Sunbutter Pumpkin Cupcakes

[caption id="attachment_2823" align="aligncenter" width="289"] Not So Primal Brownies[/caption]

Last night I had a huge hankering for some of my "famous" primal brownies but since we have a tree nut allergy in the house I knew that wasn't going to happen. 

Or was it. :)

I decided to do a little bit of experimentation and substituted out the almond butter with sunbutter. I also poured the batter into cupcake tins instead of a brownie pan. So really these are more cupcake like than brownies.

Sue me.

The end result was pretty amazing if I do say so myself.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup SunButter (I used the Omega-3 version which has small bits of flax seed in it. I won't buy that one again for this purpose)


• 1 cup mashed pumpkin


• 1 egg


• 1/3 cup honey


• 1 tsp baking soda


• 2 scoops protein powder (completely optional and I only added it because I need some more protein in my diet for the day. I used Body Fortress Cookies and Cream)


• dash of all spice (not sure why I used this but it worked)

Combine all ingredients in a bowl.  Mix well.  Pour into a greased cupcake pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Serves 12.

Crockpot Breakfast Casserole

It's been along time since I have done a recipe. That all changes today!

Below is a "breakfast" casserole that I made for dinner. It was quick, easy to put together and yielded a great taste. Enjoy.

[caption id="attachment_2802" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Crockpot Breakfast Casserole[/caption]

Startbeingfit.com: Crockpot Breakfast Casserole

Ingredients

5 cups of frozen hash-browns
1lb of ground beef
1/2 yellow onion
1 red pepper
1 cup shredded cheese
2T Worcestershire sauce
6 eggs
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Beat the eggs and Worcestershire sauce in a bowl and then set aside.

Next up, brown the beef in a pan

Add chopped onion and red pepper

In the crockpot:
start with a layer of hashbrowns
followed by the beef mixture
then the cheese
then repeat the layers
Top it off with egg and Worcestershire combo

Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Preparation time: 10 minute(s)

Cooking time: 8 hour(s)

Number of servings (yield): 4

4 out of 5 stars:  ★★★★☆ 1 review(s)

Copyright © startbeingfit.com
Recipe by startbeingfit.com.

 

Another 5k in the Books

This last Saturday, I did something that I have not done in years: I ran a 5k. To add a twist to it, I did it pushing my 18 month old son! I did not have a huge desire to run but the proceeds of the race go towards a really good cause - The Kade Meyer Celebration Run . I also wanted to show my kids that anything is possible if you put your mind to it. My kids have never seen me run a race and knowing that my entire family would be waiting for me at the finish line cheering made me feel pretty good.

I woke up that morning suffering from some severe seasonal allergies. My legs and lower back hurt but I committed to run this thing no matter what and run it I did! I finished the entire race in 29:06 and that includes some walking time in the beginning while I shuffled for room to run! My wife and kids were so proud and my youngest son had a blast in the stroller! I can now see me doing another race and I cannot wait for the chance to bring my wife and daughters along for the run as well.

 

Back to Higher Reps

After a year or so of heavy lifting via Reverse Pyramids (squats, deadlifts, bench, etc) I have transitioned back to a higher rep lower weight routine. Diversity and change are good and I needed it. I was getting bored doing the same routine with little variation and I wasnt putting in the effort needed to obtain the change that I desired. I am in week 2 of this new routine and so far I am loving it. I feel utterly exhausted after every workout and I love and have missed that feeling. The workouts are intense enough to challenge me and each week is a bit different from the previous. It sort of reminds me of the days I did P90x. I got great results from P90x and I anticipate getting the same great results with this routine. I am already noticing a difference in my shoulders and chest area.

One thing that has been tough with this new routine is watching some of the bigger guys doing the workouts that I used to do. Bench press, deadlifts, squats, etc. I used to laugh at the guys not doing those exercises and now I am one of the guys not doing them and I feel like people are laughing at me. Don't get me wrong. I still enjoy them and I do miss them from time to time, I just needed to do something different for a while. I was getting bored. My muscles were getting bored and I felt like I was getting injured more often. My elbow is still really sore and inflamed and I feel this was a direct result of doing really have deadlifts.

If anything, this change has taught me an important lesson. Everybody is different and has different ways to get into shape. Who cares if your ideal exercise is to do curls on a bosu ball. Who I am to criticize someone who wants to squat and nothing more?  I am so tired of these blogs that critique people on their exercise of choice or snap pictures of someone doing something they consider to be a worthless move. I have started to unsubscribe from those blogs. They were wasting my time.

If I have ever offended anyone on here or twitter regarding your exercise of choice, I am sorry. I now applaud you for at least getting into the gym and doing a workout.  Do what you want, just practice good form and go as heavy as you can.

Tennis Elbow

My right elbow continues to give me problems. I have done everything from taking a break from working out, to hot/cold compresses, to icy hot. At this point I am really not sure what to do next. I think it may be time to start lifting for reps for awhile rather than try and set PR's on everything I do. It's not ideal and not what I really want to do but I am getting really tired of this feeling and it's effecting the amount of weight I can lift anyway.

Does anyone else have any ideas on what I can do to get rid of the pain? I am pretty sure its tennis elbow.

Pushing a Car vs Lifting a Car

There is a guy at the gym that will stack every available 45lb plate onto the hip sled machine and then proceed to do multiple reps with but a few inches of travel. His leg day and mine usually land on the same day and he is typically doing his workout while I am doing my squats.

When he is done, he always comes over and asks me why I don't try my hand at the hip sled like him.  I often tell him its not really my thing. I really dont want to get into a debate on lifting techniques with him.  I just want to get in, lift, and get out.

Today while I was standing around waiting for the squat rack to open up, I thought of a great analogy of the sled vs the squat rack.

Many people can push a car. It really doesn't take much to push a car into motion and then continue that motion.  But let's see that same person try and actually lift that car. If they could, that would be impressive and would really show the strength of that individual.

I personally would rather be able to lift a car than push it. Which person would you rather be?

Update Week Ending 05-11-2012

It's been a little while since I have thrown an update out here. My wife and I recently purchased a home and we have been pretty busy painting, cleaning, and doing all of the little things that come with moving. Because of the move, I took about 2 weeks off from the gym and my diet took a dive. I found it hard to prepare good and healthy meals while moving between two houses. I know some people will say where there is a will there is a way but I just didnt have the will to do that. :)

To make up for the bad eating I continued to do my daily 16 hour fasts. I also tried to make sure that the first meal I ate was very low carb.  Then for dinner, I pretty much ate whatever I wanted to (pizza, hot dogs, etc). The next day I started over with the 16 hour fast and "reset" my body. The first week of doing this saw my body weight go down a few pounds. The second week, I feel like my night time "cheats" increased a bit more and my weight stayed the same.

Now that this week is just about over and we are getting settled into our new home, I will be able to get back to the way things should be. I am going to continue to experiment with carb back loading though. I really like the freedom it has given me with the ability to eat the wonderful things my wife prepares. Going really low carb at lunch allow me some wiggle room with dinner and as long as I don't go over my allotted carbs for the day, I see nothing wrong with this approach.  If it fits your macros, eat it!

Like I stated earlier, this is an experiment and time will tell how my body reacts. So far so good though. I challenge you to find what works for you and then let me know in the comments!