Just a Little Bit Different

Hello there! How is everyone doing? Honestly, I'm not so good. Every time I've eaten something today, I've gotten a horrible pain in my stomach and nausea! It's not pleasant. It started out with my breakfast, which was delicious, but not so much so about 20 minutes later... 

I started out my day with a 2 mile run on the treadmill (pace: 9:00 min/mile) and then a workout with my trainer! When I got back I showered, started laundry, and made a smoothie! In the mix: 1 fresh peach, 1/2 frozen banana, a couple stray frozen strawberries, 1/2 cup almond milk, 2 cups spinach, 1 tbsp flax, 1 packet of truvia, 1 scoop protein power and 1/4 tsp coconut extract. 

So far I've tried eating some ginger Cat Cookies (didn't work) and some yogurt with blueberries and honey... again, painful. My biggest worry is that I have my KD Alumni dinner tonight! I don't want to sit there in pain! 

So now that I've griped out my stomach issues enough for one day, I actually had some interesting thoughts sparked by my workout this morning with my trainer. We've been getting to know each other a bit and she mentioned today that she doesn't drink much and not really into "going out" anymore. This started a conversation about how we both prefer feeling healthy and not spending all day hungover, over going out and drinking on the weekends. It was so nice to finally talk to someone who had the same perspective that I do! 

This conversation got me thinking on my walk home: that it's okay to be a little bit different. One thing that I've struggled with here in Chicago is making friends, and a big part of that is I don't like heading out at 10pm and drinking until 3 or 4 am. That seems to be everyone's plans on the weekend and I found myself passing on invitations more and more frequently as 1L year went on. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a serious night out for a special occasion and with the right people, just not all the time. I found that I couldn't focus on any school work the whole next day after going out - and I basically would feel like crap! (HOW did I do this in college??)

I jokingly refer to myself as a self-proclaimed grandma, early to bed and early to rise. Although I try and make it funny, I often feel bad or guilty that I'm not like everyone else. Mostly that I'm not "embracing my youth." People have told me to just go "out of my box" and push myself to go out with people even if I don't want to. I tried doing this for a while, and I just didn't enjoy it. Then when I stopped going out I felt bad about myself, the whole predicament gave me anxiety: either go out and be unhappy, or stay in doing what I like to do and feel guilty.

Source

Then I found blogs. I started reading about other people who put having a healthy lifestyle and their fitness at the top of their priorities. Other "grandmas" were emerging from the woodwork and I couldn't believe it! Reading these blogs has made me realize that I'm not a freak - there are plenty of other women my age who are just like me! The problem: I need to find them in MY life and not all across the country!

The biggest thing I've taken from this realization is that I just need to be me, and hopefully everything else will fall into place. If I keep doing activities that make me happy, hopefully I'll meet other people who like doing the same thing and living the same healthy lifestyle. I've realized that some things are just more important to me than being like everyone else.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? Any ways that you feel "different" from everyone else but are trying to embrace? 

Simple Veggie Soup

For dinner last night I realized I had a lot of veggies in my fridge and needed to use them! I decided to make my own Simple Veggie Soup! With a baked sweet potato... of course. 

And while I waited on the sweet potato to cook, I munched on half a peach!

my last one from the farmers market!

Simple Veggie Soup

Ingredients:

1 cup Plain soup mix/puree (I used broccoli, would also be good with black bean!)

1 T chopped green onions

1 T chopped sweet onion

1 cup chopped veggies (I used green and yellow squash as well as eggplant; other options are carrots, broccoli, kale, mushrooms - get creative!)

1/2 cup beans (I choose chickpeas, since they were in my fridge)

Salt and Pepper to taste (I add just a bit of pepper)

1. Chop up the veggies and put them together in a bowl with your beans; steam for 2-3 minutes depending on veggies
2. Put 1 cup soup in a bowl big enough for soup + veggies
3. Add steamed veggies to soup
4. Heat for 2 minutes

Ta Da! Veggie soup! Very simple and quick to make when you're hungry and ready to eat! You could also make it on the stove-top... but this is more my style, haha. 

I served mine with a sweet potato on the side, but another great option would be to add a grain to your soup, such as brown rice or wheat berries! 

All my veggies, ready to be steamed! 

This is the soup I used - from Whole Foods! Trader Joe's has some great ones too!

Soooo many vegetables, it's insane! I think I'm set for the week! 

This morning I had my very last workout with my trainer! He's leaving my gym and I'll be sad to see him go; I never know how he comes up with the stuff that we do! Oh yea, and he's really nice, haha. One thing I'll really miss is learning to box! Most sessions with about 15 min left, he'd teach me a bunch of boxing moves - I'm not exactly good (don't have good reflex skills), but it's so much fun! Something I'd definitely want to look into in the future. Today we did almost a half hour! I enjoyed it and was not happy it was over! 

Before my workout I had a snack of 1/2 cup Kashi Puffs cereal with the last of my farmers market blueberries! I was pretty hungry... since I somehow woke up at 5am... 

Despite my snack, my stomach was growling the whole time! So I ran home, showered, and made up a smoothie! 

In the smoothie is 1/2 cup almond milk, spinach, 1/2 frozen banana, 1 cup frozen raspberries, 1 scoop vanilla protein, a bit of flax, a Truvia packet and a smidge of vanilla! I ate it with some Trader Joe's Bran Flakes. 

Have you ever tried boxing? Any other fun sports that you like to do?