High school
Undergrad
And now MPH
I’m off to soak up the last few hours with family but I’ll leave you with this.
The more education you get the funnier looking the robes. Doesn’t it look like I have a dinosaur tail?
Enjoy your Saturday 
Today is my last of three busy days in a row. Whew! It is also my last day of grad school classes. Crazy! How did two years fly by so quickly? I feel like I juuuust started working on my Masters and graduation is next week!
I celebrated the last day of school with a bowl of overnight oats (1/4 cup oats, 1/4 cup couscous, 1 passionfruit chobani, 1/2-2/3 cup almond milk, 1/2 sliced banana).
I couldn’t believe how huge this was! I tried to make it in the type of glass I normally use and it wouldn’t fit. Hmmmm… does passionfruit chobani expand more than lemon chobani? Nevertheless, it was pretty tasty!
On another note, I’m a running nerd and at some point in time I signed up to receive a daily email from Runners World with a quote of the day (I’ve been getting these for yeaaars). Well todays quote was about the running community and it really stuck with me so I figured I’d share it with all of you
Running is not, as it so often seems, only about what you did in your last race or about how many miles you ran last week. It is, in a much more important way, about community, about appreciating all the miles run by other runners, too.
-Richard O’Brien
So what do you guys think? Are you part of a running community?
Also, don’t forget that today is the last day to enter my RnR race bib giveaway (HALF and FULL marathons). Any entries considered after 11:30 p.m. CST will not be considered and I will announce the winner tomorrow morning. Good luck
First I want to thank all of you for your comments on my last post! I somehow managed to survive my capstone presentation and today have my second of three presentations this week. I’m sure you’re jealous 
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Also, I’ve had two pain-free and hamstring-spasm free runs this week! Yesterday I completed a strong 5 miles and today another good 3. I’ve missed feeling good after a run! Fingers crossed that my hamstring continues to heal!
Lastly, if you haven’t already, don’t forget to enter my RnR race bib giveaway (half OR full marathon). The giveaway closes Friday evening, so make sure to enter before then!
And now on to yesterday’s eats:
Breakfast: cottage cheese parfait with fig jam, banana, strawberry gf granola, and walnuts.
Lunch (at nearly 3:00 after capstone): arugula, mushrooms, tempeh, and avocado sauce.
Dinner: vegetable hash (let me know if you want the recipe- it’s another simple one!) with a fried egg.
Dessert: unpictured celebratory vanilla ice cream cone with sprinkles and nuts from Dairy Queen.
I’m off to tackle another busy day. By this time next week I’ll be all done with school! Have a wonderful Thursday!
Sorry there’s no WIAW post this week because I was just waay too jittery last night to put together a coherent post.
Why was I jittery you might ask? Well, today I will be presenting my capstone (my grad schools version of a thesis). I’ve been working on it the past two semesters and need to pass my presentation today to graduate. I’m honestly not too worried about the presentation part but more so the following Q&A . Being put on the spot makes me nervous!
If only I can pull a Will Ferrell in Old School
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etBRqzt7OqY]
I’ll be golden
While I don’t have my daily eats to show you, I do have a simple, fast, and tasty meal for you guys.
Yesterday I was having one of those hungry days where I never felt full. Knowing all of the work I was going to have to do over the evening, I decided to make a filling dinner that would hold me through the night and into the morning. It was just a perk that it all tasted awesome (P.S. The lemon avocado sauce was inspired by this post that I saw pop up in my google reader earlier this week. I actually didn’t look at her recipe until just now though, next time I’ll have to add garlic to the sauce!)
White Bean, Kale, and Rice with Lemon Avocado Sauce
1/2 cup white beans
1/4 cup uncooked brown rice
2 cups kale, raw
3/4 lemon
1 avocado
Dill to taste (I used the dried kind)
For the sauce: Cut avocado in half and spoon insides into a bowl. Squeeze lemon over avocado and then mash together with a fork. The lemon juice should help the process and eventually the avocado and lemon juice will look like a sauce. Add dill to taste (I added maybe 1 T?).
Cook brown rice on the stove and with about 5 minutes left to go add beans to the rice and allow them to warm. Next, cook kale as you choose (I took the easy way out and steamed it in the microwave, but you could make it on the stove as well), drain, and set on a plate. Top the kale with the bean and rice mixture, season (optional but I added South African Smoke), and then add about 1/2 of the avocado sauce.
Yum! This recipe (dare I even call it a recipe??) is super easy and so tasty. It’s definitely worth a fair try! Plus the balance of protein, fat, carbs, and green kept me full and satisfied for hours.
Well I’m off to go and do this thing, I’ll be so relieved when its over!
Also don’t forget to enter (if you haven’t already) my RnR race bib giveaway! Remember the giveaway includes marathons and half marathons!
Sorry for disappearing for the past 2 days or so, I was working on a huge assignment that I really wanted to get done by today and I’ve spent every spare moment of the last 36 hours hyperfocusing on my project. The good news is I finished and turned it in this morning, the bad news is my sleep has definitely suffered the past two nights. Four hours just does not cut it! Anyway I’ll try to recap what you’ve missed.
Workouts
I did my best to workout despite my time-crunch because nothing helps manage my stress and keep me sane quite like a good sweat.
Eats
My eats have been all over the place. When I’m stressed out or busy my appetite usually goes to one of two extremes, extreme snackiness or complete lack of hunger. Towards the beginning of the week I felt hungry and snacky all of the time but the last few days I haven’t had much of an appetite. Crazy right? I’ve done my best to eat “normal” meals though as both working out and school work demand fuel!
Thursday morning I didn’t take any pictures of breakfast or lunch because they were unexciting and sporadic. I just didn’t feel like I could stomach anything. Dinner last night however was epic.
I’ve been meaning to try Protein Bar for a loong time and I was sooooo excited when Ian offered to pick some up for dinner. I had the Green City vegan which was a wrap stuffed with marinated tofu, kale, pepitas, chickpeas, house-made creamy chia dressing, and super salad mix. I DEVOURED it.
We also split a BGT smoothie because I’ve been loving on the matcha green tea lately
Around 9 p.m. last night I took a study break and Ian and I made rice krispie treats reeses puff treats with cinnamon bun marshmallows. Mmmmmm
Knowing that I was probably not going to get a lot of sleep last night and that a big healthy breakfast in the morning would do me good, before I went to bed I whipped up some overnight oats with 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 cup milk, lemon chobani, chia seeds, poppyseeds, and 1/2 a banana. This morning I threw a couple of walnuts on top and dug in to my “lemon poppyseed overnight oats”.
And honestly, they might have been the best overnight oats I’ve ever had
Miscellaneous
Our apartment has been so hot the past few days! Like over 80 degrees indoors. Unfortunately, because we live in Chicago, the building can turn off the heat but won’t turn on the AC until May. We also can’t open our windows very far because they’re not screened and we have a very curious furball. Needless to say, we’ve been keeping the light off, avoiding turning on the stove/oven, and sleeping on top of the covers at night. Ugh! Oh well, it could be worse… I mean it could be snowing right now.
What are your plans this weekend? I plan on checking out the green river tomorrow and partaking in the city’s shenanigans. Life is all about balance right