Hey everyone and happy Friday!!

Friday mornings I work at the radiation oncology department at Strong Memorial Hospital but I went in today at 8 and they didn't have any patients so I got to go home early.  I was disappointed because I like what I do there and because I woke up at 6:45 for nothing, but I got a nice, rainy walk out of it and now I have more time to get stuff done before work tonight.  Around 10 it stopped raining and the sun was starting to come out so I got my stuff ready for a run.

What would you do without a pre-run selfie of me?

I haven't run since Monday due to shin splits and other workouts I wanted to get in and I'm thinking that was a good idea because this run felt great.  I'm still pretty sore from yesterday's workout but it felt good to stretch my legs out. The temperature was perfect also (one of my main running requirements!). I decided to do a 2 mile loop twice, mostly because I like the loop I do and always feel like I'm just running aimlessly with no direction to get more miles in when I try to just add to it.  I really liked the whole loop thing, maybe 3 times will happen soon!  I did switch it up slightly though- the first time I ran down to Highland Park and walked up the steps to the park and the second time I walked up the hilly paths through the park to the top.  Both paths have the same destination but kept each loop fresh.  Does anyone who runs multiple loops ever get bored after a few, or do you like it better than one long route?  I walked the hills on this run but other than that I kept a pretty good pace at around 8:50-9:13.  Here is the final distance and start and end time:

Even though my shins still hurt and my legs were killing me from yesterday, I zoned out and just enjoyed myself.  I brought my old ipod out today instead of my iphone (therefore a lack of pictures), which I've been doing lately to listen to some random music.  The shuffle was killin it today, notable songs include "What's love?" Fat Joe "Brandy (you're a fine girl)" Looking Glass, "Never Say Never" J. Bieber, and "Upgrade U" Beyonce and Jay-Z.

I hope you have fun plans for the weekend!
Liv

Favorite Things: Friday Night Lights

Up above you can see one of the tabs is called "favorite things", comprised food, clothing, gadgets, tv, etc. I'm loving at the moment.  As new things spark my interest I'll add them to the tab and now I'm going to gradually begin reviewing the items as well.

My first review is coming because I sadly finished the series finale of one of my favorite new shows Friday Night Lights last night.  I've heard of FNL before and due to recommendations from friends at school, I started watching the series at the end of last semester, right before finals.  That was a mistake.  If you are in school, studying for MCATS or GREs, or just need to be super focused and not distracted do not start FNL yet because you will become addicted.  FNL is about a town in Texas called Dillon and their obsession over the high school football team, the Dillon Panthers.  Coach Eric Taylor has just become head coach and right away is feeling the pressure from the town that expects nothing less than a state title.  

I really liked this show for a few reasons.  One being, the characters are realistic but overall very likable, as are their relationships.  This is not a show where the 3 main male and female characters all date each other again and again until it just gets weird.  I especially love the relationships between Coach Taylor and his individual players that he has throughout the seasons, his relationship with his wife and the sweet love between Matt and his grandma.  The characters have real problems, they have honest relationships and they are nice to look at as well, which leads me to my next reason.  Tim Riggins.

You're welcome.

  I love him and you will too.  He at first appears like a typical lazy, asshole who only cares about himself but throughout the series you see he is much more and is actually one of the most selfless characters in the whole show.  Finally, I love the football culture that drives the show.  Being a former high school athlete, I was taken back to my years of competing, cheering for my teammates, and feeling the thrill of winning (although no one cared about my swim team as much as Texans love their football).  The only thing that was difficult to watch were the transitions between seasons.  This being because characters that you got really close to left the show because they graduated, thus teams changed leaving each season feeling slightly different.  It kept the show fresh and realistic though so I was ok with it.   Again, I highly recommend this show- it's currently on Netflix so go get addicted now!

Breakfast recipe: egg pancakes

Happy first day of summer!  It's so freaking hot today, somewhere in the 90's, and the residents at the senior center I work at were still freezing.  One woman had the thermostat in her room at 85 degrees.  I was dying.  I made a light but filling breakfast this morning that came courtesy of my friend Delaney (heyyyy!!).  I remembered last week that her mom made these for us the morning Delaney left for France for the year and I asked her for the recipe right away.

She's nice I swear

Wanna see the recipe?...

Ok fine!

Egg pancakes:

3 eggs

1 tablespoon melted butter

3 tablespoons flour

1/2 cup ricotta or cottage cheese (I used ricotta!)

Cook on the stove like regular pancakes (they cook fast though so watch it!)

I made 4 pancakes with these measurements and I still have almost a full bowl of mix left.  They turned out really well- thin and buttery tasting but not greasy.  They are sort of like crepes I would say.  I added sunbutter to mine too.  They also have a ton of protein so they kept me full until lunch.  Check them out this week for sure and thanks Del!

Lookin a little sad but tastin so good

Hard & sweaty

Today was one of those days that I really didn't want to drive to the gym.  I also couldn't (aka wouldn't) go for a run in the 90 degree weather.  When I saw today's Summer Shape-up workout didn't require much equipment I was pumped.  I turned our large, empty living room into my own personal gym, laid out my jump rope and hand weights and blasted Pandora's pop and hip-hop workout station (perfect workout background music).  Today's workout left me with a few thoughts: 1) I am so sweaty and my contacts are getting blurry 2)  I really need to practice the star plank and split squats (see here) 3) I need to buy a yoga may asap because doing these exercises on a sleeping bag is questionable and making me even hotter.  Needless to say, I can't do anything about the heat, but I am going to work on those moves this week and right when I was done today I drove to Marshalls and picked up a lovely purple yoga mat.  I can't believe it's my first one, even my dad has one.  Guess I have an excuse to sign up for a yoga class now :)

After Marshalls I went to heaven on earth, formerly known as Pittsford Wegmans.  I literally wanted to buy everything.  I was also shopping hungry which is never a good idea.  Seriously, don't do it.  I almost bought a miniature carrot cake from the bakery section because of this.  The one impulse buy I did have is something I've wanted to try for a while but have never seen in any of the store by my house, Vita Tops!

I'm thinking of heating one up tonight and smothering it in my new coconut peanut butter (!!!).  I'll let you know how they are.  All I'm saying is, they were almost a dollar a top so they better blow my mind.  


I'm off to shamefully watch Pretty Little Liars, have a great night!

Recent eats and potential new ones

Happy Monday!
I hope you had a nice weekend and a Happy Father's Day.  I spent mine working, hanging by the lake, going out with friends, and getting in a workout here and there.  I also ate some pretty good food this past week.  When I'm working, I eat dinner there so I don't get to cook as much as I would like (I really need the practice), so when I am home, I want to make something good.  I've also been into making tasty lunches now, especially when I know I will be working during dinner.  Some recent eats around here:

Awesome cake batter and caramel pretzel fro-yo with every topping imaginable including wheat germ.  By accident :/ 

Smoothie with frozen mixed berries, almond milk, spinach, vanilla almond protein powder and a scoop of sunflower seed butter.  Try this now.

Black bean quesadilla, sauteed veggies and quinoa

Inspired by my friend Julia's lunch- open face sandwich of turkey, provolone, pesto, spinach and avocado.

Leftovers done right- spinach salad with black beans, shredded cheddar cheese, sunflower seeds and avocado with olive oil sprinkled on top and a small side of pasta.

Last week's meals were awesome.  This week I'm planning on baking some chicken and roasting veggies one night, maybe a pasta and artichoke meal another and am making homemade pizza with one of my roommates.  Pictures to come!

A nice day for a run

Today was supposed to be a HIIT+ strength workout, according to the Fitnessista Summer Shape-up that I'm following, but it was the perfect temperature for a run so I decided to move my workouts around a little.  I really hate running in humidity so today's 80 degree weather was pretty ideal even though I still ended up sweating like a beast.  I would love to try and run as much as possible for now until it gets to be that muggy 90 + degree summer weather that makes running seem like a joke.  I'll take cold running weather any day over hot.

 So was this run a pretty one?  Not at all.  My shins were killing me, it was hotter out than it looked and I was still feeling a bit full from lunch, but I finished a (slow) 3.26 mile run in 33 minutes and feel pretty good about it now.  You never regret a workout right?  I followed my run up with the bedtime ab burner (nope not at bedtime at all) and a smoothie!

Great iphone picture

Just your average barney-colored smoothie

Looks good right?  In the mix went almond milk, spinach, frozen mixed berries from Wegmans, vanilla almond protein powder (the almond flavor is awesome!) and a scoop of sunflower butter (YUM).  This was one of my favorite concoctions yet; fruity, but the nut butter added in there really took it to the next level.

I'm off to shower and head to work and then my roommates and I are going to see "That's My Boy".  Review to come!

It's backkkk!

The blog is officially back and better than ever.  There are of course a lot of major changes that have been made and brown&black is no more.  R.I.P.  But welcome to my new blog Real World Workouts!  I'm really excited to start blogging again and to focus this blog mainly on my healthy habits and interests but also on whatever else is interesting me at the moment.  I hope you enjoy!

Right now I am living in Rochester for the summer with friends from school and already loving it.  I am super busy with my days spent volunteering in various health-related locations in preparation for grad school and nights spent being a server for the first time.  Let me tell you, working in the food industry is no joke.  I get to rock a tux in 80 + degree weather serving food and drinks, and am basically always on my feet.  The job is tiring, but it's a job, right?

Being so busy leaves getting workouts in a little more challenging so I just started Fitnessista's Summer Shape-up.  If you aren't familiar with it, go check out her page, she is one of my favorite bloggers and the first "healthy living" blog I ever read.  I've done plenty of Gina's workouts before and love them because she is a personal trainer so she knows what she is talking about, but I also love that she includes strength training, cardio of your choice (running for me!) and rest/stretch days.  I think a lot of people get into the habit of only doing one sort of exercise, whether it be running, elipticalling (don't think this is a word...), lifting (guys, I'm talking to you) or yoga, etc.  A mix of all of these things keeps me from getting bored and personally gives me the best results health-wise.  Although I'm not following her food plan, I hope to follow the workouts almost exactly so I will keep you updated!  It is also nice that a couple of my roommates are getting into it as well!  So far for the week workout I + HIIT, steady state cardio (a lovely 35 minute run) and active rest day (walk to and from work) have been completed.

Pre- steady state cardio sneaker selfie. Cool!

What are you doing to get yourself in shape and keep yourself accountable this summer?  Does work or school ever get in the way for you?