Mother’s May Miles

My family doesn’t really do “typical” or “normal” very well. Instead of the usual Mother’s Day brunch or large family event, my mom asked if we could all go on a bike ride.

We did a nice 20-mile ride along the Los Gatos Creek Trail. Because we love to eat, we planned our ride so we could have a great lunch at the halfway point. We stopped in at a local pizza place and split a tasty pizza and some salads. (I meant to take a picture of my salad… but I might have eaten it all in my hunger-crazed state before I remembered that plan. I guess you will just have to trust me that it was tasty.)

It was great to get outside and take a break from my crazy schedule. The weather was amazing. It was in the high 70s and low 80s the entire ride, which was comfortable in bike shorts and a tank (and about an entire bottle of sunscreen slathered on me). The trail is covered by trees along the way so it has pockets that are cool. Where the creek isn’t channeled and overly engineered, you can see fish swimming (and I mean big fish, more than a foot or two long) and the birds diving in and out of the water. At one point we had to stop riding so a group of geese waddle across the path.

I’m looking forward to more warm days and more days out on the bike, especially if my knee keeps acting up and I can’t hit the streets for a run.

The past two weeks have been insanely busy. They were the kind of weeks where as soon as you walk out of the bathroom you can’t remember if you brushed your teeth or not.

Confession: I am afraid of spiders. For the most part I am a logical being and I understand that the likelihood of death by a spider bite is incredibly low, but that doesn’t stop me from believing death is imminent every time I see a spider. With that said, I had to confront some serious spider phobias on my last hike.

Getting to Almaden Quicksilver Park was an adventure in itself. I had been there before for a fieldtrip, but we had entered through a surrounding neighborhood that I couldn’t remember anymore. We ended up going through the entrance at the far side of the park which meant that the trails we hiked on where fairly empty. This was great in that it’s nice to hike with your friends and not be constantly surrounded by other people when you are trying to just be outside in nature by yourselves, but it’s also incredibly unfortunately when it appears you are hiking straight into the Land of Spiders and no one appears to have knocked down any of the webs for you.

My poor friend Alec turned into our spider shield as my roommate and I crouched behind him for at least a mile total of the trail (that’s definitely one disadvantage of being tall). The morning sun lit up the webs perfectly so we could see every terrifying strand handing down from the trees across the path and creating intricate patterns above our heads. At one point the nerd inside of me (and the part of me that really wanted to say forget it and go home) started quoting Ron from Harry Potter. Thankfully no one listed to me and once we made it out of serious spider territory the hike was great.

We even journeyed off the trail (just barely) and climbed a rock that looked interesting. 

But the best part was finally settling down to eat an amazing salad and some cookies on the floor (we were too dusty and dirty to sit on anything nicer). 

I have always loved to swim. I was swimming before I could talk, and it’s one activity that has always been calming and fun for me, whether I am swimming competitively  to stay in shape, or just to catch up with all of my thoughts. I’m never bored in the water, and I rarely, if ever, pass up on the opportunity to swim. 

Today felt like a great day to swim, especially since the weather has been nice and I upset my knee a bit last night (I had poor form on a max weight squat clean and tugged on something in my knee. It’s fine, just a little swollen and tender, but I’m going to give it at least a week of rest before I squat even body weight). So instead of going for my typical run, I pulled out the bathing suites (yes, I am one of those swimmers that wears two suites, a weird habit I picked up on the swim team) and slathered myself in sunscreen. 

Unfortunately I spent so much time cleaning up the kitchen that my swim was seriously rushed. Due to some car trouble (my driver’s side window gave up on ever coming back up, leaving my car breezy and open for the taking) I only had 30 minutes to get my mile swim in. Yikes.

I definitely have not swum that far, that fast since I had a swim coach yelling at me from the deck. I know I will probably be sore tomorrow and I will be annoyed with myself for doing a miles worth of sprint sets when I have to work on only my arms at CrossFit tomorrow to keep resting my knee, it felt absolutely amazing today. I feel graceful and powerful in the water. It’s the one element where I can’t trip and fall over and no one can see all of the weird faces I make. I also love not being able to hear anything except for the water moving past my ears. You can’t beat a great swim, even if it was brutally quick.

Why Women Run

I got this month’s issue of Runner’s World in the wake of Boston (the problem with having your mail forwarded, it’s always insanely late). Most of the magazine was full of cheerful essays about what running the Boston Marathon meant and projections about how it would play out. But in the aftermath of the bombing, I couldn’t bring myself to read any of them. 

Instead I got caught up in a story about why women run (“Why Do Women Run?”), and I found myself oddly frustrated with the whole thing. The ultimate answer given was “because they’re human.” Really? I was dissatisfied with their answer, so I started to think about why I run. They should of said because:

1. Running builds confidence.
2. It pushes the limits of what you thought you could ever do.
3. It makes that voice in your head that doubts you shut up for a while.
4. It’s relaxing.
5. It has no expectations for me, and I have no expectations of my performance or ability. 
6. It’s fun.
7. It can be competitive or another way to spend time with a friend.
8. It takes you places.
9. Runners are a community that looks out for one another and encourages each other.
10. It’s nearly impossible to not feel good about yourself after a good run, or any run for that matter.

Managing Your Stress

From calm to freaking out in 0.6 seconds. 

Earlier in the week I was happier than I had been in weeks and more relaxed than I was even over spring break. And yet in a matter of minutes I went from being incredibly content and at peace to completely panicing and swimming in stress. Who knew a couple of emails with quick deadlines could be so upsetting?

For the next 24 hours I lost myself in the throws of stress and anxiety. I couldn’t sleep and when I finally did fall asleep I would dream about my stress and wake up feeling worse than before.

It’s a bad habit that I’ve gotten into to completely surrender into stress at the first sign of it. But this time I decided to step back and not let it run all over me anymore. Here’s how.

1. Perspective. I can make the littlest things into the most important project I will ever work on in my entire life. In reality it is still just a small project with a deadline. Remembering that this one deadline, paper, project, whatever it may be, does not define the rest of my future goes a long way. 

2. Breathe. When I’m stressed I take shallow breaths or hold them in without being conscious of it. Just taking a few minutes to close my eyes and focus on my breathing helps me to let go. 

3. Laugh. When I feel like I’m really losing my sanity I find my roommates for a good laugh. While I may be distracting myself for a few minutes, I always go back to what I was doing feeling more relaxed and ready to get my work finished.

4. Awareness. Some days I find my stomach knotting and my heart beat quickening and I don’t know what started it. I can be sitting on the couch watching TV and out of nowhere I am stressed. When I am more aware of my thoughts and what triggers these random bouts of stress I prevent them or get them under control faster.

5. Exercise. Instead of sitting around and wallowing in my stress I go for a run or go to the gym. When I get back I can think more clearly and often if I am stuck on something I figure it out while I’m working out.

Strength:

Find your new three rep max back squat

WOD:
30 box jumps

then 4 rounds every three minutes of:
30 second L sit
30 second flex arm hang
50 air squats

At first glance this workout doesn’t seem so bad, but how sore I was the next day certainly changed my mind. Back squats are not super fun, but being able to squat 20 lbs. more than I weigh three times is empowering. That and I sure do love box jumps. 

jacksane asked: Hey there, I just saw your Chai tea latte idea and was amazed. This is the exact same thing I did to lower my sugar intake a few weeks ago and I've been stuck onto Chai tea lattes ever since. Although I don't get to have soy every time as my family hates it, I like both normal and soy (1.3g sugar per 100ml) milk. Anyway to stop rambling, I just wanted to say, that was an awesome post and you now have an extra follower from it. Long live make-shift student diaries.

Hi Jacksane, thanks for commenting! Did you do anything else that helped you lower your sugar intake? I would love to hear your ideas.

Monthly Goal: April Adventures Week 1

This month is all about stepping outside my comfort zone and embracing a little adventure. With only 10 weeks left of college, my roommates and I are setting out to explore the area around school and enjoy our time together before we all move out. But this month won’t just be about big adventures, but about capturing the spirit of adventure as much as I can. 

So far this week I’ve had small adventures like eating avocado. It sounds stupid that that’s an adventure for a California girl, but I’m trying to get over my distaste and general uneasiness for it. 

In the past 48 hours I’ve certainly been living up to the goal. We went out to dinner and explored downtown San Jose for my roommate’s birthday on Friday. We ended the night in Single Barrel, a mysterious speakeasy. There is no sign above the door, but instead there is a single barrel lit up above the door that looks like nothing more than a side entrance to a basement. It was perfect. They kick you out for being too loud, there is no awkward dancing or terrible music, and they keep the bar dark. They only let in a certain number of people at a time, but our 20 minute wait was well worth it (although I can’t say anything about how the drinks were since I was driving, but my roommates enjoyed them). My kind of bar.

Last night we went to a bar a lot less my style. I’m not a big drinker so I am always the driver, and it often means finding these trips significantly more awkward than the rest of my friends. I don’t particularly enjoy dancing and being up close and personal with that many strangers is super low on the list of things I think are fun. But even though it’s not really my scene, we had fun dancing like idiots and meeting a lot of weird people. 

WOD of the week: a travelers burpee paradise

Since I was home for spring break my schedule had to change a bit. I didn’t get to go to CrossFit three times this past week like I normally do, but I was able to squeeze in a quick drop-in at the gym I was at over the summer. With the sudden spring showers and my lack of equipment, getting a work out in has been difficult. But this is one that you can do from anywhere without needing anything more than your running shoes, or not. 

WOD

21-15-9  

Hand release burpees (lift your hands off the ground every time your chest hits the floor)
Between each set run 100m, 200m, and finally 400m
(so 21 hand release burpees, 100m run, 15 HR burpees, 200 m run, and finally 9 HR burpees and 400 m run.) If you can’t measure out exact meters just stagger your run. Maybe you run half a block, the full block, and then two blocks in your neighborhood instead.

The entire workout is for time and should push your heart rate. For six minutes of work, it sure did leave an impression. Best of all, you don’t need a gym or anything fancy. Too bad I wasn’t running on the beach.

At the start of my sugar challenge I would tell myself that when this was all over I was going to devour exorbitant amounts of some amazing desserts, but now that it’s my last day, plans have changed. 

I started the challenge completely addicted to sugar, to the point where even if I had a sweet breakfast, I craved a quick dose of sugar. It took me two weeks of the challenge to get my cravings under control, and even now I still am not where I want to be. I had hoped by this time to be fully freed from my sugar addiction, but I’m just not there yet. While much improved, I still give in to my cravings more than I would like to admit. 

Now that my goal is over I won’t be as strict with what I eat and interrogate people about the sugar content of items. I will, however, continue to look for low sugar options and avoid foods loaded with added sugars. Never again will I pay to overdose on sugar at coffee shops, especially if I can make something healthier at home. I also won’t let myself snack on sweets throughout the day or rationalize eating dessert after lunch and dinner. 

This whole experience was eye opening. I started finding sugar hidden in foods that I had thought were healthy and natural. More than anything I learned to ditch the packaged goods, say no to extra sweets, and eat whole, natural fruits and vegetables. While counting every gram of sugar was frustrating and at times stressful, I’m glad I did it. 

Hello, my name is Mandy, and I am addicted to tea. I have a milk crate full of tea at my apartment and another at my parent’s house. I love all kinds of tea from delicate white to a hearty black tea either iced or hot. But no tea is as comforting as a creamy chai. 

As part of my sugar challenge, I was desperately craving something sweet and comforting without reaching for sugar heavy cookies or cake. This chai recipe hit the spot without pushing me over my sugar limit. It tastes so much like the sugar heavy chai lattes at coffee shops that I don’t plan on buying them anymore. 

What makes this recipe so creamy and rich is how it’s made. There is no water or sugar-filled mix in it. Instead it’s all nondairy milk (I used soy) and tea bags. 

Recipe:

Bring two chai tea bags for every 8 oz. of nondairy milk to a boil. Stir occasionally to help brew the tea. Once it has come to a boil and the milk is a light brown color, remove the tea bags. Transfer to a mug and enjoy.

Because I got a little vigorous with my stirring and I may have pushed a little too hard to wring out the tea bag before I removed it, I ended up breaking the bag and letting the tea loose in my milk. I used a handy tea strainer that fit into my mug perfectly and kept all of the tea pieces out of my heart warming cup.

Because I used sweetened soy milk I didn’t have to add any sugar. My recipe is more than half the calories and almost 40 grams less sugar than a Starbucks’ chai tea latte with soy milk. Mine has 6 grams of sugar and only 110 calories compared to Starbucks’ 240 calories and 43 grams of sugar (10 more than the recommended daily amount!). Definitely never going back. 

The definition of failure can be pretty flexible and loose, but it’s safe to say week three was a failure on the sugar front. I started out well, but as finals hit hard and fast my roommates and I turned to our usual habits… sweets. On Tuesday one of my roommates finished with her finals and to celebrate decided to make my other roommate and I some cinnamon rolls. Since we were wallowing in our insane amounts of work, we both quickly devoured the cinnamon rolls out of self pity (and man did they taste amazing hot out of the oven). In one sitting I doubled my sugar intake.

The next night it was my turn to celebrate being done. It’s a tradition in my apartment that when you finish something huge or get good news, we celebrate with food. We made some cookies to mark the completion of my second (and final) senior project/thesis, which really would have been fine if I hadn’t eaten six of them (in my defense they were small cookies). The next morning I had a waffle (thanks to Parks and Recreation I had a massive waffle craving for the past month or so and I finally got to give in to it), but I didn’t use the fake syrup and instead used the whipped cream and strawberries.

The week just kept falling apart from there. I would do great all day with my sugar intake, and then I would blow it out of the water at dessert. But by the end of the week (this weekend) I got myself back on track. 

Honestly, I’m glad to have failed this week. I’m not going to be one of those people who refuses a homemade dessert because “I don’t eat sugar.” I believe that food should bring you joy as well as feed the body. Did my desserts harm me? No. Would I eat them again, of course (although I wouldn’t let myself eat so many cookies). I’m not saying I’m going to overdo it on dessert every day and be ok with it, but every once in a while I think it’s a good thing.