It's the last day in February (and random fact, also my half birthday) and I can't I'm sad to see this month go.

February was not very nice to me.

For such a short month, it managed to wreck a lot of havoc on my wallet.

Between an expensive computer repair, my two lovely car repairs and sizeable car insurance payment (I only pay every six months), I will be so, so happy to see March roll around tomorrow and have all my budget numbers refresh.

(No worries budget conscious friends, I did not put myself in any sort of debt fixing said problems. They still stressed me out a crap ton though.)

February was also crappy on the training front. The weather made me not want to run outside at all. So I didn't really. A few times here or there, but I mostly just ignored running.



I did CrossFit a few times a week in the beginning of the month, but then last week things were just too crazy and I didn't work out once.



This month has just made me feel bleh and I'm ready for a new month and a fresh start.

We change the clocks in March so we'll get some more daylight back in our lives, which will hopefully make me more cheery. Plus I'm hoping the weather will start to warm up (or at least be less dreary) soon.

Perhaps it's not actually February I hate, but more the fact that winter is dragging on and on, and I'm over it.

Either way, peace out February, I will not miss you at all.

When minimalist shoes became all the rage in the running world several years ago, I didn't really get it. I loved my Mizuno Wave Inspires for the support they gave me on runs, and I couldn't imagine sacrificing that.



But then I saw more and more people wearing the Vibram Five Fingers and I was curious and wanted to know why everyone thought they were so awesome. About two years ago, Vibram sent me a pair to test and review. If you've been reading that long you may remember the video series I made as I tested them out.

The Vibrams were fun and different, but I really struggled to build my mileage in them. (I think the longest I ever did was one mile.) I eventually gave up on the minimalist thing because I wanted to be able to run longer distances in something more comfortable.

Fast forward to today, and I'm mostly back to ignoring the whole minimalist thing and still running quite happily in my Wave Inspires.



But then I heard about the Saucony Virratas -- a minimalist shoes with some cushioning to protect your feet. I was intrigued.

Through FitFlulential, Saucony hooked me up with a pair to try out.



Can we talk about how amazing this color scheme is?

Here's the deal with these shoes. You get the 0mm drop of traditional minimalist shoes, but you also get 18mm of cushiony foam under your foot for an added level of protection. (If you want more in-depth details on the shoe's construction, Saucony has a great blog post breaking it down.)

Despite that cushioning, these shoes are extremely lightweight, which I loved.

I tried them out first at my CrossFit classes, where the coaches preach a lot about the awesomeness of minimalist shoes. I got a ton of compliments and really loved the way these held up during the workouts.


Also, look how much the shoes pop in this group shot.

My first run in the shoes was a quick and easy three miler. I loved how light the shoe felt on my foot, and I could barely tell I was running in a minimalist shoe. None of that traditional ankle/calf tightness I've experienced before.



Since the first run went so well, I might have gotten a little bit cocky, and might have forgotten that even though they didn't feel like it, the Virratas are still a minimalist shoe. On my second run in them I decided to tackle five miles.

Bad choice.

On this run, I could definitely feel some of the familiar tightness in my calves and ankles. It wasn't bad, but I did stop to stretch out around the 2.5 mile mark. I also decided not to be stupid and cut the run short. I did 3.5 miles instead.



What I love about these shoes, besides the awesome color, is that I could put them on and still go out on a three-mile run. I didn't have to worry about slowly building my mileage and working my way up to a three miler. I could just go out the door and do it, something I wasn't able to do in other minimalist shoes I've tried.

Now this doesn't mean I'm going to go jump on the minimalist shoe bandwagon and abandon my Inspires. They've done too many great things for me over the years. But I will be working the Virratas in to my routine especially on my shorter runs, and I certainly see them becoming my go-to CrossFit shoe.

What's your take on the minimalist shoe trend? Love them, hate them?

Remember back a few months ago when I was a long distance runner, and I used to blog about long runs and training plans and marathons and half marathons.

I was all "OMG yay running! It's just the best!"



Well I still think running is just the best, but man, winter has sapped all motivation to run anything longer than a few miles at a time.

I figured I'd bounce back from my foot injury and be all excited to start building my mileage again. But that didn't happen.

Who wants to spend hours outside in the bitter cold and wind?



Not me. That's for sure.

But, you might recall back in December how thrilled I was to get accepted in the lottery for the Nike Women's Half Marathon in DC.



Well friends, that race is slowly creeping up on us. I believe we're about two months out at this point, and my longest run since my foot injury has been a whopping five miles.

That's not really going to cut it to get me across the finish line in April.

So I think it's time to dust off some training plans, break out the Gatorade and Gu, and start getting back into a training groove.



I'm running Nike just for fun, so I'm not concerned about times. My training plan will probably be on the lighter side.

I have a lot on my plate right now between my real job, my teaching gig, CrossFit and several other commitments, so I need a training plan that can accommodate all that. I'm not going to set myself up for failure by tackling some super ambitious plan.

I'm thinking three days of running per week with two days of CrossFit should give me the fitness base I need to cross the finish line feeling good.

I haven't finalized the details of the training plan yet, but I'm hoping to do that this week, and then I'll make sure to share it.

Does winter sap your motivation to run long distances?

Over the past three weeks, I think I've dumped something like $600 into my car. That makes me want to cry.

First it was my brakes. The brake pads were literally worn through, and the mechanic was mystified that I was even able to stop my car. True story.

I think in all the years I've owned this car, (it's 10 years old, I've owned it for seven) I've never once replaced the brake pads. Car maintenance fail?

So a few weeks ago, I forked over the money to get new brake pads. Figured that was better than accidentally slamming into the back of another car on the Beltway because I couldn't stop.

Then Tuesday night when I was leaving a Terps basketball game watch, I noticed one of my tires was really, really low on air. So I took it in to get what I assumed was a slow-leaking flat repaired.

Wellllll turns out, I don't have a flat tire. I have a cracked rim.

The guys at NTB were super nice about it and suggested a few places I could call to see about replacing it. I called the dealer first, knowing it would be most expensive, but thinking it might also be my quickest option.

Turns out jokes on me.

Ford stopped making the specific rim my car uses years ago. The worst part of that whole thing was that guy at the dealership was a complete asshole. I was obviously stressed out when I was on the phone with him and he didn't show a bit of empathy. Instead he just rather rudely told me there was nothing he could do.

When I asked him what he suggested I do, he acted like that was the dumbest question he's ever heard in his life, and his answer was, "Anything you do doesn't involve me."

Well thanks for that bud. Glad I've taken my car there for all major service I needed in the past four years.

After some frantic calls to my dad, emails to my cousins and g-chat and text convos with some friends, I found a place that can get the part I need and replace it next week, for a fairly reasonable amount of money. (At least as far as car repairs go).

Until then, I have the donut on my car and my driving is going to be very, very limited.

I've also officially made the decision that this is the last repair I pay for on this car. Time it cut my losses and start researching new ones.

So friends, what's your car advice for me? I'm not picky. All I need is something that's reliable, has great fuel economy and can get me from point A to point B. What should I look at? What should I avoid like the plague?

On Sunday, I took Megan to my CrossFit gym for her first ever CrossFit workout.



My gym is offering a series of free classes on Sunday mornings this month in partnership with City Sports, and I figured it was the perfect opportunity to show some of my friends why I love CrossFit so much.

We got there on the earlier side and Megan had a chance to meet some of the coaches before we got into the heart of the workout.

The free class followed the same basic format as a regular WOD class: Warm-up/agility work, lifting and sweating (aka the WOD).

We tackled lots of crawling patterns during the class. That meant lots of bear crawling. Ick, one of my least favorite things, probably because it requires more coordination than I'm sometimes capable of exerting.


Bear crawling

The lift portion focused on the basic foundational movements we do in most CrossFit classes: squats, hinges and planks.


Colin, one of the coaches, working with Megan on a hinge

The coaches spent time demonstrating each movement and then worked with each person checking out form and correcting any issues they saw.


Coaches Colin and Marcos demonstrating proper plank form


Colin correcting form on a plank

Once the class had mastered the basic movement patterns, it was time to put them all together WOD-style.

Our WOD for the day:

• 5 squats


• 5 hinges


• One lap of bear crawl


• Kettlebell carry

As many rounds as possible in eight minutes

The movements might seem basic and the workout might seem overly simple, but if you used the right weight and pushed yourself, it was definitely a butt kicker.

We actually did a very similar workout in my very first CrossFit class several months ago. This time around though, I was able to increase my weight on all the movements (by quite a bit on the carries, actually) and I was definitely feeling it by the time we were done.

That's one of the best parts about CrossFit -- it doesn't take a bunch of strange or complicated movements to get a really great butt-kicking workout in, and it's scale-able to any fitness level.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the class and lots of people stuck around afterward to ask questions and learn more.


Group shot!

Megan told me the class was the "best worst idea she's ever had." I'm not totally sure what that means, but I'm just going to assume that means it was awesome. She also texted me last night to say she was fairly sore in a hurts-so-good kind of way.

Success!

Maryland vs Duke weekend in College Park is perhaps one of the best weekends of the year.



I will tell you there's no better place to be than Comcast Center when Duke rolls into town. The atmosphere was especially electric this year, since it could be the last time we play Duke at home (since we're leaving the ACC for the Big Ten).

There was not an empty seat in the place and between the music and the screaming fans, it felt like the building was rocking.

There were color-coordinated shirts in the student section. There was Testudo (our mascot) wearing some silly crown. And there were flash mobs during media time outs.

http://youtu.be/G1qoZxWAsk8

I'm not even kidding, flash mobs. They.were.awesome.

With all that energy and enthusiasm, Duke never got the momentum swinging in their direction. Sure they kept the game close, and even led a few times, but never once did that Terp energy leave the arena.



And at the end of the day, despite countless stupid mistakes, we won the game, knocking off the No. 2 ranked team in the country. Final score: 83-81.



Celebrations after the game were epic. Between bonfires and riots and general tomfoolery, College Park was a fun place to be on Saturday night. (For the record, my friends and I didn't riot. We left that to the students.)

I've been to a lot of Maryland vs Duke games in my life, but I think Saturday's game might have been the best one yet.

My running buddy was back in town one last time yesterday to deal with movers and tie up any other loose ends before heading to his new home on the West Coast.

Knowing it was our last chance to run the monuments together, we squeezed in a short run.



It was slow going. My legs were toast from my CrossFit class earlier in the day, and his head was more-than-a-little sore from a nasty fall he had on his snowboarding trip earlier in the week.

But it felt good to tackle the monuments together one more time.

It was chilly out, but the sun was shining and glistening off all the monuments.



We couldn't have really asked for better weather for a send off run.

We did what's become our normal loop, starting near Lincoln, running along the Reflecting Pool past the Korean War and World War II memorials and out around the Washington Monument.



We didn't venture much further down the Mall yesterday because we were short on time and neither of us had a whole lot of energy in the tank.

We chatted a bit during the beginning of the run, about my work and teaching my class, about his new job and office out in LA.

As we were approaching the Washington Monument, I told him to soak it all in because he wasn't going to get views like that in LA.



On the way back, we mostly ran in silence just sort of taking it all in, plodding along and enjoying the weather.

It's probably no surprise to any of you that saying goodbye isn't an easy thing for me to do. So when our run wrapped up, I didn't linger for too much because I knew I'd probably start crying.

We said our goodbyes, made promises to keep and touch and visit and such. So maybe this wasn't really our last run. Just our last run for a little while.

Happy Valentine's Day lovers!

Hope your day is full of happiness, love and maybe a little bit of chocolate.

I decided the best way to celebrate the holiday was to get my ass handed to me at CrossFit this morning.

I love deadlifts. I love deadlift variations. I think I'm having a love affair with deadlifts, so I was happy to see them on the board for today's workout.



The sweat part of the class though. Oh holy goodness. I don't think I'm going to be able to lift my arms over my head for weeks. (maybe that's a bit overly dramatic...)

But for real. Rowing + push presses + push ups. Death to the arms/shoulders.

Also if you guys have a minute today, go check out this blog post by one of my CrossFit coaches, Rachel. It's about being strong vs hitting a magical number on the scale, and it really spoke to me. I have lots of thoughts about this topic that I'll discuss later, but I really enjoyed her post, so go read it. (Plus it's short. Will take you like two minutes to read.)

I feel like I spend a lot of time these days gushing on the blog about how much I'm "OMG soooo in love with CrossFit."

There are lots of reasons, but for me the two biggest ones are the people and the fact that the workouts feels a little like play. Don't get me wrong, it's still hard, but there's something about watching grown adults army crawl and crab walk relay-style across the floor that makes me think I'm in a middle school gym class.

[caption id="attachment_2630" align="alignnone" width="500"] Throwing people over your shoulder...also kind of fun[/caption]

Take Saturday's class for example. We all had to line up shoulder to shoulder holding a high plank. Then the person on the end of the row dropped down to their stomach and army crawled under us. When they got to the end they joined the line of people holding planks.

It was a big class, so you held plank for a long time, and your arms and abs were definitely feeling it, but at the same time we were all laughing and having fun.

It's great to be able to crack a smile with the people who are working out next to you and even get a laugh in about how ridiculous you look crawling across the floor.

Last night's class was no different, but instead of crawling, we practiced handstands. Talk about taking me back to when I was a kid. I was the queen of gymnastics in my backyard growing up. I would cartwheel all over the place and do handstands and the occasional handspring (except then I usually ended up getting hurt.)

[caption id="attachment_2631" align="alignnone" width="500"] Handstands with Joanna[/caption]

These days I can't do a handstand for more than a second without the wall for support, but hey when I've got the wall to lean against, I can hang out there for a little while.

After the fun stuff, we always get down to more serious lift and sweat sessions.

The WOD is obviously what CrossFit is most well-known for and getting a serious butt kicking each class is a huge part of the reason I signed up. But what really makes me look forward to class each day is how much fun the coaches make it and how sometimes it just feels like we're playing on the playground.

Fitness people always say if you find a way to make your workouts fun, you'll keep coming back to them. I've found that to be abundantly true with CrossFit. The fun stuff and the laughs with good people all while still getting an awesome workout make me want to go back day after day.

How is it possible that my quads are still aching after the CrossFit workout I did on Saturday?

I mean, I know delayed onset muscles soreness is a thing and all, but man, to still be sore this long after the fact, sheesh, makes me feel out of shape.

The lift portion of my Saturday workouts was focused on deadlifts and dumbbell presses. Deadlifts are kind of becoming my favorite thing ever.

But it was the "sweat" portion of the class, with its millions of squats, that really did my quads (and arms) in.

Saturday's Sweat:

• 5 sets, per arm


• 6 Single Arm Kettlebell Front Squats, L


• Rack Walk, L


• 6 ingle Arm Kettlebell Front Squats, R


• Rack Walk, R


• Every time you put down the kettlebell, perform 20 swings.

During the workout, my arms were aching from lugging the kettlebell, but I obviously wasn't going to put it on the ground and risk a 20-kettlebell-swing penalty.

But by that night, the soreness in my arms had faded and my quads were on fire. So, so many squats. It was painful to walk down my stairs...and up my stairs...and to get in and out of my car.

I took Sunday as a rest day to let my poor aching legs recover.

Then yesterday I went out for a quick run. Nothing crazy, just three miles, but boy were my quads talking to me. They were especially telling me how much they hated the hills on the route.



We foam roll at the start of every CrossFit class, and I'm sure tonight my quads are just going to loooove that.

Thursdays in CrossFit have become days to work on our sumo deadlifts. We've been focusing heavily on them in the lift portion of the class for the last three or four weeks, and every week, I have progressively lifted more weight.

When we started focusing on deadlifts a few weeks ago, we were doing five sets of five. Obviously, you had to use a lighter weight in order to complete all the reps. At the time, I think the most I lifted was somewhere around 93 pounds.



As the weeks have moved along, the number of reps per set have been cut down. Last week we did five sets of three, and I was able to hit a deadlift PR at 113 pounds.



Yesterday's deadlift workout was five sets of two. That meant I could increase the weight again.

I was able to max out at 133 pounds -- pretty much exactly my body weight. Boo-yah! Go me! Another deadlifting PR.



This whole being new to heavy lifting is awesome because I PR almost everything I do, as I learn what weights work well for me right now.


We ended yesterday's workout with a butt ton of burpees.

Burpees for two minutes straight...followed by another minute of burpees...that's just evil.

For the next four Sundays, my CrossFit gym is partnering with City Sports to offer free classes to anyone who wants to come try it out.



As you may know from reading, I have totally fallen in love with CrossFit and I highly, highly recommend anyone in the DC/MD-area who is even remotely interested to come check out one of the free classes.

The classes are fun, the people are welcoming and the coaches will kick your ass while making sure you don't hurt yourself.

I can't say enough good things about the coaches. They're fun and motivating and make you want to push yourself harder.

Also, they don't take themselves too seriously.


Having fun at the holiday party

If you're interested in checking out one of the classes, you have to sign up online because space is limited. If you're a beginner, it's totally fine! The classes are scale-able to all ability levels.

I convinced a couple of friends to come with me to the class on Sunday, Feb. 17th. So if you want to workout with me (or just laugh at me while I gasp for breath doing burpees), you can sign up for a space in that class and join us for the fun.

I mentioned in Friday's post that a good friend of mine was moving across the country, and I was pretty bummed out about it. Well that good friend also happens to be my running buddy.

Since he's lived in DC, we had fallen into a nice pattern of running about once a week or once every other week together, usually on Tuesday nights.

So last night, it felt a little weird not to be Metroing over to his part of town after work for our weekly run around the monuments.



Since I'm not really digging this new void in my running social life, I've decided to take new applicants for the position of "Jess' Running Buddy."

To qualify one must:

• Be able to run in the early evenings (like 5 p.m.)


• Have a flexible schedule


• Live in an ideal location to run around the monuments


• Be comfortable with either running in silence or having a conversation


• Be two parts listener, one part talker


• Be unafraid to speak your mind on any topic (whether it be politics or telling me I'm a crazy person)


• Be comfortable talking about the uncomfortable topics in life


• Be able to laugh at ridiculous stuff


• Be able to offer sound life advice


• Be someone fun to be around


• Not take yourself too seriously

I know it's a lot to live up to. My running buddy is leaving some big shoes to fill.

No one will be a perfect fill in for him, but I do miss the social aspect of running with a friend. So DC friends, anyone want to schedule a run for the next few weeks? It helps motivate me to get out in the cold if I have a buddy to meet!

After posting about some of the WODS I've been doing in CrossFit that are heavy on the pull ups, I got a few questions about if I can actually do pull ups and how I do them.

First off, I cannot, in anyway, do a real pull up.

I have tried, and I just end up dangling and swinging from the bar looking like a goon.


Bar-hanging...this is what we were supposed to be doing.

So then how do I get through WODs full of pull ups?

By using a band.

Ignore the strong guy doing weighted pull ups in this picture and check out the girl behind him with the resistance band on the bar.


When I do pull ups, I loop a band over the bar like that. I try to pick the middle-difficulty band to make it a little bit challenging, but depending how many pull ups we're doing, sometimes I opt for the easiest band.

Once I've got the band knotted on securely, I step up on a box, put one of my feet in the loop at the bottom of the band, and start doing pull ups.


One of the girls from my gym doing pull ups with a band.

The band gives you some spring and momentum and also helps support some of your body weight.

Several of the people at my gym use bands when we do pull ups, especially the beginners. There's no shame in doing it. I mean everyone has to start somewhere.


I don't think I ever look this happy doing pull ups

So if you're nervous to try CrossFit because you can't do a pull up, don't be! There are ways you can modify almost every move that we do as you learn and get stronger!

I know one day I'll eventually graduate from doing pull ups with a band to doing a regular, unassisted pull up. It's one of my many CrossFit goals.

All photos in this post pulled from my gym's blog! Thanks Josh!

Happy Monday morning after the Super Bowl! I'm so glad I have the day off to recover after the big game. I won't even lie, last night during the 35-minute delay while the lights were out at the stadium, I might have taken a little nap on the floor at my friend's house. (Yes, I napped in the middle of a Super Bowl party...I'm such a granny sometimes)

Embarrassing, but true. At least I didn't miss any of the game!

I was hoping the 49ers would win, so I was a little disappointed in the overall outcome, but eh, what can ya do? (Answer: Avoid Facebook like the plague while it's blowing up with statuses about the Ravens' win.)

Did anyone have a favorite commercial? I think for me it's a toss up between the MnMs one right at the beginning of the game and the super touching Clydesdale one.

Books
I got a Kindle for Christmas, and ever since then, I have been tearing through books like crazy. I never thought I'd be a Kindle person. I love the feel of actually holding a book in my hand and turning the pages.

But, after having the Kindle for a month, I have to say, I'm kind of in love with it.

Not that I will ever give up paper books, but the Kindle does have its perks. It fits in my purse easily so I can take it pretty much everywhere. It's easy to read on a crowded Metro because it takes up less space than an actual book. And it's introduced me to a ton of new books and authors I would have never tried otherwise.

Plus between the e-book options at my library and scoping out Amazon's list of free Kindle books, I haven't paid for a single book I've read yet.

Some of the free books have been great, some have been complete duds, but I thought I'd share what I loved and hated on the book front in January.

The Vow by Kim Carpenter
Yes, this is the memoir the movie with Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams was based on. The book was a super quick and easy read told from the point of view of the husband who's wife suffered amnesia after a car accident. It was the story of her recovery and rebuilding their life together. The book heavily emphasized the role of religion (and I do mean heavily), so if that's not your thing, avoid it. Otherwise it's a decent quick read.

Fluke by Thomas Elbows and Bart Hopkins
This book was ridiculous. Literally so ridiculous that I couldn't stop reading, even though I didn't like it at all.

The Good Lawyer by Thomas Benigno
I love a good crime/trial/lawyer suspension book and this book definitely delivered in that sense. He's no John Grishman, but the book was still a good read.

Worth the Weight by Mara Jacobs
Everything I want when I pick up some chick lit, this book had. It was a super easy read, with likeable characters and by half way through the book you were cheering for the leading lady to get back together with her high school sweet heart who broke her heart all those years ago.

The 4 Hour Body by Tim Ferris
I read portions of this book several years ago (it's not meant to be read cover-to-cover), and I picked it up this year to read some different sections. It's always interesting to see what hacks Tim Ferris comes up with next. I didn't actually put any of them into practice, but I enjoyed reading about the health and fitness related experiments he ran on himself.

Act of Terror by Marc Cameron
DC suspense thrillers are one of my favorite kinds of books -- think Vince Flynn and David Baldacci. While Marc Cameron's book wasn't quite on that level it was still really good. The main flaw was that there were a lot of story lines, and sometimes I'd lose track of what was going on in which setting.

The 13th Juror by John Lescroart
I didn't get to finish this book before my library loan ended (there's no renewals on e-books). It's unfortunate too because though the book started out slowly, I think I had finally made it to the part of the book where it was starting to pick up. I might try to get my hands on this again because I'm kind of curious what happens next, but if I don't it won't be the end of the world.

Have you read anything good this month? I'm always looking for book recommendations!

After writing this post, I was going to go back and edit it, but sometimes I think I edit myself too much. So here you go, this is me being about as real as it gets.

This has been a rough week. Mentally, emotionally and physically I have just struggled to get through it.

Last night, I came home from work so drained, so, so exhausted and convinced I didn't have the physical energy to handle my last CrossFit class for the month. I debated the whole metro ride home in my head, trying to decide if it would be safe for me to go or if I risked dropping a weight and breaking my foot.

I came home, put on my workout clothes, hoping it would help me get out the door.

I filled my water bottle, was ready to walk down the steps to leave and just couldn't do it.

I called my mom.

"Mom, I have had the worst week ever...and I have done nothing but eat chocolate to get by."

I have literally survived on a diet of Nutella, Oreos, chocolate chip cookies and brownies this week. I'm fairly disgusted by the amount of chocolate that I have put in my body, but something inside me was just screaming for comfort food.

I feel like I've been in a tailspin this week and everything is just raging out of control. All those balls I do so well at keeping in the air most of the time....yea this week it felt like they all came crashing down on top of me.

I found out a good friend is moving across the country in a matter of days. It's for an amazing business opportunity and I'm thrilled for him, but I was pretty crushed to get the news. There's been some uncomfortable tension with another one of my friends, and Tuesday everything just sort of bubbled over.

I found myself on a mission at the grocery store to find every single comfort food I could get my hands on.

Walked out of the store with two Greek yogurts (I actually needed those), a tub of frozen Greek yogurt, a jar of Nutella and chocolate covered blueberries. Got home, and dove head first into the Nutella. No joke, polished off half of the jar standing in my kitchen. I can't remember the last time I went on stress/sadness binge that badly. And it was maybe 40 minutes after I'd finished an awesome five mile run with some friends.

It didn't seem like things got any easier as the week progressed. My car needed last minute brake repair so that I didn't accidentally slam into other cars on the Beltway. So long $400. Called the doctor's office to get the results of my blood work and they'd like me to come in for a follow up. Oh heyyyy extra stress, meet my friend Nutella, it's really good at shutting you up.

And yesterday it was just sheer exhaustion. Despite going to bed at 9:30 Wednesday night, I woke up with nothing in the tank. I struggled through the day and was taking hits from the cookie jar at the office as if I was some sort of drug addict needing my next fix....every hour, on the hour.

Pathetic. It was all around a pathetic.

That jar of Nutella -- gone in two days. I don't even want to think about how many cookies, candies and other sweets I demolished at the office.

So last night, on the phone, my mom gently mentioned that maybe after all that chocolate, it would be good to go to the gym.

In my head, I knew it was a good idea, but by that point, I had walked back to my bedroom and collapsed into my bed.

It was so comfortable. I didn't want to move.

I needed sleep.

So after convincing myself that sleep was more important, I made peace with the fact that I was going to skip the workout.

And it was then that I found myself digging for my car keys, walking down the stairs and out the door to the gym. It's like my legs had a mind of their own. My mind was not functioning well, but I found myself in my CrossFit class, figuring I'd do the best I could and give whatever little bit was left.

It wasn't much, and I struggled through a lot of the workout. But I did PR my deadlift again, increasing from last week's 103 pounds to 113 pounds last night.

I felt better when I left, like I'd done one thing that was just for me this week. It wasn't much, and I might not have had the best workout ever, but it was my time, for me and no one else. And I used it to do something that will make me stronger and healthier. No it will not cancel out the piles of chocolate I ate this week, and I will say, I felt like shit Tuesday night after eating all that Nutella. (Not because I felt guilty, but because all that sugar actually made me feel like I was about to toss my cookies.)

I know this post is rambly as hell. I don't know that it actually has a point. I just had a shitty week and I dealt with it by eating a lot of crap that's not good for me. I'm not proud of it, but hell I'm not perfect. And at least last night I went to CrossFit, and did something good for myself.

And today's a new day, and perhaps I will not hear the siren song from chocolate calling my name. Or if I do, maybe it won't be as enticing.