Thanksgiving Round 2

 

Yep, not kidding. I for one am over Thanksgiving. But I usually get 4 Thanksgiving dinners… and this year, I only got two…pretty much with the same people..

So I’m doing another Thanksgiving recap along with a weekend re-cap. Its all good ya’ know. New recipe coming atcha’ tomorrow..

Weekend Re-cap

My Grandparents showed up this weekend so we spent some time together in SLC. My BIL and his brother and friend build a display for Deseret Book every year and this year they built a taffy maker train. It is pretty amazing to see. It is massive and even has a train whistle that you can pull! I couldn’t get Tanner away from it. He loved it!

 

My grams and gramps are from Boise so we don’t get to see them very often, but it is always a treat when the make the trip down for a surprise visit!

If you get a chance to come to SLC. Temple square is definitely a must do. Especially during the holidays because the lights are phenomenal! Every tree branch and bush is covered in lights. We have made it sort of a tradition to go every year. The kids love it. It was pretty packed though.. So it was hard to stop and enjoy the lights without being in some ones way.

 

Thanksgiving #2

Yesterday Afternoon we had another Thanksgiving dinner at Brent’s dads house. He got re-married last year and they put together a complete spread exactly how Thanksgiving should be.

Homemade everything, special china, and everyone sitting and passing food around. Our family is so big we barely fit, but I loved it!

I filled my plate with some turkey, salad and corn bread stuffing—Which was fabulous! Then after dinner I continued to snack on a veggie tray that was sitting out. I forget how much I love cucumbers! I use to buy them all the time but kind of have forgotten about them lately.

It was a great meal and great time with Brents family again.

Thanksgiving was different this year because I didn’t really get to spend time with my family because they went out of town but it was nice to not have to jump party to party this year.

I welcomed back clean eating today and I made sure to get my workout in today. I also even taught Body Attack plus a little TM walking with my friend Melissa to catch up over the weekend.

Now that thanksgiving is over and the pies and treats are gone, I’m recommitting to my THF diet. I have about 5 more weeks with Porter so its time to buckle down! Holiday’s got nothing on me.. well.. kinda but I’m working on it .

It’s time for some shut eye! I have a early workout on tap for tomorrow!

Question of the Day:

What is your plan to stay in check during the holidays?

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cake Cookies and A Smoothie!

Happy MONDAY!
Do you ever get an itch to workout?
I get that itch almost every Monday. I think I do because Sunday’s are generally my rest day and I’m just plain lazy. (I’ll get back to the itch in a minute..) I even made a to-do list on Sunday to keep me busy, but it got tossed to the side and we ended up going for a walk and making cookies instead.  Something about not being able to keep two TWO year olds inside for a long period of time, which usually backfires on my to-do list that is usually cleaning anyway..
A walk and cookies it is!

Gluten Free Chocolate chip Cake Cookies.
How is that for a title?

These babies were BIG. They had a soft cakey texture and were worthy of eating along a big glass of milk.
GLUTEN FREE Chocolate Chip Cake Cookies
Yields about 16 cookies
Adapted from here
Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 C. Gluten-Free Flour (I used Bobs Mill)
• 1 tsp. Baking Powder
• 1 tsp. Baking Soda
• 1/4 xanthan gum
• 3/4 C. Apple Sauce
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 C. Firmly packed brown cane sugar
• 2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
• 2 C. Dairy-Free Chocolate Chips

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees
Combine Dry ingredients in a medium bowl (except chocolate chips, set them aside)
Combine wet ingredients into a large bowl
Slowly add dry ingredients by using your hand mixer at a medium speed, until creamy.
Stir in Chocolate chips.
Drop dough onto greased cookies sheet by rounded tbsp. or two
Bake for 9 minutes. Until Golden Brown

Let stand for about 2 minutes before digging in.

Amazing lightning, I know.. .(hey, it was 9:30 at night)
Going for walks is one of my favorite things to do on Sunday with my family.

We didn’t bring the strollers for the twins and they kept up pretty well! We even took a break on the grass for a bit, which turned into quite the wrestling match.


I just love these two.


By this morning I was ready to work hard,I had the “itch” and let me tell you, I got worked.

Workout with links of each exercise can be found here.
This was a new workout at GPP today, A new challenge, I was ready to push and that I did. This workout put me on the floor, and I feel good about it. I was able to complete the 4th round in 5:56. My goal was to sub six and I barely made it. Burpees and the lunge steps were the worst for me!
I came home and made this blueberry quinoa recovery shake! I changed it just a bit from Tina’s recipe.

In the mix:

• 1/2 frozen banana
• 1/2 cup frozen blueberries
• 1 1/2 C. Silk Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
• 1/3 cup cooked quinoa
• 1 scoop Elite Egg Protein (Smooth Vanilla)
• Handful of Kale
• 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed meal

It hit the spot! I’m pretty sure it was 100 degrees by 9am today. This kept me full for hours too! I was able to run errands all afternoon without even thinking about food.. (that never happens… I love food…)
By the time I got home I got the babes down for a nap and settled down with one big salad.

Packed full of veggies, which was glorious in every way.
I have even better news for the day.

I finally got a new PHONE!! No more shards of glass in my thumb/face.. scotch tape or putting people on mute during important conversations! It is an I phone miracle.
Question of the day:
What is your favorite kind of cookie?
How long does it take you to get the workout “itch.”

Our Weekend at the Ranch

We headed back to Wyoming again this week for the holiday weekend
(Pioneer day in Utah = Vacation!)
The PBR Rodeo was in town, so we put on our boots and headed to the stands. PBR is Pro Bull Riding, there were several good rides but my favorite part of the night was bull poker.


Bull Poker is a fun little rodeo game that takes place in Afton every year. The game goes like this.
Volunteers from the audience come down from the stand and sit in a chair in a circle in the middle of an arena then they let out a chosen bull.
The point of the game is to stay in your chair. Last one sitting, wins a cash prize. That night the winner actually ran away with $500!
The bull didn’t really pay attention the circle for the first little bit so the circle migrated closer to the bull. Genius right?


The bull didn’t seriously injure anyone, but did charge the group a few times.
Brave souls.
The next day we woke up to this.

We spent the last couple of days swinging, throwing rocks in the pond, riding four-wheelers and dropping from the zip line.
Here are a few pics from the trip!

My sister Heather and I

Tanner could of thrown rocks ALL day if I would of let him!

Swinging and running! These two can’t get enough of the ranch!

We took the babies on their first little four wheeling adventure, Not far or fast. Tanner loved it! Baylee had second thoughts and kept saying “I don’t want it, I don’t want it.” But never cried and even threw out a Yee-haw!
We spent some time walking down the streets of Afton and wanted to stop by the chocolate factory but didn’t make it in time before it closed. If you are planning a trip through or to Afton/star valley, all the stores and shops close at 6pm. Grocery store closes at 8!

Isn’t that the best scripture?

We made a stop at Red Baron to get the kiddos a ice cream cone!

Then I was home to watch some people ride/drop off the zip line. It was a little bit to chilly for me to drop. (I’m such a cold water pansy!)

Here is the zip line in action!! These are my two cousins dropping together! The zip line has always been one of my favorite activities growing up. I can’t wait until B & T are old enough to ride!

After a great weekend being unplugged (NO internet, or great cell service) for 4 days, which has to be some sort of record…. it feels good sometimes!  We are back home and it’s back to work tomorrow!
Happy Birthday UTAH!
Question of the day:
Would you play Bull Poker?

Guest Post: Death & Injury

Today's Guest post comes from Liz! from GPP. She blogs here. 

Liz is my role model, one of my trainers, one of best friends. she is a competitor, she is a mother of four.

 She swims, bikes and runs. Oh heck. This woman is a IRONMAN!

I'm so happy that she agreed to a blog post! Without further a do. Meet Liz. 

Hi! I'm Liz! I have known Candice for about a year. And happy to post for her today!

I'am USAT Level 1 Certified coach, Co-owner of GPP Fit, Owner of GPP endurance. I have been a trainer for 6 years. I run multiple winter triathlon training camps fro athletes all over the country. I am an endurance athlete with 12 years of experience, qualified for 2011 age group national Championships. And on top of it all and the most importantly, I am a mother of 4 and a wife to an amazing man.
I believe that everyone should do something that scares them and do it with power.

I am an inaugural IM St. George finisher. Currently training to compete in Ironman Arizona 2011.

Every athlete will experience a setback at some point in their training, whether it be by fatigue, injury, or a personal issue. How you deal with it depends on your personality and determination. I experienced an injury to my foot this last year that put me in a boot. NO running.
I went through different emotions and decided that an injury the limits you from doing something you love can stir up your feelings and suddenly you begin the grieving process..

Death & Injury

Most of us have experienced the death or loss of a loved one, and all the pain, heart ache, and patience required to heal.  Some of us are aware that there are psychological processes that need to occur to heal from such devastation.  In school I learned that one cannot skip steps in this process and that each stage needs to be reached before the next.  Time frames are abstract and based on an individual’s emotional stability, support groups, relationship with the deceased or lost person, etc.  So as one person seems to progress to the next stage of grieving quicker than another, both individuals still need to experience each stage in order to heal from their pain.

In Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s book, “On Death and Dying”, she founded the theory of the 5 Stages of Grief.  These are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. In that order each person, that has experienced the loss of a loved one, must acknowledge the loss, accept each stage, and experience it in order to move on.  The first time I had learned of this was in my High School Psychology classes and then again while studying pre-med in College. Most psychologists today still follow this method as they council their patients.

I believe that an injured athlete experiences the same emotional pain, because of their injury, as when someone grieves over the loss of someone they cared very deeply for.  I believe an injured athlete needs to go through the same 5 steps of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance), and does so naturally when dealing with an injury as they would if they had to go through the grieving process for death.  It is especially hard when that athlete associates their identity with their athletic pursuits and successes because when the ability to train and compete is removed from their day, it’s like losing a person, the person they identified as themselves.  I don’t care if you are a professional athlete that earns a living through performance, or an age-grouper that has finally had the courage to register for that big race, both people will experience the same loss and devastation when injury happens.

I say devastation because that’s what it really is…devastating! Being at the top of your game, feeling like you are finally about to break-through to that next level of performance, feeling strong, feeling fast, feeling motivated and excited to get to your next goal, only to instantly and spontaneously get crushed by an unforeseen injury. 

Denial is trying to convince yourself that the injury isn’t THAT bad, that what the doctors are telling you doesn’t really apply to someone in as good of shape as you are. That regardless of the extreme pain, you can train through it and force your body to deal with it and get tougher because you grin and bear it, ice and pop your anti-inflammatories, modify your workouts (a little), and in no time at all you will be back to exactly the way you were…in a few short days. 

But the doctors and physical therapists tell you months, they tell you the average healing time is 8-12 weeks.  You reluctantly agree while in the back of your mind you review your fitness, your above average abilities and immediately,  in your mind,  you  cut that time to a third of the time that average people heal in.  Denial is begrudgingly following your physical therapy as you secretly continue to do your workouts and push the levels of your injury.

Anger is when you finally realize you really are hurt and that everything you have been trying to avoid facing has, in actuality, only made your recovery longer or even made your injury worse! Anger is realizing that someone should’ve warned you not to lift that much, someone should’ve told you that curb was higher than you thought, someone should’ve been smart enough to keep you healthy.  Someone, anyone, other than you, because you were doing everything right, you followed the training plan, you are a healthy athlete with a race coming up so why didn’t someone prevent this from happening. 

Anger is when you turn the blame to yourself and get mad at everything you think you did wrong as you go through every detail of the moment of injury trying to figure out what you did, in that exact second, to cause this. Then going over all the ways you should’ve been able to prevent it.

Bargaining occurs when you ask your doctor, “If I continue this therapy perfectly, I should be fully recovered sooner than you thought right?” “If I’m really careful then maybe I can still go for a run, maybe I can still find a way to train.”  Bargaining even sounds like this, “God please don’t take this away from me, I promise to be a better person and never (fill in the blank) again if I can just get better and back to training, I promise.”  Bargaining is our last ditch effort at controlling the outcome of our loss.

But once you deal with the denial, once the anger fades away, and once you finally realize bargaining won’t fix anything, comes the sadness.  Depression sets in and all there is, is emptiness and vast expanse of time lost in nowhere to go.  Goals seem distant and unachievable. No one can help or understand. We might start trying to fill our emptiness with food or sleep or lack of both. We might even start sabotaging our recovery because our plans are mute. We stop communicating, we stop caring. This is the hardest period because an injured athlete has lost their outlet for these feelings and don’t have a visible way to cope.

According to a study mention in the New York Times, 343 male college athletes, from various sports, were observed.  51% experienced some type of depression after being injured and 12% became moderately to severely depressed. Dr. Gerald Kaforey, of Vanderbilt Sport Medicine Center, stated that 1 out of every 4 or 5 of the injured athletes that come in to get treated suffer from depression.

The length of this stage can last several weeks to several months.

After each of these stages have been experienced, in order and without forced effort to move forward prematurely, then the final stage of acceptance is reached.

Acceptance is clarity of who you are, what has happened to you, and how it can be dealt with. You are more than an athlete; you could be a wife or a father.  Your identity has evolved to be more diverse, more than an athlete and your performance.  Acceptance is the realization that you can again be where you want to be athletically, but you are willing to take the necessary precautions and take the proper steps to get there. Therapy, rest, counseling, possibly a change of sport are all ways that injuries heal.  Acceptance is doing whatever it takes for however long you need too and accepting yourself as you take the time to heal.

Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance are very poignant, tangible stages of grief that apply not only to the death of someone we love, but to the loss of our passion and identity as athletes through injury.

Sometimes we are lucky enough to get to a point where our injuries heal and we are able to continue to our goals sooner than we had thought.  But if not we need to ride out these 5 stages of grief. By doing so, I believe, we can be better athletes and more determined to enjoy our sport.  Eventually we heal, but only when we acknowledge the loss and only when we don’t rush it.

Q. Have you ever experienced an injury that set you back from training? Did you Grieve?