This is your brain, this is your brain on stress...

Welcome to a very scrambled and scattered blog post. Why am I not able to think in a straight line you ask? I'm leaving on a vacation in two days. A big vacation. I am uber excited and also pretty crazy about the preparations. You see, this is no ordinary vacation! Have you ever heard of Burning Man? It's this crazy festival in the middle of the desert in Nevada.

Burning Man is a week long art and music festival. Personal expression and radical self reliance are two main keys. Once you get to the festival and park, you don't turn your car on for 7 days. You bring everything you could possibly need with you (food, water, shelter, clothing, etc etc). So, this takes a lot of prep. I've been two years now and each time I had 5-9 months to prepare. I got my ticket this year three weeks ago and I'm going with at least one person who has never been. Oh yeah, and I'm leaving early to spend a few days in Las Vegas beforehand with my bestie and my boyfriend. Sooooooooooooo... that's where the stress comes in. It's exciting stress, but all stress does crazy things to your body.

For instance, today was a VERY bad day for cravings. I wanted to eat every sweet and carb that I could think of! (I won't list them here in case anyone else gets cravings as easily as I do lol) I swear, if those foods had been anywhere near me, I would have caved. I have already been making some poor food choices this week (eating out too much and eating the wrong foods in general). But, I think this challenge is really helping me to help myself. I have started the habit of only keeping a few healthy snack choices at work, like almonds, apples, green tea and gum. Boy oh boy did I eat a lot of gum today! Even with the crazy cravings and eating out, I have stayed in range the last two days, major accomplishment!

Another way the challenge is helping, is keeping me on track with work outs when I wouldn't usually. Yesterday, I ran out of time for boot camp, but I made sure to get in 15 minutes of intense jump roping. I have also been thinking hardcore about how to get my workouts in during my vacation (something I wouldn't even try to think about before). My plan is to use the gym at the hotel in Vegas, join in a few yoga classes at the festival, and take 30 minutes each day to get in concentrated bike riding or running (I'll be walking or biking everywhere, but it won't usually be enough to get my heart rate up).

Unfortunately, I won't be doing a good job with my food and beverage intake (Vegas is all about eating and drinking, and in the desert you crave weird foods and things taste different). I did try to include some healthier snack and breakfast options in my packing so that's one small step for man kind I guess. Either way I'm going to try to track it to see how badly I actually did.

One final scattered thought: As I've been working out more, I feel more in control of my body and movements. This is probably one of the best motivators I have because I REALLY love the feeling of strength that comes from it.

Anyway, there will be plenty of time on vacation to lose sleep, I better stock up now while I can!