I like it…I love it

I want some more of it 🙂 The concert Saturday night was awesome!!

We saw Tim McGraw with Lady Antebellum and Love & Theft. I’m really not a huge Love & Theft fan, but I love Lady Ant (obviously – I saw them twice last summer!). And who doesn’t like Tim McGraw?! It was a great and fun concert with the sisters!

A super crowded sold-out show!

Note the lady in the pink shirt standing up. She was literally getting low to the ground and grinding on her boyfriend like a stripper pole. Highly appropriate.

We bought a pack of lawn concert tickets for 6 different shows for a really good deal.  The first concert of the pack was Brooks & Dunn last month.  Good thing all the concerts are great bands that we love! And we still have 4 more shows to look forward to this year 😀

On the way to the concert, we stopped at Quiznos and I got a regular sized Veggie. Lettuce, (extra) onions, tomato, olives, guacamole, mozzarella & cheddar cheese on wheat with honey bourbon mustard instead of the red wine vinaigrette.

I normally don’t get cheese on my sandwiches because I honestly can’t taste it with all the other goodies, but for some reason got it this time. And I still couldn’t taste it. The only cheese I usually like on sandwiches is havarti – creamy and I can taste that one!

I started this morning out with some toasted sandwich thins with PB & Smucker’s strawberry jam (yay no HFCS!!)

+ another 1/2. So 3 halves total.

I then set out on my run! I was excited to tackle one of my favorite runs here at home, but I knew it would be tough. It’s quite hilly – only about 1/4 of the run is flat. One of the hills is a pretty steep 1 mile climb. And the other 2 are very steep. I kept up a steady 5 minute run:2 minute walk ratio. But then during the long hill, I did 2.5 minutes run:1 minute walk to spread out the walking breaks.

Distance: 6.5 miles
Time: 1:06.40 (including all breaks)

I was SO THIRSTY! Thank goodness my sister was babysitting in this neighborhood and she drove by about halfway through. And luckily she had a waterbottle to give me! Thank you dear sister!! 😀

Such a tough tough runs, and those hills killed me. I was proud of myself for finishing, but it’s so weird to think that this run used to be my favorite one I would do multiple times per week with no trouble whatsoever. I’d usually even add on extra side streets to make it 7-9 miles.

Once home, this diet coke was smiling at me from the fridge.

So refreshing. I love you.

I had this along with some leftover chicken and veggies I found in the fridge.

I come home for the weekend, and what do I end up doing? Grocery shopping!! I hit up Whole Foods (which we don’t have at school) and Costco for my mom.

Whole Foods hot bar! What I can remember – sweet & sour (I think?) tofu (which was DELISH), sauteed & seasoned veggies, small chunk of polenta (which was dry and nasty), and a dolma (stuffed grape leaf – yummmm).

Rest of my afternoon snacks:

Few bites of my sister’s froyo from Costco. The vanilla side of course (which was melty and blah. Not a huge fan of Costco yogurt. It tastes funky to me).

Fruit salad

Half a roll with Nutella (found in my pantry – yay! Legit).

And some hemp ice cream (love this flavor).

We had a late dinner (7:30) so I kept snacking.

But dinner was worth the wait! Delicious burrito – chicken breast, veggies, black beans, brown rice, guacamole, lime sour cream, lettuce & tomato in a whole wheat tortilla. MASSIVE.

Other bites and nibbles today:

• Couple handfuls of veggie sticks
• Costco samples – angel food cake, flatout wrap, chicken sausage, veggie burger
• LOTS of carrots + BBQ sauce/ranch dip
• More Tempt ice cream (I ate a little more than 1/2 of the container throughout the day/night)

What was the best concert you’ve ever been to? Or who would be your #1 choice to see in concert?

My *Nsync concerts back in the day probably top out. They were such an entertaining show! And I was beyond obsessed with them, so that just adds to the excitement 🙂

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Breakfast Pie

Sometimes you just need pie for breakfast.

Coconut cream pie to be exact.

And since I don’t like coconut much, I just scraped off the top portion and ate the best part.

Cream + crust. Times this amount by like 5.

I then quickly packed threw my hamper and a few necessities in my car and hit the road home for the weekend!

Birthday celebrating + 4 hours of sleep = certain needs must be met.

And by needs I refer to Vitamin Water and iced cofee. Lots of it.

Since the healthy pie (hey – coconut can be healthy, right?) held me over for quite some time I ended up eating my packed breakfast at around lunch time during the drive.

Homemade Greek yogurt + cinnamon + Kashi Berry Crisp cereal. And a big spoonful of PB obvs.

(Note that I already ate about half before I took the picture. And I was stopped – NOT driving!)

Last night at dinner I ended up getting the Tagine of Vegetables. From the menu – North African chickpea stew with potatoes, carrots, squash, dried figs & sesame seeds. Served over steamed large-pearl lemon couscous with flat bread & harissa. (Sorry for the awful picture quality. I forgot my camera so had to resort to my phone + dim lighting)

The flatbread was delicious – doughy and warm. I didn’t like the lemon couscous (hidden in the right hand corner) at all. And the vegetables were pretty tasty, but slightly bland. I added my own salt. I also got a side of the most delicious sweet potato fries ever and completely forgot to snap a picture of those. But they were amazing. Crispy and so so sweet. And 3 mini jalapeno cornbread muffins.

SO GOOD!!! I’m definitely going back before I leave to get other foods I was debating between.

Now I’m home and I believe the hangover is slightly starting to kick in. Oh well, I have tonights concert fun to get my mind off of it! Guess who I’m seeing?? I’ll give you a hint for the opening act. I’ve seen them twice before – both times last summer.

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Happy Birthday Roommate!

First off, Happy Birthday to my roommate Jenna!

(Jenna’s on the right in case you for some reason have no idea what I look like. Or are a new reader)

Thanks for being such a wonderful and fun roommate. Can’t wait to celebrate tonight 🙂

Quick Thursday recap.

Yogurt + cinnamon + Kashi berry crisp cereal (new try!) + blackberries + PB at 9:15 before work.

This Trader Joe’s European style yogurt was so runny, it was almost like a soup! Not such a fan.

Iced coffee while running errands after work.

I used to get McDonald’s iced coffee all the time! I ask for no creamer, and then add some of my own since they put way too much in for my taste.

Lunch of leftover goat cheese vegetable pizza (on its last leg)

A small piece of PB fudge

Some marinated mushrooms (random snack)

And a small bit of cookie dough (yes – I love love love cookie dough)

Wait! Can’t forget my vitatmin! Looks like I had Wilma.

These were sitting on the table at work, and I couldn’t turn down the Flinstones telling me to get my daily vitamins 😉

Dinner was the rest of my eggplant parm (repeat pic alert!)

And other snacks throughout the night:

• Celery and ranch dip (before lunch)
• Tons of blackberries. Literally the whole 12 oz container.
• 2 big bites of DCD PB (eaten with my blackberries)
• Apple dipped in dessert hummus
• Hot cocoa

It’s been a couple weeks since I’ve taken you all on a flashback journey. As May comes to a close, let’s take a look throughout the Mays of my college life.

2006 (freshman year)

Cinco de Mayo party!

Going to a concert with some suitemates

Took this as we were walking somewhere because we were shocked how much gas was! Then it got up to over $4.50 a gallon…

Taking a few drinks before a baseball game. Hey! You only live once (the clock readers 5:00 I think – the earliest we’d ever drank! haha)

Then heading to the beach to play.

2007 (Sophomore year):

Not nearly as many pics. True love.

I just want to document that at the beginnning of the night, my hair looked like this:

After a night of walking in fog/dancing: (I can’t believe I’m posting this)

Holy hell.

2008…..

Wow. I seriously have no pictures from May 2008. This year I wasn’t going out too much and wasn’t very close with my roommates. Moving on..

2009:

Mother’s Day brunch.

Josh Gracin came to play at my school’s University Union hour!

Trip home for my sister’s 1st Communion.

And my brother’s Senior Ball.

Now for menu fun. We’re going to Big Sky Cafe for dinner, yet I can’t decide what to get! What would you get? Keep in mind we’re going for dinner! And I don’t eat red meat.

I’m leaning towards:

• Cup of turkey chili with side of sweet potato fries
• Tagine of Vegetables
• Vegetable plate with a side of sweet potato fries
• Grilled cheese and chipotle sandwich
• Turkey burger

They’re sweet potato fries are a must. So I have to get those. But I also really want to try the yam risotto. Obviously I’m having a difficult time over here! 😉

Help a girl out!!

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Day of Eats

Honestly, I show about 60% of my food consumed on a daily basis. I always have random snacks, and TONS of BLTs (bites licks and tastes) thoughout the day. On top of the BLTs & snacks, I often times take an extra spoonful of PB or have an extra handful of cereal while I’m dishing it out for some other reason. For some reason, I decided to show you absolutely everything I ate today.

Breakfast at about 9:30/9:45. Overnight oats to-go!

• 1/3 cup multigrain oats + 1/4 cup wheat bran
• 1/3 cup almond milk
• 1/3 cup plain yogurt
• Cinnamon & maple syrup
• 1 T peanut butter

Topped this morning with:

• Nature’s Path pecan crunch cereal
• Blackberries

Yes there are oats somewhere in there.

At around 11:00, I got randomly low blood sugar feeling so I grabbed a handful of cereal and dried dates.

Carrots & salsa at 12:00

And coffee with almond milk & stevia.

Lunch at 2:00 was a Costco veggie burger on top of baked beans (about 1 1/2 – 2 servings worth. Whoever said there were “5 servings” in a can was kidding themselves).

I mixed it up with some coleslaw for crrrrrunch. And I threw in some rotisserie chicken as well.

And another cup of coffee + FF vanilla creamer soon after.

On another note I’m diggin’ the hair today (although I do look pissed in my reflection).

I pinned it up to sleep on it, and just decided to leave it for the day. I’m debating whether to wear it like this on Friday night, but you know the luck that your hair always looks good when you’re not going anywhere? But then when you actually are going somewhere, it doesn’t work out? Yeah, I’m scared that’ll happen.

Had a slight sweet-tooth around 4:00

More iced coffee + almond milk & stevia around 5:00 (I make my coffee super weak. Plus I was dragging).

And the smallest apple known to man.

Dinner was leftover eggplant parmesan at 6:00

So then naturally I was hungry for multiple snacks once I got home from work.

Blackberries

A small nibble of banana bread

Hot cocoa & spoiler alert for American Idol below!!!!!

All thoughout American Idol (which OMGGGGGGGGGGG had me pissing my pants towards the end. I couldn’t take it!! Lee!! OMG looooove you 😀 And I also read in US weekly today that he “doesn’t have a girlfriend, but wouldn’t mind one.” Um hello? I’m available 😉 ).

And now just finishing off some of the best ice cream I’ve ever devoured. Ever.

Literally tastes like you’re eating ice cream cake. Literally. Now if only the chocolate chunks were gone (not a fan of chocolate chips in my ice cream).

Shoot, I just realized I lied when I said I documented everything. Missing:

• 2 cups of coffee + almond milk this morning
• Couple bites of cottage cheese with the cereal/dried fruit this AM
• Diet 7-up this afternoon
• Couple bites of mac & cheese as I made it for the kids
• Celery dipped in hummus &/or yogurt ranch at around 8:30
• Couple ‘Nilla Wafers just a few minutes ago

So there you have it. A complete and literal day in the eats of Tay.

I really should start committing myself to posting every bite and nibble I eat because it makes me go “WOW.” I know I eat a ridiculous amount of random eats throughout the day, and maybe knowing I’d have to post it and bore you all to death would make me think twice. I especially have the problem at work when I’m putting together the kids’ meals!

What about you – are you a random nibbler? It’s something I need to work on!

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Meatless Monday

Ahoy! I hope everyone’s weekend was all you hoped it to be 🙂

After working from 7-4 on Saturday, I crashed and was on the couch the rest of the night watching TV and then the Blind Side (good movie!!). Sunday was just cleaning, grocery shopping, and more sitting on the couch 😉

I kept breakfast this morning light since I ate at 10:15, and I knew I was eating lunch out!

Yogurt + blackberries (which I splurged on this weekend) + cinnnamon PB + a handful of cereal. And since I ate it before I remembered to capture it on camera, here are the ingredients which went into the making of such a breakfast:

Excited to try the PB! Good, but not nearly as life changing as the maple almond butter. Had to get every last bit out.

Seriously. Don’t judge. You’d do the same.

I then proceeded to foam roll for a good 25 minutes and stretch. I’ve taken over a week of from running, but yet have majorly slacked on the rolling, which isn’t good. Roll roll roll it out! (sang to tune of ‘Row Row Row Your Boat’)

Then the roommate and I got our shop on at Express with our $15 off of a $30 purchase coupons. I walked out with some new jeans y’all for $24!And a new clutchity clutch from TJ Maxx.

Speaking of new clothes, I also put my discount to some work the other day when I stopped in at Gap. Loving these new jeans I got for only $22!

And also needed some longer shorts I could wear to work.

Is it just me or do those pictures remind you of online shopping and clicking on different colors of the same shirt. And then the shirt color changes in front of your eyes? I’m pretty sure I did actually change bottoms and re-take the picture, as much as it looks like I’m standing in the exact same pose.

Now back to today’s shopping…Took a pit stop for some grub – Veggie pizza (I think it had tomatoes, broccoli, olives, basil and garlic?) with goat cheese (instead of mozzarella) on whole wheat. + a small side salad which escaped the camera.

Love this restaurant’s (Pizza Solo) whole wheat crust. So chewy! I’ve been dreaming about this pizza since the last time I went (when I got Teriyaki chicken pizza), and thought of the idea to get goat cheese on one. It was good, but I’d definitely get some different veggies next time! And maybe some chicken?

I practiced some major self restraint and only had half, which I was happy about 20 minutes later when I was full. And I’ll be happy tomorrow when I have leftovers.

Throughout the afternoon I snacked on dried apricots

And some Nature’s Path granola (so good!)

For dinner I whipped up a version of eggplant parmesan!

• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
• Garlic salt, paprika & cumin
• 1 eggplant
• 1 1/2 cups (half a jar) butternut squash pasta sauce
• 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese

1. Combine the bread crumbs & spices.
2. After peeling and slicing the eggplant, dunk each slice in the egg whites and then coat them with the bread crumb + spice mixture.
3. Cook in skillet sprayed with pam or with a bit of oil. Flip to cook both sides.
4. Lay the eggplant in a pan. I used a square 8 x 8 pan, so I had 3 layers of eggplant. After the first layer, coat with pasta sauce and sprinkle with half the cheese. Layer the rest of the eggplant on top. Top with pasta sauce and the rest of the cheese.
5. Bake at 350F for 35-40 minutes.

Delicious!!! This was so good. Very happy it turned out right since I didn’t look at any recipes.

Plus night-time snackage – frozen blueberries, hot cocoa, and an apple with PB. For some reason my night-time snacks always miss the camera

Now it’s no surprise that my meals were meatless today since I don’t buy/eat meat much at school. But I realized just now that my meals were meatless versions of usually “meaty meals.” Vegetarian pizza instead of meat pizza and eggplant parmesan instead of chicken parm! Go me 😉

Now if only the weather here were actually warm, I could get some beach and sun time in 🙂 Unfortunately it’s been low 60s for a while and doesn’t look to warm up! Where is our California summer weather??

Is it warm where you’re living right now?

And anything exciting over the weekend happen?

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Staying Power

These puppies have some mad staying power.

Fitnessista inspired protein pancake, with a few changes. The first time I made them, they came out slightly dry. The next couple times were too mushy. This time, I used a secret k not-so-secret ingredient: OATS!

• 2.5 T soy protein powder
• 2 T WW flour
• 2 T wheat bran
• 1/4 cup multigrain oats (from TJs)
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• Copious amounts of cinnamon
• Some splenda
• 1 egg white
• Almond milk (didn’t measure – just added until right consistency)
• Cinnamon chips (not chocolate chips!!)

Topped with strawberry whipped cream cheese (Einstein’s brand) and syrup.

Yessssss. Perfectttttt.

I forgot how much I love oatmeal pancakes! A few years ago I lived off of pumpkin oatmeal pancakes, and won’t go so long without them again!

Was I hungry 3 1/2 hours later when I had some strawberries and Camel Dessert Hummus? (Caramel apple flavor, by the way is a-mazing. Tastes exactly like a caramel apple.)

Nope, not hungry. But it was sure tasty.

Hungry 5 hours later when I stopped by Cowboy Cookies for a spontaneous giant treat?

Nope, not hungry. But pretty disappointed by “The Wrangler” (oatmeal chocolate chip cookie). It was way too buttery and flaky for my taste. I like chewier, denser cookies that don’t taste like butter. So I only picked at it and ate about half? But seriously, their other cookies rock and I highly highly recommend them (especially the snickerdoodle!)

Hungry 6 hours later when I munched on carrots & BBQ ranch dip?

Nope, just munchy.

I really didn’t get honestly hungry until dinner time. Sure, I snacked all day. But I usually need substantial meals or I get shaky.

Power to ya’ pancakes!

I wasn’t even that hungry for dinner, so I had cinnamon raisin oats. With blobs of nut butter obvs.

This brand. I was lazy.

Except it tasted slightly like…plastic? I’ve had these oats multiple times in the past, and got the same plasticy taste. Not sure what it is about them. So I left quite a bit in the bowl. Sad waste 😦

And then I had an apple + hummus.

K, so maybe my appetite is just out of whack and the pancakes didn’t keep me full all day. But they still have staying power. Yummy staying power.

And soon after got all glammed up and ready to head downtown. Gotta love Thursday nights – drink specials and no bar covers? Me likey.

With my new boots on 😀

Which you unfortunately can’t see in the picture :-(. And I look ginormo compared to my teeny roommate!

Now I’m taking it easy becaue I work 7 am tomorrow until 4:00. Old Navy’s $1 flip-flop sale is tomorrow and it’s going to be ca-razy!! Check it out 😉

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Snack Attack

Check it. This jar of PB was GOOD.

I’m not even sad to see it go since it was only $1.79. I’ll splurge on that puppy anyday.

Swirls.

OOIAJ!! (Overnight oats in a jar). First time doing the overnight route. In a jar that is. 😉

Lookie lookie!

Last night combined:

• 1/3 cup multigrain oats
• 1/4 cup wheat bran
• 1/3 cup almond milk
• 1/3 cup yogurt
• Cinnamon & maple syrup
• Strawberries on top

K I love overnight oats. Yes I do. But I wasn’t such a fan of them chillin’ in a jar. You need the warmth of hot oats to melt the PB remains. Sorry.

And if anyone was wondering why these were taken in a car – I made my breakfast “to go” for work. And I took these pictures prior to driving out of my driveway. No worries.

Worky work. Lunchy lunch.

A bit o’ Costco chickpea salad mixed with moroccan chicken. Oh goodness amazing amazing salad mix. Loved the dressing and must recreate ASAP. I’ll be the crazy lady taking notes from the container at Costco if you see me.

Any guess what this is?

2 falafel balls smothered in hummus accompanied my chickpea salad. As much as I’ve tried to like falafels, I have yet to find one I LOVE. They just always taste too dry to me!

The afternoon/evening was spent muching away on

Carrots + salsa

Turkey + hummus. x3. Appetizing, no?

I picked these up on my stop at Wal-mart on the drive home because I was hangry hangry!

As healthy as dried fruit always seems to sound, I seriously always wonder where all the vitamins, minerals and fiber run off to? There never seems to be much in the dried variety!

Which is why I tend to stick to fresh 😉 But dried mangos – you got me!

And air-popped popcorn (1/2 cup kernals worth – made a TON) with olive oil + garlic salt once I got home.

Looked similar to this. Except my bowl was 3259305 times bigger.

Source

If you do anything, please try air-popped popcorn drizzled with olive oil & garlic salt. Life changing I tell you.

And 2 mugs of cocoa while watching SVU. 1 with marshmallows, 1 without.

In running related news…

I completely planned to go on a 3 mile training run yesterday evening after work. My knee, however, had other plans. I was on my feet running around Old Navy for 5 hours, and my knee definitely yelled at me all day. As much as I wanted to run, I knew I shouldn’t.

To tell you the truth, it’s been starting to hurt a bit more over the past week. Hurting while I’m sitting. Slightly throbbing while I’m trying to sleep. And the pain is spreading back to where it was during my peak knee pain back during last May/June.

I know not to overdo it. I know to stop running and doing all activity. I’ve been here. But it’s hard. It’s how I got myself into this position. It’s especially hard now that I’m just starting to get back into running.  Starting to feel that runner’s joy and runner’s high. Starting to feel good about myself again.  My gradual mileage build-up hasn’t given me any trouble until this past week. Maybe it was the 6.5 mile run? Maybe I just went too fast one time? Who knows. But I know I need to listen to my knee.

Gah I want to run tomorrow. I want to want to want to. But shouldn’t. Please hold me to it.

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Weekend Top 10

#10. Protein pancakes made on Friday morning.

Pecan cinnamon chip pancakes to be more exact.

• 2 T whole wheat flour
• 3 T soy protein powder (TJs brand)
• Cinnamon
• Stevia
• 2 egg whites
• 1/4 cup almond milk
• 1/4 cup yogurt
• Chopped pecans
• 1-2 T cinnamon chips

The yogurt was a bad addition. The pancakes never firmed up – too mushy. But topped with honey almond cream cheese, peanut butter, and crofter’s jam? I’ll take them anyday 😉

#9. Drinking more coffee than is deemed necessary for human consumption.

Taken on my 1-year anniversary in memory of my first picture 😉

#8. Look who finally made kale chips!!

(I made them in case you didn’t catch that)

Oh wait – that’s better.

I’m still trying to perfect them, but do you all eat them with a fork or hands? I feel like they’re too flaky/small to eat with hands!

#7. Caramel swirl. ‘Nuff said.

Taking advantage of the last day of Starbucks’s Happy Hour. That’s my third frap in 6 days. I’ve had my fix.

#6. Mama Pea’s crack cereal.

I actually made this a while ago, but it’s only gotten better. So good so good. I made with craisins since that’s all I had on hand.

#5. Counts as 5 & 6 since I ate it more than once and it’s just. That. Good.

#4. Sweet – my new bumper sticker! Even though it’s been a while, I’ve always wanted one. The window might not have been the smartest place to put it, since you can’t read it from a distance though haha.

#3. My awaited dessert hummus! So excited to get this 😀

Thank you thank you to the wonderful people at Crazy Camel Dessert Hummus.

You know which flavor caught my eye first.

Pumpkin pie obvs. Eaten straight with a spoon with some strawberries.

Oh yummmm. The spices definitely shine though in this hummus. Can’t wait to try the other flavors and keep you all updated!

#2. My run!!

Distance: 3.5 miles
Time: 32:50

Knee has been a tad more sore than normal, but I think it might be my foam roller slackage in the past week. The past few weeks I’ve been doing 2 short runs (2.5 miles and 3-4 miles) and a longer run. Each week I’ve been increasing the length of my long run by 1 mile. This week I’m planning to slightly increase the length of my shorter runs rather than increase my long run. Plan is:

Sunday: 3.5 miles
Tuesday: 3-3.5 miles
Thursday or Friday: 6-6.5 miles (depending on Tuesday’s distance)

Weekly total: 13 miles
Last week’s total: 12 miles

And the weekend’s Top highlight?

#1. Beach Bashin’ with my girls.

AKA a party where we were a suit top and a dress. Oh well any excuse for a party 😉

What was your weekend highlight?

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1 year old

Tomorrow is Yesterday was a certain blog’s 1 year anniversary. (I started to write this post on Friday, and for some reason it didn’t get posted until today 😦 ) I decided to do a flashback Friday Sunday anniversary style to celebrate!

A little over a year ago I discovered foodie blogs. “What was the huge draw to these things?” I wondered to myself. Yet, I soon got addicted myself. I’ve always enjoyed writing, journaling my life, and documenting my own foods, so it was only natural that the next step was creating my own blog.

May 15, I published my first post . May was a hard month because I was still struggling with my knee injury and the marathon was I was training to run (San Diego Rock & Roll) was at the end of the month. My knee injury hit me just over a year ago, and the past year was a big change. Changes in my exercise, physical fitness, free time, eating habits, and body changes came. Many days were a struggle, while many days I realized how lucky I still was. Time to take a peek back at Taydor Tott’s first year!

There were a multitude of concerts!

I got to meet Josh Gracin when he came to sing at my school’s UU hour in May!

Keith Urban in LA and Lady Antebellum at the CA Midstate Fair (both in July).

Rascal Flatts with Darius Rucker in October.

And Brooks & Dunn in April!

There were trips to the family cabin.

Where we went on one of my favorite hikes!

I continued the hiking back at school and posted an Operation Beautiful note at the peak of a local hike.

I did quite a few trips with friends.

LA for Disneyland and Dodgers in the summer.

LA (again – sheesh!!) for New Years Eve.

And Las Vegas in March over spring break!

I’ve had lots of fun celebrating and hanging out with my family.

From birthdays

During Thanksgiving

And on Christmas

First Communions

And Mother’s Day

This past year has also been one of the best with my roommates.

Kayaking

And finding Michael Jackson’s house

Hosting my first party for Halloween

And dressing up 2 nights in a row…

And just enjoying my last year of college in general 😀

And what would the year be without delicious food? While I already loved greek yogurt, pumpkin oats, and pumpkin yogurt pre-blog reading, I did make a few discoveries from blog inspirations.

Green smoothies!

Overnight oats!

And many different wrap combinations.

A big thank you to all my readers and everyone who made this past year amazing!!

I also posted a bit about my knee. This past year was also a big deal for me because it documented my entire knee injury. I got my first MRI results back, which showed just slight inflammation. This was followed by cortisone shots and multiple physical therapy appointments. All in all, I went to see 5 different doctors, 2 MRIs, 1 x-ray, TONS of physical therapy appointments, and 4 deep tissue massages. Nothing (I mean nothing) improved my knee. After all this and tons of rest, any type of activity (even walking!) would flare my knee up.

I’m not going to say it wasn’t hard for me to deal with all this. I was an athlete, a runner – in the middle of training for my 2nd marathon.  And taking all this time off of the one thing I loved was painful (no pun intended). So much changed for me over the past year.

1. I realized that exercise doesn’t have to be 1-2 hours to mean something. A 3 mile run is awesome. I used to think that I had to run 6-10 miles on an almost daily basis. Anything under 6 wasn’t “worth it.” And if I didn’t run one day, I’d feel guilty.
2. I started to build a different relationship with food. I obviously had a difficult time with this one, as I’ve mentioned in other posts. As much as I like to go by intuitive eating, it was difficult to go from burning all those calories from running and eating to fuel for them to eating for a sedentary person. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve gained 20+ pounds in the past year. This has been hard to deal with, but I’m ready to lose a few of those pounds and fit into my pants again! 😉 But I’d remind myself that no matter what my body looks like, I’m still strong.  I still appreciate the muscle I do have and that you’re beautiful no matter what!!
3. Appreciate what your body can do! On days where I missed running the most, I’d remind myself that my body can still function and I can still walk. I’m lucky to have what I have! And I was lucky that I got to experience running previously in my life.

After all those appointments, and the pain having lasted over a year, I completely thought it would never go away. But as I talked about here, foam rolling seriously saved me 🙂 And now I’m running again (although not nearly like I used to!).

Okay, sorry to overwhelm you all with all the pictures and writing, but just wanted to get it all out there and express my thanks for sticking with me over the past year!

Now I’m off to get a run in and work tonight. Have a happy Sunday everyone!

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Quarter Marathon

I ran 1/2 a half marathon this morning! AKA a quarter marathon. Whichever name floats your boat. Or sounds more impressive.

Distance: 6.5 miles
Time: 64 minutes

I’m okay with that time considering I have multiple walk breaks (that I don’t stop my Garmin during – the time keeps rollin’!) and that it’s a faster pace than last week’s long run. However, it’s sad/weird to think I used to whip out 6.5 miles like no other business in like 50 minutes. Aw well. That was then. This is now. And now = 6.5 miles!!! The longest I’ve ran in over a year 😀

Since I started my blog post-long run training, I never did get to be a part of the “Holding up your fingers for how long your long run was” club. Therefore, I took advantage today.

Yeah so what if it’s not 16 or 20 miles? 6.5 is more than I ever thought I’d run again!

My little nubbin of a middle finger is the ‘.5’ to the 6.

Notice anything different?

*Gasp*!

No knee brace! I really don’t think the knee brace helps my problem. And during my 3 mile run on Tuesday, it seemed to apply pressure to my painful spot and actually hurt it more. So I decided to try today’s run….naked, if you will.

Pre-run I had a midgy yogurt mess –

Pretty much just a normal yogurt mess with less yogurt, less cereal, and less PB the same amount of PB.

And cawwwwfeeeee.

Post-run I remembered since I’m getting into longer distances, I need a little somethin’ somethin’ post run. I had a blueberry pomegranate muffin with a smidge of DCD.

Followed by:

• 35 minutes foam rolling
• 8 minutes stretching
• 20 minutes icing

I still feel kind of weird waiting so long after my run to ice. By the time I get in, foam roll, stretch, and sit – it’s almost an hour after my run before ice [ice baby] hits my knees. Before I started foam rolling, I’d ice immediately after I worked out, and I’ve read that’s the best thing to do. But I also need to foam roll. Oh dilemna.

While icing I ate a real meal.

• TJ whole wheat flatbread
• Peanut butter
• Crofter’s superfruit spread
• Apple

Then let Mr. Foreman do his grilling job.

Holy eff this was gooooooood. It tasted like a warm pie with melty peanut butter. I forgot to put cinnamon inside which would probalby make it 2398573 milion times more amazing. Cannot wait to make another.

Now I’m just munching on some carrots and dip (yogurt ranch + BBQ sauce) before heading to work.

Excited for Farmer’s Market tonight!!

For any of you who foam roll and ice, which order do you do it in? Do you ice immediately post-run or do you foam roll, and then ice? Or anyone have opinions on this?

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