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CA Girl Survives Snow in Upstate NY

We left off on the plane to up-state NY. Let’s jump in.

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This is what I arrived to.

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And I was a touch nervous when Friday morning I woke up to this:

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BRRRRRR.

For this leg of my trip, I stayed with my cousin who lives here. And probably thought my qualms about the weather were ridiculous. Things learned from this extended trip: the CA blood runs strong in my veins. Every night here I’ve been sleeping in my Northface and warm socks, and I’m currently huddled in front of the fire. That being said, I’ve definitely been surviving!

Breakfast the first morning:

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Morning sights:

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It’s so beautiful here. I had a great day, and when the activities were done, I was greeted with snow!

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My cousin took me to the grad student bar (he’s a PhD student), and I loved the vibe.

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On the walk to the car afterwards, I was greeted to even heavier snow! As a CA girl, this is incredibly exciting. I haven’t seen it snow in 4 years (when I went to the mountains 3 years ago, we were in a drought so it didn’t snow). It’s really incredible!

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We went to a good place for dinner. We started with beers (milk stout for me) and cheese fries.

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I actually really like cheese fries, but I’ve had them maybe twice in my life. I guess it’s better for my health to not have them all the time…?

For my meal, I ordered a cup of bean soup and a salad.

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I find myself eating a lot of salads when I’m traveling. It’s partly because I know how my body will react to them (I’m hyperaware of flaring my stomach when traveling), but partly because salads that I don’t make are always so delicious and usually more exciting!

After dinner, we headed into the winter wonderland of a downtown.

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Saturday, the temperatures improved quite a bit, and I committed to running a few miles with my cousin’s girlfriend.

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I was actually shocked by how warm 30 degrees felt! I definitely overdressed!

After a late breakfast, the next item was visiting a local brewery, Ithaca Brewery.

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We were encouraged to buy a beer to drink while on the tour. I’m not going to object to that! I had a chocolate stout.

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The tour was really interesting. We got to learn all about the brewing process, and even smell some of the raw ingredients like barley/malt and hops!

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They also had quite the impressive bottling system (according to my mechanical engineer cousin).

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And of course, at the end, we got to try a couple of things. I wasn’t a huge fan of either, they were hoppier than my taste.

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I feel like this blog has been less “health and fitness” and more beer lately. Perhaps I need a name change: Barbells and Beer?

One of my favorites I tried was an Apricot wheat beer!

Next on the agenda was a trip to the gorges to see a waterfall. I can’t say my boots were ideal for slippery snow conditions, but I persevered!

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Check out the falls!

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After our mini-hike, we went cider tasting, where I was promised fluffy dogs and a cat.

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Sadly, we only briefly saw the cat (he was adorable, and escaped, he wasn’t supposed to be out!)

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My favorite was the sweeter one.

We hung out in the cozy cider place for a few hours and chatted before it was time for dinner.

By dinnertime, we were all quite hungry. We went to a Southern style restaurant, and I got to get the grits I was missing in Alabama! (Minus the hotel instant grits…)

It amazes me how few people have tried grits. My cousin hadn’t! I was raised on grits because my dad is a Floridian and therefore claims to be from the South.

I had a salad with bleu cheese, apple, and raspberry vinaigrette with chicken, and a side of grits. This was devoured.

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Afterwards, my cousin took me to the Cornell-Yale hockey game. I’ve never been to a hockey game before, but my cousin is big into hockey.

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The game ended in a 2-2 tie, even after overtime, but I enjoyed the game! I always thought I would like hockey live; I find it moves so fast and the puck is so small that it’s harder to follow on TV. I think hockey can be elevated to my 3rd favorite sport to watch (after baseball and football, obviously).

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Sunday (the day I’m typing this up) was the day I was to head home. As I packed up, I got increasingly nervous as the rain turned to snow, creating pretty awful road conditions. I was flying out of the tiny Ithaca airport, and given the weather report, I didn’t think I would be getting home Sunday. The snow was even worse on Monday, so I was really worried I wouldn’t get back for a WHILE. With fingers crossed and no delays yet, we headed to a nice brunch that included eggs, GF bread, and more grits.

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Sure enough, right before we were going to leave for the airport, my flight from Ithaca to Newark was cancelled. My airline only flew to Newark, and although other airlines were still making it out of Ithaca, the flights were 100% booked. SOMEHOW, after much frantic searching, I was able to hop on a flight to Charlotte, which would connect me to SFO. My cousin and I made the hour and a half trek to Syracuse through less than idea conditions (snow and sludge), extremely conceded that 1. I would miss the flight, but mostly 2. all fights out of Syracuse would be cancelled (some had already been). Somehow, despite the totally white scenery outside the airport, the flight was on time. I didn’t really believe I would get out until we were in the air!

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So here I am, in Charlotte. I have never been so grateful to return to warm temperatures (it was 78 degrees when I landed), because I knew once I made it out of New York where most of the weather was, I would likely be able to get home tonight! At the airport I grabbed a BBQ chicken salad and some tortilla chips.

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To celebrate the fact that this (fun but exhausting) trip was coming to a close, I shelled out a boatload of money for some local beer. I had a really great North Carolina beer (Lonerider) when I was in TN, which I sadly couldn’t find.

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This wasn’t my favorite, but it is what it is. Time to sign off and cross my fingers that my final flight goes smoothly!

 

MIMM-“Ski” Trip

Happy Monday! How are you guys doing? I have to day off today for MLK day, so I’m currently at home doing food prep for the start of The Project!

Today, I’m linking up with Katie for Marvelous in My Monday!

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Over the weekend, I went to Lake Tahoe with my dorm for our ski trip. I use the term “ski trip” a bit liberally-not many people skied-there’s hardly any snow right now! We are officially in a drought. It meant the weather was nice though!

Friday before we left, I got in a great workout-I did my treadmill workout, followed by some weights-back lunges, single leg RDLs, and abs. Basically all my favorites! My knee is still not fabulous, so it limits what I can do a little bit. On the plus side, this means I’ve been running more, which I really should do anyway since I claim I’m trying to PR a 5k soon. 

We left school in the afternoon, and hit horrible traffic. We stopped for dinner-and there was a Safeway nearby! Not just fast-food!

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Whole wheat pita, chicken, veggies, and hummus.

Kombucha.

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I also got some 86% chocolate for the bus ride. 

I have to warn you guys-not a lot of food pictures from this trip. Or a lot of good food. The food they provided us was basically carbs and sugar. And lots and lots of potato chips. Mmmm and blueberry muffins-definitely a weakness of mine!

The most Marvelous part of my weekend was probably Saturday’s run. Not skiing meant I basically had all day to hang out and do whatever. I was excited to run in a new and beautiful place! I bundled up (sort of) and got going on my first snow run!

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It was definitely not as cold as I was expecting, especially given there was some snow on the ground. I’ve had much colder runs at home!

I ran through the little ski village, taking a comfortable pace. I wore my Garmin just so I would have some idea of how far I had gone (so I wouldn’t get too lost) ad just listened to the sound of my breathing and my footsteps. I didn’t really have any destination in mind. I ended up in another state, which was cool.

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I somehow ended up finding a trail that took me through a forest/wildlife preserve area. I stopped a bunch for pictures, and to read some of the signs-there were a bunch that talked about casinos that were supposed to be built there (definitely not in CA anymore), but how the space was preserved instead.

One of the best moments of my run was finding a pond that was completely frozen over.

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I have a strange obsession with finding frozen puddles (maybe because I never see them) so this was pretty exciting!

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I was tentatively planning on running 4-5 miles. I wanted to get a glimpse of the lake, so around the halfway point, I decided to go a little bit further to try and get a picture. That was a good decision-I turned a corner and BOOM. I was on the beach!

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That was one of my favorite runs in a long time! I didn’t really feel the high altitude either!

I spent the rest of the day walking around and exploring the little village.

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Like I said, food was not the best quality on this trip, and I definitely ate so much junk! This was actually one of my healthier things (and I felt the need to document it!)

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Graham crackers with melty banana and 86% chocolate. 

For dinner, we had frozen pizzas to cook up (we were staying in suites with a small kitchen)-this was an interesting task, as the pizzas had thawed a bit and were floppy, and there were no trays or anything. One of the pizzas ended up as a calzone because there was no other way to get it into the oven!

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Sunday morning we were up fairly early to head home-we left early enough to get back in time for the 49ers game!

Lunch stop along the way-Starbucks salad. (Bonus-it had kale!)

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Upon arriving at school, I packed my things up super fast to head home in time for the game. It was disappointing, to say the least. And I’m kind of embarrassed I go to the same school as Sherman did…

Dinner was Greek salads with grilled chicken-we grilled up a ton extra for food this week-enough that some will have to go in the freezer!

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And of course being reunited with this guy was kind of Marvelous too. Image

And now, I’m finishing up meal prep. I’ll do a post on this as well as other “project” food later tonight! Before I head back to school, I’m going to get a Crossfit style track workout in-I can’t do the Crossfit workout today thanks to my knee-squats are still a no go!

What did you do this weekend? Do you have today off!

Ski Trip Recap

I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve posted! I had an amazing weekend, but I ate terribly. So I’ll say it right out: yes, I did break my no sugar challenge. I had been walking the edge of the definition of “no sweets” the past few days, and I basically crossed the line by the middle of yesterday. The straw that broke the camel’s back? This little guy:Image

But more on that later. I’m going to describe the trip in more detail first! Friday we bussed out to Lake Tahoe. This ended up taking a really long time because we hit the worst rush hour traffic. We didn’t get in until around 8, and we left around 2. And the drive definitely shouldn’t take that long! After settling in to our rooms (we stayed in a group lodge), we started on dinner, which was make your own pizza.Image

I was smart and took a chunk out before it cooked so I could tell it was mine! The bottom was a little black though…we set the fire alarm off multiple times, and that seemed to be the signal that the pizzas were done. I don’t think the ovens there were very good! I also had some carrots and celery dipped in ranch. So the carb and saturated fat fest begins! That was basically all the food this weekend…plus sugar. And see the problem is, as I’ve talked about in my glucose post, too many carbs, especially white ones, make you crave even more carbs. So basically I ate a ton of carbs this weekend. I believe I had a piece on peanut butter on bread after dinner, as well as a granola bar.

I had a fun night hanging out with my dorm mates. There was a hot tub, which was nice. I planned on doing a sizable amount of work this trip, so I hadn’t planned on going in the hot tub and walked out there with my Ochem book. I ended up staying there and leaving my book in a pile of clothes…not a very good idea. My book is now rather wrinkled. Oops. 

Saturday morning, it was time to hit the slopes. Breakfast:Image

Plus, lucky charms. See, I was walking the line. With the blueberry muffin too! I think as my challenge progressed, I got more lax with what I considered a “sweet”.

Before I talk about skiing, let me first say that I’ve only skied once before in my life, 2 years ago. Luckily, I had some friends help me out. One of them hadn’t really skied before either, and the other 2 were decent skiers. After being re-taught how to put my skis on, we hit the bunny slope. It was a lot easier than I was expecting, certainly easier than the slope I went on last time. After 2 runs on that, we decided to try out some other slopes. 

We took the main lift up, and enjoyed an absolutely stunning view of the lake. ImageImage

These are not my pictures, they were shamelessly stolen from my friend’s facebook. But I was with him, so it counts, right?

We got to the top, which was the main skiing area, with a ton of different hill choices. We chose a green. Well, as it turns out, this one was a lot more difficult than the bunny slope. As it turns out, my biggest problem when skiing is slowing down. And stopping. I have a very hard time not going down the mountain like a bat out of hell. Combine that with the fact that there were a ton of obstacles other skiers on the mountain, and I didn’t particularly want to plow down any small children, and we’ve got a bit of a problem. I had very little room to manipulate, or go down the mountain side to side. Sooo I wiped out. I’ve never really wiped out on a real slope before so it was interesting. Luckily my friends helped me figure out how to get up…I was so happy I had my helmet on though, or it could have been really bad, because my first fall I landed right on my head. I fell again. And then I fell on a reasonable slope, fairly badly. And by badly I mean, I wasn’t hurt buuut my poles went flying. And as it turns out, one went over the edge of the slope. So I had to climb down and get it. Now I’m not saying I scaled a cliff or anything, but it was interesting…especially because the snow wasn’t packed in at all, so coming back up the snow just compressed and I felt like I wasn’t going anywhere. But I survived (not that I was ever in danger…) At that point, I decided that falling on my head again was not the best idea (I had a faint, very faint headache, but nothing more than what I’d feel from diving for a softball), so I just walked down the mountain, and took the lift back down. 

At that point, it was lunchtime! The ski place actually had quite a few options. I was tempted to get chowder in a bread bowl, but I figured I should probably have some type of nutrient, and I’m glad I did! I got a Mexican salad burrito bowl, with guacamole.Image

It was good! Someone else got a burrito, and it was actually the biggest thing I have ever seen in my entire life. It was crazy! The food there was super expensive though, but  guess that’s to be expected. I continued walking the line with a oatmeal raisin cliff bar and blueberry muffin #2.Image

Sorry for the terrible picture! Before lunch, I had returned my skis because I figured another bad fall could be dangerous, so I spent the time after lunch plotting how I could get back to the lodge sooner than the bus we took there, which wasn’t going to leave for 3 more hours. I had no work with me, and tons back at the lodge. After much debate and research, a few dorm mates and I took 2 buses, plus walked a mile, and made it back, saving ourselves about an hour and a half. The trip back took a while, but hey, we still saved time!

Back at the lodge, I ate a half a bagel with cream cheese, and yes, another blueberry muffin. Do you see the problem here? Lots of carbs! I worked until dinner, and right before dinner I had some hot chocolate. At this point I realized my sugar challenge was hot, especially since there was a big old chocolate cake staring at me. Image

Dinner was vegetable lasagna, plus LOTS of bread with butter (definitely had more than is shown here), plus a salad I scrounged up. Now, don’t let those greens fool you. They’re smothered in ranch! There was sooo much cheese and dairy here. Now I understand what my teammates were talking about! Ugh. After dinner was the cake. And believe me, don’t let that small piece fool you! Let’s just say that the cake was sitting out in the open for a while…Plus S’mores…ughhh. I vowed I would eat healthy today, but let’s be honest, that seriously didn’t happen. Saturday was another good night, I got some more work done and then caught up with my friends. 

By breakfast the next morning, there was absolutely no fruit left. I’m not even going to go in to my breakfast because it was downright embarrassing, but whatever you are imagining my  breakfast is, make it 1000x worse and you’ll have my morning meal. Needless to say I haven’t been feeling too great the last few days! Sooo many carbs! After packing up, we rushed out a little earlier than planned, because there was a big snowstorm coming. We got out around 12, and it was snowing all morning! So beautiful! I tried to get an “it’s snowing picture,” but you can’t see a lot. Image

During the bus ride back, we hit some pretty bad traffic right away, but I managed to snap a few pictures!ImageImage

After the bus ride, I’m pretty well rested! My neck is super sore though. It’s partly from sleeping strangely earlier this week as well as this weekend, but I think it’s a little sore from wiping out as well! I only have a few bruises though (on my shin). 

We arrived just in time for dinner!Image

Whole wheat pot stickers and dumplings, brown rice, and salad. Image

Garlic bread, plus a taste of salmon alfredo. And since today wasn’t going to be a no sugar day, I couldn’t resist trying the red velvet frozen yogurt. Image

Back in my room, I was still craving sweets, so I mixed up banana with cocoa powder. I think my sweet tooth is finally satisfied. I’m full, but at least none of my dinner sweets were too gross-feeling-inducing, apart from the quantity. Well, this is great, because tomorrow starts No-sugar challenge part 2! I still want to close this out on the same day. I lasted 2 weeks, which wasn’t bad, but I want to continue despite my hiccup to February 10. After a weekend of indulgent eating, I’m ready to get back on track tomorrow! I really want to avoid saturated fat, sugar, and white carbs this week, as I’ve had a bit of an overload this weekend, and I feel a little bit like death! Do you guys ever feel like this? I made myself a meal plan for this week, because I have a ton to get done, and I don’t want to have to worry about what I should eat! I simply check out the schedule, and I’m good to go! One less thing to think about certainly can’t help!

Despite all my complaining about the food, I had an awesome weekend! I’m really sorry I let you guys down on the challenge, but I’m going to pick right back up! And as planned, Tuesday will still be my Zero Sugar day to raise awareness to all the added sugars in foods! I hope you all had a good weekend as well!

Have you ever wiped out badly skiing? What happened?