Sticking to the plan

Today was an OR day, which means lots of standing in one place for a very long time. Which also means that I have a hard time getting steps in on OR days, but am still exhausted nonetheless. So, once I was done, I headed home and laid in my bed trying to finish my library book before my book had to be returned. After that, I got all the stuff together I needed to take the kids to the pool and then headed to get the kiddos. I got them dressed really quick and then we went to the pool for about an hour. Reyah did great and had a lot of fun. Zayd is a bit of a daredevil and requires constant vigilance, so not as much fun for me. But, it was better than sitting around at home - I kept myself moving!

After the pool, we came home, had dinner, and then did our after dinner walk. Once home, it was bath time and bed time. Nasur's got an exam tomorrow, so I cleaned up and then watched some TV while getting steps in.

Today, I tried to stick to my goal with my eating. I'm on my period, so I always have a harder time not eating unnecessarily because the hunger pangs are real. And, because I was in the OR, I had unlimited access to the doctor's lounge with all the snacks. Despite that, I stuck to my guns. Normally, I'd eat a breakfast sandwich form the freezer, but those are not so healthy. Thus, I had two hard boiled eggs. The lunch selection was rather sad-appearing, so I opted for a sandwich that was mediocre at best. But they had some yummy iced tea. I also had an uncrustable for a snack later. Maybe not the healthiest, but it was worth it. Before leaving, I grabbed two of the protein drinks from the lounge to try later in the day. And both were yum, yum, yum. 

Shortly I'll be heading to bed. I've got a day in the office tomorrow and need to rest up! I'm still recovering from the last of the cold I had last week.

The lunch sammy

The lunch tea

Snack on the way to get the kiddos

The yummy protein drinks I tried

Not pictured: the hard-boiled eggs, the uncrustable, and the Swedish meatballs we had for dinner.

Planning for a weigh-in tomorrow! Also, planning to chat about gym memberships tomorrow. 

The Plan...ish

Hello again, billions of fans folks! Today is a big day! It's reveal my plan day. Are you ready? My plan is... to move more! Did you see that one coming? Probably. I'm also going to do my best to make better food choices and/or log my food more. Let's chat further about these plans.

Once upon a time, when I used to watch Biggest Loser (is that still on?), Dolvett used to say, "If you're not moving, you're not losing." I really took that to heart. So, after work, I'd go to the gym. And then after dinner, I'd go for a bike ride, or I'd go roller blading, or I'd do Wii Dance. I spent most of my evening moving. That was a lot easier to do sans kids and sans a job with insane hours. Nevertheless, I'm going to try to bring that mantra back. Additionally, I am moving my office hours around to allow for more time after work to allow me to get to the gym without mom guilting myself into believing I shouldn't go.

In the past, I used to log all my calories. This was good to keep me in a range that would help me with weight loss. It was also good because it helped me make smarter food choice. A few chips for 100 calories or a bowl full of watermelon for 100 calories? Watermelon, please. I also used to pack my food/snacks in the evenings for the next day so I wouldn't be able to choose something less healthy in the moment for lack of other options. So, also going to work on that! And, lucky for you, I will include food photos! Because seeing what I'm eating can also help me change my mindset.

Now, despite this grand reveal, my biggest goal is going to be sustainability. I need to make changes that I can sustain in the long run or this won't work. Again. I've been able to lose loads of weight in the past (I think my max was about 80-85 pounds), but then I gain it all back. So, I need to make little changes that I can continue to make.

So, here we go, folks! Tomorrow, I'm planning to do a weigh-in. I'm nervous about posting my weight because I'm the heaviest I've ever been in my entire life. But, I'm going to for several reasons. First, I need the accountability. Second, it's always good to establish a baseline. Third, I know folks won't hate. They'll support me in trying to get that number going down. Now here's my summary of today and the things I've started to do already.

I got home from work after having gotten a decent amount of sleep. So, I made a yummy breakfast and waited for my masseuse to arrive at my place for my weekly 90 minute massage (I've become very bougie as an attending). After my massage, I took a nap. I woke up at 2:30, had lunch, and then went for a bike ride. Bike riding used to be one of my favorite forms of exercise. Today, however, it was 88°F with no cloud cover and I didn't bring water and my knee immediately started hurting. So, I just did 30 minutes. My body has to get used to the bike again. Also, I should probably wear my knee brace and/or do some PT exercises. My knee flares up way easier these days. I got home, did some laundry, put away dishes, watched some Netflix and waited till the kiddos were home. We had Hello Fresh for dinner, which Nasur made. Initially, he hogged all the zucchini, but then upon me commenting that he hogged all the zucchini, he gave me his zucchini because he doesn't like it much anyway. After dinner, we went for a walk and let the kiddos run around at the park. Back home for popsicles and bubbles in the backyard before bath time. After bath time and bed time, I went downstairs and walked in place for 15 minutes as a warm up to lift some weights. I wasn't feeling doing much tonight - I'm in the midst of a cold and my energy was zapped. So, I did some walking in place after weights until I got my 10,000 steps (which I've learned was an arbitrary number made up by a Japanese pedometer company). Then I came upstairs to blog! I revealed to you 

Breakfast - my farm fresh eggs!

My eggs cooked up (2 egg whites + one farm egg), avocado, and tomatoes I grew!

Lunch - doesn't look so appealing once reheated, but this was roman gnocchi and watermelon

My bike!

My dinner before stealing the zucch-filled plate of Nasur

Nasur's pasta portion

Any small changes you've made in your life that you've been able to stick to? I, for one cut out soda as well as sour cream with my potatoes. Those are extra calories that I've never really missed. 

Not typically someone who's got resolutions

I've never really been one to do the whole New Year's Resolution thing. Like yes, I set some goals for myself, but I've never been one to really wait until New Year's. I kind of figure that if I have a goal, I'll just get to it and accomplish it when I think of it, rather than wait until a specific day. This year, I'm really fucking in to doing New Year's Resolutions. These are my top 3:

1. Pay off all my credit card debt
2. Study on a consistent schedule
3. LOSE THE FUCKING WEIGHT

So, let's go through all my goals one by one, shall we? Cuz to accomplish shit, you need a plan of how you're going to get there.

Numero uno: Pay off the credit card debt

I accumulated a lot of credit card debt in med school going to various countries in Africa and being all around not-too-savvy with money spending. So, this year, Nasur and I have made it a priority to pay off my debt. We've transferred the balance from our high interest credit card to our low interest credit card and are using the Mint app to help tell us when and how much to pay to get this shit done by December 2017. Hopefully sooner if I get an awesome tax return.

Nombre deux: Study on a consistent schedule

I've decided I need to do at least one practice bulletin a day and some kind of other reading per night - at least an hour of reading of some sort. It's not a lot, but it's a minimum that I could actually stick to.

Nummer drei: LOSE THE FUCKING WEIGHT

I've been prepping for this one the most. How, you ask? I've been reading about diets, I've been making sure my gym is open, I've been figuring out group fitness schedules, I've been making healthy grocery lists, I've been looking up healthy (and easy) recipes, and I've been bingeing like there's no tomorrow because I figure once the first rolls around, that shit's gotta stop. So, how am I going to get below 200 pounds by 2018? I'm going to track those damn calories, hit the gym after work (as long as I'm not working the long shift), I'm going to take my blender to work and make protein shakes, I'm going to quit the bingeing, I'm going back to intermittent fasting two days a week, and eating is going to stop by 8pm on nights as much as possible. Oh, I know how completely shitastic the first few weeks are going to be. I'm going to be cranky as all hell and I'm going to be staring at people's food and imagining it in my belly, BUT, I'm also going to be gaining muscle, I'm going to be eating healthy at restaurants, the straining on my scrubs will stop, I'll stop having food hangovers, and I'll start feeling more awesome about myself. And, really, nothing big will change about my life except my health and I'll hopefully serve as motivation for others. And I'm going to try to blog more and take all kinds of photos. And I'm going to talk about it with people so that rather than feel embarrassed/ashamed, I'm seeking out support and making others aware of my goals - that stuff really helped the first time around. 

Also, I've got Blogger downloaded on my phone and my iPad so that I can blog faster and easier rather than taking 30-60 minutes a night working on it. And I'm going to give myself a goal of 4-5 days of blogging per week. Nasur is going to weigh in with me every Monday (as in he's going to stand by me when I step on the scale) so I have someone to keep me accountable and we're talking about doing a 5k. All good things. I'm also going to take a selfie every single day and post it on here so I've got all kinds of before and after pictures. And I'm going to take more pictures in general because really, why else do I have a smart phone? And I'm quitting facebook because seeing other people and comparing myself to them makes me feel poopy about myself AND whoa, do I spend a lot of time on it. 

That's it, folks. 

I just showered (so that I could shave my legs and have them be gym ready for January 1) and am getting ready to hit the hay. I've gotta work 24 hours tomorrow, so I had to do some planning tonight. 

Anywho, LET'S MAKE 2017 work for us, amirite?

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.

Working foreverrrrr

I was scheduled to be at the hospital until 11pm tonight. I have to be back there at 7am. That meant I got 8 hours to come home, pack my lunch, sleep, shower, eat breakfast and get my butt back to work. Fortunately, my residents let me out around 10:00. Win, win win. But kind of lose, lose, lose for you because I don't want to spend this precious time with a big update. Maybe this weekend?

Gotta keep you coming back ;-)

Distractions = foregoing the gym

I didn't hit the gym yesterday as planned. Mostly because I didn't get home until 6:15, I was starving, and I wanted to watch the season finale of Dexter and finally chop up all the fruit I bought on Sunday. I'm so, so, so slow at chopping things. So much so that my mom bought me one of those mini food processors after I complained that it took me an hour to chop some vegetables. That, and she's seen me chop things and thinks it's pathetic.

Anywho, today I managed to make it there and just did some elliptical. And thanks to a long lunch break, I was finally able to put away all my laundry and didn't have to do that tonight so I could focus on making myself a delicious salad/go get lettuce and snag up one of what I imagine will be the last watermelons of the season.

I did a lot of marinating and now I'm going to head to bed. I'll tell you more about those plans soon ;-)

Making plans

This weekend I went home to celebrate my mom's birthday and had a lovely time, but I told myself when I got back that things had to get serious. I'm going to be packing my lunch for tomorrow shortly and will be hitting the gym tomorrow. I'll also update tomorrow when I've got more of a game plan set.

See you soon!