Monthly Archives: April 2015

A Day in the Life: Spring 2015

Hey guys! I wanted to do a day in the life this quarter-hopefully this helps explain some of why I’ve been absent a bit from the blog world-not enough time or sleep!

5:58: Wake up 2 minutes before my alarm. Surprising because I had less than 6 hours of sleep the night before and last night couldn’t fall asleep until 1:30ish. Get out of bed and take stomach medicine. I have to take it 30 minutes before eating in the morning so I need more time before 7am Crossfit.

Pre-workout: gluten free banana bread with blueberries!

IMG_1999

6:40ish: leave for Crossfit.

IMG_2001

It should be noted that I’ve basically been unable to walk since lifting weights on my own Monday morning. I love Crossfit, but it’s a different kind of workout and apparently I’m not in the shape I used to be in for high volume, heavy weight workouts I used to always do! Upon waddling in, I sort of regret coming but know it will keep my stomach in check.

7:00am workout: Back squats, sets of 3, lowering slowly to the bottom of the squat. I don’t go very heavy.

WOD:

3 rounds:

5 point shuttle run

7 stone to shoulder

5 point shuttle run

15 burpees

8:06: I run out of there the second we finish the WOD, which is late. It’s kind of a stretch going to 7am Crossfit before my 9am and making it in time, but I’m not waking up for 6am at this point in my life.

8:30: Clock is ticking as I arrive back on campus-I’m supposed to leave in 20 minutes! I packed up everything the night before but wished I had layer out my clothes. Couldn’t find the skirt I was looking for so I aborted.

8:40: Hop off to the shower. I had a special talent for stepping out of the shower 8 minutes before I have to leave and still making it in time, but I think this will break my streak.

Showered, dressed, make-up on, and sitting in class at 8:58. BOOM. New record.

IMG_2002

9-9:50 Physics. It’s Modern Physics and we talk about Schrodinger’s cat. I’m happy to learn no cats were actually harmed in this. Meanwhile, I drink my post-workout chocolate soy milk.

IMG_2003

10-10:50 Stats lecture. We had a quiz. It was kind of hard. Meh. I’m pretty hungry and know lunch is a ways away so I scarf down this bar between classes.

IMG_2005

11-12:15 Physics section. After class, I snag a bathroom selfie for my outfit of the day, since this is a day in the life post! It’s nice weather today.

IMG_2006

The outfit looked WAY better with the other skirt but what can I do?

Physics section is in the sub-basement. I am incapable of climbing that number of stairs so I take the elevator. Finally-selfie of the day! I’m almost at a year of selfies!

IMG_2007

I eat lunch outside.

IMG_2008

Salad with champagne vinaigrette and chicken. Basic but seems to be safe with my stomach. Plus a fruit bar-these are just from CVS but they might be my favorite! Big flavor.

IMG_2009

While eating I catch up on some blogs and then realize my phone is going to die so I put it in airplane mode and head to the library.

1:20-2:05 Stats homework which ended up being pretty fast, thank goodness. Once that is done I spend some time of my sorority duties as VP New Member Education. I realize I’m running out of time before our meeting tonight and I have a ton of paperwork to deal with.

IMG_2010

2:15-3:05 Bio lab lecture. This is the bio area.

IMG_2011

After class, I rush back to my dorm to try to get some paperwork done before I leave and also have a snack. I feel like I’ve been having a ton of bars lately so I opt for blueberries with sun butter.

IMG_2012

And a few of these:

IMG_2013

4pm: Leave for Soul Cycle! I’ve only taken a few classes there, but there’s one super close to campus. While I don’t agree with everything technical in terms of cycling and how they do it, I’m in need of some physical and mental inspiration. I’ve skipped a lot of workouts lately due to business and it has been affecting how I feel physically and emotionally so I know if I schedule this I won’t miss it! Plus I need spin inspiration since I’m teaching a lot more!

IMG_2014

Before class selfie.

4:30-5:15 Soul Cycle. This instructor seems less crazy than some in the past and the movements are less crazy. That being said, my lower back still gets a bit sore during class, which is one reason I don’t love Soul Cycle. Still, energy is great and it’s fun!

IMG_2016

Post-workout selfie.

IMG_2017

Drive to Sprinkles (it’s in the same shopping center) to pick up a treat for my New Member Education meeting later. Best VP New Member Ed ever, right?

IMG_2018

 

5:40: Erp. Return to campus-am supposed to be at dinner at 6 for my sorority because I’m in charge of getting the group together, and I still have things to print for my New Member meeting right after dinner.

6:04-only 4 minutes late I get to dinner! I haven’t been to this dining hall in forever and demolish my burrito bowl. Salmon, brown rice, black beans, pico, corn salsa, mango salsa, guacamole. I should go there more often…

IMG_2019

7-8pm New Member Education meeting! I lead this. It’s a lot of paperwork for AEPhi National, which is why I brought cupcakes as a thank you! I didn’t get a picture until the end, but I got myself a gluten free Red Velvet which I scraped most of the icing off of (dairy) and it was delicious!

IMG_2020

8:15-9: FINALLY some downtime-the first since I woke up at 6am! I run into a friend while biking back and we walk the rest of the way together, and then chat about cows and my birthday party this weekend which I’m super excited for!

9-now

Decide to at least try and check some items off of my ever-growing to-do list since I don’t have much homework tonight (yay for Stats being short!)

IMG_2021

And then write up this blog post! I’m planning on a nice and early bedtime. I’m so tired! A lot of my days have been pretty busy lately and sleep has not happened as much as it should and needs to. I’m still debating whether or not to do Crossfit in the morning-I have to get a test done for my stomach (for something that it is very unlikely to be at this point) so I can’t eat until afterwards…so unsure if I should attempt it on an empty stomach.

Thanks for sticking with me! I’m hoping things lighten up soon and I have more time to spend on here!

Life Lately in Pictures

Bear with me as things settle down! The latest and greatest is I appear to have a spider bite or something that I’m having an allergic reaction to, so I’ve been in a Benedryll induced haze for 2 days. I’ll spare the pictures of that though!

IMG_1876

One of my favorite dinners-turkey burger, roasted cauliflower, yams.

IMG_1879

Pre-Crossfit gluten free blueberry banana bread.

IMG_1881

Lots of spin teaching-2 classes this week! And post-workout chocolate milk of course to survive the drive home!

IMG_1882

I bought this to class to drink post-weightlifting. Don’t try it-it’s terrible! It’s bitter and reminded me of cornmeal and not in a good way!

IMG_1895

I organized a successful event-yay! Bid Day Party.

IMG_1903

Indian food in the dining hall was especially good for Admit Weekend (all the admitted students visit).

IMG_1910 IMG_1884

Organized another event-breakfast for new members! See why my life has been so crazy??

IMG_1920

Much needed down time at a farm. I’m obsessed with ruminants.

IMG_1933 IMG_1935 IMG_1963

Physics reading with a friendly peacock plus lots of time to think about life.

IMG_1970

Dinner with family! Buddha bowl-brown rice, cauliflower puree, roasted brussels, carrots, basically all my favorites.

IMG_1971

Vegan orange chocolate truffle ice cream from my favorite place.

IMG_1973

Flourless chocolate cupcake-trying some out for my birthday which is in a week!

Now back to studying for tomorrow’s midterm!

 

I Survived! (Napa Half)

Hey guys. Guess what? I survived my 5th half marathon!

IMG_1867

I was really unsure how it would go given I missed a lot of training runs, and felt terrible last weekend. I got in all the long runs of training, but the volume of the shorter runs wasn’t really there…my only goal was to finish, to take it slow, and to actually enjoy the race. I feel like I end up not enjoying my halfs as much as I should because I take off like a bat out of hell and then am dying the whole way. So let’s back up.

Pre-race day eats. I tried to keep it moderate but didn’t do the best job. Breakfast of the world’s largest blackberries and gluten-free focaccia (which is amazing btw).

IMG_1836

Lunch was a salad with sweet potato pop chips and gluten free cookie dough soy ice cream.

IMG_1838

I had some other snacks in there too-gluten free banana bread I believe?

We drove up to Napa in the afternoon and were in St. Helena in time for dinner. Somehow I found a place that had a dish that fit my complicated restrictions.

IMG_1841

Grilled asparagus and peach salad.

IMG_1842

Chicken with potatoes, mushrooms, and arugula.

IMG_1843

Woodhouse Chocolate. I decided trace amounts of dairy were fine since I’m feeling way better.

After an evening of working on Stats homework and baseball watching, I was ready to go when I woke up at 5:45! The race started at 8, and we stayed at a hotel a few minutes walk from the start, but I had to time my food in a specific way. I woke up not feeling that great but it passed pretty quickly.

Breakfast was banana, egg white oatmeal with craisins and a dab of sun butter.

IMG_1844

IMG_0037

Stretching, as per usual. Notice that blue thing I’m holding? I got a flip belt! I wanted to carry crackers during the race, so I shoved those in with a couple of goos and stomach medicine,  just in case!

And then we were off!

IMG_0069

I took it super slow at the start. Slower than I ever have before, and it was awesome. I was really able to enjoy the beautiful views of vineyards along the Silverado trail. Another bonus? No SF hills! Only a few minor ones that I was more than trained for. For the race, they closed off the entire road, but on the way home we drove the race route so here are a few shots of that.

IMG_0084 IMG_0091 IMG_0097 IMG_0112 IMG_0115

This tree was the turnaround!

In terms of fueling, I took about 1/3 of my goo at mile 4.5 at an aid station. I accidentally grabbed gatorade instead of water, but I just went with it. It took a little while for that to settle in my stomach, so I did goo #2 a little differently. I started eating it super slowly at mile 8 (and got a much needed burst of energy!) and didn’t finish it until mile 12. I had to be super cautious that my stomach never got too empty because I knew I’d have stomach issues if that happened.

In terms of how I felt, the hardest miles were maybe 9-10? They were pretty flat, which was just a lot of the same motion. I actually felt better once we hit the hills! Overall though, this is by far the least painful race I’ve run. Around the last 4ish miles I started to think about finishing time and what I wanted, since I knew if I was feeling ok I could probably turn it up at the end. I ended up with some killer negative splits! My last mile was by far the fastest.

IMG_0070

I think my official time was 2:15?

IMG_0109

This is by far the least painful finish of a half I’ve had. So…that pacing thing? Yeah-something to work on!

After the race I had to refuel thoroughly and carefully. Such a big calorie deficit made me really nervous with my stomach. I had some crackers and a banana right away, and then a Luna bar. Back in the hotel, I had the freaking weirdest thing ever. Coconut oil cream cheese (weird) on a gluten free bagel with….a frozen hard boiled egg. Yuck. Got the job done though….but ew. The frozen egg was the weirdest thing.

Later, I had some polenta.

IMG_1868

And I’ve basically been eating everything since then. So we’ll see how I feel tomorrow…

IMG_1869

This cookie though…it’s basically free of everything-refined sugar, gluten, dairy, eggs. But SUPER delicious. My post-race hunger laughed at the “serves 2” on the label.

So. In summary. I survived my half and am in one piece. Yay!

Over the Hump on Hump Day

I finally have some positive news to share! I think my new medicine is working because I am FINALLY feeling much better! After still feeling bad Monday, I was really concerned about teaching spin on Tuesday. It was my first day of the class that is now my very own (aka I teach every week now!). My entire day was scheduled around trying to feel good. I went to AM Crossfit because strangely enough that settles my stomach…

We did 2 rounds, with a 5 minute rest in between, of:

250m row

15 kb swings (heavier than normal)

25 burpees

15 kb swings

250m row

I refueled from that with hard boiled eggs and mango. I felt good all morning, but the thing about my mystery illness is it can go from 0 to 60 pretty fast. I was wrapped up working on a homework problem, and suddenly I realized I was shaking and needed food IMMEDIATELY. So basically I always keep snacks on me now. The good news is I think I found a fairly safe lunch:

IMG_1815

Butter lettuce (less intense than romaine)+grilled chicken a la Trader Joe’s+ vinaigrette+ a fruit bar with chia and flax seeds. And sometimes with some edamame crackers.

I left for spin pretty early to beat traffic and did some work in the car. After 1.5 luna bars, I was fueled up and ready to teach. I’m not kidding when I say Luna bars make up a significant part of my diet right now. Like 2 a day. But hey, if my body cooperates and they don’t fit my 5000 food restrictions, I’ll go for it!

Spin went really well! It was a small class, but a fun one. I took it a little easy on the bike, but for the most part my body cooperated and I was so, so grateful.

I really wanted sushi, so I popped in at Trader Joe’s for some quinoa and mushroom teriyaki sushi. It had a tiny bit of wheat, but technically I should be adding things back in slowly so I went for it.

IMG_1813

At Trader Joe’s one of the only desserts I could find that fit my current eating style was brown rice crispy treats. Hey-I’ll take it! Dried persimmons are another favorite-YUM!

I think this illness has really been a wake up call that I need to start taking better care of myself. At this point, I think it’s really likely it was caused by overconsumption of Advil damaging my stomach. Hopefully the medicine continues to help, but in the meantime all I can do is continue to put quality foods in my body and hope it heals! But MAN I feel much better than this past weekend (knock on wood!)

 

Elimination Diet Eats

It’s been over a week now that I’ve avoided dairy/gluten/all nuts including coconut. So what have I been eating? I’m sort of obsessed with rice cakes, which is really a good thing given I have about 4 things of them right now (oops). Also-mangoes are officially in season! As are blueberries-YAY! So here’s a few snapshots of the past week.

IMG_1685

BBQ chicken salad-BBQ chicken from Trader Joe’s, avocado, corn, tomato, tortilla chips, red pepper, and a simple lime/olive oil dressing

IMG_1693

Chicken with ketchup, roasted broccoli. Super basic.

IMG_1696

Chicken, roasted broccoli, and a sweet potato with non-dairy butter (Earth Balance).

IMG_1698

Papaya+ Sunbutter&J rice cake.

IMG_1699

Salad, chicken, microwave brown rice and quinoa.

IMG_1703

Guacamole salad with chicken.

IMG_1704

My pre-long run meal, which has kind of evolved and morphed in the best few years. In theory, it is banana+egg pancakes. But it has to be microwave friendly. And I always used to add cocoa powder but chocolate hasn’t been treating my stomach well (I’m a hot mess clearly). And then I started throwing in oats for more carbs!

IMG_1711

First meal back at the dining hall-turkey burger, salad, steamed veggies. This was pretty much the only stuff friendly to my super restrictive diet…

IMG_1725

 

IMG_1727

Hummus salad with chicken, plus a fruit bar. I like finishing on something sweet!

IMG_1731

Breakfast-an egg+veggies, a pear with sun butter.

IMG_1735

I really liked this fruit bar from Trader Joe’s! It was chia and flax seeds for a little texture and staying power!

IMG_1743

Hummus salad with egg.

IMG_1745

Dining hall meal-roasted cauliflower, quinoa and yams, lentils, and chicken curry over rice.

IMG_1771

Easter egg+mango. Classic.

IMG_1774

 

Typical dining hall meal.

IMG_1778

 

More eggs, shockingly. This time in the form of egg salad! FYI-egg salad over plain lettuce is super boring. To create this, I got to be the super cool person who brought back a big bowl of mayo and mustard from the dining hall. Yum?

Any favorite gluten/dairy/nut free foods I should try?