A mishap

So today we had plans to go to Steamboat Springs. However, due to some incorrect googling, we realized a bit too late that the trip is 3.5 hours, rather than 1.5. Nasur wanted to give it a whirl, but I didn't want to drive for 7 hours. I figure we have time to go - maybe over a long weekend sometime. Instead, we opted to go to the lake. Well, we ended up going to two lakes.

Reyah got up at 7, per usual and then ended up taking a nap about two hours later. Once she woke up, we headed to the farmer's marker to get some produce. There, we learned the difference between a peach and a nectarine. The take-away? Nectarines aren't fuzzy and they have more citric acid. But they're also yummy, so we got some nectarines, some peaches, some green beans (Reyah's favorite), some zucchini, some corn, some peppers, some onion and a cantaloupe. The farmer's market is waaaay smaller than the one in Detroit, but I guess it's a good way to force us to make decisions faster.

We went home to have some lunch and then headed to Boyd Lake. When we got there, we went to the swimming area. Since we come from the land of the Great Lakes, it was a disappointment. The beach itself wasn't sand as much as it was teeny tiny rocks. And when you went in the water, it was mud until you were out pretty far and then still the lake floor was weird-feeling. We opted to cut our losses and headed to Windsor Lake.

Windsor lake was more lake-like and had some pebbles on the lake floor rather than mud. Reyah preferred this lake because it was easier to eat the dirt. After the lake, we headed home and played for a bit while Nasur grilled some hot dogs and burgers. 

After dinner, we did about an hour's bike ride, during which Reyah fell asleep. She was already in her jammies, so I can't blame her. 

Leftover breakfast burrito 

Healthier version of chocolate cake

Lunch: chicken salad on crackers

Boyd Lake

Not my favorite lake

Windsor Lake

Much nicer

Reyah running away while Nasur tried to get her dressed

Dinner: all the meat and some corn

Tomorrow we're headed to register our cars and then we'll see what we find ourselves doing with our free time. Tomorrow I'm also going to do a weigh-in. Hopefully things go well!

Phone seizures

Well, for having run over my phone, it's not functioning that poorly. I mean, on occasion, it has a seizure and won't do anything I want it to do, but I can't afford a new one. So, it'll have to do.

In other news, I was in a poopy mood today. Even though some good things happened, I was being a poopface. I was just down about everything. And if it weren't for this one week challenge, I would have stayed in all night in a poopy mood and likely have eaten my feelings. But, I was like, "One week challenge, Danika." Sooo, I went to the gym and was glad I did. It got me moving, it got me out of the house, and it got me out of a poopy mood (and helped me avoid eating my feelings).

Tomorrow I don't have to be at work until 9:30, which is excellent. I can hit up the gym and do my weights during non-peak hours and I can make a quick trip to the farmer's market to replenish my sourdough bread supply and maybe grab some cinnamon rolls for my trip home this weekend. And then because it's a conference day all day at the hospital close to where I live, I can just bike there. It's going to be awesome.

I think that's about it for now. I'm pooped (but not in a poopy mood anymore) and want to hit the hay. I'm actually getting up earlier than usual to run all those errands before work. Cheers!

Breakfast today

After work snack

Dinner: mini chicken tacos and homemade quacamole

Today's positive: making a gym trip despite really not wanting to...and then being so, so glad I did!

Day one of my one week challenge

Today was day one of the new challenge I set for myself yesterday. So far, so good. But day one is usually always a good day because you're usually willing to stick to your guns. I know if I want to, I can keep it up.

So I turned off all alarms last night so I could just sleep until whenever but Bailey decided to thwart my plans to sleep in and came in around 7 a.m. and kept meowing. I recall his food bowl being on the low side last night and immediately regretted forgetting to refill it last night. He's usually pretty good about leaving me alone in the morning until my alarm goes off, but since it was past the normal alarm time and I wasn't up yet, he let me know that he was hungry. So I stumbled out of bed, filled up his food, and fell back into bed. I laid there and fought with myself about whether or not I should be sleeping or starting my day, but I opted to go back to sleep until 9:30ish.

Upon getting up, I set to work on my week challenge. I weighed in (photo below) and then made some breakfast, hit up the farmer's market, hit the gym, and then came home to hurriedly pack up my dirty laundry, shower, and eat lunch before heading to Kalamazoo to see my sister, do laundry, and work on my residency applications.

Latest weigh in (check out my weigh-in page)

I want to talk about this morning before moving on. First of all, it took a bit of convincing to tell myself that if I was tired, I deserved to go back to bed. Sometimes rest is just as important as exercise in weight loss. Then, I purposely ate breakfast before the farmer's market because an empty stomach makes me way more likely to buy more. I kept it pretty light - I got some celery, lettuce, San Francisco sourdough bread (sandwich style), apples, and blueberries. Then I headed straight to the gym where I ran into Krista, a fellow healthy lifestyle blogger. I met Krista for lunch once before as we were both going to school in Grand Rapids and she recently moved back. I stumbled upon her first blog via SparkPeople and she has definitely been one of my biggest influences in the blogging part of my weight loss. It was through her blog that I learned what a huge blog community there is. Anywho, we chatted for a bit and she gave me the deets about spinning at the Y before I hit up the elliptical for the day.

While I'm on the elliptical, I like to be doing something else: reading or watching TV. I couldn't decide if I wanted to read or watch the season premiere of Biggest Loser. I opted for Biggest Loser and I'm certainly glad I did! Watching that show while working out really made me push myself harder to keep my heart rate up. I mean, I'm currently heavier than some of the contestants on this new season! I also love their new trainers, Jen and Jessie. Some of the things Jen said really resonated with me. She talks about how you can operate from a place of fear or a place of love and that it's operating from a place of love that really allows you to accomplish your goals. I was just talking about that when I blogged about how I needed to believe in myself and how I need to love myself a bit more! And she's so right. During my year off between undergrad and med school, I totally loved myself and treated myself like I was worth it. Now that I'm in medicine (where you can never know it all), I feel inadequate a lot of the time and those feelings of inadequacy and fear have become so commonplace that it's definitely my normal operating mode. I'm working on breaking out of that and I'm hoping this challenge and publishing all of my recorded weigh-ins will help me work towards positivity again. And I recruited my friend Lisa to help me with this challenge and get me off to the right foot. You can follow her challenge on her blog!

Spending the afternoon with my sister was also a positive thing for me. She just started PA school (she's studying to become a physician assistant) and she's learning the basics. It totally reminded me of first semester of med school where I was completely overwhelmed almost all the time. I cried at least once a week for probably the first semester. And though I know it definitely doesn't feel like it, I realized that things do get easier and that you learn to work with what you've got. Starting anything new is going to be difficult. But it's worth it. And that's keeping me motivated with these residency applications. I'm applying EVERYWHERE and it's terrifying to think that I'll be starting something new, but it's also exciting. It'll probably suck major at the start (like my sister's realizing now), but it'll be okay.

Since I spent the afternoon with my sister, I packed snacks and made us a steak dinner. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera, so you only get photos from this morning.

Breakfast with sad-tasting grapes

Snack before heading out for the morning

Lunch with my delicious sourdough bread!

My goal for this one-week challenge is to get the scale down to 239.8 next week. I know that seems like a lot in a week (6.2 pounds), but breaking into the 230s again would totally boost my confidence. I'm going to achieve this goal by adhering to my challenge pretty strictly: working out, counting calories, packing food, and not weighing in until next Saturday. The first week of getting back on track usually leads to a pretty big change on the scale for me, so I'm hoping that's the case this time! I'm also going to stay hydrated as much as possible. I'd also like to set the goal of being in the low 220s by the end of this calendar year (220-225). I think 26 pounds is a lot, but if you think about it, I have half of September, all of October, all of November, and all of December to bust my butt to get there - that's 15 weeks that I need to lose 1.5-2 pounds per week and I think that's reasonable.

Today's positive: making awesome strides on day one of the challenge and setting some lofty goals that are totally attainable if I treat my mind and body positively. Also, my other positive for today was motivating Lisa to make some changes too!

If it weren't for the gym, I'd have no interaction with people

You guys. Studying all day everyday is so boring. If it weren't for gym trip #2 in the early evening, I'd be miserable. Fortunately, it's two weeks from today that I take my exam. I'm definitely not ready now, but I will be glad to have it over in two weeks. Blech. Studying all day. Not fun. Not at all. But, tomorrow I'm going to hit up the Fulton Street Farmer's Market after my morning gym trip. So, you know, that'll be exciting. I've never been there despite living in Grand Rapids for three years now. I also may take Bailey in for a weight check when I pick up his renewed prescription (the little guy has hyperthyroidism and gets half a pill twice a day (with treats afterward each time otherwise I'd never get him to take the damn pill)). He lost a bunch of weight a while ago and wasn't gaining despite no changes in appetite and when I finally took him to the vet, they told me he'd need to be medicated for life. Great. But at least he's gained weight. After a month of his thyroid pills, he put on 1.25 pounds and weighed in at a whopping 7.75 pounds in mid-June. We'll see what he is now. If I don't take him tomorrow, we'll go Monday for sure. I don't want to make all my exciting trips in one day.

Saturday I have an orientation to my elective in Malawi (that's in Africa, folks) next year. It's up in Traverse City. I'm thinking I'll make a day of it and take my study stuff and study outside/in some coffee shop in Traverse City. I also have a housewarming party for a friend nearby Grand Rapids. I'm not 100% sure if I'll be able to make it given the 5 hours I'll be losing for travel to and from Traverse City, but I'm going to try my best.

In other news, I have no other news because my life is boring. So, here are some photos from the day.

Pre-gym fuel

The yellow thing in my gym bag is Bailey's toy - guess he wanted me to be entertained at the gym

Post-gym protein shake

Maize and Blue forever!

I chopped a watermelon today. Nearly went overboard with exciting things today

The first bowl of watermelon I ate

Leftover mac and cheese - so many calories.

Lunch, part 2

Second bowl of watermelon

Decided to make taco meat for my dinner during a study break

Browning the meat and watching America's Got Talent 

Pre-gym trip #2 refueling

Tacos didn't sound appealing, so ice cream for dinner! Cuz I'm an adult. And I really wanted it

Today's positive: Waiting the whole day to figure out if I really wanted ice cream or if it was just a simple craving. Nope. Really wanted it. I was craving blue moon or super scoop, but the place didn't have either and the lady working suggested the Mackinaw Island Fudge. It was okay, but I'm in no hurry to have it again. I'm just glad I didn't head to meijer and buy ice cream. Had I done that, I could very well have eaten half the tub before stopping myself. So, there you go. A little victory for me!

Exposed and abused crotch

I woke up around 10 this morning, which was awesome because the gym opens at 10 a.m. So I hurried up and got my stuff together and drove my butt over there. I was planning on doing some heart rate cycling, but the mere thought of it exhausted me. So, I just did a half hour split between the treadmill and elliptical. I made sure to really push myself to make up for my laziness.


Then, I came home and tried making sweet potato fries again while munching on some watermelon.

So, here's what I did with the potatoes:

First I sliced up the potatoes, threw them in a bag with the following: 

• 1.5 tsp of extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 tsp garlic salt
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp sugar

Then I cooked them at 425°F for 17 minutes total (I flipped them after 10 minutes and then cooked them for another 7). I still managed to burn them because I'm just that talented. But, they were awesome!

So, I will definitely be making these again, but I will be tweaking the cook time a bit so they stop burning. I'm also considering using parchment paper rather than aluminum foil to make these fries a bit more crispy. I also had some strawberries that were awesome since I got them at the farmer's market.

After my strawberries, I finally showered and got ready to head out for a bike ride. But, since I figured I'd be biking for a while, I didn't think my little lunch would hold me. So, I made a protein shake and a bagel sandwich.

The protein shake was just okay so I had to really work to drink it all down, but my bagel sandwich was delicious!

So then I finally headed out. I hooked up my bike rack and drove to the tridge. I took a break around mile 6 to snap some pretty pictures for you.

Then I biked another 4 miles and ended up at Sanford Lake Park. I brought my swimsuit so I changed quickly and then headed to the grassy part of the beach to lay out. It was a pretty crowded day at the park, which was good for people watching, but bad because there were many shrieking midgets children.

Once I settled into my spot, I got a call from Eric and we talked for a bit about life and such. I told him about the book I was reading (Chi Running) and then he headed off to play disc golf while I snacked on some teddy grahams and read my book.

After about two hours at the park, I decided it was time to head back. So I went to change in the bathroom again where I discovered I had a huge gaping whole in the crotch of my bathing suit bottoms. Awesome. I wish I'd realized this when I put them on... I wonder how many people suffered through the terror of seeing my nether parts. 

Anywho, I got back on my bike to ride my ten miles home when my seat started acting up. First, it wouldn't stay up no matter how many times I adjusted it. This meant that instead of having the proper length between me and the pedals, I was way too close to the pedals and irritated my knee pretty badly. Then, the seat itself started tipping up so I had the crotch part jabbing me the entire way home. And because it was on such a severe angle, I had to hold on to the handle bars as best I could so I didn't fall backwards off the bike. The end result? Not only was I super frustrated (I even walked for a bit, but then just decided to deal with it and bike as fast as possible to get back and be super uncomfortable for as little time as possible), but my wrists hurt, my back hurt, and my right knee (which was already giving me trouble today) was really acting up. Awesome. I'll be taking my bike in tomorrow to be fixed, that's for sure.

Just think of how much fun my crotch had riding that thing. Right after it'd been exposed for most the afternoon...Gah.

Once I got home, I put it all behind me and made a lovely dinner while being stared at by some creepy old man. Someone was moving out today and I'm guessing he was her father. He brought a fold out chair and rather than help his daughter move, he sat in the grass in a prime location for looking into my kitchen window. There were several moments when I caught him looking at me. Weirdo.

Dinner, however, was delicious.

I made garlic shrimp, rice-a-roni, and some steamed veggies. And then I followed up dinner with a bowl of blueberries that I got yesterday.

Now I'm oversharing my crotch issues and thinking about cleaning my kitchen, which I should really do because it looks like this:

Alright, alright. I'm going. Jeez. Talk to you soon! Also, please feel free to leave any comments about when you unknowingly exposed yourself so I don't feel so alone.

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!