Hey guys! I must admit, I don’t have a lot to share with you guys in food pictures, but I promise to make it up to you in other shots! Let’ start with this morning. Or rather, last night. Last night as I was lying in bed, I decided to change my life. I decided that today, March 26, 2013, would forever be a day to remember, because it is the first day of the rest of my life. I even set myself a nice little alert to wake me up, “You’re awesome. Today’s the day you change your life!” You know, just in case I forgot. I really should start setting my alarms to a nice little message. So how am I changing my life? I am going to be more patient. Less worried. Less stressed. More kind. More “zen.” And the day I changed my life could not have gone any more perfectly. Seriously. Breakfast was a delicious mango (I’m obsessed), a spoonful of sunflower seed butter on strawberries, and leftover egg scramble. I torched my tongue on a piece of broccoli though. But you know what? That’s ok! I also realized I can’t eat sunflower seed butter like I could peanut butter. I can’t really eat it straight like I could peanut butter (not that I did that a ton), it’s way richer! Hence the strawberries. No picture though, I didn’t have that much time. Yoga was awesome. I really concentrated on finding myself and my inner peace. I’m actually decent at meditating just from yoga, and that really helped me during finals my first quarter. I would just take a 5 minute break from studying, and just let my thoughts leave me. For those of you that meditate or anything of the sort, do you have a place you imagine yourself to be? I have a clear picture in my head of a place I always go to. What’s interesting is it is a place totally constructed by my mind; its not anywhere I’ve been. It’s like my own little corner of my brain. 

Anyway, I left yoga feeling awesome. I wanted to run into Whole Foods (just because it is across the street) because we had no greens at home, and I’ve been dying for a green tea smoothie. Plus, I wanted powdered green tea. I wasn’t really sure that existed, but hey, I found it! Any guess what? I got the best parking spot in the world. Like in all my years going to this store I’ve never gotten such a good spot. I picked up more mangos. I think our current count is up to 10. What did I say? I’m obsessed. Normally I bring reusable bags to grocery shop and I donate the bag deduction. I forgot mine in the car today and was feeling a bit guilty, so when the cashier asked if I wanted to donate a dollar to the cause, I decided to go for it. He then told me that I was the first person all day! That kind of makes me sad, yet selfishly happy that I did something good. 

Has any anyone ever experienced a yoga high? It’s a bit different than a runner’s high. I guess it is more like intensely feeling things. Driving home from a good yoga class and looking at the world, I really FEEL. I saw a woman power walking, getting some good exercise in and I was just so HAPPY for her. It’s interesting. I’m vowing to go to more yoga classes, and really get the most out of them. I’m so sorry the post was this long without any pictures! After yoga I made that green tea smoothie I’ve been dying to make. It took some shuffling of ingredients to come out, and I’ll post a recipe when I’ve experimented a little more. First of all, I blended the heck out of this, so it ended up being fluffy. I added some greens (baby kale and mixed greens; I thought I was buying all baby kale. Whoops), and I really wanted to blend them up. Into the blender went a frozen banana, coconut milk, a handful of greens, a spoon of powdered green tea, about half-3/4 a scoop of vanilla protein powder, a few ice cubes, and a touch of honey. Oh, and I tried my new ingredient, xantham gum! I’ve been dying to try this! I wasn’t really sure how much to add. I kept having to add more to get any thickness. I may have added a bit much, but not too bad! The end result? The smoothie had good flavor, but for some reason it just wasn’t very cold. In the future, it definitely needs more ice cubes. But not a bad first attempt. The flavor was pretty good as well. I also had a side salad of mixed greens and ginger dressing.

After lunch, my mom and I went to Ardenwood. It is a historic farm just across the bay. They have all kinds of animals, and grow many different crops. A few years ago I went there on Halloween to get a pumpkin.(I couldn’t find a pumpkin picture but at least this is from the same day. Sidenote: I’m not too creative with my Halloween costumes. I wore this 4 years and was a diffrent baseball player this year. What can I say, as a softball player, I’m so much more comfortable in softball pants in than other costumes!)

I went there a lot when I was little too. My parents got married there. Well, we went there today because word on the block was that there were 20 newborn lambs. The farm is such a peaceful place, so what better way to start my new life?

After seeing a few other animals, we found some baby lambs. The first ones were born February 21.We then got to see some newborns that were born 2 hours earlier. TWO HOURS. I’m so glad we went when we did! They were still a bit bloody (I know it’s gross but it’s a fact of life). They were so cute! Standing on their wobbly legs, exploring their first steps.After the lambs, we watched some adorable little pigs snoggle in the ground with their noses. They reminded me so much of my dog with their sniffing snouts in the ground and their eating of grass and mud (such a well behaved dog I have).Most of the animals were really tame and friendly, and would walk right up to us. There were peacocks walking around that would let you get almost close enough to pet them.While we were visiting with the pigs, a cow in the pen next to the pigs started calling to us, so we walked over to her. She came right up to us to be petted.She was such a sweetie, despite her attempts (successful attempts) to lick my jacket with her big purpley tongue! She also reminded me of my dog, with the way she nuzzled us to pet her. And this shot. Or this one.See the resemblance?Heehee. 

There were chickens walking around everywhere as well. I looked at the animals differently after my animal behavior class last quarter. They are so interesting! I’m taking a class this quarter about animals in medical research, and I’m so glad I decided to do it. Plus, another announcement: I’m planning on volunteering at the kitten nursery in the humane society this summer!

Everything was so peaceful. After Ardenwood, I stopped at the track for an easy 2 miles. I’m still really sore, so I wanted to loosen up some and just re-accustom my body to running again, so I wasn’t running too hard. I timed myself though for a baseline, and I’ve gotten wayyyy slower! But then again, I was just jogging. I negative split my second mile by 1:15, so I definitely could have been going harder! I’m fine with this though. No dinner post yet, that will come tomorrow. Turkey burgers are on the menu again for tonight! And I’m making plans with my high school friends for tomorrow, yay!

Overall, I could not have had a better day to start living my life, and really experiencing things. Peaceful yoga and a quiet farm, plus seeing new life. I can’t wait!

What is your favorite farm animal?