>26.2 and Giveaway winner

>Hi everyone, I hope you had a bueno day. First thing’s first, I can hardly hold in my excitement…

I’m officially registered for the SunTrust Richmond Marathon on November 13th! This will be my 6th marathon 🙂 I haven’t run one since 2007 so I’m extra excited!

*Also, check out my new Marathon Training tab and track my training progress!

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I woke this morning and inhaled some Tropical Chia Oats – again. And a BIG ole mug of coffee + steamed almond milk.

Feeling very rejuvenated from yesterday’s Bikram Yoga class, I jogged to the gym (10 mins; my warm-up) for a 60 min Spinning class. Fantastic music and heart-PUMPING drills. Love.
In between cleaning and lots of errands I threw together a quick veggie salad with hummus & nutritional yeast dressing:

Spinach, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, cucumbers, and Hummut dressing (2 T hummus, 1 T nutritional yeast, 1 T H20)
*To read about the many benefits of Nutritional Yeast or “noosh”, click here.

Craving some additional protein, I made a Peanut Butter and Chocolate Protein Cupcake:

Recipe here
And made dinner to take with me to work:



Trader Joe’s Herb Dijon Salmon (added some red pepper flakes) cooked on the stove top served over sauteed spinach (satay in 1 T EVOO, dash sea salt, pepper, drizzle balsamic vinegar)

Although I had to cancel a dinner date with Lauren because I was called into work (we are rescheduling), it was a very exciting shift! I can’t wait to be a physician assistant someday 🙂

Alright, I’m off to read and enjoy a new (simple) snack obsession:

Partially thawed fruit (banana, mango, raspberries)

—-

Tomorrow
I have a busy/exciting day that includes:

6 mile run
Volunteering at YMCA as health/wellness coach for middle schoolers
Date night with The Manfriend ❤

—–
Oh, ya want to know the winner of the Modern Bedding Giveaway???
Using a random number generator (aka asking Seth to blindly pick a number, haha), THE WINNER of my giveaway IS….
KATIE from Making Food and Other Stuff! Katie, e-mail me at Biochemista@gmail.com and I’ll send you the promo code!
——
Goodnight all!

>Play hard, sleep harder

>Hi y’alll,

How was your weekend?? The weather in DC wasn’t too nice–but I managed to make the best of it I guess. And by that I mean I slept for 23409732094 hours. You think I’m kidding?? Saturday I slept til FOUR then Sunday until TWELVE! haha Guess I needed some R&R 😉

So I was telling you that Friday I took my first BodyPump class. Holy sore booty! My arse was still sore TODAY! That class rocks…I reeeeally want to get into a routine of doing it 2-3X per week. Bathing suit season is coming y’alll 😉

After the killer class and a looooong day in Experimentland, I really needed to clear my head. I heard we were getting rain all weekend so I headed out for a 6-mile run to enjoy the last of the sun. When it’s warm I try to run home from lab about 3-4X per week. It really only takes me 15 mins longer to run home then walk to the metro, wait for metro, 20 min ride, etc…. I used to do this in Boston a lot. Do you do this?? Or bike to/from work???


Feeling much better with Endorphins pumpin, I met some friends in Arlington, VA to celebrate Andrea’s bday:


^Dinner was at Guarapos. It’s a Latin-style hookah bar with the bestttt cocktails I’ve had in a long time!

I started with a Champagne Mojito:

^Rum, champagne, fresh mint (sans sugar, I think it ruins it)

And ordered the grilled salmon accompanied with quinoa tabbouleh and diced avocado:

[Insert 2 glasses of Riesling]

^Me and Kels (sista)

After dinner we headed to Current (in Dupont Circle for you DC-ers) which was AWESOME! Andrea’s bf got a table so we chilled there for a while then danced the night away on their roof deck where a guy was playing his heart out on the saxophone to modern/hip-hop music! It was so fun!!! Must go back in near future…

^I may or may not have changed clothes post dinner. Just wasn’t feelin it, ya know?

Saturday I slept 11 hours, LOL. Woke up, went to Scienceland (did an ELISA and Western Blot for you science geeks like me) and then came home and watched (too many to admit) episodes of 90210.

Seriously, I can’t get enough of that show. What are some shows you can watch for hours??? I can also watch Full House and Forensic Files (ha, like the spectrum?)

Sunday I slept until 12pm (What is going on???). Major improvement from Saturday, ha. I woke with a growling stomach and quickly devoured this super thick berry smoothie:

^Vanilla protein, frozen banana, fr. berries, handful spinach, 1 tsp flax seed oil, 1 tsp xanthan gum, H20, stevia, dash sea salt. Perfecto.


For the rest of the day I played Susie Homemaker: Dishes, cleaned, laundry, and did a MASSIVE trip to Trader Joe’s. Sorry DCers that shop at TJs, pretty much cleared that place out!

Ravishing from the hours spend at TJs, I whipped up this salad with hummut (thank you again, Gabriela!):

^Romaine, tomatoes, diced organic chicken, cucumbers, edemame, and hummut (1:1 ratio of hummus and nutritional yeast and some h20 to moisten).

Amazing! It’s like a creamy, cheesy chickpea sauce! Will become a new staple I’m sure.

I used TJ’s Cilantro and Jalapeno hummus:

Yeeeh-UM! Ps…I totally don’t understand those of you that despise cilantro. My mom is like this. Serrrrriousllly??

[Insert 4 loads of laundry (whoops) and some apartment cleaning]

Ready to freak out from playin’ Homemaker all day I was craving some “ME” time and headed out for a night run. No pics but it twas beauteous. I ran over and back across my favorite bridge then to/from the White House. I clocked 6.1 miles at avg 7:54 min/mile. Not to shabby 🙂

For a late dinner I spiralized a large zucchini and topped it with diced tofu, tomatoes, steamed broccoli, peanuts, and Trader Joe’s Spicy Peanut Vinaigrette:

^This is one of my favorite meals. Quick and easy. Love the hot/cold combo!

[Insert more stretching and possibly an episode of 90210 😉 ]

Still a little hungry I made a protein cake (recipe from Julie!)


^1 scoop vanilla protein, 2 tbsp egg whites, dash stevia, pinch baking powder, dash sea salt, H20 to moisten. Microwave for 1 min and voila!

I topped this with a scoop of Greek yogurt (sweetened with Better N’ Butter and stevia). Julie, you are a genius! Next time I’m going to try chocolate protein and add in some carob or chocolate chips.

Alright kids, I’m outta here. Heading to spinning class since it’s too gross to run outside. Have a great night!!!

Laur