Hello, hello! Before I get into a full day of eating from yesterday, I wanted to share a frittata we made the other night that was inspired by our CSA box goods.

The frittata had a little spinach, steamed broccoli, sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, garlic, salt and pepper, and some interesting onions from our CSA. They looked sort of like massive green onions, but with red bases. Either way, delicious! We topped the frittata with truffle goat cheese (OMG yum) and served it with basic green beans also from the CSA.

I’ve mentioned before that with my work schedule, I don’t get lunch until pretty late, and what I was trying simply wasn’t working for me. I tried to figure out what wasn’t working and brainstormed a solution. I think it was a success! Here’s a day of eating implementing what I came up with.

I went to a 6:15am spin class first!

7:30am: A more normal breakfast. Flapjacked muffin+amazing mango.

Lunch: 11:30-2 I made a smoothie that I could sip on around lunchtime, which worked out really well because it’s hard for me to get a break to eat something but it’s much easier to grab a sip of something here or there. The only fail was the smoothie was super thick and hard to drink without a spoon. And I made a giant mess that morning making it.

I used half a flapjacked strawberry banana smoothie mix and added 2/3c milk, half a frozen banana, about 2/3c frozen strawberries and a handful of spinach.

I put it in one of those thermoses that supposedly keeps things cold forever.

Work was absolutely insane yesterday. I knew I was in trouble when I walked in and multiple people told me how happy they were that I was there (I work the later shift). The first thing I did upon walking in was get bitten by a supposedly nice cat, and it just went downhill from there. It was one of those days where I just felt really incompetent. I know how to do any normal things, but some treatments I just haven’t seen before and therefore don’t know how to do. The smoothie was a godsend for keeping my energy levels up and not praying for my lunch break because…

3:55pm: Lunch. Normally I get lunch around 2:30 or 3, but sometimes that doesn’t happen. I packed leftover frittata and some GF crackers. Plus a ginger chew.

4:15pm: Lunch dessert. Normally I stay away from work treats, but this was so needed. It’s a mint ice cream filled cannoli, that I ate the center out of.

8:30pm: Dinner. Normally I don’t eat that late, but I ended up staying until a quarter to 8, and when I got home I had to immediately strip down and shower because I was working with a possibly contagious dog. Do not cross go, do not put anything in your mouth, straight to the shower. I had a favorite Cooking Light meal (already made) of a Roasted Carrot, Chicken, and Grape Quinoa bowl. I think the yogurt-cumin-carrot-grape/raisin flavor combo is one of my favorites (which is why I loved one of our sun basket meals so much!) On the side were roasted sunchokes. I saw this in the CSA and decided to go for it.

They tasted sort of like roasted beets, but less earthy. I’m not 100% sure how they were prepared, but I think it involved boiling and then roasting, and some sort of garlic thyme seasoning. Served with ketchup, because hey, it’s a root!

For dessert, I felt like I needed quite the bowl. I heated up part of a frozen GF brownie and served it with vanilla Halo Top, hot fudge, and whipped cream.

While watching a show with my parents, I also dove into a little bit of Easter candy.

I definitely think my new plan helped how I felt throughout the day, so I’m happy about that! Hopefully today will be less crazy, and it will still all work out!

 

I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter, or just weekend if that’s not your thing!

Saturday, I had work all day and then met up with my family for dinner by work. I had a salad with dried cranberries, gorgonzola, chicken, and balsamic vinaigrette.

Naturally we had to get froyo as well. I had triple chocolate, chocolate sorbet, and taro with chocolate covered raisins. The taro was a fun, different flavor!

After dinner, we began dying hard boiled eggs.

Later that night, I went to a college friends’ party and saw a ton of people who I haven’t seen either since graduation, or since before going to St. Louis in August! It was really nice to catch up with people and hear what they’re up to now. I ended up staying up far later than planned, but it was definitely worth the next-day drowsiness!

My first order of business on Easter Sunday was a 3 mile run. I’m signed up for a 5k in Napa this coming weekend, and the most I’ve run post-tendonitis is 2 miles. I knew 3 would be a bit of a push, but I wanted to try it out. It felt totally pain free for 1 mile, then a little sore from 1-2, but not getting worse, and then maybe a tiny bitter better at the end? Not a bad pace either, which I was happy with! The struggle was my achilles felt better at a slightly faster pace, but my running fitness has definitely declined a little bit!

I returned home with plenty of time to get ready for Easter brunch.

We met up with my college friend (her family is back in Tennessee), my sister and her fiancé, and my grandma and uncle at a nice hotel with a fancy Easter buffet lunch/brunch. While I decided it would be worth it to have some gluten for Easter, it was really nice that everything was labeled, and there were some GF options, so I could be smart about what I wanted to use my gluten allowance on!

Here are some pictures of the buffet:

We started the meal with a bottomless champagne toast!

I started my buffet experience with breakfast.

My main item here was the cheese blintz that I ate the inside of. I figured I should have a little substance there too, and the beet hummus cup was too pretty to pass up! I got a few pieces of cheese with fig spread and honey, and then saw gluten free muffins and had to snag a cranberry one! It was SO good!

Plate 2 was main course items. I remembered how much I enjoyed the jasmine rice before, so I made sure to get that again. (We went here for Easter 2 years ago).

I also had chicken, sushi, and a salad with quinoa, butternut squash, dried cranberries, and goat cheese.

Then, it was time for dessert! I made sure to take lots of pictures of the full set up, because #priorities.

Different desserts were definitely passed around the table a bit, but here was mine:

Oreo cheesecake (SO good), flour less chocolate cake (disappointing), chocolate mousse cup, chocolate covered strawberry, mini raspberry cheesecake, and the highlight and my main gluten splurge, bread pudding with vanilla custard sauce. YUM. I definitely didn’t come close to finishing this, but I left not feeling like death, so that’s always a positive!

After our big meal, we were lucky enough to catch a break in the rain long enough to go outside and hunt for Easter eggs.

Yes, 4 college graduates did an Easter egg hunt. No complaints here. I definitely munched on candy while surveying our treasure!

So, who wears them best?

We spent the rest of the afternoon sipping tea and chatting, before I brought my friend home.

My appetite after a big meal surprised me, and I definitely was craving veggies post-Easter candy. Naturally, dinner was an Easter egg open faced sandwich, with a simple side salad.

Monday morning, the Easter fun continued with a very festive breakfast post-Crossfit.

Before lunch, we went to the grocery store and happened to find breadfruit, which I’ve been dying to try. I’ve heard it tastes like a cross between a mango and a pineapple.

I thought it was good, but definitely different. It’s not juicy at all. And I have no idea how to eat or cut it. But it’s a fun fruit!

Lunch was egg salad on GF toast, salad, and cheddar popchips.

Which brings us to now. I’m leaving to teach spin in a little bit, and have a game night with friends planned later tonight. I hope everyone has a good week!

Hello! I have some “weekend A” adventures. Because of my work schedule, I had Thursday and Friday off, work Saturday, and then will be off Sunday. So this is sort of like my first weekend, part 1 of 2? No complaints here though!

I’m going to bring it back to Wednesday food. And then discuss things. And then weekend A fun!

As you may have seen from my last day in the life post, I’ve been trying different things to adapt to a later eating schedule. I’m typically a very strict eater in the sense that I’m hungry early for breakfast, hungry right at noon, have a mid-afternoon snack, and dinner at a normal time. To try and deal with 3pm lunches, I’ve been trying to push back my breakfasts until 9 or 9:30, and have something bigger and more protein packed. On Wednesday morning, this was a smoothie with 2/3 of a packet of salted caramel protein, a banana, milk, and some cocoa powder, plus Berry Cheerios.

The morning at work was really hectic, so when I broke for lunch at 3, I was feeling pretty drained. My lunch was a turkey wrap with an entire container of blackberries.

During my 3-4pm lunch break, I ended up breaking into my afternoon snack of a Gingerbread Bobo’s bar, and eating about 2/3, and then eating the last 1/3 around 5:30.

I was only planning on half the bar as a snack, so breaking into it early wasn’t the plan. I broke into my snack bar during lunch break the previous day as well. The problem is definitely not that I’m eating too much overall, it’s that my calories are so backloaded, and so many at once, that I just feel really blah. I’m never quite hungry for dinner, and my body doesn’t respond well to large doses of calories at once.

Dinner was lemon chicken soup with roasted asparagus.

So….my plans for dealing with the new meal timing haven’t really been working. I’m still eating the same amount per day, but my body just feels off. I find myself craving more things when each meal strikes as well. Luckily, my next few days of work are more normal schedules, but I have some new ideas about how to face this challenge.

I’m going to go back to my more normal breakfast, at a normal time, and I’m going to pack a snack to eat at “normal lunchtime” aka 12-1ish. It’s really hard for me to get away from the treatment room during this time, but I could sip on something, so I’m planning on trying to pack a smoothie (with plenty of protein+produce) to act as “lunch” and then pack a normal lunch to eat during my lunch break, which is my normal snack time. And then eliminate the 5:30 snack. So it should be the same amount of food, but spaced out better and without a large gap of time where I don’t consume anything. So we shall see.

My “weekend” started Thursday morning with a spin class, followed by a speedy and mostly pain free 1.5 mile run on the treadmill. This was a really good sign for my Achilles! If I haven’t mentioned it yet, I have a 5k coming up in just over a week. No crazy goals, just to be healthy enough to race it and have a good time. It’s more of a destination race than anything else—we’re going to Napa with Chloe!

My morning included a lot of this:

Lunch was leftover soup+avocado toast.

The main event of the day was a Giants game with my college friend!

We went for Stanford night at the ballpark, and got these nice shirts:

We got there plenty early to walk around the ballpark and grab food. It was her first Giants game, and she loved the ballpark! Our dinner of choice was Blue Moon+flatbread. I got the cauliflower truffle flatbread, as per usual. It’s just so good!

We had a nice view from the left field bleachers.

The game went pretty fast for the first 5 or so innings, with little scoring. Unfortunately, we did not end up on top of the little scoring, as the Giants lost.

My friend did not take my warnings about the chilly weather quite seriously enough, so we decided Ghiradelli hot chocolates were very much necessary.

This was delicious, and easily the richest hot chocolate I’ve ever had. It was BLACK, and was little drinking a melted chocolate bar. SO good, but I couldn’t finish it!

We snuck out before the last inning to avoid traffic, and were treated to quite the view of the park from the outside. There’s nothing quite like San Francisco at night.

I started Friday morning with a spin class, and then cleaned myself up and got a pedicure with my mom. I realized after the fact that this is probably the worst picture of my nails, but they’re a light peachy pink color—for spring!

Afterwards, I went to lunch and then took a trip to the mall, in search of a dress for Easter. I found a few things, but I’m not sure what I”m going to end up wearing come Sunday. Stay tuned, I suppose!

In the evening, I rocked my new t-shirt to Crossfit.

For strength, I worked my way up to 5 reps at 195# deadlifts, and 2 reps at 100# bench press. The WOD was a quick one. 10 minutes of push ups, overhead squats, burpees, toes to bar, and pull ups.

After Crossfit, we had a little happy hour beer flight of March’s beers of the month. I was excited for this one, thanks to the presence of peach wheat beer and oatmeal milk stout.

I enjoyed all of these, but none of them stood out to be OMG amazing. The milk stout had a bit of a smoky flavor. I think the peach was my favorite; it had a really strong, refreshing peach flavor without being sweet.

For dinner, my sister and fiancé came over, and we grilled. My sister made chimichurri sauce, so we both had marinated and grilled tofu. Sides included a salad with goat cheese and dried cranberries, roasted fingerling potatoes, grilled pepper, and grilled pineapple.

And yes, grilled tofu is good with ketchup. Honestly, what isn’t??

The main event, and main reason for this get together though, was dessert. My sister promised homemade gelato to my dad for his birthday a few months ago, and she and her fiancé finally delivered. Her fiancé enjoys roasting his own beans and making his own chocolate, and they both spent the fall in Italy, and took gelato making classes while there. This gelato was rich, chocolatey, and amazingly smooth.

Um, YES.

Ok, I have to leave for work soon (it’s now Saturday morning), so I’ll see you guys after weekend B?

6:08am: Wake up a few minutes before my alarm.

Get ready for Crossfit, then eat a small bowl of Very Berry Cheerios for pre-workout fuel.

6:40: Leave for 7am Crossfit.

7:00: Crossfit. I was happy with how this one went, despite my failure to get anywhere near my 1 rep max for cleans. I made it up to 120, which I guess I’ll take. I think my cleans are weaker right now than….pretty much ever. I was happy with the WOD though. 10 rounds, 15 wall balls, 3 snatches (I used 65#). With some hustle, I made the 15 minute time cap with a minute or 2 to spare! Wall balls though…man. My legs were feeling it!

8:15: Arrive home and shower and get ready for work.

8:45: Go downstairs and am greeted by the crazy.

I start by packing my lunch and snacks for the day.

It’s this girl’s 2nd birthday!

9:00: Make breakfast. Today is yet another smoothie. Salted caramel Quest protein, a frozen banana, milk, and cocoa powder, with a little salt on top. Plus more Berry Cheerios.

9:20: Finish getting ready for the day, watch a couple fitness youtube videos, and spent some time outside with the energetic birthday girl.

10:00: I’m about to leave for work and I’m already feeling a little bit hungry. Which is not good since I know lunch will likely not be until 3. I eat half of a protein bar.

10:10: Leave for work!

10:30-3:00: Take care of animals!

3:00-4:00: Lunch break. My packed lunch is asian lettuce cup leftovers (Cooking Light), crackers, and mango.

Here’s the original meal:

3:50: Realize it might be hard to grab a snack later in the day so I eat my packed bar.

7:30: Off work! Sometimes I get off early, but not today. Lots of patients going home a little bit later than normal!

7:45: Arrive home and immediately change out of my furry scrubs.

Start making dinner. Which was rough, as I suddenly was super drained of energy. Eventually my mom and I got salads and avocado smashes on the table.

I even got a runny yolk!

8:00: Eat dinner while watching baseball.

8:30ish: Have a bite of mango sorbet while whipping up some cookies for dessert.

8:45ish: Give up on the came and watch an episode of Rizzoli and Isles while eating said cookies.

9:00: Ice my Achilles while watching.

9:30: Start getting ready for bed.

9:45: So tired. In bed and fall asleep instantly.