Seth moved in with me last weekend for the summer. He’s doing an internship up here and staying with me until classes start again in the fall. It’s nice having him around and it’ll be lonely when he’s gone again, but I’m thinking we may be ready for a break from each other at that point . Yesterday we were introduced to the idea of “animal bearding”.

Exhibit A:

 Exhibit B:

No one wanted to cooperate. I think we just need some practice.

Right now, though, I hate all animals because last night was the 4th night in a row I haven’t slept. His cat clawed me 3x last night, once in the top of the head. She got thrown in the bathroom after that.

Remember that story I told you about? It’s done. It’s 13 pages long. I still can’t decide if I should post it or not or even how to post it. The few people I’ve had read it said they enjoyed it. Enjoy is totally the wrong word, drawn in? I don’t know. Should I publish it as a PDF?

Fan-fucking-tastic. I am so happy. Not that grades really matter at this stage in the game (so long as I pass), but there is a CHANCE that I will make it out of this year with a 4.0. All comes down to that curve, yo. Nabbed a 4 last semester and I know I’m getting an A in one of my two classes this semester.

My grades weren’t stellar in my biochem class, but I beat the curve by 20 points on most of the exams. The third exam and the final were administered in the same time slot, which is dumb as hell because 50% of my grade was dictated in one, 3 hour chunk, but whatever. I rocked the 3rd exam but am unsure about the final. I guess we’ll see! You’ll probably see a “PhD Year 1 In Review” post in the near future, likely after I get my grades so I can brag about being a mother effin’ genius.

2. You can make salads out of anything.

Also, if you google image “Bad Salad” you will find that they’re a musical band. That’s hilarious, and a terrible name for a band. I have no intention of listening to their music – sorry.

I had no lettuce tonight and didn’t want to cook a veggie, so I made up a salad. It’s got chopped up cucumber, green beens, a slice of cooked bacon, tomato, fennel, daikon radish, salt, mango, and a smidge of honey. I’m eating it with a giant wooden spoon – I’m an adult, I do what I want. It’s delicious, somehow. I don’t know how. There’s steak on the side, don’t worry.

By the way, I love fennel. A friend got me started and now I’m obsessed. Why is it so expensive?

3. I don’t know what to do with myself.

I have the day off tomorrow. I’m going to clean my apartment, an act I’ve been neglecting, but I don’t know what else. It is so weird not to have anything looming over my head. I’ll probably play video games and take Morgan out for a long walk. It’s also weird leaving the lab and not having anything to do. I love it…. it’s one of the things I miss most about working full time vs. school.

4. I’ve been seeing an acupuncturist.

I’ve been going for about a month to treat some stuff. It hasn’t fixed what I’m going for (yet) but the stress relief aspect has been incredible. I’ve been infinitely more chill since I started and I freaking love it. Maybe it’s the massive blood loss detoxing my system or something. JUST KIDDINGGGGGGGZZZZ

5. I’m a technology nub.

Wanna know why the sound quality on the podcast sounds so bad in our episodes so far? Because I’m an asshole and didn’t turn up my mic volume. That’s why. Sorry I’m not sorry.

But really, I’m sorry. I didn’t even know my mic had different volumes. *cries*

6. Push Jerk 75×5 with a hold on the last rep

I could have gotten 80 lbs, but I wimped out on the 4th rep. I’m not going to share that video because I could have gotten it and it’s embarrassing heh.

A certain man in Virginia has been holding my camera charger hostage for nearly 2 months…. hence the lack of quality photography. AHEM.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 c unflavored whey
• 1/2 c vanilla pea protein
• 1/2 c egg whites
• 2 whole eggs
• 1/2 c pumpkin puree
• 1 medium banana
• 2 tbsp coconut flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• chocolate chips (as many as you’d like!)

DIRECTIONS:

Mix everything but the chocolate chips. You could hand whisk it but I used an electric one. Pour into cupcake tin or silicone cups, sprinkle some choco into each cupcake, bake for ~25min at 350F. Makes 12 cupcakes.

I had an icing I made, but it was kind of butchered…..so you’re on your own for that. Baking isn’t really my strong suite, but I wanted to share this because it’s the first thing I have baked in years that did not come from a box and is not only edible, but delicious. I realize pea protein is a weird ingredient and smells funny, I have no defense for it.

In this episode, we each introduce ourselves and the podcast. Anna and I give a little of our backgrounds and how we fell in love with food, blogging, and lifting heavy things. We then go in to discuss what The Kapowcast is all about with a list of subjects we plan on talking about and sharing with our listeners. If you enjoy it, please leave us a beaming review – heh.

Feel free to email, comment, Facebook message, whatever any questions or comments you may have!

OR subscribe in iTunes

OR Download this episode (right click and save)

Show links:

• ProteinPow(d)er! – Anna’s blog
• Examine.com – Supplement guide

“I’m hungry. I want mashed cauliflower with my dinner.”
“Oh! I have fresh rosemary!”
“I am not putting another mashed cauliflower recipe on the internet. Talk about unoriginal.”
*bite*
“Holy shite, this is good. Why is this good?”
*grabs cell phone and snaps a picture*

Exhibit A:

I have a sneaking suspicion a lot of non-food oriented blogs put up recipes in a similar fashion.

Ingredients:

• 1c chicken stock 
• 1 head cauliflower
• 1 small yellow onion
• a couple small sprigs of fresh rosemary
• 3 cloves garlic – cut into large chunks
• salt to taste (I used freshly ground pink Himalayan salt)
• a pinch of arrowroot starch (optional but highly recommended)

Directions:

1. Chop up your onion and cauliflower and put it into a pot with the chicken stock, cover.
2. Steam/boil them in the stock until almost soft enough to mash. This isn’t a critical step, if you miss it and they get really soft, that’s fine – you’re just mashing it anyway.
3. Remove the rosemary leaves from the stem and put into the pot along with your garlic. Let it steam for a few more minutes.
4. Be sure to make sure the pot doesn’t run dry, if the liquid gets low, add a little water.
5. Mash it all up with an immersion blender.
6. OPTIONAL: If you like it chunkier, leave this out. If you like a smooth, but not watery mashed dish, add a sprinkle of arrowroot starch, salt, and mix it in with the blender. The trick here is to only add a very small amount at a time. If you add too much it becomes rather gelatinous. Still tastes good, but the texture is just all wrong.

QUICK DIRECTION:

Throw it all in a pot and mush it up.

I feel stupid posting another mashed cauliflower recipe. Whatever. I’m over it.

Right? So great! The dead lift is my favorite of “the big three” and pretty much everybody who is anybody loves it. There I go with those broad generalizations again. This meme, as great as it is, got me wondering. Why? I think it’s because it is the easiest lift. And by easy, I mean least technically proficient and not as scary. Hear me out.

The squat is a bitch.
You have to worry about hip, ankle, and thoracic spine mobility, which most people (HI!) lack. I am still not 110% comfortable in the squat, albeit much more than I used to be. I lack the mobility to hit full depth in an upright stance and compensate by leaning forward, even with a high bar positioning. It is also distinctly different from the deadlift in that the bar is on top of you, rather than on the floor.

If you mess up your squat, your body is underneath however many hundreds of pounds are on your back. If you mess up the deadlift, the bar is back on the floor (or never left it).

Benching is harder than it looks.
Anyone who writes off the bench as easy and not very technical has 1) not consistently benched or not done it correctly and 2) obviously hasn’t chosen it as his/her favorite lift. I used to think benching was just for goons who don’t know how to squat and deadlift. SO MUCH WRONG IN THAT SENTENCE!

Believe it or not, despite my lack of videos, benching is actually a lift I really enjoy because it is such a challenge. Every placement on your body is important in the bench press, it all matters. Even how your feet are angled matters, how far your hands are apart matters, how your elbows twist when you lower the bar, it all matters. (NOTE: These things matter for the other two, but I am saying they get written off by novice benchers.) It’s also the most difficult of the 3 to progress, which I’m sure has pissed off loads of people.

I will give bench this: there is a certain anthropometry that favors bench pressing. Short arms, stocky, big barrel chest, etc. The big chest and shorter arms shorten the range of motion in these people and make it “easier”, which is of course purely relative. Those same people make great powerlifters all around more often than not (don’t have to move the bar as far on all the lifts).

Oh yeah, once again, you’re under the bar in the bench press.

Deadlifting?
Of course you need a certain degree of proficiency and strength to perform the movement correctly, but the coaching cues are much simpler. Neutral spine, chest up, ass back, stand up and dont let go. Obviously it isn’t that easy, but I think that relative to the other two, it is. People also seem to be able to progress it faster, which is great for confidence.

Maybe I’m just rambling out of my ass. Maybe I am just spouting my opinions because that is how I personally feel about them. I base none of this on science and all of it on conjecture, but the deadlift does truly seem to be more popular among the masses. Masses of asses being built by dead lifts. I like it.

By the way, my butt is always sore after benching. Anyone else?

Back to my point! I have changed so dang much in 3 years, those who have been around my blog that long (why the hell are you still reading?) will know what I’m talking about.  When I started this up, it was a place where I wanted to document my journey from fat to fit and ultimately compile it all. Well, HFS, did I document! I was up front in your face when I felt sadness, rage, happiness, what I ate during binges when they began, everything. Why I put that stuff on the internet, I have no clue. Probably because I was young(er), stupid, and excited for this new chapter of my life.

Now that I am finally at peace with myself in ways I never imagined, I have decided to fulfill the second half of that goal and am compiling my story. Originally, I wanted it to be a longer post or perhaps a series of posts, but as I began writing it morphed into something more. I am not done with it yet and it is already 6 pages, including directly copied blog posts as well as what went on ‘behind the scenes’. What I have so far is a finely woven tale depicting the development of food/exercise neurosis, obsession, binge eating disorder, and what I plan to write is how I came out of it. I won’t sugar coat it, it’s painful and rather depressing.

However! I want my story to serve as an example of why loving and doting on your body is so important and I hope it explains where I come from today. While I am bound and determined to finish writing it, I don’t know if I will ever put it up online. It will be hard to face that kind of exposure and critical eye from the public. Not to mention, I just called myself stupid for plastering that stuff online and here I am, putting the same shit up a second time. Right? Right.

“But I can’t lift that much!”

“I’d like to, but you’d crush me.”

I hear that phrase 9 times out of 10 when I try to recruit a woman to the weight room. Men will sometimes phrase it that way too, but often they’ll find another way of saying the same thing (heaven forbid a woman be stronger than you). I know that anyone who has tried converting a friend to becoming a lover-of-iron has encountered similar arguments, it seems to be the default answer. What it really boils down to is fear. Fear of change. Fear of something new. Fear of starting from scratch. Fear of feeling mocked for being new. There are a slew of fears that the iron illicits.

I get it.

Powerlifting is no joke at the gym I am in now. Elite level powerlifters train there – EliteFTS sponsored athlete level lifters. Big effing dudes.

Not only am I probably the least experienced powerlifter there, but also one of the very few women. Among the women who lift, most are more concerned with lifting for their physique competitions rather than building brute strength. That puts me in minority of the minority.

I know I am a unique butterfly in my lack-of-intimidatedness, but I can very easily understand how that environment would put off new lifters. However, the point I want to make is that I don’t let it stop me because I know each one of those men started at the bottom of the totem pole.

It’s like saying… I’m sorry I can’t lift because I’m not as strong as Talia VanDoran or Julia Ladewski.

Or:

“I’m sorry, I can’t write because I’m not as good as JK Rowling.”

“I don’t want to snowboard because I’m not as good as Shawn White.”

“Nooooo, it’s okay. I’m not Gordon Ramsey so I’ll order a pizza.”

While I am neither an elite level athlete, JK Rowling, Shawn White, nor Gordon Ramsey, I still enjoy powerlifting, writing, snowboarding, and cooking. When someone tells me they don’t want to lift with me because they aren’t ‘as good as me’, it is a slap in the face that negates all of the hard work I have put into my training.

I can accept and understand your fear, but at least call a spade a spade. Maybe being honest will help you overcome the fears holding you back.

If you aren’t already acquainted, meet Anna.

Hijacked this photo from her facebook

Her main home is www.ProteinPow.com but you can also find her…

• on Facebook
• on Bodybuilding.com
• on many of Ben Coomber’s podcast episodes
• Fitnorama Magazine (UK)
• Oxygen Magazine
• The Grocer (UK)
• Muscle & Fitness Magazine (UK & Germany)
• Men’s Health (UK)

Yeah. She’s kind of a big deal. I still haven’t figured out why she talks to me, but she does and she’s one cool cat.

Despite my passion for strength regardless of gender, she and I have decided to do a weekly podcast to celebrate women in strength and the joy that is eating. Maybe she talks to me because I love eating? For our pilot episode, we want to field questions from our audience about anything at all related to those subjects.

You can ask them here, on our Facebook pages, twitter, on the contact pages, or wherever else tickles your pickle.

Reader:

Hey madame scientifique du eat grand lift el grand!

Hope all is going dandy. Am writing with a question that I thought MAYBE you might be able to shed some light on. It’s actually a bunch of questions and they all revolve around ONE ingredient: isomalto-oligosaccharides.

0. WHAT IS IT?

1. Why is it so difficult to source it as an ingredient? I.e. why is it not commonly available? I seem to only be able to find it in China!

2. From a food engineering perspective, how similar is it to fructo-oligosaccharides?

3. What do you think of it as an ingredient, nutritionally speaking?

Randomness I know but this ingredient is driving me bananas! Why? Because it’s the secret behind not only Quest bars but also all this crazy protein food! And it’s hella hard to find which is super odd and anyways, you might not know but I thought to ask anyhoo.

Okedokah.

HUGS!

ME:

0. Scientifically speaking, it SOUNDS a lot fancier than it is. I don’t know how well versed you are in the science, so I’ll give a brief overview and apologize for over-informing later if you already knew it.

Sugars/carbohydrates have single units, called monomers, that link together. You can link 2 monomers to get a DIsaccharide. A few monomers linked together makes an OLIGOsaccharide and many linked together make a POLYsaccharide. The oligo/poly definition is a little hazy, usually oligosaccharides have 2-5ish monomer units. That’s what makes carbohydrates MACROnutrients. They can link together in these BIG units. (Fats and protein can do the same)

In carbohydrates, the monomers are things like glucose, fructose, galactose, and some others. They consist of simple chains of carbon and oxygen organized in different fashions. You’re familiar with many DIsaccharides too: sucrose = glucose + fructose. lactose = glucose + galactose.

Maltose = glucose + glucose. So, chemically, IMO’s are just glucoses linked together. According to my source (*coughwikipediaforthestructure*), it’s the link between the glucoses that gives it it’s behavior in the body. We have to be able to break it down into individual glucoses to digest it, but we have trouble breaking the particular link in IMO.