Life with a professional athlete.

As many may know I spend a majority of my life on the road. Trying to stick to a diet and workout regimen is never easy during this time. Being that my fiancé Dominic is a professional athlete, we spend our life not knowing what is going to happen day in and day out. Some days change by the hour, and sometimes we're in one spot for awhile. We spend every summer in our home state of Minnesota, and the other 8 months we spend anywhere he is playing. This summer things got a little extra crazy as we were told one day that he was traded from the Colorado Avalanche to the Florida Panthers. Just like that my entire life switched in minutes. Though I am very thankful to be able to travel and spend my time watching him do what he loves, things aren’t always easy when it comes to my lifestyle. I am a very organized person who needs everything to happen in a specific way. Well being that life is always unpredictable, I’ve learned to alter my life so that I'm not so OCD when it comes to change.

A few things that I struggle with is being alone, not having my house clean 24/7, not completing something that I started, and being unorganized with no plans. Through these last two years I have moved from Minnesota to Colorado, Colorado back to Minnesota, Minnesota to Florida, Florida to Connecticut, Connecticut back to Florida and now home again in Minnesota (please stay with me ha).Talk about not being able to make plans! This lifestyle was a hard one to adjust to as

a majority of it is constantly on the go trying to have a set schedule is almost impossible. So I'm sure you can imagine what its like to try to eat healthy and workout when you never really now how your day can change. I’ve tried to ween out the excuses and learn to live with it cause as far as I know this is going to be my life for at least the next 10 years. Many may think that oh dating a professional athlete you’re so lucky. YES don’t get me wrong I am extremely lucky to be able to watch the man I love do what he loves, travel all over the US/Canada, and still do what I love. BUT sometimes this life gets to be very difficult. Being that there are never for sure answers you need to learn to balance your own life while making the best of the timing and surrounding craziness that goes on.

I mention that I struggle to be alone. Well, I’ve always since I was a kid hated to be alone. I’m the type of person that would spend every waking moment with Dominic and family, but let’s be real we would go crazy if that was the case. During the summer we get the chance to be together all the time, but during the season things are much different. There are weeks where I may spend 7-10 days alone while Dominic is on the road playing in different places. Sometimes it’s a good break for both of us, but I also hate it at the same time. It does get pretty lonely at time when long road trips happen, but now I have a dog that I love more than anything else. Last season I convinced Dom that we should get a dog so that I don’t feel so alone when he isn’t there AND it was the best decision we could have made. Ruby has made my life so much more fun and exciting and lucky for her she gets spoiled enough to come on this adventure with us.

Second, I have always and will always be a clean person. I’ve slowly started to be a little better about not going crazy when my spot isn’t clean or my car is a little dirty, but when you live some of your life on the road, in and out of hotels and apartments, you understand that sometimes you can’t have it all together. This drove me insane for a large chunk of time, but life has a crazy way of making you change for the better. Packing has now become my specialty as I typically pack and unpack every 4-8 months. I KNOW you’re all probably thinking how do you do it. Well it is tough, and moving sucks, but doing it for the guy I love doesn’t make it so bad.

Lastly, this lifestyle has taught me so much about myself. One being that you can’t always plan your day out cause it can change in the matter of seconds. Now sitting back and writing this I'm starting to realize that this new journey to Florida that we are taking is happening in just 3 days.. CRAZY. Never in my mind did I think that I would end up in Florida, but hey lets see the beaches and sunshine (and now I don’t have to deal with MN winter cause we all know how brutal that is). Sure I’ll miss the Colorado weather and giving me a little of everything to do, but life is an adventure and they say do it while you're young.

Okay so the last and not least portion I have to talk about is trying to be healthy and workout while living day to day. Well, its never easy for anyone that’s just the truth, but doing it out of a hotel (tiny) gym or trying to come up with exercises that I can do in my tiny 1 bedroom apartment is really a struggle. I love to workout, but sometimes my motivation lacks when I don’t have all the equipment I need to do my exercises for that day. This is kinda when I took a turn in my own personal health, but realized I want to share it will everyone else too. I got accepted into a master’s program that studies strength and conditioning. This program over that last year and a half has taught me more than I ever knew I could learn. From creating programs, understanding the word “diet”, being able to shadow current strength and conditioning coaches, and much much more this is my passion. I won’t go into too much depth about my personal experience and save that for another day, but I’m here to tell you no matter what you think you picture your life to be, don’t be too set on that. Work with what is right in front of you and take one goal at a time.

Hope you all can follow along on this journey as things go & stay happy!

Chelsea.