Monthly Archives: January 2014

Teaching Yoga

Date: January 24, 2014

Author: astottler

Happy Friday! Who’s glad it’s the weekend?? It’s a little bittersweet for me because my to-do list is off the charts…how is it already midterm season?? (As is reflected by my coffee consumption.) If I did this challenge without coffee, I would actually be dead.

For whatever it’s worth though, I am slowly catching up on sleep. Last night I went to bed fairly early and I took a nap today!

Let’s rewind on the food front a bit to last night first!

Nothing new here-I am still not tired of this!

Let’s pretend that this is an artsy shot and not just me being impatient. These pink ladies are from out CSA box, and they’re phenomenal!

After dinner I took a quick nap before yoga-and then had some unsweetened chocolate to wake me up.

Then-yoga time! I made up a sequence-with no clue how long it would take (it ended up being about half an hour but I cut it a little short).

Ignore my spelling and/or totally made up descriptions for things I couldn’t remember the name of.

It was SO MUCH FUN. I channeled my inner yoga teacher-I have one teacher who I’ve gone to for years, and can basically quote word for word. It was awesome-I felt strong and everyone seemed to enjoy it. I didn’t do anything that would reflect my lack of flexibility too much!

Kinda awkward picture but I’m the one facing everybody. This made me realize I need to do my own yoga practice! I’m totally capable of making a “class” for myself, and it felt so great! I just wish it were a little warmer so I could be outside!

Guys. I feel like I’ve made so many new friends already this quarter! It’s wonderful and it warms my heart.

This morning, I went to the gym for a treadmill workout. I did the one where I do a mile at my goal pace, and then 10 intervals of 2 minutes at a faster pace (with walking in between). To up the challenge, I did the first mile and 2 intervals at a 1.0 incline. It’s interesting-I’ve done this workout a lot and it varies a lot based on how I’m feeling. The first time I did it was over break, when I would do it AFTER spin. My legs felt kind of heavy when I woke up this morning, and man was it hard today. I’m thinking that’s most likely due to sleep deprivation. But at the same time, I think my running has definitely gone downhill in the last couple of months-all my distance training is gone, so I’ve lost a decent part of my endurance base. The frustrating part is that I really can’t do any long distance runs with my tendonitis at this point.

I had a few of my pre workout balls before the run, and then coffee after, plus this bowl of deliciousness:

Plain yogurt, pink lady apple, and sunflower seed butter. Plus a kiwi. I’ve eaten so many kiwis today! We’ve been getting them in our CSA box, but I never really ate them much! They’re super ripe, and definitely the best kiwis I’ve had.

I also took some ‘abs’ pictures today to have some visual record of this project. I think I’d really need a 6 pack by the end of 4 weeks though to have my abs circulating the Internet…yeah I should probably do some abwork…But still, I probably won’t post these pictures-it’s just to notice differences.

After class, I had every intention of working, but I ended up getting hungry early-weird because I ate a late breakfast. Since I was done for the day, I actually got to have a hot lunch!

Same old, same old with balsamic dressing on the asparagus.

After my nap, I did a little banana experimenting. I have an idea for next week’s pre workout balls, and I used a little mashed banana to test that. I know they’ll taste fabulous, but not sure how they’ll feel pre workout!

I had the rest of the banana with cocoa powder and yogurt.

Something about this snack just unleashed the hunger in me! Before Crossfit, I had a nice little meatsicle, some sweet potatoes, and some dried mango.

file:///Users/stottler/Pictures/iPhoto%20Library/Previews/2014/01/23/20140123-163711/zSfuddS1QoO2JZS77Q690g/IMG_6331.jpg

Plus, I’ve been having handfuls of this:

I think I’ve been having a little too much coconut and sunflower seed butter these last couple of days though-I’m feeling a little bit off from all the fat/fiber in the coconut!

Today in Crossfit, the WOD was wall balls and toes to bar (which I can’t do fully). For some reason, lately my usual 14 lb wall ball has been feeling insanely light. Which is funny because my arms have felt a little week lately-I can’t even remember the last time I did pull ups!

After Crossfit, I made a valiant effort to get the rest of the things I need for the blood sugar test, but I couldn’t find parking so I gave up!

I attempted my first dinner at the dining hall. I did reasonably well-the chicken rice soup said it contained wheat, which meant it was probably just a little to thicken so I let it go. Then I realized it was white rice, which is technically processed, but oh well. The real star was the black bean and corn salads-which I mixed together.

So-what does the future hold? Next week I want to try to go to the dining hall more-but it doesn’t always fit in my schedule and I still have an entire container of soup in the freezer-and I love soup for dinner! For breakfasts, yogurt or overnight oats with berry compote, or maybe dining hall food (eggs/fruit). For lunches, I still have a frozen meal, but I want to make quinoa fried rice-quinoa, tons of veggies, egg, leftover chicken, garlic, etc. Plus a new variety of energy balls.

Also-look out for a post about fat. That’s this week’s topic in nutrition, and I think it helps clarify a lot about the different types of fat!

And I’m sorry-I’m a little behind on responding to comments because I normally do that on my phone, but I got the updated app and it’s a little funky! I will get right on it though 🙂

Any suggestions on how I can get magically fast in the next week?

My race is next weekend! (5k)

Rest is for the Dead?

Date: January 23, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Hey guys! I must admit, this post is going to have a much different tone than I initially anticipated. I thought I’d be more or less dead right now, but I actually feel great. Last night, I got the least amount of sleep I’ve ever gotten since coming to college, and maybe since ever. My day was crazy busy so I was up super late doing a lab report. At least super late by my standards-I will never pull an all nighter! I got a whole 3 hours of sleep. The good news? At this point my week is more or less over so I can just sleep. For the record, I attribute my current energy level not to my new eating habits but rather to a miracle. But I’ll definitely talk about the eating habits as well!

Last night I went to weight lifting, but since my knee isn’t 100%, I couldn’t go into nearly full squats. Apparently to going into full squats puts a ton of strain on your hamstrings because mine are smoked today!

Let’s first go over Wednesday’s food. Wednesdays are traditionally where my healthy eating breaks down, and my habits did see some changes.

Pre-run energy bites. Slightly bland, but super convenient and do the job perfectly! I checked out the macronutrient distribution, and it was just where I wanted it for pre-workout.

Overnight oats made with plain yogurt and milk, chia seeds, coconut, and extra thick rolled oats. This was super thick! And I may have been a little heavy handed on the vanilla…topped with berry compote! Which we desperately need to make more of…

Plus an orange.

Same old, same old for lunch, but I don’t seem to get tired of it! Although I’m thinking of mixing it up next week…quinoa fried rice? Also, Christine’s Garlic Balsamic Brussels Sprouts are one of my favorite things ever.

After class yesterday, I stocked up on bananas. This was the best sight ever.

Yesterday was a little weird because I had literally zero time for dinner, so I had several snacks.

A beautiful blood orange, banana with sunflower seed butter and unsweetened chocolate, plus some seaweed salad. The seaweed salad probably had a little sugar in it-that was definitely not the best judgement on my part, but I’m still alive. Dried mango. The bowl of yogurt, bananas, and sunflower seed butter was after a sorority event that ended late-I was starving! At the event, I faced my first real temptation-homemade cookies and toppings.

Here’s “dinner” after weights, eating while racing between events: a cold turkey burger.

These burgers are THAT good that I eat them cold, in a plastic bag, and still love them.

One thing about eating real foods is that all the thought has been taken out of it-I just listen to my body without even thinking. Yesterday, I had quite a few different snacks throughout the day, but I didn’t think twice about them and just ate what I was craving, and it did the job perfectly. When I was up really late doing work, it didn’t even occur to me to eat food to help me stay up, which is something I definitely would have done in the past.

This morning, coffee was absolutely necessary. I actually woke up for spin this morning. Whether or not that was a good decision, I don’t know. My 3am logic isn’t always sound, but 45 minutes didn’t seem like it would make that much of a difference sleep wise, but spin would definitely energize me and help me wake up.

This was by far the best one in a long time!

One thing about food prep-it makes things so easy when you’re a zombie. Leftover overnight oats and berries were just sitting waiting for me.

I’m to sure what it is about Tuesdays and Thursdays, but for some reason despite the fact I have earlier and more class, I’m much more awake. I knew I’d probably be ok in Nutrition, and if I made it through Chem I’d be ok because I’d be active and moving around in lab in the afternoon. I was surprisingly fine in chem-I think it helps to have someone to sit next to and crack jokes with to keep me awake!

Here was lunch-cumin roasted cauliflower was the veggie of the day!

I’ll write up the rest of my food a little later, but I want to talk about some things I’ve been noticing.

It’s been less than 4 days. But I’m seeing changes. Real, noticeable changes. I look leaner and healthier, and it’s not my imagination-my barista even noticed! I think a lot of this has to do with cutting out sugar-my body isn’t holding on to so much junk. I’ve been feeling great-I haven’t had a single stomachache, something that seemed to happen everyday (which I always thought was sugar related).

I feel enlightened. And I’m so happy I have a blog to share this with the world. It’s been 4 days. FOUR DAYS. That’s it! And yet, I look at 4 days ago Aurora and feel like I’m looking at a different person-I feel like my metabolism was so screwed up. And that was me-a relatively healthy American. Our whole country’s metabolisms are messed up! And I believe that now more than ever. Eating has just been so easy for me these past few days. I eat when I’m hungry, I eat what I crave, which is whole foods. I had some baby sugar cravings after the 2 pieces of mango, but nothing serious. It’s just so amazing to me.

One difference between this project and other dietary changes I’ve tried to make in the past is that I don’t feel restricted. I’ve tried both Paleo and Whole30, and I really missed certain foods with that. Now? I love the food I’m eating! I can eat whatever I want and feel great! It’s wonderful!

(Just taken selfie-do I look different?? Haha)

While I feel amazing now and I want to help everyone in the country realize this, I understand something else. Over the last year, my eating habits slipped a bit, but now I’m finally starting to feel like myself again. I thought-“this is amazing, I wish I had done this months ago!”

But here’s the thing. Months ago, I wasn’t ready. To completely overhaul your diet, to change the way you think, to change the way you express emotions (because who hasn’t celebrated with food?), you have to be ready. And you have to be inspired. This isn’t just about me. This is about proving that for optimal health, you just need to eat real food, no crazy diets. And that anyone can do it. I mean heck, I’m in college, with limited time and limited kitchen access, as well as temptations around every corner. But I’m doing it, and I’m feeling great, and I’m changing, both in body and mind. And that’s just after 4 days.

I’ve said it before-I feel enlightened. I feel like I understand cravings and metabolism and the problems with our country much better now. (But there’s also the possibility that I’m sleep deprived and delirious…) Food has always been a struggle for me-this is unhealthy, this tastes like cardboard but is good for me, this is unhealthy but I’m going to eat it anyways, even though it’s not that great and I’m not hungry. Sound familiar? I’m realizing how many places in my life I would have normally reached for something sweet, but now I just don’t. And I’m still alive. I don’t miss it-although I’m excited for my one dessert this weekend! Food is just so easy. No stress. No anxiety. I just eat. And my food is delicious and I enjoy it-but that’s that-no guilt, no gross feelings, no seconds/third/fourths, no afterthoughts.

And that’s how it should be.

I wish I could properly express to the world how night and day I’ve felt. I want to get the blood sugar tests done this weekend as well so I have some harder facts than the rainbows and butterflies I’m currently spurting out my mouth.

I wish this project could inspire people to try what I’m doing-cutting the fake processed junk out. Now more than ever I believe this is the problem and the root of the obesity epidemic. I just wish I could make people see.

WIAW-Unproccessed Food

Date: January 21, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Wednesday! Which means, it’s none other than What I Ate Wednesday-a big thanks to Jenn for hosting!

My morning started bright and early so I could lead weight training to quidditch. I put together my breakfast the night before so it would be quick and easy in the dark.

This.

THIS. SO GOOD-I felt like I was eating a pb&j sandwich. Fun fact-did you know I ate pb&j everyday for about 3 years? It was sophisticated too-different peanut butters, ALWAYS two types of jam (each half was different). And somehow now my body rebels at nuts-go figure. ANYWAYS. This is plain greek yogurt topped with sunflower seed butter and mixed berry compote. The mixed berry compote? I hinted at it yesterday. So easy. So good.

Take a bag of frozen berries (i added a few frozen cherries to the mix as well).

Simmer on stove at low heat for a couple of hours-until the berries thicken. Or throw in the slow cooker-we have one in our room and that is going to happen at some point.

Result: deliciousness. No sugar needed.

Quidditch training went really well-today was the first week we repeated a workout, and the improvements were insane! I mean, there’s a lot of form improvement as well as strength, so the increase in the weights they used was huge. On back squats, most people moved up 20-30 pounds! One guy who lifts on his own couldn’t get very low on his squats a couple of weeks ago. He’s been working on it, and now his form was WAY better, and he lifted 30 pounds heavier! It’s so excited-I’m so proud!

One guy made me check that his form was good because he was using way heavier weights than last time, but it felt so much easier that he was sure he must be doing something wrong. And on top of just the strength, everyone did more rounds of the timed conditioning.

The best part? We got through everything smoothly and quickly so I had time for coffee before my first class.

Lunch after class was prepacked-chicken, asparagus, and brown butter sage mashed sweet potatoes.

Before my 4:15 class, I got an email that I needed to be somewhere at 7, so I had to reschedule Crossfit and rush straight form my last class, so before class I went back to my room to change and eat a quick snack. I had the biggest banana craving EVER. Like, I would have killed for a banana. Ohhh what eating well does to us. I ended up buying a banana on the way back.

I also had a couple of squares of unsweetened chocolate, on with sunflower seed butter and the other without.

But banana and sunflower seed butter? Hit. The. Spot.

Plus a spoon of berry compote and a cutie.

Unsweetened dark chocolate is intense-it’s hard to eat too much. I now know my limit-not 2 squares. I was a bit wired/heart racing. Noted.

I made it to Crossfit on time-I could do everything in today’s workout with my knee, although I had to be careful to really get high on the box jumps so that I wouldn’t land in a deep squat. My knee is doing way better-I can squat if I’m SUPER careful, so that’s a good sign (although it feels a little stiff now, so I should ice!). I’m planning on going to weight lifting tomorrow, but instead of doing full lifts, I’m going to do power lifts instead. For those that don’t know, the difference between a full and a power lift is that full lifts finish in a squat, and power lifts catch the bar standing up.

Dinner tonight was sort of late (and therefore from my fridge). I am going to make some attempts at the dining hall soon, but I didn’t get back from various things until late, and the dining hall would have been closing.

While I heated my soup, I munched on some grilled chicken with homemade ketchup.

It’s totally normal to eat this as a meat-sicle, right? I mean, it saves a knife….

And then the main course-butternut squash soup with modified cranberry relish and creme fraiche.

I also had a small bite of the unsweetened chocolate to give the meal some finality.

Overall, I’ve felt great these past 2 days. Better today than yesterday-maybe it was more caffeine, or maybe sugar withdrawals are over. I’ve leaned out a little in the last 2 days, simply because I’m not eating junk, and my body is flushing out all the cake/muffins/chips I ate over the weekend. In other words-the starting weight measurement from Monday really wasn’t representative of where I was, but we’ll go with it. In terms of the other data-my sister is sick so she couldn’t do blood pressure, and I decided that I am not sticking my finger with a sewing needle, because that is going to hurt too much, so I can’t take blood sugar until I get the lancets. And that is not a priority when I have schoolwork deadlines breathing down my neck!

It’s really interesting to me the foods that I’m seeking out-like bananas. I’m actually having less trouble eating like this because there are fewer options, and things are pretty much laid out for me.

What’s also interesting is my macronutrient composition. I was thinking I was not eating enough protein, which was probably true, although it’s still in the healthy range.

But then eliminate sugars, and there’s more space for the good stuff-here’s what the past couple of days have looked like:

I’m on the low end of carbohydrate and the high end of fat (thanks Nutrition class for that knowledge), but I think that will probably shift as the week goes on-I tend to want more carbs later in the week, so I’m trying to make sure I replenish the carbs I’m using. That being said, despite the government’s macronutrient recommendations, people function very well on a wide variety of intakes-some cultures eat mostly fat and are healthy. Others eat mostly carbs and are healthy. (I’m not talking about the typical American diet). What I’m saying is people are really good at functioning well on diets with whole foods, despite the ratios-so the ratios really aren’t that important!

I also felt really good today in Crossfit-strong and fast (in terms of running). But this could also be because I haven’t lifted heavy much lately.

Day 2 done and I’m feeling good!

What’s the weirdest food craving you’ve had?

Day 1

Date: January 20, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Well, it begins. My 4 week long project! One day in and I’m feeling excited and ready. And I may or may not already have decided that the first thing I’m going to eat when this is over is froyo…I digress.

In terms of data for this-this morning I took weight and general observations (I’m hoping my foot problems magically disappear-a girl can dream, right?) about how I feel. Tonight, my sister is going to do blood pressure. The blood sugar tests came in time, but the kit didn’t come with the lancets (the things that poke you), so I didn’t do that. Since I still haven’t made it to the store to get them, there’s a good chance I’m just going to prick myself with a (sanitized) needle tomorrow morning so I can get the reading.

A lot of you wanted recipes for this process, so I’m going to go over everything-I did a lot of food prep today and yesterday, so instead of just dumping every recipe on you guys today, I’m going to post recipes/foods as I eat them.

Here’s some of the prep that I did though.

(This will be in more detail tomorrow.)

Yeah…I’m pretty sure we’re set on meat. Which is probably good-whenever I clean up my eating, I start craving meat like crazy! Last night for dinner, my dad grilled Greek seasoned chicken for our salads, so he threw a few extra things on the grill for us! The turkey burgers are pre-seasoned with Italian seasoning (but don’t worry-nothing weird!), plus garlic powder and salt and pepper. The chicken is seasoned with garlic powder, salt, pepper, and an Italian herb blend. I’m planning on freezing some of this for next week-seasoned and grilled chicken is way better than just plain chicken!

Veggies getting cooked up.

A week of lunches all packed up.

Homemade ketchup from The Fat Chance Cookbook (which was my inspiration for this project).

Pre-workout Energy Balls. This is a recipe I’ll go ahead and post now! I kind of just threw it together-for me, it’s functional more than anything! I need something in my stomach before morning runs, and what I had been eating was Thinkthin Divine bars, which are chocolate coconut. I ended up using coconut flour instead of coconut, which worked out amazingly well, as it completely held these balls together. This recipe is functional more than anything-it may be a bit bland, so feel free to add a little honey, chocolate chips, raisins, nuts, etc!

1 banana, heated and mashed

1/2 c rolled oats

1/8 coconut flour

1/2 t vanilla

1 T cocoa powder

2 T chia seeds

Mix well, and roll into balls.

So…I’m sure everyone is curious-what did I eat today?

Homemade cappuccino-my mom really wanted me to try one from her Nespresso! It was good, but not quite the quality of my favorite place!

Breakfast-two sunny side up eggs and blueberries. It occurred to me that I won’t have a chance for some nice eggs in a while-dining hall eggs are much more suspect, and this is way more interesting than hardboiled!

After breakfast and food prep, I headed to the track for a speed/Crossfit style workout. I was disappointed I couldn’t do today’s Crossfit workout-squats are not happening for me right now (although my knee is definitely getting better), so I’m looking at this as an opportunity to really work on other things.

I started with a half mile warm up, and then did 10×200. And then this WOD:

This was originally going to be 4 rounds, but it was taking forever! The lunges are 50 EACH. I broke up the middle parts into 2 sets of 25 lunges, 20 sit ups, 15 push ups, and 10 hollow rocks. I did both back and front lunges (about half and half) to mix it up. My legs were definitely feeling it by the end!

Lunch was quick.

I made my butternut squash soup with cranberry relish, but for the relish, instead of adding sugar, I swapped out about half of the cranberries for one apple so it wouldn’t be quite so tart. Topped with creme fraiche. I also had a few bites of grilled chicken, and a small piece of 100% chocolate.

(This is the cranberry relish.)

I had Chem section today, so I rushed back in time for that. Afterwards, I had a small snack of one of my energy balls and a little sunflower seed butter.

I really like this sunflower seed butter-the only ingredients are sunflower seeds and salt-the other brand I normally buy is lightly sweetened, and their unsweetened type is pretty bad.

I went to a Yogalates class as well today. I’m not sure if I mentioned this before, but somehow I committed to teaching yoga at one of my sorority recruitment events, and given I’m the most inflexible person ever, that will be interesting. Anyways, I wanted to go to a couple of classes before then. This was mostly Pilates, but I definitely felt the burn!

Here’s dinner-a turkey burger with homemade ketchup (although these turkey burgers are so good I’d actually rather eat them without), lettuce leftover from our ski trip supply, homemade Balsamic dressing, and roasted cauliflower with cumin. I’m not normally a cauliflower person, but I really like it roasted this way! It’s basically just olive oil, cumin seeds, salt, and pepper, in the oven for about 20 minutes. The recipe called for a yogurt sauce-yogurt, a pinch of salt, and fresh mint. I actually might have liked it better just as is, but I think I like the idea of adding mint and yogurt to salads. Also-homemade ketchup+yogurt for a healthy 1000 island? Maybe?

I had a lot more salad than this afterwards-it just wouldn’t fit! And then I ended with an orange. It turns out the oranges from last week’s CSA boxes are blood oranges!

So….how was today? I ate well. I didn’t miss anything. But I’m tired. I’m definitely low on sleep from ski trip, and without my usual daily shots of sugar, I’m feeling it a bit more. After section, I had to keep reminding myself that I was not hungry, I was tired. So yeah. Sleep would be good. Lack of sleep probably does lead me to eat worse things in general. However, I’m not looking at a TON of sleep in the near future-at least not tomorrow. I still have a million things to do today and I can’t sleep in tomorrow because I have to train quidditch. So we shall see…

But in terms of food-I feel really good! I felt happy today (until the tiredness hit), and I’m excited about this. Everything is pretty much already laid out for me to eat the rest of the week, so I don’t anticipate too many problems. I’m confidant that I won’t cheat on this, because I’m much more committed than just saying “I’m not eating sugar for a while.” I’m taking data and trying to prove a point, so I’m not giving myself the option to not make it through. Plus, with all this delicious food, it shouldn’t be an issue!

What else do you want me to touch on with this project?

MIMM-“Ski” Trip

Date: January 20, 2014

Author: astottler

Categories: Uncategorized

Happy Monday! How are you guys doing? I have to day off today for MLK day, so I’m currently at home doing food prep for the start of The Project!

Today, I’m linking up with Katie for Marvelous in My Monday!

Over the weekend, I went to Lake Tahoe with my dorm for our ski trip. I use the term “ski trip” a bit liberally-not many people skied-there’s hardly any snow right now! We are officially in a drought. It meant the weather was nice though!

Friday before we left, I got in a great workout-I did my treadmill workout, followed by some weights-back lunges, single leg RDLs, and abs. Basically all my favorites! My knee is still not fabulous, so it limits what I can do a little bit. On the plus side, this means I’ve been running more, which I really should do anyway since I claim I’m trying to PR a 5k soon.

We left school in the afternoon, and hit horrible traffic. We stopped for dinner-and there was a Safeway nearby! Not just fast-food!

Whole wheat pita, chicken, veggies, and hummus.

Kombucha.

I also got some 86% chocolate for the bus ride.

I have to warn you guys-not a lot of food pictures from this trip. Or a lot of good food. The food they provided us was basically carbs and sugar. And lots and lots of potato chips. Mmmm and blueberry muffins-definitely a weakness of mine!

The most Marvelous part of my weekend was probably Saturday’s run. Not skiing meant I basically had all day to hang out and do whatever. I was excited to run in a new and beautiful place! I bundled up (sort of) and got going on my first snow run!

It was definitely not as cold as I was expecting, especially given there was some snow on the ground. I’ve had much colder runs at home!

I ran through the little ski village, taking a comfortable pace. I wore my Garmin just so I would have some idea of how far I had gone (so I wouldn’t get too lost) ad just listened to the sound of my breathing and my footsteps. I didn’t really have any destination in mind. I ended up in another state, which was cool.

I somehow ended up finding a trail that took me through a forest/wildlife preserve area. I stopped a bunch for pictures, and to read some of the signs-there were a bunch that talked about casinos that were supposed to be built there (definitely not in CA anymore), but how the space was preserved instead.

One of the best moments of my run was finding a pond that was completely frozen over.

I have a strange obsession with finding frozen puddles (maybe because I never see them) so this was pretty exciting!

I was tentatively planning on running 4-5 miles. I wanted to get a glimpse of the lake, so around the halfway point, I decided to go a little bit further to try and get a picture. That was a good decision-I turned a corner and BOOM. I was on the beach!

That was one of my favorite runs in a long time! I didn’t really feel the high altitude either!

I spent the rest of the day walking around and exploring the little village.

Like I said, food was not the best quality on this trip, and I definitely ate so much junk! This was actually one of my healthier things (and I felt the need to document it!)

Graham crackers with melty banana and 86% chocolate.

For dinner, we had frozen pizzas to cook up (we were staying in suites with a small kitchen)-this was an interesting task, as the pizzas had thawed a bit and were floppy, and there were no trays or anything. One of the pizzas ended up as a calzone because there was no other way to get it into the oven!

Sunday morning we were up fairly early to head home-we left early enough to get back in time for the 49ers game!

Lunch stop along the way-Starbucks salad. (Bonus-it had kale!)

Upon arriving at school, I packed my things up super fast to head home in time for the game. It was disappointing, to say the least. And I’m kind of embarrassed I go to the same school as Sherman did…

Dinner was Greek salads with grilled chicken-we grilled up a ton extra for food this week-enough that some will have to go in the freezer!

And of course being reunited with this guy was kind of Marvelous too.

And now, I’m finishing up meal prep. I’ll do a post on this as well as other “project” food later tonight! Before I head back to school, I’m going to get a Crossfit style track workout in-I can’t do the Crossfit workout today thanks to my knee-squats are still a no go!

What did you do this weekend? Do you have today off!