Daily Archives: February 24, 2011

Eat your heart (out)

I’m sure I shocked many of my Facebook friends yesterday when I posted this:

Cindy Brummer You would never believe what I just ate for dinner. I can’t believe it myself. In fact, just a year ago the idea would have given me a heart attack. Pun completely intended.

And then, after a couple of friends guessed, I wrote this:

Cindy Brummer That’s right, Fred. Heart. It was in our freezer — one of the few remaining cuts from the half calf we bought over a year ago. So I found a recipe on MDA and cooked it up. And you know what? It was pretty damn good.

I grossed out a few people.  Heart is not what most people would consider a good meal.  But I ran across this recipe on Mark’s Daily Apple, and since we just happened to have a beef heart in the freezer, I decided to give it a try.

The heart was already halved and most of the valves and connective tissue cut out, so I didn’t have to do much.  Slow-cooking it definitely made it tender.  I really enjoyed it, although, when I stopped to think about what I was eating, I had a little trouble getting it down.  So I just put it out of my mind.  Andy, on the other hand, just couldn’t put it aside, and he ate little of his portion.

I’m no dummy, and I didn’t tell Luke it was anything other than “beef.”  Which isn’t a lie.  And I don’t think I was withholding the truth either, because I rarely tell him where the cuts of meat that we’re eating were taken from the cow.  But that’s because I usually don’t know.  But Luke liked it and ate a bit of what he was served.

Anyway, the beef heart was good.  I loved grossing out my friends.  And I love trying new stuff.  I mean — it’s not like I was eating intestines or something.  We’re talking about a muscle!

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The drive to be stronger

Luke eats a cucumber chunk while posing next to Cindy and Madeline

Luke, Cindy and Madeline at the Austin Zoo

Children amaze me.

They seriously do.  And not just because they’re like little sponges and pick up “book” learning so quickly.  It’s their constant drive to be physically strong.

My daughter never stops moving.  I call her squirmy.  She’s 5 months old (as of Wednesday) and is rolling from her back to her belly.  She’s sitting up more easily.  It’s amazing that this creature, who hardly moved when she was born, is constantly striving to get stronger.

My son is no different.  At 4, he never stops moving.  He loves to show visitors to our home the gymnastics moves he practices almost incessantly: flips, headstands, balance beam and floor routines.  During my Wednesday workout with Steph and Beth, he ran with us on our 400m warmup run.

He’s signed up to run the Junior ‘Dillo in April.

It’s too bad many adults “forget” that drive to move.

I did for a long time.  I think I’m finally in better health than I was when I was a kid.  I remember running and running and running when I played soccer.

I think I’m faster now than I was then.  Maybe not by much.  But it’s a start.

On Wednesday, the Week 7 workouts we had to choose from both involved running.  Beth and I couldn’t agree on which one to do, so we let Stephanie be our tie-breaker.  This is what she chose:

3 rounds
800m run
8 Sumo deadlift high pulls
8 Front squats

The elite weight for this WOD was supposed to be 35# dumbbells.  I only have 1 30# DB, and we were confused as to whether you would use both on the SDLHPs or front squats.  Steph and I chose to use the 45# bars instead, and Beth used the dumbbell.  I measured out the distance.

It was A LOT of running.

Time: 14:30

We also did the strength component.

Push Jerk 7×1

Results: 55-60-65-70-75-80-85

I was tired.  The bar felt heavy.  But I think 80 may be a PR?  But at this rate, my goal to get an 80# shoulder press is looking grim.  I better rest up before I make the attempt on Tuesday morning.  Because, unlike my kids, I don’t have endless amounts of energy.

(I’m on Technorati now!  8HY4KWPQ34YC)