Reunited At Last

That’s right. I’m officially reunited with this guy. 

Even better, I’m DONE with this quarter! Let’s back up a bit, shall we?

Thursday involved intense studying. And persimmons and sparkly pants. You know it’s finals week when your study snacks degenerate into this:

I have absolutely no regrets about that cookie. It was delicious and much needed. And it left me studying in a cafe with Christmas music playing. That was a good life choice. 

I fueled my late night studying with the remains of my fridge-tofu, brown rice/quinoa, green beans, and a salad.

In general, my eating habits weren’t the greatest during finals week, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to get through it. I super intense studied from 7pm to 1am when my brain shut off. I set my alarm for 6am to go over some things I didn’t get a chnace to the night before. 

I think I need to start setting multiple alarms for the days when I’ve severely sleep deprived-my alarm went off as planned, but in the process of turning it off, I feel asleep and dropped my phone. Whoops. Luckily I woke up 20 minutes later and had plenty of time, but probably not a good thing to happen. 

So, I got coffee and headed off to my last exam-Bio at 8:30am. It was LONG. The test itself was 35 pages, and we had 3 hours which was a bit of a time crunch. You know how your legs are shaking after a tough workout? My brain was legitimately shaking. To celebrate/revive myself, I went to a nearby cafe for something delicious. 

Hot chocolate-SO good. I’ve been sort of dreaming about good hot chocolate for a while. And perfect for a quaking brain.

And quiche. Post run food? Try post marathon exam food! Best thing ever. I then proceeded to kill time such that I would end up running out of time to pack everything up, and therefore I have to go back this morning. I cleaned out some things-I won’t share the grisly details, and went to the gym for a quick workout. I took it easy yesterday, and today is a full day off in preparation for the Santa Run 5k tomorrow! 

I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned this yet, but I’ve been doing #plankaday this month. I was at the track at the beginning of the month and had a little time to kill, so I decided to try it and have realized this is an easy way to build some desperately needed core strength. I got up to 5:00 yesterday! To be fair, the amount I can go varies based on the workout I’ve just done, and an easy 30 minutes on the spin bike was going to leave me with fresh abs. Last year when I was rowing, some of my friends asked if I could do a 10 minute plank. I got bored after 7:00 and stopped. Rower abs are no joke!

Then, I rushed home to be ready in time for my dad’s company Christmas party. I managed to sneak some food photos, because how often do I eat fancy food?

Salad with candied walnuts, apple, and gorgonzola dressing.

Sole and mashed potatoes with asparagus. 

Chocolate cake.

Everything was so good, and it was nice to have an occasion to dress up for. 

Here’s our tree with a side of dog! I think it looks especially good this year. This is probably the best tree we’ve ever gotten; it’s incredibly fresh and full. Seriously guy-Whole Foods has awesome trees, and about half of what you’d pay at a lot!

This morning I woke up, full of breakfast possibilities. I couldn’t decide what to make, so I ended up having exactly what I could have eaten at school-chocolae banana bread and a persimmon. 

I’m really excited to eat delicious, high quality food. It’s amazing how much more satisfying it is! I’m also starting a detailed food log. Something has been bothering my stomach, and I would love to pinpoint it before I go back to school. Some theories-sugar, grains, coconut, snacks, large quantities of protein bars…so we shall see! 

Have a great weekend everyone!