Nourish Paleo Foods

This weekend, I was a gymnast.  For an hour.

My gym, CrossFit Verve, was hosting a seminar at the gym this weekend so they arranged a Saturday morning field trip to 5280 Gymnastics in Wheatridge, CO.

So, here we are on the balance beam. Only my arm is visible in this photo, but I totally looked like a gymnast. Totally.

The gymnastics instructors took us through an hour of play time as we tumbled, flipped and flew through the air on the equipment there.  It was really fun.  I felt like a wondrous kid – although I quickly became aware that I was dealing with an adult body that didn’t move quite as nimbly as it did when I was a pre-teen flipping cartwheels in front yard.  The young gymnastics coaches dropped into a split and performed back flips on demand.  They made it look so easy and natural that I questioned why in the world I couldn’t do that too.  I resolved to work on my flexibility.

As a warm up, we worked on some floor exercises, including forward rolls, backwards rolls, cartwheels, round offs and handstand walks.  I am proud to say that my handstand walk is improving.  It’s still unreliable, but it has occasional moments of brilliance.  Give me another two to three years and I will nail it.

Then, we then split into groups and spent about ten minutes each on the balance beam, the parallel bars (or bar, really.  There was only one.) and more advanced floor moves.  I was able to flashback to my childhood and pull together a respectable cartwheel and round off but my courage failed me when it came to doing a backhand spring.  Next time for sure.

The gym was like a playground.  Squishy pads, bouncy floors, trampolines and pit of foam blocks meant that where ever I flopped or fell, I never felt the slightest pain.  I just sprung up and tried again.

I can’t wait to go back.

In addition to being a gymnast, the other new thing I tried this weekend was filming a cooking video.  I thought it might be helpful for the grapefruit and avocado salad recipe I am posting today, since I was having a hard time explaining in writing how to remove the pith from the grapefruit.   Plus, I had been wanting to do a video for a while now.   So I prepped the food and touched up my makeup.  Matt set up the camera and started filming.

Unfortunately, it was too goofy for words.  Speaking to a camera is so not so natural for me!  I couldn’t bear to post it for the six folks who are nice enough to read my blog the whole wide world to see.  Matt thought that with more practice I could pull it off one day. We’ll see.

Regardless, this recipe is delicious.  I recommend it for its explosive flavor. I think of it as a bit of a holiday salad, with the green avocado and the red grapefruit.  If you have never made this, give it a shot.  As I learned this weekend during my hour as a gymnast, trying something new is kinda fun!

Grapefruit Avocado Salad

Avocado, 2

Grapefruit, 2

Balsamic vinegar, 1 tablespoon

Olive oil, 1 tablespoon

Salt, 1-2 shakes

1. Peel the grapefruit and divide into sections.
2. Remove all the skin and all the pith from each section.  (This is the hard part.  I find it works best to cut off the inside edge of each slice –the part of the slice that was attached at the center of the grapefruit. Then peel the skin off both sides and then the exterior edge of the slice.   Some of the slices may break or fall apart.  No big deal.  You can piece them back together.)
3. Then, slice the avocado lengthwise and remove the pit.  Using a spoon, scoop out the avocado half.  Slice each half into about 5-6 slices lengthwise.
4. Combine vinegar, olive oil and salt for dressing.
5. To serve, alternate slices of avocado and grapefruit.  Drizzle a little dressing on each serving.

Serves 4.  Can be easily doubled or halved.