Stitch's All Purpose Paleo Mango Salsa

I love fruit, especially when I'm trying to come down off of eating too many sweets (ahem... the Halloween Call of Cthulu and Hocus Pocus viewing party I attended with amazing pumpkin crumb cake, pumpkin juice, and candy... WOOPS). Idealy, if you're eating Paleo, you don't want to go overboard with the sweets, but if I'm feeling really sugar addicted, I'll have 3 or 4 servings for a few days and then gradually drop that down to one or two throughout the course of the week. 

Picking up a piece of fruit is easy but it's not always interesting. Sometimes, just picking up an apple or banana and easting it isn't appealing. My favorite fruit of all time happens to be mango so I decided to devise a mango salsa either for eating straight, Paleo style, or for eating with chips, chicken, talapia, salmon or anything else other people want to pair it with. It's an easy way to get in some more fruit, a few veggies, and of course to spice up an otherwise simple meal! 

Stitch's All Purpose Paleo Mango Salsa

Ingredients

• 2.5 cups of peeled and diced mangos
• 1 small tomato, diced
• 1 sweet red pepper, diced
• 1 avocado, pitted, skinned, and diced
• 1/4 cup cilantro, finely chopped
• cayenne pepper to taste (I don't like things super spicy, so you may want to adjust this factor based on what you like. I start with a pinch and do taste tests while mixing to find the right balance)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cucumber, diced
• 1/2 red onion, finely diced
• 1 whole lime, juiced

1. Chop, dice, and dump all your ingredients into a mixing bowl. 
2. Mix thoroughly. It's important because you don't want the salt or the spicy bits to get stuck in one particular clump or place
3. Serve and eat it! 

Falling Off the Wagon

Hey all, Simone here again! First of all, I just need to say that I absolutely loved Anne's post yesterday. She is spot on about the journey and the "regeneration" that comes along with making life changes. I've been having a bit of a bumpy ride lately, but I've been rallying slowly this week, and her post was an extra reminder why we keep going. So, onward!

I don't know about you guys, but Oregon Trail was one of my favorite games as a child. Exploring the Wild West? Battling the elements? Great folk songs? That game had it all. (As a proud nerd, one of my favorite parts was watching my trail marker move across the map at the bottom of the screen and anxiously checking my progress against the calendar.)

However, the adventurous course was fraught with danger, too. Weather, snakes, sickness, bandits, and river crossings could all spell disaster for your party. Sometimes it was an unavoidable accident; sometimes you choose poorly, trying to ford the river when it was much too deep, or setting a pace too strenuous to maintain.

Well, that's kind of how my October has gone.

Did anyone else get one disease, and then die of another?

Alright, so I haven't caught typhoid, cholera, or dysentery, but I have had a lot on my plate and I've been feeling fairly run down. The excitement of getting my first "adult" job came with some side effects: on top of a busy few weeks, I'm in the process of attempting to straighten out my benefit options (#firstworldproblems, I know, but reading about insurance is less than thrilling) and needing to adapt my budget, as student loan bills are incoming. However, the siren song of a slight raise and stable employment led to a bit of an online shopping spree, as my professional wardrobe is rather limited (damn you, Target and ModCloth lapse in self control).

I find that often, when you start to stray from one goal (in my case, budget adherence) your willpower also starts to waver on the rest. With a full work schedule, three nights of CrossFit a week, and usually both a night and weekend shift at my second job, things like "cooking healthy dinners" and "cleaning up the house" started to slip. And who has time to go running or pack healthy meals for work? I'll just have a Clif bar in the car.

"But it's only while the seasonal flavors are out!" you tell yourself virtuously. (Just me? Oh.)

Though I've managed to keep CrossFit a priority, as it's my favorite "me" time of the week, my diet has ultimately suffered, and the stress of mismanaged finances isn't doing me any good, either. But it's a new month, and I've got a new plan of attack!

I've put the brakes on my wardrobe overhaul (sadly, Firefly tees and jeans aren't going to cut it); I'll just have to expand it slowly over time instead of the "seasonal spree" method. I'm re-evaluating my budget and muddling through the information on selecting a health care provider and whether or not I should consolidate my federal student loans. It's not fun, but it needs to be done. Ultimately, my goal is to have a stable budget, complete with higher debt payments and a savings contribution, by January. By next fall, I'd like to have a modestly comfortable amount built up in the bank so I'm not watching my balance drop to $4 by the end of each month. (Sadly, that exaggeration isn't quite as large as I wish it was.)

Here's the fun part: with a few new crossfitters joining the crew in my garage, I've been getting some more nutrition questions, and I decided to host a "November Nutrition" challenge for everyone. So, starting today, we are all working on one nutritional goal through December 1st. Each successful day = 1 point for a total of 31 points; I'm working on prizes for everyone who gets at least 28! A number of people are going to give Whole30 a try, so for moral support (and to really "reset" my struggles lately), I will be doing my second Whole30 as well. Several other participants are focusing on reducing the amount of grain-related meals, cutting out fast food, and more. Nutrition is really the foundation of fitness and health, and I'm excited to get back on track with the best group of friends I could ever ask for!

The CrossFit pyramid: roughly 80% of your results come from your diet!

I hope everyone had a great Halloween! Our group traditionally has a "Triple Holiday" party sometime in November/December, complete with Halloween costumes, a Thanksgiving potluck dinner, and a Secret Santa exchange. This year it's going to be in mid-November, so I'm still working on my Lara costume!

How did you celebrate Halloween this year? What are you focusing on in November?

--Simone

Bigger On The Inside

Every man is a Tardis; defined by a rigid structure on the outside and containing infinite possibilities within. I think the most common misperception about weight loss is that it's a physical act. You move your body, you eat the right food, and then your results happen. 

Yes, the Tardis travels, but it's what's inside that gets it from place to place. 

More important than your physical ability to become more athletic and active is the decision to take the first step, the second, and so on. It takes a strength of mind and sense of vigilant determination that I'm not sure everyone is ready to deal with, especially if what you're seeking is a major transformation. 

Losing 100 lbs took a little under a year for me and in that year, my size wasn't the only thing that changed. It was a little bit like regenerating. I discovered I had a "fighting hand." I confronted my demons, I stood up for myself when I felt I was being mistreated, and when I made mistakes I fought to get back on track. Those were not things that were a part of my personality before hand, but they feel like a second skin now. 

The fact is that life is going to hand you a lot of distractions that fall outside of your rigid little plan of action. During the last year, I had to constantly ask and remind myself why I was putting myself through it. I reminded myself of all the things I was rejecting from my life and why. I had to get in touch with why I was worth getting up at 6AM to run, why my decision to not enjoy Holiday season treats along with everyone else for one year was a necessary step, and why I should keep exposing myself to new workouts, and nutrition knowledge despite being comfy with my routine. I got in touch with what I wanted. I wanted to be able to go to the doctor and not have my weight be an issue. I wanted to cosplay with confidence. I wanted to be able to experience a more physical body. I wanted to salvage a chance at a career in the entertainment industry. I wanted to be proud of every part of myself and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I live without regrets. 

What you want can change, but it's important to keep revisiting it or you'll lose direction and focus. Hell I wanted to be an astronaut more than ANYTHING when I was younger. I still want it, but it was unrealistic given my complete lack of mathematical prowess. It felt like an earth shattering regeneration when I realized I needed to look somewhere else for a goal and drive, but it's what has made me who I am today and it got me in touch with my more natural inclinations and talents as a story teller and as a performer. I'm sure I'll face a ton of wibbly wobbly timey wimey transformations throughout my life as I learn more specifically what I want, but as long as I keep asking the question, I think I'll get where I'm going. 

When it comes to your health, keep asking yourself what you want. Don't be afraid to change things up as long as you keep traveling. Don't be afraid to end up in the wrong place and learn from it. Don't be afraid when you see your personality changing along with your physical body. Don't be afraid of the destination when you arrive. 

Don't blink. Not because of the angels, but because if you do, you might miss all the fantastic nuances of the journey you're on. You won't remember the number on the scale as much as you'll remember everything you learned on the way there. That's what will keep you traveling in the end. 

Call to Arms: Childhood Obesity Amongst Geeks

I'm putting out a call to arms. This country has a real obesity problem and it starts with our kids. I feel like our wee nerdlettes have it even worse because society expects them to grow up in their mom's basement, stuffing themselves with Doritos and pizza and not contributing to society beyond fighting over the conclusion of Battlestar Galactica on web forums. 

I'm not a nutritionist and I'm not a physician, but I am one of those former-fat-kid-dreamers who is fighting her way to a healthier adulthood without rejecting her fandom or blaming it. I don't think loving comics, scifi, and fantasy is an obesity death sentence like some people do. Geeks are naturally obsessive so if they can obsess about what inspires them, they tend to be more unstoppable than ANY other section of society. At least, that's my opinion and I am terribly biased! I've said this many times on this blog but I had one major mental shift that helped me want change, rather than being told I needed to make it. 

I don't want to watch heroes. I want to be the hero in the epic tale of my life. 

Kids these days are so detached from what they do and what they eat. Some don't even know what fresh food is or where it comes from. 

Heroes are people they admire in TV shows or movies or they play them as avatars in video games. Sure, they want to be like Thor, train Pokemon like Ash, or adorably parkour around obstacles like Rapunzel from Tangled, but what if that went beyond simply playing dress-up or appeasing their interest with more content featuring those characters. What if we could get them in touch with what those characters actually do and stand for so that they can put those things into action in their own lives. 

What if we could show them what Chris Hemsworth does to train for Thor and helped them learn how to do a popper sit-up or push-up? What if we took them to a beginner parkour class so they could pull Assassin's Creed stunts? What if we encourage them to build an adventurer's heart like The Doctor! What if we got them into water bending by doing tai chi in the mornings? What if we taught them to cook food that looks like it came out of a Ghibli film so that they could grow up with the power to feed their health rather than their impulses? 

It's gotta be possible. We should be leading the way for the next generation. I don't have kids but I've spent some time as a mentor and as a camp counselor and I'm pretty passionate about being a good influence on our youth. I want to start taking Project Reroll into that realm. If have any readers with kids, younger siblings, or even people they babysit up to 17 years old, I'd like to issue my first "Mini Slayer" challenge.

The Mini Slayer Halloween Challenge

This week is Halloween, incidentally one of my favorite holidays because we get to ask ourselves what and who we want to be! It's incredibly empowering! 

• The first step is to take a picture of the kid participating in the challenge in their Halloween costume and have them write a sentence about why they chose be that thing/person. 
• Then, for just one week following Halloween (Friday to Friday), you and the young slayer participating will agree to do three active adventures based on the theme of their costume. This could be going for nature walks if they were Poison Ivy or finding your center with some Yoga Jedi training. Get creative! Make it something they're excited about!
• The second part of the challenge deals with diet. Aside from one piece of candy a day, you will agree to make every meal using fresh, non processed food and that you will eat at least one serving of vegetables and one serving of fruit each day. You do not have to eat Paleo, but ideally this whole plan will force you to spend a little time talking about food and cooking together each day.
• At the end, I'd love to hear about some of the meals you made and see pictures from the activities you did so I can share them here, on our Facebook page and on Twitter. There's no scale or measurements involved here. It's just about using fantasy to inspire and integrate active and healthier experiences into a kid's life for one week. 

Please send all photos and descriptions of your experiences to contactprojectreroll@gmail.com and leave a comment here if you're planning to participate so I can be on the look out for submissions! Best of luck Slayers! I choose you!

Jedi Fuel Pumpkin Smoothies

http://www.deviantart.com/artisan/culinary/pumpkin/?view_mode=2&order=15&q=game+of+thrones

Winter is coming, and 'tis the season of all things Pumpkin Spice. Sadly, almost everything that calls my name is terrible for me. If I'm choosing to spend so much time building themed teams in Pokemon X, then I can't be simultaneously stuffing my face with everything that suits my fancy.

Geek Nation

I'm convinced that there are Sith Lords out there with knowledge of all of my worst seasonal weaknesses. Between Pumpkin Spice Lattes at Starbucks, Pumpkin Smash smoothies at Jamba Juice, and an array of pumpkin flavored pastries at Dunkin' Donuts it's temptation city.  So I put out the call on twitter and facebook for Paleo Pumpkin recipes. Boy did I get a ton of great stuff back! My friend Michelle linked me a recipe for Raw Pumpkin Balls, which I haven't gotten a chance to try yet but I can only believe it's like Halloween exploding in your mouth based on the ingredient list. However it was my "Jedi Sister" Emily who blew it out of the park with a Paleo replacement for that Pumpkin Smash smoothie I've been  hankering for. 

Emily and I spent our youths looking at the sky and imagining our adventures among the stars as Jedi Knights. When we met at soccer practice and admitted our love of Han Solo, it was BFF central. We even saved all our money so we could go to Space Camp and buried a Jedi time capsule in my back yard with all of our childhood secrets. 

Emily is a powerful role model. Not only is she a thoughtful, empathetic, intelligent person, but she is determined to meet every challenge she faces head on. I remember when she got into the Naval Academy, she started doing athletic training at home in Chicago so that she would be ready. No one else I knew at that age was attempting something like that. Add to her list of accomplishments living abroad in Japan to serve in the navy, starting grad school, and spending her free time training for half marathons. Seriously, is there anything she can't do? Apparently not because I tried this recipe and its amazing. I made a few tiny adjustments, but we wouldn't be Jedi Sisters if we didn't collaborate on our missions! Try it out and let me know what you think!

Jedi Fuel Pumpkin Smoothie

• Ingredients
• 2/3 cup of almond milk
• 1/3 cup of organic pure pumpkin (canned is fine, but read the label to make sure no sugar or chemicals are added)
• 1 cup frozen organic pure pumpkin (same as above)
• 1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg

1. The day before you intend to make your smoothie, put one cup of canned pumpkin in the freezer. Make sure it's chopped up a bit so that you can use it in place of ice. Make sure you put it in a freezer safe plastic bag.
2. Add all the ingredients to your blender. Make sure your "ice chip" pumpkin pieces are broken up. 
3. Blend till smooth. 
4. Drink in your Jedi Fuel, confident in your delicious yet healthy Light Side diet choice. 

If you have other pumpkin recipes you'd like to share, please feel free to add them in the comments! On a slightly separate note, while I was at New York Comic Con, I chatted with some industry folks about what it would take to self publish a Project Reroll Paleo cookbook. Would that be something you Slayers would be interested in? 

Baked Chocobo with Greens and Sweet Potato

Everyone is playing the new Final Fantasy MMO but me and it's driving me to madness. It's the kind of thing I would absolutely love to play but can't afford to spend the money on for the amount of enjoyment I'd get out of it at this point. I know as soon as I decide to give in and buy it, they'll all be bored and switch to something else. So I've decided to do something a little... drastic?

I'm going to kill and eat all of the chocobos until there are none left and my friends won't have mounts  for their adventures, they all flock back to ME, and hopefully play Pokemon X/Y instead!

Mwahahaha...MwahahahAHAHA... MWAHAHAHAHAAHAH! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Ahem. So anyways.

The best part is, this Paleo recipe is DELICIOUS and super easy to whip up. Without further ado, here's my recipe for:

Baked Chocobo with Greens and Sweet Potato

Serves: 3

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken breasts
• 1 bundle of asparagus
• 3 Sweet Potatoes
• 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
• 2 teaspoon of garlic powder.
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. 
2. Take a baking sheet and line it with aluminum foil.
3. Cut off the butts of the asparagus and check for mold (GROSS, but do it just in case or you'll need all the white mages).
4. Wash the asparagus and then lay it out evenly on the baking sheet. 
5. Drizzle 2 tbs of  extra virgin olive oil on the the asparagus followed by salt, pepper and a teaspoon of garlic powder.
6. Once that's done, use your hands to evenly toss the asparagus with the seasonings and oil. 
7. Cut the excess fat from the chicken and then use a knife to score the top of the breast 3-5 times. 
8. Place the chicken in a baking dish and add 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, 1 teaspoon of garlic powder, and salt and pepper to taste. 
9. Roll the chicken around in the marinade until it thickens and everything is evenly coated. Warning: When you put all of the ingredients in that dish, it will look wrong because everything will seem like it's in a sea of oil. Once the garlic powder and the oil/balsamic gets rubbed into the chicken a bit, there will be far less extra marinade in the dish, so just trust me. 
10. Put both the asparagus and the chicken in the oven.
11. Set two timers; one for asparagus and one for the chicken. Set the asparagus timer for 11 minutes and the chicken for 25 minutes.
12. When the asparagus is done, take it out of the oven while the chicken continues to bake and cover it. 
13. Wash sweet potatoes and dry carefully so that they don't steam in the microwave. 
14. Scour them with a knife 3-5 times on each side.
15. Wrap each potato in a piece of paper towel. 
16. Put each one in the microwave for five minutes (Make sure you do it individually or they won't cook all the way through). 
17. Pull your chicken out when the timer goes off. Check to make sure it's cooked all the way through.
18. Serve your chocobo meal and eat it. EAT IT WHILE THE CHILDREN CRY. 

Projects & Pumpkins

Hey Slayers! Simone here, checking in with some fall updates!

I don't know about you, but I'm having a crazily busy fall so far. This is the first autumn in 18+ years that I haven't been going back to school full-time, and I naively thought I'd have more free time now. Ha!

There have been some fun new developments, though. First announcement: I'm stably employed! Hooray! My temporary position will officially become permanent on Monday. This is my first non-retail/non-temporary job ever, and I'm pretty psyched. Just in time for my student loan bills! Yay, adulthood!

Now that I officially have an office desk, I think it might be time to try making a terrarium to decorate!

My current desk decor could use a little help, don't you think?

Also, I gotta say, the 5k last weekend was a blast. My coworkers and I achieved our goal of not stopping to walk for the entire 3.1 mile course. I have never done that before! We had lovely weather and a really nice time. They might even be able to talk me into doing it next year... We'll see!

I've also been working on some other personal goals! My friends and I have added Monday as a third garage CrossFit day. It was originally intended for just our roommates, but quickly grew to include several Tuesday/Thursday regulars as well. I'm getting really close to strict and kipping pull-ups, and starting to tap into a more "can-do" mental state as well instead of telling everyone "I can't." It certainly makes for a more fun and rewarding workout experience. :)

I'm also going to do my first workout in a real CrossFit gym with my mom! I'm not sure if I can afford a membership yet, but I know having access to skilled coaches would probably double my progress. I'm also interested in being a coach someday, but I have a ways to go yet! My mom is a little apprehensive about the "hardcore" appearance of CrossFit, as I'm sure many people are (I was too!); I'm hoping to show her that it can be for everyone, and that at the right gym it's just a supportive community with a fun, dynamic, and challenging workout to get through together. Either way, we'll both be giving each other moral support! :)

In my copious remaining free time, I'm trying to teach myself Photoshop/Illustrator and basic web design. I have no background with this and never got the chance to take classes in college, but my own personal blog just turned 5 last week, and I'd like to refresh it a bit! I'm also working on my Lara costume little by little. Here's the first glimpse at my thigh holster -- it's still in progress, but hopefully I'll have more pictures after the weekend!

Last Friday night = National Treasure and crafting. No regrets!

Meal planning is still a struggle as always; I did well earlier this week and then had a (delicious) grilled cheese and two cupcakes for my coworker's birthday yesterday. But life goes on -- this weekend I will be sure to make meal planning a priority again. I'm also putting together an exciting nutrition challenge for my fellow garage crossfitters that I'm pretty excited about!

Speaking of meal planning and preparation, do these paleo pumpkin chocolate chip muffins from PaleOMG look great or what?! I sense baking in my weekend!

--Simone