Needless to say it has been quite some time since I have written pretty much anything for this very reason…

The Essentials of Sport and Exercise Nutrition Certification written by John Berardi and Ryan Andrews

For the last 3 months but more so in the last 3 weeks, I have been feverishly studying for my Precision Nutrition exam in order to be promoted to Tier 3+ at Equinox. All my free time went into this certification. From reading the book, to answering the questions in the workbook, to tabbing information that was important and to talking about it with others. I wanted to retain as much of it as I could. As you can see I decided to go all tab and note happy on my book and workbook because this was an open book online exam. After taking some online classes in college I came to learn something very important: open book online exams absolutely SUCK. I can just picture them saying, “Let’s ask these poor suckers questions on the smallest, most seemingly insignificant facts in the book. I mean there is just waaaaayyyyyy too much extremely important and applicable facts and information to not try to get in their heads a bit.”

Prime example: Depending on the size of the meal, your stomach can expand to a volume of nearly 4L. True or false?

Do you REALLY think I paid attention to that tiny little fact in this 460 page book chock full of nutrition information?? Absolutely not. BUT my tab happy self directed me right to the answer through another question that was asked. Thankfully the answer just happened to be on the same page. 🙂

Using my free time in between clients and on the weekends to study, I barely had a brain cell left to sit down and write a post. Not to mention I was at the gym from 5:30 am to between 7:30 pm and 9 pm depending on the day for the last 2-3 months. Getting home late, the last thing I wanted to do was think. So I didn’t. And boy did it mess up my rhythm.

When I don’t want to write, it tears me apart. I have been getting anxiety from not writing. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it the last 3 weeks and that made it even worse. It made me feel awful. I was obsessed with it for months and then all of a sudden one day, I lost my motivation. WHO AM I WITHOUT MY WRITING???? I kept thinking how “off” I have felt the last few weeks and I couldn’t really place my finger on it. I actually managed to write about my frustrations on Wednesday night and if by magic I woke up Thursday morning feeling as though a weight was lifted off of my shoulders. All of a sudden the clouds cleared out and the sun came back out (unlike what is currently coming from the sky in Boston right now).

Maybe it was the fact that I had worked out 3 days in a row (!!! progress people, progress !!!) for the first time since surgery without any nagging pain, or maybe it was because I knew that Friday I would be taking my exam which would free up my schedule for more Kara time which was desperately needed. Whatever it was, I came back to life. I finally felt HAPPY again, the giddy kind of happy that makes you smile just thinking about it. Then Friday rolls around and  I have a great PT session doing some single leg jumping on the leg press slider AND I pass my exam!!! YAY!!!! Tier 3+ here I come! My brain is jam packed with nutrition knowledge now! Did you know that if you don’t have the enzymes to break down coffee, it is in fact unhealthy for you? I really do wonder if I have those enzymes or not…hmmm.

To top off the great day yesterday, I decided to work out for the 4th day this week (I took Thursday off) and since I was feeling pretty bad ass, I decided to challenge myself and the hip. I was a little hesitant at first but I did it! I did a single leg squat with the TRX!!!

I’ll be heavy squatting in no time! AND I am even getting my muscles back!

Kind of…..someday.

To celebrate my passing the exam, my workouts this week AND those TRX squats and with the newly minted wealth of nutrition knowledge in my brain AND because I know dark chocolate is good for me, I decided to get just a teeny, tiny bag of chocolate.

Just a tiny bag. 🙂 Life is good yet again.

Oh and the answer to that question: True. Your stomach can indeed expand up to 4L after a meal. Eat up people, eat up.