Homemade Sausage Seasoning

Oh my word do I love sausage!!!! (Thats - what - she - said). I usually buy chicken or turkey sausage because i love love love the seasoning. I didn't feel like buying sausage one day so I decided to try to make my own.

Sausage Seasoning

• 1.5 tsp. salt
• 1/3 tsp. fennel seed
• 2/3 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
• 3.5 tsp. paprika

Combine all the ingredients and pound with a mortar and pestle. can leave some whole pieces of fennel if you like. Add more crushed red pepper if you like it hotter. Mix with 1lb. ground meat and let chill in fridge approximately 3 hours prior to cooking. Enjoy =)

Tabata Something Else and Challange Day 2

YES THAT IS RIGHT! My alarm went off at 4:40am this morning!!!! On Tuesdays and Thursdays I coach at crossfit classes at the lovely Crossfit Solstice box. I coach the 5:30am class then the 6:45am class. When I used to have to wake up to merely work out at that time (as I love to get it out of the way early in the day) it would be a major struggle waking up. Now I am pretty used to it so it isn’t too bad. Plus I LOVE crossfit therefor I love being at the gym, even when I’m not working out.

PS: I got crossfit L1 certification back in April and CAMILLE was my coach!!!! She is NOT afraid in this picture, I PROMISE. I even got to watch her work out in person =) 

She's NOT scared!

So the workout today was “Tabata Something Else” a crossfit benchmark WOD. I love benchmark WODs because you can keep doing them to see improvements and PRs and they are always crazy hard so I feel SO accomplished when i finish them.

While I am pretty strong and pretty mediocre at most crossfit exercises, gymnastics is my weakness. I am too tall and I weigh too might to throw my body around like the little ones. So I was expecting to do pretty crappy at this WOD. I did fairly well I thought, 304 reps. Instead of just going all out during the WOD, I set a number in my head to try to reach each exercise, and I did that which I was proud of.  I stuck with 7 pullups each round, 8 push ups (I hate you push ups), 10 sit ups and 12-15 squats. I had between 8 and 10 seconds left in the 20 sec intervals so I definitely could have added 1 or 2 reps to each round DEFINITELY. I will redo in a few weeks with a new plan and a PR! It felt good to do a body weight WOD since I do so much lifting now. 

Sorry for posting your score joe! lol

 PPS: I am so excited for my competition on Saturday, especially after doing the WODs last night. Plus I get a cheat meal afterwards =)

Onto CHALLENGE DAY 2: I expected to feel skinnier today and I feel the opposite (NOT SKINNY). This sucks. It is the same food as yesterday with a few variations so not much to write home about. I did eat more on the schedule that was prescribed to me. I was hungry when it was time to eat and I wanted to keep eating when the food was gone (though I wasn’t hungry anymore). I suppose I’m used to eating bigger portions without really being hungry – hence the “freshman 15 at 28.” There are a few meals that are not pictured because they are exactly the same as yesterdays meals. I am still eating 9 small meals a day and am on schedule with all of them HOLLA!

Shown is 5 egg whites with hot sauce and mustard on half an ezekial english muffin, spinach salad with roasted chicken, greek yogurt and sunflower butter, and an awesome combo of ground turkey which i seasoned with homemade sausage seasoning (recipe coming tomorrow!) and mixed with zucchini and spinach. BAM! 

Half eaten egg whites over 1/2 ezekial eng. muffin

Grilled chicken with spinach and balsamic

MY fav! and not allowed in the challenge (shhhh)

Tbsp Sunflower butter for snack!!!!

ground turkey w/sausage seasoning and spinach/zucchini hash  

I did want to share one recipe though, since we can’t be too creative with our meals other than seasoning. I made a dijon salad dressing last night to spice it up. It was “ok” so you may want to experiment more if you're not happy. (PPPS: I’m not a very good cook so good luck if you try it lol).

Makes 1 serving

·         2 tsp. olive oil

·         1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

·         1 tsp. Dijon mustard

·         1 tsp. Ms. Dash seasoning (any type)

·         Salt and pepper

I literally made it up on the spot because I am trying to eat homemade salad dressing instead of store bought, but it may be too acidic for some. You can add 1 tsp. of honey to help cut the acidity as well. You could also add a tad less olive oil if you add honey.

Dijon salad dressing

3 Week Challenge - day 1

so today me, alli and elyse began our 3 week challenge through Team V Fitness. we (ughhh) paid her for meal plans and she sent us one days worth of meals in which we eat and repeat for the next 3 weeks. i thought i was going to be getting more meals than just one days worth, but whatever. good thing is it breaks down when i eat into time slots and how much, so im eating like every 2-3 hours which keeps me full all day. pictures of what i ate today (i guess every day will be the same pics unless i get creative)

5 egg whites, 1/3 plain oatmeal, coffee and almond milk

6oz non fat greek yogurt with 1/2 scoop progenex

5oz sweet potato, 1/2 green beans, 4 oz steak

4 oz. grilled chicken and 1 cup green beans

Spring mix with 8oz tuna (ahh accident) and dijon dressing

i also had 1tbs of sunflower butter and almonds throughout the day. i seriously was not hungry at all, and with all the water i was drinking i probably could have eaten less and not been hungry. however after everything it was still only 1500 calories, which is sort of low for me especially considering i did 2 wods!!!!!! tonight

Andrea Ager

YAYYY CROSSFIT! here i am during my wod. HAAAA not really, but one day.

Kate (bestie), me and Bryan

Here i am post Fran (1:20 PR!!)(not tonights wod though). tonight i did wod #1 and #2 of a competition im doing on saturday, i wanted to test them out to see how well i did. they SUCKED. #1: 7 min ladder, 2-2, 4-4, 6-6... 65# thrusters and 20" box jumps. 65# is rather light for me but combined with box jumps it killed me! i up to 14 plus 1 box jump (99 reps). wod #2: 7 min amrap, 10 pulls ups, 20 burpees, 30 double unders, 40 14# wall balls and 50 16kg kettle bell swings, then as many 95# clean and jerks in remaining time. thus one SUCKED also. i did the beginning unbroken till wall balls and then died. it took me 7 min for the first part. i got through plus 10 clean and jerks. im so happy i did it, saturday i have goals now and will hopefully do AWESOME!!! crossfit games here i come =)

ME!!!

I started this blog initially to keep track of this 3 week weight loss challenge with my friends and my crossfit  journey to the games (ha ha). it is also based on the quote "Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great" - John Rockefeller. My bestie and crossfit coach (Joe) told me that when i said i wanted to be the best at crossfit and make it to the games (about 2 months ago). now i like the idea of this blog to track all my healthy ventures FOREVER.


I only started crossfit 9 months ago, and love love love it so much. i have always worked out and tried to be healthy but it was always boring. crossfit challenges me so much and i am always seeing small and BIG improvements which keeps me so motivated. even when i HATE a workout, which is about once a week, or i am on the verge of crying during a workout, which also happens once a week, i am so happy and proud of myself for finishing and accomplishing something i though i couldn't do.

Alli, me and Elyse (lil sis)

But its summer, and i love  drinking and eating so somehow even with my intense crossfit workouts i gained the "freshman 15" at the age of 28. Look at all that wine!!!! SO my two besties (miss you kate) decided to join this 3 week challenge where we get a food plan from a fitness programmer and follow it strictly for three weeks. no clue what I'm in store for but that will follow in future posts, as will awesome updates on my crossfit wods =)