Last DC Day

Whew, what a day – and my last day in Washington D.C.! It started off with my last trip (unless I’m really ambitious tomorrow morning) to the gym at 8:30 this morning.  I did:

-10 minutes walking on the treadmill to wake up
-20 minutes on the stairmaster
-20 minutes on the elliptical
– the first two moves of the ultimate butt workout, three sets of 20 reps, with 5 and 8 pd weights
– some other squats (and oh, realized I was doing lunges really incorrectly, fixed that and didnt’ drop my knee down this time!)
– 20 push-ups on my knees
– stretch

I came home, showered, and then mom and I hopped over to Founding Farmers for an (yet another) AWESOME brunch!

Mom loved their milk jug of water and the cute lil creamer pourer. To follow yesterday’s theme, we ordered this place’s donuts – hollly donut, they were incredible, lil balls of wonder, and came with 3 dipping sauces: chocolate, caramel, and raspberry. I had 1.5 of deliciousness. I ended up ordering the same dish as last time, cuz it’s so good! Egg whites with fresh veggies and cheddar cheese, a side of fruit and a home made english muffin. Perfection!! With coffee. 
Mom had poached eggs over leek hash browns with caramelized beets and goat cheese – yum! After this amazing brunch (we took the rest of the donuts home, but not sure they’ll survive – soggy non-warm donuts just aren’t the same) we headed to the capitol hill area to check out Eastern Market.  Capitol hill buildings are so neat. The market was really big with lots of produce, crafts, jewelry, etc.However, it was about 100 degrees and reallllly humid out so we didn’t last too long. We soon headed back to the air conditioned car, and decided to check out a boat activity mom had been wanting to do. We drove up to Potomac Maryland and saw this neat historic canal. We took a ride on the mule-pulled boat! It was a neat story of the canal and how it basically was built and not used very much because the rail road arrived! It was a fun little boat ride and the narrator was super passionate about it – apparently she did her dissertation just on the Chesapeake Ohio canal – imagine that! 
Mules! While on the boat I snacked on one of these (warning, recycled photo)

We got back from the canal around 5 and I immediately whipped up some smoothies – we were tired, hot, and needed a pick-me-up! And we had lots of packing, moving, and car-loading to do!
In the mix: frozen berries galore (rasp, straw, black, blue) a few hunks of frozen banana, almond milk, 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder, water. I topped mine with a pile of cville cluster granola, and at the end some cheerios! Like the other night.  It succeeded to power us through loading the car to the brim with all my clothes, shoes, blender, juicer, coffee maker, odds n ends, etc!

By 7:30 I was getting hungry so we attempted to empty more of the freezer and pantry food by whipping up some spaghetti and meat balls, and green beans. This wasn’t just any pasta meal – it was with Kamut spiral noodles!! So I was fortunate enough to get these for free from Swanson just like the cocoa powder I blogged about a while back.  Swanson sent me these kamut spirals – so what is kamut? I’ve discovered that it’s an ancient grain, similar to wheat and in fact related, and has more protein than regular wheat and wheat pasta. Don’t know much else than that, other than it was delicious! They tasted just like whole wheat noodles and had the same texture.Love that there’s only ONE ingredient! 

The Organic Kamut Spirals have 10 g of protein for 1 cup of noodles with 210 cal. I topped the noodles with pasta sauce mixed with peppers strips (another freezer unloading action) and TJ’s veggie meat balls. YUM. Lots o’ protein in this meal. I went back for a big plate of seconds. And I ended up snacking on some odds n ends after dinner … like some dark chocolate I came across, a few bites of an ice cream sandwich before throwing it away, etc… kitchen clean-outs cannot come without good-bye bites to food uneaten! ;)

And if you have a food blog you can get free Swanson products, too! Check it out at the Swanson healthy food blog.

Well, my bedroom is just about emptied and we’re ready to hit the road bright and hopefully early tomorrow morning to head up to Boston. After we get my bike loaded on the car bike rack that is. Keep and eye out for a good-bye DC post about all the memories here! Ok, last night in the big king bed in my DC apartment!! Good night!

Brunch at the Tabard Inn

This morning I got up early even though it was Saturday! I wanted to squeeze in a workout before a big brunch we had planned. I was on the stairmaster by 8:42am and realized this might be my last gym workout, if I don’t go tomorrow. Tear. Bally Fitness has worked out really well here this summer.

I cranked out 20 minutes on the stair master and sweat up a storm. I was dripping. I then did 15 minutes on the elliptical to sweat some more, and then did my arm strength training.  After stretching and a quick foam roll (I need to own a roller!) I headed home and hopped in the shower by 10 and we went on our way to the Tabard Inn!  I’d heard their brunch was great and in a cute setting, so I booked us a reservation a while back. 
We of course started with coffees. And they gave us a little basket of veggie bread and tiny little lemon coconut (I think) muffins. I had a muffin and a bread. No butter necessary. We then had one of their famous home-made donuts that comes with real whip cream – it was phenomenal! Light and airy and covered with sugar and cinnamon. Capital Yum.
I had the tomato, basil, mozzarella frittata and greens. It was excellent and not too cheesy. Mom had the blueberry pancakes with peach and ginger compote – amazing! I ate at least 1/3 of hers. It was a lovely, delicious brunch, enjoyed outside in the adorable garden area!

And chocolate mints at the door always win my heart. We walked around a bit to help digest all the deliciousness. Off on more of the day’s adventures!

Summer Smoothie

After this past weekend of snacking and indulging I was ready for some veggies! Lunch today was a veggie bowl: broccoli, green beans, black beans, and corn. Also the rest of my morning apple on the side. The afternoon was busy with meetings and such and I ended up with a bit of a headache. After work I was determined to hit the gym after all the eating this weekend (I swear I can see my belly has expanded after all those treats – can only blame myself tho, Jeff certainly tried to encourage healthy eating this weekend! ops) So at the gym I did:

– 15 minutes on the stair master
-30 minutes on the elliptical
– arm strength training
– leg strength training
– stretch and foam rolling
Good workout! Though I didn’t feel very energized during any of it, but got it done! I came home and made a big smoothie bowl! In the mix:
– 1/2 c frozen mixed berries, with another 1/4 cup defrosted on top
– 1/2 c Fage yogurt
– 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder
– scoop of coco powder
– splash of almond milk
– topped with 1/4 c of cheerios my roommate left after moving out tonight

It was thick and delicious! It was much thicker than the last one I made, due to the yogurt. A very rough estimate of nutritional info: about 250 calories, about 18 g of protein. Yum. Hit the spot and helped rehydrate. Now, mom is almost here!!

Summer Dinners

Have I mentioned how much I love this water “bottle”? It’s a platypus and it’s so great because it folds/rolls up when you’ve drank all the water so you’re not left carrying around a big metal klean kanteen or sig (I have and love those too, but this is great for on-the-go!) And great for these suuuper hot days. It’s 7:34pm and 92 degrees, whatttttt.So, I attempted to lay by the pool to get just a little color around 4:15 pm. Man, it was just tooo hot. I just laid there and sweat, and then somehow got attacked by a mosquito, I’ve got 3 huge bites. What is up with me and mosquitos lately?!

I gave up after 20 minutes and headed back upstairs. I decided to get over to the gym before they closed early. I did 15 minutes on the stair master and 15 minutes on a different kind of elliptical. I then did my arm strength training. In and out in an hour. I always think I’ll do extra hard workouts on the weekends when I have sooo much time, but somehow my weekend days end up being busy busy with only short times for workouts. Or maybe I just prioritize relaxation over exercise on my days off :) I caught up with a friend on the phone on the walk back which was nice. I showered up and cooked up round 2 of my yummy summer time dinner.  

GINORMOUS salad (spinach, lettuce, snap peas, tomato, green pepper, green beans, broccoli, topped with balsamic vin.) And some more tasty COTC (corn on the cob) and a boca burger with lots o’ ketchup. This corn was good, but I must say not as buttery as last week’s.  But still good! 

Now it’s time to do some work, oyve. Since I ate pretty early I’m foreseeing some sort of dessert or snack later on…

 

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!

 

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!

 

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…

Night at the Gym

What a workout! This might be one of the most challenging workouts I’ve done in a lonngg time. Dad had treated me to not only a fitness magazine, but also a new book – Life of Pi. I was inspired by the workouts in the magazine to mix mine up and do some more serious strength training! I had a slice of apple with PB as a pre-workout energizer. My workout looked like this: (I was originally supposed to go for a big 8 mile run with Melissa tonight, but due to EXCESSIVE heat today, we cancelled, fearing death. fo real tho, it’s 9pm and still 91 degrees)

– 30 minutes Stair Master (seeeerious sweating)
– arm strength training with some new ones tossed in, I liked this new tricep one
– 30 minutes on the elliptical, cross train mode, level 9 then level 12 second half
– leg strength training, did parts of ultimate butt workout!  I already sport quite the ultimate booty, but some toning won’t hurt
– leg weight training machines
– 30 push ups
– 60 crunches
– 20 of these, thanks Audrina
– serious stretching!

This was a looong workout, but felt good. I’m not a huge fan of fitness magazines or cosmo or any of those magazines as I think they add to a lot of young women’s negative views of their bodies, but, I must say that having something light to read while on the stair master and elliptical made the time move faster. I brought my book too, Animal Vegetable Miracle, but reading about growing your own veggies while pushing hard to lady gaga just didn’t seem right…

I left the gym and stepped outside in the hot hot evening and it was crazy windy out and cloudy – a storm was about to hit. I yogged home literally just in time before thunder lightning and pouring rain began. Phew! Good timing. The gym was handing out free packets of naked granola so I munched that on the way home – I was pretty famished. I then whipped up a delicious yogurt bowl – as a lactose intolerant person I steer clear of yogurt, though it doesn’t typically make me really sick, I decided not to eat it since my body seems to reject dairy. But, I couldn’t help but be ASTONISHED when I saw this yogurt in trader joes – shock and awe due to the 18g of protein in packs in just 100 calories, and 0 fat. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?! I had to try it. That’s SO much protein!

And it was pretty awesome. Mixed with the rest of the granola and some blubes.

Then I had this. A tomato from the the farmer’s market (soo good), and basil from my plant. Yum! and Sea Salt.Good night!

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!

Sweatin to Kanye, Cookin to 30 Rock

I had a great workout today after work. I scooted myself over to the gym by 5:45 and kicked off a total body workout by jumping on the StairMaster. You know what that means – lots of sweat!

– 30 mins StairMaster, level 9 (-300 cal)
– 15 mins Elliptical interval routine (-150 cal)
– full leg weight workout
– arm work out  
– 5 girly push ups (gotta start somewhere with these!)
– quick abs – side planks, 20 bicycles, 10 leg lifts

This took about an hour and a half, maybe a little more. A bit too long, but I pushed through with Kanye and Lady Gaga’s help.

Once I got home I took a quick shower and bounced over to Trader Joe’s to pick up some ingredients to make a big pot of garden veggie chili – we have a fun intern potluck planned for tomorrow night so I had to whip it together this evening. Before leaving a had a bowl of broc/cauliflower with nutritional yeast to hold me over til the chili was done.

After lugging the groceries home (try as I may, I can never control all the heavy items I end up buying, too many bubble seltzers!) I got crackin on the chili. It may seem weird to make chili in the summer time, esp when it’s soo hot here right now, but I think it’s such a great dish because it’s healthy with high protein and fiber, veg, and it’s a great recipe that everyone seems to always enjoy. So there, summertime. While cooking, I had my laptop in the kitchen playing a few episodes of 30 Rock – I seem to always have these on in the background these days. I wonder what percentage I’ve actually watched, rather than listened to..

lots of beans! garbanzo, black, and white

It’s cooking right now and should be done any minute. Even though it’s late, I’m going to have a small bowl!

Smells good!

Wrapping some things up here then maybe a little reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle before bed.  Oh and a Skype date with Jeff, like we do every night! G night.