Under Armour What’s Beautiful and a Cooking FAIL

I hate strength training. I’m not sure if it’s because I have so little strength to begin with, or it’s too much exertion for me (read: more exertion than I feel like…exerting), or I’m just plain lazy…but I really, really, really hate lifting weights. Or doing push-ups. Or anything else that actually involves pushing myself.

Come to think of it, I don’t much like cardio, either…unless it’s running. And even then, I don’t run too fast or too far — I stay in my comfort zone.

And therein, my friends, lies the problem. How am I going to actually see any changes in my body or my strength if I won’t leave my comfort zone? Or even with regards to running – how will I ever know my limits if I don’t test them?

Enter: Under Armour What’s Beautiful.  I found this last week – it’s a competition to “redefine the female athlete”. It’s a place for women to set “epic fitness goals” and to come together and challenge themselves to do things they never thought possible. Now, if you’ll look at the website – it’s also seriously intimidating. I have no desire to do an Iron Girl competition, or be the next women’s champion of [insert crazy sport here]. But I do want to challenge myself. I want to get out of my comfort zone. 

So I signed up. My goals?

“Run my first 10K. Add strength training and weights to my fitness routine. Start taking yoga so I can eventually do one of those crazy poses. I WILL.”

Nothing real crazy, but all attainable goals – and they will (I hope) challenge me both mentally and physically over the  next coming weeks. For my first attempt at strength training, I started Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred DVD at home. Suffice to say it’s kind of kicking my butt — but I like waking up the next morning with that dull achy muscle soreness that tells you you’ve had a good workout. I’m also looking to incorporate some different circuits into my days at the gym — but I haven’t quite gotten that far yet.

But no matter what happens with “What’s Beautiful”, I’m doing this for myself. To test my limits. To find out how strong I really am. To set, reach for, and achieve my goals.

Wish me luck!

…And now that we’ve talked about strength and working out, let’s talk about my recent exploits in the kitchen, shall we?

What’s that, you ask? Well, that is my second attempt at an orange-ginger glaze. It was, needless to say, a major disaster.

I first tried this glaze with mahi mahi last week – and it turned out pretty good, except I didn’t like the way it colored the fish an odd gray-brown color.

Looks good though, right? It tasted good, too. Better than good. It tasted fantastic. I just didn’t like the way it looked.

So this time, I decided to try it with chicken cutlets. Again, using the sauce as a marinade worked really well – it’s full of a tangy sweet flavor from the ginger, the orange, the garlic and the coconut aminos all blended together.

The glaze? Didn’t go so well. (Don’t let the picture above fool you — that’s not my glaze, that’s some aged balsamic vinegar I drizzed on top of my chicken cutlets!)

THIS is the glaze:

I had to physically pry that off the bottom of my NON-STICK PAN.

I have no idea what happened.

I will be taking this recipe back to the drawing board, again. Stay tuned!