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Feeling Blah

Guys. Vet school apps. AUGH.

That’s about where I am right now.

I also feel like I’m in such a rut.

I have massive sleep debt from the end of school, plus eating different things on a different schedule has me feeling really BLAH. It’s honestly hard for me to function as a human being when I’m not eating normally. I feel like I have had no motivation to do anything lately. Including blogging.

I do, however, have some food to share, so let’s jump to that, shall we?

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This was actually the best simple lunch. I had leftover chicken with ketchup (because ketchup is bomb), GF avocado toast, and super delicious sautéed grated zucchini. I just threw it in a pan with some olive oil, garlic powder, truffle salt, and pepper. Also key: squeeze out some of the excess water.

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I made some of my healthy double chocolate banana bread for my college roommate. Her family had a graduation party, and graciously invited me to come. I made the 2 hour drive on Saturday afternoon, and had a fantastic time meeting her sweet family. We spent one last night together as well, before I drove up the next morning for father’s day festivities (more in a minute).

While baking that up, I made something for myself too. In the theme of trying tons of Pinterest recipes, I tried Healthy Pumpkin Zucchini Chocolate Chip bread. I was instantly drawn to this recipe thanks to the low sugar content-only 1/3 of a cup! I used GF flour, and subbed canned sweet potato for the pumpkin, since I had some on hand and thought it would make it a bit more summer-y.

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I decided to leave out the chocolate chips, because I made this bread to eat pre-workout early in the morning. As you can see, however, the smell of double chocolate chip banana bread baking had me craving melty chocolate, so I threw in a few chocolate chunks on one end, halfway through baking.

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This bread was delicious! It was so moist and fluffy, and I loved sneaking in some extra veggies!

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This was YET ANOTHER Pinterest win. Chicken avocado soup. Because you can’t go wrong with fresh CA avocado, can you? On the side was Cooking Light Parmesan Corn Muffins. The muffins had parmesan and chives, and were delightful with a pat of butter.

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My mom also made plum crisp, using our favorite blueberry crisp recipe. We were gifted mass quantities of plums, and this pretty much finished them off. It was quite tart, but delicious with a little frozen yogurt.

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This dinner was a total wing job. I wanted something lighter than originally planned, so I used some things we had in the fridge to whip up miso soup and sautéed zucchini (made the same way as before). We had some extra miso paste that needed to be used, so I sautéed some mushrooms with garlic, and then added broth, miso paste, and spinach. Once that was ready to go, I tossed 3 beaten eggs in for some protein (egg drop soup style). It ended up being delicious!

Now-Father’s Day

First of all, I want to thank my dad for supporting me every step of the way. Through catching for my pitching in every location possible (dark gyms, Hawaiian vacations, paring garages, and most notably, Belgian schoolyards), flying across the country and waking up at 2am CA time to spectate my race in 30 degree weather, reading every blog post, and trying every random baking concoction I come up with. I know I wouldn’t have gotten this far, or be who I am today without you.

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On Sunday morning, I drove home from visiting my friend. I left early and made CRAZY good time. It was supposed to be a warm one, so around 9:30am we headed out to the bay for a dog walk. My parents walked the dog, and I went for a bike ride.

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In sunburn news, I tried really hard to even out my terrible tan line, but I don’t think it did much.

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Literally every time I wear shorts, I get comments wherever I go.

Then, my sister and her fiancé arrived and we all went to the county fair.

First order of business: taro boba.

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Then: food! I had roasted corn and a giant turkey leg.

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My family also shared a giant brick of curly fries. The rest of them shared a cinnamon roll and funnel cake. the strawberry funnel cake looked and smelled SO good. I had some of the strawberry jam and whipped cream off the top and it was fabulous.

Next up: PIG RACING! If you’ve never witnessed baby pigs running around a track, you’re missing out. The Alaskan racing pigs come to the fair every year, and the crowd cheers them on while being treated to a plethora of pig-related puns from the emcee.

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Then: ruminants!

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I could honestly sit and watch cows for hours. They are such majestic creatures.

For our final fit of fair festivities, I wanted to “throw things and win things,” aka play fair games. We tried quite a few, and I won a little pig stuffed animal. Victory!

At this point, we started to feel the heat a bit and relaxed with a TV show before the Warriors game. Sadly, the game didn’t go as we had hoped.

In the middle of the game, we ordered Door Dash delivery for a restaurant of my dad’s choice. I had a teriyaki chicken bowl, with half brown rice, half greens. I requested it without teriyaki, and whipped up a quick GF version with tamari, honey, rice vinegar, garlic powder, and sesame oil.

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It came out really well!

We drowned our sorrows of the game result in more Netflix. I hope my dad had a good day despite the outcome though!

How did you celebrate father’s day?

Busy but Not Busy

Hey guys! This week has flown by. What did I even do?? I start work next week!

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Sunday evening I went to the county fair. I went by myself, and it was 95% just to see the animals! I seriously contemplated buying a cow.

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Plus there was a petting zoo! Totally worth the $3 to feed the ruminants. Speaking of which-guess what just came on Amazon? I’m pretty pumped to read this. Yes, this is a textbook on the digestive system of ruminants (cows and goats and sheep, etc)

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Workout wise this week, I’ve done some morning Crossfit, some spin, and some workouts with my old trainer from when I was in high school! I first lifted weights with him. I was concerned coming back given the last time I trained with him I was in the best shape of my life, but it’s been good! I actually PRed my snatch by 8 pounds today. Except it was from the high hang-not even the mid hang. For those that don’t know much about weightlifting, usually you start from the ground because you get more power. Also-it was a power snatch not a full snatch. What all this means is I’m a lot stronger than my PR and next time I do full snatches I should be able to get even heavier! Technique is everything! Now all my lifts are in the triple digits!

On Monday he went easy on me and we didn’t do much conditioning, but today I had conditioning involving intervals of slam balls and max effort 250m rows. Killer.

Foodwise, what’s been going on around here?

Breakfast

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Eggs, oatmeal, and fruit are the current formula. A couple of days ago I made oatmeal with cocoa powder stirred in (and a banana). I make a big batch and then can have it throughout the week. It was super convenient to grab a few bites before morning Crossfit!

Lunch

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A sweet potato stuffed with chicken, spinach, salsa, cheese, and guacamole. This is great for a quick lunch!

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Super ugly but got the job done-spinach, quinoa veggie blend, and chicken maple apple sausage. Plus guacamole and carrots. I love these individual packs of guacamole!

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Lunch with my sister! A turkey sandwich with smoked gouda. I ate the insides out since I’m not doing gluten right now. On a side note-my stomach seems to be healed!

Dinner

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Brussels, laughing cow, and maple apple chicken sausage. This is an old Carrots N Cake recipe!

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Chicken vegetable soup with a side caesar salad (which was massive).

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A frittata with potatoes and cheddar, broccoli, and Trader Joe’s Polenta.

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Homemade banana ice cream. Banana, cocoa powder, and a touch of milk to get it moving.

Puppy

I swear she’s gotten so much bigger already! She went from 8.5 to 11 pounds in the first week we had her! Her snout and body are both longer, and yesterday she seemed to find her bark. She can be a handful-sometimes she goes psycho-puppy on us and is a biting machine that cannot be contained. She’s an angel when sleeping.

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My friends came over to visit her yesterday evening. Totally already killing her selfie game!

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Scenes from the Weekend

Happy Father’s Day to the most amazing dad ever! (Since I know you will see this)- thanks for everything you have done for me-the hours spent at the softball field in catching in the backyard especially!

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Since I’m a bit behind, let’s go through the weekend in pictures. Also- check out my guest post at Miranda Runs!

ImageNew shoes! I got them at the Nike outlet months ago and am finally breaking them out. I’m not sure how I feel about them yet-but I guess at this point it’s been almost a year since I got new running shoes…wow I was definitely not aware it was that long. ImageImageThe amazing shrinking power of spinach! I was mock Korean bowls for dinner the other night. I sauteed mushrooms and spinach with teriyaki sauce, then served that with garlic and herb quinoa-brown rice mixture and an egg.ImageImageObligatory cat photo. If you follow me on Instagram (which you should! fitnessissweet), you will be quite familiar with my cats. (But I swear that’s not ALL I post.)

I went back to Crossfit Saturday as well! We are still doing a ton of Intro stuff, but here’s a WOD for you all:

2′ on 1′ off

burpees

wall balls (ugh)

lunges

overhead squat (with pvc)

I got 166 reps total! So far I’ve only been going to Intro classes, but I intend on signing on for real, and hopefully doing more things. There is an on-ramp program where you go for a month and they teach you everything, in a more individualized way. I decided that even though I know the lifts, since it is individualized, it should be a good opportunity for me to work on my technique. ImagePost-Crossfit Indian food buffet. I generally don’t do too well at buffets, so I tried to load my plate up with salad (it’s under the yogurt sauce).Image

After lunch, I FINALLY made it out to Whole Foods. I tried some new-to-me products:ImageI have been out of my probiotic supplement for like 2 weeks now, and we haven’t been to stores that carry them. After reading about how awesome Kevita is on Lauren‘s blog, I decided to give it a try! It was good! I’m actually not a fan of things that are sparkly, but I enjoyed it! They also make coconut mango, but Whole Foods was out. I bet that flavor would be sooo good. ImageI found this in the gluten free section, and I was pumped! I am kind of trying to avoid gluten, and I was looking for an alternative to put on yogurt to granola. Let me tell you-this stuff is delicious! It’s chocolatey, with the perfect amount of crunch! I can’t wait to try it in yogurt. ImageI interpreted these to be a healthier version of Doritos, which they basically were. And another bonus-they weren’t neon orange! Haha. Image

Saturday night I also went to the fair with my best friends from high school!

Fair food:

ImageImageIn terms of healthiness, I certainly could have done worse!

My absolute favorite part of the fair is the pig races. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the pig races, basically, a whole bunch of miniature pigs or piglets run around a small track, while the crowd cheers them on. ImageImage

We also went on the ferris wheel. I’m kind of afraid of heights, so I haven’t been on a ferris wheel in a really long time, and I had no idea what to expect. It was simultaneously awesome and terrifying. ImageImageI may or may not have had a death grip on the pole in the middle the whole time though…ImageThe view from the top!

Since this is already pretty long, I’ll recap Sunday tomorrow. I have to go to bed-I have a big day planned! Early morning abs class plus some lifting on my own, and then my first Bikram class with a friend! I may go to spin in the evening with a different friend if I am still alive (doubtful). Any advice for surviving yoga in a 105 degree room? Hey, if I can play softball in that kind of heat, this should be fine, right??

Have you ever done hot yoga? Thoughts?