The Season

Tis the season!  For….

Pumpkin spice loaf cake (from work).

Starbucks holiday cups (which they changed this year!!  Waaahhhh).  Totally not worth $3.75 by the way.  Ridic-u-lous.  But took advantage of the “Buy-1-get-1-free” with the roommate.

That would be a 1-pump peppermint 1-pump mocha with foam.  Still super sweet.

And peppermint hot cocoa. 

In my graduation mug Thank you sister!!

It’s also the season for:

• Holiday music
• 25 days of Christmas movies
• Falalala Lifetime
• Pounding rain (keeping you from sleeping)
• New winter coats (which I don’t get much use out of here in CA)
• Nsync Christmas CD

Source

Don’t deny it.  You love that CD too.

 

I know it’s not even Thanksgiving and many people say you can’t celebrate Christmas season until after Thanksgiving.  But c’mon.  Show me some Thanksgiving music then.

That’s what I thought.

Therefore, we have the right to listen to Christmas music now.

Besides, the 4 weeks between the two holidays goes too fast anyways.

 

What’s your favorite aspect to the “season.”  (Not the holiday itself – but the whole season!).  I love the tree.  Our tree at home is always so beautiful. 

so

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Saturday vs Sunday

Or the post also known as: “I completely passed out on Saturday night before posting and had to combine 2 days worth of eats.” DUN DUN DUN!!! It’s on! Which long day of eats is more delicious?

But first, I have to say…I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I seriously can’t stop eating!Friday night I just wanted to eat eat eat! Definitely wasn’t hungry – but I sure was munchy! I just went with the flow and knew my body was craving something. Obviously, if I let myself eat every single time I want to – I would balloon (I could eat almost all the time). But with recently upping my mileage, and perhaps exhaustion from work – I know my body needs fuel. I’ve even been waking up in the middle of the night hungry!

Midnight cereal.

I can’t fall asleep when I’m hungry. Ever. No matter what.

Now onto the battle.

Saturday’s Breakfast:

I was starving when I awoke at 5:00 am! Scratched out my original plan for a small breakfast! And went with a yogurt mess instead.

• Plain yogurt mixed with cinnamon
• Honeydew (so so so so juicy & sweet!!)
• Kashi Golean
• Strawberry jam (RIP. I need a jam detox)
• Scoops of nut butter
• Drizzle of maple syrup

Mmmm maple syrup.

All mixed up!

My 8:45 am breakfast went unpictured since the lighting in the caff is awful at that time. But it looked the same as this one:

Cottage cheese + canteloupe and oats + eggs.

vs.

Sunday Breakfast:

Unlike Saturday, I was completely not hungry Sunday morning. My breakfast was still yogurt & cereal, but on a much smaller level.

And my 8:45 am breakfast snack of cottage cheese, scrambled eggs, and the iced top of a bran/carrot/ginger(?) muffin.

Saturday Lunch:

Lunch was small, yet rich. Mushroom bisque soup (SOUPer creamy. ha) along with vegetable ratatouille.

I only managed half the soup before calling it a day.

vs.

Sunday Lunch:

Orange glazed chicken, broccoli with garlic butter sauce, and turkey meat sauce which I topped the broccoli with. And also ate a bunch on the side. Kind of like soup.

And a small side salad with blue cheese, olives, & craisins.

Saturday snacks:

English muffin around 2:30.

Along with a fatty slice of watermelon.

And canned green beans + pasta sauce + parm cheese at around 4:45.

I’m a big fan of canned green beans lately. And pasta sauce. Win win!

And an Asian pear I got from Farmers ($1/lb!! Deal).

My temporary new roommate also brought apple strudel and said to help myself. She asked for it!!

I picked at a whole piece throughout the afternoon.

vs.

Sunday Snacks:

I came home, ate a giant slice of watermelon like looked exactly like Saturday’s (scroll up, or just here’s a reminder:)

And then CRASHED for a good 1 1/2 hours. I’ve gotten 7 hours of sleep combined in the past 2 nights on top of my 8 hour a day exhausting job. I’m looking forward to sleep tonight!

I awoke to have a pre-run snack of toast with PB & vanilla-pear butter.

And yes more apple strudel.

No more! It looks good, but honestly doesn’t taste that good. Not sweet enough for me 😉

Saturday Dinner:

I ended up hitting up Woodstocks for pizza with a couple friends. Normally I wouldn’t spend money, especially since I just bought dinner at Farmer’s this week. But I really really needed to get out of the house and be social.

Since the table ordered pepperoni, I got a personal half “Garlic Bird” and half “BBQ Bird” on wheat. With light cheese. But it was of course still super cheesy 😉 Exactly why I got light cheese – they layer that stuff on!! I totally didn’t expect them to do half & half on a personal, but they did! 😀

I had half of this personal, and 1 slice of a pesto veggie. Funny stury -we still had the old people’s number up from the table before us, and they accidentally re-made their pizza and gave it to us. We told them, but they couldn’t take it back. And we were left with a free half meat lovers-half pesto veggie pizza!

Okay, maybe that wasn’t such a funny story. But since the whole table seemed to be scared of veggies, I got free pizza from it.

I was trying to save room for the delicious cinnabread, which my friend got to go, but we never broke into 😦 Ahh well.

We then continued to redbox, where they decided to rent Wolfman. Which I think I slept through half of, thank goodness. It was beyond awful. And I swear, the graphics were from the 80s. I half expected Michael Jackson to jump out and rock his Thriller dance any second. My friends also convinced me to have a glass of wine, which I think aided in the sleep.  Okay, not much convincing was involved.

vs.

Sunday Dinner:

Leftover pizza!! 1 BBQ & 1 garlic slice (which I took a bite out of to taste it cold) toasted in the toaster oven.

I’ve never toasted up leftover pizza before, but it was A-MAZING. Seriously, better than last night. Slightly crispy, warm, and still ooey gooey!

Plus a veggie pesto piece eaten cold while the other two were toasting up.

So in short story, the exact same dinner I had last night.

I could’ve had a glass of wine to make the nights even, but opted for hot chocolate instead.

My days were similar, my days were different. But which day’s eats look better to you? Even though they are super similar.  Not gonna lie.

PS: Run was awesome 🙂 My Garmin never located satellites, so I just ran for time.

Time: 50:13
Est. Distance: 5.25-5.5 miles

And I ran the ENTIRE time. I’m so happy to be back and running normally again. I thank my lucky stars everyday 😀

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Back to basics

I’m probably overwhelming you with blog posts. Although…I hope not! Once upon a time Last school year, I wrote almost a post a day. Once I went home for the summer, my schedule was wack and was also camera-less. So my posts fell to only rarely. Now that I’m getting back into a schedule of work and eating my own foods, posting should be more regular!

This morning I was able to sleep in (praise the Lord Jesus!). And got up to make pancakes! I have no flour, but I improvised with my Trader Joe’s peanut flour.

I combined:

• 1/4 multigrain oats
• 1/4 cup peanut flour
• 1/4 cup yogurt
• 1 egg
• 1/4 tsp baking soda & baking powder
• Cinnamon

Cooked on the griddle….okay, they didn’t exactly come out perfect. They broke while flipping.

I topped them off with a sauce made of the peanut flour & some almond milk until the right consistency.

With some REAL maple syrup for dipping.

They were okay. Kinda dry. And I wish I had my SF syrup to douse them in. Yes, I admit. I like my SF syrup. Partly because it’s not as sickly sweet. Partly because then I can douse my pancakes in syrup without feeling quite as guilty. Hate on the SF stuff or not – but I like it!

Guys – I was still exhaused this morning. Even after waking at 9:30. Even after lazing around all morning. I totally debated on running or not. But I did. And I’m happy I went out!

Distance: 4.72 miles
Time: 44:38
Avg: 9:27

I went down I route I always have trouble with. It’s slightly downhill one way, slightly uphill the way back. In the direct blazing sun. But I felt I kept up a good pace for it!

Note: I don’t stop the watch during my walking breaks. But I do pause it when I need to stop in the shade. Particularly stop with a side cramp. Which I’ve been getting every run.

Quick lunch between showering and work – the rest of my egg white salad with tortilla “chips.”

I simply sprayed a whole wheat tortilla and sprinkled with salt, garlic & pepper. However it never got truly crispy like Flatout wraps do. Those rock for “chip” making.

Plus a handful of these on the way to work:

I actually remembered my camera phone today on my dinner break and managed to snag a picture! Unfortunately it was one of the more boring days – all of the entrees had meat or fish So I stuck with the salad bar:

• Lettuce
• Tomatoes
• Kidney beans
• Black beans
• Sunflower seeds
• Blue cheese (that’s all they have)
• Honey mustard dressing

+ a side of scalloped corn. It looked kinda good. (which I didn’t get a picture of)

(source)

I actually really like how the hospital cafeteria has the nutritional information below most of their food they serve. It kind of helps me order. While I am stoked about getting a free meal every shift, I am worried about eating all the sodium and homecooked type of meals. The nutrition info can help keep me straight.

My hot chocolate goes undocumented literally almost every night, but tonight he (or she?) demanded an appearance.

Resting on my new lap desk.  The lap desk’s name is Lil’ P. I will one day get to the story behind my lap desk’s name. But I’m not sure you want to hear it.

Yes, I know I’m dumb for having my drink right next to my computer. Yes, I know one day it’s likely to spill on the keys, causing a catastrophe and the world to end. And yes, I know since I know that it’ll eventually happen one day, I shouldn’t rest it there.

But do I listen to myself? No.

I now have a plain yogurt freezing in the freezer right now. I’ll let you know how that turns out tomorrow.

First 6 am shift in the morning – let’s do this!

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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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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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Knee Update

I’ve had a few questions regarding how massage therapy is going on my knee.  (You can read about my first knee pain description here, the first MRI results, and the second MRI and second PT diagnosis)

Just to qive a quick background, the physical therapist I saw in December recommended massage therapy to get rid of the scar tissue right below and around my knee. Once I got down here to school, I had a hard time with this. The physical therapist I began to see here at school wasn’t exactly focusing on massage so I began to look for professional deep massage therapists (and more expensive – eep).

As of a couple weeks ago, I had gotten 4 deep massages – all from different therapists. Each one was different, so I kept switching around trying to find one I liked.

#1 – was deep all over my leg, but literally focused 30 seconds on my actual painful spot. All over leg work is quite beneficial for my problem, but I also need significant massage work done on the actual scar tissue to work that out.

#2 – was not nearly as deep as the first. But she focused a bit more on my specific painful spot.

#3 – a shorter massage, so she focused more directly on my painful spot. However she wasn’t deep or strong enough at all.

#4 – this guy was more specifically trained for all-over sports massage for general health. I could see the techniques he used being quite beneficial to work out my kinks and tight muscles if I was currently running a lot.

As you can see, each one had their pros and cons.

The pain definitely began to get a bit better. It no longer throbbed while I was lying or sitting. It would sometimes still bother me if I sat with my legs crossed (in Indian style position), but not all the time.

The question was – Was my pain getting better from the massage? Or was it just not as apparent because I literally had taken off from all activity for 2 months?

Well last Thursday I attempted my first treadmill activity since the beginning of January. Monday I went again (1.5 miles run 2 minutes/walk 1 minute), and Tuesday I did the stairmaster for 20 minutes. (I still have been doing some hip exercises 2-4 times per week)

There was no pain during activity- good sign! But my knee definitely felt stiff and not nearly 100% okay. And there has been slight pain the past couple days.

So what am I trying to say? My knee feels exactly the same as it did before the massage therapy.

So there it is – the progres (or un-progress) that has been going on in my knee’s world. I haven’t been updating on it that often – didn’t want to constantly whine and complain over it!

Moving on…

This morning I warmed up a peach sprinkled with cinnamon in the microwave (to make it gooey and delicious) and topped that over my yogurt mix.

• Plain yogurt
• Kashi Golean cereal
• Micro’d cinnamon peach
• Scoop of Justin’s honey peanut butter

Delicious.

Then I set off for another doctor’s appointment, this time for my ear.

I’ve had a progressive ear infection starting 2 weeks ago. It started out just a bit itchy, which I thought was from swimming. Then the earlobe itself started to itch, and it just got worse and worse. This past weekend, my earlobe was swollen to about half the size of my whole ear! (Sorry if the picture is a bit gross)

Infected ear:

Normal ear:

It was excrutiatingly itchy all around it and inflamed – even behind the ear looked disgusting (I’ll spare you that picture 😉 )

It started to get a bit better on Sunday, and by today it hardly bothers me at all, but is still a bit swollen and dry so I kept my appointment. The nurse just diagnosed my ear with eczema. I’m pretty sure I had an actual infection, but oh well. It’s pretty much gone now, I just wanted to make sure it doesn’t come back in the future if it was from swimming. I just proceeded on my way to class since I was already a bit late.

Mid-day fuel was an iced coffee with soy millk & creamer.

And PB&J on a whole wheat bagel thin (eaten in the middle of class presentations, so no picture).

And snackage at work was a combo of things that in essence became a meal.

Homemade soup with chicken, celery and carrots.

A small bit of salad with Newman’s Own sesame dressing.

And carrots with dip (unpictured. I eat carrots & dip almost everyday, yet for some reason never remember to capture them on film memory card. I’ll have to do that someday before I die).

Din-din was quick and easy stir-fry. I cooked up some frozen veggie medley and asparagus with black bean sauce and soy sauce. Then tossed it with some raisins, slivered almonds, and quinoa I cooked up earlier in the week.

And 2 muggies of lurrrrve throughout the night.

PS: Thank you for all your tips regarding my pan! It’s about halfway clean after the dishwasher detergent soaking, so I’ll definitley try some other tips. I just feel kind of bad soaking it in front of the roommate after she’s already scrubbed it. Don’t want to come off rude

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Jamba Fail

Jamba failed me this morning. When I arrived at 9:30, the oatmeal wasn’t even nearly cooked. At 9:30? Really Jamba? At least they gave me a coupon for a free oatmeal!

Since I was headed to work and without a breakfast, I hopped on over to Starbucks since I had a giftcard.

I have to say though that $1 steel cut oats made with soymilk at Jamba scores a tad higher on my scale than $2.45 instant Starbucks oatmeal.

I used half of each of the dried fruit, mixed nuts & brown sugar packages.

It really never satisfied me at all, and I was hungry/snacky all morning long.

Carrots & hummus.

Glad to know I was “eating right.” Thank you.

Unpictured cookie dough (my weakness).

Leftover roasted broc (topped with the holy of all things tomato ketchup.)

I also really need to stop breaking into the 2-year old’s “potty candy stash.” I’m pretty sure I don’t need treats when I make it to the toilet.

Finally got the kiddos down by 2:00 and broke into lunch.

Amy’s veggie lasagna.

(Please excuse their odd orange kitchen lighting)

After watching I am Legend on one of their movie channels, came the afternoon from hell.

Let’s just say the poor little potty-trainee has had a hard time going #2. Here was the play by play:

“I have to go!!”

Pick her up. Run to the potty.

Sit and scream on potty. “No!! I don’t want to go!!”

Sit a minute more then remove from potty.

Screaming continues. “Hold me!! My bottom hurts!!”

Bloody murder sobbing continues.

Repeat every 15 minutes for the next 2 hours.

And of course, this all happened during dinner time as I was trying to cook food and feed both the kids. Eventually she ate her dinner but only while sitting on my lap. If I set her down, screaming followed.

I managed to squeeze in my very pathetic dinner in the midst of her sitting on my lap and feeding the other baby her dinner.

Kashi Golean & Life cereal. Yup.

But as hard as the afternoon was, I still love the little munchkins of course.  And I just felt so bad for her 😦

I made up for dinner at home with my dessert of frozen bluebs + almond butter (favorite as of late). And some hot cocoa.

I ran out of NuNaturals stevia packets, which I had been using in my cocoa. So I decided to go the drip route.

Definitely not as sweet with the amount I used. And my mouth had some funky coated feeling afterwards. Not sure if if was the stevia though. I’ll have to try it out again.

If you’ve ever nannied/babysat, what has been your worst experience or horror story?

Mine was actually one time when we were in Borders, and the girl (who was 10 at the time) diarrhead in her pants. (Sorry – TMI?) Anyways, it was quite the fun time cleaning that up. And now that I think of it…why do all my jobs seem to involve the bathroom?

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Hips Don’t Lie

This weekend was filled with a bit too much of this:

(Thank you google images)

Way too many of these:

And plenty of fun times 😀

We actually ended up going out both nights (that is a lot for me!) since it was our friend’s birthday on Saturday night (where the 2 pieces of cake and about 6 cookies came in to play). But it was fun 🙂 And exhausting!

Breakfast this morning was a delicious cereal bowl! Filled with

• Strained yogurt
• Kashi U cereal
• Almond butter
• And the ripest honeydew ever!

My mommy would be so proud – I picked a good honeydew 😉 She taught me to feel for the “tackiest” non-smooth surface you can find.  It works!

I then completed

• 20 minutes upper body weights
• 5 minutes abs
• 15 minutes hip exercises

The physical therapist gave me 4 hip exercises to do to strengthen my hips. We started off with easier versions, but progressed to these basic exercises: (ignore my pictures in real clothes – I don’t normally workout in a sweater 😉 haha)

1. One-legged squat (3x 20 reps each side)

As you sink into a one-legged squat, reach forward with your other foot, as if you were about to step forward.

As you rise back, bring your foot all the way up.

And squat again as you reach your leg to the back.

Make sure to focus on:

• Keeping your hips/waistband of your shorts in a straight line – do not let your opposite hip drop
• Keeping your squatting knee in line with you 2nd toe – do not let it roll inward.

2. Power clam – 3x 20 reps on each side. Work up to 2 minutes straight on each side.

Start on your side on your elbow, hips up, knees closed together.

Lift your top leg up into an open “clam” position, with ankles still touching, then kick your leg backwards.

Return to “clam” position, and lower knee back down.

3. Plank leg lift – 3x 10 reps on each side

Start in plank position. Tighten the butt and lift left leg. Lower and repeat with right leg.

4. Hamstring curl – 3x 20 reps each side

Start with one leg lifted backwards, foot twisted so you’re pointing your heel out.

Curl leg up

This one is just to give my hamstring a little work.

So there you have my strength exercises! They are tough and my hips are always shaky/weak after the power clam!

I’ve also been instructed to foam roll my hamstring, IT band, and quads. However I wasn’t instructed on how long to foam roll for. Any experienced foam rollers have reccomendations?

Lunch at school was a turkey wrap (rolled up of course) & carrots.

And an iced SF hazelnut starbies to get me through my afternoon lab 😉

In lab, I muched on these new Protein Cookie Bites I won in a giveaway.

They were okay – but I’ll give a better review on them soon.

And dinner was “pizza”.

• BBQ sauce
• Sauteed zucchini, onions, and mushrooms
• Chopped up chicken meatballs
• Goat cheese
• Whole wheat wrap

I then spent the rest of the evening oggling over this guy

While enjoying 2 of mugs of this:

+ a little more dark chocolate 😉

Anyone else watching The Bachelor? I normally don’t, but my roommate is into it so I’ve watched the last two episodes with her.

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Finals Schminals…

You know it’s finals week when I disappear from blog-world for days at a time.

Other than facebooking studying and working on my 32587395 milion hour long take-home final I’ve been…

Resorting back to the tried and true PB sunbutter & banana toast sandwich thins. But wait, where’s my banana that I put on the fridge the night before to ripen faster?

Guess my roommate thought it was hers 😦 Luckily my other roommate graciously “loaned” me one. Toast just isn’t the same without banana slices!  And I needed extra carbs for the gym 😉

Freezing afterwards (yes – I know you’re all complaining of huge snow storms and coldfronts. But 40’s for central coast California is freeeeezing!!!) I quickly heated up the only soup I had in my cupboard. French onion. It needed more substance, so I plopped a Sunshine Burger garden veggie patty in there. Yes I really did go there and eat this swamp water looking soup.

The combo really wasn’t half bad. And once I added a slice of toasted bread it was quite delicious.

I’ve also been eating lots and lots of yogurt messes.

Tuesday breakfast.

• Yogurt + Chobani blueberry
• Nature’s Path Mesa Sunrise
• TJ’s pumpkin granola
• 1 banana
• Sunbutter

Wednesday breakkie. Pretty much the same as yesterday’s with:

• Blackberries (delicious addition!)
• Kashi Heart to Heart
• Banana bomb muffin

The muffin was probably unneeded, but it held me over quite nicely through both finals and a gym sesh.

I’m not gonna lie when I say that I was craving the exact same thing for lunch that I had for breakfast.

Okay, not the exact same, but close enough. Along with some pumpkin butter, and you’ve got yourself a deal breaker.

All the above yogurt messes contained this granola, which I’ve been obsessed with lately.

It’s from Trader Joe’s – it’s perfect and I love it.  The perfect sweetness with a definite pumpkin spice taste.  It doesn’t have that “traditional” granola taste to it (anyone else know what I’m talking about, or am I just crazy?).  It kind of reminds me of Nature’s Path.

I’ve also found a new obsessoin. Kabocha squash! I roughly followed a recipe I found online, and seasoned my squash with:

• Salt
• Pepper
• Soy sauce
• Cinammon
• Brown sugar
• Cumin

The combo was beyond delicious, and I am officially obsessed with this squash.

Don’t let this picture fool you. I for sure ate half the squash with my dinner, two nights in a row.

Tonight, on the other hand, I tried acorn squash and wasn’t such a fan. Don’t get me wrong – it was good. Just not as good as the kabocha. Bit of advice: don’t eat an entire acorn squash (skin included) in one sitting. My stomach wasn’t happy with me the rest of the night.

Along with sauteed zucchini, onions, peas and fiber gourmet mac & cheese. Fiber overload!!

But the mac & cheese was really quite delicious. It was no Kraft or Annie’s, but for a lower fat, higher fiber version – it wans’t bad tasting! I would, however, prefer if the pasta was whole wheat and not just added fiber to it.

And what’s finals week without a little hot cocoa (x 3 per day to keep warm!)

And delicious snacks? 😉

This would be Alternative Baking Company’s lemon poppyseed cookie. I’ve had these cookies in my cupboard for a while now, and finally decided to put them to the test. Wow. Delicous. I’m not a fan of lemon or poppyseed flavored baked goods, but warmed up the microwave, this was just heaven. My roommate agreed 😉 Chocolate chip review coming tomorrow!

As far as gym seshies go…

Monday was a 4 mile TM run followed by 12 minutes of whittling my middle.

Today I planned to get a treadmill run in as well, but my knee has been extra sore lately. Extremely. I can’t think of anything I did to irritate, but I think it’s been a little extra tender since my hike almost a month ago. And recently they’ve both been really bothering me. Probably on a scale of 6 (with 10 being the worst they’ve ever been), but enough for me to notice while I’m sitting or lying in bed. I could really feel the sore/stiffness while running today, so I kept the run short to 2.7 miles. Better than nothing 🙂

Now I’m home free (from studying that is) and just working on my take-home final.

How has everyone else’s week been (finals or not!).

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Walk the Plank

We all know it’s the first day of December! I was going to start out by singing the “Twelve Days of Christmas”, but I’m pretty sure the 12 days are the days directly prior to Christmas, correct? Or the days after Christmas?

While at home this past week, I got to head to Whole Foods and stock up on some Voskos greek yogurt! I haven’t been able to find a large selection here at school, so I was excited to try out more of this brand.

Breakfast included almost this whole container, Kashi Heart to Heart, Banana bomb muffin with sunbutter, and some pumpkin butter.

This yogurt was pretty good, but right away I noticed it was much more watery than other brands. I noticed that with the honey flavor as well, althought I still loved the honey.

This fueled my gym sesh of 3.75 miles on the dreadmill and 10-minute whittle my middle plank style:

• 3 minute front plank (on elbows)
• 2 x 15 reps of twisting side planks straight arms (1 on each side)
• 2 x 1-minute side planks (on elbows, 1 on each side)
• 2 x 90 second straight arm blanks on bosu ball (1 slight rolling from side to side)
• 2 minute front plank

Phew!

On Tuesdays, I park my car in a parking lot (conveniently located next to the froyo shop)and walk to campus. Today I was hungry, and massively craving froyo afterwards. No matter what I eat beforehand, I’m always starving after workouts, and crave sweets.

I gave in today.

Planned to get a teensy amount, but once I saw that they had cake batter flavor, all good intentions went out the window. Also picture some pre-photo eaten cookie dough on top.

Needless to say, this killed my appetite for lunch, and I ended up snacking all afternoon.

Coffee to warm my bones + some necessary reading they had at work.

Handfulls of frosting vanilla cinnamon pecans. (no joke tasted like frosting)

Please note that my hands are not actually that gross/dry looking. Just the grainyness of my phone camera in bad lighting.

Some unpictured veggie soup. Carrots. And spoonfuls of cottage cheese.

Dinner was eaten in the car on the drive after work since I got off a bit early. But too hungry to wait for home. So sorry for the bad car lighting.

Sunday’s burrito was buy one, get a kids meal free. So I edited a kids burrito to my liking 😉 Chicken, brown rice, black beans, lettuce, pico de gallo in a WW tortilla.

Delicious.

Snacks of the night included an apple.

Popcorn

Pumpkin ice cream (I really just wanted to use my new bowl!)

And hot chocolate x2

So how’s that back on the wagon clean-eating coming along, eh? 😉

I’m also so glad that I got tons not one second of studying done today. Instead I had the Victoria’s Secret fashion show on in the background and occasionally looked up to gape at their thighs smaller than my arm, or the fact that Heidi Klum thinks she still needs to lose 25 pounds. Really?

Camera update: For those of you who hadn’t heard, my poor camera is no more. I scoured the Black Friday ads for good camera deals, and saw a few, but nothing really stood out to me. The camera I decided I wanted wasn’t much cheaper at Fry’s than on Amazon, and with Amazon I save tax money. So I think I’ll be ordering one soon, or perhaps waiting until Christmas? Which I rrrreally don’t want to do. I don’t think I can last another 4 weeks!

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