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Working the Calves

How’s that for a title?

I haven’t blogged about anything since Christmas, and here we are, almost at New Year’s Eve!

I’m going to be super lame and do a basic food+fitness post for the period after Christmas!

I guess I might as well link up to WIAW?

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Since we had Christmas dinner (lunch) out, we didn’t have any Christmas leftovers. I mean, besides all the desserts!

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The day after Christmas, my family went up to a big mall in SF and I had a Chinese Chicken salad from the food court. Nothing like a giant plate of veggies post-Christmas!

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On Sunday post-workout, my family stopped at Whole Foods on the way home to get lunch at the hot bar! I got some rice with Chicken Masala, with a side of salad-y things and some little rice filled balls (that I couldn’t really tell you what they are).

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Homemade key lime pie with FRESH key limes. My sister made this for my mom as her Christmas present, and it was amazing! She squeezed about 30 key limes herself to make this!

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Black bean soup topped with cheese and avocado.

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Banana “ice cream” AKA frozen bananas in the blender. It really is amazing how creamy bananas can get! Topped with chocolate sauce.

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More black bean soup, but this time with cornbread.

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Leftover blueberry cheesecake. YUM.

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Citrus glazed carrots, garlic sautéed spinach, and BBQ chicken.

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Chipotle chicken salad! Fun fact-I think this was only the 3rd time I’ve been there? But that is some quality guac.

And now to workouts.

Saturday, I went to Crossfit. The WOD was essentially Cindy with some jump ropes mixed in. (Cindy is various rounds of 5 pull ups, 10 push ups, and 15 squats). Sunday, my calves were pretty sore!

Sunday morning, I went for a 6 mile run by the bay. It was SO beautiful out…but freezing!

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It was a solid run-nothing crazy! Just working on finishing my audiobook.

Monday morning I went to the track to do a stadium stair workout. It’s one I used to do as part of agility training for softball. After warming up, I completed three sets of the following:

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hop up on one foot (one stair at a time)

hop up on other foot

hop up with both feet (like squat jumps-skipping a stair with each jump)

2 sprints up the stairs

25 scissor abs

Things I learned: my left calf? Incredibly weak. Like, super super. It was shaking after one set. My left side is significantly weaker than the right. My leg plantar fascia is also my bad side. I think the lack of strength may be contributing to the pain. The next day, my calves were really sore, but my foot felt perfect. I ran 4 miles of hills and my foot felt really good. So I guess that means I need to do some more jumping work!

Speaking of my run, I used my new Garmin for the first time!

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My old one is….old. This has so many features! Like showing my mile splits. Plus it’s so lightweight!

The other noteworthy exercise?

I went for a walk/yoga with one of my friends by the bay. It was WINDY.

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The cool thing is you can see this hill from the track I was at that morning!

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I enjoyed my first yoga session in about 5 months and it was in about 30 mph wind!

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And when the sun set…my lips turned blue. Cute.

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What are you eating post-holidays?

Doing the Chicken Dance

And by the chicken dance, I mean the whole “running around like a chicken with its head cut off thing.” That’s how I’ve felt this past week. Heck, I went to make a note about that thought earlier today, only to find I had already made one…which I don’t remember making. It’s been one of those week-I’ve been so sleep deprived I can barely see straight. And I didn’t even have any midterms this week. Next week I have 2. Eeek! I’m currently enjoying a well thought out Friday night-I’m not even being sarcastic, I’ve been looking forward to this all week! I’m in Philz coffee and I’ve been studying Biochem for the past couple of hours while sipping an iced chai tea.

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A large iced tea. It’s been one of those weeks-totally necessary! Thank you to Kaitlin for introducing me to Philz. We had a little blogger meet up here a few months ago, and I was obsessed with iced chais for months after. I love the atmosphere here-it strikes me as being super hipster, in a good way. They make everything by hand in a very complicated way and it’s awesome. 

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I also like the music here-it’s more my style than just pop, kind of alterntive. Although I can’t stand listening to music while I study because it’s so distracting! Anyways, I’m actually really, really enjoying my Friday night. I LOVELOVELOVE the things I’m studying. We’re doing carbohydrate metabolism and that’s kind of my favorite thing on the planet. I retrieved a poster I made back in high school to study.

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I’m such a nerd. I bought a big poster board today so I can make a bigger and more detailed version. I have every intention of hanging it on my wall once I’m done studying it. I need to draw one out for sugar metabolism as well! Since my roommate is writing an essay about how sugar is a drug, we decided to give it up for a week, starting most likely on Sunday. It seemed like a better choice than showing how sugar is a drug by attempting to overdose on it. I wonder how many pounds you’d have to eat for it to actually seriously make you ill? Anyways, I’m starting today with avoiding sweets, although I won’t start completely avoiding sugar until after my long run. But I’m getting so far ahead of myself. Let’s back up a bit, shall we?

Last night (Halloween), I made Anne‘s microwave pumpkin cookie. You know I’m all about low sugar, microwave options. I didn’t have ground flax seeds so I used some chia seeds and egg in place. 

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I also don’t know how she got hers to look so small. Mine looks like a bowl of oatmeal! 

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I served mine on a plate, topped with THE BEST THING EVER. Apple butter infused greek yogurt. 

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My roommate is on the full-fat dairy train, and I have to admit, it is pretty delicious. This was the creamiest thing ever. And since we’re drowning in apples from the CSA box (which we’re most likely going to cancel because we can’t keep up 🙁 ), we’re making applesauce this weekend with no sugar, so that would be just too amazing in greek yogurt. 

My hall ended up having a little Halloween party, so I peeled myself away from my work, threw on a sombrero, and joined in on the fun.

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You don’t need a real costume if you have a sombrero, right? Plus, there was guac. We already decided we’re having an epic cinco de mayo party. And my roommate and I ARE going to try to make a guacamole hat, like the ones in Despicable Me 2. It was fun to actually celebrate Halloween a little, but it was a questionable decision because I had to stay up late and finish my lab report. 

I’ll a little concerned about my long run tomorrow. I have not been treating my body well these last few weeks-I’m sleep deprived and have been subsisting on a diet of mostly coffee and sugar. It’s not necessarily that I’m craving sugar, but then apparently when I’m tired, I have zero ability to plan. Take today for example. I was super tired and running out the door, so I grabbed this for lunch. 

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A pear. That was a really dumb thing to do, given I wouldn’t be able to get any food between classes, so I had to power through a 4 hour lab powered by just a pear. That’s not a great way to treat my body! Plus I’ve eaten a lot of sugar this week-and it’s left me with a pounding headache every day. I’m already feeling much better at the end of today because I haven’t had sugar today. 

I stopped by Trader Joe’s for dinner, and for some reason, my foggy brain picked out this wrap. Which is weird because it’s not something I would typically get, but it got the job done just fine, and I’m in an awesome mood now. 

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I also restocked on dried mango. My mom brought me some, but you can never have too much, right?

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I stopped by the drugstore for my poster board, and what was Halloween a day ago is now taken over by Christmas. My thoughts?

Seriously?

OMG I really want to start decorating my room for Christmas. I used some restraint though-it’s too soon!

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We’re going to have epic Halloween decorations, but I’m planning on spending all of Thanksgiving break planning that out. 

Ok, that’s all I have today. I need to walk back to my car. In the dark-that’s kind of sketchy because it’s far. I’m actually feeling a lot better about tomorrow’s run, because I feel way better now than earlier today. Wish me luck-I’ll let you guys know how it goes!

*Edited to add-Ok, it really wasn’t sketchy. I parked a block from downtown…

When you get busy, what’s the first thing in your life that goes to hell?

For me it’s laundry. Heh. Speaking of which, guess what I desperately need to do tonight?