Accidental hiker

Since our hike yesterday got rained out, we decided to try again today after checking the weather. It was supposed to be pretty cool and most importantly, dry. We got to Carter Lake and decided to do the 3 mile trail called the Sundance Trail. Perhaps I am super terribly out of shape, but it was hard. And when you go on AllTrails, a bunch of people said it was easy. So, that's insulting. But then some people said moderate or above, so they are my people. We didn't make it the whole 3 miles from shore to shore because the trail was hella rocky with lots of loose rocks and boulders. I was wearing Reyah and we turned around after spending a bit over two hours on our way. On our way back, she kept wiggling out of her carrier, so Nasur took her and oh my God, it was way easier without the extra 20 pounds. I mean, still not fun, but it was a welcome reprieve.

We also weren't the most prepared hikers. We each packed a water bottle and threw it in a backpack that Nasur wore along the way. I made lunch for all three of us and packed it in a cooler, which we left in the car. That was not ideal as we didn't have any food along the way and I think it may have felt less torturous had we eaten. I'm thinking we need to invest in some camelbaks if we want to keep up some hiking adventures. And some common sense may also help: Always. Bring. Food.

Anywho, that took up most our day. I went and soaked in the tub to calm my aching knees and took some motrin when we got home and then Nasur cooked dinner while Reyah and I hung out. 

I don't have much in the way of photos today, but here you go!

Breakfast

Carter Lake from today

Me wearing the nugget

Dinner

Dessert - this stuff tastes like ice cream

Today's totals

Tomorrow I have a bunch of stuff for work tomorrow: professional photos, a white coat fitting, and some occupational health stuff. Hopefully we have time for a bike ride or something - that's a whole lot easier on my knees!

FitBit emails

So today I didn't end up fasting because I didn't have any surgeries this morning and not eating was really hard cuz I was super hungry and had nothing to take my mind off it. Fortunately tomorrow I'll be a bit busier. So, it'll be a good fasting day. I think I'll also fast on Friday so I can get my two days in.

In other news, I've been taking the stairs a lot at work lately. And I've been wearing my fitbit while doing it, so it records all my steps and the number of flights of stories I've climbed. Today I've climbed 21 flights of stairs. And, I got this email:

I kinda like that FitBit emails when you accomplish something. They also give you a weekly breakdown of your steps, your laziest day, the day with the most steps, etc. So, that's kind of a nice way to keep yourself motivated on top of buying yourself new shoes [next week hopefully].

Today I also had a personal training session. My knee has been bothering me, but I kept at it. I did about 50 minutes of elliptical before my training session. Then we started with squats with weights. I didn't love that, but when he offered to take off the weight, I felt like it wasn't a great idea because it wouldn't be enough of a challenge. Anywho, I'll definitely be taking some ibuprofen tonight.

That's about it for me today. I was terrible about taking food photos today. Oops? Catch you later with some food photos...I promise!

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

Puppy love

Last night sucked. Like a lot. Let me tell you why.

This week is my spring break and I decided that I wanted to up my dancing skills, so I've been going to zumba everyday. My knees and hips decided to stage a protest last night. It took me like 4 hours to fall asleep because of the pain. I had to get up and take ibuprofen and then ice my knees for a bit. Not cool, joints. Not cool.

So this morning, rather than hitting the gym, I decided to take it easy. I want to recuperate so that next week when I start work again, I'm not too painful. That, and I need to re-evaluate my shoe choices.

This morning I also weighed in. Yikes, you guys. Yikes. I really, really, really don't want to post it, buuuuut this is a judgment-free zone. If you're in a judging mood, go ahead and navigate elsewhere.

Now, to be fair, when I first got on the scale, it said 238.0, but it was kinda blurry, so I got back on and I'd gained 0.8 pounds. I tried several more times, but 238.8 was there to stay. So, I had to settle.

But, I made myself a yummy breakfast (and finished off my bacon) and then cleaned up my apartment. I headed back home this afternoon for the first time in forever and got to spend some quality time with the puppies and the mom.

Here are today's pictures:

Breakfast

Snack/lunch since I wasn't hungry enough

Lounging with the legs up

Doc is a happy pup

Mayzie is an attention whore

Happy boy!

She likes her crate

Blurry pic with the mom

Dinner with Doc

We had fish, beans, and rice

Small dish of ice cream

Tomorrow, if the weather holds, I'm hoping to go blading. It's not looking too good. We'll see!

Difficult day

Today was infinitely better - mostly because it was a busier day. I'd rather be busy than bored out of my mind, which is what happened the first two days of this two weeks of inpatient medicine.

Anyway, changing my eating habits is so, so hard you guys. I decided against going to the gym because I really needed to rest my knee - it was bothering me all day today. Not going to the gym tonight meant I had some extra time this evening. So I made banana bread and ate a lot of the batter beforehand. And despite it being past 8pm, I tasted it because well, who doesn't like fresh-out-of-the-oven banana bread? However, I have vowed to take the banana bread to work tomorrow so that I'm not eating it all by myself because I also really don't need that. 

I'm trying to make sure I'm eating small amounts of food consistently throughout the day, but I'm still eating when I'm bored. The good news is that I'm more aware of it, but sometimes it doesn't stop me. So, we try again tomorrow. One of the doctors I'm working with said that weight loss is always 3 steps forward and 2 steps back. So, we keep on going.

Quick run...knee exploding...these things are related

Today was a rough day, mostly because it consisted of lectures all day long. I don't know who set up the schedule, but that was rude.

Anywho, the really talkative doctor lectured us in the morning and the more-to-the-point doctor lectured us in the afternoon and thus we were able to get out an hour early. That meant that I had about two hours between lectures and getting back to the hospital for my night shift. So, I decided to hit the gym for a half hour and just do some running. I didn't have a whole lot of time, so I decided a half hour was better than nothing. I was pretty slow. I started out at 4.7 mph, went all the way down to 4.2 mph for a bit and then went up and down as I felt necessary. I sprinted the last 30 seconds at 7.0 mph. I really like sprinting - it's nice to feel as though you can go fast.

And I just want to take a moment to congratulate myself for going to the gym rather than sitting on my ass.

But, now my knee is super painful and has exploded. It's swollen and I really should be icing it, but I just got home from the hospital and am going to head straight to bed since I have to be back at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow.

Here are some food pics since I was able to eat two meals at home today!

Grapes + toast, egg, and a slice of cheese 

Homemade flatbread pizza - so worth the calories

See you guys tomorrow. Hopefully this inflammation will go down with some liberal use of ibuprofen. Silly knees.

Icing my knees

Today is the first day I've iced my knees since starting school again. It's both a good thing and a bad thing. It's good because it's taken so long for me to get to this point, but it's bad because, for me, icing is a last resort type of deal. But I could legit feel this coming all day. I'm not sure why. I haven't been running (I have been doing the elliptical instead) and I've been taking ibuprofen like it's my job (which, you know, could be bad for GI bleeds, but whatever...).

Anywho, I've been being good about my logging my calories. However, sometimes I cheat. It'll be the end of the day and I will be like eh, what's another 100 calories or so? But for the past few days, I've been legit not cheating. So, hopefully I'll lose more than 0.2 pounds this week... We'll see. It's been pretty trying, mostly because my self control is pretty pathetic.

Aaaaaand, that's about it. We have a monstrously huge exam on Monday, so I'm sure I'll post again next week after I don't die (hopefully).

Normal flora

So since yesterday was Halloween, I allowed myself to have dessert and candy for the first time since August. My stomach is still pissed at me for that. I've apologized profusely, but it was all, "Effing seriously, Danika? We were all repopulated with different normal flora since your sugar intake has been significantly down as of late and then you had to go and throw everything off balance." "I said I was sorry!" "Well, either way you're going to have to pay." And thus, I spent today studying at home.

I also haven't gone to the gym since Monday. Mostly because my knees seem to be in cahoots with my stomach and are making me pay. For what, I'm not sure. Probably all the running. I'M SORRY. Kind of. Not really. Whatever. I'm thinking tomorrow I'm going to finally go to the gym.

Also, my sleep schedule is so, so, so off right now. But I intend to wake up at the ass crack of dawn (which, roughly translated, is 6 a.m.) and then be tired all day and go to bed early to try to reset myself. We'll see how this goes. I'm thinking it's going to be terrible. But that's just a guess.

And on a random note: today we had to do two breast exams on simulated patients. I probably should have felt awkward about it, but I was all, "Yeah, I think I could do this for the rest of my life." Okay. That sounded awkward, but what I mean is that I feel as though I could be an OB/GYN. It doesn't make me uncomfortable to talk about sex or vaginas or anything like that. Plus, I feel as though if I have to be up at night to be at a hospital, I'd rather be awake to deliver a baby than admit an 80 year-old for chest pain. Yes, I am an asshole.

Anywho, today's eats were super random and I didn't take pictures. Buuuut, I do have a picture of me and one of my best friend's kid from yesterday. He was a monster. And adorable. Yup, definitely adorable.

Rough morning

It was a rough morning. Like I couldn't get out of bed. Okay, well, maybe I could have, but I really, really, really didn't want to, so I, uh...didn't? At least not until 8:15, which, once upon a time, was super early for me to be out of bed. Anywho, I decided to skip the gym this morning. Mostly because my knees were so achy that I couldn't fall asleep last night (despite going to bed early). To fall asleep, I ended up getting out of bed around 1 a.m. to take some ibuprofen just so the pain would subside. So, on top of not wanting to lose more study time and to give my knees a day of rest, I skipped the gym.

The other reason it was a rough morning was Hurricane Sandy. Now, don't get me wrong, Michigan didn't get hit like the east coast did, but man oh man, did we get some of the leftovers. There was quite a bit of rain and it was super windy. But I told myself I would go to school, so off to school I went. I got a tad wet on the bike ride there, but not too bad. It didn't really start raining until I got to school...and realized I'd left all my packed food at home. Yeah. Not cool. And I wasn't about to head home to get it. So, yay for Jimmy John's delivery!

That threw off my day. And so did a scheduling error. I guess my time for my required breast exam (for me to perform, not to be performed on me) got switched and no one told me. They schedule these things way back in August (which is when I put it in my calendar) and then neglect to tell people when they update them. Sooo, I missed that. But my make-up time is a better time than my originally scheduled time, so yay? Silly medical school faculty. You're not supposed to reward me for your errors.

Anywho, I finished all the work I wanted to finish today mostly because I stayed up so late. And tomorrow I'm waking up so early. It's going to be tough, but I've got to get back on my sleeping schedule: early to rise, early to bed.

Also, no photos for you today. I told you it was a rough morning, didn't I?

Just a tad off

I was going to start off by saying that today was a weird day, but I felt as though I should just go ahead and say that this week has been a weird week. How you ask? Well, in so many ways that I shall list them for you for the sake of brevity:

• My sleep schedule is completely off, thanks to musculoskeletal on Monday
• My knees are acting up - like to the point where I can't sleep because they ache so badly (further throwing off my sleep schedule)
• Michigan has been above 70° for 3 days in a row and I've been getting pretty sweaty -  I'm just going to want to be naked the entire time I'm in Uganda over Christmas break (which is so, so not allowed - I'm not even allowed to wear shorts - gotta keep those knees covered)
• I had two exams in one day
• I actually cooked food...kinda (see below)
• I feel somewhat rested

So, yeah. There's that. And I just feel off. Maybe it was the lack of sleep last night (I took a nap this morning after my exam), but I got really pissed off for stupid reasons today. Like my normal exam seat was taken. Normal reaction: Eh. That sucks. Guess I'm sitting somewhere else. Today's reaction: RAGE. DANIKA SMASH. Then the loudest kid ever sits next to me during the exam. Normal reaction: I wonder how many times he's going to cough ridiculously loud. Today's reaction: RAGE. DANIKA SMASH. Someone's comment about me not getting my usual spot. Normal reaction: If I fail, I'm blaming it on Insert name here. Today's reaction: RAGE. DANIKA SMASH. But then, stupid e-mail from faculty. Normal reaction: RAGE. DANIKA SMASH. Today's reaction: Meh. Must be weird to have nothing to do but send stupid e-mails.

Seriously. What is wrong with me? Also, because I didn't go to the gym today (serious knee pain folks), I was all, let's eat all the foods! But, I mostly did okay and pretty much stayed in my calorie range. So, yeah. That was weird.

Anywho, today's cooked food was: fish tacos. Never made those before. Definitely making those again. NOMS.

The good and the bad

Gah. This week is so, so busy. I have two exams tomorrow and I'm already exhausted. Me needs sleep badly. 

I didn't wake up until 7:30 today. I went and shadowed an OB/GYN all morning, came home for lunch and to study, went to class, came home, ran a 5k at the gym (which was a struggggggle - I tried to do it continuously, but had to stop twice), came home, showered, grabbed some dinner, went to a friend's to study, came home, studied some more and am now blogging.

Good things about today:

• Shadowing was awesome. Pretty sure I want to be an OB/GYN
• I signed my ethics evaluation and am done with that class and the worst preceptor ever forever
• I ran the longest I've run continuously since June (2.6 miles)
• It was beautiful outside today - it made it to 77°F!
• Class today went better than expected

Bad things about today:

• I didn't get to spend much time outside
• My knees hurt like really bad
• I ate too many granola bars and now I don't have enough for tomorrow
• I am completely overwhelmed with school

Pictures!

Lunch materials

Lunch!

Quick dinner = Lean Cuisine lemon chicken (not so good - not getting it again)

Why I love yoga

It's been a little over a month since I started yoga. And let me say, it's official: I love it. I love it because even though you're in a class with people of all different levels, the instructors give you modifications so that you do what your body's comfortable with. I love it because I really think the stretching and toning has helped me with my knee issues. I love it because I've stretched muscles that I honestly don't know if I've ever stretched before. And I love it because I can tell that I've made progress.


Today was my last Monday doing yoga before I leave for Africa. I went to my favorite instructor's class. His class is always super full. Today was no different, but I've learned to get there early to grab a good spot. After the class, he came up to me and told me that I am a gym diva. I laughed and asked why. He said it's because he sees me at the gym all the time. I told him that I'm trying to lose weight and be healthier. He said he can tell I've made progress. I thanked him for his class and told him I'd see him again in a few months after I came back from Africa. Also, wow. It's really crazy how a good instructor can make such a difference.


After yoga, I hit up the treadmill for a run and took it at an even faster pace - 5.3mph. And I didn't feel like dying. Granted, I was super excited when it was over, but see? I'm making progress.


Also, I am so, so so excited to share this with, internet besties. Today I got an e-mail saying that I'd won a free gym starter membership (valued at $200!!!) at this local gym that only does crossfit. What's crossfit, you ask? Well, here's wikipedia's answer. Basically, from all the testimonials I've heard, it's a great, great way to shed some pounds, build some muscle and really challenge yourself. Oh, and make new friends. I e-mailed the woman who told me I'd won and she is absolutely cool with me starting when I get back from Africa. Woo hoo!


Anywho, I just finished packing up food for tomorrow. I was at school until a little after 10:00 p.m. today and am certain it will be just as long (if not longer) tomorrow. So, off I go.

You'll do what I want

Today, my knees hurt after my run. Like really hurt. Like walking was tough hurt. I'm not sure what I did, but they were feeling not-so-good before my run. And then after my run, they were all, "Bitch. Why would you do that to us? We told you we didn't want to run today." And I was all, "Eff you, knees. You'll do what I want." And they were all, PAIN. So, yeah. That was fun.


I also donated blood today. They were having a blood drive at the Y. So I did a little over a mile, headed downstairs, and lost a pound by donating blood (also: my iron was a 40 - I'm a bamf!). I told the guy not to bruise me. He told me he'd make no such promise. I explained to him that one time, I donated blood the week of my best friend's wedding (I was a bridesmaid) and my bruise was so big that they had to apply several layers of make-up and edit the photos. I told him if that happened again, I would leave terrible comments about him on the survey. So, I shall tell you tomorrow how it ended up. Right now it's still too iodiney (yes, that's an adjective) to tell.


Anyway, I'm off to take some ibuprofen and head to bed. No pictures for you. Sorry, internet besties!

Friday night in a basement

Right now, I am chilling in my basement. Please see below basement photo:

I'm doing my laundry. On a Friday night. Because I'm lame. Also, because I would rather do laundry tonight than tomorrow when I should be spending time at school learning more drugs. Woo...


Anywho, I just wanted to do a brief update since this week was insane. Mostly because we had an intense pharmacology exam on Wednesday and a not-as-intense exam this morning. And next week, we have two pretty intense ones. So, you are forewarned: posting will not be regular. You know, like it pretty much always is.


Okay. To the actual point of this entry (because I always have a point when I blog...). This June Challenge is really helping me get my butt to the gym. I would say that more than half the days this week, I really, really didn't want to go to the gym. I told myself I didn't have enough time or that I should spend that time studying or whatever. But, because it's the June Challenge and I told myself I'd go every single day, I had to go every single day. Yeah. Betcha you couldn't have figured that out without me spelling it out for you. You're welcome.


I think my running form is getting better. My knees don't seem to hate me so much for running, but after yoga on Monday (with so many lunges), they were not a fan. It was one of those take-the-maximum-dose-of-ibuprofen-every-four-hours-on-the-hour nights so that I could fall asleep that night and the next day so the inflammation in my knees would go down. It's mostly the right one that's giving me issues. My left one is supposedly the one that is misaligned more, but the right one sucks the most. Go figure.


Anyway, yoga yesterday was so, so hard. The instructor was all, "Let's do planks all hour long!" I mean, not really. But that's how it felt. I was struggling majorly to do them and after the third or so rotation, I was lame and did them on my knees, which is a beginner's plank. But whatever. My core was all, "You are totally a beginner right now." So, that was that. At least I went.

Knee plank: Source

And I must say, it was a pretty good workout for my poor hamstrings, which were so, so tight it was ridiculous. I blame the lunges from Monday. I'm pretty sure they're unrelated, but I'm blaming them anyway.


My eating has been pretty legit, though I'm not going to lie - I haven't been logging everything. Nor have I been taking photos. Although the lack of photos is mostly because I misplaced my camera. Don't worry, I found it again. I'll take some pictures tomorrow.


And the no dessert/no alcohol thing wasn't as much of an issue this week as it was last week when I was PMSing like crazy and all I wanted to do was eat all the foods.


Well, that's pretty much all I've got. Tomorrow I'm hitting up a class at the Y called Total Body Sculpt with some friends. It targets all the major muscle groups which means that lifting today was probably not such a hot idea (you're not supposed to work the same muscle groups two days in a row because they need to rest), but my biceps are tiny and I want them to be bigger. So I guess I'll be hurting and it'll be my own fault. Per usual.


Alright - I'm going to watch some more lectures whilst my clothes dry. I've got one more load that needs to dry so tonight is going to be a pretty late night, buuuut at least it will have been somewhat productive.

Too tired to be angry

When I woke up at 5:40 this morning, I was mostly surprised that it was already time to go to the gym. In a stupor, I brushed my teeth, filled my water bottle, and headed to the gym. I think this feat deserves applause because my knee was hurting pretty bad today. Once at the gym, I did a meager 10 minutes on the treadmill at 3.3mph and a 10.5% gradient. Then, I hopped on the elliptical and did 30 seconds before realizing that this would probably kill my knee. So, I did 10 minutes on the stationary bike instead. I was huffing and puffing at the end because I've been trying to pedal faster ever since Mark told me 55rpm was weak and that I should be doing at least 70.


When I got back home, my knee was cracking pretty loudly with each step I took, so I was pretty excited about my shower because I was hoping it'd make my knee feel a bit better. After my shower, I made my favorite breakfast and then headed off to my orthodontist appointment.

The orthodontist was impressed by my completely open bite. Yeah, I did that on purpose... So we're trying to figure out what to do to fix that. And since he gave me the okay, I scheduled my wisdom teeth removal: Friday, July 15. Yuck. Not excited. Though I have heard good things about the drugs involved...


After my appointment, I headed to work. I did a few things before lunch (though slowly to make them last longer) and then Mike, Sheli, and I headed to Entre Amigos for lunch. I got a taco salad which was pretty good, but I was not feeling too great the rest of the day. I guess I'm not used to eating all the grease anymore. And sorry, there's no pic because I don't take them in front of my co-workers/boss.


Once we were back at work, I had a few things to do and then spent quite a bit of time talking to marketing people. Once I got back into "work mode," I did a lot of little things and spent the remainder of the day chatting with Dillon.


After work, I went to the Community Center to try out a new class: CardioMax. It's done in the water. I thought this would be good for today because my knee was bothering me so much. It's supposed to be a high intensity workout for about 45 minutes and then a bit of toning and stretching for the last 15 minutes. There were quite a few old women there who apparently do this class every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. I was the youngest person there and the next closest in age was 30. I'm not sure how I feel about the class. Because you don't sweat in the water, it was hard for me to gauge how intense it was. We checked our heart rates at the end, and I was at the lowest point for my age group. But, I think I may sign up because I can always add some more exercise later in the day, and I do think it worked my legs pretty well.


When I got home from the community center, I made some spaghetti because I got some at the store last night (I've been craving it for a few days - I'm not usually a big fan of pasta).

I love that meijer makes organic stuff now!

I weighed out my spaghetti to make sure I didn't overdo it on the portions since the portion size isn't very big. For example, this is 1.5 portions:

While everything was cooking, I drank my last protein shake that I bought last week and it was delicious.

And then I finally got to have my spaghetti!

It was just okay. My mom makes awesome spaghetti and this didn't really come anywhere close to be as awesome as hers. Womp, womp. Guess I'll have to figure out what she does.


After dinner I cleaned up my kitchen and prepped all the fruit I bought yesterday. Now I'm blogging so I can head to bed and be a bit better rested for the gym nice and early tomorrow morning!


Also, leave a comment below if you wanna do next week's challenge with me! It's going to involve some additional intensity for your workouts!

Less whiny, more productive

Sorry for my whiny blog yesterday, but this week isn't shaping up to be what I hoped it would. Fortunately, my knee felt tons better today. The pain still isn't gone, but it's not nearly as intense as it was yesterday and I've decided that I'll go to the gym tomorrow morning, which means waking up at 5:00 a.m. again. Sleeping until 7:20 was so nice. But, I said I'd do it and now that the pain's subsided, it's time to get back on track!


Work this morning was stupid and really frustrating. I'm doing a project that requires me to stretch glass tubes, which results in me burning myself. On top of that, the refrigerant I'm using is really stupid so every time I put the tubes in the oven to start the test, they blow up. So I'm going to end up having to do them a third time. Not excited.


At lunch I decided to go grocery shopping since I don't really have any food. That being said, when I got home with only 20 minutes to make lunch, I didn't use anything I'd bought to make lunch.

I call it a deconstructed sandwich. Deconstructing things is all the rage in the culinary world. I know this because I watch Top Chef I'm a culinary genius.


I went back to work to finish making tubes that blew up, and blend some oil for a project for tomorrow. And I did some other stuff that is so boring I have taken pity on you and not mentioned it so entertaining that I must keep it to myself.


After work, I came home and did some much needed laundry before my med school interview Thursday at MSU. Technically I have medical terminology on Tuesday nights, but I may have led my professor to believe that I was sick so that I didn't have to go. I didn't have the willpower to sit through that class after such a poopy day. So, I did laundry, cleaned my kitchen, vacuumed, went to Best Buy and told them they suck and demanded they find my files on my external hard drive, and made a yummy dinner.

It was tomatoes, steamed broccoli and cauliflower, and Schwann's teriyaki nuggets boneless chicken wings. Then I decided to finally let my oven clean itself after it got all smoky when making my chicken. I wish my apartment would clean itself when I locked the door.


I watched Glee while cleaning some more and brushing up on MSU CHM so that I'm not going into my interview completely off my game. But thanks to Apple deleting all my files and Best Buy not recovering them, I have no idea what any of my essays were about. Hopefully someone will prompt me...


Anyway, tomorrow's a weigh-in day. Let's hope for good numbers!


Did you watch Glee tonight? What'd you think? Also, do you have any interview tips?

A Case of the Mondays

After tossing and turning all night due to some intense pain behind my left knee, I still decided to get up at 5 and go to the gym. I made breakfast (though I forgot to take a picture - eggs and gouda, yum!) and then decided to forgo the gym. The pain started mostly after my gym session yesterday so I thought it'd be dumb to potentially make things worse. So, I went back to bed to toss and turn some more and told myself missing the gym wasn't a big deal because I train with Mark Monday evenings and could make it up there.

I went to work where I had a rough time because of the pain and decided to take the afternoon off to wallow in self pity rest at home. I ate the rest of my spinach pizza, and decided to take a nap because I was exhausted from the lack of sleep. When I woke up, the pain wasn't any better and I called and canceled with Mark. He asked me how my knees were doing and told me that I need to seriously consider the injections. Well, I called the knee doctor this morning and told them I'd like to schedule the synvisc injections. They're going to call me back when they can schedule me. Hopefully it's soon!

Anyway, I called my mom and I'm going to head over there for the Bachelor finale(!!!) and take a nice long bath in our jacuzzi and hope that dissipates some of the pain.

To be honest, today is just kind of a let down sort of day. I'm in a funk and want to cry for pretty much no reason. I know it's silly to get this worked up over one bad knee day, but I was doing so well last week and now I feel like I'm never going to get where I want. Stupid knees. Anyone want to trade? It's for a good cause, trust me.

How do you get poonch-key from paczki?

This morning was my knee doctor's appointment, which I purposely scheduled at 9:00 a.m. so I could sleep in. They had earlier appointments, but I wouldn't have an excuse to sleep in, so that just wouldn't do. However, Bailey has a personal vendetta against rested Danika, and thus, he came in at 6:51 and meowed non-stop for about 3 minutes. Worst. Cat. Ever. In retaliation, I ignored him and laid in my bed doing nothing for an hour.


Once I was up, I had my bagel and added a banana this morning because they were finally ripe! My freshman roommate liked her bananas green. Um, that's not when they're ready for eating. They're ready for eating when they are spotted. Yum!


After breakfast, I went to my knee appointment, and the doctor and i talked about a few more options for pain management. I had new x-rays done and we talked about how much the damage has progressed over the last two years. For some background, I've got a couple things wrong with my knees: they're aligned incorrectly (formally known as patella femoral syndrome), I have inherited osteoarthritis in my knees from my mom and her side of the family, and I have bone spurs forming since my cartilage is slowly disappearing. All in all, it makes for knees that are constantly inflamed and uncomfortable. And it means that I can't do many high-impact things unless I want to suffer for it, i.e. running, jumping, etc. Anyway, I'm going to get some custom-made braces to help hold my kneecap in place, and if that doesn't work, I'll have injections of synthetic cartilage in my knee to decrease the inflammation and pain (the drug's called synvisc). We'll see.


After my appointment, I dragged my butt to work only to do more monotonous tasks groundbreaking research. Fortunately, I had a lovely Indian lunch to look forward to with Danny.

 

We both had two plates of delicious food and I documented it accordingly. Danny was a bit embarrassed at my constant picture taking, but the flash didn't go off so I doubt anyone even noticed.

 

After lunch, I went back to work and discovered the 5 gallon blend I made was completely wrong (not my fault - it was mixed up in the system), and that I have to start all over tomorrow. But, the afternoon wasn't all that bad because Sheli and I used work time to go on a quest for paczkis! We had to make two stops before we finally bought a 6-pack at Kroger. We both had two, and I made Sheli take the other two home because otherwise I would've eaten the other two tonight. But, since I was super full from lunch and my paczki overload, I decided to go grocery shopping (grocery shopping when hungry = baaaaad idea). Nothing super exciting to report, but meijer finally had dark chocolate almond milk! The original's okay, the vanilla's better, but the dark chocolate almond milk is amazing! I'm going to have to limit myself to one serving a day because I could probably drink the entire half-gallon in one sitting. 

Now onto the subject you're probably most interested about: what I'm giving up for my 40-day diet Lent. I've decided to give up gym-free mornings and drive-thru food. This is going to be rough, but I figure if I can do it for 40 days, then I could do it everyday. When I'm in Ann Arbor this weekend and East Lansing next week, I'm probably going to have to do an evening/afternoon workout, but those should will be the only days I miss.

What are you giving up for Lent? Did you have any paczkis today? What's your favorite flavor?

Magic! And other non-related things.

So today I told myself I would work out in the morning and thus would have to wake up at 5:00 a.m. So, naturally, I woke up at 7:20 and rushed to get ready for work. I got all my snacks ready for work and ate my very healthy and nutritionally balanced breakfast bagel while I got ready.

 

Please note that my breakfast also included ibuprofen for my terrible knees, a subject about which I will enlighten you tomorrow after my knee doctor appointment. And yes, all of my med school friends, I always take it with food.

Anywho, I was late to work (per usual) and did some really monotonous tasks groundbreaking research during the morning. Basically, I heated oil, turned on a machine to make it stir at 1500rpm, turned the machine off, and watched it separate. Fascinating, I know. Try to keep up.

At lunch time, I spiced things up. I made my English muffin pizzas, but I put toppings below the cheese and above the cheese to see which I prefer. I know, crazy!

To be honest, the jury's still out, ladies and gentlemen. Tune in tomorrow when I do the exact same thing and remain indecisive reveal the answer!

The afternoon was about as interesting as the morning. Blended some stuff, read my kindle, blah, blah, blah, science, science, science. But, after work, I went to do something naughty that probably isn't good for me tanning and then had personal training with Mark. 

Despite taking ibuprofen several times during the day, my right knee was still being stupid and thus, we only did upper body stuff. Mark told me to grow new knees and I promised him I'd see what I could do by Wednesday (when we meet again). I did some cardio on my own after our session and ended up doing about an hour's workout. It was pretty solid.

After my workout, I went to Best Buy to pick up my new hard drive which supposedly had all my old data on it (I paid $99 for some "Geek" to transfer it), but it didn't, so I'm working up a bunch of resentment and then am calling them tomorrow.

When I got home, I made myself some garlic shrimp. The best thing about garlic? You can never have enough. I used about 4 cloves for my 150g of shrimp. Best decision ever. And because my mother loves me and randomly bought me a food processor, I didn't even have to chop them myself. One moment the cloves aren't chopped...

And the next moment, they are!

It's magic, I tell you!

Anywho, dinner was delicious. I made some of the same potatoes that Lisa and I made yesterday and then had some chocolate yogurt for dessert. Yum!

Lisa and Danny came over after dinner and we played some more Wii games after sharing embarrassing farting stories and laughing really hard for no reason. Yes, I am 23. And yes, farting stories are still hilarious.

Anyway, I'm thinking about what I want to give up for my 40-day diet Lent this year. Have you given it any thoughts yet? What have you given up in the past?