This post will cover the last couple of days of vacation plus Tuesday. First, I wanted to talk a little bit about being healthy on this vacation. My family’s vacations are often centered around food. And in Hawaii, with so many delicious things around-how could it not be? To be honest, I was a little nervous leading up to the vacation about staying reasonably healthy. The last time I went to Hawaii was almost 4 years ago. I remember getting back from that trip and being 10 pounds heavier than I left. I was not aware that was possible. While I may be a tad flabbier than I left, it certainly is nothing significant, and I returned feeling healthy and strong. So what changed?

1. I didn’t go crazy on desserts. Last time, I remember eating so many chocolate covered macadamia nuts that I felt sooo sick. While sure, I ate more sweets than normal, I didn’t really gorge at any one time. With the exception of a very large piece of chocolate cake that left me feeling off for 2 days after…

2. I split meals. Restaurant portions are often huge (especially at touristy places). Before the trip, my mom and I agreed to split things and it worked out perfectly. We didn’t split a couple of times and both agreed afterwards that we should have.

3. I exercised. I continued to follow my half marathon training plan, so I ended up running 4 times on my 10 day trip. I also visited a few local Crossfit boxes- in Lahaina, Upcountry Maui, and Kihei. Some of my favorite days of the trip were the days I got a tough Crossfit workout in, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence. On one of my no-workout days, I was feeling really sluggish. I busted out a quick 5 minute workout, and I felt like a different person.

4. Eat a healthy breakfast. On vacation, we generally buy food to eat in our room. I was really excited for all the tropical fruit. A healthy breakfast helps you feel good going into your day. Example A: my tropical yogurt bowl-plain yogurt, mango, banana, passion fruit, sunflower seed butter.

I came home feeling pretty strong. Before I get into a ton of delicious food, I wanted to talk a little about the last Crossfit I visited- Crossfit Kihei. I had heard from another Crossfitter that they weren’t very friendly. Well…that was kind of right. Myabe they don’t get as many visitors-I don’t know. I wasn’t exactly comfortable the whole time, in contrast to the other Crossfits where I felt like part of the team. The coach was really uninvolved, and there was no group warm up. Plus, for the WOD, I Rxed it when I really shouldn’t have. It was 50 snatched with squats mixed in. No one else Rxed it and I ended up finished wayyy after everyone else, which was a little embarrassing as I was just a visitor. It was a good workout though so I can’t complain. My shoulders really are feeling it today. 

Ok-food time!

Vacation food:

Turkey sandwich which I got for the avocado-plus it has cranberry sauce-how fun!

Ice cream! I regretted this choice. I don’t like coffee…and this didn’t have quite enough fudge. Oh well-you live and you learn!

Salad with bleu cheese and asian pear.

DELICIOUS dinner-macadamia crusted Mahi Mahi with pineapple salsa, jasmine rice, and veggies. My dad and I split this, and they were kind enough to serve it on separate plates.

Lilikoi (passion fruit) cream pie. 

Chocolate cream pie. Sooo funny story. When my family ordered these desserts to share, my dad asked the waiter for 2 forks…for himself. And yes, he did use both. My family takes our dessert seriously.

Airplane food. You know you’re a blogger when your first instinct is to snap a shot before eating, even on a plane. There were a few pieces of lettuce under there for garnish-you better believe I ate those-vegetables are vegetables!

Aaand that leads us back to today. This morning I ate my typical pre-run breakfast-a ThinkThin bar plus fruit, and ran 8 miles. I would be so much faster if my foot wouldn’t act up! Regardless, I didn’t worry too much about pace. PRing this race will be hard since it’s a very hilly course (Nike Women’s in SF). This weekends long run is 10 miles. And that will be my last flat long run. I have a very hellish run planned for the 11 miler. Anyone from around Palo Alto knows the Dish trail-yeah, that will be smack in the center of my 11 miles. Kill me now….

I went to Whole Foods for lunch and groceries. 

I’m in love with Probiotics.

Chicken, avocado and kale salad, chinese chicken salad, and a few fried plantains. I’m starting a mini Whole30 a week from Friday (I’m doing 7 days), and I want to try to ease myself into it. I’ve been thinking about it, and the list of things I wouldn’t want to give up to eat more Paleo is shrinking. Hummus for salads. Goat cheese. Laughing cow. Gummy vitamins. Run fuel. That’s about it. In the future, I may be sort of Paleoish. The big thing for me is watching the grains and sugar I eat since my blood sugar seems to like to crash.

I also couldn’t resist trying these since I love dark chocolate. They’re good!

For dinner, we made Greek salads topped with spicy avocado hummus and a runny egg. 

I also got another kind of hummus to try, which I ate with cucumbers. It’s really interesting and different!

And dessert was some of the pineapple we brought back from Maui. So good. 

A couple of random other things- I got new shoes to replace my walking around/general workout shoes. My old ones were blue and neon green. The new models are blue and pink. I don’t know about the pink though…What do you think? I might get neon green laces. That way I can accidentally match still since all my clothes seem to be neon green and blue.

And lastly-my haul of Crossfit shirts from my trip! I swear, all I bought on the trip were 3 t-shirts but my suitcase was waaaay more full. Huh.

And I’ll leave you with that! Have a great day!

How do you approach vacation? Has anyone done a Whole30? Tips? 

What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Coffee-yay or nay?

First, I want to start out by saying I’m kind of uncomfortable talking about my dietary guidelines. I can’t exactly explain it. Maybe I feel really vulnerable. Mostly I feel kind of silly. I feel like I have a lot of “WOW I just figured out this amazing style of eating and it’s going to be awesome and I’m going to do it and it’s going to solve all my problems, abolish world hunger, and bring world peace…” Also, I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but I can’t stick to anything. At least in terms of my eating habits. I’ve had a few no-sugar challenges that were successful, but I never completed them. I only really stick to my weekly goals for a few days. Remember Operation: Get Healthy? Yeah, that fizzled out. What I’m saying is, I feel stupid for having all these failed a-ha moments, only to restart on something new. I’m a food and fitness blogger, aren’t I supposed to have everything together?

Well, now I’m done. I’m done trying to fit other’s eating habits into my own life. I seem to love giving myself food restrictions-Paleo, no sugar, gluten free. I guess in some ways it just makes things easier. And maybe it’s an excuse to eat as much as I want- I’m Paleo, so if I eat 3 tons of wild buffalo I’ll be healthy, right? 

I never had these types of restrictions in the past, and I was a lot healthier. I guess when you’re looking for a quick fix, it’s easier to say “Ok, I just won’t eat this and everything will work out.” I’ll be 100% honest. College destroyed my eating habits. Rowing didn’t exactly help, because I was burning so much I could literally eat anything and not gain weight (never mind the fact that I felt awful). 

I finally got my blood work back. It seems unlikely that I have a gluten sensitivity, so it’s likely I’m suffering more from portion control than anything else. (Also-my allergy test came up negative for nut allergies, but I was expecting that. Given nuts just give me SUPER bad acne, it didn’t exactly seem like an allergy thing. Maybe it’s something hormonal-I’m still going to avoid them.)

It’s likely that I just crash my blood sugar my eating too many carbs. I’ll do another post on this soon-I just want to refresh myself on the science of it and look over my old nutrition notes first. In short, everyone has a different point at which a certain amount of carbs will crash their blood sugar, mine might be low. 

So instead trying some food group restrictive eating pattern that leaves me desperately craving pancakes (I swear my love for pancakes only came about in the past year), I’m just going to eat food. I’m not going to avoid gluten, I’m not going to be Paleo. I’m still going to try a Whole30 for a week when school starts (just because I’m curious and I won’t immediately get in the habit of eating pancakes every day). Lately, I’ve just been working on incorporating lower amounts of carbohydrates into my diet. 

When I try a particular, restrictive style of eating, I end up either going crazy with the foods I can eat, or completely giving up and gorging on what I’ve missed. The problem with this is somehow that style of eating and kind of fizzled out my passion for nutrition. Now, I’m trying to eat more like I did in high school, and already this past week my passion for nutrition is returning. I haven’t cut out food groups. But I’m eating more moderately in terms of portions as well. And I feel awesome. I find myself craving healthier foods. I feel like I’m eating more like I have in the past, and that makes me happy. The only food I might ever consider cutting out is sugar, in the form of a no-sugar challenge. However, I see no need to do that now. I’m not struggling with my sugar intake. I find myself wanting a square of super dark chocolate as my sweet, and I’m ok with that. 

I love nutrition-it’s something I want to spend my life working on. It’s part of why I started this blog. Yet I haven’t talked nearly enough about it as I would like. I intend on doing some more research-I love the metabolism aspect of everything, and how our bodies process food. Plus, I really should have found some papers for one of my professors on sugar….I want to spend some time doing some research on my own. Maybe I’ll come up with a new style of eating-who knows. But it won’t prevent me from eating my pancakes. 

My first topic to figure out is how many carbs I should eat (i.e. how many pancakes I should eat) to fuel my workouts but not crash. I don’t want to talk too much about my fitness goals right now, but I’ll give you a hint-I need to be able to do an actual pull-up. 

Just to summarize, I feel silly trying out all these new styles of eating, only to ultimately fail. I feel like as a health and fitness blogger, I should have my life more together, but in reality I really don’t, and for now that’s ok with me. Saying no to pancakes is not an eating style that is going to work for me in the long run, but maybe I can succeed by eating one pancake instead of five. To be, healthy eating is all about balance. So, no more broad proclamations of my new greatest thing. The new theme here is moderation, and eating to fuel my athletic performance. After all, sports are how I got interested in nutrition. I don’t need to try so hard. I just need to put my passion into use. 

How do you feel about “diets”? Do you avoid any foods? What works for you?

Normally, we make  flag cake for 4th of July-Devil’s food cake, vanilla buttercream, and decorated with blueberries and raspberries. 

Last year, I was trying to cut back on sugar so we made strawberry shortcakes instead (with a major fail from me-I put a little too much egg coating and ended with scrambled eggs on top-it was still delicious though!). This year, I decided on Blueberry Crisp because A) it’s the best thing ever and B) I had devil’s food cake for my birthday. 

Blueberry crisp is so delicious, but that devil’s food cake sounds pretty perfect just about now! 

I have to share dinner from last night with you guys-so delicious!

Butternut squash and roast chicken soup, Paleo Zucchini fries, and balled honeydew. Everything is better in balled form. That’s a fact. 

And ketchup is a food group. Here’s the zucchini fries recipe. They were sooo good, but a tad salty.  I think we’re going to try the same recipe with other veggies as well. Suggestions? 

And let’s keep this post light with probably the only reason you clicked on it-kitten pictures! Some of the previously really tiny kittens moved into the main nursery this week (and my favorite litter left ). It’s crazy how grown up they are, given I bottle fed them a few weeks ago!


I bottle fed that little tabby in the front and he fell asleep on me!

What are you doing for 4th of July?

My summer shape up goal for this week was to try a mainly Paleo style of eating, as I’ve felt pretty good in the past when I’ve tried eating in this way (although it was only a few days in the past). My basic guidelines have been to avoid dairy and grains, so not totally Paleo. So without further ado, here are some of these new eats!

Spaghetti squash and turkey meatballs, topped with almond milk mozzarella. For the meatballs, we simply balled up Italian seasoned ground turkey, and they came out really well! As for the almond milk cheese-it’s pretty good. I wouldn’t necessarily eat it in something where cheese is the focus, but it works in tons of different things. 

Leftover blueberry lavender smoothie from Gina. For this, I used egg white protein powder.

This is a Turkey and Havarti sandwich from Cooking Light. My mom and I both LOVE this recipe! This is hers- bread, mustard and mayo, arugula (spinach works), red onion, havarti cheese, turkey, and sliced apple. Put in the oven on broil until the cheese is bubbly, then top with ground pepper. The pepper makes it! Here’s my Paleo version:

No bread (hence the tinfoil), and almond milk mozzarella cheese. SO delicious! Make this-you won’t be sorry!

Chocolate covered frozen banana-the chocolate fudge sauce isn’t exactly Paleo, hence the “ish.”

My new obsession! The mango-cocout flavor is so good!

Snacks. The Thinkthin Divine bars are sooooo good. They are gluten free, and MOSTLY kind of Paleo. 

href=”http://www.blogilates.com/videos/healthiest-quesadilla-ever-obesity-as-a-disease” target=”_blank”>This quesadilla from Blogilates. This was a great use of almond milk cheese-this meal is totally Paleo!

Mangos which I am obsessed with. Remember when I had over 20 mangos in my dorm room? Yeah, not one went bad :)<a

See’s dark chocolate (left over from Easter…). One thing about avoiding grains is my desserts are mostly just dark chocolate, or Baker’s chocolate with raisins. This is likely keeping me sane. 

Any Star Trek fans out there? Yes, my family owns a Starship Enterprise pizza cutter. 

In other events in my life, I finally picked up my new shoes, and they’re ever prettier than I was expecting!

I wore them this morning for my 3 mile run and I’m in love! (Sidenote-I think 3 miles is my mental limit on the treadmill…) I can’t wait to wear them for my 10 mile run this weekend. To clarify, I can’t wait to wear the shoes, I’m terrified for the run!

Today also marked the beginning of summer quarter. I went down to school yesterday to get instructed on the research I’m doing for a Professor, and I went back today as well. It’s not glamorous work (looking at pictures of mouse carcasses) but hey, I’ll take it! Wednesday is my first day of Health Psychology, so I’ll be sure to share anything interesting I learn from that! Hope you all have had a great week so far, and have eaten some deliciousness!

What are you thoughts on Paleo? On food sensitivities?

As promised, I have a workout for all you guys! I tested it on my friends, and they approved. The idea is to take rest when necessary. If you go straight through it will obviously be much harder! We kept taking breaks to chat, because, well, that’s what we do. Let me know what you think!

(I tried to make this into something prettier but me+computers is not a good combo…)

Forward squat jumps: jump forward (covering distance)

In and out- balance on tailbone, hands on head, and bring your knees in toward your chest while crunching up

Plank dips-plank position on elbows, and lower hips to the ground, then raise up

Cross leg sit up cross- sit with your legs crossed, and then do a sit up, crossing one arm over to touch the ground in front of you

Let me know if you try this! A modification you could do is Filthy Fifteen (15 reps of everything).

Other highlights of my weekend included a trip to Whole Foods for Paleo-ish foods. 


YUM.

Actually surprisingly good!

Friday night I bundled up in all my warmest clothes and headed to San Francisco for the Giant’s game! Only in SF would I dress for a snowstorm in the summertime!



San Francisco is known for having good food at the ballpark, so I was able to find a pretty healthy option. I got something called a Cha-cha bowl. 

AKA one of the few things there that had vegetables. It is a bowl with pickled veggies, pineapple salsa, chicken, black beans, and rice. They were kind enough to make it for me without the rice too! I’m maintaining my Paleoish way of eating! Since I knew I’d be craving sweets later in the night, I decided to bring my own (it would be really hard to argue that a Ghiradelli sundae is Paleoish).

Baker’s chocolate and raisins-a winning combo! Although sadly the Giants lost.

Saturday morning, I was back at Crossfit. Since I was the only Intro person, and the guy who usually works with the Intro people had to leave, I was thrown into the regular class, which I was super pumped about. The WOD was:

20 AMRAP

5 handstand push ups

10 pistols

15 pull ups

For the handstand push ups, I did them with my feet on a box, and definitely not a handstand! Pistols are single leg squats. And I did the pul-ups HEAVILY banded! I made it through 8 rounds, plus 15 reps! My arms were jello….I was glad there wasn’t too much leg work involved because I was a little concerned for my 8 mile run Sunday!

In the afternoon, I went for a walk along the bay with my friend. I am so grateful she introduced me to the trails along the bay-they are perfect for my long runs because they basically go all the way up the peninsula! 


You can kind of see the city through the fog!


When I got back, I promptly put my feet up in preparation for Sunday’s run. Saturday was a quiet night spent watching Burn Notice with my family (and cats of course). 


How is this comfortable??

And since I’ve been talking about it all post, you guys know that Sunday held my 8 mile run. I think this was the longest I’ve ever run. While training for my 10k last summer, I ran for 75 minutes, which my little Nike chip in my shoe CLAIMED was more than 8 miles, but I don’t believe that for a second. For one thing, when I run for time I definitely am dogging it. 

Since I knew 8 miles was more than I’ve run before, I was a little nervous about how my feet would hold up. I got a really bad blister last weekend, which had been kind of sore all week (although it hadn’t bothered me much running). In addition, there’s also that whole landing on a nerve in my foot and making my toe hurt thing. Right before my run, I remembered how my toe thing actually got BETTER after like an hour. 

My run went really well! To be honest, way better than I was expecting. My feet weren’t fabulous, but they held out just fine. My running shoes that I wore are super old though, and I felt like my feet were hitting the ground kind of hard. My new Nikes are in, so I’m picking them up tomorrow. Hopefully I can break them in enough for next week’s 10 mile run! (Gulp.) I ran with a book on tape this time, which I really enjoyed. I find that on long runs I get bored with music. Now, I can’t wait for my next run! They discovered a body just as I was finishing up!

I was also pretty happy with my pace. While I simply want to FINISH my race, I would LOVE to maintain 10-minute miles, so I am trying to train to this pace, which is pretty close to where I was. 

I had a little trouble finding where I parked, but the walking time was much appreciated-I was not capable of getting in my car right away! I also found myself wishing I had a foam roller WITH me. Next time! On the way home, one of my favorite songs to spin to came on the radio. The gym was on the way home, so I stopped there to spin my legs out a little (just lightly) because they were starting to tighten up. 20 minutes of spinning, and then foam rolling worked wonders! I legs felt 1000x better. Foam rolling my calves was kind of death, especially the outside-ish parts, since I run on the outsides of my foot. WHEW. 

I actually enjoyed this run, although I am kind of scared for the 10-miler. So my Crossfit gym is holding a trail group run on the same day that I am supposed to run 12 miles (which is the highest distance my plan goes), and there is a 13.1 distance option for that trail run. Should I do it? It would be more interesting, and to be honest I would be a bit more comfortable getting the race distance under my belt before going into the race. Plus, it’s only a mile more, and what are the odds my schedule would line up so perfectly??

I wanted to update you guys on this week’s goal of my Paleo(ish) style of eating. It’s going really well! I feel a lot more confident making eating choices, although there are definitely some areas I could clean up (for instance, I’m sticking with corn but eating half a bag of kettle corn wasn’t necessarily the best option). Is it possible that grains could mess with my hormonal levels? I swear I feel almost depressed eating them. I’m just way happier eating this way! So what HAVE I been eating?

I really disliked this. It was just WAY too sweet, and I felt a little jittery. I missed the tartness of yogurt! I may add kefir back in, since it is 99% lactose free. 

I much preferred the coconut milk yogurt; it was tarter. Although I probably won’t get it again unless I can find it in Plain instead of vanilla. 

href=”http://fitnessista.com/2010/04/insanity-workout-re-cap-week-1/” target=”_blank”>Blueberry lavender smoothie from the Fitnessista! This was SUPER good, and I still have some left over for another day!

I really liked this flavor of Kevita-Coconut Mango, how could you not??

Salad with hard-boiled eggs and roasted garlic hummus. 

Pre-run fuel. For this, I kind of decided “screw Paleo.” The bar has grains (Gluten Free) but worked for me before a run in the past, which I decided was more important. I also said screw you to during run fueling, which I was planning on practicing on this run. Mostly because I was lazy and didn’t want to carry a water bottle (I ran in the morning, on a cloudy day, next to the bay. It was definitely not hot!)

Post run. After drinking random almond milk and sampling all kinds of things trying to decide what I wanter (answer-FOOD). I really was craving sweet potatoes, but making them would take time and effort, so I settle for these little spinach bites. Yes, they are Spongebob shapes. HOWEVER. They are one of the cleanest foods in the frozen section at Whole Foods-potatoes, spinach, eggs, spices. No sugar, grains, or dairy. For this coming week, I’m going to try to clean up a bit more-more fruits and veggies and less Paleo-alternative products. So we’ll see how that goes! I’ll leave you with this picture of my crazy cat watching the Giant’s game:

How do you spend your weekends? Do you watch baseball-what team?

Let my outline for you guys what the next week will look like-I’m not going to be ridiculously strict-I have no problem eating beans and legumes because I have no issues with them. A touch of dairy here or there may happen. And I have no idea what I can eat before/during my long run that would qualify (help?). 

Speaking of my long run…this Sunday is 8 miles. I may have run 8 miles once before. The stupid little Nike chip I got that goes in my shoes and works with my iPod is really off (and that was what I was training with last summer). My longest run last summer registered at over 8 miles, but I don’t exactly believe that. So eek. Other problem-I currently have a bloody blister. Not really sure what happened. My blister from last week was doing so well and not bothered me, but this morning, all of the sudden it is bleeding? Huh? I really hoping it feels a lot better…And I’m still not 100% sure WHERE I’ll be running…

Maybe here?

So if anyone has any tips…also I have no idea which shoes I want to wear, or how to keep my toe from hurting. Maybe you guys can help with this-I finally figured out why my toes hurt/go numb. When I run, Im landing on a nerve right at the base of my index toes. I can kind of tap on the spot and feel it, which explains why I feel like I’m hitting my funny bone in my toe when I run. Runners…? 

One thing about half marathon training though-it has made me sooo glad I didn’t sign up for a full marathon. 6 miles is hard. Add 20 more miles? No thank you. I have so much respect for all those marathon runners! Given my feet are falling apart after my 6 mile run!

In other fun happenings, I played in a slowpitch game last night!

Mmmm not quite that serious…
It was fun though! I loved being back out there-although adjusting to the pitches was kind of rough…I was so early on everything when I was hitting! Add in the fact that it has been almost a year since I swung a bat (geez how crazy is that?)…I still did pretty well though! I got at least 2 hits! This also reminded me how much more sane I am when I am playing a sport. Why does my school not have club softball??
And tonight, guess what I’m doing?

Giant’s game! SO PUMPED!
Gee, I seriously need to organize these posts better. Come back tomorrow for my Dirty Thirty workout! I have my guinea pigs coming to help my try it out today
Runners-any tips??

Sadly, I don’t think my parents would be too happy with one kitten, let alone 4. Having 6 cats would kind of make us crazy cat people. Well, crazier. In other cat antics, one kitten managed to tackle another kitten off the table. They were both going down, but I was able to catch one of them! Luckily, cats always land on 4 feet!

Ok, onto the topic of this post. Hanna and Haley posted about their Terrific 21 Plan, which is a set of overall goals, along with week to week goals. Miranda had a lot of success with something similar, her Operation Prom Dress. As you may recall, I started something similar with Miranda, but failed miserably. Whoops…

But this summer, I planned on re-figuring out my eating habits. I don’t want to spend too much time or energy figuring out HOW to be healthy and feel my best during the next school year-I want to get it all figured out this summer. I need to be able to focus on SCHOOL. So what better way than a Summer Shape Up? (I’m not sold on the name yet, so if you can think of anything better that starts with an “S”…) I love the idea of weekly goals; I think it makes it easier to achieve overall goals.

So along with the whole “how” to eat thing…here’s a little explanation (some longer-time readers will know what I am talking about). I developed some new food sensitivities/reactions to foods around the same time I started college, where everything I normally ate changed as well. Over the summer before I started college, my face started breaking out like crazy, out of nowhere. I FINALLY pinpointed nuts (especially peanuts) as the cause in like March…So a previous dietary staple had to be cut out (and my face definitely thanks me). My other sensitivity (maybe) is grains. I don’t know if it is a gluten thing or a carb thing, but there’s something off. My roommate last year had a gluten allergy, so she opened my eyes to the symptoms. I get what I like to call a “carbocrash.” After eating grains, I can’t keep my eyes open. It’s like getting hit by a brick wall (that made no sense…). …but then it passes. I’ve also noticed other things lately…so I want to figure that all out this summer. I am planning on getting allergy tested ASAP so I can get everything squared away!

Oats AND peanut butter :'(

So without further ado, here are my Summer Shape Up Goals!

1. Figure out my food sensitivities, and what to eat to feel my best.

2. Find a manageable workout routine- I’m definitely going to be working out more over the summer because I have more time, so I want to figure out a balance of activities for the fall.

3. Do at least 5 minutes of abs every day. Youtube is such a great resource-why haven’t I thought of this before. (Thanks Miranda!)

4. Be able to eat sweets in moderate quantities. I’m kind of all or nothing in this respect. I want to tame my reaction to sugar. When I have sweets, I have to have a LOT. This is half physical, and half mental. I do have kind of bad reactions to sugar, so figuring this out is a priority as well.

5. Fuel my body for energy. There’s nothing worse than a bad meal ruining a workout!

6. Lose the college weight. Yeah, yeah. This isn’t something I like blogging about, and I probably won’t talk much about, but it’s part of figuring out what to eat that is best for my body. Plus, running 13.1 miles extra heavy is not going to be terribly pleasant. I’m a little concerned that there is something else going on besides just calorie in/out balance though because all of the gain came after having mono, and it came on REALLY fast. And I was definitely eating healthier than before getting sick, and although I wasn’t rowing, I was still working out pretty hard. Yayy doctor’s appointment…

Right now, those are my overall goals. Basically, figure everything out. So, I didn’t exactly figure out what my specific plans for this week are…and what would be a good day for the week’s post? Maybe Sunday? 

Here’s the deal. I am a big proponent of the idea that good nutrition can fix health woes. Feeling tired? Eating well will help. Getting sick a lot? Sugar weakens the immune system. Earthquake? Start eating better. Ok, maybe I’m a little TOO convinced that what we eat affects us in tons of less obvious ways. I have the tendency to blame anything that goes wrong in my life on sugar. (I’m kind of obsessed with sugar metabolism, and after college I want to do research in this field.)

Sugar seriously messes with my hormones and can make me super moody. But now I’m wondering what other foods affect me? I’ll be honest. I haven’t exactly felt like myself lately. I’m normally a super happy, optimistic and energetic person, but these past few months I’ve been feeling…kind of down. (Mono could be part of it). That is, until yesterday. The difference? I had eaten mostly Paleo that day, and the night before. And I. Felt. Awesome. I had a 6am wake-up, ran 5 miles, had no trouble stopping eating when I was full, and was more than ready for afternoon weights and a dog walk. I think the Paleo helped because of whatever weird grain thing is going on…But it was amazing! My mom suggested I try a week of Paleo to see how I feel, but before I try it strictly for a week, I want my vegetarian sister to be gone (it’s hard to find meals we would both be able to eat). So, I guess that is this week’s goal! I won’t try it strictly until maybe Sunday. So you’ll be seeing more meals like this for a while:

Good thing I recently fell in love with Turkey burgers!

Sorry for the lengthy post, I have a way of writing…and writing…and writing…

Who’s up for a fun summer challenge?

I began the morning with a 6 am spin class. I was originally planning on going to spin tomorrow and not today, but I am babysitting early tomorrow, so today it was. Sadly, I did not go to bed early enough. I was planning on doing my half training run after spin, but I had Crossfit in the evening and didn’t want to die. 

Breakfast was a yogurt bowl with vanilla Greek yogurt, pineapple, and a mix of gluten-free muesli and cereal. 

FYI- Whole Foods brand vanilla Greek yogurt is really good!

Then it was time for a NAP. My day consisted of running errands, but that’s not what we are here for, right? So FOOD. I had a mid-morning snack of part of a chocolate Thinkthin bar. Lunch was at the cafe at my dad’s work. I had a teriyaki chicken wrap. <

One highlight of my afternoon was going shopping for new running shoes! I went to Fleet Feet, and they were super helpful. They measured my feet and then watched me run to determine which shoes would work best. No surprise-I favored Nikes. I did want something different for my feet though, so I ended up with these:

…and a new pair of Nikes, which are waaaay better than my old ones (no picture because I had to order them to get a prettier color). So….here’s my justification for getting 2 brand new pairs of running shoes. My biggest limiting factor for being able to run a half marathon is my feet. I’ve had problems with them for a long time, especially from living in softball cleats for years. When I played softball, the balls of my feet were perpetually bruised because my cleat would start poking up into my foot through the sole of the shoe. Plus, I have this weird problem where I lose circulation in my toes when I run more than 4ish miles. And, if I have 2 pairs of running shoes that I alternate, they’ll both last twice as long. If I only got one pair, I’d have to buy new shoes eventually anyways, so this is just like buying my next pair of running shoes early. I have yet to try my new shoes though!

I decided on a snack before Crossfit. I got some Quaker kettlecorn flavored rice cakes at the grocery to try. they were pretty good, but not the real deal! I also microwaved some blueberries with  blueberry-crisp like topping, but they were very unphotogenic. I decided some protein was probably a good idea. I finally saw the Chobani flips at the grocery store today, so I wanted to try it! I got the Key Lime flavor. I was pleasantly surprised by the sugar content-I was expecting it to be much worse! 


I really liked this! I just wish the yogurt had a bit more lime flavor and tang. 

Crossfit was pretty good today. I can’t wait until I can start doing the real workouts. My did back squats today, but it is wayyyy lighter than what I ever do on my own! But working on my technique is probably good for me! Our WOD was 3 rounds for time of a 400m run, 21 lunges (each), and 12 pull ups (with a band). I finished in 15:05. Pull-ups are definitely a weak point for me!

For dinner, we made the best quiche…ever. It’s the Spinach Smoked Gouda Quiche from Cooking Light. I’ve made the version with the crust from scratch before (and it is awesome), but normally it is easier to just buy a crust. This time though, I wanted to try it as a crustless quiche. We greased the pan with olive oil, and then sprinkled panko crumbs, garlic powder, salt, and pepper to keep the quiche from sticking. 

It came out well and didn’t stick at all! I want to take a crack at a microwave version of this. On the side was brussels sprouts and herbed carrots. 

I’ve dabbled in Paleo eating in the past, but since I’ve started Crossfit, I’m considering giving it another try. I haven’t been feeling that great lately, and I think some clean eating would definitely help. And since I wanted something interesting to post for WIAW, this seemed like the perfect time to try a recipe I’ve been meaning to make for a long time. 

I modified my favorite banana bread recipe-it is the Nancy Clark recipe, by eliminating the sugar (I reduce it a ton when I bake the regular bread-the bananas add a lot of sweetness), subbing in coconut flour for the regular flour, and using Coconut Almond milk instead of regular milk.

Since coconut flour dries things up a ton, I added pineapple juice as the liquid. The texture of anything with coconut flour is a little different, but I’m all about the flavor! Other bonus- this only uses one bowl!

Ingredients:

3 large ripe bananas

1 egg

1/3 cup coconut almond milk (or any type of milk)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons canola oil

1.5 cups coconut flour

1.5 cups pineapple juice

(Before baking)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Mash bananas in a small bowl.

3. Add all other ingredients and mix.

4. Transfer into a loaf pan. I recommend lining the pan with nonstick foil, or greasing the pan.

5. Flatten out the top of the loaf.

6. Bake for 45 minutes, or until golden and brown around the edges. 

This recipe is not perfected-this was my first try, and I’m fairly new with coconut flour! Since there is no gluten, it is a bit crumbly. In the future, I also might add more pineapple juice, or maybe some crushed pineapple. And maybe more egg? The flavor is there though! Just don’t be expecting the texture of regular banana bread!

Well, that’s all for tonight! A few thoughts-I want to add some workouts to my blog. I mostly blog about food, but in reality I’m a bigger fan of working out. I want a go-to workout that I can do anywhere, without equipment, that really kicks my butt! I’ve been brainstorming. Hint: think Dirty Thirty. I’m recruiting some friends to test it out on this Friday, so be on the lookout for that!

Have you ever baked with coconut flour? Tips??

So last night after I posted, I was sitting on my bed attempting to do homework. I had a lot on my mind, and could not sit still. I decided, gym at 9 pm? Why not? Ok, now looking back on it, this doesn’t really seem too late, but I’m definitely an early morning workout kind of girl. But honestly, nothing sounded better than spinning my heart out. I hoped on a bike, shuffled my Now That’s What I Call Music 45 album, and just had such a great time. It was on shuffle, but all the songs came up perfectly for my profile. I was there for about 45 minutes. 

While this was something I really needed, I regretted my decision just a tad when my alarm went off at 7 to go lift weights….but I’m glad I got up! I did this tried and true workout:While I love it, I think it is time to start upping the weight on those squats. 

And being the good blogger that I am, I ate semi-more interesting things today, and photographed a majority of them!Plain Greek yogurt, frozen blackberries, and granola with added raisins. It was a different type of granola at the dining hall, and I’m not a fan. It was too sweet. Granted, the other type probably has too much sugar for me as well, but whatever. For lunch, I bought a super expensive salad in an effort to begin to use up my outrageous amount of meal plan dollars. I had half for lunch, with the plan of having the other half for dinner. (That didn’t happen, as you shall see.)

I had plans to run with my friend after class, but she was feeling sick and I wanted a nap. And a mango. In lieu of running today, we made new plans to run tomorrow evening. That’s my fruit knife, which I love. I seriously only use it for fruit though, not that I’m complaining!

My snack ended up being larger than planned, and included some bites of my now-soggy salad, banana bread, and another mango (the above mango is tiny, but you can’t tell from the picture). Oh, and some yogurt!Frozen banana bread. Since the school year is ending, I’m trying to eat up my freezer!

Enter microwave woes. For some reason, our microwave wasn’t working, so I went downstairs to use the dorm one-which, by the way, is super janky. And kind of gross. But it got the job done!

When my roommate got back, we looked a bit closer into the microwave problem. It appeared that the plug it was attached to was dead, because when we connected my lamp to it, it would not turn on. After further investigation, we finally discovered the root of the problem. The whole octopus the fridge and microwave were connected to was unplugged. Yayyy smart college students. I’m just glad we realized this when we did! The fridge is fullll.

I also received my housing assignment for next year! I’m actually super happy with where we are, although it is technically not considered very good housing. We got a pretty good draw number, but we had a huge draw group (8 people). (Oh, and the housing is a draw- you rank your top choices and they draw numbers.) But the dorm we are in is solid- centrally located, pretty close to 2 decent dining halls, and most importantly, very close to the gym. Because when I’m biking to the gym to go to a Spin class, and I don’t want the extra few hundred feet. You know. 

I decided to make dinner in my dorm, since we had a now fully functioning microwave. I ran into the dining hall for spinach, and left with a slice of cinnamon raisin toast as well. This stuff is seriously so good! And then I whipped up some guac from the avocados from my big, and a packet of guacamole mix. I the cooked egg whites in the microwave with a ton of spinach, and topped the eggs with guacamole. Have I ever told you guys I like avocados? No?

“Dessert” was more freezer cleaning- frozen blueberries and a Paleo Pumpkin sort-of-bread creation, x2 (because it’s half a slice!).Whooo check out the ice crystals on those blueberries!

Well, that’s about all I have for you guys. I’m currently realizing that my abs are sore….Being the weirdo that I am, I really love that feeling! So if you guys have any great sore abs workouts, send them my way!

(That thing.)

The good news? Upon further examination, I think this problem can be solved with a few pieces of well placed duct tape. Please tell me I’m not the only one who used to think duct tape was tape with pictures of ducks on it?

Also noteworthy: I tried Overnight Oats for the first time! I actually broke into them last night for a snack. I didn’t expect them to be so thick! Also, a note to first timer OOers, remember before you taste your first bite that the oats contain an entire container of rather tart yogurt. 

I just had it with some sunflower seed butter. I had the other half today with some thawed blueberries and sunflower seed butter. I just opened a new crunchy sunflower seed butter, and it’s my new favorite!

Overall, I’m not a HUGE fan of overnight oats, but I would probably make them again. I’m thinking they have some serious staying power!

This afternoon was spent snacking (GAH I blame you again nap!) and looking into becoming a Spin instructor. The general requirements for group fitness at my local gym require a group fitness certification as well as 1 year of experience….but I have no experience, so I’m going to look into tons of other things. 

And now onto the topic of this post. Some of you may recall that the night before my birthday, I declared I’d give up desserts for the rest of the school year. Now, it’s been almost 2 weeks! (My record is 3 weeks, for anyone that cares.) And to be honest? I don’t miss desserts at all. To be fair, I am still having some sweet things, but these healthier alternatives are still cutting my sugar intake and keeping me sane. In my previous sugar challenges, these are items I probably would have done without. But those have all failed. So this time, I decided to take a more low-key approach and allow some things. Like this deliciousness: 

And I’ve had some granola with chocolate chips. And who needs oreos when you could have this beautiful combo? (Flax snacks with the sesame seed butter.)

Ok, I admit, this one kind of pushes the boundaries, as both items are sweet. But they’re almost gone.

Another thing I noticed, a few days in to my challenge: a lot of things just tasted sweet. I had my yogurt+sunflower seed butter+pumpkin bread combo, and it wasn’t as enjoyable as it had been before. The point is, my taste buds have adapted and I don’t miss everything all that much. Ok, I know I’m painting this up to be all daisies and sunshine; there have been some very difficult things to pass up. Like in Yosemite when all my friends were eating Oreos and M&Ms. Or on my Mom’s birthday when the table ordered a ton of specialty desserts. But I’m glad I did choose to pass up. In the long run, I know this is better for me, and I’ve reached the point where it is mostly smooth sailing. That being said, maybe a few less ThinkThin Divine bars wouldn’t hurt. (Yeah. I had 3 today. But now they’re gone so that’s that.)

The point is, once your taste buds readjust, there is no turning back! I love healthier alternatives. Last quarter I had many bananas mashed with cocoa powder.There’s seriously one picture every day from the beginning of last quarter. (Try this one guys! I haven’t had it lately because my bananas haven’t stuck around long enough and because it was awesome with peanut butter. Which makes my face blow up. Just microwave a banana, and mash it up with cocoa powder!)

There are tons of healthy alternatives out there (and I will most likely spend my summer finding them). I’m still deciding what I want to do when my so-called “challenge” is over. I think I might continue. I wish I was one of those people who could have a bite of chocolate and be good to go. I’m definitely an all or nothing personality type. And eating sweets is a VERY slippery slope for me. Although you guys don’t see it on the blog, previous to teh challenge I was eating a ton of sugar. It just doesn’t usually stick around long enough to be photographed! 

On another note, I’m considering trying Paleo again now that my yogurt phase has more or less come to an end. Every time I’ve tried Paleo for a few days, I’ve loved how I’ve felt. ANd to be honest, yogurt was a BIG reason why I didn’t want to try it again. Plus I’ve been feeling so-so with my food choices as of late. Thoughts?

Would you ever or have you ever given up desserts? What was it like?