lemon poppyseed bread | Fitness is Sweet

So, as you probably noticed around here, I did a full week of eating last week! There were a couple of reasons I wanted to do this. This post will talk a little bit more about that. But I figured, why not recap my full week of eating with another full day of eating? Especially since summer is here, all the vibrant, colorful foods are in season!

For breakfast, I pulled out some buzzfeed lemon poppyseed bread from the freezer and was reminded of how delicious it is! On the side, I had the last of our cherries and an apricot.

Yesterday ended up being a really active day for me. I went to a short interval based spin class in the morning, and then came home and immediately took Chloe for a walk (I’m the only one who can do it right now, and she really needs the exercise.)

We got back right around lunchtime, and I made my current favorite sandwich: GF bread, garlic and herb laughing cow, lettuce, turkey, avocado, and garlic powder. Garlic powder is key. On the side, I had some watermelon.

For dessert, I tried a new protein bar that my mom found at costco. It’s salted caramel chocolate.

This was actually really good. Great taste, and it comes in a half bar size which is kind of fun, and sometimes exactly what I want.

My afternoon snack was a Nugo mint chocolate bar. Again, these taste like a chocolate bar.

Yesterday, I found that today I have a slow-pitch softball game. Cue slight panic. I realized I hadn’t touched a softball in 2 years. How is that even possible? The past year totally flew by. I missed last season thanks to a broken foot, but I thought I’d have a little more time to prepare! I spent some time yesterday afternoon throwing the ball around with my sister, and taking a few swings. Thankfully, it seems like muscle memory is strong. I guess when you do a motion few million times, it tends to stick with you! Today will be the true test though! It was interesting through; I’m definitely fitter than I was 2 years ago, which translated into my game a little different than I was expecting. I felt quicker and more agile, but I also felt less like I was going to pull something. I kind of expected the first throws to feel like my arms was ripping out of the socket, but throwing felt really good!

That evening, I went to Crossfit. I really need to take a better look at the workouts beforehand to know what to expect, because this one was a doozy. I guess I sort of glance at the movements without actually looking at the rep scheme and how long it will actually take. We did heavy back squats first, and then this joy of a WOD:

3 rounds

50 calorie row

150 double unders

50 walking lunges

My double unders are in the twilight zone; they’re good enough that I really shouldn’t scale to singles in a workout, but they’re bad enough that they can take for.ever. if they’re not on that day. I decided if I wasn’t averaging sets of 10 at least, I would switch to singles. I did all doubles….and this workout took me just over 30 minutes. It was LOTS of cardio, and I was tired, sweaty, and super thirsty when I got home! While I waited for dinner, I chugged water and pulled out the watermelon.

For dinner, we had Brazilian cheese bread and one of our all time favorite soups: leftover roast chicken with roasted vegetables.

After dinner, I had a few bites of ice cream while I threw together another batch of my maple blueberry bread.

Of course, I had to have a slice of that when it came out.

For my nighttime snack, I had a rice cake with chive whipped cream cheese. And then half a glass of champagne when the Warriors won!

Ok. Now, let’s talk about the full week of eating a little bit. The goal for the week was to dial in my nutrition, be consistent, make some progress, but also enjoy life. If you look back at the posts from this past week, every day is different. There’s plenty of protein and veggie rich meals, but I was still easily able to fit in ice cream sundaes, doughnuts, and beer into my diet. It really is all about balance. It’s about choices. For example, on Sunday, I went to a baseball game so I enjoyed beer and an ice cream sundae, but for lunch I split a flatbread and a salad, and then had a lighter dinner. You can make the choice to be healthy sometimes, and not so healthy others, and this balance is in itself healthy. I actually ate the same amount of calories each day this week, and what I filled those calories with each day varied a ton! By setting a calorie number each day, I forced myself to be more creative and to fuel my body with better things. Right around Thursday or Friday last year, I felt like a rockstar! It’s amazing what protein and produce do for your body. I wasn’t nearly as energized after beer and ice cream sundaes, but that was a sacrifice I was happy to make. This week was a fun way to experiment with what works for me, but it was also to show you that you can still make progress with fun foods in there as well. I went out to eat some, I cooked myself some. But I made it all work. And I’m pretty sure I ate ice cream every single day.

I also love how colorful my meals were this past week. Again, that summer produce!

I hope you enjoyed this past week of posts. It was a lot of fun to write, but I don’t think I’m going to continue to do full days of eating, every day. Especially on work days, I’m often just ready to SLEEP at the end of the day. I will try to incorporate more full days of eating because I think it gives a more complete picture, and I personally love reading them!

What are your food philosophies?

Full disclosure: I’m writing this post to procrastinate this paper. That being said, I had some thoughts I wanted to get down.

This weekend is currently my craziest in terms of school work, but so far I’ve been checking things off the to-do list at a reasonable clip!

The main topic today: 16.2. I did Crossfit Open workout 16.2 this morning, and I am seriously in awe of what my body can do, and am so, so proud of myself. The workout was 4 minutes of 25 toes to bar, 50 double unders, 15 cleans (85#). If you completed that in 4 minutes, you had another 4 minutes to do the T2B, double unders, and 13 cleans at 115#. And so on. the cleans got progressively heavier with fewer reps.

I did this workout Rx. I literally got my toes to bar last week. I can only do one rep at a time, and previously I had only done sets of 4, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I knew the toes to bar would take me most of the 4 minutes, and my main goal was just to make it to the jumprope. My over the moon goal was to reach the bar for the cleans. (This workout was a bit frustrating because my cleans are really solid, and the weight was a nonissue, but I knew my other slow movements would be the limiting factor). After some calculations, I determined that if I nailed my toes to bar, whether or not my double unders were on point today would determine if I would reach the bar.

Guys. I BUSTED OUT the toes to bar. Far faster than expected, and at perfect pace. I was SO proud. Once I reached the jumprope, I realized how shot my arms were! My double unders tend to go when my arms are wiped out. I got into a rhythm for the first 20ish, and then I could not string them together, only get a couple at a time. Ultimately, I finished 46 double unders, just 4 reps from my reach goal. I was happy with that, and felt so accomplished with how far I’ve come. This time last year I couldn’t Rx this workout. Heck, this time last month I couldn’t. At this point, I can do pretty much every Crossfit skill. For good measure, every time I’ve been at the gym I’ve done a few pull ups at the end of class, and they’re getting stronger!

I went in the first heat (what can I say, I like getting it over with!) and hung around to watch everyone else go. THIS is what I love about Crossfit.

Other happenings:

I fully intended to do a WIAW post this weekend and recorded a full day of food, but then didn’t have time Tuesday to write it up.

This is another attempt at lemon poppyseed bread, using the flavors from the previous recipe I tried and the base from the recipe I’ve been using for cranberry orange bread. I really liked this version! Currently obsessed with lemon poppyseed. I’m not sure if it’s the ultimate version though. I may need to play around a bit!

Also from my full day of eating was this dinner, which was really unique. Eggplant polenta balls, served with a red pepper cream sauce.

I got a Graze box! It’s basically a monthly snack shipment. The first box, a sampler is free, so this was my free box! My options are limited thanks to no nuts/not gluten, but I think I’m going to get another box, simply because having interesting food shipped to my door is super exciting 🙂 I really liked the dried rhubarb (never had that before), and the caramel apple was a creative idea.

I haven’t tried them yet, but the seeds seem a little plain.

I think my biggest regret of my college career is not going to more baseball games. Before coming to college, I assumed I’d go to every single one. Things happened (read: mono) and I never got around to it. On an impulse, I headed over to the last-minute scheduled game (due to impending weather) after Crossfit to watch the game, totally disregarding my long to-do list. Totally worth it. I love baseball so much.

This is my typical yogurt bowl but I thought I’d share it because it looks sort of presentable.

This was hands down my favorite meal of the week. Bean chili (over greens), cheese, tortilla chips, and GLUTEN FREE CORNBREAD. OMG, so good. I LOVE cornbread, and this just hit the spot, especially after my 5 mile run that morning.

And finally, another good meal. Mustard salmon, garlic kale, and roasted veggies.

Actually, one last thing. I’ve sort of been sucked into youtube lately, watching what I ate in a day videos, and am considering doing a what I ate vlog. Would anyone be interested in this??

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16.2