Short Thursday

Today started with a light breakfast since I ate it pretty late and didn’t want to fill up too much before lunch time. Fresh raspberries and an egg white. Aren’t these berries beauties? Organic too. I try to buy berries organic since they’re some of the worst for pesticides, I use this guide: dirty dozen

This morning I also did a quick set of Audrina’s ab workout and 20 push ups on my knees. It feels weird to be taking two days off from exercise (yesterday and today) but sometimes you just gotta rest when you’re not feeling 100%. (On the upset stomach note, I miss coffee!! But am feelin good today, so might bring it back in action soon..) I’m hoping for a good run and maybe strength training routine tomorrow in New Haven.

And now it’s a short work day since I’m leaving to catch a 4pm train up to CT! I’ve got all my bags here at the office, hope I didn’t forget anything.

Egg Mc Bland Muffin

Well, I decided to text in sick this morning. I didn’t set an alarm last night thinking I just really needed a good night’s sleep to settle my stomach and feel better. I think it helped! I slept til 7:15 and dozed on and off til about 8:45. I’m somewhat taking my time to get ready and will head into the office in a little bit. I don’t feel sick sick, so don’t need to miss a whole day (especially when I only have 7 days left!) but I did need to let myself rest, since I know what happens to me when I push things too much.

Also, I needed a little reward after giving my presentation! Sleeping in is a good one :)

Breakfast started with some peppermint tea. Then another wheat english muffin topped with an egg white. Bland and boring, but seems to feel okay. 

I’m determined to still host our intern potluck tonight! So trying hard to settle the stomach before I see all that delicious food tonight that I know I’ll want to eat. Off to get ready for work!

Tummy gurgles

Upon leaving work I remembered how awesome the weather is here! It really feels like a different place after the past 2 weeks of 100 degree weather. Right now it’s 80 and not humid – miraculous. I tried to remind myself that I’m not quite feeling 100% due to this stomach upset and feeling really achey and tired last night. So, instead of an intense workout I opted for a walk over to the gym and:

-10 minute warm up on the elliptical
– arm strength training & 30 push ups on my knees
– 15 minute stroll around my apt (this was relaxing and lovely)

I also upped the weight on my bicep lifts and my shoulder raises. Biceps are up to 10 pds each. woo.

I came home to find a package had arrived. I GIANT zappos box! Seriously, could it be bigger? You’ll have to wait til this weekend to find out what’s inside!I then showered, put laundry in the machine, and worked up a hunger. It’s hard to figure out what to eat when I can’t have veggies! I’ve been eating so.  many.  veggies. lately, it’s what I fill up on! Argh. So, I pulled an english muffin out of the freezer and made an egg white sandwich, with a banana and almond butter on the side. Not sure this will fill me up, it should, but we’ll see. Hoping my stomach stops gurgling and calms down. Maybe some peppermint tea will help…

The rest of the night: relaxation, laundry, and packing for the upcoming CT/RI trip [ :-D ] cuz I won’t have time to later. Happy Tuesday evening!

Christmas in July

5 months from today is CHRISTMAS!! Just a reminder :) In celebration of Christmas in July and Santa, I ate a cookie this morning. It seemed completely appropriate.

It was pretty tasty. One of the admin assistants made them – oatmeal choc chip, pretty light and chewy, very thin. Mmm went well with my morning coffee around 10:30 this morning.

Breakfast was much earlier this morning around 7:30 and was 2 egg whites with nutritional yeast, and a jar of juice! Juice made from yesterday’s batch.

The juice was very refreshing, esp after I did a quick set of abs this morning. I then packed up and WALKED to work! Hooray. It was only 83-85 degrees out on my walk so it wasn’t too, too terrible. I was prepared and wore running shorts and t-shirt and just sweated it out and changed upon arrival. I just like starting off the day/week, Christmas with a good walk, sunshine, and morning observation time. Clears the brain!

This week is a big week – my BIG presentation is tomorrow. I’ve got the ppt done, now just need to practice practice practice! The rest of the week is peppered with crunching out some more projects at work, meetings, an intern potluck night, exercise, and then heading north on Thursday, hooray!

Happy Monday, and Merry July Christmas!

Corn on the Cob, Salt, No Jeff

So this morning we got to tour the White House! It was awesome! We waited outside for a long time in the heat (by long I mean like 15 minutes, but in 100 degrees + humidity, it felt long). We had already emailed someone all of our security info so we were able to get id’d and roll on in. Apparently Barry (that’s why Michelle calls him, did you know that?) was just beyond some screens meeting with some ambassador and being filmed. So we were breathing the same air, no big deal.No pictures are allowed in there. But, they did have us leave the tour through the front door – so cool! Me outside the front door. Inside we saw the East Wing.. red room, blue room where the Christmas Tree goes, green room, and the state room. Might be forgetting/misnaming something. It was cool to see all of the period items and objects that previous presidents owned, way back in the day. Very cool.

Back at the office it was lunch time, during a meeting. Mondo-huge salad time. Lettuce/spinach, sugar snap peas, green pepper, tomato, tempeh hunks, cucumber, one hard boiled egg white. Most of it from the farmer’s market in Cville. Yum!

The rest of the day was suuuper busy with meetings, and lots of work on my part, trying to get my research done and presentation ready. I got a little stressed about getting everything done in the next 2.5 weeks. I had big urges to eat and snack – a reminder of my eating habits in school and how stress affects me. I’m still trying to figure out how I’ll approach this going back to school and trying to maintain a healthy balance of healthy food, exercise, and stress management. Worrrrkin on it … I satiated my afternoon hunger/possibly a bit of stress craving with a nice banana. Came home, had a pre-workout snack: 2 of these guys, apple and PB And I hit the gym. I really didn’t want to. Just one of those days where I felt unmotivated to workout. But, I pushed through and did it, and glad I did.

– 35 minutes on the elliptical – oober sweat city
– 10 minutes on the stair master
– arm strength training

Then I did something that was awesome, and maybe what’s been missing from my gym workouts – I FOAM ROLLED!! It felt sooo good, I have some serious tight spots on my legs. Gotta remember to do this from now on!  It’s good for you, right? I don’t know much about it, but had a trainer show me how to do it one time, and I remember all the reasons it was super important especially for runners, so, get on that Margo!

Home, dinner time. Also exciting – I stopped at the farmer’s market on the way home today and picked up CORN, and a bunch of peaches.  I’ve been craving corn on the cob so much now that it’s summer time! I hadn’t had any straight up corn on the cob, so the time had come. Eating corn on the cob reminds me of the many dinners Jeff and I ate together on my porch in New Haven last August and September. Those are such wonderful memories for me! Pre-stress of grad school, enjoying the outdoors, eating great food, and being with Jeff in our early days in New Haven.While the corn cooked, I ate a whole bunch of these:They’re so good and crunchy!

One difference about DC corn cooking vs New Haven corn cookin — no good pots here :( This lil guy barely fit in this pot, kept having to push him around to get ’em cooked! BUT, this corn tasted AMAZING!!! Seriously, really good corn, buttery, sweet, pops in your mouth. Yum, summertime! But sans Jeff :( Good news is, we’ll have those corn-eating dinners on my porch again very soon! August… Combined with a lottt of broc, and hiding under the lettuce is a boca burger slathered in ketchup.Jeff would not approve of this corn-eating style – he goes across, I go around. Either way delicious. I did try out one of Jeff’s corn-eating techniques: I skipped the butter! Just salted it, and it was just perfect! No need for butter, lesson learned. Great summer time dinner! All gone. G’night!

 

Countdown

This morning I decided it’s about time to start the final countdown to the end of my internship. I’ts pretty much like this:

Because really, August 5th is my last day, I present my research on next Tuesday the 26th, sooo, I have a total of 13 days left in the office. YIKES! And only 5 until I have to present all this work. Oh boy.

I guess I am looking forward to being done – the 9-5 lifestyle has been a bit of a drag and I feel like I’ve sorta been living for the weekends this summer when Jeff and other family members have come to visit. I’m really looking forward to August when I’ll have some time at home, a super fun camping trip, and a trip to Mexico! So, the countdown has begun :)

But first, breakfast:

Two egg whites with turmeric, and a few slices of apple on the side with almond butter. Yum!

I then packed up my things and my coffee to go, and walked to work again! I must be totally losing my mind because it was already 80 degrees when I left this morning and full on humid. I was dripping with sweat by the time I got here 1.7 mi later. It was gross. I cooled off in the bathroom and changed and felt better. Why did I choose the HOTTEST week in DC to start walking to work every day?! Anyway… I’m glad I did it, feelin good! Happy Tuesday!

Gym and Refueling Veggies

I promised pictures from our dinner out at Mas Tapas in Cville.. so here they are :)

After work today I headed to the gym – but first had a pre-workout snack. Dakota bread hunk with almond butter!

I realized I hadn’t worked out since Thursday morning – ops! Jeff and I had every intention of going running while in Cville but it just didn’t happen – too much fun to be had! I dug my running clothes out of my still-not-unpacked suit case and headed out. Today I couldn’t quite decide what cardio to do, so I ended up doing a combo of all 3 machines i typically do:

– 30 mins on the treadmill (20 mins of interval sprints alternating 5.8 speed and 8.0 sprint, with two minutes rest in between, 10 mins running at 6.4 speed)
– 10 minutes on the stair master
– 20 minutes on the elliptical doing the cross train program

Stretch, and arm workout. I upped the reps on some of the arms, and can feel it! I also did 40 push ups on my knees.
I then sauntered home and showered and whipped up some dinner. Simple veggie bowl with a celebrity appearance of tempeh! Also with broccoli, hard boiled egg white, a few lonely leftover slices of zucchini and squash buried under there, and a bit of succotash veggie mix from trader joe’s. Topped with nutritional yeast and soyaki sauce. Yum!  Time to finally unpack and get a bit organized. Maybe a little dessert is in order for later…

Blueberry, Bagel, Buttery Breakfast for Two

Juice, bagels, eggs, jam, coffee, OH MY! All for two. :) Off on our mini vaca catch ya later! 

Crawling Thursday

Today has been crawling by, I think mostly because I’m tired and because I’m super excited for the weekend to begin, I just can’t wait! I wonder if exercising in the morning had made me tired. Ehh it’s probably more likely the 12am bedtime and 6:30 wake time … argh, must improve this!

Lunch was a bigg salad.

Topped with black beans, an egg white, peas, carrots, and cucumber. Despite the beans and being so big, this guy didn’t quite fill me up.

After our little field trip today (we met with a really inspirational staff member, it was wonderful hearing her path in life!) I came back to the office feeling totally fatigued. I really just needed a nap. But since that’s not an option (boo 9-5 job structure, for real, I don’t want this structure in the future) I opted for an energizing sbux yogurt parfait and decaf coffee (didn’t want to get all caffeineited and feel strung out later on, esp since I know wine and beer are in my future, and mixing that with a caffeine buzz is no good). Parfait was good, but, def no greek yogurt, and the corn syrup-y ingredients listed in the fruit part weren’t encouraging. Oh well. I had no time to get to TJs and stock up on greek yo!

Ok, almost through the work day.. we can do it!

 

Hungry Tuesday

Today I have been HUNGRY! Not sure why? I am suuuuper sore from yesterday’s workout, maybe my body is still recovering and wanting more food. I also woke up really tired, so I think overall my body needs a break and some nutrition. I had to be up early on the Capitol for a senate committee hearing on the safe water drinking act (yeah, ended up being about as exciting as it sounds). Kicked off the early morning with 2 egg whites with turmeric and a sliced nectarine on the side from the farmer’s market.

And coffee w/ cinnamon, of course. After the hearing there was something going on and they were giving out free Hagaan Das ice cream bars! It’s been 102 degrees out today so it was the perfect time for ice cream. It felt too early for a big sweet for me though at 11am, so I ate just the chocolate coating off the bar and a bite of ice cream and tossed the rest. Hah, sorry ice cream bar.

Lunch:

Big salad with carrots, cucumbers, tomato. And for protein:

More of that awesome yogurt topped with blubes. I think I’ll skip working out today and give my sore legs a rest. C ya later, hope it cools down soon!