Crockpot Pulled Pork Burritos (Paleo Friendly)

My intention when starting a blog this year was to share stories of my journey with organization, homemade meals, and DIY projects. As you have probably noticed, I have been on a huge fitness kick the entire summer (and now into fall). While this has cut back on time for DYI projects and organization around the house, I have still been working on many healthy recipes to share.

A couple months ago, JD and I decided to change our diet. The original thought came about when I was setting goals at the beginning of the year (although what I didn't know at the time was how well this goal would correlate with Crossfit which I wasn't even doing at the time). As I continue growing in fitness, I want to incorporate a more balanced approach to healthy eating. When you are dedicated to enhancing your life through fitness, it only makes sense improve the way you are eating too. So, my “no processed foods” goal came about….

Since I love cooking, trying new recipes, and making up my own, it seemed like an easy transition and a fun challenge. That was at the beginning of the year….Halfway through 2013, I still hadn’t taken the first steps to healthier eating.

Around the same time I was rethinking my goal and how to integrate this change into my lifestyle, I began working out at CrossfitFlyOver. As I previously mentioned, when I push toward fitness, it only makes me want to get more out of it and I knew I needed to change up our diet.

Through Crossfit, I was introduced to a diet that is based upon eating wholesome foods from the food groups our hunter-gatherer ancestors would have thrived on including: fresh meats (preferably grass-produced or free-ranging beef, pork, lamb, poultry, and game meat, if you can get it), fish, seafood, fresh fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, and healthful oils. After researching Paleo recipes, finding a few more blogs to follow, and modifying a few weeknight staples, I realized we could make Paleo meals that include WAY more than just chicken, veggies, and salads.

Crockpot Pork Burritos is one of our all-time favorite meals. It took very few modifications to turn this favorite in a Paleo-approved meal….And the end result is just as good!

Crockpot Pulled Pork Burritos (serves A LOT)

Ingredients:

• Pork loin (around a 3lb boneless pork loin with the fat trimmed off)
• Spices: chili powder, cumin, lemon pepper seasoning, salt/pepper
• Peppers — green, red, yellow (if you like heat, add in some jalapenos)
• Small white onion thinnly sliced
• Salsa — prepare a homemade salsa or purchase a fresh salsa (jarred salsa)
• Head of lettuce (tortilla shells)
• Monterrey jack cheese
• Toppings: serve with guacamole, sliced avocado, tomoates or green onion

Place the pork loin in your crockpot. Combine spices with about 1 cup of water and poor the mixture over the pork loin. Next, add in the salsa and peppers. Cook for 6-8 hours on low in a crockpot.

For the non-Paleo recipe, try the crossed out ingredients listed above.
 
At some point (I make no gurantees when), I will get better at providing measurements, real instructions, and appetizing photos. I can tell you though, any recipe I post will be simple, easy to modify, and absolutely delicious!

Looking Towards my Vision of Success

"We can focus on success and spend our life looking around to see how our competition is doing, or we can look straight ahead towards the vision of greatness we have for ourselves….We can look at competition as the standard or as an indicator of our progress towards our own standards. We can chase success or we can embark on a quest for excellence and focus 100% of our energy to become our best....and let success find us." - Jon Gordon

I have been thinking about this quote a lot lately. Since I participated in my first Crossfit competition, the MAT Games, I have been on a mission to learn more skills, lift more, improve my overall performance, and truly push myself. The other competitors at the MAT Games were an inspiration and motivation to take it to the next level.

 

My performance was okay during the games. I finished the WODs and made it through my first competition, but just okay. I think I could do better if I started to push myself more during the workouts — get that one more rep, one more round, or a tad more weight.

MAT Games

 I will have another chance to redeem myself at a competition in December. My thoughtful husband accepted an invitation for me (before I had a chance to look at what skills I needed) to participate in a team competition with some friends. These skills that I don’t have mastered yet, have led to my November goals.

This month I have been focusing on improving (or learning) the following:

1. Double Unders
2. Kipping Pull-ups (Using only purple band or no Band during workouts)
3. More weight during WODs (KBS, OHS, Snatch)

I have a long way to go and a lot of reps ahead of me to get where I want to be for my next competition. Sometimes it’s hard to have the patience, the slowest WODs, or skip a rest day to put in more time, but I know that is what I need to improve.

Crossfit (and the MAT Games) has definitely brought back the competitor in me. While I try to make improvements and learn new skills, I need to remind myself that it’s not always about “winning” or finishing first. And on the other end, I also need to remind myself (before every WOD) that just because I am adding more weight, using less bands or exhausted from the previous day, doesn’t mean that I don’t need to push myself.

Just like everything in life, it’s all about finding the right balance.