Blog Archives
All About That Healthy Life
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.
Strong Like My Coffee Turns One!
There is a little call for celebration…. Strong Like My Coffee had a Blog Birthday. Blog Anniversary? Regardless….Strong Like My Coffee turns 1!
One year ago I launched stronglikemycoffee.com. It all began a few years prior, when I became addicted to reading blogs. Now I’m on the other end of the computer page…This occasion calls for coffee, and some (Low-Fat) berry chocolate chip coffee cake :)
Reading other blogs has always provided me with so much inspiration. I enjoy reading all about other people’s lives….their food, their travel, their exercise, their ideas. Looking at their pictures and making their recipes and trying their workouts. After a while, it starts to feel like we’re friends…..when I don’t actually know them at all. (This is starting to sound stalker-y….it’s not like that, I promise!)
So 365 days ago I joined the club. I figured I had some similarities with bloggers I find so entertaining, I could join their little community and share my thoughts too. At first I began humbly….sharing my page with my friends and family. But then came some strangers. Thanks to (the genius) invention of Pinterest, strangers began stumbling upon and reading my blog. Most popularly, the simple post PACKING FOR DORM LIFE. That’s when I realized that there are plenty of college girls like myself from all over, who enjoy maintaining a healthy lifestyle just as much as I do. (BTW there will be a sequel to that post in the next few days…the new school year is right around the corner!)
I was hesistant at first…I didn’t want to publish too much about me, didn’t want people to see this site as a way to brag or beg for attention. I just want to share what I am truly passionate about with people who feel the same way! Reading other bloggers fitness stories, race recaps, goals or even recipes inspires me :) It reminds me to be thankful for the blessings in my life and appreciate the simple joys that we often overlook. I mainly blog for myself, a way to capture my journey.
But this coffee cake I made to SHARE. And I highly encourage you to make it too, because you probably have all the ingredients in your kitchen already and any “indulgence” in moderation is perfectly compatible with a healthy lifestyle :)
The Recipe:
- 1 Cup Non-fat milk
- 6 oz. non-fat vanilla (or any flavor really…) Chobani Greek Yogurt
- 2 heaping Tbs. ground flax seeds
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 3 Tbs. vegetable oil
- 1 cup white flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour (or 1 additional cup of white flour if you don’t prefer the wheat taste)
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 2 Tbs. cinnamon
- 4 Tsp. Baking Powder
- 1 Tsp. Salt
- 1 1/2 cups raspberries (frozen berries work just fine, just thaw them out/drain beforehand!)
- 3/4 cup chocolate chips
- Topping: dusting of powdered sugar & additional raspberries.
1. Whisk together milk, yogurt, flax seeds, vanilla and oil.
2. In a separate bowl, combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder and salt.
3. Add the dry mixture to the milk mixture; stir in raspberries & chocolate chips.
4. Pour evenly into a greased spring form pam; bake for 55 minutes at 350 degrees or until top is golden brown and the middle passes the toothpick test!
5. Let cool for 20 minutes before slicing and sharing with a freshly brewed pot of coffee. Cheers!
365 days. 166 blog posts. Even more planned for the future! I’m excited to see what the next year brings, for myself and for stronglikemycoffee.com. There’s my first collegiate cross country season, my first apartment, my first marathon, my 21st birthday/Vegas trip, my next set of surgeries, and at least 365 more cups of coffee. Everything else…we shall just wait & see!
Thanks for reading! :)
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!
