100 Club

I have been doing Pure Barre on and off since July 2015, and I have finally now joined the 100 Club at the Pure Barre Virginia Highlands studio. I achieved this momentous, if not rather delayed, milestone in September of this year.

I got to sign the 100 Club bar. There's barely any room on it, but I managed to squeeze my aggressively long name onto it.

I received a pair of congratulatory 100 Club socks. These are the reason I'm glad it took me so long, because I got a pair of the NEW sticky socks. Their stickiness is far superior to the old ones. I just kind of wish they were red. That's silver glitter by the way, and it's awesome.

I had 12 classes remaining on my package and I was going to Pure Barre a lot through the month of October. I'm leaning towards switching to a closer studio, but that means I'll be back at zero classes. Thoughts on moving to a different studio - is worth it to be able to walk to class?

Pain in the Rib

You know what's not fun? Shooting pain in your ribs. Back in September, I was walking down the stairs to take my dogs out and I missed a step. Of course my hungover ass couldn't find my regular flip flops so I was wearing a pair of Palm Beach Sandals with slick leather soles. I desperately tried to save my footing but instead I slipped and went up in the air only to crash down on the concrete stairs. I then proceeded to clunk clunk clunk on my side down to the next landing. It hurt. Really hurt.

I felt short of breath and sore, but the real pain came a week later. It felt like my rib was going to puncture my lung. I could barely lift 50% of any of my one-rep maxes. I called my primary care physician but no one ever called me back (I should probably reconsider him as my PCP), and I didn't have time to sit at urgent care (which is never that urgent, is it?) I figured I would've found myself in the back of an ambulance if I had a punctured lung, and resigned myself to scaling all of the workouts. ALL of the workouts. I couldn't row, go overhead, do pull-ups, do burpees, or box jumps. I apparently could still run a mile faster than most of the gym but it was over a minute slower for me.

Around that time, I realized I had several Pure Barre classes that were about to expire and so I committed to getting there 12 times in between all of the work travel I have been doing. It was pretty awful at first. Apparently I hurt my intercostals, the small muscles between my ribs. That's a lot of core intensive work when your ribs are on fire. Slowly but surely, I stopped feeling like I was going to throw up between each sit-up, tuck, and hold. I was able to do planks again.

I spent a week up north and went to yoga, and then kept up with the Pure Barre when I got home. Last Wednesday, I realized my ribs were pain-free and I have developed a lot of core strength.

On Saturday, the boyfriend and I went to his box for a partner WOD before the Chomp and Stomp chili and bluegrass festival. We shared an 85# bar. I was able to do pull-ups for the first time in over a month! My wallballs felt solid. My cleans were on point. I struggled with the jerks, and probably need to build up the weight I use for those, but overall I am pleased with my performance.

I plan to get back to my box this Wednesday and get back into the swing of things while remaining healthy. I haven't been a fan of the programming in a while and so I'm hoping that I enjoy it more coming back this time.

The Hot Yoga Spot

Work travel is in full swing and this week I find myself in Saratoga Springs, NY. The Hot Yoga Spot is minutes away from my hotel and I've enjoyed two classes there. One was a real 90 minute, actually did all the postures twice and all of the savasanas in between the postures Bikram Yoga class. I loved it. It's practically impossible to find a real class anymore.

The other class was called Baptiste Yoga. I only went to it because I didn't get out of the last conference session to attend the Bikram class, but I ended up really liking it. It's in a heated room but not as hot as Bikram. There are a lot of sun salutations and I haven't done downward dog in like 5 years so my shoulders were on fire.

Everyone at The Hot Yoga Spot is really nice and welcoming. They have two studios - one for Bikram and the other for their other yoga classes and their barre classes. It is clean and I couldn't find any stinky carpet. I think we all know how grossed out I am by carpet in general, let alone carpet that people sweat on for 90 minutes.

Parking can be a little confusing. There's a small lot across the street slash behind the studio. There's also Saratoga Springs downtown public parking a short walk away.

The new student unlimited week special is $25. They let me take advantage of it even though I don't live locally.

On Wednesdays We Wear Pink

We have a fun little tradition at CrossFit Identity - on Wednesdays we wear pink. Many of you likely get the Mean Girls reference. What I like the most about our Wednesday custom is that no one ever officially announced that this is something we do. People started wearing pink and then greeted other people wearing pink by saying, "On Wednesdays we wear pink." The coaches also ran an order on custom men's Virus shorts with a hot pink option, so that probably helped.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, another time when we are encouraged to wear pink. For every person who wears pink to a Wednesday class this October, Pure Barre Virginia Highlands is donating $10 to the Pink Agenda Atlanta and 15% of all retail sales will benefit this organization

These are some of my favorite pink things that I am wearing this month.

I ordered these pink 3.25 Fleo shorts because they are adorable, and I came to accept that we weren't ordering CFID custom booty shorts any time soon. I like the 3.25 because they give just a little extra coverage, which is nice when the WOD involves running or burpees. They are still available on the Fleo website as of October 16.

I bought the new Pure Barre Breast Cancer Awareness socks. I really like that they are a light heathered pink. I would wear them with grey leggings all year round. They are available online and in your local studio.

One of my favorite tank tops is from Pink Iron, the awesome all-women CrossFit-ish gym in West Hollywood where everything was pink, including the dog Barbell. Pink Iron doesn't exist anymore, but Holly has a new gym called Burn Babe.

We got these sweet crop tops for Regionals one year. Our coach Bre competes at Regionals, hence the pun.

I've been eyeing the pink Reebok CrossFit Grace. I really don't need anymore shoes but they are just really pretty.

Run for Chick-Fil-A

Greetings from Murfreesboro! I've been traveling a lot for work again and I drove to TN this week. I got a run in the other morning, but I know from experience that there's no ideal running route near this hotel. No worries. I just started running through the shopping centers with the goal to run at least 2.5 miles before I stopped at the Chick-Fil-A across the street from my hotel. I made it 2.8 miles and ordered a chicken biscuit with American cheese and pickles. Best decision.

As we know, the Doubletree in Murfreesboro has the most flattering mirrors. They never disappoint.

August 2017 Goals

Hi friends! I'm back! I've found it pretty difficult to blog all summer. I've been struggling, and sometimes I hesitate to write about it because it feels like I'm airy dirty laundry. Work has been hard. I got an awesome promotion that recognized the hard work that I have been doing, including the additional responsibilities I've taken on since a colleague left in June 2016. But more money and a new title didn't add any hours to my week. I try to keep things in perspective but I broke down and cried on Tuesday. My team is so understaffed and my right-hand woman works remotely from Houston. Her house is destroyed by Hurricane Harvey. I am so thankful that she and her family are safe, but she's offline for the foreseeable future. That's 25 hours of work a week that's back on me. I'm trying to get temps in but that's a whole extra level of stress when I work remotely from Atlanta and the temp agency is in New York.

The travel is killing my personal budget because I'm spending so much money on dog boarding. I don't want to go anywhere for personal travel when I rarely get to enjoy a day off in Atlanta. That being said, I just got back from some trips that were pretty great. I had a really great birthday in Charleston. My Mikes planned me the best weekend where we ate all the food and drank all of the rosé. I got to see the eclipse in totality and a special someone threw me the best space themed birthday party.

Eclipse Margarita

CrossFit is Better with Friends

The most magical thing happened last week! My friend Erin was in Atlanta and she dropped in at CrossFit Identity. Erin and I went to college together, but we didn't know each other well. Years after we graduated, we both got into CrossFit and rescue dogs and started chatting about our shared interests on Facebook. Erin and her husband are fantastic dog parents. Their dog Chance is the coolest, and he has been a wonderful foster brother to TWENTY-SEVEN foster dogs. I am so thrilled that I got to spend some time with Erin in-person at the box. She's super strong by the way.

To make the day even better, my brand new Endless Summer by Nikki Leonard Fleo shorts arrived! These babies are the 3.25 contour, which have become my favorite Fleo short style. Just long enough to minimize chafing during runs, but still short enough to be cute, sassy, and #teamnopants.

We retested a workout that most people dislike but I kind of secretly love. You pick a heavy odd object and run 1,000 m around the loop. Our gym is located on this random street that has everything from psychologist offices to a tech incubator to 3 different yoga studios to a framing place run by veterans plus a nature preserve. The run route is a mix of parking lot, gravel, and mulch trail. On June 13, I used a 50# dumbbell and finished in 9:32. On August, I used a 50# dumbbell and finished in 8:35. Progress folks.

Compliant

I used to work with a nutrition coach. I think working one-on-one with a coach is helpful, especially when you are new to flexible dieting and need someone to prescribe you some macros. My biggest frustration with coaching was that I didn't feel accountable. I either hit my macros each day or I didn't. The most important part of any diet is consistency and so most of the time I didn't have much to say during my check-ins. By the end I was getting frustrated because it felt like I was becoming a guinea pig for things she learned about, such as carb-cycling. I got this email about intermittent fasting and carb-cycling the first week of the 2016 CrossFit Open. The last thing I wanted to do before 5 weeks of competition was fuck around with my carbs. Ultimately, I decided to part ways with my nutrition coach because she started posting about "upleveling her business," which I think means she automated most of her content. My best advice to internet entrepreneurs is to avoid sending emails to your current clients about how you changed your program so that it can be mass-produced, ultimately undermining the very product your clients originally purchased.

Anyway, I kicked around the idea of getting a new coach. I tried to map out my own reverse diet and freaked out because I felt I was getting fat. I was researching coaches because of this freak out when I happened to listen to a podcast with Layne Norton, PhD, aka Biolayne. He talked about his company Avatar Nutrition and the cost of $10 a month seemed more than reasonable. About a month later, I signed up.

For the first time since I started tracking food (back in 2009), I feel like I have a system of being accountable because I weigh in each week AND I have to check a box saying if I was compliant or non-compliant with my macros during that week. I wasn't compliant for the first three weeks of using AN, and then I started feeling pretty dumb about that. I'm really good at weighing and tracking food. I'm really good at eyeballing portions. Why did I keep saying fuck it and ruining my progress? Well, I had gotten myself into a habit of just moving on to the next day. And if you have more fuck it days than compliant days, you're not moving towards your goals.

144.8 lbs on August 2, 2017

Weight Loss Wednesday 6.14.17

Today I woke up and weighed 143.2 lbs. My weight stayed between 146 and 147 lbs for the month of May. I've been experiencing some serious mental fatigue and my heart wasn't into tracking macros. Sometimes stressing over hitting my numbers is just enough to tip me over the stress ledge into full-on fuck it mode. I've been loosely tracking for the past month to try to stay a little accountable and to also see what I eat when I actually eat what I want when I want. I was telling my boyfriend recently that I don't know what it feels like to be hungry and then eat to meet that hunger. I'm not sure I will ever feel comfortable with 100% intuitive eating, but I've been dipping my toe in the water to see what it's like. I've learned that I usually eat lower on the protein side and higher on the fats, and I like to eat about 2,000 calories a day.

I used to feel uncomfortable about posting progress photos on my blog. I felt like I had to put on the same shorts and sports bra, which is stupidly annoying because I don't usually workout on Wednesday mornings and I had to make sure I did laundry by Tuesday. I take my "real" progress photos in my underwear because I am 1. lazy and 2. likely to get trapped in a sports bra. It's too much effort to do that twice in one day. Plus, all of my shorts make it look like I have muffin top in selfies. I realized that if I'm willing to wear a thong bathing suit to the pool (thanks Savage Swim!), why should I care about what I wear in my progress photos?

I've got some new macros - 137 P 194 C 63 F - that I started using yesterday. After a lot of fretting and research, I decided to sign up for Avatar Nutrition. I just didn't feel confident choosing my own macros and I was constantly second-guessing myself. I respect the creator - Layne Norton, I like the price point, and I'm enjoying the Facebook accountability group. 

The Chestee

I finally bought a Chestee sports bra and let me tell you, it most definitely works. What the heck is a Chestee you might be asking - it's a sports bra with a built-in collarbone design so you can have all the fun with a barbell without the bruising. Whacking yourself in the clavicle with a barbell hurts and it's not fun when your boss asks you about your neck bruises later that week when she thinks they are hickeys. Speaking from experience here y'all.

May 2017 Goals

Fitness and Nutrition

CrossFit Goal: 76/200 WODs. I did 14 WODs this month.

Not CrossFit: I went to Bikram Yoga Herald Square once. I ran 6.6 miles.

Macro Tracking: I tracked loosely. I was getting pretty frustrated with my numbers and feeling trapped in a cycle of not feeling lean enough but also not feeling strong enough. My weight leveled off what I stopped freaking out about it. I tried to eat pretty well.

Water: I got new CO2 for my SodaStream. I've been hydrating on the regular.


Happiness

Church: I went twice. I went to church with my parents when I was up in New York and I went to my church once.

Call a Friend: Still not doing so hot with this one, but I do remember to call my mom.

Tackling the 10K

This year I won a bib in the Peachtree Road Race, which is the biggest 10K and apparently the thing to do in Atlanta on the Fourth of July.

I've got a confession to make - I'm a little scared of the 10K. It's not a distance I've ever felt comfortable in because it's not a distance that feels natural to me. A 5K makes total sense. A half-marathon makes total sense. A 50K is just ten 5Ks. But the 10K has always lurked there. Is it a fast race? Is it a paced race?

My best time was at the Great Cow Harbor 10K back on September 17, 2011. I finished in 46:04.2. Those are 7:25 minute miles. Here are some terribly blurry screenshots I found in an old unfinished blog post.

April 2017 Goals

Fitness and Nutrition

CrossFit Goal: 62/200 WODs. I did 13 WODs this month, including the Loganville Lockdown competition with my girl Amy.

This is me during every workout ever - shirtless, tummy out, mouth wide open.

Be Hot Yoga

I have spent the month of April going to Be Hot Yoga on Ponce De Leon Place, which is right off of the Beltline near Ponce City Market. It's a super close walk for me and right near the doggie daycare Frank and Daisy Mae go to. (It's called Spot for Dogs and we HIGHLY recommend it.)

I've been thinking about getting back into Bikram yoga for a while. I've been to a few different studios in NY and Houston, but I've never had a regular practice. The boyfriend has been doing Bikram for 7 years, and whenever I say I can't sleep or feel stressed or pretty much anything at all, he tells me that yoga and juicing would fix that. (I'm 99% sure he's not a dirty hippy.) Turns out that Bikram makes me wide awake and I haven't been able to fall asleep after any of the evening classes. Oops.

The nearest Bikram studio is in Marietta and I am not about that OTP life unless it means Chinese food. Be Hot Yoga is right down the Beltline from my apartment and most classes follow the traditional series of 26 postures, although some are combined to meet the 75 minute class format. Some instructors take some artistic license with the series. More about that later.

Weight Loss Wednesday 4.26.17

So this week's Weight Loss Wednesday post started as a Monday Macros post. I started it Monday morning, but decided that yesterday's workouts were relevant to how I've been feeling about my diet. This week I lowered my macros to 120 g protein, 175 g carbs, 65 g fat. The only number that changed is the amount of carbs, but it's still more carbs than the last time I was eating 1,765 calories a day.

Monday's WOD went great. We did Nancy, which is 5 rounds for time of a 400 m run and 15 overhead squats. The Rx for women is 65#, but I scale to 55#. The desired stimulus is to go fast and hard, so the OHS should be unbroken. I think yesterday was the first time I've done all 5 rounds at 55# unbroken. I finished in 14:31, which is 2 minutes and 46 seconds faster than the last time I did the workout on April 6, 2016. This is why you log you workouts folks. Data is awesome.

I was particularly proud of my color-coordinated outfit for Nancy on Monday. Couldn't care less about what I wear for work, but my workout clothes are on point.

I was so hungry Monday night before bed that I had trouble falling asleep. I wondered how much of that was mental, just knowing that I had eaten less, but I definitely felt less strong at the 6:30 AM Crossfit yesterday. I hit my 6x2 split jerks at 65#, 75#, 80#, 85#, 90#, 95#. That 95# did not feel as light as it has recently. The metcon had squat snatches at 145#. I probably would have used 125# at an evening class, but scaled to 105#.

My Perfect Macro Day

This post is about my perfect macro day and why I ruined it. So last night I was playing macro Tetris before bed like I usually do and I was able to get ALL of my macros exactly to the gram. It was effing on point. ESPECIALLY because I had to plan around a pancake dinner at church for Holy Thursday. Not knowing what they would have, I decided 3 pancakes, 4 tablespoons of syrup, and a tablespoon of butter would work. That's a heck of a lot more syrup than I'm used to, but it fit my macros.

Weight Loss Wednesday 4.12.17

I've been really fired up about hitting my nutrition goals all week. It feels like something I want to do, instead of something I feel like I have to do. My weight was 146.4 lbs this morning, down from 149 lbs on Saturday. I've been enjoying all the carbs. It takes effort to hit 200 grams a day after years of trying to avoid carbs like the plague.

It was really cool to hear from you about your thoughts on my Weight Loss Wednesday 3.22.17 post. Two of my friends from the gym who have teenage and pre-teen daughters told me that reading my words gave them insight into what their girls are facing as they get older.

Monday Macros 4.10.17

Guys, I have been busy reading about metabolic adaption and reverse dieting. I also received my Savage Swim suit and I don't want to be a fluffy bunny all pool season. I devised an 8 month (yes, you read that correctly) plan to increase my caloric intake to total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) rate. Something about how Rome wasn't built in a day and abs are built in the kitchen. I am tracking my weight and body fat percentage on Mondays and Fridays. I will also track my mood, hunger, and sleep each week. This will help me determine when to increase or decrease my calories.

I set my protein to 120 grams a day. That's about 0.8 grams per pound of body weight. My daily fats are 65 grams. This week my goals is 200 grams of carbs a day. That's 1,865 calories a day. That's a little less than I have been eating lately. I'm hoping that I will feel super satiated with 200 grams of carbs.

In other news, my beloved Nissan Rogue Miranda was hit by an RV. She's not doing so hot and I already miss her. Randy the RV driver, who is actually really nice, has Progressive and they rented me a Jeep until Miss Miranda gets fixed. I ran the 3 miles to Enterprise to pick up the Jeep because I am in a Fitbit Work Week Challenge that is filled with overachievers.

March 2017 Goals

March was a hard month. My grandmother died the last week in February and I really miss her. Honestly, it doesn't seem real yet. The Open started the same week, and it took a lot out of me both physically and mentally. It was the first year where I could do almost all of the movements Rx, but I just didn't do them that well. There was no glorious feeling of getting my first toes to bar or my first chest to bar pull-up. It was just heavy. I felt heavy. I felt like I was competing against other people at my gym instead of against myself. I wasn't particularly proud of any of my scores, except for the last workout. I didn't expect to get a muscle up. I wanted a 95# snatch but I didn't believe I could do it, which probably prevented me from doing it. But 17.5 was my jam. I said it was going to be similar to 11.1/14.1 (snatches and doubleunders) but with thrusters, and I was right. I really should have bet some money on that prediction. I finished 10 rounds for time of 9 thrusters at 65# 35 doubleunders in 12:07. That's a pretty good score for recreational CrossFitter in case you were wondering.

I needed a vacation in March. Not travel for work (I was gone most of February), but an actual left my computer at home and turned off my phone vacation to somewhere warm. The boyfriend and I had vacation plans that didn't come to fruition. I'm not going to air our dirty laundry because he's a very private person (apparently not everyone keeps a blog on the internet?), but I was pissed. I was pissed in a "don't fucking call me from Florida!," stay out all night and not answer my phone, maybe won't call you for your birthday kind of pissed. I just need a few days on a beach, but pool season came a little early so I've managed.

The good news is I didn't kill him! I even announced that he now has a Bonus Birthday and we celebrated at Beetlecat in Inman Park. For two people who grew up on the water, the price of oysters in this city is a little mind-boggling, but the food is good. Like I grew up in Oyster Bay. I'm still not sure how to live landlocked, or what's so great about a lake created by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Bonus Birthday dinner

Daisy Mae celebrated her 4th birthday on March 10. She's back to walking and running and being her absurd little self. She loves to wear party dresses. Before you roll your eyes at me, come over here and watch how excited she gets when I pull one of her dresses out of the drawer. And then see what happens if you try to take it off of her.

Fitness and Nutrition

CrossFit Goal: 49/200 WODs. I did 17 WODs this month.

Not CrossFit: I went to Be Hot Yoga on Friday and purchased a 30 day unlimited class pass. I ran 2.3 miles.

Macro Tracking: I've tracked every day but I'm still pretty lax on the weekend.

Water: I'm averaging around 80 oz of water a day, not including the water in my shakes, coffee, or BCAAs.

Daisy Mae's birthday cake

Happiness

Church: I went to church 3 times and I officially joined as a member on March 19. That was an incredibly great day. I am so thankful that I have found a church community that feels like family.

Call a Friend: I didn't really feel like talking to anyone. I'm not good with sympathy, and I get awkwardly direct when facing difficult times, such as the loss of a loved one. However, I did catch up with an old friend at Moe's and Joe's. It was good to see him.

The return of my Parliament Light dress, just because it makes me happy.

Weight Loss Wednesday 3.22.17

I was pretty fucking pissed after my last body fat test because I had lost even more muscle. I was so mad at myself for chasing a number on a scale and thinking it was a good idea to slash my calories to 1,200 - 1,500 for that Fat Loss Accelerator program. I knew it was a bad idea but I was so psyched to see 140 on the scale that I was hoping I'd get in the 130s and have abs and be strong and I was totally lying to myself. I was hungry all the time, prone to binge eating whenever the opportunity arose, and sucking at CrossFit. I also got really resentful towards stupidity. I know I'm blowing my macros when I sit down to a second dinner of tacos, choripapas, and a pitcher of margaritas. No one has to explain that to me. But I struggle to comprehend people who can't figure out macro tracking after a week. I don't care if Dr. Oz said olive oil is a healthy fat. If your stupid diet plan says you get 40 grams of fat a day, you can't douse everything you eat in olive oil and hit your numbers. And the complaints about not being able to eat enough to hit your numbers - well ma'am, you clearly don't look like you're starving so you've got to be eating something. Clearly I'm still not over this experience.

February 15, 2017 @ 146 lbs

February 22, 2017. In a hotel in Houston and didn't weigh myself.

A Grey Run

Today I decided to go for a run after church. I figured a quick jaunt down the Beltline would get me the steps I needed to complete my weekly Pact, and perhaps I could convince the boyfriend to leave his cave apartment for food. He and I came down with terrible colds. Thankfully I appear to getting well faster.

Run, run, stop for coffee at Inman Perk. 

The patient was somewhat better and agreed to go to Ladybird for lunch. It's no Waffle House, but the food is pretty good. I tried to drink a glass of pinot grigio and didn't even want it. Send help because I'm clearly dying.

The boyfriend let me borrow his coat for my walk home. No way was I running after that brisket potato chorizo hash egg scramble. I enjoyed a leisurely stroll and took some photos, including this accidental shot of my face.

There's new art everywhere.

Paris on Ponce never disappoints. This is no filter. Grey day, pink ombre paint job, random gorilla in front of the Eiffel Tower. 

CrossFit Open 17.2

Dave Castro's making sure we get the most bang for our buck out of those dumbbells. Fuck my life, do I resent dumbbells. I miss my bar. I miss it's weights. Praise the CrossFit gods that we can get a barbell at any weight in 17.3.

So after a work week in Austin that included a fantastic bout of food poisoning, I was finally home in Atlanta. I was so excited for Friday Night Lights and the day couldn't go by fast enough. I made it over to CrossFit Identity around 5:30 PM. Man have I missed that place.

All photos in this post are by my talented friend Elena Pesavento of Spot-on Photo. You can follow her on Instagram at @spotonphotoatlanta and Facebook. She also has started an awesome Women of CrossFit page on Facebook and at @womenofcrossfitatl.

This is our community.