My CrossFit Workout

I live by a CrossFit gym and see the members running, carrying, dragging heavy things, and it dawned on me, getting groceries is my CrossFit routine.

I have all kinds of crazy rules about food because I have no willpower impulse control with treats so I don’t keep treats in the apartment. The apartment is very small so there is no room to stockpile things. The only thing I stockpile is pop because it’s so heavy and difficult to bring into the apartment, so when it’s on sale, I buy a lot. There are no ramps here so one must wrestle a cart/trailer into the building.

Because I don’t have a lot of room to stockpile, I tend to buy 3 weeks worth of groceries. That’s all that fits in the fridge/freezer, no I can’t buy a freezer, there is no room because my main living space is 189 square feet. So when the fridge is empty, it’s time to restock. There is no food waste and I admit it, I have tossed a few ingredients together in a pot to make one last meal and some concoctions have been delicious and some down right disgusting. I’m glad to report, the delicious outnumbers the disgusting.

I don’t like to eat out because I don’t care to re-gain all the weight I lost. If I want a treat, the rule is to get off my ass and go get it. Usually my lazy ass wins that battle and I don’t get the treat.

Hurrah for laziness!

I often roast and season a bunch vegetables and put them in the fridge and that’s what I munch on if I find myself participating in a little mindless eating. Or snack on a piece of fruit.

On Friday I buy my $2.99 veggie pizza and fancy chocolate bar as a special treat.

These are my rules and they work well for me.

When it’s nice out, I hook up the bike trailer and ride to the grocery store. Just like the CrossFit folks, this involves a lot of dragging and lifting of heavy things.

1. Bring trailer and bike downstairs. I have to do this in two trips because the elevator is too small to fit me, the bike and the trailer. It takes me about 10 minutes to bring everything downstairs and to hook up the trailer.

2. Ride to store (3.7 km), about 20 minutes. Thankfully it’s uphill on the way there! I will not lie, it totally sucks when the wind is strong!

3. Buy groceries. Load groceries into the cart.

4. Oh look, get some work on my arms when the bike topples over while I am loading the trailer.

5. Ride home hauling about 90lbs of groceries in the trailer. Today was an extra special workout because I hit all kinds of red lights on the way home and got to stop and start many times while hauling the 90lbs of groceries. My legs will hurt tomorrow!

6. Lock bike in front of building.

7. Drag trailer to back of building and prop the door open with a rock. It’s much easier to unload down a few steps rather than up two sets of stairs and through two set of doors. 

8. Unload some of the groceries because if I try to move the cart down the four steps with 90lbs of groceries in the trailer, I will either break the trailer or pop a tire. So unload a bit, move the trailer down the steps and reload the groceries.

9. Fit me, the trailer full of groceries into the small elevator and then roll it down the hall into the apartment. There is only about 2 cm clearance to get in and out of the elevator so I have to be careful or I can knock out the pin that secures the tire.

10. Unload the groceries and park the trailer in the corner of the apartment (it’s too cumbersome to move on an off the balcony and I just will smash various body parts and/or scratch the shit out of a limb). As you can see, the trailer has a fair amount of cargo space.

11. Retrieve bike from downstairs.

This takes me about 90 minutes and I do this because despite all my whining about it being hard, I do get a good workout and since getting groceries is so physically demanding, I am very selective about what I buy. I am not going to waste space and overload the trailer with poor food choices.

Now if you excuse me, it’s time for my Friday treat! I have earned it!