Back to my tempo run. I did 4 miles, with the inner 2 miles at roughly a 8:00 pace. My 5k time clocked in at just over 26:00, which is a good sign because it included my non-tempo portion! But I do the tempo part on a slight downhill. Overall, I felt good though! My next 5k is February 7 and while I may not be gunning for a PR, I’m hoping to place! I won my age group 2 years ago and I missed placing by a few seconds last year (it’s a quite small race).

I have some fun food to share, so I’ll scatter that throughout my thoughts on the aforementioned topic of today’s post—the Whole30.

I actually have fairly strong feelings about the Whole30. This year, it feels like everyone is embarking on the new year with the Whole30. As a disclaimer, I’ve never done the Whole30. I vaguely tried at one point, but lasted 3 days. So if you want to take my contemplations with a grain of salt, feel free to.

One of my favorite ways to eat Mexican food is in salad form. I love the fresh veggies+guacamole!

Disclaimer #2: I could never actually do the Whole30 or Paleo in general with my eating restrictions. I don’t eat red meat, and I’m allergic to nuts and coconut. That severely limits my options, especially for healthy fats!

If I’ve learned anything about health over the past years, it is that health is a journey. Different knowledge and experiences have drastically shaped my view of what is healthy. I think longtime readers will probably see this shift. I think my views have been to the moon and back since I started this blog.

If you read my early posts, it’s clear I was passionate and knowledgable about nutrition, but maybe not in a practical sense. I viewed sugar as the devil and always felt like I was poisoning my body by eating it. I did several no sugar challenges. A year into my blog, I did a real food challenge.

Pizza made on GF bread.

Then last winter I got sick. I no longer viewed food in terms of what was healthy, but rather in terms of what wouldn’t make me ill.

And now, I finally have a diagnosis, which brought even more changes. And guess what? My view of healthy changed again.

Here are my thoughts now. I still think sugar is the devil. I think overconsumption of sugar and processed foods leads to many of the health problems were are dealing with today. I think that eating 100% unprocessed food is probably pretty healthy. But here’s the thing. It’s not necessarily sustainable. When I cut out all processed foods, I felt fantastic. I looked fantastic. I was glowing. But I was also CRAZY. I felt so restricted. I couldn’t eat anything, and therefore I craved everything. I would eat large quantities of healthy food to try and stave off the cravings. And when it was over? OF COURSE I went back to the sweet stuff. So much.

I actually slept in until 8:30 this morning which I considered a victory. I rewarded myself with chocolate chip cranberry orange bread—the last piece. Plus some amazing turkey. I ended up not eating the broccoli—too early for spicy!

While my project wasn’t nearly as restrictive as the Whole30, it still made me crazy. And honestly? I like sweets. I don’t want to deny myself of them forever. And in the society we live in today? Honestly it’s not practical.

I got a 6 month fruit and cheese club for Christmas and this was part of shipment #1! Yay!

In the past couple of years, I started getting a better idea of what moderation is. And overall I was probably at least a little bit healthier. And now with my new style of eating, I really am understanding and practicing it. I honestly feel like I’m a different person now, and I can almost sense myself transforming. Maybe it’s because I was ill for so long and now feel so much healthier. Part of me wonders if gastroparesis is something I’ve always had a little bit before it flared up really badly and now I’m finally dealing with it. This is sort of unrelated to the subject of healthy living in general, but one of the symptoms of gastroparesis is blood sugar issues and I’m wondering if now that I’m eating in a way that seems to keep flare ups at bay, this is going away too. When I’m respecting my stomach, I’m not craving things like I did before, and I WANT to eat more healthy foods.

Flourless chocolate cake. Amazing.

I think that was a convoluted way of saying that unprocessed food is fantastic, and should make up most of a healthy diet, but we should also include some fun foods because life without flour less chocolate cake is just not a life I would want to lead. When we allow ourselves to eat “unhealthy” foods, we regain some of our sanity, in my opinion. When no food is off limits, it’s easier to build a healthy relationship. For me, this permission has allowed me to see my diet as a whole, and not just one food in isolation. This has made it easier for me to balance my diet. Am I always perfect with moderation? Definitely not. I’ve never been consistent with it but I honestly feel that with the way my stomach is forcing me to eat, I’m going to be much more successful.

Eating in moderation is one of the most cliche saying out there right now, and it’s more complicated than it sounds. It’s not just a practice. It’s a mindset. On the other hand, eating in moderation doesn’t mean eating lots of junk food in moderation. It means stacking your diet with the good stuff and allowing room for more decadent cuisine. And as I stated early, health is a journey. You will have lots of successes and lots of failures, and it’s messy, and there’s no “perfect diet.”

But right now I’m happy, so I’ll go ahead and call it good enough.

Have you tried the Whole30? What are your thoughts?

This post will cover the last couple of days of vacation plus Tuesday. First, I wanted to talk a little bit about being healthy on this vacation. My family’s vacations are often centered around food. And in Hawaii, with so many delicious things around-how could it not be? To be honest, I was a little nervous leading up to the vacation about staying reasonably healthy. The last time I went to Hawaii was almost 4 years ago. I remember getting back from that trip and being 10 pounds heavier than I left. I was not aware that was possible. While I may be a tad flabbier than I left, it certainly is nothing significant, and I returned feeling healthy and strong. So what changed?

1. I didn’t go crazy on desserts. Last time, I remember eating so many chocolate covered macadamia nuts that I felt sooo sick. While sure, I ate more sweets than normal, I didn’t really gorge at any one time. With the exception of a very large piece of chocolate cake that left me feeling off for 2 days after…

2. I split meals. Restaurant portions are often huge (especially at touristy places). Before the trip, my mom and I agreed to split things and it worked out perfectly. We didn’t split a couple of times and both agreed afterwards that we should have.

3. I exercised. I continued to follow my half marathon training plan, so I ended up running 4 times on my 10 day trip. I also visited a few local Crossfit boxes- in Lahaina, Upcountry Maui, and Kihei. Some of my favorite days of the trip were the days I got a tough Crossfit workout in, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence. On one of my no-workout days, I was feeling really sluggish. I busted out a quick 5 minute workout, and I felt like a different person.

4. Eat a healthy breakfast. On vacation, we generally buy food to eat in our room. I was really excited for all the tropical fruit. A healthy breakfast helps you feel good going into your day. Example A: my tropical yogurt bowl-plain yogurt, mango, banana, passion fruit, sunflower seed butter.

I came home feeling pretty strong. Before I get into a ton of delicious food, I wanted to talk a little about the last Crossfit I visited- Crossfit Kihei. I had heard from another Crossfitter that they weren’t very friendly. Well…that was kind of right. Myabe they don’t get as many visitors-I don’t know. I wasn’t exactly comfortable the whole time, in contrast to the other Crossfits where I felt like part of the team. The coach was really uninvolved, and there was no group warm up. Plus, for the WOD, I Rxed it when I really shouldn’t have. It was 50 snatched with squats mixed in. No one else Rxed it and I ended up finished wayyy after everyone else, which was a little embarrassing as I was just a visitor. It was a good workout though so I can’t complain. My shoulders really are feeling it today. 

Ok-food time!

Vacation food:

Turkey sandwich which I got for the avocado-plus it has cranberry sauce-how fun!

Ice cream! I regretted this choice. I don’t like coffee…and this didn’t have quite enough fudge. Oh well-you live and you learn!

Salad with bleu cheese and asian pear.

DELICIOUS dinner-macadamia crusted Mahi Mahi with pineapple salsa, jasmine rice, and veggies. My dad and I split this, and they were kind enough to serve it on separate plates.

Lilikoi (passion fruit) cream pie. 

Chocolate cream pie. Sooo funny story. When my family ordered these desserts to share, my dad asked the waiter for 2 forks…for himself. And yes, he did use both. My family takes our dessert seriously.

Airplane food. You know you’re a blogger when your first instinct is to snap a shot before eating, even on a plane. There were a few pieces of lettuce under there for garnish-you better believe I ate those-vegetables are vegetables!

Aaand that leads us back to today. This morning I ate my typical pre-run breakfast-a ThinkThin bar plus fruit, and ran 8 miles. I would be so much faster if my foot wouldn’t act up! Regardless, I didn’t worry too much about pace. PRing this race will be hard since it’s a very hilly course (Nike Women’s in SF). This weekends long run is 10 miles. And that will be my last flat long run. I have a very hellish run planned for the 11 miler. Anyone from around Palo Alto knows the Dish trail-yeah, that will be smack in the center of my 11 miles. Kill me now….

I went to Whole Foods for lunch and groceries. 

I’m in love with Probiotics.

Chicken, avocado and kale salad, chinese chicken salad, and a few fried plantains. I’m starting a mini Whole30 a week from Friday (I’m doing 7 days), and I want to try to ease myself into it. I’ve been thinking about it, and the list of things I wouldn’t want to give up to eat more Paleo is shrinking. Hummus for salads. Goat cheese. Laughing cow. Gummy vitamins. Run fuel. That’s about it. In the future, I may be sort of Paleoish. The big thing for me is watching the grains and sugar I eat since my blood sugar seems to like to crash.

I also couldn’t resist trying these since I love dark chocolate. They’re good!

For dinner, we made Greek salads topped with spicy avocado hummus and a runny egg. 

I also got another kind of hummus to try, which I ate with cucumbers. It’s really interesting and different!

And dessert was some of the pineapple we brought back from Maui. So good. 

A couple of random other things- I got new shoes to replace my walking around/general workout shoes. My old ones were blue and neon green. The new models are blue and pink. I don’t know about the pink though…What do you think? I might get neon green laces. That way I can accidentally match still since all my clothes seem to be neon green and blue.

And lastly-my haul of Crossfit shirts from my trip! I swear, all I bought on the trip were 3 t-shirts but my suitcase was waaaay more full. Huh.

And I’ll leave you with that! Have a great day!

How do you approach vacation? Has anyone done a Whole30? Tips? 

What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Coffee-yay or nay?

After dinner I made a smoothie.Banana, coconut milk, cocoa powder, and a touch (and I mean a touch) or mint extract. I learned my lesson! it was just enough mint to not really taste minty, but to be refreshing. I’ll take it!

Before I get to anything from today, I just wanted to address some blog issues. I wanted to apologize for the slightly (ok sometimes a lot) depressing/negative nature of my posts as of late. This whole sickness thing can get me pretty down, but I swear I’m normally a super happy person! I want this blog to be a fun place, without negativity. And this blog will become a fitness blog again soon, I promise! I’m planning on some normal exercise this week, and boy, I cannot wait! I also wanted to clarify why I’m going to attempt a semi-Whole30. I figure it is a good way to get more nutritious foods into my diet, which is super important for me to get to feeling 100% faster. Plus, my liver function is kind of off so reducing sugar is pretty important! Also, I think it will be a fun way to try new recipes and experiment with new flavors. Although eating Paleo is generally pretty meaty, and things should get interesting when my vegetarian sister comes home! The current plan is to try this strict Paleo thing for 5 days, and then reevaluate this Friday night where I want to go from there. And given the possibility of a gluten sensitivity, I don’t need anything else putting me to sleep! With that in mind, here’s today’s lunch (brunch?).Leftover chicken, potatoes, cabbage, and carrots. Plus mashed avocado and mango salsa for the chicken. The avocado took some of the kick out of the salsa, which was a relief! I also ate a mango, which I WAS planning on photographing….

Ok, now to the meat of the post. I’m sure a lot of you guys have been seeing stuff about the Liebster Award going around, and since Brittany gave me a shout out, I figured I’d take this opportunity to let you guys get to know me a bit better. I mean, I talk a lot about my life, but not really about myself. I’ve never really done any surveys or anything, so hey, why not!

Random Facts About Me

1. I love to read, but I seriously cannot read any books during the school year. It’s fine for a few chapters, but as soon as the book gets exciting, I CANNOT put it down. Note: Reading an entire book on your phone in a day is a bad idea. You will likely walk around in a daze and squint a lot.

2. I really want to study abroad, probably in Chile. I loved studying Spanish in high school (and I love Spanish music), so it would be awesome to improve my Spanish. Plus, they have penguins. And who doesn’t love penguins? 

3. I love avocados. I sprouted 2 avocados pits almost a year ago (my babies are growing up!) and now I have 2 beautiful avocado plants!They’re much bigger now, but I don’t really have any recent pictures. And they’re not too photogenic right now. After much stress (as any concerned parent would feel), I learned that in cooler climates avocados drop their leaves in winter. PHEW. But they are my babies and they live in my dorm, weather permitting (one wasn’t getting enough sun inside).

4. I hate talking about myself. Hence why I probably have not done any surveys yet. But I have a blog….hmmm….

5. One of the main reasons I wanted my own healthy living blog was because the whole community seemed so awesome, and I wanted to be part of it.

6. My dad reads every single one of my posts, usually right when I post it. WHich begs the question, how often does he check…?

7. I am the hugest Giants fan. I watched about half the playoffs last year on my phone between classes. #dedication

8.I love celebrating holidays and going all out. I love traditions. And I am dying to do a Turkey Trot.

9. That being said, I take Thanksgiving very seriously, and try to do everything to maximize food intake (morning run, tapering meals in the days up to, wearing expandable clothes).

10. Last year I gave myself frostbite on my foot. In the middle of spring. In California. Apparently I left the ice on a LITTLE too long. I’ll spare you guys the pictures (you’re welcome). It was really embarrassing to not be able to practice (softball) because of this. In 70 degree weather. 

11. Hair is my 4th greatest fear. All my friends know this. I absolutely CANNOT STAND those hairs that seems to be left everywhere from shedding. This is possibly the worst part about living in a dorm. Black hairs in the shower (shiver).

Questions that I am stealing from Brittany:

1. What’s your favorite movie of all time?

I haven’t really seen too many movies lately, so I have no idea what modern-ish movie. I mainly watch TV shows (detective ones mostly!), so I’m going to take the Disney cop-out and say Aristocats.  Or Sleeping Beauty (hello, Princess Aurora!).

2. What do you do as soon as you walk in the door after work/school?

In theory, this should be take a nap. But let’s be honest. It’s all about the food.

3. Do you put your toothbrush in a drawer or in a toothbrush holder?

A drawer. But I don’t know that I like this situation. It doesn’t seem very sanitary….(I guess I forgot to mention that I’m a bit of a germophobe!)

4. What vegetable do you love? Hate?

I love brussels sprouts. And avocados. And sweet potatoes. I find it amazing that a lot of people didn’t have veggies that they hated. Don’t get me wrong, I love veggies. But I hate cucumbers. And green peppers. I’m coming around on red peppers, but it will be a while before they fall into the “love” category.

5. What is your favorite go- to outfit for a saturday?

Definitely shorts and a T-shirt. Let’s be honest. I’m not going anywhere interesting.

Now without further ado, let’s launch into this post!Yesterday’s breakfast. Peanut butter on toast. Notice: that really isn’t that much peanut butter. Well, as it turns out, laying off nuts for a while seems to make my nut sensitivities stronger. Anyone have experience with this? A couple of hours after this meal I noticed a series of lumps on my face. How crazy is that? I think I need to try to maintain a constant yet small nut intake. 

The only other semi-interesting eat from yesterday is the oatmeal I had at dinner. I knew I was having major sugar cravings, and if I didn’t try to deal with them in at least a semi healthful way, things were going to go down hill in a hurry! My solution? Chocolate oatmeal!

I made my typical Banana Oatmeal with a few changes. I was too lazy to add the eggs, and I added vanilla, a touch of brown sugar, and cocoa powder. Then, for fun, I stirred in some semi-sweet chocolate chips. 

That night however, I got to thinking. I’m going to be home for 2 more weeks, which means access to all kinds of food at any time of day (or night). I could envision my eating habits going downhill fast, and that just isn’t a good way to recover quickly. I’v read about the Whole30 before, and I think adopting a cleaner way of eating is a great idea. (If you don’t know Whole30 cuts out grains, dairy, legumes, sugar, and peanuts). It doesn’t make sense for me to do EXACTLY the Whole30 (Easter…hehe), but using some of those eating guidelines could be a great idea. So I went into the next day with a day of Whole30 ahead of me. I grabbed some fruit at breakfast because I wasn’t super hungry, but I whipped up a nice egg scramble for lunch with tons of veggies and avocado.Snach was another piece of fruit. I also went to Whole Foods, looking for some Whole30 compliant eats. And wow. It made me so angry. I read sooo many labels. There was hardly anything I could eat on Whole30. And this is Whole Foods! If I can’t find things there, where can I find them?? There is added sugar in absolutely everything! Out of all the soup in the store, only 1 type was Whole30 compliant. I mean I understand the goal is to eat REAL food, as in “make it yourself” food, but still! For dinner, we picked up a Rotisserie chicken and prepared hot Brocculini. I also grabbed some fresh mango salsa (which was spicy!).I’m so excited it is starting to be mango season again! Manilla mangos (the small yellow ones) are possibly my favorite fruit ever, and I eat them almost constantly when they’re in season! We got some from Costco the other day, and they were on sale at Whole Foods!

One thing about cutting out grains….my sweet cravings go away, because I’m more focused on how I miss bread. I broke down last night and had a bite of macaroni and cheese. So after a trial day, I think I can really make this thing work for me, but with some degree of compromise. I may allow small quantities of dairy, and I won’t beat myself up over a bite of grains, or a special occasion (read: today’s field trip and feast at the Farmer’s Market), but I want to try to maintain the principles as much as possible. This could be the focus and project I need for this break. I really don’t want to compromise on sugar though, but I have gummy vitamins that have sugar. And let’s be honest. I am SO DONE with any type of swallowing pills after being sick for so long, so I’m kind of on the fence about this. Anybody have any thoughts on this new way of eating? I felt pretty good last night, and I really think I can make this work for me.

Any fun plans for St. Patrick’s Day?

Well guys, I’m still sick. I actually had a pretty high fever last night and decided that even if I didn’t have a fever this morning, the workout was not happening. But I still set my alarm and called my coach in the morning. I had a slight fever when I woke up but unfortunately it went back up. Also, when I woke up at 5:45 to call my coach, I was freezing because I was absolutely drenched in sweat. I had to change my PJs, and my bed was soaking. Ew. That’s probably TMI. I don’t even recall being THAT sweaty…though I felt like I was sweating all morning! I had a class cancelled today, so I decided to skip my other section and just stay in all day in an effort to be better tomorrow. So basically I’ve watched Glee and read blogs all morning. Awesome. The thing is, I don’t feel THAT bad. I just have a high temperature. Though to be fair, right now I’m just coming off of advil. My temp is up, but I feel ok. The temperature seems to rise before my body reacts. But hey, I get to update you on my eats! Breakfast this morning:

(sorry for the shadow) Chocolate protein smoothie with frozen banana (yes, I took the time to peel it this time), soymilk, cocoa powder, and chocolate protein powder. Breakfast has been getting more creative lately though. There was cuban beans and steak today! I went with some beans and a scoop of pre-made egg scramble. Plus some frozen berries. I was then craving a waffle. Again. (Still am). But I didn’t have one. I decided to try a little experiment. I had a slice of Gluten-free toast with peanut butter. I felt fine after. So I guess it really is the Gluten, not just grains in general. After breakfast I watched Glee and sweated. I also drank some Coconut water. Hydration can’t hurt, and since it’s pineapple coconut water, it has tons of Vitamin C!

For lunch, I really wanted frozen yogurt but didn’t want to trek over to the froyo place alone. Maybe dinner! Instead, I went to the dining hall. Chicken, jasmine rice, veggies, and totally delicious cinnamon-maple something butternut squash. SO GOOD. I also had some froyo at the dining hall (which wasn’t exactly fully frozen) with a couple of ill-planned cookie. Stupid gluten. But I’m sick! I can’t be bothered with will power! <- bad thought process.

After lunch I read food blogs. And seeing as it’s only 3:30….I’ve been reading more and more about Paleo and I’m becoming so convinced that it is the solution for me. If only I could stick to it! It was definitely easier getting started at home! I also checked out Whole30, and it’s totally something I’d consider this doing this summer, but there’s no way I’d be able to do it at school with limited food choices and in the middle of season. 

I recently made myself a snack, as I was craving more sweets (this is what I get for falling off the Paleo wagon). I vaguely remembered finding a recipe somewhere that made cookies with just peanut butter, honey, and eggs, so I decided to try my hand at a microwave variety. It was delicious! When I figure out the recipe I will post it. I mixed peanut butter and honey and melted them together. Then, I whisked in some almond meal, vanilla, and egg white. 30 seconds in the microwave and I had a delicious treat!

Ok, so it’s not the prettiest thing. And I made it in a paper cup, so who knows how this would have come out on a plate. I ate it with a fork. SO GOOD. But then, it occurred to me…how would a chocolate version be? Naturally I had to test it out. Same method as above, but with almond butter instead of pb, and added cocoa powder. Not bad, but I didn’t like it as much as the pb one. 

This is actually a terrible picture. Sorry! It’s probably not good that I now have the ability to make delicious things right at my fingertips. There’s a reason I don’t keep sweets in my room! And all the nuts I’ve been eating lately….let’s just say my face isn’t too happy!

But don’t worry, I got some veggies in! Guac and carrots!

I couldn’t snag any salsa last weekend, but I went home and my mom got me guacamole mix! Perfect! I’m now pretty full though…A light dinner is definitely in order! 

I really do hope I’m better tomorrow. I haven’t been this sick in a long time. I haven’t had a fever in 3 years, and I’m sure it wasn’t this high! What is going on with my body? WHY AM I NOT BETTER YET?

Any Netflix suggestions?