Daily Blog: Earthquake & Squat PR!

Good morning, everyone.

I let myself have a mini sleep-in this morning because last night at about 12.02am, central New Zealand was hit with a magnitude 7.5 earthquake. I just woke up to my bed shaking and the whole house seemed to roll like it was on water for over a minute, which felt like forever. I could hear the rumbling below me, but thank goodness is never amounted to something bigger like it usually does. Quakes are nothing new to us here, especially after some scary experiences in the past few years. But whenever they happen at night they can be terrifying. It was felt throughout the country because it was so strong.

I've been on Twitter this morning and watching some news sites to try and get an idea of what kind of damaged occurred. There's a few cut off towns and broken roads filled with cracks, and massive rock slips on hill sides. People on the other side of my city were evacuated to higher ground because of a tsunami warning (sirens went off and everything.) The CBD in our capital has been shut down and a couple of ferries are stuck in the water until they fix the docks. I got an alert on my phone to check-in as safe on Facebook, so that my friends would know I'm okay. Never knew that was a thing, but I found it reassuring!

This little guy's breathing is quite shallow, I think the earthquake freaked him out a bit. I'm going to keep an eye on him and make sure he's okay.

To get my mind away from last night and to stop my anxiety from running away with me, I'm going outside for a bit to practice my double unders for crossfit. It's where the rope goes underneath you twice, but you only jump once. They come up in class a bit, so I need to be able to do them soon.

It's harder than you think! I had to come back inside and watch a couple of tutorials on YouTube to figure out the technique. But I'm determined to get these, so I will keep practicing until I get them right. 

Time for some food! I made this brown rice/quinoa and quorn stir-fry yesterday and I'm so excited to eat it. I'm also adding a boiled egg on top for extra protein. I've got Crossfit in an hour, so I need my strength.

Time for my workout! There's only two of us here today (everyone cancelled because of the quakes.) and both of us are named Stephanie. But it should still be fun.

Done and dusted! That was awesome, we did an AMRAP that lasted 11 minutes. It was box jumps and pull ups (I had to do jumping ones because I've pulled something in my abdominal area and it hurts so bad!) We had to do 12 reps of each, then 9, then 6, and repeat as many times as we could in the 11 minutes. I managed 3 sets, which was the goal and I was so proud! I couldn't breathe at the end, but that's exactly how I like to feel in Crossfit.

Then we went on to the strength section of the workout, which was back squats today (my fav!)
I did 5 sets of 5 reps and ended up doing a personal best! I squatted with 75kgs and was so proud of myself. My trainer has been helping me a lot with my form and it was probably good to be only one of two people there so that he could coach me well.

Check out the new motivation board they have! There's some rules in there too. I absolutely love the atmosphere of this gym and they have the right attitude to back it up.

Home again and I'm just hydrating myself and having a protein bar before I get into the shower.

I felt like just wearing my sports gear today, so I put on my Under Armor tights with just a plain tshirt and hoodie. It's been a weird day, so I need a little comfort!

Coffee time! I also felt like some fruit and decided to cut up an apple. And since I can't resist the opportunity for it, I added a nice spoonful of peanut butter on the side for dipping. One of the best snacks ever!

Been doing lots of work and built up an appetite again. This is slightly cheeky, but it's so good! I just toasted an English muffin and cooked two vegetarian sausages. All slathered in tomato sauce, yum! This is great protein, so I won't be hungry for a while.

Having yet another strange dinner tonight. Lots of roasted vegetables, polenta chips, baby spinach, a black bean vegetarian pattie, and a little pesto. It was actually a great combination and full of goodness!

I felt like a little dessert, so I'm having a paleo banana muffin with natural yogurt and strawberries. I made the muffins yesterday using a Lola Berry book. It's all made with almond meal, coconut flour, quinoa flour, mashed bananas, eggs, raisins, and a little coconut sugar. This recipe works so well every time. They're delicious!


That was a very long and weird day! I really hope that everyone further up north are doing okay with all of the aftershocks and damage. And that everyone gets a bit more sleep tonight.

What's your go-to afternoon snack? I'd love some ideas. 

Steph x.