Traveling 101

This post was inspired by the RelayRides Travel Must-Have's campaign. Because I am the worst, I didn't write this post before the holidays and ended up ignoring my own advice and that's how I found myself in Walmart at 9:30 PM digging around their workout clothes section. Do you know they don't sell shorts in the winter?

I've got quite a bit of travel this month and this time I won't forget these fitness travel essentials.

1) ALWAYS pack one workout outfit in your carry-on. If you don't, your checked luggage will 98.9% of the time make a detour, even when on a direct flight to your grandma's. This is a major bummer when you have the 12 Days of CrossFit early the next morning.

2) Pack lightweight multi-purpose shoes. I love to bring my Saucony racing flats because I can use them for running and CrossFit and they barely weigh anything.

I own the Grid Type A4s but the newer Type A5s are on sale.

You could also spring for the Type A6s but I don't like the colors as much.

3)  Bring a jump rope. If you're into CrossFit, you know how annoying it is to do doubleunders with someone else's rope. And no matter what you're into, you can get a great workout in wherever you are with one simple piece of equipment. I have an Again Faster rope but I covet an RPM Fitness bare cable rope. They're absolutely beautiful and they really hurt if you miss.

Hook Grip Lessons

The hook grip is a method of holding a barbell. Instead of just holding the bar in your hands, you put your thumbs under your pointer and middle fingers and this creates a stronger, more effective grip. The hook grip is hard at first. It doesn't feel natural. It can hurt. I kept hearing that once you got used to the hook grip, you'd never go back, but it didn't feel right to me. My thumbs didn't feel long enough. I couldn't clean the weight I was used to.

I keep gym equipment stock photos on my computer for this very reason.
This is an old one from CrossFit Central LI.

Planning My Macros

It's January so everyone's on a diet. At least four people have told me they're going to lose 20 lbs by cutting calories and doing lots of cardio. I cringe. You can totally drop a lot of pounds off the scale if you eat nothing and run your little heart out, because I've done it like 9 times, and I'm not going to tell you not to do that if that's the plan you choose. I just thought you might want to know my plan of attack for 2015.

Things I know to be true:

1. I need a plan if I am going to be successful.
2. I need a tracker if I am going to be successful.
3. I won't cook vegetables that don't come out of microwavable bags.
4. High quality ingredients are expensive and then you have to cook them yourself anyway.
5. Carbs are the devil. I need to eat a certain amount of protein and fat every day to meet my goals.

I know how to eat clean. I know how to read labels. I'm pretty damn knowledgeable and yet I don't have the body I want so I've decided to make some changes. My goals are to give my body the nutrition it needs to train at high intensity multiple times a week and to change my body composition. I was looking at photos from old Weight Loss Wednesdays where I weigh the same as I do now, and I look much different, (read worse), because I had a lot more fat and a lot less muscle. I want to lose body fat while maintaining the muscle I have now AND hopefully add some more. This means that my weight in pounds doesn't matter to me but the percentage of my weight that is fat does.

Progress

Yesterday I got to ring the PR bell at CrossFit. It's kind of a big deal because it means you set a new personal record. When you first start CrossFit, you PR practically every day. Now that it's been a year and a half, I might not PR as often but I know that I am making progress. For the first time ever, I completed the workout Nicole Rx. Feel free to clap.

You might be wondering how I got such a flattering angle for this photo. My friend Sam is 6'7" or 6'8" and this is the photo he took by just standing a few feet away from me. Where was Sam when we needed him for all of sorority formal photo shoots??