Struggle #5: Driving by Myself

Well put another 700 miles on my car this weekend while driving to St. Louis and back!  My car is definitely going to hate me by the end of this clinical rotation! But the drive was definitely worth it because I got to compete at my home gym (CrossFit St. Louis) with an awesome team for an awesome cause!  This weekend was the LuLu Lemon Give Back Throw Down and it was an absolute blast!  3 WODs completed in 4 hours, a very well run competition that had us all giving 100%!  Pictured below are the Rx and Scaled team for our gym.  The Rx team composed of myself, Jen (JFT), Joe, and Dan got 2nd overall, donating $500 to charity from LuLu!

STL Scaled team on the left, RX on the right

It was soooo good to be back in STL! I miss my CrossFit family there! Good people to train with and hold me accountable everyday but even better people in general that are great friends!  After the competition we went to Trainwrecked, a local bar, and had some delicious food followed up by Ted Drewes! My absolute favorite! I got a concrete full of cookie dough and oreo and it was delicious! I savored every bite and definitely do not want to punish myself with no ice cream for a week again! I was going crazy without my chocolate fix!

Even though I did a lot of traveling this weekend, I was still able to eat pretty darn healthy and I am very proud of that! I packed breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Friday so I wasn't tempted to stop at a fast food restaurant somewhere.  I brought chicken, guacamole, and plantain chips for dinner and it was great! Besides the 45 min dead stop in traffic due to an accident the drive was fine. I also ate out on Saturday and ate pretty healthy too! Chicken sanwich (no bun) and sweet potato fries at Train Wrecked and a salad for dinner after my ice cream consumption. It is so much easier to eat out with people that are involved in CrossFit and understand the way I eat!

I got back to Cincinnati yesterday and went to town at the grocery store and the kitchen! Each time I go to the store label reading gets easier and I get in and out of there quicker and happier! I have learned to basically stay on the outside of the store because that is where all the "good" food is (except for the $0.89 Lara bars that I may have went crazy buying! Cant miss a deal when it is right in front of you!) When I got back to the kitchen I decided to fry up enough bacon for the week and also experimented making sweet potato fries. The prep for them was relatively easy (besides cutting them with a dull knife) because all I used was coconut oil, pepper, and a bit of salt to flavor them. However, I may have cut them a little too thin and left them in the oven a little too long. Oh well lesson learned, burned sweet potato fries aren't nearly as good! 

My sweet potato fries and bacon cooking!

I also purchased some almond milk at the store just to see what it was like... I am not quite sure on the verdict yet. Definitely not regular milk and a little too sweet for me but the taste may grow on me... I also made some delicious salads for the week (pictured below)

This week's salads include some chopped up greens form the 

store, yellow peppers, bacon, mushrooms, and left-over

chicken from the grill last week! SUCCESS!

I have found it is easiest if I have my lunches for the week laid out for me every Sunday so that way I do not even have to think about when I am packing lunch the night before. I have also found staying consistent with the same foods for breakfast and lunch for a week keeps my grocery bill cheaper and the food doesn't go bad. I try to switch up dinner every night just to give me a little variety!

This weekend was my first competition since really truly eating healthy and let me tell you I felt great! I don't know if it is all the diet but the diet is definitely helping and I am very proud of myself for working so hard to stick to it.  I have my cravings for thing often but I am hoping in a month or so they start to die down a little bit more. I am so excited to keep eating healthy and to keep training my butt off in the gym every day. Little by little, if I put the work in, I will continue to see #gains! I already saw one this weekend with a 10# PR on my power snatch! 

 I hit 130# (the picture doesn't have the correct weight

or the smile that accompanied the lift afterwards)