any pain meds had helped, which they had not. He said that sciatica is a nerve issue, not a muscle issue – and that if anti-inflammatories (like ibuprofen) weren’t working, then it’s unlikely to be a muscle thing as I have imagined it to be for the 5-6 weeks I’ve been suffering from it – and addressing it with my chiropractor and my fascia guy.
He had basically nothing to say about the weight issue, though there is apparently a program through my insurance company where the co-pay is $4,000 (yes, you read that right), and it’s all based on eating pre-packaged food and shakes that they give you, and coming in every week and logging everything you eat and do. Um, no thanks. He did remind me I need to drop “what looks like around 30 pounds.” Yup, gotcha. Thanks, buddy.
Then I had an appointment with my chiropractor. I told them that I had been prescribed this med. They still thought that the pain was more likely a disc thing than sciatica. (Note: As I write this, the issue has really gone down to a dull roar, so I may actually have sciatica, as the drug seems to have worked.)
However, they had a lot to say about the eating stuff.
We talked about the fact that intermittent fasting and also the high fat diets a la the Bulletproof Protocol don’t seem to work for some women. As a Commenter to my blog even stated in my last post, Dave Asprey has even addressed this. I discussed that I’d done Dukan a few times and that the weight definitely came off – but then when I started to “eat normally again” it came right back.
I mentioned that I’d just finished a month doing the Dr. Sara Gottfried “Hormone Reset” eating plan, and hadn’t seen any changes. It’s possible that this is because all the foods she has women “get off of” in a tiered fashion are foods I already don’t eat (grains, fruit, sugar/sugar substitutes, dairy, alcohol, etc.); the only thing that I gave up that I eat a fair bit of is four-footed animals. (The protein in her plan comes from seafood, birds, beans.)
So the Haylie Pomroy “Fast Metabolism” eating plan was brought up. I’d never heard of it. It’s a lot different than any of the other programs I have tried, and really different than the way we eat, which is basically Primal. For the difference between Paleo, Primal, etc. see #4 in this blog post.
Because of the Bulletproof protocol and also Gottfried, I haven’t had fruit in like three months (actually, maybe more).
In contrast, the Pomroy protocol has fruit in two of the three “Phases” that you do over 4 weeks, Each week, days 1 and 2 you eat no fat, lean protein, and then a crapload of carbs (including grains)/fruits, days 3 and 4 you eat basically your standard Paleo/Primal green (alkalizing) veggies and protein, then days 5, 6 and 7 you eat fat, some fruit (more along the berry variety), lots of veggies, protein. There’s more to it than that – some veggies are “off limits” at some times and not at others – no wheat, no corn, no soy, blah blah. But that’s the basics.
The idea behind this protocol is to address a stalled metabolism.
The first couple days are supposed to “soothe” your adrenals by giving them a ton of carbs, which they apparently like. It’s as if you are telling your body: “You have plenty of food, it’s all going to be okay.” Then the next couple days are mobilizing your fat. So over these 4 days, your body is burning your fat when it goes looking for “fat” – but not the energy that’s stored in your muscles (sugar), because it has plenty of that in what you’re eating. Then, the last three days you do eat fat, just as your body is thinking “Wait a second…There hasn’t been any fat here…we’re going to slow down the metabolism and hold onto the fat that we have, something is up.” So, it’s kinda like the whole “muscle confusion” thing, but with food.
As it is 100% different than anything I’ve done in the last year, I thought – what the heck – why not? So today was Day 1, Phase 1.
Breakfast is 3/4 cup (uncooked) of any grain on the list, and 1-1/2 cups of fruit that’s on the list. I had gluten-free slow-cooked oatmeal plus 1-1/2 cups of sour cherries. Can I tell you how much oatmeal 3/4 cup uncooked comes out to? Holy oats, Batgirl, it is a lot, a whole lot of oatmeal! (Bob’s Red Mill makes a steel cut, gluten-free oatmeal that I used.)
As with all these eating plans, you have to drink 1/2 your body weight in ounces of water daily as well – but she doesn’t let you count like water with lemon in it or herbal tea. This is an issue for me, because I hate drinking water. I perpetually forget to do it. So I filled up the biggest pitcher that I had (and it was still not big enough…) and the plan is to down it plus another few cups every day.
You are required to eat every 3-4 hours, because, as she puts it, “If you don’t, you are eating – your body is just eating your muscles.” #NomNomNom.
So snack was an orange. (It’s fruit from the list)
Then lunch is right now, and hello….this is WAY too much food. I’m having trouble eating all of this. I mean – !!!
(The interesting part, though, was that I was really hungry before lunch . . . since upping the fat I eat, I haven’t been hungry in forever. I was stomach-snarling hungry.)
Lunch is 3/4 cup (uncooked) grain, 3-4 cups veggies, 5 oz. lean protein, 1-1/2 cups fruit – all from the list. I made all the oatmeal last night, so for any meal with a “grain” I just need to cut a “slab” of it out of the casserole dish. I had it with peaches this time. Plus 1/2 of a 1/2 of a chicken breast (5 oz – big chicken), plus about 2 cups of broccoli, both from last night’s dinner. I can’t finish. It’s supposed to be more broccoli, and I just can’t do it.
Another snack (fruit) will be in 3 hours – if I’ve finished lunch by that time, mind you. (I’m trying.)
Then dinner is the same as lunch, minus the fruit. The plan is to do pork tenderloin, broccoli, maybe quinoa or rice.
You also do exercise that’s phase-specific.
Phase 1 you do Cardio at least 1 of the days.
Phase 2 Lifting at least 1 of the days.
Phase 3 Yoga at least one of the days.
We’ll see how this one goes . . . It’s sure different than anything I’ve ever done.
My Amazing Race partner and I haven’t heard anything, and the CBS rep had said that we’d hear “Monday or Tuesday” if we were chosen to go on to the next step in L.A. So, unlikely.
Both of us were distressed at “where we are,” body-wise, compared to where we’ve “been.” We talked a lot about this when sitting on line (I mean, if you get there at 4 a.m., you have 5 hours ’til the doors open, and not all of it can be spent practicing your “schpiel”!)
I was told by my doctor that doing the Lavaman triathlon then 5 marathons in a row in a year (it was an accident . . . ), I screwed up my hormones. My TAR partner believes that doing the Ironman screwed up hers. She has done Lavaman (with me) and a few “fun runs” and the back half of the Nike Women’s Marathon with me since, but she feels that, post-Ironman, it’s been a lot harder for her to lose weight, etc.
us at Lavaman in 2012
And – let’s get it straight here – that was all now a couple years ago.
I am also battling a hip/back thing that’s been going on for like 5-6 weeks now. I’ve seen my fascia guy, my chiropractor, and yesterday I saw my doctor. He put me on a drug for sciatica, but I am pretty sure that’s not the issue. It’s frustrating and so I haven’t really done Crossfit or much of anything for that time, since every time I do, it aggravates the issue.
Back to weight. I’m precisely 30 pounds overweight now, and can’t address it at all. My body fat percentage is over 30%, and my “waist to hip” ratio is 84, so very fast approaching “apple” … already “graduated” from “pear” to “avocado” and of course, the rounder you are (the higher your “waist to hip ratio”) the more toxic fat you’re carrying. My waist to height is 46.4, up 1.4 inches since I started the Dr. Sara Gottfried Hormone Reset Diet now 21 days ago.
Yup, another “eating plan” a/k/a diet. These aren’t “cabbage soup” diets, these eating plans/diets make sense to me. This one goes for 21 days – every 3 days, you cut another “thing” out of your diet. It’s based on how long it takes to reset the hormone that you’re addressing. So, at the beginning, you quit alcohol and eating “four footed animals.” This addresses estrogen. Then 3 days later you quit eating sugar/sugar substitutes (except stevia) – and stay with the no alcohol/meat. It goes through subtracting fruit (including nightshades), then caffeine, then grains, then dairy, then “toxins” (shampoo, makeup, etc.)
I wasn’t drinking that much alcohol anyway – some champagne on Friday nights with my husband. The “four footed animals” was a little difficult because we eat a lot of beef and pork, though I diligently swapped out my recipes for turkey, chicken, and shellfish (I am allergic to fish-fish). Sugar/sugar substitutes was no big deal because I don’t eat any. Same with fruit. These are remainders from doing the “Bulletproof” Diet earlier this year, again, trying to address my burgeoning tummy. Caffeine wasn’t that big of a deal to give up. Though as we have Bulletproof coffee in the morning, I swapped to decaf (it’s only 2 cups a day), then used ghee instead of butter. I don’t eat grains. I don’t use toxins.
Moddie and I did measurements yesterday, and my waist at 1″ below my belly button, as well as at my belly button, is up an inch after the 21 Day thing.
I stopped doing “metcons” at Crossfit months and months ago, when it was recommended that they were potentially affecting my hormones. I’m not sure what to do from here. The only thing I know how to do is eat immensely clean, and work out. And sleep. (I sleep like the dead.) The thing is, the working out I know how to do to address weight is running, or potentially cycling or swimming. Because of the hip/back issue, I haven’t really been doing Crossfit for the last while, as I said – and I know I need to get recommitted to that. But running hurts my back.
Moddie and I are going to check out Pelo – a new spin class that’s scientifically based on perceived exertion that is actually quantified via bikes on the computers. As if I can afford this, when I’m paying close to $400 for Crossfit, but I just don’t know what to do.
stomach actually looks smaller here because my hands are over my head. but it’s depressing enough.
We’re going to Hawaii in a few weeks, because my husband needs a break. I put on a bathing suit yesterday and just cried. Why is this happening to me?!?! I work so, so hard. I eat completely clean, and my calorie intake is around 1600/day. I sleep well. When I tell folks about the inability to lose weight, they say that it “must” be “muscle gain.” Nope – my fat percentage isn’t budging from 30%.
I feel like this is penance for having been so “easily slim” through my 30s. My legs are so fat that the only place they don’t touch is a tiny window between my ankle bones and mid-shin.
Of course the “evil twin” in me wants to just give up. Have a donut. Have a glass of wine. I feel completely deprived – tell myself that if I can lose one percentage of body fat or even (though of course scales aren’t reliable), 5 pounds, I can have, like, an orange. But no. So the regime continues, lemon/turmeric/ginger hot water in the morning, Bulletproof coffee, “snack” of 1 cup of chia seeds soaked in almond milk and coconut milk (‘pudding’), lunch of the previous day’s dinner, dinner of about a pound of vegetables (yes, really) – plus chicken, turkey, or shellfish – all eaten within about a 6 hour period. No starchy vegetables – standards are zucchini, brussels sprouts, kale, chard, Southern greens, squash (various kinds), salad greens (no tomatoes/bell peppers because of the nightshade issue), onions. Yup, pretty boring. Logging everything (again) in MyFitnessPal.
So, that’s my pity blog post for the day.
And…sigh…we took photos yesterday. So, here they are. Sure, we’re not Biggest Loser material, but this is not healthy….In fact, since my hands are on my head, my belly looks better than it usually does (it’s “pulled up” by my hands being on my head – it usually sags down over my beltline).
Yup . . . I also did a video submission. As I mentioned in the last blog post, Jamie Fellrath and I do the podcast for the BeingJamesBond.com website – but we’ve never met in person. So we did a Skype video, hoping to play on the fact that Amazing Race is doing a #BlindDate trial this Season, plus, the new James Bond film, SPECTRE, will be coming out right around when the actual filmed season of Amazing Race would be aired.
Let me know what you think! 🙂
Oh, and yes, yes, we know that we should really be #TeamVenetianBlinds…shut up 😉
P.S. – the video doesn’t show on the email feed, but if you pull it up you can see it on the website. Sorry – something technical goin’ on . . .
The Amazing Race came to San Francisco to do in-person tryouts today. I read obsessively what I could about the intakes on various blogs, and peppered my cousin Christopher (who has tried out for Amazing Race 2x and Survivor 2x) with a ton of email questions. (As a side note, I also did a submission on video with my friend Jamie – we do the BeingJamesBond.com podcast together – but this was an in-person one.)
If you want to know what happens…
The problem with the blogs that I read is that they didn’t go into a lot of detail. Being a Virgo, lawyer, Year of the Ox, I wanted to know the “nitty gritty.” So that’s what I’m going to cover here.
Get there early.
We decided not to camp overnight, but, as the “intake” was from 9:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m., we decided to arrive at 4:00 a.m. We were Team 37 – in other words, there were 36 teams in front of us, the bulk of whom had spent the night. I don’t think it’s a requirement to spend the night, but you really need to get there early. If they do another one in S.F. and you’re driving, your best bet (for cheapest parking) is to drop your teammate off at the line at the store – which is just off Union Square on Post Street – then drive back to Stockton/Sutter garage. Parking was only about $10.00 from 4:00 a.m. to about 11:00 a.m. (which is when we got back to the garage).
If you want to stick around to the end, my cousin told me that they will give you the dates and places for Survivor and Big Brother auditions. I wasn’t interested in either one, though Moddie was . . . but after our camera time, we didn’t want to stick around for another four hours!
Moddie and the line in front of us at 4 a.m.
Bring chairs and a blanket.
I sort of imagined that this went without saying, but find someone who has a set of camping chairs, and borrow them. Bring a blanket, and wear a puffer jacket. It was warm once we emerged from the taping, but it’s not warm when you’re sitting around for hours, and certainly not if you have to sit on the cement. (There was a couple up at the front – who had camped over – they even had a kerosene heater!)
Know where bathrooms are!
This might make you laugh, but we’re two nervous (I mean “excited”!) gals in our “mid-years” (um, that is if I live to over 100…) and so knowing this critical bit of information was very important to us! In the Marmot location, you can go up one block (up Kearny) and then left 3 blocks (Stockton/Sutter parking) and you will be at the Hyatt Hotel. Walk in, head left between the elevators, then go downstairs to the bathrooms. Don’t ask, because they have people walk in off the street all the time and will try to dissuade you from using their bathrooms, but if you act like you know what you’re doing, they won’t stop you.
Also, the Starbucks at the corner of Stockton/Sutter (across from the garage) opens at around 4:30-5:00 a.m. After I had dropped Moddie off and parked the car, they were just getting ready to open when I walked past. This Starbucks opens at least an hour/hour and a half before any of the other Starbucks that are closer to Marmot. If you want coffee/Starbucks treats before about 6:00 a.m., go there, but they’re pretty eagle-eyed about who uses their bathroom (as they should be, since they’re right on Union Square). The Hyatt is directly across the street from them – as per the above, use the Hyatt for the bathroom. You can tag-team the bathroom breaks with your team mate, or, as you will be surrounded by a ton of super-nice people, they’ll hold your spot too.
Make friends in line…
This might be the best people-watching on the planet. Here’s hundreds of folks who theoretically are “just like you,” as they are trying to get on The Amazing Race. Except, of course, for the guy with the unicorn horn. (Yes, really.) But seriously – get to know the folks you’re sitting around. They’ll watch your spot if both of you need to “go to the Hyatt” (how’s that for a new euphemism?) at the same time – and it’s really fun to find out what everyone’s “schtick” is. The gals behind us were both named Julia, both were first generation Americans – one born in Russia, one in China, both came over at age 3 – they had been competitors in Academic Decathalon from rival high schools and then both wound up at Harvard together. In the student “intake” on their first day, China-Julia recognized Russia-Julia, and they became fast friends after China-Julia reminded Russia-Julia (who hadn’t recognized China-Julia) that they had detested each other as rival Decathletes in high school! China-Julia is now an M.D./Ph.D. and Russia-Julia an economist – they are still big pals.
As for making friends…Remember – if you don’t get on The Amazing Race – how great would it be to cheer on someone that you were sitting with at 4 in the morning, like #TeamJuliaAndJulia/#TeamNerdyGirls/#TeamAmericanDream 😉 ???
. . . and don’t block the doors of the other merchants.
Make sure that you don’t block the doors of the merchants next door to Marmot. Where we were in line, there was a bank that had a Peet’s Coffee/cafe on their bottom level, so quite a large door “opening” (two swinging doors next to one another, glass panels to the left, center, and right). NOTE: This cafe does not open on weekends – you will have about 1,000 people come and try the door! Once Marmot actually opened up, the first thing they did was sweep through the line and “crowd you” forward or back to make passage for the doorways you were basically blocking. If you’re against a wall when you first arrive – great. If not, just leave the space in the doorway, and put your chairs on the other side of it. No one is going to cut in front of you – greet the folks in line in front of you, and point to them that you’ll be “on the other side of the door.” Because our “doorway” was so large (not just a single merchant door), it was super hectic to try to clear this area. I’d say there were at least 8 teams, all of us in front of that bank/cafe front. So when the staff came out and made us “clear it,” we had to push folks back and around the corner and make the people who had actually camped out (way in front of us – probably the first 10 teams) pick up their tents/bags/etc. so that we could squash out of the doorway. If you wind up in this situation – don’t say I didn’t warn you 😉
Funny side note – if you’re not right at the store door, you will have a lot of teams ask you which direction the “front of the line” is. We always gestured around the corner, though the guy in the team in front of us, after our tenth time doing this, pointed way up Kearny (perpendicular street) and said “It’s way, way up there…blocks away.” We all got a huge laugh out of that – not so much the team that was asking, of course 😉 #5amLaughs…
Practice, practice, practice.
Don’t decide that you’re going to “just wing it.” It doesn’t work. There are another 299 teams there, and each of you is vying for what one of the CBS folks told us was going to be 1-5 spots that would move on to the next interview, in L.A. That’s where they do the physical/psychological stuff, background check, etc. So, your job is to get to L.A.
You need to practice it enough so that it doesn’t look scripted – you do need to look natural, which takes effort if you don’t have a clue what you’re going to say and you’re staring like a doe in the headlights into a camera with a producer watching you.
In general, they want to know two things. What your story is, and “why you.” Will you make it in the tough times? Show some drama? Persevere? That’s the first part. When I was scripting, this, to me, was the “how will you keep the current audience engaged” portion of the talk. They also want to know that you actually watch The Amazing Race (some of the folks there had never seen it – !!), so if you can, throw a few references in.
The second thing that they’re looking for is how you might bring them “new blood.” What is going to be new and different about you, that will bring them publicity, advertising revenue, more viewers? How might you appeal to people that aren’t already watching?
They’re also all about the social media links, too. So do yourself a favor, and be sure that you give yourself a “hashtag.” You’re telling them immediately what your “thing” is. #MilitaryMoms ? #SweetScientists ? #RollerGirls ? You get the idea. This takes a bit longer than you might think, so take some time and prepare a good one.
You will get about a minute in front of the camera.
Since Moddie is more a “wingin’ it” type (and she’s had a very hectic schedule recently, with school, relationship stuff, finding a new job, etc.), I “scripted” out our “schpiel.” The blogs I initially read said that you got three minutes (that is also what you get if you submit a video). So when we were actually practicing on the first day Moddie could make it (the Thursday before the Saturday intake), that’s what we used as our timing.
Kat, the daughter of a friend of mine (with whom I do archery) has studied rhetoric, so once I got “out of my system” what I thought we should say, she helped me deconstruct it, then “build” it into a persuasive three minute script. She practiced it with me for days, added “memory hooks,” and we rounded the rough edges. Then, when Moddie was able to join us a couple days before the intake day, we practiced and practiced and practiced in front of Kat, making sure that the words we were “giving her” fit in her mouth. Kat edited the script on the computer as we tweaked it, and told us what seemed to be working and what was too long or fell flat once the two of us were actually “delivering” the talk.
Once we got comfortable with the three minute talk….I started getting the emails from my cousin Christopher. He said it was “no more than about a minute or maybe a minute and a half.” So we had to regroup, and cut 2/3s of it out! We then practiced just the “most important stuff,” getting it down to a minute. This gave us the ability to be “ready” if it really was only one minute, but also the ability to “fill in” if it was more than a minute, with things from the three minute version.
Dress alike!
Moddie and I wore our Team In Training Ironteam jackets, jerseys, black running skirts, black running capris, and matching purple compression socks. We carried backpacks with Nalgene bottles on them. We were shocked at how many people were not dressed alike. This is like the “don’t wing it” thing – as Roy Rogers said, “You only get one chance to make a first impression.” Don’t blow it.
Our “schtick” included the fact that we are dichotomous. I have a ton of degrees…Moddie is way more physical than I am…I’m over 6 feet, she’s just 5 feet…she’s “tan” I’m “working on my tan…” You get the picture. Since that was part of our “thing,” I had my ever-suffering hair stylist Donna Beaumonte (best hair stylist ever!) make me super blonde and give me super straight hair on Friday. (My husband didn’t recognize me – it was hilarious.) Moddie had her hair braided with “Afro-puffs” at the bottom of the braids. So while we were dressed exactly alike, we played up our differences as that was part of our story.
Stay focused. Be appreciative.
The producer that you’re assigned to is going to make his/her decision in the first few seconds of your taping – they just use the actual video for backup. As it was described in another blog that I read (by a guy who made it onto The Amazing Race years ago, and after his five years of “non-disclosure” revealed what happened to him), each producer picks their top choices from the teams they see, then the videos are used to winnow it down to a handful. At each location, there are from 3 to 6 producer/camera “booths” – so you can do the math from there as to how many teams will be seen in an intake.
In some locations, there is an “assistant producer” that is with each producer, but in our case, there was just one “assistant producer/helper” at the door to the room where all the camera/producer couples were, and we were ushered in three teams at a time. Remember that these folks do this for a living, so be respectful (they are happy you’re there, but not as over-the-top as you are)…but also of course be excited. Thank everyone that you see! You’ll be one of the few!
It’s Almost Show Time…
lucky number 37 . . .
At about 8:00 a.m. (remember, doors opened at 9:00), Marmot staff went through the line and handed out 300 slips of paper. They say your place number, and then you print both your names on the sheet. They want your full name. Make best friends for life in line, and bring pens with you for the folks in your area that don’t have pens. (They didn’t have any that they handed out.) In our case, if you were around the corner in Maiden Lane, you got “provisional” or standby sheets, that were still numbered (301, 302, etc.) Once you had your sheet, you can get out of line and walk around, etc. As they said, “…this is like Southwest Airlines…” – once you have your number, you can do whatever you want, but be back by 8:45 a.m. to line up.
We bundled up our camping chairs, puffer jackets, blankets, etc. – basically everything except what we needed for our time in front of the camera – and took them back to the car, had some “Hyatt time” (that was funny – there were a TON of gals there, all for the tryouts), then went back in line.
Oh – and – be sure to print out the video waiver online, and bring it with you. There will be a one page video waiver linked to the page describing the actual intake (ours was on the webpage of our CBS affiliate, KPIX, as well as on the Marmot S.F. webpage). It is not the waiver and intake information on the Amazing Race website – that’s for folks submitting videos for their submissions, not showing up in person. If you don’t print the waiver, they will hand out more when you’re in line, but, again, no pens 😉
The doors open…
They will line you up in “Southwest Airlines” style, against the gutter side of the sidewalk to keep the walkway clear. This is when the dry mouth starts 😉 From our position (Lucky #37), it was hard to figure out what was happening. So this is what happens.
They will usher you in a few teams at a time.
waiver table, just inside the front door
As you step in the door, there is a table where they have a clipboard (there, there’s pens!) You will print both your names, one email, and one phone number, and hand in your waiver forms. In line, we were trying to figure out how they would know to contact us if they liked us – since the number that we’d received just had our printed names on it, and the waivers just had our signature. This is how they know how to contact you if they like you. Print clearly!
As I mentioned – be friendly! The person collecting the waiver is likely the first CBS person that you will see. The folks outside were Marmot staff. Another thing that you should certainly consider is “friending” your filming locale, your CBS affiliate, and Amazing Race on Facebook and knowing their Instagram and Twitter handles, plus the hashtag that they’re using for the day. That way, when you take photos in line, etc. you can immediately post them and give them some love. 😉 Marmot was giving out bottles, car coffee “Go cups,” coupons, little stuffed marmots (!), etc. but only if you answered the questions that they were posting on Twitter, on Twitter, using your Team number. Remember – they’re doing this to get traffic into their store and online!
Now, you wait, but not for long.
After you turn in your waiver, there is a line from the waiver table towards the back of the store, where there is another table and a door down to the three camera set-ups. (That room wouldn’t hold any more, so if you are reading this and heading to Marmot S.F., that’s what you’ll get!). They are going to take you three teams at a time. Just like lining up at Disneyland, you can’t really tell until you are closer to the door that leads to the camera room who is going to be your “other two” teams. You can figure it out once they’re about two sets of teams away from you – obviously – just count by three (or, six, if you are counting heads).
In Marmot S.F., you go through that back door, they take you downstairs, around a corner, into a hallway, and then there is an Associate Producer at the doorway, and you will see the teams that were in front of you in that room doing their “thing.”
my Amazing Race Flag nails. Hard to see the thumb and pinkie are glitter yellow 😉
A little commercial break…
When we were in line, we really had fun with the folks in front of us (a married couple, met playing soccer, both work in hospitals) and the two sets of folks behind us (#TeamJuliaAndJulia and a guy team that we thought were a couple, but actually had been friends from high school). We got nervous together, practiced a bit together, etc. (That part was funny – at first you’re all being secretive, then I – yeah, me and my big mouth – said loudly to Moddie: “Um, as if we’re all going to steal each other’s stories??” – which got a big laugh. After that, we sort of listened and helped those folks that were in our surrounding area – which was great.) Anyway – so as the 4 of us teams got toward the back of the store, Marmot turned on its sound system. It was super loud – we must have been standing under a speaker. The first song that belted out into the previously silent store was Billy Jean by Michael Jackson. We all started dancing and singing to it (at the top of our lungs), because it was so loud! It was a great “tension breaker,” especially the high notes in the chorus. None of us had a particularly tuneful rendition! The Marmot and CBS staff around us were laughing hard at us. Right before the final “…Billy Jean was not my lover…” I shouted out “Now, in GERMAN!” and everyone down the line broke up. It was great to breathe and all of us in that area (and the folks smiling at us down the line and the staff) could feel the tension dissipate.
…down and around the corner!
As I said, once it was our turn, they took us into a hallway, down some stairs, into another hallway, and then we had to wait at an open door into the room where they were filming. We were the third team of our set of three, though they were actually shuttling people in basically one at a time, as the people in the room didn’t all finish together. There were three camera set ups – one right in front of the door so you could see the team being interviewed, then two out of sight. The team that was at the camera at the door was a fireman pair. As we walked up, they “got the hook” – the producer said to them, as they were in the middle of telling their story, “That’s time, gentlemen.” They were a little shell-shocked. As teams had been coming out when we were waiting up in the store, I had buttonholed a number of them and asked how much time they got, and they all said “about a minute and a half, give or take.” But after seeing the firemen “get the hook” as it were, I knew that I wanted to stay “conservative” on our timing.
The timing was somewhat up to me – as I mentioned, we had cut our “schpiel” into a 50 second bite, then we had about a half a minute from the best bits of the three minute “schpiel” we’d scripted that we inserted for another half minute or so, then we had a sign-off 10 seconds from the original 1 minute. We had been told by my cousin that you would get a 5-10 second “warning” if you were coming up against your time deadline, so I practiced that final “hook” and had a 5 second and 10 second version. We never got the warning, so we were within our time, which was great. Maybe we could have added one more “example” to our story, but I’m glad, frankly, that we didn’t, because we both feel that we did a great job.
…we’re ready when you are…
Our producer was a wonderful, perky, super nice gal. We were at one of the back two camera stations, which was great – it felt very cosy back there, and no one could “watch us” from the line.
While, in my cousin Christopher’s case, they had to wait for the red light on the camera – and he cautioned that you need to wait for the cue to go, because if you don’t, they aren’t taping the beginning of your “schtick” – our producer said: “Camera’s on, start when you like. I can ask you questions, or just do your thing.”
photo after we were done. Note my “graduation scalps,” and Moddie’s belt indicating she’s a “do-er,” plus the map of course and the bundle of cash!
I’ll put what we said and what we did, basically word for word, next. Because that was the thing that I didn’t find in any other blogs, and I was super curious to know what other people did. In our case, I had purchased an Amazing Race “mat” from the CBS.com store, and that was a huge hit. My cousin Christopher had said that if you can get the producer to smile or laugh or look like she’s engaged, you’ve won the battle. We unrolled the mat when we were in the “Southwest Airlines” line (I don’t know why we were keeping it such a secret up to that point – as if someone could get one at 4 a.m. the day of…) and it got a visible “ripple response” in the waiting line. In fact, one of the Marmot guys took our photo with our number, the mat, etc. and they posted it on their Facebook page.
There is nowhere to put down “stuff.”
I was super duper glad that we’d taken the time to get the camping chairs, blankets, etc. to the car and “suited up” there. Because it was “cramped quarters” in the filming room, with just the space that you were going to stand. If we had done what we were ready to do – bring in the camping chairs, put the blankets and puffer jackets into a folded-up Costco bag we had – I’m really not sure what we would have done with them. I suppose that we could have left them out in the hallway where you stand before you go into the camera room. Just know that when you’re walking into that room (if you do the filming at Marmot), it’s a tiny, tiny space – so if you do have things that you don’t need as “props,” leave them in the hallway.
camera 3 – where we stood against the racks
In our case, we were actually backed up against a rack of Marmot clothing (this area is obviously usually a store room). When we were finished and trying to gather our stuff up and get out, Moddie kept backing into and then hanging back up the clothes on the hangers. I quipped to the producer that we were “obviously just trying to get more camera time.” She just shook her head with a big smile on her face (as Moddie knocked another outfit to the floor… LOL!)
Try to have 3D – not 2D – props.
Some people in line had posters with photos on them, things like that. I actually know from previous work in front of a TV camera (I was on TV a number of times for my book) that it is impossible to see things like this. If it’s so important that you really honestly need it as part of your story, do up each photo BIG – like, bigger than 8-1/2 x 11. Make sure that you also have it glued down onto something sturdy, because if it’s just on a sheet, it’s going to flop around and look unprofessional. Also, make sure that they are matte finish – glossy will reflect light and you will not see them on camera. We were originally going to have photos as well – us each finishing the Ironman, etc. – but from blogs I read, it’s discouraged. So try to make your props 3D.
Also – and hey, I’m not saying we will get picked, so why listen to me (heh heh) – but our producer was very engaged by the props we had. As an example, remember, we’re dichotomous. So I took all 4 of my graduation tassels (“graduation scalps”) and put them on a stout cord, with knots in between them, and hung them around my neck so that you could very distinctly see there were 4 tassels. Moddie wore a climbing harness over her TNT clothes with an ice ax, a bike helmet, a hammer and tape measure, and a few other things hanging off of it. So when, in our script, we said I was the “thinker” and she was “do-er,” I could hold up my tassels and indicate that I have four college degrees, Moddie pointed to her belt, indicating that she had been up to other things while I was in school 🙂 It also helps you remember what you want to say. We had a similar “prop setup” for the fact that I’ve traveled the world, but with my husband doing the planning, but Moddie hasn’t been out of the States – I held up my 5 passports fanned out, she held up her one passport and said “empty…” You get the picture.
Our script…
Sorry that this has weird fonts – I cut it out of Evernote and can’t figure out how to make them uniform! 🙁
WEARING Ironteam jackets, unzipped, over Ironteam bike jerseys, black running skirts, black capri pants, purple spotted socks, sneakers. Sandy has New Zealand Maori necklace (like Phil’s) on, plus “necklace” of graduation tassels. Moddie has climbing belt with ax, hammer, bike helmet, etc. Carrying Tribags. Nalgene bottles with names of honorees hang off of Sandy’s Tribag and Moddie’s belt.
SANDY: We are Moddie Stone and Sandy Shepard! As Hashtag Team T-N-T, we’ll plug you in to the Leukemia Society’s Team In Training (Moddie turns around, showing LLS and TNT logo on the back of her shirt) – which has had over 600,000 participants, and 10s of 1,000s of cancer honorees like our personal ones on these bottles (Moddie indicates BOTTLES).
PLUS, we’ll earmark $100,000 (Moddie throws down bundle of CASH) of the prize money for cancer research in YOUR name, which means you’ll be featured in the Leukemia Society’s annual report and President’s address, and come to the attention of researchers, other donors, and board members!
Listen – If you don’t know about Team In Training – it’s A Thing! You could be running on a back road in Alabama (Moddie mimics running), and if you’re in your jersey, someone is guaranteed to lean out of a truck and yell GO TEAM! Hashtag Team TNT will attract that same energy and attention!
MODDIE: We’ve overcome many obstacles, Speed Bumps and U-Turns together while going for money fundraising! We’ve done marathons, triathlons, and even an Ironman (Sandy shows back of jacket with pockets – 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, marathon – then puts on shark hat and takes out shark “puppet.”) We’ve swum in the frigid San Francisco Bay with the “wildlife.” (Sandy hums a little of the Jaws theme). We have super different backgrounds though, which might work to our advantage, or, if we pick the wrong person to do the task, it might lead to that audience-pleasing drama!
NOTE: The part in pink is what we got to say because we had a minute and a half. The above part, and the part below in black, was what timed out for us at a minute.
SANDY – Though we look like the Sweet Scientists – just a bit older! – that’s where the similarity ends. I’m the thinker (hold up graduation tassels), she’s the doer (point to climbing belt with everything on it.) Married (indicate wedding ring)
MODDIE: single!
SANDY: (bring 5 passports out of bike jersey, fan out) I’ve traveled the world, but my husband does all the planning…
MODDIE: I haven’t been out of the States – but I have a passport!…and I’m not afraid to do outrageous things (brandish razor, turn it on) – I shaved all my hair off for fundraising!
SANDY: Ohhhhh no…(look at producer) She was so not allowed…(look at Moddie) you were SO NOT supposed to bring that razor!
MODDIE (looking smug, brandishing razor)
SANDY: Girl, if you make me shave my head, I am so making you eat bugs!
MODDIE: Ohhhh no, you are the bug eater…
(NOTE: The producer was really laughing at this, so I went on – because she was laughing – with this next bit)
SANDY: (Looking at producer) OH, and speaking of bugs, as karmic retribution for what you make those teams eat, I brought you a Cricket Bar (hand over Exo bar from back jersey pocket) – Hashtag Nom Nom Nom!
(NOTE: Producer was surprised, and was really laughing. I jumped back on mat – this last part is the end of our minute part – like I mentioned, the pink was the “filler” because we got a bit more time).
SANDY: We’re Hashtag Team T*N*T* – for Team In Training –and for a Dynamite – if Dichotomous – Duo…
(both cross fingers)
MODDIE: Non elimination round – ?!?
So that’s our story.
I’ll spruce it up some, add photos, and all that jazz in a bit. But I’ve had about a dozen folks wondering how it went, so I’ll post this now and on Facebook, and jazz it up next week. We’d love to hear your Comments! 🙂
Luckily, I quite like to cook. I even like the prep work. Granted, I do it while listening to a book on Audible or watching an old TV show (Magnum P.I., anyone? #GuiltyPleasures), but it’s a sort of Zen thing for me.
My biggest issue usually revolves around timing and meats. I have a lot of meat in the freezer and – usually at Crossfit that morning – I figure out what fresh veg I have in the fridge and what will go with what … et voila, that’s What’s For Dinner.
And therein lies the problem.
I usually haven’t defrosted anything – and am often going from Crossfit to errands to clients … and once I get home, it’s too late to defrost the meat other than in the evil microwave. (NOTE: I’ve been trying to avoid the microwave after listening to Dave Asprey’s interview on Fat Burning Man and how microwave cooking denatures food. I haven’t quite thrown the machine out the window, but I’m trying to pay more attention.)
If I actually do get the meat out of the freezer in the morning, I often get home and am tearing my hair out trying to “time” the cooking of the different pieces of the meal. I often wind up with one or the other thing over/underdone.
I’m a big supporter of pressure cookers for “what they do well” – I asked for one for my last birthday present, in fact.
But a pressure cooker (or a slow cooker/Crockpot) still applies heat directly to the food that you’re cooking. So you can find yourself burning whatever you’re cooking, because you didn’t put in enough liquid, or with something too watery, because you put in too much, or with something that’s mush/too dense/etc.
Because cooking with applied heat changes the food, and liquid evaporates.
Besides, you aren’t going to Crockpot or pressure cook a steak, or a pork tenderloin, or a flaky piece of perfect fish.
Enter the sous vide.
Sous vide (pronounced soo-veed) means “under vacuum” in French. The sous vide cooking technique involves cooking food in pouches that all the air has been squeezed out of. The fancy ones have vacuum sealers for the pouches – I just use Ziplocs. (NOTE: Don’t throw the hate on me about Ziplocs – pick your toxin. THIS ARTICLE made me feel that using BPFA-free Ziplocs wasn’t going to kill me.)
To cook sous vide, you submerge the pouch in a water bath that is held at a precisely controlled temperature with an immersion circulator/heater.
The end result? Perfectly cooked food.
Beneficial nutrients found in food are retained in the pouches, compared to traditional cooking methods where nutrients either evaporate or are left in the pan. The natural flavor and juices of the food – as well as any marinade, etc. that you add – are infused into the food while in the cooking pouch.
Sous vide on left, traditional on right. Sous vide retains all the liquid, plus avoids the grey bands of over done meat under the surface.
I supported Anova on Kickstarter a while back, after taking a one day cooking course that included “gadgets” – a smoke infuser, sous vide, etc.
Anova makes a sous vide for home use that is basically a stick that you place into a pot of water (you can see it in the photo above).
Use your phone or the top of the machine to dial in the temperature that you want the “stick” to get the water to and hold it at. It has a pump that circulates the water, and once the water is up to the temperature you set, it holds the water at that temperature.
You just have to figure out what temperature you want, to get the optimal result for the food you are cooking… and dial in that water temperature. Plop in the baggie’d food – the sous vide does the rest.
As an example, a perfect rare steak is 120 degrees. The sous vide will bring the meat to 120 all the way through, and hold it there all day long. If you were to cook that steak the usual way, you would have 120 degrees somewhere near the middle (if you use a cooking thermometer). But since the steak cooks from the pan “in,” the outside will be a higher temperature than the inside, in a gradient that goes from the char outside to about 120 near the middle, and sometimes the middle is underdone. You will also lose volume, as some of the liquid in the steak will evaporate while you cook it.
If you don’t use a cooking thermometer, who knows what you’ll get?
And what if your attention is diverted for a minute or two, in either case? (“Honey, are you sure you don’t like it medium-well?”)
So let’s say that I am going to cook that same steak in the sous vide. I take it out of the freezer, where either it’s in a vacuum pack from the “half a cow” I purchased, or it’s in a Ziploc I put it in from the grocery store, with the air pushed totally out of it. I plop the bag into the pot of water, crank the Anova up to 120 degrees, and head out to Crossfit and work.
Oh sure, some chefs are cringing in horror – I’m sure that defrosting it slowly is the way to go – but what can I tell you? That’s honestly how I do it.
I get home, and make everything else that is for din-din that day. After all the sides are done, I put them into the oven on warm with the two dinner plates. Last, I heat up a cast iron pan smokin’ hot with some coconut oil and pink Himalayan salt in it. I take the steak out of the Ziploc, maybe put some oregano on it (I’m eschewing black pepper since I’m doing the Bulletproof Diet), and throw it into the hot pan for a minute-ish to get a good brown on the outside. Flip it over, another minute, done. Get out the veg and hot dinner plates, plop on the steak (sprig of parsley, anyone?), serve. #NomNomNom.
The steak is perfect all the way through at 120 degrees, with the char on the outside.
If you want the easiest way to cook fish perfectly, it’s the sous vide. Put some herbs in the baggie, some lemon and some oil (the fish will stick to the plastic if you don’t put some oil in) and throw it in there at the desired temperature when you leave in the morning. Come home, it’s been perfect, waiting for you, all day long. (And, no, it doesn’t “overcook” – since it’s not touching anything hot like in a crock pot, oven, pressure cooker, etc. It just reaches the temperature of the water that is circulating around it – and stops.)
What else? Last night I made short ribs. Nom nom nom! I took beef short ribs from the freezer, and put them into the sous vide at 130. I had read that it takes 130 degrees to melt the collagen in the ribs. Then I went to Crossfit, etc. I came home, and the ribs were defrosted and held at 130 degrees.
Then, I added a marinade made of coconut aminos, ginger, garlic, pumpkin seed oil, etc. to the baggie, sucked the air out of the Ziploc again, and threw it back in the water. Went about my business for a few hours. When it was time to get cooking, I made some broccoli, sweet potatoes, etc.
At about 45 minutes from wanting to get supper on the table, I pulled out the pressure cooker, sauteed some onions and bacon in the bottom using the “Saute” setting, then took them out, pulled the short ribs out of the sous vide, and seared the fat side in the pressure cooker. Once they had a nice crust (a couple of minutes), I put the onions/bacon back in, added the marinade from the Ziploc, sealed up the pressure cooker, and 30 minutes later – voila! Perfect, fork tender short ribs.
Oh, and – back at the bacon part – I discovered that I’d forgotten to take the bacon out of the freezer – so I actually took the vacuum-sealed pouch the bacon comes in, and just put it into the 130 degree water (with the packet of ribs) while I was chopping the onions. When it was time to do the bacon in the oven, it was defrosted and already par-cooked. The par-cooking kept the bacon flat and the fat from curling (who knew?)
When I took the cooking class I mentioned above, we actually even made dessert in the sous vide (cooked peaches were the base of the dessert). It’s also the way to get perfect corn on the cob if that’s something you eat. You just put the ears into a Ziploc big enough for them, add butter, salt, a little tequila (smile), squeeze out all the air, and throw them into the water bath. They come out perfectly cooked, and the butter/salt/tequila has “marinated into” the corn.
What you can cook with it is basically only limited by your imagination.
For those of you who are pushed for time and want something ridiculously easy – but are tired of crock pot meals – you might want to check this out.
Tonight? Bacon wrapped filet, anyone?
In case you’re curious, HERE is a link to an Anova. I personally do not set the time on mine (mine is a previous generation – you can see it in the photo above, in the pot). I just let it run, then when I take the meat or meal out, I unplug it. If you watch the video that is on the left of the linked page, it shows the cook first using a fancy vacuum sealer (for the meat) but then shows her doing the zucchini in a Ziploc. She puts the Ziploc into water, and then pushes the veg under the water and seals the Ziploc outside the water, using displacement to be sure she gets all the air out. You don’t want the baggies to float, and you want to be sure that the water touches the food (via the plastic). Otherwise, you won’t get the perfect temperature in the food because the air will act as an insulator. (NOTE: Do I ALWAYS get all the air out? Nope. If the baggie floats, I put a weight on it. And even if there is a little air in the bag, I figure that it’s going to get close to the temperature that I’ve set. Haven’t had a bad result yet.)
A week or so ago, I blogged about a new company that’s of interest to me (that blog is HERE).
I have a friend who asked a few questions, and then signed up because, even though she has ‘platinum level insurance’, she thought it was a great idea, at an affordable price.
I’d like to share an email I just got from her:
FYI, I had an ultrasound scheduled yesterday and thought it might be interesting to see what it would cost if I went through MDGlobal.com. MDGlobal member price: $302
Through my regular health care price: $840
That’s a significant savings, wouldn’t you agree?
Wow!
The thing that I also really like about MDGlobal is that you can get prescriptions anywhere, any time. It also covers “pet meds,” if those medications are something that a “person” would take.
I have two friends with diabetic cats and I personally had a cat that needed to be on an I.V. daily (for years) and another one that I gave a “kitty AIDS” drug to for his entire life (hashtag our pets are our children LOL). Those situations would have been covered. I can’t tell you how much money this would have saved me. Quite honestly thousands of dollars, even net of the MDGlobal monthly member fee.
Now remember – the above email was from a friend who has insurance (and “good” insurance, to boot!).
As most of us know, if you do not have health insurance in the U.S., you now pay a penalty on your Federal Income Tax return. The penalty wasn’t horrific last year, but it goes up steeply this year and next. (HERE is an article – albeit from last year – talking about the penalty that you’ll pay if you’re in this situation). Moreover, if you or a loved one is on Medicare and take prescriptions – wow – that can get pricey fast.
I am blessed to live in a wealthy part of the country. A lot of folks around here have a “concierge” doctor. What does that mean? They pay a boatload of money a month to have a doctor “on call” for them – whether they use him/her or not. (I remember all the times that my doctor father would zoom out at 4 a.m. to see a patient at their home when I was a kid – for free – yeah, feelin’ old about now LOL).
The beauty of a concierge doc – if you can afford one – is that you don’t have to wait in line, you can contact them from home where there are no other sick folks around you (except perhaps your kids, who brought the Evil WMD Germs home from their daycare), etc.
MDGlobal.com gives you that “concierge style” medicine for a fraction of the cost, especially as most of the “regular [read: expensive] concierge doctor” issues that come up are ones that are answered with a call from the doctor to you, in the comfort of your own home, where the only sick person that you’re near is . . . you! Oh – and your kids who gave you the bug. 😉
I’ve been discussing MDGlobal with a business acquaintance who is also a super accomplished doctor. We went back and forth about how “awful” it is that this seems to be “the way that medicine is going.” But in actuality, the idea here is not to replace your “real” doctor with RoboDoc. (NOTE: Show of hands if you – insured or not – actually have a “real doctor” that you see semi-annually for checkups, call/email with health questions, etc. – ??)
No. It’s to replace the #PITA (you look it up LOL) visits where you’d rather not go in – where you have a nagging question – or – as indicated above – just to save you $$ on prescriptions/procedures.
It’s for the situations where (this just happened to us) you realize – once abroad or on vacation – that you don’t have enough of a prescription med in the bottle to last the whole trip. It’s for when you get sick abroad/on vacation, and need help. Basically, it’s for peace of mind, and for ease of access.
Anyway, I thought you just might be interested in an update that actually shows the $ a real person (with great insurance) saved by being a MDGlobal user. And if you have a deductible on your insurance that you have to “meet” to get your meds at a discount, etc., then why not use MDGlobal to “fill up” that amount (spending less out-of-pocket on the procedures/prescriptions all the while)?
Having access like this, especially if you go the cheapest “Obamacare” route that you can find (so you don’t have to pay the tax penalties), is likely to make you contact a doctor when you have an issue, don’t you think?
If this isn’t interesting to you, I’m really grateful that you read this far. But if it brought someone to mind, I’d really appreciate it if you would forward this information on to them. I only want to offer an option that might “pencil out” for folks like the email did above.
Yesterday, I had a good, long rant about what an idiot I was to have signed up for a Crossfit Competition this weekend. However, today, I am feeling more philosophical about it.
Why?
Well, because of course the gal who is putting the Throwdown together is lovely, and talked me down from the ledge. But also, because This Crossfit Thing is really just so cool . . . and sometimes I forget that.
Let me explain.
Yesterday, I went into the box to meet with the gal putting the Throwdown together. As my blog yesterday stated, I signed up for a Crossfit competition this weekend in which there are three divisions, Rx (doing the full workout the way it’s supposed to be), Scaled (doing the full workout with lighter weights or some other tweaks), and “I want to participate but even Scaled is too daunting for me” (my division). When the events list came out, I had thought that this last category would be basically show up, lift a dumb bell the weight of a pom-pom, and get cheered for doing it. Nope. It is still the Scaled division, but if you can’t do one of the specific things in a workout, you get to swap it out.
But you’re “presumed” to do the Scaled unless you have to swap something out.
Just so you don’t have to click back and forth, here are the Rx WODs:
Workout 1: Part A
5 minutes to build to 1 RM Clean and Jerk
Rest 1 minute to reset your bar.
Part B: 7 min AMRAP of
5 Handstand Pushups
7 Toes to Bar
5 Hang Power Cleans (40 kg)
Workout 2: For Time (8 Minute Time Cap):
100 meter run around a cone with sandbag (45#)
15 thruster (30 kg)
30 box jump (20″)
15 thruster
100 m run around a cone with sandbag
Workout 3:
2 min AMRAP/15 sec rest
3 min AMRAP/15 sec rest
4 min AMRAP
Row 10 Cal
15 pull up
20 wall ball (14 lbs)
25 double unders
30 burpee over rower
with any remaining time, row for Calories
Here are the substitutions for “Scaled”:
● Sub Hand Release Pushups (Games style) for Handstand pushups
● 7 toes to bar or 14 knees to chest (must be declared prior to the start of competition)
● Hang Power Clean 25 kg.
● Thruster 20KG.
● Run with 20 lb. wall ball versus 45# sandbag
● 15 jumping pull ups or 5 pull ups (selection must be declared prior to start of competition) – reverse/alternating grip permitted
● 25 double unders or 75 single unders (selection must be declared prior to start of competition)
Now, here’s where How Great Crossfit is, and ditto how great BeyondTheWhiteboard.com is, comes into play.
The idea of Crossfit is that you want to be able to do whatever the movement is at “Rx” (“as prescribed”). But Crossfit also believes that you should (1) get the movement exactly right, THEN (2) be able to do the movement exactly right, multiple times in a row and ONLY THEN (3) do the movement exactly right, multiple times in a row, at “intensity.” If you don’t have the movement exactly right (#1), then you “scale.” You do not move on to doing multiple movements, or adding weights, until you get the foundation down. “Scaling” means doing something that uses the same muscles as the Rx movement, but takes into account where you’re weak.
So, for example, let’s say that the Rx (taken from the above) is handstand pushups (HSPU). What that means is you do a handstand against the wall, then you dip your arms down until the top of your head hits the floor, and then you push back up until your arms are straight (one done…)
There are a LOT of ways to scale this movement. You could do it with your legs on a box. That would mean that you are basically lying on a box, bent over at the stomach, with your arms are straight and your head down the side of the box. You push up and down from there. (This means that the “leg part” of your body is supported/you’re not lifting it…plus, you don’t have to balance on your hands.)
A bit harder would be kneeling on the box, and then going over the side to do the HSPU. (Less stable, more “leg weight.”)
Or maybe you have trouble being upside down, so you do a “regular” pushup. Or maybe you don’t have a pushup at all, so you do a kneeling pushup. Or perhaps, because you want to actually work on the handstand portion v. the pushup portion, you do a “wall walk up” which means that you kick your feet up on the wall (facing the wall), and then walk your hands in toward the wall as far as you are comfortable going, then hold it for a certain amount of time.
Get the idea?
Well, so let’s look at the Rx above, and the Scale. It’s HSPU, with a Scale of “hand release pushups.” That means that you lie in a plank position (balanced on hands and toes, body straight), then bring your body all the way down until your chest touches the ground, then release your hands off the ground (basically you’re lying with your chest on the ground and you just pick your hands up off the ground), then put them back down, and push your body up until your arms are straight again (one done…)
Well, I can’t do that.
And kneeling (also known as “girls”) pushups are not the same sort of “movement” as a regular “plank pushup” – so that’s not a very good scale. So I was given two choices:
1. A “ring row.” What this means is that you’re lying basically under a set of rings hanging off a horizontal stanchion, and you “row” yourself up and then back down on the rings, arms locked out, chest “proud,” body straight (no “butt sag”).
2. A “banded” pushup. In a “banded” pushup, you take what is basically a super duper strong elastic band, and you string it between two vertical stanchions. Then you lie over it, so the band is basically under your abdomen. You then do the regular hand release pushup, but part of your weight is supported by the band that you’re lying on.
So, what did we do? I was timed to see “how long it took me” to do the pushups – it’s supposed to take everyone the same time. Then, we chose the elasticity of the band based on giving me enough “support” to do those pushups in the time that it should take me.
See? How great is that? This is why I love Crossfit. In a way, it’s like having a “handicap” in golf. Golf is one of the few sports where a true professional and a novice could play together, and there could be some prayer that the novice could beat (or at least come close to) the professional’s score. Your “handicap” is how many strokes you get to “take off of” your score (“strokes” meaning how many hits it took you to get the ball into the hole). So if you have handicap of, say, 42, and you’re playing a pro golfer (with a handicap of zero), and he goes around the course and gets a score of 60, and you go around and get a score of 100, you win, because 100-42 is 58.
Similarly, in this Competition, they want the divisions to be giving the same “perceived exertion.” That means that (again, by way of example) if the Rx is a barbell move that is supposed to be at about 50% of that athlete’s one rep max, then you scale it at about 50% of YOUR one rep max. (e.g., if the Rx Crossfitter is lifting 100 pounds – which is 1/2 of 200 pounds, which is what she could lift only one time off the floor – and you can only lift 30 pounds one time off the floor because it’s so heavy, you do the move at 15 pounds – and each of your “perceived exertions” is the same.)
Or if, say, a bodyweight move is supposed to take about 30 seconds, then you scale the movement however you need to, so that you take 30 seconds.
Yesterday, I was doing all sorts of moves, trying to get moves that would be the same “perceived exertion” level as the Rx moves. So, where do you even start?
Our gym subscribes to Beyond The Whiteboard for us. It’s an online journal, where you log whatever you do that day and (this is the awesome part), it then keeps track of it all for you, and even shows you where you need some extra work. So, for example, if you’re doing back squats, you can pull up all the back squats you have done before, and they are all there for you. Moreover, it will show you all your squats together, and if you are doing a lot lower weight than someone “generally would” in the squat “family” it recommends you add more to that part of your programming.
Beyond The Whiteboard logs every move, and also every one of the “Girls” or “Heroes” or “other known” workouts (e.g., Nasty Girls). (Never mind all that, if you’re not a Crossfitter.)
The founder of Crossfit very strongly believes that you can’t get better at something you can’t measure. And the owner of our gym has given us this tool to do so. Before Beyond The Whiteboard, I kept track of my workouts in a journal and an Excel sheet. But the problem with that is (a) it’s time consuming, and (b) it’s not easy to “go back to the last time” you did a move, and figure out how you’re going to approach that move this time. It also doesn’t show you a “movement family” and where you might want to concentrate your future workouts.
And – because you not only track every movement, but you can also write yourself personal notes, etc. – you can immediately go back and see what you said to do “next time you did that move.” Genius. Pure Genius. It allows you to tell your “future self,” for example, that when you did the 5 sets of 5 repetitions of the back squat this time, you started at 15kg, and it was too light. So you won’t start that light again, you’ll start with some weight on that 15k bar.
Otherwise, you’re just guessing.
So, what did we figure out for my “Scales of the Scales”? Here you go:
Workout 1: Part A
5 minutes to build to 1 RM Clean and Jerk – Rest 1 minute to reset your bar.
I am doing this as is. I can do a Clean and Jerk – Sure, I can’t do it particularly well, but that’s not the issue. I can do it. So we went through Beyond The Whiteboard on my previous Clean and Jerks, to discuss where I would start at, to be sure I had the right weights on the day. (In case you care, I’m starting at 20 kg.)
Part B: 7 min AMRAP of
5 Handstand Pushups – As I mentioned above, I’ll be doing 5 banded pushups, using the black band for support.
7 Toes to Bar – I am doing the 14 “knees up” scale – turns out you don’t need to get your knees all the way up TO your chest, only “break parallel” with your knees. It’s hard, but I can do that. Hello, abs…
5 Hang Power Cleans (40 kg) – I can do a hang power clean. I most assuredly can’t do it at 40kg, but the Scaled is 25kg. That’s a good bit of weight, but I can do it, so I will do it. The only issue here is that I will want to do Part A with a 20kg bar (my hands are huge), but that makes it difficult to put the “extra 5 kg” on it for Part B. As such, there will need to be 2 bars there for me, which was noted, so that when they are setting up for me it will all be there (cool, huh?).
Workout 2: For Time (8 Minute Time Cap): 100 meter run around a cone with sandbag (45#) – Scaled is a 20lb. wall ball. Tell you the truth, I’d rather run not quite so far, and use the sandbag. Carrying a wall ball is SO MUCH HARDER than carrying a sandbag! A sandbag you can just drape over your shoulder – I practiced yesterday, and for goodness’ sakes . . . the wall ball is a lot harder! Ah well, so it goes 😉 I am not supposed to run (doctor’s orders because of all the metabolic issues I’ve blogged about ad nauseum), but I’ll walk fast. Or trot. I asked if I could do it with the 45# sandbag, but part of the issue is that we don’t have enough of them. So – wall ball it is.
15 thruster (30 kg) – a “thruster” is the crazy-*ss movement shown in the image with three photos. I can’t do a squat, much less get the whole “dip under the bar” thing going. This was another one where we had to work on what I would “Scale to” for quite a while. I will be doing a sumo deadlift high pull with a 1.5 pood (54 pound) kettlebell. That’s the image with the four photos showing the four judging points.
30 box jump (20″) – 20″ is not supposed to be a “high” box jump. So once again, we went to Beyond The Whiteboard to see what my “best” box jump ever was (18″) and what my “standard” box jump is (15″) and she said that it should be about 70% of my standard box jump. So I’m jumping up on two 25k plates with a 10k plate sandwiched in between (we literally measured it with a tape measure).
15 thruster – as above.
100 m run around a cone with sandbag – as above.
Workout 3:
2 min AMRAP/15 sec rest
3 min AMRAP/15 sec rest
4 min AMRAP
Row 10 Cal – this is the same. 15 pull up – We decided I should do 5 banded pullups. I had to do banded pullups again and again until I could do the pullups in the time frame that an Rx athlete would generally do 15 kipping/butterfly/regular ones. This is going to be a pullup with a blue and red band for me. Though jumping pullups is an option (where you start with the pull up bar at about wrist level and use your legs to “jump” your chin over the bar), they really hurt my elbows on the way down. With banded pullups, I still have “support” on the “downstroke.”
20 wall ball (14 lbs) – I can do wall balls so long as I have another wall ball to squat down to. This is a huge improvement for me. So I am doing this “Rx” but with another wall ball on the floor. Shame there is jumping rope afterwards, or I’d wear my (shiny newish) lifters to give me more “help” on the squat. 14 pounds is hard (I’ve never done wall balls with more than 10 pounds). But when I was doing it, she said I should do the 14. So I’m doing the 14.
25 double unders – I’ll be doing the scale, which is 75 single unders (A “single under” is jumping rope. A “double under” is jumping rope but the rope passes twice under your feet for each one jump. I am getting better at them – but if I have a single under Scale available, I’ll take it!)
30 burpee over rower – I can’t jump over the rower (I talked about this in the blog yesterday), but the gal putting the Throwdown together just laughed at me. She said, “Do you realize that basically if anyone gets any burpees in, they’re going to be a rock star?” I then looked at the workout, which is “as many rounds as possible” of these moves in the time cap of 2, then 3, then 4 minutes (but with only a 15 second rest), and I had to laugh too. We decided though that “in case” I get to the burpees, I can just do burpees. Since my burpees involve kneeling down, throwing myself onto the floor, then walking my feet back up, she dutifully noted I would need an Ab Mat for my knees.
with any remaining time, row for Calories – ha, ha, ha 😉
So that’s my scales, folks. I feel a lot better now than I did yesterday. You know why I feel better, too? Because I saw one of the scaled male athletes today at the gym – he has a “frozen shoulder” so there is just no way he can do overhead movements correctly. (Stephanie, our WOD Recovery Yoga leader from Endure Yoga, talked about him today on the Girls Gone WOD Podcast, in fact.) And whereas his girlfriend, who is doing the Throwdown too, said she would be “laughing all day” at the whole thing, he and I can’t sleep. At least there is someone else out there feeling a little stressed out about this. (Made me feel better – what’s that saying, “Misery Loves Company”? 😉 )
SO RELIEVED how this worked out! Now, of course, we’ll see what happens on Saturday. Heck, I might not be able to lift the bar at all in the Clean & Jerk, etc. – but that’s just how Competition goes.
When I was training for the Ironman, someone said that you might, or you might not, make it over the finish line on actual race day, but you are ready to. You are “prepared” to do it. Whether or not you do your “best” or cross that finish line on that “particular day” is somewhat a matter of luck (or, as us lawyers say, “force majeure”).
I’m going to try to keep that thought in my head. 😉
Yep. That’s me the last time I tried burpees over a bar.
You know what? I WAS NOT thinking.
Our Crossfit box is having a “Throwdown” this weekend. I, being friendly with the coach who is constructing this competition, said “oh, sure” I would do it. My efriend Jennifer recently did an Olympic weightlifting competition, and she also was very inspiring to watch – ESPECIALLY as she missed her first lift. (HERE is her blog.)
Jennifer and I went back and forth last year about the Open, which I joined because I didn’t really know what I was doing. I had been doing Crossfit for about three months, and I somehow thought that you “had to” join – then I stressed out in a big way about it. I’m unlikely to join the Open this year (even as Scaled), unless, like last year, our box provides nice tank tops and special snacks for competitors. (Anything for snacks.)
me visiting Crossfit Pohaku on the Big Island of Hawaii
Jennifer pointed out that you’re a lot more likely to “surprise yourself” with doing something you “didn’t know you could do” if you’re in a competition situation, and she was right – I got my first double unders, and my best deadlift (to that date) during the Open. But what I hadn’t realized was that “whether or not you were registered,” the box would do the Open workout together on the Friday. So it’s likely I would have gotten those “PRs” anyway.
Maybe.
I did 14.1 in Hawaii and NEVER would have sought out a sanctioned box if I hadn’t actually been registered – my main issue was that if you got a zero on any particular week, Crossfit HQ said you would be “locked off the leaderboard.” This actually did not happen, but it was upsetting to me, especially as I would be out of town for the very first workout! The experience was amazing though, as it truly made me realize the strength of the “Crossfit Community.”
Interestingly, I wrote a letter to Crossfit HQ about all this (and that they should have a scaled division) – and this year, they made it clear you can enter a zero and still be “in it,” and there is a Scaled division. (Yeah, you can thank me for that. Ha ha ha.)
So, back to this “Throwdown.” There are three “divisions.” They are Rx, Scaled, and what was formerly known as “I am broken/medically cannot do Scaled but I want to compete.” My friend Jessica and I wanted to join in, but both of us felt that, while Scaled is generally “too much for us,” we could not in good conscience join the “medically unable” group. Because we don’t have anything “medically” wrong with us. We just no can do it.
When I discussed this with the gal who was designing it, she said she’d change the third group to a different name so that we could do it 😉 So it became Rx, Scaled, and “I want to participate,” basically.
Now, silly me, I thought that the “I want to participate” WODs would be basically for show. Like – hey, I want to be part of the community, watch me lift a 10 pound dumb bell. Yay, me!
The WODs came out yesterday, and in actuality, it’s “just” Rx and Scaled. THEN, if you’re in my group (I think there are only 3 of us in this group – hey, guaranteed Show for me LOL), you read through the Scaled and figure out what you cannot physically do, and then sub something in, instead, ahead of time, sanctioned by the coaches.
Here are the WODs:
Workout 1: Part A
5 minutes to build to 1 RM Clean and Jerk
Rest 1 minute to reset your bar.
Part B: 7 min AMRAP of
5 Handstand Pushups
7 Toes to Bar
5 Hang Power Cleans (40 kg)
Workout 2: For Time (8 Minute Time Cap):
100 meter run around a cone with sandbag (45#)
15 thruster (30 kg)
30 box jump (20″)
15 thruster
100 m run around a cone with sandbag
Workout 3:
2 min AMRAP/15 sec rest
3 min AMRAP/15 sec rest
4 min AMRAP
Row 10 Cal
15 pull up
20 wall ball (14 lbs)
25 double unders
30 burpee over rower
with any remaining time, row for Calories
Here are the substitutions for “Scaled”:
● Sub Hand Release Pushups (Games style) for Handstand pushups
● 7 toes to bar or 14 knees to chest (must be declared prior to the start of competition)
● Hang Power Clean 25 kg.
● Thruster 20KG.
● Run with 20 lb. wall ball versus 45# sandbag
● 15 jumping pull ups or 5 pull ups (selection must be declared prior to start of competition) – reverse/alternating grip permitted
● 25 double unders or 75 single unders (selection must be declared prior to start of competition)
our Special Needs bags, waiting for us
And, so, I’ve been up since 3 a.m. beside myself that I said I would do this. I know, I know, “it’s supposed to be fun.” The thing is, I’m not a competitor. I’m not sure if it comes from the spirit of the USMC (“no one left behind”) or what, but I have absolutely no desire to be the first. I’d rather that we all crossed the line together. I do, however, have a desire not to be the last. I also have a good habit of pitying and getting down on myself.
In my first book I discuss coming up with a “Bond Girl” name that characterizes who you “want to be.” As an example, one woman who took my coaching wanted to be perceived as less serious, so she took the name of “Bubbles.” Another woman wanted to be seen as more serious and sexy, so she took the name “Vixen.” (To visualize this, basically a girl who “was” a “Bubbles” wanted to be a “Vixen,” and vice versa.) My Bond Girl name? Solitaire. Why? Because I always do things for other people, and don’t particularly “think about myself.” (You play the game of solitaire “for yourself.”) I’m the one who is forever stopping on a marathon to help a fellow runner who’s having a rough time; helping a cyclist change a tire; etc. I do what are basically solitary sports (running, triathlon, cycling, swimming), but I do them in the context of a group (like Team In Training). This way, I’m not holding someone “back” (like if I was part of a triathlon team), but I’m also part of something bigger.
I do really hate being last though. Even when I was a kid, I was always this way. I really don’t have to win, and don’t have the killer instinct to do it. But if I’m holding people back – if I’m the worst – I will just quit. Some day I’ll tell you the story of when – as a ten year old – I convinced a ski instructor to “leave me on the hill” because I was “holding the class back.” (Now you know how long ago that is, since he actually did it.)
My husband – who, by the way, says that doing this competition is one of the Top Five Stupidest Things that I have done in our 15ish years together (yeah, the Ironman’s on there too) – is very against me doing this. He won’t attend, and he doesn’t want to hear anything about it when I get home. He believes there is a high likelihood that I will get hurt, and he also knows that this is literally 180 degrees from what I have been told to do by my doctor (no metcons, period).
Um, yeah, I know…
Of the “scales” above:
● I can do Hand Release Pushups if I put a black band around the vertical stanchions to support my midsection.
● I can do “knees up” but not to chest. One of the movement standards says your heels have to go behind your body on the “down” too – can’t do that either because my shoulders won’t take a kip.
● Hang Power Clean 25 kg. I can do that. (HPC is the one WITHOUT the squat, right?)
● No can do a Thruster. (She said I can sub kettlebell swings – that I can do.)
● Run with 20 lb. wall ball versus 45# sandbag (I can do that, though I am not supposed to be running. I suppose I can walk – it’s not like I’m going to WIN anything).
● 15 jumping pull ups or 5 pull ups – jumping pullups are REALLY hard for me. My question to her is “how hard” is this supposed to be? I can do banded pullups, which give me support on the ‘way down,’ but jumping do not. 15 is a LOT, like a WHOLE lot.
● I can do single unders. (I actually am getting better at double unders, but not under stress.)
● My 1RM in a box jump is 18″ – and that was about 5 months ago. 15″ is SUPER hard for me, as in, I have to really think about it. Presuming that this is supposed to NOT be “scary” at 20 inches, I suppose …what, I jump up to like a plate on the ground? I’m just frustrated and embarrassed, typing this.
● Burpees: I have to walk back, flop down, walk back up. It counts, it’s just not very pretty. If I really concentrate, I can jump over the PVC stands, though I haven’t done it in a while. Again, is this supposed to be hard, or easy? I guess today I have to see whether I can jump over anything at all any more. (White Girl Don’t Jump…and especially recently since I’ve been nursing a glute/hip issue.)
I actually think that part of my problem is that I’m going to know so many of the people there. I was discussing this with the wife of one of our box athletes, who competed in a Masters competition this weekend. I was telling her how ambivalent I was about having agreed to do the Throwdown. What she said was interesting. She said that the “growth” that I was going to get out of this was not that I might get some amazing PR. It was actually just that I would realize that I could stomach doing it – get in and get it done – though it’s way out of my comfort zone.
So, I’m going to go with that. Today I’ll meet with the coach, discuss the scaling, and see if I can actually do a clean and jerk and maybe jump over a PVC stanchion. And hopefully, I can get some more sleep between then and now.
Pushing your envelope is good, at least, people tell me it is. I just wish it didn’t make me feel like I’m gunna barf.
Quick blog post – and a shout out to Michelle for reminding me to post this!
t need to cut a “slab” of it out of the casserole dish. I had it with peaches this time. Plus 1/2 of a 1/2 of a chicken breast (5 oz – big chicken), plus about 2 cups of broccoli, both from last night’s dinner. I can’t finish. It’s supposed to be more broccoli, and I just can’t do it.
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![20150420_153716[1]](https://i0.wp.com/beabondgrrl.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/20150420_1537161-e1429638545899.jpg?ssl=1)
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it enough so that it doesn’t look scripted – you do need to look natural, which takes effort if you don’t have a clue what you’re going to say and you’re staring like a doe in the headlights into a camera with a producer watching you.
