Tummy Troubles

Posted on June 9, 2016 by Alison @ Daily Moves and Grooves

Thinking-Out-Loud

1) It’s cold outside. Not that I’m complaining (the cooler days are welcome in the midst of summer heat), but I’m still a little surprised! Mild winter…now mild summer? No more seasons? End of the world?

2) But I snapped this on Monday, so apparently I’m still feelin’ that heat. 72F is great for lounging outside, but STEAMY for working out.

3) And this tragedy.

that little black speck = a flea

tiniest_violin

[source]

4) Alrighty, friends. This community has plenty of experience in the area of food + GI issues, I’m sure.* I’ve had indigestion and general GI discomfort for the past couple of weeks, which is throwin’ off my appetite and, well, the comfort of my insides. (LOL this is legit poop therapy.) I can’t think of anything in my diet that could be the cause.

5) …maybe it’s stress from adjusting to a new work environment and routine?

6) …maybe it’s dairy?? (Please, Lord, don’t say it is so.) I do eat a helluvalot of that stuff.

7) I’ve even been looking seriously into possibly doing Whole30. I’m considering this because of the GI issues, but also because I’ve been getting a lot more red spots/acne/dryness on my face + a weird rash on my back. If there’s a time to do Whole30, it’s during the summer at home (and right before my family goes on vacation in July, heh). I’m not 100% sure I want to commit, but for now, I’m taking it easy on the dairy (with sadness).

8) That means grains are still in my life, but I’m trying to keep things simple.

*I’ll talk to a doc if this persists, but for now, I’m willing to listen to anyone with experience!

9) I never thought I’d say this, but these vegan, raw crackers taste like the delicious Parmesan crisps my mom used to buy.

Kale Goji crackers from Healing Home Foods

I SWEAR. I don’t do imposter foods, but these are an exception. We got these from…the farmers’ market.

10) Mom has been getting into these 7-minute workout apps, and she’s been asking me to do them with her. Moving and grooving with Madre, what a dream.

Hope you all have a great pre-Friday! Take care of your tummies 🙂

So tell me:

Do you have any experience with prolonged indigestion? What was the cause for you? Dr. Google is telling me many possible causes, of course.

Have you ever tried nutritional yeast? I can finally vouch that it tastes a lot like cheese.

What are some of your favorite workout apps?

Five Minute Friday #8: Confidence

Posted on March 18, 2016 by Alison @ Daily Moves and Grooves

This week was more packed than a chipmunk’s mouth before hibernation!!!

enhanced-buzz-16108-1289424850-3

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Or my face before hibernation.

This week…

Lots of time with our noses in the books:

I got to see my cousin for a hot minute! She was visiting from Canada to check out some colleges in Boston (not Boston University though…*sadness*).

Fab breakfast and deep conversation with my friend, Lauren:

An exceptionally delicious wrap with roast beef, pepper jack, roasted vegetables, corn salsa, lettuce, tomato, and honey mustard:

Dinner with my dear friend Mai and her boyfriend (arguably the cutest couple I’ve ever known):

Fish tacos that were messy yet delightful:

there’s fish under there

A free Cyc Fitness class (aka my first spin class ever), compliments of Fit University founder, Sarah Gaines!

Sarah just became a “Cycologist” (certified spin instructor at Cyc), so she kindly invited me and my friend Cassandra to her first tribe ride!

didn’t know what we were getting into

taken aback by the special shoes

Like I said, I had never been to a spin class before, so I didn’t know what to expect…

…but, uh, Sarah kicked my ass. When that beat dropped and she went double time on the pedaling for two sets of 32 counts—HAHA. How. My quads are totally not adapted to moving that quickly for that length of time. Also, pretty sure I was sweating taco/I could still smell fish taco on my hands.

But the music, lights, and overall atmosphere were amazing, and I left feeling spent and sweaty as ever.

Thank you so much, Sarah!! You absolutely killed it, and I would definitely come back to #getcyced with you again.

St. Patrick’s Day was fun and festive with our (my friend Kristy and me) first Shamrock Shake ever!

I love mint. That thing was straight. up. SUGAR. I enjoyed it, but I honestly could not consume more than a quarter of it. ‘Twas a good experience though.

I had a large hunk of cornbread with turkey chili in the dining hall last night. Random, but good news.

Not so good news: I have three exams next week.

Good news: Five Minute Friday is here again! I’m talking about confidence, inspired by my breakfast convo with Lauren. Specifically, I’d like to know how you guys feel about being “useful” to others and how you feel about compliments.

link to video!

Great news: This Sunday is Palm Sunday and next week is Holy Week!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend ♥︎

So tell me:

Do you find that you need to be “useful” to others in order to be worthy of their time?

How do you handle compliments?

Have you ever tried a spinning class? Do you like spinning?

Have you ever tried a Shamrock Shake?

Back in Boston + Five Minute Friday #7

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Alison @ Daily Moves and Grooves

Dinner last night was leftover salad with hummus, Popcorners, a frozen banana, and two spoonfuls of cashew butter. Why did I come back to Boston when the dining halls aren’t open yet???

Well, despite the fact that dining halls aren’t open, I am both nourished and having a great time with friends.

Rewinding back to New York: On Tuesday night, my parents kindly took me out to dinner at our favorite Japanese restaurant for the best sushi ever.

I came home and made myself some peanut butter banana soft serve (frozen bananas blended in a food processor with a splash of milk and peanut butter)— an old time fave. I ate it with a little Greek yogurt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and granola. Fabulous.

And then this beautiful person came to visit me after her class ended (at 10 pm!)!

Daliza! ♥︎ I fed her a pancake with half peanut butter and half nutella + glass o’ milk. Her visit would be incomplete without me giving her something with peanut butter or nutella on it.

Wednesday morning involved overnight oats, packing, and some moves and grooves (handstand walks, pushups, and a 16 minute interval workout) before preparing brunch for my friends Joe and Louis.

French toast, scrambled eggs, and bacon

“The bacon was very good, Alison. The whole brunch was very good, but the bacon was VERY good.” — Louis

It was my first time cooking bacon, so I’m glad it turned out well. I also blended up a green peanut butter banana smoothie (milk, greek yogurt, frozen banana, peanut butter, and spinach) and ~~forced it down their throats~~ convinced them to try it, since I knew for a fact that they would not be able to taste the spinach.

Screen Shot 2016-03-10 at 11.34.58 PM

They didn’t taste the spinach. #VICTORIOUS. (“There’s like a little bit of an aftertaste.” ← yeah, sure, believe what you want.)

I made myself an avocado, bacon, and egg toast + another egg + sriracha. I also ate my weight in leftover roasted brussels sprouts while I was cooking.

This was amazing.

Joe, Louis and I hit the road for Boston and made it back in time to enjoy the FREAKING GORGEOUS weather. It hit 70 F — shorts and t-shirt weather! As soon as we arrived on campus, we joined more friends for Can-Jam until it got dark.

Then we ate dinner at the food court on campus, chilled out on the dock, and played the Ellen Degeneres iPhone game, “Psych”, until we were all falling asleep. Good people, good times.

Yesterday’s activities included some quick moves and grooves (this ab workout), Mass, lunch at Tasty Burger, the Museum of Fine Art, and a special pre-screening of the new movie, The Young Messiah. It’s hard to pick out the best part of the day!

This was a “dine-in” theater with the most luxurious seats I’ve ever seen in a movie theater.

And today I’m going to Mass and lunch with a friend, maybe working out at the gym, and definitely doing lots of studying.

Now that we’re all caught up, how about some Five Minute Friday action? (This post probably took you five minutes to read already…sorry.) This week I’m talking about something very random: where I would want to live after I graduate!

link to the video!

Taking a video of myself on a tire swing in a park that I’d never visited before. Sounds about right for me.

Hope you all have an awesome weekend!

So tell me:

Have you ever tried convincing someone that a smoothie with spinach does NOT taste gross?

If you could live anywhere, where would you live and why?

If you love where you live, why is that?

The Type of Exercise I Do Not Miss

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Alison @ Daily Moves and Grooves

Click the button to check out the mastermind behind Thinking Out Loud!

1) A great moment of judgement from others: When I’m walking through the dining hall wearing my athletic head band, athletic clothes, and athletic iPhone armband all while proudly holding a plate of dessert.

But if you tasted this pumpkin bread pudding [a la mode], you would have #NoRagrets too.

[source]

2) My current favorite salad dressing is CREAMY. Creamy honey mustard dressing, to be exact.

I’m not a huge fan of other creamy dressings such as caesar, ranch, thousand island, etc., but honey mustard has a special place in my heart. Side note: The chicken in each of these meals was on point—flavorful and not a workout to chew it.

3) I have not done steady state cardio training (as in, running, elliptical, rowing, stair master, etc. for a longer duration) in several months now, and out of all the types of exercise I used to do, I definitely miss this the least (if at all). In fact, I don’t think I could enjoy doing it ever again.

4) I’d much rather get my heart rate up with burpees or dancing, and I’d rather build my endurance with something like hiking or bouldering (<— stuff is no joke). One of the great things I’ve truly internalized after taking time off of formal workouts this summer is that it’s not worth it to continue exercise that you don’t enjoy.

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5) Also, my roommate just convinced me to air squat through a whole song with her in our pajamas. #FunctionalFitnessForFriends

6) I cracked open and ate a whole lobster all by myself for the first time last night!

Once every year, the BU dining halls have ~~lobster~~ lobstah night, and since I missed it last year, I made sure to join the festivities this year. It was madness in the d-halls, but it was worth it for this little bugger. Especially followed by this local macintosh apple crisp + oatmeal raisin cookie a la mode.

7) Current jams:

8) I cannot begin to tell you how much I’m loving modern dance class. Even though I’m not planning on pursuing dance professionally, I think I’ve realized that I want to keep dance a part of my life forever. Dance = soul speaking (<— such artist language).

9) If you have a Snapchat… What the heck are those new filters!? Like, those things are straight out of nightmares and horror movies. I just know I’m going to have trust issues opening snaps from now on.

However, I do approve of Daliza’s usage of the filter on Donald Trump.

10) Wishing you all a wonderful day! Happy Pre-Friday 🙂

So tell me:

Do you like steady state cardio?

What is your favorite form of exercise? Dance or fun calisthenic-type stuff for me. Anything that feels more like playing than working out.

Have you ever eaten a whole lobster before?

Have you ever felt judged for eating something unhealthy in your workout clothes?

Happenings on the First Day of Classes

Posted on September 3, 2015 by Alison @ Daily Moves and Grooves

1) So I almost lost my student ID and room key on the first day of classes. But I didn’t! PJ and I had our first “workout” (I did some yoga-y stuff and he took a walk) together of the semester yesterday morning, and of course I had to take a selfie for the occasion…

PJ is squinting from the sun, and I’m just being Asian

…But at some point within the 10 seconds it took me to take my phone out of the arm sleeve and snap the selfie, I dropped my lanyard in the grass. When we were walking to the dining hall to grab something to eat, I finally noticed that something was missing…(&%$!?) So I [literally] ran back to find my lanyard, praying that no one stole it yet.

2) After finding it, I went back to my dorm room instead of going back to the dining hall. In my dorm I ate salmon jerky and an entire bag of microwave-steamed broccoli.

3) I was sweaty and smelly at that point, but since I knew I would be walking and dancing later, I didn’t want to take a shower. Thus, I resorted to a sponge bath for my armpits and arms over the sink + a face wash. It probably would have taken the same amount of time to take a quick shower, but guatever.

4) Speaking of dancing, modern dance class yesterday was GLORIOUS. I hadn’t done any artistic movement in such a long time, so you bet your bottom dollar that I am loving this class. To be honest, the class is the most structured and intense workout I’ve done in a while, but I’ll get to that whole update tomorrow.

5) Winner winner dining hall dinner last night: