Happy 4th of July! I hope all of you are enjoying a day off and doing something fun today! I used my extra time this morning to fit in a longer workout but before I tell you about that let’s discuss last night’s dinner.

Yesterday was one of those days that just dragged on. I was incredibly tired and all I wanted was to get home and lay down on the couch. However, by the time I got home I felt motivated to get stuff done. I did two loads of laundry (and I hate doing laundry), cleaned the kitchen sink area, prepped breakfast for today, and made a batch of OhSheGlows‘ Perfect Veggie Burgers.

The burgers take quite a bit of prep work but are SO worth it. I did make a few substitutions: instead of bread crumbs I used gluten free brown rice cereal, I omitted the parsley (if I’d had herbs I would have used them- they bring a lot to the burger), mixed chopped almonds & walnuts, substituted pepitas for sunflower seeds, and used tomato sauce instead of soy sauce.

I baked 7 of the patties and then pan fried the one I had for dinner. As many veggie chips and salsa were consumed while cooking, I had my veggie burger on arugula topped with curry avocado.

It was so good! I love the mix of nuts, seeds, and beans in these burgers. The texture is awesome.

I ended up freezing 5 of the patties. I did this last year and they held up really well and made great easy dinners.

Dessert was 1/3 of a banana mashed and microwaved and then topped with crumbled gf, vegan brownie.

It was small & sweet. Just what I was in the mood for!

This morning I woke up bright and early to squeeze in a run before the heat hit. I just barely made it, at 5 a.m. it was already 80 degrees in Chicago. This weather is insane. I debated skipping my run but knew I’d feel better if I at least made an attempt, so I laced up my running shoes and headed out the door.

Thankfully the sun wasn’t completely up yet so it didn’t feel too brutal outside and I was able to complete a slow 4 miles. Even though it wasn’t my best run and it was incredibly hot outside, I felt good for doing it. I also didn’t have to use a treadmill. Woohoo!

After my run, I grabbed my swim bag and headed to the pool. My gym and pool were both fairly empty and I was able to grab a good lane right away. This is the swim workout I did:

300 m warm up
3 x 400 m
100 build, 200 fast, 100 slow
4 x 100 50 fast, 50 slow
200 build, 100 fast, 100 slow
2 x 200 m
100 stroke pull, 100 freestyle pull
100 stroke kick, 100 freestyle kick
100 m cool down

Total: 2,000 meters

For stroke I swam breast stroke which made pulls and kicks take forever but hopefully I’ll be a better swimmer for it.

Breakfast was something new. I’ve been having trouble finding a cold breakfast that holds me over longer than 2 hours. If I could eat yogurt or eggs this wouldn’t be a problem, but without protein in the morning, I’m getting hungry for lunch really early.

Enter an avocado cold oatmeal parfat. Last night I mixed avocado, 2/3 of a banana, and 1 tsp of maple syrup and mashed them all together. Then I cooked 1/2 cup of oats and 1 tsp chia seeds with 1 1/4 cups water. I layered them in a glass and put them in the fridge overnight. Unfortunately, the maple syrup seperated out from the avocado (brown in the picture) but after remixing it all together, the parfait was really tasty and incredibly filling!

I topped it with blueberries and walnuts.

I’m off to relax and then beach (I think). Have a wonderful day!