Today flew by! I have a pretty busy week ahead of me with school, so as I said before, I made a meal plan for the week so I have one less thing to think about, and it worked out great today! I feel way better with a day of healthy eating under my belt!

Before weights, I ate a piece of oatmeal bread. Apparently, we’re not doing endurance weights anymore, which means each exercise has a more normal amount of reps. No more 4x50s! The only problem is that I don’t feel like I got a great workout in. I definitely need to go heavier in some of the exercises. I’ve done a lot of squatting, and I think this is one area where I’m actually better than most of my team. I stuck with their weights, and my reps were super easy. I was a little scared to go up too much weight on the first day of these exercises, and I don’t want to mess up with the conversion from kilograms to pounds again…And I really don’t want to drop a bar. As much as I hate failing a lift, it was never as bad when I was with my trainer the last few years. Whenever I’m lifting on my own, I never go as heavy because I don’t want to drop the bar. It’s so embarrassing! It’s super loud and of course EVERYONE looks. Next week I’ll definitely go heavier though! Although we don’t technically have to do a run afterwards anymore, I might add that in again next week. I didn’t today because this week I’m just in survival mode. After weights, I took a glorious half hour nap. 

And guess what? On the way back I saw a black and white cat! It always makes my day when I see him. 

For breakfast, I deviated from my plan a little bit. I had planned on drinking my Chocolate Post Workout Recovery Drink, but I wasn’t feeling it. What I really wanted was a smoothie! I think I’m still having fruit and vegetable withdraws from last weekend! 

Into the blender went frozen strawberries, 3/4 of a huge banana, a piece of watermelon, plain yogurt, and soymilk. This was a good one! The taste reminded my of cotton candy, but in a good way! It was delicious! Putting watermelon in smoothies is awesome. You should all try it!

Class was uneventful. Lunch was good!

A pre-made salad with oil and vinegar dressing, plus a cold mixture of brussels sprouts and tomatoes, and a black bean burger with a little ketchup. The black bean burger was really good! I ended up ditching the ketchup and eating the burger as a topper for my salad. The black bean burgers are always available at the grill, and I don’t know why I never tried one before! It’s a great option if none of the other protein sources seem good/healthy. I also had some fruit. 

During my writing class today, I was struck with inspiration for what my research paper should be on: artificial versus natural sugar. I’m so pumped! I absolutely love learning about sugar. It’s a strange passion of mine…I’ll keep you updated on anything cool I discover! This brings me in to my next topic: I’m back on the no sugar challenge! ANy even better? Tomorrow is my absolutely zero added sugar day! I’ll post what I eat, and what I might normally eat that doesn’t qualify. The idea is to raise awareness for all the sugar added to the foods we eat, especially the foods you wouldn’t think about! I can’t wait for tomorrow’s post! 

Practice on the water today was rough. It was super windy, so the water was pretty wild. I hate days like this! I ended up being in a stable boat though, so it wasn’t terrible. All our practices on the water have had the same format lately: 4×15 minutes. Ok, one for crew tidbit for the day:

Some of you may or may not be familiar with the concept of lightweight rowing versus openweight rowing. Lightweight rowers are smaller, and they have their own team and race against other small rowers. There is a maximum weight limit for lightweight rowers. Openweight rowers are bigger, and can be any size. Many openweight rowers are tall; it is common to have rowers over 6 feet. Right now, I am openweight, but I’m a very small openweight. I’m the shortest person on my team (and I’m almost 5’7″ on a good day). The issue with this is that realistically speaking, I won’t exactly be able to pull as well as some of my bigger and taller teammates. I’m that awkward size: I would be on the taller side for lightweight, and small for openweight. After the fall, when the other walk-ons and I split in to weight classes, I considered dropping to lightweight, but my coach ultimately decided she didn’t want me to have to worry about that yet, because I’m still fairly new to rowing. I was talking to another teammate today about this. We’re similar sizes, although she’s about an inch taller. For this year, I will stay openweight, but next year, I won’t be able to race in a freshman boat, so my chances of getting boated aren’t great. It would make a ton of sense for my to try and drop next year, but I have a year to figure it out! Just thought I’d fill you guys in on the inside scoop of rowing and what may be going on with me in the next year!

Dinner today was…frustrating. The actual meal was fine, but I had to stand in a pretty long line for chicken. This wouldn’t be that bad; I can stand to wait for my food. The thing is, I’m waiting for other people to get burgers grilled up for them. The chicken breast is already cooked, just sitting in a bin…so close yet so far! Nonetheless, I enjoyed a nutritious meal. 

I has some greens topped with a hot chickpea mixture, plus chicken breast (ok, and some ketchup), and some sauteed swiss chard. It’s so nice to get my veggies in again! 

Back in my room, it was time for something sweet.

I just opened this peanut butter. I know, I know, I had said I would wait to open peanut butter so I could give other nut butters some love, but, well…At least it’s a different kind! I haven’t had crunchy peanut butter in a while, and this is currently my favorite crunchy variety. And, as it turns out, it’s amazing on a banana!

Sorry this post was kind of all over! I need to start brainstorming some ways to keep my posts interesting, even on boring days! Tomorrow is zero sugar day! Anyone want to join me??

Have you ever had an embarrassing gym experience?