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Oxygen and OChem

Guys. Guess who’s FINALLY done with Organic Chemistry? THIS GIRL. It took me FOREVER for one reason or another (like getting mono and having to drop it 8 weeks into a 10 week quarter…) but I’m finally DONE!

In honor of that, I wanted to share this interesting article on oxygen/oxidation. It was written a professor whose nutrition class I took my freshman year. It discusses why eating charred food isn’t good and why you need to be careful with your storage of omega-3s (they go bad quickly). So check it out!

Food+Fitness

I made my valiant return to Crossfit at home last night. And was reminded why this is my favorite Crossfit. For some reason at my school Crossfit the WODs never involve barbell movements, and this one had all my favorites!

Skill/Strength was handstands (which I haven’t done since summer…oops) and bulgarian split squats.

WOD:

4 rounds of:

20 deadlifts(135/95)

15 front squats

10 hang cleans

5 shoulder to overhead

The prescribed weight was 95 but that was going to be pretty heavy for everything but the deadlifts so I went with 75# and it still kicked my butt! I finished in 17:45. And am already sore.

Dinner post workout was leftovers (teriyaki chicken) plus garlic roasted broccoli. Guys, I know I don’t do a ton of recipes, but this one is amazing. I could just eat pans and pans of it.

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Followed by some caramel ice cream.

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And this THIS morning, I went to one of my favorite spin classes that I haven’t been to since summer! It was good, and I got some ideas for my own classes. Which is good since I got the call to teach again tomorrow! Can’t wait!

I refueled with chocolate milk before later having toast with cheese and a tangerine.

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So-any good workout song suggestions?

Post-Murph Pain

I’m not linking up for WIAW today because I have so few food pics!

But let’s start with last night. I knew I was in for it when I starting getting sore the day of Murph! I didn’t sleep very well thanks to lingering allergies (or something-more on that in a minute). But when I woke up…WOW did my shoulders hurt. I’m not sure if my shoulders have ever been that sore. Like, to the point of lack of function. I went to spin, and just jiggling up and now on the bike was excruciatingly painful! Thank goodness yoga was mostly stretching-I don’t think I was capable of a Vinyasa! Most of the time I don’t mind soreness, but sometimes I get grumpy sore. Like when I”m so sore it inhibits function and just makes me irritable. Yeah, that was today.

Post-workout breakfast was yogurt+berries+sunbutter.

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My whole body was aching, plus my Achilles wasn’t great, so I took some Advil. Well, when the Advil wore off, I realized I was a little too achy, even post-Murph. And my forehead was hot, and I was feeling overall blah. So….yeah, I’m sick. I have a fairly low grade fever that I’m warding off with Advil, and lungs/nose that are going crazy from a combination of allergies and maybe sickness. I’ve had a low key day, so I’m hoping it passes in a hurry! Since I barely slept last night, I’m going to take Benedryll tonight to help me sleep and ward off any lingering allergies! Meh-this is what I get for going home for the weekend with my sick mother- my first sickness in over a year!

I only have a few other food photos. A slice of my bread (a lot of you were super close!) and all of my carrots.

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Excuse the selfie-it was my selfie of the day and I didn’t get a pic alone of the food…but me being the biggest weirdo. I wanted sunbutter+jam (berry compote) but I had NOTHING to put it on-no crackers, bread, tortillas, nothing. But what I DID have was some free samples from some race or another…of seaweed! So yes, I put sun butter and jelly on seaweed. And yes it was a little weird, but not bad!

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I also got chocolate milk for post workouts today. One thing I remember a Nutrition professor saying is that while protein+carbs are super important post workout, protein is even more important when your muscles are building, AKA when you are super sore and in pain, but most people don’t think to consume the protein then. Well, if you’re in enough pain, you do! So chocolate milk was consumed mid-afternoon.

And my last random picture: microwave brown rice and quinoa, and microwave Indian lentil dish (which tasted more Mexican than anything thanks to beans!).

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Ok, since I’m taking Benedryll, I need to get to bed early! Hope everyone is having a great week!

A Chill Day

Are you guys all having a good weekend? I definitely am! And Sunday marks the official 2 week out point for my race! I’m starting to get excited! 

I haven’t really posted in a few days (besides my scheduled post) so I have a kind of random selection of pictures from the last couple of days. 

Thursday morning started with Crossfit-lots of deadlifts! I refueled appropriately:

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Nothing too crazy happened during the day- I got a veggie wrap for lunch with hummus. I didn’t actually bring money with me, and it was the only real food I could afford with the few dollars in my backpack.

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And my pumpkin butter obsession continues (more on that in a minute!). One thing about dorm life-I have the tendency to buy something and eat nothing but that item until it is gone, which is really quickly. And then I buy something else and the cycle repeats. I guess this is what happens when grocery trips are infrequent…Well, the pumpkin butter is certainly disappearing quickly! I made “paleo oatmeal”-I wasn’t trying to make paleo or oatmeal, but I threw a ton of things in a bowl and that was what I got! This was applesauce, egg whites, chia seeds, coconut, and almond milk. Topped with pumpkin butter! It really was just a medium for pumpkin butter. I wanted pumpkin oatmeal, but I don’t have any oats….so there’s that.

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That evening at flag football, the soreness from a full week of heavy lifting began to set in, and my hamstrings began a war on me that would last another day. I also did the spin class I wrote for myself that evening-it turned out to be pretty good! I definitely have a tendency to do a lot more in the saddle than out…talk about a quad burner! I really don’t like the spin bikes at school-they feel really plastic-y, and I don’t really get the feel of the road. It’s more like moving your legs with resistance that spinning-but the quad burn can definitely sneak up on you!

Afterwards, it was pretty late so I refueled with hot chocolate. Kind of. Another #dormlife problem-no milk. And as much as I love almond milk, it has almost no protein. I mixed (not very well based on all the powder floating around) chocolate protein powder, brown rice syrup, a little honey, cocoa powder, and almond milk and heated it up. Perfect. Kind of.

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After my workout, a little socializing while drinking this concoction, and doing a pre-lab, I was beat. I woke up yesterday morning still really tired. I debated skipping my 5 mile hilly run, but I knew I’d never be able to fall back asleep because I had already gotten up. The run went pretty well-these are some intense hills. It took a while for my legs to loosen up, but I’m glad I got some hill work in. There was just one glitch-my shoe inserts. I think they do help prevent foot pain, but they give me the worst blisters-it’s only one foot for some reason, but I took them both out halfway through the run (so I’d be even). My foot hurt a little by the end of the run-so I’m not really sure what I should do at this point. 

Here are some random eats from Friday:

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My roommate and one of my other friends baked banana bread-you better believe I was all over that! 

After my run, my legs kind of tightened up and all the soreness from the week hit. My hamstrings felt like death-I can’t even remember the last time they were that sore! After a 2 hour Chem lab (we finished 2 hours early!), my legs felt 100x better. Which was good given I had flag football practice. I swear, I’m so bruised up right now! I may or may not have bar shaped bruises going up my legs…at Crossfit, I got a big bruise on the front of my leg because I kept dragging the bar against my leg doing cleans. Smart one Aurora.

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(Finally fading)

Plus, I’m getting a little beat up playing football. I guess that’s just what happens in sports-I used to be pretty bruised up from softball regularly.

Back to food. GUYS. I had the best idea. Pumpkin butter. Cottage cheese. I really liked how the pumpkin cream cheese was creamy and a little savory-but it’s too rich to eat with a spoon (or is it?). I found out that a little market on campus now uses meal plan dollars (part of our dining plan-I NEVER use them) and they actually sell really good, useful stuff. It’s basically a mini grocery. And meal plan dollars are like free money.

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I immediately dug into the cottage cheese.

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YUM. But for my next snack, I kicked it up another notch.

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Cottage cheese. Sunflower seed butter. Pumpkin butter. Apple chips. That’s gourmet my friends. Or at least college gourmet. SUCH a good combo. Too bad I’m out of cottage cheese…and apple chips…and almost pumpkin butter. 

This morning I managed to sleep in until 9-which is a pretty big accomplishment for me! I hit the gym first thing-but I wanted to give my legs a complete rest day after this past week, and before tomorrow’s 9 miles. I did something I’ve never done before-arms and abs day. I NEVER do arm workouts-I usually do full body workouts, and occasionally leg days. But I didn’t want to do anything that put any stress on my legs at all. My workout ended up consisting of mostly pull ups and planks. I’m so close to being able to do a full pull up-only 25 pounds of assistance, which is such a huge improvement. My goal is to get it by Thanksgiving! And with the quantity I did today, I should be able to get there!

After my workout, I was starving and more than ready for brunch. I was really hoping to get a smoothie, but the line was insane, as was the waffle line. I still haven’t gotten a waffle yet this year!

But then again, I’m never going to complain about copious amounts of guacamole.

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Giant Mexican salad. I also had a biscuit and this frozen fruit.

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I spent the day doing nothing too crazy. I realized that Netflix streams season 8 of How I Met Your Mother. I was considering going to the football game today, but I decided to just hang out. Dinner with How I Met Your Mother? That sounds just right to me.

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I made a scramble with the last of my spinach, plus laughing cow garlic and herb and pesto. I finally peeled myself away from the screen to do laundry, which is where I am right now. I discovered that blogging is the perfect thing to do while doing laundry!

And with that, I’ll leave you all to your weekends! I’m going back to the trail by the bay to run, so I’m visiting my cats and grabbing lunch with a high school friend also home this weekend.

What are your favorite TV shows? What other things should I put pumpkin butter on? What amazing pumpkin products should I try? Can you tell I’m obsessed with all things fall?

Who’s Excited??

Hey guys! Sorry for the lack of regular posts the last couple of days. I felt kind of off-sort of like I was stuck in a rut. That kind of bothers me since I haven’t really felt like that all summer, but I did feel that way some during school. I just didn’t feel like DOING anything. I skipped Crossfit last night, but I did get my butt in gear for a nice walk, which kind of threw me out of the funk. I’m pretty sure the funk may have been partly because I ate too many carbs…they mess with my brain!

Anyways, now that I’m done complaining, I’ll highlight some pictures from the last couple of days and get onto TODAY!

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A pretty view of San Francisco from my walk the other today. Sad news-I finished my audiobook mid walk. This sure as heck beats mid-12 mile run, but meh. I feel a little nostalgic about that audiobook-it took me through my long runs of my first half marathon training!

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This dinner was not really supposed to be this. The plan was to make a quesadilla with this recipe. However, my mom had to brief the guy taking care of our cats while we’re on vacation, and before I knew it it was 9pm and still no food. Instead of going through the effort of making the tortilla, I just microwaved the leftover meat we were planning on using with a can of diced tomatoes and pepper, plus taco seasoning. I also whipped up some guac. Add a bed of lettuce, and we were good to go! I may have gotten a little seasoning-happy. This was SPICY. (Well, keep in mind all the seasoning was mild…#wimp).

Thursday morning was the kitten nursery. I really do love working with them.

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Followed by breakfast-it turned out to be much bigger than this but this is what I got on camera. Yesterday, I discovered I had 2 days to eat 6 mangoes. Challenge accepted. There’s one left. Image

I also took a “cat nap.” Haha…I’m going to miss that when I go back to school!

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Aaaand here’s some more food. Nothing too crazy. I want to get to today’s workouts!

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Ok, onto today! 5:45am spin was cancelled due to Labor Day weekend. Booo. But it did give me an opportunity to sleep in a little and make my own spin workout. I really want to be a spin teacher someday, and it’s been a while since I’ve made my own class. Plus, I want to do a post on my local fitness blog about HIIT training, but…I’ve never done it before. So that would be a little hypocritical. I’ve been reading about the benefits in the book I’m reading, and so many bloggers do HIIT training. I designed an hour long class, which included 18 minutes of HIIT training. I did 1:00 of intense, all out work, followed by 1:15 of moderate intensity. I did this sequence 8 times through.

OMG I was DYING. I have NEVER worked that hard on a Spin bike before. To get the true benefits of HIIT, you really need to go 100% max effort during the minute on. Whew. Ouch. And why did I put this at the beginning of my class? For the intervals on, I did a mix of high resistance fast speed, and pretty high resistance super fast speed. My legs hurt….

Anyways, in case you’re wondering, I thought I’d post the “class” so you can all go out and feel my pain. Sound good?

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Here’s the playlist I made.

And here’s the sequence:

(Song #)

1-Warm Up

2- Hill: increase resistance every minute and hold 80 RPMs

3-hill: heavy, hold 1:30 and then repeaters

4-first 2:00 downhill then start Hiit

5-9 HIIT then downhill

10-flat road endurance-hold 100 RPMs at working pace

11- hill- 30 sec intervals in/out of saddle

12- hill: heavy repeaters

13- hill: jumps (8 sec on saddle, 8 out/4 in/out, 2 in/out)

14- downhill, high speed (over 100 RPM)

15- flat road intervals

16- flat road intervals

17-cool down

*Repeaters- 20 seconds in saddle, 20 seconds standing straight, 20 seconds standing over bike

I followed this with 10 minutes of abs.

And then cursed myself for being dumb and not running BEFORE my spin workout. It’s one thing to not run before a 5:45am class, but when I could spin ANY TIME, and it’s not even early, I should run first.

4 miles were on the schedule for today. I actually did a decent portion of it on trails-which I hate but need to practice. It was pretty hot. And I did not choose my clothing very well. A big, thick, cotton t-shirt, already drenched in sweat. I was literally drowning in my own shirt. Eh. Oh well.

I decided to mix it up a little today shoe-wise and wear my Brooks. They actually felt better than I remember! Maybe it was my new inserts?

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The rest of my day will be spent getting ready for tomorrow- I’M GOING TO HAWAII! I leave super early (well, as a regular at 5:45am spin it won’t be too bad…), so I have to get everything ready to go tonight! I need to go to the library for fun books and to look for new audiobooks. I also have Crossfit tonight…legs rest up quickly! I refuled from my sweaty run with my post-workout recovery drink (aka homemade chocolate milk) which I made in my Vitamix so I wouldn’t have to heat the milk, and could add in an extra ice cube or two.

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In Hawaii, I actually have quite a few workouts planned. Which is probably good-it’ll keep me sane. I have 4-5 days of running, including 2 long runs. I’ve contacted some of the Crossfits in Maui, and will drop in for a class or two while I’m away as well. How cool is that??

I might pop in once or twice with a post while I’m away since I’m brining my laptop, but don’t worry-I’ve got you covered with some AWESOME guest posters while I’m gone! Like, really great. While I read the posts I kept wanting to comment!

I hope you all have a GREAT holiday weekend! I’ll make sure to take lots of pictures while I’m gone!

What are you doing this weekend?

Recovery Drink

Brrr! It was another freezing day here in sunny California! At 4:00 pm, there was still frost at the boathouse from this morning! That is absolutely unheard of here. Crazy! I guess I’ll dive right in to today’s eats!

Before my morning workout, I drank some milk and ate a piece of oat bread (thawed).

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The recipe is from Haute Box, and can be found here. I found this recipe on stumbleupon and had been meaning to make it for the longest time. I always wondered what a non-sweet quick bread would be like. The answer? Delicious! Try this! It is soft and moist, yet it still maintains that great bread-y flavor like a normal loaf of bread.

Also, this morning I learned that the dining hall milk really isn’t all that good. It tastes really metal-y. The milk I brought from home was 1000x better. Who knew?

My morning workout was weights. I am starting to like this version of weights a little more. I just need to try and make the most out of my workout. I haven’t really been that sore from these workouts. I want to try to lift a little bit on my own just for my own enjoyment and sanity (Sore? Yes please!) but it is super difficult to find the time. There are certain hours that the gym is completely busy, and I have no hope of getting on a bar. Last quarter my classes started later than most, so I could go when everyone was in class. This quarter, not so much. I guess I just need to try and find a new less busy time. I wonder if I will be sore tomorrow from today. We had 3×50 squats with a bar. I wasn’t sore after 2×40 last time so we shall see. If I’m not, I definitely need to add some weight.

After weights, they provide us with protein shakes (if we want them). People always grab them, so today I decided to try one, with the full intention of drinking a few sips and throwing it away (I had bigger and better plans for my post workout recovery drink!).

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My evaluation? It was…weird. Very unnatural. It only had 4g of sugar, yet it was very sweet. Which means fake sugar. And fake sugar almost always has a weird taste. So I tossed it. Yes, I know, very wasteful. I have interesting views on protein shakes. In theory, I like the idea of a homemade (the store bought ones are weird in my opinion) protein shake because it makes me feel like an athlete. On the other hand, I’ve learned from various nutrition experts that we really don’t need that much more protein after a workout, so I usually just drink milk, eat yogurt, or eat my normal meal. However, I am dying to try my new chocolate protein powder. It was literally the only kind I could find without Stevia, just because I really don’t like the flavor of Stevia. It’s not whey protein though, I think it’s hemp and flax. Plus it has added greens for antioxidants or something but I doubt that whatever dried and ground up vegetable will really help me that much. My plans for it? Milk+protein powder+frozen banana+peanut butter. I have a banana I need to freeze too. I’m thinking maybe this Thursday after our hard erg workout.

ANYWAY, back to my day. Normally after weights we have a timed run (roughly 4 miles). It was cancelled today. I planned on doing it anyway, but it was freezing this morning (actually, it was 31) and that is just too cold for me, so I decided to compromise and go on an easy 2 miler. My legs were so numb! My timed runs are going to be so much faster when it warms up! So what was my recovery drink of choice?

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Homemade hot chocolate! This is the perfect post workout recovery drink. What’s in it?

Post-Workout Recovery Drink (Chocolate)

Fill a mug with about a cup of milk, and stir in 2 spoonfuls of unsweetened cocoa powder. Microwave on high for 1 minute. Stir well, until cocoa is blended. If not hot enough, microwave for additional time to reach your desired temperature. Then, stir in a spoonful of brown rice syrup, or other glucose source (corn syrup, dextrose). Add honey to taste.

This is definitely not sweet. I added a dash of honey to give it a little sweetness, but not very much. This drink is very basic and easy to make, and contains protein and glucose (see why this is important here) to refuel your body. This doubles as chocolate milk. I used to make a big saucepan of it, and then just refrigerate it to drink on other days. However, today was freezing, and I wanted something hot!

I also snacked on some pistachios.

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As I got ready for the day, my exercise high wore off and I realized how tired I was. I didn’t think I’d be able to make it through an OChem lecture without a little help….But here’s the thing. I am definitely not a coffee drinker. I really don’t like it. Call me crazy. It’s certainly an acquired taste, and after a full quarter of 5:45 am practices every morning, I adjusted well enough to it. But it’s been a while. Some people sip their coffee. I prefer the chugging method.

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As you may notice, the portion size is pretty small. I dumped an entire pack of instant coffee into a small amount of heated unsweetened vanilla almond milk. I figure if I don’t like it anyway, might as well make it go down faster. It also doesn’t take a lot of coffee to wake me up since I hardly ever drink it. Normally I would only have half a cup at most, but the instant coffee isn’t very strong. Some may suggest, oh, why don’t you add sweetener to you coffee? You’d probably like it better. Well, you, I almost certainly would like it better. But I still won’t like it, so why waste the sugar? Ok, enough on my coffee tangent. It got the job done.

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Lunch was a salad with cheese, strawberries, and apple, a cold brussels sprout and tomato salad (so good!), a few carrots, teriyaki chicken, plus a bean and grain mixture. I tried to hit all my main food groups: cooked veggies (more available nutrients), raw veggies (slows digestion), protein, slow digesting carbs (the beans), and healthy fat (olive oil in the salad dressing). I’m trying to be better about this! I also had a few pieces of fruit.

After an afternoon of classes, I ate and apple and then headed out to the water to enjoy a freezing practice. Seriously. I had 4 layers on my arms, plus insulated spandex pants. The problem was, as my body started warming up, the temperature kept dropping. I had so many layers on I could barely move! Finally towards the end I dropped my outer jacket, but still! I hope it warms up soon! These have definitely been multiple jacket days.

For dinner, I brought my leftover half avocado to the dining hall and added it on top of this salad:Image

Greens, tomato, olives, mushrooms, and italian dressing. I also had a little of the prepared salad, which was spinach and onions in a sweet-ish dressing. The dining hall is pretty dependable in always having decent grilled chicken, but the line takes forever, and it was just too long today for me to deal with, so I topped my salad with Thai barbecue chicken. It’s fattier, but definitely faster! I also had a piece of a breadstick because they looked amazing, and polenta. Dessert? Half a whole wheat english muffin.

This no sugar challenge hasn’t actually been all that hard for me. I’ve gone off sugar a few times before, and now this is by far the easiest it has been. Normally the cravings are terrible for the first 3 or 4 days, and here I am on day 3! Partly, I’m not at home where there is a ridiculous amount of sweets, but I think this blog definitely has helped! When I know sweets aren’t even an option, I don’t really think about eating them. WHen people offer me sweets, I just say no without thinking twice. I am confident I can finish out this challenge! Who’s with me?

I really need to go to bed early tonight. I am seriously dreading tomorrow morning. And it really is my fault. I have to leave at 5:45 to do my morning erg (it’s an on my own erg) because I want to finish it in time to make a 7 am spin class. This is really one of the only times I can go to spin in the week, so I want to make it. The problem? We also have a 30 minute run (SO COLD. But still better than the treadmill…), so I get to get my butt out of bed super early, then erg, spin, and run. Yayy. Hopefully you guys can get a good night’s sleep for me!

How do you feel about morning workouts?