Category Archives: Rambling

Being Healthy

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So, this weekend I went out to Montana for my grandmother’s funeral. Even though it was sad, it was somewhat of a relief to know that she is finally resting and at peace. And it was great to see my family that’s spread out all over the world.

And it’s kinda gorgeous out there this time of year…

I’m going to go on a bit of a ramble about health and nutrition, and just want to start off by saying that these are just my opinions, and I am NOT a registered dietician or a doctor or anything legit. Besides a fitness and food fanatic that is. Which makes me somewhat qualified to speak my mind. On my blog. So here we go.

For years, my grandparents have been in poor health. My grandfather has had multiple rounds of cancer, kidney issues, back pain, hip replacements, you name it, while my grandmother suffered from diabetes and towards the end of her life developed dementia. Much like Erica mentioned last week, I always assumed that these things ran in my family and I was more susceptible to diabetes and other health issues. But since I’ve become more educated about physical activity and nutrition, I’m sort of realizing that a lot of their health problems (and many of our nations’ health problems) could have been avoided just by exercising and eating well. I know that this isn’t rocket science, and I shouldn’t be credited for making such an earth shattering discovery (…you can credit me if you want), but it really opens up your eyes when it hits so close to home.

When my grandparents’ generation was growing up and raising kids in the 1950′s and 60′s, there wasn’t much research and education about nutrition and physical activity. As a result, much of that generation developed poor eating habits that stuck with them for life. And look at all of the health problems that most of our grandparents are faced with! Look in your grandparents’ (or parents’) kitchens, and count how many pill bottles are in there. For everything- blood pressure, heart rate, diabetes, arthritis, constipation (ew), you name it. I just can’t help but think that maybe if doctors prescribed eating well and going for a walk a few times a week, the number of pill bottles would go way down. I’ve been studying for my personal training test and there’s tons of evidence (by people way smarter than me) about the direct link between preventing chronic disease and nutrition. So WTF?? I hate to sound like a conspiracy theorist but why isn’t this a bigger issue? Why isn’t everyone waking the f*ck up?!

Also- do you know that only 31% of adult Americans engage in physical activity 3x a week? THIRTY ONE PERCENT is SO pathetic! And that’s for only 20-30 minutes at a time. Is it really any wonder that we have the largest rate of obesity and the biggest slew of health problems in the world? I don’t think so.

When people ask me why I work out so much, or why I eat Paleo, I always have the same response: “it makes me feel good”. And it does. But another reason I’ve been thinking of is that “because I can”. Because I’m still young, and am naturally the fittest and strongest I’ll ever be. Because I want to invest in my future and my health. Because I don’t want to end up like my grandparents (as much as I love them, SO so so much). I want to live for a long time, and I want my kitchen to be full of delicious, amazing food- not pill bottles.

What do you guys think about this? Am I being a b*tch? I feel like I got a little harsh at the end for criticizing my grandparents’ lifestyle, but I’m just trying to be honest and keep it real. Much like J-Lo, I’m all about keepin’ it real.

I’ll stop talking now and leave you with some eye candy from Montana.

Anyone else want to move?

-Emily

 

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Eating Your Feelings

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I’ve come to the realization that I’m a totally emotional eater. Some people starve themselves (not on purpose) when they’re stressed, upset, or anxious about something. Other people, like me, stuff their faces and try to eat their away their emotions. Let’s discuss.

Friday night, I went home to spend the night at my parents. I met them for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Chiara, and applauded myself for ordering fish and forgoing dessert despite my tequila cocktail induced buzz.

I was SO sore the next morning when I woke up. After my Core Fusion class last week, I taught Advanced spin, and then had a CrossFit WOD Friday morning that consisted of 100 squats, 100 pushups, 100 pull ups, and 100 sit ups. Um yeah. About that. First of all, I was so dead tired I didn’t move in my sleep. Woke up in the same exact position I fell asleep in. That NEVER happens. Probably because I was too sore to move. It was actually painful to lift myself out of bed, everything hurt. But on the bright side…

 

… my abs were all sorts of ripped up (for me at least). Why can’t abs look like that all the time? When you first wake up in the morning, that flat stomach feeling.  It’s the best. WTF abs. How sore they were.. was not the best. Erica and I were supposed to go to a WOD at her local CrossFit, but we were both so sore that we went for a nice long walk instead. It was much better because it was a beautiful day and gave us a chance to catch up.

I’m getting distracted- I’m here to talk about food. After our walk, I was eating a healthy breakfast at home when my dad came into the kitchen and told me my grandmother (his mom) had just passed away. She had been sick for awhile, and had recently taken a turn for the worst, so the news didn’t come as a total shock, but it was still upsetting to say the least. After running a few errands, we ordered sushi for lunch.

This is where that whole “emotional eating” thing takes a drastic turn…

Tuna, salmon and mango roll paired with a sweet potato tempura roll? Check. Next up was one of my mom’s famous cookies. Not Paleo, not gluten free, not dairy free. They’re made with Reese’s pieces, Reese’s, and chocolate chips. Sidenote- when I was at college, during my pre-Paleo days, my mom would send the cookies in the mail and they’d get all crumbly so I’d put the chunks in a bowl with milk and eat them as cereal. Fact.

When I got back to my apartment late afternoon, I realized I was going to be alone for a couple of hours. That’s another thing about me- if I’m upset, I want to be surrounded by people. I don’t like being alone and sitting around wallowing in my sad feelings. Because then I’ll sit on the couch for 2 hours, ignoring my piles of laundry, watching Keeping up with the Kardashians and eating animal crackers and dark chocolate ginger. That happened. I don’t want that to ever happen again.

Then my boyfriend got home- plus. He also brought home a large Italian sub- negative. Let’s back up a minute. I used to LOVE Italian subs. Like, you don’t understand. My go to sandwich anytime, anywhere. Every kind of cold cut possible, topped with Provolone cheese, toasted, with oil and some hots. Stop. I can’t keep thinking about it without drooling. Did I eat half of my boyfriend’s sub? Yes. Did he purposely get a large one because he knew I would eat half of it? Yes. Bastard.

The rest of the evening was spent curled up on the couch because I was in so much pain I couldn’t move. On top of being upset about my grandmother, I felt like shit because I ate shitty food, my stomach wanted to punch me in the face (my abs were DEFINITELY not photo-worthy then) and I was pissed at myself for having zero self control and eating my feelings. I got my act together on Sunday, and instead of wasting brain cells and going into a gluten induced coma, I went to a spin class. Talk about a total 180. Why do I feel the need to eat my emotions, when I could just go and sweat them out? I felt SO much better after class- energized, refreshed, uplifted. Pumping music, dark room, dripping in sweat, riding next to two of my best friends. Honestly, what the F was I thinking wasting so much of my time, brain cells, and hard work the day before??

As hard as it is to muster up the energy to get your butt off the couch when all you want to do is curl up in a ball and cry- do it. Next time you feel like eating your feelings and drowning your sorrows. Stop. Go sweat them out instead.

How do you guys deal with stress and emotions? Sweat, starve, or splurge? I’m vowing to change from a Splurg-er to a Sweat-er.

Well.. that just sounds awkward.

-Emily

Strong vs. Skinny

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So, Erica got all inspirational yesterday, and I’m about to get a little emotional/slight feminist (which is very unusual for me. Not the emotional part, but the feminist part. I’m sort of like a dude 24/7)

My whole life, I’ve been muscular. I came out of the womb with broad shoulders (my mom won’t let me forget that) and thunder thighs. I also apparently came out of the womb sucking my thumb, and immediately downed two bottles after being alive for about 3 minutes. So really, not much has changed. I’m still muscular, and I’m still hungry. All the time.

Homegirl, I can relate. via Nike

In high school, when I got really into working out, my goal was to always get “skinny”. I would purposely only use 5 lb weights so I wouldn’t bulk up, did at least an hour of cardio a day, cut calories, and kept a food diary. At my thinnest, I weighed 125 lbs, and was always so frustrated that I wasn’t losing any more weight (I’m 5’3, so 125 is still slightly above average than a “normal” weight for my height. I’ve definitely roid-raged out on doctors who have told me I should weigh less. Test my BMI, bitch, THEN tell me I need to lose weight). The point is- I would obsess over that number on the scale. I’d weigh myself every day and cut my food intake and up the cardio if I wasn’t satisfied.

 

It really wasn’t until the last year that I became comfortable with my body. I’m always going to be muscular, and I should embrace that. I’m always going to have to get my jeans altered so they fit my booty and my waist. I’m going to go Hulk status every now and then and rip my shirts with my huge stupid shoulders (this has happened more times than I’d like to admit. It usually ends in tears). When I’m on the spin bike, or at CrossFit, I feel so empowered (feminist alert!!) because I feel how strong I am and I see the things my body will do and I see others around me doing the same thing. It’s inspiring, motivating, and it’s expected.

via Body Confidential

But I can’t help but feel frustrated and let down sometimes. I hate myself for leaving the gym feeling all badass and sexy, and then I’ll pass a girl who’s 5’10 and weighs less than I do, and my self esteem drops. I notice how my thighs are rubbing together and how short and stumpy I feel. I immediately start comparing myself to her, and want her bod (not in that kinda way, but in the way that I’d like it if my thighs didn’t rub together and my shoulders were proportionate to my body and my ass didn’t require its own zip code). I know there must be tons of you out there who suffer the same thing- and it sucks. Lately, I’ve been catching myself do it, and have been able to snap myself out of it. In my world, I’ve noticed a HUGE shift towards “Strong is the new skinny” which I obviously love, but there’s still a huge part of society that pressures us into being rail thin (feminist alert part 2!!) and I think it will take awhile for all of us to collectively break that mold.

Can you spot the difference between these two pictures?
Hint: One is an Victoria’s Secret model. The other is not. I know,
it’s probably difficult to tell which one is which. 

But guess what? This whole situation is sort of a Catch 22. Through my Fitfluential family, countless blogs, and Instagram, I’ve come across dozens of girls who are actually trying to GAIN weight and bulk up because they’re too thin. And they are just as frustrated with not being able to gain weight as I get sometimes with not being able to lose it. So, embrace it ladies (feminist alert part 3, last one). Get off the scale. Stop counting calories. Stop comparing yourself to others (especially those in magazines- you wouldn’t BELIEVE the power of Photoshop). Be happy with your bod. Be confident. Be strong. The bottom line is to BE HEALTHY.

Was that too deep? Did I just become a feminist? Am I being crazy? Anyone else out there cope with body image issues here and there?

-Emily

Why Lifting is like Golfing

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I know you’re probably looking at the title of this post and thinking “WTF is Emily smoking this morning” but I promise you I have a good point to make.

A couple of years ago, my boyfriend convinced me to go golfing with him. I’ve never had any interest in playing golf because I’m the most impatient person on the planet and think it’s probably the most boring sport in the world but I figured I’d give it a shot (ha!). Looked easy enough, just swing the club, hit the ball, right?

WRONG. It took me about 10 tries just to even make contact with the ball. There were so many mechanics that went into that one stupid swing: keep your head down, slight bend in the knees, straight front arm, bend the back arm, shoulders low, feet hip width apart, KEEP THAT HEAD DOWN! Any time I remembered to do one thing, I’d forget to do the other thing, and then I’d remember the opposite, and forget to do the 10 other things. A lot goes into that seemingly effortless swing. And once you get that perfect swing, and make contact with the ball, and it feels so good, you think “Why can’t I do this EVERY time??” And that’s when you pull a Shooter McGavin

When I started CrossFit, I had the same mentality. How hard can it be? I’ve done squats before, I’ve done deadlifts, I’m athletic, this will come naturally. Wrong again. There is SO much to think about when doing a lift. I did cleans for the first time the other day and literally looked like a toddler taking their first steps. I can’t tell you how many times I banged the barbell on my knees. Same thing as golf- once I remembered to do one thing (hips back, chest forward, drive back with the hips, pull up from the hips) I would forget something else (keep the barbell on your legs, pull knees back, jump, squat down). And then you look around the room and see everyone else just busting out cleans and deadlifts like it’s nobody’s business and it’s frustrating as all hell. I can’t wait for the day when I naturally “get” it and the movements become more effortless. Effortless minus the whole adding the heavy weight thing. That’s another battle for another day.

Golf? I’m all set with just riding around in the cart and eating snacks. Cleans, deadlifts, pull-ups, clean and jerks, snatches, power cleans? I am coming for you… just quit making it look so easy! I can see through your facade!

 

First time doing back squats. I liked these. One motion, up and down,
drive that booty out. I can do that. via Reebok CrossFit One FB

Can anyone else relate to this? How long before you had your “a-ha” moment with heavy lifting? How do you get out of your head and nail that form down?

-Emily

Stomach Issues and Other Fun Stuff

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So, last week I told you guys that I was participating in a nationwide, 60 day Paleo challenge called the Lurong challenge.  Well, today is already day ten!  16.67% of the way there, woot woot!  I finally feel like my body is back to its old self, which I’m really excited about.  Emily and I decided to keep a belly book of everything we eat so we can see how our bodies react to certain foods (and keep us from eating dark chocolate at every meal).  From this, I’ve learned that my stomach is not really a fan of salads.  It seems like every time I eat a salad, I’m bloated for the rest of the day.  Does that happen to anyone else?!  Maybe it’s just a hint that my salads are gigantic and I should chill out a bit.  But, who knows.  I’ve also learned that apples don’t agree with me.  Which is the strangest thing because it’s a freaking apple.  What food is simpler than an apple?  Come on body, get your shizz together.  For a good laugh, check out our belly book below.  Its borderline embarrassing how much we eat.  Whatever.

SO, back to the Lurong Challenge.  Everyday you log onto their website and record your meals (if it was clean or if it was a cheat).  You start off the week with 35 points and for every cheat you lose 5 points.  Pretty simple, right?  So, this morning I logged on to record what I ate yesterday and decided to bop around the site for a bit.  I I went to my diet history and noticed that I had TWO cheat meals recorded.  Since I knew I didn’t cheat, I automatically assumed it was a huge mistake, and by golly, I was going to get to the bottom of it!  After further review, I unfortunately noticed that I forgot to record my meals for Monday.  Which, I am pretty sure I did, because naturally its the first thing I do when I get to work (priorities, right?).  Anyways,  APPARENTLY, if you forget, you get hit with a TWO meal cheat penalty!  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! I was LIVID.  Which I am sure you can tell by the use of my CAPITAL LETTERS and EXCLAMATION POINTS.  Needless to say, I am STILL not a happy camper.   It made me want send a picture of me eating a whole bag of m&ms to Lurong with some nasty note.  Although  appealing, I continued to sit there, eating my salad that I knew was going to make me feel bloated for the rest of the day.  Take that, LURONG!  Did I just make a huge deal out of nothing? You betcha!  Anyways, happy Thursday everyone!

-Erica

Humpday Rants and Raves

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Haven’t done a good rants and raves for awhile. It’s not really even rants and raves, it’s more just me rambling about whatever is on my mind. Ready.. K, go!

1.) Eva is a bitch- I was introduced to the WOD Eva on Friday last week. Oh, you don’t know who Eva is?

via Reebok CrossFit One blog

Yeah. She was a mean old lady. I scaled this back (you all know that I have a janky knee, and running doesn’t really agree with me) I did the first 800M run and then realized that I wasn’t going to be able to do that 5 more times, so I stuck to 400M runs, 15-30 kettlebell swings (still working on those) and 15 pull ups each time with the band.

 

Could I be any more complicated?

Fellow warriors, and tourists. Kind of hard not to have fun with this group…
via CrossFit One Facebook

It’s horrible/fantastic that we’ve been doing so many pull ups. I’m still using the band, but am getting the form down and feeling myself getting better. Washing my hair after is still a challenge.

2.) Stinky situations- I now do laundry every single day. I used to let my sweaty workout clothes fester in my hamper for a few days, but it just got so f-ing disgusting. Water bills be damned, I need to attempt to smell fresh to death. Current problem though: my protein shaker. When I take it on the go, I wash it out right after, and it still smells like dank protein. Solutions?! Oh, yes, I still drink out of it.

3.) Two a days- I now feel like there’s an empty void in my life if I don’t work out twice a day. Anyone else get this too?

4.) My snacking situation- I bought a bunch of food on Monday to last me through the week and all my snacks are already gone. I think I have a problem. And the only solution is… more snacks!

5.) Getting back on track- 3 days into my little “reset and stop eating cheat Paleo meals”, and I feel 100000x better. It’s INSANE  how quickly your body snaps back when you show it lots of love.

6.) Getting winded- No matter how many times a week I spin, I still get winded walking up stairs. WTF?! I don’t smoke. I have an excellent standing heart rate. I can beast a spin class. Come on lungs, get with the program.

7.) My legs- Are insanely sore this week. We did walking weighted lunges on Monday (5 rounds of 15, I did 35 lbs), and I’ve never quite experienced the sensation that I felt in my legs afterward. Like, legit wobbly legs. I felt like I was going to fall over. Little mini spasms all day. I was so looking forward to teaching spin that night and letting loose, until I remembered that I was teaching a hill climb class. Epic fail.

Pretending that I know what I’m doing. I’m glad you can’t see my face, because I definitely am wincing like a mofo. via CrossFit One Facebook

Also attempted to do some double unders on Monday, which was interesting. I’m a pretty good jump ropper, so I think I’ll be able to nail them down pretty quickly, but I definitely wacked myself in the legs and face a few times..

I was going to try to do 10 rants and raves, and I could probably go on for days, but I’ll leave it at 7. Good old 7. What’s up with you guys this week? What are you loving/hating? Can you help me de-stink my protein container?!

Happy Humpday,

Emily

Changing in the Dark

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So. I made a big leap a few weeks ago and moved in with my boyfriend (actually, he moved in with me. But I guess we just live together now so it doesn’t matter, right?)

So. You read this blog. You know that I work out a lot. You know that I get up early. You know that I go to bed early. Well, if you could pick someone who was the complete opposite of me, it would be my boyfriend. He works late (on average, leaves the office between 10 and 12), stays up late, and tries to sleep as late as possible. We’ve been dating for almost 4 years, and the first year and a half of our relationship was long distance during college, so we’d only see each other on weekends. Since we’ve both been back in Boston, it’s essentially been the same thing. Except for the rare occasion when Tom is out of work before 10, it only made sense to hang on the weekends when our schedules were better aligned.

In our standard uniforms. Suit and spandex.

So. Cohabitation. A girlfriend asked me how it was going the other day and I said “It’s great! We hardly ever see each other!” How romantic! But it’s true. Our schedules are so opposite, that we still really just see each other on weekends. I go to bed at 10, he gets home around 12. I barely notice him when he comes in (unless he has to pry away my deathgrip on my huge stuffed penguin)  because I’m in such a dead sleep. I wake up and am out the door hours before him. Sometimes, I stop by the apartment before going to work and have to wake him up after he slept through his alarm 150 times. Seriously- what is the point of a snooze button?? I will never understand people who let the alarm snooze for an hour. You do realize that you’re waking up every 5 minutes right?

One of the best parts of waking up early..

So. Point of this post. How do you guys deal with your SO’s opposite schedules? Do you find it INFINITELY harder to get up when there’s someone else snoozing in bed? My old routine was that I’d make my bed as soon as I got out of it, so there would be no temptation. However, I don’t think Tom would appreciate me making the bed while he was still sleeping. I’ve been taking to setting out all my clothes and stuff the night before, so I can just wake up and go. And I try to not look back towards the bed  The problem with this is that I get ready in the dark, and I’ve been wearing my workout clothes inside out. Yep. Good looks! And inevitably, I end up forgetting something. So it will take a little while to get used to. Other than me looking like a moron when I walk into my spin class or WOD,  I feel like I’ve been more organized and more on the ball with laundry, cleaning, being organized, etc. It’s motivating when you know you’re now sharing a space, and you don’t want junk piling up everywhere. Also, laying out workout clothes the night before (something I’ve never done before) is really helpful because it just sort of forces you to to GO. And the extra few minutes of sleep doesn’t hurt either :)  I just can’t look back towards the bed.

What do you guys think? There must be loads of you out there who deal with spouses opposite schedules! Teach me your ways of coping! Anyone just straight up resorting to the 1940′s with separate bedrooms..?

Oh, you thought I was joking about spooning a large stuffed penguin?
Well.. this is awkward…

-Emily

Weekend Recap

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This weekend definitely felt like the last weekend of summer. I could tell because I wasn’t immediately sweating everywhere I went. Bittersweet. But, it was one of the best (and not just for non-sweating reasons). Little photo recap so I’ll try to refrain myself from rambling too much :)

Friday night, Katie hosted all of the instructors from Recycle at her AMAZING condo in the South End. It was such a fun night. I truly love all of these ladies, and it stinks (literally) that we normally only see each other coming to and from classes. It was great to all be together, minus our boss Cate.  She did send us some love in the form of iTunes gift cards, which Hugo (Katie’s ridiculously cute Frenchie) enjoyed. However, his attention span waned as dinner went on, more wine was consumed, and the conversation switched to girl talk. Anyways, delicious food, great company. I was bummed to have to bounce and drive down to the Cape, but CANNOT WAIT for our cookie swap in November. Helllooo cheat night!

The Cape. Last weekend down there. It’s crazy how people clear out right after Labor Day weekend. There were only 2 people in my class, 1 of whom was my boyfriend that I had to drag out of bed. Needless to say, he wasn’t pleased. He straight up just didn’t do the arm weights. Got schooled by a 50 year old woman. NBD. I digress. It was so much fun being down there this summer and having an excuse to go to the Cape every weekend. This weekend was the perfect last weekend. It was just the 2 of us, a rare occasion since his family’s house was packed this summer. We spent Saturday bopping around- shopping, lunch, ice cream, and Starbucks. Perfect day. It was so nice not having to rush anywhere or do anything!

Saturday afternoon, we went to one of our best friend’s Cape house for a big family dinner and hung there all night, eating, drinking and playing cards (I sat out on the card game. Fun fact about me- I HATE playing cards. Like, hate it. Have zero interest. Unless it’s Spit. Spit rules, and I’m so good at it. Most other card games, I get bored within .25 seconds and have zero interest in learning how to play most games. Party pooper over here. Go ahead and judge me.. just don’t ask me to play cards..) HOWEVER. I was very content just hanging and chatting :)

Sunday was perfect. Sundays are currently my only rest days, so I cherish them. I slept in until 10 (insanity!!) and shot out of bed and was like “I need pancakes in my life. Right now” Off I went to Stop N Shop. I ended up buying Bob’s Mill Gluten Free Pancake Mix because I was too lazy to make my own Paleo version. It was DELISH. Prob a bit heavier than a Paleo mix, but I was splurging. We added blueberries and EnjoyLife chocolate chips. Had some fresh fruit and organic bacon. Om, nom nom. Rest of the day was spent walking around the golf course and snuggled up on the couch reading Game of Thrones.

One of my favorite weekends of summer. Great people, amazing food, and some relaxing. Oh, and the weather was fresh to death. Why did I just say that?

How was everyone else’s weekend? How’s everyone feel about FALL?!

-Emily