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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.
Spaghetti Squash Pasta
I think the reason I’ve postponed another blog post for so long is because I couldn’t really top my first marathon recap. I wanted to relive the experience as long as possible! But now, the lactic acid is almost drained from my legs and I cut the tracking tag off of my training shoes for today’s easy run. Time to move on… ;)
Last night’s dinner was purposefully extra healthy because of my lack of exercise all week. Post-marathon, I gave myself 7 full exercise-free days to let my body recover. (Though that did mean turning down frozen yogurt on girl’s night out and bypassing the chocolate section at this week’s Sprouts spree in order to compensate for the lack of energy-expenditure.) Today though, I reintroduced my legs to jogging with a 5 miler on some trails and sidewalks. I am ready to get back to my fitness routine! Now that my marathon is over, what is my next goal? I’m giving myself a week or two to figure that one out….
In the meantime, I’ve cleaned up my fridge with about 15 pounds of fresh produce. I’ve got Acorn squash to Zucchini and everything in between. My dinners are usually a medley of vegetables, like this amazing spaghetti squash pasta. Trust me, you don’t even miss the carbs.
Nope those aren’t noodles!
After you slice the squash open, it’s the easiest thing in the world. Wash it and use a really good knife because cutting into the dense raw squash is slightly frightening…
Scoop out the seeds and guts like a pumpkin. I line a baking sheet with foil, lightly spray with olive oil cooking spray and some seasoning. Lay the squash halves on the tray, face down and bake at 375 for about 50 minutes. They will be super soft when they are done!
For the sauce, I sauteed my own blend of chopped zucchini (green & yellow because the more color the better!), tomato, orange bell pepper, garlic and spinach. Plus we added some pre-cooked shrimp for a little protein. After it all cooked down for about 8 minutes, I added it to some marinara sauce that had been simmering the whole time.
The fun part! Once the squash is removed from the oven, use 2 forks to pull apart the insides into its little “spaghetti” strands. Who ever thought that shaping vegetables to look like a more substantial dish would actually be so filling.
Hah I just couldn’t resist….. ;)
Talk about squash on squash on squash. Here’s the nutritional facts!
Spaghetti Squash has 10 grams of carbs per 1 cup, compared to regular pasta’s 50 grams per cup. It’s also naturally fat-free, low-sugar and largely composed of water. (Hydrating!)
Happy Sunday :)
Summer Citrus Shrimp Salad (Clean Recipe)
Summer + shrimp + citrus = This Salad. You know what I love? COLOR! The more variety in color on my dinner plate, the better.
Corn on a salad in my new favorite thing. You could take this a step further and cook corn on the cobb on the barbeque, get those nice grill marks. I went with the much easier frozen corn this time because we wanted dinner pronto but BBQ’d corn on the cobb definitely screams ‘Summer’.
My salad assembly line…
Cucumber, Tomato, Avocado, Bell Pepper, Pepper, Shrimp (sauteed in lime juice and Old Bay Seasoning) and unpictured corn.
Top all the goodies on a bed of ice burg & romaine lettuce!
The salad dressing was also a clean, homemade lemon dressing:
2 Tbs extra virin olive oil
2 Tbs white wine vinegar
1 Tbs lemon juice
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 clove garlic, minced
Pepper.
Combine in a small container with a lid and SHAKE IT!
This made 2 large dinner salads :)
Lemon and lime are the perfect compliment to shrimp. My family definitely likes seafood, and last summer I had a whole series of summer seafood recipes:
Summer Seafood: Shrimp Burgers with Peachy Salsa
Summer Seafood: Shrimp Quesadillas with Homemade Pesto
Summer Seafood: Shrimp Kabob Salad
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