Thanksgiving Break Recap, Fruit Deliveries, and Winter Running

     I can't believe its almost been a week since I got back to Union College from Thanksgiving Break! Being home with my mom and my brother was something I really needed. We all stayed up late watching movies, slept in late,  I had long in-depth conversations with my mom, I got to see my old friends, go to cycling classes at LA Fitness, and do some fun trail running. I also took advantage of Black Friday by purchasing some new Vibrams online (they were 30% off!) instead of buying them at Abbadabba's in Atlanta (I needed a new pair of Sprints. My old pair I wore a whole through it after wearing it everyday for almost 1.5 yrs.).

    

      I was planning to do the Atlanta Thanksgiving Half Marathon while I was home, but I changed my plans; my mom asked me if it would be alright to skip it this year so that she could have a relaxing and well-slept vacation (I didn't have my car so she would have driven me to the race at 5am on Thanksgiving Day in downtown Atlanta). Everyone just needs a break now and again, and my main priority on this vacation was to spend quality time with my family. They have supported me in my food choices, school choices, and especially in my races, and they are what I am most grateful for.

This is my latest creation, a "Baked" Apple Smoothie.

This smoothie was invented to replace my preplanned 

raw persimmon pie. I had all the ingredients but somehow

ants managed to find their way into the reusable bag, 

paper bag, and plastic bag that I had wrapped 

the Hachiya persimmons in to ripen.

     When I got back from break my good friend, Jamie, and her boyfriend picked me up at the airport in Omaha. Although I had persimmons waiting for me back in my dorm and some clementines I had brought back from the Farmer's Market at home, I was still going to need some more food to last me until my next shipment from Jourdan's Beautiful Foods arrived, so we stopped off at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's.

Yum yum, eat em up!

     Yesterday was when my fruit 

packages started to arrive again. More Dragon Fruit!   

And today my package of Pomelos came in!!

I was amazed at the size of these guys. 

Wow! I know what I'm having for breakfast.

     Since getting back I hadn't gone running. I was sick of using the treadmill, but it was cold outside and I didn't have the appropriate outdoor running clothes for midwest temperatures.  So this Tuesday I went over to Scheels (a popular sports store hear in Nebraska) to fork out some money for a good quality winter running outfit: pants, shirt, coat, gloves, and hat (the whole shebang).

     While I was there I also invested in a new pair of running shoes. I haven't run or really even walked in anything but Vibram Five Fingers and thin sandles in well over a year. However, I've found that even with the Bikila's I'm only able to run a max of 14 miles on pavement (trails aren't a problem) before I start experiencing ankle pain. I viewed this reaction as an indication that if I plan on training and running the Lincoln Marathon this May, then I was going to need some shoes with more support; and with some research beforehand and some assistance from one of the staff members from Scheels, I found something that I believe will work for me - the Nike LunarGlide+ 3 Shield running shoe.

I ran in them for the first time today.

It felt a little weird because I'm not accustomed

to running in actual shoes, but I don't think it 

will be to difficult to adjust seeing as they are so light.

And even though they provide more support than 

Vibrams, they aren't really all that thick.

Bring on the cold, I'm ready!

     I only have one more week after this week before finals; then I can enjoy myself over Christmas Break - 3 whole weeks of fun, rest, and relaxation before Spring Semester starts. The first two weeks I'll be in California with Jamie (road trip!) and the last week of break I plan on flying back home to visit my family. So my posts might have been rather sparse over the Fall semester, but look out for a lot of activity  anytime after December 18th.

Later!

Fun Flavors of Fall

     

     Autumn my dear readers is a beautiful season, especially here in Nebraska. On campus the trees are turning so many colors: red, yellow, orange, and pink, all with different variance of these shades; there are even trees with multiple colors on the leaves, one side might be red while the other side is yellow! And as a college student and Biology major, Autumn is the busiest time of the year, with tests to take, papers to write, projects to do, books to read, classes to attend, and lab experiments to conduct. I still managed to have some fun though, and even make a couple of new good friends.
     In early October I attended a small fall festival at the church by Union's campus. The festival was put on by the the George Stone Elementary school (which is housed below the Union girls' dorm) to raise money for their school.

Some of the kids even performed. 

This guy was pretty good.

     Due to its pagan origins I have never, and still don't celebrate Halloween. However, I love that because of Halloween you can dress up in a costume during this time of the month without people thinking your nuts, and this year I took advantage of it. So I grabbed whatever I had handy in my dorm room, and for one day I went to classes as a wood nymph. What fun I had! =D

     When November came about three things happened: (1) It got colder! Brrr..., (2) my workload got heavier, and (3) some of my favorite fall fruits became available, Fuyu persimmons, cranberries, honey crisp apples, and dragon fruit! Persimmons and dragon fruit I prefer to eat as a mono-meals. While its true that persimmons and dragon fruit taste good with a lot of different fruits and raw recipes, there is just something delectable about sitting down to a large meal of sweet, soft, and juicy persimmons or dragon fruit. Mmmmm...

     And when cranberry season arrives, so do the honey crisp apples, and I get to make one of my favorite fall breakfast, raw cranberry sauce:

    
     Today is the last day of classes for me. Tomorrow morning I get to fly home for Thanksgiving Break. It's going to be wonderful. A whole week without classes or labs to go to and no tests to take. . . I can't wait! I plan on running the Atlanta Thanksgiving Half Marathon again this year. It's the same course as last year so I'll get the chance to see if I can beat my PB for this course from last year. Tomorrow couldn't come soon enough.

Let the Training Begin!

     Today was the first day of my New Years resolution to up my training and better my athletic performance. Today I drove over to our local LA Fitness and became a member. I can afford it because the cost of attending our local community college isn't very high and I'm make monthly payments for membership and can terminate my membership whenever or if ever I need to. What's also amazing is that they have all sorts of classes that I can attend without any extra cost (e.g. yoga, kick boxing, pilates, modern dance).

     I spent the next 2 hours working out and having the time of my life! =D I would have like to have done more running but I didn't want to over do it seeing as my right ankle is still recovering from an overuse injury. 

• Cycling: 13.56 miles - 60 minutes + 2 minutes cool down
• Elliptical: 1.3 miles - level 5 - 20 minutes + 2 minutes cool down
• Running: 2.56 miles - 25 minutes + 2 minutes cool down
• Rowing: 5 minutes
• Weights: 10 minutes   

     Now for my food for today. . .

• Breakfast - Smoothie: papaya/blueberry/pineapple/banana/clementine
• Lunch/Recovery meal -  Smoothie: pineapple/clementine/banana/blueberry/spinach/coconut water
• Dinner Part 1 - Fuyu persimmons
• Dinner Part 2 - Honeydew melon
• Dinner Part 3 - Fuyu persimmons
• And loads of water through out the day - 3.5 quarts

Couldn't fit in quite as much food into me as I wanted but still very close.

Post Recovery Smoothie (Lunch)

This is only half of what I ate. I almost forgot to take a picture! LOL

     One other lovely addition to my day was the arrival of my Chocolate Sapote from Jordan's Beautiful Foods. Jackpot!

Currently ripening

Training for Half Marathon - Days 26 & 27 + Food Intake

Day 26 - Friday

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     Friday was rain, rain, and more rain! My exercise routine was reduced to 15 minutes of weight training  and a 20 minute 4 mph walk. Like a mentioned in my previous post I had planned to go swim laps, but my mom wanted to go to the mall for some indoor speed walking. She didn't want to go alone so I decided to join her instead of going swimming. 

Day 27 - Saturday

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     Today was overcast and a bit on the chilly, but no rain! You all know what that means right? I got to go for my run!! :-D I went to my local park and went for a vigorous and refreshing 30 minute (3.5 mile) run. Today was my best running-before-needing-to-walk-for-a-minute-to-catch-my-breath time. I was able to run for 7 min. and 20 sec. before needing a brief rest walk before starting up my run again. Considering that the trail terrain at the park is rough, with lot's of ups and downs, I would say that's doing pretty good! I also did 10 minutes of weight training, 5 minutes of stretching, and 8 minutes of dancing to my iPod.


     My plan for the marathon is to try to up my running-without-stopping-to-walk-to-catch-my-breath time to at least 20 minutes. That way I can pace myself during the half marathon (20 min. running with 3-5 min. walking), thus maintaining a steady and constant pace towards the finish line.

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     Eating nothing but raw fruits and vegetables (with sparing amounts of nuts and seeds), having a rather speedy metabolism, on top of being quite active as well, I have to eat a lot, and I love that I can do that! :-D

For example today I ate:

•  2.5 Cups Blueberries
• 14 Clementines
• Green Smoothie (3 C. Mango, 1 C. Frozen Banana, 2 C. Spinach, 0.5 Cups Coconut Water,  Stevia)     

    

• 3 Fuyu Persimmons
• Mint Papaya Smoothie (4 C. Papaya, 2 Large Bananas, Handful of Mint, Juice from 0.5 Lime, 0.5 Coconut Water, Vanilla, and Stevia)
• 2 Large Bananas + 3 Medjool Dates

     Consuming this much food is usual for me and I enjoy every mouthful. To be honest with you, a year ago, I would NOT be able to eat all this food. When I first transitioned to this diet I wasn't able to eat all that much food, in fact I was barely able to maintain my weight as I could only consume 1300 - 1500 calories a day. It took about three month for my body to adjust up to 1600 - 1800 calories a day. This January, with the increase of my activity level, I now easily consume anywhere between 2200 - 2650 calories a day. 

Long Hard Day, but Fresh Persimmons Made it All Ok

     Hello everybody! Like the title says, it has been a looooong day! I had to get up at about 5:30 this morning to drive into Atlanta to retake my SATs. I figured that since I was taking a gap year to study nutrition, it wouldn't hurt to try and up my score a hundred points or so. All went smoothly and I'm feeling pretty good about the test!
     
     So this morning before the drive up to Atlanta, my mother and I started out our day with a lovely smoothie (which do to my tight time schedule I was unable to photograph.) It consisted of 2 cups pomegranate juice (juiced the night before), 3 bananas, two cups frozen wild blueberries, and a heaping tsp. of raw honey. Mom and I wanted to give our minds and bodies powerful fuel (I was going to need it!).
    
      The test seemed to last FOREVER, but I managed to get through it by refueling with a snack of organic dried mulberries (yummy!). These delicious berries are high in fiber, protein, iron, and calcium so eat up! Eventually the test was over and I was out of there, at 1:20 PM. : p
     
     Afterwards I went with my mom to Rainbow Natural Groceries (where I got myself a nummy salda) and The Farmer's Market to restock on food. When we got home I got to croon over my beautiful booty of grapes, apple, pineapple, tangerines, dried apricots, coconut water, celery, cauliflower, kale, tomatoes, banana, frozen berries, 3 bottles of kombacha (they were on sale!) and an entire BOX of of Hachiya Persimmons!! 

ALL MINE!! :D:D:D

     Spent the rest of the day doing house work until it was time for dinner. First I made my brother a nutrient and enzyme packed smoothie to have before he made his stir-fry because he's been saying he feel like he's been coming down with something. When my mom found out she asked me to make enough for her as well as she wanted to make sure her immune system was in top form. Here's what I came up with:

       The Immune Allies Smoothie

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1 C. chopped pineapple

2 tangerines, peeled & deseeded

1 C. fresh or frozen bananas

9 frozen strawberries (or handful of fresh)

1/2 Tbs. Raw Honey

1/4 C. Water

Blend until smooth.

                                                

  Later, for myself, I made a nice big, thick, and creamy delight!

Dreaming of Paradise Smoothie

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1 mango

1 1/2 C. chopped pineapple

1 1/2 ripe bananas

1/2 Tbs. raw honey

1/2 C. fresh thai coconut water

Blend until smooth.

  

     At the moment I am snacking on some globe grapes while surfing the internet. I am just so relieved that this day is finally done. I can stop worrying about the SAT and focus on my CSNN studies again. I hope everyone has a beautiful day, and that your life will be much blessed. 

Ch-Ch-Chia Goodness!

So today wasn't all that exciting. It rained all day long, which means that I couldn't go for my walk today. So instead, after having half of a honeydew melon for breakfast, I accompanied my mom and brother to a cafe where I sat in a corner table by the front window and worked on my studies for about an hour. When I got home I spent the next few hours studying some more, doing laundry, and making veggie soup for my mom and vegan mac & cheese for my brother. Once that was done I got the chance to make my own lunch, in which I tested out some of my newly purchased chia seed! I soaked a tablespoon of chia seed with 1/2 a cup of water for about 30 minutes. I then proceeded to blend it with a mango, a banana, a handful of strawberries, 1 Tbs. of Spirulina, 1 tsp. maca powder, 1 tsp. vanilla extract, and some stevia to taste. It was really REALLY good. I was actually surprised on how well the meal sat with me. I was a little nervous mixing chia with fruit since it does have a highish fat content, but it still isn't a fat dominant food so I figured it could hurt to give it a try. It was delicious and didn't cause any bloating of digestive distress any kind. This meal made me feel satisfied at the end without feeling heavy. Two thumbs up!

My mom teaches at a homeschool co-op on Tuesdays in the wee early hours of the morning, and then again later in the afternoon. When she got hope from her afternoon class she and I decided to just go out for the sake of going out so we could get some one on one conversation time with each other. It was a nice pick me up from the gloomy feeling that had been sneaking up on me from all the wet and clouds. On the way home we stopped off at Ingles so that I could get some more organic mangos (I have a serious addiction to this fruit. They are a staple in my diet.)

When I got home it was about an hour before I would have to leave for karate so I decided to grab a couple of bananas and the last of my persimmon jam for a pre-karate snack. I have got to get some more persimmon! They are a new food love of mine, and once I find something yummy, healthy, and raw to boot, I can't get enough! :D

Karate went well. We worked on sets and escapes and ended with handshake push-ups. Karate really is a great way to workout, especially if your someone who enjoys being with other people as well. When it was over I came home HUNGRY so I grabbed a kiwi, 2/3 of a pineapple, 2 mangos, and a cup of grapes and dug in!