Amy and I were discussing the differences between maple syrup and honey this week. I found this fairly thorough explanation to share with everyone. (from the mothering.com website)...
"It depends on what you're trying to accomplish by eating honey vs. sugar vs. maple syrup.
Technically, all three are the same basic element: sugar - a combination of sucrose and fructose to be specific.
If you're diabetic, you might do *slightly* better with honey than table sugar because the Glycemic Index for honey is a little bit lower than that for table sugar (87 vs. 100, I believe). Table sugar, fwiw, is far, far better than corn syrup or especially high fructose corn syrup, which is even more refined and has a terrible effect on blood sugar levels.
If you're trying to control weight, then table sugar may be the best option because honey and maple syrup both have far more calories than plain table sugar, by weight. For example, 1 tbs. of sugar has 44 calories compared to 64 in honey, and 167 in maple syrup!!... plus some people feel honey tastes less "sweet" so they even use more honey in tea for example than they would sugar. This is a double whammy for the person trying or needing to be calorie conscious.
From a nutritional standpoint, honey probably fares best, followed by maple syrup and table sugar. But if you eat "honey bear" type honey, or any processed/heated honey like that, any of the proported nutritional benefits have been made obsolete by the processing. So if you choose honey, make sure it's raw, organic honey, otherwise, there are no nutritional benefits and all three sweeteners then become more or less equal.
Finally, there are environmental / "green" concerns to consider. Maple syrup should ONLY be organic.... there are some seriously undesirable practices in the collection and production of mainstream maple syrup, such as plugging the holes in the tree with formaldehyde pellets and using lead collection buckets not to mention killing the trees eventually in the process. Table sugar might be even worse and gets into issues of treatment of workers, fair trade, etc. as well. Organic is the way to go if you are concerned about nutrition and environmental impact of sweeteners.
Bottom line - if you use sweeteners occasionally you could pretty much choose whatever you wanted, but I do think there's a lot of reason to choose only organic especially for the three sweeteners mentioned above."
In a medium size sauce pot, add the orange juice, zest, ginger, coconut aminos/soy sauce and chili garlic sauce. Set over medium heat and let simmer to reduce and thicken while the chicken cooks.In a saute pan, heat 3 T of the fat of your choice, over medium high heat. Add the chopped chicken thighs and cook until a nice brown crust has developed on the chicken pieces, about 6 minutes. Add the chicken to the sauce pot and stir to coat with the orange sauce. Serve topped with sliced green onions. Use Boston lettuce and make them into wraps...top with toasted sesame seeds, too!
"Crash" (Christian S.) and Nelson G. rockin' some groovy footwear...yes, those are gold chucks!
Now that it's getting hotter, all of the doors will be open. Please, please use the lounge door to enter the box, even if a class is not taking place. Entering through the lounge door is a good habit to get in, and to adhere to. Walking in the "front" door could be dangerous if Helen or a packed Grace is going on.
Please make sure that you show up on time. Showing up on time doesn't mean walking in at 10:00 and you still have to change your clothes. Being on time means ready to go, on the black, at 10:00. And if you are late, it's difficult for your coach to be flexible if you're sauntering up at 10:04. We realize that life happens, but you need to make the effort! Being late becasue you're talking on your cell phone outside will result in a double penalty! We pack a lot of programming in to the 60 minutes that we have you, and you need the full 60 minutes to reap the rewards. And remember, it's a 5 burpee penalty each minute, and this applies to coaches and interns as well. I've been know to do some burpees as a coach if I'm lollygagging. What's good for the goose is good for the gander!!
Lastly, please take complete notes in your journals, including times and weights used. Besides the actual workout, your journal is the most useful tool you have to improve your fitness and strength. If you need help in figuring out how to record a workout, simply ask your coach. Don't ever be afraid to ask questions!
This is the last week of the CrossFit Games Open Competition. It has been a lot of fun watching people who otherwise would not have competed take advantage of the Open format just to see how they could do. There are a wide variety of people on our competitors board, and they have all shared a great experience. They had to judge each other to make sure standards were being met, but they also kept each other motivated to keep fighting through. And like any good WOD, there were always high fives at the end! On more than one occasion workouts were repeated to try and improve a score - often the next day. All in all, it's been a lot of fun to host the Open, and while we won't have anyone competing in LA at the finals this Summer, we know how high the bar is set to get there!
You need to trust your coaches and our expertise and experience.
We know that most of our athletes can't perform some of the workouts as prescribed, and that's just fine. We can scale load and intensity for pretty much anyone, in almost any situation. Knee's been bothering you from last weekend's soccer game? So what! Come in and we can modify things for you, even if we're doing running, box jumps, and back squats! We can always adjust, on the fly, to adapt to pretty much any situation.
As the affiliate owner and head coach, I'm very pleased with our coaches' abilities to scale and modify. While not perfect, we're pretty darn good at it. Listen to your coach, do what he tells you to do, and chances are, you'll get a really good workout without aggravating your issue/injury.
Trust us, we're the professionals. We can handle it.
Martha turns 6 today. Some of you remember her as a 3 year old at the Old Space ...
This Saturday, April 30th, there will be a different schedule. We are doing a class called "An Intro to CrossFit Endurance". The class is free and open to the public, so spread the word, invite your friends, and come find out one of the best secrets in the area of endurance training!
We will be covering how and why this program will decrease your training time while increasing your performance, covering proper running technique, and finishing off with a classic CrossFit workout!
The class runs from 8-10 AM - we look forward to seeing you there!
Love this recipe and, again, pretty easy to make. Let's just call it Pollo con Pancetta for now...
Pollo con Pancetta, etcetara...
1.5 - 2 lbs. chicken breast
1 medium onion
1/2 lb. pancetta (Boar's Head is what we used)
1/2 can artichoke hearts
Rosemary, thyme, basil, oregano...
Olive oil - 2 or 3 TBSP
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 C. Chicken stock (clean)
Ground pepper; NO SALT! (the pancetta is already salty enough...)
Chop up all of these items; keep chicken on a separate cutting board; saute the chicken in olive oil with garlic and onion for about 10 minutes; add pancetta, artichoke hearts and herbs/pepper; simmer covered with chicken broth for about 30 minutes; chicken will become tender...
Sauce For Topping:
2-14 ounce cans crushed tomatoes
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 TBSP olive oil
Basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary...to taste...
Juice of one lemon
Quickly saute the garlic and onion in olive oil until fragrant. Add the crushed tomatoes, lemon juice (brightens the flavors!) and the spices. Simmer.
Serve over a bed of fresh spinach...toasted pine nuts would rock on top, too...
Your coaches talk to you a lot about being fast on the Olympic lifts. How many times have you heard us say that you have to "jump" the weight up, and you certainly can't jump slowly! Watch this video of Aimee Anaya Everett doing a hang clean workout, and definitely link here to watch a great video of her doing some high weight snatches. Notice how fast she is! Speed is of the essence, along with good form!
So, how do you really improve your times and scores in CrossFit? You need to reduce your time refunctioning. "What is refunctioning?" you ask. Well, it's a phrase coined by our very own CrossFit Kids (and daughter) Erin. It's the rest that you build in to your workout, time catching your breath, chalking up, bar gazing, or whatever it is that takes up time. Some refunctioning is necessary, but the less refunctioning you do, the better score you will have on your workout.
Of course, this is somewhat stating the obvious. But we liked the word, and wanted to spread it!
Jesse and I were up in DC this past weekend for the CrossFit Endurance seminar. We learned lots of good stuff, and we're eager to share it with you and all of your buddies.
We're kicking things off with an Intro to CrossFit Endurance on Saturday, April 30th, 8-10 AM. We will be touching on a wide range of concepts related to incorporating CrossFit into endurance activities, and highlighting the differences between traditional endurance training and CrossFit Endurance. We will also be doing some drills, and will certainly be getting in a good workout!
This Intro seminar is free of charge, and is open to the public. Please spread to the word to your endurance-junky friends, and simply let us know if you'll be attending. Our goal is to train endurance athletes with a reduced injury rate, reduce training time (meaning more time to live your life!), and increase performance. It's a win-win situation!! Please let us know if you're interested.
When you become an athlete (yes, you're all athletes) at CrossFit Blacksburg, we provide you with a workout journal. Treat this as your CrossFit Bible, and keep it with you at all times when at the box! The first three pages are set up for recording personal records, or PRs. The rest of the pages are blank so you can record every workout you do.
As a novice, it is beneficial for you to write everything down, including the warm up, and an explanation of a movement, if necessary. As you become more familiar with the flow of things, you will invariably start writing less for each entry. I've been at it for a while, so my short hand is pretty cryptic!
No matter your level, there are some things that must be written down for each workout: date, rep scheme, and most importantly weight used, and time to complete or reps completed. The time to complete/reps completed is crucial, and unless you are a prescribed athlete, simply writing down your time doesn't help us in figuring out how to progress with the weights.
Please be thorough with your journal entries. That's not to say that you need to write a novel, but make sure the bare minimums are there! And just as with any good journaling, looking back over previous entries is very worthwhile, and can be quite entertaining!
.jpg)
