WIAW-Protein!

Happy Wednesday! Thanks as always to Jenn for putting on this foodie party every week!

Since today (Tuesday) was the MLB all-star game, I planned by workouts for the week around having a window open to watch. (It was a disappointing game for the NL, and only 1 Giant even got to play. Boo.) As a result, I went to morning instead of evening Crossfit.

Before 7am Crossfit, so I had a Thinkthin bar. Crossfit was a good one- 10,9,8…1 of pull ups and kettle bell swings, with 100m sprint in between. 

And guess what? I may have sort have gotten myself a job for the summer. The manager of my Crossfit box was talking about how he needed someone to sweep/clean the box for free membership, so I volunteered! I don’t have unlimited class access for this month, so that would be awesome! Plus, I would love knowing everything is clean and sanitary. 

After Crossfit, I drove out to the bay to get in a training run. 

I had 4 miles on the schedule for today, but since I ran about a mile in Crossfit (between the warm up and the WOD), I stuck to 3. 

And guess what? I somehow managed to get an appointment with the foot doctor on Thursday. Hopefully he can help me figure out a way to run pain-free, which would be amazing. 

After my run, I got a quick rowing workout in. I’ve lost a lot of upper body strength, and rowing is a great way to build that up. Of course the millions of pull-ups (banded) I do at Crossfit help with that too….But yeahh my rowing shape? Not so great today. I probably spent a total of 30 minutes on the erg today.

After all that, it was shopping time! I went to Whole Foods for some Chocolate Almond milk, and picked up some coffee with almond milk to go. 

I really, really didn’t like this. I’m not a big coffee fan, but this just tasted sour to me. Maybe it’s because it was a light roast? I’ve never had light roast before, and I guess I usually just have cappuccinos when I drink coffee (so sophisticated, I know). I wanted to drink as much as I could because I paid for it, but in the end I tossed about half of it. 

Then, it was on to GNC for the much-coveted Quest bars. I’ve only had tried them once a long time ago, but since everyone has been raving about them, it was time to check them out again. Plus, I eat Thinkthin bars as pre-run/pre-workout fuel, and they were getting old. Quest bars seemed to have a similar nutritional profile, so I thought I’d give them a try. 

*Note: Sadly, I was not compensated by Quest to review this product so I had to go out and buy them myself. 🙁 All opinions are my own.*

They were buy 2 get 1 free, so naturally I had to try ALL the flavors, right??

Soooo if I buy enough protein, will it lift the weights and build the muscles for me?

I immediately broke into the cookie dough. 

It was really good! After a few bites, I heated it up. After having it hot, I don’t think I can go back to having it cold. YUM.

HOWEVER. Here’s my one big thing. I HATE the taste of stevia. This has stevia, which didn’t bother me while I was actually eating it, but left a really weird/gross taste in my mouth for a long time afterwards. I separated the bars into 2 piles-those with stevia, and those without. I’m pretty sure I’m going to like those without way more. I had a bite of the apple pie, which has no stevia and I really liked it. 

Here’s my other issue with these bars-although they don’t have all that many ingredients, they do have a lot of artificial, weird things. I lot of them have quite a bit of sugar alcohols, which are known to upset stomachs. So I may have felt that a little today. 

Overall, I like these bars. I’m a little scared to eat them pre-run though, and I’m almost positive I’ll like the ones without stevia way better. 

Enough of that, onto other food as of late! (Not just today, just haven’t posted it yet!)

Egg scramble with spinach, garlic and herb laughing cow, and cheddar.

Cheesy garlic and herb brussels sprouts and sausage from Carrots n Cake. This was of course delicious, and perfectly satisfying. I used sun-dried tomato chicken sausage, and the flavors worked really well. I would recommend making this! I think we’re going to use the rest of the sausage over spaghetti squash and tomato sauce. 

A healthy protein mug cake: chocolate protein powder, cocoa powder, half a banana, baking powder, vanilla, coconut flour, egg whites, and bittersweet chocolate chips. The chocolate chips definitely make mug cakes.

Snap peas and leftover dijon vinaigrette. 

Peaches literally the size of softballs. This picture doesn’t do them justice. Gotta love Costco!

Most of the sweet potatoes we have are orange, but I got some amazing white ones at the farmer’s market the other week. I’ve been trying to find that kind ever since! These ones looked a little different in color on the outside, so I thought maybe they were the white variety. Imagine my surprise when we cut them open! I kind of love purple sweet potatoes, so this was just fine with me!

Complete with rotisserie chicken and mango barbecue sauce, and spinach and mushrooms sauteed with garlic and olive oil. 

Some other random things:

1. I’ve spent some time lately writing blog posts “for a rainy day.” As in, when I’m back in school and life gets just a little too crazy. Don’t want to leave you guys hanging! I want to have a nice little arsenal for before school starts.

2. I ordered some workout tanks! I’m super excited; two of them have already shipped! I made some custom Fitness is Sweet tanks, plus another workout tank not designed by me. I’ll leave you all in suspense until they arrive 🙂

3. After a lot of thought and deliberation, I’ve decided not to go to Healthy Living Summit. I really wanted to go, but it doesn’t exactly make sense for me this year. It’s across the country, it’s right before I start school, I don’t know anyone going, it’s pricy, and my blog is not even a year old. I thinking that next year would make a lot more sense. 

And with that, have a great week!

Do you like Quest bars? What is your favorite flavor? Thoughts on Stevia?

I could do a whole post on my personal thoughts on stevia, but that could create a big old controversy!