Wow!

I just finished watching the 2011 Crossfit Games.  Hoe. Lee.  COW!  I am SO IMPRESSED with these athletes, their ability to push through the pain, and their ridiculous muscles!  In order to get to these games, each athlete first had to qualify in the Open.  People from around the world did the exact same workouts over 6 weeks and were ranked based on their time.  Then from there, qualifiers went on to compete in their Regionals.  Each regional was different, and the top three athletes from each regional moved on to the finals in Carson, California.  We watched these games last year as well and they are completely fascinating!  Over 3 days these individuals completed 10 different workouts.  Go to the web page and watch the archived footage and look at the workouts...you will be amazed as well!  Dude and I watched some workouts yesterday that involved traveling 100 feet of monkey bars...we were totally inspired to go down the street to the playground at the nearby elementary school and try to swing on the monkey bars! :)  It was fun (and WAY harder that I remember it in elementary!).  I'm also inspired to work harder at my fitness and nutrition in the future...I'm toying with the idea of actually "competing" in the Open next year (although lets face it, I will probably be 278,986th out of 278,990). 

Yesterday we also rendered lard!!!  Yummmmm!!!  I know, most people think lard?  Yuck!  Isn't that bad for you?!  Well, the partially hydrongenated stuff that's created in a lab somewhere is totally bad for you.  The stuff from my friend the piggy is not!  We bought a package of lard from Rehoboth Ranch (one of the local farmers from which we purchase grass fed/pastured meats), cut it into chunks, fed it through our meat grinder (thank you Kitchen Aid Mixer!) and rendered the fat in our crockpot all afternoon.  What was left was a half gallon of snowy white lard divided into 4 pint sized mason jars.  We also got "cracklins" from it, which are essentially pieces of protien and non-melted (but crispy) fat left over from the rendering process.  Oh MAN are those things good!  We dried them out in the oven for a little bit and let them set on some paper towels and threw some salt on them and we have ourselves a tasty, crunchy little snack!  I threw some on top of the salad I had tonight and it was a perfect salty, crunchy addition!