Grass Chat

Posted by Lauren

Hi from the grass! (i wanted this to be the title but realized how wrong it sounds)

While I catch some sun in a nearby park, I figured I would check in with the blog and dump some of my iPhone photos. I’m procrastinating on my Tuesday run, but I plan on doing a twilight (aka cooler) run later!

Monday was an all-around productive day. I began with an early visit to the gym, completing a 20-minute “hill” program on the treadmill….

…and a 20-minute “hills” program on the bicycle while I caught up on work emails from the weekend. Multi-tasking!

Breakfast was oat bran, cinnamon, a scoop of chocolate whey protein powder, and a sliced banana. I have this everyday at work. No joke.

For lunch, I busted out my pre-made lunch containers:

Nicole mentioned the marathon baking/cooking frenzy of Monday night, right? Well, I roasted frozen veggies (they are pathetic next to her fresh ones) and baked brussels sprouts alongside two chicken breasts (with whole cloves of garlic, long stems of green onion, black pepper, paprika, and red pepper flakes).

I am not sure what happened, but the chicken is miraculous. It’s no secret that I suck at preparing real protein, but this was phenomenal! I am on day 2 of the leftovers and the reheated chicken is still soooo juicy. I did use frozen chicken breasts in vacuum sealed packages from Foster Farms, maybe that led to my success?

Anyways, I ate lunch at my desk because during my real “lunch break” I dropped off these beautiful pistachio cupcakes in Milpitas:

(As seen on TV Instagram)

The guy ordered these for his step-mom, who loves pistachio everything AND is celebrating a birthday. Happy Birthday to you!

Around 3 pm, my teammates and I walked to Peet’s Coffee for some caffeine and team bonding. They’re great. :)

I finished up my iced coffee/soy milk with my favorite Nutrigrain bar, apple cinnamon. (Today’s flavor – strawberry!) As I left work, I snacked on a cold, juicy, Fuji apple:

I dropped Nicole, my carpool buddy, off at home and re-routed to the gym near our house. My morning workout left me wanting MORE, so that’s why I went. And no, I’m not procrastinating packing……… ;)

I had to change in a portapotty because the women’s locker room is under construction. FYI, it was actually quite a pleasant experience. At the gym I did a 3-mile “speed” workout, averaging ~7.7 for ~24 minutes. I hopped over to the elliptical for 30 minutes of mindless motion, DDD-watching, and blog-reading.

Once home, the snack monster in me emerged and put down 2 eggs, 1 bowl of cereal, a cupcake, a chocolate/pb protein bar, and …. many … chocolate-covered-cherries. Ooph, that sounds bad, but I just couldn’t get “full.” While I snacked, I planned some fun things to do in Amsterdam, Brussels, and Bruge (Eurotrip is in a few weeks!! ahh!)

K, time to go get dinner! Have a great 4th of July! Midweek holidays don’t seem so bad :)

-Lauren