Golden Trip

What’s up my dear readers?

Today I sent off my Florida State dietetic internship application.  One thing I can check off my list!

1. Complete and send off Florida State application.

2. Complete and send off my other 9 applications.

Yes, 9.  I realized that is beyond excessive and I should really really narrow it down.  But I’m having a hard time doing so.  Oy!

Last week might have been stressful and difficult, but Saturday afternoon I hit the road home!  My sister and brother were still home from school this weekend, and my family had plans to go to the Walt Disney museum in San Francisco.  While it wasn’t a huge deal to drive 3 1/2 hours for, I want to cherish all the family time I can get

The museum was interesting, but my family of course loved the Disneyland portion best.  We’re a huge Disneyland family.  The vacations are such a special memory.

From 2005

to 2008

to my first trip with friends only in 2009:

I love Disneyland!!!

Anyways, afterwards we drove a mile or so closer to the water and froze to death admired the view. 

Grant – don’t throw her in!!

 

 

 

Sure, my sister (who lives in Washington) and brother (who lives in Pennsylvania) gave me crap when I complained how cold it was.  But I was in a tank and hoodie – so used to 60/70 degree weather!!

We then went to pizza, and came home for cookies and pumpkin pie.  Please tell me why being at home seems to give me the excuse to eat everything in sight?  Because I’m not sure why.

This morning I had an orthotics appointment (praying this alteration will fix the problem and help my pain!), hit up the mall for returns, Target for necessities, and Panera for some caffeine and lunch.

I guess saying “To-Go” means “don’t cream cheese my bagel and let me do it myself.”  Disappointment.  I love bagels from bagel shops just because I love when they cream cheese it for you.  I swear it tastes different.

This happened.  But when I ran out of cream cheese, I didn’t finish the bagel.  It’s just not as good as pre-cream cheesed in the paper wrapping.  You know?

I also tried this bar on the drive up and thought I’d quickly tell you guys I liked it:

I’m not a big fan of cherry flavored things.  Okay that’s a lie – I love cherry candy and cherry sodas.  But cherry desserts/chocolates?  No thanks.  But this just tasted like a sweeter protein bar.  So good in my book.

Cookies & Cream is still my favorite.  And I don’t remember if I liked the Peanut Butter because I scarfed it down after my half-marathon.  But they are all tasty, and one of my favorite “protein bars” out there.

 

Sooooooo who’s watching the Bachelor this season? 

I’ve started to, but not sure if I’m super into it this year.  Especially because the past seasons I’d watch with my roommates and gossip/laugh about it.  Now I’m by myself…and it’s not as fun to make fun of it all alone. Hmmm.

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Delayed Hunger

What’s up peeps?

I awoke this morning muchos hungry. That’s the thing about longer distance running – always hungry!

Usually coffee can calm my appetite for a bit before I get down and dirty with breakfast. But not this morning. And guess what I was craving. More oats!

Last night I planned on having a yogurt mess and using my nectarine.  But instead I used my nectarine on my hot oats. It worked with canteloupe, so why not?!

I seriously don’t mess around with toppings. I may overwhelm my oats at times, but I’m pretty sure she (or he?) can handle it.

Today’s included:

• Nectarine
• Strawberry jam
• Vanilla-pear butter
• Berry cream cheese
• Nuttzo

Yes – there was some Nuttzo under there!

Other favorite oatmeal toppings of mine include:

• Granola (love the crunch)
• Caramel chips
• All type of nut butters & jams
• All types of cream cheese
• Yogurt (Yoatgurt anyone?)

Of course I was hungry 2 hours later. No matter what I have for breakfast – it could be a small piece of toast, filling oatmeal, or eggs! – I am always hungry 2-3 hours after breakfast. I don’t understand those that say “this breakfast kept me full for 6 hours.” What?! How is that possible??

Anywas, I had a nectarine.

And then a Kashi trail mix bar not long after (which, by the way, I got for “free” at work with leftover cafeteria money. We get a certain amount to spend at each meal, and if my meal comes up cheap, I always throw in an apple, granola bar, or peach rings 😉 ).

I then hit up Borders in between jobs for a little bit of chillaxin with some iced coffee (SF vanilla syrup and half & half yo)

Some magazine reading, and some samples. I love samples. These were awsesome – some type of muffin and double chocolate chip cookie.

They didn’t skimp on sizes either – this was almost the size of a normal chocolate chip cookie! And so moist and delicious.

I came home hungray, and a bit chilly (WTF is up with you weather?) and wanted something warm. Soup to the rescue!! Some vegetable soup topped with ooey gooey cheese.

Along with an English muffin pizza (pasta sauce + cheddar cheese)

And pre-roasted cauliflower.

This lunch may look like a lot, but it honestly didn’t make me too full. Plus I need to fuel up before work.

Plus a mini-peach ring for dessert 🙂 Please excuse my super dry looking hands. I swear they’re not that bad in real life.

I was pretty hangry for dinner! Good thing we took a break at 6:30 rather than 7:00 😉 I got the last of the vegetable ratatouille along with some sweet potato fries!!

However both were pretty bland and not that great. I also had some blueberries on the side, and a few bites of cold leftover peach crisp.

Needless to say, I was pretty hungry (once again) by the time 8:30 rolled around.  I prepared my latest “frozen yogurt” obsession – with a twist!

Yogurt + stevia + peanut flour + cocoa powder –> into the freezer it went! Topped off with something special!

I nuked a big old spoonful of chocolate hazelnut butter & a splash of almond milk to make a chocolate sauce. Delicious. I also had another spoonful of nut butter on the side. I’m way over quota today 😉

And I’m sure I’ll be getting hungry again quite soon. Damn you long run yesterday!!

Are you normally more hungry the day of a long run or in the days following?

When I do super long runs, I’m always insatiable all day long. Starving every couple hours. This time was weird however – I never got super hungry yesterday. Just my normal hunger. But today as been off the wall! This is why people gain weight when they train for long races 😉

Also – what’s your favorite oatmeal topping?

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Going with the flow

I might have lied last night when I made my list of 5 things I ate. I might have gotten hungry while signing my lease and stopped for froyo on my way home.

Cake batter again. How can I possibly say no to this little joy?

Muchos apologies for such bad car lighting & no camera flash.

This A.M. I searched high and low for my oats. Where did they go?!? Finally I found them in a random cupboard. PHEW. Heart attack averted.

Cold canteloupe on hot oats? Why, that’s new!

And let me tell you – it worked!

• 1/3 cup multigrain oats
• 1/3 cup almond milk + 1/3 cup water
• Cinnamon
• Peanut flour
• 1 egg whisked in
• Canteloupe (obviously)
• Nut butter!!!

I liked eating this in a mug. It made it more exciting.

No hospital job today, but I did nanny. Snacked on some almonds while we frolicked in the park.

I’m definitely taking advantage of nannying during meal times. Especially when they have food I like. 😉 Here we have a gardenburger on whole wheat with mustard & BBQ sauce.

And here we have a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie trying to imitate the gardenburger’s pose. Copycat.

Shoot – I had 2 of these at work too. I was thirsty and out of water. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.

Guess what I did after work? Well, after hitting up the bank and filling up my gas tank. ROAD TRIP!!! Yes, I’m calling a 30 minute drive to Target a road trip. It was exciting.

I picked up a few necessities (PB & jelly obvs), a few treats (new bathmat for my new bathroom!), and a few good deals ($5 plain T-shirts & some on-sale-Annie’s products!). While shopping I snacked on some popcorn, but when that didn’t cut it, I broke out the bar.

My last bar 😦 Although I’m not sad to see this particular one go – not a fan of apple cinnamon flavored things.

Oh and a Target drink. Lemonade light. Still full of artificial crap. But at least not a soda? Can I say that? I’m at least getting Vitamin C…maybe?

I barely made it through the door before I got to work on my peanut butter. I’m obsessed with flavored and sweetened PBs, but I can’t afford to constantly buy them. I’ve made my own cinnamon-raisin PB, and attempted my own honey peanut butter. This time I wanted some maple PB!

• 1 container plain peanut butter
• 2-4 Tbsp maple syrup (I used 4)
• Sweetener (optional – depending on how sweet you want it)

Mmmm I definitely ate my fair share. I feel like I’m scraping the cookie dough bowl!

Awesome. So now I have some maple peanut butter for $1.79 (Skippy was on sale at Target. Now that I think of it I should’ve bought 2 for that price) + the cost of the maple syrup (which was free since it was my old roommate’s she left in the fridge). Score.

I fully intended on running after this delicious pre-run fuel, but my ex/future roommate (what do I call her during this awkward transitional between houses period?) called inviting me to Taco Tuesday.

Um. Hello. My name is Taylor and I love food. And tacos. And a good deal ($1 each – what what!).

So much for a run. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow.

2 soft chicken tacos – partly devoured at this point in time.  And fully devoured within seconds after taking this photo.

+ a few chips. And another soda. Oh dear goodness, I need to cut back on my soda consumption.

I’d say I can try and get up early to run tomorrow before my hospital orientation, but let’s face it – I’m still getting used to the fact of waking up around 7:00 a.m. to shower. Let alone waking up at 6:00 to run.

Baby steps. Baby steps.

Maybe after orientation at like 5:00. Perhaps.

And right now my left calf is non-stop twitching. Like those eyebrow/eyelash twiches….but in my leg. Interesting. Maybe my body is rejecting all the caffeine and soda today. Sorry body.

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Stressful Decisions

Thank you so much for all your support regarding my new changes. Every comment I received was supportive, and many of you even want to keep each other motivated 🙂 Way to go! 🙂

Today has been stressful and I have to get some opinions on this one. Last weekend I had a last minute job interview back in my college town (where I just moved from). The job is perfect – a diet assistant position at a hospital. Exactly what would look amazing on my application for an internship I need to apply to next year. However it only pays $9 an hour. I figured I’d come home with about $1300/month and after some approximations, I figured it would cost me $1500 to live very very frugally. And by frugally I mean no saving, no clothes shopping, and barely any fun money.

I also have another job interview tomorrow for a job here that pays much more. This job would look good on applications, although not nearly as good. I’ve also gotten offered a part-time nannying position. Now I’m stressed for deciding what to do.

Say YES to Job at school:

Pros – Great experience
Live back in my college town with friends (which I LOVE)
Guaranteed job with benefits

Cons – Live almost in poverty
Save nothing
Have to pack up and move within the next week

Say NO to job at school (keep looking at home/hopefully get the job I’m interviewing for tomorrow)

Pros – Don’t have to pay rent (live at home)
Don’t have to pack up and move again
Will make almost double the pay at another job or nannying

Cons – Take a risk and hopefully get the job I’m inteviewing for
Live at home (blah)
Live at home (yes I had to say it again)
Give up great experience at a hospital

Just a sidenote – the other job here at home is still nutrition related, would look good on my application, and includes benefits. I just don’t know 100% if I would get it or not.

So felt I had to share with y’all my dilemna right now. I know it’s my life and my decision, but if you were in my position – What would you choose to do right now? Thoughts?

Moving on to today’s eats:

Breakfast eaten at 10:30 (yes I slept in!)

• 3/4 cup plain yogurt
• 1 nectarine
• Blueberries
• 2 figs
• 1/2 cup TJ’s high fiber cereal

I missed my nut butter in this mix!

And 2 mugs of coffee with almond milk and 1 T SF creamer in each mug.

All while checking out half marathon training schedules 😀

Followed by some strength training & Lost watching. I love that about having a weight set in our house – can watch episodes while doing so 😉

Starving for lunch! Turkey + laughing cow + mustard in a whole wheat wrap. Eaten on the go to Costco!

+ 2 apricots on the side.

Snack at around 4:00 while browsing Tar-jay.

Came home to munch on numerous carrots & dressing.

Dinner was Thai flavored noodles over veggies.

And a scrambled egg (unpictured – sorry!).

+ a nibble of my sister’s brownie 😉

I’m feeling a bit hungry now, so I’ll probably go have some melon or strawberry “ice cream” (thick thick strawberry smoothie).

Opinions on the job front please!!

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Gettin’ Busy

I know there are a multitude of motherly devoted posts floating around out there today. So add one more to the bunch 😉

Mommy – I love you!!! You’ve done so much for all of us. I don’t know how you put up with 5 kids!! We share a passion for health, nutrition and fitness, and I don’t think I would have those interests if it weren’t for her!

Trying our first Cosmos in Mexico together (yes, she never had a Cosmo until a few years ago!)

We did the SF Women’s Nike marathon 3 years in a row. Only one year I walked the half with her, and the others years I ran on my own. But it was still great to have her support. I keep trying to motivate her to run, and dream to run a half with her one day!

Love you Mommy!!

This weekend, the kitchen and I have gotten busy. Most of the roommates were out of town, and I some POM juice I wanted to experiment with, so I thought to msyelf “Taylor – this would be an excellent weekend to bake.” So bake I did.

Yesterday I whipped up my first ever batch of homemade granola! (Recipe to come tomorrow)

And maple pecan nut butter.

1. Toast 1 1/2 cups pecans at 350 for 6-8 minutes.
2. Process in a food processor, sraping down the sides as needed.
3. Once the nuts are smooth, drizzle in 2-3 tsp maple syrup and 1/4 tsp salt.
4. Continue to process until completely smooth.

My mini-food processor is not that powerful, and I definitely didn’t process this for long enough. I also added way too much maple syrup, and it became an ooey gooey mess. But I do not lie when I say it tastes exacly like cookie dough. Therefore, I deem this pecan butter a complete and utter success. Not very practical for spreading, but definitely practical for crumbling over food – such as oats or apples!

And also practical for eating straight up. Duh.

Today I hit up the gym (2.5 mile treadmill run!), then hit up our school’s baseball game. Which was slightly painful. I came back and snacked on this:

Which was good!! I was not expecting to like an orange-chocolate bar. But it tasted like a fig newton.

And granola:

Someone send me lotion ASAP.

And then got busy with Mr. Kitch again. Together we made Blueberry Pomegranate Muffins.

I seriously couldn’t wait 1 minute to try these out as my plate obviously shows 😉 Spread with some nut butter for good measure.

Oh and uh seconds, obvs.

This one a bit more cooled & structured. With cream cheese in the middle.

Nommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Recipe for these to come tomorrow as well. Be patient my friends! It is a virtue 🙂

Now I’m eating carrots and ranch + BBQ sauce dip.

And obviously won’t be hungry for a big dinner, since I did eat all this at around 4:30-5:00. Snackin’ my way through the evening!

How was everyone’s Mother’s Day? Did you see your momma?

My siblings all pitched in to send our mommy an edible bouquet. I’m kind of sad I’m not home to try out some of the fruit!!

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Bee Happy

Well guys, I am officially 100% DONE and GRADUATED! I had my last presentation today and submitted my take-home final online. So it is not official.

It doesn’t feel at all like I’ve graduated. The whole ceremony isn’t until June, so I won’t be walking in my cap & gown until then. But I guess I have…graduated? Weird.  And for those of you who were wondering, I’m still staying here at school for the next quarter (until June) and working.  I couldn’t imagine leaving all my roommates, and I have 2 nannying jobs here vs at home where I’d have to look for work.  I am looking for more work here though.  My 13-16 hours a week between the 2 families will not cut it!!

Breakfast (before class) consisted of:

• Banana cream pie yogurt (Lucerne/Safeway brand)
• Nature’s Path strawberry yogurt cereal
• Life cereal maple flavor
• Justin’s honey PB
• Flaxseed almond butter

This yogurt was delicious. Not fake tasting at all! I’ll definitely be buying banana flavor in the future. The containers look like this (sold at Safeway/Vons), but banana pie flavored.

Source

Speaking of yogurt, I really enjoyed Gina’s post on choosing a yogurt. People often times think yogurt is healthy no matter what. But most flavored yogurts are overladen with tons of added sugar. Often times even more than ice cream or “sweets”! Although I prefer plain yogurt (as does much of blogworld I believe!), I sometimes do enjoy a flavored yogurt, but I usually opt for the “light” flavors. My favorite is Lucerne brand – it contains sucralose, but not aspartame. It’s a personal choice, but all is good in moderation! 🙂

After class I was starving, and I chowed down this bar in a flash.

Upon unwrapping, I was unimpressed. I was kind of put off by the white “frosting”. How does frosting play into a PB&J? I planned to eat half before my swim, but it was smaller than I thought and I was sooo hungry.

Sweet and tasty, but I probs won’t be purchasing again.

I then celebrated my freedom with a swim. However I had a pounding headache so I kept it really short (only 20 minutes).

• 500 yards freestyle
• 2 x 250 yards pull (with paddles)

Once home, I grilled up a boca burger on Mr. Foreman. I also had some bell peppers that I wanted to use before I left, so I grilled those too. On a whole wheat sandwich thin with spicy mustard, ketchup, and some mixed greens.

Those bell peppers were a great addition!

Dinner is called “going out of town tomorrow and I’m clearing out my freezer” type of meal. Oh – and I was craving comfort food.

Nature’s path maple waffles (best ones ever). One was topped with AB&J (almond butter & jelly), and the other with granola. Both with syrup (duh).

And a 2-egg white puff topped with cheese and ketchup (duh again).

Awww he’s happy.

I was still hungry, and still had food that would go bad, so I sauteed my other bell pepper in sesame oil and made agiant (no joke) salad with this new dressing I got for $1 (dolla dolla yo!).

Yummm. A+!

I love this bowl 😀

Dang. My dinner definitely knows what’s up. I had every right to be happy today 😀

Tomorrow morning I plan to be on the road home by 9:00. I’ll catch up with you all once home in the (SF) bay area!

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Project: Complete

Senior project is done and turned in!!

This has definitely been one of the best finals weeks ever. Both yesterday and today have consisted of basking in the hot rays for hours. Got a little Vegas shopping in at Forever 21 tonight (yes – going to Vegas next week!!). And Chipotle for dinner!

Chipotle finally opened up here in SLO a couple weeks ago, and we figured the hype had finally died down a bit so it wouldn’t be super crowded.

Vegetarian salad with black beans, sauteed onions & bell peppers, extra pico de gallo, corn salsa relish, and guacamole.

I got the vegetarian JUST to get free guacamole, and this Chiptole skimped on the guac. Usually they load that beast on!

This morning I woke up not hungry, so enjoyed a cup (or 3) of delicious coffee while blog reading.

Still not hungry, and with a slight stomach ache, I grabbed a small breakfast on my way out the door to a nanny interview.

Whole wheat bagel thin – Justin’s honey PB & Crofter’s superfruit spread. That little corner of white stuff is cream cheese. Then I ran out. Oh well – I tried!

1 1/2 hours later, my hunger caught up to me and arrived home starving. I George Formaned another bagel thin with turkey, cheese, and BBQ sauce.

Plus kabocha squash on the side.

While finishing up my project post-sun time, I snacked on these cinnamon almond cookie bites. They give a funky aftertaste. But are okay to munch on.

Turned in that 25 page project (yeah-yuh!!), and hit up the pool for a quick 30 minute swim.

• 500 freesyle
• 500 freestyle pulling with paddles
• 100 IM
• 100 freestyle
  (repeat above IM/freestyle sequence 3 times)
• 100 cooldown

I’m so glad I made myself go, because I was not feelin’ it at all. And I was this close to just saying “screw it!”. But I knew I’d regret not going more than I’d regret actually swimming – you know?

Swimming made me a hungry fishie, and I had half of this bar to hold me over until dinner.

Really not such a fan. Especially for the very small bar to high calorie ratio. I’ll try the other flavors, but we’ll see!

Then dinner, shopping, and now American Idol! I’m telling ya – it’s been a good day 😀

Shopping must have been hard work because I came home 2 hours after dinner starving! And made myself 2 bags of mini-popcorn. So much for the portion control of mini bags…LOL. Oh and 3 clementines. And a spoonful of PB.

Dang. For such an un-hungry morning, I sure got ravenous later on.

Thoughts on tonight’s Idol?

I love Lee. I voted 😉

Is the weather by you as nice as it is here?

I’m pretty sure it was in the 80’s today!! So nice. And definitely got burnt. Whoops! Time to aloe it up.

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Goodbye Sunbutter, Hello Sun!

I hope you all are having a fabulous weekend. It’s been a beautiful weekend over here…and no finals to study for! 😀

I started off Saturday morning with some PB mocha oats.

• 1/3 cup oats + 1/4 cup oat bran + 1 cup almond milk
• 2 egg whites
• Scoop of instant coffee
• Chocolate PB2
• Justin’s honey PB
• Cream cheese
• Granola

So delicious. But now I’m out of instant coffee powder 😦

I then did a little mini-workout here at home consisting of tae bo upper body punches! I used to do Billy Blanks tae bo DVDs all the time when I was first starting to lose weight. And even after I lost all my weight, I occasionally did them. If you contract your muscles and punch with strength, it really works and makes you sore!

I did 2 sets of each of the following (30 seconds each):

• Front punches
• Front upper cuts
• Side jab with a cross-over punch (with the other arm) – each side
• Side jabs (30 seconds each side)
• Side upper cut (each side)
• Side jabs alternating punching high and low (with squats) – each side

Total: 10 minutes

• 7 minutes ab work
• 50 reps of clams on each side (hip exercise)
• Stretch

I eventually hit the road to run some errands, without even thinking of grabbing a snack. So unlike me! It had been 4 hours since breakfast and I was starting to get hungry, so I knew I needed something.

Enter Jamba Juice. Mangos, peaches, OJ, and ‘lower calorie dairy base’.

Fueled me well 🙂

Until my afternoon snack before dinner of carrots and dip. Look – I remembered to photograph it! Obvious why I never remember – it’s not very entrancing 😉

The dip just consisted of a mixture of raspberry dressing, feta dressing & BBQ sauce. Weird? Maybe. But delicious. And homemade iced coffee.

Dinner was uninteresting so let’s just move on shall we?

I woke up this morning extremely sore!  Especially in my back.  Replenished the muscles with oatmeal again. This time in a jar!

• 1/3 cup oats + 1/4 cup oat bran + 1 cup almond milk
• 2 egg whites
• Cocoa powder & chocolate PB2 powder
• Extra spoonful of honey PB for good measure 😉

This was the end of the last of my sunflower seed butter jars. Thank you so much to Sunbutter for sending me so many delicious varieties to try out. I loved them all – sunflower seed butter is some tasty stuff 🙂 Just like spreading melted sunflower seeds onto your toast or oatmeal!

Mmmm chocolatey oats.

I then hit up the Cal Poly baseball game. Go Mustangs!! We didn’t win 😦 But it was a good game. I grew up surrounded by baseball and I miss it! My brother has played in extremely competitive leagues since he was younger and now plays for U Penn (although I wish he played here.  How fun would that be to go see him play?!). Baseball is definitely a comfort thing as well.

Game snackage.

It was okay. Sticky and very sweet – it reminded me of a Fiber One bar. Okay so it was quite tasty actually. Yet low in the fiber category – only 2 grams.

Dinner tonight was kind of lame.

I tried out a pre-packaged meal of roasted red pepper and chicken alfredo pasta. It was nasty. Bland and processed tasting. I literally had 3 or 4 bites before I tossed it.

My salad was good! I sauteed asparagus in

• Sesame oil
• Rice vinegar
• Garlic
• Soy sauce

Then ate it over mixed greens with Trader Joe’s raspberry vinaigrette. I also tossed in some nutritional yeast, and once combined with the warm asparagus, it melted into a creamy consistency. Yum!

And had some leftover kabocha squash.

Since it was a ‘heavy on the veggies, light on the other foods’ type of dinner, I went back for a handful of pistachios

(major moisturizing needed)

And an apple with almond butter later in the night. Plus hot cocoa of course.

About 3-4x the amount of shown almond butter was consumed. I finally bought this one at TJs a couple weeks ago.

HOLY YUM!!! It has a very unique and crunchy taste (I’m guessing due to the flaxseeds). Almond butter has such great stats – I had no idea it had such a good amount of calcium in it!

Any weekend highlights from your neck of the woods?

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Done!

Well guys – I’m done! Done with college classes forever!! (Well until I possibly head to grad school, but shhhh). Really my last full day of classes was yesterday, and today I just had one class with presentations. Next week is finals weeks (but I have none!  muahaha) and I still have my senior project paper to finish and another project to finish up and present.

How weird that I won’t be going back next quarter for classes! I’m actually bummed out 😦 I loved the structure of school and hanging out on campus during breaks – seeing familiar faces. I’ll miss it.

The morning started with a twist on my yogurt bowl.

• Plain yogurt
• Kashi Golean
• Nature’s Path maple sunrise (I actually tossed it after this bowl. Just wasn’t a fan at all)
• Quaker oatmeal squares
• Peanut butter
• Pineapple chunks

Oh yes – there are pinapple chunks in there.

However, not nearly as good as Chobani’s pineapple yogurt. I think you need the tartness of Greek yogurt.

Mid-presentations, I snacked on a raisin Heart Thrive bar.

Then went for a quick swim after class.

• 500 free warmup
• 1 x 50 free, 1 x 50 breast – repeat 4 times
• 2 x 50 freestyle drill
• 4 x 75 IM order
• 200 freestyle pull
• 50 cooldown

Total: 1500 yards

For anyone who’s curious IM = individual medley which consists of the 4 strokes (butterfly, backstroke, breastroke, and freestyle). So for example, if I say I did 1 IM, I did 4 laps in a row of the above strokes. Make sense?

Dinner was simple – pizzas! Just pasta sauce and cheese on a sandwich thin.

With a side of roasted broccoli.

Topped with this guy.

Sweet and tangy. Yummmm. My only complaint is the presence of high fructose corn syrup.

I snacked all night on guacamole chips at a friend’s house. Soooo good.

Source

And then a microwaved cinnamon apple + yogurt + handful of cereal + sunbutter once I got home.

Yummmm.

So as I’m winding down my senior year (okay, senior plus year) of college, I thought I’d flashback to as I wound down my senior year of high school.

I lived a very innocent life in high school. We spent our nights randomly doing….nothing.  Pretty much just driving around and blasting our music.

Having fun at the park…

An old best friend came for a surprise visit!

Towards the end of the year, I loved donig nothing after school and just hanging out!

At my dad’s old friend’s wedding.

College touring of course. I couldn’t decide between Cal Poly and San Diego State until the very last minute!

Miss my two besties 🙂

Late night swims!

I surprised my sister with a Maroon 5 concert ticket on her birthday!

Enjoying the warm weather at theme parks.

We also got family portraits done for the first time….ever.

In May I was a camp counselor for the 5th grader’s week-long outdoor ed trip!

My best friend was a counselor as well.

Then came end of senior year festivities. Senior picnic at Waterworld!

Signing yearbooks at lunch!

And finally the last day of school. ’05!

And last but not least..graduation 🙂

I honestly was not sad at all to be graduating high school. Sure, I had fun. But I was excited to begin a new journey.

College, on the other hand, is a bit heart breaking. I’m still here for the next few months, but it will be weird not going to campus and having stuff to study and projects to work on!

For anyone who’s graduated, was high school graduation a tear jerker? Or were you more sad to be leaving college?

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What’s in a Label?

Sorry MIA last night. Backing up to Humpday Wednesday…

Yogurt mixed with pumpkin + Kashi Heart to Heart + pumpkin granola + banana for breakkie. And sunbutter of course.

Post gym sesh (where I did 20 minutes of whittle my middle ball style. Exercise ball that is), I noshed on a berry almond Luna bar.

Surprisingly I really liked this flavor! I’m not a fan of Lara bars at all. To me, they’ve always had that yucky chalky bar taste. But this one was delicious and sweet. Almost too sweet – very sticky and candylike.

More snacks in class.

As I was bored in class, I noticed that my almonds had sucralose in the ingredients list.

I was honestly quite surprised. Even though these almonds are in a “100 calorie bag” and obviously marketed for portion control, I wouldn’t think of them as a “diet food” or “low-calorie” food that would normally contain sucralose (aka splenda). It just goes to show that label reading is extremely important. Not just the nutrition facts, but also the ingredients list.

Think reduced fat peanut butter is healthier than full fat? Sure the facts show 4 grams of fat less in reduced fat, but they both still have the same calories, and the ingredients list is miles longer, along with added sugar.

Think “trans-fat free” products are still healthy? Many products still contain partially-hydrogenated oils (hint hint many peanut butters!) – the primary source of trans fat (besides those in naturally occuring foods). A label is only required to put trans fat on the label if the food contains more than .5 g trans fat per serving. But if you eat more than one serving, you could be eating more trans fat than you realize.

Key here – label read people!

I came home starving and chowed down my kitchen. First, a leftover turkey + cranberry sauce sammy on WW sandwich thin.

That looks damn appetizing, I know.

Followed by a banana + sunbutter. Persimmon. And Mary’s Crackers.

And this bowl of strawberries, greek yogurt, cereal & sunbutter.

I could not get full. But all this food at 3:00 killed my appetite for dinner, and I ended up eating just a squash.

Yes – the whole thing. With ketchup of course.

Today (Thursday) started out with something that’s been missing from my life for a while.

Overnight (pumpkin) oats!

Quaker oatmeal squares make the best overnight oat topping. And pumpkin cream cheese.

Lunch was the same as yesterday, but looked better, I swear.

Along with carrots & spinach hommus (x2).

See? Better.

Kinda.

Best sandwich combo. EVER. I also added some garlic onion cream cheese. Great combo. With an apple for “dessert.”

With work canceled, I had all intentions of studying for my quiz tomorrow. However, my roommate and I spent the afternoon in Borders, drinking coffee, reading magazines, and enjoying the ambiance of Christmas music. We also had quite the conversations. I’m sure anyone around us was entertained with random snippits of conversation, including talk about threesomes. Don’t ask.  But it was a wonderful afternoon 🙂 Especially since I didn’t study at all for my quiz 😉 Oh well, I’m so over it.

Our friend offered to make us dinner tonight since we supplied BBQ goodies earlier this year. He made us english muffin pizzas.

How gourmet 😉

This x3:

And that would be turkey pepperoni 🙂

A year or two ago I would’ve stressed out because I knew it would be on “white” english muffins with an unidentified amount of cheese that I couldn’t control. I’m so proud of how far I’ve come that it really doesn’t matter if I eat some simple carbohydrates for dinner one night. Not everything has to be healthy, whole wheat, super nutritional foods.

A reese’s PB cookie may have also made it unpictured 😉

Now I’m sitting here at 11:12 pm wondering if I should at least read over my powerpoint slides once before going to bed, or just completely throw all faith into the wind tomorrow. Word of advice: don’t look to me for studying inspiration 😉

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