I shared this post on the CrossFit Impavidus Whole Life Challenge Blog for the 40+ athletes now entering week 4 of their 8 week transformation…

Let’s talk about the Kitchen and cooking! You may be a ninja in preparing foods. Notice I didn’t say creating or mastering the kitchen. I hope that this challenge will help you expand your culinary skills so that when it’s over we can call you a true Ninja in the Kitchen, earning your black belt.

You can’t earn a black belt without having Confidence! There is no greater tool that a chef has in the kitchen than knowing they know how. Not knowing how can stop you from doing a lot of things. Being comfortable with not knowing opens door after door after door.

More than having a stockpile of recipes, mastering the basics, being able to handle ingredients, knowing what tastes good with what, how long things take, what food should sound like, smell like and look like when it is cooking are the secrets to mastering the kitchen.

How do you get there? Practice. And getting comfortable with taking a chance, being Innovative and willing to experiment! Use cookbooks to get started, practice recipes you like, get in the kitchen as much as you can! You have to be willing to make mistakes.

Once you gain the confidence you will have your favorite recipes, but more than that, you will have the ability to open any refrigerator and turn what is inside into a masterpiece.

There are so many websites out there that offer ideas, videos and full on recipes to help you learn your way. Here are a few of my favorites – feel free to share yours!

• The Clothes Make the Girl – my friend Melissa’s site who is also the author of Well Fed
• Fellow Challenger Andrea shared this site last nite: Easy Paleo
• Feed Me Paleo
• Everyday Paleo
• Sweet Cheeks HQ
• PaleOMG
• Nom Nom Paleo – offers a 30 day meal plan based on her own experience doing a Whole30 challenge.

Today’s workout was a good one! We spent 10 minutes finding our 1 rep max shoulder press. Just a strict press, no help from the hips. I was able to lift 90#s but ran out of time to try any heavier. I may go in later if I can and see what I can press. We had a lot of people at the gym this morning so it took a bit longer than normal.

Warmup
Relay Drills
Mobility

Skill
press

WOD
10m 1 RM Press
10m AMRAP

• 5 Push Press (50% Of 1RM) 45#s
• 7 Bar-Hop Burpees
• 9 Sit Ups

total: 6+5 Presses+5 Burpees