My Life Before My Last First Day of College

Posted on March 31, 2015 by runmileswithsmiles

Well, today is the day. Since I just had work on Monday and decided to just add a MWF class, today ended up being my first last day of college. It is crazy to think about how quickly 4 years went by… I felt like high school was the longest 4 years of my life and all of a sudden, I’m graduating in 10 weeks with a BS in Public Health. To avoid stressing out, looking back at spring break and my life before my last first day of college helps! Anthony and I spent a large chunk of our spring break working on our program schedules for the summer. Both of us are Program Directors for the National Student Leadership Conference for two programs- Business and Medicine/Healthcare. We hire a staff and coordinate with hospitals, doctors, lecturers, and business professionals to create a conference for high achieving high school students! We spent about 5 hours a day working on it, but it felt really productive to get more things knocked out of the way before school started. Oh sushi always means happier times, especially trying new sushi places in Carlsbad. Since we were in Carlsbad, we felt like it was only appropriate to get the Carlsbad Roll- probably one of our favorites, especially the combo of raw fish and tempura shrimp. Trying to capture how adorable this little shopping village was in Carlsbad but this photo doesn’t do it justice. I wish it wasn’t so far from us so we could go more often! I helped Anthony meal prep on Sunday. I don’t make my mom’s fried rice that often but I did once over spring break and Anthony has been hooked ever since. A family sized portion… just for Anthony for the week. Knowing him, its probably already gone. Has anyone tried these before?! I love Pretzel Crisps and yesterday at CAF, I found that they make snack packs and the pretzel crisps inside are miniature!! I don’t know why that was so fun, but small foods/ small things sometimes can just be so cute. I also met incredibly amazing and inspiring women yesterday. Maureen in the white pants, is a Ragnar Ambassador and the SoCal Ragnar next week for her will be her 13th! The other women have done a few, including trail Ragnars. It was perfect timing getting to meet them because I am beyond excited to run my first Ragnar next week!! Our team of 12 is still trying to pull together last minute things, but it’s going to be a great time :)

3 things you are excited for this week?

Are you a fan of sushi?

When I’m Not Running, I’m Eating

Posted on March 23, 2015 by runmileswithsmiles

Has anyone tried Bai 5 yet?! It’s an antioxidant rich caffeine drink with natural flavorings and only 5 calories per serving (10 total for this bottle)! I love it as an afternoon pick me up and taking selfies with it.
I was done with finals on Friday and still had to go to campus for work. Picked up a bottle of Bai 5 to keep me energized throughout the day- the Tanzania Lemonade Tea is my favorite flavor! Reminds me of an Arnold Palmer without the extra sweeteners and sugar! I was so excited to go to bed Friday night because I was done with finals and work, officially on spring break, and since my long run got pushed to Sunday because of the race, I could sleep in! Well, my body had other plans for me… like still waking me up at 7AM even though I had no where to go… I put on my compression socks anyway as if I was going to run. It just felt right. When I’m not running, I’m eating. Eggs and kale with ketchup as my second breakfast. What else are you suppose to do on spring break ;) On Saturday, Anthony and I went Downtown to pick up my race bib but also to explore a little. He found this really cool park awhile back in the city and wanted to show me! I was actually super amazed by the park! There were rock climbing walls, huge slides, crazy monkey-bars and different obstacle courses. It was the playground of the future. Dear future children, when I take you to a playground… it’s probably going to be because I want to play on it. Not enough balance for the wobbling skateboard! Luckily I caught a picture right before he fell. Supportive girlfriend, I know. Just taking our relationship to a whole new level (and this blog) by fixing his forming unibrow. More pictures of Pieology. Anthony got every kind of meat possible on his pizza Saturday night! I think he loves carboloading nights more than I do. Giving up desserts has been so hard for Lent. I’m just happy I have Sundays to indulge a little bit… or a lot of bit, depending who you ask :P Having a Yogurtland open close by has been such a blessing and a curse. And I’ve been craving In-n-Out for about 2 months now! Time to cure that craving. Anthony got the double-double cheeseburger, a milkshake, I got a regular hamburger, and we decided to split the fries. This really hit the spot before we made the two hour drive back to his hometown for the rest of spring break!

Favorite place to go on the weekends?

Three foods you wish you could eat all the time.

A Day in the Life in Food

Posted on March 20, 2015 by runmileswithsmiles

Winter Quarter is over! Finals are done! One more quarter until graduation! Well, assuming I passed all my classes (low key joke, low key worried… these finals were tough ones!). Regardless, it’s spring break! :) I can’t wait for the upcoming adventures and relaxation. Since I didn’t want to bore you all with pictures of me crying in the library yesterday, I figured I would show you a day in the life of food and what I eat! Breakfast was a whole wheat bagel from Trader Joe’s topped with Trader Joe’s creamy almond butter (the salted kind), a banana, and chia seeds! This is one of my favorite carbo-loading breakfast food items. If not this, I trade out the bagel for whole wheat toast or a whole wheat English muffin. I had a cup (or 2…) of coffee on the side! My mid-day snack was broken into two different trips. I ran out of meal-prep food and was low on groceries, so I ended up having to get snacks on campus. Part 1 was this Apple Cinnamon & Pecan Kind Bar! I don’t know why, but I’ve been super into apple cinnamon flavored food lately. Part two was this veggie bowl I found at school! It had an egg, assorted vegetables, and ranch dressing to dip in. I was very pleased with this option! I missed having my own packed lunch… it’s expensive buying food day in and day out on campus! I don’t know how some people do it everyday. My form of procrastination: burrito bowl from Rubio’s for lunch (where the guacamole comes with the bowl ;)) and the latest copy of Women’s Running Magazine! Looking good, Shalane, looking good. That Boston Qualifying dream for me is in a five year plan! After my first final, I was craving a run so bad- it was a large reason I felt so restless all morning. I didn’t have anything on me to eat before the run but luckily found a GU in my wallet… #runnerproblems and brought it with me on the run just in case. Verdict: hard runs feel better than hard finals, eight miles of hills left me feeling like jello when I woke up this morning, and Mandarin Orange GU is not as good as Salted Caramel Gu. Made my last run before my 15K this weekend count! Afternoon snack: cinnamon Life cereal, an apple, and the rest of my burrito bowl. That run left me so hungry! And a very orange dinner to finish off the day! Three bean vegetarian chili and sweet potato fries. PS if all my photos look orange, it’s also because I have an iPhone 4…. you know, the one from prehistoric times. One of my spring break goals is to get a new phone so I can grace you all with prettier pictures!