Slow Burn

Fred Hahn, author of the 'Slow Burn Fitness Revolution' , was on the recent low carb cruise and he gave some workout demos in the ship's gym for us. It certainly psyched me to give his methods a try, and I did use the machines in the ship's gym following his methods.

Now that I'm home it's not as easy to get to a gym - not that there are not gyms nearby. I used to belong to Jersey Fitness and liked it a lot. But when you go to a gym the 20-30 minutes for the Slow Burn workout turns into more like 90 minutes when you add in the travel and other things. Not quite as easy as saying "Heck, I have 20-30 minutes free right now, let me try this out."

But his book does offer a home workout option too, and since I'm so totally UNfit at the moment I figured I could start there, and did so last night. I knew I was in trouble when the workout started with pushups, which have always been the bane of my existence, when when I was younger and far stronger and more fit. In fact I could not manage even *one* pushup! I could not even manage the lowering portion, let alone the pushing back up bit. I started to lower myself down, got about 3-4 inches down, and my arms just totally gave out and I collapsed on the floor.

Hmmmm, off to a great start. Luckily it got better from there. :-) But I sure felt all a weeble-wobble by the time I had finished all the exercises. Note to self: Don't do this again on a night when I have to go out for a 2-hour choir rehearsal. I just wanted to take a nap after working out - but not only had to get to choir, but it was my night to bring the choir snack!

The choir loves their snacks, which I rarely eat as they are always sugary, floury carbfests. Last time I had had snack snack duty I had tried to provide something "healthy" I didn't hear the end of the moaning about it. So last night I brought:

- 2 rums cakes I bought in the Bahamas on the cruise (chocolate, and vanilla walnut)

- a dish of mixed nuts (brazil nuts, macadamias, almonds)

- some homemade chocolate-coconut candies

Chocolate-Coconut Candies:

1 1/2 oz 72% chocolate (percent can vary, but try not to go below 70%)

3 tbsp coconut oil

1/3 cup thick coconut milk (note: the milk separates in the can into a thick creamy portion and a thinner more translucent portion. I just scooped out and used the thick creamy stuff only)

2/3 cup shredded unsweetened coconut flakes

Place chocolate and coconut oil in a bowl or saucepan and melt using method of your choice. I don't own a microwave so melted mine in my toaster oven. Remove from heat and stir in the the thick coconut milk. Stir until well blended. Then add in the coconut flakes and blend well.

Spoon into mini-muffin paper cups and refrigerate until then have hardened, but they still have a creamy texture because of the coconut milk. This made 18 candies.

So that did it for my choir snack. The rum cakes were pure carbage of course, but the other two choices were not so bad. The nuts were actually popular, and people enjoyed the candies too.

But boy, I could hardly stand when our choir director wanted us to stand to practice some of our pieces, and today my muscles are sore and I feel like quivering Jello. But it's not a painful or injured sore, more a "gee, you sure haven't asked us muscles to do anything like this for a long time" sort of sore, which I guess is a good thing. :-)