My Life: Puppies, Vet, Food

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What has been going on lately leaving me such little time to post? This one is part of it! She’s quite the handful. Fortunately, I think we’re starting to get through the worst of the biting phase, but it’s still a work in progress. She started puppy school a couple of weeks ago, and already knows come, sit, down, and shake. She’s a bit headstrong though, and still somewhat easily distracted. She listens to every word we say, and cocks her head to the side when she doesn’t know what we’re saying or if she hears a new noise. She puts her tongue and mouth on everything, and anything is fair game to be chewed on. The weird thing is she really likes licking feet and ankles. She’s also started jumping up to put her front paws on all the furniture. It’s only a matter of time before she’s stealing food from counters!

Work at the vet has been going really well, and I really like my job. That said, it’s basically my entire life right now, to the point that I have dreams about it every night.

And finally, food. Because I’m home, food is a lot more interesting! Last Sunday, I went to another Giant’s game with my mom and got cauliflower flatbread.

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And a hot fudge sundae. YUM.

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Oh, and a sunburn. Look at what a beautiful day it was in SF though!

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Other notable and colorful meals?

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A teriyaki bowl with asparagus. Quick and easy.

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An egg white scramble with spinach, nutritional yeast, and lemon thyme salt, plus oatmeal and an amazing nectarine. My friend who lives on an orchard visited me again last weekend!

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My current go-to work lunch. Recipe coming soon!

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Eggs with brown rice/quinoa blend, plus a nectarine for breakfast.

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Cooking Light Asian Lettuce Cups with mint snow peas, plus brown rice/quinoa.

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A post-workout protein smoothie into which I accidentally dumped a third of the container of dark chocolate cocoa powder, hence the intense color. The smoothie was half cocoa powder, and the other half was a frozen banana, soy milk, a pinch of protein powder, and a handful of spinach.

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Froyo at lunch at work. Want to hear something terribly sad? I realized I’m allergic to one of my favorite froyo toppings! Apparently the last ingredient in Heath bars is almonds. On the one hand, this makes me really sad that I won’t be able to enjoy Heath in my froyo any longer, but on the other hand, I’m glad I have an explanation to why I was having a significant mystery allergic reaction. Boo.

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Brown rice+my copycat SweetGreen salad-watermelon and feta!

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A very pale but delicious dinner. Cooking Light’s lemon marinated grilled chicken, rice with feta and spices, and frozen then baked cauliflower with Greek seasoning blend.

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A simple breakfast of eggs, and blueberries/a tiny banana with sun butter.

And finally:

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The Primavera salad from Le Boulanger with no nuts and added chicken!

What’s the best thing you ate last week?

4th of July!

Hello! I hope everyone had a fabulous 4th of July! I visited a friend in Monterey, and we watched the fireworks over the bay from Santa Cruz.

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When I arrived in Monterey, our first stop was Carmel to visit the beach. The entire town of Carmel, including the beach, is incredibly dog friendly so I’m definitely brining Chloe later this summer when she’s old enough!

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We stopped for dinner at a little cafe hidden inside a small shopping center off the main street of Carmel, and I had roasted chicken and the veggie of the day, asparagus, with lemon and thyme.

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Since it was 4th of July, ice cream was necessary. We both got fudge ripple!

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It was a beautiful day-pretty cool by the water but still warm enough to enjoy the fresh sea air!

Backing up a bit, Friday night I made red, white, and blue banana bread. This stuff is insane. I just use my regular banana bread recipe and throw in blueberries, raspberries, and white chocolate chips! I made it for the first time last 4th of July and knew I had to make it again!
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In terms of workouts this week, it’s mostly just been Crossfit. I’ve been trying to get out the door for a run lately but it just hasn’t been happening. Since I don’t have a summer half marathon, the schedule and motivation is just not there right now! Additionally, my work schedule this past week made it hard to fit a run in. Such is life.

I apologize for the infrequent posting, but I promise a food+life update tomorrow!

What did you do for the 4th of July? Any patriotic treats?

The Answer Should Be Yes

Well hello guys! It’s been a little while, hasn’t it? My life has literally been nothing but the vet lately. Animals are taking over my life. Because then I come home to a crazy pup and a needy kitty!

I’ve had no energy or desire to pop open my computer these past few days. The first couple of days were totally exhausting, and my brain shut down before 10pm. Yesterday I started work at 7. I’m there for 9 hours a day, including lunch, and I’m on my feet the entire time. Needless to say, my feet haven’t been too happy about this! I love working at the vet though-I’m getting the hang of things much faster when I’m there 40 hours a week rather than the 4 hours a week I had been doing during school.

What else have I done this week? I went to the Farmer’s Market on Thursday-there’s one in the evenings right next to work on Thursdays. I’ve done some workouts, including teaching my spin class. One workout in particular I’d like to mention is the reason my legs are currently sore, and will only get more sore.

I mentioned it before, but I’m working with a trainer this summer. I trained with him all throughout high school, and in just the 2 weeks I’ve been with him this summer, everything is improving. My Olympic lifting technique is improving rapidly. In Crossfit, I feel like the strength/Oly portion gets glossed over on the way to the WOD, so this is really good. I still need to get a little more confident in my lifts, and my max weights should go up even more. Yesterday we did both snatches and cleans. I PRed my snatch again this week-from the power position. How crazy is that?? Then we did squats. I’m on a lifting program, and this week was sets of 10, 10, and 8. Yuck. High rep squats are the worst. My first set of 10 was 145#, my second was 155#, and my set of 8 was 165#. I can confidently say I’ve never done a set of 10 at 155# before. The thing though is, I never doubted that I wasn’t going to make these lifts. I think the mental aspect of weightlifting is incredibly important, and in high school, this is something that really shaped me in other areas of my life, which is one reason I fell in love with weight lifting. I actually wrote part of my college admissions essay about this. I can’t believe I’m actually sharing this, but I think it is really important so here’s a little excerpt:

“In weightlifting, I learned to push through mental roadblocks, launching myself into uncharted territory. With my mind, I could push my body further than with sheer strength. With difficult lifts, I found that if the thought of failure crept into my mind, I would instantly fail.”

Also note that I was a much better writer 3 years ago-being a science major does not foster the same types of skills…

I think that weightlifting has been a huge influence in shaping who I am.

Anyways, back to the workout. After squats was push presses and bent over rows. Then conditioning. My trainer asked me how my legs were. I said they were okay, to which he replied, “Oh, I thought they’d be shot.”

The answer should be yes, they were shot, because then I proceeded to do conditioning full of burpees.

6 minutes, on the minute:

1. 1 power clean (85#), 10 burpees

2.  2 power cleans, 8 burpees

3. 3 power cleans, 6 burpees

4. 4 power cleans, 4 burpees

5. 5 power cleans, 2 burpees

6. 6 power cleans, 1 burpee

I honestly surprised myself that I even finished 10 burpees in a minute!

But yes, now I’m feeling those squats. I started to get sore 2 hours later. So this should be interesting.

Foodwise?

Breakfasts

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I mashed up a ripe banana with cocoa powder and then stirred in oats. I topped all that with plain Greek yogurt and sunflower seed butter.

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Eggs+oatmeal. My berries to oatmeal ratio was 2:1 which was just about right. Oatmeal isn’t exactly my thing.

Lunch

For the first half of this week, I packed really unphotogenic sweet potatoes stuffed with black bean soup, chicken, and avocado. Plus a veggie. I’ll spare you the pictures. I finally settled on a favorite work lunch of a salad with dates, feta, chicken, nectarines, and champagne vinaigrette.

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Dinner

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Black bean soup with cheese and avocado.

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Salad with corn and avocado, topped with Trader Joe’s BBQ chicken.

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Parmesan encrusted chicken over garlic spinach, with a sweet potato on the side.

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Take out-a chicken burger with dijon and avocado on a gluten free bun.

And of course-this is necessary:

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How was your week?

 

Weekend Adventures

I start my summer job tomorrow, but this was a great kickoff weekend! I had some college friends stay with me, and it was an awesome time!

We started with a home-cooked meal of my guacamole salad on Thursday night.

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Friday morning, we were up early to head into the city! (SF)

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Despite the fact that I went to the Ferry building a week ago with another friend, that’s where we were headed!

It was an absolutely beautiful day in the city.

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I was actually pretty warm in my long sleeves and boots! Gotta love San Francisco.

We explored the Ferry building a bit before grabbing lunch. We are all very indecisive people, but eventually settled on a cafe. I had a beautiful rotisserie chicken, and an amazing salad with nectarines, feta, and dates. I will definitely recreate that salad for the blog!

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We walked around about before grabbing ice cream to take outside.

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I had olive oil ice cream with fudge sauce. I didn’t think I’d like the olive oil flavor, but it was delicious! It had a touch of orange, and the savory-ness of the olive oil had a similar effect as salted caramel does.

After enjoying the sunshine, we made the trek back to meet up with another graduated friend for dinner. It was a Mexican restaurant, and I had a delicious salad with cheese, avocado, pumpkin seeds, and chicken. Plus plenty of chips and salsa!

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I also split a side of plantains.

Unfortunately, that night one of my friends had to leave, so the next morning two of us made the drive to Monterey. My friend returned from South Africa on Thursday (I picked her up at the airport), and I moved her into her summer apartment in Monterey.

On the way up, I had to offer her the true California experience by stopping at a fruit stand for cherries in Gilroy.

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We rolled in around lunchtime, and hit up the Giant Artichoke for lunch. My friend had never had whole artichokes, so I showed her how to eat the leaves.

I’m so spoiled in CA.

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For my main meal, I ordered an artichoke veggie sandwich and skipped the bread.

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After lunch, we explored Cannery Row first by foot.

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It was definitely cool out! Highs in the 60s. While walking, we saw a sign for “free chocolate tasting,” and wandered into a shop that offered chocolate tasting with a complimentary mini glass of wine for only $3!

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We got to pick out which chocolates we tasted-mine were mostly caramels because I’m nut-free. The salted caramel was delicious, but I went home with the caramel apple chocolate-it tasted just like fall and was very unique!

Then, I showed my friend how to explore Monterey in style. In a surrey-a sleek 4 wheeled bike.

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I had the pleasure of driving this bad boy.

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It was a great way to get in some movement and take in the beautiful views of the water.

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Neither of us was in the mood for a big-deal dinner, so we stopped at a little Indian cafe. I was hoping for more vegetables, but the food was good!

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We were both stuffed by the end!

It was sad leaving my friend this morning, but it was such an awesome weekend full of friends and adventure!

What did you do this weekend?

Busy but Not Busy

Hey guys! This week has flown by. What did I even do?? I start work next week!

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Sunday evening I went to the county fair. I went by myself, and it was 95% just to see the animals! I seriously contemplated buying a cow.

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Plus there was a petting zoo! Totally worth the $3 to feed the ruminants. Speaking of which-guess what just came on Amazon? I’m pretty pumped to read this. Yes, this is a textbook on the digestive system of ruminants (cows and goats and sheep, etc)

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Workout wise this week, I’ve done some morning Crossfit, some spin, and some workouts with my old trainer from when I was in high school! I first lifted weights with him. I was concerned coming back given the last time I trained with him I was in the best shape of my life, but it’s been good! I actually PRed my snatch by 8 pounds today. Except it was from the high hang-not even the mid hang. For those that don’t know much about weightlifting, usually you start from the ground because you get more power. Also-it was a power snatch not a full snatch. What all this means is I’m a lot stronger than my PR and next time I do full snatches I should be able to get even heavier! Technique is everything! Now all my lifts are in the triple digits!

On Monday he went easy on me and we didn’t do much conditioning, but today I had conditioning involving intervals of slam balls and max effort 250m rows. Killer.

Foodwise, what’s been going on around here?

Breakfast

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Eggs, oatmeal, and fruit are the current formula. A couple of days ago I made oatmeal with cocoa powder stirred in (and a banana). I make a big batch and then can have it throughout the week. It was super convenient to grab a few bites before morning Crossfit!

Lunch

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A sweet potato stuffed with chicken, spinach, salsa, cheese, and guacamole. This is great for a quick lunch!

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Super ugly but got the job done-spinach, quinoa veggie blend, and chicken maple apple sausage. Plus guacamole and carrots. I love these individual packs of guacamole!

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Lunch with my sister! A turkey sandwich with smoked gouda. I ate the insides out since I’m not doing gluten right now. On a side note-my stomach seems to be healed!

Dinner

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Brussels, laughing cow, and maple apple chicken sausage. This is an old Carrots N Cake recipe!

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Chicken vegetable soup with a side caesar salad (which was massive).

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A frittata with potatoes and cheddar, broccoli, and Trader Joe’s Polenta.

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Homemade banana ice cream. Banana, cocoa powder, and a touch of milk to get it moving.

Puppy

I swear she’s gotten so much bigger already! She went from 8.5 to 11 pounds in the first week we had her! Her snout and body are both longer, and yesterday she seemed to find her bark. She can be a handful-sometimes she goes psycho-puppy on us and is a biting machine that cannot be contained. She’s an angel when sleeping.

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My friends came over to visit her yesterday evening. Totally already killing her selfie game!

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