I hope everyone had a great long weekend! Mine was longish—I had to work Monday morning, but I had the afternoon off so I tried to make the most of it!
I started Monday morning with a 6am lifting session at the gym. I figured 6am on Labor Day would be a time I would find a free squat rack! I did a few sets of 3 counts down, pause at the bottom, before moving on to an 8 minute squat sequence: 2 back squats every 30 seconds. I used 135#. Then, I did some kneeling single arm dumbbell presses (8 each) alternated with 5 pistols (each). I finished with 2x500m on the rower.
Breakfast post-workout was this delicious yogurt:
Then, it was off to work! The zoo was PACKED.
The Tasmanian Devils are my favorite.
After work, I headed to a nearby coffeeshop, Kayak Cafe, to work on my online class since I was a little bit behind my own schedule. I had been there for lunch before, but hadn’t tried the coffee. While this wasn’t on my specific list, it looked good! The only problem was the place was PACKED. Lots of students, plus most places were closed for Labor Day.
Points for presentation for sure.
My decaf cappuccino was served with a sparkling water palate cleanser and chocolate covered espresso beans.
This was good! Again, Blueprint is still my favorite. After working for an hour or so, I ordered a Mediterranean salad for lunch.
After deciding I was probably starting to overstay my welcome, I was off in search of other activities and other places in which to study. My allergies have been pretty awful lately, and I thought it was from the kitties+dog at the house, so I didn’t want to go home. I was feeling pretty rough all day, and froyo sounded fantastic on my itchy throat.
I went to Orange Leaf and got some brownie batter, salted caramel, and birthday cake froyo. Topped with chocolate and caramel sauces, and some chocolate chips. I may have been a little trigger happy though, and ended up with 11oz of yogurt—I couldn’t even finish it!
On the way to froyo, I saw a movie theater and had the idea that a movie would be a good way to spend the afternoon. I went and saw The Secret Life of Pets, which was really cute! I also discovered a giant mall, and stopped by GNC to take advantage of Labor Day sales by buying move Flapjacked protein muffins.
Sadly, all day, even in the movie theater, my allergies were pretty killer. On the plus side, it means I’m probably having issues with something blooming, not just the cats. I’m allergic to pretty much every tree out there.
After the movie, I ventured into the heat for a short track workout. Just a one lap warm up, followed by 6x200m repeats.
Afterwards, I headed to the grocery. I swear I spend so much of my life buying food. It doesn’t help that different stores carry different things I want. I picked up dinner for the next 4 nights: a big spaghetti squash! I’m low-key obsessed with it right now. I think I’m going to do a more detailed blog post with recipes next time I buy one. The key is making the squash taste delicious before even adding sauce (I’m still trying to use up my marinara). I added garlic, Italian herbs, mozzarella, and salt and pepper to my squash base, before topping it with marinara, parmesan, and some fresh mozzarella.
Because I was feeling so rough and didn’t have work Tuesday (it’s my normal day off), I decided to take the strong stuff to ward off my allergies. I slept for 9.5 hours and woke up feeling amazingly well rested, and definitely feeling better. My itchy throat, which was the most annoying symptom, was gone!
I explored the Cherokee area for the first time for my coffee of the week. I went to Sump Coffee.
It had a very hipster vibe, as do most good coffeeshops. I’ve also noticed a lot of places do pour over coffee these days.
That being said, I would have to take points off for 2 things: it was not in a very good neighborhood, especially the drive there (not really their fault but I wouldn’t make a habit of going late at night) and they didn’t have decaf. As you may know, I’m crazy sensitive to caffeine. I decided to persevere though for the sake of my reviews, and ordered a regular cappuccino.
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It was beautiful! Good quality milk foam, and really good coffee. Still not as good as Blueprint, but probably above Rise. I only drank maybe 1/4-1/3 of this because I didn’t want to die, haha! I tolerated the caffeine far better than I have in the past year, which I think is a result of my stomach healing. (I don’t understand it, but when I damaged my stomach my caffeine tolerance because nonexistent.) I think that was the edge of what I could handle without feeling bad, so I’ll take it!
After a couple of hours there, I headed to Whole Foods for lunch, since I was craving some veggies, and I needed to buy a reusable bag so I don’t end up with 50,000 plastic bags.
Roasted corn (super good), curry roasted cauliflower, sweet potato sesame salad, and herb roasted beets.
Crossfit this evening absolutely destroyed me. My hands are shaking as I type this! We started with 5×4 narrow grip bench press, which is easily my worst lift. I made it to 90# for 4, and 95# for 1. I’ve never actually done a 1 rep max for any type of bench, so this might be considered it. Which would make this my first and only PR of 2016! Hah, I’ll take it!
The WOD was:
21-18-15-12-9-6
power clean
jerk
65#
I Rxed it and I nearly gave up. I literally finished 5 minutes after everyone else in the class. Which means people were watching just me killing myself for 5 solid minutes. But the great thing is, they were cheering me on! That’s why I love Crossfit. This workout was absolutely killer on my grip strength. I could barely hold the bar by the end, but I finished in 17:03. I feel like I needed a killer workout. I had plenty of energy, and felt like I needed to push myself. So there it is.
For dinner, I continued the week of spaghetti squash. Today’s was a garlic-parmesan chicken.
I mixed in parmesan, Italian spices, garlic powder, salt and pepper, and pre-cooked chicken. Then, I topped everything with mozzarella. I think in the future I might mix in the mozzarella and top it with parmesan. On the side, I had a salad with a new dressing I picked up.
I like it! It has a strong apple cider vinegar flavor, which is nice. I wanted to mix it up a little from my typical Balsamic Vinaigrette.
Also, I wanted to close with something that’s been on my mind today. When I lived in DC, I fell in love with the city. I also really loved Knoxville (in a different way). I wondered if I would love any city I lived in on my own. However, while I do like St. Louis and am happy with my life right now, I didn’t fall in love with it in the same way. Which in some ways gives me a better sense of the direction I want to go in, and is a bit of a relief. We’ll see where the future takes me! I also do miss doing vet stuff, so while I do like behavior, I am more confident in what I want to do. This reaffirms it!
What is your favorite city?
I love DC. SF is great too, and feels like home. I also really like Seattle, but not in the same way!
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