Five Things I Did, Thanks to Nemo…

Feb 14th, 2013 by Ali

You are probably well aware that we experienced a pretty crazy blizzard up here in the Northeast last week. The weather man predicted the storms impact would be unlike anything we has seen since the famous “Blizzard of 78′. Which, by the way, I do not remember, cab driver from Monday Night. Because I was not born. This conversation happened between a cab driver and I on Monday night (I took a cab home from work at the Bistro because you better believe I was not moving my car until it was 100% necessary.)

Ali: Wow! This must be tough to drive in, huh?

Cab Driver: Yeah. This is the worst I have ever driven in!

Ali: How long have you been driving a cab?

Cab Driver: Oh it’s my second day.

Ali: Oh…(confused). I guess we haven’t had a storm this bad since the Blizzard of 78′.

Cab Driver: Oh yeah? What was that like? Do you remember it?

Ali: No. I wasn’t alive then.

Cab Driver: Oh I thought you looked at least 25 or so.

Ali: (calculating to make sure that 1978 was way more than 25 years ago) Um….I am older than 25, I’ll be 30 next month. 1978 was more than 25 years ago, significantly more than 25 years ago.

Cab Driver:Yeah. I’m 28.

Ali: Haha (even more confused)- well good luck driving. Have a great night!

I even joked with Adam over email in Thursday about the panic the Blizzard was causing- before I knew how insane it was going to be!

Adam did end up doing some shopping and said the grocery store was absolute mayhem! For the record, he took “anything you want” literally. Good thing though we needed food, since this storm was 50 shades of cray,cray!

I didn’t believe it could be as bad as they were saying, but it was. I experienced it first hand during my trek back and forth to work at the Bistro, both occurring during the height of the storm! The wind was insane, especially in the Navy Yard where the wind whipped right off if the water. Here are some scenes from Nemo (that was the Blizzard’s name):

Credit: some of these were taken by Adam.

The 5 things I did during the 5 days that I was snowed in:

1. Shoveled out our cars (3 times thanks to getting plowed in over and over) with my friend Lauren. Lauren and I became shoveling pros this weekend. We actually had a total blast shoveling our cars out together. Thank goodness for Lauren, because shoveling was certainly a two person job! I am pretty sure any shoveling I have to do from here on out will feel like a breeze!

2. Curled up on the couch with Oscar. This little guy was very happy about being snowed in. Except for the whole having to use the bathroom in 3 feet of snow! He spent the whole 5 days under blankets having a snoozefest.

3. Had Downton Abbey and House of Cards marathons. I am so obsessed with both of these shows. I have been meaning to get into Downton, but I have never had the time (#havingtwojobsproblems). I finally had some free time to get into it. As soon as I watched one episode I was hooked. I am one and a half seasons in and on the edge of my couch cushion.

House of Cards is a Netflix original series that I guess qualifies as a political drama. Kevin Spacey is awesome in it (per usual) and Kate Mara is AMAZING as Zoe. I’m pretty sure Zoe’s character steals the show. I am told that they already started filming the second season (#thankyounetflixgods) I am about half way through the first season. Adam is hooked too!

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4. Got addicted to Ruzzle. I totally suck at it. Like really badly. But I don’t care. I am so addicted to Ruzzle it is crazy. I have yet to win one game, but that doesn’t stop me. If you are on Ruzzle and want to play, email me your Ruzzle name!!!!

5. Gave my liver a workout. There were certainly a few Nemo beverages consumed. I mean come on, what else there to do when you can’t drive anywhere and don’t have to work, right? Okay there is other stuff to do, but still….

I am glad to be back at work for sure! I missed working. I missed my co-workers and my students. Not that I had a full five days off, I did work a few nights a week at the Bistro. But I am glad to be (sort of ) shoveled out and back to my normal routine!

If you are from this area, what are 5 things you did thanks to Nemo? If you aren’t, what ways would you have spent 5 days snowed in?

Posted in Uncategorized | 16 Comments »

Fight and Flight: The Story of My Mugging…

Feb 6th, 2013 by Ali

The definition of safety (according to Webster) is the condition of being safe from undergoing hurt, injury or loss.

Most of us go through our days feeling a sense of safety without even realizing it. We don’t realize we feel safe and comfortable until we no longer do. At least that is my experience. On Saturday night, my sense of safety and security was taken away from me.

“Booties or flats?” “Curly or Straight hair?” “Leopard cardigan or sea green top?”

These were all decisions I made before leaving my house on Saturday night. For the record, I went booties, curly, leopard .

“Fight or lay here?” “Chase or just stand here in shock?” “Cry or keep it together?”

These are decisions I didn’t know I was going to have to make on Saturday night.

For the record, I went with fight, chase and keep it together.

On Saturday night I was assaulted and robbed by three young men. I was pushed to the ground resulting in me hitting my head off the cobble stone and was hit and pushed during attempts to get my purse, my phone was the only thing “actually” stolen from me (Thanks, Mom for buying me a purse with a cross-body strap for Christmas). After my attack I was harassed from my own cell phone by my attackers. They sent me very inappropriate, graphic and disgusting (sexual in nature) messages that are in many ways even more traumatizing than the event itself. I know you are asking yourself several questions, “Where did it happen?” “Was it late?” “Was she by herself?” “What did she do?”.

Here are your answers:

Where did it happen?

It happened in Fanueil Hall which happens to be the most visited tourist attraction in the U.S. annually. So no, I was not walking in some dark, unlit alley way alone (not that that would be an excuse for my attackers). It was a well lit area with a decent amount of people around. I was meeting friends at Athem Kitchen for dinner.

Was It Late?

No, unless you consider between 7:45pm and 8:00pm late.

Where you alone?

Technically, yes. I was alone as in I has no one with me. I was not alone on the street there were several people in the area that were witnesses to my attack.

What did you do?

I fought back and once they took off with my phone I started chasing them (and regretted my decision to wear booties). About five or so men who witnessed what had happened joined me in the chase. They attackers were fast and certainly knew what they were doing splitting up, running down alleys. They were not caught.

What did you do after?

I tried to remain calm and called Adam. Then walked right over to the police station and filed a police report. We tried to use “find my iPhone” to locate the phone but the location option was turned off. I then wiped out my email accounts from the police station because my work e-mail is on my phone and due to the confidential nature of some of the e-mails I get I wanted to protect my students. I then met my friends at Anthem to tell them why I was an hour and a half late. That is when the harassing text messages aimed at me were sent to my friend Gina’s phone. Gina had been texting me to see where I was.

So what is happening now?

Well, needless to say I am traumatized. I haven’t been sleeping. I got 4 hours of sleep today. I feel nervous, antisocial, anxious and sad. I am hearing that anger will come soon as well. I’m waiting for it. I think this is why the “It’s just a phone.” or “Good thing they only got your phone.” responses I have been getting are so annoying. I really wish that was the case. I talked to someone today about the trauma which helped in some ways. It helped because I felt every understood, but it also validated what happened to me and that it was a serious thing which made things more difficult. We discovered the the messages are more traumatizing to me because of the nature of the material in them but also because their goal is simply to terrorize me. The attack itself was a random act of violence, a means to an end. The goal was to get money or something they could sell for money. Whereas the harassment’s purpose was to scare me, tramautize me and terrify me. I think the hard part for me is that it was in a crowded place, not late. This makes me feel as if something like this can happen again, anywhere and at any time. That is scary. I also talked to a detective today about my case and he thinks there may be some surveillance footage of my attack because of the location. He is looking into it. I am taking this a day at a time, resting as much as I can and allowing myself to go through the process in my own way. I know ultimatly I will be okay. I am tough and I have great supports. And as much as hard as this is, it could be a whole lot worse.

That is all for now.

Posted in Uncategorized | 57 Comments »

How Annie Helped Me FINALLY Get My Double Unders

Feb 2nd, 2013 by Ali

Hey everyone! Well, the weekend is upon us and I can’t even pretend that I am not excited about that! It’s Saturday, my only day off this week and I am ready to enjoy it! But let’s back up shall we. Rewind…about 48 hours to Thursday.

Thursday morning’s breakfast was a sprouted english muffin topped with low fat chive cottage cheese and tomato slices with a clementine on the side.

I also had coffee with organic half and half in one of my favorite mugs. It was a gift from my friend Ibelis.

Lunch was leftover meatloaf with mashed potatoes and broccoli.

I had a pre-workout snack of plain greek yogurt topped with honey and some blueberries while finishing up a few things at work.

I left work at 4:15 and headed straight to my Crossfit box. I did a quick change from this:

To this:

The earliest evening classes usually start at 5:30pm and that is a little late for me sometimes. It means I need to stay at my desk until 5:00 because if I go home in between work and the gym, it is really difficult to get myself to the gym. After a long day, once I am parked on the couch, I don’t want to get back up and go out in the cold. I decided to go to open gym for the first time and workout by myself. I was a little concerned about whether or not I had the discipline to go to the gym and workout by myself. I used my iWod Fitness App to plan my workout. I decided to do “Cindy” and “Annie”.

Cindy

20 minute AMRAP

5 pullups
10 pushups
15 squats

I completed 11 rounds in 20 minutes. The first two rounds I did the pushups on my toes and the rest of the rounds I split my push-up, 5 on my toes and 5 on my knees.

Annie

50-40-30-20-10

Double Unders
Abmat Situps

Since I didn’t have my double unders (yet) I did 3 times the amount of single jumps (150-120-90 and so on). I have been working at double unders for about 2 years or so. Most attempts resulted in welts on my legs or butt. This workout had so many jumps and I was getting tired. While jumping I got into a good groove and thought, “Why don’t I just try a double under?!” So I did and….I NAILED IT! I was in shock that I did it. I looked around wishing someone was there to see it and then started dancing. I wanted to see if it was a fluke so I started jumping rope and once I got into a good grove….boom! Double Under! So I did two double unders. Not in a row. Not even in the same set, but I did them! I am hoping to continue to work them until I can do them continuously. I completed “Annie” in 11 minutes.

I refueled with a small glass of chocolate milk.

Of course I celebrated my double under victory with a glass of wine. The bottle of wine was also a gift from my friend Belle. It is a bold red blend.

For dinner I made stir fry with chicken and veggies over brown rice.

I spent the rest of the evening chatting with bestie May and catching up on GIRLS. That show is seriously amazing!!!

WINNER: The winner of my Injinji giveaway is JEFFERY! Jeffery: email me your mailing address and I will forward it along to my friends at Injinji and they will get those 4 pairs out to you!

Have you ever tried over and over to accomplish a fitness goal and then all of a sudden you got it?

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Meatloaf Smeatloaf Double-Beatloaf

Feb 1st, 2013 by Ali

I have had an interesting relationship with meatloaf. Allow me to explain. Growing up my dad was obsessed with meatloaf! It was hands down his favorite meal and we had it for dinner pretty much once a week. I did not share the same love of meatloaf that dad or the rest of my family did. In fact, I HATED meatloaf! I would dread meatloaf night.I knew that once my butt landed in my assigned seat at the dining room table I was not getting up until I ate my meatloaf. I went to great lengths to avoud eating meatloaf:

Eating over a friend’s house
Pretending I was sick (various methods)
Scheduling my gymnastics classes during dinner time on meatloaf days
Straight out refusal
Threatening to never speak to my parents again if they made me eat it
The classic feed it to the dog on the sly move (our basset hound, Roxie, loved me in those days)

I’m with you, Randy!

I have avoided meatloaf at all costs for years. Until this past summer. In June I started working at the Navy Yard Bistro. On Sunday’s and Monday’s the Bistro has a Meatloaf special that people absolutely rave about. Despite my hatred for meatloaf and my less than enthusiastic reaction to the thought of red meat in general, I was too intrigued to not take a bite one night when the chef made meatloaf for the staff after a shift. It was delicious. Delicious! I never thought I would use that word to describe meatloaf. I then became kind of obsessed with meatloaf. I totally flipped a switch. Even if I had eaten dinner already before work, if meatloaf appeared in the back once we were closed for the night, I had to take a bite.

So, with a new found affection for the loaf of meat, I set out to create an “Ali version” of meatloaf. Here is the recipe!

You will need:

1 small onion
1 pound of ground turkey breast
1 egg and 1 egg white
2 cloves of minced garlic
salt and pepper
olive oil
fat free, low sodium chicken broth
reduced sugar ketchup (or regular ketchup- either works just fine)
worcestershire sauce
whole wheat bread crumbs

I start by throwing the onion in the food processor and grinding it up really small. You can chop if you like bigger pieces of onion. Adam HATES onions so that is why I grind them up super small. Sauté the onion in 1 tablespoon of EVOO until it is slightly browned. Then addgarlic and about 1/2 a teaspoon of both salt and pepper.

Next add about 1/3 of a cup of chicken broth, 1 and 1/2 tbls. of worcestershire sauce and 2 tbls of ketchup. Mix well.

Pour the mix into a large bowl and let cool. Next add the ground turkey breast, 3/4 of a cup of bread crumbs, 1 egg and 1 egg white to the mixture and mix well. The mix might seem a little more liquidity than you think it should, but it’s fine.

Cover a cookie sheet in tin foil and coat in cooking spray. Form the mixture into a “loaf” and then sprinkle the top with a little but of worcestershire sauce (sometimes I add garlic powder too because Adam and I are garlic freaks) and bake at 400 for about an hour- you want the temperature to register 170 degrees internally.

And ta-da! The recipe makes about 5 servings. It is not as good as the Bistro meatloaf, but it will do

What food did you used to hate but like now?

Tags: Healthy meatloaf recipe, Navy Yard Bistro, turkey meatloaf recipe

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

There Is A Giveaway At The End Of This Post…

Jan 31st, 2013 by Ali

Hola! Here I am…still awake due a crazy storm here in Boston! So I thought I would just chip away at blog posts until I get sleepy again.

Does anyone else remember the book There Is A Monster At The End Of This Book ?

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As a kid I loved this book. I think I must have read it about 100 times. Every time I read it, I still got a little anxious about how it would end, even I knew. In case you are unfamiliar with it. When the book begins our boy Grover is informed that there is a monster at the end of the book. With each page Grover becomes more alarmed and worried about your safety and tries various methods to stop you from further reading. In the end he realizes the monster is HIM! Just blue, cuddly and cute Grover. No scary big, bad monster after all. Phew!

Well, there is a Giveaway at the end of this post. And unlike Grover, I want you to get to learn about the giveaway as quickly as possible and enter!!! So let’s move along as fast as we can…

Yesterday. Breakfast.

Green Smoothie: Banana, frozen strawberries, coconut water, unsweetened almond milk, vanilla protein powder, spinach. Coffee with organic half and half.

Lunch.

Leftovers from dinner the night before.

Dinner.

Turkey meatloaf , yogurt and chive mashed potatoes and lemon and parmesan broccoli (recipes to follow, pinky promise).

Dessert.

Two Adora milk chocolate disks.

Run.

5.38 miles in 51:38. Gusty wind, 60 degree temps…in January…IN BOSTON!

While wearing these socks!

I got an e-mail a few days ago from the folks at Injinji telling me about there new line of socks and asking if I wanted to try them out! After reading about the benefits I figured I would give it a go. Since the weather was strangely warm here is Boston yesterday, I thought it would be the perfect time to test out the socks and write a review:

As you can see there are separate slots for each toe. This has been a huge trend in the running world over the last few years (think vibrams) as it is designed to give a runner he benefits of barefoot running. As a fairly severe overpronator, barefoot running is not for me. These socks seemed like a happy medium. I could get the benefits of a barefoot runner (strengthened feet and ankles, improved balance and agility) by wearing the socks while still getting the support of a sneaker.

There are also various other benefits to this sock. Having the toes in separate sleeves is supposed to prevent blistering caused by toes rubbing together in a regular sock. Since I am prone to blisters, I was very glad to learn that this was a benefit. Like a lot of my running socks these also claimed to be sweat wicking and compression materials to hold the sock in place so it doesn’t slide down or shift during the run.

benefits_toesock

So did I like them? Yes! They felt strange at first. Almost like the feeling when you wear flips flops for the first time in the summer and our toes have to grow accustomed to feeling like there is something in between your toes again. But it felt like that on every toe. About a mile in my feet were used to them and I barely notices that there was anything in between my toes. One thing I like about them is I would feel my toes spreading out and gripping. It was pretty interesting to get a real sense for how exactly my toes move as I am running. I felt like a had a little but more propulsion than I typically do, as if my toes being able to spread may have made move forward easier.

Anyhow, I am excited to try out all the pairs I received designed for different activities. I will be trying out a different pair for Crossfit tonight!

Because I liked these socks so much, the folks at Injinji wanted to you guys to try them out too! So, one lucky reader will win 4 pairs of Injinji socks!!! Pretty sweet!

Here is how to enter:

1. Comment on this post about your favorite piece of workout clothing, equipment or gear and why you love it.

2. Tweet : “I want to win the @injinji sock giveaway on @alifoosfitfash’s blog”

3. Like both Food Fitness Fashion and Injinji on Facebook and Facebook ” I want to win the Injinji sock giveaway on Food Fitness Fashion” linking both facebook pages.

Each of these three will count as an entry. So you have the ability to enter 3 times! Both men and women can enter! You have until Friday at midnight to enter, so get to it!!!

Tags: injinji socks, running in toe socks

Posted in Uncategorized | 38 Comments »

Big shoes to fill

Jan 31st, 2013 by Ali

Hello everyone! I hope your week is chugging along just fine. I am coming to you from my living room at an ungodly early hour of the morning. We are having a crazy storm here in Boston right now! The wind is blowing at a rapid speed and the rain is pounding down! You know it is one hell of a storm when the wind wakes you up from a dead sleep even with your windows closed. Since I can’t fall back to sleep, I thought I would write a few blog posts.

Tuesday morning I woke up really wanting an egg sandwich. Okay, most mornings I wake up wanting an egg sandwich. Tuesday morning I actually had time to make one. I am usually rushed in the morning due to my torrid love affair with my snooze button. It’s bad, I once gave up the snooze button for lent. It was a miserable 40 days. Miserable. I don’t even think this stop me from giving the snooze button 3-5 love taps every day.

Tuesday morning I didn’t hit the snooze button at all! Ok, I’m lying. I hit it only twice which afforded me exactly 18 more minutes of getting-ready time. So I got to make an egg sandwich! Imagine if I NEVER hit the snooze button? Oh the possibilities

My sandwich consisted of a sprouted grain english muffin, a fried egg, two sliced of veggie canadian “bacon” and a slice of provolone cheese. On the side I had a clementine and some coffee with organic half and half.

Lunch was some leftover homemade veggie soup from the night before. I usually like to add whole wheat tortellini to the soup, but the grocery store was out of it so I opted for ravioli. They were way to big to be in soup, it made the soup really difficult to eat. Live and learn.

I had a whole wheat roll for dipping and some grapes as well.

Tuesday flew by at work, per usual. My days are super busy that I feel like I blink my eye and it is 2:20 and the school day is over (not that I ever leave once the school day is over). At 4pm I left my office and headed to work for a few hours at my old part-time job. I left my part-time job as a function coordinator in May of last year. My dad has been doing the job ever since. He is on vacation and would have to work a few hours a day from his hotel room so I offered to take the reins for him for a little over a week so that he could enjoy his vacation with my mom. I means me working three jobs for the next 10 days or so, but I don’t mind all that much. Let’s be serious, the man would walk over hot coals for me without a second thought. The least I can do is check his voicemail and emails and update his calendar for a few days, no?

I have some big shoes to fill this week!

Also, the building my dad works in is separated into two spaces. One is the function hall and offices and the other is Avalon Crossfit- my box! It’s pretty convenient. So once I finished up my work for the day, I changed my clothes and headed across the hall to Crossfit. I had a pre-workout snack while foam rolling before the class began.

I tried the Luna Protein bars for the first time after a race where they were being handed out at the finish line. They taste like a candy bar. So obviously, I am a fan!

My workout:

Warm-up

3 rounds:

15 jumping jacks
10 squats
5 inch worms

There workout consisted of 4 WOD’s

WOD #1

As many rounds as possible in 8:00 of:

8 Russian Kettlebell Swings, 14 kg
8 BW Ring Rows
8 Lunge Jumps

Rest 2 Minutes

WOD #2
As many rounds as possible in 8 Minutes of:

24 Lateral Plate Jumps 25 pound plate
8 25 pound Plate Thrusters
8 Pushups (alllllllll on my toes, yo!)

Rest 2 Minutes

WOD #3

As Many Rounds as Possible in 8 Min of:

8 Hang Power Clean 35 pound bar
8 Front Squat 35 pound bar

Rest 2 Minutes

WOD #4
As Many Rounds as possible in 8 Min of

8 Pistols
8 Pullups (banded)
8 Spider Man Mountain Climbers

I REALLY liked this workout. Eight minutes is a long time to be working in the same station, so by the end of each WOD I was fatigued. As the workout went on I realized it was more legs heavy than I thought. When I finished my legs were fatigued and feeling like jello, getting up into my SUV to drive home was difficult. I realized in this workout that I really love ring rows. I am able to do them with my body lower to the ground than I used to so I am getting a lot stronger. Something about ring rows makes me feel badass. My pull-ups are improving as well. I was able to move down to a lighter band and I think I am going to be able to step it down even more very soon. My goal of getting an unassisted pull-up this year might actually happen!

After my workout the drank a small glass of fat free chocolate milk. This has been my favorite post-workout snack lately.

Chocolate Milk is a really great post-workout refueler for a number of reasons:

• It is a natural source of high-quality protein
• It has the right carb-to-protein ratio to repair tired muscles
• It has electrolytes including calcium, potassium, sodium and magnesium to help replenish what’s lost when you sweat
• It helps to hydrate
• It contains B vitamins to increase your depleted energy post-workout

Since Adam was not home until late I was flying solo for dinner. I used this quinoa mix as the base of my dinner.

I cooked it following the instructions and then added some fresh steamed zucchini, carrots, red bell peppers and tomatoes as well as some chickpeas. I topped it all with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and about 1/4 of a cup of reduced fat feta.

I spent the evening catching up on TV (Carries Diaries, anyone?). While watching TV and surfing Pinterst I snacked on air popped popcorn with a little buffalo sauce.

Buffalo popcorn…it sounds weird, but it is awesome! Trust!

I also had two dark chocolate adora disks. A girl has got to have her calcium, right?

What is your favorite post-workout snack and why? What are the benefits of it?

Tags: adora disks, Benefits of chocolate milk post-workout, quinoa recipes, snooze button

Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments »

Any Body’s Game

Jan 29th, 2013 by Ali

Hey guys! I hope this post finds you well. I am doing great, just plugging along. Last week was crazy because it was one of those weeks that I had something to do every night of the week after work- some of it fun, some of it not. Thursday night I attended the premier of Any Body’s Game a documentary created by Insider’s Health. When Matt, the director, sent me an email inviting me to the premier and explaining the content of the film I was pretty intrigued ( it was a FREE event open to anyone, being invited doesn’t make me a big deal or anything).

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The description I was given was that it follows two aspiring fitness models, one male and one female, who are taking an all-natural approach as they get ready to hit the stage . The documentary details their workouts, diet, as well as all of the other forms of preparation involved. I was interested in seeing what this “all natural” approach entailed, considering when I think of body building or fitness competitions all that comes to mind is MTV’s True Live: I WANT A PERFECT BODY. Did anyone else see this episode? It is probably about five or six years old and shows in great detail the caloric restricting and insane workout regimen of two body builders getting ready for a competition. The goal of Any Body’s Game is to give the viewer a glimpse into the fitness and body building industry with the hopes of debunking negative stereotypes.

The film followed Julia Wyper and Freddy Lugo, the two future competitors and their coaches Cathy Savage and Rob Knox:

Julia is a physical therapist, skin cancer survivor, wife and mother of two. She began a fitness routine in an effort to finally lose her baby weight. A self-proclaimed tomboy, Julia says she missed the competitiveness of college athletics and decided to pursue fitness competitions as a way to rediscover her passion for fitness. Her bout with skin cancer made her realize how important health is especially as a medical professional and a mother.

Freddy struggled with his weight for years. When he reached 275 lbs. he started to notice the effects his unhealthy lifestyle. After his doctor urged him to begin a workout regimen, he started to notice significant results that motivated him enough to want to take his fitness to the next level- registering for a fitness competition. In the process of preparing for the competition, Freddy lost 100 lbs. He also works full-time and is dad.

Cathy is the owner of Cathy Savage Fitness, her work with female competitors earned her a glowing reputation in the world of natural fitness. She encourages her clients to live a healthier lifestyles and aims to dispel that myth that bikini model competitions are reserved only for Barbie-look-alikes. She guides her clients in training, nutrition, competition preparation and mental health. She is known for her though love and creating a sense of sisterhood amongst her clients.

Rob is the owner of Navesink Fitness where he spearheads the men’s division of Cathy Savage fitness. He is extremely dedicated to pushing his clients to rise above their perceived limitations and realize their true potential. His commitment to natural methods and knowledge of training have earned him the nickname “The Magician”.

Here is the the documentary’s trailer:

So what did I think?

I liked the film! I found that I related to Julia in a lot of ways. She has a ton her plate and at times forgets to put her health first. She had a significant life event that inspired her to focus in health and in turn change her life. I was inspired by her commitment to the sport and was humbled by her realness about how hard it is sometimes to find enough time in that day for everything. I think that is something I struggle with as well and I can’t even imagine what that is like when adding motherhood to the equation. She spoke often about finding balance and how that is so different for everyone. I also could relate to her feeling about her work and wanting to be a healthy example to those she serves. As a counselor I work a lot with students in regard to stress management and if I am not managing my stress, I am not only being hypocritical but I am much less effective as a counselor. Exercise is one way that I manage my stress, much like Julia.

There is one scene that resonated with me. As the time until the competition grows smaller, Cathy has each girl stand in front of her one by one while she “critiques” them. When the scene began I thought, “Oh jeez, here we go! She is going to tear these girls apart about their appearance….” I was not looking forward to watching it. But instead she gave them kind and constructive advice. She told Julie that she wasn’t sleeping enough. She said to her something along the lines of “Don’t tell me that you don’t have time for 7-8 hours of sleep. You need that much sleep to recover from these workouts and recover from your day. If you can’t give yourself that much sleep something else has to go. You do so much for others in your profession and in your family life. You need to make yourself a priority. I’m not saying to make yourself number one, that isn’t always possible. But you need to be in your top three. Do you understand?” This advice really hit me. Mostly because it reminded me a lot of what I was discussing in my last post. Something HAS to go sometimes so I can take care of myself. And you can bet your as* it can’t be either of my jobs, my stress management or spending time with my husband, family and friends so it has to be blogging sometimes.

I found the documentary inspiring. Not in the sense that I would ever be interested in being in a fitness competition. I could NEVER give up all carbs and spend every Saturday walking back and fourth at the gym in a string bikini and clear platform shoes. But it was wonderful to see people work so hard towards a goal and succeed. The amount of commitment it takes is impressive, regardless of you whether fitness competitions are a goal of yours or not. Julia and Freddy, two unlikely competitors, overcame so many obstacles. They conquered self-doubt, pushed hard through physical and mental exertion, sacrificed time and convenience and persevered – with a camera in face and while being parents, spouses and working full-time. It is impossible not to be moved. Overall, I felt like the documentary was well done. It did dispel some negative preconceived ideas I had about body building and fitness competitions. If you have any interest in seeing the film, contact Insider’s Health.

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What are your thoughts on fitness competitions? What fitness goals that you first thought were not possible have you achieved? What are you current goals? What inspires you to reach them?

Tags: Any Body's Game, Any Body's Game Review, Cathy Savage, Cathy Savage Fitness, Freddu Lugo, Insiders Health, Julia Wyper, Navesnick Fitness, Rob Knox

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This Hiatus Brought To You By The Letters L, C and J!

Jan 16th, 2013 by Ali

Oh hey there to the few of you still reading! I hope this post finds you all healthy and happy and adjusting to dating things 2013. Seriously, how difficult is THAT to get used to? I am back. I was gone. It was obvious. This hiatus was necessary for many reasons. Hence the title of my post.

Every hiatus usually makes me feel sad. It also makes me feel like a slacker. This time I was actually able to take this hiatus without feeling the typical sadness or beating myself up. After almost 4 years of blogging I have become so accustomed to doing it and it always feels like something is missing from my life and my social self when this is gone. After a lot of thought during this time I realized the guilt is derived from my own expectations that I put in myself as “AliFoodFitFash”. I used to blog three times a day and have time to actively comment, email, tweet, facebook and engage all of my readers. Life changes and this just isn’t possible for me anymore. As a self-proclaimed perfectionist I have a total “all or nothing” attitude about my expectations of what I “should” do. Until a month ago when I thought “Ah, screw it”. I didn’t mean screw blogging, obviously because I am writing this post. I meant screw the guilt or feeling bad. I don’t NEED to blog three times a day to be a “good blogger”. A lot of Healthy Living Bloggers do that. In fact, most do. However, most of them view blogging as their full-time job. They view blogging as their “career”. Neither of those things are true for me. Blogging is a job, as in it contributes my income. But it is not my career or even close to being something I see as a full time gig. I might never be a full-time gig and I don’t know that I would want it to be. I am passionate about what I do. I love my job. More so than writing. Also, I like to think I am a much better guidance counselor than writer and I am sure you all would agree.

So, I decided to stop comparing myself to those bloggers. It is unfair to me. Plus, I think I reason people started reading Food, Fitness, Fashion to begin with is because they feel it is relatable. I work a full-time job outside of blogging. I actually always have worked a full-time job plus gone to school and/or had a part-time job the whole time I have been writing. The present day is no exception. I currently work a full-time job and a part-time job. I am hoping to get back to blogging more frequently with the my original goal in mind: to share how I live a healthy lifestyle while balancing it all. I hope showing you all how I manage it will help you find what ways work for you. I hope to continue to be real about the great days and the tough days. I hope to give you some fun and tasty recipes and some examples of challenging and effective workouts.

Anyhow this hiatus was brought to you by GREAT THINGS:

L: Learning- I had to learn a whole new school system and in a lot of ways a whole new job. I accepted pretty much my dream job as a Guidance Counselor in a district that I feel is a PREFECT fit for me. I started at the end of October and still feel like I learn something new every day. Learning so much so fast leaves little time, brain power or creativity for much else. I feel like I am feel less overwhelmed now, but that only took about 3 months!

C: Choices- At times I had to choose between blogging and my health. Let me explain. We are all aware that there are only a certain number of hours in the day. Some days I had to decide what was more important:

Working out or blogging
Sleeping or blogging
Spending time with Adam and Oscar of blogging
Relaxing or blogging
Organizing and cleaning my house or blogging

In all of these instances I chose to do what I felt was more healthy for me at the time. And you guessed it, it was usually NOT blogging. How can I be an example of health without making sure my own health is a priority. That would hypocritical.

J: JOY-Yes, JOY! I am in a good place and sometimes I just want to take the time to enjoy it. I love my jobs- both of them! I finally feel like I got cut a break. I also worked REALLY hard to get where I am career-wise, health-wise and happiness-wise and I certainly deserve some time to sit back and soak it up.

Anyhow, thanks for STILL reading. I am grateful and thanks for your e-mails saying you missed me! As much as I enjoyed time off. Sometimes I girl likes to know she is missed.

See you all soon

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3 Healthy and Creative Thanksgiving Leftover Recipes

Nov 28th, 2012 by Ali

Hello and good morning! I am coming to you super early this morning. I love the ability to time posts to fire off later than I write them. That way I can blog early in the morning and it doesn’t get posted until the rest of the world is awake. Technology…what will they think of next?!

Since I hosted Thanksgiving for the very first time this year, and hosted for roughly 30 people, I hugely overshot to the amount of food that I needed to feed everyone Oh well, live and learn. It is MUCH better to have too much food than not enough. But I was left with a scary amount of leftovers. I was determined to find a way to use everything up. So this week I will be doing a series of posts on creative ways to use up Thanksgiving or Holiday leftovers.

First up: Cranberry sauce. I didn’t have a lot of cranberry sauce leftover, maybe a couple of slices or so. So for breakfast yesterday I mixed the leftover cranberry sauce with about a cup of non-fat plain greek yogurt and stopped it with some pecans to add crunch.

It was pretty tart and a nice change of pace. I usually put in berries or honey so that the cranberry sauce added a different texture and a whole different flavor.

Of course I had coffee with it…two cups. A little love and peace on a Tuesday morning is never a bad things…

Lunch was leftover turkey soup that I made on Sunday. Turkey soup is about the most common way to use leftovers. I can’t really take credit for this idea…

What started off like this…

Eventually became this…

Here is my soup recipe:

1. Place leftover turkey on a large stock pot. I used a drumstick and the wings as well as pieces of sliced up turkey. I wanted to make sure to use a lot of bones and skin because that is there the flavor for the broth.

2. Fill up the pot with water until the turkey is covered. I added some spices like sage, rosemary and parsley.

3. Bring to a boil, cover and boil for about 2 and a half hours. At this point your whole house will smell like amazing turkey soup!!!!

4. I made a turkey and rice soup. So I cooked the brown rice while the soup was boiling. You can certainly cook the rice in the broth of you prefer. I just did this to save time.

5. Place a pot in the sink with a strainer inside and strain the soup.

6. Pour the broth back into the initial pot and pick through the turkey ridding the meat of bones and skin. Place turkey back in the broth.

7. Add rice and leftover veggies to the pot. I added corn, peas, green beans and broccoli but you can really use whatever you have on hand. Since they were already cooked on Thanksgiving they just needed to be heated up.

8. Bring to a boil, let cool, serve.

I had a big bowl of soup for lunch. It came out really great considering it was my very first soup from scratch. I have made soup before using store bought broth but never made soup with my own broth.

After worked I headed to Crossfit. Work has been great and I LOVE my job, but the days are busy and it is nice to work everything out at the end of the day. The workout looked like this:

Each exercise is 30 seconds on/15 seconds rest (off)
5 Rounds at each station and then you are moving to the next station

1. Mountain climbers
2. KB Sumo Deadlift High pulls (12kg)
3. Burpees
4. Split squats (right leg) (12kg)
5. Gymnastics Push ups
6. Sit Stands
7. Triple Extension Jumps
8. Split squats (left leg) (12 kg)
9. Ab Mat Situps
10. 1-arm snatch left arm (8kg)
11. 1 arm snatch right arm (8kg)

At certain points I turned away from the clock so I couldn’t see how much time I had left in each round. The split squats really worked my quads and by the third round they were burning. I didn’t like the 1-arm snatches. For some reason it took a while for my brain to not want to clean and press the kettle bell, the movement was slightly counterintuitive. I kept slapping the kettle bell off on my wrist at the top. It was a great workout per usual. Crossfit never fails to make me a sweaty mess. I cannot believe I have been a Crossfitter for over two years! Where does the time go?!

After the gym Adam and I started dinner. I had about 6 cups of leftover mashed potatoes. 6 CUPS!!!!! The great things about mashed potato leftovers is that they are easily made into gnocchi. Adam and I made our mashed potatoes into whole wheat gnocchi.

We mixed added 6 cups of mashed potatoes with 3 cups of whole wheat dough and 3 eggs in a large mixing bowl.

Then Adam kneaded it into a doughy constancy.

We took the dough and cut it into about 10 smaller sections and then rolled each section out into snake-like strands, about 1 inch thick.

Then we used a butter knife and cut the strands into 1 inch pieces of gnocchi. Six cups of mashed potatoes makes a lot of gnocchi, luckily this recipe freezes so well! I put individual servings into ziplock bags and we have about 6 more servings of gnocchi in the freezer right now.

I also whipped up a simple and tasty sauce while we were cutting up the gnocchi. The fantastic folks over at Tuttorosso sent me some staples. I used the crushed tomatoes with basil and tomato sauce to start off the sauce.

The word “Tuttorosso” actually means “all red”. I love this brand because the products are all natural, affordable and the website is packed with a ton of healthy recipes.

Quick sauce:

1 tablespoon of EVOO
A few cloves of minced garlic
Tuttorosso crushed tomatoes with basil
Turrorrosso tomato sauce
1 tablespoon of dried basil
1 tablespoon of dried oregano
1 tablespoon of dried parsley
2 tablespoons of sugar

Put all ingredients into a large sauce pan bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Easy…

Back to the gnocchi: I placed the gnocchi one by into a pot of boiling water and boiled them until the floated to the top. Then I strained them added sauce and dinner was served!!!!

The gnocchi came out awesome! This recipe is easily halved or quartered. Tip: This works well we leftover mashed potatoes, much better than fresh ones. So if you plan on making the potatoes just to create gnocchi make them the day before and left the sit in the fridge for a while.

Yesterday’s Outfit: