Zoodle virgin

Well, I promised a weigh-in today despite really not wanting to. Here it is.

So, in the last two weeks, I've gained 5 pounds. I'm not surprised in the least given how I've been eating and lazing around. But I promised to pick myself up. Only, today was a bit crazy and I wasn't really able to...ish.

So, I started the day knowing that I was going to fast. That meant a quick, light breakfast - it was about 290 calories. I forgot to take a picture, but it was 2 egg whites + 1 whole egg, ham, and watermelon. Then I went to work and struggled because I was hungry. But, I didn't give in - even when faced with cake! However, the work day was fucking insane, so that definitely helped. I also ended up staying about 45 minutes late, so my workout time was fucked and I wasn't able to hit the gym before my friend Adam came over for dinner.

Tonight, I cooked for Adam and myself. I really went for it. I have been dying to try zoodles after I bought a spiralizer in July. [For those who don't know, zoodles = zucchini noodles.] And tonight, we finally did it! We had zoodles with marinara sauce, chicken parmesan (a recipe from Cooking Light, so it was healthier), cheddar bay biscuits, and a salad. It was pretty delicious. I was a little unsure about the zoodles, but I could totally make them again. My only thing is that I don't really eat pasta to begin with, so I'm not sure when I'll be making them again.

Anywho, despite being unable to hit the gym, I stayed reasonably active at work and was able to stick to some healthy food choices - especially with Adam here. I didn't eat anything before dinner nor did I snack before dinner. So, it was also a successful fasting day!

Tomorrow I have a lot of surgeries and then clinic in the afternoon so I know it'll be another busy day, but hopefully it'll be just as good. And tomorrow is a personal trainer day, so that's also a positive!

Cheers!

Really messed up

There are two reasons I didn't blog this weekend. The first is because I got to hang out with some of my friends from out of town this weekend (which was amazing), but the second is because I was too embarrassed/ashamed to blog.

On Friday, I ate the remaining cookies that I made on Thursday. By myself. I put them in a tupperware to take to work, but because I had to drive to a conference about a half hour away, I ended up munching on them on the way to work. And there came a point while I was eating them that I felt like gross about it, but kept going because I just wanted them all gone and obviously, eating them was the best way to do that. Stupid, I know. And then because I'd screwed up so badly already, I ordered pizza for dinner. However, I tossed more than half of it because I knew I shouldn't be eating it. In addition to that, I neglected going to the gym because well, I was all like "I fucked up. I should just wallow in it." So, that's stupid. And I almost didn't go this morning, but I reminded myself how much I neglected myself this weekend and told myself that if I don't have to be at work until 10, there's no reason not to go to the gym in the morning and just get it out of the way. And naturally, I felt awesome while I was doing my cardio (so I should have gone this weekend).

Today at work, however, was stupid. It was my first day in the ER and rather than have an attending or real ER resident there with me so that I could learn from them on how things work, I was stuck in a module all by myself. With the psych patients, who were mostly intoxicated in addition to being off all meds. It was rough. And I don't mean to imply anything about psych patients, but they're generally harder to deal with when you don't know anything and it's your first day and you're all alone.

Also, I gained weight. So, there's that. But given last week, I'm not surprised. However, today was a fasting day, so maybe I undid some of the damage...?

Today's weigh-in

Fasting breakfast

Dinner, which was over 300 calories because of the bread, but I'd already committed

From this weekend:

Two friends, two countries

Ambassador bridge connecting Canada and America over the Detroit River

Fountain on Belle Isle

Lake St. Clair

Pulled pork slider

Sunday Funday friends

Bacon fried rice

Michigan station - feature in Transformers

Pretty coffee and cake (not mine, but they were so pretty!)

Fountain in downtown Detroit

Guardian Building

Tomorrow I have plans to hit up the gym in the morning for some cardio and then do a legit strength training workout in the afternoon since I'm only in clinic in the morning tomorrow.

What do you do when you have a bad eating day? Clearly, I made mine in to a bad weekend.

Such a happy weekend

Friday finally rolled around and for someone who worked both days last weekend, it couldn't have come soon enough. But, I didn't really have any plans for Friday night. So, after work, I ran to Trader Joe's and then came home, hydrated, ate some protein bars, and then hit the gym for about an hour and 45 minutes. Normally, I usually max out at an hour at the gym, but I kinda figured that I wasn't going to be doing anything else if I were at home. So, I started out with a half hour of cardio and then did an hour of weights. Then I decided I still had some energy, so why not run a mile? However, while running my mile, I decided I didn't actually have that much energy. And about 0.10 miles in, I decided running was not my thing. But, I wanted to get a little bit of high intensity cardio in because even if it's only 10 minutes, it's high intensity which makes it last a bit longer.

So, I pulled from my memory something my old trainer liked to do with me - sideways treadmilling. Basically, you walk at about 2.6 to 2.8 miles per hour at an incline - I think I started out at a 6% incline and then after 30 seconds to a minute, you turn sideways and basically have to shuffle or else you'll fall off. And then that meager 2.6 to 2.8 mph is suddenly VERY FAST. I worked up a sweat very quickly and walked away after about 10 minutes of intervals of walking and shuffling and felt very accomplished.

Saturday, some friends and I hit up Eastern Market, which is like a farmer's market on steroids - there's so much produce! It was awesome! They also have some legit food trucks and I tried beignets for the first time ever. One of my friends explained to me that beignets are essentially fried doughnuts with powdered sugar. They were just the right amount of sweetness

Beignets 

Cool roses at the market 

Chips and guac from the taco truck

After hanging out with them, I headed home and tidied up a bit, did some laundry, called in some things I needed and had my landlord over to fix my towel rack which I ripped out of the wall when leaning on it. Whoops.

My bad

Then, one of my friends that I met on my rotation in Malawi (she lives here) came over and we got mani/pedis and then went and hung out by the beach, but didn't get in the water because apparently there's E. coli in the lake, thanks to the Canadian geese (they poop in the water and E. coli can be spread by feces) and excessive rain.

Sparkly green nails for me please!

Pretty lake

After catching up with that friend, I met up with another resident for dinner and a movie. However, we got to chatting and decided just to head back to my place (rather than see a movie) where she looked on as I made brownies to send to Nasur in Uganda.

Brownies in mason jars (to keep them fresh)

Today, I woke up at 7 despite not setting an alarm, got out of bed at 7:15 and started puttering around until I could hit the gym at 8 for some cardio. Then I hit up meijer for a few necessities and went home and was starving, so I grabbed a banana and a protein smoothie.

Spotted bananas = my favorite

Really digging these right now

I ended up making some eggs and toast as breakfast after my shower, but I needed something quick when I got home. Soon after my shower and breakfast, my mom and brother arrived and we got ready to go to see a Tigers' game. I've never been before, so it was an experience.

Downtown Detroit

Outside the stadium

Our view

Usually, I think baseball is pretty boring, especially on TV. However, in person, it wasn't as bad. I can't say I was into it as much as my brother and my mom, but I didn't hate it. I think if it weren't 90°F, I might've enjoyed myself a bit more. But basically, I was just dripping in sweat watching the Tigers lose.

Sweating with my family :-)

After the game, we came back to my place, cooled down, and went to grab dinner at a nearby restaurant that was decent. Now that they're gone, I'm blogging.

Tomorrow will be a fasting day for me. We're going out to dinner tomorrow night, so I was thinking about delaying it to Tuesday, but Monday is such a busy day for me, it's usually a great day to fast. I'll just be picky with dinner options so I stay in my 300ish calorie budget.

Tomorrow is also a weigh-in for me. I'm going to be honest, I weighed in on Saturday just to see and I was right at my goal of losing 6 pounds. However, Saturday and Sunday, I ate out a lot. I tried not to eat everything on my plate and was somewhat picky, but I'm a tad concerned that I won't be getting new shoes. We'll see!

How was your weekend? Have you ever been to a baseball game? Who do you root for?

So much love

So today I got to run triage by myself and it was empty one minute and then wa-bam! Majorly busy! But, the nurses were amazing and there were lots of happy new moms. But, the most loving part of my day was how many of my friends took a moment out of their days to give me some love and encouragement. For whatever reason, the heavens aligned and I got a voicemail, texts, and blog comment loving. So, thank you for that - it made my day awesome!

My day was also awesome because I went to Zumba today with one of my fellow interns. I forgot how much I love Zumba! At the YMCA in Grand Rapids, I used to go to Zumba all the time - it was a TON of fun because the instructor used to incorporate a lot of popular music and her dances were super intense. Here, the intensity wasn't quite what it was in GR, but it was still a fun way to get a workout in. I'm super glad I went and coaxed a friend along - it's always more fun to go to the gym with a friend. Also, I scoped out the elliptical situation at this branch of L.A. Fitness and they have 7 of the good ellipticals (vs. 5 at the one I usually go to), so maybe I'll do my cardio days there and my strength days at the branch closer to where I live because their strength area is much larger.

Moving on to the eats part of my day - today I was waaaay hungrier than usual. I think it's because I'm a few days away from my period and right before my period, I want to eat all the things. And I was super tempted today. Thursday is our lecture/learning day and that means they bring in a carb tray and a fruit tray. The carb tray is loaded with bagels, muffins, and donuts. The fruit tray is loaded with lots of waxy-looking fruit: apples, oranges, and bananas (nothing that awesome when it comes to fruit). Naturally, I chose a blueberry bagel (it had fruit in it...) and later I had a blueberry muffin. I can't tell you how many times I had to talk myself out of a donut. There were several times when I was alone in the lounge with the carb tray and I almost went for it. Then I had to remind myself of my 6 pound shoe goal and I made it without grabbing any more carbs. And now, food photos pour toi:

Breakfast with the last of my farmer's market strawberries

Lunch: bagged salad, chicken cordon bleu and a spoonful of veggie lasagna

Probably the most delicious protein bar I've ever had - a Trader Joe's find
Definitely has to be an occasional treat tho - it had 200 calories!

Dinner: half a sandwhich(ish) and some dill pickles - yum!

In other news, tomorrow is my first meeting with my personal trainer and I've got a dinner date with some med school friends. I'm super pumped for that. I'm also super pumped because I just found out that in apology for an early Thursday, Fridays we start late - we don't sign out until 8:00 a.m., which means I only have to be there by 7:30 a.m. to round, rather than 5:30 a.m. like today. BALLER.

Since I got a lot of loving today, what's something you like to do to make others feel a little extra loved during the day? Also, what do you like?

Leaving on a jet plane

I'm quickly blogging on my phone. I'm about to go to bed, but I should have time to do a proper blog tomorrow while I'm sitting in airports. So, look for a better blog tomorrow!

In short though, today was great. I I got in 2 excellent workouts. And I got to hang out with some great friends and eat sushi! I call that a win.

Welcome to December

"Welcome to December, bitch," said Michigan this morning.

I didn't even leave my apartment until like 11:00 a.m. and it was still only 22°F, which was hotter than the RealFeel my phone gave me at 11°F. Great. But yoga was stifling. I convinced my friend Bekah to come to her first ever yoga class with me and because he's the best instructor, there were a lot of people. So, essentially, we did hot yoga. It felt pretty good. I don't mind sweating, so despite nearly dying of dehydration, I enjoyed myself. I'm also finally able to do forward folds without straining to touch the ground. Baller.

The rest of my afternoon was dedicated to running errands: attempting to return a suitcase (T.J. Maxx said, "No refund for you"), getting a refund for my phone screen from Hell, running to meijer to reload my staples: eggs, granola bars, grapes, and cat things, and picking up my dry cleaning (because unfortunately I own dry clean only items...boo). By the time I returned home, my friend and I decided to hang out at my apartment that evening, so I got my butt into gear and cleaned up a little bit around the apartment before heading out for work out #2: Zumba. There were some new songs in the mix for me since I hadn't been in about 2 weeks, but it was a good sweaty time. I love me some dancing.

I also ate food today, which I do everyday, so applause is not necessary. I stupidly forgot I had been sent home with spaghetti, so today's eats (some of which are pictured below) included the following:

Breakfast: eggs, turkey sausage, grapes

Lunch: Trader Joe's baby pizza that is only 250 calories (WIN)

Snack

And then I forgot I was documenting. So, my other snack was some teddy grahams and dinner was some ham and cheese dip that I whipped up because I magically had all the ingredients bought cream cheese on sale so I could make it because I had all the other ingredients.

Then my pal came over and we watched John Mulaney's stand-up on Netflix, chatted a bit and now here I am!

Tomorrow's plans include: strength training in the AM, cleaning and sorting through my things, getting a hair cut in the afternoon, grabbing a cardio session, half-off sushi with some friends, hanging out in the PM, and blogging so as to keep you entertained! Also, packing because I leave early on Wednesday for more interviews. Packing = no fun which is why I chose not to include it in my original outline of plans.

You really can't get mad

Once upon a time, I wrote an entire post about resolving to do better. Then the next day I didn't get up and go to the gym like I was supposed to. It's not my fault. I went out to a brewery with my friends and stayed out much too late. Now before you get your panties in a bunch, you should know that I'm going to the gym right after I finish this post. So there. Plus, you can't get mad because I took pictures at the brewery just for you. Yes, you.

It was such a lovely evening!

And you really, really can't get mad because I made my lunch and snacks for today before going out so that I wouldn't come home and munch on food mindlessly before bed.

Packing lunches is a process that includes lots of tupperware

And you really, really, really can't get made because I had a super healthy dinner and dessert.

Dinner: portabello mushroom ravioli

Dessert: gurt!

And you really, really, really, really can't get mad because today, instead of getting 2-3 rolls of sushi (like I normally would), I just got one.

I know, it's a big roll. But still - it's only one!

And now I'm going to the gym. So stop with all the hating.