Week's End and 2 Videos

Here I am again. Ha. What?  I know I'm a fickle blogger.  It's not like the old days when I'd post 2-3 times a DAY! Crazy.  I just need to get on here and see what happens I guess.  I think I have expectations.  That can mess things up.

This past week did not pan out as I had hoped in the studio.  I wanted to get some serious work done.  As it so happened I busted my hump at CrossFit on Monday and Tuesday and by Wednesday I was so sore and sick (I think I caught a stomach bug) that I was wiped out.  I spend most of Thursday on the couch but I did manage to get some pots slipped and decorated in short time spurts when I was feeling okay.  I even shot a couple of short videos of me making bowls.

I love throwing with soft clay.  It centers so easily, it responds to a light touch and the finished pot seems so much more organic and not over worked.  Soft clay paired with a treadle or kick wheel is just perfection to me.

If you're interested in how life is after the Whole 30 I'd say it's going really well.  Sarah and I have continued to eat healthy and to cook most of our meals at home.  We did have several meals out this past week as we celebrated several special occasions with friends.  Today I went to the grocery though and stocked up for the week.  I'm all set to make meals every night this week, hopefully with leftovers for lunches.

Okay, well that's it for now.  I'll post some pics tomorrow of some pots and let ya know how my Monday goes.  Cheers.

Enough was Enough

I am pretty behind in posting but I thought I'd try and give it a shot this morning and just catch up a bit.

Sarah and I bailed on the Whole 30 on Day 23.  I was fed up with all the cooking and dishes and thinking about my food all the damn time and Sarah lost her appetite after the explosion of her lunch on Day 22.  We were both getting tired of eating the same things put together in different ways.  We love to go out to eat and we had lost that for more than 3 weeks and finally we just said "Enough".

On the 24th we were in Charlotte and had a great meal at one of our favorite restaurants, Lang Van.  It's some really yummy Vietnamese food.  I had the 'hot pot' and Sarah had ginger tofu with rice and veggies.  It was sooooo good.

I do kinda feel bad that we made it so long and then just quit with 7 days to go.  But I do think we learned a lot about our connection with food.  We both felt this was an emotional challenge for us.  Honestly, I don't think I felt much difference physically.  Sarah did notice improvement or absence of acid reflux and I think she also may have slept better.

We have continued to eat well over the last week.  We have both had some wine and bread and rice.  But we are still eating good food.  My plan is to stay off the beer until at least March and see how that goes.  I don't drink much anyway so it's no big deal really.  I am very happy to have cut out sugar during the Whole 30 (the Whole 23 in our case) and I plan to stay off sugar as much as I can. I'm not going back to my milk and cookie routine at night.  I will probably have milk, but no cookie.

I think we are heading down more of a road to Paleo along with some 'cheat meals' along the way.  Sarah believes in moderation and I think that is a good plan for now.  We love Asian food and I don't see us completely giving up rice.  Oh, which reminds me...cauliflower rice, no.  It's just not good people.  I mean it's 'okay' and all but really cauliflower is not a magic bullet.  Cauliflower mashed "potatoes", cauliflower "tortillas", cauliflower "Alfredo sauce".  Get real.  Do yourself a favor and just don't bother. It's just sad.

One of the last meals we had on the Whole 23 was Spaghetti Pie from PaleOMG.  It was very tasty and I did like having spaghetti squash for the first time ever.

Okay, that's all I got for now.  I'll try and keep up a bit and also I'm sure I'll have more to add as Sarah and I discuss how we feel and how we want to continue to eat and live our lives in a healthy way.  It was nice to have some bacon at breakfast this morning.

Cheers.  And congrats to everyone who's finishing up the Whole 30 today. Very well done!!

Day 22

Wednesday this week was Day 22.  There really isn't much to say about the food we ate that day.  It was all leftovers or repeats.  Nothing exciting.

Sarah had a bad experience during her lunch hour when she blew up her lunch in the microwave at work.  It's frustrating when something like that goes wrong and there is no back up for food.  She ate what she could but she said it just felt gross and she was put off by the whole thing.

I coached CrossFit during the lunch hour and then taught pottery that night.  Wednesdays are going to be very busy for me over the next 8 weeks.  My students are doing well.  The beginners are making headway now that they've got a few pots under their belts.

All for now.  I'll catch up on Day 23 and 24 ASAP

Day 21 Whole 30

Today was great.  I got lots of work done in the studio, sold some pots online and out of the showroom, had a good workout, made 3 decent meals and just feet better all around.

Nine more days!  That seems like nothing.

For Breakfast I made skillet baked eggs.   First I cooked some sausage in the frying pan and removed it to a paper towel to drain.  I then sautéed 1/2 an onion, some red bell pepper, and a couple cloves of garlic.  Once the onion and pepper had softened I added about 6 cups of spinach and kale and let that cook down. I then added the sausage back into the pan and stirred it all up.  I made 4 wells in the spinach, added a bit of ghee and cracked in the eggs.  Then popped the whole pan in a 400 deg oven till the eggs set.  (About 10-12 min)

That was super good and filling and I may make it again tomorrow!!

Lunch was leftovers of chicken, butternut squash, salad, and some of the cucumbers from Sunday.  I finally feel like I am eating enough food.  I need a big plate like this to get me through the afternoon.

Oh, and guacamole of course!

I had used up the last of the ghee from Trader Joe's at breakfast.  I had bought some organic butter at the grocery on Monday so I was all set to make the ghee following this method I found online.  It was totally easy and mostly hands off.

 This first pic shows the butter just after it came out of the oven.  I skimmed off the solids and had this:

 I then strained that through a cheesecloth (in my case an old tee shirt) and got the following:

Easy peazy.

For Dinner I needed to make up for the lame-o, plain fish that I cooked last night so I made Wild Salmon with Lemon Dill Sauce, roasted asparagus, and roasted butternut squash.

That was flipping delicious!!  We usually have teriyaki glazed salmon but this was a really nice change and I'll be making this again next week for sure.

I got several boards of pots made in the studio today. I'll probably do a separate post on what's happening in there tomorrow.

Okay, that's it for now.  Here's to another day of the Whole 30 marked off the calendar.  Cheers.

Day 20. Whoop Whoop

Ten more days to go!  I'm hoping it's downhill from here.  I'm feeling pretty good that we've made it this far and that I haven't given in to my pizza cravings or tackled a cow to get some milk.  I've not had any headaches the past few days.  I think my energy level is pretty much normal.  I've not felt like super man or anything.  I talked to a couple people at CrossFit tonight and they said that they felt really amazing.  Good for them. Ha.

Honestly I don't know what I expect to feel from this thing.  Other than the insane feelings I've felt around my desire for food and my psychological dependance on it.  I guess if I think about it then I have to be pretty proud for not giving in to sugar or dairy.  That's a big deal to do without those things for 20 days.  I think I've lost about 5 lbs.  Losing weight is not the goal for me.  I would like to get rid of my fat neck and belly.  I do like that my pants fit better.

At this point I'm thinking about how I want to carry on after Day 30.  I have not missed beer at all.  I have not really missed bread (other than pizza crust).  And I've found that I can get through the evening without a cup of milk and a cookie.  So I think I may stay off the beer for a few months and stay off the bread as well as really watching my sugar intake.

For Breakfast today we had our usual eggs, sausage, guacamole, and sweet potato.

For Lunch I had chicken, salad with tahini dressing, and leftover butternut squash, and guacamole. Man, thank god for guacamole!  It's getting me through this thing.

Here's the chicken after it came out of the oven last night.  Sooooo good.

Dinner was pretty simple and mostly flavorless.  I cooked some cod (Sarah is tired of beef, pork, and chicken), steamed some green beans, and heated up a sweet potato.  Easy and done.  The fish could have been done a number of ways but I didn't get home from CF till 7 and didn't want to get all fancy with anything.

I coached my first official class at CrossFit tonight.  I had 12 athletes in the gym.  Most all of them were experienced and didn't need much cueing throughout the WOD.  It's going to be a challenge for me to learn to watch for things to help folks with as well as managing the time and just doing it all.  I felt really good and got some positive feedback from some other coaches and athletes.  I'd have never thought that I'd be doing any of this but it's really great.

Okay that it's for now.  So glad to only have 10 more days to go.  Weeeeeeee

Yunomi

I fired a load of yunomi last week.  Here are a few of them.  I am sending 5 to the annual Yunomi Invitational show at Akar Gallery in Iowa City, Iowa.  It's an honor to be asked to be in that show with many of the nations top potters.

Day 19. I Needed to Get Out

I felt better today.  I'm not really over my cold but I think I'm getting better.  I'm ready for Monday to come so I can get in the studio and make some pots.  I have quite a lot to get ready for so I need to get cranking.

Sarah made us a frittata for breakfast/brunch.  It had sweet potatoes, spinach and rosemary in it.  It was very good and a nice change.  We normally have frittatas for dinner during the weekdays.  Often they will have broccoli or spinach, roasted potatoes, rosemary, onion, tomato and some sort of cheese in them.  Goat cheese or feta is a good choice.

We headed over to some friend's house to watch the Denver/New England game later in the day.  We are all doing the Whole 30 so everyone brought a dish and we drank coffee or water. I really needed to get out of the house and have some social time.  Of course we all talked about food and how we were feeling and what we would cook this week.  Ha.  Very exciting indeed.

Sarah and I took a big tossed salad and a some cilantro-lime cucumbers. Sarah made a compliant tahini-ginger dressing for the salad. Others had prepared roast pork, spicy chicken nuggets, Mexican soup, veggies, fruit, salsa and guacamole.

I've got a chicken in the oven right now along with some sweet potatoes.  We'll eat the potatoes through out the week.  The chicken is so we can have another small meal this evening and also have leftovers for lunch tomorrow.  I will not let this chicken out of my sight when it comes out of the oven!

According to the Whole 30 Timeline I am supposed to be experiencing "Tiger Blood" this week.  Well it needs to kick in!  Bring it on! Come on Tiger Blood!  I'm ready baby!

Damn. Wrong Image.

Now. That's better.

It looks like I'm going to be put to the schedule to coach some classes at CFS this week.  I'm pretty excited.  Of course I'm nervous too, but the sooner I get in there and get started the more I'll learn and more comfortable I'll get.

Okay.  That's it for now.  I'll try to keep up this week with daily posts.  Have a good week everyone.