Dropping a knowledge bomb

I'm just over here killing it with my activity goals and doing mediocre with my food goals. I got my 10k steps in every day last week, which is hard to do, especially on postcall days where I just want to be unconscious. I was also on call on Saturday and didn't get much sleep and I elected to just take my weekend to be lazy. I got back on it today though!

Today, when I got to the locker room at the gym, I realized I didn't bring my bluetooth head phones, my sweat towel, or my locker lock. This was not awesome because the audio quality with the junk pair of headphones I leave in my gym bag for such an emergency is very poor. Also, without my sweat towel, I don't have a good way to block the time or the timer of my work out and it makes the work out seems a million times longer. Also, I forgot my lock (I used it when we went swimming last week). Though I doubted folks would go looking for lockers with stuff in them, I was not thrilled with leaving my stuff unlocked. But, I figured I needed the exercise and I could risk one day. Well, I'm glad I did, because despite all of these things, my workout today felt really good.

In addition to my workouts helping my step count, one of the things my obesity medicine doctor said to me really stuck with me. I was talking about how I am a fairly anxious person, but that I really don't want to try any medications because, as a physician, with the use of medications, it massively increases the cost of my disability insurance and in some states, I have to declare that I'm using such medications. This is garbage, and I know this, but it's how I feel. Anywho, her response was that there is a ton of literature out there that says regular exercise has the same outcomes as medication in the treatment of anxiety and/or depression. So, yes, this is helping me get my steps, but I'm hoping it helps with my mental health too. Good knowledge bomb to drop.

I have been failing abysmally at taking pictures of my food. I'll try to be better tomorrow. I'm in the OR, though, so I don't know what my eating will look like tomorrow.

First day doing it all

So, let's start out with the number that you've all been waiting for - my latest weigh-in (you can see all of my weigh-ins here)!

So, next week, my goal is to hit 240.2 and if I do, new tennis shoes for meeeee!

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, but at the same time eventful because it was my first day trying to juggle life as it will be for the next two weeks with no time off - not even a weekend!

After my weigh-in, I showered and made some breakfast. My breakfasts always tend to be the same, so eventually you'll get bored of seeing it. That being said, if you have any suggestions for yummy, low-cal breakfasts, I'm all ears!

2 egg whites + 1 whole egg, sourdough toast, watermelon

On my way out the door, I grab a yogurt protein shake - it's my way of trying to avoid snacking too much before lunch. But, when breakfast is about 7 hours before lunch, that's hard to do ;-)

This is an old photo I have so you can see the protein shake

At work, I made it until like 8/8:30 before my stomach started audibly growling. I had some new belVita breakfast bars in my bag and I had 2/4 of them, but gobbled down the other 2 like an hour later. I also ate an apple that I had from last week.

I got lunch around 12:45, which was pretty decent - I managed to take a picture of it today as I walked down the hall. About half my plate is bagged salad (beggars can't be choosers), there's some curry chicken which was pretty moist, and then some fish casserole thing...? I don't always know what I'm eating, but I appreciate not having to cook. There's a pretty decent selection and I try to fill at least half my plate with salad. That being said, they only have two options for salad dressing: ranch and italian. So, tomorrow I'm taking my own salad dressing - it's healthier and yummier :-)

After lunch, I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off. I think about 10 women delivered this afternoon. But it was so great! I hate sitting around idle, so, to me, being busy is awesome. I learned a lot today and got in a lot of steps! My fitbit (like most fitbits, I think) is set to 10,000 steps a day and I definitely made it today.

Once I headed out around 5:45, I ate a fiber bar, rehydrated, and headed straight to the gym - not the one near work, the one near where I live. I like the feel of that L.A. Fitness better. Plus, I kinda like the anonymity. I majorly sweated it out during an elliptical session and then headed home where I ate some watermelon and drank insta-urine raspberry green tea crystal light.

It looks like urine, but it's not

ALL THE MELON IN MY MOUTH

I had to wait a half hour to cook my quesadilla dinner and I needed a little something to munch on until it was done given that it was already past 7. 

Trader Joe's got my back

Half an hour to bake this thing

Dinner + fat-free sour cream

I did some reading for work, restocked my gym bag and am getting ready to hit the hay. One of the things I'm trying to think about is how to pack healthy snacks. At work, I usually need something super portable, but I don't love the idea of eating packaged food all day - I'd like to get some fresh fruit in there. Any ideas? What's your go-to healthy snack?

HUGE New Life Chapters

So tomorrow I start a really huge new chapter in my life. Tomorrow, I walk into the hospital as a brand spankin' new doctor. It's about 90% exciting and 10% pure terror. That being said, I'm sure I'll be fine. I finally get to do what I want to do and focus on what I truly love to do, so once I figure things out in fourth year soon, I'm sure I'll be having a lot of fun.

That being said, since tomorrow is a brand new chapter in my professional life, I think it should be a brand new chapter in my personal life - a chapter where I also try to work towards making myself better and happier. 

If you were a reader way back in 2010 when I started this here blog, you'll know that I made some awesome progress in my weight loss and health goals. If you followed my random posts throughout med school, you probably had to read between very wide-spaced lines to know that it wasn't going well. Med school took over my life and so did a bit of fear. I became so scared of failure in school that it slowly found its way into every aspect of my life and I just stopped trying. If I was struggling to do well in school, why did I deserve to feel good? If I couldn't find the time to study, I shouldn't reward myself with a sweaty workout. And one of the reasons I started the blog in the first place was to use it as a very public forum to help shame motivate myself into working hard toward my goals. Well, the guilt and shame for letting down my readers definitely set in and then I stopped being so public.

But here's the thing: I'm going to make mistakes - I'm never going to be perfect. But, damn it, I deserve to be happy and to be healthy. And here's the other thing: people aren't going to stop loving me or looking to me as a role model if I slip up or act like a real human. So, I'm going remember those things while I work towards that by working on my diet and trying to add in some exercise everyday. I'm going to make healthier choices. I'm going to hit the gym - there's one that is literally in the plaza where I work and another one 5 minutes from home. My gym bag is going to live in my car so that I go to the gym before I go home. My water bottle will be handy so I hydrate rather than shove food into my mouth mindlessly. I'll look at desserts as treats rather than necessities. And above all, I'll start over right away if I slip up. 

I'm also going to incorporate some things into my life that helped me lose weight: friends! I sent out an email tonight with the link to my blog to some of my close friends and family that may or may not have known about this little literary treasure so they can help encourage me along the way.

I'm also going to incorporate monthly measurements! Back in the days when I went to Curves, seeing changes in your measurements was a huge reward and motivation to keep going. So, I bought a tape measurer and got my measurements tonight. I also am only going to step on the scale on a weekly basis - no little check-ins here and there - just every Monday (with the exception of tomorrow cuz I want a legit baseline).

These are what I could remember from Curves

I'm also going to try to include some pics of the daily food choices I make so as to keep things interesting for you because pictures are the best. Here are some from the wedding I went to this weekend:

With the groom

The high school group

With my date ;-)

Aaaand, I'm going to set my first goal: I want to lose 6 pounds from tomorrow's weigh-in in a two-week period (that's 3 pounds a week). If I'm able to achieve this goal, I will buy myself a pretty pair of new shoes!

Thanks for reading! 

Have you ever set any fitness or health goals? Any recommendations or words of advices?