Strength #6: Putting Things Into Perspective

I was told that I needed to find more strengths... But let me tell you they are hard to write about and just when something seems like a strength, I encounter something that makes me think twice about writing about it as a strength.

This exact thing happened to me this morning, my strength I was thinking about became a weakness. I somehow missed my alarm for going to competitors class this morning and was awoken by a text from my training partner at 5:47 a.m. I quickly got dressed and drove to class but when I got there and saw how far they were into class, I became upset and realized I wasn't going to be able to get everything in. Also, that everyone was too far into everything for me to jump in and lift with them. Thankfully a couple of the guys got me smiling and laughing again but I let this little slip up get blown out of proportion in my mind. 

My BFF Katie!

But beyond this recent incident, I feel like putting things into perspective has become something I am getting a lot better at. I am still no professional at it but compared to where I was a year ago I am light years ahead. Ask my mom, she used to get phone calls on probably a weekly basis with me in tears freaking out over a test or something and she would have to calm me down. This past semester she probably only received one or two calls like that. I am getting better! 

But beyond school, I am also getting better about putting things into perspective in life. I have learned that there are a lot of things that I can't control and that I just have to realize that and be ok with it. Things may not happen how I want them to, but it is alright, and I will be just fine. In life many unexpected things have happened to me this year. Between car issues, loosing one of my little swimmers way too early in life, and just my love life in general, it has been a ride. I am not going to go into all of the details, but I have been able to deal with these speed bumps in stride this past year. I have put these experiences into perspective and dealt with them head on and I am proud of myself for this. 

I think a big contributor to getting better at putting things in perspective has been CrossFit. I have had to learn this past year that every day is not going to be a good day. While this is very frustrating to me, it has also taught me that I need to find a positive from the workout. If I don't find something positive, then I will have a negative attitude walking out of the gym and for a place that is supposed to help with stress relief that is never good.

Chicago's beautiful skyline 

Looking at the small positives or accomplishments in a workout really helps me focus on the good. Now don't get me wrong, I have a long list of notes that I need to work on, but focusing on the positives keeps me from dwelling on the negative aspects of the workout. Even if it is a bad day, at least I have something to look at that was good. This morning we were supposed to build to a 1 rep max jerk, since I was late and missed it, I stayed after class to work on this. My form was terrible and I was very frustrated but one of the guys just said to me "some days you have it, some days you don't." I moved on from jerks and even though I wasn't able to hit a PR, I looked at the positives in the other parts of my workout. One being I was able to do 20 muscle ups in 7 sets and another being I was 5 pounds off my front squat PR in nanos (for non-crossfitters, when I lift, I usually where olympic weight lifting shoes which theoretically help you lift more weight).

I have also learned that I can't let a bad workout rule my life. Although I am addicted to CrossFit and I love being in the gym everyday, it cannot be my main focus. One workout in the overall scheme of things isn't really going to make a huge difference. It is the cumulation of many days of training that really leads to improvements. If I walk out of the gym upset, I have told myself after my shower that I need to move on. Having this perspective has allowed me to keep a better attitude about the gym and make it a place that I want to go to everyday.

My amazing deep dish pizza!

This past week I was lucky enough to travel up to Chicago and visit with my best friend since kindergarten, Katie. We were able to explore the city and it was an absolute blast! I have set up some rewards for myself regarding CrossFit and food. The most recent one I achieved was a 143# snatch (I actually got 148#!) and butterfly chest-to-bar pull ups. Once I got these two things, I could get pizza! Luckily I got them the week before and I was able to get pizza from one of my favorite places, Giordano's in Chicago. It was amazing and well worth it! I also saved my ice cream to get a sunday from Ghiradelli that was also well worth it!

Also for Christmas, one of the guys at the gym got us an early Christmas present that included some "baby weights." These 1#, .75#, .5#, and .25# weights are going to help us get a new PR everyday! So excited to start using these! CrossFit St. Louis' Christmas party was also this past Friday night and let me tell you, it didn't disappoint. We had a blast celebrating all night long and looked pretty darn good in our Christmas best (but let's be honest, anything outside of sweaty workout clothes is pretty exciting for us!). I came home to Peoria yesterday and I am hoping that this holiday food adventure goes better than Thanksgiving did. Only time will tell! Happy Holidays to everyone :) I hope Santa finds everyone who was nice this year!

Struggle #20: Finding a Balance

Me swimming butterfly! My favorite stroke!

I recently read a study, published in the Journal of Sports Medicine, about swimmers and their mentality and how that plays a role in the high number of shoulder injuries swimmers have. It talked about how many swimmers thought that moderate to severe shoulder pain was acceptable to swim through during practice. In the survey they performed on high level swimmers, it stated that almost 70% of the individuals thought that this shoulder pain was normal! In the conclusion the authors discussed how the attitudes of coaches and swimmers alike put swimmers at a  very high risk for shoulder pathology and unless this attitude changes, there will continue to be high rates of shoulder injuries in swimmers.

Backstroke start!

This study immediately struck a cord with me because I was one of those swimmers that thought moderate to severe shoulder pain was normal and acceptable to swim through. However, for the last three years of my swimming career, I dealt with a shoulder injury that caused me a lot of pain, tears, and missed yards. The mentality that I grew up with in my sport was that you swim through the pain. I was never directly told to swim through the pain but it was frowned upon by the coaches and other swimmers to sit out of practice for any reason. One of the hardest things I dealt with was the feeling that everyone else was mad at me for sitting out at practice. It always felt like everyone's eyes were on you and me being who I am I felt terrible I was out of the pool and that I couldn't complete practice with everyone else.

I carried this mentality over to CrossFit. When I started I still had a lot of shoulder pain because my joint was just so incredibly unstable and weak from the years of swimming. I would complete a workout in a lot of pain because I could do it and had done it for many of years during swimming.  It finally came down to my coaches at STL sitting down and telling me that this wasn't normal and that I wasn't allowed to do anything overhead for awhile to give it a rest. I hated this. It drove me crazy and there were many times that I would try to do something and they would look at me and say "what the heck are you doing, stop." It made me sooo mad but I needed to hear this.

Starting! I am the pale on in the
middle. Sorry I got I little nostalgic
with all of my swimming pictures!

Starting in the spring, I started to really work back into overhead movements and high volume of pull-ups, hand stand push-ups, ect and while some days I would over do it and some days I would under do it (just out of fear of pain), I can now officially say I have a pretty darn strong shoulder that doesn't cause me trouble besides a few aches and pains every once in awhile.  A side note: The physical therapist that worked with me all through my college swimming career tested my shoulder muscle strength a little bit ago and was incredibly impressed with how strong it was compared to what it used to be! Small victories!

Now this past fall I have been dealing with a knee injury which has had it's ups and downs. I was originally very smart with it and rested it, while just focusing on upper body strength, core strength, and gymnastics movements. But I got antsy and started back to squatting and doing other movements that I really use my knee a little too soon. I can honestly say now about four months removed it is significantly better than where I started but it is still about only 85%. Some days it feels great and lets me do everything I want to do without pain, but other days it tells me that I need to slow down. It is hard and frustrating for me to take a step back because I want to be doing what everyone else is doing but I have to listen to my body. After all, I will be carrying this body around for the rest of my life.

Two of the people helping me "find a balance"
Good teammates, great friends!

I have been trying to increase my training volume the past month or so. I have realized that to achieve my goals I need a little extra work here and there. I have been following a gymnastics program and seen a huge improvement in my pull-ups, chest-to-bar (I can butterfly them now!), muscle ups, and handstand push-ups/walks/positioning. I also have been attending regular classes on top of competitors class once or twice a week to add some more volume to my training. Regular classes have been an absolute blast because I have met so many new people and the workouts have been more back to the basics CrossFit workouts. In the regular classes I have really been working on touch-and-go repetitions along with using good form on all of the movements. I can honestly say I have really have noticed a difference in these two aspects of my training as well.

I feel like the few things I have added have really given me some more confidence in my abilities and are benefiting me in workouts. However, if I had it my way I would do two-a-days everyday! I love being at the gym and working out. I may have a slight addiction. But my body cannot handle this. I wish it could but with a lingering knee injury (that I don't want to make worse again) and my body not being used to crazy intense volume, I can't do two-a-days everyday. Finding a balance between increasing my volume but not killing my body has been a challenge. Thankfully I have about five people I bounce ideas off of and they tell me if I am being smart or not. This has helped me significantly because without them I would have probably crashed and burned and my body would be a wreck.

My little brother, Grant, the swim star

As I am aging I am slowly learning to listen to my body. However, I still require a lot of outside sources, but maybe one day I will get there... Who knows? But I have learned that surrounding yourself with people that are willing to listen to you and help you along the way to your goals is absolutely critical. I have found these people at CrossFit St. Louis and clearly I need to hang on to them because I still need a lot of help! I am not sure if I will ever find the perfect balance for me but I am working on it.

Pork chops and
cauliflower mash!

This past week I was lucky enough to travel home and hang out with my family, my number one support system. I got to see my little brother swim and kick butt. He is getting really good and I could not be prouder of him, I'll brag to anyone who will listen! I may be turing into my grandma on that factor, but I don't think it is a bad thing. I also tried out a new pork chop recipe that was pretty darn good, albeit very spicy! My cooking adventures have caused me to be more daring in the kitchen but I am not quite able to handle the super spicy things yet without a lot of water!

Struggle #19: Thanksgiving Break

The best girls to survive PT
school with!

Sorry it has been awhile, this week has been insane for me. I officially finished my last final of physical therapy school yesterday but that was after a crazy week of studying. Going home for about a week for Thanksgiving created a challenge for me trying to make time to study unfortunately, so when I got back to St. Louis, I had my nose in the books! It was soooo hard to find the motivation to study but thankfully I was able to make it through this last week successfully! My friend's parents were in town last night to move her out of her place so they were kind enough to take us out to dinner to celebrate this exciting occasion with us! It feels so weird to say that I am done and when everyone asks me how I feel I can't say much except that it hasn't really set in yet!

Anyways back to the struggle, Thanksgiving break. I was pretty confident that I was going to be able to stay strong throughout the week and made good food choices all week. However, reality kind of hit me in the head at my first family Thanksgiving meal. All of this delicious food was sitting in front of me and I'll be honest I indulged... Not excessively but I definitely had some mashed potatoes and noodles. I may have also had a few desserts because they are just too tempting. The rest of the day I ate well and Friday was going really well until I didn't eat dinner and was hanging out with friends and presented with pizza. Yeah I definitely caved on that as well. I wasn't very happy with myself but more annoying was my body being mad at me as well. Not eating a lot of gluten, cheese, and other things my body decided to hate me when I ate some pizza. Oh well lesson learned. Only consume pizza if it Chicago deep dish pizza and worth your body hating you.

I definitely slipped up a few more times over the week but I won't bore you with all of the details. As much as I tried to be good, it is so hard when there is really only "bad" food in front of you for most of the week. My mom was adorable and bought ingredients to make a salad out of spinach, cranberries, pecans, and a raspberry vinaigrette for me (which was really good)! But besides that the meals in front of me were never really tailored for me. Which I am totally fine with, I can find something to eat almost anywhere but it is also really hard to eat a minimal amount of food/selection when all of these bad things are in front of you.

Cauliflower bake meal prep

I know I made a lot of excuses and that I feel bad making them because I should know better. Like I said in my previous post, a few bad things here and there doesn't matter but in about 4 days they all added up to a lot of bad things... You can't turn around and look back at it, so all I can really do is learn from it and hope that when I go home for Christmas I am able to control myself a lot better! I do know that when I got back to St. Louis, I immediately went to the grocery store, bought delicious healthy food, and meal prepped for the entire week. I made salads for lunches, had lots of food for snacks, and prepared a few dinners that I could pop into the over for cooking later in the week. Boy oh boy, did this make me feel a lot better!

Some chicken and salads for the
rest of the week!

One awesome thing about going home was that I got to train with CrossFit North Peoria's competitor group! I love going elsewhere and really just getting to do my thing. It allows me to show my strengths but also really focus on my weaknesses. I can't get away with things because I don't want to leave a bad impression there! One day we had to do 3 sets of 10 deadlifts at 65%, which is normally something I would freak out about, but I just had to do them there and I did well for me! I was happy. While there I also did 30 muscle-ups for time for the first time ever! Interesting thing about it though was that I had to do 10 wall balls every time I broke on the muscle-ups. It was a definite game changer but it was a fun and different workout to do!

Overall the week at home taught me that I am still not perfect with the way I eat. I could punish myself for these things but I have learned that it doesn't help me eat better, it just causes me to crave things more and makes it easier for me to indulge. I really just need to learn when it is alright for me to deviate from my food plan and when I need to take a step back. I feel like I keep getting better with this but there is still a lot of room for improvement. While I have found a lot of delicious options to eat, it is also really hard to always be perfect with temptations everywhere. But I can definitely feel the side effects in my body and training if I eat poorly so this helps keep me motivated to stay the course. Slowly but surely I am getting better, it will just take a little more time. Or a lot, but who's counting?

Struggle #18: Going Home

She is so adorable
though, I can't help it!

So do NOT get me wrong, I absolutely love coming home and hanging out with my family and friends! It is so nice to see everyone and just relax for a little bit. I don't mind letting someone else take care of me either or just spending time with my mom. I also get to play with my dog, Holly, and she is absolutely adorable. I have already been called out for how many dog snaps I have sent... Oops. But coming home also poses its own challenges.

The first big challenge of coming home is trying to eat healthy and not get caught up in all of the distracting food that is everywhere around me. I come home and there is fresh baked banana bread just out of the oven along with brownies and a host of cookies in our junk food drawer. So tempting to just have a little bit of everything. But so far (roughly 36 hours) I have held strong. We will see how Thanksgiving goes tomorrow though... I am nervous for all of the delicious deserts my family makes. My family is known for baking so I tomorrow could be a totally different story.

I told myself that a few nibbles will be ok and for all intensive purposes it will be, but I have to hold strong to that. I cannot let myself go crazy and feast on all of the food. I have been doing so well and I need to stick to my guns. I can still enjoy thanksgiving and all of the family time, I may just not enjoy all of the food that I want to, but there are definitely worse things.

Quick side note... I made these chicken roll ups last week that were amazing. They were super simple and I had plenty of leftovers for the rest of the week which was great! It required me to smash the chicken (which ended up being a good stress reliever), spread some pesto on them, add a little prosciutto and pop them in the oven. Such an easy dish and definitely delicious.

Tomorrow I get to spend time with my grandparents from both sides and also my great aunt and uncle. They usually spend the holidays with us and that always leads to us singing The Sound of Music songs. Our favorite is "The Lonely GoatTerd" (it may be Goatherd but by family is weird...). My brother, mom, great aunt, and I always sing. Everyone acts like they hate it but they secretly love it. I always look forward to hanging out with them! You never know what the day may bring.

Another challenge of coming home is trying to find time to workout. I want to spend time with my family but I also don't want to fall off track. I feel like I am making so much progress in the gym and I don't want to go backwards. I am lucky enough to get to workout with the CrossFit North Peoria competitors today! It will be a great workout but it isn't until 10a.m. this morning and that is just in the middle of the day for me. I feel like my day doesn't start until I work out so waking up at 7 and then waiting 3 hours to workout kind of kills me haha. Hence why I thought it would be a good time to blog!

Approaching this Thanksgiving I have been thinking about what I am thankful for. This blog really helps me think things through so here is a short list of what I am thankful for. (In no particular order)

PT ladies!

1. My PT school friends. They may think I am crazy for working out all the time but they always support me and are willing to have fun with me! Last week, unfortunately, Hunter Hayes cancelled his concert we were al going to but we still made a great night out of it. We hit up our favorite Mexican place in STL, Tortillarilla, and then just hung out together!

Girls night!

2. My CrossFit St. Louis family. I was lucky enough to hang out with them last Friday night and like always it was a great night! We have some new people joining us and I am excited to get to know them better! The night started with a girls night with Jen and JoAnna. We decided to get dressed up and head to a neat little restaurant in St. Louis and then we met up with everyone else! I may have ended up dancing the night away with everyone!

3. My family. They are the best and put up with all of my weirdness too. But spending time with them is always a great time. I get to go out with my brother tonight, I am helping coach my other little brother in swimming this week (which he is getting really, really good at), I get to go shopping with my mom this week, and don't forget the constant but loving pestering from my dad. Also all the Turkey Week activities with my extended family!

That is the short list but there are many many more. Anyways, I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving weekend and gets to enjoy some delicious food! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Just and awesome picture that I love! Teamwork makes
the dream work! Love these ladies!

Strength #5: My Training Partner

I have been struggling all week about what to write about in my blog... I have about five different ideas whirling around in my mind but I can't quite put enough words together to write about them yet or I have a specific time in mind that I want to write them and it isn't right now. So anyways last night after working out, this idea totally struck me as exactly what I wanted to write about! One of my biggest strengths, not only in CrossFit but life, is my training partner Jen.

Jen and I are in totally opposite places in our lives. I am a 23 year old graduate school student with limited responsibilities. My parents still help me pay for things (which I am forever grateful for) because with my crazy school/clinical schedule I am not able to find much work besides babysitting. She is 38 years old, married, has two kids, a full-time job, and about 1,000 different responsibilities. From the outside looking in our close friendship makes no sense and I often think people at the gym and life just stare at us and ponder this. But our differences really don't matter and haven't stopped us from becoming great friends.

If it wasn't through CrossFit, I'm not sure we would have never met. I remember one of my first times going to the competitors class at CrossFit St. Louis and she was the first one to talk to me and make me feel like I was part of the group. Being one of the oldest in the competitors group, Jen is like a mom to most of us and we frequently refer to her lovingly as "mom." She is always looking out for all of us and makes sure that we are doing alright.

Jen and I weren't initially as close as we are now, but we originally started to lift together because all of our weight lifting numbers are extremely close. It is so nice and convenient to only have to pull half of the weights out that we need. FYI: Jen may be 15 years older than me but she is still a bada** and can lift the same amount of weight that I can if not more! Do NOT ever let age stop you!

Always proud of her and her
accomplishments. Continuing
to show she is a beast!

Working out and lifting together for the past 6-7 months has really created a bond between the two of us. Every workout we do together, we push each other to do our best. We hold each other accountable  in every workout and tell each other that we can do something even when we may think we can't. We scream for each other's PR's, we talk each other through lifts, point out what we need to work on, but most importantly we pick each other up when we have a bad day. One thing I have learned with CrossFit is that you are not going to hit a PR every time and sometimes that is hard to keep in mind. Jen is always there to pick me up when I have a bad day and that means the world to me. Prime example was last night, what led me to this post.

Anyone that knows me and my CrossFit history knows that I struggle with deadlifts. Physically I have a hard time maintaining proper form and mentally I have an even harder time wrapping my head around them. I could go into a lot of detail here, but that is for another post, another day. Anyways, last night we were supposed to do 2 at 95% of our one repetition max. Last night I could only do one at 90% and my form was awful. My frustration around these lead me to have a mini melt down. Nothing crazy dramatic but I definitely had tears in my eyes because of this. Jen made me look at her and told me to move on, it wasn't  big deal and after all we had a 30 minute death march workout ahead of us.

She knows me and knew I needed a swift kick in the butt to help me move on and to face the workout we had ahead of us. After the workout and when I was home she texted me and told me how great I did in the workout and to move on from my deadlift frustrations and that I will get them next time. She always tells me great job when I have a good day or I overcome something but will tell me on that bad days that it is alright. The whole weekend I was at ShredFest she was telling me how proud she was of me for competing and giving it my all. Just having her remind me of these things helps me keep competitive exercise it in perspective.

That about sums it up 

Jen and I have become friends outside of the gym too though. Again, how do two people in totally different places in their lives get along so well?  I don't really have an explanation but it works. And while we may talk about CrossFit and things related to they gym, that is less than 50% of our conversations. I can talk to her anything and it doesn't matter what it is, she will listen and give advice when needed. She has become one of my best friends and is like a second mother to me (which in writing this down it makes sense because that is how my real mother is too, a best friend).

Claire and I

Our friendship was formed because of CrossFit, but it has grown for different reasons. I am so thankful that I have Jen to lean on when I have a bad day but also tell about my good days as well, whether it be at the gym or in life. Being away from home is hard on me because I love my family sooo much, but having someone here in St. Louis that I can hang out with makes it easier. She has let me be a part of her family in a sense and her daughter, Claire, has become like a little sister to me. Just the other night we were chilling in a hotel hot tub watching her daughter swim in a freezing cold pool and I was thinking about these things. After last night though I knew I wanted to write about her as one of my strengths!

I am so grateful for the fact that Jen and I can lift the same amount of weight. This lead to me having an awesome training partner to push me everyday in the gym, but also gave me a great friend.  It is crazy how this world works sometimes and this is one of those things I am thankful for. Surrounding yourself with people who care about you is what life is all about.

October Food Challenge: Week 5 (a little late)

Ok. So I really did finish up my October food challenge last week but I just haven't posted it yet. I know excuses are excuses but mine is that I have 5 projects due this coming week and all I have been doing is typing and writing for all of these projects. I am really over the amount of group projects, busy work, and assignments that I have for this semester. While it is nice not having near as many tests the extra work is out of control. But alas, I digress back to the food...

So I did postpone the last week of my food making because of the busy, busy schedule I had the week before and being gone for 4 days for a little girls trip. I did finish the last week strong (albeit the first week of November) and here is what I decided to make!

Monday November 3rd: I made this lemon tarragon salmon. The verdict is still out on how I feel about this. The salmon was alright but I was expecting a lot more out of this. The seasoning stuff I made to put on it smelled delicious but it never really baked into the salmon. If I make salmon again I will definitely try to make a different recipe and maybe cook it a different way because I was just not a fan of how all of it turned out from this recipe.

Tuesday, November 4th: I decided to make hamburgers... Finally. I used to HATE hamburgers but over the past few months I have started to enjoy them so it was about time! Unfortunately, it was way to cold to grill them so I had to make them on the George Foreman. Although this is super convenient, the hamburgers just don't taste as good on it. I made some seasoning stuff to put on the burgers and I am not kidding when I say I was crying mixing it into the ground beef. I was dying and this made me nervous to eat them. However, the seasoning was very very good. But I had to eat the burgers with ranch because my mouth was dying! Definitely won't make them as spicy next time but still delicious non the less. I also did a repeat and made sweet potato fries to go with my burgers! Perfect for lunches the rest of the week!

Wednesday, November 5th: Probably one of my favorite things I made! I found this recipe for chicken lettuce wraps that sounded delicious. Again I didn't realize how spicy these were going to be! Call me naive but I didn't realize that chipotle peppers and adobo sauce were going to cause everything to be HOT! These two things were also almost impossible to find in the grocery store separately but combined together you can find them in the "Mexican" section, it may have taken me three stores to get it right but I did eventually! The recipe called for chicken, peppers, chipotle peppers, adobo sauce, and I threw mushrooms in there as well! Sautéed all of it on the stove and threw some lime juice on top at the end and it was amazing. HOT but amazing! Definitely a repeat recipe.

Thursday, November 6th: I made a snack for my weekend at ShredFest! They were banana walnut paleo muffins and they are absolutely delicious. I got the recipe from one of the girls at the gym who had made them for our trip to HOA. I threw some protein in them so they would be the perfect after WOD snack and trust me they were. I had a few leftover so I had them for snacks at school this week and they were perfect. Again another repeat. Next time however, I will buy muffin pan liners. I got creative this time and used wax paper because I refused to clean the pan out again but my life would be so much easier if I would just buy the darn things!

Friday, November 7th: I decided to make another snack of cinnamon apple chips. However, I burnt these and they were not very good that way haha. Next time I will try to be a little bit more careful with what I am doing.

So there you have it. My month of cooking experiments! I may not be a cooking expert yet but I sure had a fun month of making new things. I found a lot of great recipes that I will repeat again and some that I am not so sure I like all that much. But oh well, that comes with the territory of being a chef! I am going to keep challenging myself to make something new every week because it keeps life interesting and forces me to try new things! Let me know if you want any of the recipes I used over the month, I am more than happy to share!

Struggle #17: Individual Competitions

This past weekend I competed at the Ozark Mountain Shred-Fest competition in Springfield, MO. It was my first individual competition and let me tell you I walked into a big competition! There were some very big athletes competing at this competition. Some of the top girls in our region were there, kicking butt and taking names. It was fun to watch them move through the workouts like they were no big deal. Heavy weights for me were merely an after thought for them. Even though I know they made the workouts look easy, I know that they were working hard the whole weekend as well but boy oh boy did I realize just how good they were.

Okay, enough about me gawking over the incredible athletes I saw this weekend, time to write about me haha. Bear with me for this is going to be a lengthy post. I'm calling individual competitions a struggle, at least for now anyways. I think for individual competitions to become a strength, it's going to take me doing a few more of them in order for me to feel that way. This being my first one, I walked into it thinking I knew things but when I got there, I quickly realized I knew absolutely nothing. I feel like I was able to learn and cope fairly quickly and at the end of the weekend, I am happy with how I finished but my expectations were definitely different going into the weekend.

I walked into this competition thinking my strengths would help me overcome my weaknesses.  However, I quickly learned that my weaknesses would be clearly shown to the world and my strengths could only do so much for me. I knew going into the competition I would be slightly limited by my knee, not because it was painful (thankfully it doesn't hurt too much anymore), but because I have been hesitant to train on it so my leg muscles aren't as endurant as they used to be. I also unfortunately have had a cold for the past 5 days, so a stuffy, runny nose and a sore throat were not going to help me throughout my workouts. But before walking into this competition I told myself I couldn't let these things be excuses because everyone I am sure was facing adversity in one way or another. I just kept telling myself to go there and do my best and that's all I could do.

Although I told myself and other people these things, I still walked into the competition with high expectations for myself. The first workout was a 1 rep max clean and jerk. Because of my knee I haven't been doing squat cleans, so I knew would have to do a power clean, which is a weaker movement for me. I was able to hit a PR on my power clean and was initially happy but after seeing how all the other girls did and realizing where I could have been if I squat cleaned, I was a little upset. I shouldn't have been but being second from last in the standings upset me, even though I hit a PR.. Silly Taylor.

The second workout of the day I thought I would be able to make up some ground. It was a workout with a 16 minute time cap and I though with my endurance I would be able to do well. The workout was a 1000 meter run buy in, then 5 rounds of 25 wall balls and 4 muscle ups. The run went fine and I came in ready to go to work. The first two rounds I felt I moved well and my muscle ups were fairly consistent. The third round was alright but my muscle ups began to struggle a bit. That fourth round was awful, all of the "no squatting" limitations I have put on myself because of my knee, I could definitely feel. My quads were screaming at me! I was able to get through the 5th round but unfortunately was time caped on the last muscle up! I was relatively happy with how I did on this one because I didn't think I would be close to finishing the workout and I was one muscle up away! But after watching the last heat go and seeing a lot of the other girls crush my score, I became upset.

I realized after this workout, Even though I had said I didn't have any expectations for myself coming into the weekend, I knew deep down that I wanted to be in the last heat on Sunday. After this workout, however, I realized that this was probably not going to be a possibility. I was frustrated and upset because I felt like I had let myself down along with a few others. After a phone conversation though, I realized that it didn't matter how I finished here, it just mattered how I handled every workout and what I learned from each one of them. A few texts from my training partner made me feel better as well because I realized she was just proud of me for putting myself out there and competing. This was what I needed to realize.

The rest of the weekend was a lot better after that workout. The last workout on Saturday was 9 minute AMRAP of 30 kettlebell swings at 62#, 20 burpee box overs, and 10 squat snatches at 120#.  I added 9 repetitions to my score compared to when I tested it and after a long, tiring day, I was ecstatic with that. I was freaking out before the workout because all of the weight was very heavy for me but one of my teammates calmed me down prior to the workout and I had two others talking to me the entire workout which was great because it kept me calm!

The first workout on Sunday was in my wheelhouse. 19 minutes of work and lots of sprints with fast recovery needed! Sign me up! There were three workouts in this and although the first one wasn't my best, the next two I just decided to fly. One of my strengths is definitely recovering quickly and in this workout it was needed. Those last two workouts were my best placing of the weekend and I was really happy with them! The final workout again was going to be heavy for me, but I just had to give it everything that I had. I didn't quite finish the workout but honestly, I didn't care. I knew I left everything I had on the competition floor this weekend and I was proud of myself.

Alright so after that recap of the weekend... What did I learn?

1. I need to increase my strength. I have always known this but this is where my focus needs to be before the open and regionals this year. After HOA a teammate told me there needs to be another strong girl on the team and after this weekend I realized that this has to be a reality. Working on moving heavier weights faster is a must.
2. I am strong physically and mentally. Half of the things that we were asked to do this weekend I didn't think I would be able to do but I did them. I may have not been the most efficient but I could do them and that is huge. I need to focus on talking myself up in my head because I can do these things!
3. CrossFit Saint Louis is my home and I love my gym. Between the individuals that came and supported us and everyone that competed I had a great weekend! The love we all show one another just reinforced this awesome family we have.
4. Weaknesses will be exposed in an individual competition. Period. There is no one else there to pick you up. How you approach them and overcome them is important. After my first two workouts I looked at them differently and I am proud of how I handled them.
5. There is always something to work on. CrossFit is an ever evolving sport and that is what I love and hate about it. I know for a fact I will be back in the gym tomorrow working on my weaknesses to make them strengths,

Overall this weekend was amazing. I got to spend a lot of quality time with some of my teammates and honestly I wouldn't have wanted to spend it any other way. I learned a lot about myself and I am ready to put some of these lessons in practice. (I will probably blog again about this experience because I have a lot of thoughts still swirling around in my head). I am walking away with my head held high and I can honestly say I am proud of my performance this weekend. And that is about all you can do. Happy Monday!

Struggle #16: Being Conservative

This past weekend I was lucky enough to go to Nashville with three of my closest friends! We didn't really have any reason for going besides having two days off of school and it being Halloween but who needs an excuse to go to Nashville. We left Thursday morning and got back Sunday night. While it was a long, crazy weekend, I had an absolute blast and was so happy that I went!

The Bushwacker

We went exploring all over town but our favorite place was definitely "The District" or the downtown area. On Thursday night we went on a ghost tour and explored some of the bars downtown. The tour wasn't very haunted but we met two awesome older couples traveling from California and also found the drink of choice for the weekend, The Bushwacker. This is literally one of the best drinks ever! It is like a Wendy's frosty with rum in it! Definitely used my ice cream quota for this week on them.

Friday we explored the town and got prepared for a Halloween evening in Nashville. My friends and I decided to dress up as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and let me tell you we were a huge hit! We were asked for so many pictures throughout the night, people were singing us the theme song, and my friend even got into a fight with Shredder. I had a great night and ended up being out way too late but I got up early in the morning to get after a spicy workout in the hotel gym. The gym didn't have any weights though so I had to be creative. Since someone was on the treadmill, my workout consisted of 3 rounds of: 2 minuted on the elliptical, 40 air squats, 30 V-ups, and 20 strict hand stand push ups. Afterwards I did 7 minutes of burpees, which totally stunk but I definitely was able to get my sweat on there.

 Saturday was a pretty chill day but we did walk all over town and visited some of the hot spots around the area. We walked over the pedestrian bridge and got some cool pictures and views of Nashville. However, I definitely wore the wrong boots and my feet were killing me. Our rest break before the night felt great on my feet! We made the drive back on Sunday and I was welcomed to a lot of homework and other responsibilities but it was definitely worth it. This week had been crazy but today it has finally started to slow down and let me tell you I am taking full advantage of it.

One of the reasons I chose this struggle today is because I almost talked myself out of going to Nashville with my friends. I knew that the trip was going to be expensive and I was going to come back to a lot of things to do and knowing that made me want to forego the weekend. I am a very conservative person, I try to be very frugal and I am not the best person at just dropping everything and taking chances. going to Nashville, spending a chunk of money, and going out in an unfamiliar place is very out of character for me. It makes me uncomfortable, I sometimes just enjoy living in my conservative little bubble.

This coming weekend I am headed to my first individual competition. Originally, I didn't think it was going to be that big of a competition but it seems about just like every day they announce someone new who is coming. A games veteran or an up and coming star. It has become a huge competition and for my first one I am definitely in over my head. I am excited about the opportunity but I am also terrified. Competing against these big names at my first individual competition is not conservative and for my first one, I would appreciate being a little conservative.

Nashville's Skyline! So amazing!

But hey, this is an opportunity for me. One that I have to embrace and something I need to do. I have to step up to this challenge if I ever want to make a name for myself. I am terrified but I am also ready to go. My knee may not be 100% yet but my training has been going well and I am strong mentally and physically. I am ready to prove to myself that I can do this and that taking chances isn't always a bad thing. I am ready to go to the Ozark Mountain Shred-Fest and show them who I am. I may not get first but I am going to show that I too am up and coming and ready to go. So here is to a great weekend! Wish me luck!

Strength #4: CrossFit St. Louis

I have an AMAZING CrossFit gym at CrossFit St. Louis. I absolutely love all of the people in it and everything that they have to offer. We are such a diverse group of people, individuals that would have never come together had it not been for CrossFit. Yet here we were the past weekend standing side by side supporting one another, cheering for each other, and competing on teams together at the Heart of America Competition. I would have never met these amazing people had it not been for CFSTL and the community it has brought me.

This past weekend at HOA was incredible. I was lucky enough to be a part of St. Louis's "A" team or CrossFit St. Louis Black. I got to compete with the top athletes at our gym and let me tell you we put on a show! Most of the top teams in our region were at this competition and everyone is there to show off or see how they stack up for the upcoming CrossFit Open season. The HOA competition doesn't really count for anything. If you do well here, it doesn't qualify you for something else, like Regionals would. But it does show you your team's strengths and weaknesses.

My team learned a lot this weekend! We were able to show our gymnastics and body weight skills are pretty darn good but our strength and sprint work is lacking. Another thing we really need to work on is just training as a team and really learning where we can pick each other up. One beauty of a team is everyone has a strength to contribute to it and where someone else is weak, another person can pick them up.  We had many examples of this over the weekend and sometimes that caused individuals to do a workout or part of a workout that wasn't necessarily their favorite. But because we are a fairly cohesive team, everyone was willing to do whatever part of the workouts they needed to do.

My amazing team!

At the end of the weekend, CrossFit St Louis Black placed 9th. We were poised for a 4th place finish heading into the final workout, but a mishap caused a 30 burped penalty, a 41st place finish in
workout 10, and took us out of the running unfortunately. One of our teammates blames their self for this loss solely but if you're going to win together as a team you also have to lose together as a team. Our team doesn't fault this person at all, giving 110% in a workout is never something to be ashamed of. We understand their competitive spirit and it's one of the reasons we love them.

One of my favorite highlights of the weekend was getting to do a workout with my training partner. We work together every morning and really understand each other's strengths and weaknesses. The workout was:
16 min time cap, split up the work however you want between 2 people
100 calorie row,
100 kettlebell snatches (35#)
100 pistols
While one person was working, the other had to hold a 70# fat bar in a static position (deadlift, front rack, and over head respectively). Both of us are strong but we definitely are better at body weight movements. We knew the snatches would take us a little time but the row and pistols would be good for us.  Getting off the row, we were probably about 4th in our heat of 12, after the snatches we came out in about 10th (yikes), but when we got to the pistols we took off. I for some reason am able to do pistols pretty well and my partner is no joke either. I started off with 30 of them, she took the next 30, and then it was up to me to finish off the last 40 as fast as I could.

Once I started moving on the last 40, I found some energy that I didn't know I had. The guys on our team had just completed the same workout in reverse order and came down to cheer us on. I was moving so fast I was literally jumping from one leg to the other. I knew I was moving fast because the crowd started to get excited and all the announcers were around us watching. When I got to about 90 my legs were dying, and at 95 I wanted to stop but everyone pushed me through them and we ended up finishing 3rd! I know I moved well on the pistols, but the real hero was my partner here because she held the bar overhead for all of those reps after doing all of that work. I don't know how she didn't put it down!

Another highlight was just watching everyone else compete! People did things that I didn't know they were capable of and I am not sure they knew they were capable of them either! It is a lot of fun to see all of the hours we put into the gym pay off and make us better CrossFit athletes especially when we hit the big stage. Cheering and hanging out with everyone made the weekend that much better!

From this competition, I learned a lot about myself. One of the big things I already knew was that I need to increase my strength. It has been an issue right now with my knee but once that starts to allow me to do more, all I will be doing is squatting. Well maybe not really but I can't wait to squat again! I also need to work on my sprinting ability. In a team competition, you go for short bursts of time and then hand it off to you other teammates. This is something I need to continually work on and will be a focus at times over the next few months.

This weekend, CrossFit St. Louis had a great community down in Springfield, MO. Everyone cheered for everyone and we were all able to do what we love and compete in fitness. I was overwhelmed by the support of people and how they stayed for hours after their competition wrapped up just to watch us compete. It really makes me realize how special CFSTL community is and how lucky I am to be a part of it.  The coaches are great, the members are awesome, and the community we have forged is unbelievable. I am so blessed to be a part of it!

One last thing, I failed on my food challenge this week. With being gone all weekend, coming back to a test that I was unprepared for on Monday, and then leaving for Nashville tomorrow morning, I just didn't have enough time this week. I promise to step up my game next week and finish off my food challenge! On the bright side, I visited Whole Foods yesterday and found Justin's Chocolate Hazelnut Butter... I am pretty sure I have to limit myself on this adventure!

October Food Challenge: Week 4

So I am posting this week's a little early but I going to be busy all weekend long so I figured I should post before I forget! This weekend is the Heart of America Competition or #HOA6 in Springfield, MO. There are going to be 10 of the top 12 teams from Regionals there so this is a very big competition! Granted we were 4th at Regionals but with every competition we are presented a new set of obstacles. I am on our "A" team this year and it comprises most of us that were on the team at Regionals. We are prepared and ready to go and let me tell you I just want to be there already! Anyways my food for the week!

October 20th: I made a stir-fry kind of thing. It was simple with chicken and lots of veggies. I used a recipe to give the chicken some kick and let me tell you my mouth was on fire but it was really good! I thought this would last me for at least 3 meals but I barely got 2 out of it. Oh well, my appetite seems to be growing haha.

October 21st: I made cauliflower pizza crust!!! It was really, really good! I was so nervous making it but when it was finally done I was so happy with it! Granted I used a whole head of cauliflower and that made a lot of pizza crust! Next time I will probably only do half of a head because I don't need that many left overs! Also, the recipe told me to put wax paper underneath it but that was a BAD idea! Next time I will definitely just put olive oil or something else on the bottom of the pan so I don't have to meticulously separate the pizza from the wax paper.

October 22nd: I was looking for a side to make because sometimes you just need something to go along with an entree. I found a recipe for spicy sweet potato fries! They were delicious and super easy to make. One of my friends suggested that next time I put them in the broiler so they be a little bit crispy and I am going to try that. I had to leave them in the over for a lot longer than the recipe called for which was fine but the little ones got really crispy and the others were not as crispy.

October 23rd: For HOA I needed a treat for the weekend which ended up being a different kind of paleo crunch! I love how much food I yield from these! It is pretty good and has some pumpkin spices in it so it is #sofall! I am ready to demolish it in between events this weekend!

October 24th: I made a pumpkin smoothie this morning. I got the recipe from Jacque, the nutritionist who is helping me with my eating. The smoothie itself is rather good, however, it is pretty thick. Next time I need to add some water or something to it so it has a better drinking consistency!

This weekend my goal is to have confidence in everything I do. I am confident this week that I fueled my body so that it is ready to go. I am confident that I have put in the effort and the hard work necessary to compete at my top level. I am confident that I can do anything they put in front of me.  I am telling myself that I can and will dominate, that our team is going to kick booty. We have all had to communicate before and done well with it, this is no different! So here's to an awesome HOA weekend!

October Food Challenge: Week 3

So last week, I may have failed a little bit on my challenge... I went home and was only able to get four new things made last week. I all honesty, I could have made something on Sunday but I was way too tired from driving all over the place, working the St. Louis marathon all morning, and studying the afternoon away. Anyways my food from last week (I even have some pictures this week!).

 October 13th: I made some some delicious Mediterranean chicken this night. I pulled some chicken out of the freezer and cooked it on the stove with lots of spices and some lemon juice. I then added olives, tomatoes, green peppers, and mushrooms to it and cooked it all together. I originally only made half of the chicken I had pulled out but after I finished eating some of that, I cooked the rest of the chicken up so I could have leftovers the rest of the week.

October 14th: On Tuesday, I went to an Aaron Carter concert. Yes you read that right Aaron Carter. He is still touring apparently and has new music out (that no one has heard). It was a very small concert. There weren't a lot of people there but it was fun. The opening band Liberty Deep Down was great and reminded me of One Direction. We ended up talking to the for a lot of the night and they were super nice. We almost got into their bus party for free but were unable to because their manager wouldn't let us trade shots for bus tickets. They were underage apparently but we had no idea because they were playing in a bar all night.

Muffins on the left, cookies on the right

October 16th: My friends came over again to watch the Cardinals play! Unfortunately, we couldn't bring them the same luck that we did the previous week and they lost but we still had a fun time watching the game. I made pumpkin muffins for us as a treat while watching the game. First off they were a little too moist for me and next time I would probably try to bake them a little bit longer. I was nervous they were gong to burn, which they didn't but they weren't my favorite.

October 17th: I made paleo protein chocolate chip cookies. I have had them many times before because one of my friends at the gym makes them all the time. They are delicious and I was nervous to make them because I wasn't sure I could do as good of a job. I used Enjoy Life chocolate chips. They are gluten, dairy, and soy free so relatively healthy. The other ingredients included almond flour, coconut oil, honey, eggs, and a few other staples. One thing I have learned is that I am not allowed to make these anymore because they are soooo good and soooo easy to eat. I have to limit myself to eating one or two everyday. No more paleo cookies without sharing them with everyone else.

October 18th: I made some chicken in the crockpot. Super easy to make too! In the morning I threw peppers on the bottom of it, added some chicken, and some taco seasoning. Cook it on low all day and it falls apart.

October 19th and 20th: I was lucky to go home and able to see my family and some of my little girls! I saw two of them run in their cross country meets! I have never been to one before and didn't realize how much I would be running myself! For high school they run 3 miles and I ended up running around 1.5 miles! I then went to grade school state on Saturday and saw another one of my little girls run. They run 2 miles and I was probably close to running 1.25 miles! I had a great time though and was so excited to see them run! After that I got to hang out with my brother and family the rest of the day before I made the trip back to St. Louis Saturday night.

Josie and the Hermann family on top, Savannah on the bottom
left, and Maggie on the bottom right! So much running!

October 21st: I worked the St. Louis Rock'n'Roll marathon as part of the medical staff. I have never been to a marathon or half before and it was a neat experience. It was cool to see all the different people that run these and how everyone does well in their own ways. I didn't get to see a lot of action medically but I did get to see a lot of my friends finish it! I went to the gym on Sunday and got after a few sprint workouts. I PR'ed my "Grace" time by about a minute and did a lot of muscle-ups. I have been working very hard on consistency on these and I am getting better and better at them! This makes me even more excited for HOA this weekend!!!!

Struggle #15: Unanswered Questions

So I am sitting in Panera (or Bread Co. If you're a St. Louisian), in Springfiled, IL, blogging... Why? Because as I was driving home, I was thinking about things and I needed to write it all down to help me figure them out in my head. What exactly was I thinking about? Unanswered questions.

I HATE unanswered questions! They scare me. I don't like not knowing what is going to happen, why I am doing something, or the answer to a question. Something about this makes bothers and makes me think about it incessantly. A big question that has been bothering me all week, is why the water in bathroom sinks gets hot in like 5 seconds but it takes a minute for the kitchen sink water to get hot.  This makes no sense to me. It's the same situation, so what gives?

But in all seriousness, unanswered questions are something I like to steer clear from. Right now I am in my third year of PT school and I will be graduating in May.  Everyone always asks what do I want to do, where do I want to go, and do I feel ready to be a PT. I have NO idea.  I mean I kind of have an idea, but that seems like a long time away and I don't want to commit to anything because a lot can change between now and then. It scares the crap out of me that I don't know what I want yet but I'm hoping I can figure it out over the next few months. Some people in my class are so sure of their self but I have no clue! Ahhhh!

Why this whole thought process truly entered my mind today is because of one of my goals. I want to be be a sponsored CrossFit athlete. I have been working my butt off in the gym daily. I have had my set backs (specifically my knee right now) and I definitely have my weaknesses, but I also have my strengths and I think I have potential in this sport. I have had a few people tell me I have potential and recently, I have started to believe them and believe in myself. (I am not trying to gloat here or say that I am some amazing CrossFitter because I am not. I am just trying to write as honestly as I can.) All of the great CrossFitters are sponsored by big name CrossFit companies.  It is a way that they get
their name out there and help further themselves in the sport. I want to get my name out there and represent a great company. I want to continue to CrossFit and compete at higher levels.

I don't know if this is something I can achieve or not, but I have to try. I set this goal for myself a little while ago. I originally started to try to market myself, but then I got scared because I kept asking myself, what if I am not good enough? What if these companies look at me at me and think I am a joke and silly for even trying?  Am I someone that companies want to represent their products? Again, more questions that I don't know the answer to.

Earlier today, it was brought to attention that I had stopped trying to market myself, and why? I could make a ton of excuses but really when it comes down it, I'm scared of the unanswered question if someone wants me to represent them or not.  It's scary putting yourself out there, but sometimes you have to "just do it."

If I don't try then how can I be proud of myself? How could I set a goal and then not following through on it? A big thing that bothered me is how can I be a role model for all of "my girls" that look up to me in Peoria? I have coached them in swimming for 8 years and have always taught them to set goals, work hard toward them, and to have fun while doing it. I have always told them to reach high and often times have pushed them to reach even farther than they think they can. If they fail, I am still so proud of them for all of their hard work and dedication that they put toward reaching their goals.

So I am going to take some of my own advice here and reach for the stars. I don't know if I will be able to achieve being a sponsored CrossFit athlete just yet, but I am going to try very hard to get there. I am going to try to achieve my goal and if I fail, I will be proud of myself for trying and not quitting on myself. I will just have to accept that sometimes questions will be unanswered and the only way to answer them is to put the work in yourself.

October Food Challenge: Week 2

So this cooking new things is pretty fun! I have found some really good new recipes this past week! And totally failed on one... But overall this past week has been a success! I would love to post pretty pictures of all of my creations but unfortunately my phone went for a little swim on the winery trip this past weekend. Sad thing is that it wasn't even my fault, but oh well such is life. Thankfully one of my CrossFit friends let me borrow a phone for a bit! Anyways, without further ado...

October 6th: The St. Louis Cardinals are playing in October again! This of course calls for some game watching parties and therefor many of appetizers. Last Monday, my friends and I got together to watch the Cardinals defeat the Dodgers 3-1 on their way to winning the NLCS. I knew I would want to partake in eating the appetizers, so I decided to make something that was "friendly" to my diet. I decided on making spinach artichoke dip. It was super easy to make with frozen spinach, a can of artichoke hearts, some bacon, coconut milk, and garlic! I still haven't learned my lesson and made a huge amount (due to the recipe) but thankfully one of my friends helped me out in eating most of it! I ate it with some sweet potato chips, which aren't the best, but it was delicious none the less!

October 7th: O.M.G. I made some stuffed mushrooms on this lovely Tuesday and they were absolutely amazing! They were super easy to make and a definite repeat for the future. I "de-stalked" some mushrooms and then made the stuffing for them. The stuffing contained the mushroom stalks, left-over pulled pork, garlic, almond flour, cilantro, ginger, and pepper. I popped them in the over for 20 minutes at 350 degrees and they were good to go! I made about 10 of them and had leftovers for lunch the next day!

October 8th: Total and epic fail! I attempted to make spaghetti squash noodles with an alfredo sauce. Neither thing turned out to be a success. First problem, I don't think I had the right kind of squash. I am not sure if that makes a difference or not but what I got out of the squash was basically mashed squash. The sauce wasn't even close to setting up after many tries to fix it. Oh well I tried. I made some chicken to go with the mashed squash and put the two together which was alright. I am definitely going to try to make the spaghetti again but I think I will forget the sauce.

October 9th: Another delicious night! I made chicken fried cauliflower rice and it was surprisingly very good! It took a little more effort than I anticipated but it was definitely worth it. I had to pull out the food chopper to make rice from the cauliflower and then cut up a lot of veggies. It didn't call for a ton of veggies but I threw in mushrooms, peppers, garlic, and tomatoes. I simmered all of them in some seasonings and then added the cauliflower to steam. I made some chicken on the side in teriyaki sauce so I could get some protein in. I threw all of it together at the end and it was absolutely delicious! I was very skeptical after my fail the previous day but I didn't have any need to worry. I even had the roomie and a friend give it the "A+" seal.

October 10th: I am not sure why I didn't make anything on this day but I didn't. I do know that I ended up eating some delicious Ted Drewes frozen custard later that evening and it was amazing, like always!

October 11th: This was the day of the winery trip! I was super nervous about what I was going to be eating because everyone was bringing food. I brought some stuff that would be good for me to eat but luckily didn't really need to eat any of it. Everyone that came on the trip brought Paleo-like dishes and almost everything was healthy! We even had delicious protein paleo cookies that I may have eaten a few of!

October 12th: I realized I hadn't made my fifth thing of the week yet at about 4 p.m. Sunday night! I had bought all of the ingredients to make paloe pancakes on Friday morning but forgot to make them so that is what I made last night! I had a recipe from one of my friends that was relatively simple and easy to make. It did call for ground almonds though and the best I could do was chopped almonds so my batter was a little chunky. I threw some blueberries in the pancakes as well and this caused the batter to turn an interesting color... Making them on the stove took some effort. The batter was very thick and didn't seem to be cooking very well. The looked burnt from almost the beginning but I soon realized it was the blueberries that were making them look like that. The pancakes honestly looked horrible but turned out to be really, really good! I had a lot of left over batter so I will definitely be making them again!

Once again I apologize for no pictures! I actually took quite a few but when your phone goes for a swim they unfortunately disappear when it no longer turns on. Oh well I hope to have more pictures with the upcoming week!