Bed time is my favorite time of the day

I am so, so, so ready for bed. I got up nice and early today to get in a solid workout before heading to school for an 8:00 a.m. required lecture. Don't ask me what I was supposed to learn during that lecture. It was pointless and I wasn't paying attention. Don't worry - it wasn't about anything medical. It was about how to write a medical note about a health maintenance visit. Um, yeah. I'll probably just dictate it and then someone else will write it. Thanks, but no thanks.

Next.

Um, I spent today studying. I'm lame. I also watched a video of one of my classmates eating an entire thing of butter. Well, not an entire thing. But the ones that come with like catering. He was told that he'd get $35 if he ate the whole thing. So, he did. With a croissant. Gross. I don't think I could do that for $35.

Anywho, there was a lot of free food floating around Secchia. I had a little over one bagel sandwich (well, 5 quartered sections of different bagel sandwiches) and two things of cheese bread. I'm not like trying to not eat carbs, but I don't usually eat that many carbs in one day and I was definitely feeling a bit guilty about it. Mostly because I basically inhaled all of it. Not at the same time, but yeah. I probably should have stuck to what I packed.

Also, I realized that I mostly only give you guys pictures of my breakfast because it's the only meal I eat at home. Sorry about that...I guess I could take pictures of my food at school, but then you'd really come to know that I eat the same thing everyday... Hey, if it's not broke, don't fix it.

Photos for you!

Breakfast (and some of my lunch in the background)

My brand spanking new blender bottle

So, when I was home two weekends ago, I met up with my old personal trainer for fun and he was talking about his goal to achieve 15% body fat (or was it 10% - I don't remember the number, mostly because when he said it, I was like, "You're effing crazy!") by his next birthday (May 5). He was talking about what he was eating - it was mostly protein with his carbs early on in the day. He said he'd have a protein shake in the afternoons so I thought maybe I'd start doing that, but I'm not sure if I want to. Either way, the bottle was only $6 and it's green - my favorite color! So, even if I don't use it for protein shakes, it might come in handy elsewhere.

Tomorrow morning, I have an appointment with a gynecologist so she can look at my lady parts and prescribe some birth control so that the horrors of day one of my periods stop. I think I want to be a lady doctor when I grow up (read: obstetrician/gynecologist), so I also want to talk to her about that.

The end for today! Catch you tomorrow.

Saving lives and I'm not even a doctor yet!

So I didn't go to Zumba this morning. I got up and started to get ready, but decided that since my knees were really bothering me that I didn't want to push it today. The two hours of extra sleep were just an added bonus. When I finally did get up, I had to rush through everything to be sure I was going to get to work on time. Yeah. That worked so well that I was only 10 minutes late. Whoops. But, I ate breakfast anyway!

Once at work, I had to suffer through more stories about Carrie's kids. Less than 40 days left of that crap. Thank God.


I worked away the whole morning and got my e-mail from MSU saying I'd been placed on the East Lansing campus. Boo. I really wanted to go to Grand Rapids. Oh well. I really feel as though I'm one of those people who can be happy anywhere (maybe minus Midland...) so I'm not too upset about it, it's just that finding a one-bedroom apartment for a reasonable price is ridiculously hard. So, I may have to go ahead and suck it up and pay a lot of money or live really far away.


Anywho, during lunch today, we had a BBQ luncheon. They catered it from Bone Daddy's BBQ which meant really good barbecue for everyone who liked meat. Vegetarians? They were screwed. There was chicken, pulled pork, and ribs. Yum. I had a bit of each. They also had some awesome looking dessert, but I had to abstain. Boo, June Challenge. Boo!


I worked during most of the afternoon, but decided to spend the last hour calling apartment complexes. Yeah, not so fun. I left frustrated and then went to the community center for some CardioMax. I also joined in on the end of Aqua Zumba which was a tad awkward. I don't think it's a really great workout because I definitely wasn't feeling tired at all and there was one point where we had to partner up and I got to be partners with the creepy [and only] guy in the back. Awesome...


But afterwards I did CardioMax and really pushed myself. I kept pace with the instructor the whole time and really had fun so I'm looking forward to Thursday. Unfortunately, I had to leave a bit early because I signed up to donate blood at 6:45 p.m. And for once, I didn't get turned down for having low iron. I think I owe that to the fact that my multi-vitamin is essentially an iron supplement.

Yay for saving 3-4 lives! You should donate, too!


It was about 7:30 when I was finally done and I was starving. So, I ordered a grilled chicken pizza. It cost me more than normal, so I was a tad confused and asked the girl taking my order if she got it right. She insisted she did.


This is what a chicken pizza is supposed to look like:

This is what was delivered:

Yeah, not so right, order lady. But, once I picked off the banana peppers, I really did enjoy the pizza. Now I'm checking on the weather and I'm going to watch yesterday's Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition. Oh, and it definitely doesn't look as though I'll be biking this week. Boo!

And tomorrow morning: heart rate cycling!

Heart Rate Cycling = Super Hard

I shall skip over the usual part of my entry where I moan and groan about getting up early and move straight to my workout. Today marked my first day of heart rate cycling. When I said yesterday that I knew this was going to be rough, I was wrong. It was ridiculously hard. So let me tell you a bit about it so you can appreciate how amazing I am (in case you need another reason). I started on the elliptical at level 20. I did a minute of warm up and then went as fast as possible. I was breathing pretty hard. After doing this another two times, I was really struggling. But, I made it through the last three times to have a workout that looked like this:

Then I moved on to the stationary bike and did the same thing. It was pretty tough there too, and by minute 4, I almost had myself convinced to stop. But, instead, I started telling myself that I could do it and began chanting "Go, go, go!" out loud to help myself get through it. So, all in all, the workout was definitely harder. By the end, I felt as though the back of my throat was bleeding (I always feel that way after really strenuous activity) and that this heart rate cycling was a terrible idea. But I know it's a much better workout so I shall continue.


When I got home, I hopped in the shower, and came out and enjoyed a typical breakfast.

Also, as I had plans to have lunch with Alicia, I packed a lot of snacks so that I wouldn't starve during the day.

During the morning at work, I did a lot of work with Dillon and then left to meet up with Alicia for lunch at La Zeez, the local Indian restaurant. However, they were closed for some unknown reason, so we headed to Café American, a place I'd never been to before. They had an awesome menu and I got the seafood bisque and the Halle Berry salad.

Yes, it was as awesome as it looked. Alicia got a portabello soup (which I sampled) and a gyro.

After my lovely lunch with Alicia, I headed back to work and spent most the afternoon with Dillon doing work and cleaning the lab. Woo - how exciting. Mostly I was surprised at how quickly the day passed despite me being exhausted during most of it.


Once work was over, I ran home to change into my gym clothes and then went to have my weekly weigh-in with Mark. I was a tad nervous because, according to their scale, I was one pound away from my three-pound goal this morning. But, this afternoon, I was one pound over my three-pound goal. So, I lost 4 pounds since last Monday. Woot! To celebrate, I had an awesome workout with Mark. We did some new things and I felt great during most of it.


After my workout, I ran home, showered as fast as possible and met up with Alicia and her dad for dinner at Ruby Tuesday's. I got this for dinner:

It was pretty delicious, but probably not all that good for me. Whoops? I did forego dessert, despite Alicia and her dad insisting that we were celebrating and I could have dessert for a celebration. Once dinner was over, we went to Target and Radio Shack for some things Alicia needed and I got some make-up I needed.


Then I ran to my mom's house to pick up some laundry she finished for me and chatted with her a bit about insurance and med school stuff. Then I came back home to put away said laundry and update you all on my day.


Tomorrow morning I'm headed to Zumba from 5:45-6:30 a.m. at the community center. We'll see if I like it. I've already paid the summer session fee for all land and water classes, so I will also be doing CardioMax (the water aerobicish thing I tried last Thursday) tomorrow as well. Perhaps I will add Zumba to my list!


Have you ever done Zumba? What did you think? Also, have you ever done heart rate cycling? Did you feel like you were going to die during it?

Drooling all over myself

Last night I set two alarms to make sure I got up. And it worked! I got up. For a second to shut the alarms off and go back to bed. Bad, bad, bad. I'm just so tired and I have a bad feeling that I'm getting sick again because my throat and ears are hurting. So, I'm using that as my excuse for staying in bed this morning. But, dang it. I want this. I want to be healthier. I want to lose weight. And I am getting up tomorrow morning and going to the gym tomorrow, even if it kills me and I hate myself the entire time I'm there.


Anywho, I did get up early enough to bike to work today. So, I prepped my snacks, scarfed down breakfast and enjoyed a tiny bit of exercise this morning.

Once at work, I did little bits of work that needed to be done and sat through the Wellness Initiative Kick-off that Lubrizol is having. They're trying to promote healthy activities (mostly to reduce their health care costs) and we're getting pumped up for them to save money our own health!


Then I biked home for lunch where I had this:

After lunch, I drove back to work where I did a tiny amount of work before leaving for my dentist's appointment. I was scheduled to have a filling because I had a deep cavity caused by my teeth being so close together (this is caused by my tiny mouth - that's right, folks. I said tiny). So they numbed me up, did their thing and I was home by 4:40.


Once home, I threw on my gym clothes and headed for another training session with Mark since he canceled on me for tomorrow. Today we did some cardio stuff, but I was mostly worried that I was drooling without knowing it. I don't know if you've ever been numbed up, but your lip feels as though it's a billion sizes too big and your cheek feels puffy. But everything looks normal - which is good and bad because people don't know why you have drool on you that you're not wiping away, but drooling you also doesn't look like some misshapen ogre. So, needless to say, my work out was rough because my mouth was super dry since I struggled with drinking...


When I got home, I made up another dinner wrap dealio.

Started with some honey ham and cheese on a tortilla

I heated up the tortilla and then added some spinach

Then I added a lot of tomatoes

I added some of my favorite dressing

And voila! Dinner!

I tried to roll it up, but it wouldn't stay

It was a struggle eating dinner and I spilled quite a bit on my plate, but the wrap was pretty good. I think I could have used less or no dressing because that was what pretty much overwhelmed the whole thing. Perhaps I'll try again tomorrow.


After dinner, I finally watched the Bachelorette and Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition. Both were mediocre at best, but it gave me something to do since I didn't feel up to doing much while I was still numb. Oh, and I took pics of my cat and ate a yogurt.

It took about 3.5 hours for the numbness to go away. The dentist told me 1.5-2. Lies! And now my jaw hurts. Great.


Anywho, I'm off to bed so I can get my lazy ass to the gym tomorrow. I kinda don't have a choice since I promised myself 3x this week...


Have you ever had a cavity? I don't even know how many I've had in my life. If I had to guess, I'd say a lot.

One pound short

Last night I couldn't fall asleep. I stayed up until about 2:30 a.m. and then decided against going to the gym in the morning for fear of being too exhausted during the day. But don't you worry, I'm going tomorrow morning to make up for it! After all, gotta make sure I fulfill my challenge within a challenge this week!


So, anywho, this morning, I had the same breakfast I've been crazy about for a while now and it was just as delicious. I also enjoyed a banana, courtesy of my mom. She brought some bananas over this weekend because she knows I like them spotted and that's simply too ripe for her. Her loss, my gain.

After scarfing down breakfast, I got some snacks ready for work:

Once everything was together, I rode my bike to work. It was an awesome ride. The weather was perfect and I was really excited to be out on the road again. However, once at work, the excitement kind of died. I didn't have much to do and was only too happy once lunch time rolled around so I could come home and enjoy this:

Fortunately, after work, I finally had some things to do and kept myself busy until the end of the day. And it looks as though I'l have stuff to do tomorrow. Thank goodness! It's so hard to go to work when you know you've got nothing to do.


After work, I went to training with Mark where I had a weigh-in. I only lost 2 pounds since last Monday, which is a bummer because I was supposed to lose 3. I don't think there was much more I could do. I was pretty active and was really good with my eating. So, I'm thinking I need to up the intensity of my workouts so I can lose 3 pounds by next week. If I don't, Mark's going to steal my kindle for a week. And I can't have that. As I said yesterday, I'm waaaay to dependent on that thing.


After training with Mark, I stayed and did 30 minutes on the elliptical, switching going backward and forward every two minutes. I like doing that because, strangely, it makes the time pass faster.


Once I was home from the gym, I made myself another protein shake that was as awesome as the one from Saturday. I added some raspberries to the mix.

And while I was chugging this down, I tried to find something that I could make quickly because I was super hungry. So, I made this concoction:

I started with a tortilla and cheese 

I shredded up some chicken from Saturday

I added some onions

Then I added some of the rice left over from Saturday

I threw it in the oven for 4 minutes at 350°F 

And then rolled it up and ate it

It was not the best thing I'd ever eaten, but it was satisfying and super easy to make. I still have some leftover chicken, so we shall see what I can make up next.

Anywho, as pathetic as it sounds, I'm actually going to head to bed. I'm absolutely pooped and I need to be rested up for my workout tomorrow morning!

Frustration + Lubrication = Poopy Day

Yesterday I told myself that I was going to go to bed early so that getting up wouldn't be so painful. But, I had to watch The Bachelorette and Extreme Makeover Weight Loss Edition. Mostly I watch The Bachelorette for the eye candy and to judge, but I really like Extreme Makeover. Yesterday's episode was really touching and both of the episodes so far are extremely motivating. So, even though staying up so late made getting up this morning pretty rough, I was pretty motivated to get in my cardio. I went for 35 minutes this morning. Ali didn't end up coming to the gym this morning (I'm assuming she was hurting from yesterday), but I'm glad she didn't tell me because I probably wouldn't have gotten my butt out of bed if I'd known.


When I got home, I made pretty much the same breakfast as yesterday and it was just as awesome:

After breakfast, I headed to work early and ended up sitting and chatting with Karie (a different one than the one that annoys me) for about a half hour before starting work. About a half hour into the day, I ended up getting screwed into helping some of the production guys do something I needed them to do for me last week in the 86° heat. Not fun. And by this point, I was in a sour mood and just wanted to leave. It wasn't even 10:00. Fortunately, I had a consultation with the oral surgeon at 11, and because it was in Saginaw, I got to leave at 10:30. Woot. I definitely needed a break. And I definitely needed some lunch!

Lunch was a sandwich on organic multigrain bread with a bit of chive and onion cream cheese, some turkey, spinach, and tomato paired with a refreshing lemon yogurt. Yum!

After lunch, I got to take a drum with 26 gallons of oil and pail it off into 5 pails with about 5 gallons each. Doesn't sound too bad, but add 90° heat, the fact that I've never pailed off oil before, and the spilling of oil all over myself and the floor and you get one super frustrated Danika. I ended up leaving work to go shower and change. I really didn't want to go back. Fortunately, when I did get back, Dillon was bored out of his mind and came to entertain me/help me with some of the work I needed to get done. God bless that kid. He definitely helped keep me sane today.


After work, I decided to head to the gym again. I was going to rollerblade, but it was 96°, so I opted for the air conditioned gym. I worked out [some of my] aggression, finished the book I was reading (The Snowman - it was kind of a letdown), and started a new book Ken recommended to me yesterday while we got coffee. It's called You're Not Sick, You're Thirsty. It challenges modern medicine and suggests that you drink about half your weight in ounces. So, for example, I'm weighing in at about 225 pounds. I should be drinking 112.5 ounces of water everyday. I'll keep you updated as I continue to read because it's really interesting so far.


After the gym, I headed to meijer again. I needed fajita (fuh-jit-uh) seasoning to make some of my baked chicken quesadillas. And since I was there and there was a buy-one-get-one free sale on these, I bought four:

I figured it'd be good to have after the gym. I only drank about half though because they pack about 190 calories/half bottle. However, it has both whey protein and soy protein.

If you can see in the picture above, whey protein is really important for right after a workout when you're trying to bulk up a bit, but soy protein lasts a bit longer and thus keeps you full a bit longer. Either way, I'm glad I had something because I was pretty hungry while I was making dinner:

After dinner I watched the first half of The Bachelorette since I missed it yesterday. And now I'm blogging so I can go to bed. I'm pooped! This week's challenge is kicking my butt!


Oh...and I'm doing a weigh-in tomorrow...let's keep our fingers crossed!

Awesome day

Today was awesome. I woke up at 5:15 and met up with Ali at the gym and did about 25 minutes of cardio before heading out. I know it doesn't seem like much, but Mark said that you should do at least 20 minutes of cardio before eating in the morning, so I did just fine. Plus, I didn't want to wake up any earlier (I have to get to work early this week). Once I got home, I made this epic breakfast that was way healthier that the Big Apple Bagels sandwich that inspired it:

It was an everything bagel with chive and onion cream cheese, a few slices of honey smoked turkey, and two egg whites. It was amazing. I paired it with a delicious spotted banana: 

And this:

I was talking with my friend Alicia this weekend and we were talking about my low iron level and she talked about how her doctor recommended a multi-vitamin. After reading up about it on my own, I figured it couldn't hurt so now I will be taking one of these [huge] pills everyday. And they have 100% of your daily dose of iron in them, so hopefully I'll be able to donate blood again soon!


After my yummy breakfast, I packed up some snacks for work and then headed there early since I need to make up some time thanks to all theses tooth-related appointments I have coming up.

Once at work, I did a happy dance because Carrie wasn't there. That meant no silly kid stories, no complaining about how much she has to do [which is a big lie], and no one creeping over my shoulder looking at my phone or reading my computer. Woot!


The morning went pretty quickly despite me getting there early and then I had a lovely lunch:

After lunch, it was back to the grind. But, I added another snack to my afternoon.

These teddy grahams are awesome. You can eat quite a few for one serving and they're pretty darn good for you.


I was busy all afternoon and then came home to get ready for the gym. Ali was at the gym again when I got there and so Mark invited her to work out with us. It was actually a lot of fun and I think she's going to look into training, too. We may even look into doing it together if it's cheaper. Also, I lost six pounds since last Wednesday. Woooot!


Once I got home from the gym, I whipped up a taco salad. It was just taco meat, cheese, spinach, and tomato. It was pretty delicious. 

I also took a quick shower and was back out the door within 40 minutes to meet Ken Andrews, a Chi Running instructor. We met at a local coffee shop, talked about the philosophy behind chi running, how it could impact my joints (it's not supposed to), and what a first-time runner like me could expect. He gave me a few recommendations for good books to read (like Chi Running pictured below) and wanted me to explore some more before I signed up.

Now, after a quick trip to meijer to buy Bailey some cat food, I'm home and updating you before I turn in early so I can be up nice and early for another morning work out.


Hope you had a great day! Do you know anything about alternative forms of exercise? Also, if you're in the area and would be willing, we could do a class with Ken. Let me know if you're interested!