I wanted to recap a little food and a little fitness before I take a little trip tomorrow. Blogmas Day 1 and 2 posts are all typed up, scheduled, and ready to go!

All I’ve done fitness-wise this week is Crossfit. I was really excited for Monday’s workout. We are preparing for the open. It’s always interesting to see how different boxes prepare in terms of their programming. At my box last year, we did a ton of longer workouts, like 3 10 minute AMRAPS with a few minutes of rest in between. Where I am now, we’re working on endurance in the form of disgustingly long sets. We’re doing a set of 20 back squats, and a set of 20 presses. This week I did 120 lbs for the squat. It’s crazy how I can be sore from just one set. I was not excited for that. The thing I WAS excited for? We redid 16.2. I was really happy with my performance when I did it the first time. I had just gotten my toes to bar literally the week before, and was so proud of myself for getting through them. 16.2 was 25 toes to bar, 50 double unders, 15 cleans at 95 lbs. If you finish that in 4 minutes, you move on to do that again in 4 minutes, with the weight on the cleans increasing and the reps decreasing. Last time I got majorly tripped up on my doubles (LOL pun sort of intended), and finished with 46 doubles in the first round. My doubles are MILES better than in March, so I was really excited to tackle this again. Not a lot of people Rxed this so they definitely did more rounds than I did, but I really wanted to see what I could do. The doubles were cake. I finished the toes to bar and doubles in 3 minutes, and got through 5 of the cleans before running out of time. That’s 9 reps better than last time, but it’s a big 9 reps because the cleans are time consuming. I was panting and shaky at the 4 minute mark, and not entirely sad to be done with the workout.

This morning I went to 6am Crossfit because I woke up at 4am and could not fall back asleep. When it was 5:15 and I wasn’t even tired, I figured I should just get up and get it done, especially since I had plans to have a more interesting and large lunch than normal. We worked on snatches, and then the WOD was 3 rounds of 15 wall balls, 15 pull ups, and 15 deadlifts (I used 135#). I knew the pull ups would be a little challenging, but I’m not going to baby myself anymore with pull ups in workouts. Unless it’s a crazy number of reps, I just have to suck it up and do it. I’m at a place now with Crossfit where I feel like I’ve made a ton of progress over the past year, and I’ve started to finally get a lot of the movements, so to progress I need to suck it up and Rx the workouts, as slow as it may be, because the speed will come. Honestly, it’s a little bit of a pride issue. At my box, a lot of people don’t Rx the workouts, which is totally cool with me. But it means when I do Rx them, I’m often one of the last people working. But I need to get over that, because it’s the only way I’ll get better.

In terms of food…

Breakfasts:

Flapjacked muffin with blueberries.

Going strong with cranberry here. Yogurt with cocoa powder and maple syrup stirred in, topped with cranberry sauce. Eaten in about 5 minutes between Crossfit and taking my dog for a walk with a friend.

We got talked into signing up for a CSA box while picking up my bib at the turkey trot. It’s cool in that it’s delivered to your door, and you get to pick what you get in your box. I don’t always like Gala apples, but this was delicious. I had it with my typical breakfast (at least for the past 3 months) of yogurt, sunbutter, and cinnamon KIND granola.

Lunches:

Leftover Whole Foods Chicken Lemon Artichoke soup with avocado toast.

Chinese food! I think everyone has that one Chinese restaurant that they’ve been going to forever. My sister just got back from 3 months in Europe, 2 of which were spent in Florence, Italy, and she was craving Chinese food like crazy. I haven’t had it in quite some time as well because I was worried soy sauce (it has a little gluten) would cause me to flare. Now, I feel pretty safe that it won’t, so I was excited as well! I started with egg drop soup, and then got chicken and vegetables with fried rice. And always extra sweet and sour sauce. To put on rice, to put on veggies, to put on chicken. Why not?

Dinners:

My mom and I have been on our own for dinner this week, and we both are fans of simple. We made open faced turkey and havarti sandwiches. Normally we do these with apples on top, but I wanted to try them with cranberry sauce. The verdict? Delicious. We also happened to buy some turkey that was more like carved turkey than deli turkey on accident, so it was perfect with the cranberry sauce! On the side, we sautéed up some zucchini noodles, one day with garlic, and another with smokey salt seasoning blend.

Etc.

After 16.2, I was sort of shaky and light headed, so I needed sugar and protein ASAP. I tried this flavor for the first time while cooking dinner. I saw it in St. Louis but never made the leap. It’s good! Who can complain with chocolate though, right? The cinnamon chocolate works with yogurt.

Trader Joe’s has really delicious peppermint bark. It’s SUPER thick and really hard to break up though! My sister also hadn’t been to Trader Joe’s in 3 months, so she was just a bit excited to go. I was really excited to see GF peppermint jo-jos. I got them, took a bite out of one, and then thought to check the label. They have coconut oil :/ I decided “screw it” and finished the cookie, but thanks to a coconut allergy I can’t eat them since I’m going to react. Darn. Why is coconut oil in everything these days?? At least I have peppermint bark to ease the pain though, right?

My first coffee back in CA! This was good. Search for the best coffee round 2?

Also, note: I am wearing jeans. It’s been at least 10 months since I wore jeans. Mark your calendars.

This dessert right here is part of why I firmly believe there is space for a dessert every day. That bowl is only 140 calories. 120 without whipped cream. A serving of Halo Top, a spoonful of delicious gourmet salted rum caramel sauce from St. Helena (in Napa Valley), what could be better?

And with that, I’m signing off. Check back in tomorrow for Blogmas Day 1!

Breakfast: I don’t know what it is about my days off, but it seems like every week I reach for a Flapjacked muffin. I had a chocolate muffin with one of the season’s last nectarines. Sidenote: I always add a little extra water and a little yogurt to the muffins!

After breakfast, I started prepping my dinner since I knew I’d be around the house for a bit before leaving for the morning. I made vegetarian chili, and just winged (wing?) the recipe.

I started with a can of diced tomatoes with onions, and added a bag of butternut squash (the only shape the store had left was zigzags….), a bag of carrots, salt, and the above pictured spices.

While that was cooking away, I did a short ab workout (Blogilates). It’s been a while, and I was definitely feeling it more than normal!

My chili was looking and smelling good, and I was watching it carefully. It was nearly done, but the carrots were still pretty solid. I left it for a few minutes, and when I returned, I smelled burned. UGH. Luckily it was almost entirely salvageable, just a little dry. The real tragedy was the state of the pan. The entire bottom was burned. I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed. I soaked it in water. I soaked it in dish soap. Finally I turned to the internet. Apparently this is what you do: cover the bottom of the pan with water and bring to a boil. Add 1 cup white vinegar (I didn’t have a full cup, and I only had red wine, but you have to work with what you’ve got) and let it boil. The burn should start to look different (not much for me). Then, add 2-3 tablespoons of baking soda.

Pro tip: do this over the sink. Yeah. The stovetop got a little extra cleaning today…Let sit. Then scrub off.

Did this work? Sort of. It helped loosen it, but I had to really scrub and even scrape the bottom with my nails…

I spent probably an hour on this. I left the house in the worst mood. Plus, I started to feel a little bit alone in St. Louis. I feel like there are so many things I want to do with people, and I was trying to figure out what I would do with my weekend.

The weather today was perfect though. I wore long sleeves! With shorts, but whatever. I’ll take it. It turns out my bad mood was nothing a cappuccino couldn’t fix. I tried another coffeeshop on my list, Foundation Grounds in Maplewood.

As per usual, I had a decaf cappuccino.

This is my favorite coffeeshop thus far. I loved the ambiance—it felt really cozy and friendly, and was a great place to spend the morning studying. The coffee was good, and for some reason tasted like fall. I got briefly homesick when I realized the cappuccino reminded me of my favorite coffeeshop on campus in CA. A lot of my friends are staying at Stanford for their graduate degrees, and they all started this week. It’s so weird to be thousands of miles away.

While this was my favorite coffeeshop and the coffee was really good, it still wasn’t at the very highest level, so while I plan to be back frequently, it will land in the #3 spot, behind Blueprint and Comet Coffee.

Another plus? This coffeeshop has food! There were lots of delicious baked goods as well.

I stayed for lunch, which I figured earned me another hour or so time studying there. I got a salad with red onion, dried cranberries, apple, and gorgonzola, dressed with balsamic vinaigrette.

It was good, but kind of pricey for what it was. They also have a soup of the day, so in the future I might go in that direction.

After the coffeeshop I went for a much needed haircut. I always chicken out and never get quite enough taken off, so I committed to 3 inches off and I LOVE it. I feel SO much better. I actually hate when my hair gets long.

These pictures don’t really show it very well, so here’s a pre-Crossfit shot.

I was trying to figure out where to study next, and since it was so beautiful, I decided to go to a nearby park to enjoy the perfect weather (because I know it won’t last!)

I had one of these bars as a snack. They’re sunflower seed based!

While in the park, I came up with some plans for the weekend, as well as plotted a potential next trip. <-very potential but would be awesome if it worked out!

Crossfit destroyed my arms. We did lots and lots of bench. 6 sets of 3 to start. I worked my way up to 100# for a set of 3. I’m pretty sure I’ve never benched 100 at all, so that was exciting! I’ve never actually done a 1 rep max though. THEN we did 3 sets of 8 close grip bench. These stink.

And because we didn’t push enough, the WOD was lots of push ups. Cool. We did 5 rounds of 15 push ups (I had to scale most of these because #dead), 20 lunge jumps, and 25 sit ups. Lunge jumps are actually the one thing that I sort of worry about with my foot at this point. By the end, I was feeling my foot a little bit so I eased up. It wasn’t pain, just that overworked feeling I haven’t gotten in a while.

Dinner was a breeze, thanks to my meal prep. I topped my chili with fat free cheddar (honestly the fat free aspect…probably not worth it for rubber) and avocado, and has some sweet potato tortilla chips on the side.

While I was eating, my parents were sending me pictures from Hawaii of their amazing desserts. Sadly, all my amazing pumpkin cookies are gone (oops), so I tried to make my little single serve ice cream a little more exciting with whipped cream.

This ice cream was actually super disappointing. These was like ONE caramel swirl. I’ll stick to my Yasso salted caramel bars from now on!

That’s all for today—I might grab a bite of something a little later (maybe pineapple) but for now, I’m off to Skype a friend!

What is your favorite ice cream topping?

I don’t think you can beat hot fudge.

Breakfast:

A Flap Jacked maple pumpkin protein muffin. I’ve learned these are much better when not overcooked. I think the chocolate is definitely superior though—this flavor tastes pretty artificial.

Coffee:

I’ve continuing down my list. This week’s choice was Northwest Coffee Roasting Company.

For any locals, it’s in Central West End. I got my usual decaf cappuccino. My evaluation? This was good coffee, stronger than the last two places I went to. But it didn’t have that almost sweet, rich flavor of the top notch espresso. Also, it was not air conditioned, so I didn’t stick around as long as planned. Tuesdays are my days off, but I’m trying to spend the day working on an online class, so I switched to the local public library after about an hour.

Lunch:

I stopped into Whole Foods to pick up spaghetti squash and the ridiculously delicious nectarines I found last week. While there, I figured I might as well hit up the hot bar for lunch.

Roasted beets with herbs, roasted carrots, roasted corn and artichoke, steamed cabbage, sweet potato with raisins and apple, and chilaquiles. Plus a root beer Zevia. I still have mixed feelings about Zevia because I hate the taste of stevia, but it’s a decent treat now and then when I want something more interesting than water.

Snack:

A handful of KIND granola, a handful of frozen grapes, and a Chocolate Mint Vega bar before Crossfit.

Crossfit:

Ow. Ow. Ow. So you may recall I banged up my hand pretty badly last week, leaving my palm rather skinless. It’s the base of my palm so I can hold a bar. I went yesterday and it was fine, but today…ow.

Strength:

5×5 narrow grip bench press. I worked up to 80#.

WOD:

5 rounds, 65#:

5 deadlifts

5 hang power cleans

5 front squats

5 shoulder to overhead

5 back squats

Cleans? Ow. The bar wasn’t touching my scrape, but the hanging/stretching motion was killer. And then that made all the other movements hurt. Again, ow. I finished in 7:23.

SnacK:

I went to the grocery for real post-Crossfit and spent forever debating (mostly on ice cream but that’s a whole other issue.) I was starving when I came out, so I snacked on some chocolate rice cakes as I loaded up the car.

And then while cooking dinner, I tried some cotton candy grapes. I saw these in someone’s cart as I checked out last time, so I was pumped to try them!

They do taste like cotton candy. They’re delicious.

Dinner:

This one was a little more involved today. I made spaghetti squash mac n cheese, entirely in the microwave! I was actually planning on baking the squash, but I microwaved it to soften it enough to cut (the website I found recommended scoring it and then microwaving it a few minutes), but by the time I cut it, it was already pretty soft. I cut and microwaved it most of the way in the afternoon, so when I came back from the grocery all I had to do was microwave it a few more minutes (I think maybe 15-20 total) and prepare the mix-ins. I took my spaghetti squash and tossed it with broccoli (frozen) and y favorite Greek seasoning blend for flavor. Then I microwaved 1/2c reduced fat cheddar and 1/4c nonfat milk, with some salt, pepper, and garlic. Then, I mixed up the sauce and squash blend, topped it with parmesan, and heated it up just enough to melt the parmesan.

Now, I have enough leftover squash for probably 2 more dinners! I might do this once and then traditional marinara once. This was delicious, and aside from cooking the squash, super easy and came together quickly.

Dessert:

Yasso salted caramel frozen yogurt bar. LOVE these. I tried to buy more today to replenish my dwindling supply, but they didn’t have them. Every other chocolate or caramel ice cream bar at the grocery had coconut oil. Booo.

What is your favorite way to eat spaghetti squash? I still have 2/3 to use!

For Spring Break, 3 friends from college and I planned a trip to Seattle. After a couple of hours of flight delays, we arrived on Wednesday afternoon and hightailed it to lunch at Oddfellows in Capitol HIl. We stayed at an AirBnB in Capitol Hill, which despite th grungy walk from the light rail to the apartment, and the undersized, one bed studio we found ourselves with, we ended up liking the area a lot.

This was tied for my favorite meal of the trip. The restaurant had a very hipster feel, and I got kombucha on tap (those are one sentence because they go together). It had a flowery essence, and was delicious! For my main meal, I ordered a chicken and avocado salad (because avocado) which was fantastic.

After lunch, we headed off to Fremont for our first coffee adventure.

My roommate found a highly recommended coffeeshop called Milstead and Co.

Unfortunately for me, upon entering I learned that they didn’t have decaf. I haven’t had caffeine in over a year, besides chocolate which hits me pretty hard. Ever since my stomach started flaring, caffeine in tiny doses makes me sick/jittery. They offered to make me a half shot cappuccino. Unfortunately, I was only able to have a few sips before my heart started feeling it, but it was delicious, and I thoroughly enjoyed the gluten free biscuit we got to go along with it.

it

We then began to explore Fremont, when I recognized the bridge as “the one with a troll.” My friends, thought I was crazy, until I led them uphill.

Look! I found a troll!

Two other highlights of Fremont: a pie bakery. I didn’t get anything, but my friend got an amazing looking peanut butter mini pie.

The other was an adorable tea shop. It was all loose leaf, in jars, and we could ask to sample anything. The owner was super nice, and had a sweet dog.

The decor was vaguely steampunk, and we had the opportunity to play along for a photo op.

As we were about to leave Fremont, I smelled something amazing. Melted chocolate. Strong. We followed our noses and found this:

A chocolate shop! With lots of samples. I’ve seen this type of chocolate all over Whole Foods. After extensive taste testing, I walked away with this:

For dinner that night, after much debate, we wandered into a Mexican restaurant in Capitol Hill. We started with an appetizer of smoked salmon guacamole, which was AMAZING. I honestly didn’t think I was going to like it; I’m not a huge smoked salmon fan. But the smoked salmon all over Seattle was fantastic.

For my main course, I had a Mexican chop salad with plenty of avocado.

Thursday morning, I rolled out of bed quite early to drop in to a 6:30am class at Xplore Crossfit, which was literally .1 miles from our AirBnB.

Xplore Crossfit has 2 locations—one downtown, and one in Capitol Hill, which is newer. The gym was a bit small, but really nice, with new-looking equipment. (My gym at school is literally in an old bunker, for comparison.) Everyone was friendly, and we had a small class that morning.

For the workout, we spent 10 minutes finding a 1 rep max strict press. I think I got to maybe 80#ish? They worked in kilos so it required quite a bit of mental math! The WOD was a 20 minute AMRAP of 10 push presses (55# for me), 10 ring rows, 10 toes to bar (I did about half as T2B and half as knees to elbow—also, the pull ups bars were SUPER high!), and 10 over the box jumps. I finished I think just over 5 sets? It felt so good to get a sweat on to start my day! I definitely get grumpy when I don’t exercise in the mornings.

Breakfast was super delicious. We bought food at the grocery the previous night, so I had some whole milk yogurt with berries, (packed) sunbutter, and gluten free vanilla cereal.

Next on the agenda was Pike’s Place Market and COFFEE.

On the way to our coffeeshop of choice, we picked up pastries. I found a stand with tons of gluten free goodies, and mixed up the most amazing lemon blueberry muffin. It didn’t look like much, but it was bursting with lemon flavor and the texture was on point!

I think this may have been my favorite cappuccino of the trip. I can’t for the life of me remember the name of the coffeeshop though! (Edited to add: it was called Storyville!)

This was a great moment. Good coffee, good food, even better people.

Then, it was time to explore the market (and watch flying fish).

At the fish place, they gave out samples of smoked salmon, and this self-proclaimed disliker of smoked salmon was won over. We tried several delicious types, but went with the original. We decided to buy a pound to split for lunch, and enjoyed it picnic style alongside some of the other goodies we found: cheese and amazing apples.

After shopping around downtown for a few hours, we wound up in the coffeeshop near our place for some study time.

Victrola was my second favorite cappuccino of the trip! They also had kombucha on tap!

Dinner that night was delicious, and I take full credit for picking it out! We went to The Gnocchi Bar. It was mainly a gnocchi restaurant, and you could choose any of the dishes with regular, sweet potato, or GF gnocchi. I love gnocchi, and this was amazing.

We started out by splitting a salad with roasted butternut squash, truffle something, and goat cheese.

And then decided to split 3 types of gnocchi to try some of everything!

Gnocchi special that involved truffle and mushrooms, and possibly duck bacon but I avoided that part.

My favorite: creamy with roasted cauliflower and mushrooms.

Apple cider sauce with chicken, asparagus, and parmesan.

Afterwards, we went out to Molly Moon’s for dessert. The ice cream was good, but not gourmet quality. I had honey lavender, and was happy with that choice!

Friday morning I went for a run through Seattle. I followed a route I found on map my run. I was skeptical initially because it started off going into the grungy area, but the cute neighborhoods and views of the Space Needle that followed won me over!

The rest of the morning was spent back at Victrola studying.

For lunch, we went to a place with Red Espresso! Red Espresso is made with roobois tea, which contains no caffeine and has an earthy flavor. We all oohed and ahhed over our lattes with a perfect drizzle of honey and sprinkle of cinnamon on top.

Roobois is South African, and the cafe menu included South African fare. I had a toasted sandwich (GF) with spinach, egg, and gouda.

We then wandered around the area a bit, stopping in at a chocolate shop for a rosemary caramel (for me) and brown butter hot chocolate (ridiculous).

We didn’t have much of a plan, but ended up wandering towards U District, making it to Fremont before we Ubered to Slate in U District.

Slate is an extremely high end (and sort of pretentious) coffeeshop.

They absolutely know their coffee. They also use super high quality raw milk. The special, which I of course had to try, is a deconstructed latte. The espresso and milk are served separately to try each, and then a mixed version is served to try together. You drink them in a specific order: espresso, milk, latte. I had decaf, which had notes of raisin and maybe caramel? (According to the barista—I do not have the espresso prowess to determine that!)

I actually really liked the espresso—it’s such good quality that it’s not bitter exactly, and is crazy smooth.

To continue our liquid tour of Seattle for the day, we Ubered back to Capitol Hill for Capitol Cider. It’s an all gluten free restaurant with a ridiculous number of ciders. I tried the blackberry, and enjoyed it a lot!

We split a grilled vegetable salad with burrata to start.

And for my main dish, I had roasted chicken over a fennel bread pudding.

For dessert, we shared an oat/cheddar apple crumble served with orange cream sauce.

We spent the rest of the night exploring what Capitol Hill had to offer.

On our last morning, before we headed to the airport we walked about a mile to brunch in the Broadway area.

We went to Coastal Kitchen, and I ordered an omelette with goat cheese, caramelized onions, and sage. I was a big fan of the sage! On the side were smoky hash browns.

Before heading to the airport, we had one more stop on the list. We lucked out, and it was literally 2 doors down from Coast Kitchen. NuFlours, a gluten free bakery!

Everything looked amazing, and it was so hard to choose! Ultimately I went with a blueberry muffin (a classic), and my friend and I shared a piece of sweet potato coffee cake.

Overall, the trip was amazing. This really was a food and coffee tour of Seattle!

I started my morning teaching a 7am spin class on campus, which was awesome. I didn’t think we’d get a big turn out because it wasn’t that well advertised and it was early, but I got a good group out, including a friend!

Then, I had a weight lifting session with my trainer. I tried to move it to not the morning I had to teach, but that didn’t work out so I had to suck it up and go in with less than fresh legs. We worked on cleans, back squats, and jerks. I PRed my clean again at 148#! That’s a 8# increase this summer, so I’ll take it! Sometimes being a little tired helps things-I don’t overthink the lift, plus I was super warmed up! I also hit 95% of my back squat max for 2 reps. This is especially good because my max is a year old, and I maxed out at my 95% when I tested it back in the spring.

As for the jerks, we didn’t go super heavy but they felt better than expected. Over the last year or so, I’ve developed very creaky shoulders, especially when I go overhead with the bar. I basically have not been able to go overhead more than once a week without stiff shoulders and pain when I press up. Earlier this week at Crossfit, we did a ton of push presses and high volume overhead work. But, the jerks yesterday felt fine! It was a night and day difference. So what changed? I started yoga about 6 years ago to help with flexibly (because I have none). I honestly think yoga was key for helping me stay injury free in my many years of softball. (I was a pitcher and never had any shoulder/arm trouble which is rare for someone doing it for 10 years!) In the past year, yoga has kind of fallen by the wayside. Last month, I finally started making it to class again, and I’ve noticed my shoulders getting stronger and looser. I felt a drastic difference from just last week’s class to this week’s class when doing low push ups-my shoulders felt strong and were losing their creak. Plus, this week I walked out of class with much less foot pain because I spent 60 minutes stretching out my tight calves. Needless to say I will be making yoga a regular thing again if possible!

After my training session, I met my sister for coffee at Bliss in Redwood City for any locals.

Of course, I got a cappuccino and it was fantastic. It was a light roast, and had premium quality milk foam (which is clearly what matters, if you ask me!)

After coffee, we headed home for lunch. I made myself a salad with truffle goat cheese (because we didn’t have any regular goat cheese), dates, a nectarine, and deli turkey.

Sweet potato seed crackers were on the side.

I spent the afternoon resting, and then apparently going on a baking frenzy.

It’s 4 days into September and I’ve already make 3 loaves of pumpkin bread and a loaf of sweet potato bread. Besides the pumpkin bread, I did lots of experimenting and improvising.

For the pumpkin bread, I baked some Noosa honey yogurt into the center for something fun.

If you take one look at my recipe page, you’ll see that most of what is up there is quick breads and salads. Those are my two claims to fame. I’ve gotten very good and making up recipes for healthy quick breads. I have one base recipe that I use, and I have yet to screw it up, surprisingly, despite how many modifications I’ve tried. (That’s actually not true-the one thing that didn’t work was coconut flour banana bread. Apparently bananas and coconut flour are not good together. It was gross.) I’ve even started making it with gluten free flour, and you would really never know. At this point, nothing contains more than 1/4 cup of sweetener, but you’d never know. Even my sister approved, and she is wary of anything “healthy.”

When the sweet potato bread came out, I decided I am a freaking genius. It was on point.

My third loaf was a total experiment, and I was running out of flour so I had to really improvise. The bread? Awesome. Exactly what I was looking for. The appearance? Uhhhh.

The batter was completely gray-this picture doesn’t do it justice. Anyone want to guess the secret ingredient that reacts to turn this color? I’m guessing it reacts to baking soda/powder. Because of the appearance, I’m not 100% sure I’ll share the recipe. Plus, it still needs tweaking because I think if I had more flour and didn’t have to improvise quite so much it would be better!

As for the sweet potato recipe, it’s coming this weekend-I promise!

That evening, I went to run club at Crossfit. My legs were not really up for it, but I’ve been wanting to go for a long time now and this was the only week I could really make it. Since everything is based on paces, I had to do a timed mile. Blech. I clocked in around 8:10, and with tired legs, I’ll take it. I should probably actually do a timed mile sometime with fresh legs! Back in the glory days, in another life I was actually reptty fast. I think my all time best mile is 6:53, but that’s not happening any time soon! Overall, between warm up and cool down, I covered 3 miles which is exactly what was on my half training plan for the day.

Dinner was another basic one. Stir fry veggies and cheesy polenta. The cheesy polenta was just cooked polenta with smoked gouda stirred in, and it was delicious!

I hope everyone has a fabulous labor day weekend. I’m on puppy duty full time, so I’m trying to think of things to do with her! And check back for that recipe this weekend!

What are your weekend plans?

The Giant’s Race finishes in the Giant’s ballpark. It’s awesome. It was my first ever race! This year I did the 10k, not the half like I did the past 2 years. I had a hard time with my training for my April half because I was so sick, that I was just not up for it. That, and I had no time or energy to train with work. This summer I was on my feet 8 hrs a day, and half marathon training plus that would have torn up my feet!

So, I settled on the 10k.

It’s so crazy to me. 4 years ago, I ran this race for the first time.

I was about to start my freshman year of college. Where the heck did the time go?? When I ran it 4 years ago, I actually won my age group. I was in my best shape of my life at the time, and followed a strict training schedule to work up to that distance (at the time a PDR). This year, I ran the race about 7 minutes slower. Instead of moaning about how much slower I’ve gotten, I’m appreciating how my body has changed to allow me to run this distance without issue, essentially without training.

I didn’t have any expectations for the race. I didn’t want to die, but I wanted to run a decent pace. I was actually a second away from my last minute goal time. I mostly just wanted to enjoy this race. It’s an amazing course-along the Embarcadero, under the Bay Bridge, and out past Fisherman’s Wharf. Bonus-the 10k is flat. The half marathon course actually goes to Chrissy field, with a fantastic view of the Golden Gate.

The energy of the runners is amazing as well-lots of like-minded people (aka Giant’s fans). Plus, finishing on the field never gets old. I definitely enjoyed this race!

After the race, I met up with my mom and grabbed a complimentary post-race beer, just because I could. Yayy for 21. I only had a few sips though because we had other plans for beverages that morning!

There was also a little sandbag toss, for prizes. Of course, I had to take part. I nailed my first 2 bags right in the whole. I still have some softball player left in me, and walked away with some new sunglasses!

After my coffee exploration in New York, I figured I should use a trip to the city as an excuse to try some of the best San Francisco has to offer! I picked out a place, and it turned out they had gourmet and gluten free doughnuts! Dynamo Donuts. We arrived minutes before they opened.

I had a chocolate raspberry and a lemon buttermilk gluten free donut. Both were delicious, and you definitely could not tell they were gluten free.

Plus, OF COURSE a cappuccino. Excellent as well. Good coffee is just so much smoother, and without the bitterness.

Overall, it was a great morning!

Tell me-where’s the best coffee?

I’m also on Day 2 of my caffeine detox. Granted, it’s a forced detox after I got so sick from coffee, but it’s still led me to reflect a bit. Also-caffeine withdrawal is very real. I felt like I was in such a fog yesterday, but thankfully it seems much better today!

Since skipping the coffee these past few days, I’ve realized how I feel so much more in tune with my body. I was drinking it so often this quarter that I felt like I had a constant buzz. Before overdosing on it, I was wondering what effects it would have. It made me happier, perkier, more engaged, but it was always there, and I would often be at the verge of mild overcaffeination.

But more importantly, I feel like I was using it as a crutch. Don’t have enough time to sleep? That’s fine, I’ll just drink coffee. I was trying to do it all-stay on top of work, socialize, workout early every morning-and I neglected sleep. I could stay awake because COFFEE but after a few weeks of this, I was starting to feel worn down. While coffee may seem like a great solution when you’re tired, it’s important that we don’t use it to mask a symptom of a deeper problem. Sure, you may FEEL better, but lack of sleep can wreck havoc on your body. Here are some of the ways how:

1. Interferes with ability to concentrate and learn new things.

2.Impairs decision making and creativity.

3.Weakened immune system.

4. Weight gain: “Sleep deprivation increases production of the stress hormone cortisol. Lack of sleep lowers your levels of a hormone called leptin, which tells your brain that you’ve had enough to eat. In addition, it raises levels of a biochemical called ghrelin, which is an appetite stimulant.

Sleep deprivation prompts your body to release higher levels of insulin after you eat, promoting fat storage and increasing your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.“

-This basically means sleep messes with the hormones that regulate appetite to cause you to eat more and store more fat.

5. Risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke.

Although caffeine treats the symptom (sleepiness), it is definitely not a replacement for sleep. I’m definitely going to try and make sleep more of a priority. I know we’re all busy, but it IS possible if it is important to you!

Do you get enough sleep?

I figured out that whatever weird sinus-y thing I’m dealing with is allergies, not illness. Unfortunately, that still kept me up a bit last night! On top of that, I was up fairly late doing homework. I woke up for 6am Crossfit, which was definitely not enough sleep. The workout was a good one though-and getting off campus helped my allergies. For strength, we did overhead squats and toes to bar. The conditioning was a 15 minute AMRAP of:

5 dumbbell ground to overhead (I used 25#s-ground to overhead means clean to shoulders and then push press or push jerk to overhead)

7 pull ups (banded for me)

9 squats (no weight)

I finished exactly at 9 rounds! This was one of those that ends up being pretty hard because none of the moves are terrible so you can just get tons of reps in.

The roughness started afterwards when I decided I needed a big cup of coffee to get me through the day. I normally drink espresso drinks, so I don’t have as good of a gauge of how much caffeine is in regular coffee. Normally I do half a packet of instant in milk, but this time I did a full packet.

I basically chugged it on an empty stomach and was about halfway through my banana with sunflower seed butter when I realized I felt pretty weird. And it quickly dawned upon me that I had made a terrible mistake. My heart started racing and I started shaking. Besides feeling awful, being over caffeinated also really freaks me out. I felt really nauseous and shaky for the morning, but it was a lot better by my 11am class. Even now, in the evening, I’m not feeling 100% but definitely a LOT better.

Lunch was super lame and picture less because I was scared to eat anything too heavy-2 crackers and an English muffin. After lunch, I felt a lot less shaky. The good news is I have still managed to get a fair amount of studying done for my midterm tomorrow despite this!

I was starving mid-afternoon and feeling better so I heated up the last slice of my drowned cranberry bread.

I was starving again around when dinner opened-and it smelled delicious through my window! I went with pretty basic foods still.

Mac n cheese, mashed potatoes, a little roasted cauliflower, and chipotle turkey soup. I was feeling god enough for a few bites of peach crispy as well-note that this plate is actually much smaller!

So…that was my day. Rough. I’m officially on a caffeine detox. I think these past couple of weeks I was depending a bit too heavy on coffee to get me through the day instead of sleep anyway, which wasn’t sustainable. I need to make sleep more of a priority!

And since today’s food was kind of boring, here are a couple of other meals!

I have a new batch of lunches! Chicken and mashed yams are same old, same old, but this time I have roasted garlic broccoli to accompany them!

A basic dinner-some type of vinaigrette based black bean salad with strips of something unidentifiable, BBQ chicken, and sweet potato fries. How pretty is that plate? So colorful!

And now, I have to get back to studying!

Coffee-yay or nay?

Ok, enough ranting for now. Today included a couple of things:

1. A timed mile

2. An “I don’t know what I want to do with my life” crisis

3. COFFEE

I went to the track first thing this morning for a timed mile. It’s been over a year since I did one. I also have done very little speed work lately, so there’s that. I was expecting it to feel terrible but it wasn’t too bad. Not as fast as I would have liked, but I’m also sore today (what’s new) so who knows how it would have gone. It’s fine though-a good starting point!

I was going to do a track workout, but my legs weren’t feeling it after the mile so I did a couple of laps of cool down and a few sprints.

Then, COFFEE. Track workouts mean a trip to my favorite coffee place I never go, since it’s on the way back! This cappuccino was amazing.

Then, breakfast was in the dining hall-banana pancakes with a bit of butter, eggs, and grapes.

Today I did something different-I spent my day phone less. It was exhilarating. Or maybe that was the caffeine…I was way more productive, although also somewhat lost. I was convinced it was a Wednesday…

Lunch was same old-same old. Grilled chicken with Greek seasoning from home last weekend, sage mashed sweet potatoes, and roasted asparagus.

After class today, I FINALLY got a haircut. My ends have been driving me crazy for far too long. Beforehand, I had some roasted carrots, a spoon of sunflower seed butter, and earlier a granola bar in class.

This is sort of embarrassing-after my haircut I DROVE to the gym. On campus. But I was already in my car, and I went to the far gym so…

I had to go though to practice my spin class one last time before tomorrow morning! It went really well, and I’m feeling pumped about my playlist!

Dinner back in my room was more wraps. One with salsa this time though, which was delicious! I just need some avocado now!

On the side, I had some sweet potato tortilla chips and persimmon.

And WHEW, now I’m ready for bed! I will say though, that movie really makes me want to cut out some more processed food!

Feelings on the food industry?

Food and workout-wise, I was up early this morning to take a spin class at Soul Cycle. The 7am class was packed! It was a fun, good workout, but again-I’d never recommend that class. It really is meant only for very young, very fit people-they is plenty of potential for injury! One of my favorite spin teachers told us a story about how she went to a spin class and passed out getting off the bike because there was no cool down. She wouldn’t name names, but it was pretty clear where it was! COOLDOWN IS SO IMPORTANT!

I got coffee after class. Necessary.

Breakfast was same old, same old.

Lunch was TJ’s lemon pepper chicken, mashed sweet potatoes, and brussels sprouts with nutritional yeast.

After a long lab, I had planned to go to Crossfit because it seemed like such a fun one, but the dinner menu sounded delicious so I went to dinner instead. It did not disappoint.

Roasted carrots, roasted cauliflower, peanut free pad thai, thai chicken, lentil curry, coconut rice, candied yams. I got a little bit of everything!

And now onto the thing I haven’t mentioned.

I have a job teaching spin! It’s at the same studio I got certified at. I auditioned a few weeks ago, and now I’m on as a sub! So far, I’ve subbed one class, and it was awesome.

I ended up getting pretty late notice for that class and had to frantically get things together, but it was so, so awesome. The members are so great, and it was just so much fun! I’m still working on wearing a headset without breathing into the mic the entire time, but it was great!

I’m trying to put together playlists for everyone’s tastes-if anyone has good spin music I’d love suggestions! Here’s the playlist I used.

Since I am teaching, it’s essential I get some spin classes in that I take! Plus it’s easier to rationalize the Soul Cycle price tag…man.

Have you ever done Soul Cycle? Thoughts?