Marathon Weekend! Plus Major Carbs

About 8 weeks ago my boyfriend decided he needed to keep up with his amazing girlfriend (moi) and run a marathon.  His buddy conned him into it and I helped them piece together a training plan to go from 0 to 26.2 in 8 snowy weeks. Well the National Marathon was this weekend and, might I say, it was epic.

I woke up with him at 4:30 to go to the metro in order to get down to the race in time. It took a solid hour to get to the race in time. Once there we took a group shot:

Then we bid adieu and I drank my delicious, nutricious, high fuel green monster:

It had:

• Cup spinach
• Organic Wheat Grass
• 1 scoop Jay Robb Protein Powder
• Pineapple
• 1/2 c Coconut Water
• 1 c Hemp Milk
• 1/4 avocado

It kept me full from 6:30 am until about 11 am. WIN!

While my green monster was a win, my photograph skillz were severely lacking.

Exhibit A:

This should have been a picture of my boy right at the start. Instead as I was happily trying to click away, he yells at me, “Lens cap, babe!” Yes, my lens cap was on. FAIL #1.

Exhibit B:

What an awesome picture at mile 6, except, oh, what’s that? Yes. My camera was on MANUAL not AUTOMATIC.

Fail #2.

By mile 17 I had my shiz together:

And at the end:

Afterwards, he felt great (lucky duck), so we headed back home. There he laid around and stretched while I baked my booty off for a potluck. I decided to make bread- you know ex post facto carbo loading.

This is the famous No Knead Bread. It is always a winner and impresses everyone. I HIGHLY recommend making it! So easy!

And for dessert I made Nutella Challah Bread- adapted from here:

This is before it was baked- as I baked it at the people’s home. But let me tell you, Nutella + Challah = CRAZY DELICIOUS. Steamy Kitchen is an awesome website- I highly recommend it. This bread got eaten in about 5 minutes. People were calling dibs on it and eating it before others even were able to get up to it. Again, easy, impressive, delicious.

We had some guests staying with us Saturday night so I used the left over dough to make Steamy Kitchen’s adaptation of No Knead Cinnamon Rolls. HOLY YUM! But these rolls cannot be ruined. They take some time to rest, so I got up before everyone, prepped the rolls (I halved the brown sugar), and ran while it rested.

I came back and put ’em in the oven and soon everyone woke up due to the delicious smell emanating from the kitchen (despite the sugar coating spilling over the sides and burning on the bottom of the oven–apparently only I smelled that). The smell was nothing compared to what emerged.

Behold:

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. I’m exhausted now- but Spring Break is so soon! Yay!

Green Juice!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

In honor of this green day I started my day with some green juice.

A bullet of health

In this juice:

• 1/4 head of cabbage
• 2 organic green apples
• 2-inch piece of ginger
• 1/2 a lemon
• head of broccoli
• 2 large pieces of kale

It was divine! It tastes like lemon-apple-ginger even though it’s sneaking in all those other amazing healthy foods. *SWOON*

I always make my juice the night before and then store it in a glass container overnight in the refrigerator to make sure all the good stuff stays in it. I also drink it within the next 24 hours.

Hope everyone had a great green day!

Absence.

Since last May I have had a very on-and-off relationship with my blog.  I believe that this carries over to my relationship with food.  My time with my blog is also my time to reflect and enjoy being healthy– from exercise to food to serenity.

Beginning March 1st I decided it was time to start again. I needed to reset my body once and for all to truly find my balance that was now missing. I needed to go back to what makes me feel good. This means I cut out dairy, gluten, corn, citrus, wheat (basically the elimination diet) until March 26th. I am having a ton of green juice and green monsters. For the past two weeks I am slowly beginning to crave the foods I once did and feel a balance and energy in my body that was once missing.  If it’s green- I want to eat it. If it has health benefits- I’m all about it. Coming my way? Maca, cocoa butter, and chia seeds.  I am so excited to start this journey of clean eating and I am excited to share it with you all.

Here’s to this new journey!

Third Leg of the Stool

Without that third leg... it would be a DISASTER

My post tonight is my new tab– either click the tab “Third Leg of the Stool” or this link.

Enjoy 🙂 I’m off to watch TV with mom, drink tea, and make books for my students. LOVE break!!!

 

Run and Ratatat(oille)

Today was a beautiful day in DCizzle– 70 and sunny! My boyfriend had been asking to go on my favorite long run in the city (appx 6+ miles), so off we went. I had him carry the camera to document this awesome run from Woodley Park down and around the monuments.

We started in beautiful Woodley Park, by the zoo, but took no pics as we were busy hurdling strollers, tourists, and small children (my boyfriend literally hurdled a small boy–unsuccessfully– wish I had that on camera for sure!)

After about 2 miles we got to the National Mall:

Hello beautiful pond

We headed west until we hit Honest Abe:

And then we ran around the Reflecting Pool:

My goodness I'm speedy

Yes, tourists were laughing at this picture… but I had my Boo with me, so I needed to take advantage of the situation. Besides my fab form, look at that view!! BALLER!!

Then we ran towards the somewhat ph@llic monument:

OOo other runners. I love seeing other runners in tourist locations– we always share a look like, “man these tourists are CRAY-CRAY, but we’re badass, have a nice day!” I love the secret runners club looks. *Swoon*

We kept going past the museums toward the Capitol Building, where I really need them to fix our Educational System, k thanks.

Arne DOOOO something

Great Frisbee form, btws. Should have told him that in the mo’.

We ran up into China town, but no pics because boytoy was a little ready for the run to end.

One of my favorite parts of running in the city is that I can run to a place and then metro home. It’s awesome and makes it possible to run through so much of the city without worrying too much about mileage (I’m trying to keep it low, low, low cuz I *heart* my knees). We metro-ed back up to my neighborhood:

Hello, glutes. Get to work.

And walked the quarter-mile back home:

The shadow is hiding his exasperation with me and the camera

We got back and were capital-R READY for some Green Monsters!

Here was what I put in mine:

1 cup filtered water (not that exciting to photograph)

1 very ripe banana (so ripe, in fact, nobody needs to see it)

You probably can’t tell, but it’s AmazingGrass GreensSuperFood… love how it tastes and all the good things packed in it!

LOVE this stuff!

1 cup Unsweetened Ricemilk — this is my go to milk now– since I can’t have almond breeze (thanks almond allergy), this is a nice low-cal, low-sugar, non-dairy option! Thanks Whole Foods!

This was so refreshing! Might be one of my favorite combos yet!

I didn’t get hungry for dinner for a while (thanks to major snackage), but once I did I had an awesome dinner from things I needed to use up with a new ingredient:

-1/4 cup Leftover Quinoa

-1/2 cup Roasted Chickpeas (@450 for about 6 minutes)

-left over spinach (~ 1/2 cup cooked)

And my new discovery at Trader Joe’s:

Nice to meet you

I used about a quarter cup.

It was DELICIOUS and so filling! I would recommend this for a quick dinner any evening. In fact, I’ll probs have it tomorrow!

 

And that’s all I’ve got– time for tea and reading! Have a great week everyone!

–Juli

The Past Five Months- Part 1: City of Angels…and white carbs

So I owe the blogging community somewhat of an explanation. I disappeared.

I could sum it up with this picture:

But really so much more has happened in my life– especially regarding fitness and working out.

After I graduated in mid-June with my Masters in Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership Studies, I went straight to Los Angeles to work with an education non-profit training new teachers. I knew it would be rigorous (I had gone through the training myself), but as an advisor I was working 6 days a week from 6 am until 10 pm. I wish I was exaggerating, but I’m not. I am still stunned at how I was able to keep it up for 6 weeks.

I loved my job, I loved seeing my teachers grow in the classroom and their students learn so much so fast. But my body was hurting. As a vegetarian, who is lactose intolerant and allergic to almonds, cashews, and pistachios, eating was tough. All our meals were provided for us, and my options were limited. Normally eating whole grains, veggies, and fruit, I was now eating white carbs: bagels, cookies, and a TON of cereal. And caffeine, gallons of coffee and gallons of diet coke. I inevitably began to gain some weight, as I was stressed, sleep deprived, and malnourished. All I craved was instant fake energy, instead of what I know truly gives me sustained energy: whole, fresh, organic food.

Luckily the other members on my team highly valued working out. So every morning we woke up at 4:30am to go for a quick run and some cross training.  So while I stayed marginally in shape, my eating habits deteriorated rapidly.

My job in LA ended on July 31. The next day, August 1st, I began my teaching job in Washington, DC.

This is when things began to get really rough… and this is where I will pick up again for Part 2.

What foods do you  reach for when you are exhausted?

Guess who’s back, guess who’s back, guess who’s back….

This is how happy I am to be back

Just a note to say that I am back from living in a cave– and by cave I mean working 6 days a week, 12 hours a day since June 20th. Things are slowing down and I am excited to be back on the blogosphere 🙂

Coming soon:

A full run down of these tumultuous five months

A new plan for PB and J

Other awesomeness, TBD

The Great Oat Cake Experiment.

WOW!

Have I been gone a long time or what? It’s been insane finishing up my masters, trying to spend time with people, stay in shape, eat all the food in my cupboard, etc. Blogging fell by the wayside, but reading other blogs definitely provided wonderful study breaks.

Speaking of study breaks and cleaning out the cupboard… I found myself staring at an enormous jug of Quaker Oats. I remembered a little thing called “Oat Cakes” I wanted to try baking, I found this recipe, some friends, and tried my hand at them!

Let me present to you:

The Great Oat Cake Experiment!

We made two batches… each batch required 3 c ground oats. Yes, I had OVER 6 cups of oatmeal lying around.

This is chaos that ensued from the wet ingredients: honey, greek yogurt, sugar, and vanilla.

The figs and apricots for the first batch- we chopped them up as finely as possible.

Then we added the fruit to the wet ingredients (this is batch 2- cranberry!) with egg whites.

Add some flour to the ground oats, add the wet ingredients, and mush like heck!

Shape them into hockey pucks, throw ’em in the oven, and hope they turn out.

The First Batch

Apricot-Fig (followed recipe to a ‘T’ except more than 1/2 c. fruit)

Verdict: Looked sub-par, tasted DELICIOUS

Second Batch (Alterations: Added more yogurt and an additional egg white and more than 1/2 c fruit. Ran out of honey, so used up what we could and splashed in some extra sugar)

Cranberry

Verdict: Absolutely delicious!!!! We loved the cranberry taste in almost every bite.

Close up:

Delicious. Remember: eat with your hands- it’s the Cali way 🙂 These keep you full forever!

Adaptions I want to try:

• Using Whole-Wheat Flour
• Adding Apple Sauce
• Using Peanut Butter (duh!)

All in all this experiment was a huge success. We made 24 and I ended up only getting to eat one! All of our friends clamored from them and adored them. My skeptical boyfriend tried one and is now begging me to make more!

Here is the recipe, reposted from here:

Ingredients

• 3 c Rolled oats
• 2 c Flour
• 1/4 ts Baking powder
• 1/3 c Plain fat-free yogurt (I used Fage 0%)
• 1/2 c Crystalline fructose (I used sugar)
• 1/2 c Honey
• 1/2 ts Vanilla
• 1 Egg white
• 1/2 c Dried fruit (I always did much more than this!)

Instructions

Thoroughly grind rolled oats in food processor or blender.

Mix with flour and baking powder.

Chop dried fruit into small pieces.

In a separate bowl, “cream” together yogurt, fructose, honey, and vanilla.

In yet another bowl, lightly beat egg white until it gets bubbly but not stiff.

Fold egg white into the wet ingredients. Add dried fruit.

Combine wet and dry ingredients. The dough gets pretty stiff and is hard to mix. You may even have to knead it with your hands like bread dough!

Form into 12 patties (We usually only got 10-11)

Bake at 325 degrees F for 15 minutes on non-stick cookie sheet. Cool completely and store in refrigerator. These keep well and may be frozen.

Per patty: 250 calories, 1.5 g fat. (Allegedly)

_______________________

Let me know if you all try them!

In other news, I tried fresh juice this past weekend and am in love. I can’t wait until August when I can buy a juicer! Speaking of, Angela is hosting an Amazing Grass Giveaway that I would be SO PSYCHED to win!! *Fingers crossed*

Take care you all!

New loves.

Well, it’s officially finals time here at Stanford- whoop whoop. So it’s miraculous I’m posting at all. That’s just how much I love you guys.

So- in my study snacking I have found two things that I absolutely adore:

The first:

Weird, because I really hate Fig Newtons

FIGS! I love these things– and I thought I would hate them because I never liked Fig Newtons growing up. Here is a glamor shot of my new b-fri:

You're lookin' good!

And… now… for the most delicious discovery of the YEAR (bold claim, but I’ll stick with it):

NO LACTASE!!!!!!!!!

Goat cheese is okay for people who are lactards! YAY! I can feel so decadent and my belly doesn’t say “No NO NO!” Glorious.

Alright back to the books (er… actually going to go on a hike…).

No worries— I have consumed a lot of Peanut Butter in the past week. A. LOT. Like… a whole jar of this. Which was awesome expensive delish 🙂 Gotta fuel that brain!

Question: Anyone do Bikram? How many times a week do you do it? I’m usually “yoga-ed out” for a day or two after an intense session.

Daily Joy- early morning run/bike ride to the grocery store 🙂

Must. Protect. This. Skin.

Happy Saturday!

I’ve been missing NATURE (goulet!), so today a friend and I are going to go on a hike. It’s an awesome hike, not far from campus, but feels like a million miles away.  We both really needed to sleep in, so we’re not getting started until 11. This is usually when sun is the strongest, so fair, skin protectant snob that I am, has gotten ready! I decided to show you some of my skin protectors!

First I put this ALL OVER MY BODY (yes even on parts of my skin that will be under clothes, as I want maximum protection– as far as I have read clothes aren’t very high UVA + UVB protection):

Coppertone SPORT SPF 70+ Very Sweat Resistant

My camera battery died so it’s charging. Forgive the Photobooth, mirror image pics. I love this stuff, it works well and doesn’t sweat off (you still need to let it set in for ~20 minutes)! It really isn’t greasy after it sets, but it does feel greasy for a while. I’ve NEVER gotten burned wearing this stuff. Mmmm. LOVE YOU COPPERTONE SPORT!

For my face, I put on this beast:

Neutrogena UltraSheer Dry-Touch Sunblock with Helioplex SPF 55

This stuff doesn’t clog my pores (that I can tell) and feels light on my face. I love this sun screen, and as you can tell from the picture, I go through it really quickly. Again let it sit for 15 minutes.

Always reapply sunscreen! I am bringing my sunscreen with me in case we hike over 1.5 hours!

There is more, my friends, there is more. The real doozy, the real man-magnet part of my skin-protection regimen is possibly the best invention of all time…

Too hot to handle

The SPF 50 floppy hat. That picture is too glorious not to share.

HAVE A GREAT DAY LOVELIES!