Week of 9/28 Paleo Menu

This week has a couple of new recipes that were going to try out.  And also I will go into how we plan our breakfast, lunch and snacks.

Monday - Stuffed Chicken Breast with Apple-Thyme Sauce
Tuesday - Isola Baked Pork Chops, from the Paleo Diet Book
Wednesday - Beef & Spinach Scramble, from the Paleo Diet Book
Thursday - Rosemary Pork Chops
Friday - Beef Patties with Baked Tomatoes

Ok, we are always asked what we do for breakfast, lunch and snacks.  For breakfast, we have eggs and something mixed into them. It is usually some meat that we may have left over after making all the lunches or it comes from a steak or chicken breast that we have grilled up for our snack. Sometimes we add some kind of veggie, like bell pepper. And for lunch, what we do is we cook enough food at dinner to feed a family of 6 or 8 and that way Shane has his two lunches, I have a lunch and a little left over for Davey. And yes Davey eats as much of a Paleo diet as a one year can.  He has his calcium and I like to give him some grains.

Making that many meals can be time consuming to prepare but it keeps you out of the restaurants at lunch and keeps you on the Paleo path. As I mentioned, we do cook a steak or chicken breast for a snack, but we also have fresh veggies, like broccoli, carrots, bell pepper, cucumber, and fresh fruits, are just a few. And we also add in some seeds and nuts, Shane's favorite part of snack time. We either mix our own from the bulk section at HEB or we buy it from My Fit Foods. If you do mix your own from a grocery store you need to watch out for the salt, oils and other chemical additives.

I can't wait to try out more new recipes; I will post them in the comments section, after we have tried!! Hope everyone has a great week!!

Fight Gone Bad 4!

Me, Vic Zachary & Mark Cournoyer at FGB4

Fight Gone Bad IV at Bayou City CrossFit was awesome. I didn't do as well as I hoped to, but I had a great time. Huge thanks to Vic at BCCF and the whole crew there and everyone that donated their time and effort. I ended up having to start on the rower which was not ideal, especially considering that wall ball is one of my weaknesses, it would have been nice to do it as rx'd and start at wall ball. Anyway, I came up with 277 reps, so not a good day, not a bad day, but a great workout and a great time for a great cause. Ended the day by heading to College Station with my wife Karen and Mark & Jeanna Cournoyer to hang out with my little brother Cruz (he is a sophomore at TAMU) and eat and drink things I shouldn't have. But hey, I feel like I earned it, I had been a good boy for over a month.  I need these types of breaks to keep my sanity.

I am back on strict Paleo now.  It is amazing the impact that one day of eating "regular" food and having a few drinks can have on you.  I still don't feel right and it has been almost two days.  The more I take these "breaks" though, the better decisions I seem to make during those breaks because I find that it usually is not worth it.  I find myself making conscious decisions to not eat or drink certain things because I just don't want them as I know what they will do to my body and my hormones.  I try to tell myself it is worth it so I can cut loose, but I don't know how convinced I am anymore.  There is just no substitute for a healthy Paleo diet that has you feeling great all the time.  But hey, I am human, and sometimes I have to cut loose even if I know I will regret it...the trick is to learn not to do it as often, and then when you do it, keep everything in perspective and in moderation.  Not only will you feel better, but you will feel better about yourself as well.

Time to saddle back up for the next run...stay tuned, my son's 1st birthday party is coming up this weekend, soon followed by a CrossFit competition and a much anticipated visit from my best friend Ben & his family where Ben and I will be heading to San Antonio for the CrossFit Olympic Lifting Certification!

Pre-Fight Gone Bad

From Left to Right after the WOD: James, Mark, My Son Davey & Me

Since I have the Fight Gone Bad Fundraiser this Saturday at Bayou City CrossFit I decided to do a practice run through at about 90% yesterday along with my daily WOD.  The past several days of hard work without much rest left me pretty sore and broken down, but we toughed through it.  We didn't count our reps, just went hard and enjoyed the pain.  Sometimes I find it refreshing to not keep score and just give it your best.

My buddy and fellow CrossFitter Mark Cournoyer and his friend James came over so we could enjoy this together.  James has a long history of rowing so we were able to benefit from his knowledge and critiques of our rowing technique.  James is a very knowledgable guy and I really appreciate his input and help.

This was James' introduction to CrossFit.  James is fit from rowing and from Krav Maga, but having the pleasure of introducing him to CrossFit is pure joy to me.  I love this stuff and being able to share it with others is awesome!  Thanks again to Mark and James for coming over and suffering with me!

After 4 straight days of tough WODs and doubling up on two of those days, I am looking forward to a rest day today.

On a related note, I am very honored to be a part of the FGB4 Fundraiser this weekend.  It has been a pleasure to prepare and raise money for such a worthy cause.  I hope my performance on Saturday is worthy of those I am fighting to help.

Week of 9/21 Paleo Menu

This week we are trying a few more new recipes that I came across and changed up to be more Paleo. If you’re wondering how to go about doing that, I go through the many cookbooks that I have gotten throughout the years and just find recipes that look like they have ingredients that could easily be taken out and changed up to something more Paleo. For example one of my recipes calls for a half cup of salted chicken broth, I could try to find a salt and chemical free chicken broth or make my own. Some days I just don't want to spend half my day in the kitchen making chicken broth and then my main meal. So I just take it out or add an all natural fruit juice, like orange or apple juice. Ok, here's our menu for the week:

Monday - Grilled Fish (Halibut, Sea Bass, Salmon) with Blueberry Sage sauce
Tuesday - Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breast with Apple-Thyme Sauce
Wednesday - Sirloin Hamburger Patties with Mushrooms
Thursday - From The Paleo Diet book by Loren Cordain Ph.d, Las Margaritas Stir Fried Ground Beef and Peppers
Friday - Spinach Stuffed Pork Tenderloin with Apple Cranberry Sauce

And each day is served with a seasonal veggie like a squash or green beans.

If it's a new recipe, on the day that I cook it and if we like it I will post the recipe for everyone to try out. If you are interested in the recipe before I post it, let me know and I can get it to you. As we go on, I will talk more about Breakfast, Lunch and Snacks.

Howdy & Welcome to the Gibson Garage Gym!

This is our first blog post of many to follow. Here we will journal and record our fitness training, diet, thoughts, ideas and news about exciting things to come from the Gibson family.

Expect many cool things and exciting news as we get this ball rolling. Please feel free to tell any of your family and friends about us that you think would enjoy coming along with us on our self improvement journey.

Thanks for stopping by, be sure to check in regularly for new and exciting stuff!