Day Mid-Seventies: "PCPizza"

This past weekend I decided to borrow an idea from PCP grad Jason B. and attempt a homemade PCPizza. Bear in mind that I have never made a pizza at home before of any kind other than pizza toast and that I pride myself on being a decent cook thanks to nine-plus years of solo living, but I am not one to bake. Odd that my perfectionist tendencies don't turn up in the kitchen but precise measurements required for baking bore me. A pinch of this, a punch of that is how I operate.

Anyway, gave it a go. Made one large pizza for myself with no cheese and three smaller ones with cheese for my girlfriend and her parents to try out. Although every whole wheat pizza dough recipe I found online called for a partial mix of whole wheat flour and white flour, I went with 100% whole wheat. I used less than 1/3 of a teaspoon of salt (the entire recipe only called for one teaspoon vs. 3 cups of flour anyway, which I thought was pretty impressive) and about that of sugar (some is necessary to help make the yeast rise.

Here is the PCPizza d'oh!

Next, the marinara sauce. Lots of chopped tomatoes, oregano, garlic, parsley, and some of my homemade salt substitute (which is a whole mix of nothing but healthy herbs)

And voila, my PCPizza (marinara with chicken, eggplant, green peppers, assorted mushrooms, onions)

I forgot to take pictures of the ones with cheese but they were a hit with my girlfriend's family. I think I might do it again some time and invite you all over to give it a try.


Some quick thoughts on the exercises. Though work remains tough and the hours insanely long and the lack of sleep shows through and through, I've been keeping strong on all the exercises and all the food since returning from Guam. If I am not too harsh on myself, even during those horrible initial days after the earthquake, I did only miss a total of 3 exercise sessions and one jump-rope session and that is all I have missed the entire time. It is what it is, I am open about it, I am not beating myself up over it. If anything I should be proud of myself for sticking with it through trying times. As I wrote a couple of posts ago, the PCP also helped to keep me sane and in some sort of rhythm through those tough days. At least on the eating front, it really helped.

I am starting to get shin splints every time I jump-rope, however. And it starts right off the bat. I am now jumping on a thin yoga mat on the hardwood floor of my gym to save my legs, but there is some constant discomfort. Anybody else feeling a little wear and tear like that? I decided to count just for fun how many jump-rope I am getting done in one six minute session. I was right around 1,100. So I guess I am doing well over 3,000 now per day vs. the 5 x 50 we started with that seemed so difficult. It really is amazing what the human body can get used to given time.

See you next time, gang! ;)