Jackson is always super snuggly in the mornings.

I get ready to teach spin and eat a handful of Cheerios.

5:50am: Out the door

I have to get there early to set up.

6:15am: Class begins! It’s a surprisingly big class for early morning, during midterms, in a huge rainstorm.

7:00am: Class ends and I clean up. I always mix this electrolyte powder into 16 ounces of water and drink it right away because I really struggle with hydration after these morning classes.

7:20: Return home and make breakfast. I have some of my current favorite crackers and a protein smoothie with Chocolate Quest protein, a frozen banana, cocoa powder, and soy milk.

Animals have no rules in this house.

After breakfast, I pack my lunch for the day…with plenty of kitty help.

Again, no rules….

Then I get ready for class.

Right before leaving, I have a couple squares of 100% chocolate for a little caffeine boost.

8:45: Out the door!

9-9:50: Lecture on large animal viruses that are reportable to the USDA (meaning they’re serious enough the government wants to monitor them).

10-10:45: Group work on a group problem set. We actually have a full 2 hours allotted for this, but we finished pretty quickly! I decide to run home and take a nap with the extra time. I also get a spin sub request for that evening, and I accept. I like subbing evenings because I have a lot of friends that like to come to my classes but don’t like the early ones.

11: Crawl into bed with my nap buddy.

11:30: I didn’t actually sleep but I feel a little refreshed so I start typing up this blog post.

12: Lunch that I packed earlier, but since I’m home I get to watch an episode of Parks and Rec.

More veggie chips and a salad with chicken, pear, and blueberry chèvre. I also have a piece of dark chocolate.

I then studied a little bit with some kitty help.

(Which turned into kitty playtime.)

12:40: Leave for class again.

1-3: We had a group problem based learning session with a faculty member. The class we’re in right now is Infectious Disease, so the case was related to that.

3: Return home and eat a snack.

I study for a little bit, and then it’s time for spin round 2!

4:50: Leave for spin.

Yes, that’s the same shirt. Yes, I had to do a quick load of laundry at lunch.

5:15: Teach class! It was an awesome turnout, with a ton of my classmates! Vet students come to my classes a lot, especially when they’re not quite so early!

6:15: Return home and restart hydrating! I do another electrolyte packet, but I mix it with sparkling water. Fun fact: it fizzed like crazy and overflowed, so maybe not the best idea. Delicious though! Last time I taught a double day I rehydrated with beer and that was not the best idea I’ve ever had.

While I cook (i.e. throw together a fast and easy dinner), I snack on some carrot sticks and sauerkraut (not together).

6:35: Finally sit down and eat dinner. This is what I lovingly refer to as my Southern Taco salad, or the least authentic taco salad. When I was in Nashville, I ordered a taco salad at a Mexican restaurant and it seemed to be neither taco nor a salad; it was mainly meat and cheese! I made a queso-chicken type of deal with Bolthouse Salsa Ranch, shredded rotisserie chicken, and Mexican cheese, all heated up. I put that on top of lettuce with salsa and guacamole. Not authentic Mexican, but I like it!

I recently got Hulu, and lately I’ve been loving The Resident! I watched an episode with dinner. I consider my TV episode with dinner a non-negotiable, no matter how busy I get.

For dessert, I mixed vanilla Halo Top with a GF toffee cookie and caramel sauce. I mixed up the whole pint, but took a serving and froze the rest.

8:00: Finish up typing up this post. I need to spend some time studying for a test tomorrow so I’m going to sign off here. I might have a light snack later, but I think I’m more focused on hydrating for now. I’ll probably go to bed around 10!

5:30am: Kittens don’t understand the time change and start wrestling on my bed.

6:05: I finally get up.

I get ready for morning Crossfit and eat some Cheerios.

I was up earlier than I needed to be so I had plenty of time to snuggle kitties.

6:45am: Leave for Crossfit.

7:00: Crossfit. For strength, the rest of the class did cleans and I did snatches. My wrist has been feeling a ton better but cleans are going to be the last thing I’m able to do. The WOD was a long one.

100 sit ups

400m run

75 push ups

400m run

50 box jumps

400m run

Oof. I did push ups on a box because I am not strong enough and it’s easier only wrist! We ended up finishing class a few minutes late, and then I hit really bad traffic going back, so I was fairly flustered and rushed when I got back!

8:20: Arrive home.

8:25: Sit down to breakfast. I did a 9 mile race this past Sunday, and ever since then I have been so hungry! I was starving and had a few bites of chicken from soup that I made the other night because I knew my breakfast wouldn’t hold me over. This hunger will be a theme of the day, haha! Breakfast is cottage cheese with an apple from my Apple Hill weekend (where I did the race) with sunbutter.

8:45: Leave for class, more or less on time. We have lab today so I’m in scrubs, so thankfully getting ready is pretty quick!

9:00: First class of the day! We just started Reproduction, so I’ll spare you guys pictures.

After my first class, I actually ate a full size 3 Musketeers bar. Someone put out a big box of giant candy bars and I haven’t eaten a full sized candy bar in years, plus I was quickly burning through my breakfast so I just went for it. I only intended to have half but ate the whole thing and don’t regret that at all. I was expecting to feel sick afterwards, but again, my metabolism has been on fire since the race so I was more than hungry at lunch, after another couple of lectures!

12:00: Lunch at home. The handyman was supposed to come and I had a big gap between classes so I went home. On the menu was a big salad with persimmon, deli turkey (I recently started buying nitrite free deli turkey), cranberry goat cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette.

I also had a square of dark chocolate.

I watched an episode of Parks and Rec while eating. I don’t love it yet, but I’m still giving it a chance, and I needed a shorter show.

12:30: Study! With a side of wrestling kitties.

Marie’s current obsession is to climb on my shoulder and bite my hair.

Which usually quickly progresses to this:

1:45: I’m hungry (again) so I have my afternoon snack.

2:20: Take a short study break to start typing up this post.

2:35: Leave for lab.

3-4:30: Anatomy lab! Today is male reproduction.

4:30: Out of lab a little bit early, but it’s already getting dark!

4:45: Arrive home. I’m hungry (shocker) so I pick some veggies out of the soup I made.

Then it’s study time with the two babies!

5:45: Leave for soccer! We have a vet school team in the intramural league. Today’s game was against the 3rd year vet students and we sadly lost in penalty kicks! I still had fun and my ankle is not thrilled with me.

7:30: Finally sit down to dinner with an episode of Netflix ( I just started Riverdale). No matter how busy I get, I consider my Netlfix and dinner time sacred! On the menu is a stir fry of sorts. I microwaved some frozen stir fry veggies and then sautéed up tofu and spaghetti squash (Kind of weird, but sort of like chow mien!) with GF teriyaki sauce and served that on top of my veggies!

For dessert, I had a mini sunbutter cup and a GF snickerdoodle.

8:00: Have a few more Cheerios while icing my ankle.

8:20: Pick out an old spin playlist to teach tomorrow for Sunrise Cycle at 6:15am! I have actually a million old playlists to choose from. I teach 3 classes a week so I definitely don’t make a new playlist each time, but I have so many from years of cycling that no one will ever hear repeats!

8:25-8:30: Finish up this blog post. Before bed I’m going to try to squeeze in a little bit more studying or work on some emails, but on nights before I teach early morning spin, I try to be in bed reading a book and getting sleepy at 9, and asleep before 10!

Chloe has been staying with me this week. It’s been a blast. I feel like I’m honestly the best version of myself with her, forcibly. I studied on the first day of the block because I needed to bring her to school to give my roommate’s dog some peace last night. I try to socialize with other people and dogs with her (we organized a friend walk today). I can’t just sit around and waste time on my computer because she will whine and bark. When she does sleep, I feel a lot of pressure/motivation to get work done because I know it is transient. I spend minimal time on my phone because she likes to bark when I’m on my phone.

I have to use my time wisely so I have enough free time to walk her. 2 hours a day. So I’m more active. But those walks. They’re some of my favorite things. I put in a podcast and we go. There are a couple of podcasts I listen to that used to be fitness based and now they’re fitness/social media business/personal development based. They are both inspiring and cause me to think deeply. The things on my mind this week are how to be the best version of myself, and my message and platform. There’s a lot of focus on social media influencers and building their platforms. How to do it. What they want to do with their platform and following. Don’t get me wrong; I have no intention of being a social media influencer or even presence. But I realized, I do have a platform.

And no, I actually don’t mean this blog. My dreams of being a star blogger are far behind me. Honestly most of the time I feel like this blog is a journal for myself (and a medium for cute pet photos). My platform is Cycling Instructor. After taking last year off of teaching spin, I was really missing it and managed to get a job teaching spin at the rec center at my school. Honestly, the university environment is my favorite setting to teach in. You get a huge variety in students.I love seeing their transformations; and I don’t mean physical transformations. Mental transformations. Confidence transformations.

I was thinking really hard about my message. First and foremost, I want my classes to always be a positive environment. I will never, EVER say “Do this to burn XYZ ‘unhealthy food.'” No. Nonono. That’s not why we’re there. I was thinking about my own story. What sports and fitness did for me. Sure, being active and healthy is important. But you know what fitness and sports taught me? Strength. Hard work. Discipline. Power. You put in the work, you feel changes. You push yourself past what you thought you could do, and then learn what you’re capable of.

I truly believed I gained so much confidence from this. And I’ve seen it happen in my students. I remember one older gentleman specifically. His first class, he tentatively came up to me for help with bike setup, in the back of the class. By the end of the quarter, he was crushing it at the front of the class. His whole demeanor was different. It is my job to push people to their limits, past what they believe they’re capable of. That being said, it’s a fine line. I want my students to learn to respect their bodies and listen to their bodies. If something is off on that day, do what you can. But know when that’s really the case and not when it’s an excuse. That room is their space. Their space to work through their sh** and grow. I remember the summer before I started vet school, I went to IDEA World in Vegas and was cycling 3 hours a day, taught by the best instructors out there. At the time, I was really nervous about what vet school would bring. And as I was biking my little heart out, I realized this: “I can do hard things.” And I knew I would be okay in school.

And that’s my message. I really think now that I have a truly defined message, it will make me a better instructor because I have an added purpose. It’s kind of like I’m using the same principles that social media influencers do to grow a following, but for me to “grow a following” and hopefully a community in my class. I’ve said it before, but I truly believe that humans connect best through stories (why else would we read blogs about a random person’s life) and that’s an element I want to bring to my classes. Personal connection. Sharing my message and my heart through stories. Getting the most out of my students and getting the most out of myself. Because we can all do hard things.

For those interested in health, the holidays can be a tumultuous time. There are conflicting tensions between the desire to maintain physical health while still enjoying holiday foods and festivities.

I knew in the past this has been an issue for me. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the holidays. I love the traditions, the food, the special events. But I also value my health. In the past, this tension would make me crazy, anxious, and angry around the holidays. I was always trying to avoid sugar, resist the goodies. But I would be miserable and feel like I was missing out. And I would inevitably give in and eat all the foods anyways, eat a ton of them, and feel terrible.

By the time the actual day of Christmas rolled around, I would be a mess. And every year around the holidays I would gain weight.

Last year was the first holiday season in many years that this didn’t happen. It was partly because I was still so sick then with my chronic stomach issue. I physically couldn’t go crazy eating things without my body turning on me. But that changed my perspective, because I appreciated what I could and did eat more. I think that experience, plus some maturity and changes in values, has shifted how I look at food and the holidays. That being said, I wanted to share some of my thoughts on how to stay “healthy” throughout the holidays. (Note the quotations).

1. Don’t think of it as “surviving the holidays.” Think about “enjoying the holidays.” I know it’s easier said than done, but the holidays are not about dieting and resisting delicious food, they’re about family, traditions, and joy.
2. Similarly, I really don’t recommend trying to avoid all the holidays foods. In my experience, that leaves me miserable and craving them even more. Life’s too short to not enjoy eggnog, or a Christmas morning mimosa, or your Grandma’s special homemade pie. Letting go of that restrictive mentality isn’t easy, but it’s freeing.
3. Trust your body. Don’t stress the changes. Here’s the deal. No one is going to wake up every single day weighing precisely the same amount. So many factors go into play. We see these stats everywhere: “Americans gain an average of 5 pounds every holiday season.” Here’s the deal. I guarantee that is not 5 pounds of pure fat. Carbohydrates hold 4x their weight in water. If you eat a lot of sugar or bread products over the holidays, your body will retain water. But guess what? That will disappear when you return to your normal routine. I finally started trusting my body. If I eat a big, delicious meal and lots of sugar, I realize that I might gain some weight but I don’t freak out because a) it’s not that serious and b) I trust that when things return to normal my body will too.

All those were more ways to mentally approach the holidays. While I definitely preach enjoying everything, I also want to make it a priority this holiday season to still feel good so I can fully enjoy everything. So I do want to talk about some ways to do that as well.

1. Maintain your normal routine as much as possible when not at events. Go to holiday parties on the weekends, have a good time, and enjoy good food, but eating cake and cookies at a party on the weekend doesn’t mean you have to say “screw it” and eat junk all week. Stick to your normal workouts, eat your normal meals. I guarantee you will feel better.
2. Make some healthy holiday treats. Some healthy swaps you won’t even notice. If you’re making gingerbread, why not look for a lower sugar recipe? If you’re making your own treats, why not make some healthier ones to have on hand? I personally plan on making some healthier treats that I don’t feel bad about enjoying on a regular basis. That way I never feel like I’m missing out on anything (And check back here for some recipes!)
3. Get physical. No matter what I’m eating, I always feel 100x better when I get some exercise in.
4. Start some new fit traditions. One of my favorite traditions that my family and I started doing was the Santa Run. It’s a 5k that finished at Christmas in the Park, a little Christmas village in downtown San Jose. It gets us in the holiday spirit! Last year on Christmas day, my family started our morning with a dog walk/run along the bay, followed by festive drinks, and it was an absolutely beautiful morning. Plus, Chloe got to join in! Take a night walk to look at lights (especially if you live in CA like I do and it’s not freezing!) Not every holiday tradition has to revolve around food.

Those are my thoughts for how to approach the holidays. Trust your body, and just think about trying to feel your best to enjoy the season. Again, it’s not that serious.

On that note, let’s finally dive into WIAW, Jenn‘s baby! Now that I’m home, my food is a little bit more interesting so I want to share it more!

Pre-Workout:

My new favorite pre-workout food is Cheerios. I don’t even know what time zone I’m on right now, but I had plenty of time before morning Crossfit to eat! I had a bowl of pumpkin spice Cheerios. (We ordered a few boxes online from Target because they were getting hard to find!)

Workout:

I did some technique work on snatches. I used 65# for a complex of a power snatch, overhead squat, and full snatch. Then we worked on bar muscles ups (LOL). I practiced some turnovers (assisted) and worked on negative pull ups. The WOD was a 7 min AMRAP of 5 power cleans and 10 toes to bar. I have toes to bar, but the coach and me do knees to elbow instead so I could really focus on getting into a good position that should later help me string together toes to bar. It was a lot more shoulder intensive the way he had me doing them! I used 85 for the cleans.

Breakfast:

I had the same breakfast most days in St. Louis and I’m finally sick of it. I discovered some chocolate KIND granola in the pantry, so I centered my breakfast on that. I made a yogurt with with Fage 2% a little bit of maple syrup, and cocoa powder. Topped with granola and crunchy Sunbutter. I had jumbo blueberries on the side.

Lunch:

I had more leftover lemon chicken rice soup, with added spinach. I also seasoned it with thyme lemon bay sea salt, and topped it with feta. On the side are leftover roasted shaved brussels with truffle salt.

Snack:

I had another sea salt chocolate bar from 88 Acres (more info here) as well as a Medjol date, since it had been so long since I had one strangely enough. So good!

I also nibbled on some Cranberry Orange bread while cutting up some slices for the freezer.

Dinner Part 1:

I volunteered to sub a 7:30pm spin class this evening which is a super awkward time for me, especially since I’m still sort of on St. Louis time. I decided to eat a light dinner pretty early.

Trader Joe’s GF cornbread with a little whipped butter.

And a small bowl of butternut squash and chicken soup.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure if anyone was going to come to a spin class that late, the week of Thanksgiving. Since it’s at the university, most people are gone for break. Luckily, I had a few people, and had a blast! It’s different teaching here, and it’s good to be back.

The rest of the evening didn’t go as planned. I drive an older car, and it can be pretty finicky. I had a lot of issues with the engine when I first started driving it a few years ago, but since then it has been fine. It didn’t appreciate not being driven too much while I was gone, it turns out. It took a while to start driving there, and when I got in to drive home after spin, the engine started shaking like crazy and then just died. Thereby stranding me 25 minutes from home. The worst thing was I was able to get out of my parking spot before it died, so I was directly blocking in a few cars. I called Triple A to get it towed, and my mom came and picked me up. Thankfully the process was relatively painless all things considered, and I’m grateful I didn’t even make it out of the parking lot and it didn’t die on the highway. That being said, I don’t have a good feeling about what may be wrong with it.

When my mom and I drove off around 9:30, we were both on the exact same wavelength: froyo. When I had mono freshman year of college, I ate mass quantities of froyo so I still remembered more or less what places were open until 10! We stopped at Yumi Yogurt, which is pretty big in my area. I got a butterscotch flavor burst with mini m&ms. Sadly, aesthetics were sacrificed in favor of more toppings but this was delicious, and the perfect post-workout refuel!

While it’s never fun watching your car get towed, I’m thankful the situation wasn’t worse. A

And on that note….

How do you approach the holidays?

Overall, my weekend was a good mix of fun, active, and relaxing. It’s SO nice to not have so much going on right now. There was lots of this involved:

Friday at the zoo I was outside for 5 hours in crazy humid heat, so I was looking forward to a night of air conditioning, netflix, and kitties!

Plus, I wanted to be well rested for Saturday morning! I had a spin teaching audition at a local studio. I wasn’t sure if I was going to try and teach while I’m here, but when I looked around for some classes to go to, I found that the studio was looking for instructors. Perfect! Saturday morning I taught a class as my audition, and I got the job! It was a blast, and even though it hasn’t really been that long, it was great to be teaching again (it’s been <2 weeks…).

I’ve always wanted to teach at an actual boutique spin studio, and I have my own weekly class+subbing. One adjustment though is that the classes are an hour long, and I’ve actually only taught 45 minute classes. I had to pace myself a little bit there! I was pretty beat and hungry after the 9:30 class, so I found the nearest Starbucks in hopes they had my favorite chocolate smoothie. Not all Starbucks have the chocolate banana protein smoothies, but they’re delicious! I got it with some cheddar chickpea chip things for carbs.

Afterwards, I cleaned myself up and relaxed for a few hours before braving the heat at the Festival of Nations, one of the best festivals (and free!) in St. Louis every year. It’s a really cool international festival in Tower Park, and there’s food from every country pretty much that you can buy, plus music and crafts. I went with my roommate and her friends who are all Brazilian, and we arrived just in time to see the Brazilian band play.

I got Brazilian food, of course. I don’t remember the name of the dish, but I got chicken over rice with cashew gravy, collard greens, and some type of yuca based side.

As you might recall, it’s still unclear if I’m minority allergic to cashews or not, so maybe this will be a good test!

We stayed at the festival for quite a while, and then the lightning began. No rain though!

We all headed home to clean up a little bit before going out to dinner and drinks somewhere in the Tower Grove area, I believe. I’m REALLY trying to figure out what all the neighborhoods are!

Sunday morning, I was up pretty early to go back to the spin studio to take another instructor’s class. I’m trying to drop in to a few classes to get a sense for the different instructor’s styles. It was a fantastic class, and I found myself working VERY hard! Lots of time in the saddle, which I tend to love.

After class, I went back to Starbucks for another chocolate smoothie. It’s the perfect thing after a workout, during that awkward 10:30am between meal times hour.

I actually felt like today was a day I was almost constantly eating. After dealing with my rental car stuff, I came home for what I guess I would call lunch? I kind of pieced together what I wanted+what I felt I needed. I had a little appetizer of spinach and cheese. Why not, right? Plus frozen grapes.

And then had a chocolate chunk flapjacked muffin. I’m a big fan of these, especially now that I discovered when you undercook them slightly, they taste like lava cake!

Then, a little later I had half of a big Bobo’s Oat bar, in Cinnamon Raisin.

I spent the afternoon doing little things around the house (like laundry) before deciding I should at least get out a little bit. I decided to grab my book and check out another coffee shop on my list. Today’s choice was Rise Coffee House in the Grove area.

It had a nice atmosphere. It had the feel of a good quality coffee shop, but less hipster than Blueprint.

Of course, I had my standard drink, a decaf cappuccino. I’m trying to stay consistent for my first pass through the list to be as objective as possible. Plus, that is by far my favorite drink!

The verdict? It was good! It was not quite as deep and complex of a flavor as Blueprint, but I could tell it was quality. I would say I liked Blueprint more, but if you want a less strong flavor, you might like this better!

Finally, it was time for dinner. I made an omelette with goat gouda, italian herbs, and spinach, and served it with sunbutter and jam on toast and a salad with goat cheese, craisins, and balsamic vinaigrette.

Other snacks for the night included a Yasso sea salt caramel bar, and one of these new Target finds, a chocolate chip granola bar. It’s simple, but delicious! For some reason, the flavor reminds me of a donut!

And that’s a wrap! I have a pretty active day planned tomorrow. I’m making my triumphant return to Crossfit post-busted hand (it’s definitely still quite limiting but I think the workout should be doable), and then in the evening I think I’m going to drop in on the spin class I will eventually be taking over!

What is your favorite ethnicity of food?

I hope everyone is having a fantastic day. Mine is looking good because I just picked up 3 dozen mini cupcakes. 2 dozen of those are GF, because if there are leftovers I might as well be able to eat them, and they’re honestly the most amazing cupcakes so you can’t even tell! The bakery (Sibby’s) happens to be next to my favorite spin studio so I scheduled my pick up time to be right after a class!

GF:

Assorted:

I had to try one of each GF to make sure they weren’t poisonous. The verdict? Definitely not poisonous.

I mostly wanted to pop in and share something new on the blog with you today! Did anyone notice a new tab at the top? Spin Playlists!

I make a new playlist each week. I have a huge list of iTunes playlists, and I keep the choreography for each playlist in the form on index cards in a bag.

Lately though, I’ve been having a lot of problems with iTunes. I taught one class where the songs would not play, and my phone skipped to the end of the playlist (thankfully I had a backup). So songs not playing on my playlists were an issue. Then, I started getting double playlists in my iTunes library. The newest? I just learned that apparently iTunes has deleted songs from about 10 of my playlists! Which is quite the problem when the choreography is song by song! I was able to piece together most of what was missing (thanks to the blog+an app with some of my playlists+memory) but I still have 4 playlists with a missing song. It drives me crazy because 2 of them were some of my favorites! Between Thursday and Friday, I spent about 4 hours cursing at iTunes. Finally, I decided it was time for a backup. My friends have been pushing me to post my playlists for the while down, and this was the final nudge I needed! I screens hotted every playlist from the last 1.5 years that I use to teach.

There are now organized chronologically on the new tab! So check it out if you’re looking for some music or workout inspiration!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

To those who are new, Thinking Out Loud is a fun linkup where everyone shares random thoughts!

So when I was thinking up what to write about today, I realized that the theme seems to be my current obsessions. So we’ll go with it. Sort of.

1. I’m still obsessed with Raaw Macaw bars. Thanks to nut allergy+gluten restriction, my bar choices are limited to basically Luna bars. Which I was getting dreadfully sick up. Enter Raaw Macaw (note: I am definitely not sponsored, just obsessed). You basically get to design your own energy bar and decide what you want in it, and they’ll make it taste good for you and send them! My first had a date and sunflower seed base, with chia seeds and chocolate chips. I was struck with inspiration last week and designed a second, more sunflower-y bar and immediately ordered it. This has just a sunflower base (it has a less chewy texture), whey protein, cinnamon, sea salt, chocolate chips, and dried tart cherries.                                                               
2. I’m also obsessed with timehop right now, that app that goes through your phone and shows you memories from that day x years ago. I’ve enjoyed watching my kitties grow up again!                                            
3. We have a new chef at my dorm/house and I LOVE him. The food is amazing, and he is fantastic about making me and my friend GF options. I missed lunch the other day while I was at class, and came home to a sandwich with my name on it in the fridge. And a delicious one at that—BLT with no B and avocado instead!                                                                                          The teriyaki salmon bowls and the Mexican food were insane.
4. My puppy got her first trim. She is 1000X more adorable. She also seems tiny.
5. On Sunday I went home to visit my high school friend. I hadn’t seen her since right before I got Chloe! We took her for a looong walk along the bay. I think it’s so beautiful here in the winter.
6. Going home also meant a home cooked meal. The highlight? Persimmon crisp. SO good. My mom used the same recipe that we normally use for blueberry crisp and I probably ate half the pan.
7. My roommate currently has some sort of stomach bug. I love her and hope she feels better but I also really, really don’t want to get it to! I’m terrified!
8. I’m still so obsessed with our new Crossfit sweatshirts. It is the comfiest thing ever. 
9. Speaking of fitness, my spin classes started up again this week! They are seriously a blast. I spent all of the break finding new music, and I think I have about 30 new songs, which adds fresh energy to the class. So far, classes have been filling up, with a wait list! The beginning of the quarter is especially fun because we have a lot of first timers, or people who haven’t done spin in a while. I love watching their progression throughout the quarter! Not so fun? My mic died in class today. It started at 2/3 bars and then was just done. Luckily, I tend to be pretty loud, but I’m definitely losing my voice now!

What are you thinking this week?

Last weekend I found a cat. I was eating outside the house with some friends and it walked right up. I THINK I’ve seen it a couple of times before. It walked right up to the kitchen window. I naturally let it in the door and fed it some leftover trout from a meal earlier in the week. <3

Currently eating this breakfast-apple, cottage cheese, sun butter. It feels like fall! The weather here is…weird. It’s been hot. The leaves are FINALLY changing, so I’ve been itching to get outside and run! I can tell it’s fall, but like I said, it’s weird. Today it was SO COLD (by CA standards) this morning, and then it was like 80.

Last week I woke up at the $%&&%$% of dawn to go to a spin class near home because the class is awesome and my purchase of a class was about to expire. Green smoothie to recover. Class was awesome as expected, and it was still dark when I got out

Indian food last week. It was mediocre but the gluten free naan was AWESOME.

Pulled chicken and veggie sliders on a very dry GF bun. The insides were at least good!

FOOTBALL. I finally made it to a game. We crushed UCLA (YAY) and I had an awesome view (form the end zone) of the most epic catch ever. Google “Stanford the catch” because it was insane. So nice to be out there!

So I lost my phone briefly. I had it at my softball game but sometime from my car to the dugout it disappeared. Long story short, I spent forever looking for it driving all around creation, and it turned out it took an extra set of eyes to find it. I honestly don’t think I ever would have found it. It was in a bag in my car-hidden under a flap. As a result, I got a visit from the pup! She’s getting so big!

You can’t see super well from these photos but the other week I got these long sleeved shirts that I am OBSESSED with. I got them in 4 colors and now I also really want a deep red one.

Awesome lunch-Mexican food made into a salad. The guac was on point.

Whole Foods dinner post-Crossfit. I wanted something on the lighter side with plenty of veggies. I was going to miss dinner, and since we’re currently trying out new chefs, there has not been enough food lately so I knew there would be nothing left. Plus, I picked up lunch for today!

I finally found a salad bar combo that I like! I feel like I’m always the worst at making my own salads. Chicken, grapes, bleu cheese, balsamic. Don’t knock it til you try it! Plus Mary’s crackers.

Finally-I had an interesting spin class today. This is my first time with major technical difficulties. I’ve had the mic die, but this was worse. I was using a playlist I taught last spring to at my other gym, and the choreography was complicated and pretty specific to the songs. Then on the 3rd song my playlist skipped to the 2nd to last song and I couldn’t get it to go back. I was using my Schwinn app, so I switched to iTunes on my phone. That malfunctioned as well! I chose a random playlist and taught a song from it while realizing that a random playlist would never work with the class I had drawn up. While cuing, I scrambled around and found the playlist on my iPod. Thankfully, I had it right there because I use it to play music as people walk in since I have to check them in on my phone. And thankfully, the playlist was on my iPod and it worked! I haven’t been putting them on my iPod that much since I started using my app so it was so lucky! My back up to my back up saved the day!

WHEW. I think it’s about time I go back to studying.

I really do wish I did more descriptive type of posts though instead of random food dump! I think part of the reason I’m more reticent now is that I don’t psychoanalyze everything that I eat. My posts are therefore more sane.I swear, each year I get more sane. Or something. I was reading some posts from last spring-I was probably the most psycho then. And I ate so much! Mono really messed up my system and I had some crazy eating habits for a while…So anyways. My Thursday.

I have 9am class Tues/Thurs so I woke up nice and early to hit the track for a speed workout. It was really cold-I biked to the track and by the time I got there, my fingers were screaming. I’m such a California wimp. I was looking up weather in Minnesota-it said “feels like -32.” That is literally unfathomable to me. That’s basically absolute zero, right..? It’s so cold molecules have no energy…life is not sustainable…ok maybe not but that’s rough!

Anyways, I arrived at the track to find my iPod dripping wet and completely freaking out. Merp. I have a camelbak water bottle. I LOVE it, but when it gets a little old, it starts leaking pretty badly from the top. Yeah. I wasn’t 100% sure that was the problem initially because my iPod was acting like it was a tech issue, but by the afternoon I could the little water damage indicator was showing. I have a 6th generation nano-it’s perfect for exercise because it’s small and has a build in clip-but I don’t think I’m going to try and replace it with the same model. This is my 4th that I’ve killed-they told me this model was susceptible to water damage more than some others. I lost my first 2 to water damage due to sweat during exercise when I was doing my indoor rowing workouts for crew. And then this past summer I dropped it and the power button jammed. I think it may be time to move on!

The workout went pretty well-8x400m on the track. I wore a watch and tried to keep my pace at 8:00 which was harder than expected, although I’m going to partially blame the temperature. Either way, I have a lot of work to do before my race!

Post workout, I decided to stop in the dining hall for breakfast because I have very little food (as will be evidenced later).

I also had coffee. I have whole milk in my room, and instant coffee, which is a)surprisingly good (it’s Starbucks) and b)surprisingly effective. Better than dining hall coffee! I only needed a little boost, so I put half a packet into a cup of hot milk. Perfect!

I had initially planned on packing a lunch, but since I knew I’d miss dinner I decided to have something a little hardier at the dining hall.

Really delicious bleu cheese and pear flatbread. And then a Napa cabbage salad with miso dressing, curry roasted butternut squash, fried rice, and teriyaki salmon. It was a good one today, and I’m glad I made the decision to go to the dining hall!

I also had dessert-a small coconut lemon square and a couple of cubes of pound cake.

I thought about going back for another one, but after waiting a few minutes for things to settle, I decided not to get too crazy before teaching spin in the evening.

One thing about reading old posts? I remembered that naps are pretty cool. So I took one. I have this weird habit of waking up from naps in a complete daze. I think I dreamt my alarm went off…and then it did? Or maybe I fell back asleep while it was going off, only to wake up again immediately? I don’t know.

I also have a weird habit of waking up from naps and shoving food in my face. I can’t explain this one. I area a few pieces of dark chocolate-the last of the Christmas chocolate that I saved. With one notable exception:

I got these salted caramels from my spin teacher. Instead of going too crazy post-holidays and trying to cut out all sugar, I plan on having one of these every evening. It’s not the only dessert I’ll have, but knowing it will be there later keeps me from overindulging too much. I think when I run out I’m going to fill the box with something else and do the same thing!

Later in the afternoon, I left for spin. I leave pretty early to beat rush hour traffic, and then do Physiology reading while I wait. While spin is kind of a long drive away, I really cherish this time. My car is a pretty fun car to drive (when it decides to cooperate and not give me engine problems), I can listen to music, of course teach spin, but also spend some quiet forced time with my textbook. Physiology is my favorite. I want to know everything about how every system in the body works, down to the molecular level, so I really don’t mind the fact that my textbook is 1200 pages long. It’s just so cool!

Teaching the class went well! I did a different style class then I normally do, just in that I did some different type of moves, like doing a minute long sprint split between standing and seated. It was my biggest class yet though!

When I got back, I wasn’t super hungry but knew I needed to refuel with my paltry supply of dorm room food. I tried to hit all the food groups, focusing on muscle recovery!

Fats-whole milk plus some sunflower seed butter (I have butterscotch, and it’s delicious!)

Vegetables- carrots in the microwave, tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper, and Greek seasoning

Protein- milk

Carbs-hot chocolate mix

Let’s just go with it, ok? I wanted to try some Starbucks caramel hot chocolate mix I had. Since chocolate milk is perfect for post-workout, I figured this was basically the same thing! I was pleasantly surprised-this was really good! I was expecting it to be super sweet but that was not the case.

While it may not have been the grandest of dinners, it seemed to do the job!

Also-fun fact, I’m going to Disneyland tomorrow with my dorm! I haven’t been since 8th grade so it should be fun!

How have your eating habits changed in the last 2 years? How has your mindset changed?

Just a disclaimer-I’m just one of many spin teachers. Everyone has a different style and method, this is just what my process looks like!

1. AUDIENCE. This is super, incredibly essential. Who are you giving the class too? Will they like nothing but Top 40? Will they like country music? Rock? What age group? What is the fitness level? It’s great for you to enjoy your own class, but the students need to enjoy it as well!

2. (Hopefully) go to another instructor’s class for inspiration. This is so helpful, especially since I’m a less experienced instructor! You get a sense of what works and what doesn’t, and song ideas are SUPER helpful!

3. Decide on a profile. I usually come up with a general profile before finding specific songs, and then I try to fill in the songs. This can change too!

4. Find songs. This is the hard part. I can spend hours surfing on iTunes looking for the perfect song. I recently discovered that if you search any song name + “workout” you can usually find a workout mix, which may be perfect if the song isn’t upbeat enough for the class. Generally I search for something with a good beat. I have some go-to songs, but I try to mix it up as much as possible!

5. Decide on the specifics for each part. This is the choreography. More experienced instructors probably don’t need to do this, but I would highly recommend it when you start out! This means when to do jumps, when to do sprints, what you do on the hill, etc.

6. Make sure your songs and profile flow well. Do you want your hill to go from a sprint to a crawl in terms of music? This can definitely work, but you don’t want surprises while you’re teaching, and not every combination works.

7. If you don’t practice the playlist before you teach, at the very least, you need to listen to it. Every second of every song. It’s amazing how many songs don’t sound inappropriate until you imagine blasting them from speakers in class. So check first! Most gyms also don’t allow swearing so watch out for that!

8. If you can, PRACTICE! I often make adjustments to my choreography based on how things feel when I’m on a bike. I’ve also made some pretty bad playlists that I tried prior to teaching them, and was able to make a few simple swaps so they were much better!

That’s just my process-it takes a while to make each playlist, but it’s totally worth it!