Today = fail on photo front, win on life front.

I did snap a few of my eats en route to/in Pennsylvania:

almond butter coconut sweet potato over special kale – part two of my lunch (apple, chicken MIA)

apple yogurt upon arrival

Eats unphotographed = chocolate covered almonds, candy corn, 2 of Chelsea’s tasty cookies, kale/turkey/grape salad, etc. etc. I think my hollow leg was a rearing again.

I left this morning after an early morning CrossFit workout. I was happy to get a last minute workout in and to see some smiling Monday morning faces at the gym before hitting the road for 8 hours. We squatted, worked on push presses, and then did one of those WODs that looks fine on the board but feels anything but fine in the moment. Tabata squats + 400m run immediately after the 8 rounds. I held 16 squats for each round and ran the thing in 1:52 or something like that. I’ll take it. I was being chased and didn’t want to get passed so I definitely went faster than I usually do and I also knew there was a car ride and probably a day or two off (or playing in the playground) ahead.

Other accomplishments for the day:

• Not needing to stop 120910291 times to pee on the drive down. Luckily I decided to cut back drastically on the decaf coffee addiction of mine (in favour of actually drinking more water than coffee in a day, saving money from starbucks, and not being chronically dehydrated) at a convenient time. I think I’m going through withdrawal even though decaf coffee only has a little caffeine in it. I had a headache that a nap helped with this afternoon in the car, but gosh I’m pathetic. Amen for realizing I should drink water now and again…
• Working a bit on my 1, 5 and 10 year goals (a la lululemon goaltender).
• Finishing my draft for the next Bankrate article I’m working on.
• Listening to podcasts in the car. Reflecting on Jillian Michaels’ desperate fan who called in and said that she was stalled in her weight loss, working out up to 4 hours every day, and inhaling food but feeling guilty for it at every second. I don’t think I was every that extreme, but I did hear a bit of my own story in her voice. And what I wanted to say to her was: cut back, eat real food, and find a weight that’s manageable and realistic and comes from cultivating happy, healthy habits. Maybe not in those specific words…but you get the point. What I did to my body with years of compulsive daily overtraining and undereating is serious. The repair, healing, and coming back stronger process is underway, but I’m giving myself serious props for what I’m doing now: eating real food, moving my body in ways that make it stronger and fitter (holistically), and focusing on my controllable behaviours/actions. Win!
• Doing my best to avoid buying all kinds of crappy but interesting American goodies at the supermarket when we stopped. Instead, I filled my basket with kale, spinach, salmon, apples, sweet potato, and bananas (I packed some of my own staples). I did give in and buy some pumpkin spice coffee creamer. I often comment on how it’s one of the worst “foods” out there–literally there’s nothing real in it, but at this point, not buying TastyKakes, candy bars that reek of nostalgia, pumpkin pudding, pumpkin buddies, caramels, Kashi products galore, etc. etc. is a win. Win win win! The fact that there’s a shit ton (pardon my french) of junk food here at my family’s house is fine–and so is eating some of it–but this way I don’t feel responsible for eating it since I wasn’t the person who bought it. Make sense? So I’ll take my little treat and see what happens.

Enough rambling. Now that everyone is together (but on their computers mostly–apparently I come from a likeminded bunch), I think it’s time for some bonding. Or maybe some reading…