Brie Fit

Last night, I saw an acupuncturist who specializes in fertility issues.  The first thing we did was go over the very detailed paperwork I filled out. We spent the first half hour going over my fertility charts, and talking about my cycles and the symptoms that come with them.  I explained my short luteal phase/low progesterone diagnosis, and we talked about the alleged causes of both miscarriages.

She took my pulse in both wrists and said they were "tired," and looked at my tongue.  Based on a few symptoms I noted (very cold hands and feet, lower back cramping, low progesterone), I likely have a "cold uterus" which is not a hospitable environment for implantation.  So, the focus of my treatment will be to warm me up from the inside out!

Then she did the acupuncture session.  I got a lot of needles in my feet, hands, forearms, lower legs, and ears, and a few in my belly and forehead.  I had them in for about 40 minutes, and it was super relaxing–I fell asleep a few times!  Periodically I would feel an almost electric, tingling sensation around some of the needles, especially in my forearms.  Pain-wise, the needles all felt very different going in. Some I barely felt at all, some felt like a bee sting, and some felt like I was being zapped with a tiny electrical current.  The only one that hurt for more than a second was one she placed between two tight tendons in my left forearm, which she then adjusted and felt fine.  As I laid there, at one point, I felt a tingling sensation spread over my chest and neck, and I also felt like my hand was shaking at one point.

Afterwards, she did a short shiatsu massage, which was heavenly.

She gave me some general dietary recommendations for fertility at the end of the appointment:

It’s going to be hard to follow these too closely over the holidays (we’ll be staying with family for five days), but I’ve already started with the walnut-eating, frozen food avoidance, and warm beverages.  When I get home, I plan to reduce my dairy and sweets intake, and up my protein (especially eggs).  (Sidenote: where does one even buy goji berries?)

All in all, I really enjoyed my first appointment.  I plan to go back again on New Year’s Eve.

I also made it to CrossFit tonight for the 12 Days of Christmas WOD:

• 1 push press (65#)
• 2 lateral jumps over the bar
• 3 clapping push-ups
• 4 air squats
• 5 kettlebell SDHP (35#)
• 6 burpees
• 7 abmat sit-ups
• 8 thrusters (45#)
• 9 toes-to-bar
• 10 kettlebell swings (35#)
• 11 box jumps
• 12 overhead walking lunges (25#)

The way this one worked was for the first set, you did 1 push press…then 1 push press and 2 lateral jumps…then 1 push press, 2 lateral jumps, 3 clapping push-ups…and so on.  It didn’t get brutal until the thrusters started, but man, those last few rounds were tough!  I finished in 25:40.  Merry Christmas to me!

Anyway, tomorrow we head out for a whirlwind trip.  We’re spending the 23rd-26th with my family in Chicago and Indiana, then flying out to DC to see Tim’s family from the 26th-28th.  It’s going to be hectic, for sure.  I’m trying to muster up some holiday spirit…I’m hoping it shows up after a glass of wine or two.

What are your holiday plans?

Greetings from Boise, Idaho, also known as my last scheduled trip, in which I gloriously cement my Marriott Elite status for another year.  Huzzah.

I didn’t have to be at the airport until 10 or so (meaning I didn’t need to be awake until 8 or 9), but I still got my butt out of bed for CrossFit.  I hit the snooze button and had a long internal conversation before I did, though.  Loving it makes getting out of bed at 5 am a little easier…but don’t get me wrong, it’s still not easy.

The first we did today was determine our two-rep max (2RM) on shoulder presses.  Mine was 55 pounds, which isn’t what I want it to be, but is a clear improvement from my old solo weight-slinging days.  I remember earlier this year not being able to push press two 20 pound dumbbells, and now I’m doing the 55 pounds without the “push” part!  I tried doing 60 and could get it up about halfway, so I have no doubt I’ll be improving that number soon.

Today’s WOD:

Since there are so many people in the class, half of us, myself included, started at the bottom and worked our way up so we weren’t all fighting for the same equipment at once.  So, I did:

• 10 pullups
• 20 push press (45 lbs)
• 30 box jumps
• 40 push-ups
• 400m run (it was cold as balls, FYI)
• 40 abmat situps
• 30 air squats
• 20 burpees (I. Hate. Burpees.)
• 10 deadlifts (75 pounds.  I had planned on doing 105 pounds but the bars were being used.)

Then, we did a “finisher,” which is why everything is crossed out on the board:

• 10 burpees (still hate burpees)
• 10 situps
• 10 squats
• 200m run (still cold as balls)
• 10 push-ups
• 10 box jumps
• 10 pull-ups

I have decided I have a CrossFit shit list that includes burpees, ring dips, and wall balls.  I used to have pushups and pull-ups on there, but they have gotten better as I’ve improved at them.

(If there is such a thing as an opposite-of-shit list, it would contain squats, situps, box jumps, deadlifts, kettlebell swings, and pretty much everything else.)

Results:

So, 14:07 for the WOD, 55# for the 2RM.  Not bad.

Oh, hey, and my official box photo went up today.  Don’t I look snazzy?

That’s what I look like after sweating my ass off for an hour before the sun has risen.  It’s pretty attractive.

And then I spent the rest of the day flying to Boise.  I don’t have a rental car, and it’s chilly and windy, so I plan to spend the rest of the evening ordering dinner in and watching a Toddlers & Tiaras marathon (and relishing the fact that I did get my butt up and don’t have to work out in a crappy hotel gym).

What exercises are on your personal shit list?

The whirlwind continues.

I made it home to Kansas City at about midnight on Friday, totally exhausted.

BUT, I managed to make it to CrossFit at 11 the next morning. 

5 rounds of:

• 5 kettlebell swings (35 lbs)
• 7 thrusters (2 rounds at 65 lbs, 3 rounds at 55 lbs)
• 9 box jumps
• 12 sit-ups

(I finished in 10:04.) 

Then we rested about 3 minutes, and did 5 rounds of:

• 5 burpees (I. Hate. Burpees.)
• 7 push presses (45 lbs)
• 9 box jumps
• 12 sit-ups

(The goal was to beat your previous time, and I did!  9:58.)

It feels good to be sore again.

Today we house-hunted.  We didn’t see anything revolutionary, but we’re seriously thinking about putting an offer in on our front-runner from last week!

Tomorrow I have the misfortune of being on a 6 am flight…and a flight that arrives back at home at midnight.  It’s going to be a loooong day.

Two weeks of travel left—I promise to be back to more normal blogging soon!

In some places, in Utah?  There is no caffeine. 

(That’s caffeine free pop in that machine, right there.)

In the last two days I’ve eaten lots of nondescript sandwiches.  Subway, work-event-standard-issue deli bar sandwiches, bagel sandwiches at the airport, etc.

(I did eat one really good sandwich, at Bison Witches in Tempe, with my buddies Temerity Jane and Brooke.  Which was awesome, and I want to move them to Kansas City to entertain me.)

Utah is really pretty.

Arizona is really hot, and there are cactuses and palm trees, and very little grass.

I haven’t worked out.  I tried, today, but the hotel treadmill was abhorrent, and the rest of the gym consisted of a rusty old stationary bike.   I ran a quarter of a mile until I could not take the BANG BANG BANG BANG my feet made, did some push-ups and sit-ups until I realized just how nasty the hotel gym carpet was, and quit.  (Which is odd, because the rest of the hotel is quite nice.)

I miss CrossFit almost as much as I miss my husband, and dog, and cats, and bed, and shower.  The late flights, and long drives, and early mornings have been killing me.

Anyway, I’ll be home tomorrow super late.  It’s been one heck of a long week and I cannot wait.  (Plus?  Lots of online shopping packages waiting for me.  It will be like Christmas!)

Pop or soda? 

Today was probably the most calm day I’ll have all week.  I get to stay in the same hotel two nights in a row! 

Breakfast was culled from the Starbucks downstairs.  If you can call it that.

Work provided lunch, and it was unfortunately pretty carby and heavy.  My eyes were bigger than my stomach!  I took some Caesar salad, marinara pasta, chicken lasagna, and a breadstick.  The marinara pasta was cold, so I just had the lasagna, salad, and bread.

I had kind of a rough afternoon.  My sinuses are driving me crazy—they are draining so much I feel like I’m choking—but I eventually made it to the hotel gym.   Nothing intense, just a half hour on the elliptical, and I attempted to do my CrossFit box’s WOD I saw online but kind of failed due to lack of kettlebells.  But whatever.  It was a noble effort. 

Since lunch was heavy, I opted for a lighter dinner, and walked there and back—it was about a 15 minute walk each way, so maybe a mile? But with views like this, how can you complain?

Utah is really astonishingly gorgeous, and the people are SO nice.

I had a cup of chicken noodle soup and a spinach salad with various fruits and goat cheese.

And maaaybe a cookie for later.  Maaaybe.

In other news, this is how Tim and I interact when I’m on the road.  God bless Gchat.

Anyway, tomorrow will be another loong day.  I work from 8-2, then head straight to the airport to fly to Arizona that night.  Is it Friday yet?

Where, in your opinion, have you encountered the nicest people ever?  It’s a toss-up between Utah and Iowa for me.

SO!  It’s a fun travel week for me.  And by fun, I mean not really fun, and also grueling. 

On Sunday night, I flew to Denver and drove to Boulder.  I got to my hotel around 11 pm and promptly fell asleep.  I had trouble sleeping, so I got up a little early and squeezed in a teeny tiny bit of exercise.  I used this tabata timer to do 3 4-minute tabatas: sit-ups, squats, and push-ups.  (And I did NOT do push-ups on my knees.  I did the real big girl kind.  With awful form, I’m sure, and slowly, but we have to start somewhere, right?)

Anyway.  Hotel breakfast.  Except I didn’t eat the banana or the muffin, just the raisin bran and milk.

I worked all morning, and for my lunch I got the largest sandwich ever.  I didn’t realize it was so big, and only ended up eating half of it.  But it was good!  It was a ham, Brie, granny smith apple and spinach panini. 

Once I finished with work, it was straight back to the Denver airport.  See?  I did see a few mountains, from the window of my rental car.

(Sidenote: I really really like Colorado and would totally move there if I had a reason to.)

At the airport, I snacked on a fruit and yogurt parfait and a big bottle of water.

Then, I flew from Denver to Salt Lake City, and grabbed an egg sandwich and some fruit on my way to baggage claim.

It got cold on the drive to my hotel because the cab smelled too bad to eat in.  Yuck.  I already miss a sit-down meal that isn’t quite as carb-heavy as today’s eats!

I need some definite R&R tonight—I don’t fly tomorrow, so I’m hoping to get in a for real workout in the afternoon.

For now: there is a king sized bed, a remote control, and a square of extra dark chocolate calling my name.

Where would you move if you could?

So, I was on the road Thursday and Friday, and I worked until late Thursday night, which explains my absence.  There will be a lot of those these next few weeks, I’m afraid!

Specifically, I was in Columbia, Missouri:

I love visiting colleges in the fall when the leaves are changing but everything is still somewhat green. 

But the fun stuff happened today—house hunting!

We looked at eight houses.  A summation:

• House #1: Top of our price range, VERY nice upstairs layout and kitchen, small living room.  Brand new!
• House #2: Pumpkin orange split-level.  I can look past paint, but man.  No way.
• House #3: Isolated neighborhood, teeny tiny, weird random upgrades (like a built-in wine fridge), ugly backyard
• House #4:  Weird split level setup.  The house felt like it was all stairs.
• House #5:  Nicer split level, great neighborhood, but not a home run.
• House #6: Short sale that we absolutely loved…but has some issues beyond our repair capabilities.  Like water damage issues, and a hole in the roof.  I really wish it would
• House #7: Our current front-runner.  Pictures below!  Great layout, lots of big windows.  Beautiful kitchen with all new cabinetry, countertops, and appliances.  Would need some minor work—painting outside, new light fixtures inside, some landscaping—but we really like it!
• House #8:  Brand new and gorgeous, bad location.

We’re going to keep looking next week.  Today’s viewings really refined what we’re looking for—I think we’re definitely anti-split-level, looking for a two-story that’s pretty much move-in ready.  Thankfully, our realtors are great and will be scouting out some new places for us to check out!

I leave tomorrow night for the start of basically two weeks of almost non-stop travel.  It’s going to be bananas and I’m not really looking forward to it.  Forgive me if posting is a little spotty!

Any house hunting horror stories?

Today was a much better WOD.  I felt good and liked lifting heavy!  

5 rounds of:

• 3 deadlifts (@ 70 lbs)
• 6 power cleans (@ 45 lbs—could have gone up but I was sharing a bar)
• 12 push presses (@ 45 lbs)

Finished in 9:18.  My time would have been faster, but I was rotating weights with two other people so there was a bit of a backup.  It takes a little longer to do 12 presses than it does 3 deadlifts, you know? 

(The kitten was absent today.  I hope it’s okay!)

Then we finished up with a rousing squat tabata from hell (squats for 20 seconds, hold in the “down” squat position for 10 seconds, repeat for 4 minutes), and an ab work tabata.

Anyway!  Then I spent the next eight hours in a car.  My co-worker and I were supposed to take a three hour trip (…a threee hour tooooour), but apparently there were major road closures that meant we couldn’t get where we needed to go without a really long detour which would make us miss the whole point of the trip anyway.

So, we turned around and went home.  I won’t lie, there was McDonald’s for lunch (options are limited in rural northern Missouri—it was that or a questionable “steakhouse” in a 50 mile radius). 

And since I’d planned on being gone, there was nothing thawed for dinner, which means breakfast for dinner! 

(wheat English muffin with egg + white, a strip of bacon and a sprinkle of goat cheese, yogurt with fresh pineapple and granola)

Tim’s finally come around the the gloriousness of BFD.  I fall more in love with him every day.

So.  All in all, not a hugely great day, but…such is life.  I can’t wait for the weekend!  Is it Friday yet?

I’ve been in a car for way too long today.  A tiny shoebox car, at that.  And I’ve eaten far too few fruits and veggies.

But I’m home.  Finally.  Apparently I looked like hell when I rolled into the office around 3:30 because my boss told me to not worry about checking my e-mail and voicemail, and to just go home.

So I did.  And then I went to 6 pm CrossFit, which I missed almost as much as Tim and the pets.

We did 3 rounds of:

• 30 push-ups
• 30 sit-ups
• 30 overhead squats

I finished in 11:45.  Then we did a round robin type workout with planks, rope climbs, and burpees.

(I hate burpees.  I think they are my most reviled CrossFit exercise.)

Dinner was simple and quick: spinach salad, whole grain pasta with lean ground beef and spicy tomato sauce.

It’s good to be home.  I can’t believe tomorrow’s Friday!  Travel makes the work week fly by.

What weird things do you miss most when you travel?  (I always miss my own shower!)

So I’ve been driving a shoebox all day.

I don’t know what I did to piss off the rental car guy at work, but this teeny Fiat will not even fit two small bags in the trunk.  I had to put one in the “backseat.”

Anyway.  Morning WOD before I hit the road was probably a top three hardest WOD ever.  I felt like puking at the end, for real.

Four rounds of:

• 22 kettlebell swings (@ 35 lbs)
• 22 box jumps
• Run 400m
• 22 burpees
• 22 sit-ups

I finished in 32:10.  It was hellacious.   By the end of the first round I was dripping sweat onto the mat during my burpees. 

BUT, I am very proud that my sit-ups are improving.  I haven’t done a half-assed crunch in over a week.  I am slow, but I get the full range of motion and that’s important.

So, I’m nowhere interesting.  Had Subway for lunch, Chipotle for dinner.  Week one of six of intense travel begins.

I did stock up on breakfast provisions at the grocery store, though.

Not perfect, but I’m working without a fridge and/or any utensils beyond a plastic knife and fork I purloined from Chipotle.  And it’s better than breakfast at the 43290543 fast food places around my hotel.

What’s your dream car?