Crossfit, Fitbit stats and random updates

Crossfit Sadly work has become crazy and I've moved away from my nice window corner desk, so no more blogging at work, so as a result I'm waaaay behind in updating. I have been going to Crossfit, but really intermittently. Since I've moved house and become car-less, I need to develop a new routine for going so that I don't have to think, I just do it. Last week I went twice and this week I've gone twice already so far and will either go tomorrow or Friday, so I'm getting back on track. I start Uni again on Monday though, which means I'll have to make up a lot of time at work so that'll throw another spanner in the works but I'll try my best to fit everything in.  I have been riding my bike to Crossfit and then riding to the station to go to work on the train, but it's a major pain in the ass. I'm rubbish at riding and after Crossfit it is particularly difficult!! The last two days it's been raining in the mornings so I've gone on public transport, which is actually way less hassle. There's a bus that connects with the tram, so it doesn't take very long at all and means not having to deal with peak hour traffic on the bike. It's a bit lazy of me, but it is a lot less stressful and means I get to work a bit earlier too so I might do it more often. Tuesday last week Wod 1 400m row (run for the others) 20 double unders  x 5 18mins 37 seconds Wod 2 5 x 8rep max deadlift (50kg) 5 x max dead hang chin ups (red and yellow band - 6, 5, 4, 4) Thursday last week Wod 1 "Annie" 50, 40, 30, 20 10 Double unders Ab mat situps 17mins 54 seconds (150 of each) I had mad ass-crack rash after this and my abs hurt so much that I couldn't sit up from lying on the couch for about 4 days, I had to roll off the couch, uber graceful!  I was the last one to finish because I completely suck at double-unders and they wouldn't let me do less than the prescribed amount! Wod 2 9 x burpees 9 x chin-ups (Red band) 16 mins total, every even minute do burpees, every odd minute do chins The burpees were the slow part, 9 doesn't sound like much but it's 8 rounds, so 72 of the fuckers. I wasn't making it through all of them after a few rounds before my minute was up and it was back to chin-ups! Tuesday this week 45 pushups 30 chin ups 500m row 60 toes to bar 60 box jumps 1km row 90 kettle bell swings 90 wall balls 1.6km row This was a brutal workout!! I only got up to 50 wall balls before I had to leave for work, that took me 47 mins to get to that point. It was a crazy. My shoulders are so sore today.  Wednesday this week Wod 1 5 x 5 rep max dead lift (60kg) In between each set accumulate 50 strict chin ups total. Wod 2 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 - Rope climb 18, 15, 12, 9, 6 - Sandbag shoulder throws (the bit at the start) and Overhead squats So, 5 rope climbs then 18 sandbags then 18 overhead squats, 4 rope climbs, 15 sandbags, 15 overhead squats etc. etc. I'm still on the damn training bar and 5kg in plates for overhead squats, I just suck at them. The sandbag throws were horrible! You bash your shoulder with it every time, ouchies. I still can't do rope climbs at all either, it really pisses me off!!! Goddamn rope. It didn't help that I didn't wear a long sock and I copped some sweet rope burn, oh yeah. Fitbit About a month or so ago I bought a Fitbit, which is essentially a souped-up pedometer. It records steps, time asleep, calories burned and elevation (so going up and down stairs, hills etc). It syncs with Myfitnesspal to track calories and it's got this cool web interface with graphs and all fun stats. It also sends you a weekly update so you can see how you went for the week. I've posted an example of that below, ignore the calories, I didn't record them all that week so it's out of whack.  It's been really interesting, I seem to walk a lot which I guess I knew, but I didn't think I did 10,000 steps so often but it seems I do, I guess I always go for a 30min walk at lunchtime and walk to and from the station every day. Apparently it underestimates Crossfit workouts because it doesn't estimate for weight lifting etc. It definitely makes me more conscious of activity levels, how much I'm sleeping and calories burnt, although that said, I still go over my calorie limit regularly!! I guess if I stuck to my limit it would definitely help me lose weight.  Hi Emma H., here are your weekly stats. 04/02/2013 to 10/02/2013 WEEK'S MOST ACTIVE DAY Sat, Feb 9 WEEK'S LEAST ACTIVE DAY Mon, Feb 4 TOTAL STEPS 49,362  DAILY AVERAGE 7,052 steps BEST DAY 17,430 steps TOTAL DISTANCE 35.70 km  DAILY AVERAGE 5.10 km BEST DAY 12.52 km TOTAL FLOORS CLIMBED 65  DAILY AVERAGE 9 floors BEST DAY 24 floors TOTAL CALS BURNED 15,952  DAILY AVERAGE 2,279 cals BEST DAY 2,607 cals CALORIES IN VS OUT -7746 WEEKLY TOTAL 15952 cals burned 4706 cals eaten -3500 plan deficit WEIGHT CHANGE 0.0 kg LIGHTEST 74.9 kgHEAVIEST 74.9 kg AVG SLEEP DURATION 6 hrs 21 min  AVG TIMES AWAKENED 28 AVG TIME TO FALL ASLEEP 0hrs 18min Last week's badges

Other stuff

I got some new shoes for Xmas (but they only arrived in February), they're New Balance Minimus and they're for barefoot style running. I've read a lot about it online and that style of running seems to help some people who have knee issues when running, so I'm hoping that it might help me, once I've got the running style down. You have to work up to it really slowly, so start only doing a few minutes at a time to strengthen the muscles you need to use for that style. So far so good, but I've only been a couple of times since I got them a couple of weeks ago.

Sweet shoes!

I'm still paleo, although I have to admit I've been a bit lax lately, but have been keeping gluten-free at least and have even been getting gluten free pizza if Glenn orders pizza on the weekends, instead of just going with whatever he gets. My weight hasn't changed in ages which is annoying, but I only have myself to blame. I've kind of lost motivation at the moment, work is stressful and I can't really be bothered with a lot of things. I'll get it back I'm sure. I also bought a Nigella Lawson book recently, which was a huuuuuge mistake. So many delicious, non-paleo things to try! I really shouldn't have bought it, it's been responsible for a lot of off plan meals lately but they are delicious!

Breakfast after Crossfit is the best part of my day!

I recently made some salsa verde and it was freaking amazing and so very easy! I had it with fish on paleo tacos and on my breakfast a few days in a row. I highly recommend it, it would go well with any kind of meat or fish.

Fish tacos paleo-style. So good!

Crossfit Tuesday, new goals and other random stuff

Goals and things

I've made some goals for myself this week, my first goal is to get back into my regular Crossfit routine, even if that involves 6:30am tram rides! Related to that, I'm going to try eating more carbs and see if that helps my motivation for everything.  I've been eating pretty low carb during the week for a while now and I started thinking that maybe that's why I have been completely sucking at workouts and have had no motivation to go.

I seem to remember doing my best at Crossfit when I was doing Leangains, which was a whole lot more carbs than I am eating now, so I am going to try for 80 - 100g carbs a day for a few weeks and see if that changes anything. It'll probably mostly be sweet potato, so I might get bored of it, but I'll see how it goes. I'm also going to really try and get 8hrs sleep, because that never happens and is a big factor in weight-loss (and also my ability to get up at 6:15am!).

So the gym owner randomly told me today that he wants me to stop using bands for chin-ups this year, so much for my goal of going down one band this year!! We shall see, I'll give it a shot and honestly I think it's more my hands holding me back than my muscles, I always drop because my hands are killing me, not my arms/back. I've read a few blogs on chin-up grip styles and I'm going to try changing my grip and see if that helps and if not then maybe try taping them. Don't think I really want to give into gloves just yet. Hopefully if all my goals for this week work and I can keep them up, then I'll be in beast-mode by the end of the year!!

This is totally going to be me by the end of the year!
(image from  here)

My other short-term goal is to find a bloody house, I didn't get the one I applied for last week either, not sure what is going on, maybe other people are offering more money than advertised or maybe landlords want the security of 2 incomes versus 1.. or maybe I have a bad reference from the place before this. I would hope not, but you never know, I'm not even sure the estate agent had any idea who was who in that house.

I'm tempted to leave that house off the application form but I'm sure they'd then question the 18 month gap in my rental history. House hunting sux when you work full time in the city and don't have a car, luckily there's been a few inspections after work that I can get to, but it would be much better if I could just take a day and drive around during the week looking at everything and get in before everyone else. Fingers crossed that something pans out this week.

My car got towed to the wrecker today :( Poor thing, she'd only done about 144,000kms, which is pretty low for a 19 year old car. I'm sad to lose her just because the front end was all squashed in, but I like to think that's it's like organ donation, all her parts will go into other cars to keep them going.  Now the long battle to save up for a new car, pity I don't quite have the budget for one of these!

Toyota 86
Image from here.

Now onto Crossfit, I've decided to keep posting my workouts to keep me accountable and see my progress.

Crossfit


WOD 1

7 x hang power-snatch (20kg)
15 x burpees
30 x kettlebell swings (16kg)

x 3

Finished in 16mins and 5 seconds and did my first set of kettlebell swings unbroken, WOO!

Strength

5 x 5 push-press, I worked up from 15kg, so it was 5 @ 15kg, 5 @ 20kg and then 5 x 5 @ 25kg (35 total).

I've lost a lot of strength, I had a look in my book and in Feb 2012 I was doing 5 x 5 at 20kg, so I haven't really progressed much, or more likely, I've regressed lately because I've been slack. Oh well, onwards and upwards!

2013 so far

I haven't posted in a really long time, like a lot of things, I just haven't had time or motivation to do it. So far 2013 has been off to a bit of a crazy, unsettled start.

I have worked out that as much as I'd like to think of myself as a free spirit, open to excitement and mystery, I'm really just a creature of habit who hates change.

It really began at the end of 2012 when I had a car accident just before Christmas and my car was completely fucked up, the accident wasn't my fault, a chick turned right without looking and I was going straight with a green light and had nowhere to go but into her car (we were both fine). It's taken until today to get it all sorted out, well, partially anyway, I know what is happening now at least but I still don't have the money from it being written off.

I had my brother's car for a week over Christmas/New Years while he was away, but since then I've been car-less, which is the first time ever since I first got a car when I was 19. It does make life a whole lot harder without a car. The hardest thing for me has been trying to get to the gym, I've had to go on the tram which really makes it that much harder to get my ass out of the house at 6:30 in the morning to get there, so I haven't been going regularly at all. I should really sort my bike out and ride there, although the prospect of doing that at 6:30 in the morning is also really unappealing! It's also hard to see Glenn at the moment too because it involves very long and boring tram rides, if I didn't get motion sick on trams then it'd be fine, I could read or use my phone, but just sitting there for over an hour feeling vaguely unwell is really tiresome.

One of the other things that's unsettled is work, my direct supervisor left before Christmas and they didn't manage to fill the position, I didn't apply because my manager (the one above my supervisor) pretty much hinted at me that there is no way I'd get it (we've had a tense relationship for a while), but then they didn't fill it, so now they've put me in the acting role and my manager seems to be encouraging me to apply for it when it's re-advertised, so not sure what happened there but she's completely changed her tune.

The problem is that the person previously doing it left in December, so there's been no handover, no process notes, no nothing! And on top of that, I'm still doing my old job as well. Luckily it's still quiet at the moment otherwise it would be a complete nightmare. Because it's a far more senior role with a lot more responsibility, I'm petrified of fucking it up and proving my manager right, so everyday is quite stressful just because of that. I think I'm doing okay, but I've realised that I have a deep-seated fear of failure that's hard to get past and has really held me back in everything. Confidence in myself is definitely something I need to work on.

The third thing that's unsettled is trying to find a flat, I've only been looking for a couple of weeks but I'm already over it. I am excited about getting my own place, but not excited about all the crap you have to go through to get there. It's also really really hard to go house hunting without a car, I've been limited to looking when my brother doesn't need his car, or going to places that have open for inspections after work and are near a train station. I've got an application in for one at the moment and I'm crossing my fingers that I get it, it's large for a 1 bedroom and in a good location, I just hope no one beat me to it or has better references than me.

I've kind of lost motivation for everything at the moment,  I'm not sure exactly what is going on but I guess I feel a bit depressed/stressed with all the uncertainty in my life right now. I like things to be stable and I like my routine and I just can't have that at the moment.I need to find my motivation again soon though, otherwise I'm going to turn into a slob, fast.

I need my Crossfit routine back, it was so ingrained before that I didn't really have to think about it, just got in the car and went, now it's a big hassle. My eating also hasn't been stellar, I think I'm still in holiday mode. I need to get back to where I was before Christmas, only eating 3 times a day, no snacks and minimal, if any fruit. I was feeling good then and I think I'd dropped some weight, now, not so much, I think I have an extra roll of fat developing over my ribs.

I have had two diet wins this week though, two nights I really really wanted takeaway, but I had some meat in the freezer and veggies in the fridge, so I ended up cooking really simple paleo meals,which turned out to be awesome and saved me money as well. It really shows that preparation is key, if I didn't have any meat in the freezer or random veggies in the fridge then it would have been pad thai or pizza for sure, but because I had the option to be healthy, I was able to take it. Weekends are always a struggle though, but hopefully I can get to a point where I can pick good choices even if we do get takeaway or eat out. I need to get Glenn on board more cuz I'm so easily tempted into being bad if someone else is!

So anyway, even though I am unmotivated and not making headway on anything, I do have some goals for 2013 which I'm going to put here so that I can check back and see how I'm going.


2013 goals

Personal

• Find a new flat
• See friends more
• Read more books
• Do uni work well ahead of time, stay organised
• Man the fuck up and get over being scared of everything
• In particular, stop being scared of failing and just do my best, at everything

Money

• Pay off credit cards
• Actually get some savings and an emergey fund
• Buy a car, or learn to live without one

Work

• Get more professional looking work clothes
• Look more professional (hair/makeup)
• Act more professionally
• Less fucking around on the internet
• Give this job a real shot and apply when it's advertised
• Find a new job if this one sucks

Exercise/diet

• Go to Crossfit at least 3 times a week, try for 4
• Eat Paleo 80% of time, for real and only break it for something totally worth it
• Make better choices when eating out/getting takeway, there are always better options!
• Sort out knee issues
• Climb that fucking rope
• Go down a band in chin-ups
• Stop thinking I can't do it and just fucking try my best

So basically, 2013 is the year of letting go of fear, trying my best and acting more like an adult. I'll keep you posted.

Crossfit Monday and American food

Crossfit

I'm finally back at Crossfit properly this week. I was freaking out before the session yesterday because someone (I'm looking at you Amanda!) gave away bits of the WOD on Facebook which made it sound super scary. Luckily though, I'd built it up in my head so much that when I got there and found what the WOD actually was, it wasn't so bad!

WOD 1

18 x front rack lunge (9 per leg) - 15kg
18 x chin ups (2 x orange bands)
18 x box jumps (small baby box)

18min AMRAP

I got through 3 full rounds and was up to the 9th chin-up in the 4th. So that was 72 lunges, 62 chin-ups and 54 box jumps.

I SUCK at the lunges and it is very clear when I'm doing them that I have a dodgy right leg because I just have no strength at all in some of the muscles needed to do that exercise. My left leg is pretty good and stable, but on my right it just feels like half the muscles aren't even firing at all and it's an immense struggle to get back up again! I guess I know what I need to work on, ugh.

For chins I should have just used a red band but the numbers scared me, so I wussed out.

WOD 2

10 x push-jerk (25kg)
25 KB swings (16kg)
400m run (rowing for me)
2mins rest

x 3

I can't remember what my time was.. over 20mins I think. I like it when we get built in rest!

American food

Since this is also a food/diet blog, I figured I'd share some photos of the dreadful diet I had while I was in America! This really is how NOT to eat :)

My first meal in the USA at the Cheesecake Factory in San Fran, this is apparently a salad!

Tacos in Vegas

A burger with sweet potato fries, the fries were gross, my homemade ones are so much better!

Blue drink in Vegas

Another drink in Vegas, delicious sugary margarita! 

 

Another "salad", from our hotel in Vegas. This was seriously delicious, it had fried chicken, cheese, corn, and salad stuff.

Probably the healthiest thing I ate all holiday, breakfast from the buffet at our hotel in Vegas

Omelette at Venice Beach in LA 

Mmm beer, at Santa Barbara pier

Breakfast at a diner in San Fran, pancakes seem to come with everything

Cioppino (seafood stew) in San Fran

Mmm bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon in NYC

The most amazing sandwich ever, the Reuben at Carnegie Deli in NYC

Inside the Reuben! Pastrami, Sauerkraut and Cheese. Don't worry, we shared it!

Cheesecake at Carnegie Deli, amazing also!

Scary ingredients in a Starbucks yogurt, High Fructose Corn Syrup is mentioned about 4 times!

Well deserved margarita ($8!!) after walking back to midtown from Brooklyn!

Last drinks - cider at the airport in San Fran :( 

These photos don't show the 3 or so pancake related meals at IHOP, a couple of pizzas, pastas, copious beer in the hotel room and frozen microwave dinners we also consumed!

It seemed to be very hard to get healthy food there, sure you can get salads, but most of them include fried chicken, tons of cheese and masses of dressing. Sides were generally some kind of white carbs and all the food at the supermarkets seems to have twice as many ingredients as here.

Now that I'm home, I'm back being pretty strict paleo (some weekend nights not included!), but more on that in a later post.

Crossfit (Thurs, Fri, Tues, Thurs), random food addiction and the trip

Crossfit

I went to 4 Crossfit sessions last week, first time ever I think! I wasn't that sore either, so maybe I'll have to aim to do that more often.

Thursday

WOD

25 x double unders
10 x full clean (25kg)
500m row

x 3

Doesn't sound long but it was a struggle. I suck at double-unders, so that took up most of my time and squats make me want to cry, so I'm very glad it was only 3 rounds!

Finished in 22mins 8 secs.

Finisher

1 x 40kg sled pull the length of the gym and back
20 x lunges
1min plank

This was supposed to be x 4 but I only had time to do 2 rounds before I had to rush off to get ready for work.

Friday

WOD 1

10 - 1

Push-Jerk (30kg!)
Burpees
Back squat (30kg)

So 10 of each, 9 of each, 8 of each etc. until you're down to 1 of each. 55 reps of each total

I went up in weight for push-jerks, not sure if that was a good idea or not, it was hard but I got through it, so I guess maybe it was!

WOD 2

A partner workout, 1 person rows 300m while the other does sit-ups until they finish and then you swap, each person rows 3 times and you score the sit-ups as a team. I was with a guy and we got 193 sit-ups, woo!

Tuesday (this week)

Thankfully this was a pretty easy session. I was considering not going but I'm glad I did.

WOD 1 

5 x deadlift (50kg)
10 x burpee

x 5 rounds

My time was 6mins 55seconds, apparently the record is 2mins 56 seconds.. NFI how the hell you'd get out 50 burpees in that time!

WOD 2

15 x pushups (chest to ground, using bands)
1 x rope climb

12min AMRAP

I got through 5 full rounds, still can't do rope climbs.

Thursday (this week)

WOD 1

This was supposed to be a partner version of the "Kelly" workout, but there were only 3 of us, so we just did it individually.

400m row (run for the others)
30 x wall ball (6 pound ball)
30 x box jump (baby box)

30min AMRAP.

Actual "Kelly" is 5 rounds in however long it takes you. I had a look in my book and I last did it in April and it took me 37mins something to do the 5 rounds. For this AMRAP I did 4 full rounds and had done 27 wall-balls in the 5th round when the 30mins was up, so I would have definitely smashed my time if it had been normal "Kelly".

To finish

1 min max kettlebell swings (16kg)
1 min rest

x 5

I was tired so I never got through the full minute, I think I could have toughed it our really but my mental energy just wasn't there to fight the urge to stop, so for each round I got roughly 19 swings out.

Everything else

Next week is my last week of Crossfit before 4 weeks off, I'm a bit worried about how much condition I'll lose, but I am aiming to do hotel WODs at least, if not trying to get to an actual Crossfit box while I'm away. I have downloaded a few WOD apps to help me out and I will also write a list of some WODs I can do with minimal or no equipment. I will take a skipping rope too so that I can do double-unders too for some quick cardio.

I am also really worried about how I'm going to go with my eating, I definitely want to try a bunch of food places and food we can't get over here.. but at the same time I don't want to go crazy and put on 5kg, which is highly possible for me! There was a great post on Robb Wolf's blog today with this great quote -  "If you can't turn it off, don't turn it on!", basically, if you have a trigger food, don't even go there at all cuz you won't be able to stop once you start. I have written it on a post-it and stuck it to my desk, but I might need to tattoo it to my hand while I'm away.

Bread is definitely one of my triggers and something that I need to learn to steer well clear of, because once I start, I really cannot stop. Bread is also something that we get here, so there's no need for me to eat it while I'm away and from what I've heard, it's a lot easier to get things like burgers etc. wrapped in lettuce or on salad in the USA, so I won't need to eat it. Free bread baskets at restaurants and also toast at hotel breakfasts might be a challenge, but hopefully they'll have eggs in the hotel and we can say no to the free bread.

There is one food that I am currently completely addicted to that I won't be giving up any time soon.. Aldi tinned mackerel. Yes.. I am addicted to tinned mackerel.  I eat it as a snack in the afternoons and it's pretty much the highlight of my day, I look forward to it even more than lunch. I know it's in "vegetable" oil, which is bad, but I really don't care, it is so delicious and does actually stop me from needing to eat anything until dinner at 8:30 or 9pm, so it's one addiction I'm not breaking!

I love you Aldi mackerel

The other thing we'll probably be doing a lot of while we're away is drinking, hopefully not quite to the excess that happened last Saturday, but I'm certainly not going to be shying away from cocktails in Vegas or champagne in NYC!

Messy night in the making

For part of our accommodation we'll have a little kitchenette thing, I think it only has a microwave and a fridge, but you can plenty of food in the microwave, including bacon and eggs, so hopefully we won't need to eat every meal out.

Delicious breakfast and totally microwaveable!

Friday, Monday, Tuesday Crossfit, long socks and nut heaven

I'm so behind on posting all these, sorry for everyone who hates my boring Crossfit posts, there's some food stuff down the bottom if that's more your thing!

Friday

Warm-up

5 x push-up
10 x air squat

WOD

800m row (run)

Then 8 rounds of:

10 x wall ball
10 x dips

Then another 800m row.

I finished in 20mins something. I thought it'd be a struggle because I haven't done wall balls in ages, but it wasn't too bad actually. I was also worried that the dips would aggravate my elbow, which has been sore, but it was alright, so good all around!

Strength

3 x 8 floor press (25kg, coulda gone to 30 I thiiiink.. not sure though because the last two of each set were a struggle and if you fail doing those then you pretty much squash your self under the bar, unless your spotter does a good job!).

5 x 12 barbell row (only got time to do 4 rounds, 1 @ 30kg and the rest at 25kg)


Monday

Oooh yeah, hero workout for a Monday! Good way to ruin yourself for the rest of the week!

"Whittman"

15 x kettle-bell swings (16kg)
15 x power clean (30kg)
15 x box jump (small box)

x 7

So, 105 of each!  I RXed it (weights as prescribed by crossfit.com), except for the box jumps cuz I'm back on the baby box.  Pretty pleased that I've finally gone up in weight on the power cleans, it's taken a while.

My time was 29mins 37 seconds.

Then we had to do some torturous achilles tendon "massage" using kettle bells.

This is the result of doing those 105 power cleans:

Bruises are sexy right?

I think I'm going to have to buy into that whole long socks thing that all the good Crossfitters do. Then maybe I'll look more this:

Annie Thorisdottir -  the most badass chick in the world and  2 x Crossfit games champ (source)

Tuesday

WOD 1

10 - 1 Handstand push-ups
15 x double-unders between each set (30 for ppl who don't suck at them)

So 10 HSPU, 15 D/U, 9 HSPU, 15 D/U etc. etc. until you get to 1 HSPU.

I did all my handstand push-up sets unbroken, so I will have to try and go down an ab mat next time.

Took just over 17mins I think, most of that was spent failing the double-unders. I think I'll buy a speed rope, that seems to help everyone else.

WOD 2 

There was a choice of some push-press workout or a rowing workout. I went with rowing, which was completely contrary to my usual choice, because my shoulders were completely dead from Monday still.

The rowing workout was:

500m row
1min rest

x 4

FUN! My hamstrings and ass were really tight from Monday as well, so this was a struggle. Not sure how long it took, but it takes me about 2:07-2:10 to row 500m if I'm doing multiple rounds, so it would have been just under 15mins including the rest breaks.

Diet

The diet is going well, other than some serious ice-cream eating on the weekend, luckily the tub wasn't very big. Geez that ice-cream is amazing though. Will have to steer clear of the freezer section for the next few weeks. Glenn asked me when I was eating it why I never smiled like that for him! Hah!

Sooooo gooood, better than sex.. I'm kind of not joking (source)

On Tuesday I went to the dentist, which just happens to be conveniently located near The Royal Nut Company, which is seriously nut and dried fruit heaven, so I stocked up. There is also a factory store in Brunswick, which is also great. They have these giant tubs of almond butter, which I've always managed to resist buying, but one day, they will be mine!  I did buy a small jar though, but that is getting seriously rationed, usually I consume it within a week.

I'm kind of regretting buying 1kg of dates though ($5!!!), I haven't had them in the house for aaages cuz dates are like candy, 5 of them has 20g carbs, which is almost half my daily carb intake, but for $5 I couldn't resist. I think they'll be going to the dark recesses of the cupboard and I'll have to ration them out for myself.