Guys. I am so freaking tired. It’s Sunday night as I type this up, and I’ve been worn out since I woke up. The curse of being an early riser is I wake up at 5:30 on my days off, tired but not sleepy. I am beyond ready for bed, so we’re not going to get too verbose for the last day of my full week of eating! Tomorrow I’ll write a little more about the week and the point behind all of it. It was fun for me to do, and I hope you enjoyed reading it!

Breakfast: I ate this at 6am since I knew I wanted to run sometime in the morning, and we wanted to take Chloe to the vet mid-morning, so I decided to get the day started early. I had a Luna bar and some cherries.

I fit in a 3 mile hilly run with just enough time to shower before taking Chloe to the vet. I just can’t stay away, even on my days off! We were concerned she has a urinary tract infection, which our vet thinks is likely.

We finished at the vet in perfect time to head up to San Francisco for the Giants game! My mom and I stopped at Anchor Brewing at The Yard (right outside the ballpark) for beers before the game. I had a mango wheat, and my mom had a barley wine beer, which I had a few sips of.

For lunch, we split a cauliflower truffle flatbread (GF) and a beet salad. 1. I love this ballpark and its food and 2. the flatbread is absolutely amazing.

^my half

For dessert, we split a Ghiradelli hot fudge sundae.

It actually ended up being dog day at the ballpark, which we were totally unaware of until we saw everyone with dogs! One year we’ll need to bring Chloe!

How was the game? Windy. Slow. Exciting. Nerve Wracking.

30 mph winds. We were getting absolutely blown to death and my hat almost took a dip in McCovey cove with a few gusts there. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced wind that strong. Walking was a struggle.

The game was pretty long for a 9 inning game, and there wasn’t a lot going on early on for us.

We broke it open and scored 9 runs during the 7th and 8th inning.

…And then came scarily close to blowing it all in the 9th.

Sounds about right for a Giants game these days.

Dinner: I wanted something lighter post-sundae, so I made a salad with deli turkey, some kind of fancy merlot cheese, salt and pepper, oil and vinegar. Baked Cheddar and Sour Cream Lays on the side. <-so good.

The sundae however did not preclude ice cream for dessert from happening. Sea salt caramel Halo Top with half a piece of chocolate chip pumpkin bread.

After dinner, I met my friend’s 8 week old Norwegian Buhund, and he is a BABE. Such a cutie.

Finally, my last snack of the day was half a brown rice cake with whipped berry cream cheese.

…and now it is most definitely bedtime for me. #grandmalife

I’m going to dive right into today’s post because it’s just about bedtime for me, and I didn’t get anything up any sooner! Today was a work day for me, so let’s hop to it!

Breakfast: A slight modification from my go-to smoothie bowl, which made it taste the same but look not quite as pretty and bright in color. I made my smoothie with plain Greek yogurt, mango juice, frozen pineapple, frozen cherries, and frozen blueberries, and topped it with KIND maple granola. I had a serving of egg whites on the side for added protein.

Lunch: salad with rotisserie chicken, chopped apple, aged cheddar, and light champagne vinaigrette. On the side, GF crackers and a ginger chew.

Mid-work snack: Chocolate Banana NuGo bar.

Happy hour/puppy hour: after work, my parents and I took Chloe to a dog-friend bar for some brews. I had the Free Kittens, a rice lager. I partly like the taste, and partly like the name.

Dinner: Since we were already downtown, we walked a couple of blocks over to a Mexican restaurant. There’s another Mexican place nearby that we had been to before, but this new (to us) one I liked a lot better! Much more flavor. We started with chips and salsa.

And I had the taco salad (sans shell). Basically everything you would find in a taco: chicken, black beans, pico, lettuce, corn, and cojita cheese. Plus some of my parents’ rice.

Dessert: The last of my mint and chocolate Halo Tops with fudge sauce and whipped cream, and later a few chocolate covered blueberries.

And now I’m off to bed!

Day 5! And Friday, nonetheless! For our little intro topic today, I want to talk a little bit about why I personally find weight lifting to be so important for my career.

Veterinary medicine is a super physical job. Think about your vet; is he/she fit? Every vet I’ve known has been reasonably fit. You have to be. It’s an active job, and it requires strength! While I have had minor injuries here and there, I’m thankful for my general health now and am starting to think about longevity in the future in terms of my career. As a veterinarian/vet assistant, there are certain movements that you do thousands and thousands of times, and over decades, that can do some chronic damage. That’s why it’s so, so important to do things in the physiological best way. This applies to a ton of jobs, not just veterinary medicine! I lift weights so I can lift dogs.

(She loves me. Promise.)

I’m totally serious. I need the strength in my legs and knowledge of the proper lifting technique (lift with your legs, not your back!) because I have to lift 50 or 100 pounds dogs onto tables, or carry them across the room. I literally have to deadlift dogs onto tables. I was thinking about it the other day, because I had done a ton of deadlifts at Crossfit in the morning, and then found myself doing the same exact movement, but with a dog instead of a barbell. These fundamental movements are applicable to so many things in life; the positions and the muscles activated are the same, the object lifted is just different! Having good technique in life is so important for acute or chronic injury prevention.

And that, my friends, is why I lift.

But now, food. Yes?

Breakfast: Friday was not a work day, so I took the opportunity to actually sleep in. I woke up at 5:45 but forced myself to stay in bed because I knew I needed the sleep, and magically managed to sleep in to 8! Breakfast was a flapjacked muffin with a giant apricot from a farm stand. <3 California

After breakfast, I took Chloe for a walk by the lagoons. I mentioned before that my formerly broken foot has been bothering me quite a bit lately, which seems to be an indicator that I need new shoes. I was running out the door to spin yesterday and didn’t have time to get my new shoes set up, so I wore my old ones, and I seriously could not walk in them because they made my foot so painful. Well, today, I put my new ones on and it seriously felt like I had new feet. Even just driving in them, I felt the biggest difference and felt elation on the way to our walk. Note to self: don’t let shoes get so worn out! Their age totally snuck up on me, and I felt especially stupid I let it go on for so long given I had already ordered my new ones months ago, and they were just sitting in the garage.

Despite a weird rain yesterday, I can tell the weather is finally starting to warm up, despite the constant wind!

My mom and I took advantage of my day off to get our nails done (I only got a pedicure; I can’t stand to have polish on my fingers), but the only time we could get was 12, and it took a while! When we finally got out, I was starving! We stopped at Subway on our way home for salad; I got my usual: carved turkey, provolone, tomato, olives, spinach, lettuce, oil and vinegar, salt and pepper.

On the side, I had a few crackers.

Despite a super late lunch, I knew I would need more fuel before evening Crossfit, so a couple of hours before class, I had one of these bars. They’re super good; they’re coated in chocolate, and basically feel like a candy bar.

I went to evening Crossfit. I guess I was pretty well rested, because I felt really great during the workout! Post-workout, I picked up burgers from The Counter for my family on the way home (they were immersed in the Warriors game). My mom and I split my signature custom burger: chicken on a GF bun with gruyere, tomato, greens, garlic aioli, and avocado. We also split a kale salad with feta and dried cranberries, and I stole a few of my parents’ fries.

The lemon vinaigrette on the salad somehow tasted just like passionfruit to me. Yum!

And since I’m ketchup-obsessed, I wanted to share one of my current faves:

This one is made with more natural ingredients and no high fructose corn syrup, and it just tastes so much better. Better than the organic Heinz, in my opinion.

For dessert, I made myself an ice cream bowl with chocolate halo top, peppermint bark bread, and some Ghiradelli chocolate syrup.

And of course I had my usual late night snack: a rice cake with whipped cream cheese. I was indecisive (what’s new), so I did half with berry and half with chive.

And now I’m off to bed! I work 7:45 Saturday morning!

Happy Thursday! I hope your week is going well, and that you are enjoying my full week of eating! It is definitely forcing me to blog when I otherwise wouldn’t.

Before we dive in today, I want to talk a little bit about what I would like to call the “Online Coaching Epidemic.” I’ve talked about this a little bit before, but I want to revisit the topic and share my thoughts.

Now, it seems like everyone who has any following on social media has started fitness coaching, whether it be workout programs or meal plans. What I see is especially problematic though is that almost none of these “coaches” have the appropriate qualifications. It is great to learn things about fitness and nutrition through personal experience or personal resource, but that’s not a substitute for a degree or a certification. I think one big problem is the fact that while many of these plans are “customized” to the client, the “coach” is still basing the plans more often than not on personal experience, and what works for one person may not work or may not be healthy for another person. And going even further, a lot of these people pitching “health” have a skewed version of health. I truly believe that those with some sort of real training (degree/certification) are far more qualified because through their education, they should get a more balanced and varied perspective. Another issue I foresee is that these “coaches” are getting in over their heads in terms of what their knowledge can do. These fitness plans may be fine for the average healthy person, but I don’t think these “coaches” have the training to know what to do with someone say with an injury, a mental illness, and medical condition. Just my two cents. If you are struggling with something health/nutrition related, these people are great for information or inspiration, but not necessarily for a plan. Please see a dietician (RD) or certified trainer!

Ok. Rant over. Food time?

Breakfast: I had a slice of maple blueberry bread and some strawberries that my parents picked up at a fruit stand driving through farm country. The obsession is still strong with this bread; it’s seriously so good, and my mom keeps inquiring about when I’m going to make the next batch! The answer is soon; this is the end of my freezer stash!

I went to a midmorning spin class, and had the other half of my protein bar from the previous night post-workout.

Lunch: I’m obsessed with this sandwich. It’s a slice of GF whole grain bread, garlic and herb laughing cow, lettuce, deli turkey, and perfect avocado, topped with garlic powder and salt. On the side, I had a few leftover yam slices and lots of cherries also picked up from the stand. Gilroy, about 1.5 hours away, is known for its cherries and garlic, so naturally my parents had to buy cherries and garlic!

I spent lunch+a fair amount of time after lunch watching the Giants game. It was a doozy, but we ended up winning in 10, thankfully, after a blown save. In the middle of the game, my mom and I headed to the gluten free bakery for afternoon coffee/tea and pastries. I had jasmine tea and a berry muffin.

And since Thursday is one of the few days they make donuts, and there were only 2 left, we split a chocolate donut.

I had night plans with a friend to go to after hours at the California Academy of Sciences (21+), a science museum in San Francisco, and wasn’t sure what our dinner plans were, so I had a heartier snack before my friend came.

I had a Luna bar, a bite of grilled BBQ chicken, a handful of cherries, and a couple of caesar snap peas crisps.

When she arrived to pick me up, we decided to whip up a quick meal at home. We had nachos with salsa, guacamole, and carrots.

Carrots with guacamole is one of my favorite snacks.

The museum was a lot of fun, especially because my friend knows a ton about marine biology and there were extensive aquariums. Here are a couple of pictures from the rainforest area, with butterflies!

Afterwards, for my bedtime snack, I had a big bowl of lemon Halo top.

And now it’s past my bedtime!