Surgery and life after

So this past year has been one challenge after another. Fortunately, I've pretty much kicked butt as much as I had mine kicked. I helped my family when they needed it. I successfully wrote applications and have been accepted to medical school. I turned down Penn State in order to go to University of Colorado. I moved up to Aurora and I'm finally starting to settle in here. My foot has healed enough to start doing (mostly) proper CrossFit again. Now I need to find a new CrossFit home. Leaving Pikes Peak CrossFit was definitely difficult for me, but the beauty of it is that there are good communities at most boxes. That's something I will definitely need to get me through school. I'm also finally starting to get my foodee back on. I miss eating well and how it makes me feel. That's all starting to change!

One thing I've decided: that as good as Paleo is for my rheumatoid arthritis, I'm still going to allow myself an occasional beer. Not often, but once in a while a good beer just puts a smile on my face.

The next week holds some serious excitement for me! Sunday, I will be riding the Urban Assault Race in Denver. Bikes + obstacles + beer. Next week I fly to LA for the CrossFit games. There are few things as motivating as watching elite athletes throw down.

Mashup Meal

Tomorrow I fly to Hershey, Pennsylvania for my PSU medical school interview. In the interest of not having a bunch of food spoiling in my fridge and not wanting to buy anything new, I decided to make all my meals using up the miscellaneous bits of what I still had fresh. Lunch today consisted of a mostly pan cooked meal. I cooked the fresh mushrooms, onions, and zucchini in a little evoo, a little water, garlic, and Mccormick's Spicy Steak seasoning. The chicken was left over from my crock pot cooking. I added the spinach and chicken to the pan once the veggies were mostly cooked. Easy peasy. Not fancy, not exciting, but tasty and a great way to use up fresh foods when cleaning out your fridge.

And yes, that is my Curious George reads plate. :)

Back to life

The past few months have been less than kind and unfortunately have taken their toll. I've allowed myself to become so overwhelmed by everything that I was drowning in my own pile of hooey. My diet, of course, is the first thing to go to crap. As in, piles of way too many sweets. In the past few weeks, I've started clawing my way back to reality. A surprise visit from The Jen helped dramatically. She was exactly the kick in the pants that I needed. We skied, hung out, and played like kids. It took a couple of days to recover from the weekend, but it set me on the road toward getting my stuff together. Now, with a little luck and a bit of work, I will have my creative juices flowing again! I'm looking forward to a new Paleo challenge. This time around I've started simple, with basic meat & veggie dishes. It's an easy way to get back into proper Paleo eating without too much thought. Dinner tonight included a spinach soup with egg. Delish. Yes, it's definitely time to start making my food interesting again.