Week 2, Day 1 & Some Eats

Hey everyone! Happy Sunday! I hope it’s been super relaxing for everyone.

I woke up this morning starving, as per usual. I swear I have the appetite of a sumo wrestler… It can’t be normal. I am obviously still waiting rather impatiently for my protein powder so this morning was another Berry Oatmeal/Bran with 4 egg whites and salsa. You guys must be like “how on earth do you eat that everyday?!” Well I have two answers, it’s delicious and I often don’t mind eating the same thing over and over again if it’s good. I tend not to ever get sick of food. Unless we are talking about back in high school when all my Mom made was baked chicken flavored with absolutely nothing with a side of white rice and frozen peas. Yeah… Gross. I couldn’t eat chicken for like 3 years after that. It almost made me go vegetarian and we all know how much meat I tend to eat. It was really that horrific.

After breakfast I went to the gym and completed the Pull Workout that I have been doing recently. I am thinking about upping the intensity and doing it twice a week now instead of just once. I think my muscles can handle it. So I will probably do it again later on in the week. I’m really loving this program that I created. It’s been challenging, but also super awesome. I think I can feel myself getting stronger as dorky and weird as that sounds. I have noticed a big difference over the past couple of weeks after following it. I have deemed it a success on my part haha. I also completed week 2, day 1 of my Couch to 5k app! This time it was a 5 minute warm up then 90 seconds running, 90 seconds walking, 90 seconds running, 2 minutes walking repeated until you hit the 25 minute marker. Then there was the basic 5 minute cool down. I ran at a 6.5 mph pace, while walking, warming up, and cooling down at a 3.7 mph pace. Overall, I covered 2.3 miles. It felt awesome! I was sweating like a pig though… No surprise there since I have the tendency to sweat like a man. 😉 Super attractive, no? I am planning on doing a vlog sometime this week to talk about my workout routines and training plan in greater depth so be prepared to see my awkward awesome self on camera!

If only I looked this good after "earning my shower..." Sweaty mess people!

I am thinking about doing more vlogs for this channel to spruce things up a bit, since I am sure you all get tired of reading my long, rambling posts on occasion.

After the gym I chugged a scoop of Caramel Toffee Fudge whey protein with water and a couple of handfuls of blueberries and went to the grocery store to pick up a few things for this week. My roommate and I are heading to Pennsylvania at the end of this week so I didn’t end up needing that much. But I am really excited to try some of the new Tone It Up recipes that were released with the last update. I can’t wait to share them with you!

Once I was done grocery shopping I came home to make a quick and healthy taco salad. I cooked the ground turkey with some garlic powder, chili powder, cayenne pepper, cumin, paprika, ground mustard, and Worcestershire sauce and put it on top of baby spinach, red bell pepper, cucumber, tomatoes, salsa, and a little reduced fat cheese. 🙂 It was delicious! However, I was still hungry about an hour later and pounded a huge bowl of Uncle Sam Cereal, Chocolate O’s, and some almond coconut milk. Hungry hippo over here today!

I’m having the last of my leftovers for dinner tonight since I need to finish this paper. Sorry nothing fancy has come from this week food wise, I have been super busy trying to cram a lot of things in for school so I have time to travel on the weekends. I am heading to Martha’s Vineyard in two weeks to get another job and have a seafood feast! I am so stoked I can’t even tell you!!!

And with that I am signing off for the night since I still have 5 pages left of this torturous 20 page term paper on ketamine. Seriously, how much can you say about one drug. I feel like I am being incredibly repetitive. Who wants to be a neuroscience major after reading my blog? Anyone? No takers… I don’t blame you.

 

Week 1, Day 3 & Quick and Dirty Shoulders

Happy FRIDAY! Ahh, I love Fridays. Other than the fact that I normally procrastinate on Thursday, so I end up having to do some work on Friday. Oh well… I am a creature of habit. 😉

This morning I started off my day bright and early so I could hit the gym early. I was going to eat a pumpkin powercake… Trying a new recipe this time since my roommate and I bombed the last one. Um… It still stunk. I threw it away, which is a complete waste of a cup of egg whites. Alas, I move on. So instead, I had my usual 1/4 cup rolled oats with 1/4 cup oat bran. And combined it with homemade honey cinnamon peanut butter, sliced banana, chia seeds, wheat germ, and ground flax. On the side the usual 4 egg whites and salsa. 🙂 I can’t get enough of oatmeal and eggs while my protein is still en route to my apartment. I need a protein pancake in my life soon! I’m sure you all would like another visual as well haha.

So after brekkie, I got changed real quick and ran out the door to get to the gym before it gets busy around lunch time. Seriously, there is something weird about Friday where it starts getting super busy earlier in the day and I wonder why most people aren’t working. Maybe they are squeezing it in on their lunch break so they can go out and have fun later? That’s a great idea in my book. 😉 My workout consisted of a quick and dirty shoulder workout and week 1 day 3 of my Couch to 5k app! I covered 2.25 miles in 30 minutes. I know that it’s not fast, but we all know my aversion to running. So pushing myself outside of my comfort zone is me taking baby steps so I don’t go back to hating running haha. I really enjoyed my run today though! Alternating again at 3.7 mph and 6.5 mph on the walking and running intervals.

Quick and Dirty Shoulders

Arnold Should Press 3×15
Lateral Raises into Front Raises 3×12
Upright Rows 3×12
Mac Raises 3×12
Ryan’s Awesome Shoulder Move 3×12

That’s all I did at the gym! Later on today I am doing the Itty Bitty Bikini workout I posted and Beach Bum!

You know I have your back in convenient workouts! 😉 Catch up with you guys in a little bit to show you some of my daily eats. Nothing exciting happening this weekend other than me locking myself in my apartment by myself until I finish this term paper on Ketamine. Sounds like a blast right?

WIAW #6, Week 1 Day 2

Happy Wednesday!

First I thought I would update you on my workout yesterday then get into the food. 🙂 These are always my favorite posts to write because I think they hold me accountable. However, yesterday was my cheat day haha. So you get to see a deliciously unhealthy meal for dinner and dessert. 😉

Yesterday I completed Week 1, Day 2 of the Couch to 5k program I am using. I have to admit, I love this program. It’s really nice and simple. Tells you when to run or walk so I can zone out. But what I love the most is that it eases you into running. I have yet to feel overwhelmed or anything. I am actually starting to enjoy running, which is something I never thought I would say. My roommate and I are already thinking about running some races this summer. Just 5k’s for fun. It’s good to experience what a race really feels like, I think. For weights yesterday, since we did a two a day, I completed the Legs workout from this day. My legs were on fire! I loved it.

Shall we move on to the food? 😉

Breakfast

I started off my day with a protein pancake since I had to sit in class for almost two hours at 8 am. It is never my fine moment in the morning during that class haha. So I made a peanut butter protein pancake, topped it with the leftover honey cinnamon peanut butter, the rest of the sliced banana plus another banana, and some chia seeds. It was delicious. Plus, it filled me up until my amazing morning snack!

Mid Morning Munch

I haven’t had granola in far too long, so I introduced that back into my day with a small yogurt bowl. 🙂 I combined some plain Oikos Greek yogurt with sliced strawberries and Love Grown Foods Sweet Cranberry Pecan granola. Heaven! I love that granola so much. 🙂 I am going to attempt to make homemade chocolate granola soon, since I miss that granola that they sent me. If I can’t recreate it then I am just going to buy more haha.

Lunch

My roommate finally came back in time for lunch so we made two big salad beasts topped with chicken. Underneath the chicken was spinach, edamame, red bell pepper, grape tomatoes, and cucumbers. We topped our salads with balsamic vinegar, evoo, and some minced garlic. I also added some garlic gold to mine for a little extra garlicky crunch.

Mid Afternoon Snack

Before the gym we had a bowl of Cascadian Farms Chocolate O’s combined with Uncle Sam’s original with some unsweetened vanilla almond milk. It was delicious. Then we shared a Peanut Butter Pretzel Luna Bar before we hit the weight room. Overall, not such a balanced meal haha. It kind of looks like we were carb loading for no reason whatsoever.

Dinner

Welcome to where my cheat meal begins and ends! My roommate and I shared a small buffalo chicken calzone from the amazing pizza place down the street from our apartment. Seriously, those calzones are so good and we figured we needed to have one more before I graduate and we move to Massachusetts.

Before Dinner Dessert

Yes, this is out of order haha. But this is probably the order we should have eaten them in, but I am a believer in never denying yourself what you truly want first. So we had Shain’s of Maine Cookie Dough Ice Cream. This ice cream is literally the best ice cream I have ever had in my entire life. Plus, I think you can only find it in New Hampshire and Maine. She’s never had it so I told her it was an absolute must with the warm weather around the corner. This ice cream is basically a combo of the best cookie dough you have ever had with a side of the best vanilla ice cream you have ever had. I was building it up from the start, but trust me it’s the kind of thing that will never disappoint. She loved it! I recommend if you ever find  yourself in this area you get the Cookie Dough or the Mint Oreo. Two of the best ice cream flavors on the planet from this company.

So that’s my WIAW cheat day! Not a lot of greens, but my salad beast made up for it, right? 😉 I hope everyone has a good Wednesday! Workout post still to come! I am pretending to be my roommates personal trainer today since she missed Monday’s Push Workout and today is my rest day. 🙂

 

Week 1, Day 1

Hello again! I wanted to update you guys on what I did at the gym today along with a some yummy pictures of food haha. I figured this would be a good time to blog while 8,000 pages of neuroscience articles print out for my three papers due in the next couple weeks. 😉

So today at the gym I did the Push workout that I have been doing for the past three weeks. I can’t believe it’s already been three weeks on this plan. It’s still making me work hard and still leaving me sore. My body is definitely being pushed to the limit with this one, guys! I am doing the legs part of that post tomorrow. But onto the half marathon training that I am starting. Like I said I decided to break it up into smaller parts since I am basically a beginner at this. Most of the cardio I tend to gravitate towards is HIIT based and not steady state cardio, so this is going to be a challenge from the start. I decided I needed something gradual to start off with that wouldn’t make me feel overwhelmed or defeated and definitely something that kept me interested.

See I get bored easily. 😉

So I downloaded the Couch to 5k app I have heard so many people talk about. Most of the people I have heard talk about it say really good things and are now running half marathons themselves so I figured it was the perfect spring board. 🙂 It had me do a 5 minute warm up, then intervals of jogging for 45 seconds, walking for 90 seconds, jogging for 45 seconds, walking for 60 seconds and repeating that for 20 minutes. Then I did a 5 minute cool down. It felt good to sweat a little bit. Towards the end it was a little harder, but I wasn’t super challenged. Normally that would piss me off, but with running I am such a wimp. I need things to be super easy to start so that I learn to enjoy it, then when the hard part sets in I am more apt to stick with it. The complete opposite of how I train with weights. I go balls to the walls 24/7 with those weights haha. I ended up covering around 2.25 miles in 30 minutes. Not too shabby for the first attempt. I am doing day 2 tomorrow so you will get even more updates from me.

Let’s move on to the fun part. FOOD. 🙂

Lunch

So I wanted to make a sandwich today, which I did. But I couldn’t tell whether the white stuff on the bread was mold or flour? I ate it anyways after toasting it haha, so I hope it was just flour. They were the last two pieces of bread in the bag, so things aren’t looking too good on that front. This is what happens when you buy fresh bread, eat it fast or it’s going to go all mold city on you. So now that I have completely grossed you out by my lack of care in the mold department let me tell you what was actually on this sandwich, btw the bread tasted fine! 😉 2 slices of fresh low carb whole wheat bread, 2 slices of low sodium deli turkey, handful of spinach, slice of Sargento natural cheese blend in mozzarella and cheddar, and some dijon mustard. I had a ton of grape tomatoes on the side as well. 🙂

Dinner

SALAD BEAST! This one was huge. I came home from the gym about ready to eat my own hand. So I ate like half a container of strawberries and half a container of tomatoes while I waited for my bison to cook on the grill. I put that on top of a giant bed of spinach, tomatoes, red bell peppers, cucumbers, and edamame. Then I topped the whole thing with some evoo, balsamic vinegar, and garlic. Delicious and I was super full… For all of about an hour since now I am wicked hungry again. This means I must go stuff my face full of more pumpkin protein bars. I gotta eat them before they go bad, right? This wouldn’t be a problem if my roommate was home since we pound through these bars, but alone 24 is a daunting task. I am up for it though. 😉

I hope everyone has a great night! Relax for me, since I will be reading neuroscience papers till I die!!! Is it May 19th yet?! (My graduation date)

Half Marathon Training Part 2

So I decided I am going to talk about this opportunity as soon as possible on my blog to hold myself accountable for actually training for this race. Over the winter, I stopped in January, I was training for the Nike Women’s Half Marathon in San Francisco. I ended up going on vacation and never getting back to it especially after the people I wanted to do it with didn’t seem to think San Francisco was really doable money wise. I completely agreed and decided to just focus on weight training. This is exactly what I have been doing for the past few months. I am no longer able to run 5 miles straight, but I can now do one rep on a leg press at 500 pounds haha. However, on Twitter today I saw that Nike posted something. THE NIKE WOMENS HALF MARATHON IS COMING TO DC IN SPRING 2013. Hello! DC is such a doable place for me since by then my roommate and I are hoping to live near the VA, NC, SC area. That’s completely doable and affordable. You know what this means?! I am back to training for a half marathon. However, I am breaking it up this time and training for a 5k first so I don’t become overwhelmed. Then I will move on to 10k training once that becomes possible and then I will be in good shape to continue to train for the half marathon when it arrives in a year. Now obviously there is no guarantee that I will even be picked in the raffle for this race, but I am willing to train and try. If all else fails, I’ll do the Disney half! Always fun as well. 🙂

Be prepared for vlogs, updates, and overwhelming gripes from my lack of running skill. I cannot wait to share this journey with you. I will still be signing up for CrossFit still and still weight training, but I am going to start making the training and focused part of my workout schedule. 🙂

Shocking from this lifting junkie, right?