Monthly Archives: September 2013

Trail Fail and Microwave Cake

Hello guys! I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend. I have to admit, my first weekend back at school was pretty awesome. Yesterday, I had guacamole TWICE. That alone makes this a great weekend.Image

 

I also began the whole “random dorm food snack thing” yesterday when I mixed up a random bowl of chocolatey goodness.

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Dried coconut, chia seeds, tons of cocoa powder, sweetener. In the microwave with almond milk, and you get a delicious snack!

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Oh, and raisins! I’m starting to realize I really love dried fruit because it’s not as sweet as other desserts. My friends are awesome-they went to Costco and got me a giant bag of apple chips, which I’m ridiculously excited about. 

Being the party person that I am, I had a pretty wild Saturday night before my 12 miler. As in, I stayed in my room all night making pumpkin cake in the microwave. Like the party animal that I am. Last year, my roommate and I made pumpkin cake in the microwave, and I think this is the same recipe that we used. 

We made a few adjustments since we’re cool people and my roommate has a gluten intolerance. Personally, I think our modifications made it even better (and probably healthier). Also, I almost royally screwed this recipe up. It calls for you to divide out half the mixture. Well, I started to do that without realizing I had forgotten to add sugar. So I almost forgot the sugar in this cake. I kind of messed up the cinnamon too but not as badly!

Here’s our version of the recipe-I apologize ahead of time for the poor photo quality because my dorm has horrible lighting at night.

Microwave Pumpkin Cake

Ingredients:

1/3 c butter

1/2 c firmly packed brown sugar

1/3 c coconut sugar

1/2 c applesauce

1.25 gluten free flour mix or regular flour (my roommate mixed together a ton of flours, along with xantham gum)

3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 c plain yogurt

1/2 pumpkin

1 egg

Instructions:

In large microwave safe bowl, melt 1/3 c butter for 30-45 seconds; stir in sugars and applesauce. Min in flour, pumpkin pie spice and salt. (This will likely be kind of soft, unlike what the original recipe called for; I think this made it even better though). Remove half of the mixture and set half aside. Stir in cinnamon to one half. Then, add in other ingredients to the cinnamon half and mix. Top the bigger half with the smaller half (the one with fewer ingredients) and microwave for 8 minutes, rotating halfway through. Then, microwave for about 3 minutes, or as needed, checking every 1:30.

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Pre-microwave

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Ready to be eaten!

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SO GOOD. Seriously guys, if you make anything, make this. Plus, it’s quick and one bowl! This is gooey, pumpkin-y and perfect for fall. The apple sauce gives the topping a touch of flavor, in the best way possible. I can’t imagine a better way to spend a Saturday night- friends and pumpkin baked goods.

I didn’t go to bed as early as I probably should have before my run, but I woke up and ate breakfast. Here’s a really unattractive picture.

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I’m reconsidering my pre-run breakfast. It used to be a Thinkthin bar and fruit, but I’m liking this 2 ingredient pancake (with cocoa powder) with fruit. It’s easier on my stomach, but I feel like it’s not as hefty. I think if I do this, I need to eat closer to running, which is probably better since my race is at 6:30am-that way I won’t have to wake up as early.

After eating, I mapped out my run. I wanted to give trail running a try, as well as get some hill training in. I found a route that would accommodate my 12 miles and wrote it out. I also actually carried my phone since I was running alone in the wilderness, so here are a couple of pictures.

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This trail was really nice at the beginning. I was thinking how much fun trail runs are. The first few minutes were all downhill. The 12 mile route I had planned out had 1000 feet elevation change, to put this in perspective. It took me all of 5 minutes to get horribly lost. About a mile in, I somehow ended up on a random road with no trails in sight. Some nice other runners pointed me in the correct direction, but I ended up on the street again. I don’t think I ever made it to any of the trails I had planned out, and I just ran on the smaller trails. The hills were really intense-my legs were shot a mile in. I decided that this was not going to work for 12 miles. Plus, the trail running was actually worse for my feet. At 4.5 miles, I found my car and drove down the mountain to flat road to finish the run. Well, relatively flat. 

Overall, it was a weird run. But it was good to get some hill work in in a long run. And trails. I had never run trails before my last half, so the 2 miles or so of trails I was cursing the whole time. I was pretty done by the end of this run though. I stopped for water at mile 11, and I had to really give myself a pep talk to get going-although I guess it worked since my last mile was by far the fastest! Another thing-my new shoe inserts didn’t really help much. Which means for now I’m pretty much screwed. After my race, I’m going to try some barefoot running/minimalist shoes and see if that might help. Plus, I have no halfs scheduled yet for the future-just shorter races.

On the way back to campus, I happened to run into a small farmer’s market. One of the stands was a gluten free bakery, and of course I had to stop there since my roommate is gluten free. I got some delicious foccacia and a pumpkin bar. SO good. I think better than any gluten-filled foccacia I’ve had!

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This was also a life saver. I was sooo hungry at this point-it was already around 1:30. My run was probably the longest time I’ve run, since my pace was so slow on the trails.

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After my run, I prettied myself up-with one problem. I had a tea party to go to that I needed to dress up for, and I didn’t pack my maxi skirt. And I knew if I didn’t wear compression socks, I would really regret it tomorrow. I was actually thinking back to my last training-one time I didn’t wear my socks after a run, and my calves were really sore all week. And I’m pretty sure that was the week I hurt my calf. So I was not going to neglect to wear those socks-it was the same point in my training last time that I got hurt!

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New fashion trend? Yes? I was going to go out like that when I had a genius idea-boots! Here’s a picture where you can kind of see.

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Here I am at the tea party with my friends.

There was lots of delicious food. Pumpkin cookies, maple cookies, sandwich cookies. And grapes. Lots and lots of grapes (they were in front of me and I ran 12 miles this morning so…). It was bring your own mug, so I brought my classy piggy mug.

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Yum. 

I’m a big fan of tea parties-I need to make those a regular thing. Also, my roommate and I have an abundance of ripe avocados, so a guac party may be in our near future.

Do you like trails? Any good microwave recipes?

 

September PRs

Hey guys! As I type this post, I have a belly full of guacamole, and some shiny new PRs. But let’s back up.

Let’s start with some of the few food pictures from yesterday.

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I actually really like these! The blackberry flavor was a lot stronger than I was expecting-in a good way! The chia seeds in this make it some much more fun too.

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That awkward moment when your spinach and egg scramble is mostly spinach. I topped it with avocado and pesto. I LOVELOVELOVE that I can make scrambles in the microwave!

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I made chia seed pudding! I’ve been snacking on it over the past few days, and I just finished it. I simply soaked chia seeds in my chocolate almond milk, and then stirred in cocoa powder, and topped it with raisins, coconut sugar, and dried unsweetened coconut. I’m definitely starting to see why Gina loves toppings so much!

One problem I have when I soak chia seeds in almond milk is that they get kind of bitter. Is this normal? Am I doing anything wrong…?

As for workouts yesterday-I started the morning with a 3-4 mile run. I tried out my new inserts. The good news is they didn’t hurt my toe. The bad news is one of them was in my shoe quite right so it hurt my foot, and since I didn’t wear my anti-blister socks, I had some massive foot burn. I ended up cutting my 4 miles a little short since I thought I might possibly feel a tiny bit of something in my calf, but it ended up being fine.

Also-you know what made my day yesterday? A 4 hour lab ending 3 hours early. That my friends is winning.

So I returned to my dorm early and blew a huge bubble-which I just had to capture on camera.

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In the evening was flag football practice. I rolled my ankle again at the beginning of practice. Rolling my ankle all the time is starting to get really old! I rolled it later that night again too…I guess I could probably wear an ankle brace for football, but it seems ridiculous to wear it 24/7. Our football captain baked us zucchini bread too! Which I didn’t get a picture of because it was pretty dark already.

Today, I was planning on sleeping really late and taking a rest day. Huh. I woke up at 7am, ready to do SOMETHING so I decided to go to a 10am Crossfit. 

I LOVE being awake before everyone else on campus. On the weekends especially, it’s just so quiet. Plus, it’s so beautiful and calm outside. 

I spent a relaxing morning reading before heading to Crossfit.

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At Crossfit today, the strength portion was finding your one rep max for clean and jerks. My clean PR is 2 years old. Granted, I haven’t really tested it in a year. And I never really tried for a clean AND JERK one rep max, so I didn’t know what to expect. 

Well, I finally have a new clean PR! I don’t know what my heaviest jerk was, but I was able to jerk the weight I cleaned so I know that’s a PR. It was only a 5 pound PR, but I ran out of time to try heavier. It actually felt pretty good, and I think I could have made heavier cleans, though probably not jerks.

I finally started a list on my phone of PRs. My PRs are almost entirely from September 2013, so it was a pretty good month! To be fair, a lot of things I haven’t tested PRs in in a year, or wasn’t sure of the PRs. However, a lot of the PRs listed I didn’t specifically test for a one rep max, they were just part of regular strength training, and I haven’t failed any of the lifts.

The WOD today was a 2k row. When I was doing crew, I never actually did a 2k test! I think I was way slower today though than I would have been in a 2k test because a)I was rowing more then and b) I didn’t have an entire rowing team cheering me on and scary coaches looking over my shoulder. 

It was funny, because I heard some guys talking afterwards about how one of them had done a WOD that was a 20 minute row, and that was insanely long. For crew, we had 4 sets of 5k rows! I don’t really miss those marathon workouts.

I made it back to my old dining hall for brunch, the only good meal they do, and ate copious amounts of guacamole.

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Which is another, and probably more accurate way of saying I made a Mexican salad. 

And this picture doesn’t begin to show much much guacamole is actually there. 

Wow, I really can’t think of a good way to end this post. Have a great weekend guys!

What was your last PR?

Phantoms and Quick Snacks

One more day until the weekend! Woohoo! It’s a long day for me-early morning run/workout then class 9-5, then flag football practice. 

Crossfit this morning ended up being particularly brutal. The posted workout was one I had done before in about 8 minutes. When I arrived, I was greeted by this marathon WOD.

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I was DONE after this one!

There are a few topics I want to address today.

1. Phantoms

2. Dorm Snack Tips

So let’s start with the phantoms. I was visited by an old friend today-a phantom- in the form of a phantom pain. Fitting, right? My calf has felt kind of off since yesterday’s spin workout. I felt a tiny twinge then, and it’s felt kind of weird all day. I can’t exactly find the pain, but something is off, but it’s in the same as my calf injury I suffered before my last half. Which naturally freaked me out. I didn’t feel any pain running in Crossfit. I’ve felt a tiny bit of SOMETHING here or there on random steps. I was scheduled to run a hilly 6 miles today, as well as go to flag football practice. Well, I decided to do the smart thing and scrap those both. It’s not worth the risk. There’s another important lesson here-I used to always go to practice for my sports team no matter what, sick, injured, dying, etc. If I made a commitment, I HAD to stick to it. That attitude almost convinced me to go to practice. But I had to think about it-in the long run my half is way more important for me, and I have to do what’s best for my body, even if it means saying no. 

So today, I’ve rolled out a ton; my calves, arches, and achilles are all tight and sore, so I hope I’m nipping this thing in the bud and it’s just tightness. I did the best thing possible too by making it to a yoga class. My legs and calves feel 1000x better now. Taking care of yourself is so important! I think I’m feeling up for a run tomorrow, although I won’t be doing the hill sprints I had planned, just an easy run. 

And now-dorm snacking tips! Two of today’s snacks are some of my go-to fast, healthy, and dormable eats. The first is guacamole. I buy guacamole mix, which is usually just a blend of spices. Then, simply make as much as you want. I used half an avocado-the perfect amount for one serving. Then, just add the mix to taste, reseal the rest, and BOOM. Instant guacamole.

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I love eating this with veggies. Today, I dipped snap peas and carrots because that’s what I have stocked in my fridge.

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Now-dorm snack #2. Make quick bread and freeze it. It seriously stays fresh forever. I had pumpkin bread all spring, and the bread I found in my freezer today moved home from college with me in May, and back with me now. It’s a great healthy snack, and will curb those incessant muffin cravings (I CAN’T be the only one?). It’s also great if you don’t want to eat a whole loaf at once.

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And if you’re me, you’ll probably break pieces off before it’s finished heating up. Confession: most of my bread pictures look like this. 

And on one last note-my parents had to move to a hotel for a few weeks while they fix up the house, and they moved the kitties today. Isn’t this the saddest thing you’ve ever seen?

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Poor thing.

Can you ever sense an injury coming on? What are your go-to snacks?

Everything Tastes Better When It’s Free

Hey guys! I wasn’t planning on posting tonight, but I’ll pop in quickly here to do a short recap of the day.

I began my morning with a 6am wakeup. I went to bed at 12, so this wasn’t an ideal amount of sleep, but I didn’t sleep too soundly so I was ready to get up and start my day. I ate a date, dressed quickly, and headed to the gym for my first gym workout of the school year!

Since I’m doing Crossfit and lifting a lot there, plus running and spinning for cardio, I want to use my gym workouts as time to work on certain lifts or exercises. I haven’t done a 1 rep max deadlift in over a year, and I started the morning with a shiny new PR of 205 pounds. It’s not a PR by much, but I didn’t exactly try 210 because I didn’t have time. But I’ll take it! I then worked on cleans from the hang position since we don’t have bumpers to do it from the ground. 

I also spent a few minutes on the assisted pull up machine. I’ve definitely gotten stronger from Crossfit, and my goal is to be able to do a pull up by Thanksgiving. I wanted to see roughly how far I had to go. Well, I’m about 55 pounds away from doing one. So that’s something to work on. I finished with a few minutes of abs, and 8 rounds of HIIT on the rowing machine. 

Post-workout chocolate milk was a necessity, as was this photo.

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I had a 9 am class-Ochem. I actually really followed what was going on, and felt on top of things! It was a little stressful, because I kept expecting for the moment to come where I’d be completely lost. But it’s Day 2, so there’s still plenty of time to get lost. Fact: half the words that come out of my mouth during the school year is how hard Chem is and how much is sucks. I had 10 minutes until my next class, so I grabbed a quick pick me up-a small latte. Again, I drank maybe half. Which is annoying since I feel like it’s a waste of money, but what can you do?

After class and before spending time doing research, I took a moment to refuel.

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In case you’re wondering, that’s a hard boiled egg in that bag.

I’ve been bad about taking pictures lately because my days have involved more snacks, which I normally don’t bother to photograph. But another snack looked like a combo of these things:

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Plus a Thinkthin Divine and some super dark chocolate.

I actually spent some time doing my Chem reading. I feel unbelievably on top of things right now. I’ve not sure I’ve ever read my Chem textbooks before. 

I then headed to flag football practice.

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I learned how to throw perfect spirals (hah) and catch a football. I want to be a receiver; I’m pretty good at catching since I’ve played softball all my life, and I know for a fact that I’m terrible at pulling flags or blocking. My hands were DONE by the end-pink and kind of swollen and very tired. I need to steal my sister’s wide receiver gloves. 

I headed straight to the gym afterwards for a quick Spin workout. I used an old playlist with HIIT in the middle (which is killer) and did about 30 minutes of the workout I had made. I’m officially in Spin teacher training mode. I need to figure out a date to sign up to be certified, but I want to wait until after my race at the end of October. My school is opening up a second gym (exactly the same as the current one) in November, and I would guess they’ll need more Spin teachers. Until I do the certification, I want to try and make a class for myself at least once a week.

I wasn’t super hungry after Spin since it was kind of late, so I hate a simple meal of yogurt and portabella mushroom soup in a mug-the best way!

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Like my subtle coordination in decor? If the food isn’t interesting, then I can at least try to make the picture interesting. 

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I liked this flip-the hazelnut flavor really came through!

After dinner, we had a Progressive party in my dorm to meet people and eat food in the RAs room. I actually snapped some pictures of this!

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Hot chocolate.

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Frozen Greek yogurt, berries, bananas, and chocolate fondue.

I have a really hard time passing up free food, even if I really don’t need it. This is definitely something I need to work on-I consume a LOT more sugar this way, and late night food. And if I eat late at night I sleep horribly, so that’s fabulous. Tips for passing these things up would be much appreciated!

If you’re wondering why this post seems so disjointed, it’s because I was interrupted in the middle and coerced to go to late night. They have a new menu this year-I got some things to share with friends, although I may or may not have dominated the cookie (unpictured).

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You better believe I dominated those veggies though. I’ll take what I can get. 

Well, it’s getting late. I don’t have class until 11, but I’m going to an 8am Crossfit, and I have a feeling that in the morning I’ll regret that cookie. Tomorrow is kind of a rough day in terms of workouts-8am Crossfit, PM 6 mile hilly run, and then flag football practice again. Flag football isn’t really taxing, but it means I need to get my run done earlier, reducing my between activity rest time. Ok, this was definitely not my best post ever, but such is life. Have a great rest of the week! It’s almost the weekend (sort of).

Do you pass up free food? Doesn’t free stuff taste better?

 

 

WIAW #dormlife

Happy Wednesday! As we all know, that means it’s time for the fabulous party hosted by Jenn.

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This is my first WIAW from college. First, let me just state that I hate the furniture in my room this year. It’s dark and small and immovable. So basically it’s impossible to stay organized. So I’m blogging from my headboard-less bed next to a giant pile of books that travels from my desk chair to my bed regularly because my desk and shelves are full. Such is life.

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But let’s get on to the day of eats. Today was an example of both how college life doesn’t have to be unhealthy, and how it can be unhealthy.

I started my morning with a few dates pre-run. I had a 4 mile run scheduled today, and decided to do speedwork. I ran a mile of warm up and cool down(half a mile to the track, half a mile on the track). I then did 400 repeats for 2 miles. I haven’t really done these before, but they seemed perfect given all my recent foot issues. Having rest time was crucial for my foot and it actually felt really good. I liked these, but I think I prefer the 200 distance way more. 

Post run, it was breakfast time. I think this here is an example of how hard I tried to make dorm food look pretty/interesting. Plus, you all can admire my new dorm pet (aka my plant).

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I am well stocked on fruit right now since I only just got here, and it’s a lifesaver. Unripe melon gets old fast.

I had one class this morning before eating some food I packed. The original plan was a salad with a hardboiled egg, but there wasn’t much left in the dining hall last night, and I was at a loss for dressing.

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Plus the lettuce looked kind of old, so I tossed it in favor of some of the veggies from my fridge.

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After my Physics lab, I headed to one of my favorite places to eat on campus for some mystery bread. This stuff is so good-oh how I missed it!

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So why, you ask, is this one of my favorite places on campus? They have the most amazing selection of quick breads and baked goods. I pretty much always stick to the same thing since I love it, but I’m sure something pumpkin will have to happen soon.

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(This is only a fraction of what they have.)

Today was a pretty snacky day. Besides what’s shown, I also had a Thinkthin bar, dried mango, multiple types of cake….more on that in a minute.

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I went back to Crossfit tonight. I did like it better-that could be because the WOD had rowing, and any WOD with rowing has my heart. It was rowing+thrusters+pull ups. Hopefully in time this new box will feel like home, but it’s just not the same as my old one. 

Dinner tonight was a little different-I passed on the gross looking salad this time and went for other random veggies instead.

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Grilled chicken, a taste of mashed potatoes, some type of Greekish salad, and citrus beets. Not going to lie, my expectations were way too high for those beets. But hey, dining hall food isn’t really supposed to have flavor, right?

I was all set to type up this post when I got a call from my sister. She and her boyfriend are training for a marathon, and they had just finished their 18 mile run….miles away from their apartment. Being the nice person that I am, I picked them up in my tiny car. (I usually say my car seats 2, or 2+3 others with no legs.)

Despite the little detour in my night, I did score some groceries.

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While tonight I haven’t accomplished as much as I might have liked, I finish class at 12 tomorrow and have allll day to spend in the library. 

I feel like it is definitely possible to eat well in college, but it does take some discipline. Today I started to fall back into old habits a little bit. I guess one thing to consider is that it is okay to indulge occasionally, but you need to pick and choose, and other delicious things may come up later in the night (like pumpkin cake-not passing that one up). One big thing for me this year is I’ve avoided the dining hall for breakfasts, and I’ve packed lunches. As for breakfast-it’s just too hard for me to pass up pancakes and muffins everyday, and I know they make me feel awful. I’d rather keep food in my room and start the day off on the right food. As for lunches-last year I got in the habit of buying, but the serving size was almost always too large, and I felt bad throwing stuff away. Plus, it’s easier to pack something cleaner. 

So that’s that-my first few days back! I promise to try and keep my pictures interesting, even if that means buying a lot more plants. Or a puppy. 

Have a great Wednesday, and eat something good for me!

How did you/do you stay healthy in college? How do I keep my room organized when there is zero space?