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A Chill Day

Are you guys all having a good weekend? I definitely am! And Sunday marks the official 2 week out point for my race! I’m starting to get excited! 

I haven’t really posted in a few days (besides my scheduled post) so I have a kind of random selection of pictures from the last couple of days. 

Thursday morning started with Crossfit-lots of deadlifts! I refueled appropriately:

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Nothing too crazy happened during the day- I got a veggie wrap for lunch with hummus. I didn’t actually bring money with me, and it was the only real food I could afford with the few dollars in my backpack.

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And my pumpkin butter obsession continues (more on that in a minute!). One thing about dorm life-I have the tendency to buy something and eat nothing but that item until it is gone, which is really quickly. And then I buy something else and the cycle repeats. I guess this is what happens when grocery trips are infrequent…Well, the pumpkin butter is certainly disappearing quickly! I made “paleo oatmeal”-I wasn’t trying to make paleo or oatmeal, but I threw a ton of things in a bowl and that was what I got! This was applesauce, egg whites, chia seeds, coconut, and almond milk. Topped with pumpkin butter! It really was just a medium for pumpkin butter. I wanted pumpkin oatmeal, but I don’t have any oats….so there’s that.

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That evening at flag football, the soreness from a full week of heavy lifting began to set in, and my hamstrings began a war on me that would last another day. I also did the spin class I wrote for myself that evening-it turned out to be pretty good! I definitely have a tendency to do a lot more in the saddle than out…talk about a quad burner! I really don’t like the spin bikes at school-they feel really plastic-y, and I don’t really get the feel of the road. It’s more like moving your legs with resistance that spinning-but the quad burn can definitely sneak up on you!

Afterwards, it was pretty late so I refueled with hot chocolate. Kind of. Another #dormlife problem-no milk. And as much as I love almond milk, it has almost no protein. I mixed (not very well based on all the powder floating around) chocolate protein powder, brown rice syrup, a little honey, cocoa powder, and almond milk and heated it up. Perfect. Kind of.

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After my workout, a little socializing while drinking this concoction, and doing a pre-lab, I was beat. I woke up yesterday morning still really tired. I debated skipping my 5 mile hilly run, but I knew I’d never be able to fall back asleep because I had already gotten up. The run went pretty well-these are some intense hills. It took a while for my legs to loosen up, but I’m glad I got some hill work in. There was just one glitch-my shoe inserts. I think they do help prevent foot pain, but they give me the worst blisters-it’s only one foot for some reason, but I took them both out halfway through the run (so I’d be even). My foot hurt a little by the end of the run-so I’m not really sure what I should do at this point. 

Here are some random eats from Friday:

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My roommate and one of my other friends baked banana bread-you better believe I was all over that! 

After my run, my legs kind of tightened up and all the soreness from the week hit. My hamstrings felt like death-I can’t even remember the last time they were that sore! After a 2 hour Chem lab (we finished 2 hours early!), my legs felt 100x better. Which was good given I had flag football practice. I swear, I’m so bruised up right now! I may or may not have bar shaped bruises going up my legs…at Crossfit, I got a big bruise on the front of my leg because I kept dragging the bar against my leg doing cleans. Smart one Aurora.

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(Finally fading)

Plus, I’m getting a little beat up playing football. I guess that’s just what happens in sports-I used to be pretty bruised up from softball regularly.

Back to food. GUYS. I had the best idea. Pumpkin butter. Cottage cheese. I really liked how the pumpkin cream cheese was creamy and a little savory-but it’s too rich to eat with a spoon (or is it?). I found out that a little market on campus now uses meal plan dollars (part of our dining plan-I NEVER use them) and they actually sell really good, useful stuff. It’s basically a mini grocery. And meal plan dollars are like free money.

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I immediately dug into the cottage cheese.

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YUM. But for my next snack, I kicked it up another notch.

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Cottage cheese. Sunflower seed butter. Pumpkin butter. Apple chips. That’s gourmet my friends. Or at least college gourmet. SUCH a good combo. Too bad I’m out of cottage cheese…and apple chips…and almost pumpkin butter. 

This morning I managed to sleep in until 9-which is a pretty big accomplishment for me! I hit the gym first thing-but I wanted to give my legs a complete rest day after this past week, and before tomorrow’s 9 miles. I did something I’ve never done before-arms and abs day. I NEVER do arm workouts-I usually do full body workouts, and occasionally leg days. But I didn’t want to do anything that put any stress on my legs at all. My workout ended up consisting of mostly pull ups and planks. I’m so close to being able to do a full pull up-only 25 pounds of assistance, which is such a huge improvement. My goal is to get it by Thanksgiving! And with the quantity I did today, I should be able to get there!

After my workout, I was starving and more than ready for brunch. I was really hoping to get a smoothie, but the line was insane, as was the waffle line. I still haven’t gotten a waffle yet this year!

But then again, I’m never going to complain about copious amounts of guacamole.

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Giant Mexican salad. I also had a biscuit and this frozen fruit.

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I spent the day doing nothing too crazy. I realized that Netflix streams season 8 of How I Met Your Mother. I was considering going to the football game today, but I decided to just hang out. Dinner with How I Met Your Mother? That sounds just right to me.

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I made a scramble with the last of my spinach, plus laughing cow garlic and herb and pesto. I finally peeled myself away from the screen to do laundry, which is where I am right now. I discovered that blogging is the perfect thing to do while doing laundry!

And with that, I’ll leave you all to your weekends! I’m going back to the trail by the bay to run, so I’m visiting my cats and grabbing lunch with a high school friend also home this weekend.

What are your favorite TV shows? What other things should I put pumpkin butter on? What amazing pumpkin products should I try? Can you tell I’m obsessed with all things fall?

WIAW and Relearning to Run

Happy Wednesday! I’m dead tired and I’m staying up to write this post, but I simply couldn’t miss WIAW. I just finished marathon Chem and Physics problem sets so let’s hope this post is at least kind of coherent. Thanks Jenn!

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This WIAW is a collection of a ton of random shots I took of my food. I think it pretty accurately describes my eating right now. #dormlife

Before I get into that, I wanted to talk about this morning’s workout. I took a 45 minute spin class, and then went our for  a 4 mile training run. I had some…technical difficulties. It’s never good when your shoes don’t finish in the same state they began.

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I got new inserts to in theory help with my foot problems. Do they help? Maybe? At least on shorter runs? My feet still stunk on my 12 miler. Well, there’s one little problem. Well, 2. A) I don’t own enough anti-blister socks so I need to save them for the longest runs and B) these inserts rub like crazy. After 2 miles, I couldn’t stand the intense burning on one foot, so I stopped and ran the rest of the way with the insert in my hand. The blister pain went away, but I had kind of a strange experience. I really concentrated on running correctly. I’ve done a ton of agility/sprinting training, so I know how to run. And my sprinting run is not at all like my distance run in terms of how I strike with my feet. I was being really careful to strike with my foot in a better position (just one foot…baby steps), and guess what? No foot pain. The motion was a lot different though, and my heel was burning like crazy by the end of the run. I think the only way to solve my foot issues is by relearning to run. After my race, I’m going to really work on it, which will involve a lot of barefoot running. 

Aaand onto the food from the past few days.

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An Asian pear with the morning view.

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Leftover salad and foccacia. The salad is from the Cheesecake Factory-my friend invited me to dinner there with her grandparents Sunday night. I actually really liked this salad! Perfect leftover.

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I was craving pumpkin (no surprise there) so I threw a bunch of things in the microwave in hopes of something similar to the amazing pumpkin microwave cake we made. It didn’t really come out at all like that, but it tasted just like pumpkin pie so I’m not complaining. 

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My newest obsession-apple chips. And yesterday/today I was pretty much out of food so it was apple chips for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I kid. Sort of…

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A solid dining hall dinner post-Crossfit. The dill salmon was actually really good-normally dining hall salmon is pretty gross.

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You know I’m out of food when…I break into my freezer supply of quick bread. This is zucchini bread-a study snack. 

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Post workout drink with a side of college life-that mess on my desk is what I have to deal with constantly. There is zero space in my room, if you’re wondering why a lot of pictures are of me holding food, not on a table or desk. And FYI-it’s not a good habit to get into to just plop your food down on TOP of everything…laptop included…

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I was about to just grab a bar for breakfast, but I decided I should have something at least a little more real. The last of my cinnamon apple blueberry bread from who knows when in the freezer! Yum!

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It’s all about balance my friends. And by that-of course I mean the balance of chocolate and vanilla. Kidding. But I’ll talk about the actual balance I’m referring to at the end.

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Strange but good-harboiled egg and pesto. Add in some dried fruit, and you’ve got yourself a pre-workout snack.

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Pre-workout dates. Yum. 

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Since I was crazy low on food and I saw some posts about all the amazing pumpkin things at Trader Joe’s, I HAD TO GO NOW. Despite the crazy amount of work I had today. Study fuel…right??

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Dinner was some veggie soup from the freezer, plus some new purchases. Edamame crackers topped with pumpkin cream cheese!

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GUYS. This pumpkin cream cheese is BOMB. It’s not too sweet either-that surprised me! It’s not going to last until the weekend. There’s no way.

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I also got these because, I mean, come on, how cool is this? Honestly though, I wasn’t a fan. They were a bit dry and sweet for my taste. Better topped with pumpkin cream cheese. Sensing a theme here?

Today was also the night of our guac party. It was honestly a much needed brain break. Yesterday held hours of work, including late night work and an early morning.Image

And avocados make everything better, right?

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Speaking on study snacks…apple chips+pumpkin cream cheese? YUM. If that doesn’t say fall, what does? Are you sensing WHY this cream cheese won’t be around much longer?

And onto the whole balance thing…I feel like my eating habits are starting to slip. Mostly I’m just not feeling as great. Late nights are not helping when I have a snack because I’m up late working. I’m making a 30 day challenge for myself-only eat pumpkin. Not literally-only eat sweets if they involve pumpkin. That way, I won’t eat something that will make me feel bad unless it’s seasonal and really worth it. That’s a balance I can live with. And hopefully some sleep, coffee, and fresh groceries can get me right back on track. 

Favorite pumpkin product so far?

 

Breaking into Pinterest

Hello! This summer saw the growth of my blog in that I branched out to social media, like Twitter and Instagram. (Psst, follow me! fitnessissweet and @fitnessissweet.) Now, I think it’s time to tackle Pinterest. I made an account a looong time ago, but never figured out the whole thing. Well, now that I actually have some recipes that would be Pinterest acceptable, I think I need to get that whole thing going. Plus, with the holidays coming up, Pinterest just has too many amazing and cute ideas to NOT utilize. To kick off this new endeavor, I’m going to do a round-up of pinnable posts and pictures, similar to Lindsay’s roundup. Once I get my own Pinterest up and running, these will be the first things I’ll have up! Feel free to pin them yourself!

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Banana Chocolate Chip Custard

This microwave friendly recipe is the perfect use of any brown bananas. It’s simple ingredients are staples anyone would have on hand, and it’s low sugar content means it is something that can be enjoyed any time.

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Grilled Peach and Chicken Salad

This is my favorite salad recipe, and it absolutely screams summer. The warm, juicy peaches and the tender chicken melt the creamy goat cheese, for the perfect texture combination. This recipe would also be a good use of those not quite ripe peaches that you get off season, because the grilling brings out their flavor.

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Baby Pumpkin Pie

Want to embrace fall with open arms, but don’t want to turn on the oven? Try this pumpkin pie recipe-it’s crustless and made entirely in the microwave. A just touch of brown sugar adds some carmel-y flavor, but won’t weigh you down. This treat gets its sweetness from a hidden source-banana! Full of warm spices, this baby pie will have you dreaming of fall leaves in no time.

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Tips for a Healthier Vacation

Going on vacation but afraid of losing your fitness? See these tips for what I did to make my vacation healthy.

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Tabata WOD

A kick butt workout that will leave you sore, but only takes 12 minutes? SIgn me up! This Crossfit workout is only 4 minutes for each exercise, but works the whole body.

Do you use Pinterest? WHat are your favorite things to pin?

I’ve Been Bitten By the Pumpkin Bug (Recipe)

It’s not quite fall OFFICIALLY yet, but that doesn’t mean we have to wait to enjoy all the wonderful foods of fall. Ever since I developed my banana chocolate chip custard recipe, I’ve been brainstorming how I could use that base idea and transform it into a fall treat. And thus, Baby Pumpkin Pie was born!

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One of my favorite pumpkin pie recipes (aka the only recipe I’ve made pumpkin pie from scratch with) is a crustless version. I like it so much, I even had it for my birthday one year because it’s less sugary than cake and I didn’t want that shot of sugar before a big test the next day. It ended up taking longer to bake than expected, so we were all impatient to dig in when it came out. So we hurried to stick the candles in and sing! Since the pie was still so hot, the candles completely melted, leaving spikes and drips of wax throughout the pie. Lesson learned!

This version is similar to that in that it is crustless; however, I guarantee you won’t have to wait long for this, as it can be made in the microwave-my favorite thing! Even better, it’s single serve and very low sugar. Enjoy!

 

Baby Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients

1/2 ripe banana

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

2 T egg whites

1/8 t baking powder

a pinch of salt

3/4 t packed brown sugar

1/2 t vanilla

1/2 t pumpkin pie spice

3/4 t cinnamon

 

Directions

1. In a microwave safe bowl, microwave the banana half for 30 seconds, and then mash.

2. Mix in all other ingredients.

3. Microwave for 2 minutes 15 seconds, or until cooked through (microwaves will vary).

4. Top with whipped cream and enjoy!

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What is your favorite fall food?

Fig and Goat Cheese Salad

Happy Friday! I have about a week left before I have to move back in. While I had a great summer, at the same time, I’m ready. I can’t wait to see my friends again. If it weren’t for the blog world, I would have gone crazy this summer. My school friends all went home and my home friends all stayed at school for the summer session. Awesome. 

Yesterday was my second to last day at the kitten nursery. I worked with 2 litters, and they were all black. I LOVE black cats. The litter of 4 was so sweet-all they wanted to do was climb on me and cuddle. At one point, all four of them had climbed onto me. I had to syringe feed them, which was difficult when at least two kittens were hanging off me at a time. One little girl loved climbing up my arm, onto my head. ImageImageImage

And now-a recipe! I’ve made this once before, but never bothered posting the recipe for some reason. If you look on my recipe page, you’ll notice a lot of the recipes are some type of salad with chicken. What can I say-I love them!

This recipe is sort of a variation of my Grilled Peach and Chicken salad. That salad is a little more summery; this one is more fitting for fall. Especially since I recently learned that fig season in California lasts until December. Yay! 

Fig and Goat Cheese Salad

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Serves 3

Ingredients:

6 fresh figs

1 bag of lettuce

3 heaping T goat cheese

3 small chicken breasts (grilled)

Dressing (from Cooking Light):

3 T balsamic vinegar

2 T olive oil

1 T minced shallots

 1 T chopped fresh parsley

1 t Dijon mustard

1/8 t salt

1/4 t black pepper

1 garlic clove

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Instructions:

Mix up dressing.

Toss together lettuce, figs, chicken, and dressing.

Top with goat cheese.

Enjoy!

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For this recipe, you could use rotisserie chicken, but the slightly smoky flavor of grilled chicken compliments the tart balsamic and sweet figs better.

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Goat cheese is my newest salad obsession. Slightly tart, but very creamy, it’s the perfect complement to the sweet figs in this salad. Share the love-try this out!

What do you like in a salad?