“Welcome to the Grind” (click to watch)

It’s one of my favorite motivational videos, sayings, speeches, etc… I’ve blogged about it before. You may have seen it or heard it before. It’s the best. TCU baseball released it several years ago and it perpetuated across the sports world. My kids quote it, live by it and deep down I do as well. I just lose sight of it.

It truly is the grind. The day in and day out of it all. Will you persevere? Will you fight the good fight? It’s not easy, never will be. There will always be challenges. There will always be the voices that tell you to quit.

But you gotta rise above that, right? Be better! If anything, TRY! Not all days will be good. But eventually you will have more “good” days than bad. Your mind will clear up. Your body won’t be so achey. You’ll sleep better. You’ll wake up more easily. You got this.

I got this!

I’m slowly but surely owning my motivation. The eating healthy is a little easier. I used to be so quick to eat something crappy, now I hesitate. I think twice and it’s easier to say no. I still struggle but it’s not as bad. My family has my back. They help me say no. They tell me NO. Sometimes I wanna smack a kid but they want me to succeed. They love me no matter what, I know. But they understand where I’m at and what needs to happen. They got me.

I am still working on being positive. That’s harder than eating healthy! It’s mostly when I workout that I’m negative. It all hurts, lol! So I say I don’t wanna and I’m not gonna… a lot. I still do the work but I throw an internal tantrum, sometimes external!

But I am chugging along with the workouts. They are becoming less painful but they are still a beating. The thing is, it doesn’t get easier! Once you get to a point where it’s easy you bump up to the next step. It’s a new challenge. More work. More intensity. It’s ok. I like it, but the journey is ongoing. I just have to keep that in mind.

As for food. Still not doing GREAT, but overall it’s good. Coach Travis worked with my ratios and what I should be hitting with carbs, fats and proteins. That’s a work in progress for sure. I’m actually coming up short in all 3 in general. So gotta figure that out. But I’m cooking, prepping and when I fail at the prepping, I look for the best options.

I did eat Whataburger on Sunday. I didn’t crave it or all out want it, but it was easy and convenient. I opted for the grilled chicken sandwich. Definitely not as good as a burger. It was fuel, I was hungry. And I ate about half the fries that came with meal. My only win, is that I got UNSWEET tea vs. coke or sweet tea. So far it’s Sunday that I struggle with. I didn’t listen to Coach Marcus about prepping for Sunday on Friday.

I’m hoping this weekend, with ZERO baseball, I’m more committed. But truly it’s the baseball weekends that get me. So I need to focus on those days.

On the home front, we just are on the GO. There’s no slowing down. So I gotta roll with it. I went to Farm to Fork, a great little gem in Arlington, that has grass-fed beef, pastured chicken, eggs that are yummy, and other little “healthy” items. I typically go for eggs, chicken sausage and pork lard. They were out of stock on the pork lard. And the beef tallow. The brand they sell did a recall on their products! Arrrgghhhh. It’s what we use to cook everything. The employee working that day was kind enough to recommend beef fat, aka tallow. I said sure why not. But what the heck do I do with it? He said you gotta render it down. Uhhh. Ok. Roger that! I had no idea what that involved but I figured I’d figure it out!

And I did. And guess what? Liquid gold! I googled all the ways to render beef tallow and there are several ways, but I went with what seemed easiest. The crockpot.

I put a little water in the crockpot as I had read on numerous sites. Chopped up the fat into cubes and threw into the crockpot on low for a little over 8 hours. Poured the liquid gold into a bowl, using a fine mesh strainer to keep any of the fat particles out and it was beautiful. 2.2 lbs of fat gave me a full mason jar and probably an extra 1/2 cup that I have in a bowl. I also made cracklins with the fat that didn’t break down. Sadly, I overcooked them, so there’s a little burned taste to them, but they almost melt in your mouth. Next time I will watch over it better.

Recurring theme: do better!

That’s all my sharing for today! Did y’all try something new lately? New workout? New recipe? Share it with me! And I’ll share this little roadrunner friend that was hanging outside of CrossFit Boom after my workout. He’s so cute but a little shy.

Happy Tuesday, y’all!