Coach Kirstin

Have you ever seen a kid throwing a fit screaming and making a scene in the middle of the store when their parent told them “no” about something? That's what goes on in my head when I want sweets or a coke. My inner two year old starts screaming and jumping up and down yelling "I want it! I need it! I have to have it!” And I give in.  I do want it.  I think I need it.  And when Im having a shitty moment, it does make me feel better.  I find solace in my food.  I feel like I should be about 300 lbs to be able to say that.    Until I feel the remorse for eating it.  And then I say Im not doing that again.  But I do.  Often.  And it’s a constant struggle I go through.    And then I saw something a few days ago as I was scrolling Facebook from one of the many fitness things I follow.  It said to tell yourself “I don’t eat that.”  I scrolled fast because I ...

So these posts are usually about me.  Or about a way that someone is annoying me.  But this weekend I was inspired by my dear friend Nathalie Behn.  We have known each other for almost 3 years.  We met when we worked together at BAE.  I was really into Krav Maga and would come in all bruised up and hurt.  She would tell me I was crazy and to take up golf. She would come in every day eating a Kit Kat and drinking a sugar free red bull.  Then about a year ago, she decided she was going to start doing these Tough Mudder and Civilian Military Combine.  I like my training and my sport but these races are something I have no desire to do.  It used to be me that would say "I cant got out I have training," then it was her.  She was doing all this training, stopped eating chocolate and Nutella.  Finally she had a race close, the Spartan Race .  Minor logistics snare with traffic so I didn't see her start but was there to watch and che...

So I had a nice relaxing vacation last week. I kept aware of what was going on at work but not on top of it. I came in on Friday afternoon to catch up with my boss and to have a little handoff since he was out this week. Though the reality is, there is just no way to handoff. My boss and I divide an conquer really well (theoretically thats what a PM and their deputy do), but it means there are things I just don't have any idea about and same goes for him. But when one of us is gone, it's tough because you hit the ground running to cover. On par with normal, that's how this week has been. I fortunately have an amazingly bright team that works for me, that covers me.  I had been prepping for an extremely high level demo of our capabilities for the majority of my Monday morning, when I received notice that one of my very technical managers whom I rely on heavily had given his two weeks notice. One hour later, another key manager told me he didn't think he could do the jo...

I love salty foods.  But for some reason Im not that into potato chips.  As I picked out the veggies for our box, I initially removed the Kale.  I had it stripped down to mostly mushrooms, heirloom tomatoes, zucchini and green beans.  I usually leave the creativity up to Jenn.  But she is in Cali with Dave.  So I had to be brave and I added it to the box.  Its not that interesting but is pretty good for you . Google away and pretty much everyone says add a little olive oil, garlic and salt.  Then bake until crispy.  It was pretty simple.  I might have got a little carried away with tearing it into small pieces but there are worse things.  The most annoying part was spreading it out evenly on the baking sheet.  I had three batches so it should last us most of the week.  Despite being super tasty, Kale is very full of fiber and should be spread out over the course of the week.  Lesson learned.

So Im stubborn to the point of stupidity.  And then I usually even pass that.  I was deciding what to get in the veggie box this week and I decided why not go with tons of zucchini.  I fell back to the house favorite of using the zucchini as spaghetti .  But I have this problem when I cook, it tastes great but looks awful.  Especially with this stupid recipe.  So I changed the setting on my handy mandoline to the french fry size.  I also have this conundrum of how to mix it in my frying pan because its usually over flowing until it cooks down.  So this time as I sliced up the zucchini I put them in a pot and then added the sausage mixture over that.  I cooked the sausage with the right leeks, onions and coconut oil, remove the onions and leeks then added the tomatoes, garlic and salt to simmer while I sliced up zucchini. Once the zucchini was mixed and cooked down a bit, it went back in the frying pan.  Yes I create way too many dirty di...

Airplane travel is just another day for me.  With the majority of my family in New Mexico and Montana, I spend a fair amount of time traveling.  I also had the "opportunity" to travel a lot for work.  I know everything I want and need to make my trips comfortable.  And I also realize there is no point in flipping out and yelling at someone.  So when I arrived at DCA to find a very long line and I only had 1.5 hours until my flight, I waited patiently.  It was a combination of computers being down and apparently people missing flights or something.  Something that required you to talk to a person.  At 6:15 I was pulled out of line and to the next kiosk to check in.  Off to security I went where I was also plucked because of my 7 am flight. So Ill admit to kind of being an asshole.  I knew my flight was already delayed by 40 minutes but I was starving and extremely uncomfortable from the surgery I had a week ago.  All I wanted to do w...

So in my fantasy land Im an amazing cook.  I create things spontaneously with whats in the fridge and it turns out fantastic.  In reality, I pilfer and steal recipes.  I mildly modify to suit my preferences.  Tonight was one of those mild modifications.  Our veggie box had lots of my second favorite veggie, zucchini.  I had some left over julienned zucchini from the last time I made my favorite zucchini recipe . So I figured Id make it again.  Every time I have made it, I modify it just a bit.  First time I stuck to the recipe.  Second time I ditched the red pepper and swapped the coconut cream for heavy cream...Im just not that Paleo.  This time I used purely what I had on hand and came up with the list below: 1.25 lbs sweet Italian pork sausage, diced (I popped it in the freezer for about 20 minutes to make it easier to cut) 2 small red onions 1/2 sweet yellow onion 1 container of baby portabella mushrooms 5 zucchini squash, sliced wit...

Eggs.  They are really good for you.  And I actually really like eating them. But oh about 14 years ago we had a tragic run that resulted in the most awful case of food poison I have ever been through.  It ruined an entire 4 day Thanksgiving holiday and scared me for the next 12.5 years.  I started eating eggs almost because I had to, I was cutting weight for a fight with my at the time boyfriend and decided I couldnt be that much of an asshole.  I started with egg whites and have pretty much stayed there until last December when I had this adventure with my dear friends.  I have loved the steak and eggs there ever since.  I actually joked to my best friend when we left there the other day that I would marry the man that cooked me steak and eggs like that at home.  Food does make me do crazy things.  I get on food kicks and there is something I cant get enough of. For the past couple months it was salami.  It was like the most wonderful...