>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!

source

*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)

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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 ❤

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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!

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Goodnight all!

>Labah day

>Happy Saturday and 3-day Labah-day weekend (sometimes I pretend I still live in Bahston)! Thank you all for your kind words regarding my experiment to be featured on CBS’ The Doctors. Pretty excited over here 🙂

The last few days have been consumed with essay writing and filling out applications (to physician assistant school). The Manfriend headed down to the Jersey Shore to visit a friend’s beach house, and (kicking and screaming) I decided to stay and finish these apps. Go go go! <— Hope your holiday weekend is more exciting than mine! heh

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Some new recipes & dishes I’ve tried out the last couple of days:

Breakfast:

Pineapple-banana Green Monstah: 1 scoop vanilla protein, 1 frozen banana, hand full fresh spinach, 3/4 cup frozen pineapple, 1 tbsp unsweetened red. fat coconut, 1 tbsp healthy-fat-of-your-choice (I used flax seed oil; to promote absorption of fat soluble vitamins), steiva, 1 cup unsweetened almond milk, dash sea salt, ice. Garnish with coconut.

PB & Vanilla Chia Overnight oats: Night before, combine: 1/4 cup oats, 1/2 scoop vanilla protein (I use SunWarrior), 1/2 cup Greek yogurt, 3/4 cup almond milk, 1 tbsp chia seeds, 1 tbsp PB, stevia, dash sea salt.

Lunch:

“Mac N’ Cheese” Savory oats: 1/4 cup cooked oats, 2 scrambled eggs (1 egg + 1 white), diced medium-firmness tofu (~1/6 block), 1/4 cup frozen spinach (optional), 3 tbsp Nutritional yeast (for cheeeesy flavor), 2 tbsp lite shredded cheddar, sea salt & pepper. <– Oats in a non-breakfast dish seemed weird to me at first too. Try it, I swear it’s great.

Chicken salad with dill: 1 diced chicken breast, heaping tbsp Greek yogurt, generous amount of dill (~1/2 -1 tbsp), chopped pickle, 1 tbsp pickle juice, sea salt, pepper. Served over toasted Everything Bagel Thin. <—Greek yogurt as a substitute for mayo is fantastic! Add a tbsp of pickle juice and it’s even better!

Dinner:

Not really new, but worthy of posting: Grilled turkey burger topped with sauteed veggies, sweet potato fries (or chips?), and a simple salad w/ balsamic vinaigrettee

Sweet Potato Fries (so easy!):

Preheat oven to 425F

Dice 1 medium sweet potato per person

Spray tinfoil covered baking pan with cooking spray (I use EVOO)

Place diced sw potatoes on baking sheet

Spray with more cooking spray

Add sea salt & pepper

Bake ~ 15 mins then flip. Bake another 15 until browned.

Snacks & Dessert:

PB Yogurt: 1/2 cup 0% Greek Yogurt, 1 heaping tbsp PB Flour, 1 tbsp PB, stevia, dash sea salt

Chocolate-covered Strawberry Protein “Ice Cream”

Combine:

1 scoop chocolate protein powder

1 cup frozen strawberries

1/2 frozen banana

1 tsp xanthan gum (to thicken)

stevia

dash sea salt

~5-6 ice cubes

~1/4 cup almond milk (slowly add more if necessary to allow mixing)

& Blend

Thickkk and delicious:

& Vino:

My siblings and I have an inside joke that whenever we see the word “gnarly” we have to try and pronounce the G and the N. Sounds like “Gah-narly”. Say it fast. Funny? No?

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To kick off the holiday weekend, my sister and I met a friend out for drinks. It was waaay too nice to spend the evening indoors, and a rooftop bar & deck seemed quite appealing.

Fashion moment:

My beautiful sister (and roommate!), Kelsey.

And awkward bathroom photo of yours truly.

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I’ve decided that a fall marathon is looking pretty good right now. No injuries, my pace is pretty fast. I am comfortably running 7 miles, 3X per week including a long run. I’m debating this Washington, DC half marathon…What do you think?? It looks pretty amazing.

Recent workouts have included:

Sun: Rest

Mon: 25 min HIIT (high intensity interval training, aka sprint workout) on treadmill + abs

Tues: BodyPump class + 3 mi run

Wed: 45 min spinning class

Thurs: Total body weights + Boxing class

Fri: 6 mi run

Sat: Bootcamp: 10 min run + 1 circuit + 1 circuit + weights

This marathon season, I’m including much more cross training. More yoga/strength training and less injuries 🙂

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Have a fantastic Labor Day Weekend!!!!

Lauren

>Sushi, shopping woes, and Marathon 2010!

>Hiiiii,

How are yaa? I’m doing swellll. My legs are starting to feel more like legs (and less like bricks) after Sunday’s 15-mile run. I’m hoping to get in one more 7-mi training run before heading to Quebec on Wednesday for a wedding!

Usually I have my outfit picked out weeeeks before but this time shopping kinda slipped ma mind. Last night Kels (sistah) and I had sushi then hit up the mall to find a dress. The shopping (but not sushi) was completely unsuccessful. At least we had a good meal, right??

I had miso soup:

Edamame:

Salmon sashimi:

And split this aaaaaa-mazing “Cherry Blossom Roll” with Kels:

^Salmon, yellow tail, tuna, avocado, seaweed salad a cherry on top!

Side note: If you are planning to visit DC in the near future, come during the Cherry Blossoms! It’s absolutely gorgeous!

So back to shopping, we didn’t have much time so I just checked the two closest stores, Nordstroms and Macy’s. I found nadda! I’m not a frequent Macy’s shopper but I figured they might have some dresses. Baah, was I dead wrong.

Soooo, that leaves tonight to find a dress before we leave on Wednesday. Where should I look??? I’m thinking BCBG, J Crew, and Anthropologie. Any other suggestions????

This morning I woke up late (9am, whoops) and cured my rumbling stomach with a bowl of this heaven:

^1/3 cup oats, 3 tbsp egg whites, 1 tbsp cinnamon, agave, raisins, dash sea salt, blob Cinnamon Swirl PB

Again, this stuff is AHH-MAZING:

Buy. some. immediately.

A few hours later I was staaaaavin again, so I whipped up a Green Monster:

^1/2 scoop vanilla whey protein, 1/2 cup FF Greek yogurt, nanner, 1/2 cup frozen spinach, 1/4 cup mixed berries, 1 tsp flax oil, H20, stevia.

Alright, back to scienceland. Have a great day!

QUESTIONS: Where should I buy a dress??? Are you planning to run a marathon someday?

xox

Lauren

Oh and PS, I am OFFICIALLY REGISTERED for a MAY 2ND MARATHON!!!!!

>Goals

>Hey y’all! TGIAF!

Source

So I know I’m a little late on the New Years Resolution train, but this year I couldn’t decide on just one thing. I could only think of like 10. So I decided not to choose one and instead come up with a list of things I want to do more of.

So here’s my current list:

1. Nix cow’s dairy (gives me bad stomach aches that just seem to be getting worse)

2. Run marathon #5 in the spring….Location TBD. Any suggestions???

3. Read more (for pleasure; science doesn’t count…unless it’s forensince hehe) before bed

4. Get back into yoga 2-3X/week (seriously heals the mind and bod)

5. Cut back on my gum consumption (this is super hard for me! I chew gum when running/studying/breathing…ha)

6. Cook 1 new recipe/week

Question: Do you make lists????? If so, how routinely do you “check in” with your progress.

Please share some of your goals!