Guys, I am SO SORRY I haven’t posted in such a long time! I was pretty busy this weekend! Juggling rowing and school is…difficult. But I think I’m getting better at managing everything. How have you all been? Any good eats? I guess today will just be another flood of pictures. I definitely haven’t documented everything I’ve eaten. Especially not the sweet things…He he…

Ok, here it goes!

Veggie chili! Plus I love that the dining hall has had soybeans lately!

Mushroom barley soup from Whole Foods

Banana with cocoa powder and peanut butter

Brunch= best meal of the week. Gotta love that avocado! Plus now they have crepes…those seem to have gone unpictured…both days.

One of my first times getting pasta (it’s not whole wheat so it usually isn’t a priority for me). I mostly picked the chicken out and ate it with my salad though!

I have to add, this day also included some very delicious pumpkin cake made by my roommate.

I LOVE BISCUITS. It’s dangerous. And they’re so cute, right? By the way, peanut butter update! The dining hall now has natural peanut butter! So I don’t have to carry my own around!

Super Bowl food! But not really…GAH such a frustrating game though!

And that brings us back to today! I have to be honest…I’ve been indulging quite a bit since I stopped my no sugar challenge. Cereal with chocolate milk and peanut butter is a big one for me…plus some cookies, some frozen yogurt…and of course my roommate’s cake! But hey, it was hot out of the oven! Before I recap on today, I’ll go through a few non-food things from the last few days. 

Friday morning was weights. We did single leg RDLs as well as regular RDLs, but we actually did the regular ones at a decent weight. Here’s the thing about RDLs. My hamstrings are ALWAYS sore after doing them, no matter how many or few reps, or how much or little weight is on the bar. It’s Monday. I’m still fairly sore. And here’s the thing. My bed is at a kind of awkward height, because my dresser is under my bed. So normally to get in bed I have to get a nice little running start and jump in. Sooo with tight hamstrings? Let’s just say I haven’t always been clearing it lately! 

Saturday morning practice was actually really fun. I got to row with some of the other walk-ons who went to the lightweight rowing team. I also had my other coach from fall coach us. I think I would be happier on the lightweight team, just because I like their workouts better and I wouldn’t be the shortest one…Oh well. Maybe next year. 

Later Saturday afternoon, I lifted weights on my own, and did one of my no-fail workouts from the fall. This workout I did a couple of times with my trainer before I left for college, but last fall I did it like…every other week. At the beginning, I would be sooo sore, but I did it enough that by the end of fall I wasn’t sore at all. Here it is:

I always write my workouts on whiteboards, and then take a picture and set it as my phone background. What’s nice about doing this workout a lot, is that it is already on my phone, and I have already made adjustments to it to accommodate the weight room at the gym here better. 

I was expecting to be fairly weak on the squats, and therefore be super sore from them. But this workout surprised me! My legs weren’t too bad. I’m sore, but not terribly so. What shocked me most though was that the pushups destroyed my arms! These aren’t ordinary pushups. You keep your elbows at your sides and slowly lower your chest to the ground, and then back up. I usually have to come back up on my knees after a few reps. My arms were dead! And now, so sore! That was a surprise! 

So how many of you watched the Super Bowl? I sure did! After a bit of stress over how to turn the TV on downstairs, I got it going just in time for kickoff! I must say, I wasn’t impressed by the commercials. I liked the Oreo one, and the one with all the adorable baby animals. Some of them were just plain weird though. 

Ok, now that I’m caught up, on to today! 

Weights this morning, so Blueberry Apple Cinnamon bread beforehand!

I still haven’t come close to my maximum weight for squats, but I’m always scared to go too heavy in new situations. I’m still up there with most of the girls though. I don’t know why, but I haven’t squatted the same weights as the strongest girls on the team, even though I know I could handle it. 

I went for a quick jog afterwards. As in maybe 1.5 miles. I had wanted to do more, but I had some last minute work to do. Breakfast was a new one for me.

So, my nutrition professor from last quarter (whose class I sat in last Thursday) told us that this was the healthiest breakfast ever. Although the walnuts are my touch. So what the heck is that?? Raw instant steel cut oats, nonfat plain greek yogurt, and semi-thawed blueberries. My evaluation? I could have done without the oats. I really don’t like textures in my yogurt (flaxseed in yogurt is the worst), so this wasn’t great for me. I’ve learned to like granola in yogurt though, so maybe I could try baking up the steel cut oats with brown rice syrup or something and making it into granola. The idea behind raw steel cut oats is that they digest more slowly. 

Ok guys, I have some big(ish) news. I had a great/horrible revelation after breakfast. I think I may have a nut allergy. What?? Let me explain. My friend has a nut allergy that causes her face to break out when she eats too many nuts. She was texting me today saying that her face was breaking out because she ate too many nuts. So here’s the thing. I’ve never had skin problems hardly at all before, and then in the middle of the summer, my face started breaking out like crazy. I really thought it was an allergic reaction, and I had a feeling it was to nuts, but I couldn’t figure out what nut, because I wasn’t eating any new type of nut. It finally occurred to me today that where I went wrong was in looking at the type of nut, not the quantity! Whenever I would cut a certain nut out of my diet, I would simply replace it with another type of nut. And the timing makes sense. I started eating more nuts than ever before this summer, and let’s be honest, I eat a crazy amount of peanut butter. Sooo I need to severely reduce my nut intake. So for the next couple of weeks, I can’t have more than a serving of nuts per day, because I need to test this out. So why is this partially good? Because it means there is hope for my skin to be normal again! Which is super exciting! I was telling this story to my friend, and she told me, “Aww you won’t be peanut butter girl anymore (referring to my habit of bringing peanut butter to the dining hall).” I told her, “No, I’ll just be less peanut butter girl!”

So that is where I stand. I need to monitor my nut intake carefully. 

Guess what everyone? I have to learn several dances for crew. Which would not be a big deal if I had any coordination or ability to dance at all. However, I have no coordination or ability to dance at all. And here’s the thing. I actually have to be good because I have to preform this in front of tons of people, including basically every athlete at my school. Awesome. And I have a week….Wish me luck!

Oh, I have one more picture for today!

Hiding under all that lettuce is a piece of potato and collard greens. On top of that mess of lettuce is brown rice, Thai barbecue chicken, and yellow curry sauce. This dish is something that the dining hall has almost every night. It was every night at the beginning of the year. The first week, I loved it and had it multiple times. And then….it was still there. Every. Single. Night. I think I’ve had it all of once since the first week. But today I was just not up for waiting in the grilled chicken line, so I went with this! I also had a slice of buttered cinnamon raisin toast.

Well, that’s my day! I have to go study for a math midterm that I have tomorrow! You know what is bad? In the time since I last posted, WordPress changed its whole look. I swear I haven’t been gone that long! I promise to be better!

Do you have any food allergies? How did you find out?