Category: Years Past: Food & Exercise Diaries

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Day 58 – 1/21

On Saturday, I had a memory conference in San Francisco with my lab which involved being out from 6am to midnight–it was so fun, but also a tad hectic. The food situation was iffy enough given I was out that long without access to a fridge or microwave, but to add to that, the wisdom tooth pain I’d been having for days intensified to frightening levels (I could hardly sleep the night before!). I survived on plain bagels, and various combinations of bananas and oats.

And perhaps more importantly, I survived on ibuprofen–I took a whole day’s dose of ibuprofen in the first 6 hours of the conference just to be able to focus!

Exercise: walked 3.5 miles

Breakfast:

• Raw banana oats
• Coldbrew coffee with soymilk

Lunch:

• 2 sourdough bagels
• Coffee

Dinner:

• 2 banana oat cookies
• Beer and a white wine cooler

Day 59- 1/22

The wisdom tooth pain got so bad I couldn’t sleep, and when I woke up I knew it was an emergency because I was feverish, my entire cheek was swollen, and it hurt to swallow. I got incredibly lucky that the dentist right next to my apartment was kind enough to see me on a Sunday, especially considering I wasn’t even a patient yet.

It turns out I had a bone-eating infection caused by the wisdom tooth growing in. Delightful.

He messed around with the area and put some topical antibiotics on, and thankfully I was able to wait til I got back to my car to scream/sob from pain–I felt so dramatic, but the pain was probably the worst I’ve felt in my life… at least 3x as bad as when I broke and sprained my ankle in September.

To make a long story short, thank God for vicodin and antibiotics.

Exercise: walked 3 miles

Breakfast:

• Blueberry banana smoothie
• Bagel with tofutti
• Coldbrew coffee with soymilk

Lunch:

• Half a bagel with tofutti, superfood patty
• 2 banana oat cookies

Dinner:

• Lentil veggie curry with basmati rice
• Apple with pb2

Check out my Instagram for more photos!

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Day 56 – 1/19

Tuesdays and Thursdays have been tough for me this quarter–I have class, meetings, and TAing from 9:30am-6:30pm in buildings 2 miles apart, and only really have time for one lunch break during which I can’t fit that much food in me. So I’ve been getting a bit shaky/hungry from all the activity and bike commuting by the time I have to teach at 5. I need to think of some good snacks to keep in both my labs that are preferably homemade, require no prep after the fact, and are totally nonperishable!

In the meantime, I’ve been surviving on higher calorie coffees, date rolls, and clif bars.  😛

Exercise: biked 30 mins, walked 7 miles

Breakfast:

• Pumpkin banana raw oats
• Coldbrew coffee with soymilk

Lunch:

• 4 red potatoes with chili lime seasoning
• Soy mocha
• Date roll
• Half a clif bar

Dinner:

• Lentil veggie curry and basmati rice
• Apple with PB2

Day 57- 1/20

Had another great run: 4.5 miles this time! I needed to go to sleep ridiculously early (like 9:30pm)–which is a difficult feat for me–so I could wake up at 5am for a conference the next day. Thankfully the running made it much easier to pass out that early. Yet another bonus of exercise!

Exercise: ran 4.5 miles, walked 5 miles

Breakfast:

• Chocolate banana pb2 raw oats
• Coldbrew coffee with soymilk

Lunch:

• 2 red potatoes with chili lime seasoning
• Puerh tea
• Apple
• Half a clif bar
• Handful of crackers

Dinner:

• Lentil veggie curry with basmati rice
• 3.5 banana oat cookies
• Mini japanese sweet potato

Check out my Instagram for more photos!

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Day 54 – 1/17

I realized this morning that I haven’t weighed myself in ages. And I’m really happy about it–I think that part of intuitive eating involves letting go of that scale obsession along with any food obsessions. But I realized I haven’t given you guys a way to know what my body progress has been like!

I’ll do a weigh-in and progress shots for my final wrap up post, but here’s just a little update for those of you that are curious as to whether or not I’m blowing up like a balloon.   😛 I took a waist measurement this morning, and I’m down to about 24.3″–I was 25″ at the beginning of this experiment. I don’t have much smaller to get in that department without encroaching on organs, so I’m pretty psyched about seeing that much progress!

Exercise: biked 1 hour, walked 4.5 miles

Breakfast:

• Pumpkin banana raw oats
• Coldbrew coffee with soymilk

Lunch:

• 4 red potatoes with chili lime seasoning
• Puerh tea

Dinner:

• Lentil veggie curry and basmati rice
• Half a mini japanese sweet potato

Day 55- 1/18

My Wednesday lab meetings always entail free food of some kind, because our lab manager is always so kind as to bring us breakfast things. My favorite is the fresh baked ciabatta from a local store… I love Wednesday lab meetings.   😀

Exercise: biked 30 minutes, walked 4 miles

Breakfast:

• Pumpkin banana raw oats
• Coldbrew coffee with soymilk

Lunch:

• Half a loaf of ciabatta
• 2 red potatoes with chili lime seasoning
• Black tea

Dinner:

• Lentil veggie curry with basmati rice
• Apple with lots of maple PB2

Check out my Instagram for more photos!

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Day 52 – 1/15

I was about to say “Sunday was a lazy day,” but then I saw that I somehow walked 6 miles. I guess walking Maia and a feverish bout of apartment cleaning are to thank for that.

Exercise: walked 6 miles

Breakfast:

• Pumpkin chocolate chip oat pancake
• Coldbrew coffee with soymilk

Lunch:

• 1.5 red potatoes with hummus
• Pumpkin baked oats with Pb2

Dinner:

• Red kidney bean curry
• 4 mini bagels

Day 53- 1/16

Ever since I managed to complete my 5K training program this past May, it’s been a goal of mine to run a 10k. But because I got Maia, I couldn’t run on a treadmill anymore without feeling guilty–leaving her sad and alone so I can exercise without her when she wants to exercise all the time just seems too mean! So I had to start back up from 1.5 or 2 miles and learn how to run outside, because as any former treadmill runner will tell you, it’s a lot harder. (And running with a dog who wants to sniff everything and doesn’t understand that stopping in front of me results in tripping makes it much, much more complicated.)

I finally got back up to 3 miles a few weeks ago, and ran 3.5 a few days ago–my 10K goal was starting to look much more realistic. Today I made it my goal to run 4 miles, which would have been a (difficult) record for me. In keeping with my recent goal of being more positive, I decided that I WAS going to do it, that I just have to believe it.

And I ran FIVE miles!! If you’d asked me a year ago if I’d ever be able to run 5 miles, I probably would have laughed and said “in my dreams.” At that point, even a mile was incredibly exciting.

I thought it would take at least 6-10 more weeks for me to be able to run 6 miles (aka 10K), but who knows, maybe that’ll just be next weekend’s run.

Exercise: ran 5 miles, walked 4 miles

Breakfast:

• Pumpkin chocolate chip oat pancake with Pb2
• Coldbrew coffee with soymilk

Lunch:

• Red potato fries made with 3 medium potatoes, and hummus
• Half a mini japanese sweet potato
• Puerh tea

Dinner:

• Red kidney bean curry with basmati rice
• Banana with the extra rice
• Apple with Pb2

Check out my Instagram for more photos!

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Day 50 – 1/13

Another day, another event involving beer. Such is grad student life! This time I went with a stout to try to get into more “real” (and cheaper) beers… since they didn’t have lambic or other super fruity beers.   😛

I went for a run beforehand, and followed that up with a mango blueberry smoothie despite it being so cold out. I realized it was a bit too thick after pouring it out of the blender–when I went to pour it back into the blender, it fell as a single glob of icy fruit and caused an enormous splash that got the whole counter, my face, the walls, even the CEILING!

Never thought I’d find myself scrubbing blueberry drops off the ceiling.

Exercise: ran 2.5 miles, walked 3 miles, biked 30 mins

Breakfast:

• Chocolate Pb2 banana toasts
• Coldbrew coffee with soymilk

Lunch:

• 2 red potatoes with barbecue sauce
• Mini japanese sweet potato
• Grapes
• 2 date rolls

Dinner:

• Blueberry mango smoothie
• Red potato with hummus

Late night:

• Obsidian stout (beer)
• 10 crackers

Day 51- 1/14

I’m starting to feel a major decline in appetite–in fact I didn’t even notice that’d I’d forgotten to eat lunch until Maia’s dinnertime rolled around at 4pm. I suppose my 9am pancake was pretty magically satiating. It is just oatmeal in pancake form anyway!

Exercise: walked 5 miles

Breakfast:

• Pumpkin oat pancake with banana and maple-cocoa sauce
• Coldbrew coffee with soymilk

Lunch:

• 1.5 red potatoes with barbecue sauce

Dinner:

• Bit of red bean curry
• Small japanese sweet potato

Check out my Instagram for more photos!

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Day 48 – 1/11

My labmate brought Whole Foods vegan donut holes (which are somewhat low fat as far as donuts go) to lab meeting. I was presenting, so naturally I had to have some to fuel that. Somewhat ironically, I was presenting about some data analysis I’ve been doing on the potential effects of diet/fat intake on stress and memory!  😛

After that I had no desire for anything besides whole foods. At night I made my current favorite dinner: red kidney bean curry with kale, mushrooms, and celery!

Exercise: walked 6 miles

Breakfast:

• 3 slices toast with pumpkin butter
• 4 donut holes
• Coldbrew coffee with soymilk

Lunch:

• 3 potatoes with barbecue sauce
• 2 date rolls

Dinner:

• Red kidney bean curry with basmati rice
• Apple

Day 49- 1/12

I came up with a new quick and easy breakfast creation that I’m sort of in love with: low fat chocolate peanut butter banana toasts. I mixed Pb2 (low fat powdered peanut butter) with cocoa powder and maple syrup, spread that on toast, and topped it with banana slices. Insanely good. If only I’d thought of it earlier in my current loaf of bread! (Since I don’t want to buy more as I’d like to get more focused on whole foods, and bread goes stale before I can finish it unless I eat it every day.)

I also went to happy hour with some friends after a long day in class/lab. I didn’t really want beer, but I didn’t want to be a party pooper either, especially since this particular group of friends says they’re starting to suspect I don’t drink. Thankfully this bar had raspberry lambic so I could pretend it’s fruit juice!   😉

Exercise: walked 5 miles, biked 30 minutes

Breakfast:

• 2 chocolate peanut butter banana toasts
• Coldbrew coffee with soymilk

Lunch:

• Tofu burrito with potato and veggies
• Puerh tea

Happy hour:

• Raspberry lambic

Dinner:

• Red kidney bean curry with basmati rice
• Hot chocolate

Check out my Instagram for more photos!

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Day 46 – 1/09

The first day of the quarter was pretty anticlimactic. I went to lab and no one was there, then I went to my memory class and… no one was there. Turns out it doesn’t start for 2 weeks. Oh, grad school.

By the time I got home after all that it started raining, so instead of running I just walked Maia. I need to get more waterproof. At least rain makes comforting foods even more delicious somehow, so I made stewed white beans and greens over sourdough.

Exercise: walked 5 miles

Breakfast:

• Pumpkin gingerbread oats
• Coldbrew coffee with soymilk

Lunch:

• 3 potatoes with barbecue sauce
• 2 slices of bread
• 2 date rolls

Dinner:

• 1/4 loaf of sour batard with stewed white beans and greens
• 4 date rolls
• Mini japanese sweet potato
• Chocolate chips

Day 47- 1/10

I had class almost all day today, including my first time attending a class as a TA! It was surreal–I’m the sole TA for 100 students, and I’ll be teaching 2 discussion sections starting next week. Hopefully I won’t be a nervous wreck.  😛

Exercise: walked 6 miles

Breakfast:

• 4 slices toast with pumpkin butter
• Coldbrew coffee with soymilk

Lunch:

• 4 red potatoes with barbecue sauce
• 2 date rolls

Dinner:

• Gnocchi with mushroom tomato sauce
• Bit of beans on toast
• Mini japanese sweet potato
• 2 date rolls

Check out my Instagram for more photos!

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Day 44 – 1/07

I wanted to continue my 10k training today, but it was raining so I just went for a short run instead. I know rain isn’t really a good excuse, but being from San Diego where it only rains a handful of days a year, I’m still getting used to the idea of the world being wet!

Exercise: ran 1.5 miles, walked 3.5 miles

Breakfast:

• Pumpkin chocolate chip oat pancake
• Coldbrew coffee with soymilk

Lunch:

• 2 potatoes with hummus
• Sweet potato soup
• Tea

Dinner:

• 5/8 loaf of sour batard with stewed white beans and greens
• Date

Day 45- 1/08

I discovered the hard way that running shoes do not dry out well, and my apartment is starting to smell like wet things that never dry. I guess that’s a hazard of having an apartment on the ground floor…

In other news, I made gnocchi for the first time in ages and it was phenomenal. I love that a more gourmet version of pasta is made from potatoes!

Exercise: walked 3 miles

Breakfast:

• Chocolate oat pancake
• Coldbrew coffee with soymilk

Lunch:

• Gnocchi with mushroom tomato sauce
• Date roll

Dinner:

• Pumpkin mug cake
• 2 mini japanese sweet potatoes
• Small red potato with hummus
• 2 date rolls
• Bit of beans on toast

Check out my Instagram for more photos!

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Day 42 – 1/05

My first official day of 10k training was a lovely run: the skies were blue (despite tons of rain lately) and we took a different route than usual, going along tree-lined bike paths and ending up at a gorgeous golf course.

I also made buckwheat nicecream for the first time in ages, and I’d almost forgotten how delicious it is! The buckwheat adds such a nice crunch and makes it much more filling.

Exercise: ran 3.5 miles, walked 2.5 miles

Breakfast:

• Chocolate buckwheat nicecream
• Coldbrew coffee with soymilk

Lunch:

• 4 potatoes with hummus
• Don lee farms superfood patty
• 3 date rolls

Dinner:

• Lentils and veggies with rice
• 5 date rolls
• A few bite of purple sweet potato

Day 43- 1/06

Today was super cold, so besides walking Maia, I spent the day working inside. The quarter hasn’t even started yet and I’m already swamped!

Exercise: walked 4.5 miles

Breakfast:

• Potato hash with bell peppers and broccoli
• Coldbrew coffee with soymilk

Lunch:

• Pumpkin oat pancake
• Red potato and hummus

Dinner:

• Veggie lentil curry and rice
• Pumpkin mug cake

Snacks:

• 2 date rolls

Check out my Instagram for more photos!

My Instagram

Thanks so much for helping me hit 1000 followers, everyone! When I first started this blog (formerly called the Skinnyfat Chef) I wasn’t sure if anyone would be interested in my food/fitness journey, let alone a thousand people. And throughout this journey I’ve completely changed: I used to try to do as much cardio as possible while eating as little as possible (and counting each and every calorie), whereas now I lift weights, run for the joy of running and not calorie burn, and eat in abundance with no restriction or calorie counting. And the cherry on top is that I’ve gotten much closer to my ideal body this way. I’m so grateful for your support–you’ve really inspired me to stick to my goals which have done wonders for my health and fitness.

Most importantly, I hope my experiences can be helpful to you in some way or another… even if it’s just learning from the mistakes I’ve made along the way.   😛