(That thing.)

The good news? Upon further examination, I think this problem can be solved with a few pieces of well placed duct tape. Please tell me I’m not the only one who used to think duct tape was tape with pictures of ducks on it?

Also noteworthy: I tried Overnight Oats for the first time! I actually broke into them last night for a snack. I didn’t expect them to be so thick! Also, a note to first timer OOers, remember before you taste your first bite that the oats contain an entire container of rather tart yogurt. 

I just had it with some sunflower seed butter. I had the other half today with some thawed blueberries and sunflower seed butter. I just opened a new crunchy sunflower seed butter, and it’s my new favorite!

Overall, I’m not a HUGE fan of overnight oats, but I would probably make them again. I’m thinking they have some serious staying power!

This afternoon was spent snacking (GAH I blame you again nap!) and looking into becoming a Spin instructor. The general requirements for group fitness at my local gym require a group fitness certification as well as 1 year of experience….but I have no experience, so I’m going to look into tons of other things. 

And now onto the topic of this post. Some of you may recall that the night before my birthday, I declared I’d give up desserts for the rest of the school year. Now, it’s been almost 2 weeks! (My record is 3 weeks, for anyone that cares.) And to be honest? I don’t miss desserts at all. To be fair, I am still having some sweet things, but these healthier alternatives are still cutting my sugar intake and keeping me sane. In my previous sugar challenges, these are items I probably would have done without. But those have all failed. So this time, I decided to take a more low-key approach and allow some things. Like this deliciousness: 

And I’ve had some granola with chocolate chips. And who needs oreos when you could have this beautiful combo? (Flax snacks with the sesame seed butter.)

Ok, I admit, this one kind of pushes the boundaries, as both items are sweet. But they’re almost gone.

Another thing I noticed, a few days in to my challenge: a lot of things just tasted sweet. I had my yogurt+sunflower seed butter+pumpkin bread combo, and it wasn’t as enjoyable as it had been before. The point is, my taste buds have adapted and I don’t miss everything all that much. Ok, I know I’m painting this up to be all daisies and sunshine; there have been some very difficult things to pass up. Like in Yosemite when all my friends were eating Oreos and M&Ms. Or on my Mom’s birthday when the table ordered a ton of specialty desserts. But I’m glad I did choose to pass up. In the long run, I know this is better for me, and I’ve reached the point where it is mostly smooth sailing. That being said, maybe a few less ThinkThin Divine bars wouldn’t hurt. (Yeah. I had 3 today. But now they’re gone so that’s that.)

The point is, once your taste buds readjust, there is no turning back! I love healthier alternatives. Last quarter I had many bananas mashed with cocoa powder.There’s seriously one picture every day from the beginning of last quarter. (Try this one guys! I haven’t had it lately because my bananas haven’t stuck around long enough and because it was awesome with peanut butter. Which makes my face blow up. Just microwave a banana, and mash it up with cocoa powder!)

There are tons of healthy alternatives out there (and I will most likely spend my summer finding them). I’m still deciding what I want to do when my so-called “challenge” is over. I think I might continue. I wish I was one of those people who could have a bite of chocolate and be good to go. I’m definitely an all or nothing personality type. And eating sweets is a VERY slippery slope for me. Although you guys don’t see it on the blog, previous to teh challenge I was eating a ton of sugar. It just doesn’t usually stick around long enough to be photographed! 

On another note, I’m considering trying Paleo again now that my yogurt phase has more or less come to an end. Every time I’ve tried Paleo for a few days, I’ve loved how I’ve felt. ANd to be honest, yogurt was a BIG reason why I didn’t want to try it again. Plus I’ve been feeling so-so with my food choices as of late. Thoughts?

Would you ever or have you ever given up desserts? What was it like?

After an interesting night, I got up around 7:30, 8ish. My goal for this weekend was to get completely caught up on sleep, so this was a lazy morning. I wasn’t terribly hungry, but one of those delicious bars I got at whole foods the other day sounded just about right.

Sorry for the poor definition, I didn’t have the light on because my roommate was still sleeping. I topped this with some nuts for my healthy fat. After eating, I curled back up in bed to get going on my new book!

I really love it! It’s a great read; although it is definitely science-y, it isn’t meant for the scientist, it’s meant for the general public. I’m obviously not all the way through, but I’m hooked. Although I’ve hardly gotten to any parts where he describes the dangers of sugar. I ended up falling back asleep a little bit, which was great. Once again, fixing up that sleep debt! My eating today was a little strange just because of my schedule, so I ended up snacking through the day until dinner. I had weights at 1:30, so I ate snack/meal #2 around 11.

More peanut butter banana bread (plus extra pb), an apple microwaved with cinnamon, celery (gotta slow down those carbs!), and a small cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk. I don’t think I’ve ever had almond milk by itself before, but I didn’t have any regular milk and I wanted some protein. Well, I actually wanted something cold to soothe my super dry throat…This meal was nice and steamy, and my allergies cleared up quite a bit. 

I worked and relaxed for a couple of hours before weights at 1:30. Weights was nothing different. But lotsss of squats today. 4×50. I didn’t put any additional weight on the bar today. Why? I’m so sore from my workout yesterday! I forgot how sore my own weights can make me! My butt, and hamstrings….augh. Plus my abs are still a little sore from Friday’s extra ab work, and my right arm is a little sore from pitching briefly yesterday. 

After weights on the way to a meeting with my professor, I chowed down another half of a delicious Chocolate Mint ThinkThin bar.

I ate the other half some other time throughout the day, maybe after lunch? These are soooo good. I highly recommend them. Although they are a little higher in sugar than what I’d prefer (10g, which is generally my limit when buying granola bars), they don’t have any artificial sweeteners. My meeting with my professor went really well. Apparently the first draft of my paper wasn’t quite as bad as I thought. Who knew?

After the meeting came another snack.

A nectarine and one of the Peanut Butter granola balls I made yesterday. Perfect! I really love the crunch that the chia seeds give these bars! I thought the brown rice crisps would get soggy in the fridge, but it was totally fine! 

After more work, I headed to the gym for a spin class. This is the class I went to last quarter but now can never make because I normally have practice, so I decided to go for old time’s sake. Plus, I was hoping it would loosen me up a little bit! I did a few minutes of abs beforehand, which were surprisingly difficult. I think it is because we had some ab rollouts in weights today…I took Spin a little easy, and I feel a little bit better. The thing about this type of sore, is it doesn’t exactly help to roll out, or it is simply not worth it. Rolling out= so painful! Now that I’m sitting down, I don’t really feel sore, but any time I get up…whew. 

After spin was dinner. I was lacking in veggies today, so I made sure to get some greens!

Caesar salad, a few potatoes and zucchinis, veggie souffle, and a small piece of tilapia. Plus a few chunks of pineapple (which was a little too acidic for my dry mouth…) I also grabbed some greens and tomatoes in anticipation of tomorrow’s dinner. Cheese souffle leftovers! When I returned to my dorm, I was in the mood for something more. I started off eating a banana with peanut butter, then shifted gears and threw the banana in the microwave with this:

And topped with peanut butter. I love this dark chocolate cocoa powder, it gives a ton of flavor! I didn’t take a picture of my banana mix because you’ve seen it before, and frankly it just looks black….

Overall, today was not a bad day. I wish my allergies would get better though! Since I’m starting to get more school work, I want to try to schedule a certain amount of time to work on my blog, and not just work on it here or there, because honestly I need to focus. But I’m well under my time limit today! Another piece of fun news: my friend wanted to try to do the Disney half marathon with me in May, but I’ll still be in school and probably in the middle of my season, so I can’t really do that. However, I may be able to convince her to do the Giant’s half with me in August! 

I’ve never really talked about my race experiences. All 2 of them. Over the summer, I trained for the Giants 10k, which was in San Francisco and finished on the field. 

My sister ran the 10k as well, and my parents walked the 5k. I ended up finishing first in my age group, but I didn’t know that until later so I didn’t get a medal. I think my time was around 52:00? Then over winter break, I ran the Silicon Valley Santa Run, which my friends were going to do with me but ended up not. 

Check out all those Santas! I believe I finished around 25:00, but I could have been in better running shape (I had hardly run at all before, mostly erging and other workouts). But it was a fun experience! There was snow at the finish line, and cookies and milk! I definitely want to do this again next year. I also have always been dying to do a Turkey Trot! This year I ran on my own, maybe 4 miles? I take Thanksgiving very seriously, and I want to do anything to maximize my appetite for the big meal!

On other news, I am going on a ski trip with my dorm this coming weekend. I am slightly terrified, because I’ve only been skiing once. I talked to a few of my teammates who had their ski trips this past weekend, and during our weigh in at weights, they were moaning that all they ate all weekend was cookie dough and cheese. So I think I’m going to have to pack a ton of granola bars, because I don’t think I can handle that….

Any other suggestions for food I could bring?