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WIAW Returns

It’s been FOREVER since I did a WIAW post. This is mostly because I couldn’t figure out where the link up went. Here’s this week’s link!

So let’s dive in!

Preworkout/breakfast:

I woke up pretty hungry and had my typical pre workout snack of quick bread. I went with cherry vanilla bread over pumpkin because I cut the slices of the cherry thicker than the pumpkin.

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At Crossfit, I worked (I say I and not we because I was the only one at the 7am class!) on double unders and reverse pull ups. My double unders are coming along-they’re still a little hit or miss for me for the WODs and I had so much trouble getting my last rep of the drill! The WOD was a long one. A 17 minute AMRAP of 10 kettle bell swings, 10 burpees, and 100m sprint. I got through 7 rounds + 16 reps. That’s 76 burpees. Yuck.

Post-workout, I had a carton of chocolate soy milk to refuel, while driving to take my car in to get the brakes fixed. Again. From there, I hit up a yoga class with one of my favorite teachers. I’ve started making it to more classes this past month and it’s already making a difference in my creakiness. My foot pain was significantly reduced afterwards too (I think because I stretched out my tight calves). This yoga class is also strangely comforting. I’ve been going to the same class (off and on) for 6 years now, and it hasn’t changed a bit, in the best way! In a time when so much is changing and has changed, it’s nice to have a constant.

After yoga, my mom and I stopped by Whole Foods to get some basic ingredients for dinners and I was starving so I grabbed a few bites of french toast casserole from the hot bar. SO GOOD. It’s made with cinnamon challah, and it’s super custardy.

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It’s up for debate whether or not I should be eating wheat/gluten right now (because of the whole damaged stomach lining thing) and while this was delicious, I definitely felt sick afterwards. Darn.

Lunch was leftovers of the quinoa, roasted carrot, and grape bowl the other night. Plus a piece of my mom’s cornmeal crust pizza.

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Plus a side of carrots and guacamole.

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For dessert I had a big spoonful of vanilla fudge ripple frozen yogurt. I’m really liking Stoneyfield’s frozen yogurt. At 120 calories per serving, it’s a healthier option without all the artificial sweeteners.

Speaking of which…snack #1 was a small bowl of mint chocolate Arctic Zero.

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I think this flavor has better texture than the vanilla maple. I sort of like Arctic Zero, but it’s definitely not ice cream. It’s essentially flavored water that is frozen. The first ingredient is actually water!

Plus a oat bite. I love Bobo’s oat bars. I highly recommend the peanut butter flavor (which I am allergic to…)!

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I spent the afternoon looking up spin music and making a playlist for the class I taught that night.

Snack #2 was a small piece of pumpkin bread. I’m not normally one to snack all day, but it was a pretty active day and dinner wouldn’t be until 8!

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I got to spin early (to somewhat beat traffic) so I took my puppy for a short walk. I can’t believe how long her tongue is!

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Class went well! I actually found out that afternoon that I will be teaching at my school today (Wednesday) and tomorrow. I was recently hired to teach there, so I’m ecstatic to get started! I was told the students in the classes would be RAs at school for training, so maybe I’ll see some people I know!

Dinner post-spin was basic. There’s really something to be said for basic, simple dinners. A baked potato with Earth Balance (simply because I like the flavor more than butter), broccoli with cheddar, and a scoop of cottage cheese. Plus ketchup for the potato!

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Dessert was an actual bowl of the fudge ripple froyo.

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That was my day of food! It’s good to be back doing WIAW!

What is the best thing you ate this week?

Nectarine and Date Salad with Feta

Hello! I hope everyone’s week is going well! Today, I’m sharing a recipe with you all which basically what I’ve been having for lunch every day at work, so stick around until the end of the post!

I started work at 7am today, so a quick breakfast was in order. Cherries+polenta+Luna bar. I probably eat too many bars, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. I currently have a healthy alternative baking in the oven which is a total experiment so we’ll see how that turns out!

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I didn’t get to have lunch until 1:30, so I was pretty ravenous and tired by then! Lunch was a salad with dates, nectarines, chicken, and feta (recipe at the bottom).

Plus Mary’s crackers.

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I’m trying not to get froyo at work more than once a week, but since I was so hungry, I had a small cup with blueberries.

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After working the rest of the afternoon, I had a quick snack before Crossfit. A random bar I found that didn’t haven anything I’m allergic to (i.e. nuts-which nearly every bar has), a banana, and a couple of pieces of these freeze dried apple/raspberry balls.

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Crossfit was good, but my hip has been bothering me lately when I squat for some reason, so I’m trying to be gentle to it. I worked on power snatches (not landing in a full squat), and did very shallow overhead squats in the WOD which was 12 minutes of overhead squats, push press, and push ups on the minute with an increasing rep scheme. Not a crazy intense one, but I got a good shoulder burn!

Dinner was a few Cooking Light recipes from the Cooking Light app. The app is so convenient-they even make meal pairings with main dishes and sides, and it’s easy to scroll through different recipes based on their principle component (like poultry). Today, we had BBQ chicken which I ate over a piece of gluten free bread, coleslaw, and mashed sweet potatoes with sage and browned butter.

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For a little something sweet after dinner, I had a little sunflower seed butter and raspberry jam on gluten free bread.

Now-recipe time!

Date Nectarine Salad

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Ingredients:

For the salad:

8-10 oz grilled chicken breast, chopped

1/2 c feta

2-3 nectarines, chopped

about 15 pitted dates, chopped

3 large handfuls of lettuce

For the dressing (adapted from Cooking Light)
3 T white wine vinegar
2 T olive oil
1 T minced shallots
1 T fresh chopped parsley
1 t Dijon mustard
1/8 t salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 garlic clove, crushed

Mix up the dressing, and then toss it all together!

Serves 3

 

 

This Weekend

Happy Monday! Who is ready for Thanksgiving? I know I am! I’m going to pick up my Turkey Trot race packet today! Woo!

How about a little weekend recap?

My Friday started off with a track workout and a free cappuccino.

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Not a bad start!

After a full day of classes, I packed up and headed home for the week. From there, I threw on my school colors and headed to our rival school for the night. I have a ton of friends that go to Cal, and this was Big Game week-our rival football game! As you can imagine, I was pretty popular rocking my red on the streets of Berkeley the night before Big Game.

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Our night began with a pizza dinner from Sliver, one of the many gourmet pizza places in the area. We then went and saw Mockingjay. I actually liked it a lot more than I was expecting. I don’t remember liking the book much but the movie was good! And I thought they split it off at a good point.

After the movie, we chatted and then watched Pitch Perfect, which I had never seen.

Luckily, we managed to sleep through all the rain expected and wake up the next morning to a partly sunny day. First stop was brunch, where I got a chicken and avocado omelet.

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From there, we went to a restaurant to watch the football game from. Let’s just say I was definitely the happiest person there. WE WON!

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At halftime, we stepped out to grab froyo from my friend’s favorite place. It was super thick and delicious. I got pumpkin and chocolate, with cookie dough!

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After the game, I headed home to hang out with these guys:

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Sunday morning began with a 6 miler along one of my favorite trails.

(Recycled pic)

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Followed by lunch at the Whole Foods hot bar.

My lunch of choice was macaroni and cheese with butternut squash, plus some assorted salads.

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For dinner, I shockingly met up with my sister. This is shocking because she is so busy and I never see her! We went to a Russian restaurant, and I got some delicious mushroom dumplings. They were served with onions and a sour cream type of sauce! So good!

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This weekend was such a fun way to kick off Thanksgiving break! There was one casualty though.

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My shoes had a small rip in them before I left for Berkeley, and I figured it wouldn’t be an issue. It quickly became worse  (than the picture) and let’s just say I was lucky my toes weren’t sticking out, given about half the shoe is disconnected to the soul. Oops…

What did you do this weekend?

I can cook!

So today I came to the conclusion that I can actually cook. Now that I’ve entered into the meat-cooking world, I think it’s fair to say that! Exhibit A is tonight’s dinner-Greek salad!

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From the few times I’ve cooked chicken, I’ve learned that the key is to season the #$%# out of it. I have a few spices, and I basically go after it with all I’ve got. Seems to work!

Also on the food front, I have something to share with you guys. I’ve made the coconut flour quesadilla from Blogilates a few times now. Recently, I started making just a plain quesadilla, with the coconut flour tortilla base, and then cheese in the middle. It whips up in minutes, and all the ingredients are staples. In the past couple of days, (especially as my fridge grew sparse) whenever I was hungry I’d whip up one of these guys.

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I turned it into a pancake version this afternoon by adding mashed banana and some white chocolate chips.

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Those came out as kind of a fail (I burned them a bit) but it is versatile.

Now, onto the run. I had planned to do 6 but ended up deciding on 5. I’m really hoping it’s the heat and humidity getting to me, and I’m not just super out of shape, but every time I run it’s so HARD. Which is concerning given I was running fast(ish) 6 milers at the end of school.

At least the scenery was nice. I headed out along the waterfront. I had originally planned to go North to the Georgetown area, but it was easier to go south. IMG_8414 IMG_8415

 

I ended up turning around at the Arlington Cemetery-not that I was trying to go there in the first place! My parents lived in DC and would talk about how they would always accidentally wind up there, so I guess it runs in the family!

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With a mile left, I decided to run to Georgetown Cupcakes, a super popular place I had yet to try, instead of heading back. Sadly, when I got there the line was insane (to be expected).

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Georgetown^

Instead, I stopped at the Pinkberry across the street. SO good.

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Another thing I learned today? I’m not in California anymore. I sunburned the heck out of my shoulders today.

This picture doesn’t come close to doing it justice, but you can see my nice burn lines from Friday as well.

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Other than that, it was a very low key day. Nothing crazy!

What did you do this weekend? Can you cook?

Final(s)ly Done.

I’m done with finals! Woooo! I’ve spent the last 2 hours since finishing eating froyo and a cupcake, watching the Crossfit 14.4 announcement, and online shopping for food/fitness things. Spring break is amazing 🙂

So…I ran on Monday and was kinda sore from that. But on TUESDAY, I did a stupid little 10 minute abs video (find it here). It was THAT bad at the time…but oomph. The next morning? All through my sides, from my shoulders down to my hips-PAIN. I’m STILL suffering considerably! My hips especially when I lift my legs-biking around campus has not been fun. Rarely do I regret a workout-only when I’m stupid sore. This may be one of those times. I love being sore, but it can definitely get annoying! 

This morning, the workout we did at Crossfit was killer, and my legs are still aching a little bit. It was 500m ALL OUT row followed by 30 wall balls, then rest, then 500m row and 30 pull ups, rest, and 500m row and 30 burpees. 

And then proceeded to spend the day studying for Chem. Merp.

Here are some photo highlights:

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Yesterday’s lunch-I took this back from the dining hall the night before. Eating fish out of a ziplock bag is kind of weird…also, when I eat healthier, I tend to crave meat a lot. Is that weird?

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Testing out the new kicks-I’m finally coming around! I will probably wear my old shoes for my half, and then retire them at the Tough Mudder. 

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I have awesome friends-these are 100% homemade, from scratch croissants. They were SO amazing!

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I really do appreciate that our dining hall sometimes has Brussels sprouts. Really, I do. But it would be fabulous if there were actually chewable. Or cut-able. They were like rocks!

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Breakfast after Crossfit-finals means chocolate chip pancakes.

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Lunch while studying.

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Starbucks salad. I’m actually really impressed by their salads!

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Post finals celebration. 100% necessary. There are brownie chunks and blueberries hiding under there!

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And a red velvet cupcake my roomie brought me! She took an English final on Moby Dick, and they gave them cupcakes but she can’t eat gluten! It was SO good 🙂

I wish I had more enlightening things to say today, but I just really need a nap. I’m SO excited to to 14.4 at my home Crossfit tomorrow though!