21-15-9 

deadlifts

hand release push ups

200 m sprint after each set

It was a quick but good one!

And of course, we have food.

I made oatmeal the other day and added A LOT of egg whites. I actually really liked it this way-it was very fluffy and custardy! And man, did it keep me full. I didn’t even think about being hungry for like 6 hours of cleaning!

In the middle of cleaning, we took a break for lunch and I made some wraps. Sun dried tomato laughing cow, turkey, spinach, and red pepper. I don’t usually like peppers, but I think I’m coming around! This had just so much flavor!

Yesterday’s snack was froyo from my favorite place ever (Wildberry). I actually kept it to a moderate serving, and stuck to the one flavor I know won’t disappoint-salted caramel pretzel! Topped with a bit of brownie crumble and heath pieces!

For dinner, we made coconut flour quesadillas from this recipe. They were delicious!

This morning, my friend and I had planned on hiking, but with pouring rain all day and my only waterproof clothing at school, that did not happen. Breakfast was 2 ingredient pancakes (2 eggs+1 banana) and plain chobani with blueberry compote.

Instead of the hike, my friend came over to do “homework.” She actually spent most of the morning learning to use photoshop and designing my new banner! I love it! I spent the morning attempting to go self hosted. In reality, I have zero clue what I’m doing and my site could go down at any moment. Fair warning! But more likely what seems to be going on is that I haven’t actually done anything…so we’ll see! It’s certainly a process! Lunch was a repeat of yesterday, except I heated up half to try it that way! 

I’ve been wanted to try to make banana marble bread for a while, since I can’t seem to stay away from the campus cafes’ marble bread! I used my never fail banana bread recipe from the Nancy Clark Nutrition for Athletes book and tweaked it as needed. It came out great!

Ingredients:

4 ripe bananas

1 egg

2 tablespoons oil

1/3 c milk

1/4 c maple syrup

1 t salt

1 t baking soda

1/2 t baking powder

1 1/4 c whole wheat pastry flour (or white flour, or half white half whole wheat)

1/4 bittersweet chocolate chips

1/2 c cocoa powder

Instructions:

Preaheat oven to 350.

Mash together bananas, egg, oil, milk, maple syrup, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. 

Divide the mixture equally into 2 bowls.

To one half, add 3/4 c flour.

To other half, add cocoa powder and remaining flour. Also, add chocolate chips to this half.

Pour into loaf pan. I poured mine so one half was chocolate on bottom and the other was white on bottom.

Then, use a knife to swirl the layers.

Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Slice and enjoy!

The rest of the afternoon was spent playing a very addictive game- 2048. Google it. It’s strangely fun. 

Dinner after Crossfit was very veggie filled. I finally tried out my spiralizer on zucchini noodles-so fun!

We also whipped up a fresh tomato sauce with garlic, spices, tomato, and sun dried tomato. 

Everything was topped with Italian spiced chicken and fresh mozzarella.

On the side was a salad with two of our amazing weekend purchases- lemon scented olive oil and fancy white balsamic. 

These flavors together were insanely fresh!

And now I’m off for 2048…Guilty!

Have you heard of 2048?

This morning I got in a quick treadmill run. The good news? My feet are still cooperating. I guess this ‘no processed food’ business really is doing something? The true test will come when I start half training soon!

Breakfast was leftover banana egg white oats with yogurt stirred in.

I apologize that everything I eat is in a cup. I then topped it with some berry compote.

Plus a little crockpot oatmeal-but more on that in a minute! 

Lunch was eaten outside in the beautiful weather-although I think we’re getting rain soon!

Brussels sprouts tossed in balsamic dressing plus a turkey burger.

And this:

I definitely thought this was a blood orange, so I packed it in my lunch. Upon further inspection, it was clear something was up. It was a Meyer lemon! Meyer lemons are a cross between oranges and lemons, and I was convinced to try it anyways.

Yeah, it’s still just like eating a lemon. 

So, yesterday, we made applesauce in my roommate’s crockpot. Since it was out, last night she put in the mixings for baked oatmeal, which I HAD to try this morning, as it smelled amazing. When I returned from class, she was fiddling with it a little more. She added all kinds of things-banana, raisins, cinnamon, dates, egg, pumpkin.

After cooking all day, the texture was more like a sticky pudding-very soft.

Then, we tried to make a quick bread type of deal out of it by adding more egg and coconut flour, and cooking further.

It baked a little on top, but it was just too wet for bread. The texture because a thick, stick to your rips custard type of deal. Definitely good, but not really resembling oatmeal or quick bread! But still a great snack on a cold (ish) afternoon!

Dinner was at the dining hall. After talking about fats on here yesterday, and talking this morning about how fish oil is the ideal type of fat, I was pretty excited to see fish at the dining hall that didn’t appear to go off my project!

Plus, I was ready to load up on veggies!

Tilapia, a simple spinach salad, cabbage salad, mushrooms, and some type of potato dish.

And a baby plate of cilantro rice, more potatoes, and green beans.

Plus a little bit of applesauce.

It was a good day of food! But not going to lie, there are only so many ways you can do oatmeal, bananas, and yogurt. I’m getting so tired of them! I think I’m going to try to go to the dining hall for eggs tomorrow, but still not the most exciting option!

Any good ideas for breakfast that have no sugar and are easy? (As in dorm friendly…)

Before I get into it, thank you all so much for your kind comments on my blogiversary post! They melted my heart and brightened my day inside the dark library. 

Also-if you haven’t there’s still plenty of time to enter my giveaway!

Since I have been doing 12 Days of Christmas, I haven’t gotten a chance to post a lot of my recent eats! Hint: there have been lots of persimmons. I think my record is 6 in one day? Although to be fair, two of them were babies.

Why I was motivated to take this picture, I have no idea.

It’s been cold here in California. Ok, everyone else, feel free to laugh. I’m a wimp and take my bundling up seriously. Why be cold when you can wear 6 layers?

This morning I went to morning Crossfit-the low was 26 I believe, and I thought for sure my car wouldn’t start, since it was in the 40s the night before and it didn’t sound good. Luckily though, it did, and I only had to worry about cleaning off copious amounts of ice from my windshield, and not trying to find someone to jump my car! I really need an ice scraper though-I was lucky to have a towel with me-otherwise it would have been my fingers (I’ve done that before..ouch).

Also, our Crossfit box is literally freezing. It was colder in than out, and it was below freezing out so…

And the worst part? The bars are like ICE. Yuck. Anyways, by the time I returned and got coffee, I found myself craving a dining hall breakfast (what? who am I?) and since this was the second day in a row I wanted that, I decided to go for it. 

A whole wheat english muffin with one side butter and (some) jam, and the other cream cheese, egg, and spinach. With a side of unripe pineapple! I also had a whole wheat pancake with butter and jam. 

Ok, the real reason I tend to avoid the dining hall is because they often have the most delicious blueberry muffins (one of my major weaknesses), and I know eating 5,000 muffins before a final probably isn’t the best idea…

My lunch was a turkey sandwich made open faced:

Plus an extremely delicious piece of mystery bread that it’s been way too long since I’ve had.

I got them at a little cafe and settled in to relax after a morning of studying before my final. I didn’t bring headphones, and didn’t want to strain my brain my reading anything, so I eavesdropped for about an hour. Totally normal, right?

After my exam, I decided to actually go to the dining hall! To be fair, I complain about how boring dining hall food is, but it’s also because I almost always go to the same dining hall-I don’t seem to get back from Crossfit/other workouts before all the other ones close. Example-yesterday I finished Crossfit and tried to catch the tail end of a different dining hall’s hours. They had no food left!

But I finally got what I wanted today, since my exam ended earlier:

A burrito bowl with salmon. I’ve been craving Mexican food so much since listening to a book on tape during my workout yesterday-they went to Mexico and were eating tacos (keep in mind, I was listening to this at 7am and wanted tacos…). 

And you better believe that I’m going to get dessert if I just took a final!

Chocolate soft serve, chocolate chips, marshmallows, jam, and cereal. I was SO tempted to add peanut butter-I made a ton of chocolate/peanut buttery soft serve cups of deliciousness last year, but I refrained for the sake of my face and skin.

Ok, so what have you missed on the food front?

Persimmon and egg cup.

Snack plate-guacamole, cinnamon laughing cow, pear chips.

Broccoli and white cheddar laughing cow.

A Whole Foods Southwest salad that I added avocado to.

Teriyaki tofu, rice and quinoa mix, salad with goat cheese, hummus, and avocado. 

Christmas on a plate. They opened up a Harry and David store at my local mall, so pears were a necessity. I had to pull myself away from eating really delicious persimmons to eat a really delicious pear. I know, poor me. 

Mass amounts of broccoli for lunch because that’s clearly what all the cool people do.

Mushroom and barley soup, and a salad with goat cheese, hummus, and fig balsamic. I accidentally poured half the container of goat cheese on there.I wish I could say I was sorry…I love goat cheese!

And the grand finale…

Last night I wanted something sweet, so I went forward with a microwave pumpkin oatmeal cookie in mind. Except I kind of just turned it into straight oatmeal. I used pumpkin butter, and then since I didn’t have any normal almond milk open and I’m leaving in 3 days, I used almond nog. O.M.G. The flavor combination of eggnog and pumpkin was unreal. You all you to try your oatmeal like this. I also mixed in some egg white, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla, baking powder, and butter (it was kind of supposed to be a cookie at one point…but delicious addition!)

YUM. 

And since I was talking about cold weather and bundling up…here’s a picture of me being a weather confused California girl.

2 jackets. Scarf. Gloves. Shorts? 

Let’s say that I regretted this decision when I left the library in the dark….brrr! It’s so much colder once the sun goes down. My friend wanted me to come over the other day at like 9pm…I wore 3 jackets, 2 pairs of pants, uggs, gloves, and a scarf that covered my whole face. I couldn’t move my arms. But I wasn’t cold!

I hope you all are having fabulous weeks! 3. More. Days. 

What is your favorite seasonal flavor?

Here’s some random food from yesterday. Since this is a food blog and all.

Pumpkin+honey+tons of spices, with sunflower seed butter and cottage cheese.

Dinner-teriyaki tilapia, grain mix, thai chicken, salad.

I had every intention of studying bio last night, but I got hijacked by/crashed a quidditch party. My sister is the captain of the team, and her boyfriend is Jewish and makes latkes. Which were delicious. Plus, they made homemade applesauce-AMAZING! My sister also made butterbeer, which is WAY too sweet for me, so I went for the less sweet ice cream with caramel sauce. WHich should give you an idea for the sweetness of the drink. And then-genius: applesauce, ice cream, caramel sauce. You all should go out and make applesauce and then try this. Needless to say I ate way to many latkes and ice cream, and my stomach has been hating me lately. I was worried it would be an issue on my run, but it was fine!

Guys. This is where I run. This is seriously the prettiest and most scenic place I can think of around here.

I wasn’t pushing the pace, but I felt really good.

So what do I do when my ultimate goal, pushing hard race pace turns into a comfortable run? I have no idea how fast I should go out next week now! This felt really good! The run featured rolling hills, with a decent sized hill around mile 4. I’ve done this run 3x: the first while training for my first half, and then early in my training for this half. The first time: I took the big hill at a 12/13:00 pace. Last time, I was proud to be around 11:00. Today, I did it sub-10. To be honest, I didn’t really feel the hills that much. I guess I was a little more out of breath. It’s amazing what hillwork/speedwork will do for you!

Also, I’m fairly certain of one thing. I’m going to be sobbing the first 3 miles. I get choked up just thinking about the race-I can’t explain it, it just makes me so happy. I’m unbelievably excited! My last race, I felt so lucky to even be physically able of running, so I’m not really sure what my excuse is this time!

I’ll probably be sobbing the last 3 miles as well…my feet starting killing around mile 4 of today’s run. That means what, only 9.1 miles of intense pain? Funnnn. 

After my run, I went to get gas, which happened to be next to the grocery store, so I grabbed a quick lunch there: mango kombucha and a turkey sandwich.

Aaaand the aftermath. I’m a bread picker for sure.

And since I was right next to my favorite froyo place…I mean I couldn’t not get some!

They had toasted coconut, which is a new flavor! I got some of that alongside chocolate and my all time favorite, salted caramel pretzel.

I then went to the Stanford Nike store to pick up my race day packet…only to be greeted by an hour long line. I simply didn’t have the time today-3 midterms next week have to take priority. It means I have to fight the crowds at the expo, but that’s ok since I wanted to go to the expo anyway. I also learned that right next to the Nike store, a Soul Cycle is coming! I’ve been wanting to try that for forever, and here it is, an easy bike ride from my dorm. As an avid spinner, that makes me pretty freaking happy.

On the way out of the mall, I picked up some oatmeal cookie type things, which were delicious.

And after a night of homework, I had a random snacky dinner, which included a granola bar, figs, chicken, and this plate.

I swear, my stomach hates me. If I eat the wrong food, I get a stomachache. If I eat too much of the right food, I get a stomachache. If I eat the right food at the wrong time, it rebels. And given I did all three this past weekend…I think a week of clean eating is in order! I can’t afford to have stomach issues on race day!

Which is a weird note to end on. Here’s a cat picture.

Enjoy your Monday!

Do you have any random pains when you run? How do you deal with them? Do you prefer races, or just running solo? How sick are you of me talking about running? I promise things will change up a little more in a week!

Long time no post though, right? I have tons of food to catch you guys up on, so I’ll just go over some highlights here in a minute. But first. Why haven’t I been posting? SO much work this week! Why does it feel like every week is such a hard week? Oh, that’s right, ROWING. Also, I haven’t exactly felt like posting because, well, I haven’t really been eating too well. And then this wouldn’t be a “healthy living blog,” it would just be a food blog, or, a junk food blog. To be perfectly honest, I’ve had a lot of difficulty eating well since the holidays. It’s been really hard for me to get back on track! And lack of sleep definitely isn’t helping matters…Does anyone have any tips for getting back on track? I’ve currently ditched all sweet items in my dorm room, as well as (most) nuts. 

So how are my allergies? My skin was clearing way up…but here’s the weird thing. I replaced the nuts in my diet for a ton of coconut (yeah, I know, not the best strategy…) and my skin went downhill again. So what am I allergic to? This is really odd. I broke down yesterday and had a granola bar as well, so that probably doesn’t help matters….

Being the awesome person that I am, I wanted to do a little test for my allergies that I was pretty sure wouldn’t work (it didn’t). I put a little coconut butter on one side of my face, and a little peanut butter on the other side. I wanted to see if it would cause a breakout. It didn’t. But it was only on for like an hour (yes, I walked around with pb on my face for an hour…I’m pretty cool) and I didn’t really expect to see many results. 

Ok, I will go through all the food in a bit (I don’t have my connector cable with me now, I’m between classes), but first let’s talk about this morning. I had a 6k test! For those of you who do not know, this is the most painful thing in rowing. It is basically 6000 meters on the rowing machine at an all out effort. This was only my 3rd 6k test, and I was really expecting to see a lot of improvement in my time and PR. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, which I was pretty disappointed about, Given the fact that I’m fairly new to rowing, I really should be PRing more. My fastest 6k was my first one! At least this was faster than my last one, but still, it’s frustrating. This does make me wonder though; if I had better nutrition, would I have been able to PR? To be perfectly honest, I put on some weight since my first 6k test, and I’m thinking this could be seriously slowing me down. So now I have a new motivation to eat well! And I have a new plan. I have the tendency to reward myself with sweets: for doing something well, for a hard workout, for a good grade. So my new idea is to reward myself with peanut butter. That way, I will get to enjoy a reasonable amount of peanut butter and still feel like I’ve gotten that little reward. So instead of waffles, I can have a scoop of peanut butter on my oatmeal! This morning after my 6k? I made my favorite ever smoothie! Peanut butter and banana! Sidenote: I know that you’re supposed to remove the banana peel before freezing bananas. I just never thought about why. I was planning on this smoothie post workout so I popped a banana in the freezer last night so it would be really awesome. But I was in a hurry and just tossed the whole thing in. Yeahh that was not the best idea. In case anyone is curious, the reason it is bad is because it is impossible to peel (you probably figured this out). However, I was very determined. I wanted my smoothie, dang it! So I persevered. Here’s the recipe, it’s super simple!

Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

1 frozen banana 

1/2 c skim milk (or more if your blender is not powerful enough to blend)

1-2 T peanut butter to taste

1. Add to a blender (break up the banana as much as possible for easier blending).
2. Blend. Enjoy

So simple! The longer you blend it, the fluffier it gets! I don’t think I’d ever had one of these smoothies with a freshly frozen banana before, so it was extra frosty!

Well, this is a great transition into the food portion! Before my erg test, I had a slice of Banana Bread and a little milk. 

After, to go along with my smoothie, I had half a whole wheat english muffin with cream cheese and egg scramble/egg whites. Plus like 1/3 of a pancake with syrup. I didn’t take a picture of this because my plate didn’t look very good. After my banana massacre…

But I did get some pictures of lunch! I ate an early lunch (around 11) because I was getting a little hungry, and my legs were starting to burn from this morning. Plus, who can sit in a cafe and work with food that close? 

I decided on a chicken pesto sandwich, plus a bran muffin. I figured the bran muffin was a little treat, but definitely a step up nutritionally from last week’s giant apple fritter. Plus, it would not make me feel gross, especially on a 60 minute run!

No picture from dinner though! The beach run with my team was fun (well, as fun as running on sand can be…), but I ended up getting my feet and therefore running shoes soaked and sandy! So much for a Friday run! Our coaches brought us chocolate and apple cider for a toast post-workout at the beach before we headed out to dinner. 

Dinner was a fun experience but the restaurant was frustrating. It was a seafood place, and they were out of every fish except for maybe one kind, as well as steak, and garlic bread. Plus, they ended up messing up our order, such that my table got our food at least half an hour after the other table. Luckily, I had nothing to rush back to do! I enjoyed a chicken casaer salad. 

Back at my dorm, I went to Late-Night Dining with my friend to get a warm, gooey giant cookie. We have meal plan dollars that come with our weekly meal plan, which let you buy things from other places, like late night. I almost never go to late night, which is where most people use them up (yeahhh morning practice!). The quarter is already more than half over, and only a small portion of the meal plan dollars carry over. I realized I could buy 97 more giant cookies this quarter! That’s over 3 a night! Yesss. Haha, don’t worry, I won’t do that! But finally, let’s play catch-up on food!

Ok, I need to comment on this one. This was one of the best ideas I’ve ever had. Like ever. I brought back some fresh tomato salsa from Saturday’s Mexican brunch in a tubberware, and I had the genius idea to mix it with some salt, pepper, and avocado! This is seriously the best guacamole I’ve ever had. I ate it with celery sticks. I’ve made this multiple times and just cannot get over it. At home, whenever we would get fresh salsa, we would never finish it. Ohh how naive I was. This mixture is awesome, and super easy! This is my banana mix with regular cocoa powder, instead of dark cocoa powder. It is completely different! Maybe fruittier? Topped with unsweetened coconut.

These are the coconut truffles I made the other day. Yes, I was too lazy to actually make them balls. All they have in them is coconut (unsweetened), baker’s chocolate, coconut oil, and then they are rolled in cocoa powder. I actually started eating these in the morning before my workouts in hopes the caffeine in the chocolate would wake me up a little bit!The biggest reason for this photo dump is that I seriously was planning on blogging, so I took the pictures, and I don’t want them to go to waste!

Another attempt at a healthy mug cake. This one actually worked out, but for some reason it exploded from the bottom…getting mug cake ALLLL over the microwave. This had banana, liquid egg whites, vanilla protein powder, cocoa powder, whole wheat pastry flower, a bit of dextrose, and some of my crumbled up truffles as chocolate chips. Not bad! I actually made this one other time, and it was pretty good as well! It would be 1000x better with real chocolate chips. 

This is me realizing I could make awesome French Toast in the microwave. European style bread soaked in egg white, vanilla, and cinnamon.

My first post-peanut butter attempt at Banana Oatmeal. I topped it with blueberries and coconut. Not too shabby!I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get this veggie sandwich for its massive amounts of avocado. This thing might have had 2 avocados on it. It was crazy, I don;t even think I was able to eat all the avocado!Mug cake number 2! Way better/less messy attempt! Although it was close to popping…there was a giant air bubble on the bottom!

And now I leave you with one more picture. Happy Valentine’s Day!

I got to sleep in this morning as well, no alarm! I didn’t have class until 12:30, but I had to do a workout this morning. I woke up around 7 and decided to make myself some breakfast in my room before my workout. What did I make? Only the best Oatmeal ever! Peanut butter and banana oatmeal!

Banana Oatmeal:

Ingredients: 

1 ripe banana

1 packet of plain instant oats (I used quaker)

2/3 c vanilla unsweetened almond milk, or other milk of choice ( I usually eyeball it, less dishes!)

2 egg whites (once again, this is an estimate)

Instructions: 

First, mash up the banana in a microwave safe bowl.

Add other ingredients and stir.

Microwave on high for 1.5 minutes (I recommend putting the bowl on a plate and covering in case it overflows)

Stir, and microwave an additional 1.5 minutes.

Enjoy!

I always top mine with a dollop of peanut butter.

Today, I split this into 2 servings, as it is pretty filling, and I was eating fairly close to a workout. Just save the other half in the fridge and enjoy later! It’s good cold as well (or maybe that’s just me…)

For the first time as far as I can remember, I put on too much peanut butter! See?

I couldn’t even finish it! Craziness!

My workout was 60 minutes on the rowing machine, plus 20 minutes on the spin bike. Nothing spectacular. It’s interesting that after a long time on the rowing machine, I don’t exactly feel more tired, but my power output significantly decreases. 

After a sweaty workout, I decided to have some post-workout fuel. I wanted something kind of refreshing, but I didn’t have many ingredients for a smoothie, and who wants to put together and then clean a blender? I’m all about saving the dishes.

So what did I come up with?

Yogurt! I discovered this little creation over break, and simply could not get enough of it. It’s the absolute perfect post workout snack (I’ll get to why later), and it’s super easy and low dish intensive. Just add cocoa powder and brown rice syrup to greek yogurt to taste (I tend to like less sweet, darker chocolate things), and stir well!

And of course I mixed it in a Dixie cup, right? Don’t want to use those valuable bowls! This yogurt hit the spot perfectly! So why is this the perfect post workout fuel? It’s a combination of protein and carbohydrates, which helps replace anything lost during exercise. (Keep in mind, I’m not a dietician, this just comes from the million books I’ve read plus an awesome Nutrition class last quarter). It’s more natural than a protein shake; you know exactly what you are putting in it. Plus, a lot of times, you don’t need as much protein as is in a protein shake after a workout. I learned in my class that actually, the time you need the most protein is when Your muscles are repairing themselves, which is the time when you are sore. Carbohydrates are a priority, because they are our main source of energy, so that is what gets burned in exercise, mostly. Why is chocolate milk not ideal? The carbohydrates in chocolate milk come from sugar, which is a combination of glucose and fructose, its about half and half. I will definitely get into a conversation about fructose later on, but you really don’t need to replace your fructose stores unless you’ve been running a marathon, and to get enough glucose to replace what you lost through drinking chocolate milk, you are probably getting more fructose than is healthy. Glucose is what is mainly burned in exercise. It is what the body burns for energy (the brain needs it as well), and brown rice syrup is a great source of glucose. I will definitely get into fructose and glucose at a later date (it’s one of my favorite topics EVER).

After my snack, I got ready for the day and dealt with various random things until lunchtime, which was early because I had class at 12:30 and I needed to get textbooks beforehand. Lunch:

Salad with raspberry dressing and dried cranberries, teriyaki tofu over brown rice, and some type of sauteed kale/cabbage. It was actually a really good lunch. The tofu was really good, it actually wasn’t fried like it normally is, so it was soft as opposed to weird and hard. I think lunch at my dining hall is always fairly good, definitely better than dinner, but I hardly wen tat all last quarter because I had class around lunchtime. Though I think they stepped it up midway through the year.

I also had some fruit and a little bit of pasta because I really wanted to try it. 

I’m in an Animal Behavior class this quarter, and I’m super excited for it. It looks really cool, and I learned some random things just on the first day. Did you know that many human couples have similar lengths of middle fingers? How random!

Before practice, I rushed back to my room to grab a bar.

It was a little bit sweeter than what I wanted, and I wished I had made the granola bars I had been wanting to make. Practice was uneventful, which is probably good. 

Dinner was a salad (garden) with grilled chicken and cornbread (which was really good, haven’t had cornbread here before).

I also had a cup of cereal (although it was sugary cereal). I’m trying to wean myself off of eating so much sugar, but it’s definitely difficult! Back at my dorm someone brought in a ton of random pies, and I tried some that I think was chocolate cream. 

Tonight was also the night of my guacamole party, which was at least planned. And my guacamole party, I mean a couple of friends and I made guacamole with some avocados I brought from home, plus limes, onions, and tomatoes stolen from the dining hall salad bar. Mash  together, add some salt and pepper, and we were set!

Eaten with tortilla chips of course. Afterwards, I decided to make some protein bars I’ve had my eye on for some time now. I made Peanut Butter Vanilla Protein Bars, from After the Ivy League. I was a little worried about making anything with my protein powder, as I’ve never baked with it before (although these bars are no cook, yay!), and I’m not a big fan of the taste of the kind I have, but these bars turned out well! I added a little bit less protein powder than it calls for because I got scared, but they had really good flavor, and I nibbled at the edges quite a bit. They’re in the freezer now to harden, but from what I can tell they’re a definite win!

Tomorrow, no on the water practice, and no morning workout, so I can sleep in (relatively). Even though I slept in today, I was really tired by the middle of the day. I didn’t sleep that well last night, and I couldn’t figure out why, until I remembered other nights like this, when I’m really warm and tossing and turning all night. I’m almost positive it’s from too much sugar before bed. I had this problem a lot before the holidays when I ate a lot of junk, and I remember how much better I slept when I cut out sugar for a few days. So, goal for tomorrow? No sugar! It’s going to be a little experiment. To be honest, I can already tell I’m going to have a lot of work this quarter, and not that much time, so I need to make the most of the sleep I can get!

Breakfast was at the training center. This time however, I had a plan. One of my favorite ways to make oatmeal is by cooking a banana into the oatmeal in the microwave, with vanilla unsweetened almond milk, and then topping it with peanut butter. At the cafeteria, the oatmeal is already made, so I couldn’t exactly cook a banana into it. My solution was to microwave a banana in a bowl for 1 minute, mash it up, and then mix it into the already prepared oatmeal. It was pretty good, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as the real thing. Partly, I think my peanut butter from home works better with it. The peanut butter here is sugary and doesn’t have as much peanut-y flavor.

Also pictured is vanilla yogurt with berries mixed in and a hard boiled egg white for protein. Just a note, I don’t avoid egg yolks because I am afraid they are going to negatively impact my health, I simply don’t like them. Whenever I ate hardboiled eggs when I was younger, I always gave the yolks to my dog, Billy.

I hate how some of the time the chicken here has bones. It is so much more difficult to deal with. On the side, I ate a buttered whole wheat English muffin with fresh and dried fruit.

After lunch, I had just enough time for a quick nap before our afternoon workout. Naps have seriously saved me on this trip! I never truly appreciated naps until I began morning workouts. They are possibly the best thing ever!

I woke up hungry again, and finished my granola bar from yesterday, as well as a small chocolate cookie my teammate was passing around.

For our workout, we drove to the beach. It was pretty cold, and didn’t rain on us until the very end, so we didn’t get too wet. We removed our shoes for the workout, and the sand was cold! Our workout consisted of 15 reps of different exercises on the TRX. After each set, we sprinted across the beach to some kettle bells were we completed 15 lower body exercises, and then sprinted back. We did this 6 times. The TRX cable was attached to a lifeguard building, and we were a little worried that we would pull down the whole thing!

After our circuits, we played a game of leap frog, which is actually a pretty decent workout! By the time we finished our workout, I was damp and sandy.

The highlight of my day came after our workout.

Nike outlet store! The outlet mall were went to was basically on the Mexican border. As in, we could see the border from the mall, and were one exit away from a trip to Mexico.

I absolutely love Nike, and loved the sale items even more! Here’s what I walked away with:

I got a new pair of running shoes, similar to the running shoes I have now which I really like. They were half off! And the striped shorts I got for only $3. How crazy is that?

After our little Nike expedition, we returned to the cafeteria (again…3 meals a day for the whole trip…) for dinner. I helped myself to a chicken breast, black beans, steamed veggies, a coupled of roasted potatoes, and some mac and cheese. Basically a little bit of everything! I had originally planned on a salad, but the veggies looked good, and I was still a little cold so I went with it. 

Dessert was chocolate and vanilla fro-yo (who am I kidding, it was mostly chocolate) with a dollop of peanut butter. I also snacked on a few bites of granola, and dried fruit and pretzels with peanut butter. And then my arm was twisted into trying some vanilla pudding, because we weren’t sure what it was. 

I’m sorry that my posts are fairly boring and cut and dry. I really don’t have a lot going on right now besides rowing, and all my meals are coming from the same place, which seems to have mostly the same stuff. So I guess this means I have 10 days to optimize my meals based on the options available to me. Hopefully I can create something interesting tomorrow.

This seems like as good a time as any to discuss how to make it through multiple workouts a day. Food and sleep are key. Anytime I have multiple workouts, it is infinitely better to get a full meal between workouts. If this is not possible, it is important to at least eat a snack of protein and carbohydrate, and at minimum carbohydrate, because that will provide energy for the second workout. Some great options are milk and banana bread, or an egg sandwich. Milk is a great option, simply because liquids digest more rapidly.

If you have an opportunity for a nap between the workouts, take it! As I said before, naps are saving me this week! My body feels so refreshed after my naps, and I don’t feel very tired from the morning workouts at all. Another tip: if you have the option, put as much time between your workouts as possible. The more time your body has to rest, the better. You may notice that in your evening workout, you won’t feel an early morning workout from the same day at all. 

Despite what you can manage to do between your workouts, always be sure to replenish your body at the end of the day, and get plenty of rest that night.

Do you ever have multiple workouts a day?