New shoe goal + a weigh-in

Sorry I've been so absent in my posting. I usually like to post after work and over the last week, I've had a lot of evening engagements:

• Last Tuesday - dinner with my friend Adam
• Last Wednesday - visit from my old personal trainer (and friend) Mark
• Last Thursday - visit from Anthony
• Last Friday - Last Saturday - bachelorette party on the west side of the state
• Last Sunday - working an overnight in the ER
• Yesterday - Yoga class at L.A. Fitness

So, you see, I've been a busy Danika. It doesn't help that my ER shifts are from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., making my evenings incredibly short. However, I'm glad to be able to spend so much time with friends lately - helps keep me grounded.

In other news, because of weird sleep patterns following my overnight shift in the ER, I delayed my weigh-in until today. It was a good one, finally ;-)

Last week, I weighed in at 242.6, so I lost 5 pounds in a week. I'm not quite sure how, to be honest, but I think it's because I've finally added back in some legit strength training and because I'm doing my workouts first thing in the morning most days and studies have shown that exercise is more effective when done fasting (read: before you eat in the morning). I also think it's because I got my bingeing out of the way the previous week and was pretty consistent with my diet. The last change is working in the ER. Since my shifts don't start until 10 a.m., I usually eat before I go in and then I'm not really hungry until dinner time. And when it is dinner time, I usually just grab a grilled chicken sandwich, some kind of fruit, and maybe a bar (like a kind bar, or something 150 calories or less). 

Tomorrow I'm planning on doing a nice long strength training workout in the morning and then fasting during the day since I was off on Monday and didn't fast. I'm also planning on fasting on Thursday - we'll see how fasting on back-to-back days works out for me.

Other than that, I think I have a new goal to work towards for my new shoes: getting back into the 220s. Once I'm 229.9 pounds, I'm going to count that as qualifying to get new shoes. Even though I think losing 6 pounds in two weeks is totally obtainable given this week's weigh-in, I think this will help me to push myself a bit more. I haven't been in the 220s since February 2013, per my weigh-in page. So, it's about time and what better way to celebrate than with new shoes?

What do you use to motivate yourself to accomplish your goals?

Other photos for you:

Breakfast from last week

Yummy dinner sandwich

Mid-week treat

Fasting day breakfast

Typical breakfast

Farmer's market find

With the bachelorette

Falafel + baba ghanoush from

Today's lunch

Messy kitchen because I spent the afternoon baking

Cookies for journal club + brownies for Nasur's birthday package

Thwarted by the chiropractor

Well, my plans to swim at the gym today were thwarted by the chiropractor. Apparently they're not open on Tuesdays, which would've been good to know. I also learned that he's not open on Thursdays. So I'm not entirely sure when I'll have the opportunity to go get adjusted given that tomorrow is a trainer day and Friday is the day when I like to go really hard at the gym - like a 1.5-2 hour work out. I suppose I could get adjusted Friday, swim, and then put in a really intense workout on Saturday, but Friday night workouts are so damn satisfying.

Anyway, today was pretty legit otherwise. I got a lot of steps in today, learned a lot, and watched the finale of Bachelorette while at the gym. I wasn't sure if I really wanted to go to the gym because I was so tired, but I decided if I was going to watch the Bachelorette, it had to be at the gym. For those of you who watched, I wasn't shocked, but I was going to be disappointed either way because the two guys she had left were gross. Now that that's over, I'll have to find another guilty pleasure because let's face it, I definitely shouldn't be using that time to study ;-)

In other news, I made some zucchini bread tonight - two loaves! One for my downstairs neighbor and one for work. I really enjoyed bringing banana bread into work last week because I got to have just enough to make me happy and a lot of other people enjoyed it too. 

That's really all I've got right now. My knees are a bit achy after my workout, so I'm hoping they won't keep me awake tonight. I might have to cave and take some ibuprofen. I've been hoping to take ibuprofen less often because I've been taking it a lot lately due to my back and hip pain, but I have a feeling that if I don't take some, I won't be able to sleep.

What do you do to help with achy joints or injuries?

Today's breakfast minus the toast I also had

Morning snack - fresh berries from the cafeteria

Dinner after the gym - I was soo hungry by the time I got home

Awkward times at the gym

At the gym today, I saw my first guy ever flexing. I'm not talking like while you're busy lifting weight and watching yourself. I'm talking standing in front of the mirror, flexing. And not just checking out his biceps, but like six or seven different poses. Then he walks up right between my bench and the adjacent bench and starts lifting up his shirt and looking at his abs. Um, sir, I'm sorry, but do you not have a mirror at home? Cuz I'm pretty sure you'd look the same there and this is just awkward. I know some of you are all like, "What the eff, Danika. This is a good-looking man showing you his muscles." But I'm really not into that and second, it just felt weird. Like really weird. And later while I was strength training, there was this old bald man doing bicep curls with a bar that was maybe 60 pounds, and despite having my head phones in, I heard him counting and between every count he kept saying "Oh yeah!" over and over. Half of me was amused because it was weird and the other half of me was just kinda glad he motivated himself to get to 10. In summary: weird day at the gym.

I didn't hit the gym until about 6 today because I wanted to be as productive as possible during my peak hours. When I got home, I made a kick ass dinner. I studied some more and decorated my friend's cake for her bachelorette party that I'm only attending half of thanks to an 8 hour exam on Monday. So, I head to Ann Arbor tomorrow for some canoeing and obviously, cake. I made it a two-layer cake with one maize layer and one blue layer because those are her wedding colors, but I'm not sure if it looks legit.

The yellow one looks like normal cake and the blue layer looks more green. Maybe the white frosting will help? Also, for those of you who didn't know, bachelorette parties are all about alcohol and penises. My mom didn't know this, so I thought I'd inform the rest of you before showing you the end/inappropriate decorating I did. Also, don't judge me. The frosting bag exploded when I was drawing the right testicle.

So, yeah. Penis. Cake. We'll see how it goes given that I'm attending the chill, non-alcohol portion.

I've gotta get back to studying. I'm going to do a weigh in on Monday, but I'm super not optimistic about the results. I've been eating okay, but I've been dehydrated a lot and spending long stretches without eating at all - which is not good for weight loss. Probably won't blog tomorrow, so keep your eyes out for a blog on Monday.

Today's positive: making time for the gym later in the day, which is so, so hard for me. Also, penis cakes because they're amusing.

The rest of today's pictures:

Snack as I was making lunch (that I forgot to take a picture of)

Noms. 

Baby bananas! I was introduced to these in Uganda and found them in meijer this week. THEY'RE THE BEST.

See how cute they are? SO CUTE.

My awesome dinner: steak, biscuits, and the delicious asparagus!

Oh! Something I forgot to mention! Today when I went to the gym, I was ready to hit the elliptical for a warm up, per usual and then I was like, "Nah. I'll just do a mile run and cool down for 15 minutes instead." So, I pounded out a mile at 5mph (which is pretty legit for me) and then cooled down and holy hell, my right foot hurt like whoa. I had an inkling that I may have had a hairline fracture a bit ago cuz of some pain I was having, but I never saw a doctor because I know what they do for that and it's pretty much pain pills or pain pills plus some sort of immobilization and no thanks to either of those. But the main point is that though my right foot hurts like a bitch, I RAN A MILE AND I DID IT RELATIVELY FAST WITHOUT TRAINING. So, yeah. Maybe that should have been my positive.