The Wanderer

Hello Friends!

This week was a good one. I have a very busy few weeks coming into march with a trip to Mexico City (more on that soon), St. Patrick’s Day, and my Parents visiting Chicago for the first time since I moved! This was my last week of traveling to Indianapolis for a while so I took the time to really focus on work and fitness, keeping myself healthy and mentally strong to make it through the final stretch of this project. I put in the effort to hit 2 workouts a day this week, waking up early to get some yoga in before finishing the day with circuits and cardio in the hotel gym. My energy was through the roof this week, mainly from all the coffee but also from the satisfying workload and the added workouts. It felt like one of those weeks I could have blogged every day, maybe one day I’ll do that (If y’all are interested).

Thursday was amazing. I woke up at 6:30, took a minute to get out of bed, and got in a nice 30 minute yoga session in my hotel room. I need to start bringing my yoga mat with me when I’m traveling so as to not breathe in those nasty hotel carpet fumes. The session was great, Adrienne guiding me through breathing practices and core stability work. Morning yoga is one of my favorite ways to work out. I don’t know about you all but I always find myself so stiff in the mornings, so yoga allows me to wake up my muscles as well as my mind, and gives me that much needed sense of accomplishment walking into the rest of the day. Adrienne (the goat) ended today’s session with a word of affirmation. She does this a lot, and it’s something I’ve been doing more and more lately, but she asks her audience to think of one word to carry with you throughout the day. Today, her word was “love”, the love she has for her career, her viewers, and her day. For me, my word was “Home.” Thursday was my last day onsite, I was driving back to chicago later that day, so all I could think about was going home. It still feels weird to call a place that isn’t the house I grew up in as home. I grew up in New Jersey, living with my parents until I went to college at 18. We moved around a lot growing up, moving from country to country, city to city every year until 2011, where we finally settled at our place in Edison New Jersey. Growing up, home was not a place, it was the people I grew up with. My family was my home, and in many ways they still are. But now I’ve been in Chicago for almost 2 years, and the apartment I live in now very much feels like home, but again, the people I live with, and the friends I surround myself with, truly make this place feel like home.

When I’m traveling, I catch myself calling my hotel room “Home” sometimes, which feels wrong. Hotels are, by design, replaceable. Every room in a hotel is exactly like every other room. I’ve stayed in hundreds of hotel rooms at this point (not an exaggeration), and every single one feels exactly the same. But when you spend so much time by yourself, your definition of a safe place begins to change to wherever you feel safe. I’m one of those people that feels comfortable by myself, so wherever I am, I’m home. I started the day feeling comfortable with myself, confident in my ability, and absolutely ready for the day to come.

Work was good, I had a few meetings in the morning and was able to leave in the afternoon to drive back to Chicago. When I got back, still tired and sore from the long drive, I went almost directly to the gym. I wanted to finish a workout before spending time with my friends, and the drive to do 2 workouts a day kept me going. I did a nutty chest day, going decently heavy with bench press to start. I worked my way up to 205 for 3, but my wrist was feeling weird so I stripped the weight down to 180 for 6 for the next 3 sets before finishing with 135 till failure (9). This week I spent a lot of time doing circuits, doing a workout for 40 seconds with a 20 second rest. This is something I’ve seen in workout classes before and I like the simplicity of it. Having that small rest time means you really need to push every single set. Every set I would aim for a number of reps to complete in the 40 seconds and then try to beat it the next set. The workout left me feeling absolutely destroyed and feeling fantastic. Here’s the workout if you’re following along.

Chest Day

• Bench Press – 6 sets, work up to 205 and then work down to 135
• 40 seconds on 20 off – Chest fly’s, ab crunches, shoulder press, forward plate lifts.
• Tricep extensions and skull crushers 3×13

I ended the day with some video games with friends before sitting down to work on some Lego’s for room decor. Overall, it was a fantastic day, and I was glad to be home. This weekend I’ll be in Mexico City with my girlfriend, which I am ecstatic for. I will most definetly make a travel blog for the trip, so stay tuned!

As always, thank you all for reading this blog, it means a lot to me! Till next time, see ya!