This post is not an ad, and is not sponsored. I simply want to share my positive experience with Street Parking since joining their online community earlier this year.
I started Crossfit back in 2012, and for the better part of 9 years it’s continued to be a major part of my fitness experience. Crossfit brought so many positive things to my life – meeting my husband, amazing life-long friendships, and it also introduced me to the world of all things nutrition – paleo, macros, nutrition templates….I’ve tried it all! As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more conscious of my overall health – paying closer attention to what I’m eating, trying to break poor eating habits, and creating a consistency with working out. I’m far from perfect…I still enjoy wine and pizza nights, and I LOVE cheeseboards, Snickers bars and reduced-fat Cape Cod chips….but each year I put in a serious effort to be better than I was the year before, and to continue to be mindful of my eating habits and the effects they will have on my health long-term.
In 2017 I was planning my wedding and wanted to look my best, so I joined an online program that offered individual nutrition coaching and custom nutritional programs with instructions, strategies, and weekly check-ins with an online coach. I had to track my macros every day, take weekly progress pictures of my body and submit my results once a week. I stuck with this for 6 months and saw great results. However, I fell off after my wedding, cancelled my membership, and attempted to keep up with the numbers on my own. I tried this on and off for most of 2018, but wasn’t really committed. The weight I lost for my wedding came back, I was eating a TON of processed snacks (hello gold fish crackers!) telling myself it was fine because they “fit my macros.” This works for so many people, and I’m in no way knocking this style of nutrition, but I just knew that it wasn’t for me. By the start of 2019, I was in a funk. Granted, I was still working out 5-6x a week and trying to eat clean, but I was up a few lbs., and didn’t feel too confident in my own skin.
Enter Street Parking – I had seen a little bit about this on Instagram, as a few CF athletes I followed had started posting about it. When Joanna had her baby, she joined SP as a way to be able to continue to workout at home. I liked some of their workouts, so on a whim I signed up, following along quietly but never really engaging in anything they offered. For months I saw people posting about the nutrition templates SP offered, and they were all saying the same thing: they were getting stronger, getting leaner, losing weight, all while eating MORE food than they ever had. It peaked my curiosity, so for $50 I gave it a shot. I downloaded the PDF with my meal outlines (4 meals a day) as well as the recommended food guides, and was overwhelmed. It was SO MUCH FOOD. Like, no way would I be able to eat as much as this wanted me to.
I started the templates officially in March 2019, and challenged myself to stay committed for 3 months. This meant back to meal prepping, weighing out my allotted servings of protein, carbs, veggies, and fats, cutting back on alcohol and pizza. For 3 months I packed my food for work, tried to avoid the temptation of bite sized candy my office has everywhere, turn down free lunch of Sal’s pizza, and steered clear of tuna-melts and chips. I’m not going to sit here and say it was so easy, because it wasn’t. I remember feeling SO hungry for the first 10 days, like wanting to quit and eat a PB&J sandwich, but now that I look back I realize it was because my body was just detoxing from all the processed food and sugars I was used to consuming. At the end of my 3 month goal, I was down 8 lbs, but the biggest changes weren’t on the scale.
I was sleeping straight through the night, which was HUGE! I have struggled with severe insomnia for years. It used to take me at least 60-90 minutes to fall asleep, and some nights I’d just lay there until 1am, praying I’d fall asleep before my alarm went off at 4:45 for the gym. And if I was lucky enough to fall asleep at a reasonable hour, I was waking up with anxiety about 3-5x a night. My body had gotten used to functioning on 3-4 hours of sleep, but I was so tired all day, had extremely low energy, and was less than consistent with my gym routine.
On top of my sleep improving, I also felt better. I am someone who is nonstop sick, all year round. Ear infections, sinus infections….I was living on Claritin D and cold medicines. However, once my diet changed, my health changed. I didn’t come down with my annual summer cold, I had so much energy all day long, and almost 8 months later have yet to come down with anything resembling a cold or flu. I saw improvements in my mood, in my energy levels, and I no longer skipped the gym to sleep in.
Once the summer came I was a little more lenient with my meals, but I found myself turning foods down that I normally would have loved. And I was okay with it. It was like a mental shift – I still wanted to have fun and enjoy life, but I also liked grabbing chicken instead of a cheeseburger, or saying no to chips and dip or going out for ice cream. It was like something finally clicked in my head – I could enjoy eating and drinking in moderation, but I didn’t need to over-indulge. This is the first time in my life that I truly understood this, and I know its from the knowledge shared within the Street Parking community. It’s helped me to create new, better habits, understand how certain foods affect my body and health, and has made me realize that this is a lifestyle change, not a diet.
I’ve enjoyed this community so much that I convinced my husband to try out the templates. It was another way for us to bond and connect – spending a few hours together on a Sunday prepping food for the week, holding us accountable to sit down and have dinner together and not skip meals. It got us away from the TV a little more, made us more aware of sit down family dinners and how to enjoy our meals without the distraction of electronics. My husband did lose weight, but again the biggest changes for him weren’t on the scale. His sleep habits greatly changed – he used to snore, would sometimes stop breathing in his sleep, and wake up about 3-6 times a night. He’d fall asleep for a quick 30 minutes, and then would lay awake for hours. He never truly felt rested, and was tired and run down all day long. After sticking to these templates for a few months, all of that changed. Not only was he sleeping better, but his energy was better, and his consistency with working out improved. His overall health improved, just by simply tweaking a few things in his diet and being aware of what he was putting in his body.
I recently took part in their 6 week “Fall into Fitness” Challenge, a nutrition challenge to help you fine-tune your habits before going into the holiday season. I’ve been eating this way for the most part since March, but enjoyed the extra guidance given to help stay focused during the holiday season, reminding me that all the work and dedication I’ve put in shouldn’t just be thrown aside for an extra slice of pie and sweet treats.
I’ve recommended Street Parking to plenty of friends, and would encourage anyone who is interested to check it out. It’s a great community – an entire social network made up of all kinds of different people who all have the same end goal, to be a healthier version of themselves. While I stay quiet on their social media platforms, I enjoy reading the daily commentary on the FB page – strangers rooting for one another, offering words of encouragement, sharing recipes, truly creating bonds and friendships and a positive community that builds people up.
Here are some tips that helped keep me on track:
- Keep a food journal – Keeping a daily log of my food helped hold me accountable to eating the 4 recommended meals, and I found it easier to follow my template when I had my day planned/written out. I could avoid snacking if I knew what food I had to look forward to
- Make the meals simple – When prepping my meals for the week, I found it easiest to cook things in bulk, and rotate those few items throughout the week. Rather than trying to come up with an elaborate, different recipe for every meal, I kept it simple, kept my lunches the same for the week.
- Prep in bulk, and keep extra in the fridge – this was especially helpful for my husband! He is NOT someone who likes to eat the same thing every single day, so he’d prep a bunch of meat for the week (chicken, steak, pork, turkey) and weigh out whatever he was in the mood for as the week went on.
- Put your phone down – I’ve eaten plenty of meals while scrolling on my phone, not really paying attention to the food I’m eating. I found that putting my phone down and being present during my meals helped me to feel full. I was aware of what I was eating, able to enjoy the taste, and was way more satisfied.
- Drink water – This was another thing my husband found helpful. He used to have a little water in the morning, and then wouldn’t drink anything until 5pm at night. I ended up ordering him this great water bottle with time markers on it, and he said that drinking more water throughout the day helped him with his hunger.
