I have definitely been working out and eating well but I can feel a twinge of boredom and a lack of enthusiasm creeping into my work outs. The runs have also gotten shorter, I just noticed today that the last time I ran 10 miles was April 1st! A whole month ago! And the last time I even ran 5 miles was over a week ago.. that’s a problem.. Seeing as my Tough Mudder is in 12 days there isn’t much I can hope to accomplish in strength gains by then, I am confident my endurance is fine to get me through it though. The half marathon a month from today though may require a bit more work that what I have recently been doing. SO I decided to switch up my work outs and do a 30 day challenge I found online. I used to pick up some work outs from BodyRockTv so I ventured over there today to see whats been going on. I spotted a May challenge that included a fit test today and then I will redo it on June 1st. For those of you who have not heard of BodyRock before its a home work out site and the work outs are insane. All of them are between 10 – 20 minutes typically, I would say average is more like 12-16 minutes. Don’t like the time frame fool you, the work outs are pure evil! Today for the fit test I went with the beginner no weights version because I didn’t think I could pull off the moves in the intermediate. The fit test was as follows
Interval: 50/10 (50 work 10 rest)
1) Squats
2) Push Ups
3) Tricep Dips
4) Abs
I have an interval timer that I use so it beeps at me to let me know when I can take a break or need to get going. My score for this ended up being: {S/P/T/A = 26,19,30,38 // 25,17,30,40 // 26,18,30,42} I wish I could say those push ups were real man push ups but they were not. I was actually quite annoyed with how weak I felt today. As of 2 weeks ago I was able to do 3 sets of 10 real push ups and today I squeaked out 2 at the beginning of each round. Yesterday I was short on time so I did a 200 rep challenge that I posted back in February. I shaved 1 minute off my time so that was pretty exciting! Plus my legs are wildly sore which is nice. I haven’t been getting sore lately from running and lifting – another hint that I am not pushing myself hard enough…
So how the challenge works is that Mon, Tue, Thur & Fri you go to the website and you do the work out that is posted. Wednesday, Sat & Sun are rest days. I will most likely try to get a long run back into my weekend so that the whole weekend isn’t a wash. I will post the work outs I do for this on here so that if any one else cares to join in on the challenge or do a work out here or there you don’t have to go hunting for it!
Switching gears over to the kitchen – my oh my how I missed it while I was on vacation! While Puerto Rico was amazing and the food I had was wonderful I’m pretty sure I put on about 5 lbs while I was there. I never cook with butter or eat white bread but that was everywhere. Also everything that we ate was cooked in oil or fried. Not that we were chowing on french fries every day but sandwiches came cooked and smothered in butter and the plantains! Oh the plantains!! They were fabulous every which way they were cooked and I think they all included mass amounts of butter. My favorite dish I had while I was there was called Mofongo:
This is mashed plantains and stuffed with a chicken stew mixx of sorts. You can get it with just veggies or whatever meat of your choice. I fell for the chicken though. Mofongo is traditionally cooked in butter and oil and then mashed. So it’s delicious but not fantastic for you. I ended up recreating this dish at home last night and it came out really good! Here is the recipe I came up with:
Ingredients:
3 chicken thighs
2 large plantains
3 cups chicken broth
1 can roasted / diced tomatoes
Salt, Pepper, Garlic & Oregano
To start I peeled and sliced the plantains into 1/2 inch pieces. Over medium / high heat with non stick spray cook until brown on each side, flipping once. Once browned add in 2 cups broth of your choice, allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes until soft.
Remove the plantains into a large bowl, begin to mash, adding in the stock from the pan as needed to keep moist – I used the majority of the broth, the remainder I tossed into the pan with the chicken. Add salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste.
For the chicken thighs I removed the skin and added salt, pepper and garlic powder to both sides. I cooked in a skillet about 3 minutes a side to brown slightly. Then add in about a cup of broth, a can of tomatoes and oregano. Cover and simmer for about 10 – 15 minutes, flipping the thighs onces. Serve the chicken along side the mofongo and add on as much sauce as you want! My bf is a bit of a picky eater and even ate some of the mofongo and admitted it was good, so I promise even if this sounds crazy and like something you would never eat I urge you to try it! Plus a plantain costs about $0.80 and you will get 3 – 4 meals out of 2 of them!
Happy cooking!!
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Categories: Food, Running, Tough Mudder Progress, Workouts
First Vegan Birthday! 
Food & Fitness 
Oh man, 12 days?!?! I keep forgetting how much earlier yours is than mine, I’m pretty excited to read your after-post!
My friend I’m doing it with, her BF just did the course we are doing last Sunday and word on the street is it isn’t as horrible as we have been expecting. I am sure it will still be a wildly amusing post though!