Back At It

Ahhh its back to the books!

I’m actually really loving my classes so far! I’m super interested in them and I’m very motivated to really learn.

Workout

This quarter I am taking a Rock Climbing class once a week. I usually take two PE classes, one cardio and another strength, but I’m going to try to save a bit of money and only take one. Instead I’m doing the “punch card system” at our Rec center. It offers a whole bunch of classes like zumba, cycling, yoga and aerobic kickboxing. I bought an unlimited punch card (ironic, right?) so I’ll be doing a lot of classes.

Yesterday I did a bit of zumba. I LOVE this class. The instructor is so kind and the dances we do are a ton of fun. We do both latin music and pop music.

Afterwards, to replenish my electrolytes I sipped on a coconut water.

Zico is my favorite brand. I usually only do the original but the pomberry is the best of the flavors. I love how I feel a lot less shaky after a workout when I get some coconut water in me.

Cookbook Review

I recently got The Food Matter Cook Book for Christmas. I have tried a few recipes and have found that I absolutely love it.

Mark Bittman, the author, and I have a lot of similarities in the idea of what we should eat. Simple, whole foods and though you don’t have to go vegetarian, treating meat as a side dish instead of the main meal.

I also really like how Bittman is loose about the recipes. He gives many variations and encourages you to experiment with substitutions! I love that, because it’s how I cook. He gives a simple whole wheat pumpkin bread, but also says how you can introduce dried fruits and different spices into the bread.

At the same time, the book also teaches while you cook. What spices go well together, why you do certain things to prepare the food and why the food is so healthy for you is a few things it touches on.

I highly recommend this book to any foodie.

Do you have any pre or post workout musts? On a sweaty workout I need coconut water, and I defintiely prefer to have a banana pre workout.

First Day of Peace

Now that I’m done with my final architecture studio project, what does  a deprived, young architecture student do on her first day of peace?

Well it started off with this:

Almond butter and bananas on toasted millet bread

and a fruit bowl

while getting caught up on this:

my google reader

which gave me fuel and the ability to check off a few items off of this:

(I start off with the more fun stuff obviously)

Afterwards I gave myself a well deserved break and watched some of this:

(source)

and some of this too:

(source)

Which was obviously very tiring and I needed some of this

a homemade frappachino

And resumed my tireless work and read some of this:

Very, very serious reading.

And now I’m off to this

(source)

See you later for a special post!

What do you do on your days off?

Dessert of Champions

Hey bloggies! I hope everyone is having a wonderful Hump day!

Breakfast

Our weather is still soppy and wet so I was craving a big bowl of oatmeal. I actually dreamed of eating PB&J oatmeal last night!

I didn’t resist this craving, but topped the bowl with almond butter instead. I’m trying to get through specifically this jar because 1. I had been neglecting it and 2. I don’t want to have to move 4 jars of nut butter, 3 would be much better

In the mix:

• 1/2 c. oats
• 1/2 c. almond milk
• 1/2 c. water
• 1 T goji berries
• 1 T raisins
• 1 T flaxseed meal
• 1 T chia seeds

Topped with:

• Almond butter
• Crofter’s Raspberry fruit spread
• So Delicious Coconut Milk Creamer

I noticed I had a can a coconut milk sitting in the pantry. Since I’m trying to use everything up I went for it a recreated the breakfast the nutritionist made me at camp.

A naner, covered with coconut milk with cinnamon sprinkled on top. It still brings me back to cool, summer mornings

Snack

I packed myself another bowl of microwaved green apple with cinnamon on top and soon-to-be crushed Annie’s Cinnamon Crackers

There was some serious whining going on in the studio when I warmed this up and the aroma filled the air. Everyone wanted a bite of it! I’m not a huge fan of sharing my food, especially with people who tend to get sick a lot (ahem, architecture majors pulling all nighters), so I just lied and said I’m sick so I wouldn’t get their germs. Am I a bad person?

Lunch

I was super-duper excited to go to Holy Cow today. I was trying to decide between the salad bar and the pad thai. I wanted veggies but I wanted food to warm me up. I went with a new dish of theirs called the Veggie Volcano.

I can’t remember exactly what was in it but it was steamed veggies on a bed of quinoa with a pesto sauce and a lentil sauce on top. It was absolutely perfect! I got my veggies and carbs in and it warmed my soul

Dinner

After being at studio for 9 hours total today I was so excited to head back to the apartment for a little bit and make some dinner.

A Southwest inspired wrap and leftover salad

Into the wrap went:

• cheesy rice
• spring mix
• red, yellow and orange bell pepper
• salsa

Wrapped with care.

The Dessert of Champions

This didn’t quite satisfy me. I was craving chocolate but I was out of chocolate bars or ice cream, so I went with an old favorite.

Organic strawberries topped with MaraNatha Dark Chocolate PB.

That right there folks is the Dessert of Champions. Amazing and almost guilt free

Workout

As I mentioned before, it’s going to be difficult to get work outs in this week because I am working on my final review. I noticed that after working for 7-8 hours on Monday and Tuesday that my legs were really sore. So today I decided to stand at my desk (they’re pretty high, so I’m actually not bending over) for about half the time instead of sitting. We pumped some music, so I ended up dancing a bit as I worked. In effect, I didn’t had any leg problems today. I also went to Zumba (which was a sweat session!) and rock climbed today, so I got some cardio and strength there as well.

How do you manage getting your workouts in on incredibly busy weeks? Or if you have a desk job, do you try to do little exercises while at your desk?

Two-a-Days

Yesterday I enjoyed a zumba two-a-day. In my first class my teacher is pregnant, so she doesn’t have the spunk she used to used to have and all of the moves have really slowed down (not her fault obviously), but it’s not really a work out anymore. I’ve been getting a little frustrated at this so I went to another class a little bit later with a different teacher. It was a lot more modern and pop than my other zumba class (we even danced to Lady Gaga AND Ke$ha), and boy was I a sweat monster after that class! I later went rock climbing for 2 hours. No overhangs today, but lots of bouldering!

Dinner

Before heading to my awesome work outs I fueled up with some INDIAN FOOD!

It started off with TJ’s Punjab Choley and I threw in some naan and brown rice. I fed it into my giraffe bowl because giraffe’s like Indian right?

Giraffe’s absolutely engulf Indian food

Omigoodness this thing was yummy. I’ve never had naan before and I was absolutely spectacular!!!

Though I was really full, I still wanted dessert. I’m trying to clean out my fridge before moving out, so I went with So Delicious Coconut Milk Chocolate Chip Ice Cream that I’ve had in there for a while with a chopped strawberry and a sprinkle of mesquite.

It didn’t last long

I hope all of you bloggies have a fantastic day! I’ll be back later with a wonderful breakfast.

Do any of you participate in Zumba? What has been your experience with it? I’ve had both good and bad instructers. Usually when there are people that get REALLY into it, it becomes a whole lot of fun.

Too Much Downward Dog

Whew! I am one sore bloggy! I think there was too much downward dog!

I woke up feeling great, then as the day went on the soreness crept on in. But I had some Zumba to work it all out

Today’s breakfast was inspired by Tyler’s use of Coconut Milk Creamer.

I absolutely couldn’t resist. Only 10 calories per tablespoon and $2.38. Essentially my dream of a product.

My oats started off like this:

2 packets of instant oatmeal

about 3 T of THE MIX

and ended up like this:

topped with about 2 T of Coconut Milk Creamer and 1 T Coconut flakes.

I used Instant Oatmeal this time as apart of my Eat It, Not Buy It goal.

I still have a few packets of Instant left, but after that I will be switching to old fashioned forever

A banana covered in maca, cinnamon and mesquite also joined the party:

Okay, so I went a little overzealous with the mesquite. What can I say, I’m in love with the stuff

I was starving for some lunch, but unfortunately I had to wait for the turkey to de-thaw a little so I had a ridiculously burnt sandwich thin with PB&J on top.

I may have taken a bite to see if the bread was still edible. It most definitely was! I usually am not patient enough to let it toast enough, but I’m glad I got too caught up with my emails this time.

Finally I was able to cut away some turkey from the big block of ice, uh, turkey and made some Chicken Turkey BBQ Salad

Definitely still my favorite home-made salad.

Afterwards it was some time for some Zumba! We learned Jai Ho today! OMG OMG OMG favorite dance ever! I was hoping we would do that song, and the dance our instructor has is just phenomenal. Seriously, she is after my heart <3

I’m doing a bunch of sorority things tonight, including eating dinner there tonight (burger bar, burger bar, burger bar!)

I may not be able to post after it, but I’ll try to get some super sneaky shots of dinner. I feel its important how I eat when presented with mucho options of unhealthy food.

What is your best tip for eating when you have mostly unhealthy options?

Mine is eating in moderation! I usually eat a healthy snack before hand, fill my plate up with at least 1/2 veggies or brown rice if available, and savor each bite of the unhealthy stuff.

Sandwiches and Sports Injuries

How is everyone’s Monday going?!

It’s fairly sunny and warm-ish here so I’m a happy girl…for a Monday at least!

I feel bad that I have to rely on phone pics today. I put my camera battery on the charger last night, but it didn’t actually charge. It’s so frustrating

Breakfast was a two egg-white sandwich with hot sauce and 1/3 of original Laughing Cow cheese. As well as 1/2 a mango, 1/2 a banana and 2 strawberries with a dollop of Chobani greek yogurt on top.

I had already taken a bite into the egg sandwich before I remember that I could use my phone!

Skip ahead to lunch and my friend treated me to lunch on campus.

I had a gigantic sandwich! It had turkey, provolone cheese, dijon mustard, jalepenos, onion, pickles, lettuce, green bell pepper and tomatoes on a 8 multigrain whole grain bread.

It was huge! But SOOO good and filling I think I’m going to need to recreate this stat!

I had my Zumba class soon after which I really worked up a sweat. I was getting super worried how the first two classes made me really sweat, however the past couple of classes haven’t at all! Today was definitely different. I gave it my all, especially with Lady Gaga

My knee has been acting up lately. I’m nervous about doing any kind of workout, especially Zumba where there is a lot of jumping up and down. I had a really interesting read about a doctor’s take on sports injuries and how they treat themselves. Being the daughter of a doctor’s kid I’ve had a lot of “take a pill and tough it out.” I feel like I’m not getting any better by doing that. All of my life I have been plagued by injuries that just add up.

What has been your take on injuries? Do you ice, rest and recover or take a pain killer and wait till it goes away? What did you think of the article?

I’m eating dinner at my sorority tonight, and I’ll try to sneak a picture on my phone so you can see how I eat when I’m there.

Some Serious Salad Luuuurve

I’m going to start of this post by getting a little bit personal.

I started eating healthy, because I got super sick from all of the unhealthy food I had been eating Fall of this year. You can read more about it on my About Me page. And this came with some “benefits” such as getting slimmer and toning up. However, I feel like I have gotten too slim. I’ve started to feel very weak after doing my normal exercising and have had overall less energy. My weight is currently lower than my usual range of 126-133 and this is with the considerable muscle my body has toned.

I’m going to take this weekend to try to rest my body as well as up how much food I usually eat. I eat meals at relatively scheduled times, and snack when I’m hungry or lightheaded (usually the lightheaded comes first and if I don’t get food into my system with in 10 minutes my stomach will start to growl). My parents, who are doctors, aren’t worried about the situation. However I feel like something is really wrong, are there any other suggestions as to what I should do?

So, back onto today’s scheduled program:

Breakfast was Ashlei’s Banana Split Oats that I had the other day.

In the mix:

1/2 c. water

1/2 c. almond milk

1/2 c. old-fashioned oats

1/2 T chia seeds

1 tsp mesquite

1 banana

vegan coconut oatmeal cookie crumbles.

I didn’t taste as great today and later on I realized was that I forgot the cinnamon. Doh!

I got just a bit snacky 3 hours later and ate and unpictured Raw Revolution bar that I got at the grocery store yesterday. It was chocolate chip cookie dough. When biting to it at first it tasted a bit funky, then really started to enjoy it as I ate it. A few minutes later I got a little bit of a funky after taste though Overall I liked it, but maybe not quite up to the level of the Larabar.

I was super excited to come home for lunch for my new creation: BBQ Chicken Salad

1/2 of an avacado

1/3 of a tomato

1/4 c. red bell pepper

Salad mix of your choice

High quality ranch dressing

1/4 c mushrooms

1/4 c chicken breast

salt and pepper

1 tsp olive oil

1 T high-quality BBQ sause

1. Chop up avacado, tomato and bell pepper and add to salad mix of your choice. Add dressing

1. Sautee the mushrooms until you can smell the aroma. Put in salad mix

2. Chop the chicken until into bite-sized pieces. Grill the pieces until no longer pink in the middle. Season with S & P to taste. Take off heat and mix in olive oil and BBQ sauce until thoroughly  mixed in. Pour on top of salad mix and enjoy!

I’m in some serious salad luuuuurve! Too bad I dropped the rest of the chicken on the gross kitchen floor! Ugh, so I won’t be making this till next week when I get some more

My sweet tooth was calling so I nibbled on some Green & Blacks dark mint chocolate bar

I was really excited for Zumba class today! I love my teacher! She’s super enthusiastic and mixes latin songs with pop songs, including Lady Gaga!!! I love it, love it, love it!

I came out of zumba and it was magically sunny. Whoa, sun? I ran inside, grabbed my psychology book and notebook and did my reading outside.

Helloooo pretty little flower

So glorious. My cheeks are actually pink right now!

My stomach did some rumbling, so in line with my goal of eating more, I snacked on half of a Chobani pineapple yogurt mixed with some strawberries.

All mixed up now

Yummmmm

I’m off to make some dinner that I’m super excited about!!! I will post later tonight about it, I promise

Hope all of my Northwesters enjoy the sun before its gone

Question of the Day: What is your favorite salad mix? I’m thinking this BBQ Chicken one is at the top of my list

I <3 cookies and oats

G’day bloggies! I hope waking up from this fabulous weekend wasn’t too hard.

After a rough night (some sleep walking went down) I was excited to make some oats!

Specifically, I was inspired by Ashlei’s Banana Split Chia Oats

In the mix:

1/2 c. old fashion oatmeal

1/2 c. almond milk

1/2 c. water

1/2 T chia seeds

1/2 a sliced banana

sprinkled with cinnamon

and crumbles my vegan coconut oatmeal cookie from yesterday

Gone in a flash.

Lunch

Lunch was simple. I really enjoyed the tingly-ness I get from my smoothie, so I made a small bright green smoothie and finished off my leftover pasta

1/4 c. almond milk

1/2 c. water

3 huge handfuls spinach

1/2 c. pineapple

sprinkle of ginger

(and I forgot the flax seed)

The ginger added an interesting taste. It was different, not bad at all.

the pasta was perfect on such a cold day.

I’m excited for Zumba later today with one of my good friends

Dinner is going to be at my sorority tonight. For now I’m not going to photograph that, it seems just slightly strange to photograph that in a group of 150+ girls.

Anyone else have sleep walking troubles? Where is the strangest place you’ve ended up?

I was on a cruise ship and I ended up on the other side of the ship with my bed sheets in hand.