Pre-Workout: Cheerios

I was planning on doing Crossfit, but I could actually do zero of the movements with my wrist so I decided to just do a lift on my own instead. I did 10-10-8 back squats at 135-145-155, 3 sets of single leg split squats and pistols, and then some rowing for conditioning! 3x1000m with 4 minutes of rest in between! I think my average time was 4:13 per 1000? It took me back to my rowing days though!

Breakfast: Cottage cheese with pumpkin pie filling and sunbutter, plus a few grapes. The saltiness of the cottage cheese pairs perfectly with the pumpkin—kind of like cheesecake (but I wouldn’t take it that far).

Lunch: Same thing as yesterday, but packed since I was at school all day. Chicken, nectarine, apricot cranberry goat cheese, balsamic vinaigrette.

Snack: It ended up being a pretty warm day, so I went and got ice cream with a few friends. I had salted caramel.

And then when I got home I had a few carrot sticks.

Dinner:

Of course I had a dinner-making snack:

And I know I recently posted this meal, but here it is in context. Zucchini noodles, apple chunks, chicken apple sausage, and white cheddar laughing cow. Seriously so good.

Dessert: Same as yesterday. Pumpkin pie filling with dark chocolate chips and whipped cream. And a piece of dark chocolate.

Bedtime snack: The same rice cake with pumpkin cream cheese, and a couple of pieces of dried persimmon.

And that’s it! I’m currently trying to hurry up and get my studying done for the night because I have early morning spin to teach tomorrow!

Here is your obligatory kitten picture:

Let’s start off with a Crossfit Open recap: 18.3 and 18.4. These were the first workouts featuring movements I couldn’t do. Sidenote: 18.5 is announced tonight and apparently there will be voting; I’m really hoping it is movements I can do though! Chest to bar pull ups would be very questionable for me…

18.3:

Workout 18.3

2 rounds for time of:
100 double-unders
20 overhead squats
100 double-unders
12 ring muscle-ups
100 double-unders
20 dumbbell snatches
100 double-unders
12 bar muscle-ups

Women perform 80-lb. OHS, 35-lb. DB snatches

Time cap: 14 minutes

80# overhead squats are definitely not trivial. I was excited for the doubles because mine have been really strong lately. And ring muscle ups? Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen.

My first set of doubles was really strong. I think I managed to stringy together the first 50? The overhead squats were better than expected. I believe I did them in 2 sets, partly because sometimes it’s harder to put it down and have to get it up again! 80# snatches definitely felt harder after 100 doubles! I got through my second set of doubles in I think 6:21? So I had about 8 more minutes to play around on the rings. Suffice to say, I didn’t get my first muscle up. I did get closer than I was expecting though, so that’s something!

Workout 18.4

For time:
21 deadlifts, 155 lb.
21 handstand push-ups
15 deadlifts, 155 lb.
15 handstand push-ups
9 deadlifts, 155 lb.
9 handstand push-ups
21 deadlifts, 205 lb.
50-ft. handstand walk
15 deadlifts, 205 lb.
50-ft. handstand walk
9 deadlifts, 205 lb.
50-ft. handstand walk

Time cap: 9 min.

Now, I can’t do handstand push ups. I actually really don’t like handstands in general, so I haven’t ever had much desire to work on them. However, I was pretty confident I could bust out 21 deadlifts pretty fast, so I opted to Rx this workout and just do 21 deadlifts for time. I busted out my set of 21 in 45 seconds. I have to say, I have my powerlifting prep to thank for that. I never really do 155# deadlifts in workouts other than the Open because historically it is on the heavier side for a lot of reps for me. After deadlifting a lot, heavy, for my powerlifting prep, the 155# felt really easy. I ended up continuing on, with 155# and just doing the workout as the scaled, which was with hand release push ups. So I basically did 21-15-9 155# deadlifts and hand release push ups, plus 21 deadlifts, so I would actually get a workout in!

Now, for the powerlifting meet! Since I haven’t blogged a ton lately, I haven’t talked about it too much on here. My school hosted a friendly powerlifting competition, which I did about an 8 week prep for. Again, I’ll go into full details on the prep in another post. I do want to include food a bit here, because that was an interesting challenge. The competition was 6-9pm, and I am definitely a morning workout person so that was different.

I got super lucky with my schedule that day, in that I had the whole morning off and just had classes in the afternoon, so it was a restful day. I made myself my normal lunch: salad with grilled chicken, goat cheese, and pear, plus some GF crackers on the side.

I had a granola bar mid-afternoon, per my usual routine. I had to be at an athlete’s meeting at 5, so in the 30 minutes between arriving home from class and leaving for the meeting, I whipped up a protein-and-carb-rich light dinner. I had egg whites with half a sweet potato (that I roasted earlier in the day—so fancy) and some reduced fat cheddar.

Then, it was time to head over and hear about the rules!

Powerlifting has certain commands you have to follow about when you can lift and rack the bar. I tried to practice these a little bit in training, but the command I was most nervous about is a command that tells you to lift, when you are at the bottom on a bench press. Basically, it means you have to pause at the bottom of a bench press until you get the command to lift. We were told we had to make our first attempts, so I actually dropped down my bench press initial attempt by a few pounds after that warning.

I actually ended up eating another protein bar before the event started. I really didn’t want to go in hungry because I needed all of the strength!

Another challenge was warming up for the event. I was in the competitive division, which was the 2nd of 3 to go. The recreational/beginner division was the first to go, and it was the largest by far. When they started their squat attempts, I started warming up my squat. My initial attempt was 185, a slightly aggressive first attempt but also a number I was very confidant in. I actually warmed up to 195, which was my second attempt. I had a feeling I would be nervous, especially on squats, so it made me feel better knowing I hit those numbers. Then, before I knew it, it was go time!

My first attempt went smoothly, although I do feel like I had waited a little long since warming up before I lifted. It was fine after the first attempt though. After each attempt, we had to tell the people in charge what our next attempt would be.

Then, I went for 195.

It felt pretty easy, but I did get a warning about depth, meaning I had to make sure I went deep enough on the next rep (but my 195 was still accepted). I hit 200 in training on Friday, and my squat PR (from 2014….) was 205, so I went for 205 as my third attempt. I think I was a little overly concerned about going deep enough, and I got stuck at the bottom and failed the lift. As soon as you lose your core in squatting, the lift is just not going to happen. I think I had it in me though! I refueled with chocolate milk post-squats and then watched the heavy lifters go…someone squatted 500# which is so crazy to me.

Next up was bench. I warmed up to my initial attempt of 95#. Bench is by far my worst lift, and one I’ve hardly worked on in my many years of lifting. Actually, for that reason it was fun to train because I saw improvements and PRs. Again, I was nervous about the pause at the bottom.

95 went up easily. My all time max was 115, from a few weeks ago, and it was UGLY. I went for an aggressive second attempt at 110 and didn’t know what to expect, but it also went up well. I went for 115# for my final attempt, and again, it went up super easily. Unfortunately, I missed the command to rack the bar after I successfully lifted it, so the lift didn’t count. Ah well. Annoying, but in the scheme of my total score it was only 5#, and for my own personal records, I know I hit it.

Last up was deadlift. It was around 8:30pm by this time and I was fading. Super tired. But I told myself, I literally only had to lift the bar 3 more times! Again, I warmed up to my first attempt of 225#. At this competition, we were not allowed to use powdered chalk, only liquid chalk. I’ve never used liquid chalk before. Honestly I don’t normally use chalk for deadlifting, but the bars at school are super slippery so that was always a problem. Luckily, I made friends with someone who had liquid chalk, and it seriously made all the difference! 225 was easy. My second attempt was 235, and that also went as planned. My PR (also from 2014…) was 245, so I decided to shoot for 250 for my final attempt….It went up fairly easily, and was my far the prettiest heavy deadlift I’ve done! Normally at near-max weights, the form breaks down (and the back rounds..), but that didn’t happen, I felt it completely in my hamstrings and not in my back. I was SUPER happy to finish with that lift and with a PR! Especially because when I started my powerlifting prep, I initially couldn’t get heavier than 225!

Overall, the meet was an amazing experience. It was so much fun, and everyone was so nice! I also LOVE lifting, especially powerlifting. I love getting stronger and watching things change. It was also fun to have a goal to work towards. 10/10 would do it again. I also had amazing friends who came out to support me!

I got home around 9:30 and ate the same egg/sweet potato meal I had prior to the competition, as well as a brownie with ice cream. I made these super amazing GF/vegan brownies and can’t say enough good things about them. They’re MOSTLY applesauce and chocolate, and the texture coming out of the oven was like the best fudgy brownie. They’r definitely best served hot, and I appreciate that the recipe makes a smaller batch.

Look out for more posts coming soon!

]]> https://fitnessissweet.com/2017/07/11/squat-program-successweek-in-meals/ Tue, 11 Jul 2017 18:11:14 +0000 http://fitnessissweet.com/?p=26562 Read More]]> Hello! I wanted to first talk about my squat program: the rundown of what I did+the progress I made. Then, we’ll go through some meals from this week. First, a quick Monday highlight: my parents, friend, and I went to a San Jose Giants (Giants’ A affiliate) to see Bumgarner pitch a rehab start, and it was a blast!

We got watermelon wheat beers and barbecue—chicken sandwich+coleslaw for me!

It was so much fun! I love baseball. Bumgarner did super well (1 UER), much better than last week’s start which was 9 runs in 4 innings…

I finished the night with chocolate vanilla swirl froyo with sprinkles.

Now, onto my squat program!

Here’s what I did, first. Listed as reps, then percentages at those reps, and then what weight I used.

1: 10-10-8 @ 70-75-80%, 135-145-155#

2. 8-8-6 @ 75-80-85%, 145-155-165#

3. 6-6-4 @ 80-85-90%, 155-165-175#

4. 4-4-2 @ 85-90-95%, 165-175-185#

I did a day of squatting with Crossfit (just whatever was programmed) plus one additional day of the above rep scheme a week. 1=week 1, 2=week 2, etc. Each week, I was building weight while decreasing reps. At the beginning of my program, at Crossfit we did max reps at 95%, which was 185# for me. I got 3, with the 3rd being a failed fail (I tried to fail but then got it up). Well, when I did the last day of my squat program last week, I shocked by how not terribly my 2 reps at 185# came up. Then, at Crossfit on Monday I had to do max reps at 185# again, but this time I got 7. What?? That’s such a big increase over the course of a month! This squat program has been a lot of fun, and seeing strength increases like that makes it even more worthwhile. I’m planning on doing another cycle of the same thing, but with 5# higher each week.

And then, as promised, I have lots of food to share! Pop back in tomorrow for a new Quick and Easy recipe as well!

Breakfasts

Leftover red, white, and blue banana bread with milk and a nectarine post-workout, pre-work.

Flapjacked muffin with delicious nectarine. CA summer at its finest.

Microwave banana custard with a dab of sunbutter. I literally have not had this in years, but I was craving something protein-rich for breakfast so I went for it. Yum!

Lunches

Nectarine, grilled chicken, and creamy goat cheese salad with a side of GF crackers.

Grilled chicken, blueberry, and burrata salad with rice cakes.

Date and nectarine salad with goat cheese, light champagne vinaigrette, and a side of BBQ rice cakes.

Same thing, but with white nectarine instead of yellow!

Catered Mexican food at my dad’s company picnic. I made a salad out of lettuce with fajita chicken, black beans, salsa, rice, tons of guac, and a tortilla.

Snacks

Brown rice cake with creamy goat cheese and raspberry jam.

A new to me NuGo bar. The pomegranate was actually crazy good! It was a little more interesting than just chocolate (below), but that one was good too. 

I like these bars because they’re coated in chocolate, so naturally they’re delicious.

The usual.

I’m liking this new work smoothie: 2/3c milk, half a flapjacked vanilla smoothie mix, 1/2c frozen mango. Loving the vanilla mango flavor combo!

This morning I did a treadmill workout followed by a yoga class. I did a half mile warm up, then 8 rounds of 2 min push at 7:00 pace, 1 minute recover. I only had Cheerios beforehand, so I set myself up in Starbucks with an iced decaf latte and a snack to work on stuff for school, and this blog!

Dinners

A delicious summer dinner: leftover chicken with BBQ sauce, sautéed zucchini noodles seasoned with a sundried tomato seasoning blend, and an artichoke served with a mayo-balsamic vinaigrette dipping sauce.

Post-yoga Wednesday night, I suggested we just pop into Whole Foods for dinner. I had an enchilada over salad, plus some rice and some grilled veggies.

A lazy Friday night dinner at home: takeout from the counter with more zucchini noodles. My mom and I split my signature custom burger: chicken with garlic aoili, gruyere (they messed up and put goat cheese instead), tomato, mixed greens, and of course, avocado, on a GF bun.

Desserts

Chocolate chip orange cranberry bread with chocolate Halo Top.

Flax brownies (actually really tasty) with vanilla Halo Top, whipped cream, and sprinkles.

And finally: my beer! I finally tried my chocolate milk stout that I brewed and it is absolutely amazing. REALLY amazing. Possibly better than the St. Louis version, possibly one of the best beers I’ve ever had. I am very impressed and surprised with myself!

Have a great week!

First, I want to catch up a little bit. On food. On fitness. Life. Etc.

First of all-my sister is engaged! How crazy is that?? I’m the maid of honor and I’m so happy for the couple! We even broke out the good champagne to celebrate!

It happened on a hot air balloon in Napa-hwo perfect is that? They stopped by for congratulations and to partake in our grilled nectarine salad (because we got nectarines from Costco with only a few days to eat them…)

Recipe here.

Another meal I’ve been meaning to post were these beautiful parmesan and spinach soufflés.

Plus a delicious side salad with herbs, meyer lemon infused olive oil, and aged white balsamic vinegar.

In workout news, I messed up my shoulder today. I was weight lifting with my trainer. We did heavy snatches and I did pretty well-didn’t hit my max but made the lifts I should have made. Then, heavy deadlifts. After working my way up to heavy weights, I did a set of 5 at 210, a set of 3 at 220, and a set of 1 at 230, followed by max reps at 230 (I got 2-apparently my form was going and I wasn’t allowed to try a 3rd with my ‘cat back’). Then,I worked on behind the neck snatch grip presses and snatch balances. It was fine. So basically I spent a lot of time stabilizing heavy weights with my shoulders with no issues. Then since there was a bit of extra time, we did some core work-roll outs. You may have seen those ab wheels before, but I used a barbell with circular plates to roll out. I got a little too ambitious on the first one and roll out to far, and then got kind of stuck and ended up sort of face-planting and felt a pop in my shoulder. I was worried at first, but everything seems to be in the right place and it feels much better than it did initially. The pain is in the same area that my shoulders get creaky, especially this one, so I think it’s just a bit of a sprain/strain. I’m hoping it feels better soon!

In life news, I’m jetting off to Hawaii with my family! My dad has a conference so we’re tagging along and making a vacation of it. To be perfectly honest, I’m a bit worried about what I can eat but I’m sure we’ll make it work. Hawaii is full of nuts and coconut, and the last time I was there I ate both and ended up with a pretty bad allergic reaction to macadamia nuts (this is before I completely avoided them and was still in denial).

It’s actually looking to be a pretty active vacation for me. I have a 10 mile run scheduled this weekend, which will feel great in the heat and humidity I’m sure…Plus some other shorter runs. I’m also hoping my shoulder is ok to visit some of the Crossfit boxes I visited last time I was there! Other excitement includes another visit to see the piggies.

The biggest thing I’m excited about it visiting a goat dairy farm! We went many years ago and I remember trying delicious goat cheese. Plus-RUMINANTS. I think as part of the tour we get to milk them? So pumped!

In terms of my health-my stomach is mostly healed but not 100%. There are still times were I feel super dizzy and nauseous, and tums/pepto still has to come everywhere with me just in case. Luckily, at this point it seems these episodes are mostly linked to certain foods. Which can be frustrating, but I’m trying to be better about figuring out what foods and how to better avoid them The list of things that makes me sick includes dark chocolate, onions, mexican food, tortilla chips, wheat, too much sun butter, too much fatty food. The list goes on. I really do feel like some of this is temporary and won’t affect me in time when I’m fully healed, but we’ll see. In the meantime, I’m sticking to gluten free-all of these breads I make with gluten free flour, and you’d never know it. It seems to be even less noticeable with pumpkin bread than banana bread too.

Which FINALLY brings us to the recipe! I wanted to make sweet potato bread, but couldn’t find the recipe I used in the past so I figured, why not try my own hand at it? Like I’ve said before-I’ve tried very hard to screw up my basic banana bread recipe so I might was well try a little bit harder!

Sweet Potato Bread

Ingredients

1.5 cups mashed, cooked sweet potato or yam

1 c flour

1/3 c milk

2 bananas, mashed

2 T oil (I used avocado)

1 egg

1 T vanilla

1 t salt

1 t baking soda

1 t baking powder

1/4 c honey (can add more-to taste)

1 t cinnamon

1/4 t nutmeg

Optional: 1 T orange juice (I wanted to moisten it and in full honesty the only citrus we had was a tangerine so I just used the juice from that)

cinnamon sugar for sprinkling on top

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix wet ingredients well, then add dry ingredients.
3. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top (this just makes it pretty!)
4. Bake for about 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

This dense bread is the perfect segway between summer and fall. It’s a dense, warm bread but doesn’t quite have the kick of fall spices.

What is your favorite quick bread? What should I experiment with next?

I started my morning teaching a 7am spin class on campus, which was awesome. I didn’t think we’d get a big turn out because it wasn’t that well advertised and it was early, but I got a good group out, including a friend!

Then, I had a weight lifting session with my trainer. I tried to move it to not the morning I had to teach, but that didn’t work out so I had to suck it up and go in with less than fresh legs. We worked on cleans, back squats, and jerks. I PRed my clean again at 148#! That’s a 8# increase this summer, so I’ll take it! Sometimes being a little tired helps things-I don’t overthink the lift, plus I was super warmed up! I also hit 95% of my back squat max for 2 reps. This is especially good because my max is a year old, and I maxed out at my 95% when I tested it back in the spring.

As for the jerks, we didn’t go super heavy but they felt better than expected. Over the last year or so, I’ve developed very creaky shoulders, especially when I go overhead with the bar. I basically have not been able to go overhead more than once a week without stiff shoulders and pain when I press up. Earlier this week at Crossfit, we did a ton of push presses and high volume overhead work. But, the jerks yesterday felt fine! It was a night and day difference. So what changed? I started yoga about 6 years ago to help with flexibly (because I have none). I honestly think yoga was key for helping me stay injury free in my many years of softball. (I was a pitcher and never had any shoulder/arm trouble which is rare for someone doing it for 10 years!) In the past year, yoga has kind of fallen by the wayside. Last month, I finally started making it to class again, and I’ve noticed my shoulders getting stronger and looser. I felt a drastic difference from just last week’s class to this week’s class when doing low push ups-my shoulders felt strong and were losing their creak. Plus, this week I walked out of class with much less foot pain because I spent 60 minutes stretching out my tight calves. Needless to say I will be making yoga a regular thing again if possible!

After my training session, I met my sister for coffee at Bliss in Redwood City for any locals.

Of course, I got a cappuccino and it was fantastic. It was a light roast, and had premium quality milk foam (which is clearly what matters, if you ask me!)

After coffee, we headed home for lunch. I made myself a salad with truffle goat cheese (because we didn’t have any regular goat cheese), dates, a nectarine, and deli turkey.

Sweet potato seed crackers were on the side.

I spent the afternoon resting, and then apparently going on a baking frenzy.

It’s 4 days into September and I’ve already make 3 loaves of pumpkin bread and a loaf of sweet potato bread. Besides the pumpkin bread, I did lots of experimenting and improvising.

For the pumpkin bread, I baked some Noosa honey yogurt into the center for something fun.

If you take one look at my recipe page, you’ll see that most of what is up there is quick breads and salads. Those are my two claims to fame. I’ve gotten very good and making up recipes for healthy quick breads. I have one base recipe that I use, and I have yet to screw it up, surprisingly, despite how many modifications I’ve tried. (That’s actually not true-the one thing that didn’t work was coconut flour banana bread. Apparently bananas and coconut flour are not good together. It was gross.) I’ve even started making it with gluten free flour, and you would really never know. At this point, nothing contains more than 1/4 cup of sweetener, but you’d never know. Even my sister approved, and she is wary of anything “healthy.”

When the sweet potato bread came out, I decided I am a freaking genius. It was on point.

My third loaf was a total experiment, and I was running out of flour so I had to really improvise. The bread? Awesome. Exactly what I was looking for. The appearance? Uhhhh.

The batter was completely gray-this picture doesn’t do it justice. Anyone want to guess the secret ingredient that reacts to turn this color? I’m guessing it reacts to baking soda/powder. Because of the appearance, I’m not 100% sure I’ll share the recipe. Plus, it still needs tweaking because I think if I had more flour and didn’t have to improvise quite so much it would be better!

As for the sweet potato recipe, it’s coming this weekend-I promise!

That evening, I went to run club at Crossfit. My legs were not really up for it, but I’ve been wanting to go for a long time now and this was the only week I could really make it. Since everything is based on paces, I had to do a timed mile. Blech. I clocked in around 8:10, and with tired legs, I’ll take it. I should probably actually do a timed mile sometime with fresh legs! Back in the glory days, in another life I was actually reptty fast. I think my all time best mile is 6:53, but that’s not happening any time soon! Overall, between warm up and cool down, I covered 3 miles which is exactly what was on my half training plan for the day.

Dinner was another basic one. Stir fry veggies and cheesy polenta. The cheesy polenta was just cooked polenta with smoked gouda stirred in, and it was delicious!

I hope everyone has a fabulous labor day weekend. I’m on puppy duty full time, so I’m trying to think of things to do with her! And check back for that recipe this weekend!

What are your weekend plans?

I’ve had no energy or desire to pop open my computer these past few days. The first couple of days were totally exhausting, and my brain shut down before 10pm. Yesterday I started work at 7. I’m there for 9 hours a day, including lunch, and I’m on my feet the entire time. Needless to say, my feet haven’t been too happy about this! I love working at the vet though-I’m getting the hang of things much faster when I’m there 40 hours a week rather than the 4 hours a week I had been doing during school.

What else have I done this week? I went to the Farmer’s Market on Thursday-there’s one in the evenings right next to work on Thursdays. I’ve done some workouts, including teaching my spin class. One workout in particular I’d like to mention is the reason my legs are currently sore, and will only get more sore.

I mentioned it before, but I’m working with a trainer this summer. I trained with him all throughout high school, and in just the 2 weeks I’ve been with him this summer, everything is improving. My Olympic lifting technique is improving rapidly. In Crossfit, I feel like the strength/Oly portion gets glossed over on the way to the WOD, so this is really good. I still need to get a little more confident in my lifts, and my max weights should go up even more. Yesterday we did both snatches and cleans. I PRed my snatch again this week-from the power position. How crazy is that?? Then we did squats. I’m on a lifting program, and this week was sets of 10, 10, and 8. Yuck. High rep squats are the worst. My first set of 10 was 145#, my second was 155#, and my set of 8 was 165#. I can confidently say I’ve never done a set of 10 at 155# before. The thing though is, I never doubted that I wasn’t going to make these lifts. I think the mental aspect of weightlifting is incredibly important, and in high school, this is something that really shaped me in other areas of my life, which is one reason I fell in love with weight lifting. I actually wrote part of my college admissions essay about this. I can’t believe I’m actually sharing this, but I think it is really important so here’s a little excerpt:

“In weightlifting, I learned to push through mental roadblocks, launching myself into uncharted territory. With my mind, I could push my body further than with sheer strength. With difficult lifts, I found that if the thought of failure crept into my mind, I would instantly fail.”

Also note that I was a much better writer 3 years ago-being a science major does not foster the same types of skills…

I think that weightlifting has been a huge influence in shaping who I am.

Anyways, back to the workout. After squats was push presses and bent over rows. Then conditioning. My trainer asked me how my legs were. I said they were okay, to which he replied, “Oh, I thought they’d be shot.”

The answer should be yes, they were shot, because then I proceeded to do conditioning full of burpees.

6 minutes, on the minute:

1. 1 power clean (85#), 10 burpees

2.  2 power cleans, 8 burpees

3. 3 power cleans, 6 burpees

4. 4 power cleans, 4 burpees

5. 5 power cleans, 2 burpees

6. 6 power cleans, 1 burpee

I honestly surprised myself that I even finished 10 burpees in a minute!

But yes, now I’m feeling those squats. I started to get sore 2 hours later. So this should be interesting.

Foodwise?

Breakfasts

I mashed up a ripe banana with cocoa powder and then stirred in oats. I topped all that with plain Greek yogurt and sunflower seed butter.

Eggs+oatmeal. My berries to oatmeal ratio was 2:1 which was just about right. Oatmeal isn’t exactly my thing.

Lunch

For the first half of this week, I packed really unphotogenic sweet potatoes stuffed with black bean soup, chicken, and avocado. Plus a veggie. I’ll spare you the pictures. I finally settled on a favorite work lunch of a salad with dates, feta, chicken, nectarines, and champagne vinaigrette.

Dinner

Black bean soup with cheese and avocado.

Salad with corn and avocado, topped with Trader Joe’s BBQ chicken.

Parmesan encrusted chicken over garlic spinach, with a sweet potato on the side.

Take out-a chicken burger with dijon and avocado on a gluten free bun.

And of course-this is necessary:

How was your week?

Which is another way of saying I’ve been hitting it hard on the workout front this week!

On Sunday morning, I did a fairly heavy, high volume leg day. I did 5 sets of 8 front squats and back squats, 4 sets of 8 RDLs, and 5 sets of 5 deadlifts. My legs were so shaky by the end. They say you never regret a workout, but I had a feeling I’d regret this all week when I couldn’t walk. I definitely fueled up post workout though-soymilk, pancakes, and Southwest Eggs Benedict with turkey.

I was expecting to not be able to walk on Monday, but I actually felt ok. Definitely sore, but not the main muscles that inhibit walking and not in the super stiff way. My quads were pretty sore, which make biking painful, but other than that I was functional. Crossfit that morning included pull ups and back squats (although not too heavy), and then the WOD was:

3 rounds:

7 thrusters

30 kettlebell swings

15 burpees

FYI: that’s a lot of kettle bell swings! My shoulders were smoked.

That evening, I took a spin class because it has been far too long, and I don’t want my quarter pass to go to waste! I also did some abs.

And then I woke up this morning. Yeah. Second day soreness is definitely worse. I also think my abs are really sore, but that’s secondary to the pain and lack of mobility in my legs.

The last time I squatted, I wasn’t that sore in my left leg because I’m in the habit of favoring my right leg so this time I really focused on staying even. Yeah, my left leg is feeling it now. Ouch.

So I’m currently rocking a little waddle-walk. It’s cool.

I need to fit in a run later today for half training so I’m hoping my legs loosen up! Builds character?

In other news, my 9am class got cancelled this morning, which was amazing news because I was looking at a late night otherwise!

In more other news, we’re doing metabolism and the endocrine system in my physiology class right now, which is my favorite thing ever. I may potentially get excited about it all over again and do a post in the future-that counts as studying for my final, right?

On the food front, I need to make use of a lot of meal plan dollars, so I bought a whole bunch of snacks and probiotic drinks.

I actually really liked this flavor!

Sea salt caramel apple chips?? Of course I was going to try this! The sea salt was subtle-I would have loved a little more of it, but they were still quality apple chips.

The other day I had a salad for lunch that was without significant protein because there were no eggs in the dining hall, so I was starving mid afternoon and picked this up. It’s kind of sad how few bars out there I can actually eat because they don’t have nuts…

What makes you waddle-sore?

Second of all-I guess this makes the first post on my ‘journey’?

My morning began with a trip to the gym. I’m teaching spin this weekend, and my playlist was pretty terrible, so I had to make some adjustments. It was 1000x better afterwards! Phew! I want to practice it one more time before teaching though. I also did some abs (because I never do them) and calf raises because I’m hoping strengthening my calves will help my plantar fasciitis. Hopefully.

Normally I would do a dining hall breakfast but it was already closed so I had a banana and sun butter in my room, followed by a persimmon.

I ended up only having one class today, which was unexpected. My lab was postponed due to a gas leak in the building, so I gained 4 hours in the afternoon.

For lunch, I went to the dining hall with my friend.

Clam chowder (surprisingly good), salad, kabocha, and a small slice of super thin crust pizza.

I also had 1.5 small cookies.

My afternoon wasn’t nearly as productive as it should have been, but such is life. For a snack, I munched on some sweet potato tortilla chips-seriously, these are good! I also had a pomegranate.

My roommate brought these back from her farm (right??) and it was so good! That being said, if you want an exercise in mindful eating…this thing was so difficult to eat! And my desk looked like a murder scene afterwards.

After studying for chem, I went to Crossfit. We usually have one class a week that is just strength, which was what today was. Before I get into that, let me just say that today is the first day since MONDAY that I’ve been able to walk like a somewhat normal person. Apparently we started this new program that includes high reps of squats. I don’t think I’ve ever done a set of 10 weighted squats. My gosh. That was Monday night. I went in again Tuesday morning where we proceeded to do 120 wall balls and 50 air squats. Yeah. I’m still sore, and I’m hoping today doesn’t make me unable to walk tomorrow. I love weights…but man.

Today was…more squats. Yay? It went better than I was expecting. We did sets of 8, which wasn’t as bad as I anticipated. We also did 5 minutes of rowing, stiff leg deadlifts, and planks. So a pretty low key day.

For dinner, I made some wraps in my room. Turkey, garlic and herb laughing cow, spinach, and red pepper on a whole wheat tortilla.

I downloaded a Blogilates meal plan a while ago, and while I never really followed it, I’m a fan of these guys. They are easy dorm food, super filling, and I’m already dreaming up variations.

After dinner, I was still hungry and craving something sweet so I thawed out a couple of frozen pumpkin muffins.

These probably weren’t the best choice. What I really want is to make some pumpkin bread. I have a fantastic healthy recipe, but I’d need to go home to do it because I have no ingredients here. I also desperately need something for before morning Crossfit, which I’ve been going to more. Back in the day when I used to do morning weights, I always had banana bread or some type of quick bread and it worked great. I just don’t really have many carb sources in my room right now, and I always get so light headed so that needs to change!

Overall thoughts? Not bad, definitely areas for improvement. And now I’m off to do more work! Yippee.

Generally, mornings are for running. It’s local (I don’t have to drive there-I just walk outside), I get it done, and once I’m up I’m not going to back out. If I tried to run in the afternoons, more likely than not it just wouldn’t happen. I either get lazy or eat too big of a snack, or am just not motivated. I usually do Crossfit or yoga in the evenings-which is scheduled and which I can’t back out of!

I run 3-4 times a week depending on what is going on. Last week, I ran 3 times. This week, barring an unknown, it will be 4. At this point, I do maybe a day of speed work, 1-2 non-paced runs, and a long run. More than anything, it depends on my schedule and where I can fit it in. Here’s this week (proposed), which is more or less typical for me. Sometimes I go to Crossfit less or lift more on my own, depending on how much time I have or what the Crossfit workouts for the week are.

Monday: easy 4 miles+ Crossfit

Tuesday: Crossfit

Wednesday: 6 miles hilly run+ Crossfit

Thursday: AM spin+yoga class

Friday: 4 miles speed work (I’m planning 16×400 @ 10k pace but not sure if I’ll get that many in)+Crossfit

Saturday: Crossfit

Sunday: 12 mile run

As you can see, I like Crossfit! This is more than I would typically go in a week, but I liked the looks of all the workouts. One thing about Crossfit is that the workouts are more or less designed so you can go each day, or many days in a row. I get sore a lot, but it’s in different places, and the intensity is not that high that I’m immobilizingly sore (at least more than 1x/week!). In contrast, when I lift on my own, I won’t be walking for a week. If my only goal was to get as strong as possible, to be honest, I’d probably be better off lifting on my own, 2-3x a week. But I like Crossfit. It’s fun. It’s endurance as well as strength, and I’m still getting stronger. I just really like lifting weights. If there is anything going on with me, or if I don’t feel great, or I’m tired, I always feel better and accomplished afterwards. 

For example, I had a great time yesterday because we did Atlas stones. Which is where you pick a giant concrete ball off the ground and lift it onto your shoulder.

(Source)

I’ve only done this once before, but I feel so legit! I was even able to move up to a heavier stone! (95 lbs).

Now that I’m doing more distance running, I’m really trying to be better about fitting yoga in. It’s the first thing to go when I get busy, but I get so tight during distance running that it really is essential for injury prevention. My legs have felt pretty tight all week, especially my calves, so I was glad to make it out to a class today! The last couple of weeks I’ve just been practicing on my own. 

In terms of food, I have some things to share. Let me just say that my roommate is amazing. She made Nutella Stuffed Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt. Take a moment to absorb all that.

They have been a staple of my diet these last few days. After eating so many cookies, I’m trying to clean it up a little bit to fuel all my studying! Here are some eats of late:

Plain greek yogurt, fruit salad, berries, and a pancake.

Lots of salads.

Scrambled eggs with oranges.

It’s deadweek so I get a heart in my cappuccino. Speaking of which, the other day I met up with a friend in the afternoon for coffee to catch up since I haven’t seen her much since last year. We went to my normal coffeeshop, and when I ordered a decaf cappuccino, the barista looked at me like I was crazy. I think I get coffee too much…

My prize-gotta love Nutrition class! I won these for my title page for a paper-local organic strawberries! I’m excited strawberries are starting to be in season (at least around here!).

This is still a work in progress. You can’t tell from the picture, but there are a few green streaks in there! I think I need more baking soda, and I think it needs to actually bake in an oven. On a different note: mashing up banana with sunflower seed butter and vanilla tastes amazing. I may never buy granola bars again, and just make my own! YUM. 

What’s your favorite type of exercise?

P.S. I just saw the announcement for the the Open WOD 14.3 and I’m PUMPED. Deadlifts+box jumps are my favorite!

Yesterday morning I started the day with a 5 mile SUPER hilly run. For some reason I was really dragging all day, despite sleeping in (relatively-I woke up at 7:40). But here are some of my delicious meals!

Fancy shmancy yogurt. In a ceramic pot. You better believe I’m keeping that! One of the reasons I’m most excited to do the Project is because it’s an excuse to eat really high quality yogurt. No complaints here!

A packed lunch-egg salad with the mayo and mustard from the tea party, plus dining hall eggs, as well as Brussels Sprouts with Garlic and Herb Laughing cow. Not going to lie, the Brussels could have been cooked a little bit more!

I had a doctor’s appointment for my feet/tendonitis. I got some exercises to try to help, so I guess we’ll see. I was doing them in chem lab today while I was waiting around. Eh. We’ll see. He also adjusted my custom inserts that I never wear because they cause extreme pain when I wear them, but I’m not terribly optimistic about that!

Snack of an orange and chocolate chip banana bread. I’m kind of getting to the end of my freezer supply of this, which makes me very sad.

I went to weightlifting class again. Everyone there is super nice. Apparently they’ve been watching me in Crossfit and trying to get me to come for a while now! I only (ONLY, right??) had an hour because I had class, so I just worked on clean and jerks the whole time. For some reason, the weight lifting class goes by kilograms, instead of pounds. Which means without making calculations, I have no idea how much I’m lifting. I think this is good for me-I sometimes tend to overthink things and psych myself out. I ended up doing a ton of sets only 2.5 lbs away from my 1 rep max, and only missing the last couple at that weight-although I missed some jerks, I made all the cleans but the last 2.

The downside? I haven’t done a ton of Olympic lifting lately, like I had in the past, and my knee isn’t liking catching heavy weights in a super deep squat, so I’m kind of out of commission for a little bit. I skipped Crossfit because I can’t row (the workout for the day), because compressing my knee that much is a little iffy. I’ve been icing and taking care of it-I went to a spin class this morning (it was nice to not just be doing my own thing!), and did a 3.7 mile run this afternoon, both of which felt fine and loosened it up a bit. I think I need to just wait this one out and hope it’s just pain from getting back into it.

ANYWAYS, here was dinner: they actually had meat, which was nice.

(Wow, I didn’t realize how blurry this is-that’s kind of embarrassing…)

My hall also had a late night guac party, which I of course participated in.

After spin this morning, I decided it was going to be a long day, and I didn’t go to bed as early as I would have liked, so I got coffee.

I’m on a first name basis with the barista, and my order was finished almost before I was done ordering.

Overnight oats made with Siggi’s and a minimal amount of milk. These were sticky and thick-note the spoon sticking straight up. I topped them with a little sunflower seed butter and wondered if they would hold me over until next week. Talk about stick to your ribs! My meals have definitely filled me up quite a bit lately-like lunch.

This packed lunch was almost entirely dining hall food-a couple of hard boiled eggs made into egg salad, leftover yams from last night with a drizzle of honey, and store-bought brussels sprouts with white cheddar. So good. So filling!

I had Ochem lab all afternoon. I find labs stressful, but my result ended up being good, and the TA took a picture of my spectra.

Ignore my reflection in the background-the printers weren’t working so we had to take pictures of the machines with out phones.

Organic chemistry friends out there-any guesses as to what this is?

After lab, I realized my Garmin was dead, and I wanted to do a tempo run, so I charged it super fast while eating a snack.

One thing I recently realized is that when I run first thing in the morning, I don’t do well on an empty stomach-I almost always get stomach cramps. Kinda counterintuitive, isn’t it? I’ve found these Thinkthin Divine bars are perfect-I can eat one and go straight out. I haven’t really worked out yet what I could eat before morning runs in the next month-maybe oatmeal? I’m not sure.

My run went pretty well-at the 1.83 mile point, where the road changes, I picked up the pace, although I don’t think I held it the whole time, but it was still faster (it was getting dark and hard to read my Garmin). It definitely felt easier than the last time though-I felt like I could have kept going, and I wasn’t dying.

I ended up turning back a little sooner than the full loop-I didn’t need the extra .6 miles and my feet were starting to feel a tad brick like so I just picked up the pace a little and cut across campus. Plus, there were no cars so that was a plus!

I kind of planned on going to yoga tonight but I saw it was subbed as pilates, so I sat back with a couple of ice packs and Glee. I ended up making dinner while rolling around in my desk chair. There are advantages to living in a dorm-pretty much everything is within arms reach, plus  a little bit of rolling!

Thai tomato coconut soup, topped with cheddar. Black cherry quick bread from the freezer topped with sunflower seed butter. Plus some carrots on the side, as well as a couple of cuties.

Not going to lie, I’m having the biggest chocolate cravings right now. But guess what I don’t have in my room? Chocolate! For some reason by the end of the week I crave more sweets and carbs.

Speaking of carbs-as it turned out, I should not have had that coffee this morning! We were discussing carbohydrate metabolism in my first class of the day, which is basically my favorite thing ever, and I was insanely excited anyway. Let’s just say I was wired. I’m pretty sure I don’t ever need coffee on the days when I have Nutrition first, despite the fact that it’s an earlier class time because I have my own excitement to carry me through!

Despite today’s excitement though, I was pretty disappointed at the depth at which we looked at carbohydrate metabolism. We just talked about digestion and absorption, no biochem. Boo. I <3 biochem.

Ok, I need to do laundry/pack for ski trip/watch lecture videos/do dishes/clean my room. Oops.

Also-I may or may not have internet or cell service in the mountains, so I will get back about anything once I get back!

What excites you?