I thought I’d do today’s post in a more traditional style, since I was running around most of the day!

I began my morning with a 6am spin class. I woke up feeling a bit rough, but before my alarm since my room gets really warm at night. I had a tetanus shot yesterday, and my body felt really achy. Nothing a little Tylenol couldn’t fix, and I’ve felt fine since then!

The class was with one of my favorite instructors at a local spin studio. The class flies by, and she definitely makes us work hard! It’s one of those classes where your numbers appear on the screen—extra motivation for this competitive girl!

After class was breakfast. I had the last of my Harry and David mangos. Harry and David has the best fruit, and these were possibly the best mangos I’ve ever had. I also had some Strauss (<-best local yogurt, crazy creamy!) plain whole milk greek yogurt with KIND cinnamon granola and sunbutter.

After breakfast, I rushed to get showered up for physical therapy. Its going really well—I just started doing “plyometrics” on my foot. I put this in quotes because they are wimpy plyos. I’m using a leg press to kick and land, with a reduced load. I worked up to 55# today, so we’re getting there! Once I hit my body weight, I should be good to go for real impact like running and jumping (obviously in extreme moderation, working up to it—I’m in no hurry!). I did some extra strengthening exercising today, so I actually got out later than normal, making me late for a coffee meeting with a recent vet school grad who was in my sorority at Stanford and graduated undergrad before I got there. Since I was late, I skipped coffee to have more time to talk. It was super helpful. It also made me realize that in the very near future, my life is going to completely change, forever. I feel like I’m basically pledging my life to cows, which I am actually feeling okay about right now. The unknown though is hard. As are apps.

We finished up at 11:48. I made the decision to race to noon Crossfit (I had my stuff with me in case I got out in time), and managed to change clothes, put my hair up, sign up for class, and drive there, with 2 minutes to spare.

The workout was something I could do completely! It was a low-key day. We did Farmer’s carries, windmills, weighted planks (which my foot finally allows me to do), hollow body holds, and glute bridges. We also had to do 6 60s sprints on the assault bike (these are terrible), which we did throughout the other sets.

I arrived home for a fairly late lunch, and snacked on carrots and a few crackers with apricot goat cheese while I prepped my food.

Leftover avocado soup, minus the chicken since it was all gone. For protein, I made an egg. On the side, I had 1.5 parmesan corn muffins with some earth balance spread (I like the taste of it). I also had the last few bites of plum crisp.

After lunch, it was time to get to work on vet school apps. I input ALL my transcript info, which was a big step.

Dinner was grated zucchini sautéed and quesadillas—stuffed with monterey jack, spinach, mushrooms, and rotisserie chicken.

I’m pretty sure other snacks were consumed throughout the day, but I can’t remember at the moment!

After all the graduation mumbo-jumbo, it’s time for a normal catch up on normal life. Food. Fitness. Animals. That’s just about how we roll around here, isn’t it? So let’s do a food+fitness recap of the week.

Fitness:

Monday: Crossfit

A1: Front Squat @30×1 – 3, 3, 3, 3, 3
A2: Banded Shoulder Stretch 30s/side
+
3 Sets with no rest

30 Double under ( I did 10 calories on the assault bike)
12 DB Front Squat
12 Wtd Hanging Leg Raise (No weight for me because I didn’t want a dumbbell on my foot…)
12 Burpee (I did 15 V-ups)

Tuesday: In the morning, I went to my mom’s aerobics class with her, although I couldn’t do absolutely everything with my foot. It was a lot of fun! Exactly what I would imagine a fitness class in the ’80s would be like, complete with the music.

In the evening, I went to a spin class at the local studio. This was the first time in a class I was able to stand a little bit! I stood maybe 1/3 of the time we were supposed to stand, and took it super carefully.

Wednesday: 6am spin class at the same studio, and was able to stand even more than the day before! At this point, it doesn’t hurt my foot, but my foot gets tired before it’s overused to the point it stops hurting, so I know it well enough to know when to back off.

In the afternoon, I went to my Crossfit gym to make use of the open gym while my parents walked the dog. I worked on bench press mainly, working up to a heavy set of 2. Then I did pull ups and dumbbell rows. All arms!

Thursday: I went to the Crossfit gym again to do my own workout. I’m not quite ready for Olympic lifts yet (probably next week), so I didn’t do the class. I did 4×4 deadlifts at 165#, going slow down. Then I did 4 sets of 8 single arm kneeling db press at 25#, and 6 single leg RDLs, keeping it light for my foot at 35#. I finished with 4 rounds of 10 tricep dips, 25 abmat sit ups, and 30s sprint on the bike.

Friday: Not there yet, but soon, Crossfit! Back squats, plus an on the minute WOD of pull up holds, handstand holds, and kb swings.

Food:

A few highlights include some recipes stolen from my friend’s Pinterest. She seriously has the best pins!

Lemon chicken and veggie soup, which we topped with feta and served with sweet potato tortilla chips.

The best thing though? Probably the best salad I’ve ever made. Grilled romaine salad with corn and avocado. If you’ve never tried grilled romaine, you need to. This salad had a corn, avocado, and basil blend (which we added grilled chicken to), with a maple miso dressing. Seriously, this was amazing.

Other non-pinterest delights:

Nachos, the last meal on campus after we finished moving out. I wanted froyo, but the place was closed.

Breakfasts: Yogurt with some variation of fruit, granola, and sunbutter.

Coffee with my mom at my new favorite coffeeshop near home+a gluten free brownie. SUPER good.

Leftover soup with GF avocado toast.

Morning glory bread. Recipe to come. It’s still not 100% what I was looking for, but still delicious!

Delicious, simple dinner. Leftover grilled chicken, yams, 2x roasted. First as a whole yam, second in chunks to make the edges crispy. Obsessed. Plus roasted zucchini with crushed garlic, salt, pepper, and nutritional yeast.

Cooking Light BBQ chicken with peach and feta slaw (we used chopped lettuce in place of slaw). Such unique flavors!

Animals:

And now I’m off to Crossfit! Have a fabulous weekend!

My friends, we made it. I am officially a college grad. (See part 1 of grad weekend here.)

So here we are. Graduation Day. June 12, 2016. My whole life 2016 was a big year. I always knew it would be the year I graduated college, and I never really considered that there would be any years after 2016 (2017, what is that??). And now it was here. Somehow I never thought we’d get here. I never thought college would end. It seemed like the thing you worked your whole life for. And now I was graduating?? When did I grow up? I don’t feel mature enough to be a college grad!

Breakfast: the typical yogurt+sunbutter+blueberries+granola. Gotta fuel up for the big transition into the real world!

(I was out of bowls. Well, or so I thought until I went to move out…oops.)

My handiwork. Stanford has a tradition called Wacky Walk. Every year, the undergraduates go to the commencement wearing silly costumes. We parade around the stadium as we enter. (And wear normal caps and gowns for the department ceremony.) After literally 9 months of trying to figure out what we wanted to be, we decided on emojis, and I’m so happy with how they turned out! We each chose our favorite emoji, one which we felt represented us the best.

My sister was graduating with her Master’s so we joined us for the ceremony!

I also think there’s one important thing I need to talk about in this post. The issue that was very present at our commencement, and has launched Stanford into national news for the past few weeks. I wasn’t sure if I was going to talk about it on this blog, but I feel compelled to speak given it’s something that happened right here at home. Brock Turner. I don’t think anyone disagrees that the sentencing was ludicrous, but I want to give voice to the protest that happened at Wacky Walk, because I think it was often glossed over or misinterpreted. There were swarms of reporters there (I actually got spoken too and quoted in an article), but I think they’re missing part of the message. It wasn’t just about the sentence, about throwing out the judge. It was also about getting Stanford to enact change. The policy for sexual assault is not set up to prevent future sexual assault. Many assaulters are repeat offenders. Stanford has a list of names of those it has found guilty of sexual assault, and those names should be released so that students can protect themselves and be wary. (If you are interested, sign the petition here.) This is such a small step that would radically change the culture. Stanford should be a leader here and take action.

Back to our regularly scheduled post. The commencement address. It was…unexpected. The main speaker was Ken Burns, the documentary maker. I think most people assumed sort of a bland speech. That it was not…It was definitely one to remember, and my fellow students and I couldn’t quite believe he was saying what he did (not that anyone seemed to disagree). It was a very strange forum for that message though. Also, in all the videos of the speech on youtube, my emoji and I are featured!

Following commencement, I biked off to my department ceremony, where a cheese and veggies spread awaited me. My mom actually got suer lost coming to my department ceremony, and I had to talk her through directions while she frantically walked in circles. She made it just in time for some food, before we had to be seated.

Before I knew it, I was walking the stage to accept the little piece of paper that represents so much.

During the ceremony, I was reminded what I’m doing, and why I’m doing it. I think my thinking about the future as of late has been selfish; I have to remember that I work hard and follow my calling, but for the greater good. I’m part of something bigger than myself. It’s easy to forget that while grinding through problem sets.

After the ceremony, froyo was entirely necessary. Plus, my favorite froyo place ever (Wildberry) is right off campus!

I spent the afternoon relaxing in my dorm room with Netflix and banana bread.

Before cleaning myself up and heading home for dinner with my family.

To start, we shared grilled artichoke with horseradish aioli.

For my main meal, I had a salad with kale, beets, and goat cheese.

After dinner, my mom made my sister and I re-don our caps and gowns for photos together. Outside. On a random street corner.

And thus, I am graduated. So-what’s next? I am applying to Veterinary school in the fall, and am still working out my plans for next year. In the meantime, I will be leaving for Tennessee soon for 5 weeks. I will be in Knoxville, and could not be more excited for this incredible opportunity.