Ice Cream Sundays + Start of Grad School

Posted on June 28, 2017 by Alison @ Daily Moves and Grooves

Two very different yet equally important things.

I’ve been meaning to post this for the past two days, but here we are on a Wednesday. Now that I have to fill my days and nights with studying, blogging will probably be reduced to once a week again. C’est la vie.

It’s been a blessed past five days though!

even my pineapple was smiling at me! (but this was a terrible pineapple)

Friday

Friday was my last day of work as a gross anatomy teaching assistant, and I must say that I had a great time working that job. (Definitely a better time than the students were having. What troopers.)

I kicked off the weekend with Colby! We picked up our pottery that we painted last weekend, and they turned out so well.

Afterwards we walked over to Shawarma King for some Mediterranean goods.

I got the falafel wrap, which totally hit the spot.

Then we went to Paris Creperie for dessert, necessarily. I got the petite sized bear claw crepe (cinnamon and cookie butter), which was not really worth the price (I was hoping they’d have vanilla ice cream to top it with – negative) but tasty nonetheless.

As always, time with Colby was the best part 🙂

Later in the night, I joined some friends at Rachel’s place for a Princess Diaries movie night. If it were any other movie, I would have gone to bed instead, but the original Princess Diaries is so worth it.

Saturday

I was suuuuuper tired getting up early Saturday morning, but I was still so happy to go to a 7:30am “Cardio Core Fusion” class at Exhale Back Bay with my friend Elayne!

She had told me that ClassPass (a membership that gives you discounted prices for fitness classes throughout the city) was having a 4 classes for $4 deal for their 4th anniversary, so we jumped on it. This Cardio Core Fusion was a great, involving lots of planks and punches and fun beats, but my body was NOT having it after a week of less-than-ideal amounts of sleep.

But any opportunity to move and groove with friends is a good time!

I made sure not to book anything else for Saturday so that I could nap (for 2.5 hours thankyouverymuch), clean the apartment, do laundry, pray, cook, FaceTime with the fam, and go to sleep early-ish. I hadn’t forced myself to have a (nearly) commitment-free day in a long time, but after Saturday, I was reminded of how valuable those kinds of days are.

meatloaf + arugula salad

banana bread mug cake + greek yogurt while FaceTiming the fam

Sunday

…started off with THE BEST smoothie ever. On Saturday night I threw together in a bowl:

1/2 c. milk
1/3 c. greek yogurt
1/2 c. oats
1 tbsp. chia seeds
sprinkle of cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
pinch of salt
big spoonful of peanut butter

On Sunday morning, I poured the whole mixture into a blender with a little more milk and about 2/3-3/4 of a frozen banana. And voila! The thickest, most luscious pb banana smoothie of all time.

I miss it.

I walked to a church downtown for confession afterwards and then met up with Ben for a workout on the esplanade. It was a hot and beautiful day, so it seemed like all of Boston’s humans and domestic and wild animals were playing outside.

We utilized the equipment and came up with this fun workout that also made me feel like I was working out on top of a stove. The rubber flooring of this thing is a heat sponge.

3 rounds:

20 tricep dips
15 goblet squats (with a random cement block we found there)
20 decline situps
10 burpee bench jumpovers
10 step up hops each leg
10 side to side uneven pushups
10 lateral hopover burpees
25 double unders
20 reverse rows

We drank oh so much agua afterwards and walked over to a different park to hang out with more friends!

We picnicked, frisbee’d, read, jumped rope, and made fun of each other. Quality friend time ♥︎

I packed and ate this sandwich for the park – pepper jack, ham, arugula, bacon, sriracha mayo *squeal*

After playing outside for a few hours, I walked back home while FaceTiming my friend Briana. Then I showered, ate meatloaf and veggies in record speed, and rushed back out the door for Mass back on campus.

My friends and I have unofficially decided that we now have a post-Sunday-Mass ice cream ritual. I really just kept bugging people about ice cream all day, but who was gonna say no? We went to White Mountain Creamery last Sunday, so it seems like it’s “ice cream Sundays” should be a thing now.

This week we went to Emack and Bolio’s, which has been known to just be “meh,” and for me it was still just that, but it was ice cream. It was also my fault for ordering too chocolatey of a flavor for my taste.

chocolate salted peanut butter cup + bananas foster (the latter was delicious though!)

some of my favorite humans

Rachel invited us over to her place to hang out/watch the Cardinals v. Pirates baseball game, but I was there for the hanging out, popcorn and beer. The baseball was nice white noise.

Monday

I’ve been having overnight oats 5/7 days per week probably, and I am never mad about it.

I worked through the morning at my side job and then headed to the gym for a very short but efficient workout (read: my legs were jello by the end).

Supersets (3x)

10 pistols each leg + 20 KB swings (12kg)
15 weighted jump squats (10#) + 20 hamstring ball curls + 20 jump lunges

I warmed up before and stretched afterwards, but this was IT.

Sidenote: I was fueled by this bomb sandwich I packed with me.

avocado, arugula, two eggs, bacon, sriracha *angels singing*

Sandwiches make the world go ’round.

After the gym, I went to the bookstore to pick up a textbook for my class and then headed home to cook, eat and FaceTime with my dear friend Emma for THREE hours! There was apparently a lot on our hearts that needed to be said. Praise God for wonderful friends.

dinner – more meatloaf with brown rice and veggies sautéed in sesame oil and rice vinegar

post dinner – leftover green pancakes from the freezer, warmed up and topped with pb and maple syrup

I ate this dinner and snack kind of early (finished at 6pm) but ate a chicken drumstick at around 9pm after FaceTiming Emma. So I was full going to bed, but for some odd reason, I woke up starving at 3:30am. I hesitate to use the word starving for fear of overdramatizing my hunger, but I really was hungry to the bone and felt like I could have eaten a large burger with fries and milkshake in the middle of the night.

Of course, I got up and ate bread with pb&j. But when I went back to bed, I was still so hungry and ate half a frozen banana with yogurt. And then third times the charm, I got up again and ate several handfuls of sunflower seeds.

It was a very odd occurrence that I did not like at all, but I just honestly, inadvertently didn’t eat enough before going to bed. Happens…but I’d prefer if it didn’t.

Tuesday

First day of PT school!!!

We had orientation at 8am, followed by class from 9-12 and 1-3. Five hours of classes in one day is not my cuppa tea, but alas, summer school is here.

After our long first day of Functional Anatomy, our program directors kindly set up a fun social event for all of the post-bacs and continuing undergraduates (like me) to mingle and meet one another. We bonded over bowling and lots of delicious food (praaaaaaise)!

I helped myself to half a ham sandwich, chips, salsa, egg rolls, chicken wings, fried mac and cheese(!!!!), lemonade, and, like, a couple veggies.

new and old friends! (shoutout to Erin who always hypes up my blog around new people haha ♥︎)

Now I have things like homework to do at night, so I think I’m going to read a textbook, pray, EAT A FREAKING HEFTY SNACK, and hit the hay.

Hope you are all having a marvelous week!

So tell me:

Do you have a fun weekly or monthly “ritual” of any sort?

Two things you did this weekend!

Do you ever schedule in a full day off?

Feelin’ The Heat

Posted on June 12, 2017 by Alison @ Daily Moves and Grooves

🎶 I’m burnin’ up, burnin’ up for you babayyyyy.🎶

Does ANYONE remember that Jonas Brothers’ song!?

It’s finally getting steamy over here in Boston! I used to hate the heat, but I appreciate it now. Mostly at night when I can walk out of a restaurant and not have to brace myself in the chilly air (← problems that are not real problems).

I was definitely feelin’ the heat of the sun this weekend and also feelin’ the heat of work/school starting up again. I’m excited to have a routine again though. I can only go so long as a nomad of life. I’m actually currently typing this as I help proctor an exam (don’t worry, I’ve got my eyes on the students too 😉 ).

Friday

I worked all day at my usual side job as a house helper.

overnight oats in a pb jar(!) for the morn’

Living farther from work/campus in June and July means my sustenance depends on tupperwares.

“use all the leftovers” kind of lunch — two eggs, two egg whites, greens, pepper jack and feta

After work, I met up with an incoming BU freshman who I met on one of my campus tours. We had a lovely time chatting and getting to know each other for over two hours over berry hibiscus iced tea at Pavement.

I also went to the gym that night for the first time in a long time! I still can’t run, but rowing is fine. I missed cardio (never thought I’d say that) these past couple weeks after very little impact for my healing hips. It was also bumpin’ in the gym on a Friday night. People are so dedicated in the summer!

The moves and grooves:

Warmup (5 min rowing)

3×10 scap flye pushups // 3×10 stability ball scorpions
1×10 lat pulldown (70#), 3×6 assisted pull-up negatives (50# assist) // 3×10 decline pushups
1×10 military press (20# DBs), 2×10 Arnold press (12# DBs) // 3×10 med ball squat cleans (20#)

21-18-15-12-9-6-3 cals rowing // 8 burpees between each set

Boston was looking SO FINE on my way home.

Bedtime snack:

Saturday

I got up relatively early the next day to meet Ben for our usual Saturday Spartan workout. He let me lead so that the workout was sure to be friendly for my hip. He also asked me to “murder his arms,” so I immediately thought of Lori and Michelle’s 18 minute plank workout, aka the slow but sure killer. He kept calling the exercises “fake,” but that’s just because they were hard 🙂

We also did some reverse rows, tricep dips, and this same 10 minute ab workout from Pinterest that we did a few nights before.

With wiggly arms and warm cores, we parted ways. A tupperware breakfast to enjoy on a bench:

leftover green pancakes with almond butter and jam

Then I went to Mass downtown and walked home for lunch.

leftover Thai food

For the rest of the afternoon, I studied a little bit of gross anatomy for work, read some Brideshead Revisited, and took a delicious 20 minute nap (← My mom calls naps delicious and I don’t know I feel about it, but here I am.)

Saturday evening involved a super special belated birthday surprise from the bff, Rachel! She asked me to put on a cute dress, come over to her place for dinner, and let her take me out for the night. Already loved everything about it.

I arrived to a set table and the smell of pasta cooking on the stove, and we soon sat down for a lovely dinner of salads with arugula, feta, dried cranberries and homemade apple cider vinaigrette…

…and tortellini with marinara. So simple and satisfying.

Look at this chef!

After finishing, we cleaned up and headed out into town. Before dinner I didn’t know where she was taking me, but after a little thought and prodding, I figured out that she was taking me to the Omni Parker House for drinks and desserts! So fancy!! Also a food bucket list destination 🙂

We sat down at the bar (what a GROWN WOMAN thing to do, we’re GROWN WOMEN wow) and ordered a drink each, plus two cakes to share.

We had to get the original Boston Cream Pie, because a) it originated at the Parker House; b) it’s on our food bucket list. I also learned that Boston Cream PIE is actually cake.

The second cake was carrot cake, because Rachel knows it’s my all-time fave.

Neither cake blew me away, but they were both still cake, rich and delicious!

Our drinks thooooough. We took the waitress’ recommendations , so Rachel got an “Craft Manhattan” on the rocks. It was Woodford Reserve Bourbon (which the menu says has “a bouquet of banana bread, orange and vanilla” WHAT) paired with Doulin Rouge (“a lighter sweet vermouth”), stirred with orange bitters.

I don’t know what half of those things are, but it was super strong and good.

And I got the Blackberry Whiskey Sour, which was Jack Daniels Tennessee whiskey, lemon juice, simple syrup, and blackberry puree. So like juice, just how I prefer it. Rachel said it was one of the best drinks she’s ever tasted.

It was so wonderful getting to chat with my best friend all night and do fancy grownup things with her. Thank you so much again, Rachel. Love you forever.

I slept in on Sunday and started the day with some yoga in my room. Other happenings included a sweaty walk to a work meeting, sitting by the river, and Mass. I won’t get into too much detail about my day on Sunday because I have a “week in the life” vlog coming for ya later this week! I might do the full week, I might just do half a week because my life isn’t that interesting. We’ll see.

Have a fantastic week ahead, friends! Eat cake and do something fancy.

So tell me:

Have you ever eaten Boston Cream Pie?

Two things you did this weekend!

Do you ever have to pack a whole day’s worth of food with you?