edible adventures!

Microwave Baked Oatmeal

It’s been a while (again).

i’ve been slowly getting back into the routine of eating healthier - though i’m not super into it yet because the cold makes it difficult since i’m always wanting hot comfort foods to warm me up.

i’m sure by the spring time i’ll be back to my old veggie-munching, fruit pounding self. i also haven’t been on the bike since my event in october, so my metabolism is just not where it should be. 

anyway - here’s my recipe for a relatively healthy, warm and different recipe. it’s oatmeal that tastes like a cake and it’s pretty damn healthy.

ingredients:

2 pkg instant plain oatmeal (you can sub out whatever flavor you want)

1/2 c almond milk

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 egg

1/4 tsp cinnamon

pinch of allspice

1/2 tbsp chia seeds

small amount of pumpkin seeds

small amount of slivered toasted almonds

mix everything very well in a coffee mug, put in the microwave for 2.5 minutes. that’s it. super easy, super quick, super customizable and super delicious. because of the egg, it’s got extra protein and sets up like a cake or muffin rather than a porridge.

give it a try!

I feel like a teenager again.

I’ve been working out 4 times a week for the last 3 weeks. 

And now I’m hungry. ALL THE TIME. it’s ridiculous.

at least i’ve been sticking (mostly) to the healthy stuff. fruit, veggies, etc. i’m still not worried about the occasional cheeseburger, because i’m not of the mindset of cutting out things that are bad for you, but instead focusing on putting more good things in.

i’ve been eating more carbs lately, which i’m fine with because i need them for energy on the bike and in the gym. as a matter of fact, since i’ve been meal planning lately, i’ve decided to try and get in 1 pasta dinner a week.

actually, here’s my meal plan for the week (keep in mind it already started):

monday - night class, had to eat on campus. got a bowl of vegetable soup and a quesadilla with black beans, jalapeños and pico de gallo in it.

tuesday - getting dinner with friends at a local brewpub. it’s suprisingly fancy and expensive, so i don’t know what exactly i’m getting. just about everything on the menu is $25-$30, with the exception of the cheeseburger for $18.50 (lol). but their beer list looks awesome, so excited. really traditional style stuff.

wednesday - chicken shawarma. i actually have to marinate the meat overnight, so i’ll have to prep after i get home from dinner.

thursday - turkey taco casserole. it’s basically a taco made with ground turkey, but no tortilla, so you layer the taco fillings in a bowl and just eat it with a fork.

friday - thai red curry! haven’t made this in a while. delicious stuff. 

saturday - chicken sausage, mushroom and spinach pasta.

so this week isn’t exactly vegetarian, but it’s still pretty healthy - especially keeping in mind that i’m still generally doing green smoothies for breakfast and fruit for lunch.

less than a month until my BikeMS event!

zAMbie.

Hovering steadily around 161-164, depending on certain factors, and I’m fine with that. I haven’t had a whole lot of time lately for working out, especially on days like today where I have an hour and a half commute to school and then 10 hours of classes - I should actually be leaving shortly.

Last week I only worked out once. It’s just so annoying because I actually enjoy it.

My issue is still that I can’t get up in the morning. I’m trying really hard, but maybe not hard enough. I’ve been told that you need to literally just get out of bed and leave the bed room. Don’t use and alarm, don’t hit snooze, go to bed early, blah blah blah. Well, when I get home at midnight, it’s a little difficult to “go to bed early” - especially when the next day I have to leave the house at 8:30 to get to work.

I don’t want to push my health off to the side, but I am hoping that come January, when I’ve graduated college, I’ll finally have the time to put towards being an athlete. In the meantime, I try to make it work as best as I can, I suppose. 

My mission will continue to be to get myself the fuck out of bed. 

Dinner Out tonight - Van Gogh’s Ear Café

Harissa marinated tofu sandwich with field greens, tomato, eggplant chutney, hummus on naan.

Tabouleh salad on the side.

FUCKING NOMZ.

mmm…breakfast.

Drinking a healthy shake for breakfast:

chocolate rice milk

banana

spinach

organic peanut butter

ice

and watching survivorman before work.

Lunch

This is what happens when there’s nothing left in the house:

Iceberg lettuce smeared with hummus and topped with turkey, american cheese, tomato, onion. It’s kind of like a sandwich, without bread…but not a “lettuce wrap” as iceberg doesn’t really wrap very well…it just breaks apart when you try to fold it.

This also happens:

Deliberating what to eat for hours before finally getting hungry/crazy enough to just throw a bunch of random stuff together. So lunch ends up being at 4pm.

Now the biggest problem: Literally no food left in the house besides condiments. So…no dinner? Maybe I’ll travel off the island and grab something.

I’m convinced this is why people fall off when trying to eat healthy. When you’re too busy to meal plan/grocery shop, you just go for whatever’s quick. I’d like to think this lunch isn’t so bad, though. Just wish the iceberg was some other, more nutrient-rich type of lettuce.

Sometimes

Sometimes you take a 3-day weekend to drink old fashioneds, eat cake and whatever else is put in front of your face at a barbecue. Sometimes you somehow gain like 7 pounds in the process. Sometimes you get really bad stomach problems from it. And sometimes, you decide that tomorrow you’re gonna get back to eating right. No drastic changes, just making good decisions and working out a little more than usual. 

Oh, and by the way, sometimes those 7 pounds are probably water weight from eating salty food. (Seriously, I couldn’t have gained 7 pounds of fat in 3 days. I don’t even think I’ve eaten 7 pounds of food total in those 3 days…and even if I did, I couldn’t have possibly retained all of that unless I was scooping out sundaes from a tub of butter. So yeah.) Rationalizing for the win.

Current Weight: 167.4 (HOW?!?!?)

So THAT’S Why Hills Sucks SOOOOO Bad!

I just remembered that my bike is only a 14 speed. Meaning it’s got a 7 ring cassette in the rear. Meaning that I don’t have NEARLY enough easy gears for the hills I ride.

That being said - I’ve realized something else. If you train on a bike that isn’t the fastest, or lightest, or easiest to climb hills with…then it forces your body to be stronger in order to get to the top of that hill, or to push harder to get to 37mph. 

That’s right. I said it. Check my latest Strava data. I just did my normal loop and shaved like 2 minutes off my previous time for one of the segments, and almost TEN MINUTES OFF MY TOTAL.

I don’t know how that’s possible. Maybe it’s just a GPS error? Who knows. All I care about is that I’m getting stronger, and I’m getting faster. Even if my bike holds me back a bit. It forces me to struggle more - it forces me to adapt.

I also filled my water bottle with HEED on that ride - it’s a powdered sports drink mix that’s made by Hammer Nutrition. HEED stands for High Energy Electrolyte Drink, and I’d believe that having this instead of plain water in my bottle really helped me push myself to the next level. It’s got complex carbs in it to help replenish some of the glycogen lost during physical activity, and some lactic acid buffering properties so you don’t fatigue as easily. I bought a single serve packet of it at my LBS. The taste is a little weird, to be honest. I got the lemon-lime flavor…which smells more citrusy than it tastes. It’s got a pretty light taste, actually…more like a lightly flavored water. Which I suppose is good, since I’m not a big fan with the syrupy-sweet flavor of Gatorade. But it also tastes kind of like marshmallows or something. I mean, it’s not a bad weird. I didn’t mind the flavor. I just have to get used to it, I think. Maybe I’ll try a different flavor, too.

I’m going to start messing around with figuring out what brands of sports nutrition I like the most. When it comes to long endurance sports, this isn’t just to be cool, it’s kind of really freakin’ important in order to make it to the finish line.

I also want to start playing around in the kitchen and make my own stuff: energy bars, energy gel, trail mix, etc. I’m really into avoiding processed foods as much as possible, and if I can do that on the bike (and especially if it’s cheaper, and just as effective) then that’s what I’ll do.