Beef Stew

 

This delicious beef stew is packed with protein and is the perfect dinner on a day like today!

You may add a number of veggies to this recipe as you like, but I will be making a little more simple version today. You absolutely may start with some cheaper beef, often sold as “stew meat” at the grocery store, but the end product will only be as good as the quality of your ingredients so I recommend a little splurge and use either chuck roast of sirloin roast as the start. The next thing that will turn this from good to great is to build layers of flavor on top of layers of flavor and I will go into how to do that next!

Ingredients:

2-3 lbs beef

2-4 onions depending on size

4-6 carrots

2-4 potatoes

add celery, peas, mushrooms, etc to the stew at different times depending on the veg. (Celery goes in early so it gets soft, mushrooms, peas, etc could go in at the end so they don’t dissolve totally)

red wine

Beef broth

Salt

Garlic

Thyme

Start by prepping all the veggies to the desired size and cutting the meat into bite size chunks. Trim any excess fat, but remember that good marbling will lead to delicious flavors! First cooking step is to brown the beef chunks. Do this a small amount at a time in a large pan or soup pot with a bit of olive oil and plenty of salt and pepper. You will be tempted to just throw all the meat in at once, and this whole recipe could be done in a slow cooker, but the results just won’t be quite the same. If you take the time to sear the meat, getting good caramelization on each piece you will have started the flavor layer building perfectly!

After all the meat is browned and you have pulled it into a bowl to wait, you will throw the chopped onions into the pan with another dash of salt and the garlic. Add a little more olive oil and a dusting of flour to make a roux that will thicken the stew. Stir constantly to help free all the delicious bits of meat that have stuck to the sides of your pan. Once the onions are getting soft you can put the meat back in the pot and cover with a cup of red wine and 2 cups of beef broth or stock salting to taste and adding the thyme. If you are adding other firm veggies like celery now would be the time. You may leave this on the stove top for 2-3 hours or put in the oven at 250. Just be sure that the broth doesn’t cook off! You want to braise the meat, covered in wine and stock until very tender!

After the meat is nearly falling apart you will add the carrots and potatoes and continue to cook until those are soft as well. You should taste and add salt and pepper as needed. Once cooked until the potatoes are ready this is ready to serve.

I like to eat this sort of stew with some crusty bread, usually sourdough.

Why we track our results

Why we track the results of our workouts each day

 

We have several new members at the gym and a question about tracking workout results in Wodify has come up enough times that I thought I should address it to the group.

“So it’s a way to compete?”
The answer to that question is yes, in a manner of speaking. CrossFit gyms traditionally track all workout results and you can see that as a competition. Who did the most rounds of pull-ups, push-ups and air squats in 12 minutes for example. Or how fast athletes performed 21-15-9 thrusters and pull-ups. You can see all the results of the day on a part of Wodify called “Whiteboard” which is a reference to old school CF gyms using an actual whiteboard to put up the scores. The person on top of our daily whiteboard in any given lift or workout doesn’t get a prize, there are no scholarships to be handed out or anything like that. When I talk about beating Daniel Scullion on the whiteboard i’m only joking around (OK, I’m kind of serious)! While it is beneficial to your fitness to have a score in mind and try to do better than that, I would much rather you use your last performance as your target and try to beat your own self from last month or last year than to try to beat someone else’s score. Nobody cares if you do “better” than some other athlete, but you get a gold star on Wodify if you beat your old self for setting a new PR, which is awesome!
That brings us back to tracking… and tracking accurately. If you do the workout Rx, click the Rx button so that when we repeat the workout a month or a year later you can accurately know how you performed previously. If you used a lighter weight, put it in the notes instead of clicking the Rx button. If you scaled handstand push-ups to regular push-ups, put that in the notes. And if you didn’t do all the rounds, or all the reps on each of the rounds, that is fine… we all scale the workout to push ourselves but not overdo it. But in order to accurately track your performance and to see, understand and know your fitness as it changes and improves, you shouldn’t put a time into the Wodify results that isn’t accurate. When we repeat that workout down the road you want to be able to say that you did better, and by how much, after putting in all the work that you have between those tests.
Here is an example. If you claim today to have done Karen, which is 150 reps of wall ball shots in 6:36 but only did 120 reps, how will you remember 6 months from now, when we repeat Karen? 120 reps instead of 150 reps may have been the workout you needed today and that is fine. Again, we all scale workouts. But when we repeat Karen and you check your history you’ll just see your time of 6:36. If you do all 150 reps in 7:01 you may be disappointed, thinking your fitness has declined. But if your notes remind you that you scaled to 120, you can see how much progress you have made!
Another great reason to track results in Wodify is all the percentage work that we do with lifts. Knowing your percentages on all the different lifts that we do is really hard! But if you keep track of your cleans, squats, deadlifts, presses, etc on Wodify, you, or the coach in your class,  can easily look up what 50% is so you know where to start, or what 85% is so you know what to load on the bar for 6 sets of 3, or whatever the day calls for.
To sum it up, I encourage everyone to enter their results in Wodify each day. Use your previous performance and sometimes other athletes’ performances to motivate you to go a little faster or a little heavier. But don’t claim scores that aren’t really your results. Nobody is impressed and it will be harder for you to accurately understand what kind of progress you have been making with all the hard work you are putting in!

Progressive Overload

CrossFit defines itself as Constantly varied functional movement performed at high intensity. And it says that the goal of CrossFit is to improve work capacity across broad time and modal domains. Now that is all just fancy ways of saying we are trying to get fitter, but it is important on some level to define what that fitness means and is.

In the gym on any normal week, we might try to hit a PR by squatting or pressing 5 pounds more that you ever have before. If so, that is great! Or we might do a metcon, say Batwings – 30 each of bike calories, deadlifts and burpees – in a faster time than you have before. Both are examples of doing either more work, or the same amount of work in a faster time. Both are measures to say that you are now fitter than you were the last time you tested either that lift or that metcon.

But… when we are stuck at home, with only a few pieces of equipment at our disposal we probably can’t test a 1 RM lift, and we might be able to do Grace – 30 clean and jerks for time – but not at the same weight we did it before. So how can we get stronger when we don’t have maximal weight to move? Progressive overload is how we do it in the gym, and usually by doing reps of a certain lift several weeks in a row at ever increasing percentages of your 1 rep max. But the other way we can use progressive overload is by doing the same weight (since we have limited weight options at home these days) for a few more sets of reps each week.

You will start to see that in the programming with Friday being a prime example. Last week, we maxed out a push-up, either handstand or regular and a row of some sort, either barbell, kettlebell or dumbbell. Friday we will be doing the same lifts with the goal of 1-2 more reps on each set. Here is another reason to be tracking your results in Wodify so you can pull up the last time we did these and give yourself a target for each set!

So stay healthy, stay strong and I look forward to seeing you in the gym again soon!

Hearty Beef Chili

Hearty Beef Chili

A great meal for those cold winter days (even if it rarely gets cold in Wilmington!) this Chili is easy to make, tastes great and is packed with protein. I usually eat it with some cheddar cheese sprinkled on top and a big scoop of sour cream, but it is delicious on its own. I credit Nick Boyd from the South Side Soda Shop with this recipe, and you can even see him make it on Diner’s, Drive Ins and Dives. And I won’t share his secret ingredient, but I will tell you that you can spice this up however you want… be creative!

A 12 ounce bowl has 45g protein, 20g carbs and 12g fat

2 Lbs Ground Beef – Local and grassfed is best!
Chopped Celery, Onions and Green Peppers – use LOTS of veggies!
1 Can Kidney Beans
1 Can Crushed Tomatoes
Salt, Cumin, Chili Powder, Garlic Powder to taste. Add cayenne pepper if you want!

Chop the veggies, then steam them and brown the ground beef.
Drain the fat well, then let beef and veggies cook a little more
Add tomato and beans.
Add Seasonings.
Simmer for at least 10 minutes, but this chili gets better the longer it cooks!

Shredded Buffalo Chicken

 

This meal is a staple in our household! It’s an incredible protein source, macro friendly and KID friendly take on the favorite “Buffalo Chicken”. Throw on top of a bed of rice, salad or stuff in a baked potato!

 

 

Salmon Cakes

The perfect salad topper, sandwich stuffer or breakfast hash-er! You can sub out tuna for salmon and make this fit your needs and preferences.Such an EASY and delicious lunch staple on hotter days!

Easy 5-Step Checklist to Manage Your Health

 

When people ask us how to improve their health and nutrition, we ask a series of questions that highlight some biofeedback tools relating to their metabolism. A simple self-assessment can get you started onto the path of understanding and listening to your body.

S- sleep – Poor quality and quantity of sleep creates excess cortisol and insulin. Shoot for 8 hours of sleep a night. If that seems like A LOT at first, start to slowly increase your sleep by 15 minute increments. Avoid alcohol, drugs and technology to relax and get to sleep. Avoid technology or blue light within 90 minutes of sleep.

H- hunger- Sit when you eat, eat at least 3 meals a day of nutrient dense foods. Do you have an appetite? What foods does your body respond well to? Do you know how to adequately fuel yourself? (click here if you have questions about our nutrition program)

M-mood- Stable blood sugar levels (meal timing, macronutrient ratios), mindfulness or relaxation and movement are the antidotes for balanced brain chemicals. Exercise, a goods nights sleep, time relaxing are ALL amazing ways to ameliorate an otherwise bad mood.

E-energy- SLEEP IS EVERYTHING. On top of that, ensure your immune system is up to snuff and thyroid properly functioning.

C-cravings- Low energy, insufficient calories and poor sleep will increase cortisol, decrease our ability to make decisions and force us into old behavior patterns. The easiest way to mitigate cravings? Try to find non-food related ways to relax. If I watch tv while eating pretzels, teach yourself that these things do not HAVE to go together.

 

“Is your SHMEC in check?” is really a simple biofeedback tool that assesses your hormone metabolism, ability to fuel and recover. Small steps forwards in each of these areas will manage stress and make healthy living attainable AND sustainable.

 

 

Quinoa Turkey Meatballs

This delicious recipe is SO easy and SO convenient. We add it to our weekly meal prep when we know we will be in and out of the house. These meatballs are perfect for a grab-and-go lunch or on top of a bed of zoodles for dinner. Try adding it into your meal prep this week and tag us in your photos!

Wine & WOD: Women Empowering Women

GONE ARE THE DAYS THAT BOND OVER HOW UNHAPPY WE ARE WITH OURSELVES.
We engage, communicate, support and motivate because we were once her and she was once me.
Ladies, let’s get lifted.
Join us Friday, February 15th from 7-9:30PM for our first annual Wine & WOD.
Bring your bestie, sister, Mom, cousin, Aunt, neighbor, daughter or new friends for a night filled with some serious power.
Together we will go through a workout that will leave you feeling STRONG and EMPOWERED.
Then we will sip on some quality vines, munch on an array of snacks, shop local female-owned businesses and work through some mindset exercises.
This is NOT a Crossfit class.
This IS for women who want to LEVEL UP, dig in and step beyond their boundaries.
This IS for women who want to be a part of a community of women that support, lighten and love.
This IS for women who are ready to change their lifestyle; who want to create space and time to prioritize their health but feel overwhelmed.
This IS for women who are interested in getting stronger, creating muscle tone and getting fit but don’t know how to start.
No weightlifting or CrossFit experience necessary.
Come as you are. All are welcome.

Chipotle-Inspired Cilantro Lime Quinoa

Raise your hand if you too get sad when your fork hits the bottom of your chipotle bowl?!  Today we’re scheming with our favorite homemade version of the delicious rice. We’re mixing it up with quinoa and adding this as a weekly staple to our meal prep!