a bajillion food pics that i haven't shared with you guys yet:
greek yogurt bowl with blueberry muesli, frozen raspberries, banana, almond butter, and honey bunches of oats
sweet potato with vanilla CHO and honey
oatmeal with banana and almonds
rice cake with peanut butter and almond m&ms
a huge pile of roasted brussels sprouts. i got SO excited when i saw these in the dining hall! #foodiealert
another bowl of greek yogurt, muesli, banana, raspberries, and almond butter
quinoa(!!) with steak and butternut squash
lentils with butternut squash and steak
turkey, avocado, and veggie sub
yet another greek yogurt bowl with muesli, banana, honey, and granola
5 workouts of the week:
sunday: 6 mile run
monday: IFT class
tuesday: 4.4 mile run
thursday: late night circuit workout to wake me up before my graveyard shift. super proud that i actually got this one in!
friday: 3.5 mile run
today i'm hopefully going to head out for a run later or do a quick speed session on the treadmill!
4 photos from my 3-hour adventure trying to find sprinkles cupcakes last night:
PSI: the metro is very, very confusing. thank goodness for unlimited ride cards!
3 favorite pins of the week:
2 things making me smile:
-that i get to facetime my parents today!
-the #SheReadsTruth soul detox plan. i am loving it so far even though i'm really behind!
1 question for ya'll: what's the best thing you ate/did/sweated out this week?
i'm finally home and i'm so, so thankful for my family and friends.
i've been enjoying my time at home so much. lots of TV watching, baking, dance partying, trips to the gym with my momma, running, and spending time with my family.
yesterday we went into the city - one of our christmas traditions!
i started the day off with some delicious caramelized pumpkin pancakes (with barney butter of course) and a kickboxing class at the gym.
kickboxing was followed my a green monster (AHH! my first one in months!) and a shower
and then we were on our way!
we dance party on BART. #normal
my city!
visited the kitties in the macy's windows <3
chipotle for lunch! i got a burrito bowl with brown rice, steak, black beans, corn salsa, and guacccc.
macy's!
we're kinda crazy. (:
in front of the big christmas tree!
i love this picture! one of my mottos: life is better when you're laughing.
and of the course the night ended with froyo on the couch and a movie with the fam!
today i had a yummy breakfast (1 egg and 2 egg whites with spinach, & a whole wheat bagel - half with butter and half with almond butter), went for a run with a good friend, and zumba'd with mom.
my mom and i also made a ton of chocolate pretzels to give as gifts and i baked these amazing magic cookie bars (with dark, semisweet, & white chocolate chips, and almonds).
we dance partied while the bars were baking! i love my mom so much.
and now i'm off to enjoy some pizza and decorate the christmas tree with my family :)
Since I've started taking IFT barbell classes, I've started making notes of the workouts we do on my phone, so I thought it would be fun to share them in weekly recaps! This week has been an awesome week for me personally - I love this mix of running, IFT, and rest days.
Sunday: 4-mile run with one of my girls in my bible study!
Monday: Rest day
Tuesday: IFT Barbell Class
Strength: 5 x 3 push press
I maxed at 75lbs - I'm still trying to master the form on a lot of the lifts we do.
WOD was 5 rounds of:
5 clapping push-ups (I did regular push-ups since I can't do them properly and clap)
10 slam balls (I used a 16lb ball)
20 second bar hold overhead (I used 65lbs)
Wednesday: 3.5 mile run - killed it! :)
(^^see that bruise on my left collarbone in the photo? that's from doing cleans!!)
Thursday: IFT Barbell
Strength: 5 x 2 power cleans (I got up to 80#)
WOD was 8 rounds of:
1-5 pull ups or 1 negative
I did negatives instead of pull-ups since I can't do a pull-up without a resistance band yet. Negatives are where you start at the top of a pull-up position and lower yourself as slowly as you can, which builds strength in the muscles that you need to do a pull-up.
10 box jumps
I *think* my box was 20" but I could be wrong on that one
After the WOD I did two planks (2 min & 1 min) and some stretching. I'm trying to do planks and stretching a lot more because I know both are really good for me and will help me to get stronger.
Friday: Rest day - my upper body and abs are so sore!! I never have focused much on ab work because it's just not my favorite, and I really want to build up my upper body strength so that I can do a pull-up.
Which leads me to two new goals I set for the end of the quarter:
3 minute plank
1 pull-up
Random overall thoughts:
I am LOVING my IFT classes. Although I'm not lifting really heavy weight yet in comparison to most people and I still need to work on form, I look forward to the classes every week because they're so challenging.
I'm getting calluses on my hands!! Proof of hard work ;-)
I realized that my arm muscles are finally looking more defined because I am doing less reps with heavy (for me) weight. I did BodyPump for an entire year and never was able to get my biceps to show and now they finally are a little bit! I can't wait to see how much progress I make this year.
I love UCLA. I love my friends, the campus, Westwood, my classes, the fun events, just everything.
i can't believe that i get to go to school here :)
But with all that said, I definitely had a tough last couple of days this week. It all started on Wednesday when I just felt completely exhausted. I hadn't realized how little sleep I was getting (compared to my usual amount) or how hard I was working myself. It got to the point where I took 2 naps on Wednesday afternoon and still felt super, super tired. I was tired of dealing with people all the time, so I called my mom. The second I started talking to her I just burst into tears. And immediately she recognized that I had completely wiped myself out - because one of my reactions to being overtired is that I cry really, really easily. She listened to me rant for a few minutes, and then she was like "Julianna. I know this voice. I can tell that you are completely exhausted. Everything that's stressing you out right now will look so much better after you get some good sleep - you just need to go to bed right now." So at 5pm I just passed out on my bed. And woke up feeling much, much better.
just thought i'd throw this little gem in here! hahaha :)
Lesson #1: I need to know my limit of when I am exhausted. and I need to start going to bed earlier!!
Another thing that made the end of this week really hard was being homesick. A lot of my friends left last night to go home and it made me realize how nice it would be to be able to go home, see my family and my kitties, sleep in my own bed, and have some SPACE. I love everyone here, but that doesn't mean that I can be around people 24/7. As my mom put it, I'm a really outgoing person, but I need my alone time. And living in a triple makes that really, really hard. So I escaped to Starbucks for a few hours today to study and being alone was so nice! And as I'm typing this there's no one in the room and I've been alone for over an hour - new record!!
Lesson #2: I need to escape for a few hours a week (at minimum) to just have some ME time.
I definitely learned a lot this week! I still am figuring out how to balance everything, but I know that eventually I'll get there.
This song perfectly describes how I was feeling this week:
I am so thankful for technology because my mom's been sending me kitty pictures and videos and I love skyping my parents. Just little bits of home help a LOT.
Anyway! I also wanted to do a little weekly recap of my workouts for you guys - I'm trying to make it a priority to fit them in. It keeps me sane, gives me some alone time, and always makes me feel better! :)
Monday: 4.5 miles with the running club that I'm a part of! Tuesday: 1 speedy treadmill mile + Tina's Pug Workout Wednesday: 2 treadmill miles + upper body weights workout Thursday: a Cardio Hip-Hop class (one of the classes I get to go to as a part of the group fitness pass I have!). it was really fun- brought me back to the one dance class I took as a sophomore in high school! I wasn't very good but I think I'll be going back every week because I know that's the only way I'll get better. Not to mention booty-shakin is so much fun! ;) Friday: 3 miles with the running club Saturday: bike ride into Westwood (to Starbucks, Target, & Trader Joe's) - I'm counting this as my workout because biking back up the hill to my dorm is really hard, especially with my books and the stuff I bought!
I had a coupon for a free Odwalla bar with the purchase of a juice - & I'm really glad I bought the juice because I think that combined with lots more fruits/veggies, my daily vitamins, and working out has kept me from getting sick!
I've been eating lots of whole wheat crackers with almond butter - it's the perfect snack to tide me over in between meals.
My almost daily breakfast: oatmeal with a little brown sugar, raisins, and almond butter (I put spoonfuls in baggies and bring them with me to breakfast. I'm a freak. hahaha but it makes me happy!)
Iced coffee productivity! I've found I get so much more done if I leave my room and go study elsewhere.
One of my favorite lunches so far - a small cup of shrimp and corn chowder, a side salad (which was really good! it had a ton of chopped veggies, good mixed greens, and a really good vinaigrette), and a banana, which I ate with almond butter, of course ;)
Vanilla greek yogurt with frozen raspberries and frozen pineapple - the the perfect snack for a hot afternoon.
A turkey, lettuce, and tomato sandwich on wheat bread. I took off the top piece of bread because I love open face sandwiches, and I had some sunchips with this too.
A LOT of spoonfuls of Barney Butter have been happening. So I guess it should've been no surprise when I hit the bottom of the jar yesterday. It was definitely a sad day! I bought a jar of TJ's almond butter last week so I've started using that (and a third is already gone... whoops!) because I can't be buying $9 jars of almond butter on a college budget. Now you know what to send me for my birthday in november! ;)
Right now I'm doing laundry and getting all my stuff organized - I'm thinking a low key night is in order! I'm definitely pretty tired so a night with to-go food sitting on my bed catching up on my TV shows sounds absolutely perfect.
do you ever feel like you need 'a little home'?
what lessons did you learn in college? (or what have you learned so far?)
stay tuned for a post on my {unusual} college dorm room necessities and a post on how to stay healthy and active in college! :)
