Whew! After two days of doing leg strengthening, it was back to core, today. Tough stuff. Doing specific muscles is rough but doable – there’s a rhythm to the repetition and breathing is a lot easier. But core exercises are another world altogether.
My biggest issue is still breathing properly when doing things involving multiple muscle groups. I really need to just do it and not think about it. Of course, that’s a lot easier to do when you’re not gasping for breath with sweat pouring off you. During one particularly arduous exercise, our Trainer told me to breathe naturally. My first though was how in the %$#@% do I breathe naturally while on the floor, hopping, squating, and crawling on my hands – forwards and backwards?!? Call me crazy, but to me, that is not a scenario where breathing naturally could ever be considered natural. I mean… Really.
But… we survived. As we always do and as we always will.
It really is amazing what we have put ourselves through these past 43 weeks. What’s even more amazing, though, is what we’re able to do today. I can bitch about doing something where breathing is difficult, but six months ago, the entire concept was totally inconceivable. It’s all perspective.
And keeping it all in perspective, we did lentils and fennel, tonight, with chicken and crayfish – a spin on a regular rotation recipe… The basic is:
- 1 cup dried lentils
- 1 fennel bulb
- 1 leek, finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 2 carrots, cut into small dice
- 1 celery stalk, diced
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar – or vinegar of your choice
- hefty pinch thyme
- S&P
Cook lentils until lentils are just tender.
While lentils simmer, cut fennel bulb into 1/4-inch dice.
Heat a bit of olive oil in a skillet and add leek, carrot, fennel, garlic, and celery. Cook until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes.
When vegetables and lentils are cooked, stir lentils into vegetables and cook until heated through. Stir in vinegar. Add S&P, as desired.
From there, you can play…
I diced up a chicken breast and cooked it, took it out of the pan, and then pretty much followed the above recipe. At the end, I added the cooked chicken and the cooked crayfish.
I also added a liberal amount of white wine while cooking everything to keep it moist – and then a liberal dose of sriracha sauce to add a bit of spice.
It was a really simple meal with a lot of flavor – and took less than 20 minutes start to finish.
I’m ready for week 44!