I made a tough decision last week.

I dropped it off at Goodwill (along with a candle that I just love and a curling iron that I still can’t use).

I have had the same scale since I was in high school.  I was planning on taking it with me. Over the years I’ve come to really like my scale.  It’ve learned to see it as a tool and have cut most emotional ties to it.  I’ve learned it’s erratic language.  If I eat out the night before she will read higher or if I’m really active and forget to drink water it will read lower.  Neither is worth getting disappointed or excited over.

When it came down to packing for a year I had to make some hard decisions and there just wasn’t room for it.  (Just like there wasn’t room for my 7 wigs although I did find space to stow a pair of fishnets.) I considered storing it but there was limited space at Brent’s parents so I really couldn’t justify storing a 15+ year old scale.  As far as I know, it’s not even accurate.

It’s going to be weird not weighing myself for a year or more.  I go through stages of weighing myself once or twice a month or if I set a goal a few times a week.  It can be a huge motivator for me.  It’s not that the number means much, it’s mostly just data, but I love good challenge.  I also know what number range is easy to maintain where I still look good and what range is more challenging to maintain where I look “great”.  Even that is relative though.

Here is the thing. I need to learn to trust myself.  I know what needs to be done to maintain but there is that little doubt that if I don’t see that number then I will go back to being overweight.  I don’t want to go back there. I don’t have to maintain a six pack but being overweight wasn’t great. It’s not that life was terrible when I was overweight but given the choice I’d rather be lean. The scale does’t make or break my day but it does reassure me and now that reassurance is gone.

It’s a journey and I’m looking forward to learning from this experience.

I’m already learning a lot even though we’ve only been gone for less than two weeks.

Yesterday, I did my first workout since September.  Brent and I worked out together.  It was lovely to workout under the trees and in the dirt.  It was short 20 minute workout (not including warm up and foam rolling) and I’m already sore!

I’ve lost a lot of strength.  I’m a little bummed out but I will regain it.

After our workout I did some foam rolling in our little home.

I suppose this was my first strength training workout since September.  Last week, I went on my first ever mountain bike ride to a beautiful remote beach.  It was amazing not only the ride itself but overcoming a long time fear of bikes.

Like I said, it’s all journey.

Hugs and High Fives,
Jenn

Check out our family’s adventures at New School Nomads as we take a year long (or more) road trip through the United States!

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Life is crazy.  We live on a ginormous spinning sphere of matter that rotates with a bunch of other spheres around a massive beyond comprehension inferno of gases.  Then there are caterpillars that turn into butterflies, male seahorses that hatch babies, and anteaters.  Wonderful craziness.

Anyway…

My life is particularly crazy in the strange way us humans fill our days.  We are still planning on moving into the rv this week.  Friday or Saturday will be our actual move in day.  There is still so much to be done but it’s doable.  I think.

Last Friday, I worked extra hard so I could head down to the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday for a blogger picnic.

I have priorities.

It was SO. MUCH. FUN.

(Insert Group Photo When It Arrives Here)

I got to hang out with some bloggers I already knew, meet a few who I have known only online, and meet some brand new friends.

I love all the cameras that come out when bloggers get together!

We ate amazing food (of course).

Lynn from the Actors Diet tossing her tasty kale salad.

Then we chatted it up under the trees.  Amanda and Andy from Two Boos Who Eat.  In the background is Mimi from Damn that Freshman Fifteen, Sophia from Burp and Slurp, and Deb, aka, Smoothie Girl.

Speaking of…

The picnic was organized by the amazingly thoughtful Deb.

When I say thoughtful I mean thoughtful.  She sort of makes me feel like the parent who forgets their child’s birthday but that’s ok I still love her. Once, this girl even drove over an hour to help me paint during another particularly crazy busy time when we moved out of our old house into my parent’s place to get ready for our upcoming trip.

In attendance was special guest, Janetha, from Meals and Moves.

Here is a fun little fact.  Janeetha and I met years ago on an online Body For Life forum before we both even knew about health blogs. I was so happy to finally meet her in person!

I also got to meet the precious Eden from Eden Eats Everything who I hope doesn’t mind being called precious but in my mind it’s perfect description.

The lovely Ameena from Fancy This Fancy That and her adorable daughter Maya were also in attendance.

It was a perfect afternoon break from the current chaos of my life and as I watched everyone leave I felt happy thinking about things like our patch of picnic under the trees on this giant spinning sphere of matter.

Hugs and High Fives,
Jenn

Check out our family’s adventures at New School Nomads as we plan to take a year long road trip through the United States!

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Boy, do I miss blogging!  I can’t wait to get back to regular writing and reading in a few weeks.

It looks like we’ve set a planned date of departure, October 16th.  Two weeks from today!  Craziness!

I’m equally nervous and excited.

Right now, my life is a whirlwind of trips to the thrift store, going through old boxes of mementoes, packing, goodbyes to friends, dust pans full of cobwebs, bolts of fabric, staples, nails, and cans of paint.

There is so much to look forward to and so much to miss…

Like my kettlebell class!  I taught my last class on Wednesday.  I’m happy to have more time but will miss seeing their faces first thing Monday morning!

Despite the busyness I’m trying to remember to be thankful for the small things and enjoy the present.  One of the things I’m am thankful for and I’m going to miss are small Mexican restaurant dives like Los Comales.  Brent and I had a rare chance to grab lunch alone between errands and this is where we filled our bellies.

Ceviche!  One of my FAVORITES!

Last week, I also went to the TRX suspension training course.  I have a post half written about the course so tomorrow I’ll try to finish it, in case, any of you are thinking about taking it yourself.

I also want to say thank you for reading.  I’ve been sporadic as of late with posting frequency and content.  It means a lot to me that you’ve stuck around.  Thank you. I’ll be getting back to a more consistent schedule (assuming I get a decent  internet connect on the road) soon!

Hugs and High Fives,
Jenn

Check out our family’s adventures at New School Nomads as we plan to take a year long road trip through the United States!

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I’ve been in a blogging funk.  It seems that writing 31 days to a Better Body Series took it out of me.

Oh and I’m moving into an rv for a year or more in a few weeks.  Downsizing four people into a little 300 square foot home is  a guaranteed recipe for crazy  a bit. of. a. challenge.  I have a to-do-list longer than the miles we’ll drive next year.  It’s making me almost as crazy as some of the people I’ve emailed with on Craigslist.  Really, Krishna, I don’t want to make $600 dollars a month sitting in front of the TV posting links.  Btw, Krishna, that’s called spamming and STOP IT.

I’m losing so many brain cells from the paint so busy I keep forgetting things like my kombucha.

Check out that scoby.  Getting it out of the jar was like giving birth.  It’s about 6 times as thick as my thickest scoby and the kombucha is so acidic it would probably eat a hole in my esophagus.  Kidding.  (BTW, I won’t be drinking this batch.)

If I’m neglecting my kombucha like this just think what my kids (and the laundry) are going through.  Kidding again.  About the kids not the laundry.

Seeing that I don’t have time to properly nurture my beloved kombucha or my children, blogging has taken a back seat.  The rest of this month I’m simply going to post about my life and mostly about the things I did in August because all I’m doing now is painting and selling things on Craigslist.  And deleting spammy emails from Krishna.

However, I did some cool stuff in August like go to Blogher, get my black belt, and attend the Perform Better Functional Fitness Summit.

I also have some big decisions to make like what kitchen utensils are going to make the cut?  How many kettlebells to bring?  Or is the scale coming along on the road trip?  Like I said, big decisions.

Then when we hit the road I’ll post the workouts I’m doing to keep fit while traveling and get back to creating recipes in my minimalist kitchen.

Until then you can be jealous of my kombucha scoby.  She’s a beast.

Love you guys!!!

Hugs and High Fives,
Jenn

Check out our family’s adventures at New School Nomads as we plan to take a year long road trip through the United States!

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This morning I was scrolling through twitter and saw one of my kettlebell buddies tweet, “911 swings done”.

My heart sunk.

This evening, I headed to the beach alone with two kettlebells to do 911 swings in honor of those who lost their lives 10 years ago today.

In Honor of Heroes Workout – 911 Swings

30 – Two Handed Swings
30 – One Handed Swings (15 R, 15 L)
30 – Two Handed Swings
30 – Alternating Swings
30 – Two Handed Swings
30 – One Handed Swings (15 R, 15 L)

Repeat 5x for a total of 900 swings.

For the last 11 swings I brought my heaviest kettlebell and finished those 11 just as the sun was setting.

I hadn’t planned it that way.

Then I walked down to the water’s edge.

And inhaled the salty ocean air feeling grateful and alive.

As the moon began to replace the sun I sat down in the sand and prayed…

…and thought

…and remembered.

Hugs and High Fives,

Jenn

Check out our family’s adventures at New School Nomads as we plan to take a year long road trip through the United States!

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Intense workouts?  Vintage inspired Tulle clothing?  C.S. Lewis?  Beef heart?  Liver?

Yes, yes, yes, yes, and I guess…well..yes.

I wasn’t surprised when I found out blogger buddy, Charlotte from The Great Fitness Experiment (who happens to be one of the the funniest and most talented writers I know) and I had “matching organs” in our freezers.  After all, we already have numerous unintentional matching outfits. There is really not that much of a difference.  Outfits? Organs?  Ummm…they both start with “O”.

So we decided to have a little fun and cook up our organs (that sounds odd) “together” all while wearing one of our matching outfits.

The Heart

First, I started with the heart.  After all it’s really just a muscle like steak.  Right?

So why not make beef heart steak fajitas?

I sliced it up…

..and marinated it in 1/4 cup lemon juice, 1/4 cup Worcesterhire sauce, 5 cloves garlic,1 tablespoon of dried oregano, 1 teaspoon cumin, and 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne.

Then I sautéd onion and bell peppers reminding myself the whole time.  ”It’s just steak.”

In another pan, I sautéed the heart “steak”.

I served it to my family in corn tortillas with black beans and sour cream.  (A spoonful of  sour cream helps the beef heart steak go down.  The beef heart steak go down.)

The boys didn’t even notice there was a difference from our usual fajitas until Brent kept saying, “This sure is hearty.” Hilarious. Thing 1 one caught on and refused to eat another bite despite saying, “This is pretty good.” five minutes prior.

I enjoyed it and even ate the leftovers the next day in a salad.  I’m happy because beef heart is very nutrient dense.  It contains many vitamins and minerals but I’m especially excited about (doesn’t everyone get excited about nutrients?) high concentration collagen, elastin, and CoQ10 which are important for youthful skin health.

However, my excitement over nutrients (and vanity) couldn’t carry me through the next adventure….

The Liver

You know when you can’t decide what to wear to a party and opt for a classic little black dress just to be safe?

Well, I decided to take the same approach with the liver.  Everyone has heard of liver and onions.  It must be a classic for a reason?

I sort of followed the directions for liver and onions in my favorite cookbook Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats and ended up with a dish of breaded liver topped with onions and mushrooms.

Don’t let the smile fool you.

I really felt like this.

I called Grill Hero to the rescue and he grilled up the other half of that sucker.  (I think it may have really been an elephant liver.)

Not even Grill Hero could save the day liver. I took one bite and gagged.

I really really wanted to like it.  Liver is supposed to be wonderful, magical, and supremely healthy (Asssuming you get it from a free range, grass fed, yadda yadda yadda, cow which we did.) and this wouldn’t be the first time I tried something crazy unusual in the name of health.

But I just couldn’t do it.

The smell, the texture, the thought, but mostly the aftertaste.  Nobody warned me of the aftertaste which tasted like my 2-year-old-never-been-washed taekwondo sparring gear smells.

It wasn’t just me who didn’t want it.

Hmmmm????

“WTH, human?”

These guys on the other hand, “More please?”

I thought I was adventurous serving organs to my family.  Check out Charlotte!  She went as far to serve organs to visiting missionaries!

Have you ever cooked any organ meats?  Any advice for making liver more palatable?  I really want to like it!

Hugs and High Fives,
Jenn

Check out our family’s adventures at New School Nomads as we plan to take a year long road trip through the United States!

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I was tight on time trying to make dinner before my takwondo class

I was still dizzy from the day before.  (More on that later.)

I was feeling irritable and claustrophobic because my house was a mess.

I couldn’t find my “recipe book”.  It holds months, maybe years worth, of experimental kitchen recipes and notes.  A very big deal to me.

Then it happened.  I spilled a bag of rice all over the stove and floor.

Why do these sort of things always happen when I’m
A. Already irritable
B. In a hurry
C.  Feeling sick
D. Behind on everything

Why don’t these sort of things happen on days when unicorns poop rainbows.  On that sort of day, I might mistake it for wedding rice or find some corny metaphorical meaning in the grains.

I wish I could say it was easy to shrug my shoulders and grab a broom.

Instead, I wanted to scream at someone or something.

I settled for ripping a leaf off a plant.  Ridiculous and true.  Poor plant.

This guy, on the other hand, without a word grabbed a broom.  (And I grabbed my camera which is undeniably not cool.)  He’s most definitely my better half.

Then I thought about what Susan was going through and felt pretty silly getting so upset over something ridiculously minor.

After all, it’s just spilled milk rice

You may have heard of Susan who writes the blog The Great Balancing Act.  Recently, she was diagnosed with Lymphoma.  She’s 25. I’ve been reading her blog regularly and I’m inspired by her honesty, courage, and attitude in the face of this very real challenge.  Please, check out her blog.  And please consider  checking out her fundraiser, The Great Fundraising Act, that Janetha of Meals and Moves is putting together to help her out. The fundraiser will be next Monday, July 25th from 8 AM – 11 PM (EST) and you’ll find plenty of great items to bid on.  All proceeds will go directly to Susan.

Hope you are having a good week!

Hugs and High Fives
Jenn

Check out our family’s adventures at New School Nomads as we plan to take a year long road trip through the United States!

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I didn’t write a “New Year Resolution” post this year.  Instead, I reflected over my last 10 years and the years to come.

At the time it was what I needed.

But now I need a short term reminder that THE YEAR IS HALF OVER!

Can you believe it?  I can’t!

So what was it you set out to accomplish this year and how are you doing?

We still have 6 months (and that’s a long time if you ask me) to make more steps in the direction our hearts leads us.

It could be anything…

Brent & I on The Great Wall

Get faster, get stronger, sleep more, sleep less, eat more veggies, eat less sugar, try something new, slow down, reduce stress, play more, play less (Nah…no so such thing unless you are playing Farmville ((Do people still play that..I wouldnt know I “hid” everyone who played regularly)) for hours on end.) lose weight, gain weight (they exist), increase flexibility, listen better, jump from a plane, swim with sharks, play Chinese checkers on The Great Wall????

The possibilities are endless.

Everyday our little choices add up to create one big crazy picture.  What do you want yours to look like?

We still have six months until 2012 rolls in quietly (if you are me) and whispers her hopes for us.

Six months.

Ready. Set. GO!!!!!!

Hugs and High Fives,
Jenn

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Life has been unusually busy this past week with the upcoming video shoot.

But between rehearsals, catering (Did I mention I’m CRAZY going to try and cook the dinners for the entire cast and crew ahead of time?), shopping for props and wardrobe, training my clients, teaching my classes and taking care of my family

There has been time for….

Homemade Maple Peach Ice Cream in “His and Her Bowls”

In-N-Out – Double Double Protein style with Grilled Onions I opted for the Thousand Islands “special sauce” this time.

A CSA Box
(Yes, I’m quite aware of the contradiction.)

Making dried nectarines.  Best. Treat. Ever.

And while I was out running around like a mad woman searching for red Converse hi-top Chuck Taylors in a size 13, I made a little detour happened upon this snazzy little apron ON SALE at Anthropologie.

How could I pass up an apron with a ruffled bottom that was over half off.

Now on to the mandatory important stuff.  This is my last week of my “Fitt(er) for the Fourth” Challenge.  As you might have guessed, I don’t think I have reduced my body fat by much (In-N-Out…Ice Cream…Ahem) as evidenced by my jeans still fitting the same (I didn’t want to take the time to measure my bf% this time around.) but I have made progress toward my other goals.  I’m happy because while looser jeans are nice they don’t compare to the feeling of being able to do pull ups.  Seriously.

Welcome to my world where frilly aprons and pull-ups rule!

Planning to finish off this last week of the challenge week strong and I’ve changed my schedule up a bit.

Monday - Full Body Strength Training & Taekwondo
Tuesday – Rest & Walk
Wednesday – Full Body Strength Training & Taekwondo
Thursday – Sparring & Walking & Taekwondo
Friday – Full Body Strength & Taekwondo
Saturday – TRX Class
Sunday – Rest & Walk

I’m considering making a new challenge for myself each month.  Challenges help keep things fun and they help keep me motivated. I’m thinking next month will be a “no sugar” challenge.  There has been a little too much maple syrup and honey around these parts the last few weeks.

What have you been up too?  What rules in your world?

Hugs and High Fives,
Jenn

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Brent was out of town this week with Thing 1  sleeping on the ground (He he!) at Boy Scout Camp.

So it was just Thing 2 and I for most of the week.  Not unlike our road trip in April.

Tuesday night, instead of going to taekwondo I decided we should take the night off to spend some special time together.  Thing 2 and I decided to dress up (the tie was his idea), cook, and have a candlelight dinner together.

We decided to document the occasion.

We almost got mommy.

There’s mommy looking a little frazzled but what else is new!

Meow Cow peeked out of my closet his fortress to see what all the fuss was about.

Thing 2 set the table….

…and lit the candle.

I grilled the steak.

Why yes!  That is a Gymboss on my belt.  Who needs a kitchen timer? Grill intervals anyone?

Then we sat down for our dinner of steak, roasted potatoes, and salad.

What can I say? He’s a man of picky fine taste.

We popped open a bottle of water kefir.

And enjoyed ourselves.

These are memories I want burned into my brain heart forever.

Hugs and High Fives,
Jenn

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