Bike Ridin’

Dad and I biked 12 miles today! We had a great ride all around Wayland and parts of Natick. There are some really beautiful areas, and a few farms, too! We pedaled and pedaled and planned our route to go by the Whole Foods (<3) in Wayland. We enjoyed some sushi as we took a break – veggie roll with carrots, avocado, cucmber, yum! Enjoyed in the sunshine. We got back after about 1.5 hours and relaxed in dad’s backyard. He’s taken up a new hobby of intense bird-feeding and watching! He’s got a great backyard that borders a wooded area so there’s tons of wildlife and quite a variety of birds, squirrels, and chipmunks. While sitting for about half an hour we saw woodpeckers, nuthatches, tit mice, chickadees, sparrows of course, cardinals, blue jays, and 2 hummingbirds! Not sure what kind they were, maybe one of these three? They fed on the feeders of sugar water my dad had out. 

Dad is growing some super tall sunflowers in his yard, too! Check this guy out (along with my sweet biking attire)

After the wild-life and flower viewing session, I did some errands (i.e. picked up beer and cookout supplies for this evening) got home, and I was hunngrryyyy, so I dug into this: As sliced up organic Gala apple with blobs of peanut butter and almond butter. The almond butter is MaraNatha all natural creamy almond butter and it’s awesome! I’ve been digging into this jar for a while now but had yet to blog about it. It’s thick and tastes like roasted almonds. I’m still much more in love with peanut butter, but it’s nice to change things up sometimes, or combine them :) It’s got the same stats as natural peanut butter for the most part – 190 cal and 6g protein for 2 tbsp. Almond butter goes great on anything you’d put with peanut butter – toast, sandwiches, fruit, in oatmeal, the options are endless! And,  I got this lovely jar for FREE  from Swanson. Swanson sent me this for free so I could try it out! If you have a food blog, check this out to get your own free food stuffs!

Along with my apple snack I had a few handfuls of granola (so addictive, I’ll def be making this more often).

Now: it’s last-minute packing, organizing, etc, then JEFF arrives :-D ..and its cookout time with the fam!

Summer Vegetables

Today we did some errands and went to the farmers market! So many beautiful veggies and fruits. We loaded up on fresh veggies and peaches! I brought a yogurt with me because I knew I’d get hungry throughout our errands. I topped it with blueberries we bought at the market, and I ate it at the market itself. I also had a few bites of banana and a spoonful of almond butter before heading out the door. I stopped by dad’s house to pick up some camping gear and to visit, and I munched on a whole bunch of trail mix. I also noticed that these peanuts (that I did not eat) had gelatin in them — why?? and so not vegetarian. just pointin it out… After some errands with dad (more on that tomorrow) I came home to find mom munching away on some tasty bread and oil dip. I had a few small hunks as we got dinner ready. I had a salad with some beet hunks and yellow bell pepper, raspberry vinag. dressing And two awesome ears of corn from the market – they were perfection!! and very sweet. Also, a boca burger topped with ketchup and bread and butter pickles.We also had a caprese salad which I had a few pieces of. Basil from the porch and tomato from the market. Mmm local!
We’re contemplating going to a movie .. it’s a rainy evening here in Massachusetts..

Last lunch, Gelato, Run!

My last lunch outside with the fellow interns was a big ol’ veggie bowl. Trying to empty my freezer and eat lots of frozen veggies! I overstocked. This guy was full of: broccoli, green beans, sprinkle of corn/soybean medley, big hunks of marinated tempeh for protein, and topped with tomatoes, which were picked fresh from the tomatoes plants in Jeff’s back yard! I had planted tomato plants waay back in May and stuck them at Jeff’s for the summer. Glad I got to reap the fruits of my labor! They were so tasty and fresh. It was a great veggie bowl, all topped with soy sauce for flavor.

I wrapped up some things, cleared off my desk, and then our division director took two of us out for gelato! I think I’ve only had gelato like once or twice in my life, so this was extra special. I got a tiny dish of mint chocolate chip. It was super bright green (oober artificially colored?) and was creamy and good, but I think I could tell is artificially flavored. This is not my photo, but it looked like this.

Source of photo: http://moretobeseen.blogspot.com/

Time to say good bye to everyone and my internship! …

After all the good byes and desk-clearing and all that… I came home, had a spoonful of Almond butter, and I headed home and did a big run! 6.18 miles in 1 hour 2 minutes.I’m loving this iPhone app! Still loving how the little man in my phone tells me what mile I’m at (logyourrun free iphone app) I’m not yet ready to make the big purchase that has been bopping around the blog work lately (though I’m DYING FOR ONE OF THESE!!!!) And apparently it’s on sale right now on Amazon … early Christmas gift? Anyone? HINT HINT?!?! It would certainly help me track my runs and progress much more accurately..

Anyway… I had a great run, it wasn’t amazing, not miserable, just good. There was a breeze the whole way so despite it being 86 degrees out it didn’t feel so bad. I did my usual path and plodded along. I spaced out a good amount of it thinking about the end of my internship, so that made the time go faster. Some of the views on my walk back:I’m going to miss my DC runs! Except definitely won’t miss the HEAT. I also almost lost my camel back strap today, twice! Grrr something is up with it – either way, I won’t be needing to run with it as much back in New England due to cooler temps, so no worries. Now I’m showered and dressed, and off to CELEBRATE finishing my internship with MOM!!! :)

 

 

Granola and Running Socks

Today flew by! Probably because I was pretty busy the whole day and because I’m working hard to pull together my project. Lunch was outside with the interns and consisted of broccoli, veg mix, and tempeh (look similar to last night’s dinner? ;) ) On the side was a peach and a snack bag of Cville Cluster Granola-(this stuff is AMAZING! hard to stop eating :)After lunch we had an intern talk with the EPA administrator Lisa Jackson!This was pretty cool and a pretty big deal. She’s a very relaxed speaker and appears at least to be down to earth, and she knows her stuff. She handled some of our questions on hydrofracking pretty well. In the afternoon I met a fellow Yale Forestry student for a coffee. She’s an incoming student that I will be mentoring and happens to be here in DC. It was great chatting with her and she’s very excited to be starting school (I am too! Well, to return for year 2). I got a big decaf. On my walk over I noticed that my sunglasses somehow got cracked and are broken :( Good thing they were only $7 from H & M. But I’ll need to replace these ASAP! Bummer cuz we saw lots of nifty sunglasses in Cville for cheap! Oh well. After doing more work I headed home and had a pre-gym snack.Big hunk of Dakota bread with PB, I was pretty hungry. Upon getting home I found that my running socks had arrived in the mail! Hooray!!! Note to self – do not put these guys in the dryer! They get hard in the back of the heel and then rub my feet – ouch! Anyone else have this happen with Balega socks?? I got two pairs so I hope these guys last, they’re expensivo! At the gym I did:

– Ran 4 miles on the treadmill, 40 minutes, switching between 6.4, 6.6, and 6.8 with incline of 0, .5, 1.0
– 10 minutes on the stair master to sweat some more
– 15 minutes on the elliptical to round out my 65 mins of cardio
– lower body strength training with machines and lunges, and butt work out 

Last time I did this lower body routine I was ridiculously sore for 4 days, I’m hoping this doesn’t happen again! I tried to stretch really well after and I decreased some of the reps.

I came home and refuled with some Fage yogurt, a sliced banana, and a few more crumbles of the Cville granola.
Natural light vs lamp light .. plus not-so-great camera.. boo.. I envy all you bloggers with fantastic cameras and food photography skills! I’ll get there.. maybe… Ok off on a late-night Trader Joe’s trip real quick – must restock salad fixins’. C ya!

 

Fage 0% is Back

Lunch time today was enjoyed outside with my fellow interns. It was lovely, except for getting attacked by a mosquito! He seriously got me 3x on my leg and twice on my arm. Sheesh. I guess it was lunch time for him too. Due to lack of a full fridge, today I had a bowl of fresh veggies – the pepper and cucumber are from the cville farmer’s market, yum! Fresh and crisp. I dipped these guys in some double roasted salsa from trader joe’s – love this stuff. On the side I had a peach.

Afternoon snack: Love this stuff! I stocked up on these guys last week, they’re just such a great protein source, and versatile! (smoothies, bfast, snacks, etc.) It’s even good totally plain (forgot to grab some cville cluster granola to top it with, darn).

Low-lighting is due to our drak office – we literally turned off the lights because they’ve been flickering all morning and we’re going nuts! Back to it. C ya later.

Ginormous Salad

We went out to lunch today to a place with a giiannt hot and cold salad bar. It was awesome! My salad looked a bit like this, but was composed of: lettuce mix, black beans and corn, asparagus sprigs, broccoli florets, water chestnuts, a few baby corn, 1 hard boiled egg, and forgot to put on dressing but all the toppings made up for it.

Source

On the side I had a big bowl of fruit – pineapple slices, strawberries, and orange and kiwi slices.

Source

It was a giant plate of veggies and fruits, with hopefully just enough protein from the beans and egg. Yumm! Plus a diet coke for the afternoon – trying to limit my DCs to 2x a week, cuz I know they’re just not good for you! Cranking out work now.

It’s Friday, Friday

My alarm went off at 6:30 this morning and I felt pretty rested. My first thought was that it was Friday (hooray!) and the second thought that entered my mind was the Friday Song. Oh boy. After trying to get the song outta my head I got up and got ready for the day. I wanted a light bfast today (even though I really wanted more overnight oats) because I know my supervisor is taking me out to lunch (hopefully chop’t salads) and because I know I’m going out to dinner with my dad later, so I figured start it off light! The usual – two egg whites (one real, one from a carton), peppers, turmeric and nutritional yeast. Coffee and cinnamon.

Time for work, Happy Friday!!

Happy Hour, Happy Gym

Today chugged along pretty smoothly and I realized I only have about 2 weeks to finish all of my research at my internship, because present my work on July 26th — AHH!!!!! I really need to buckle down, focus, and crank out some seriously good work, and asap! I think the pressure will help :) I had packed a veggie laden lunch today but my boss messaged me asking how I would feel about a salad. How do I feel about free salads? Fantastic! I tucked my lunch in the fridge and we ventured over to get salads. This time I asked for no feta cheese, and dressing on the side. Good decisions. And I ditched the free slices of bread that came with it. Just don’t need it! And who knows what their bread was made of, I’m guessing not whole grains…It was quite tasty and full of the veg I craved – cucumbers, tomatoes, and red peppers, and probably about 12 too many kalamata olives, but they were so tasty! I also passed up some leftover red velvet cake someone brought into the office, go me! I find it helpful to think about how I’ll feel after I indulge in something. If I can foresee that it won’t be positive feelings, then I try not to do it. I had one of the gorgeous peaches I bought at the farmers’ market yesterday. It was just perfectly ripe! mmm juicy. After work we had a happy hour scheduled with an appointee at the agency. I was hoping for just a glass of wine, but of course we ordered pizza. I had one super cheesy slice and my one glass of wine. Yum! I then came home around 7 and got myself straight over to the gym. Had I drank a second glass of wine I definitely would not have made it.. good thing for limits. At the gym I did:

— 30 mins on the StairMaster
— arm strength training
— 25 minutes on the elliptical
— leg strength training

I then headed home and mixed up a protein shake and stretched out. After showering I decided I should have a bit more of a substantial dinner, even though that pizza slice and wine were sort of dinner (?). So I decided to heat up my abandoned lunch. Solid bowl of frozen veg, a sprinkle of leftover lentils, one egg white, and nurtitional yeast and soy sauce.

It did the trick. Getting things ready for tomorrow, ordering new running socks, and chatting with Jeffers. G night!

Back to work, Back to wholesome foods

Back to the internship today. I was busy with meetings a lot of the day and got a fair amount done, too. Started off with forgetting to photograph everything! Had the usual coffee and egg whites and peppers for bfast with nutritional yeast and turmeric, lunch was a big bowl of broccoli, carrots, and lentils, afternoon snack:

A sliced apple with cinnamon.

On the way home I walked through the farmer’s market trying to keep in mind that I shouldn’t buy too much tasty-looking produce since my dad is coming this weekend and as of right now, our plans include a fair amount of eating out, so don’t want to stock up on things and have them go bad. I did know that I desperately needed fresh fruit! I’ve got plenty of frozen veggies and canned beans to last me quite a while, but fresh fruit – no replacement there! I picked up two peaches, one nectarine, and one tomato, they were beauties! And nestled safely into my purse. Now I’m gearing up for a long run with Melissa, so I just had a pre-run snack. Hoping it settles well (still 45 mins til we’re moving, so should be ok!) Celery stalk with 1 tbsp of peanut butter. Hit the spot.

Catch ya later.

 

Last day in New England

Today is my last day of my visit here in Boston :( I got up with Jeff at 6am to send him off with breakfast before he drove back to New Haven to work today. I then crawled back into bed for a few more hours of sleep. Now it’s a day of packing up, laundry-ing, and hopefully a little fun. Started off with a high protein breakfast (gotta get back on track!) Eggs and an english muffin, spinach, little OJ, and coffee. I was hoping for a run, but it’s close to 90 degrees here! Too hot.

Flight’s at 7pm, Catch you later!