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The Lean Green Bean, RD

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Hi Friends!

It’s a big day over here in Bean Land! I’m so happy to tell you guys that yesterday I passed my registration exam and I am OFFICIALLY A REGISTERED DIETITIAN!!!!!!!!!!!!

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I wasn’t planning to take the exam until the end of the month, but my approval paperwork came through faster than expected so I decided to just get it out of the way as soon as possible. I only told about 5 people when I was actually taking the exam because I didn’t want any added pressure or expectations….so it was extra fun to announce it to people on social media yesterday. HUGE thank you to everyone that sent their congratulations and well wishes. I spent yesterday feeling very loved 🙂  I plan to write a whole post about how I studied, what study materials I used, etc because I know a lot of you will be interested, so stay tuned for that!

But for now, I’m just going to enjoy the fact that every ounce of hard work I’ve put in over the last 4.5 years to get me to this point paid off yesterday when I passed that exam!

SO WORTH IT.

Follow your dreams, friends! If you work hard enough, they really do come true 🙂

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{Hubby got me these!}

Let’s chat:

  • Are you chasing a dream right now? What is it?!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Smart Snacking

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Hi Friends!

Let’s chat a little about healthy snacking today, shall we? First things first, this post is being sponsored by Sargento. They are compensating me for this post, but as always, all thoughts and opinions are my own!

Hungry? Here are some healthy snack ideas from a Registered Dietitian! Perfect for kids and adults.

If you know me at all, you know I love snacking! I function best when I don’t go more than a few hours without eating so snacks are must for me! In fact, I believe that having healthy snacks on hand is just as important as having healthy meals on hand. If you’ve seen my Sunday Food Prep series, you know that I believe prepping healthy food on the weekend is a key factor in helping you and your loved ones eat healthy during the week. When I do my food prep, I prep a lot of foods that will help me make easy lunches and dinners, but I also spend a little time focusing on what snacks I’m going to eat that week. I aim for a mix of things that I can just throw in my purse like trail mix and popcorn…and things I can grab out of the fridge!

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Sargento recently did a survey with Shape magazine that asked readers about their snacking habits at work. Here are some of the things they found:

  • Over 60% of people stated that they snacked several times during the day because they needed a little pick-me-up.
  • Over 65% of the people said their snack craving hit them from 2-4pm and almost 40% also got hungry from 9-11am.
  • When respondents needed to get a snack from the vending machine, most stated that their options included salty snacks like chips and sweet snacks like candy. 30% say they never got snacks out of the vending machine and 20% said they didn’t have access to one.
  • When asked about their ideal workplace snacks, most respondents wanted snacks that were: nutritious, satisfying, convenient, flavorful and portable.
  • Over 50% of respondents said they struggle to find snacks at work that help them make healthy food choices and 45% said they struggled with finding snacks that are both flavorful and nutritious.
  • When they had wholesome snacks at work, 60% felt good about themselves and in control of their diet/eating habits.
  • Over 40% of people considered the vending machine a dieter’s trap and almost 55% of people had regrets about their snacks 1-3 times per week.

While I think that there are some nutritious options to be found in a vending machine, I encourage people to use it as a last resort. With a little planning, it’s easy to have healthy snacks on hand every day, no matter if you work in an office or are on the go all day long!

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So, what are some of my go-to healthy snacks? Here are some of my favorites:

  • Raw veggies with hummus- buy some or make your own
  • Cheese and crackers
  • Homemade trail mix- I like almonds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, dried fruit and a few chocolate chips
  • Perfectly roasted chickpeas
  • Hard boiled eggs
  • Greek yogurt
  • Fresh fruit
  • Smoothies- throw in some spinach or kale and a protein source like greek yogurt
  • Peanut butter on 100% whole wheat toast
  • Healthy microwave popcorn
  • Sweet potato bites
  • Frozen yogurt trail mix bites
  • Apples with peanut butter (or your favorite nut butter)
  • Cheese stick and fruit
  • Cereal and milk- choose a low-sugar cereal that also has some fiber and protein
  • Water- yes, sometimes if you think you’re hungry, you may just be thirsty! Try adding cucumbers or fruit if you don’t like plain water.

Some other options:

  • Edamame
  • Turkey jerky
  • Yogurt ranch dip with veggies – Mix plain greek yogurt and half a packet of powdered ranch seasoning for a healthy substitute for ranch dressing
  • Cottage cheese- be mindful of the sodium!
  • Frozen fruit- try grapes or chunks of bananas
  • Dates or sweet potato topped with nut butter
  • Snack bars like kind bars or larabars- buy them on sale or make your own!
  • Handful of nuts
  • Tuna salad made with greek yogurt or mashed avocado and crackers

I try to keep my snacks around 150-200 calories and I often combine a few of the snacks listed above to make sure i’m getting carbs AND protein. The carbs will give you energy and the protein will help you stay full…along with fiber! If you’re having trouble coming up with snacks to pair together, you should check out the Smart Snacker Tool from Sargento. It allows you to mix and match some snack options to make a snack plate and see the nutritional info. Here are a few I put together while I was playing around:

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Obviously, the calories could change a bit based on the serving sizes you’re eating, the size of your fruit, etc…but it’s a great tool for giving you snack ideas!

Thanks to the lovely folks at Sargento, I got to try some of their cheese snacks. I’ve always been a mozzarella kind of girl, but they have some great flavored ones as well. Plus they’re easy to take on-the-go or throw in my lunchbox:

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A few things you should know about Sargento Natural Cheese Snacks:

  • They’re a natural source of high-quality protein in a simple, calorie-controlled single serving.
  • They’re full of flavor so you don’t have to sacrifice on taste.
  • They come in tons of different varieties so there’s something for everyone!

I’ve been enjoying the plain ones with fruit:

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And I love cutting up the flavored ones into cubes and eating them with Triscuits!

Here’s a list of all the flavor options they have available:

  • Sargento Cheese Sticks
    • Colby-Jack Sticks
    • Pepper Jack Sticks
    • Sharp Cheddar Sticks
    • Vermont Sharp White Cheddar Sticks
    • Reduced Fat Colby-Jack Sticks
    • Reduced Fat Sharp Cheddar Sticks
    • Reduced Sodium Colby-Jack Sticks
  • Sargento String Cheese
    • String Cheese
    • Light String Cheese
    • Reduced Sodium String Cheese
  • Sargento Natural Blends
    • Cheddar-Mozzarella Cheese Snacks
    • Double Cheddar Snacks
    • Sharp Cheddar-Jack Snacks
    • Provolone-Mozzarella Snacks

For more info on Sargento Natural Cheese Snacks, be sure to check out their Facebook page where they share all sorts of great recipes ideas!

Let’s chat:

  • What are YOUR favorite healthy snacks? 
  • Do you plan ahead and bring snacks with you throughout the day or do you just rely on whatever you can find when you get hungry?

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Sargento compensated me for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.  

 

Dietetic Internship Weeks 25-28

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Hi Friends!

As usual, I’m so behind on my internship rotation recaps. I know I’ve been finished with my internship for a couple of weeks now, but I wanted to write a quick recap of my last rotation since I recapped all of the others…and because I loved it so much!

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I spent final four weeks of my internship at the Central Ohio Diabetes Association. My preceptor Jenny was amazing. She wears a lot of hats at CODA, including teaching some of their Diabetes Self Management Education Classes and coordinating everything for the summer camp they run for kids with diabetes.

My internship director actually set this rotation up just for me because she knew about my blog and my love for social media and CODA was looking for some help in that area. It seriously couldn’t have been a more perfect last rotation. I was able to use my social media skills to do things like set up a Pinterest account for them and also do some creative projects that I came up with on my own.

Here’s a list of some of the stuff I did while I was there:

  • Attended several webinars about diabetes management.
  • Attended multiple Diabetes Self Management Education classes taught by various educators.
  • Attended a meeting with a Molina rep regarding partnerships for community health education.
  • Created a Pinterest account for CODA with multiple boards for various topics like recipes, diabetes education, etc.
  • Met with multiple CODA employees to discuss social media strategies and ways to increase social media presence.
  • Created a printable resource for CODA clients with recipe ideas based on My Plate.
  • Created a pocket guide for DSMES clients with 15g carb equivalents & portion sizes. (This was totally my idea and I was SO excited with how it turned out. You can see the final product in the pic at the top of this post!)
  • Opened, sorted, organized and reviewed Camp Hamwi applications.

Overall, it was a great experience and a great chance for me to see some of the things that a community RD does. It was also a great example of how awesome my internship was overall. They really worked with you to find rotations and placements that fit your interests.

And now it’s back to studying! If all goes according to plan, I’ll be an RD by the end of the month!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Fitness Friday 50

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Hi Friends!

Time for another Fitness Friday recap!

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When we left off, I was getting ready to attempt the last workout of the crossfit open!

Saturday

FF1

If you recall, I was saying that I couldn’t do chest to bar pullups…well when we went in on Saturday I tried them with a reverse grip and guess what?! I was able to do some. I ended up getting 26 reps for this workout, so I did 15 thrusters and then was able to do 11 CTB pullups, so I was happy with that. Hubby got 42 reps which was awesome! He also did a little modeling 🙂

Sunday

Rest day!

Monday-Friday

FF2

1. Monday– One of my least favorite WODs. I hated everything about it. But I did it in 11:18 rx. For the strength we did  30 min of EMOM 105# power cleans and hspu. It was 10 min of 3 power cleans one min, 5 hspu the next, then min 10-20 was 2 cleans, 4 hspu, min 20-30 1 clean 3 hspu.

2. Tuesday– Holy squats. I did the WOD in 8:26 with 85# hang cleans and muscle up progressions. Plus I got a 145# 3 rep max back squat and did 12 unbroken pullups!

3. Wednesday – This. was. miserable. I didn’t feel good all day long, but I went to workout anyways. Then I used 125# for the deadlifts which isn’t so bad if you’re only doing a few. Turns out it’s a terrible idea if you’re doing 100 of them. I finished in 19:53 and almost threw up.

4. Thursday – Even though we were super sore, we decided to go one more day. Turned out to be a good thing because I got a new 3 rep max PR for deadlifts, even after doing 100 of them the day before! 185# baby! For the WOD I used 65# and did 6+6.

Friday– MUCH needed rest day.

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This was me during the miserable WOD with 125# deadlifts.

Saturday

FF3

Benchmark workout day. We did Angie. 100 pullups, pushups, situps and squats for time. Pullups were rough. Pushups were worse. That’s hubby and I in the middle and two of our best crossfit friends couple friends on the outsides! I finished in 26:34 rx and yes, I spent almost 12 minutes doing the pullups. Took me forever but I did them all kipping so I was proud of myself!

Sunday

Rest day.

Monday – Friday

FF4

1. Monday– Finished in 4:18 – I used 125# for the deadlifts/75# for the push press/65# for the snatches

2. Tuesday– Holy sweatfest! I did 5+4 with double unders for the buy-in and 95# cleans. The worst part was the 50 lunges at the end. I didn’t see that on the board ahead of time so I totally wasn’t expecting it. Rough.

3. Wednesday– Loved this one! 800 m run, 50 pistols rx, 30 hang cleans (85#) in 8:52. When I finished, I knew I could have done the 95# cleans and I was so mad I didn’t! Oh well, still crushed it 🙂

4. Thursday– Rest day! Still loving my bday present from hubby 🙂

That’s all for today 🙂 Have a great weekend!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Healthy Ice Cream Sandwiches

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Hi Friends!

EDITED TO ADD: For an updated version of this recipe with better pictures and directions, please visit this post: Vegan Ice Cream Sandwiches.

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I haven’t been this excited to post a recipe in a long time. Healthy Ice Cream Sandwiches. Does it get any better than that?! I think not.

These Healthy Ice Cream Sandwiches are gluten free, dairy free and the perfect dessert to have in your freezer when a craving hits!

So, how did this all come about? Well…..earlier this week I did a little experiment in the kitchen. My last Foodie Penpal sent me some dried turkish figs and I was trying to figure out how to use them. After some research, it seemed to me that they were kinda like dates. So I thought I would blend them up with some nuts and make a larabar type thing…kinda like these LaraBites I made last year. However, in the spirit of trying new ingredients, I decided to use pistachios instead of the almonds I would normally use. We don’t typically buy pistachios but we recently bought a giant bag at Costco so I had some to use up!

Then I started thinking about how it might be good to add some peanut butter in there.

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At this point I wasn’t really sure what else to add…so I just turned on the food processor and hoped from the best. I ended up with a crumbly type mixture which, upon experimentation, appeared to stick together when pressed together firmly…and tasted good as well. I thought it might make a good crust, so I pressed it into a pan and stuck it in the fridge until I could come up with something tasty to use it for.

Later that night, I had an epiphany and decided to turn it into an ice cream sandwich of sorts. But instead of ice cream, I used banana fro yo.

That’s right…a 4 ingredient dessert that tastes great!

Here’s how you do it:

*Side note, you can easily double this recipe! If things aren’t coming together in the food processor, add a couple tablespoons of water*

Making these is a little bit time intensive…but it’s totally worth it!

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I’ve made two batches of these. One with cocoa powder and one without. They both taste great. My best advice is handle the “dough” as little as possible. Cut it into sandwich size pieces so you have tops and bottoms that are the same size, then stick them back in the fridge while you make the fro yo. Then make quick work of scooping some fro you onto one side of the sandwich, topping with the other half, pressing down gently and wrapping in saran wrap. Stick them in the freezer as you finish each one!

A few other things to note:

  • Don’t make the dough too thin when you press it into the pan, otherwise it will crumble when you try to cut it into squares and remove it.
  • You may need to trim off the very edges before cutting your sandwich sides as they tend to crumble.
  • The dough is very oily. I’m not sure if it’s from the figs or the pistachios…but using a piece of saran wrap to press it flat into the pan helps a lot!

These Healthy Ice Cream Sandwiches are gluten free, dairy free and the perfect dessert to have in your freezer when a craving hits!

Since I know some of you will ask…here are my thoughts on substitutions:

  • I think you could substitute dates for figs if you wanted to
  • I also think another kind of nut besides pistachios would work equally well.
  • I THINK the two statements above. I don’t know. I haven’t tried it. No promises.

Have fun with it. Play around. Try some different combinations. Feel free to make a mess!

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And if you don’t want to go through all the trouble of making ice cream sandwiches, just roll the dough into little balls and eat it that way:

pistachio ball

But trust me, the ice cream sandwiches are worth the work:

These Healthy Ice Cream Sandwiches are gluten free, dairy free and the perfect dessert to have in your freezer when a craving hits!

In my opinion at least…some people seem to disagree:

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But hey, you can’t please everyone!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Crockpot Enchilada Casserole

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Hi Friends!

Just popping in with a quick recipe to share with you guys.

A couple weeks ago, I was looking through some of my cookbooks for some inspiration and I came across the Not Your Mom’s Slow Cooker Cookbook that my sister got me for my birthday a couple of years ago. In it was a recipe for crockpot enchiladas and I was immediately intrigued. We do love Mexican food around here. I fell in love with the recipe even more when I saw you cut the tortillas into strips, which meant I wouldn’t have to worry about keeping the enchiladas perfectly intact when I took them out of the crockpot.

A fix it and forget it meal, this Crockpot Enchilada Casserole is vegetarian, easy to make and bursting with Mexican flavors!

You’ll have to excuse the photos. Instagram is all you get. This casserole may be tasty but pretty, it is not. Nor is it easy to photograph.

So, the recipe. You know me…I made a few modifications as usual, so here’s the one I used:

 

For the veggies, I used sweet potato, red peppers, mushrooms and corn…but feel free to use whatever you have on hand!

enchilada casserole

You could easily add meat to this meal if you wanted…but I would recommend using meat that’s already been cooked since you’re not cooking it very long in the crockpot. Diced chicken or rotisserie chicken would work well!

Oh, and the reason I suggest not adding the cheese on the top is because I did and mine got a little brown. I cooked it for 4 hours on low and then left it sit on warm for about 2 hours and it was fine…but the top cheese was a little brown…so I think it’d be better to leave it off until the very end!

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Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Fitness Friday 49

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Hi Friends!

I’m back with another Fitness Friday post and once again I have two weeks of workouts to catch you guys up on! When we left off, I was getting ready to try the 3rd workout of the Crossfit Open…so here we go:

Saturday

13.3

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Workout 13.3 was 150 wall balls, 90 double unders and 30 muscleups…as many rounds as possible in 12 minutes. Not that many people in the world could get through that whole workout and start over on the wall balls again in under 12 minutes…but some did! My goal was to finish the double unders. I’m pretty good at double unders, but I’m not good at them when I’m gasping for breath after doing 150 wall balls. So I got through all the wall balls and 56 of the 90 double unders for a total score of 206 reps. This workout was BRUTAL. I even got a nice bruise from whipping myself in the hand during the double unders!

Afterwards we took the boys for a walk because it was a gorgeous day!

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Sunday

Most def a rest day. My legs were SO SORE!

Monday

I still could barely walk but I dragged myself out of bed and went to 6am crossfit, where I was rewarded with this workout:

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The chief is brutal when you’re not sore…but when your quads are already sore, let me tell you…IT SUCKS. It’s basically five 3 minute cycles where you try to get in as many rounds as you can in those three minutes. I did 3+15, 3+7, 3, 3+3, 3+5 with the Rx weight and lemme tell you, my quads were on FIRE!

Tuesday

Much needed rest day.

Wednesday

Easy WOD because we had to do Open workout 13.4 on Thursday this week instead of Saturday.

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We had class before 13.4 was announced on Wednesday night so we just did a nice easy workout that was rounds not for time to help us loosen up.

Thursday

They announced 13.4 and I was probably least excited for this one out of all the open workouts so far:

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First of all…anyone that does crossfit with me knows how much i hate toes to bar. I can do them, I just can’t string them together. And a 95# clean and jerk is 20# more than i’ve ever put over my head…so I knew that’d be tough. My goal going in was 20 reps. I was able to do 25! I got through 7 of the clean and jerks out of the set of 9 and then it just got too heavy and I could clean it but I couldn’t push it up over my head anymore. I knew this one would be tough for me though so I was happy with my 25!

*and yes, i know equipment is spelled wrong in the picture. I didn’t write it!*

Friday

We went in with some friends during open gym. The guys tackled a barbell heavy workout and the girls opted for this one:

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It was a fun one! I finished in 11:05 Rx.

Saturday

I was SO close to not getting out of bed to go…but hubby and I pulled ourselves together and headed in. Unfortunately the workout was not a fun one. FRAN. Fran is one of the benchmark workouts that crossfitters compare times for.

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The best crossfitters in the world can do Fran in about 2 minutes. It’s crazy. This was my first time doing it and it took me 10:56. But I used the prescribed weight and did all legit pullups so I was proud of myself! I also got huge rips in both my hands so that made showering extra fun. I’ll spare you the pictures 🙂

Before we did Fran, we did death by 10 meters which is basically 15 minutes of sprints. So in the first minute, you sprint 10 meters, in the second minute you sprint down and back for a total of 20 meters…and each minute you add another 10 meters so by the 15th minute you’re running 150 meters in 1 minute. There were only a few of us who made it through that one and it required a full on sprint from me…so I was still a little tired when I started Fran!

Sunday

REST DAY!


As for the rest of this week?

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1. Monday: We worked on overhead squats (I did 75#!) and then did the wod. It wasn’t my favorite. I hate snatches and ring dips…but oh well. I did 65# snatches and banded ring dips and finished in 6:14
2. Tuesday: Another rough one. We subbed a 200 m run for the row and I finished 3 full rounds, plus the run, burpees and front squats of round 4. Then we did 125 situps for time and I finished in 5:03
3. Wednesday: LOVED this one. I’ve been working on my kipping handstand pushups every day after class and i’m finally getting the hang of it. 3 is about the max i can do at a time (I still use 2 abmats under my head) but it’s such an improvement from last month! I’ll show you guys a video when I get good enough to only use 1 abmat 🙂 I finished in 10:16. Then we did 4 planks, holding them as long as we could with a 15 sec break in between. For strength we did hang squat cleans and I was able to do two at 115#!
4. Hubby and a couple other guys messing around after class one day doing turkish getups with the bar instead of the kettlebell.

Wednesday night they announced the last open workout 13.5 and it is INSANE.

13.5

For girls it’s 65 pound thrusters. It’s basically the middle round of Fran, except you have to do chest to bar pullups…and you have to do it over and over and over again. This workout is kinda silly for me because I can’t do chest to bar pullups. But oh well…we’re doing the workout Saturday morning and i’ll do my 15 thrusters and then cheer hubby on!

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How were your workouts this week? Do any fun ones?!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

PS…One of the ladies at our gym takes awesome black and white pictures and she took some for us during 13.3. I used some of them to make new FB cover photos for hubby and I in PicMonkey (they have a special template for FB cover photos!

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Wheeeeee!!! picture fun 🙂

March Foodie Penpals Reveal Day

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Hi Friends!

It’s time for another Foodie Penpals Reveal Day post! Don’t worry, I’ll be back with last week’s Bean Bytes tomorrow- I wouldn’t leave you hanging! But for today, we’re gonna focus on FPP.

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This month I received a wonderful package from Haley at Full ‘n’ Fit! If you haven’t checked out her blog, go do it now. I love her. She’s one of the most supportive, encouraging bloggers out there 🙂

Here’s what she sent me:

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My box included:

  • Fruit and veggie strips- which were a fun little treat.
  • Basil oil- which is delicious! It has a very light flavor but I can def taste the basil.
  • Sunflower seeds- which I LOVE in my trailmix.
  • Turkish figs- which I’m saving until I come up with a clever way to use them…suggestions?
  • A super cute cookie cutter
  • HOMEMADE COOKIES!!! Girl knows the way to my heart. They were delicious. She says she’s still perfecting the recipe and then she will share but I thought they were pretty darn good. As soon as she posts the recipe on her blog, I’ll let you guys know!

Thank you so much Haley for a wonderful box!

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Are you interested in joining us for Foodie Penpals next month? Here are some more details:

  • On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
  • You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal! 
  • The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
  • You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
  • Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month. 
  • Foodie Penplas is open to US, Canadian & European residents.  Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. Same with Europeans. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. 

If you’re from the US or Canada and are in participating for April, please CLICK HERE  to fill out the participation form and read the terms and conditions.

You must submit your information by April 4th as pairings will be emailed on April 5th!

*If you’re from Europe, please CLICK HERE to signup.

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Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Dietetic Internship Complete!

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Hi Friends!

Well, I did it! I successfully completed my Dietetic Internship!
As of today, I’m officially done 🙂

all done

Yes, I realize this picture is depicting the wrong season.
It’s from three years ago 🙂
But it’s the best one I have to show my current mood!

So what’s next?

It takes about a month for all the paperwork to get taken care of and get everything verified, and then you can sign up to take your Registration Exam. I’m hoping to take it the first week in May!

As for now, I’m taking a week to do the following:

  • Read for fun!
  • Get a haircut.
  • Get my nails done.
  • Get a massage.
  • Sleep in.
  • Spend time with hubby.
  • Have fun in the kitchen.
  • REST.
  • Enjoy SPRING!

Sounds glorious, doesn’t it?! I can’t freakin’ wait!

Happy Friday!
–Lindsay–

Things Blogging Has Taught Me- Part 2

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Hi Friends!

A little over a year ago, I wrote a post called Things Blogging Has Taught Me. I re-read it the other day…and guess what? It’s still true. All of it. But it’s been another 14 months, and guess what? I’m still learning! So I thought I’d share a little bit more with you today.

Whether you're a new or veteran blogger, there's always something to learn. Here are a few lessons blogging has taught me.

First, let’s quickly recap the lessons from Part 1:

  • Blogging is hard. But I make time and put in the effort because I love it.
  • You could easily drown in the sea of social media if you let yourself. So I choose a few of my favorite social media outlets and focus on those.
  • You will get jealous of other bloggers. But that doesn’t mean what you’re doing isn’t awesome. In fact,  someone out there might just be jealous of you.
  • You don’t have to do everything other bloggers are doing or like all the foods everyone else seems to like. And there’s no reason to pretend you do.
  • No one can make you feel inferior unless you let them. Stop comparing yourself to others!
  • You don’t have to blog multiple times per day, or even every day, to be successful. Just be consistent.
  • Numbers don’t have to matter. I blog because I want to and it doesn’t matter if one person or one million people read each post.
  • The blogging community is the most inspirational and motivational community I’ve ever been a part of. It can change your life for the better.
  • You can make good friends through blogging. Some of my closest friends are ones I’ve never met!
  • After all your hard work, you will have something you can call your own…and something you can, and should, be proud of.

To read more details about the lessons above, click here.

Ok, so moving on to Part 2. What else has blogging taught me over the past year?

It’s ok to be excited about giveaways, but don’t do them all the time. Giveaways are fun. People like getting free stuff. But please don’t turn your blog into the giveaway of the week club, or they lose their excitement! Be selective and choose giveaways you think your readers will enjoy most.

Think really hard about how many sponsored posts you’re going to write. I know a lot of people will disagree with me on this one, but to me there’s nothing more annoying than when one of my favorite blogs turns into nothing but a place for sponsored post after sponsored post. Sponsored posts are a way for bloggers to make money. And especially in the beginning, it’s really hard to turn down offers to write  a quick post and make a little (or a lot) of money. I’m not saying you should never write them. I occasionally write them. But I turn down WAY more than I accept. And it’s hard. But I  know how annoying I find it…and I don’t want to do that to my readers. It’s a personal choice every blogger has to make, but in my opinion, if you do choose to write one, you should  THINK about what you’re promoting. Don’t just jump on something for the money. Ask yourself whether it fits into the message you’re trying to promote with your blog, whether it represents you well as a person, whether you’ll still be proud you wrote about it if you look back a year later.

On that note:

  • Be honest with your readers. If you’re writing a sponsored post, tell them. Don’t try to hide it. If you get something for free, tell them. Get familiar with the FTC disclosure guidelines for bloggers and follow them.

Make a media kit. It doesn’t have to be fancy. I’ve seen some amazing ones that were made using powerpoint. Just put something together that shows your reach. How many pageviews you get per month, how many followers you have on the various social media sites, what kind of services you provide, etc so that when a company requests it, all you have to do is update to your latest numbers and send! Install google analytics to help track pageviews, unique views etc. On that same note, though, don’t spend hours obsessing over the numbers. See part 1 of this post for more on that.

Be mindful of the comparison trap and don’t let yourself fall into it. One of my favorite quotes, as it relates to blogging, is “Don’t compare your behind the scenes to someone else’s highlight reel.” Remember that even though it may seem like your favorite bloggers live a perfect life, have it all together, eat perfectly and have endless amounts of energy, it’s just not true. What you see on most (not all) blogs is the best of the best. The best recipes, the best workouts, the best days. You don’t always see the mistakes, the failed recipes, the stressful days, the sleepless nights and the anxiety that makes those bloggers normal people, just like you. So don’t ever let someone else make you feel like your best isn’t good enough, or that you’re doing things the wrong way. Live YOUR life the way YOU want to. Do the things that make YOU happy. Be the best YOU.

It’s not all about you. Spread the love. One of my favorite parts about reading blogs is that they introduce me to even more blogs! If you read a good post, share it! Tweet it, share it on facebook, email it to a friend. There are way too many blogs out there for one person to read them all. But by sharing posts you enjoy, you’re helping other people find the good posts and you’re giving pageviews to the blogger who wrote the good post. Win-win! The most boring people to follow on Twitter are the ones who do nothing but tweet links to their own posts 87 times a day. There are tools out there (like Buffer and Hootsuite) that can help you schedule tweets filled with posts/news articles/ etc that you’ve enjoyed if you can’t be on twitter all day.

On that note:

  • Interact with your readers/followers/fans: Twitter and FB get boring really fast if all you do is tweet post after post (whether they are yours or other peoples). Take some time each day/week to interact with people. Have a conversation on twitter, post a question on your FB page, respond to the comments people leave on your blog, give someone some motivation or encouragement on instagram. You get the idea.
  • Make it easy for people to share your posts: Please, please, please do this! There are widgets and plugin’s galore that you can set up to make it SO easy for someone to share your post. Do it, and it’s 1,000 times more likely that someone will share your post. If they have to hunt for your twitter handle, they’ll most likely consider it too much work and won’t share, even if they really like the post. Set it up so all they have to do is click a button and the title of the post, plus your twitter handle, will populate on its own…and all they have to do is customize the tweet if they want to. Use a Pinterest widget to make it easy for people to pin the images in your posts as well!
  • Thank the people that spread the love for you: If someone shares your post/RTs it/posts it to FB and tags you, say thank you! If someone links to one of your posts or recipes in one of their posts, go read their post and thank them! I realize that for some bloggers that this happens to hundreds of times a day, that it’s not feasible to thank everyone…but do the best you can. People appreciate it when you notice that they’re helping you out by sharing.

Finally, and probably the most important lessons I’ve learned this year:

Find a blogging mentor. There are so many bloggers out there, that you can almost always find one that’s been doing it longer than you, one that does it better than you, one who knows more than you. Find them. Connect with them. Ask them questions!!! Find someone who will give you honest answers to your questions, because believe me you’ll have them. And you’ll have questions about things that are considered almost “taboo” to talk about in the blog world, like how much to charge for articles and ads, how many pageviews you’re getting, etc. Find someone you trust that you can ask these questions. Their advice will be invaluable.

DO NOT undervalue yourself! I’m still struggling with this one myself…but it’s so, so important. You have to think highly enough of yourself to realize that your time is important. If a company is asking you to promote their product, you should be getting something out of it as well. It shouldn’t just be free advertising for them. The type/amount of value is something you’ll have to decide for yourself. Sometimes I do promote things for free, if it’s a company I truly believe in and support. Sometimes I consider free product to be worth enough for me to dedicate my time. Other times, monetary compensation is necessary for the amount of time and effort I will need to put into a post/social media campaign to give the company what they’re asking for. Do your research, set your rates, and don’t let anyone tell you that your time isn’t valuable or isn’t worth something!

 

Let’s chat! If you’re a blogger, what’s a lesson you’ve learned lately?

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

 

Crockpot Roasted Vegetable Sauce

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Hi Friends!

Today I have a fun sauce recipe to share with you. Crockpot Roasted Vegetable Tomato Sauce.

An easy way to add some extra vegetables to your meal, this Crockpot Roasted Veggie Tomato Sauce is super simple and easy to customize based on what you have on hand.

Let’s talk about spaghetti sauce for a minute. I love it…I don’t love how much salt is usually in it. A few years ago I started buying no-salt-added crushed tomatoes and adding my own garlic and herbs to make spaghetti sauce. It’s super easy and much healthier!

Another one of my favorite tricks for making sauce healthier is to add extra veggies. Usually I just chop them up, saute them and mix them into my sauce with some lentils and then serve over noodles. This weekend, however, I was in the mood for a less chunky sauce. So I turned to my crockpot.

An easy way to add some extra vegetables to your meal, this Crockpot Roasted Veggie Tomato Sauce is super simple and easy to customize based on what you have on hand.

Let’s back up a minute. Did you know you can roast veggies in your crockpot? It’s so easy. Just chop up some veggies of your choice, toss lightly with olive oil and spices of your choice and roast in the crockpot on high for 3-4 hours or on low for longer. The veggies will get a little softer than when you roast them in the oven and not as “blackened”, but the flavor is still great. I still have a slight preference for oven roasted veggies…but using the crockpot is a fun way to change it up.

Ok, moving on. I decided to use some crockpot roasted veggies to kick my spaghetti sauce up a notch. Here’s what I did:

  • Chopped up some veggies I had on hand and some garlic.
  • Tossed in olive oil and roasted in the crockpot on high for 3 hours, stirring every hour.
  • Added 2- 28oz can of whole  tomatoes, one with liquid and one drained (you could also use 4- 14.5 oz cans of no salt added diced tomatoes, or even crushed)
  • Pureed the mixture using my immersion blender.
  • Added some spices and fresh herbs.
  • Let simmer for a couple more hours.

Voila! Roasted Veggie Sauce. The best part is you can freeze this sauce….so use some now and freeze the rest. When you need more, just pull it out and defrost it! There isn’t an exact recipe for this sauce but here’s the general idea:

 

You won’t outright taste the veggies, but it’s awesome knowing that they’re in there…and I think it adds a nice flavor to the sauce if you’re looking for it. Try to find no-salt-added tomatoes if you can! If you can’t, look at several brands to find the one with the lowest amount, and rinse off the tomatoes from the can you drain the liquid from!

crockpot roasted vegetable sauce

Serve this sauce over noodles or spaghetti sauce and add your favorite protein. I usually add lentils or white beans…but you could also add chicken or ground turkey.  And if you’re feeling extra “saucy”, add a dollop of pesto for some extra flavor!

An easy way to add some extra vegetables to your meal, this Crockpot Roasted Veggie Tomato Sauce is super simple and easy to customize based on what you have on hand.

Let’s chat: Do you add extra veggies to your sauce?

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

 

Dietetic Internship: Weeks 21-24

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Hi Friends!

Just popping in with a quick update to fill you in on the long-term care rotation of my internship! As usual, I’m behind on my recaps. In fact, I only have ONE MORE WEEK of my internship left. Which means I’ve already completed 3 weeks of my very last rotation.

So, I thought I’d spend a few minutes filling you guys in on what I did in February. It was a lot of the same stuff day after day.

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{sign on my preceptor’s door}

The place that I did my longterm care rotation was actually a  Transitional Care and Rehab facility. It’s both a long-term care facility, with a dementia unit, and a rehabilitation facility. Long-term care is not my favorite thing, but luckily for me, my preceptor primarily covered the rehab units…which I liked a lot better. There was a Diet Tech that covered most of the LTC patients, and then since my preceptor was an RD, she handled some of the more complicated cases in that involved tube feeds, serious pressure ulcers, etc.

I liked the rehab units because there was such a wide range of patients. We saw older patients recovering from fractures and surgeries, patients with cirrhosis, patients recovering from motor vehicle accidents and much more.

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{I had a 45 min drive each way so I saw a lot of pretty sunrises. Bonus!}

Here are some of the things I did while I was there:

  • Attended weight and wound team meetings with the RD and the nurse unit managers. Patients that triggered for weight loss/gain and any patients with wounds or pressure ulcers were discussed.
  • Provided diabetes education to newly diagnosed diabetic patients. I taught them how to count carbs, how to read labels, etc.
  • Conducted admissions assessments with patients to determine food preferences. These assessments also cover any recent weight loss/gain, chewing/swallowing problems, food allergies, usual body weight, labs and any other nutritional concerns the patient has.
  • Attended care conferences with patients and families to discuss comments, concerns and questions about their care.
  • Reviewed and assessed weight change and meal intake reports.
  • Used the nutrition care process to write ADIME notes. These notes include an assessment, a nutrition diagnosis that has to be written using certain standardized languages, what your interventions are going to be to correct their nutritional problems and how you will monitor/evaluate changes in their condition.
  • Used the Point Click Care computer system to chart electronically and navigate patient records.
  • Set goals for weight loss, improved labs, wound healing, etc and recommended supplements (Ensure, Healthy shot, fortified shakes) when necessary for extra calories and protein.
  • Referred patients for speech therapy consults for swallowing issues.
  • Recommended diet changes when necessary.
  • Visited patients to discuss weight changes.
  • Calculated tube feeds.
  • Completed assessments (monthly, quarterly and annual)

Although this wasn’t my favorite rotation, I liked my preceptor and it actually went by pretty quickly since I was only there for four weeks. I got to interact with a lot of patients and I got tons of practice charting, writing PES statements and coming up with interventions and goals.

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I also had to select a patient to do a case study on. My patient had alcoholic cirrhosis and hepatic encephelopathy. I’ll be presenting my case study to my class next week.

So there you go! Like I mentioned, I’m currently finishing up my very last rotation. I’m at the Central Ohio Diabetes Association and I’m loving it. Recap to come soon!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

PS. If you want to read more about my previous rotations, here are my recaps:

My Path & Big News

Dietetic Internship Orientation and Week 1

Dietetic Internship Weeks 2 & 3

Dietetic Internship Weeks 4 &5

Dietetic Internship Weeks 6-9

Dietetic Internship Weeks 10-16

A Day in the Life & Nobody’s Perfect

Dietetic Internship Weeks 17-20

 

Fitness Friday 48

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Hi Friends!

Here we are again, another Friday! And just like that, I have two more weeks of workouts to catch you up on. When we left off, I had just completed the first workout of the Crossfit Open- workout 13.1 and I told you I was thinking about trying it again over the weekend to see if I could improve my score. Well, I tried it again. However, I didn’t exactly improve my score. Let’s recap:

Saturday
We went to open gym and I worked on those 75# snatches again. Here’s the thing…I can do them when I’m not super tired. See below:

opengym

However, after doing 70 burpees and 30 snatches at 45 pounds, I have a lot of trouble with them. Turns out I also have a lot of trouble with them when I do about 100 practice reps on Saturday and then try to repeat the workout on Sunday. Whoops! On the bright side, I got my first rope climb at open gym as well. Super proud of myself! After open gym we watched our coaches do 13.1. Our coach Heather is just so awesome to watch!

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It also just so happend to be a gorgeous day so we took the boys for a nice long walk:

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Sunday
I retried 13.1. As a reminder, here’s what the workout was:

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Here’s what happened. I improved my splits. I did both sets of burpees and the first set of snatches about a minute and a half faster than I did the first time. However, I was too tired from all the practicing I did on Saturday and I could only get 2 reps at 75# instead of the 7 I got the first time…so I just stuck with my original score. Oh well. Can’t win ’em all! This is how I felt afterwards- totally exhausted and ready for a nap with Marcus:

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As for the rest of the week?

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1. Monday: Because of my schedule, I had to go in and do this one by myself. It looks innocent but it was rough. Took me 15 minutes and I almost quit like 5 times.
2. Tuesday: We did back squats for strength and then did the wod. I finished all but the very last ten double unders before we hit the 15 minute cap. Squat snatch is a ridiculously hard movement and I was using more weight than I should have been. Not a dangerous amount…I just should have gone lighter and focused on form until I really get the hang of it. Lesson learned.
3. Wednesday: This one killed me. Two five minute AMRAPs sounds innocent. It was not. First one I got 4 +2, second one I got 3+5.
4. Thursday: Change of plans at our box. The open workouts are announced Wednesday night. Instead of doing them Thursday, we decided to use Thursdays as a walk-through…so we practice all the skills at are in the open WOD and do a quick run-through before doing the real thing. The second workout of the Open – 13.2, was right up my alley. i LOVE box jumps and that’s light weight for a deadlift for me. The only thing I was worried about was the shoulder to overhead because 75# is heavy for me. The actual WOD was 10 minutes. On Thursday we did it for 3 minutes just to get a sense and I got 2+24 and felt pretty good about it.

Friday: Rest day. There was a lot of talk about whether to do box jumps or step ups, which was better/faster/etc. in the Crossfit world. For me, since I’m tall and the box is only 20 inches (relatively short), it’s actually really easy for me to just step up and step down, especially when my legs are tired…so I had that to consider.

Saturday
We tackled 13.2. I decided I would do box jumps until they started slowing me down because I got tired and then switch to jump up, step down and then eventually switch to step up/step down just so I could keep moving.

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That’s me trying not to die after I finished it. My goal was 210 reps (7 full rounds). I got 230 reps! I was proud of myself. I really struggled with the very last shoulder to overhead I did and had to try 3 times to get it up, which cost me time…otherwise I think I could have finished that 8th round. I also hit myself in the teeth with the bar as I was moving from shoulder to overhead to deadlift. It hurt like crazy and I spent most of the workout hoping I didn’t chip a tooth!

Afterwards, we watched the coaches and trainers do 13.2 and then had a little cookout. It was fun! Note the awesome photobomb on the rings in the pic on the bottom left and the sexy crossfit hands on the bottom right 🙂

cookout

Sunday: Most definitely a rest day 🙂

As for this week:

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1. Monday: Loved this workout! Finished in 6:59 Rx. We did back squats for strength- 5 sets of 5 working up in weight. I did my last set of 5 at 130 pounds! woot woot!
2. Tuesday: Ugh, Grace. Not my favorite. Our coach wanted us to focus on speed so I did 65 pounds and finished in 2:50. I felt pretty go so i’ll try 75 or 80 pounds next time. For strength we did bench press and I did 5 at 75# which is a PR!
3. Wednesday: Worst day at crossfit in a while. I’ve been exhausted this week. We did squat cleans for strength, which were heavy. Then we did this workout. It was hands down my least favorite crossfit workout i’ve ever done. But i survived. And now it’s over!
4. Thursday: Workout 13.3 was announced Wednesday night. It’s actually a repeat of one of the workouts from last year. 150 wall balls, 90 double unders, 30 muscleups. As many reps as possible in 12 minutes. I’ve done this workout before. Well, part of it. I’m nowhere even close to being able to do a muscleup so I just don’t worry about those. I have, however, done the 150 wallballs and 90 double unders and finished in exactly 12 minutes. So, my goal is to finish that part of the workout in 11 minutes. Hubby and I were both tired so we decided to rest Thursday and Friday and tackle it Saturday morning! I settled for taking the boys on a nice walk Thursday night.

I’ll let you guys know how 13.3 goes on Saturday!

How have your workouts been lately?!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

 

30 for Thursday: Apps On My iPhone

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Hi Friends!

It’s been a while since I did a 30 for Thursday post, hasn’t it?! Today we’re focusing on iphone apps. There are obviously thousands of apps out there, but I thought I’d show you some of the ones I have on my phone. Some are free, some are not. All are awesome.

Looking for some new apps to add to your iphone? Check out 30 I have on my phone right now!

 

10 Apps I Use Every Day

1. Instagram – My current obsession
2. Diptic – Great app for making collages of pictures
3. Facebook – I think the app sucks but I still use it
4. FacebookPages – great for managing my blog’s fb page
5. Feedly – how I read blogs now that google reader is going away
6. Tweetbot – my fav Twitter app
7. Buffer – great way to schedule tweets
8. Wunderlist – my fav to-do list app
9. RunKeeper – I use it when I run and even when I’m just walking the dogs
10.  Chrome – Currently obsessed with this. If you use chrome on your computer, you need this app. It synchs with your phone, you can access the bookmarks you have saved on the computer and tabs you have open on your computer on your phone, you can open multiple tabs and swipe between them…it’s awesome.

10 Photography Apps

1. Phonto – great for adding text to photos
2. Photosynth – takes panoramic photos
3. Colorsplash – make photos black and white and you can add color to certain parts
4. PopBooth – like a photo booth on your phone
5. LensLight – add pretty light effects to your pictures
6. Aviary – great for photo editing
7. Camera+ – great for photo editing (i use this one most often)
8. Snapseed – great for photo editing
9. Labelbox – add text to photos like a labelmaker
10. Fast Camera – takes a million pics really fast and lets you pick the ones you want to save. great for action shots/sports/etc

10 Other Apps

1. Hootsuite – makes it easy to manage multiple twitter streams/hashtags/etc
2. Flashlight – never know when you’ll need it
3. Pinterest – for your pinning pleasure
4. AppGratis – offers a free app every day. sometimes they suck, sometimes they’re awesome
5. Soundhound – helps you figure out what song is playing on the radio
6. WordPress – I use it sometimes to write a short and sweet blog post, approve comments or to make last minute edits to ones I’ve already written
7. Evernote – organize your life
8. Pandora – listen to music
9. Pocket – save articles/blog posts/news stories from websites, twitter etc…then read them later, even if you don’t have internet access
10. Dropbox – this is life changing if you want to be able to access your documents from anywhere

———————–

Obviously these are not the only apps I have on my phone…but they’re definitely some of the ones I use most often.

Let’s chat: What are some of your favorite apps? I’m always looking for new ones!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

 

Photo An Hour

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Hi Friends!

Random post for you today. I don’t really have a typical day, but I thought it’d be fun to give you guys a peek into my life right now. As a bonus, the pics that I took throughout the day ended up giving a pretty good glimpse into some of the things I’m doing during my last internship rotation!

5AM

The animals always wake me up in the morning. If I’m getting up around 6, I make them wait until then to eat. If I don’t have to get up until later, I’ll just get up and feed them because it’s easier for me to go back to sleep afterwards than to keep fighting them. While they’re eating and going outside, I check my email, read a few blog posts, etc…

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6AM
Back to bed

7AM

I’m up and ready to face the day! I spend about an hour eating breakfast, drinking my green tea, reading blogs, scheduling tweets, answering emails, etc.

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8AM

I spend some time working on my final case study for my internship. My patient had alcoholic cirrhosis and hepatic encephelopathy..among other things. I’ll be presenting my case study next week, during my last week of my internship!

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9AM

Time for internship work. Right now I’m interning at the Central Ohio Diabetes Association. I’m helping them out with various projects, including creating a Pinterest page for them! It’s intended to be a resource for their clients, so there are boards with low-carb recipes, diabetes education, newly diagnosed patients, activities for kids and families, etc.

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 10AM

I move on to another internship project. I’m making a pocket-sized guide that CODA can pass out to their diabetes education clients. It will serve as a reminder about how they should fill their plate and list common items they can use to help estimate the portion sizes they’re eating.

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 11AM

No picture, sorry friends. Just more of the same…working on the above projects!

12PM

Lunch break. Hubby comes home for lunch. I love when we get to eat lunch together! Cheesy Mexican Quinoa with chips, strawberries and carrots w/hummus.

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1PM

Back to work. Another internship project. I’m putting together a pretty printout of recipe ideas for CODA clients. The pictures incorporate My Plate and remind them to fill half their plate with non-starchy veggies, 1/4 with lean protein and 1/4 with starches.

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2PM

Snack time! And more projects.

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3PM

Marcus usually stops by around this time because he wants his dinner.

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4PM

I power through one last hour of work on various projects. The dogs finally get tired of laying around and turn to their toys to entertain them since I’m being pretty boring 🙂

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5PM

Crossfit time!

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6PM

The WOD includes front squats, box jumps, kettlebells and wall balls-some of my fav things!

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7PM

I do some prep work for my internship class. We’re meeting our cultural competency with a little research project, which we’ll be sharing tonight. We also have to make a cultural dish and I chose to make salsa.

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8PM

Dinner time! Stuffed peppers with quinoa, lentils, shrimp, mushrooms, onions and curried sweet potato soup.

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9PM

Couch time. I spend time working on modules for my internship and blogging while hubby watches TV.

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10PM

Family time.

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11PM

Bedtime snack and stretching. Pigeon pose for the win!

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So there you have it. A day in my life (currently).

Important note: On days when I spend most of my time at the computer, I make a special effort to get up several times an hour to stretch my legs and you should too! Whether it’s to refill my water bottle, walk up and down the stairs a few times, spend a few minutes stretching or switching to standing up while I work for a while, it’s important to get out of your chair and get the blood pumping!

Let’s chat: Do you have a desk job? Do you make an effort to get up and moving throughout the day?

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

What is Crossfit?

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Hi Friends!

Now that we’ve been doing Crossfit for a while now, I feel like I’ve got a pretty good handle on the lingo. But I remember how overwhelmed I felt when I first started. Since I regularly post about my Crossfit workouts, and I know a lot of you don’t do Crossfit, I thought I’d break things down a little bit for you! I’ll explain some of the terms we use and hopefully it will help my Fitness Friday posts make a little bit more sense. Ready?

New to crossfit or thinking about starting? It's a great workout - Here's a detailed breakdown of what it entails!

So let’s start off with the basics:

What is Crossfit?
Crossfit is constantly varied, high intensity, functional movements. It includes a mix of Olympic lifting, gymnastics, plyometrics, running, rowing, bodyweight exercises and so much more!

Where do we workout?
The Box = a crossfit gym. It’s called a box because it’s typically in a warehouse-type space. Instead of seeing the machines you see in a typical gym, you’re more likely to see stacks of weights, barbells, pull-up bars and lots of open space.

What do we do?
Warm-up = Various exercises done to help loosen and warm our muscles
Skill/Strenth Session = We work on a specific skill or lift. Technique is reviewed and we work on our form, as well as increasing weight to get stronger.
WOD = Workout of the day. The “competitive” part of the session where you race the clock!

 

RFTAMRAP1

How are the WODs broken down?
RFT = Rounds for Time
AMRAP = As Many Rounds As Possible

What is a round? 
A round is a set or group of exercises that make up a workout. Here’s an example:

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One round of this WOD would be 5 pullups, 10 pushups and 15 squats. If this WOD was done as RFT, you would be given a set number of rounds to do, and you would do them as quickly as possible. So, if it was 3 RFT, you would do 5 pullups, 10 pushups, 15 squats and then start over and do it twice more. By the end, you will have done 15 pullups, 30 pushups and 45 squats as quickly as you can.

If this same workout was done as an AMRAP, you would be given a set amount of time and you would complete as many rounds as possible in that time. So, if it was a 20 minute AMRAP, you would do 5 pullups, 10 pushups, 15 squats over and over again until the time limit was reached.

How are the WODs scored?
If it’s a RFT workout, your score is the time you finish in. You want it to be as fast as possible.
If it’s an AMRAP, your score is the number of rounds you’re able to complete in the set amount of time. If you finish 15 complete rounds and then 5 pullups and 2 pushups of the next round before time runs out, your score would be 15 + 7. This shows people you completed 15 whole rounds and then got seven reps of the next round.

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Are there any other kinds of WODs?
Chipper = A chipper is done for time, but it’s generally a long workout that you “chip away” at it.
Benchmark WOD = Also known as the Crossfit girls, they are workouts with girls names, like Isabelle shown above, that can be repeated every so often to gauge your progress. They can also be used to compare your fitness level to other crossfitters. For example, one of the benchmark workouts is Fran.  You could ask someone, “What’s your Fran time?” and you could compare your time to theirs.
Hero WOD = Crossfit is often used in military training. Hero WODs are some of the most intense crossfit workouts, done to honor fallen members of the military. They’re often completed with weighted vests or masks to make them even more difficult.

Rx

How much weight should you use in the WOD?
For the exercises in the WOD that require weight, there is a “prescribed” or recommended weight. This is also know as Rx. So, if you’re strong enough, you can use the Rx weight for the WOD. If an exercise requires weight, the Rx weight will be written after the exercise in parentheses. The first weight is for men, the second is for women. For example, in the above workout, the Rx weight for the bear complex is 95# for men and 65# for women.  If you’re just starting, or haven’t lifted weights before, you can always “scale down” or use less weight.

How do you show people how much weight you used?

When you are finished with a workout, you record your score either on a dry erase board or into a computer. Depending on the type of WOD, you either write your time, or the number of rounds and reps you completed. In parentheses after that, you write any modifications you made to the WOD. If you used the prescribed weights for all exercises, you write (Rx). If you used more or less weight, you write how much weight you used. So if the Rx weight was 135# and you used 100# you would write your time/score followed by (100#). If you modified anything else, you can note that to. So, if you can’t do a pull-up and you did a jumping pullups instead, you might write (100#, JP).

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So, now that we’ve got all of that down, let’s move on to a few other terms that you might encounter, especially during the skill/strength sessions.

1

Strength Session Terms

  • Rep = one performance of an exercise. For example, one squat, or one pushup, would be one rep.
  • Set = a number of repetitions. So, if you’re supposed to do 3 sets of 5 reps, that might be written 3 x 5, and you would complete 5 reps, rest, 5 reps, rest, 5 reps.
  • 1RM = One Rep Max. The heaviest weight you can use to perform a specific lift one time. For example, my 1RM for deadlift is 175#. I can do one deadlift with 175#, but if I tried to do it a second time, it would be too heavy. You can use your 1RM to calculate how much weight you should be doing during your strength sessions. For example, maybe your coach says your warmup should be 60% of your 1RM and that you should work up to 80% of your 1RM during your sets. Maybe your sets for your strength session are 6 x 3, or 6 sets of 3 reps. If I was doing deadlifts, I would warm up with about 105# and then work up to 140# over the course of those 6 sets.
  • PR = Personal record. Basically lifting a heavier weight than you have in the past. So, if my previous 1RM for deadlifts was 175# and I was able to lift 185# one or more times during a strength session, that would be a new PR!
  • EMOM = Every Minute on the Minute. For example, during a strength session you may do 2 reps of a specific exercise, like cleans, EMOM for 12 minutes. So the timer would start, you would do two cleans and then you would have the remainder of that minute to add more weight to your bar, stretch, reposition the bar, etc. When the timer got to 2 minutes, you would do two cleans again and repeat
  • OLY Lift = Olympic Lift. These are things like squats, cleans, squats and deadlifts.

Whew! I think that’s enough for now. Come back next week to learn more about different types of exercises and lifts we do during the WODs!

If you want to read more about Crossfit today, check out the post I wrote about Things Crossfit Has Taught Me!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

PS…if you liked this post/found it helpful, please PIN IT/tweet it/share it with friends 🙂

PPS…good luck to anyone competing in the Open that’s doing 13.2 today or this weekend! I’m doing it tomorrow morning!

 

Registered Dietitians Who Blog

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Hi Friends!

Today’s a very special day. It’s National Registered Dietitian Day! In honor of that, I thought I’d give a little shoutout to some of the amazing RDs out there in the blog world that I think you should be following.

RDs who blog

These ladies inspire me daily. I love reading their blogs because they post great recipes, tackle interesting nutrition topics and provide great tips to help people lead healthy, active lifestyles. Here they are, in no particular order (Click the headers or the links below to visit their blogs!):

inspiredrd nutritionella fannetasticfood foodtrainers preventionrd
realmomnutrition candidrd nutritiouseats swankydietitian
professionalpalate teaspoonofspice realliferd nutritionunplugged healthfullyeverafter


sideofsneakers

And here they are listed by name:

As a bonus, I have to give a shoutout to Alexis at Hummusapien, and Carissa at Fit2Flex who are Dietetic Interns just like me! They’re going to make fantastic RDs soon!

hummusapien

fit2flex

And, since there are so many awesome RDs out there and I’m having a hard time limiting myself,  here are a few of my fav RDs on Twitter. Follow them for great recipes, news articles and more! (The links will take you to their Twitter pages)

I’m sure there’s some RDs I love that i’ve left out of this post. Please know it wasn’t intentional!!!

Let’s chat: Do you have a favorite RD blogger (or are you one yourself) that wasn’t mentioned above? Leave a link to their blog in the comments so everyone can check it out!

Now, go tell all the RDs in your life that you love them…and that you appreciate all of the hard work they put in to help make the world a healthier place!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

PS…I have to give a special shoutout to my current internship preceptor, Jenny. She’s amazing…and she also happens to have a food blog that you guys should check out! She’s just getting back into the groove of blogging again, so go show her some love: Foodie RD

foodierd


Black Bean Meatless Meatballs

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Hi Friends!

Just popping in with a quick recipe for you guys today. If you’ve been tuning in for the past few weeks, you may have noticed these black bean meatless meatballs popping up in my weekly eats! Today’s the day you get the recipe.

These vegetarian Black Bean Meatless Meatballs are protein-packed and hearty - you won't even miss the meat.

Ignore the fact that any kind of “ball” is difficult to photograph. Pretty they are not. Tasty they are 🙂

 

Pretty simple right?

These vegetarian Black Bean Meatless Meatballs are protein-packed and hearty - you won't even miss the meat.

I’ve been loving these little guys over spaghetti squash, but they’d also be great over real spaghetti. I also plopped a few into my sweet potato soup and guess what- AMAZING 🙂

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

 

Fitness Friday 47

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Hi Friends!

I have two weeks worth of workouts to share with you guys since we skipped Fitness Friday last week!

fitnessfriday1

So let’s back up to two weeks ago:

FF1

1. Saturday: I PR’d my squat clean at 105 pounds. For the workout I used 75 pounds and finished in 8:37.
2. Saturday we also took the boys on a couple of walks
3 & 4. Sunday: Active rest day. Took the boys on a walk!

FF2

1. Monday: We worked on handstand pushups. I’m trying to get the hang of kipping handstand pushups but it’s not going so well 🙂 For the wod, you had to row 500 meters, 4 times and all your times had to be within 3 seconds of your first time. This wod was easy for me. I rowed in college so I know how to pace myself. I knew I could probably pull sub 2 but gave myself a little leeway on the first one and finished in 2:02. Then I pulled 1:59 for the next 3.
2. We also took the boys on a walk and tried out the new toys we bought over the weekend. We got some lacrosse balls, which you basically roll around on to help loosen up your muscles. It’s super painful, but it helps. We also bought a pvc pipe so we can work on our form for some of the olympic lifts.
3. Tuesday: This wod was seriously rough.  I finished in 23:10. Worst part was toes to bar, by far. I struggle to get like 10, so 60 of them in a row is pretty much ridiculous…and then having to do 40 pullups after that really sucks.
**Wednesday: Rest day**
4. Thursday: Crushed this one!  I did 8 rounds + 14 and used a 24 inch box! For the skill we did double unders and also worked on pullups. I finally figured out how to string together 5 kipping pullups! Previously I could never get more than 2-3.

FF3

1. Friday: We both had the day off so we went to our first ever morning WOD. We also went back to our old box which is now open again! The WOD had toes to bar, which I hate, and pistols, which I love 🙂 I did this one Rx and finished in 8:13. Loved it!
2. Saturday: Hubby ran the Survival Race 5k. I decided not to run last minute because my foot has been bothering me and I was worried about the uneven ground. Turns out I made a good choice- one of our friends ended up with a stress fracture after the race and has to wear a boot for 3 weeks!
3. We got new jumpropes!
4. Sunday: A little sunset walk with the boys.

FF4

1. Monday: More toes to bar (gag me!). For skill/strength we did deadlifts and power cleans. Two more PRs for this girl! I deadlifted 175 pounds which is a 40 pound PR and cleaned 115 pounds, which is a 20 pound PR. I only used 65 pounds for the shoulder to overhead in the wod. Finished in 5:41.
2. Hubby went to Cactus crossfit while he was in AZ and did a drop-in workout. He represented well by PR’ing his overhead squat, doing 70 pound kb swings and stringing together lots of double unders!
3. Tuesday: I showed up for another morning workout because I had class Tuesday night and I almost turned around and walked out when i saw TTB were in the workout AGAIN!  This was a tough wod. I finished in 13:35.
4. Wednesday: Hardest workout in a while. We worked on hang squat cleans and I got up to 105 pounds. For the workout I used 85 pounds and let me tell you, I almost stopped and stripped down the weight. My legs were on FIRE. But I toughed it out and finished in 9:29.

a

Thursday: What I should have been doing- taking a rest day. What I did instead? The first workout of the Crossfit Open.

There are over 120,000 people registered for The Open worldwide. One new workout is announced each week for 5 weeks. You register for The Open and then after each workout is announced, you do the workout at an approved crossfit affiliate gym, or videotape yourself doing the workout and submit it online to be judged. Everyone all over the world posts their scores and after the 5 workouts are complete, the top competitors advance to regionals. Regionals are where you qualify to go to the actual Crossfit Games.

Clearly I’m just doing it for fun. I’m certain there’s going to be a workout I can’t even do because of the skill or weight required…but it’s still fun to be part of it. What’s even cooler is that one of my coaches is a crossfit superstar. Check out this article about her! She finished in the Top 25 at The Crossfit Games last year and is hoping to get first at regionals and seriously compete for a medal this year! It’s pretty awesome to have her as a coach and to get to cheer her on!

So anyways, they released the first workout (called 13.1) on Wednesday night. You could watch it be revealed online and then they had two of the top male Crossfit competitors do the workout live, just after it was announced. To give you a little perspective, the first workout last year was “as many burpees as you can do in 7 minutes.” Ridiculous right? Well this year’s first workout is even harder! Here’s what is was:

IMG_2453

Crazy right?! Burpees suck and snatches are probably the hardest olympic lift to master. My goal was to get through the first 40 burpees, the 30 snatches at 45 pounds, the next 30 burpees and then to at least get a few snatches at 75#. I knew that would be a PR for me. The most I’d ever snatched was 60#.

IMG_2463

Well guess what?! I did it! I got through the first set of burpees, the first set of snatches and then second set of burpees. Then we had to change our own weight. By the time I got the bar set up for the 75# snatches, we were 11 minutes into the workout. That meant I had six minutes left to get as many snatches as I could. In those six minutes I got 7 snatches at 75#. I also had about 20 failed reps 🙂 My form wasn’t pretty, but I’m proud of the ones I got!

Oh, and prior to the workout I had a little one on one coaching session with this guy:

IMG_2455

I had no idea who he was…just thought he was a random coach visiting our box. Turns out he’s Josh Bridges, the freakin’ runner up at the 2011 Crossfit Games!!! He’s also a Navy Seal. Sooooo…he’s pretty much a badass. And i’m pretty much clueless 🙂 Hubby, on the other hand, recognized him right away because he’d seen him on ESPN. But he didn’t bother to tell me he was famous while were there, or I would have gotten a picture with him!

Whew! Now you’re all caught up. Today is most definitely a rest day. I’m still deciding if i’m gonna try workout 13.1 again to see if I can improve my score or not. We’ll see!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Lasagna Soup

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Hi Friends!

So here’s the deal. I got a little lazy and I didn’t feel like taking real pictures of this recipe. But so many of you asked for it that i’m gonna go ahead and share it with you anyways. You’ll just have to deal with the instagram photos 🙂

All the goodness of lasagna without the hassle of layering and baking it!

The whole reason this recipe came to be is because I’ve been craving lasagna for the past three weeks. A few weeks ago, I went to make some Crockpot Lentil Veggie Lasagna and I was fresh out of tomato sauce! Then I promptly forgot to buy some the next three times I was at the store. I had one can of diced tomatos and a small 8 oz can of tomato sauce in the pantry and I finally decided to just make it work.

And I succeeded! Here’s the recipe:

 

Here’s the important thing to note about this recipe. The noodles will soak up the broth if you don’t eat it all. So if you think there’s going to be leftovers, and you want it to stay soup-like, you may want to cook the noodles separately and just mix them in each time you eat it. I didn’t really think about the fact that I was going to be the only one eating this because hubby was out of town. So I had a lot of leftovers. Whoops!

IMG_2372

But it was fine. I kind of liked getting to eat it two different ways. I enjoyed it as soup the first night, and then I served the leftovers on a bed of spaghetti squash and topped it off with some mozzarella cheese the next three times I ate it! Delicious either way.

Another option would be to leave out the noodles all together and use spaghetti squash noodles in the soup instead!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–