I can’t believe how great I feel, and how much energy I have!  I noticed the phenomenon last night when I had a big salad for my post workout meal along with a simple shake of water, Sun Warrior vanilla protein, cinnamon and L-glutamine.  No sugars at all, and very little fat, just what was in the tiny bit of salad dressing.  And I had energy to burn last night!

Today, I feel almost elated.  I am in a great mood, and feeling very positive.  I think this high-protein and high-fat diet is agreeing with me.  I don’t think I could continue long term, especially with the percentage of fat being that high.  But so far, it is working well for me for the goal of depleting carbohydrates and muscle glycogen.  

Today I have had a spirulina smoothie, two ‘Muscle Mousses’ of avocado, chocolate SW protein, greens, and stevia, a big salad with a handful of almonds, some creamed jicama, Thai cucumber noodles, and some Spicy Cilantro Soup.   Pretty darn tasty if you ask me!  

When I competed before, I was of course on the SAD conventional bodybuilding pre-contest diet.  It worked, no doubt.  But I felt awful.  I was irritable, exhausted, nervous, enduring maddening cravings, had a constant headache, and just generally felt really bad.  I couldn’t WAIT to get off of it and gobble up a cheat meal.  Can you believe that my cheat meal used to be a whole pizza and a whole ‘grocery store birthday cake’–you know, the kind in the bakery with all the buttercream icing?  I could eat both at one sitting.  That used to freak my husband out.  He thought it was so gross.  And it was!  (Looking back anyway.  At the time, it was wonderful.)  No wonder I ended up in surgery having tumors removed, and was fighting diabetes every day.   But I thought I was doing the right thing, especially because my body always responded well to the cheat meal tactic.

Funny, but I am not dying for some kind of cheat meal right now.  In all my previous contests, I had a cake waiting for me immediately afterward, and then it would be pecan pancakes at Cracker Barrell the next morning.  I just don’t have that desperate craving for sugar now.  I will definitely have a good time on Easter Sunday, and will probably eat some of my Mama’s good cooking.   But I don’t think I will blow it out.  I just don’t want to go back to that old way of eating, where I felt and looked so bad.  My face and skin used to look awful too.  But now my skin actually looks better than it has, and several people even commented on that tonight.  Since I have been tanning, it improves my skin alot.  I do struggle with acne, but it goes away when I get good sun exposure. 

Today I had a posing session with Harrison Greenlaw, who coaches the USC bodybuilding club.  He was very helpful, and surprisingly, very complimentary.  My friend who hooked me up said he was very critical and would tell me what my weak points are.  Which is fine, and I was actually looking forward to it, because you can’t grow unless you know what to work on.  I figured he would really nail me on my legs and shoulders, but he said instead that he thought I was pretty symmetrical and had good leg muscle.  (I did measure yesterday and I had gained an inch on my quads over the last couple of months.)  So I walked out of there feeling awesome!

I then picked up some supplies, got my nails and pedicure done, and then had a spray tanning session called Mystic Tan.  I had never done that, and it was weird.  I felt like I was going through a car wash, and I smell funny.  But it worked!  I definitely have a good base to start the ProTan application tomorrow evening.

I worked chest and triceps tonight, in the high rep low weight style.  This is to deplete my muscles of glycogen as much as possible, so hopefully they will be very hungry and ready to soak up some carbs come Thursday and Friday.

Someone very near and dear to me said something very interesting to Michael this weekend.  This person, and their spouse, are wonderful friends who I love dearly.  And I worry about their health so much.   They look like ticking time bombs to me–very overweight, lots of health issues, eat terribly, and drink a lot.  It hurts to see people you love damage themselves like that, knowing what lies down the road.  Anyway, they pulled Michael aside and asked him if I was sick.  They said I was ‘too skinny’, had lost ’so much weight’ and had ‘all these veins showing’.  I had to laugh out loud.  It is amazing that the average person wouldn’t recognize health if it bit them on the butt!   Granted, I am thinner than I would normally be, and when someone is in contest shape they may not look so great in street clothes.  But still, how can someone who is so unhealthy think that I am the one who is sick?  This blew my mind.  For the record, I am so happy ‘all these veins’ are showing!  I love my veins, especially the one on my biceps. 

It is dangerous that our society views someone who is lean and muscular as being ’sick’, but think someone who is overweight is healthy.  The average person is very overweight now, even obese, and yet they are ‘average’.  How scary is that?  Remember when there was a ‘fat kid’ in your class growing up, and everyone else was thin?  Now, it’s probably at least 60% of the kids in any class are obese.  I was one of the bigger, heavier ones in my class.  I was muscular in high school from all the sports, but also a bit overweight due to my country-fried diet.  I weigh about 20 pounds less now than I did in high school.  And all the other girls seemed so thin and pretty to me.  And by today’s standards, they were certainly tiny!

It’s time to take my sick, skinny, veiny self to bed!  HaHa!  I need to keep good sleep up.  Which is hard since I am drinking a lot of water.  I can’t stay out of the bathroom!  I am actually looking forward to water restriction on Friday.  I don’t like drinking water, and prefer to get my hydration from fruit and food. 

Be Defiant!  Challenge the status quo–look lean and strong!

Christy

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I am fortunate that I found a compatriot on YouTube—RawVeganBodybuilder, aka Giacomo Marchese.  His videos are great and he’s a super guy.  I asked for his advice since he has been competing as a raw vegan already.  And coincidentally, we have contests on the same day!   How cool–two raw vegan bodybuilders competing on the same day, on different coasts, as his contest is in Oregon and mine in Georgia.  Good luck Giacomo!

Today, I practiced posing and basketball drills.  I can’t do any cardio this week, because that would cause me to retain water under my skin.  Normally I hate doing cardio but naturally I don’t think I am lean enough, so I am dying to work out!  I had an orange when I first woke up, then a big salad with greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, beets and celeriac root, with a few Brazil nuts and some of my homemade salad dressing–just a little bit.  It has sodium in it, so that will have to go later in the week.   Around lunch, I had a spirulina superfood smoothie made with fresh raw almond ‘mylk’, chocolate Sun Warrior protein, spirulina, Elements for Life Blue Green Algae, stevia, and a tablespoon of UDO’s oil.  Pre-workout, I made my delicious chocolate ‘Muscle Mousse’ of avocado, chocolate Sun Warrior protein, water and a dash of Celtic salt.    Yum! 

The workouts are totally different this week.  Since I am trying to deplete my muscle glycogen in the carb-depletion phase, I am supposed to change to a high-rep workout without going to failure.   The goal is just to work the glycogen out of the muscles so they will be depleted and hungry for carbs later in the week.  Hopefully, they will just soak up the carbs when I ingest them again, and will fill out nicely and be full of water, drawing the water out from under the skin into the muscles.  This is what causes that really ‘dry’ hard muscular look you see in competitors.  It’s not a normal look, and can usually only be achieved for one day.  The trick is to make that day the same day as the contest.  It’s easy to ‘miss’ and look better the day before, or even more commonly, the day AFTER the competition.  Many competitors will come in flat and smooth, and after they lose, go out and eat in frustration–and then wake up the next day looking like a winner.  The human body is difficult to predict and manipulate!

After my workout, I had another big salad, some Spicy Lime Cilantro Soup, and Vanilla Sun Warrior mixed with water & 5 grams L-Glutamine.

I was talking with a fellow competitor at the gym tonight, and we were discussing how easily we could shed bodyfat, water, etc.  just by manipulating our macronutrient (carb, protein and fat) intake, cardio, and weight training.   That led us to wonder how people have such a hard time losing weight and just seem to not have any idea what to do.  It reminded me of something I read yesterday, that the most dangerous ‘disease’ is IGNORANCE.  Most people just don’t understand how their body works or how profoundly food affects their bodies.  I can see my body change after each meal!  Any bodybuilder can.  A single food–even a single nutrient like sodium–can mean the difference between winning and losing.  The only cure for this ‘disease’ is education.  We aren’t born with an owners’ manual.  We have to SEEK the knowledge and make it a priority in our life.  Health is our only true wealth!

I am really happy I am doing this.  I am definitely learning alot about how raw foods affect the body, in detail under the microscope of competition.  It’s a great learning experience.  I did it the conventional way before, and I always felt so awful!  I was ravenous, desperate for sugar, exhausted, fighting uncontrollable cravings, headaches, cramps, etc.  This time, I feel great!  I have so much energy tonight, with no cravings or detrimental effects so far.  (I have a feeling the sodium depletion later this week will kill me, though.   I love my Celtic salt and Nama Shoyu!)  I do miss my fruit, and can’t wait to get back to my green smoothies.  But it’s not a bad ‘craving’ feeling, though.  I just wish I could have my smoothies.  I can make it for a few days without them, but I will be blending like a mad woman on Sunday!

I am watching the National Championship Basketball Game between UNC & Michigan State.  What a disappointment!  I was hoping MSU would really make this a good game, but they are getting blown out of the arena.  Bore-ring!

I will update you on how things are going.   Right now I feel great, with good energy and excitement.  I am looking forward tomorrow to having a critique of my posing, with great advice and instruction by a master.  I need this, and am eager to learn.   I am sure he will pick me apart, but that’s the only way to improve.   I also need to pick up a few final things to get ready with.

This weekend, I will have wireless internet access in our hotel room, so I will update you from the show too!

Until next time, stay Defiant!  Fight for your health.  Defeat ignorance, and learn about your wondrous body.  Every cell in your body is more complicated and sophisticated than a city of a million people!  We are an amazing creation, and we have an innate infinite wisdom that is constantly leading us to better health, if we will just let it–and not fight our own inner physician!  Fight the conventional medical doctors–not your Infinite Intelligence inside your own body!

BE DEFIANT!

Christy

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Today, I started with a Spirulina Smoothie made from 8 oz coconut water, the meat from one Thai coconut, handful of spinach, 1 tbs coconut butter (Artisana–yum!), 1.5 Tbs Spirulina, 1 Tbs raw carob, 1 tsp Elements for Life Blue Green Algae, 1/2 tsp Elements for Life Cordyceps, 1/2 tsp Elements for Life RevitaPhi, and stevia to taste (I used 2 packets), and blended it all up.  Not too bad, but definitely not as tasty as my normal addictive spirulina treats.  Can you tell this is a major superfood smoothie?    I figure I need the superfoods to preserve muscle while cutting the calories, sodium and sugar.

Lunch was broccoli, coconut water and a little pineapple blended into a smoothie.  It was OK, even though I was wishing I could use more pineapple and a banana.  Then it would have been really tasty.  I got really hungry in the afternoon, and ate a LifeForce Cacao bar, which is delicious and fairly low fat, sugar, and sodium.   Next week I won’t be able to do that, though.  I also had a tablespoon of UDO’s oil for pre-workout energy.  I am taking a tablespoon of that every day now.  They did a study where the athletes lost bodyfat and gained muscle by using the oil so that sounds good to me, and the body still needs SOME fats no matter what.

I worked out with intervals tonight, alternating shoulders with high rep leg intervals, like lunges, step-ups and leg extensions.   After the workout, I made a ’savory’ smoothie, which is really more like a soup.  I used a few cherry tomatoes, a few baby carrots, spinach, lovely fresh basil, 1/3 of a red bell pepper, 3 cloves garlic, 2 large celery stalks, 1/2 lemon peeled and tossed in whole, and water.  It was pretty good, actually, but would have been a lot better with some Celtic salt or Nama Shoyu!   

My assessment of my condition is that I am definitely improving in definition.  I can see more abs, and more veins are coming out.   Practicing posing last night, I felt I could definitely see more cuts.   It’s hard to tell, as the lighting differs so much from one place to another.  

Next week, I plan to carb deplete Sunday through Wednesday while drinking a lot of water to flush my body of any water-retaining substances, and then slowly carb load until the contest.  This protocol is supposed to shed the water from under the skin which obscures muscle definition, and force the muscles to ’suck up’ the water to make them nicely full and pumped.  I have been studying material from several books and former competitors, and I am attempting to take their suggestions and adapt them to a raw foods protocol.  For example, where they cut carbs by eating a lot of chicken, I plan to eat a lot of leafy greens, spirulina, superfoods, and Sun Warrior protein.   I feel nuts would have too much fat, plus my body doesn’t do well on too many nuts.   I will most likely be a salad-eating fool next week!  (And the savory green smoothies of course.)  For carbs, I plan to sprout some grains like barley and quinoa and use those to carb-load.   On Friday night,  I will eat a special meal to try to get the muscles as full as possible.  The suggested meal is a steak with Heinz 57 sauce for some sodium, so I am thinking I will make my Living burgers, which are kind of like a hamburger and have Nama Shoyu in them, which would do what the 57 would do.   My biggest fear is coming in flat, and retaining too much water. 

I plan to eat a lot of celery and asparagus, as those foods are awesome for diuretic effects.   This is just what I am thinking.  Again, this is an experiment.  If I see something not working, I may call an audible and change the protocol.   And I may find that in the future, I may want to add some nuts and that the ‘good’ fats in nuts don’t react in the body like what we normally ingest as fats.  But, knowing how I have reacted to nuts in the past, I will most likely be avoiding them like the plague for the next week.   But I plan to eat the heck out of a nut-based dessert on Easter Sunday when this contest is over!  I may eat the whole thing–with lots of dates, nuts, fruits, etc.  Maybe I will make my White Chocolate Cheezecake, maybe a Pecan Pie Cheezecake, or maybe something chocolate–who knows?

I have to share these two videos with you.  They were sent to me by a Facebook friend, and they are powerful.  The journalists didn’t pull any punches and they definitely called out some big brand names who are knowingly exposing our most vulnerable babies and toddlers to very harmful chemicals.  And all in the name of a germ-free, clean house……

Part One

Part Two

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DEFY these chemicals and toxins.  Buy holistic, chemical-free cleaners.  And not from big name brand companies, either.  Do not support them in their efforts to ‘look green’ when they are still just profit-crazed toxin-mongers.  Look for the truly organic cleaners from companies who truly care about your children and the earth, while still creating products that clean.  Many of the ones I use actually work a LOT better than the toxic stuff. 

More updates to come!

Be Defiant!

Christy

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Now I don’t know what he weighs and I don’t know if he does either.  The gym we used to go to had one of those doctor’s scales (with the little slide bar) right at the front entrance.  You couldn’t keep him (or anyone else) off that stupid thing.  It seemed that people were drawn there like a  moth to a flame.  Not me.  He had to make me get on it.  I couldn’t care less what a scale says.  All it measures is the pull of gravity.  It doesn’t know if gravity is pulling on fat, muscle, bone, or heavy cross-trainer shoes.  

Pivotal has scales somewhere, but they are the small kind that looks like a bathroom scale.  So now he doesn’t jump on it every day.  And he is making such great progress!   I have never forced him into being totally raw like I am, but he has gravitated more and more to it, and now is really into it.  And it shows!  He is very, very lean.  His little love handles are totally gone, and he has definitely put on muscle.  I am completely biased and have always thought he was totally hot anyway, but he is definitely getting hotter! 

But I digress….back to the shoulder workout.   I will outline the whole thing in a minute, but have to tell you about ‘crybabies’.   A couple BIG guys at the gym were telling me about a great delt developer which is basically an isometric (meaning static, or just holding a weight in one position) exercise.  You stand up with a heavy dumbbell in each hand, and then with arms straight, lift the bells out to the side just about 1/3 of the way up to shoulder level—and hold them in that position for 30 seconds.   That may be the longest 30 seconds ever!   We did 3 of those to burn out at the end of the workout.  I know why they call them ‘crybabies’.  We were crying for the 30 seconds to be over with!

Tonight’s Shoulder Blast:

• Warmup on recumbent bike
• Hammer Strength press, 4 sets, 1 warmup, 3 working sets.  I got 45’s on my last two sets, for 10 & 8 reps.  Yay!
• Smith Machine front presses, 3 sets, 50-60-&60 lbs. with the last set dropping to 50 for a burnout
• Superset of lateral dumbbell raises and Overhead ‘pulses’, 3 sets with 15 lb bells.  The pulses are a limited range of motion press that really keeps the pressure on the lateral deltoid
• Arnold presses, 3 sets, 20 lb bells
• Superset front raises with a 25 lb plate and upright rows with 40-lb bar, 3 sets, 10 reps  both exercises.
• ‘Crybabies’ 3 sets with 25 lb bells.   Ouch!

Simple post workout smoothie tonight was spinach, banana, kiwi, pineapple, L-glutamine, & Sun Warrior Vanilla Protein.

I made a heavenly superfood smoothie for lunch today.  I believe this would be served as breakfast in Nirvana!  1 & 1/2 Tbs Spirulina (of course!), 1 young Thai coconut flesh and water, 2 bananas, 1 tbs carob, 1 tbs raw cacao, 1/2 tsp Cordyceps, 1/2 tsp Blue Green algae, 2 droppers of vanilla liquid stevia–blend until a creamy concoction of pure bliss!

My breakfast green smoothie was awesome as well—-mango-strawberry!   Yum!  With dandelion & laciniato kale, & fresh aloe vera.

I can definitely tell I have dropped some bodyfat.  I can see it in my lower back, particularly.   I have seriously cut back on nuts and fats.  I am not in full precontest deprivation mode yet, and I may not go too drastic.  I am feeling my way through.  If I feel I need to drastically change before the contest then I will change my diet even more.  The contest is April 11th, so I am about 3 weeks out now.  I have upped the cardio a lot too.

I hope you have an awesome day.  Make it a great day!  You can choose to be happy, no matter what, and you will attract good things.  Make a difference in someone’s life today.  Ask yourself, “How can I make a difference today?” and it will change your focus completely, and new opportunities will open for you.  

Be Defiant!

Christy

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I just got back in from visiting my parents in Georgia today, amid the worst winter storm we have seen here in balmy South Carolina in a long time.  My mother had to have a preventive measure done to help protect her heart.  She had an ICD installed, which is a combo defibrillator/pacemaker.   As most of you know, she suffered a massive heart attack 3 years ago, and is a walking miracle today.  She is doing so well, but the doctors felt her heart had weakened and wanted to install the ICD as a pre-emptive strike if she were to experience an arrythmia.   Her energy is so good and she just works out in the garden and on the farm as much as she wants to, so it’s hard to believe that she is operating on only 30% of her heart capacity.   Hopefully the electrical stimulation from the device will jump-start some of the inactive tissue.

I took a few days to go stay with my parents and help them out, and to be there for the surgery.  The doctors kept saying that it was ‘nothing’ and very simple procedure, but with my mom’s miraculous history and delicate health, there is no such thing as a simple procedure!  The incision was bigger than we thought and it certainly isn’t just ‘nothing’.  The anesthesia was just local but it still really knocked her for a loop.  She was still really groggy and out of it until the evening.  And she slept a lot the last couple of days, but she needed it so that was great!

I had the opportunity to prepare food for us to eat for the entire weekend, so I loved that!  When I arrived on Thursday evening, I immediately took over the kitchen and made lots of delicious food.  All raw vegan Living Cuisine, of course.  I brought my entire kitchen over to Georgia with me.    I made Mom’s favorite Broccoli Salad, Sweet Potato Soup, Avocado Salad Dressing, a yummy Apple Cobbler, and the hit of the weekend—Living Ice Cream made from coconut, cashews and bananas.  The ice cream turned out incredibly awesome!  Mom tasted it Thursday night, and at first I wasn’t sure of the reaction because she really rolled her eyes, but she turned to me and said that it was delicious and that the coconut and banana was right up her alley!  I was so excited that she loved it!

I got even more excited the next day.  My father and I came back home mid-afternoon after the surgery on Friday, because he still needed to check on the cows and put out hay on one of the farms.  We hadn’t had lunch, and much to my surprise he tried the Sweet Potato Soup and really liked it!  And then we had the Apple Cobbler topped with the ice cream for dessert, and Daddy went wild over that.  He just kept raving.  And when Mom came home, she did too.  I had to make a second batch of the ice cream!

I was so happy that they really loved the Living Foods.  That’s an awfully tough audience to please. I still don’t know if I can get them to actually make some for themselves, but I am working on it.   But I told them, I was raised with my mom’s delicious down-home cooking, and I loved it too.  However, that diet is the reason we have had the health struggles that we have.  I like good food, and I don’t make bad-tasting food!   I have the same cravings and struggles as anyone else.  I have to fight it too.  Defying cravings is part of my life, just like anyone else’s.   The best way I have found to fight cravings is with awesomely-delicious Living Foods that are so satisfying that it’s fairly easy to overcome the cravings.

That ice cream would certainly go a long way toward helping overcome a craving.  And the best part is, there is no dairy, sugar, or harmful ingredients in this ice cream.  I used the recipe from Everyday Raw by Matthew Kenney, except I just made it plain vanilla, with no additional flavors.  I definitely want to try making chocolate ice cream now.  I have never been much of an ice cream person at all, but one I have always loved is Rocky Road, so that is next on my agenda as well.  The nut cream and young Thai coconut meat creams up and freezes to almost exactly the same texture as dairy ice cream.  That was what amazed my father, and he kept commenting about that.  It’s not as pure of a white color, though.  It’s a bit off-white because of the nuts.   But if it had chocolate or other flavorings, the color wouldn’t matter at all.

On the last batch of ice cream, I split a bit off and added spirulina and cacao powder to it.  Yum!  You know I had to get in my spirulina fix!  I didn’t even offer it to my parents.  I don’t want to completely freak them out and deep green ice cream might just push them over the edge–haha!   And the other success I had was how much my father loves my green smoothies.  He was really raving about those too.  And Mom even liked the one I made this morning.  I am chipping away!!!

As you know, my parents don’t have any internet access, so I couldn’t post while I was there.  I really miss not having the internet, but honestly it was nice to have a true break, away from all things work-related, and to truly enjoy spending the precious time with my parents.  I don’t know how much time we have left together, so I want to make the most of it while I can.  It’s such a different life on the farm, slower-paced and calmer.  The animals require a lot of care, and we had some excitement when a couple of calves broke through a fence and escaped, but otherwise, it’s a really nice tranquil retreat.  I really want to simplify my life, and spending a few calm days just reinforced that with me.

I am getting excited about my competition!  It’s only about a month away, now.  I did get a workout on Saturday, just bodyweight interval exercises, but I worked hard and really got a good sweat going.  I did the ‘variety of pushups’ workout I like so much, interspersed with cardio leg exercises like jump squats, jump lunges, step ups, one-legged squats, etc.  It felt good to move around.  The weather was so bad with constant pouring rain, so I couldn’t get outside and shoot some hoop, ride the horses, or do anything in the garden.   I don’t like being cooped up inside when I am there, when there is so much to do and enjoy.

But I am glad to be back home.  I missed Michael and Jukebox very much.  And I am so grateful that my mother is doing so well.  She is a blessing, an inspiration, a miracle, and a testament to the power of nutrition.

Blessings to you all.  Please take the time to tell the ones you love how much you love them.  Things can happen so fast, and our loved ones can be taken away from us in an instant.  Treasure the moments you spend with them, and truly be there in the moment for them.   And above all, be grateful for the loved ones in your life, and for the love and joy they bring you. 

Be Defiant!

Christy

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Ingredients:

Flesh of 1 Young Thai Coconut

1 cup Young Thai Coconut Water

3 Tablespoons Spirulina

2 Tablespoons Raw Carob

2 Tablespoons Coconut Butter (optional)

1 tsp Blue Green Algae

6 dates

1 Tablespoon Yacon syrup (optional)

pinch of Celtic salt (optional)

Blend all ingredients until smooth and thick. The Blue-Green Algae lends a nice subtle saltiness that beautifully balances the sweetness of the dates and syrup, plus adds even more awesome superfood nutrition. Use a little more salt to your taste if you wish. If the mixture is too thin, you can toss in a handful of cashews and blend, if you don’t mind having nuts in the recipe. Refrigerate until thickened and pudding-y. Try to control yourself!

Variations:

For a high-protein muscle-building treat, substitute Chocolate Sun Warrior Protein for the carob.

Leave out the Blue Green Algae.

Add a tablespoon of maca, mesquite or lucuma powder.

Be Defiant!

Christy

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You can see my Macadamia/White Chocolate/Strawberry Cheezecake on the right, and the regular cake on the left.   I even had decidedly non-health-nut people coming up to me commenting on it.  One said ‘It’s bad when the healthy food tastes better than the unhealthy food.’  I LOVED that!  Hahahahaha! 

I did manage to get in a great leg workout yesterday before getting ready for the party, and I am so sore today!  My rear end is hurting!  I hope that means it is GROWING–in a good way!    We did deep, rear-to-the-ground Smith Machine squats followed by walking lunges and then lying hamstring curls.  That is a serious booty workout.

We spent several hours out on our boat today, and I got to soak up some rays.  Thank God!   I have been feeling so sun-deprived.  I needed the Vitamin D for sure.  It was nice–72 degrees.  A bit breezy but I still broke out the bikini and laid out on the bow of the boat.  The water was 45 degrees, so no swimming, though!  I love where I live—February 8th and we are out on the lake.  Too cool.

I made two Spirulina pies for a client tonight, and it triggered my addiction badly.  Since I couldn’t eat their pies, I made some pudding to feed my addiction and scarfed that up.  Yum!

Be Defiant!

Christy

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Today was more of the same, but we finally got our C.O.–certificate of occupancy which means we passed the final inspection.  Yay!  Now all we have left is all the cosmetic stuff, like painting, trim work, etc.  And of course, lots of cleaning!  With all the rain the site is a muddy mess.

I will be working in the Living Well Cafe tomorrow morning and late afternoon.  If you are in the Columbia area, come by and see me.  We can share a wonderful Sun Warrior Smoothie together!  Living Well Cafe is located inside of Pivotal Fitness on St. Andrews Road. 

Tomorrow evening, I am going to a Cookie Swap Party.  I know, I know….very uncharacteristic for me.  But this party is hosted by one of my dearest friends, so I am going for her, not for the cookies.   But for my cookies, I made 3 different living foods cookies, and I hope they will hold their own against all the regular cookies.  We will see!  I created a delicious cookie recipe tonight.  Look for it on the Defiant Recipes! page.  I got the idea from another RAWsome living foods chef, Kristen Suzanne, who has a recipe for the best cherry cobbler in the whole wide world.   No kidding!  Check it out here:   http://www.kristensraw.blogspot.com/. 

I have also come up with a Spirulina Pudding recipe which is rich, creamy, and delicious but doesn’t use nuts like the pie does, so it is much lower in fat content.  And it is more appropriate for those who are either avoiding or limiting nuts in their diet.  I posted that on the recipe page as well.  I eat some of it about 4 times a day when it’s in my refrigerator.  The addiction is still raging! 

I took a day off from working out yesterday.  Both Michael and I were nice and sore!  Michael did get out and clean up the yard and take care of the leaves, and he was really stiff after all that.  Today I was very pushed for time, so I did a quick 30-minute Cardio Kickbox Class that is very intense, along with some pullups with different hand grips.  Not really a full back workout, but I did bust out quite a few pullups.  I was using the one-rep technique where you rest for about 3 to 6 seconds between reps.  It’s a great way to build strength and muscle quickly.  I did some with a wide overhand grip, a narrow neutral grip, and an underhand grip so my biceps would get some work too.

Then I came home and made about six dozen Living Cookies.  I will let you know how the party goes tomorrow night!

Be Defiant!

Christy