Hey guys! It’s now Thursday night. I wrote yesterday’s post in the afternoon, so I’ll catch you up on what I did after that. Hint-not sleep….Wednesday nights are the worst! I didn’t even wait until Wednesday night to start my giant lab report-I worked on it Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon and even went to office hours. And I still slept a grand total of…2.5 hours last night. That is definitely my new record. At points I even considered just pulling an all nighter since I definitely left work for myself to do in the morning. But I’m not about that life! 2.5 hours till makes a huge difference! It actually wasn’t that bad and I’m still alive and sane because I wasn’t sleep deprived going in. That being said, bed is happening on the soon side so I’m going to pump out this post in mostly picture form!

My attempt at a veggie filled snack-brown rice, spinach, and coconut aminos.

Super late dinner of Trader Joe’s ancient grains soup with goat gouda, plus the world’s biggest, juiciest orange.

Homemade chocolate but I didn’t use coconut oil, just cream, and I added too much so it was super liquidy.

Sooo…one of the reasons I was actually able to stay up without must issue last night was late night consumption of junk food. I had my first In n Out experience at our hall meeting. To be honest, I’m really not a fan. The fries were just mayo and American cheese coated…which kind of grossed me out but I ate them anyways. And I had a burger less cheeseburger. And of course lots of dates and some chocolate. So while my stomach felt awful last night and this morning, I had plenty of fuel for late night studying. My body kind of rejects all the junk though because I woke up drenched in sweat…I’m so sensitive to sugar!

So coffee and a protein packed breakfast were in order. 

Today was actually amazing because I was just super tired during Nutrition, and despite having class straight through the day, I was fine after that. In Nutrition today, we were actually filmed for a documentary that my professor is featured in. Hopefully I didn’t look too sleepy!

The highlight of my lab was not blowing myself by accidentally making TNT and finishing up 1.5 hrs early. I went to the little market for some essentials-kombucha, eggs, and my all time favorite dark chocolate. And spent the hour before Crossfit jelled out with Netflix-deifntiely the perfect afternoon.

Crossfit was a good one. I never thought 100 kettle bell swings would feel so good! We’ve done a ton of overhead pressing lately (push press, press, jerk, thrusters), and my left shoulder (and a bit my right shoulder) has just been in constant pain for the last 3 weeks or so since it never got a chance to recover. So the push press/jerks that we did for strength were really painful, and I spent half the time trying to stretch my left shoulder out. The WOD began with 100 kettle bell swings, which actually turned out to be an amazing stretch for my sore shoulders. Go figure. And I left energized-thank goodness!

On the way back, I finally made the decision to try to try the new flavors of Quest bars, so i stopped and picked some up.

For dinner, I had something totally random. We made some food in the slow cooker-well, my roommate did at least! Indian masala sauce with spinach, butternut squash, and paneer, served over rice.

And for dessert, I finally tried the cookies and cream after seeing it on everyone’s social media.

I have a love/hate relationship with Quest bars, but I have to say, the Oreo was spot on. I actually really liked this-and I couldn’t taste the artificial sweetener as much as in the other bars I’ve tried. While nutritionally I’m not a fan of Quest bars, right now I’m going to pick my battles and eat them for dessert, while getting as many veggies as possible. 

Oh, and here’s a picture from my friend’s modern dance performance I went to tonight!

Ok, bed for me. Like now.

Eating too many carrots can make you turn orange. True or false?

True. Fun fact-it is hard to get too much Vitamin A to the point of toxicity, but if this were to happen, it would be because it is all stored in the liver. Beta carotene is actually a precursor to Vitamin A (meaning your body would use it to make Vitamin A if you didn’t get enough Vitamin A), but it’s NOT toxic. Why? It isn’t stored in the liver. It’s stored in the tissues throughout your body, especially the face and hands.

Given my new love of carrots and this little factoid, yesterday I tweeted this:

I’m about 90% sure I’m not kidding. So-what do I do next week when the project is officially over? A new challenge-what do you think? Eat as many carrots and beta carotene containing foods as possible? I’m going to do it! Although according to the internet, it would be incredibly difficult to do, and I’m not about to drink cartons of carrot juice…

But I’m serious for one other reason-I think I have a lack of veggies in my life, especially the roasted variety. I’ve come to the conclusion that I would eat way better, and way less sugar, if I actually had the things on hand that my body craves. Like yesterday when I wanted roasted carrots but all I had were dates. Since it’s a 3 day weekend this weekend, I’m going home on Sunday for brunch with my high school friends and a massive roasting of vegetables. I’m thinking TONS of carrots-maybe literally, cumin roasted cauliflower, and roasted sweet potatoes. It’s going to be great. I better get some dark leafy greens too though because they are actually high in beta carotene as well! I’m thinking eating as many roasted veggies as possible will do me good.

This morning, I went on a hilly 5 mile run. I ate some things I probably shouldn’t have last night, but the run gave me time to do some thinking (and I finally JUST had a revelation on where this last week of the project is going to go!)

I took some measurements this morning-my weight was close to where it was at the start of the project, up from a week ago. But then I took my fasting blood sugar. It was still at the improved level from the last couple of weeks. On my run, sure my foot started hurting, but it’s definitely an improvement. And my running? SO much better. My hamstring soreness is coming in in full force today, and I still climbed this hills without issue on my run. In fact, it felt better than it has since way back when I was rowing. There’s no question I’ve gotten faster as well. I knocked quite a bit of time off my tempo run last week.

The moral of this? 1. Weight isn’t everything. Just because that’s back to near pre-project, it doesn’t mean the other improvements aren’t still there.

2. Weeks of hard work won’t be undone by a few bad days of eating. I felt like everything I had accomplished in the past few weeks were gone. That’s not true at all! The changes are still there!

Hah-but that being said, a few days of bad eating still means a few days of stomachaches…

With that being said, I FINALLY decided how I want to proceed with this last week. I’m not going to EXACTLY stay on the project-but I’m going to use this week to practice what I learned doing the project, which I think is just as, if not more, important as the project. Which means I’m going to stick to the principles of the project, but not totally rigidly.

This afternoon is a great example. I had a piece of marble bread. And my heart was immediately racing. I’ve become more sensitive to sugar-lesson learned. In practice, this week will focus not on the restrictiveness of the project, but making better and higher quality food choices. Like yogurt and berries for breakfast, instead of muffins. Or whole grains and quality proteins for dinner. And avoiding sugar as much as possible, since I think cutting that out made the biggest difference.

To be honest, I feel a little uncomfortable “off” the project and the guidance it gave me, but also relieved at the end of the restrictiveness. Given the goal was lifelong changes, I think putting what I learned into action is incredibly important. With that said, here’s what I ate today! (Minus the marble cake which I don’t have a picture of)

Last night I got an email about the dining hall having a special breakfast item today-congee. It’s an Asian rice based porridge, and is served with different toppings. I wanted some quick coffee, so I stopped in to give it a try.

But I also had some protein and fruit. The rest of my sheep milk yogurt with a drizzle of pure maple syrup, and a kiwi. (Sidenote-until just this second, I definitely thought it was goat milk! No wonder it didn’t taste goat-y!)

Since I’ve had to ice my foot post-run, I’ve been having trouble with the time I have in the morning. I stepped out of the shower with 6 minutes before I had to be out the door. Make-up, clothes, and hair in this time-I arrived to class 5 minutes early. But it meant I was wearing bad shoes for my feet-I didn’t have time to put inserts in or find other shoes that matched.

I love these shoes and wear them so much. I could really use a new pair at some point, but I set a goal for myself that I wanted to meet before getting there (like a year ago…) and that hasn’t happened so…

For lunch, I made a sweet potato and topped it with cottage cheese, spinach, and this spice blend.

My mom sort of forced me to get it when we went grocery shopping, and I’m really glad she did! It gave my meal some much needed flavor!

And that’s all for now! (Since this was written in the afternoon…) Lots of work to do tonight!