Weight Loss Wednesday 5.30.18

I survived two days in a Ford Expedition with my parents, aunt, and uncle as we drove around Iowa and Missouri. And somehow I consumed my weight in Crunchy Cheetos but I came home at the same weight as when I left.

That's me shoved in the way back with all the luggage. Sadly that is a plastic pin full of fake floral arrangements and not a margarita maker.

A Thank You Letter to Greenville, SC

Dear Greenville,

Thank you for making my days a little bit brighter after a week that was awful personally and professionally. Thank you for welcoming me to your beautiful city and for letting me get outside in nature. Thank you for having good food and a kickass hot yoga studio. I will be back.

With love and gratitude,

Allie


Last Sunday I drove up to Greenville, SC from Atlanta because I was presenting at a conference. The week prior, I had to cancel yet another vacation, been forced to work on my days off, and my relationship hit the skids for what is probably for good this time. I have a stressful job because I like my job and enjoy solving problems. I don't want a stressful boyfriend because I don't like stressful boyfriends and the way he treats me has been my problem. A two and a half hour drive is a good time to do some self-reflection. I ended up listening to Barbell Shrugged instead. Is anyone else frustrated by the Shrugged Collective podcast channel? What if I only want to listen to certain podcasts? Can I filter for them? Or do I have to seriously sit their and add only Barbell Shrugged to my queue so I don't drive someone off the road trying to find the good stuff?

Here are some highlights from the trip.

Semi-Covert Food Scale Use

I regularly see people asking how to track food at restaurants if the nutrition information isn’t posted. They go all meltdown, forgetting that the nutrition information at chain restaurants isn’t 100% accurate anyway. You do not have to eat at Applebee’s unless you want to if you’re tracking macros. I eat out frequently because I travel so much for work. Sometimes I eyeball portions. Sometimes I will weigh one item and then multiply it. So for example, if I weigh a piece of pineapple at the breakfast buffet and it weighs 11 grams, I will take 6 pieces and log 66 grams. And sometimes I’m eating alone in a nearly empty restaurant and I put my food scale on the table because I give zero fucks.

It’s really about making the right decisions for your goals. If you eat out once a week, eyeball the portions. If you are dining with people who might be weirded out by your food scale, like clients, eyeball the portions. If it’s your birthday, you get infinity macros. But if it’s just you or you are with other macro-counters, break out the scale. I’ve seen people get really aggressive online about how carrying a food scale around with you is eating disorder behavior and you should only weigh food at home. Well Martha, I’m envious of your 9 – 5 PM job with your designated lunch hour, which you take in the break room equipped with a refrigerator and microwave. I see that you went away exactly 2 days in the past 52 weeks and that was to your sister’s house for Thanksgiving. Tell me more about how to live my life. Martha is a bitch and she can’t tell you how to reach your goals. If you become overly reliant on your travel food scale, give yourself a break. But if you would like to learn how I use mine in restaurants without looking like a total nutjob, I took photos last night.

What You Need:
1.       Menu
2.       Food scale
3.       Paper
4.       Writing utensil
5.       Food log like MyFitnessPal

Step 1: Review the menu for what you want to eat. I recently started tracking 7 PM to 7 AM, which has made choosing what to eat so much easier for dinner. Basically I start fresh at 7 PM allowing me the greatest amount of flexibility. If dining out, I either choose something similar to what I would make for myself, or whatever the restaurant or city is known for.

Last night I chose the honey baked salmon with vegetables and a dessert from the hotel restaurant menu. I make salmon for myself but I don't know how to honey bake it. I actually didn't realize that my selection came from a daily specials menu that included dessert. Normally I wouldn't order dessert unless I really wanted it but I like apple cobbler and I paid for it, so I ate it.

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.

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

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.

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#.

Twenty-Four Hours in Tennessee

I had to drive to Tennessee on Sunday evening for a meeting yesterday. I left at 5:30 PM Eastern and arrived at 9 PM Central. I then left the following day at 4:30 PM Central and arrived at 10 PM Eastern. That means I drove on I-24 in the pitch black dark both nights. It was terrifying. My hands were shaking, my stomach was in my throat, and I was close to tears.

But the trip wasn't an entire bust. I got to see my Volunteer Tennessee and fellow program manager friends. I listened to Barbell Shrugged. I went to an all you can eat Chinese buffet and ate as much as I could. I enjoyed some scattered, covered, and chunked hash browns at Waffle House. And I kicked ass during my drop in at CrossFit Cool Springs.

First off, I'm a big fan of their logo. I am an even bigger fan of all the people I met. Everyone made me feel very welcomed and included. And I accidentally left my old temporary paper license on the ground (I guess it had been living in my gym bag all these months?), and Coach James sent me a text message to let me know within minutes of me leaving.

We had two metcons, and I was pretty decent at both. 

Metcon 1

13 minute clock

800 m run

75 wallballs (kill me)

AMRAP squat cleans (95/65) for the remaining time

I got 35 and those squat cleans hurt after all of those wallballs.

Metcon 2

200 doubleunders

30 KBS

100 doubleunders

30 KBS

50 doubleunders

I finished in 6:33 and felt like a rockstar.

This was plate 1 of 3 at China Buffet in Kimball, TN. It's exit 152B off of I-24. I had just listened to Obese to Beast aka John David Glaude on Barbell Shrugged for the past hour and he talked about his inspiring journey from 360 lbs of fat kid to CrossFitter and physique competitor. He briefly mentioned Panda Express at the beginning of the interview and obviously Chinese food was my primary takeaway.

I saw this Instagram post on Sunday afternoon so I obviously reposted it and then had Waffle House on my mind. But for real, I love Waffle House. One of my favorite things about living in the South.

There's a Waffle House at practically every highway exit but I chose to dine at the lovely establishment in Cartersville. The fine folks were so nice to me. It was clear that I was exhausted, cranky, and starving. I left full, mildly less bitchy, and thankful for my to-go Diet Coke.

And this is me when I arrived home. It was too late to pick up my dogs, the guy I have been seeing had agreed to substitute teach the next morning (?!) and so he was already asleep, and it was just me at home terrified of home invaders. I'm definitely staying an extra night the next time I have a 3 hour meeting.

Houston and a Drop-In at CrossFit Downtown Atlanta

Hey y'all. Last week I was in Houston for a program monitoring site visit with some grant officers. I didn't realize how stressed I was about it until it started going well. I don't think they're taking my money away just yet.

Because it's totally normal to weigh your sashimi at the sushi bar. I love going to Oishii whenever I'm in Houston.

I didn't workout Wednesday through Friday and it began to drive me crazy. I should have gone to the gym instead of the hotel bar on Wednesday night. Oops.

The Crossings of Colonie

Guys, I found the coolest park full of running paths on Wednesday morning. I flew up to Albany Tuesday night for yet another AmeriCorps program director training and they have us staying at the Radisson on Wolf Road. The Crossings Park is a 130-acre public park in Colonie, which I believe is a suburb of Albany. Fun fact - I spent two years of my life researching the Capitol District and Western New York when I did new site development for Teach For America, and I randomly know the zip codes of a bunch of suburbs. I also know that you're never supposed to say Upstate New York unless you want to offend someone who might give you money.

My plan was to run 2 miles and then figure out how to get back to the main road so I could stop at Dunkin Donuts for my 32 oz iced coffee. When I don't want to get up and run, I find it helpful to build in a fix for my iced coffee addiction and then I walk back caffeinated and happy. The weather was beautiful, i.e. sunny and cool, and the park had so many trails that I was able to complete an easy 5 mile run. I was pretty pleased with myself even if I did get lost in the woods.

I didn't bring my phone because I am the worst blogger on the interwebs. I fully intended to get back to take some photos but it rained yesterday and we had a 7 AM start time today (like what in the actual fuck?) so y'all don't get any photos of this idyllic place. Maybe it will motivate you to go check it out yourself the next time you're in Albany.

But here is the front of the hotel so you can see that the trees are changing colors!

Progress: Seeing the Big Picture

Last week I drove to Murfreesboro, Tennessee for a conference. I got to the hotel, obviously a Hilton, and was delighted to find the world's most flattering mirror in my room. I took that as a sign to take A LOT of selfies. (Note that "a lot" still has a space in between the a and the l, even when it's capitalized. It is my biggest Instagram pet peeve and apparently every fitness-related account can't be bothered to learn that ALOT is not a fucking word.)

Anyway, I went for a quick run around the mall parking lot on Thursday morning before the sessions started. Basically, I just wanted to get Starbucks so I took the longest possible route to get to the location that was directly next to the hotel. It was a little cold so I wore a long-sleeved shirt.

Since the mirror was just chilling out there on the closet door every time I walked near the bathroom, I felt compelled to document what I looked like post-run.

The Best Week in New Jersey Ever

This morning I woke up from a really weird dream where I was at a house party in Princeton, NJ and something really creepy was living in closets filled with water in the basement. While definitely terrifying, it was also a really fun party. Frank was there but he did not want to go in the basement, because he is smart.

My dream got me thinking about the last time I was in New Jersey. I fly up a few times a year to attend meetings with the New Jersey Commission on National and Community Service. Last month's meeting was held at Mercer County Community College in West Windsor and I decided to stay at the Hilton Garden Inn in Hamilton. Dude, I stay in several hotels a month and we know I've got loyalties to Hilton, especially Garden Inns, but this was my favorite hotel to stay in ever. I walked in and it was like Cheers. There's a bunch of regulars who come in each week for work and everybody knows their names and I really really wanted to become a regular too. There is also a mini putt putt course. And party lights in the lobby.

CrossFit and Fearless

I was in Austin last week for the Texas AmeriCorps conference. The conference was informative, the people were pretty great, AND I got to see my bestest friend Jesse, her fantastic fiance Dave, and the star of their family, Rue the mini Aussie!

No business trip is complete without a drop in. Fortunately CrossFit and Fearless was a mile down the road. I dropped in on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. The first night I took an Uber because I wasn't sure where it was and I signed up for the 6:30 PM class. Like many boxes, CrossFit and Fearless is in an industrial park but it was also super close to some apartments. I imagine it's a convenient location. On Wednesday I mentioned that I was going to CrossFit during a break in the conference and it turned out that Jennifer also CrossFits AND she has dropped in at CFHK since she moved to New York from Sydney.

I happen to like the Pukie mural but apparently it's controversial.

I loved training at CrossFit and Fearless. I partnered with Madison both days for strength. She really pushed me and I ended up PRing my push press by 5 lbs. Hello 100! I also hadn't hit 95# since 2014 and before my shoulder and lats started bothering me, so this is a big accomplishment. We had back squats the next day. Madison hit her 1RM (215#) for 2! I was able to get 185# for 1. It's been a long time since I hit a 185# back squat. I was psyched.

New York

So I started this post in December when I started my new job and then I promptly forgot about it until now. 

photo courtesy of CrossFit Hell's Kitchen

Last Monday I started my new job as the Manager of AmeriCorps Residency Programs at Relay Graduate School of Education. I am so very excited to take on this work because I am passionate about AmeriCorps, and I know that this is the way that I can have a positive impact on education. I just also really enjoy managing AmeriCorps programs - everything from service events to making sure we're in compliance.

Relay has campuses across the United States, but the home office is in New York. I feel really fortunate that they found me such a strong candidate for the role that I get to work remotely with regular travel to New York. I flew up Monday morning (after driving back from Tampa on Sunday, ugh) and stayed through Friday. I got to drop in at CrossFit Hell's Kitchen for a debilitating workout - 50 front squats at 50% back squat 1 RM, followed by 5 rounds of 20 wallballs, 10 hang snatches, and 10 chest to bar pull-ups. I was walking funny all week. 

As thrilled as I always am to make it to CFHK, I was nervous to come back to New York.

I was nervous that I'd come back to New York and use my new job as an excuse to move back. I was pretty sure I really loved living in Atlanta, but it's hard moving somewhere, making all new friends, being hundreds of miles away from your nearest family member, and leaving the only company you've ever really worked for. When I came up in December, I kind of entertained the idea of moving back to NYC, getting to go to CFHK all the time, and seeing my parents every other weekend because I am a helicopter child. And then I snapped out of it. I dislike New York. Frank hates Manhattan. We'd end up living at my parents' house and I'd have to change the title of my memoir to Alone with Dogs. (Type alone with cats in the search bar at the top of my blog.)

Surviving Travel Without Blowing Your Macros

I, like many other people, travel for work. My feelings about traveling for work have changed over the years. It used to be, Sweet! I get to stay in a hotel and reimburse all of my meals! Now it's more, Fuck! Should I pack a cooler bag? I like eating for free so I haven't gone as far as prepping and flying with all of my own food... yet.

Here are some tips and tricks I've learned from four years (and counting) of work travel. These also apply to any kind of travel, but most people want to indulge on vacation.

1. Make your hotel work for you. People who work at hotels are fantastic and able to make your stay perfectly fit your needs, especially if you call ahead and ask nicely. I like to call up the hotel a few days in advance, introduce myself, and ask if it is possible to have a room with an empty refrigerator and a microwave. Many hotels will put a microwave in your room for the duration of your stay if you simply ask. Some hotels only have minibars and charge you to empty it. Those hotels are on my shit list. Make sure to ask for silverware or come prepared with plastic cutlery. The plastic stuff is especially helpful if you will be eating on the go.

2. Locate healthy prepared meals. Many cities offer prepared foods geared towards the fitness community. Googling meal prep or paleo delivery (even if you don't eat paleo) and the city is usually a good way to find websites. In New York, I like to order from Kettlebell Kitchen. The only downside is that they deliver to gyms so I have to hike over to CFHK to get my order even if I'm not training there that week. While in Houston this past weekend, I found a My Fit Foods down the street from my hotel. Sweet niblets, is that place cool. You walk in and can get all of your meals out of the cooler. Jeremy, the sales consultant, told me that next time I can call him directly, tell him my macros and he'll have all of my stuff picked out and ready to roll by the time I land. If you are in Texas, California, Oklahoma, Arizona, Illinois or traveling to any of these states, you need to try this place.

source

3. Identify splurges. Unless you travel with the aforementioned cooler, you will find yourself hungry in front of a menu with tempting treats. Figure out when you will splurge and prepare for it. I knew I wanted to see my friend Bailey while I was in Houston, so I made sure to eat three My Fit Foods meals throughout the day (it came to about 1,000 calories) and then went to the bar to hang out. I was driving so I wasn't drinking (no alcohol carbs) and I decided to indulge in some fried pickles and french fries. It didn't wreck havoc on my day and I wasn't starving so I didn't need to eat a full meal there, which could have easily surpassed 1,000 calories. Flying home during dinnertime is my biggest pitfall. I usually try to go with tacos but yesterday's tacos were a real fail. I should have picked something up on the way to the airport and brought it through security because I would have been happier with my choice. IAH just sucks for food and I knew that, but I saw the taco place when I landed and thought I was good to go.

4. Don't beat yourself up because you didn't hit your numbers. Last night I was annoyed at myself because I was way low on protein, my tacos hadn't satisfied me and I ate them at 5:30 PM ET, and it was 9 PM and I was hungry. I ate Cheerios and focused on the positive food choices I had made while I was away. 

Beltway CrossFit

Greetings from Houston! Yesterday I cancelled my early morning Pure Barre class to spend some quality time with my two favorite guys - Frank and the boyfriend. I knew I needed to get to the airport a little earlier than usual because of the impending snowmageddon inch of snow and that attending a noon class anywhere in Atlanta was really pushing my luck. No worries, because a simple Google search told me that Beltway CrossFit is located right down the road of Bush International Airport.

I always like to call ahead before I drop-in. I spoke with Coach Michael Gager, who told me that I could show up to either the 5:30 or 6:30 PM WOD. I landed early but had a bit of a delay at the rental car desk because the lady in front of me was trying to use a false address. I ended up arriving at the box at like 5:32 PM but Coach Aron Anderson was awesome and let me get changed and join a little late. Unfortunately I missed the tire flip warm-up.

Beltway CrossFit does chipper WODs on Fridays. I really like chippers because I find them mentally less challenging - I've got a goal to do, I just need to get to the next movement, and I don't have to keep track of rounds.

WOD

1 Mile Run

6 Gymnastic Combos (1 Rope Climb + 10 Strict Push-ups)

80 Alternating DB Snatches (60/40lb)

***Each exercise must be completed before moving to the next!

*3 short dead climbs will equal 1 tall climb

*Must alternate arms on the db snatches.

source

I used the one mile run as my warm up. I made sure to stand right behind the run leader because I wasn't really sure how they measure a mile even though Coach explained it about 6 times. It felt good to loosen up after my flight.

CrossFit Identity had rope climbs and handstand push-ups on Tuesday. I think I switched from the J wrap to the S wrap sometime last year and now my left ankle has some sweet permanent rope bruises. It's not a burn as much as tender mark from pressing the damn rope into my leg. I could definitely feel Tuesday's rope climbs the minute I got up on the rope. We climbed to the 15 foot mark. The push-ups were regular push-ups. I thought maybe they were HSPU when I saw strict, but they were not.

I used 25# for the dumbbell snatches. I probably could have used 30#, but I hadn't done any dumbbell snatches in a minute and wasn't sure how low to scale. My time was 23:08.

This was the best group I have ever dropped in with and I had such a great time. The class was really supportive of each other and included me right away. Roger and I shared a rope for the climbs and he cheered me on for every rep. As people called time, they turned to the person next to them to cheer them on. Chris Rx'd the WOD and was fighting to get through 24 more reps at 60#. We gathered to help motivate him and I kept count. I fucking hate trying to keep count when I am fighting through the pain cave so I try to make myself useful and count for others when they're in that situation. I was really impressed by Chris' drive to knock out those reps.

I enjoyed myself so much that I hung out for 45 minutes after class. Chris was giving me some tips for chest to bar pull-ups. I'm excited to work on them with a wider grip and see if I can finally get one. A group of us discussed our respective diets and I shared my new found love of macro-counting and flexible dieting. I encouraged everyone to sign up for the Open. Beltway CrossFit was a great time and only $15 to drop in. You can also buy a $25 shirt instead.

Thanksgiving Fitness

My sister lives in Dallas and my aunt lives in Plano, so the family trooped off to Texas for Thanksgiving this year. Frank was a little miffed that he wasn't invited until he found out he got to spend the long weekend with his trainer Jennifer. Frank now has his own Instagram account, be tee dubs.

I arrived at DFW on Wednesday and headed back out Sunday. I made it to three different gyms in between.

My aunt lives super close to Flywheel Plano so on Thanksgiving morning I agreed to help my cousin push one of his Mustangs into the garage if he'd drive me to Flywheel in the other. His other car is a white Shelby Cobra and it's beautiful and makes a ridiculous amount of noise and I love it.

Austin's Lady Bird Lake

It was definitely hard to find time to workout on tour - mainly because I had to ask permission to do anything. The more I travel for work, the more I realize that traveling for work isn't really my thing. This coming from a person who has been traveling for work since 2012...

The good thing about traveling for work when you manage to carve out an hour to do something without your colleagues is finding local running routes. The Driskill Hotel had these nifty little running maps of Lady Bird Lake. I got lost getting to the lake so I ran about an extra mile.

My Trip to Orlando and SUBU CrossFit

I was in Orlando all of last week running logistics and ops for a work event. Every region welcomes its teachers at some point during the summer at an induction welcome week and I got to help out with Orlando's. It's long, it's tiring, but I really enjoy it. I only wish I still got paid hourly. Womp womp.

This was not my first rodeo and I knew that I wouldn't have a lot of time to workout, but I did get in a run and a drop in.

I volunteered to take any interested new teachers on a group run on Tuesday morning. The route I mapped out was only 3.27 miles but we missed a turn and got a 4.64 mile run instead.