99 Days until Showtime!

Greetings friends! This past week has been insane trying to gamble school, work and training for the Tough Mudder!  A lot of you that are friends with me have already heard about my insane decision to do this race.  Tough Mudder is a 10-12 mile obstacle course designed by British Special Forces.  It has every type of obstacle you can think of:  running through fire, crawling under barbed wire, scaling walls, jumping into dyed ice pits (not looking forward to this AT ALL), monkey bars, climbing ropes, running up hill through mud, etc! It is going to get real! The best part, you aren't in it to win! It's a teamwork race and I am all about team work!
My beautiful fit friend, Alli, is preparing me for these obstacles by pushing me to my limits! Can I tell you sometimes I really think this woman is trying to kill me ;)! haha I have been told before that I workout hard...let's just put it this way, NO I HAVEN'T BEEN!! So in order to prep for my workout with her once a week I have been working on her workouts during the week and upping my reps and weights.  Instead of doing 3 sets of 10 reps or 30 reps, I have been doing 5 sets of 10 or 50 reps.

 I have found myself continuing to have to really push myself during our workout, given the workouts are getting more challenging.  My problem: I think in terms of numbers...meaning, once I get to 10 my brain tells me I can't go anymore.  I asked Alli what she recommended for this.  "You don't want to focus on a number instead you want to go until fatigue."  So basically shut your inner voice up and keep going!  Easier said than done once you have trained yourself for so long to do it but I will break that woman in my head and push myself!

Also, I am trying to get used to this HIIT style of training.  It's literally doing exercise after exercise with a 10 second or so break.  Trust me, when you do 4 tuck jumps with 4 tricep pushups (jumping knees to chest) and then following it squats, wall sits, and burpees... Your body is screaming! But after it's done you feel like a million dollars and I still can't believe I was able to do that! I never dreamed I would ever beable to do everything we did this morning! I even did a pull-up....okay okay it was assisted but all the same, so proud of myself haha! 

Now for the eating part of it!  Abs are made in the kitchen afterall! I have been getting really good at this clean eating concept! I have been learning and creating some great recipes and I am yet to get bored! Just put it this way when I don't have time to make me a powercake in the morning I get so sad when I see other people's pictures on instagram of them eating their powercakes.  Eating clean doesn't need to be bland chicken breast with tasteless salads or boring veggies.  This week I have tried cauliflower mash, cooking chicken in the crockpot, varying my turkey burgers up and making healthy chocolate sauce.  Really good week! I have somehow managed to be eating gluten free for the most part.  I have replaced a great deal of my grains with healthy fats, coconut flour, and ezekial bread.  I have, also, readjusted my body to eating avocados so I have been inhaling those beautiful fruits!  I am including a recipe for the crockpot chicken and the cauliflower mash and healthy chocolate sauce can be found @ www.powercakes.net.

Crockpot Chicken Breast

Onions and bell peppers sliced (I use the frozen picsweet ...way cheaper)
Can of diced tomatoes (I used the charred diced)
3 chicken breast (boneless skinless)
Seasoning of choice (I used a little salt, pepper, blackening seasoning, onion powder, garlic powder)
Minced garlic to taste

Put all ingredients in crock pot and cook on low for atleast 8 hours (I cooked mine for 12).  Shred chicken with fork, it should be super tender and this will take no effort).  Serve it over brown rice, spaghetti squash, whole weat pasta, cauliflower mash, or just eat it like I did by itsself with veggies and chick peas.

Hope you all have a great weekend! Happy working out and eating clean! Work hard for the body you want and dreamed for and most of all fight for your dreams and goals! Love your faces!
Danielle