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 haven’t blogged about anything since Christmas, and here we are, almost at New Year’s Eve!

I’m going to be super lame and do a basic food+fitness post for the period after Christmas!

I guess I might as well link up to WIAW?

Since we had Christmas dinner (lunch) out, we didn’t have any Christmas leftovers. I mean, besides all the desserts!

The day after Christmas, my family went up to a big mall in SF and I had a Chinese Chicken salad from the food court. Nothing like a giant plate of veggies post-Christmas!

On Sunday post-workout, my family stopped at Whole Foods on the way home to get lunch at the hot bar! I got some rice with Chicken Masala, with a side of salad-y things and some little rice filled balls (that I couldn’t really tell you what they are).

Homemade key lime pie with FRESH key limes. My sister made this for my mom as her Christmas present, and it was amazing! She squeezed about 30 key limes herself to make this!

Black bean soup topped with cheese and avocado.

Banana “ice cream” AKA frozen bananas in the blender. It really is amazing how creamy bananas can get! Topped with chocolate sauce.

More black bean soup, but this time with cornbread.

Leftover blueberry cheesecake. YUM.

Citrus glazed carrots, garlic sautéed spinach, and BBQ chicken.

Chipotle chicken salad! Fun fact-I think this was only the 3rd time I’ve been there? But that is some quality guac.

And now to workouts.

Saturday, I went to Crossfit. The WOD was essentially Cindy with some jump ropes mixed in. (Cindy is various rounds of 5 pull ups, 10 push ups, and 15 squats). Sunday, my calves were pretty sore!

Sunday morning, I went for a 6 mile run by the bay. It was SO beautiful out…but freezing!

It was a solid run-nothing crazy! Just working on finishing my audiobook.

Monday morning I went to the track to do a stadium stair workout. It’s one I used to do as part of agility training for softball. After warming up, I completed three sets of the following:

hop up on one foot (one stair at a time)

hop up on other foot

hop up with both feet (like squat jumps-skipping a stair with each jump)

2 sprints up the stairs

25 scissor abs

Things I learned: my left calf? Incredibly weak. Like, super super. It was shaking after one set. My left side is significantly weaker than the right. My leg plantar fascia is also my bad side. I think the lack of strength may be contributing to the pain. The next day, my calves were really sore, but my foot felt perfect. I ran 4 miles of hills and my foot felt really good. So I guess that means I need to do some more jumping work!

Speaking of my run, I used my new Garmin for the first time!

My old one is….old. This has so many features! Like showing my mile splits. Plus it’s so lightweight!

The other noteworthy exercise?

I went for a walk/yoga with one of my friends by the bay. It was WINDY.

The cool thing is you can see this hill from the track I was at that morning!

I enjoyed my first yoga session in about 5 months and it was in about 30 mph wind!

And when the sun set…my lips turned blue. Cute.

What are you eating post-holidays?

I’m debating whether or not I should become one of those bloggers who posts shorter posts more often-what do you guys think? Although not that I could really post at work anyways!

Breakfast this morning was simple. I haven’t been feeling the yogurt AT ALL since I got here, so I’ve just been rolling with the lighter breakfast of fruit bowls with sunflower seed butter mountains.

On the way to the Metro, I stopped at Starbucks for a latte. I hardly ever get lattes-typically only if the coffee place has lack luster milk foam (and really strong espresso). The one from Starbucks? Is there actually any coffee in there? So milky…And I didn’t even have time to finish it because it took longer than I was expecting. Ah well.

Lunch today was good (although not as amazing as dinner). I made an extra chicken breast, and sautéed some spinach with spices and nutritional yeast. The sad thing is that little mound of spinach started out as like half a bag…

After eating, I decided to go for a walk in the 90 degree heat to thaw and get out some restless energy. My office building is SO freaking cold! The heat was much welcomed.

Snack in the afternoon was an apple and some oatmeal raisin cookies from the vending machine (super healthy, I know). But a trip to the vending machine was necessary-at this point in my life I desperately need quarters. Yet again, when I did laundry Sunday night, I failed to have enough quarters to actually, you know, dry my clothes. The change machine was broken, and a sign said to try getting change from the vending machines in the building. Yeah…I lost about $3 trying to get it…So I have a TON of wet laundry hanging all over my room. It takes forever to dry in this hot climate! Anyways, at the work vending machine I stocked up on quarters so I can actually finish my laundry and dry my clothes. Wearing wet shorts for my workout was not the most pleasant feeling in the world…

After work, I headed to the gym for Crossfit+yoga. At Crossfit we worked on handstand push ups (or modifications!) and squats. Afterwards, I headed over to a yoga class. It’s been WAY too long since I’ve taken a yoga class, and the classes I took most recently were basically entirely stretching. Anyways, the moral of the story is I’ve become even more tight. Sitting at a desk all day has not been good to my body, and my back has been a little wonky lately thanks to it.

The yoga class was a Power Vinyasa, right up my alley. It was the FASTEST paced yoga class by far that I’ve ever been too! Whew! So many vinyasas, so fast. My arms are going to be sore tomorrow. It felt amazing though. I will definitely be returning, especially as I get deeper into half training!

Dinner was AMAZING. It could be because it was 9 o clock by the time I ate it, but luckily it came together quickly! Inspired by my latest food craze, I decided to modify the coconut flour quesadilla things and make coconut flour arepas! Seriously, SO good. I filled it with smoked gouda, and served it with another side of spinach cooked the same way as for lunch.

A recipe will be coming your way soon!

Now, it’s basically bedtime for me-half marathon training week 2 kicks off in the morning!

Have you ever had an arepa?

I am proud to announce, I’m FINALLY out of my food rut. Which equals being out of my blogging rut-phew! Do you ever read blogs that inspire you to eat better? I recently discovered The Oatmeal Artist-the oatmeal is so creative, all I want to do is eat oatmeal, and eat make oatmeal creations of my favorite desserts! I really want to try the banana-mango. I love that idea! To be perfectly honest-I’ve never made baked oatmeal, and I’ve never made stove top oatmeal…I’ve always had instant either with instant hot water, or the microwave! Or overnight oats, of course. So I think that may need to happen!

Ok, on to the ACTUAL food (and exercise).

So…I haven’t been to yoga in FOREVER. Last week, it occurred to me that there is a yoga class after spin in the morning…and I always have an extra hour after spin in the morning before class…so it really made no sense NOT to go! Plus, after softball last night after not so much as picking up a ball since last summer, I was a bit sore!

After spin, I headed over to yoga. As I brought myself into the first down dog of the day, I had that feeling. You know-the revelation of “I’ve been SO stupid.” The entire back of my legs was SO tight, from my hamstring all the way down to my achilles. Then I remembered how I have the tendency to get sort of injured whenever I’m running and I neglect yoga, which is why I think my Achilles tendonitis has flared up so badly lately. I left the class feeling fantastic (and apparently all my yoga muscles have withered away…whoops). When I woke up this morning, my Achilles was so painful I could barely walk and I was expecting it to be “one of those days.” After yoga, it was pretty fine. You better believe I’m going back on Thursday!

And since this is, after all, What I ATE Wednesday, let’s get on with the food!

Breakfast was a current favorite-Whole milk Greek yogurt with berry compote and sunflower seed butter, plus a mango on the side. I have to say, I may be a sort of convert to Whole Milk yogurt. It’s just SO creamy!

Lunch was packed, thanks to my freezer! I thawed out the grilled chicken with mashed butter-sage sweet potatoes last night, and then added some of my precious roasted carrots this morning. It always amazes me how well chicken freezes!

For dessert, I had some dates with unsweetened chocolate (more than just this picture). I credit dates for helping get me out of my food rut. Why have I waited so long to restock them?

Today, it was quite hot out.

I actually didn’t feel the heat TOO much, which I’m taking as a good sign given I’ll be battling the heat and humidity of Washington DC all summer! Anyways, to cool off, I had a raspberry chia kombucha.

And the last of my roasted carrots. It’s always a sad, sad day when I finish them off!

Crossfit today was a bit rough. We worked on cleans as the strength, and then the WOD was the following:

3 rounds:

30 overhead walking lunges

30 wall balls

30 push ups

So, yeah-my shoulders are done.

For dinner, I made a giant salad with all kinds of fun things-carrot/raisin salad, zucchini, chicken, sunflower seeds. I also has a veggie soufflé on the side-I couldn’t find any smaller plates or bowls so I just threw it on top. Classy, as always.

Not necessarily the prettiest, but it got the job done! For dessert, I had some cereal on top of plain Greek yogurt. I ate the top of the yogurt and brought the rest back to my dorm for tomorrow’s breakfast.

Food rut=obliterated! Happy Wednesday!

What’s the best thing you’ve eaten this week?

This morning I woke up for my 5 mile hill run. I’m now at the point in half training where it’s really important to just get those miles in! My legs felt heavy. Very heavy. I didn’t push it hard though so it was ok. I was super thirsty by the end though-apparently today turned into a warm day!

Breakfast was some goat milk yogurt with strawberries microwaved and then refrigerated.

I really wanted to try and reduce the berries in the microwave. What I ended up with was a desk covered in strawberry mush. Oops!

I was still hungry (or was it thirsty?) so I also had a sun butter bar.

Lunch was a repeat of yesterday. The only downside was I used dining hall grilled chicken which sort of resembled a rock. I didn’t even know chicken could be hard and tough!

So…I have a snacking problem. That’s one thing I don’t like about college. I could snack at literally any moment of the day. And until this evening, I didn’t have any fruit. So while none of my snacks were totally unhealthy, I completely messed up my meal schedule!

Some samples of my snacks:

Banana with 85% chocolate.

The best combo ever-date, unsweetened chocolate, sunflower seed butter.

Tapioca pudding made in the microwave and sweetened with a single date. It’s actually pretty easy to make tapioca pudding in the microwave from tapioca pearls! But if you try this, definitely put a plate under the bowl because it will pretty much always overflow. It was kind of annoying because I had to stop it about every 30 seconds so it wouldn’t all overflow. But I guess you could use a bigger bowl!

Between this (plus cheese and crackers), I wasn’t hungry around dinnertime. After my late section, it was time for a workout. Sort of. 

I had it all planned out too. But my legs are sore so I decided no legs. And no shoulders because those are sore too. But the final straw?

Funny story-at Crossfit last night we did sit ups as part of the WOD, and the night before we did toes to bar. I didn’t really think about it until someone else mentioned how bad the sit ups were after toes to bar the night before, and how sore he was. I thought-huh. I’m not sore. I guess the sit ups did feel much harder though.

HAH. Now it feels like my abs are being ripped out every time I flex. So-no legs, no shoulders, no abs? That leaves me what, wrist curls? So I decided to do yoga on my own instead. Hence the inability to walk. 

I also had to pick up our CSA box, which was a workout in and of itself. I drive to get it, but I have to bike a little ways back from my car. Normally someone can pick it up from me, but today that couldn’t happen. So I had to bike back one handed, carrying a giant CSA box in the other hand. And while my one handed biking is wayyy better than it used to be, it was still kind of dicey, especially with a lot of delicate fruit. But we both made it back alive.

Anyways-yoga. Since today was unusually warm, I decided that outdoor night yoga would be nice. As I was biking back from section, I passed a little area that I thought would be perfect (plus it’s super public).

Right beneath the tower.

What’s cool is I can see this tower from home. Like home home, not college home. Despite being about 30 minutes away.

It felt so good to stretch out! I was sort of hungry when I went back so I snacked a little bit on crackers and sun butter and granola bars, before deciding I should actually eat some thing real. I made some scrambled eggs, and had a side of baby carrots.

I hate eating late at night, but such is my schedule. 

I went to an event tonight with my sorority where we brought a Nutritionist in to talk. She talked a lot about the healthy options the dining hall offers. And it’s true-the dining hall has improved a lot, especially lately. The two best additions are a much improved salad bar and bowls large enough to put a salad in. Next quarter, I’m going to make it my goal to eat at the dining hall more. It saves me time and money to go. I think part of my problem now is I have big snacks, and then am not hungry at the right times, so that’s something to work on as well! I need to make the most of my meal plan!

Ok-I’m off to study for a quiz! 

Favorite snack?

Yesterday morning, I went to an early Crossfit class. We did a new movement I’ve never done before, and it smoked my hamstrings! We also had a double WOD-the first was 10 minutes long, with 5 burpees and 2 hang cleans every minute. This was brutal. The cleans were heavy, and I was huffing and puffing like crazy! The regular workout involved wall balls, box jumps, and chin ups. I used a pretty high box so I took my time during the jumps. 

After Crossfit, I headed to the gym to do yoga. I had intentions of running a couple of miles before class, but my legs were totally smoked and I wasn’t keeping any kind of decent pace so I just hung around until class time. Class was awesome-lots of hamstring stretching. Between that and Crossfit, my hamstrings certainly are feeling it today!

After an unpictured lunch of Butternut squash soup, I headed off to meet up with a friend for some yoga by the bay.

We set up along the route I normally do my long runs on. it was perfect, and the weather was calm. After yoga, we walked along the bay trail and just caught up. Such a great afternoon. 

For dinner, we had Asian Lettuce cups from Cooking Light, plus brown rice and snow peas.

Later in the evening, I met up with two other friends for a late Christmas Gift Exchange and a tea party. My friend was a wonderful hostess, and everything was set up so nicely!

The presents we received were some assembly required-they were ugly Christmas sweater kits! We each had a sweater, which came with all sorts of adornments, like bells, reindeer, plain felt to cut, and little presents. 

Here’s my finished product!

My friends are much more artistic than I am-here are the sweaters all together!

Unfortunately, I didn’t get into bed until well past midnight, and spin this morning was very early. I had plans to run my treadmill workout after class, but with staying out late and eating cookies, I didn’t have the energy and called it quits after completing a mile. My morning was spent catching up on sleep-pot workout naps are the best! Followed by lunch-tomato soup with cheddar and a sandwich thin with homemade raspberry jam.

I have a lot to still do today-I need to go grocery shopping and do some food prep before returning to school, I also need to make some more canvases, and who knows what else!

One of my big focuses for the New Year is nutrition. Ironically given I started a healthy living blog, my nutrition has slipped in the past year. I don’t mean to say that I’m eating awful foods, but my eating lacks the scientific approach that helps with optimal eating. To PR my 5k, I’m fairly certain good nutrition is extremely important-I exercise enough. I’m taking a Nutrition class next quarter as well-I may start a weekly series where I share a few things that I’m learning in class-would anyone be interested? 

I also got the new version of the My Fitness Pal app-the new version is much better! I was never consistent about using My Fitness Pal in the past to track food, but it actually is really nice-it even tells you where you’re lacking or over doing it on things like vitamins, sugars, and saturated fat. For instance, I’m already at double the recommended amount of sugar for today! It’s a nice tool to help see where to make changes. In a few weeks, I’ll give an update on how things go-I’m hoping I won’t get sick of tracking because I really do think it’s important to be mindful of what you’re putting in your body!

Have a great Friday!

Do you track what you eat?

I never recapped my last day (ok, morning) in Solvang!

Here are a few of the last pastries of the trip (or of the next few months-WHEW we ate a lot of pastries!)

Blueberry boat.

Cappuccino at an adorable bakery.

A much more delicious version of a poptart.

On our way out of town, we stopped to see mini horses. I really want one. Not quite as much as an ostrich, but still!

It was a long drive home, but a delicious and interesting dinner made up for it. I tried Ethiopian food for the first time! (For others in the area, it was called Walia).

I honestly couldn’t tell you what anything was. We got somethings with chicken, some things with other meat, and veggie combos. But really, everything I tried was excellent. What is really cool also is how the food is served. There were no utensils-the table got served all the dishes on a giant platter.

(Excuse the awkward hand in the picture).

This was served with Injera, which is sort of like a spongy bread made with teff. It has a vaguely sourdough flavor, which was great to cut the spice.

You use the Injera as a utensil and kind of just go at it. Being the totally neat person that I am, somehow I ended up totally soiling 3 napkins, and still ending up with food all over my hands, while the rest of my family had barely used one napkin. I don’t get it!

And then Thursday. That was an interesting day, thanks to a 4:30 am wakeup, courtesy of this little guy:

He’s sort of in the habit of coming into my room in the middle of the night-loudly. For some reason, at 4:30am, he desperately needs attention, and won’t stop meowing and purring, which would be great and all if I actually wanted to be awake then…

I went to my home gym for a spin class with one of my favorite teachers, and then desperately needed to go to yoga because I’m so tight, but yoga was an awkward amount of time from the end of spin-not really enough to leave…so I killed time by doing some abs and a treadmill workout. I started with an 8:00 mile, and then did 10 2:00 intervals at about a 7:30 pace, with 2:00 of walking in between. It was a good one-my legs were done by the end. I’ve been really loving running lately-ever since my 5k, I’m starting to feel faster in my every day runs. I think part of my problem was being overly ambitious in my 5k-I wanted to break 24:00, when I should have been racing to break 25:00-next race I will definitely not go out so fast!

After yoga, I over caffeinated myself with a curiously strong cappuccino. 

After some quick grocery and Christmas shopping, it was lunchtime! I picked up some turkey apricot soup at Whole Foods, plus some carrots and guacamole.

Whole Foods’s eggnog selection was quite dissapointing-they didn’t have either of the two types I was hoping for. I got a baby jar instead-it was good but very vanilla flavored.

My afternoon was spent cursing my printer and working on Christmas things. Then, I threw a bunch of things together for dinner, and the flavors worked really well together!

The basica idea was sweet potato nachos-all the toppings, but with sweet potatoes in place of chips. The result reminded me more of deconstructed veggie tacos, or a Mexican style vegetarian chili.

Topping the sliced sweet potatoes was this mixture-my idea was for this to be black beans, but I’m also trying to incorporate more veggies into my life, so I added some kale, and half a can of diced tomatoes and jalapenos, plus salt, pepper, and taco seasoning. (Of you’re wondering about the things in there that look like carrots and cabbage, the only kale I found came in a ‘salad mix.’)

Then, I topped everything off with guacamole (of course), fresh salsa, and cheddar cheese.

And believe me, much more guacamole was added after the fact. I’m just a little obsessed. I’m seriously considering making a 2014 calendar consisting only of avocados. Too far?

And with that, I leave you. Hope everyone has a great day-and remember, I’ll do the drawing for my 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway tonight at 9:00pm PST.

What’s the worst thing you’ve ever woken up to?

Given I’m cat-deprived, I can’t complain about Charlie too much. I used to have this alarm clock that had nature sounds, and for some reason it was set to blast the sound of rain as my alarm, so it sounded like extremely loud static. Not pleasant.

So let’s move on to what I ACTUALLY ate:

A salad inspired by Beth and my laziness. A salad with spicy avocado hummus and beautiful Farmer’s Market heirloom tomatoes, topped with a runny egg. 

Normally I would have my hummus salad with a hardboiled egg since the yolk is delicious combined with the hummus. However, I was not about to hard boil eggs (that takes TIMEEE), so I decided to try this! My opinion? Two thumbs up!

As you may know, I’m trying to change my snacking habit. (It takes 21 days to change a habit, so that’s how long I’m skipping snacks for!) And just a clarification, I’m not necessarily trying to restrict food intake, just break the habit of mindless snacking. One thing that was interesting that without snacking, I didn’t want as much food at dinner. Interesting! So that’s one day down!

ANYWAYS. Dinner was delicious!

The breakdown: a couple of recipes courtesy of Cooking Light: Asian Lettuce Cups and Steamed Sugar Snap Peas. The lettuce cups are delicious- they have ground turkey, water chestnuts, and mushrooms. They’re fun to eat, and would also make a great finger food at a party (but granted they’re a bit messy). Also on my plate was a Garlic Brown Rice and Quinoa mixture.

I love this stuff-it’s more interesting and has more flavor than plain rice, and it’s still super versatile. I’ve seen it at both Whole Foods and Costco. For dessert, I had some papaya and dark chocolate. 

I love Hawaiian papaya, I just wish it wasn’t so darn expensive! Blah.

I love super dark chocolate. The lower square is 91%. 

So let’s get to today’s workouts! This morning I went to a yoga class, but I complete my 4 mile training run beforehand on the treadmill. I did some intervals and some steady. It’s amazing how much intervals can kill your legs! Yoga was really good as well. I haven’t gone in 2 weeks- not since I tried Bikram. I’m sooo tight. I guess that’s what running will do to you! I need to make it a priority to go more often. Also, my arms are pretty weak. I can’t remember ever before my arms having this little muscle. For years, I was playing softball regularly, which included pitching, which kept my arms strong and muscular. And then of course, rowing kept that up (I actually bulked up a ton in my shoulders during winter quarter…). Even after lying in bed for weeks with Mono, I still had a little of my rowing muscle left over. However, now with no sport, and running pushing weight lifting out of my routine, I’ve lost that. Yoga plus Crossfit tonight left my arms quite jello-y. At Crossfit, I worked on handstands-I was against the wall, and got about a foot away from a decent handstand. Not bad for my first time! 

I also worked on deadlifts. It was a super light weight for me, but I was technically still in an Intro class. I was able to Rx the WOD though in terms of weight! Here’s what it was:

4 Minute Tabatas (20″ on 10″ off 8x) of each:

Deadlift (95)

Kettlebell Swing (35)

Hand Release Push Up

I finished with a total of 171. I did the hand release push ups on my knees though since I wanted to maintain good form, and there were a lot of them. This WOD was HARD. My arms were jello. Yoga plus hand stands+ push ups=jello arms. 

But you want to know the best part? The coaches determined that I don’t have to do the “on-ramp” which is the 1 month program beginners of Crossfit have to go through to learn the lifts, since I already have a really strong lifting background and basically know all the lifts. Yay! (Hence-graduation. I’m no longer an ‘Intro’!) What does this mean for me? I get to do the regular WODs, come in for any of the workouts, and save $75! Woo hoo! I can’t wait to go in again-not sure when that’s going to be though! See you all tomorrow!

What is your favorite way to eat froyo? Are you going to the Healthy Living Summit? Crossfit-love it or hate it?

First, what’s up with this being a running blog now? Haha, I feel like that is all I have been posting about lately! More on that in a minute. Some of you may remember way back in the day when this was more of a rowing blog! I started this blog during rowing training camp, so for the whole 10 days, the posts are pretty much:”We ate. We rowed for 2 hours. We ate again. We rowed again. We ate. We ran 6 miles.” etc…So in that spirit, more on running in a bit! First some delicious food. 

After frying my brain in a 3 hour chem final, an amazing salad and frozen yogurt were necessary fuel to motivate me to study for my next exam.I LOVE FROZEN YOGURT.

My last breakfast at the dining hall of the school year!I’m cool and I eat french toast from a bowl. But that way the syrup stays separate and doesn’t drench it.

And then, FINALLY SUMMER! Yay!

After my final, it was packing time. It took me about an hour to move out, after I was pretty much already packed. Seeing an empty room was so weird!Yeah, I have a lot of stuff…And last dining hall meal of the year! Plus, since I had to thaw out the freezer, helping my roommate eat her frozen baked good was kind of a necessity. 

And then….HOME! Home is where the heart is? Pshh. I disagree. Home is where the cats are. 

And the first thing I do when I get home? I raid the pantry. This is what I found for a snack:These things are so good! I’ve gotten single serving packs from whole foods before in different flavors, but these are from Costco, so there’s no messing around with a wimpy single serving!

And then it was time to run. Last night I pumped myself up for a really good run today-on the treadmill. First, I want to thank all you guys so much for your advice and encouragement on running! I decided I would go at a good pace on the treadmill and just push through- after all, no matter how bad it was, it could not possibly be as bad as a 6k test (this is a test for rowers-it is 6k as fast as possible and it is basically torture. Like the worst thing ever. Seriously). 

So I went out there today and had a really, really great run. I seriously could not have done it without you guys! I was thinking about you all during the entire run (as well as counting down every .01, and calculating how much I had left-1/50 down, 1/25 down). I busted out 3 miles in 24:27. This went way beyond my hopes- I am sooo happy with this! I can’t remember the last time I ran 3 miles this fast! I guess that’s what a day off, plus ton of foam rolling will do for you! So thank you all SOSOSOSO much, your comments seriously motivated me!

Post run happiness.

And after my run, it was straight to yoga! This was much needed. It’s been far too long since I’ve gone to yoga. I think it should help my tight legs as well. 

And now for my first home cooked meal! Turkey burgers in a lettuce wrap, with homemade ketchup from this recipe, sweet potato fries, and brussels sprouts. 

After dinner, we had some frozen cookie dough we were planning on getting rid of because no one was a huge fan, but I wanted to see if you could microwave frozen cookie dough and get a decent result. The answer? YES.

If I have learned anything from this past year of college, it is that you can make anything in the microwave. That and the many varieties of mold found on old food (oops). 

And to celebrate summer, I had a small slice of my frozen birthday cake!

Sooo sleeping in on my first morning of summer? I’m still trying to decide how insane I am, and whether or not I want to go to a 5:45 am spin class. 

In other news, my first Crossfit class is on Thursday! SO excited!What is your favorite thing about summer?

Let’s do a quick recap of yesterday. I began my morning with an almost 4 mile run. I wore my Garmin, which definitely made me push my pace more, although I am still out of shape.  I was like 7 minutes faster than the last time I ran it when I was first recovering.  I did a quick ab circuit, then ate some eggs and yogurt. For lunch I got a salad at the salad place. That place is crazy expensive! My salad was $12, which I would never pay for a salad, except for the fact that for me it isn’t “real” money. I can se my meal plan dollars that come with my meal plan, which I always have a ton of extra at the end of the quarter. I saved the other half for dinner (they’re HUGE).

Southwest salad with salmon and avocado.

I went to yoga last night as well. Yesterday, I discovered something interesting while doing my reading homework. I do a lot better with my reading (more focused) if I do it while doing yoga/stretching. So yes, today I am sore from doing my homework. I am already getting more flexible though, so I’ll take it!

This morning began with an abs circuit which I found here, and Spin. I also wrote up a Spin class for myself, complete with music, to do later this week. GAH I want to teach Spin so badly! I need to get Spin shoes at some point though…

Breakfast was a classic: yogurt with half a muffin and sunflower seed butter. Plus a mango.I was SO tired this morning. I took a long, very disorienting nap after my 9am class. Lately, I’ve been confused over what day it is. Well, in my dream, I was confused about what day it was. And in my dream it was Admit weekend, and a few other events happened that are happening now. SO confusing. Except in my dream the Admits threw a huge party and got arrested. That hasn’t happened yet. There are a few things I am still trying to decide if I dreamt or read in a half-awake state…nonetheless I woke up quite confused. Lunch was out of my microwave: a scramble with egg beaters, the rest of my spinach, and the rest of my garlic and herb laughing cow. I think a grocery trip this weekend is in order. I think I’m going to go home on Sunday. Not gonna lie, I want to use my home gym and go to my abs class on Monday at home. 

After my afternoon class, I decided to do some yoga in my room, since I couldn’t go to a class today (I had to pick up my Admits). I whipped up a 20 minute playlist and got to work on the floor in my dorm room. It’s weird, all this stretching has made me crave yoga. I was sitting in my morning class and couldn’t think of anything that I wanted to do more than half moon (I was sore). 

In Psych, we talked about how whatever environment/state you are in when learning something, you will remember the material more if you are in the same environment/state. Since it is a Psych class, it should be acceptable to start doing yoga during a test to help me remember, right?

Dinner was with Admits at our boring dining hall. It was SUPER crowded. And not that good. Salad, beets, and veggie pot pie filling over brown rice (hey, it’s healthier than with a biscuit, right??). 

Plus lots of snacks today. Probably too many. It’s nearly impossible for me to practice intuitive eating if I’ve eaten anything sweet. I simply cannot detect the signal, which as a future nutrition scientist, is super interesting to me. 

Warning: I am about to nerd-out. 

My hypothesis is that this is related to the fact that fructose (a component of sugar) does not inhibit the hunger hormones when you eat it, meaning it doesn’t make you less hungry. Additionally, leptin is not stimulated, which is the hormone that tells you you are full. This is super interesting to me because this was an effect I’ve read about numerous times, but never really thought about how it felt in myself. I’m totally going out on a limb here, but the feeling I get to simply stop eating (before I even get the feeling of fullness), which is super subtle, by the way, is actually my leptin signal. Cool, right??

Ok, sorry for that tangent! I’ll keep you guys updated on my efforts to convince the Admits to come here!