Steak Salad

There is hardly anything better than a well put together salad. At least in my book anyways! Especially one that is packed with protein and all the things I like best. So when I put together this steak salad I fell in love and so did everyone else in my house. Needless to say, it's become a sensation and a regular meal in our rotation. Salads are always very universal and can be changed to the consumers specific tastes.

Protein Filled Steak Salad

(Recipe based off three servings)

What you will need:

• A leafy, green base of your choosing. I always use romaine hearts.
• Steak meat. I use store bought stew meat as it's already cut up and is very convenient for quick cooking.
• Reduced sodium bacon. 
• A large green bell pepper. I add one because I prefer my salads to have some crunch.
• Boiled egg. I use one egg per bowl of salad.
• Olives (optional). We love olives in this house and add them to anything we can. They provide a tangy flavor to accommodate your greens and protein.
• Salad dressing of your choosing. **Note that most store bought salad dressings can be high in fat and calories. We use homemade salsa as a dressing for ours to eliminate traditional dressings. 

1. Begin by placing the steak meat into a pan on medium to high heat and cook until they are a nice brown color. I tend to cook mine more rare, about 3-4 minutes on each side. Be sure to drain well to get rid of any excess grease. I also lay it all out on a plate with paper towels to soak up even more unwanted grease.

    2.Follow up the steak by cooking the pack of low sodium bacon on a medium to high heat as well. You will be breaking these up into small pieces, so I tend to cook mine crispier than usual. Once it's all cooked, do as you did with the steak meat and lay them out on a paper towel to cool an drain the grease. Once cooled you can either chop them into small pieces with a knife, or you can be lazy like me and toss them all into a food processor. Once chopped, set aside. 

    3. Now for the boiled eggs. Luckily mine were already boiled and all I needed to do was peel and chop them up. But in any case, boil your eggs and allow them to cool in an ice bath before peeling. Like I mentioned earlier I made three bowls of salad and used an egg per bowl. Once you've peeled the eggs, just like the bacon, you can either chop them with a knife or be lazy and put them in the food processor.  Set aside once done.

    4.Chop up your bell pepper into small pieces. Easy as that!

    5.Now time to chop up your greens and assemble your salad. It took me 1 1/2 romaine hearts to make three bowls of salad. If you're making just one, 1/2 a romaine heart should suffice. Add your lettuce to the bowls, divvy up the bacon and eggs and layer all the goods in any way that you see fit! Then to give it some tangy flavor we add some olives. Our favorites are pimento stuffed and Greek kalamata olives. Add some dressing of your choice, be it homemade or a substitution, or even none at all and you're all finished!

This is just our favorite way to eat salads, so twist it any way you want to make it right for you! That's my favorite thing about salads, they are always universal! If you tried this variation, I'd love to hear how it turned out for you!

How Crossfit Changed My Life

Ahhh, yes. Right out of the gates I'm making the typical "crossfitter" post. According to the population who don't crossfit, those who do crossfit have nothing else to talk about, except how great crossfit really is. The truth of it all lies behind the fact that we DO always talk about it because it has become a way of life. Choosing to live this lifestyle has changed my life for the better in so many ways, so why would I choose not to talk about where all the positivity in my life is stemming from!

Nemesis Strength and Conditioning, Arizona

Joining a crossfit gym has changed my life in the following ways:

1. It has forced me to be more sociable.

To some, that may sound like a bad thing, but for me it was everything I needed. Growing up, I was always shy and allowed myself to suffer from social anxiety. I never had large groups of friends and never really appreciated being around large masses of people. I think I owe this all to my boyfriend, Tim. He always pushes me to go beyond my realm of comfort, he is the reason I started crossfit in the first place. This may seem more like a personal triumph, and in part it is, but joining my gym made me realize that I was completely missing out on all the amazing people that came into my life. Breaking out of my comfort zone and becoming more open with others has done marvelous things for my life and I couldn't be more appreciative.

    2. It has showed me I'm capable of more than I assume.

Crossfit and lifting weights in general, is a very intimidating thing for a lot of people. I used to be one of those people. My boyfriend had been attending our gym for years before I started going. Over the course of those years I built up this fake intimidation that I would never be able to do the things crossfitters do. I would always watch with a desire, but allowed the intimidation to hold me back from joining. In December of 2014, I promised Tim that I would finally go with him, and at first it was harder than I could have imagined. There were days where I felt down because I couldn't do things the way everyone else was doing. But, I stuck with it even on days I wanted to lay down and cry; who am I kidding, I still want to do that some days! I kept grinding, kept practicing, kept pushing myself and now I'm amazed at how far I've come in a year. I can do things that I never thought I would ever accomplish. I always have to remind myself that there is always more room for improvement, always more room to make myself be better than I was yesterday and that is an extremely triumphant feeling.

    3. It has made me mentally stronger.

Crossfit is no easy game. It's some of the hardest shit you will ever do in your life. The only way to go, is up, and that takes a lot of perseverance and a strong mentality. When I began my journey, I didn't really have dedication or motivation. I had no interest in competing with myself or even improving, because I was weak mentally. I never practiced, never pushed myself, didn't allow myself to see a better, stronger me. I would quit during workouts, make excuses and feeble attempts at actually pushing myself. A little more than a year later, I can't go a day in the gym without practicing the things I need improvement on. I can't quit mid-workout because the guilt will eat at me for the rest of the day, knowing I could have done much better. The gym forged my mentality to be where it needed to be to eat right and not eat like shit. Without the new found strength, I would be horrendously failing at everything I have allowed my life to transform into for the sake of living a fit life. 

   4. It gave me the confidence I needed.

Over the course of my on-going four year relationship, I gained unwanted weight. I was embarrassed and struggled for a long time with hating who I was and what I looked like, and to be completely honest I still struggle with it, but on a much more positive note than I did before. Crossfit has given me confidence and self-esteem that I lost and never thought I would get back again. My body has changed in so many positive ways that I can't count. I no longer depend and allow my day to be determined by numbers on a scale because they are so trivial compared to the changes that are happening right in front of my own eyes. I carry myself with more gratitude for who I am. I feel the confidence that I used to in my relationship, before my weight gain. More importantly, I've began to love who I am again and have been able to store all the negative things I've made myself believe about my body away for good. That's better than anything I could have ever hoped for.

   5. It gave me a new family I never knew I needed.

The best all of all of these improvements in my life is that I gained a family. They are all people who I can trust and I know will always be there to push me and lift me up even when I think I can't do it. I couldn't be happier or more proud of them as we all continue to grow and succeed together. They have all become people I wouldn't want to live my life without and nothing beats that. So here is to Nemesis family for pushing me to be stronger than I was yesterday and for being the best friends and family anyone could ask for.

Barbells for Boobs, 2014

Just a side note here:

My gym, Nemesis Strength and Conditioning will be participating in the Tillman run in Phoenix. If you're unaware of who Pat Tillman is, or why this even is happening, you can read all about it at: http://pattillmanfoundation.org. 

We have a team fundraiser page going, so if you feel you'd like to donate to our team you can do so at:
https://www.crowdrise.com/nemesispattillmanfoundationfundraiser

Zucchini Fritters

The following is a recipe that I whipped up for lunch today as I was craving something on the lighter side and wasn't all that hungry. They are very scrumptious and provide a nice side veggie for any meal, or go great as a snack! They are easy to make and take very minimal effort. I can't wait to make these again and will probably pair them with my salmon cakes sometime in the near future! Now enough with the small talk, let's get cookin'!

What you will need:

• 4-5 Medium to Large size zucchini, grated
• 5 eggs (5-6 egg whites if you're omitting the yolk)
• 5 tablespoons of flour (For a healthier option, go with coconut flour)
• Cooking Salt
• Black Pepper
• Olive Oil
• Feta cheese, or any cheese you prefer (Optional)

Instructions:

1. Begin by fine grating your zucchini into a medium/large sized bowl. Once all your zucchini is grated, sprinkle a small amount of cooking salt over them and allow them to rest for 7-10 minutes. This allows some of the retained water to rest at the bottom.
2. Once your 7-10 minutes are up, grab the grated zucchini in handfuls and squeeze all the water out of them and add them to a clean bowl. Keep doing this until you've squeezed out all of the zucchini and it has been placed into the waiting bowl.
3. Take all of the eggs and place them in a large bowl and whisk them together with a pinch of cooking salt and black pepper. Feel free to add any other seasonings you'd like to experiment with.
4. Add the grated zucchini to the egg mixture and mix well. Follow by adding any cheese if you're choosing to incorporate it.
5. Once you've mixed the egg mixture and zucchini, add the flour and mix well until all the flour has been absorbed. 
6. Heat olive oil in a frying pan at a medium/high heat. Once the oil is hot enough, bring the temperature down some before adding the fritters to keep them from burning. Scoop out heaping spoonfuls into the oil and allow them to cook 1-2 minutes on each side or until golden brown. 
7. Once the fritters are done cooking, move them to a plate ready with paper towels to soak up all the extra olive oil. 

I got about 18 small fritters out of this recipe. Quantities will change based on how large you would like them to be. 

As a healthier option to frying them in olive oil, I will be experimenting with baking them instead and will be sure to post an update for that! 

This recipe holds a lot of room for trying out new things, be it a different squash, cheese or cooking them in different flavored oils, the possibilities could be endless!

If you tried out this recipe I would love to hear how yours turned out! Stay tuned as well as I will be trying to post a new recipe and/or fitness blog everyday! Also, I will be working out all the kinks with my camera so that all recipes in the future will have more in depth how to's, and less mediocre pictures. So stick around!

Introductions are polite!

"The iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that you're a god or a total bastard. The iron will always kick you the real deal. Friends may come and go, but two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds". 

- Henry Rollins

Hello there and welcome to my brand new blog! I have had a blog in the past, but it really wasn't up to par with what I was imagining for a blog in regards to my current life. Having said that, I am still fairly new to all this. So here were are. 

I created this blog with the intention of keeping records of all my fitness fails and succession, as well as all of the scrumptious clean eating recipes I make in my household. I'm an avid food lover and cook and have been attending a local strength and conditioning gym here in my home town for the last year. Shout out to my Nemesis family! 

I am in high hopes that this will help me stay the course, keep me motivated and keep me grinding in and out of the gym. I strongly hope that it can do the same for all you readers out their who are actively living this or trying to get into the lifestyle that is all about fitness and nourishing your bodies with the healthy foods it deserves. 

I am always on the look out for more recipes and fellow inspiration/motivation, so feel free to share any information, recipes, fitness tips and such with me as I navigate this new and exciting life change.