April 2016 Goals

Life and Wellness goals: I slept more in April than I think I have in the rest of 2016. It was glorious. I've even managed to go to sleep without taking anything more than a few times. I've spent time with friends and enjoyed some time at the pool, because this is Georgia and yes, it is already pool season. The boyfriend and I have made our relationship even better, which is fantastic. Life is good and I am happy.

Pure Barre Goal: I took class 4 times in April, including the Row. Tone. Om. class in Piedmont Park. That's 35 classes in 2016. I bought myself a class pack and I'll probably use the 20 classes by the end of August.

CrossFit Goal: 45/200 WODs. I went to CrossFit 11 times this month. It is so awesome to be back in the box on a regular basis. I PR'd my hang power clean at 135# (10# PR) and got my very first strict pull-up. I've gotten 2 more since then. I'm also loving the opportunity to see my CrossFit friends on a regular basis and being included in fun things outside of the gym. Being away all of the time sucked because I felt like I wasn't a part of the community anymore.

Mileage: I ran 20 miles this month, including a 5K. I love my Garmin 360 and my Brooks Ghost 8s. You can also follow me on Strava, although I'm not exactly sure what that means.

Atlanta Dogwood Festival Mimosa 5K

The boyfriend and I ran a 5K a couple of weekends ago. We'd been talking about running a race together and chose the Atlanta Dogwood Festival Mimosa 5K because of it's location. We live right near Piedmont Park so it was super easy to walk to the starting line.

That 8 AM start time kind of sucked. It's been pretty warm in Atlanta this month but the high for April 9 was 62 degrees. It was like 40 degrees when we woke up. Even though it was cold, I decided to wear my brown Oiselle Roga shorts. I love these running shorts and I got them for a sick discount because apparently no one but me wants poop brown shorts. Last summer, I went to our local running store to try a pair on and I had to size up from the size 6 because they were too small for my booty. I bought the size 8 but had to tie them tight around the waist. Now that I've lost weight, the waistband is getting too large and I might have to accept that Roga shorts aren't made for runners with small waists and large bums. I completed the outfit with a Fabletics long-sleeved tech top and my Saucony racing flats.

Row. Tone. Om.

Last Saturday I went to Row. Tone. Om. in Piedmont Park. It was a 90 minute circuit class combining Orangetheory, Pure Barre Virginia Highland, and Highland Yoga.

Eat the Bear Chocolate Peanut Butter

I want to like Eat the Bear Chocolate Peanut Butter protein powder. I love peanut butter cups - Reece's, Justin's, Trader Joe's, the ones a Pure Barre VaHi client homemade and brought in for class - they are all delicious. Unfortunately ETB's protein powder is not. It's not horrendous, but I wouldn't describe it as good tasting. It does taste better mixed with milk.

What it lacks in taste, it makes up for by being super convenient. ETB sells travel packs that come with five pouches of your choice and a mini Blender Bottle. These are perfect for work travel. I bring the shaker and some pouches when I travel for work and will probably order more because it's so much better than bagging scoops from my protein powder tub.

I like the company Eat the Bear so I'm hoping they make some improvements to this protein powder because I'd drink it at every meal if it actually tasted like a Reece's peanut butter cup. 

Weight Loss Wednesday 4.6.16

This morning I woke up and I was sore all over. Yesterday's WOD was a timed 30 calorie row, rest, and then 1000 m run, 30-20-10 push press (95/65) and toes to bar, finished with another 1000 m run. It was brutal and it was low carb day. So when I woke up this morning, I remembered it was the day after low carb day and was psyched to see my progress. I realized I looked pretty damn lean and hopped on the scale - 142.2 lbs! Then I quickly texted the boyfriend to see if he could take some progress photos of me before he left for work.

Today is high carb day and I am so thankful because I woke up so hungry. I felt satiated when I went to bed last night but I woke up with a mission to eat. Everyone's numbers are different but Jenna has me on this carb cycling plan and high carb day is 300 GRAMS OF CARBOHYDRATES! Today will be filled with such joy in the form of harvest snaps, milk, and rice.

Being a Little More Green

I've recently discovered my love for the show Archer after hearing for years that I would really like it. I'm on season 3 and I started watching on Friday night. I am obsessed. So somewhere between then and now, I learned that the character Lana is really into the environment, and I was like, shit, remember when I was really into the environment? I once tried to convince my parents to let me start a compost pile in the backyard. Now I don't even recycle. I had no idea that there are recycling bins behind the dumpsters for the entire first year I lived in my apartment complex. That's pretty bad.

But there's good news - I am no longer chucking 72 aluminum cans in the dumpster each week (that comes out to 3 cases - and y'all thought I was kidding when I said I was addicted to La Croix) because my boyfriend surprised me with the best gift ever - a SodaStream! I can drink as much seltzer as my little heart desires in the reusable bottles. Jeremy told me he bought it for me because he was tired of seeing the trail of La Croix cans I leave in my wake. Just marking my territory...

Sadly, I can only keep the flowers on the table when I am home because I have curious dogs.

I treated myself to a Pure Barre Tervis the other day and I am thrilled because I finally solved my MyFitnessPal water problem. So the damn app only tracks water in cups. I always bought 1.5 liter bottles of water at Publix. I would get annoyed with the conversion and forget to track my water intake and then end up having to guess because my memory has been shot to hell from lack of sleep and stress over a dog who simply refuses to become house-trained. The Tervis is 24 oz and has hash marks for every 8 oz. I fill it up with seltzer from the SodaStream and make this little reminder in my Day Designer. I'm trying to avoid drinking directly out of the SodaStream bottles because they are not dishwash safe and I want to minimize handwashing them because I refuse to do that ish since I moved out of NYC.

Protein Hacks

I'm pretty good about hitting my protein numbers if I plan my meals around my protein sources, but I'm terrible at getting close to 135g of protein if I eat by intuition. I just want to eat carbs. I've been looking for quick hacks to get protein without relying on extra protein shakes and found two simple ways to help you reach your protein goals.

Add egg whites your eggs. Well duh. I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner. I like to eat two scrambled eggs in the morning. I don't use egg beaters because I like the taste of actual eggs, but today I added liquid egg whites. I was able to increase the volume of food and add 10 grams of protein without additional carbs or fats. Trader Joe's cage-free liquid egg whites's macros are 5 P, 0 C, 0 Fat for 46 grams/3 tablespoons.

Cook up a pound of spicy ground turkey. I buy the Trader Joe's regular, whatever ground turkey meat. I've tried the lean kind and the all-white meat kind and they are too dry for my taste. I season the meat with Flavor God Everything Spicy and Chipotle. Since it's already cooked, it's super convenient to use throughout the day. Sometimes I add it to breakfast, other times I have it for lunch or a snack. One ounce of cooked ground turkey is 8 P, 0 C, 3 F. Two ounces is great with eggs. I eat closer to 7 ounces if I'm eating it for lunch.