WIAW 7.30.2014 – On The Road Again

Hey guys!

It’s Wednesday… You know the drill.

Shout out to our lovely host for making this awesome link up possible!

Workout – Yesterday, my mom and I drove out to the Hamptons again (we just went last week) just to stay the night… So naturally, I was more than just a little stoked to be able to run out there this morning!

 

My legs were super dead, so I set out with the intention of running 5 easy miles… Well, I wound up running 7 and walking 8. It was just so pretty and peaceful and the weather was perfect!

My mind said yes, my body said no. I don’t know if I will be out in the Hamptons again this summer though, so I really wanted to experience as much of it as I could. How dead my legs are going to be tomorrow will be so worth it.

Pre-Run: 

Since we were only staying at my grandpa’s house in the Hamptons for one night, we didn’t bring any food with us, so there was nothing in the house.

To give myself a little bit of energy to power through my run, I snacked on some of the dried mango that I always keep in my car for… y’know… emergencies =P.

Breakfast/Lunch/Snacks: By the time my mom was up and ready to go into town for breakfast, it was almost noon! Needless to say, I was starving.

Wow, this picture didn’t look this blurry and awful on my phone… Whenever I’m in the Hamptons, or away in general, I like to treat myself to coffee that could pass as a dessert. This baby has both vanilla soy milk and white chocolate raspberry (lactose free!!) creamer in it. Mmm!

Also, no Hamptons trip is complete without stopping at our favorite health food store for some mixed nuts (unpictured… but I basically ate my body weight in them) and other goodies from the bulk bin!

 

 

Weird combination of food, I know. I wanted fruit (KIWI!!!!), but then those roasted veggies looked so good that I just had to get them too.

 

 

I am obsessed with these Bai drinks.

Coffee #2

 

The next couple of hours were enjoyed laying out by the water, reading my book, and enjoying some of the mixed nuts and other goodies (I am currently obsessed with crystalized ginger) while my mom walked around town.

That cube thing is a chocolate-chia-chunk made with nuts, dried fruits, and chia seeds. Tastes like a cookie! So good!

Then it was time to hit the road where more of the mixed nuts and treats were enjoyed.

When I got home, I got straight to making dinner for my mom (she stepped on a bee right before we left and her foot is scary-movie-esque swollen so I wanted to take care of her as much as possible) and making potatoes and eggs (a super simple family recipe that my grandma passed down to my dad who passed it down to me) for my grandpa as a thanks for letting us use his house.

Whole wheat pasta with mushrooms, spinach, broccoli, edamame, and shrimp in a miso-sesame-wine broth. Master chef over here.

I snacked on all of the stuff that I was making while I was doing it, and then I was so over cooking by the time that everything was ready that a snack plate for dinner seemed like the only viable option.

Although, when isn’t a snack plate a viable meal option for me?

Post dinner I had a black bean brownie with walnuts that I made the other day, and now I’m having some ginger tea to help my stomach… Because my digestive system obviously hates me and likes to cause me to have tear-jerker level pain.

Now it is time for sleep!

Oh wait, before I go…

While Wednesdays may mean WIAW over here on the blog… On my Youtube channel, hump day means something totally different.

A NEW VIDEO!

Hope you enjoy =).

Good night!

Question(s):

Best thing you ate today?

Any current food/meal obsessions?

 

 

WIAW #3 – I’m Branching Out!

Hey everyone!

Today’s Workout: 

Hit the pool bright and early for a swim workout!

300m warm up

4 x 50m sprints IM format

Ladder Drills (done at comfortably hard pace and swimming harder with each new set)

400m

300m

200m

100m

400m cool down

Followed by Turbo Fire’s Fire 30 video (I’ve been loving this lately)!

 

I know it’s been a couple of days, but that’s a post all in itself. I have kind of been in a slump recently, but have been too busy to actually be able to stop and react to it. I have had a couple of days that have consisted mostly of downtime (and being sick… this sinus infection is still going strong), which has lead to being hit with everything at once and shutting down. But I am determined to stop moping and pick myself back up and push forward!

Now, enough with my ranting and complaining and let’s move into the more fun stuff.

The food!

That’s right, it’s yet another What I Ate Wednesday!

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As always, a huge thanks for Jen for hosting such an awesome link up!

Pre-Workout:

I used to just get up and workout on an empty stomach… But I found that I wasn’t able to perform as well as I would have liked to when doing so. So recently I have been having a little bit of something before heading out. I find that just a couple of bites of something is all I need (unless it’s a long run or something… But I haven’t done one of those in a while).

I had a small amount of peanut butter (TJ’s recently came out with an organic peanut butter and it’s actually impossibly amazing) and jelly on half a piece of Ezekiel bread.

I also had a piece of unsweetened dried mango on my way back from the gym.

Breakfast:

Do I even need to explain?

 

I was out of coconut “chips,” so I used freeze-dried banana instead. ‘Twas good!

Post breakfast, I had a cup of this amazing green tea with lemon and stevia.

Look at me keeping up with goals for the week!

Lunch:

However, I didn’t really keep up with my goal to stop with all the pretzels when lunch came around. I finished off the last of the small amount of fresh veggies that were left in my house and needed (ok, wanted) something more.

Actually, I just really wanted things to dip into this hummus that I whipped up! It was my first adventure in hummus and I have to say, it didn’t turn out too shabby!

Chickpeas + black beans (because there was an open can in the fridge that needed to be used + lemon zest + garlic + salt + a touch of grape seed oil.

So simple and so yummy.

I also ate a whole bunch more veggies, rice snaps, and pretzels while making my lunch plate, so don’t worry kids, I ate much more than what is pictured =P !

 

 

 

I also really love how smooth and creamy homemade hummus is in comparison to the store bought kind.

However, I have to say that Trader Joe’s roasted red pepper hummus will always have my heart.

Afternoon Snack:

Mid-afternoon, I used some coffee that I left in the freezer for a bit too long (it was supposed to be chilled for iced coffee… but time flew by and it was frozen solid) to make a mocha smoothie bowl.

Dinner:

Dinner was very monumental guys.

“Why?” You ask?

Because I actually branched out and tried something new instead of just having my usual snack plate or shirataki noodle stir fry!

And I have to say, I am definitely not complaining about it.

I made a super yummy korean veggie bowl inspired by this recipe from one of my new absolute favorite youtubers. Hers definitely looks a lot prettier than mine though.

Whoops.

Cauliflower “rice.”

 

 

 

 

 

The goods (mixed veggies, garlic, korean chili sauce (I couldn’t find chili paste), bragg’s liquid aminos, ginger miso broth, and cornstarch to thicken).

 

So. Freaking. Good.

 

 

 

And of course some goodies for dipping in that oh-so-lovely hummus that I made earlier… And sriracha. I bought more today because I had ran out and obviously I couldn’t wait until tomorrow to pop open that bottle ;).

Random Snacks:

I mentioned last week that I am trying to cut down on my grazing throughout the day by eating more normalized meals. Today, however, I didn’t do such a good job at that. Some of my snacks included:

Cottage cheese with fig butter on puffed rice snacks. This is one of my favorite combinations ever. Try it. Now.

Pretzels with hummus, pb, etc… Obviously.

A sample of key lime pie at Trader Joe’s. I have never gotten the samples there before, but I was absolutely starving and needed something to get me through until I got home to have dinner haha.

Watermelon. So much watermelon.

A bit too many bites of this amazing turmeric ginger bread.

And I a whole bunch of other little bites of things throughout the day.

Oi vey. I definitely need to get a handle on this whole grazing thing.

Well, I am only half way through the week, I still have time to accomplish my goals.

And if not, there’s always next week! I am a work in progress =).

Now, I have to go wash off this face mask that I have had on for way too long.

Until tomorrow my friends!

WIAW Wednesday: It’s Not About Perfection

Hey everyone! Happy Wednesday!

Today is an absolutely amazing day becauuuseeeee… *drum roll*

We welcomed the newest member of our family into the world today!

As I mentioned yesterday, my cousin had her C-Section scheduled for today! All went well, the baby is healthy, and… it’s a boy!

I’m so happy for my cousins and am so excited the have a new baby in the family!

 

Before all the baby madness began today, I got up early to get in a swim workout!

My workout looked like this:

• 300m freestyle warm up
• 4x50m sprints IM format (butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle)
• 400m freestyle (comfortably hard pace)
• 300m freestyle (comfortably hard pace)
• 200m freestyle (comfortably hard pace)
• 100m freestyle (hard pace)
• 4x50m sprints IM format
• 300m freestyle cool down

Done! The workout in it’s entirety took around 45 minutes.

Then it was time to shower and start my day!

Yes, I made the picture black and white in an attempt to make it a smidgen less horrifying looking… This is what less than 4 hours of sleep a night, each and every night, will do to you.

I have to say, swim workouts are the toughest for me when it comes to getting myself motivated to do them (for some reason throwing myself into a pool of cold water first thing in the morning doesn’t exactly evoke little-kid-on-Christmas-morning excitement within me), but I am always put in the absolute best mood after I complete them. Maybe it has something to do with memories of hot summer mornings and swim team from when I was younger?

Now onto the main point of this post, What I Ate Wednesday!

Thanks to Jenn for creating such fun link up!

If you have ever read a food/healthy living blog before, I am sure that you are all too familiar with the infamous WIAW posts. If you have no idea what I am talking about, then you can read about What I Ate Wednesday here.

I have wanted to do WIAW every Wednesday since first starting this blog. However, I always fail to do so. And why is that?

Because I can never get it perfect.

I have mentioned this many times, but I am a chronic grazer. I typically pick at food all throughout the day in lieu of set out snacks between meals (sometimes even my meals are simply larger graze fests). Because of this, I never am able to snap a picture of each and every thing I eat. I mean, when I take one pretzel stick out of the cabinet and dip it in hummus, the last thing I think to do is whip out my camera to document the occasion.

Every week, I give myself the goal of snapping pictures of all of my eats, and every week I fail. This leads to beating myself up and feeling like a failure for not being able to participate in what it, to my knowledge, the most widely known link up among bloggers.

Then, something on the official WIAW post on Jenn’s blog caught my eye.

–What WIAW isn’t about—-
Comparison – Judgement – Restriction – Guilt

—-What WIAW is about—-
Celebrating one of the glorious things we all have in common: We all eat!

WIAW is about food and fun! It’s about making new friends, breaking out of a food rut, noting changes in your diet/lifestyle, inspiring yourself & others, embracing fruit & vegetables, nourishing your body with the foods that work for you, finding new ways to eat your favorite foods, and so. much. more. ❤

No judgement or guilt… Sounds like something I need to remember.

So I decided, who says that my post has to be perfect? I photographed my main meals to share, and I can just maybe mention whatever is unpictured. Is that really the end of the world?

I think not.

So without further ado… Let’s get to it!

Breakfast –

Surprise surprise… A smoothie bowl.

In the mix: frozen banana, cashew milk, chocolate stevia drops, and peppermint extract. Topped off with a drizzle of maple syrup and some freeze-dried strawberries!

Unpictured – A small sliver of date nut bread pre-workout and some frozen mango and TJ’s coconut “chips”  while blending up breakfast.

Morning treat – Coffee<3

Not really a meal, but my iced coffee looked too pretty not to share.

Lunch – Snack plate!

In addition to my smoothie bowl addiction, I also seem to have developed an addiction to snack plates in lieu of real meals. Celery, broccoli, carrots, cucumber, romaine, turkey, pretzels, and rice snaps with a spread of dips.

New find from Trader Joe’s… Don’t know how I feel about it.

Another new find. I am a lover of all things mustard, so this is a winner.

 

A really horrible picture of homemade salsa that  I threw together.

Snacks – unpictured

Throughout the day I snacked on more pretzels and rice snaps with hummus as well as more veggies, some nuts, more coconut… And a whole bunch of other things that I can’t even remember.

Dinner – 

Dinner was a repeat of lunch (legitimately the same exact thing)

I also picked at this beauty while making it.

Grilled pizza! I rolled out some whole wheat dough and brushed it with olive oil and threw it on the grill. After flipping it, I sprinkled some garlic salt on it before topping it with organic marinara sauce, part-skim mozzarella (fresh), and italian herbs! I made this for my cousins (the ones who had the baby today)… But my aunt, mom, and myself all had to sample quite a bit of it before packing it up (in a pizza box that was in the house from earlier in the day… yay recycling)… You know… To make sure it was safe.

Finally, I walked the pizza over to their house and ended my night on the couch with my cousins watching America’s Got Talent.

Done!

Well that was my first WIAW.

Now off to bed… Tomorrow is going to be hectic. I’m kinda-sorta really dreading it…

Question(s):

Best thing you ate today?