Monthly Archives: February 2013
Sesame Salmon Stack
One of the (many) perks of having your parents come and visit: they stock your fridge! I was one happy girl when my parents brought a full Sprouts grocery bag full of things that I don’t usually buy here at school. Avocados and salmon, grapefruits and pears, more veggies and fruits and plenty of quick oats and brown rice. Definitely not your typical Top-Ramen kind of dorm-room-pantry.
I’ve been avoiding campus food in favor of my own healthy meals for the past week, and this dish has popped up twice in the past couple of days because it’s so delicious!
What I’m calling the “Sesame Salmon Stack” :) A low-carb lunch that only takes about 20 minutes to make. Plus it’s packed with so many health benefits:
- Double the Omega-3’s from salmon AND avocado
- Monounsaturated fats (the HEART-healthy fat!)
- 4 ounce salmon contains 20 grams of protein with only 3.5 grams of fat
- Low-carb
- Variety of vitamins from bell peppers including A, B6, C, E, and K
The sesame sticks are the least healthy component of this recipe, but by sticking to 2 tablespoon portion size, they still add crunch and flavor without too many extra calories.
I just prepared the salmon burger according to the package, baking in the oven for about 16 minutes. While it cooked, I mixed half of a ripe avocado with some lemon juice, pepper and garlic – Guacamole! Then I diced up 3 different bell peppers, and measured out 2 Tablespoons of Trader Joe’s Sesame Sticks.
Once the salmon came out of the oven, I topped it with some Light Asian Sesame Salad Dressing, the guacamole mixture, bell peppers, and sesame sticks. It looked pretty! Not gonna lie, I was kind of proud of myself for coming up with a recipe using all these great ingredients my parents brought me. Now I just need something that utilizes my left-over pear, broccoli, yogurt, and oatmeal….. ;)
The 4-Part Birthday Workout!
As if he knew it was my birthday, my coach made Tuesday’s practice “on-your-own.” That translates to: SLEEP IN PAST 7am! The trails and roads are covered with a layer of ice and snow from the weekend’s storms, so my workout would be taking place in the comfort of the dry and heated gym. Because of said storm, I had already run for 60 minutes on the treadmill Saturday, and 85 minutes Sunday. So another long treadmill run didn’t interest me in the least bit.
I may have deviated from my training program for a day to mix things up a little bit and keep it interesting – girls just wanna have fun!
Our track team’s strength program has really been focusing on lower body lately, lots of overhead-weighted squats, hamstring curls and RDL’s, and hip mobility. Not to leave the upper body neglected, I decided to start out with upper body weights. I made up my workout as I went along, but it came out looking like this:
P.S. Don’t let the pink backgrounds fool you; this workout will leave you sweating and in need of some protein replenishment!
Note on the modified pull-ups: I used the machine that takes off some of your body weight so I was really lifting about 65% of my body weight. Since there are 3 sets, I did one set with parallel grip, one with chin-up grip, and one with pull-up grip.
Bursts of cardio to break a sweat! Followed by actual cardio machines, without the monotony of another treadmill day:
A workout is not complete without some CORE! These are pretty much my favorite core exercises, minus a couple. Like I said, I made it up as I went along but it looked something like:
This workout turned out WAY longer than I anticipated and I was at the gym for about 2 hours but I didn’t mind! It made a (little) dent in my birthday calories :) I definitely didn’t count calories this weekend with my parents, or on my actual birthday with some extra treats. Today it’s back on track with balanced meals and minimal desserts but it was nice to enjoy some “extras” off campus for a few days.
Apart from the exercise… I really enjoyed my birthday. I’m happy to have so many great people in my life and we had so much fun ending the birthday night getting frozen yogurt in 20 degrees. Die hard ice cream fan!
My birthday was conveniently on “Fat Tuesday.” Which epitomized my diet for the day. Red Velvet yogurt with strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries, all of which are invisible under this mound of granola & hot fudge. Going out with a bang!
Starting the day in the gym and ending it with the best group of teammates and friends. Can’t ask for much more than that!
Weekend in Snapshots
Pictures can do the past 48 hours more justice than words could. My parents drove up for the weekend to celebrate my birthday and were greeted with a beautiful blanket of snow. First stop: the track. Work hard then play hard ;)
With the time trial completed, we headed downtown for the night!
One of the best friends I could ask for!
Peanuts in their shell remind me of baseball. Take ME out to the balllllllll game!
SNOWFLAKES!
Night 2 – Greek food! Shared a delicious Greek pizza & Pita Wrap. Yes, I splurged this weeked (AFTER a 75 minute gym sesh)
Yep. That’s caramel. And chocolate pretzels. And ice cream. Health nuts have birthday dessert too ;) Like I said – I splurged! (I may have “wished” that these calories just disappeared…) And I definitely hit the treadmill for a 10-miler the next morning!
Love having my family here, and the weekend was definitely too short. As my parents first experience with snow, we had an unforgettable weekend! Only one thing was missing…..
