Monthly Archives: September 2013

I WANTED to Love It…

Hey guys! Day 1 of school is officially donezo. Only 9 more Mondays until Christmas break! Yippee? Gotta love the quarter system.

I woke up bright and early to get ready for my 9am. For me, the fact that it was bright therefore meant it wasn’t early. Yep folks, 7am wakeup. Everyone complains so much about 9am classes (8ams don’t exist here…) but 7am? During the summer, my sleep in day was 6:15!

Here’s my obligatory first day of school selfie. Notebook and all.

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And check out the view outside my dorm. What a beautiful morning!

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I had class straight through the morning, back to back. But guess what? My 10am and 11am are literally in the classrooms next door to each other. #winning 

My class schedule stinks this quarter. No getting around that. I think I’ll like my MWF morning classes best though since they’re not lab classes. 

After class, I went to put some time in at that lab. To give me energy to power through, I ate this thing. I actually liked it! 

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Aaand then I went to empty my bank account buy books. Guys. Apparently I’m taking all the expensive classes this quarter because the price of books was INSANE.

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It was like nothing else. Last quarter, I think I only spent $100 on books. But this quarter? Crazy. And these are not all new books, mind you.

I then proceeded to make myself a dorm lunch. Spinach+egg white; papaya. SImple yet delicious!

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A little while later, I was off to Crossfit at my new box! I ended up driving, but I think I’ll try biking next time since it’s a 5 minute ride just to my car and the box is close. On the schedule for this week is entirely Crossfit “girls.” I haven’t done many of them before, so I was a little intimidated. 

The workout was “Helen”- 3 rounds of 400m run, 21 KB swings, 12 pull ups.

My overall opinion of the new box? I just didn’t like it. I don’t know what it was. The people seemed nice enough. It didn’t really have that Crossfit vibe I guess-and I have a better idea of what I’d want in a box after visiting 3 in Maui. I can’t exactly place what it is that I didn’t like. Maybe it was the warm up, or just the set up, or the equipment? I don’t know. I only signed up for 1 month, so we’ll see if I come around before then. There’s another box equally close to school, but my old Crossfit owner had nothing but bad things to say about it, plus it’s a more rigid schedule and more expensive. So we’ll see. I REALLY wanted to like this box. I was prepared to adopt it as my own immediately, but for some reason I left just missing my old box. I also don’t feel like my body has been through hell and back like I did at my home box.

Back on campus, I stopped for a quick dinner. Dinner was winding down since I was on the late side.Image

I usually go for the prepared salads because they’re easy and pretty good, but this was just was not. It was too creamy and the lettuce was SOAKED. Normally the salads are some type of lighter dressing, like oil and vinegar. Meh. And I had carrot cake for dessert. I don’t hate that I did that, but I certainly don’t want to get into the habit of always having dessert. 

Meanwhile, I have too much energy. I feel like I haven’t worked out hardly at all today. I’m going to try and kick up the intensity of the day overall a little tomorrow. I’m doing a morning track workout, and then Crossfit in the evening. If I still don’t feel properly tired out after Crossfit (and I don’t have too much work) I might do a spin workout on my own. 

So that’s that. Tonight was pretty disappointing. I have a sorority meeting in a little bit, and I’m going to try and resist the temptation if there is any food, because I know if I eat sugar that late I’ll never sleep. 

Also-I did decide to do flag football! It’s not as much of a commitment as it originally seemed.

Have a great night everyone!

Have you ever been disappointed by a workout?

 

Food and Fitness Update

Guessss who has Internet now? This girl! I have super fast Internet too-my campus has Google Fiber-I only recently learned this. I just thought my Internet at home was slow! Spoiled, I know. (Note, please excuse the weird photo quality. My iPhoto was screwing up so I had to screenshot all my photos which came out a little weird.)

Sooo who wants to see college food?? I would just like to start out by saying I’m failing miserably on this Mini Whole30 thing…but I am noticing some things so I guess that’s good. And look, when the dining hall has Indian food, you don’t question it. At least I skipped the rice and naan, right??

Ok, here it is-my first dining hall meal! And guess what I found in the salad? A lone sliver of avocado. Day. Made.

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Then this morning pre-run I made a weird version of 2 ingredient pancakes (egg and banana) plus cocoa powder. The sad thing is my weird pancakes in a bowl actually look better than yesterday’s ugly ones. Here are today’s:

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Aaaand just for shits and giggles (note the pun here), here are yesterday’s:

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Since I was technically supposed to be super super Paleo, I tried a different pre-run breakfast than my normal Thinkthin bar and fruit. The verdict? This was definitely easier on my stomach, and took less time to digest. I’m not sure if it was sufficient fuel though. I’ll have to experiment with that a little more. I was a little hungry starting my run.

I decided to break the super super Paleo thing though for my running fuel and just take a goo, I guess my cleaner eating these past few days has had an effect though, because I kind of felt jittery.

Post run brunch:

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Potatoes, eggs, and salad. Totally normal. I do think I feel better while eating Paleo-more in control. I guess what would work best for my is not so strict Paleo. I had a Thinkthin as a snack later and felt a little bleh, and then had some grains at dinner and found myself craving dessert (which ended up being granola and yogurt).

Here’s dinner. Indian food! The line was RIDIC today though! Silly freshman. 

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Before I get onto the fitness portion, how about a little life update? I stepped on my mirror today. 7 years of bad luck for that…plus a broken mirror. I WAS going to throw it away, but realistically I won’t be taking out my trash for a looong time (so responsible), so I decided to turn it into a little DIY. I mean, what can’t duct tape fix?? I had an empty space next to my wardrobe where I was either going to put a mirror or a decoration, so why not combine the two? I patched up the little guy and pasted some pictures on there. Good as new-no one will ever know 😉

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Ok, now on to fitness! I had my first workout of the school year today-an 11 mile run! I rocked my fanny pack wearable water bottle, which despite my distain actually was really great. I didn’t fill it up 100% though, and wished I had when I ran out of water on mile 9 or so. So how was the run? Slow. Really, really slow. My slowest long run. But I’m totally fine with that-it was my first time tackling hills on a long run, and I took on the big daddy of hills around these parts. I walked more than ever really, but given my feet issues, that was just fine with me. My legs definitely didn’t feel as taxed as with a faster pace, but my Crossfit soreness from Saturday appeared post run. 

Obligatory post run compression socks picture:

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So…what does this all mean for this week’s runs? I’m trying to mix it up to be easier on my feet. I’m going to do some speedwork-breaking up my runs into smaller sets will give my feet some recovery. I’ll also do some hills, because climbing and descending puts pressure on different parts of my feet. Here’s what the week will look like:

Tuesday: 1 mile warm up, 8x400m repeats, 1 mile cool down

Thursday: Run the Dish (from my dorm, this is a total of 6 miles, with hills)

Friday: 1.5 mile run to hills, hill sprints, 1.5 back for a total of 4 miles.

Sunday: 12 miles TBD-I don’t have a problem taking this slow. It’s my last run before getting my new inserts and when I start tapering I’ll pick up the speed a bit.

As for other workouts-I’m trying a new Crossfit box tomorrow! I’m nervous/excited. I keep obsessively refreshing the website to see the WOD. So I’m still not sure what my Crossfit schedule will look like for this quarter. I also need to sign up for spin and yoga. I’m hoping to squeeze in my own spin workout sometime this week as practice for when I’m certified. So we’ll see how all that fits into my schedule. And since I know my parents will read this-school definitely comes first! 

I’ll keep you all updated on everything as it happens of course! WIsh me luck at my new box!

One more thing-I have an opportunity to join a flag football team, but they practice like everyday and I’m not sure I want that type of commitment. Thoughts?

What did you do this weekend?

 

And a New Year Begins

I can’t believe I’m actually blogging from my phone. I’m working to get my Internet up and running, but right now it’s not cooperating with me. I had this same issue last year. Long story short-little freshman me who could barely ride a bike had to bike far to the Apple store for an appointment, in a maze of a mall. I was almost in years by the time I got there…only to find out I was the on the wrong day. #freshman
I’m hoping this will resolve itself. Fingers crossed. Meanwhile.
I’m finally all moved in! I have a few more things to put away, but here are some pictures.

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Here’s the view from my window. Not bad, right?
And here are some shots of my room. Please note the fall decor!

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But lets back up a bit. Friday morning was my last 5:10am wakeup for spin! It was an awesome class. I was supposed to do a hilly 4 miles but my legs just needed a break. I had a heavy week if workouts, so it was much needed. I wasn’t too hungry after spin but knew I needed something for recovery, so I had some leftover scramble with potatoes.

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I had a paleo faileo snack-I got hungry mid morning so I mixed up almond meal, cocoa powder, and almond milk. Which was all well and good until I heated it all up and the almond meal seemed to disappear.

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I ended up eating them with applesauce. I had some leftover so I microwaved it up with some spices and egg. The result was a little too bland-not enough applesauce. Fail again.

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On the plus side, my shirt for race day came! I’m so pumped.

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After spending all day packing and sneezing from the dust, I headed out to a softball party to visit our giant trophy-my team won the championship! (While I was in Hawaii…)

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The softball commissioner is currently trying to recruit my sis and I for flag football. Should I go for it??
I couldn’t really eat anything besides a random carrot stick at the party. Pizza=not Whole30. By the time we left, I was craving MEAT. #paleoprobs
After much deliberation, we stopped to get take out turkey burgers. OMG just what I was wanting! SO GOOD.

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And the fries for some reason were amazing today. And I never eat or want fries.
Breakfast this morning was really ugly. I can’t even post the picture, it was that bad. But it tasted fine! Technically mimicking pancakes is cheating, but it was pre workout and I didn’t want to do anything too crazy. For my pancakes, I simply mixed an egg, a ripe banana, and cocoa powder. Tomorrow’s pre run breakfast will look similar. It also was ugly because I tried to make 1 big pancake…and came out with 3 brown logs. Yeah. Not pretty.
Crossfit killed me today. It was 7 rounds of 15 kb swings, 15 power cleans, and 15 box jumps. The cleans were really light for me, but I just felt slow. Yeahh too many fries last night??
As I drove home, it started POURING. I love it-it really feels like fall!

This mini Whole30 thing isn’t really working for me. There are some foods that just make sense for me. My body really craved chocolate milk post workout, so I just made some (with weird ingredients-I took everything else to school.) Eating so strictly Paleo has been leading me to overeat, or eat the “wrong” healthy food. Like yesterday’s almond meal disaster. It’s also a little hard for me because I won’t eat pork or red meat, and I really can’t be eating nuts. That doesn’t leave a whole lot besides eggs.
Also-I love my probiotic gummies. I got capsules instead for this week, but I don’t like them as much-they don’t work as well for me.
So I definitely haven’t been perfect. I had ketchup with a little sugar, sunflower seed butter with a little sugar, “pancakes”…
I want to try and finish this out as well as possible, but in some ways it just isn’t practical for me.

Aaa and tomorrow is 11 miles! I’m planning on wearing my really old running shoes with my nice inserts. I’m truly at a loss with what to do to manage my feet pain. I wanted to try out my old shoes with these inserts before the long run, but that just didn’t happen. The only plus side is I loop by my dorm at mile 4 tomorrow, so I can make a shoe change if necessary.
Also-so you like the green laces? They’re both green now, I just wanted to show the comparison.

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And one more random side note-my dorm has co-Ed bathrooms, which for some reason I’m not digging. Ehh live and learn.
Hopefully my next post will be with a working computer! Wish me luck with my feet over tomorrow’s hilly 11!

The Summer That May Have Changed My Life

Ok, to be fair, this title is a little overly dramatic. But let’s just get right into it, shall we?

It’s no secret I like cats. I feel like every survey I’ve done somehow ends up with every other answer being how much I love my kitty.

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(Who just so happens to be sleeping purrily next to me as we speak.)

My phone pictures? Cats and food. And the food is a branch out from what my phone was like a year ago. I even made a calendar of my cats.

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(Sidenote-apparently my Resident Fellows for my dorm have 3 cats! SO pumped!)

So volunteering in the kitten nursery this summer was an easy decision. Even if it was the early morning shift!Image

I mean, I knew they’d be freaking cute.

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But I wasn’t prepared for the impact they would have on me. 

I loved every minute of the kitten nursery- playing with the kitties, cleaning litter boxes, getting meowed at constantly, hand feeding them, leaving COVERED in cat food. 

I learned how to syringe feed a kitten. I learned how frustrating kittens can be when they don’t feel like eating. I learned the impact one person can have on a kitten’s life.

I took this little guy under my wing. 

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I could tell he was kind of falling by the wayside, which really upset me. Black cats are usually the last to be adopted. This guy was underweight and not particularly receptive to being syringe fed. I could tell by his charts that the previous volunteers had just given up-he was not given anywhere near as much as he should have. He wasn’t that receptive to syringe feeding (a lot of kittens aren’t), but I spent an entire hour with just this one little kitten. His paper said he was “antisocial” but I think it was more of shy, because he eventually purred for me. This kitty ended up being fine, and a ball of energy a week later once his weight was back on track.

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I fell in love with this little kitten the first week she came in. Her litter was so energetic and full of energy. 2 weeks later, she was so sick she couldn’t stand. She had lost a ton of weight-her whole litter was sick (and one of her sisters didn’t make it either) but she was the worst. I felt so helpless that day. This kitten had been a ball of energy 2 weeks before, and now was clearly suffering and not going to make it. I wanted so much to help them, but there was nothing I could do for them. 

I’ve always loved animals, but believed I could never be a vet because it would be “too sad.” I even avoid books I know will have sad endings (Nicholas Sparks, anyone?). But you know what? Sometimes the hardest things are the most worthwhile. 

My experience at the kitten nursery has me rethinking my whole career. I always thought I’d do nutritional research. But now, I’m seriously considering becoming a veterinarian. Because yes, when that little kitten died, it was sad. But you know what? They don’t all die. Most of them make it. What if I had an opportunity to save the life of an animal?Image

Wouldn’t that be worth the wave of emotions that came with losing one? Shouldn’t I put aside my OWN issues for somebody else? Sure, losing that kitten was unbelievably sad. But there are others out there that need help-that one loss shouldn’t stop me from saving the rest. 

Have you ever completely rethought your career? Have you had an experience that changed your life?

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The Wrong Feet Forward

Hey all! A lot has been going on lately, so let’s do a bit of a brain dump. 

1. Today I half-moved into my dorm. I unloaded all the stuff from a storage unit, plus my bike and food. Which turns out to be pretty much everything except for clothes and me. Image

2. Instead of carting my protein powder and cocoa powder to the dining hall to make a smoothie, I put together some “smoothie mixes” with cocoa powder, xantham gum, and chocolate protein powder. Just add milk, banana, and ice!

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3. I absolutely killed this WOD last night. I knew it was up my alley-any time when we do only a few reps of a heavy lift is my forte. Since lifting over speed is more of my strength, I’m never the first to finish the workout. Well, on this one, I lapped everyone in my class and was the fastest of the day. I didn’t Rx it-hardly anyone did, but I still did the deadlift heavier than almost everyone. #winning

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4. I decided to start my Mini Whole30 today, instead of having an entire day to think about and go crazy eating all the things I won’t be eating for the next week. Success? I think so. Image

Mango iced tea, chicken chop salad, plantains. 

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Egg whites, potatoes, onions, peppers, mushrooms, spinach; topped with avocado and nutritional yeast, plus bruscetta. A side of papaya. 

5. It was really awesome seeing some of my friends again! I love all my blog friends, but it was great to see real live people. 

6. I recently ordered a ton of things online, and my boots just came! Thoughts?Image

7. I had THE WORST run today. It was a 5 mile run-I started off at a good pace, but I made a poor shoe decision. GIven I can barely stand to run in my normal shoes, wearing my Brooks (which cause me the most foot pain) was probably not the best move. For some reason I got it in my head that they would be better. Running is becoming kind of tortuous. I had to keep stopping to walk because it felt like I was running on knives. And it’s so annoying because it’s definitely a shoe issue-I just can’t find any shoes that work. I think minimalist shoes would be better. Anything with a completely flat inside. The problem is the part on the inside of the shoe where it’s slightly raised where it’s supposed to be between your foot and toes. That just digs into my foot, hitting a nerve. After today’s run, I can’t even imagine my 11 miler this weekend. I got custom inserts made, but I conveniently don’t get them until AFTER both my 11 and 12 milers. Awesome. I have one more trick up my sleeve to try-my old running shoes which I LOVE (but are really old and worn out) plus a cushier insert to help take out some of the impact. It’s just REALLY frustrating. I swear, on some of these runs I’m THIS close to going shoeless. Grrr. Well, at least the scenery was pretty.

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I hate my feet folks. 

8. I’m a little bit Crossfit obsessed. I know I really SHOULD skip it tomorrow-I’ve gone a lot this week, plus have to run and go to Spin tomorrow, but I’m sort of drooling over the workout. I guess I’ll see how my legs feel tomorrow evening. 

9. Today was my last day in the kitten nursery. 🙁

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Happy Friday!

What’s going on with you right now?