Protein packed dinner

Have you ever tried Quinoa?  If you haven't you should give it a shot in place of any recipe that calls for rice!  A perfect example of this was the dinner we made last night Chicken Fried Quinoa.  Chicken fried rice was always a go-to meal for the hubby and I back when we were in college.  We still like it now, but we've made a few minor changes.

Ingredients

• 1 cup dry quinoa (prepare according to package direction)
• 1lb. Shredded Chicken (you can used canned if you're feeling lazy, we do it all the time!)
• Assorted frozen veggies of your choice (we like peas, corn, bell peppers, onions)
• Low Sodium Soy sauce to taste & turn the quinoa brown
• Olive Oil
• Black Pepper
• Garlic

I precooked my chicken in the crockpot during the day and just chopped it up before adding to the mix.  Heat a large skillet on med-high with olive oil and add cooked quinoa, spreading evenly in the pan.  Add enough soy sauce to get a nice brown color throughout the quinoa.  I usually start with about 12-15 "shakes" and will add more later.  Stir in veggies and cover for a while so they cook and the bottom of the pan will start to crisp up.  Season liberally with black pepper and minced garlic.  Add chicken, more soy sauce (5 or so more shakes) and mix, being sure to turn the rice so everything gets the chance to crisp up.  Cover and let sit for a few  more minutes and it will be ready to serve.  Occasionally we will toss in some cream cheese and it adds a great flavor and dimension to the dish.

Quinoa is a great complete source of protein, it is actually a seed, but has a very similar texture to rice.  This dish stores really well and was a great leftover lunch today!  Give it a try sometime!

Deload

After hitting new maxes last week, I was really looking forward to starting up a new cycle in the weightroom.  When I began warming up for my first exercise (cleans) on Monday I was really in for a rude awakening.  My back was telling me to stop.  I realized after such an unexpected improvement on my squat max, my back didn't know what to do.  Enter the "Deload" week.  I continued with the same exercises that I was planning on, but severely decreased the reps, sets and amount of weight.  It took until today to actually feel normal with 135 on the bar for cleans.  Next week starts the fun stuff!  My goal is to get over 380lbs in the squat and 205lbs in bench at then end of the next 4 week cycle...wish me luck!!

1 RM

Source: jenandjoeygogreen.com via Jeni on Pinterest

I decided after last Tuesday's squat workout that I wanted to test my progress by maxing out in squat and bench today instead of my normal workout. I had been looking forward to it all week, getting a good 1 rep max is such a great feeling! 

So I started this morning by getting my body fat percentage calculated.  I wasn't planning on it, but a couple of my athletes were getting theirs checked and I decided to join in the fun.  Now, it wasn't a great number, but it was much better than I was anticipating.  Now for the numbers...deep breath...I weighed in at 228.2lbs and was 21% bf.  If you do the calculations that is actually 47lbs of FAT...yikes!  But I am happy with where I am going at this point.

Then it was time to hit the squat rack!  I was hoping to hit 300lbs.  I got 360!  That was just a few pounds under what I did in college.  I am hoping now to push 400 in the near future!!!  I rounded things out with a bench max of 195, about 20lbs under where I was in college.  I had a great morning, but my legs are DEAD now and I could really go for a good back rub ;)

Resuming Normality

Source: diethoroscopes.tumblr.com via Jeni on Pinterest

I hope you all enjoyed your 4th of July holiday. I know we did! It could have thrown a hurdle in the workout plan, but I was able to {somewhat}successfully complete the week's workouts. The biggest obstacle I faced wasn't getting in to do the workouts, but rather getting everything done because I had a strange pain in my deltoid. {I'm guessing from a flye gone awry} I probably ate too much when I was in vacation mode, and I drank way more than normal {that doesn't take much when normal involves no drinking}, so we're not going to step on the scale for a while. I love having guests in the house, but resuming normality is always a great feeling. Back to early bird workouts tomorrow and a better eating schedule! The last 4 days have been a lot of fun with friends. We found some great things to do in town and tried a few new restaurants. But now it's time to get back to reality!!