Underneath the title of my blog reads: Student-Athlete in love with health & fitness. I have been debating the need to change this. Technically, I quit my collegiate cross country team in November. However I still consider myself an “athlete.” I’m determined to live the healthy lifestyle every day (some more successful than others). The last two weeks I have focused on prioritizing exercise & cooking ACTUAL meals.

Pre-marathon I let myself splurge and indulge on a regular basis. Froyo? Sure! Let’s bake cookies? Okay! You want to go out for sushi and starbucks? I’m down! After a while though I just start to feel…blahhh. Like I know I need my lean & greens. Now I’m back on-board that health train… There have been plenty of socials & snacks in the past week. Hiking Sedona, the Super Bowl, my roommates birthday dinner, and a friend’s birthday brunch. But in true healthy life fashion, I found ways to make all of the above fun & guilt-free.

Hiking Sedona:

Some friends and I drove down to the beautiful red rocks, excited to get a picture on the Devil’s Bridge. We made a pre-hike pit stop at Sprouts. To fuel our outdoor adventure, we filled our backpacks with apple slices, orange slices, mixed nuts, and a whole wheat turkey & avocado sandwich.

Can we talk about that hike for a minute? I had a growing need to get out of my college town. I still have that need. I’ll go back to Sedona every free day I have. But this hike led up to the most gorgeous views, made even more dramatic by the dark gray clouds that threatened a storm (but never conceded). Hiking up the rock stairs out on to the bridge was a glorious celebration of beautiful nature :)

Super Bowl Study Session!

On Super Bowl Sunday, I had a long to-do list of homework and group projects to complete after my long run. I made (yet another) trip to Sprouts for some fresh fruits. Kerri was coming over to knock out a few hours of homework while the game was on. Our study snack for the day consisted of fruit salad (bananas, grapes, blueberries, & strawberries), Hawaiian coffee, and cinnamon soy crisps. BRUNO MARS KILLED IT. That boy’s voice >>>>

Mackenzie’s Birthday Celebration:

My roommate Mackenzie turned 21 while we were all home for winter break. Meaning no party! So we threw her a little birthday celebration last week with her favorite dinner, cute decorations, some games and of course dessert. (The girl didn’t want alcohol…call her crazy!)

Perfecting my chalkboard art this year ;)

However, my roommates’ taste don’t really fit into my healthy lifestyle and food preferences. So I don’t think you should avoid social situations just because they are unhealthy, and I also don’t want to compromise my healthy values to splurge on something that I don’t enjoy. So I made my own dinner on the side and Mackenzie didn’t mind one bit. My Dinner: Spaghetti Squash, chickpea veggie burger, sweet potato and green beans while my roommate’s enjoyed their homemade Cream Cheese Chicken with Rice & Corn. In this case, she really can have her cake and eat it too ;) I can still celebrate without feeling ‘food guilt’ (a whole other topic I’ll get to another day).

Fernanda’s Birthday Brunch:

Another friend also had a birthday recently, so I made her birthday brunch this morning since my Friday class was cancelled. I just like to make things pretty! Whole wheat blueberry pancakes… bananas… strawberries… blueberries… coffee (duh). And THAT is how to start a lovely day :)

I’ll be spending the evening watching the WINTER OLYMPICS with friends and making Valentine’s goodies :) all about that #healthylife!

P.S. Today took an unexpected adventure to GNC with my best friend just to try out the much-talked-about “Quest” bar. I picked the Cookies n’ Cream bar at the suggestion of the GNC worker. Loved the texture & “cookie” chunks :) I could write about the bar, but Taralynn McNitt has already done so quite nicely so I’ll just post a little link to that here: Cookies n’ Cream Quest Bar.