Easy Spinach Omelette with Scallions and Salsa

 As I've started to cook more and more with clean, healthy ingredients, I've started to really believe that cooking by color is the way to go.  The concept is that a meal will have a good chance of being a healthy balance of macro and micronutrients, vitamins, etc. if it has a variety of vibrant colors.  Cooking this way is easy and really does produce some tasty, healthy meals.

Think about it.  A paleo/primal meal will most often be a combination of organic meats, vegetables, fruits and nuts.  This combination avoids the dull browns of factory-produced meats (which have a lot less color than their organic counterparts...unless some scientist has added an attractive color through chemicals--a common practice in fish and beef) or the blah beige and bleached white of grains, breads and rice.  If the colors don't jump out at you, you should really rethink what you're eating.  Natural food is meant to be naturally attractive.  That's what made people want to try the first bites of these foods thousands of years ago.

As an example, here is a dish I whipped up with some leftover ingredients based solely on their color:

Phase 3: Just 1.5 Months Left!

In the last few weeks, my topsy-turvy schedule has taught me some important lessons about flexibility when it comes to diet and exercise.  I thought I might share a few here:

1. Try a weekly view
Many diets or exercise programs work on a daily schedule.  While there is some logic to taking things one day at a time, I'm finding that when your life feels like a colossal blur it can be hard to maintain daily consistency.  Rather than put myself under the stress of trying to complete "X" workout on "X" day and plan out my breakfast, lunch and dinner, I have taken a step back to gain some perspective.  I try to think of my nutrition as a weekly endeavor and I try to make it to the gym a few times each week.  The benefit is that I never feel like I "missed" a workout...I just moved it to another day of the week.  And if I have a day where I indulge more than normal at my meals, I simply try to be more careful on the two following days.  The result is that I have some leeway to absorb life's ups and downs without feeling overwhelmed or completely losing sight of my goals.  (Plus, it makes these crazy goals much more acceptable to my family because I'm never going nuts saying that I absolutely HAVE TO make it to the gym today or I cannot POSSIBLY enjoy cake and ice cream at a social gathering.)

Hiatus is Over

April and May have been pretty crazy around my house!  Throughout April we were busy trying to get ourselves organized for our new baby's arrival.  Then, on May 9th, we welcomed Baby Maya into our lives.  Since then, my enjoyment of our newborn has only been interrupted by a recent change in my work schedule that has me flying back and forth across the country on back-to-back red eyes, working 12 and 18-hour days, and losing sleep while I toss and turn thinking about my exploding "to do" list.

Throughout ALL of this, I am hanging on to my fitness goals by the skin of my teeth!  I'm making it to the gym only 2 to 3 days a week, so I make sure to give 110% when I'm there.  I haven't had a lot of control over what or when I get to eat, so I've incorporated a lot of intermittent fasting to try to span the gap between healthy meal options.  Overall, I'm still on track!  I'm still getting leaner week by week and definitely getting stronger.  I'm still motivated and I'm finding that I value my workout time more than ever as a chance to turn off my mind and experience the flow of movement and music that happens when I turn on my iPod and get to work.

I've really missed writing for you folks...really missed it!  But I'm happy to say, "I'm back!"  Please keep an eye out in the next few weeks for some great posts.  More workout ideas, more reflections, more photos and progress reports.  I'm sorry for the "radio silence" over the last few weeks and I hope we can pick up where we left off.

Week 12 Measurements & Photos

I'm half-way to Ryan Reynolds! Woo hoo!

I meant to post these measurements and photos last week when I took them on March 29, 2011, but I've been having trouble syncing my pics and I been too busy to write. Nevertheless, I'm back in action. I've decided to start posting measurements every two weeks instead of weekly now because I'm not seeing any macro changes in body composition at this stage. In fact, my weight and measurements have really stabilized. Notice I didn't say they "plateaued" because when I put on clothes or look in the mirror I'm still seeing incremental progress. So, I'm still happy with my progress and continue to feel motivated to push forward.

Without further ado...the measurements and photos:

Fitness is NOT Healthiness

Let's talk for a moment about the difference between "fitness" and "healthiness." I think that the distinction is very important. Especially because we have all been seriously brainwashed by the advertising and media that constantly screams at us with promises of having both..."Get fit and healthy, now!" "In just 6 minutes a day, you can have that fit and healthy physique that will have the guys/ladies taking notice!" Blah, blah, blah!

I would propose that physical fitness is a state of having the physical ability to perform at a certain level. For example, Lance Armstrong...physically fit, enough said. Achieving a state of physical health, on the other hand, requires a less performance-based measurement and more of a holistic understanding of the continuous inner workings of these glorious bodies of ours. When your body is in a healthy state, it is free of illness and disease, it is digesting efficiently, sleeping well, and properly balancing hormone levels in a sea of constantly shifting currents. My point in making the distinction between fitness and healthiness is that, while they often come together, that is often not the case.

Overcoming Fatigue for Breakthrough Results

I recently had an experience that is rare for me in the gym. I picked up a pair of the heaviest dumbbells that I knew I could lift in an incline bench press. I pressed the weight for five repetitions with no trembling or stalling. What happened next totally puzzled me. After a minute of rest, I picked up the same weight, lay back on the bench...and froze. I was completely motionless and totally unable to press the weight! My first thought was, "So this is what temporary paralysis feels like!" I carefully put the weights down and lunged for the next dumb bells down the rack (5 pounds lighter) and...same thing. Again, I put the weights down and grabbed the next lighter weights...finally a shaky, quivering five repetitions. Ugh!

What happened here? My mind knew that I could lift the weights. I had just pressed the heaviest set for 5 repetitions. I had spent the last few weeks pressing the weight that was 5 pounds lighter. And I knew for certain that the final set of dumb bells should have been easy, but why did I have such a hard time convincing my body of that fact? There is only one answer -- fatigue!

Go Back to Your Roots...Get Primal!

I recently read (and now I'm re-reading) The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson. I came across the book when I started noticing that a bunch of the fitness blogs that I read made regular references to it and to Mark's blog called Mark's Daily Apple. I strongly encourage anyone interested in health, fitness and clean diet to check out both the book and the blog.

Mark is an incredible guy who seems to spend most of his life either writing great fitness-related content or running shirtless around the beaches of sunny Southern California showing of his ripped abs and his frisbee skills. A former elite marathon runner and triathlete, Mark is now in his 50s and freely shares all the wisdom that he's gathered through years of serious training. The best part is that all his "serious" training has convinced him that we need to relax a whole lot more and enjoy the carefree fun of an active lifestyle without the pressure of stressful goals to lift x amount, run x minutes per mile, or weigh x amount. I'm totally on board with that!