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This is It, This is the End

Well guys, I made it. (Assuming I didn’t fail my final class that I’m still waiting for a grade in!)

All the work of my undergraduate career, is over, and now all that’s left to do is walk the stage (NOT in a boot!)

My weekend was full of studying. I spent all day Friday working on a take home test, and then devoted Saturday and Sunday to studying for my Human Behavior final.

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I took a break on Saturday for a spin class and an acai bowl. This was my first time trying hemp seeds, and I liked them in this context a lot but can’t imagine any other way I’d eat them.

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Sunday, my advisor had all the senior pre-vets at her house for a goodbye lunch. Every year, she has her seniors paint her a tile. Guess which is mine? (The sheep.)

Monday I took my final exam of undergrad. Then finished my take home test that night.

Tuesday morning, I did a workout of bench presses, pull ups, and rows, and then I went to physical therapy for my foot for the first time. Honestly, it was a little rough after.

And from there, I went and turned in my take home final. And thus ends my Stanford career.

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Lunch on Tuesday was super delicious: salmon lettuce wraps. Our chef makes the BEST salmon.IMG_7282

After lunch, I drove to my home-area to run some errands. First up, I picked up cupcakes for the end of the year party I was throwing that night.

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From my FAVORITE cupcake place ever. These are GF, and I customized the flavors a bit by swapping the icing on the dulce de leche and chocolate cupcakes. BEST decision. Chocolate cake with dulce de leche icing, and vice versa.

After that, I made the mistake of heading to the mall to look for a dress for some of the week’s festivities. That was far more walking/standing time than my foot was ready for, and I was dying and grumpy by the time I left the mall. I don’t know if it’s stress fracture pain, weakness pain, or not walking in a month pain, but it was rough.

That evening, I went to a spin class (and took it easy of course), before heading back to the house to prepare for the party.

The part was really low key. I mostly wanted an excuse to eat cupcakes and see all of my favorite people one last time! I tried to get a picture with everyone, but ended up failing in that respect.

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Check it out: no boot!

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It was great to chat with my favorite people!

Later that night, there was a Stanford tradition that I’ve never done before. Apparently a giant group of people move around campus on the last day of finals. My foot wasn’t loving me, so I wasn’t sure how making it across campus was going to work, but my friends are legitimately the best. And the strongest. They literally took turns carrying my crippled butt most of the way across campus. Love them!

We met up with the group near the main quad, right as it was heading to the final stop, a big fountain. I have never seen anything like i in my life.

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There was a giant boat that someone made and was carrying, with music. #stanford

I was so glad to be bootless and able to hang out in the fountain for a bit, taking it all in.

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It was one of those days/nights that make me so grateful for my school, and all the amazing friends I’ve met. I really want to try and keep up to date on blogging this week, because I know I want to be able to look back on it, and I also want to share some of the Stanford traditions.

More fun/food/fitness to come soon!

WIAW-A Series of Goodbyes

It’s started. The graduation goodbyes have started. Today was my last Tuesday spin class of the quarter, and next quarter I’m only teaching Wednesdays. Because there are some people that only can come on Tuesday, today was my last class with some of them!

Goodbyes are the hardest. I love Stanford, but the people I’ve met here (both on and off campus) are the part I am going to miss most.

Over the past few years, I’ve realized that life is a series of goodbyes. My first taste of this was leaving DC after a summer. Every time I go somewhere new, there are people I leave behind. It’s so sad to leave people that have touched your life in so many different ways. It’s been such a joy teaching my spin students this year, and I know I’m going to be a mess during my last class in June! I also am really going to miss my Crossfit community here. I’ve spent 3 years there, and the gym itself has evolved and turned into such a community.

Enough mushiness, let’s cheer up with a little WIAW action, huh? Thanks to Jenn for starting this madness.

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I always seem to do Tuesdays for WIAW, so I thought I’d do a Monday for some variety because what and how I eat varies day to day. ALSO: I have decided to do a what I ate in a day VLOG over spring break, so if I can figure out the technology, look out for that!

Preworkout:

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Lemon-blueberry poppyseed bread, which I remembered about halfway through to photograph. Classy.

Workout: Crossfit

For strength, we worked on overhead squats. I think I got to 65 or 75#? This is kind of a big deal with my still recovering shoulder, and I was sore today! The WOD was 3 rounds of 4 exercises, for 1 minute each, with 2 minutes of rest between rounds. The exercises were box jumps, rowing, wall balls, and burpees.

Breakfast:

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Full fat Greek yogurt, a nectarine/cherry blend, and crunchy sunbutter.

Lunch:

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Minestrone soup (GF) with GF cheese toast and an artichoke olive salad. Perfect for a stormy day!

Dessert:

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GF blueberry upside down cake. My mom made this for my for my sister’s birthday dinner, and it’s ridiculously good. She used the pineapple upside down recipe and subbed blueberries for pineapple!

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Snack: Not sure this is even worth posting because I literally had 3 carrots, but I was hungry after class at 4:30, and even though dinner was at 5, I wanted something in my stomach so I wouldn’t get hangry in traffic on the drive home.

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Dinner:

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Dijon chicken and kale stew topped with cheese. SO delicious. Asparagus on the side, plus half a carrot cake flax muffin (another 1/4 was eaten not pictured).

Dinner #2 (eaten in Biochem):

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Besides the fact that I need more food in my day, this snack helps break up 3 hours of Biochem!

What is the best thing you ate this week?

Running Without Numbers

How’s everyone’s weekend going? I’ve had a pretty low key day so far, so I think it’s time to do a bit of blogging! I seriously had the best day of exercise on Friday. Let me just preface this post by saying this week will be very Crossfit heavy because it is the one week out of maybe 6 weeks all year that I get to go to my home Crossfit, and I absolutely love it there!

I began Friday morning with a run.

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I’ve been doing a fastish mid-long run on Sundays with my Crossfit run group the past few weeks, but this Sunday my sister is graduating and I can’t go, so I decided to do a 6 miler on Friday morning. I wanted to keep my pace up since I’m trying to PR. I wore my watch, but I set it so I could only see time. I think I have a tendency to see a pace that is faster than I think is comfortable, and it freaks me out. I start thinking I should be breathing harder, so I do, and it’s just all bad from there! I ran based on feel, while trying to go a bit faster than a comfortable pace. I ended up just about exactly where I wanted my pace to be, although I must admit the last mile was pretty tough! It’s hard right now to imagine 13.2 miles at a pace faster than this, but I have plenty of time to work on it before then!

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Since I’m a blogger, I take pictures of my watch. But it’s actually a really great tool. I have a log now of my runs so I can look back at half training from a year ago and compare, which is pretty cool!

Also cool? I just realized that I ate exactly the same thing one year ago as I ate today!

Last night for dinner, we made Whole Foods’s Black Bean Soup (although made with 1/2 broth instead of all water for more flavor).

Topped with cheese, and of course, avocado! I had leftovers for dinner as well!

This year’s bowls:

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And for comparison-a picture from exactly a year ago!
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Also from the fitness world: I got new Crossfit shoes! I love love love them! IMG_8060 IMG_8061

 

They are a million times better-I didn’t even realize how bad and worn out my old ones were. These were so much better to run in, and my Achilles felt totally fine after running 1.5 miles in them during Crossfit this morning. I’m wondering if my old Crossfit shoes played a bit of a role in my tendonitis. It’s definitely feeling better today!

On the life front, I’ve trying to get ready for my trip to DC. I’m buying business clothes, I’m seeing my high school friends, I’m figuring out last minute details. Also-an update on the nut allergy. I’ve FINALLY rid myself of all my reactions. I kept accidentally eating half a peanut, and my skin would break out, but since I’ve been super careful, I am happy to say that my skin is 100% fine now!

And lastly-my main activity for today was baking a Boston Cream Pie for my sister’s college graduation. Her boyfriend is also graduating, so his family is coming to our house for dessert.For those that don’t know, a Boston Cream Pie is sponge cake with a custard filling, topped with chocolate ganache. It’s a fairly involved cake, but I’ve made it a few times before so I wasn’t concerned. Funny story-the very first time I made it a few years ago, I fell down an entire flight of stairs while holding it. My foot was bruised for months, but the cake was fine so totally worth it!

Sponge cake:

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Sponge cake is mostly air-I spent so much time whipped egg whites and then egg yolks!

Then the custard:

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And finally the chocolate ganache!

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