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Yoga Fixed My Shoulders

Phew. Yesterday was quite the day!

I started my morning teaching a 7am spin class on campus, which was awesome. I didn’t think we’d get a big turn out because it wasn’t that well advertised and it was early, but I got a good group out, including a friend!

Then, I had a weight lifting session with my trainer. I tried to move it to not the morning I had to teach, but that didn’t work out so I had to suck it up and go in with less than fresh legs. We worked on cleans, back squats, and jerks. I PRed my clean again at 148#! That’s a 8# increase this summer, so I’ll take it! Sometimes being a little tired helps things-I don’t overthink the lift, plus I was super warmed up! I also hit 95% of my back squat max for 2 reps. This is especially good because my max is a year old, and I maxed out at my 95% when I tested it back in the spring.

As for the jerks, we didn’t go super heavy but they felt better than expected. Over the last year or so, I’ve developed very creaky shoulders, especially when I go overhead with the bar. I basically have not been able to go overhead more than once a week without stiff shoulders and pain when I press up. Earlier this week at Crossfit, we did a ton of push presses and high volume overhead work. But, the jerks yesterday felt fine! It was a night and day difference. So what changed? I started yoga about 6 years ago to help with flexibly (because I have none). I honestly think yoga was key for helping me stay injury free in my many years of softball. (I was a pitcher and never had any shoulder/arm trouble which is rare for someone doing it for 10 years!) In the past year, yoga has kind of fallen by the wayside. Last month, I finally started making it to class again, and I’ve noticed my shoulders getting stronger and looser. I felt a drastic difference from just last week’s class to this week’s class when doing low push ups-my shoulders felt strong and were losing their creak. Plus, this week I walked out of class with much less foot pain because I spent 60 minutes stretching out my tight calves. Needless to say I will be making yoga a regular thing again if possible!

After my training session, I met my sister for coffee at Bliss in Redwood City for any locals.

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Of course, I got a cappuccino and it was fantastic. It was a light roast, and had premium quality milk foam (which is clearly what matters, if you ask me!)

After coffee, we headed home for lunch. I made myself a salad with truffle goat cheese (because we didn’t have any regular goat cheese), dates, a nectarine, and deli turkey.

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Sweet potato seed crackers were on the side.

I spent the afternoon resting, and then apparently going on a baking frenzy.

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It’s 4 days into September and I’ve already make 3 loaves of pumpkin bread and a loaf of sweet potato bread. Besides the pumpkin bread, I did lots of experimenting and improvising.

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For the pumpkin bread, I baked some Noosa honey yogurt into the center for something fun.

If you take one look at my recipe page, you’ll see that most of what is up there is quick breads and salads. Those are my two claims to fame. I’ve gotten very good and making up recipes for healthy quick breads. I have one base recipe that I use, and I have yet to screw it up, surprisingly, despite how many modifications I’ve tried. (That’s actually not true-the one thing that didn’t work was coconut flour banana bread. Apparently bananas and coconut flour are not good together. It was gross.) I’ve even started making it with gluten free flour, and you would really never know. At this point, nothing contains more than 1/4 cup of sweetener, but you’d never know. Even my sister approved, and she is wary of anything “healthy.”

When the sweet potato bread came out, I decided I am a freaking genius. It was on point.

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My third loaf was a total experiment, and I was running out of flour so I had to really improvise. The bread? Awesome. Exactly what I was looking for. The appearance? Uhhhh.

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The batter was completely gray-this picture doesn’t do it justice. Anyone want to guess the secret ingredient that reacts to turn this color? I’m guessing it reacts to baking soda/powder. Because of the appearance, I’m not 100% sure I’ll share the recipe. Plus, it still needs tweaking because I think if I had more flour and didn’t have to improvise quite so much it would be better!

As for the sweet potato recipe, it’s coming this weekend-I promise!

That evening, I went to run club at Crossfit. My legs were not really up for it, but I’ve been wanting to go for a long time now and this was the only week I could really make it. Since everything is based on paces, I had to do a timed mile. Blech. I clocked in around 8:10, and with tired legs, I’ll take it. I should probably actually do a timed mile sometime with fresh legs! Back in the glory days, in another life I was actually reptty fast. I think my all time best mile is 6:53, but that’s not happening any time soon! Overall, between warm up and cool down, I covered 3 miles which is exactly what was on my half training plan for the day.

Dinner was another basic one. Stir fry veggies and cheesy polenta. The cheesy polenta was just cooked polenta with smoked gouda stirred in, and it was delicious!

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I hope everyone has a fabulous labor day weekend. I’m on puppy duty full time, so I’m trying to think of things to do with her! And check back for that recipe this weekend!

What are your weekend plans?

Working the Calves

How’s that for a title?

I haven’t blogged about anything since Christmas, and here we are, almost at New Year’s Eve!

I’m going to be super lame and do a basic food+fitness post for the period after Christmas!

I guess I might as well link up to WIAW?

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Since we had Christmas dinner (lunch) out, we didn’t have any Christmas leftovers. I mean, besides all the desserts!

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The day after Christmas, my family went up to a big mall in SF and I had a Chinese Chicken salad from the food court. Nothing like a giant plate of veggies post-Christmas!

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On Sunday post-workout, my family stopped at Whole Foods on the way home to get lunch at the hot bar! I got some rice with Chicken Masala, with a side of salad-y things and some little rice filled balls (that I couldn’t really tell you what they are).

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Homemade key lime pie with FRESH key limes. My sister made this for my mom as her Christmas present, and it was amazing! She squeezed about 30 key limes herself to make this!

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Black bean soup topped with cheese and avocado.

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Banana “ice cream” AKA frozen bananas in the blender. It really is amazing how creamy bananas can get! Topped with chocolate sauce.

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More black bean soup, but this time with cornbread.

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Leftover blueberry cheesecake. YUM.

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Citrus glazed carrots, garlic sautéed spinach, and BBQ chicken.

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Chipotle chicken salad! Fun fact-I think this was only the 3rd time I’ve been there? But that is some quality guac.

And now to workouts.

Saturday, I went to Crossfit. The WOD was essentially Cindy with some jump ropes mixed in. (Cindy is various rounds of 5 pull ups, 10 push ups, and 15 squats). Sunday, my calves were pretty sore!

Sunday morning, I went for a 6 mile run by the bay. It was SO beautiful out…but freezing!

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It was a solid run-nothing crazy! Just working on finishing my audiobook.

Monday morning I went to the track to do a stadium stair workout. It’s one I used to do as part of agility training for softball. After warming up, I completed three sets of the following:

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hop up on one foot (one stair at a time)

hop up on other foot

hop up with both feet (like squat jumps-skipping a stair with each jump)

2 sprints up the stairs

25 scissor abs

Things I learned: my left calf? Incredibly weak. Like, super super. It was shaking after one set. My left side is significantly weaker than the right. My leg plantar fascia is also my bad side. I think the lack of strength may be contributing to the pain. The next day, my calves were really sore, but my foot felt perfect. I ran 4 miles of hills and my foot felt really good. So I guess that means I need to do some more jumping work!

Speaking of my run, I used my new Garmin for the first time!

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My old one is….old. This has so many features! Like showing my mile splits. Plus it’s so lightweight!

The other noteworthy exercise?

I went for a walk/yoga with one of my friends by the bay. It was WINDY.

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The cool thing is you can see this hill from the track I was at that morning!

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I enjoyed my first yoga session in about 5 months and it was in about 30 mph wind!

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And when the sun set…my lips turned blue. Cute.

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What are you eating post-holidays?

Yoga Again…Finally!

I hope everybody had a fantastic Monday! Mine was good. It wasn’t insanely hot today here-only like 90 and humid. Tomorrow is supposed to be 98…

I’m debating whether or not I should become one of those bloggers who posts shorter posts more often-what do you guys think? Although not that I could really post at work anyways!

Breakfast this morning was simple. I haven’t been feeling the yogurt AT ALL since I got here, so I’ve just been rolling with the lighter breakfast of fruit bowls with sunflower seed butter mountains.

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On the way to the Metro, I stopped at Starbucks for a latte. I hardly ever get lattes-typically only if the coffee place has lack luster milk foam (and really strong espresso). The one from Starbucks? Is there actually any coffee in there? So milky…And I didn’t even have time to finish it because it took longer than I was expecting. Ah well.

Lunch today was good (although not as amazing as dinner). I made an extra chicken breast, and sautéed some spinach with spices and nutritional yeast. The sad thing is that little mound of spinach started out as like half a bag…

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After eating, I decided to go for a walk in the 90 degree heat to thaw and get out some restless energy. My office building is SO freaking cold! The heat was much welcomed.

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Snack in the afternoon was an apple and some oatmeal raisin cookies from the vending machine (super healthy, I know). But a trip to the vending machine was necessary-at this point in my life I desperately need quarters. Yet again, when I did laundry Sunday night, I failed to have enough quarters to actually, you know, dry my clothes. The change machine was broken, and a sign said to try getting change from the vending machines in the building. Yeah…I lost about $3 trying to get it…So I have a TON of wet laundry hanging all over my room. It takes forever to dry in this hot climate! Anyways, at the work vending machine I stocked up on quarters so I can actually finish my laundry and dry my clothes. Wearing wet shorts for my workout was not the most pleasant feeling in the world…

After work, I headed to the gym for Crossfit+yoga. At Crossfit we worked on handstand push ups (or modifications!) and squats. Afterwards, I headed over to a yoga class. It’s been WAY too long since I’ve taken a yoga class, and the classes I took most recently were basically entirely stretching. Anyways, the moral of the story is I’ve become even more tight. Sitting at a desk all day has not been good to my body, and my back has been a little wonky lately thanks to it.

The yoga class was a Power Vinyasa, right up my alley. It was the FASTEST paced yoga class by far that I’ve ever been too! Whew! So many vinyasas, so fast. My arms are going to be sore tomorrow. It felt amazing though. I will definitely be returning, especially as I get deeper into half training!

Dinner was AMAZING. It could be because it was 9 o clock by the time I ate it, but luckily it came together quickly! Inspired by my latest food craze, I decided to modify the coconut flour quesadilla things and make coconut flour arepas! Seriously, SO good. I filled it with smoked gouda, and served it with another side of spinach cooked the same way as for lunch.

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A recipe will be coming your way soon!

Now, it’s basically bedtime for me-half marathon training week 2 kicks off in the morning!

Have you ever had an arepa?

WIAW-Yoga FINALLY

Happy Wednesday! I finally actually have time for a WIAW post, AND I actually took pictures! Thanks Jenn for hosting!

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I am proud to announce, I’m FINALLY out of my food rut. Which equals being out of my blogging rut-phew! Do you ever read blogs that inspire you to eat better? I recently discovered The Oatmeal Artist-the oatmeal is so creative, all I want to do is eat oatmeal, and eat make oatmeal creations of my favorite desserts! I really want to try the banana-mango. I love that idea! To be perfectly honest-I’ve never made baked oatmeal, and I’ve never made stove top oatmeal…I’ve always had instant either with instant hot water, or the microwave! Or overnight oats, of course. So I think that may need to happen!

Ok, on to the ACTUAL food (and exercise).

So…I haven’t been to yoga in FOREVER. Last week, it occurred to me that there is a yoga class after spin in the morning…and I always have an extra hour after spin in the morning before class…so it really made no sense NOT to go! Plus, after softball last night after not so much as picking up a ball since last summer, I was a bit sore!

After spin, I headed over to yoga. As I brought myself into the first down dog of the day, I had that feeling. You know-the revelation of “I’ve been SO stupid.” The entire back of my legs was SO tight, from my hamstring all the way down to my achilles. Then I remembered how I have the tendency to get sort of injured whenever I’m running and I neglect yoga, which is why I think my Achilles tendonitis has flared up so badly lately. I left the class feeling fantastic (and apparently all my yoga muscles have withered away…whoops). When I woke up this morning, my Achilles was so painful I could barely walk and I was expecting it to be “one of those days.” After yoga, it was pretty fine. You better believe I’m going back on Thursday!

And since this is, after all, What I ATE Wednesday, let’s get on with the food!

Breakfast was a current favorite-Whole milk Greek yogurt with berry compote and sunflower seed butter, plus a mango on the side. I have to say, I may be a sort of convert to Whole Milk yogurt. It’s just SO creamy!

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Lunch was packed, thanks to my freezer! I thawed out the grilled chicken with mashed butter-sage sweet potatoes last night, and then added some of my precious roasted carrots this morning. It always amazes me how well chicken freezes!

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For dessert, I had some dates with unsweetened chocolate (more than just this picture). I credit dates for helping get me out of my food rut. Why have I waited so long to restock them?

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Today, it was quite hot out.

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I actually didn’t feel the heat TOO much, which I’m taking as a good sign given I’ll be battling the heat and humidity of Washington DC all summer! Anyways, to cool off, I had a raspberry chia kombucha.

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And the last of my roasted carrots. It’s always a sad, sad day when I finish them off!

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Crossfit today was a bit rough. We worked on cleans as the strength, and then the WOD was the following:

3 rounds:

30 overhead walking lunges

30 wall balls

30 push ups

So, yeah-my shoulders are done.

For dinner, I made a giant salad with all kinds of fun things-carrot/raisin salad, zucchini, chicken, sunflower seeds. I also has a veggie soufflé on the side-I couldn’t find any smaller plates or bowls so I just threw it on top. Classy, as always.

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Not necessarily the prettiest, but it got the job done! For dessert, I had some cereal on top of plain Greek yogurt. I ate the top of the yogurt and brought the rest back to my dorm for tomorrow’s breakfast.

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Food rut=obliterated! Happy Wednesday!

What’s the best thing you’ve eaten this week?

My Ability to Walk Has Been Compromised

How’s your week going? Mine is deceptively low key. But I know that’s just the calm before the storm! I’m at the point in the quarter where all I want to do is go home and see my cats…2 weeks until spring break! In similar news, I changed my phone screensaver to something more holiday appropriate.

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This morning I woke up for my 5 mile hill run. I’m now at the point in half training where it’s really important to just get those miles in! My legs felt heavy. Very heavy. I didn’t push it hard though so it was ok. I was super thirsty by the end though-apparently today turned into a warm day!

Breakfast was some goat milk yogurt with strawberries microwaved and then refrigerated.

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I really wanted to try and reduce the berries in the microwave. What I ended up with was a desk covered in strawberry mush. Oops!

I was still hungry (or was it thirsty?) so I also had a sun butter bar.

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Lunch was a repeat of yesterday. The only downside was I used dining hall grilled chicken which sort of resembled a rock. I didn’t even know chicken could be hard and tough!

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So…I have a snacking problem. That’s one thing I don’t like about college. I could snack at literally any moment of the day. And until this evening, I didn’t have any fruit. So while none of my snacks were totally unhealthy, I completely messed up my meal schedule!

Some samples of my snacks:

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Banana with 85% chocolate.

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The best combo ever-date, unsweetened chocolate, sunflower seed butter.

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Tapioca pudding made in the microwave and sweetened with a single date. It’s actually pretty easy to make tapioca pudding in the microwave from tapioca pearls! But if you try this, definitely put a plate under the bowl because it will pretty much always overflow. It was kind of annoying because I had to stop it about every 30 seconds so it wouldn’t all overflow. But I guess you could use a bigger bowl!

Between this (plus cheese and crackers), I wasn’t hungry around dinnertime. After my late section, it was time for a workout. Sort of. 

I had it all planned out too. But my legs are sore so I decided no legs. And no shoulders because those are sore too. But the final straw?

Funny story-at Crossfit last night we did sit ups as part of the WOD, and the night before we did toes to bar. I didn’t really think about it until someone else mentioned how bad the sit ups were after toes to bar the night before, and how sore he was. I thought-huh. I’m not sore. I guess the sit ups did feel much harder though.

HAH. Now it feels like my abs are being ripped out every time I flex. So-no legs, no shoulders, no abs? That leaves me what, wrist curls? So I decided to do yoga on my own instead. Hence the inability to walk. 

I also had to pick up our CSA box, which was a workout in and of itself. I drive to get it, but I have to bike a little ways back from my car. Normally someone can pick it up from me, but today that couldn’t happen. So I had to bike back one handed, carrying a giant CSA box in the other hand. And while my one handed biking is wayyy better than it used to be, it was still kind of dicey, especially with a lot of delicate fruit. But we both made it back alive.

Anyways-yoga. Since today was unusually warm, I decided that outdoor night yoga would be nice. As I was biking back from section, I passed a little area that I thought would be perfect (plus it’s super public).

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Right beneath the tower.

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What’s cool is I can see this tower from home. Like home home, not college home. Despite being about 30 minutes away.

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It felt so good to stretch out! I was sort of hungry when I went back so I snacked a little bit on crackers and sun butter and granola bars, before deciding I should actually eat some thing real. I made some scrambled eggs, and had a side of baby carrots.

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I hate eating late at night, but such is my schedule. 

I went to an event tonight with my sorority where we brought a Nutritionist in to talk. She talked a lot about the healthy options the dining hall offers. And it’s true-the dining hall has improved a lot, especially lately. The two best additions are a much improved salad bar and bowls large enough to put a salad in. Next quarter, I’m going to make it my goal to eat at the dining hall more. It saves me time and money to go. I think part of my problem now is I have big snacks, and then am not hungry at the right times, so that’s something to work on as well! I need to make the most of my meal plan!

Ok-I’m off to study for a quiz! 

Favorite snack?