Blogger's Guilt

I'm sorry for taking so much time off. Nobody tells you how ridiculous it is to move across the state. And I haven't even done it yet. I'm just prepping myself mentally. I'd like to have said "mentally and physically," but let's face it. I haven't done any packing. And now: an update!


Friday
I headed down to Ann Arbor for one last shebang (read: night o' drinking) before medical school.  I stayed with Anthony and he and I went to Jerusalem Garden for a delicious Mediterranean dinner.

Our spread included hummus, baba ganoush, fattoush and pita.

Mmm...fattoush!

My falafel and baba ganoush sandwich - delicious!

After dinner, we headed to MDen so Anthony could get a Michigan Alumni shirt and so that we could be twins!

We also got all the alcohol ready for the pregame we were having.

Eventually everyone came over and an inebriated night was had!

Jim and me - our first cute pic together! 

My favorite new teacher!

My first Irish car bomb 

Organic vodka

After our epic pregame, we headed to the club to dance. A good time was had by all, trust me. 


When we got back to Anthony's, Shelley (his roommate) insisted that we have drunk food, also known as Pizza House. So, I ended up having a milkshake and probably about oh, I don't know, four pieces of pizza. Yikes.


Saturday
Anthony and I woke up pretty early and headed to breakfast. I had a slight headache and he wasn't feeling 100% either, but alas, such is the life of a college graduate! We were, however, able to enjoy our breakfasts.

Large fruit bowl, which we split 

Anthony with his omelette

Me with mine

After breakfast, I headed home to nap and then went over to my mom's for some delicious salmon and to watch Lincoln Lawyer.

Shortly after the movie, I headed to Alicia's house to play with kittens and chat.


Sunday
My mother and I basically spent Sunday in the van. We drove to Grand Rapids to pick up my keys for my new place and to hunt for some furniture. Though we didn't find anything I needed, I did find a new entertainment center(ish) thing and some matching end tables. We ended up having dinner at Olive Garden (which is so not good for you, but oh so good!) around 5 so I was lucky my oh-so-nutritious breakfast held me until then.

Then it was back to Midland for more kitten time with Alicia with a special guest appearance by Lisa!


Monday
I had planned to wake up early and go to the gym, but I was exhausted and decided against it. Instead, I woke up at 7:30 a.m., rushed through my morning routine and made it to work at 8:05 a.m. During the morning, I did about an hour's worth of computer work and then sat around entertaining myself until lunch.


At lunch, I met up with Alicia and Lisa for Pi's, the best Chinese in Midland. I only made one trip up to the buffet and then simply sat and enjoyed the company of two of my best friends. Then it was back to work where I did hmm, let's see, um, nothing. Per usual.


After work, I met Lisa and Alicia at the community center. They were going to work out while I had my butt kicked by Mark, but then Mark invited them along. Alicia politely declined, but Lisa voluntarily worked her ass off with me. We were sweaty and struggling pretty much the entire time. And Lisa informs me that today she is walking bow-legged.


After our workout, we headed home for some steak and shrimp! The steak was just okay, but the shrimp was awesome!

And because I only have two kitchen chairs, I sat on my exercise ball, which, incidentally, is the perfect height for shoveling food into your mouth.

After dinner, Lisa and I ran to have my car checked out (my engine light came on and then went off after two days), ran to my mom's house, and then went blading/biking. Lisa rode her stepmother's bike while I bladed. We did a quick 5 mile loop and then headed back to my apartment where we met up with Alicia again.


We sat around watching tv, eating overnight oats (which, of course, weren't so overnight), and this awesome fat-free cake Lisa's stepmother gave us. It was a lovely night which ended when I kicked them out so I wouldn't die of exhaustion at work today.


Tuesday
Unfortunately, I am currently dying of exhaustion/boredom at work. There's really no point in me going to work because I have nothing to do and no one is looking to give me anything to do being that my job ends tomorrow. Meh. It's not like it's that out of the ordinary for me to spend a day doing nothing. But since I was bored and hungry, I left early for lunch. That's why I've finally got enough time to blog!


I've been feeling bad about not getting to it but there's so much to be done (and I should really be doing some of it now) before I move that I haven't even had the time to creep on other people's blogs!


Anywho, for lunch, I made my last spinach pizza. It was a tad deformed.

But, don't worry! It tasted just fine!

As for the rest of the day, I probably won't do anything of any significance at work. After work, I am going to see a table that hopefully will fit nicely in my new apartment. Then I'm off to the gym for a bit! Once I'm done getting my sweat on, Alicia and Lisa are heading over for some gnocchi and salad. What good friends they are, helping me eat all of my frozen food!


Thanks for reading! I am thinking the next few updates will be catch-up style like this, but we shall see.

So fresh!

Thanks for coming back despite the lack of posts! I'll do a brief overview of what's been going on and then tell you all about today.


Wednesday, I weighed in per usual. This was last week:

And this is this week:

That's a 2.4 pound loss. Now, I know it doesn't seem like much, but I'm on my period and I'm retaining water like a camel in the desert. So, any loss is awesome and I'm certain next week will be better.


Wednesday afternoon, I headed to East Lansing with my mom to look at apartments for med school. Since I got in rather late, a lot of the good apartments were taken. In fact, in the complex that pretty much all the med students live in, there was only one room available. And this is only because someone canceled their contract that week. So, since I really wanted to live close and with all the other med school kids, I went and checked out Berrytree Apartments. After touring the complex and the apartment, I signed a lease to pay a buttload of money every month ($730) for a one-bedroom apartment. Malena (who goes to MSU) showed us around East Lansing a bit and I started getting upset because it was finally starting to sink in that I would be living in East Lansing, a city that I don't really like. Compared to Ann Arbor, there's not a ton of culture and it's nowhere near as beautiful a campus. But, I'm sure once I'm there and studying my butt off, I won't be too concerned with either of these things.


Thursday and Friday, I went to work per usual and was bored for a majority of it. Shocking, I know. But, Friday night, my mom and I went to see Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers. It was very entertaining. I illegally took some photos and a tiny bit of video so you can see.

The stage - Steve had 4 banjos

This is how far we were from the stage

Steve wore white

Right before this clip, Steve said that he was certain his album was going to be on the top 10 list next week because he was going to overdose on vicodin.

Sorry the video's so short, but I felt kinda guilty about it. Anyway, the show was awesome and it was completely sold out.


Today was pretty awesome, too. I woke up and decided to head to the Farmer's Market right away for some fresh produce. I'd been putting off shopping for a bit so I could get some local stuff and I'm glad I did because I got all of this:

So colorful! After the Farmer's Market, I headed to meijer to get the rest of the stuff on my shopping list and I decided to buy sweet potatoes to make sweet potato fries. I got the recipe from Krista's blog. Since I munched on watermelon and cantaloupe while they were baking, I only had the fries for lunch.

They're a tad burnt because I struggle wanted them really crispy. But, I've looked up a few more sweet potato fry recipes and they all call for having the oven temp a bit higher, so I'll try that tomorrow.


After lunch, I headed to my mom's house to mow the lawn. But, before I headed out, I made myself a sloppy joe since I really love her sloppy joes.

After mowing, I hopped in the shower quickly and then we went to see Mr. Popper's Penguins. I effing love penguins, so that movie was top-notch. Especially when the babies made an appearance. I want one.


When we got home, it was time to start making dinner. We had grilled salmon, sweet potato fries (I tried my hand at making them again), and corn-on-the-cob. Yum!

 And we ate outside since it was gorgeous.


After dinner, I went blading. I did an easy 6.5 miles and then headed back to my mom's to collect my laundry.


Once I got back home, I washed up for bed and waited for Matt to get on Skype to chat with him for a bit. It's always nice video chatting with the people I so dearly miss. And fortunately, I'll be seeing Matt and a few other friends next weekend when I house/animal sit for Cathy in Ann Arbor. Woot! I'm really excited!


And now that it's way past my bedtime, I need to hit the hay. Tomorrow, I'll be going to the gym for some awesome heart rate cycling and then I'm thinking about going on a biking adventure. I'll let you know how it goes!

An A-Maize-Ing Weekend and a Two-Week Challenge

Hello again! I'm so glad you're still reading this despite the fact that my updates have been sporadic and sometimes pointless. This weekend I went to Ann Arbor to see some of my friends who are graduating and join them in graduation festivities. It seems so crazy that at this time last year, I was making my way to the Big House to see Obama speak and leave the University I once called home. Oh, nostalgia.

Anywho, my first stop was Lavender Graduation to see a few people special to me graduate.

Anthony and me

Matt and me

Cohen joined me for this very long ceremony and then, Matt, Anthony, and I enjoyed a lovely dinner afterwards.

[Rachel] Cohen and me

Sushi for dinner - yum!

I also attended Matt's Native graduation where he was honored for being an amazing undergraduate and received a Pendleton blanket (read: really expensive Native blanket)

Matt

Alumni and graduate

After Native graduation, Anna, Matt, Anthony, and I headed out to celebrate a bit more and called it a night at around midnight as we were all pretty exhausted.

Saturday I got my hair cut and then Anna picked me up to hang out on North campus. The lovely thing about hanging out with Anna is that we love (and hate) all the same things. So it's really easy to talk about everything going on in my life because she understands everything I'm saying without me needing to provide any background information. After seeing Anna, Matt came and picked me up so we could head to see Needtobreathe, my favorite band, in Spring Arbor.

Though the concert was alarmingly short, I had a good time. Unfortunately, they only played their best-known songs, so we missed out on quite a bit of good music. But, they played a beautiful acoustic song at the end and I was glad we were able to go.

After the concert, Matt and I headed to meijer to grab some strawberries and Lean Cuisines. As a little note, I'd like to say that it's ridiculous how supportive my friends are in this health journey of mine. Matt is not the only one who suggested ways to keep things healthy this weekend and I really want to say thank you to them - it's making this a lot easier!

After we got back, we settled in to watch Singin' in the Rain, which I think, is officially our movie. And then because we're like an old married couple, we headed up to bed to read for a while before going to sleep. It was perfect.

Today I met up with Anthony, Cohen, and Anna for lunch at Cottage Inn. I was really craving marinara sauce (I don't know why) and the pizza really hit the spot. Plus, it's always more fun sharing a meal with friends, despite the waitress being really angry for no apparent reason.

After lunch, Anthony went grocery shopping with me. We headed to Whole Foods and Trader Joe's where I got tons of delicious (and nutritious!) food. But, sadly, after grocery shopping, I headed home. I spent the majority of my drive home in a funk because now that the school year is over, I don't have a central location to visit to see all of my friends. You have no idea how hard this is going to make the next few months. Sigh.

So, let's move on to something a tad happier. I've decided to do a two-week challenge. This is nothing official, but something I'd like to do for myself. I have decided that since I've been a bit derailed due to my sinus infection (I'm still draining - ughs), I need to get back on track. Thus, everyday for the next two weeks, I am planning to do the following:

1. Go to the gym every single morning (gah)
2. Log all of my calories (and post a snapshot)
3. Drink at least four water bottles of water
4. Not go out to eat (exception: my birthday)
5. Play Just Dance 2 once a day

I'm hoping forcing myself to do this for the next two weeks will set a good tone for the next few months. My goal is to lose 10 pounds in 28 days. That's about 2.25 pounds/week. I know that's a lot, but I'm certain that if I can stick to this, I can do it. So by May 30, I should be at about 218 pounds. Let's do this!

How are you guys doing? Have you ever set goals for yourself? What helps you to achieve them?

Flirting with Failure

Sorry to have left you dedicated followers again, but I went to Ann Arbor again this weekend to attend Rachel's last party of her undergraduate career. Sadly, she is graduating!

Rachel and me

And there were some other wonderful people there that I always love seeing!

Matt and me - He's probably going to kill me for putting this up

Anna and me

Anthony and me

But, let's get down to some business, shall we? I need to talk to you about one of the most unpleasant things ever. The f-word: Failure. Nobody likes it. Most people say it's not an option (Apollo 13 reference in honor of my freshman roommate...). Me? I fear it. But, alas. We shall talk about how Failure and I are hanging out quite a bit lately.


As I posted on Wednesday, I've gained 3.2 pounds. To me, this is a Failure. Not because I'm expecting to lose weight every time I step on the scale (which would be awesome if life really worked like that), but because I know I'm the reason I failed. Let's delve a bit deeper, shall we?


I have been eating in secret...ish. You see, I've been good about taking pictures of my balanced meals, but you haven't seen the behind-the-scenes footage. Mostly because I don't want to show you. Because then you'll judge me and get all disappointed (I hate disappointing people). But since this blog is all about honesty and getting on the right track to healthy living, I'm going to let you in on the ugliness that is the behind-the-scenes footage...ish. 


One day this week, I ate about six slices of cheese as a "meal." One afternoon, I ate three cupcakes. Another afternoon, I ate four cadburry orange cream eggs. And another day I ate three cookies in one sitting. And I definitely didn't track these calories because it'd be too disheartening. I went into self-pity mode for a while (and ate more because I'd already screwed up, so why not really screw up?), but now my attitude's shifted a bit. Why? Because I realize I'm worth it. This whole thing is really freaking hard, but don't I deserve to like my body? Don't I deserve to feel good? Don't I deserve to be healthy? (The answer to all these rhetorical questions is yes). So, instead of pitying myself for flirting with Failure, I've decided to get pissed at Failure and show Failure who's boss.


I will be tracking all of my calories this week. I will be going to the gym everyday. I will not indulge in sweets (because if I eat one, I won't stop). I will not go out for food. I will stop making excuses. And this week, I am going to be more positive. I'm starting a new tab on my blog called Daily Affirmations. Here I will say one nice thing about myself everyday to help keep things a bit more positive. This will actually probably be a challenge because I'm really great at saying why I suck, but not so good at saying why I'm awesome spectacular amazing fantastic great stupendous. See? I told you. :-D

I had a lovely hiatus

Hello again, fabulous followers! Sorry for missing so many days. Well, I'm not really that sorry for missing so many blog days because that means I was doing something outside of my apartment! On Wednesday and Thursday, I hung out with Allyson because she's on Spring Break. On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I was in Ann Arbor visiting with all my friends still in school. So, I'm sorry for those of you who are addicted to my blog (Lisa), but I promise my life is super boring this week, so you'll have plenty to read!

Today, I was motivated only by the heat to go the gym. I turned my AC on yesterday night (it was 81°F in Midland!), but turned it off when I went to bed (I'm cheap). I woke up at 5:00 and set my alarm back to 7:00 a.m., but decided that if I got up, I could turn the AC on and not have to go about my morning routine all sweaty. So, I went to the gym at 5:00! Hooray! Haven't done that in forever a week. And since I went on Monday, I know I can go on Tuesday. It's just really freaking hard to get out of bed that early on a Monday.

I had a good, sweaty workout this morning since the community center was really humid. Then I came home and made some breakfast.

I was out of defrosted sausage, so I only had a few as opposed to my typical dozen or so. But really, I could cut down on them if I wanted to because I wasn't super starved when I got to work. I did have a South Beach diet bar way earlier than usual, but that was actually good because then I was able to have some of my organic tangerines which were amazing.

After a morning spent doing everything as slowly as possible so as not to run out of things to do, I came home and was super excited to make myself a salad because I finally got the world's best salad dressing! They had it at the meijer in Ann Arbor. It was awesome! I threw in the leftover chicken from the dinner my mom made me last night and I also had some sushi that I got at Trader Joe's. The lunch was absolutely amazing!

After lunch, I did some more work as slowly as possible and then got a bit more stuff to do as the day was coming to an end. Then I headed to the gym for training with Mark. But I didn't take my knee braces. Why? Because when I wore my right one this weekend, it cut into my skin by my knee and rubbed my thigh raw at one point. So I wanted to let those cuts heal a bit more before applying pressure on the exact same areas. I tried to explain this reasonable decision to Mark, but he wouldn't budge from his mad-at-Danika mood. Fine. I'll wear the damn things on Wednesday.

After training, I ran to meijer to get some shampoo and some vanilla almond milk to mix with some protein and ended up spending $50 [I feel as though that sentence can be read as I mixed shampoo in my protein. So you know, I didn't. I typically only use shampoo for my hair...]. Back to the point. I spent $50 at meijer when I really only wanted two things. How does that happen? I also bought a cheese grater (I bought some awesome block cheese at Whole Foods this weekend), some soap because it was on sale, those magic eraser things (that seriously erase everything), some air freshener because it was also on sale and some more South Beach diet bars since I eat two of those a day. So...yeah, I guess that's how that happens...

Once I was home, I made some of Trader Joe's gnocchi and had another salad! I love salad now that I have an awesome dressing! And to be honest, it's not that bad for you. It's got 60 calories per serving and only a few grams of fat. For a dressing that delicious, I'd consider that freaking awesome.

Now, if you were using your keen observation skills you would notice that all of my pictures are taken on a wooden surface. This is my kitchen table. Well, the one part of my kitchen table that isn't completely covered with crap. So tonight I decided to clean my kitchen. Tomorrow I shall clean my bathroom. Wednesday I will clean my bedroom. Thursday I will do my floors. My apartment is going to be ridiculously clean. For a day or so... Anyway, here are pictures of my kitchen before it was thoroughly cleaned:

And afterwards...

Much better! And to celebrate my clean kitchen, I cleaned my organic strawberries that I got on sale at Whole Foods and are most likely going to be the best strawberries of my life.

Yum, yum, yum. They will be an awesome treat tomorrow.

Also: quick life update! I'm going skydiving!!! The company my boss used when he went this past October had a Groupon last week. Normally, you'd pay $225 to go, but my ticket only cost me $119! That's awesome! There's no date set yet since my boss organized the outing with people from work, but I coaxed Allyson into going and she's going to bring her girlfriend, too. That makes me even more excited because I won't only be with work people.

Now it's your turn. Life updates?