Kombucha

A few months back I bought some kombucha from the grocery store to try after hearing folks rave about it on the forums over at Everyday Paleo Lifestyle and Fitness. My kids aren't totally on the sauerkraut bandwagon, and so I figured it was worth a try to see if I could get them some other form of fermented food. I liked the bubblyness of it, but didn't find every flavor that great. Kera really didn't like any of them, and Lindsay fell in love with all of them. So I began buying a bottle or two, mostly for Lindsay, every week. But then I got to thinking about how I like to make my own of almost everything and surely that's cheaper in the long run. I'd seen several blog posts about how to make your own, so I decided to try my hand at homemade kombucha.

The first thing you need for kombucha is a SCOBY, or a Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast. You can order them online, try to find one locally or grow your own. I don't know anyone locally that makes their own kombucha so I decided to try to grow our own since it was much cheaper than ordering one online. I figured if I couldn't grow one than we'd try ordering. I found this great blog post about how to grow your own SCOBY and followed the directions. I wasn't sure if it would work, but I peeked in on it after a week or two and found a film growing on top just like it was suppose to. After about three weeks I had this beautiful 1/2" SCOBY:

Once you have a SCOBY, you get to brew your kombucha tea. I used a combination of directions from this post, this post and this post.

Basically, you make a gallon of tea, either regular or green tea. I used cheap ice tea in the family size bags. Four bags total for a gallon of boiling water.

Steeped it for 5 minutes and then added 1 cup of sugar. I don't use regular sugar anymore, but the SCOBY has to have something to eat, and there isn't any left after it's fermented, so no worries here.

Then, once the tea has come to room temperature, or the same temperature that the SCOBY is, you pour the tea into a large glass jar. I found mine at Walmart, I think it was originally a cookie jar but this is a much appropriate use. Carefully place the SCOBY on top with about 1/2 cup of the liquid from the SCOBY jar. My SCOBY actually sank the first time, which is suppose to be fine, but when I checked my kombucha a week or two later I found mold growing on top, so I ditched it all and started from scratch with growing the SCOBY. Now I make very certain my liquids are both at the same temperature before combining because I don't want to kill my SCOBY.

You cover it with a towel, secured with a rubber band and set aside for a week or two. This summer mine was brewing in 2-3 weeks, but this winter it will probably take longer because we keep our house pretty cool. I just leave mine on the counter completely covered by the towel.

After it's done brewing, which you can test by slipping a straw into the tea under the SCOBY and tasting it. It should be kinda tart but sweet. The longer it sits the less sweet it will be. Then you can do a second ferment with fruit juice which gives it flavor and makes it bubbly.  This is the fun part. I've tried a variety of fruit juices to see what is our favorite. Lindsay loves hers made with grape juice, while Kera likes hers made with this juice called Razzleberry. (I like them all.) I love that I can make it in a way that both kids will drink it! Score one for fermented foods that the kids will eat!

I followed the directions in those prior links about second fermentation. Unless I give my SCOBY a break, I end up with a constant supply of kombucha in the frig at a fraction of the price of the store-bought stuff, which is great because we drink a little bit everyday, more if it's a flavor everyone likes!

Have you ever tried kombucha? Do you like it? Have you thought about making your own?

Duct Tape and Mobility

Yesterday I was grateful for duct tape, especially the fancy designed kind of late. Kera and Lindsay's bike helmets had seen better days--still totally functional just stained and sticky (of all things!) on the outside. Daddy had a great idea to cover them with some fancy duct tape. Kera LOVES her new helmet and I think they look like really cool skateboard helmets now. 

Today I am grateful for my foam roller and lacrosse ball because after a killer workout like today's, nothing feels better than a whole bunch of mobility work.

Today's workout was burpees, squats and push ups in a tier of 2,4,6,8,10,8,6,4,2. If you do the math that's a total of 50 burpees, 50 squats and 50 push ups. I very nearly died.

I lift things up and put them down...

So, I recently finished my third round of one rep max workouts and thought this would be a good time to give you a little update. Remember, I do four moves: shoulder press, squat, dead lift and bench press. I go through a schedule that includes different %'s of my 1RM with varied reps each week, and about every four weeks I do a round of 1RM of each move. I look forward to that week because it's exciting to see the numbers change. It's a tangible proof to me that I'm making progress. This last round of 1RM was actually   split by a couple weeks because I caught a horrible cold that had me not working out for about 2 weeks. I was pretty miserable! After I started to feel better, I still took time to recover and didn't workout again until I felt 100% better. I'm really starting to appreciate the importance of rest and recovery when it comes to health/fitness.

Here's how my 1RM have gone so far, for reference:
February 2012:
Shoulder Press (dbells) 35# (in each hand)
Goblet Squat 65#
Bench Press 90#
Deadlift 125#

March 2012:
Shoulder Dbell Press: 35# (That's in each hand) (no change)
Goblet Squat: 80# (15# increase!)
Deadlift: 150# (25# increase)
Bench Press: 90# (no change

April/May 2012:
Shoulder Press: 35# (still)
Goblet Squat: 80# (still)
Deadlift: 160# (10# increase)
Benchpress: 95# (5# increase)

It might not seem like much, but I love seeing those numbers moving upwards. I can't wait to look back at this in a year and see how much strength I've built then since this is only basically four months of lifting heavy! And no, I won't get all bulky like the guy in the video below, because unless women really try for bulk, it doesn't happen. No bulk here, just strength and some muscle definition. Wanna see my guns? :)


Now for your entertainment, this is something that I think of sometimes when I tell people I lift heavy stuff, not that ANYONE I know from EPLifeFit is even close to being like this...

One Mile for Time

As I've mentioned before, I'm a member over at Everyday Paleo Lifestyle & Fitness:



That's where I lift heavy things and put them down. Oh, and sometimes I run a little. Sometimes my warm up includes a whole 400 m run, and once in a while the metcon portion will feature sprints of either 200m or 400m. But the other day the metcon consisted of running one mile for time. I honestly can't remember the last time I ran a mile or more. The half-marathon maybe? Anyway, I was excited to do this workout for several reasons.


1. I still sorta like to run.
2. Since I haven't run for so long I was interested to see how I did on it, you know see how fit I feel from "just" doing weights and metcons.
3. Running is much more enjoyable than burpees or pushups.


So, I did my warmup and heavy lift portion (Bench press that day, 90# of 1RM 3x5) and then I popped in my earbuds for the first time in a long time, cranked the volume on my mp3 and hit the 'mill and ran my mile. I bumped up the speed a few times because I figured it's only 1 mile and I was doing it for time, I wanted my time to be good. It was definitely a workout and when I was done I had to catch my breath for a few moments. I also decided I need some new music on my mp3. But, overall, I was thrilled with the whole thing. My time, you wonder?


8.54 minutes


Just for comparison, my pace for the last couple of races I did (a 5k and the Half) were right around 11 min/mile. And, my "typical" pace for training runs would've been around 10 min/mile. That's a significant difference in time, at least for me, and I love it! I can hardly wait til the next "one mile for time" workout to see how I improve even more, because I have confidence I will. :)

Invisible Strength

Today I'm going to talk about strength. 

Have you ever really given it much thought? I haven't really, not til recently. In the past my fitness goals/thoughts have always had to do with things like speed, endurance, and looking toned/fit. Basically, things you can see. (Yes, you can see speed and endurance when you run, just look at those folks who cross the finish line first at a race.)

Now think about strength...is it visible?

60#

You might think the answer is yes, but that's not necessarily true. I didn't say muscles, I said strength.

Let me illustrate this with my own personal experience.

This week in my workout rotation is my 1RM's. These are my favorite workouts, I love seeing what I'm capable of.
My shoulder press 1RM didn't change, which is fine, I won't have a new 1RM every time I try for one, and that's okay.

But then I did my goblet squat workout.

Now, it's been about a month since I did my last 1RM workout and in the meantime I've not tried that amount again. I've done percentages of that (50,70,and 85) only. My muscles haven't gotten any bigger in the past month, so, I really have no clue whether I'm stronger or not in this move until I actually try the 1RM.

I slowly worked up to 60#, then skipped over 65#which was last time's 1RM and tried for 70#. 

Boom.

75#

Oh wait, let's add some more weight and see if I can do it. 75#. Yes!

80

Um, more? Try for 80#? Okay. And success again. I tried for 85# but couldn't lift the weight into goblet squat. So, that means my new 1RM is 80#, which is 15# heavier than my last one. I looked back at my notes from last month and remembered that the reason 65 was my last 1rm was because I was unable to lift any more weight than that into goblet position, yet this time I could lift much more than that. So, folks, that means that I've gained some strength in the past month, even though my muscles haven't gotten bigger. 

Invisible strength: you don't know you have it until you're tested. (Or when looking at the bigger picture and not just in the weight room, when life shoots you a challenge of some sort.)

Okay, I have to share about my deadlift, too, since I'm already talking weights and all. :)

Ninety pounds. No problem but getting close to my 1RM last time of 125.

Sorry, it's blurry and upside down, but that is a 45# aka full sized plate on that bar. Yay, I'm finally using full sized plates! So much easier to use and keep good form than the smaller ones.

So, once again, I surprised myself with some strength that I didn't know was there:

My new 1RM for deadlift is 150#. (That's a 25# PR)

You could say I'm stoked.

So, my whole point is that strength is invisible.  I have goals for how I'd like to grow in my strength, pounds I would like to be able to lift. And by working towards those goals my body composition probably will change, but I'm not going to get focused on that, because obviously that will not change as fast as my strength will. If I'd been focused on how my body hasn't changed in the past month INSTEAD of how much I can lift now, I'd be super discouraged right now. But I didn't and I'm not, in fact I'm pretty much on the moon right now.

Double Unders, Burpees and Dumbbells

Two things I've learned the past couple months:

1. Where I'm sore after working out signifies where I'm weak

2. The movements that I detest the most are the hardest for me and thus are the ones I must practice.

Not sure if you can see it, but this is proof of how much I detest double unders. Red welt marks up and down my poor shins from all the "near misses" from ten minutes of double under "practice". I shudder every time I see that listed in the workout, but even though I hate them, I still try to do them. I'm determined that one of these days that jump rope will stop hitting my shins and go under my feet.

I also hate burpees, although I am capable of doing those. I just think everyone probably hates them.

But you want to know what I like? Actually, let me rephrase that, you want to know what I LOVE? I LOVE lifting heavy weights! 

See that sucker? 

Here's a better view. Yes, that say's 25. So, 2 25's and the bar=55#. And I squatted that sucker! I was so amazed at how much easier it was to get that thing from the floor up into goblet position compared to the same amount of weight almost a month ago. You know what that means? I'm getting stronger! :) I love that and it helps make all those failed double unders a little more bearable.

What have you accomplished lately? Or what are you horrible at hat you're determined to improve upon?