Rainy days and Mondays always get me down… I heard that song a long time ago. Well it is Wednesday and all competitors in the Paleo Challenge had to turn in their food logs or face $200 Paleo Buck fines. Who will have the rainy day today?

I cost our team $75 as I had a glass of wine when my neighbours came over for dinner. I only had one glass but at least I recorded it and did not have another even though I could have used it. I will have to do a few personal records (PR’s) to make up for that.

I looked at the board and there is lots of room for them. I am going to come clean and say that I should be managing the numbers on the white board better. I noticed that some of the ones that are up there have not been changed even though I have set max’s for the Wendler Strength Training that beat them.

I did not do the WOD today as the body was saying to rest today. I started out with the intention of doing the WOD but after doing the warmup and some attempts at the snatches, my brain kicked in and said “You need to practice these, moron and quit letting your ego think you can do anything without practicing the movement”. Good thing I listened as persistence paid off finally and I was able to get an OHS and Squat Snatch done with the bar. Progress. This has taken me from the time I posted the Squat, Squat, Squat blog until now to get this far. I did another 15 minutes of doing these just to do them, I may have been wobbly and my arms were not the straightest and I may have had the bar in front of my head but I did the squat with the bar overhead and got back up. Now I need to practice it so that all those things are corrected.

Nick O made a comment on the last post about sugars and how he is avoiding them. Good for you Nick as we can get almost all the sugar we need from the food we eat on a daily basis. Greg is going real extreme for this challenge and using veggies as his main source of carbs. So this recipe is for Nick O and Greg:

Braised Leeks & Mushrooms with Bacon, Lemon and Thyme – this should serve 4 normal people

1/4 cup chopped bacon (3 or 4 slices)

2 cups thinly sliced leeks (white and light green parts only) remember to wash them thoroughly and dry them

4 cups of mushrooms, I like exotic, so I use as many types as I can. shiitake, oyster, cremini, enoki, white button and mini portobellos. For appearance leave small ones whole and half or quarter the larger ones.

2 tsp grated lemon zest

1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves

3/4 cup of chicken stock or vegetable stock

Put bacon in a large skillet and set the heat to medium. Cook until bacon has begun to crisp and is half-cooked, about 8 minutes.

Add leeks and increase the heat to med-high. Cook, stirring frequently until the leeks are soft, the bacon will continue to crisp about 6 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the bacon and leeks to a bowl, this way you leave the fat in the skillet. Add the mushrooms to the pan, and cook quickly, stirring occasionally, let them brown which should be around 6-8 minutes. Season to taste with sea salt, add lemon zest, thyme and the leek and bacon mixture. Generously grind some pepper, I love pepper and take around 10 or more twists of the grinder for this. Use the amount you would like.

Add the stock and stir to scrape the bottom of the skillet to get the good stuff loose. Cover the skillet and reduce the heat to med-low. Braise slowly until the mushrooms are tender and the liquid is absorbed, this should be around 20 minutes. If after the alloted time it is still frothy or has lots of liquid remove cover and raise heat, You want to reduce the liquid considerably as you don’t want this watery.