This Week's Food!

Happy Monday! Okay, okay, that's a bit of an oxymoron. I hope you all are having a good start to the week! 


This morning, according to my weekly workout schedule, I had a 3 mile run plus strength training! I jogged to the gym and got going on the treadmill! I switched back and forth between 7.0 and 8.0 every half mile and ended up running 3 miles in 24:38, which is an 8:12 min/mile pace. Again, always faster on the treadmill! After running, I spent another 30 minutes doing some ab work and then upper body weights. I finished off with 10 minutes on the elliptical.


Once I got back from my workout, I showered and headed to the kitchen, because I was starving! While I thought over my options, I ate a fig with a bit of Greek yogurt... And then I decided to make myself a Berry Protein Smoothie! The smoothie's sweetness hit the spot, and it was perfect for one of our last hot days of the year! 

Since I eat at least 3 lunches and 2 dinners at school every week, I have to plan ahead and make them all on Sunday! For lunch this week, I decided to try Kath's Tuna Salad Recipe from Kath Eats Real Food!


I tripled her ingredients so it would work for three lunches, and used low fat Greek yogurt:


Mix together:

• 9 oz of pink salmon (or tuna)
• 3 tsp curry powder
• 3 tbsp low fat plain Greek yogurt
• 3 tsp dijon mustard
• 3 large celery stalks, diced
• 3 large carrots, diced

In addition to the "Tuna" (aka salmon) Salad, I made Smoke Salmon Omelet Muffins, also by Kath! I made these true to the recipe, except I didn't have any parmesan cheese so I didn't add that in... obviously.

I also used chia seeds instead of flax since I didn't have any flax... winning. 

  

They smelled so good!!!

So here's my lunch for Monday, and an example of what I'll also bring Wednesday and Thursday:

For Monday, I have to stay at school until 7:30 and then I don't get home until 8:30, so I bring "dinner" to eat during my last class. Last week, my teacher called on me while I was eating my Wheatberry Navy Salad, and said he was so sorry to interrupt my dinner. Got it, Professor. Less obvious food. 

So for dinner this week, I packed a PB&J sandwich (with blackberry jam!), sliced apples, and some multi-grain Trader Joe's O's. I also planned to buy a small salad and some yogurt for an afternoon snack from the cafeteria. I like having a little bit of flexibility when I'm bringing an entire day of food - I hate eating only what I pack if I'm not in the mood for it. 

How do you deal with packing meals for the day? Does anyone have to pack two meals, or just lunch? Any good ideas for what to bring? Remember, I've got to be sure to incorporate proteins, carbs and healthy fats! 


Update on the Hermit Crabs: molting crab is still alive! I saw him moving this morning. He immediately hid in his shell when I walked past... I don't think they like me. Names to come soon - keep the Harry Potter name suggestions coming! P.S. whoever named their cat Luna - I laughed out loud at that one. Great name. 

Late Night Baking!

When I got home from class last night (around 8:30... not exactly "late night" but late for me to get home) I decided to make something I'd been dying to try: A Single-Lady Cupcake from Chocolate Covered Katie! I love that she features several baked recipes for just one person, I never make baked goods because then I'm stuck with the whole batch! That can be dangerous...

I used the recipe she has posted on her site, however I didn't have any applesauce. So I thought to myself, what else could I use? A Peach! Haha, I'm crazy, I know. I took some peach (without the skin) and microwaved it and mashed it up. Same thing as applesauce, right? I also added a little cinnamon to the mix because I thought it would go well with the peach!

Everything mixed together! 

Final Product! 

Turns out, the peach worked pretty well! It tasted good, although next time I'll use the oven method and not the microwave method. I think that will give it a fluffier texture. This was almost rubbery on the outside. That also could have been due to my "peach method"...

yes, I broke it open with a spoon... It was still steaming!

This morning I had a 3-mile run on my workout schedule, so I was up early and out the door! It was such a gorgeous morning for a run!

I love getting up early to run here in Chicago because I can watch the sunrise over the lake! I ran 3 miles at an 8:43 min/mile pace. However, I'm about to kill my phone. I've realized that mapmyrun isn't the issue... It's that my phone is old and is having GPS issues. I walked around my street for about 6 min trying to get it to "find" me! It was really frustrating! 

After my run I came home to stretch and then headed to a hot yoga class. I love going to yoga after I run because it calms me down and stretches me out! It's really relaxing and I feel great when I leave! And let me tell you, I sure need to relax today. I have an interview this afternoon for a summer job! Yes, in law school you start your summer job search the summer before... It's ridiculous. Anyway, I have a few interviews coming up but this is the first one and I'm nervous! Time to go make myself a smoothie, prepare for the interview and read for class! 

Have you ever tried hot yoga? Or just normal yoga? I used to not like it because I would giggle the whole time! Good thing I grew up... sorta. 

In a Funk

Last night’s recap:

Yesterday I had planned on going to Power Sculpt at Core Power Yoga, but I was just not feeling it. I needed a break from the yoga studio so I headed to the gym to do one of my cardio/strength training workouts. What I do is 10 min cardio, 15 min of strength training, 10 min of cardio (to keep my heart rate up), 15 min of strength training, and then end with a final 10 min of cardio. Usually for strength training I'll do all leg or all upper body, but today I decided to mix it up and do both. I also tend to get really into the strength training part, so I usually go over the 15 min... but I try not to! I've got to learn to cut down my workouts for the school year when I don't have enough time!

I finished up my workout with stretching and a couple ab exercises and headed home to have a berry protein smoothie!

1/2 cup almond milk

1/2 frozen banana

1 cup Trader Joe's organic frozen mixed berries

2 cups spinach

1 scoop protein powder

1 tbl flax

and then I topped it off with the last bit of shredded coconut I had and ate it with some Trader Joe's Bran Flake Cereal. Delicious!

So today, according to my schedule from Hal Higdon, I was supposed to run 2.5 miles, however, I decided to just round it out to an even 3 miles. I woke up this morning with ZERO desire to run, but I knew I just had to throw on my shoes and get out there. When I finished my run, I looked at my iPhone app, iMapMyRun, and saw that my pace was 9:12 min/mile and I can’t say I was elated. On Sunday I had run 3 miles at a 8:41 min/mile pace, so today’s run felt like a disappointment. It’s true that I wasn’t feeling it, I took a new route that slowed me down with stop lights and turning a lot of corners, but those all sound like excuses to me.

I should be proud of myself for getting up this morning and running 3 miles in under 28 min when I only started running again ONE WEEK ago! But I’m not! Does anyone else put themselves down like this? I’ve realized it’s definitely a problem that I have. When I do something good, I’m not proud of it, and when I do something not as good, I beat myself up.

I wanted to post about this today because, for one thing, I wanted to show you all that no one is perfect! I may come across as a girl who’s got it all together, but I don’t! We all have things we need to work on in our lives and being proud of myself is something that I need to work on.

I’ve also been in a bit of a funk these past couple days, which isn’t helping. I think it’s the anxiety of everything in my life changing! I ended my internship, I’m going home for a week and then I’m starting a new year of law school. It’s all very overwhelming and leaving me feeling anxious! To turn my morning around, I’ve decided to take a note out of Gretchen Rubin’s book The Happiness Project and “Act the way I want to feel”. If I want to feel proud of myself and excited for what’s to come then I need to ACT that way! It’s similar to the mantra we’ve all heard: “fake it ‘till you make it”.

So now I’m going to pack up my stuff and head off to my Hot Power Fusion yoga class. Wish me luck!!!