Monthly Archives: February 2016

My Yogurt Evolution

Hello! I finished my tasks for the night and thought this would be a fun and interesting post to write.

I typically eat yogurt for breakfast every morning. While I’ve gone through a few phases where this hasn’t been the case, for the most part of 6 years I have, but it definitely has evolved over the years. Shall we take a look?

High school: my first major yogurt eating began when I started going to the gym in the mornings, and then straight to school. The cups were nice and easy to pack, and I would often do the Fage yogurts with honey on the side, so I could add as much or as little as I liked. I love how the honey gets cold!

As I started getting more interested in nutrition/sugar, I amped up the nutrition, and added apples and walnuts to plain Greek yogurt instead.

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My friend caught me eating it in class!

Freshman in college: pre-mono. I didn’t eat yogurt that much, but a couple of times I mixed plain Greek yogurt with brown rice syrup and cocoa powder for a post-workout snack.

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Freshman post-mono: When I had mono, I took 1,002 antibiotics, so I was really trying to get more probiotics in my system, which is when I rediscovered yogurt. It quickly became an obsession. The best combo? Vanilla Greek yogurt+pumpkin bread+sunbutter. YUMM. I still think this is the best combo, I just never seem to have it anymore.

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Obsession level:

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Summer after freshman year: I went through a granola/cereal in yogurt phase. With flavored yogurts, like pineapple. Topped with fruit and sunbutter.

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Soph fall: not a ton of yogurt, but I did go through a major pumpkin obsession, so all the pumpkin products went into yogurt! A favorite was pumpkin butter+sunbutter+some type of quick bread.

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Soph winter: a very brief foray into overnight oats. Sometimes I got cravings for them, but I only like them with flavored yogurts!

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Soph winter: During my real foods project, I discovered the beauty of full fat yogurt. I topped it with no sugar sunbutter (which I sometimes, but rarely, crave in this specific context) and berries on the stove. One of the best discoveries over.

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Soph spring: I didn’t really have cooking facilities in a dorm, so berries like the above were not always available to me, so I adapted to the dining hall. Every morning I wanted pancakes, so I compromised by topping yogurt with dining hall fruit and a pancake.

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DC summer: For most of the summer, I wasn’t feeling the yogurt thanks to the heat, but by the end of the summer I discovered a delicious and healthier alternative to my quick bread in yogurt desire: heat banana and mash with cocoa powder. Put on plain yogurt, top with sun butter. SO good.

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Junior year: The dining hall had sunbutter! I made my whole breakfast work there. Plain Greek yogurt, sun butter, and fruit, often canned pears.

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Summer 2015: I did more of flavored yogurts without toppings. Partly because when I had to start work at 7am and eat breakfast really early, I wasn’t in the mood for much.

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Fall Senior:

2 choices: yogurt with just something sweet like jam, or pumpkin butter or yogurt with fruit+sunbutter (especially persimmons).

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Last month:

Plain Greek with jam (tropical or homemade berry)+sunbutter.

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This week:

Back to the berry compote and sun butter!

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So now I think I need to recreate basically all of these. YUM

What’s your favorite way to eat yogurt? I would love to find a new phase 🙂

 

 

WIAW-The Magic Number

And it’s almost Wednesday again. GUYS. I am halfway through my last year of college. (Well, undergrad. Plenty of schooling left for this girl.) How crazy is that? I’m trying to make each moment count, and I am actively trying to remember to enjoy myself each moment because there’s not much time left here! I’m trying to get away from watching the clock until X or Y is over, because then time is passing that I will never get back.

Well, that wasn’t where I was planning on going with that. Where I was planning on going with that was WIAW with Jenn (and friends).

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Pre-Workout:

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Cranberry-Orange bread from the freezer. Currently my favorite pre-workout bread, and also the only one I have in the freezer right now. I have my eye on this recipe though for possibly the next one, although I usually like to keep the pre-workout breads a bit lower sugar.

Workout:

UGH. We’ve been doing these yucky sprint intervals at Crossfit that I’m pretty sure are really good for me but they stink.

We started out with 5×3 power snatches. I did those at 55#, and then a set at 65#. I’m pretty sure that’s the heaviest I’ve gone overhead since my shoulder injury! The weight felt easy, but I’m still weak stabilizing at the top so I’m definitely not going to push the weight anytime soon.

WOD:

Every 3.5 minutes for 5 sets:

200m run

7 push press (I used 55#)

5 over bar burpees

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I actually really enjoyed the running portion, because I felt fairly fast compared to other people, especially by the end. In general, I’m definitely not the fastest but I’m pretty consistent! Every set was within 3 seconds of the others.

Breakfast:

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I’ve been really loving my fruit compote with yogurt again lately. This week’s combo is a real winner: cherries+peaches. On top of full fat yogurt and a side of sun butter. In terms of yogurt, I basically just eat whatever my house/dorm buys. I much prefer Greek plain, but otherwise I could go either way full fat vs. fat free and tend to switch week to week.

Lunch #1:

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Leftover sweet potato, pear, leek soup with GF croutons, and a side of roasted veggies, mainly sweet potatoes. I think those were leftover veggies from diner at the house last night, and I was able to snag the last bit!

Lunch #2:

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A turkey sandwich on GF bread that was from lunch at the house (which I missed due to class) and a Honeybell. Honeybells are a cross between a tangerine and grapefruit, and I’ve been really enjoying them this past week!

I also had a few bites of other things—some snap pea crisps and granola, and a Ghiradelli raspberry dark chocolate square.

My gastroparesis has been better lately (knock on wood), but even when it’s not flaring, I have to be really careful about how much I eat at once or I’ll get a (moderate comparatively) stomachache. I think I’m finally honing on what this amount actually is, although the content of the food also has a big effect! After lunch #1 today, I actually felt really good. Like, normal. Perfect even. Lunch #2 ended up being a little too big (with the random bites). For the most part, I think the magic number is 400 calories. 400 calories and below for a meal, and I seem to be good (assuming I’m not in a bad flare). 400-500 is usually okay, but I don’t feel as good. Over 500 and I’ll have some problems. 600 or significantly above and I start risking a flare up.

Obviously, that’s not very much in one meal, hence why I have lunch #1 and lunch #2 (and the same for dinner). I honestly think I can get a lot healthier as I start to figure this out more, but it can be really difficult to stick to, especially when the food is especially delicious, or if I’m at restaurants. It’s going to take some practice, as well as remembering that I CAN eat everything, I just need to come back to it in a few hours. It’s also difficult if I get a lot of sugar/carb cravings, but the more I stick to what makes me feel good, the fewer I have (because my blood sugar is much more regular).

Workout:

Teaching spin! Lots of hills today, including a 4 song hill (I normally do 3 song hills). I also wrote tomorrow’s class this afternoon, which includes HIIT in place of a second hill. We’re going to do 5 rounds of 1 min max effort on/1 min recover.

Dinner #1:

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BBQ chicken leg, red beans, rice, kale.

I also had some frozen mango and another Ghiradelli raspberry square.

This dinner comes back to the perfect number theory. Unfortunately, I was a little over the magic number and am feeling it a bit. But it’s all a learning process and I do think I’ll get there!

Dinner #2:

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A new to me bar. Sesame products can be really hit or miss but this was good!

Do you eat 3 square meals or more snacks/mini meals?

3 Hours of Biochem

Guys, my brain is shot. 3 hours of Biochem on a Monday night? That does me in!

I wanted to get back to the typical day by day blog posts, so here we go!

On Saturday, I went for a walk and listened to several podcasts on Gastroparesis, and I think I got some helpful scientific insights. I have several theories on it, and on why I’m having problems. I love that my 4 (almost) years of college education have some really practical purposes. This is why I love Biology—it’s so applicable! I can listen to scientific talks and read studies, and critically interpret them. It gave me a renewed motivation and some ideas for how to manage my stomach condition.

I’m trying to get out of the habit a little bit of having random bites of things, so I’m trying to fit everything on a plate to take a picture because it makes things easier to track, and tracking food makes it easier to manage my stomach. So let’s go!

Pre-workout:

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Cranberry Orange bread. I’m loving this in the mornings! It wasn’t actually cooked all the way in the middle, but I froze most of the loaf so I microwaved it a bit longer to firm it up!

Then, it was Crossfit time! We started with 6 sets of 5 squats, every 90s, and 6 sets of 5 strict pull ups every 90s. With a band for me! The squats were only 55-60% 1RM but I’m definitely feeling it.

The workout was basic and yucky. 800m run+50 wall balls+30 burpees. I think out coach is preparing us well for the open—so many wall balls and burpees lately!

Breakfast:

The rest of my yogurt from the weekend, the last of my berries, and sun butter. Classic.

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Post breakfast was one of the more interesting showers I’ve taken. The hot water was not working at the house, but I decided to suck it up. Unfortunately, I think the water was shut off too because there was just a drizzle. I only could use a tiny dab of shampoo in the front and called it good enough.

Lunch:

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Some cream of asparagus soup, and some turkey Bolognese sauce over lettuce, topped with cheese. I had gluten free noodles on the side. I’m realizing I’m not a huge fan of pasta, and I enjoyed the sauce much better over greens. I ate the past on the side and pretended it was crackers. Normal, I know.

Snack:

Honeybell. These are February’s fruit from my fruit and cheese club! I thought they were oranges, but it turns out they are a cross between a tangerine and a grapefruit, which is exactly what they taste like! Totally reelable too which is a plus.

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Dinner:

Since I had Biochem, I went home. The main dish was pear, sweet potato, and leek soup, with GF croutons.

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On the side was caprese salad—the perfect complement for some greens and protein!

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For dessert, I had a small slice of GF apple pie from the freezer.

Snack/Dinner #2:

A new granola bar in Biochem. I always get super excited when I find new bars I can actually eat so this was enjoyed!
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That’s all I have in me today. I have 1000 things to do, and I am scared to start writing my to-do list! I think sleep may be approaching soon too!

What’s your favorite granola bar?

Guadalupe River Run Round 3

It’s crazy to me that this is the third year I’ve done the Guadalupe River Run 5k. It’s crazy to me that I’ve been around long enough to do a lot of the races I’ve done so many times!

This year’s race was a blast. Apparently in 3 years I finally learned something about pacing! I’ve been doing my average runs faster lately, and with last Sunday’s 3 miler, I had a better idea of where I might be on the pace.

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I guess Luna bars are my current pre-run breakfast! I also had a few crackers because I didn’t think this would hold me over quite sufficiently.

I was a little worried about going South on Super Bowl Sunday, but traffic ended up being fine, and I arrived with plenty of time to pick up my bib and wait around.

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Also great was the fact that the weather was absolutely perfect. It had been really cold earlier in the week, but today we were treated to 70 degree temperatures. When I ran this race 2 years ago, it was cold and soggy.

Then and now:

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Also sidenote: my mom came to the race with me today and was my photographer. For the past 3 years or so, I’ve done a lot of similar races. My mom uses iPhoto streaming to get me the pictures. At this point, we have a number of labeled streams going. However, she doesn’t use the streams for what they are! These photos went in the Turkey stream, despite the fact that we have a Guadalupe River Stream. Present in the Guadalupe River stream is Easter from last year, despite the fact that we have an Easter stream. The Easter stream includes half marathon pictures. Photos from Napa over Thanksgiving? Logically they could be found in EITHER the Napa or the Turkey stream. But nope—they’re in the Wedding Dresses stream.

*Sigh*

The race actually started a bit later than I had thought, but it felt so nice to just be outside enjoying the beautiful weather!

Finally, it was go time.

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My original goal pace had been 8:20, but after hitting 8:22 last weekend without dying, I was shooting to maintain 8:15-8:20. I was very comfortable for the first half of the race, but I didn’t let myself speed up because I knew I would regret it.

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Overall, because I wasn’t totally dying for the most part, I was having a grand old time!

The race course was…interesting. It goes through a park, and weaves back around a lot. We cover some of the pieces of the trails multiple times, from different directions. I think there was a little mishap with the finish. Everyone finishing around me I think was directed unintentionally to cut a corner, so the race ended up being quite short for us!

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This is just a fun run, so I really couldn’t care less! Given I had my pace on my watch, I was able to calculate the time I would have gotten had the race been full length, and I’m happy with where I am! My pace was 27 sec/mile faster than last year, and I believe faster than I was 2 years ago, which was the closest I had gotten to PRing.

I won’t even show you my watch or time because it’s sort of comical, but my pace was 8:11. That was good enough for me to snag second place in my age group!

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Winning beer glass! Given everyone who finished around me had a short course (near the end they started figuring it out and sending people the longer distance), I think it’s still fair because we all ran a short course!

The best part of the race? Their slogan is “Earn your guacamole at the Guadalupe,” and this year, they actually passed out guac to runners post-race!

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So cute, and I love that idea! They also had Noosa, which they were quite generous with. My breakfasts are looking pretty exciting this week!

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After the race, we stopped at Panera for brunch/lunch like we have the past 2 years. I got a half Fuji Apple Chicken salad, my favorite!

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On the way home, we stopped at the Farmer’s Market because I wanted a Gluten Free baked good, but they were out of the only one I wasn’t allergic to—darn! Instead, we stopped in a Natural Foods store where I found some other good options 🙂

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After cleaning myself up, napping a bit, and doing some homework, I settled in to watch the Super Bowl with plenty of 5 layer dip and tortilla chips, and possibly some of the other gluten free goodies I picked out. I was rooting for the Panthers, but that wasn’t happening today!

Also—my favorite commercial was definitely the Honda commercial with sheep singing Queen AND an Aussie. <3 ruminants

What was your favorite commercial?

 

What Happened?

I promise this post is not nearly as deep as the title implies.

I go through phases with blogging. Sometimes I’m not feeling it, because I’m too busy with life. Other times, I feel like such a bad blogger! I expect in the next year or so blogging may pick up a bit more because I will be going through some significant life changes (i.e. graduating). I sometimes feel that I don’t have that much to say, or contribute, but at the same time I miss the typical daily posts. I feel like there are fewer and fewer of those around these days. Maybe everyone is feeling the same way, but to be quite honest, those are my favorite to read!

In the theme of being a bad blogger, I seem to have lost my special blogging talent: the picture taking reflex. In the past, I would whip out my phone and snag a picture before anyone knew what had happened (myself included). I came to write this post today, and realized that the only picture I had was of breakfast. The same breakfast as yesterday. 

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I <3 this breakfast. It takes me back to sophomore year when I first started eating this, but it’s been a while! Yes, I’m at that point of my college career where I get nostalgia from something as basic as breakfast.

That being said, sophomore year was ROUGH. This came up on my timehop this morning. So, so real.

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Today I had a Cosmology midterm, which I think (hope) went pretty well. Naturally I celebrated by raiding the fridge and watching an episode of Monk. I seriously love that show, and it somehow feels comforting to watch it again all these years later. In the fridge, I found a GF grilled cheese with my name on it (literally written on it), so I heated up half of that, and had a few dates and an orange. I’m really trying to incorporate more produce into my life as my stomach feels better.

In terms of workouts, I went to Crossfit this morning. We did mostly upper body things—max pull ups in 2 minutes, max hand release push ups in 2 min, max toes to bar in 2 minutes, and max burpees in 2 minutes. That was followed by some rowing repeats. Rowing is still my jam, and I can still claim that after hundreds of hours on an erg freshman year.

Before dinner, I went for a 3 mile run. My legs were a bit heavy but I hit my goal pace fairly easily, which is a good sign for my 5k on Sunday! That being said, I think my body is ready for some low key days leading up to Sunday!

Since this post was lacking in pictures, I do have some things to share that I’ve actually bothered to photograph (but haven’t bothered to post).

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I’m currently in love with tortilla pizzas.

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Mexican chicken, beans, and avocado over lettuce with a tortilla on the side.

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The pup was spayed this week. She’s had a rough time so far, but seems to be feeling a little better! Although I haven’t seen her yet, I am getting regular updates!

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This was the gluten free vanilla blueberry cake from our dinner on Friday. Lots of this was consumed over the weekend.

That’s all for now—back to work!