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April was a gorgeous month full of birthday parties and CAKE. * actual photo of jello dishes and cake from my birthday party* I mean, cake was not the wrong thing to do in April. I had a birthday, and Seventeen had a birthday. there were office cakes and office sandwiches. all that said I got a boatload of things done and possibly? maybe? did ok on the food and fitness front? May needs to be a little more protein involved, and a little less eat all the cake I can find involved. so, fewer cakes unless they're brilliant and amazing. beer, yes, but not unless it's going to be enjoyed and relished. exercise! for sure. *** now let's be clear. I will continue to eat cake. but I want the cake (and all that cake stands for) to be WORTH IT. no more meaningless random cakes. only the cake that I love. *** OK GOALS I'm doing really good at tracking stuff. so this time let's aim for improvements, you know, things that I'm not great at doing. GOAL 1: MORE PROTEIN I need to eat more protein, I think. I'm averaging 88g and I'm curious to see what will happen if I can eat closer to 120g on average a day. or at least on days where I do silly things like exercise for 3 hours straight or run 5 miles. this is still less than the internet recommendation of 1 g per lb of lean body mass (that would put me closer to 135 g) but it's a good start. ALSO my work physical came back in today, and it says I'm slightly low on alkaline phosphatase, which might be an indication that I have not been eating enough protein. this was VERY SLIGHTLY LOW, but I'll go with it. GOAL 2: COME HERE MORE you guys I love it here, I love the atmosphere, I love YOU. I get a lot of energy and fun out of this group. it keeps me honest and steady. so, show up. at least 5x a week. GOAL 3: MORE DISCRETE AND USEFUL MEASUREMENTS * photos at least 2x during the challenge * use my goofy skuplt thingamabobby at least 4x during the challenge * measure at least 2x during the challenge. LEST WE FORGET WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT, THIS IS WHAT MY GOALS ARE IN SUPPORT OF: * I'm running a 10K on May 15. * I'm testing for my 4th degree black belt on May 21. other things I want for this month: * I want to either go camping, or spend family time with my brother et al on memorial day weekend. * it's spring and my yard is a mess and I need to BUY AND PLANT SOME BIG TREES and also MAYBE BUSHES. so get thee to the garden center/tree nursery. stat. * I need to get my attic dry-walled. Contractor came last week, they'll come again next week, and we will know what the damage will be and can get it scheduled. which then means moving all the things. * MY MOTORCYCLE OMG I am an embarrassment to any who call themselves motorcycle enthusiasts. get that thing on the road, post haste. * we really need to clear out another room for Seventeen to live in. he's a total dick right now, but he still deserves his own room. and then I can stop feeling guilty that he always wants to sleep at his mom's house, because I'll know it's all him being an age appropriate teenaged boy. ok and also backstory! I'm karinajean, 39, live in NY state, commute to NJ about an hour each way (so lots of time in the car). I joined the NFA in October 2013 and over the last 2 years I've gone from 206 to around 180. I practice tae kwon do several times a week, take weapons and boxing classes in addition, and have an overarching fitness goal of doing good form push- and pull-ups. I have a crazy mean (yet super sweet) cat and live with my husband full time and my stepdudes 1/2 time. I motorcycle, knit and spin, and am endlessly ignoring how messy the house AND YARD is. I'm an ASSASSIN because I like doing all the things, and because I want to be able to do push-ups and pull-ups -- these seem like very efficient movements that will exercise my upper body and core, and if I can do those and run and do martial arts (NINJA) I will feel totally strong and fit and capable. The MERMAID comes in because I saw it in a dream when I was a very young child and I believe it.

I chose my username for good reason, because breaking news: students have very little money. As I stick to a (mostly) paleo diet, a breakfast/lunch of this on toast or that in a sandwich wasn't an option for me, and I had to devise my own meals. After some time of scouring for paleo meals that were ideal for my muscle-focussed diet (using a protein:carb:fat macro ratio of 40:30:30 as a basic guideline), I had trouble finding many that fit my food budget (read: not much). I stumbled across the famous 2-ingredient pancake recipe (blend 2 eggs + 1 banana, fry, flip), this was fairly ideal for my diet, but quite a pain to make every morning in a frying pan from pound-stretcher, especially if I wanted to get to the gym before a 9am lecture. Adapting from the pancakes I came up with the following recipe, it fits my macros, costs a mere £1.05 (may differ depending on where you shop) for an amount that could cover 2 breakfasts (I have half for breakfast and half as a post-workout meal), and tastes delicious. Apologies for the essay of an introduction, this is my first post and wanted to introduce myself somewhat, so without further ado, a recipe that requires no introduction. Ingredients: 7 eggs (you may wish to use egg whites depending on where you stand on the yolk debate) 2 bananas (preferably medium-large, as small bananas may result in more of a frittata) 1 scoop of whey protein powder (I like vanilla, but other popular choices include chocolate, maple, toffee, or banana) A dash of cinnamon (that's a metric dash, not imperial) Instructions: Preheat oven to 180C (unsure of Fahrenheit or gas mark equivalent) Grease casserole dish or equivalent how you see fit (some do not require greasing, I use 1kcal spray) Blend all ingredients together thoroughly Poor mixture into dish Place dish in the oven for roughly an hour (times may vary, keep an eye on it the first few times baking) Remove dish and allow to cool before serving Note: double, triple, quadruple the recipe if you like, increase to baking time will vary depending on the type of dish used. Feel free to recommend changes in the comments, and if you decide to try it yourself, let me know how it goes. Thanks for reading, -SB