Weight: 155 (-2.4)
Pain: 6 out of 10
Cravings: 1 out of 10
Mood: Tired but Happy
Energy: 3 out of 10
Hello, Week Two.
After such a successful week one, I expected the beginning of week two, at the very least, to be a breeze. I was leaving for New Orleans on Thursday evening and well aware of the challenges the trip might pose but I thought Mon-Wed would be an easy continuation of my super productive Week One. And it might have been, had I gotten more than four hours of sleep a night between Sunday and Friday. When you throw in a puppy with a broken leg, a super delayed flight landing at circa 3 AM and 8 fitness classes in two days, frankly, the whole week should have been a disaster.
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| Poor Sam Adams… |
But it wasn’t.
I followed my food plan but I was exhausted and in a bunch of pain most of the week. But…I Followed. My. Plan. No gluten. Dairy in my coffee but nowhere else. I followed it through extreme fatigue. I followed it through crankiness and the stress of packing every fitness outfit worthy of the huge event I was attending in NOLA. I followed it in the hotel where my only options for breakfast on Friday morning were sausage, egg and cheese biscuits or vinegar packed hard boiled eggs.
I followed it Friday night when we went to dinner in the Quarter and I ordered a steak and veggies instead of fried alligator or shrimp and grits. I did manage to get to the breakfast buffet Saturday morning. For a mere $21, I had eggs, bacon and fruit to start my day with some actual fuel.
Thanks to our amazing tour guide, friend and former (maybe soon to be a returning!!) XSport member, Jen, we actually got to eat lunch Saturday – and not just crappy convention center vendor lunch, but delicious salads from a local shop that Jen ordered, picked up, paid for, AND delivered to us in the middle of our fitness geek out! (In return, we maaaaaaaaay have sneaked her into Combat and Jam so she could see some of the show.)
Then came Saturday night. All day fitness classes + Zero dinner (who has time? we HAD to get to the after party to meet fitness celebrities!) + Drink tickets =
A 2:30 AM Cheeseburger from Krystal on Bourbon St…at least I think it was on Bourbon St. Hell, I’m only half sure it was a cheeseburger….We’ll just chock up my lack of clarity surrounding the restaurant and location to extreme exhaustion from mind blowing fitness experiences. Mmmhmm. That’s it.
Sunday morning, I ate a beignet. Not an order of beignets…one beignet. And that, my friends, was it. I escaped New Orleans with one cheeseburger and one beignet on the Do Not Eat list and I am calling that a WIN.
Getting In My Licks
Our trip down south was to attend the Les Mills Quarterly at the convention center in NOLA. Check it out here on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FitmarcFanPage If you are familiar with Les Mills classes (BodyPump, BodyJam, etc) then you might be able to imagine what it would be like to attend a launch that is held in a huge arena with smoke and lights and yes, fire. Or maybe you can’t imagine that at all. I’m not sure I had ANY idea the scale of this thing before arriving and walking (read: running, pushing and shoving) into the grand room the first day to find 600 cycles set up for the RPM ride of our lives! And it only got bigger and grander from there. I apologize to my Facebook friends for bombarding you with video clips and pictures all weekend. It became clear very quickly none of us had room on our phones for the number of moments we wanted to catch and so, Facebook became the dump zone – post and delete, post and delete. I hope you enjoyed at least a few – but if you missed it – not to fear, I’ve included some favorite moments below.
You may recall that I had a few goals for this weekend. Now, maybe I didn’t go so far as to lick them (at least that they know of…) but I did get pics with some of my favorite presenters. It was a selfie weekend FOR SURE!
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| Sarah Robinson and me. I swear. |
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| Rachael Newsham and me. |
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| Yummy Josef and me. |
Back to NOVA
I collapsed into my bed around 11:30 Sunday night. What. A. Week. So happy to be home but so happy to have made such amazing memories all weekend. Up next? The 100% Dairy Free Two Week Experiment. Since I didn’t have dramatic changes in inflammation last week going complete gluten free, my wellness coach, (and super cool friend) Lindsay Huttman, suggested making the ultimate sacrifice for two weeks to see if there was a change. I’d be lying if I said I am hoping denying myself my one last pleasure, half and half in my coffee, cures me. I am hoping the exact opposite. I hope there is no change and I can go back to eating blocks of cheese and coffee flavored cream. That’s the American Dream, isn’t it?
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| Forever Friends |
changethetape 