Paleo Challenge and Busy Winter Months

It's the story of my life -- I'm busy. Geez. I love the ease and convenience of Facebook. People seem more interested in commenting there as well rather than on my blog. I love comments. I realize tho that reading blogs takes discipline and dedication. Facebook, esp since it's a mobile application, is such a clever and easy tool. The past few months for me, like many of you, have been full of the quake and throttle of the holidays.







Phew, I'm glad they are over. We were fortunate to get some snow here in the Chicago area which has been wonderful. It's been quite cold though (single digits yo!). Not great weather for sending out the kids to play in. I've done my best to get out into the fluffy white stuff. I love it. I also like extremely cold temperatures - so long as I'm dressed for it. It's difficult to drive in mittens, especially the big, faux leopard fur "Bear Hands" I indulged myself with. I've tried Isotoner gloves and they are pretty useless. Once your hands get cold, it's difficult to get them warm. This is so true with plein air painting too. It's best to keep your hands warm. Do not allow them to get cold. Even if they are sweating, let them sweat. So long as they stay warm. Because one brief contact with extremely cold air and all their heat escapes faster than greenwashers steal your money. Here's the breakdown: Dec: participated in my very first Olympic Weightlifting competition. It's been month since then, and I have to admit that I am surprised at how much I lifted that day. I must have had a surge of adrenaline. I'm still lifting near that weight. A tad more, but not much. Lifts were Snatch and Clean and Jerk. Both awesome for fitness. Your abs get shredded. A whole body workout. I love efficiency. Especially when it applies to exercise. I was fortunate to enjoy the wonder of my children's Christmas pagaents at school. Aislin (3) was a chick in cute little Christmas story. Myself and 2 other moms busted our tails creating the cutest little animal headbands ever. Everyone had plastic gems for eyes so they would sparkle from the stage. All the girl animals were given long, violet eye lashes. Adorable!

Indigo (6) was a spectacular kid, waving from the stage during her evening performance. She held up a gold star and did a dance with other kids in the aisles of the school's, church sanctuary. Very impressive. Sang loud and proud. We baked, shopped, watched every Dog and Christmas themed movie Redbox had to offer. It was kid time. I laid low, painted, shopped and did a small amount of decorating and staying up late obsessing over Doctor Who. Love it! (I own all of Season 4 if anyone wants) My sister, Sally, her husband Bruce, and their 4 little kids spent Christmas here in Chicago, from Western Nebraska. All the cousins got to hangout and be rowdy. Good times, lots of treats and even some sledding. My girls miss them already. 2010 is upon us. I've created a few goals for myself: 1) 30 days of strict Primal eating. From previous posts, you know that I have slowly altered by diet to be more in line with Paleolithic eating (no refined sugars, or grains. Heathy fats, nuts, lean meats and fruits and veges - organic if you can get it). I cut the grains out in October, but I'm so surprised at how much sugar there is in lunchmeat, bacon, sausage. Sheesh, in everything. It's crazy. So I have broken down and gotten grass fed meats. Sausage from an actual butcher (Gene's in Lincoln Sq rocks). I've also bought organic produce when I can. It is so expensive. I've offset it by eating less. So if I lose a few pounds doing this it's not intentional. I'm just broke ya'll. The only thing I really miss are: my 1/2 cup of dairy in my AM latte and 2) wine. Sigh. It's nice to unwind with a glass or two of red. But all is not lost. It's only one month. I can add those things back after that. I'm just trying to create a baseline to see how this diet affects my exercise (Crossfit) and my energy levels (I used to burn out by 3pm, went Paleo and that moved to about 7pm - on strict paleo it's about the same). I've committed to getting to Olympic lifting class twice a week and then twice a week to Crossfit Workouts of the Day (all take place at WCCF). Problem is that I have to stack some of the workouts close to each other. It's brutal to do two in a day. But I did it before. It just isn't convenient. I am working hard and am NOT as sore as have been in the past. I attribute that to the primal diet. It's a nice perk. I get sore just not debilitatingly so. Especially when we do any gymnastics type of exercise (ring dips, muscle ups, dead hang pull ups). Those just make my armpits sore for weeks. So there are the highlights folks. Sorry to have been gone for so long.

I plan to post some before and after pics of the Paleo challenge. The goal is to see the difference physically rather than on the scale. And most importantly, Feel great!

New Doings

I have become a complete blog slacker. I'm to the point where Facebook is my new blog. Although I appreciate the personal camaraderie of having a blog and hearing comments here. So I'm making an effort. I'm averaging one post per month; it could be worse. I also feel I need to post pics every time to entertain those you who, are like me, and appreciate visuals.

It's been a crazy month. My kids have started school, I started a new babysitting job, joined CrossFit, have an upcoming painting show and have been working toward getting myself financially independent. A tall order in this economy. Shamelessly, if any of you know of any open positions for someone with a degree in Marketing and experience in IT management and Construction. I'm also a plein air painter. But I already know how that pays (when it does).

Being a scrapper, I took on a job minding two little kids on MWF. Ella 4.5 months and Erik, her brother who is 2. It has been a lot of hard work but also a blessing. I cherish the moments I have with my own kids (Indi, 6 and Aislin 3). We are riding our bikes to school and locking up there. We walk, Indi rides the scooter, etc. It's true bliss for the kids. Erik and Ella arrive early enough that we all walk in the stroller to school and back We do this- three times a day. It's really a neat thing. When Ais is not in school, having Erik around makes her much more compliant to do some fun things: color, read books together, chalk, cook, etc. She loves TV and gets to watch it but it's a battle when I say no to TV. Ah, such fine parenting.

Erik LOVES Aislin and LOVES the preschool room. I have to nearly drag him out of there every time. The mother's heart in me wishes he could stay and learn too! But not until next year. And that's up to his parents. It reinforces to me what a gem Pilgrim Lutheran is to our community and to my life specifically. Thank you Lord for provision! It's not without it's kinks tho. I have to pay to send the kids there and with both there now it's quite pricey. I've taken on a cleaning job in addition to babysitting to meet his financial goal each month. OH and to help pay for CrossFit.

Windy City Crossfit (that's not me in the photo, but it could be)

Crossfit is quick, intense exercises. Olympic lifts and kick-your-butt hard work. It's not misery tho. It's challenging and fun. I've had personal training and frankly, the workouts were challenging but boring as all get out. Sheer drudgery. At Crossfit you do these crazy lifts I've never heard of: power hang cleans, push jerks, sumo deadlift high pulls. All brutal. You use every muscle to get that weight lifted. They are power moves. There is NO way you are going to move the weight unless you put some umff into it. After 20 box jumps, the last thing you want to do is lift something heavy. But this makes one stronger. A LOT stronger. I am stronger already after 2 weeks. Crossfit is also a coaching environment. There are coaches who lead the classes and help correct your form. They also encourage you to get that weight up and finish!

For those of you who remember Hank Magieria. I think these are some exercises he taught my old friends: Tony K, Rich Schiller, Bill G, and Doug - to name a few. I always remember those guys hanging out in Hank's basement. Hank is a former Olympic lifter. Now I get it. Wish I had paid more attention. It was a lot cheaper back then! They showed me pull ups and bench press when I was a young teen. I've never forgotten. Thanks for not being stuck up guys!

Back to Crossfit. Yesterday's workout was called "Nasty" and it is aptly named. It was 3 ROUNDS for time of 50 squats, 21 ring dips (yes, on rings), 21 kipping pull ups and 10 hang power cleans (weighted). Phew. It took 15 minutes but oh boy what an intense 15. And 3 rounds is just enough where you push it on the last round. If you puke it's ok. You're heart is pounding and you can take breaks but you want to push. You get to grunt out loud and grimace. You get to throw the heavy weighted bar down. No graceful let down. Get off me you heavy bar, you suck! You want to be stronger. I love it so far. I've been sore in places I've never been sore (traps, lats). There is every walk of life there. It's a garage gym. It's expensive but worth every penny so far. A great next step for my fitness-oriented goals. I am a crossfit evangelist. I think every Crossfitter is. Now I know why. You can get a free training session by contacting them. They are happy to show you around. And it turns out the owner of Windy City Crossfit is Justin Marcis, my new neighbor. A really sweet man. The kids wave and say hello. He reciprocates. Hey anyone who does that is good by me. I've got great neighbors. They are all like that.

Edgewater Historical Society (horray my painting is on the postcard! Squint)

Every year, in conjunction with the Andersonville Arts Weekend, my posse, The Plein Air Painters of Chicago show painted plein air (completed outside on easels) works at the Edgewater Historical Society. I have one painting in the show and hope to finish up one more. I love this show. Andersonville Arts Weekend is awesome! The local businesses display works of art for sale (including my church, First EV Free). We plein air painters will be spotted all around the neighborhood painting at our easels on Sat. Oct. 3 from 8-Noon. Look for us. Talk to us. Feel free to marvel. But painting does take concentration so we will only briefly speak to you. We need to get back to work problem solving! Oh, and of course, be kind. Painting requires huge concentration and thought, believe it or not. Well, good painting anyway.

Everyone is cordially invited to a reception with the artists on Friday, Oct. 2, 2009 at the Edgewater Historical Society. Gratis wine and appetizers will be served, of course! Look for me. I'd love to see you! It's a neat way to "see" the Edgewater neighborhood. Bring a date and troll around, talk, breath in the autum air. Experience Andersonville thru original paintings and then take a walking tour. Slip some wine in your thermos or empty gatorade bottle. Bliss. And all for free! So now that I got you a second date; spend that saved money on a painting! LOL.

More adventure-telling forthcoming. Adventurously yours.

Snow Painting

This past weekend there was an awesome blizzard! It just snowed and snowed all day Friday and Saturday. I went plein air painting Sat AM and realized two things: 1) I had a hard time walking thru Humbolt Park because the snow was so deep and 2) It was snowing hard and the wind pretty much froze your face and anything else in in it's path. As a watercolor painter I made small talk with the only other painter out that AM (Go for it Frank DePalma!) and then headed back home.

It was gorgeous in Humbolt Park. The boat house veiled in the falling snow. Ducks made their way across the frozen pond afoot. And die hard dog walkers allowed their dogs to make their way thru the deep snow. I'm glad I know how to dress for this weather.