Day Off..Ish?

Since we're moving soon and have a vacation in the middle of the moving process, I woke up ready to hit things hard. I made a to do list last night and tried really hard to get it all done. I got pretty close! The big goal for this move is to not move anything that we're not going to use. Since moving into this house, we've outgrown a lot of stuff since the kiddos are outgrowing stuff quickly. Rather than actually get rid of stuff, we've just put it in boxes and stored it. So, now we're tasked with going through all of it. It's not terribly fun.

Today, I woke up and did the kids' laundry. I emptied the dishwasher, put away laundry that Nasur left in the dryer and randomly throughout the laundry room, put together some mail for some folks, switched the laundry and then headed outside to do the weeding that was long overdue. Nasur did the easy weeding a few weekends ago, so I did the harder stuff. Now that we know this house will be belonging to someone else, I figured I should probably tidy up the lawn. My standards aren't terribly high for myself, but I want someone else to love this house and I want our landlords to know we really appreciated being able to live here. Since it was super hot, I lasted about an hour outside and then went inside to get the laundry folded and put away. Once inside, I called the inspection dude and representatives for 5 different moving companies to get quotes. Then I went through my closet and decided what to donate and what to keep. Things that I've never worn since moving into this house got the axe. I also went through the trouble of trying to sell my very expensive nursing tops once more before giving up and donating them. This was very labor intensive. I tried this once before and sold about half, so here's hoping I can make a bit more money. But man, there are a lot of scammers out there. After my closet, I went through my bathroom stuff and packed everything I wouldn't need prior to our move. I tossed a lot of expired stuff and then moved to the bureau in the kitchen and organized it and tossed things we didn't need. Nasur arrived in the midst of this spree, so we went to the basement and went through a few boxes of kids' clothes. We plan to take them to the secondhand kids store and get store credit. They donate what they don't accept, so hopefully this is somewhat lucrative. We also went through the laundry room, hall closet, and cabinets over the oven. He went and grabbed the kiddos while I made dinner. After dinner, I finished my weeding. The lawn looks tres bueno, but that was a ton of work. The kids "helped," so the after dinner portion took a bit.

I just finished precharting. Now I'm going to whip up some breakfast for tomorrow and pack my food so I can stay within my calorie ranges. Tomorrow we get our first shipment of our Factor meals. We'll see how good they are. You're supposed to be able to just cook them and they're supposed to be pretty healthy. Here's hoping!

With how busy today was, I only remembered to snap a photo of lunch/breakfast:

This was the calorie breakdown of lunch

One of the things that I like about this sandwich is subbing a laughing cow wedge for mayonnaise. I feel like I need something creamy, but the calories are waaaay less and it's just as tasty. Cheers!

Day 10/365: The little things

Today, I found myself in the nurse's lounge. There, were a beautiful-looking selection of cookies. Absent-mindedly, I took one. There was also toffee. Absent-mindedly I took one of those. Later in the day, absent-mindedly I ate some jerky. Now, normally I wouldn't think about this, but I I realize all the little things add up. So, I'm going to try to do something about it. I'm going to be very mindful of my eating. I'm going to stop going to the free resident buffet for lunch because if I don't have to pay for it, I load up on all the wrong things and all the wrong portion sizes. I've packed up my blender and protein powders and am going to start having a protein shake for lunch rather than hitting up the buffet. I'm not going to do a protein shake everyday, but I'm going to try for at least every other day to start. Since I usually use milk, the shake will be about 200-250 calories. With some fruit and maybe goldfish crackers, that'll be a nicely proportioned lunch.

Wish me luck!

Awesome first day!

Well, let me just say that I am super pumped about this month after today. Sure, there were slow points. Sure, there were the I'm-so-tired-an-explosion-in-my-pants-wouldn't-wake-me points. But, mostly, I'm really thrilled with the nurses and doctors I get to learn from. And that's enough about that - work will stay at work!

Waking up at 4:15 was rough today. I got out of bed and my left temple was pounding in protest. I took something for pain and went about the morning. I knew I needed to eat a hearty breakfast because you never know when food'll be an option in the OB world - it really can be feast or famine. Anywho, today's hearty breakfast was two egg whites + 1 egg, cantaloupe, strawberries, and a slice of banana bread I made on Saturday.

We get lunch for free at work - it's in a place affectionately known as "the trough." Do with that what you will. It's mostly decent food, but there's no such thing as fresh fruit (unless you count the overly waxed apples and oranges). There is salad that once upon a time lived in a bag somewhere and there's usually something pretty okay. Today, I heaped half my styrofoam plate high with salad/lettuce and the other half had some kind of lemon pepper fish and a BBQ chicken drumstick. Then I went hungry until a suture representative brought the interns cookies. I definitely had a few as my stomach was causing me physical pain. Then we hung out for a few more hours before my first rep dinner with people trying to sell us equipment. So, I had a pretty awesome teriyaki chicken with some veggies and a little bit of rice.

Given that we were at the dinner until 8, I opted out of the gym because my butt (and the rest of me) needs to be in bed. But, tomorrow night I have no excuse dinners, so don't worry - I'll be going!

I think that this is going to take a bit of getting used to. My bowels weren't sure what to do with all the lettuce today and turning down dessert at dinner was hard, but hey - it's a treat! And I wasn't celebrating anything. Plus, I've got some delicious fruit pizza this weekend to look forward to.

Also, thanks for all the love and support - with comments and emails! I'm going to have an easier time because of all of you! I especially liked the comments about keeping it slow and steady and not going for the all or nothing. Making positive changes should be gradual - I've learned from my own past that going balls to the walls only results in pain. When I focus on all or nothing, I usually just fail and then I really let myself spiral into a pity party that isn't pleasant for anyone.

More photos (I kinda forgot today) and a weigh-in on Monday (forgot that too!) for you to look forward to! In the mean time, have you ever had to talk yourself into being okay with a gray area or imperfection?

So many photos. You're welcome!

Ah, the internet. A wonderful thing, which when randomly removed from one's life, causes one to go into a blind rage and hate all things Comcast-related. In short, my modem crapped out on me. When the service tech came today, he took one look at the modem, declared it "ancient" and then replaced it and voilà! Internet has returned and one could rejoice! Hallelujah. But, really, Comcast wasted 3+ hours of my time, so I'm still not a fan. And after my discussion with the tech today, it sounds as though Comcast is slowly making its way into changing legislation so it can indeed have a monopoly. That will be a dark day, my friends. A dark, dark day indeed.

Moving on. After the tech left, I ate some b-fast because I was starving and then hit the gym for a weight lifting session. I debated over waiting until the afternoon and going to yoga, but I wanted to shower and get the rest of my day going, so just lifted some weights.

Breakfast

Pre-gym carbs

Post-gym protein

Then I did something called studying. All day. Well, I also cooked some, did some laundry (I've been hitting the gym twice a day on some days, so my gym clothes were running low), and watched Parent Trap while doing little things (cooking, laundering, wasting time...).


I also uploaded photos from my camera and will now post all of them on here because I love you. You'll notice that some of the more dinner-appearing meals are labeled "lunch." That's because I'm trying to have my big meal in the middle of the day, rather than at the end. Also, it gives me a lot more time to procrastinate on doing the dishes ;-)

That's about all I've got right now. I'll be up early tomorrow to hit the gym and then spend the rest of the day on my butt studying until I hit up Zumba. I really like Zumba so making 2 gym trips is totally worth it.

Breakfast sometime last week

Snack

Hard boiled eggs = protein punch

Breakfast

Breakfast

Post-strength training protein

Monday's weight (I think) - I already mentioned I've been gaining/bingeing...

Protein again

Breakfast

Thursday's weight...yikes...

Snack

GOUDA sandwich

The gouda sandwich plus watermelon

Snack

Protein snack

Snack

Another snack

Breakfast

Yesterday's lunch

Dessert

Half of this was yesterday's dinner

Noms

Today's lunch

Fiber/dessert - these cookies are only good after being submerged in milk

Snack

Snack

Snack

Treat! This is my favorite and I bought 1 at meijer to have with my pizza

Tonight's dinner

Brownie in a glass pre-microwave

Post-microwave

Today's positive: PRODUCTIVITY EVERYWHERE. Cleaned the cat litter, took out the garbage, did laundry, did the dishes, cooked, studied, did lots of questions, watched a movie, updated my iPod, got internet. BAM, BITCHES.