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?

I'm better equipped now

Surprisingly, these past two days have been rather busy. I shall give you a brief rundown and then I'd like to share some thoughts with you (and hopefully get your opinion).


Monday, I biked to work. It was awesome. I'm pretty sure I angered some of the drivers (I biked on the road for part of it because there's no sidewalk), but when I got to work, I was feeling great. I was pretty happy and glad I got some exercise in. The only bad thing was that I definitely had helmet hair and I was a tad sweaty because I don't really have any bike-appropriate jackets.


At work, the man from Phoenix Tribology arrived to install our fourball machine. It looks something like this:

It has a computer attached as well as a microscope, but this is the fun part of the machine. So, I spent my morning running samples and then watched as he put this monster together.


At lunch, I biked home and was pretty much covered in sweat by the time I got home. Okay, not covered, but I definitely had sweaty armpits and my back was sweating. This is probably because I wore my fleece while riding, which has absolutely no ventilation. So, again, it has come to my attention that I'm going to need to invest in something to wear while biking.


Once home, I stripped down to my underwear to cool off and blow dry the sweat off my clothes (don't judge) while my pizza cooked.

Lunch!

After I finished my lunch, I drove back to work because I knew I wouldn't have enough time to bike home and get to personal training on time. Also, I didn't have to worry about being sweaty and gross again.

During the afternoon, we had training on how to use our new toy. Then, I was coaxed into going out to Bennigan's (and canceling personal training) with Mike and David (the guy from the UK training us). David got a half-pound burger because he said red meat in America is way better and way cheaper than in England. Mike got the Turkey O'Toole (pictured below) and I stuck with salmon and steamed broccoli. It wasn't the best salmon I've ever had, but it was a healthy choice.

 After dinner, I dropped David off at his hotel and then headed to the gym. I was really considering not going, but then I reminded myself that I'm doing a two-week challenge and I had to go. So, I put in a good hour's workout and finally went home.


Once home, I had an orange as an after-gym snack and video chatted with Matt.

Matt and I worked on his résumé, cover letter, and writing sample for this awesome job he's applying for. Ironically, it's also in the lubricant industry. I guess that's where all the cool kids go. Haha...just kidding.


Anyway, after helping Matt, it was rather late, so I headed to bed. In my rush to get to sleep, I must have forgotten to set my alarm. However, this morning, I ended up waking up at 7:22 and getting to work right on time. So, that worked out. But that meant I couldn't ride my bike. However, I already planned on driving because it was raining most of the morning. Boo.


At work this morning, we continued our training and then I came home and had some leftover pizza for lunch. I also had a yogurt because they're going to expire tomorrow so I need to gobble them up soon!

After lunch, we continued training and learned how to run an actual test on our new toy. As I'm the youngest, I volunteered to go first/make an ass of myself. But really, I didn't screw anything up and I probably learned it the best of the four of us since I had to figure it out on my own. After training, I threw a sample in our GC-MS sampler and headed out to Birch Run, to get some jackets to wear while biking.


When I got to Birch Run, I decided to stop at Old Navy first to see if they had any jeans I liked. They only had their wall of jeans (of which I don't really like any), and a ton of shorts. So I left empty-handed. Then I went to Lane Bryant to see if they had any cute tops. Nope. So, I walked from Lane Bryant to Under Armour to see if they had any jackets that would fit the bill. Nope, not so much. An XL there doesn't even come close to fitting me, so I left empty-handed. Then, I stopped in the North Face outlet store. One of the employees there helped me find two good jackets to wear while biking. I grabbed both in an XL, but, when I tried them on, I couldn't get them to zip over my chest. So, I told him that I was too chesty and he suggested we try the men's section (where the sizes are bigger). He was excited when we switched to men's because he said there was more selection in what I was looking for. I tried on a few more things and settled for this jacket in a men's large. It's super lightweight and has vents in the armpits and on the back where I sweat the most, so I'm pretty excited about it. Also, it only cost me $85 because I went to the outlet.


After I went to North Face, I decided to go into the Adidas outlet store where I found another jacket (for $40) that would be great for biking, but was a bit heavier. I think I'll be wearing that one until summer really hits. I also found a white wicked pullover for $30 that I really liked. After trying it on, I came out of the fitting room and saw the same thing in the men's section for $10 less. So, I got that one instead.

It's like the perfect thing to wear to and from the gym because it will be well-ventilated but still give me another layer to keep me warm. I also splurged and got another pair of gym shoes because my feet have been hurting lately. So, I bought these babies:

And, I'm happy to report that although all of the things I bought were on sale, since they were all running/training items, I got an additional 20% off. So I left the store having spent only $114 on some quality pieces that I'll get a lot of use out of. Score.


Then I headed home. I had a hard time convincing myself that I didn't need to stop for fast food despite the fact that it was 7:00 and I was super hungry for dinner. But, I made it home and had some gnocchi that I gobbled up before remembering to take a picture. My bad.


After dinner, I went to the gym even though I didn't really want to go since it was already 8pm. But, I decided that I could watch Glee while I worked out, so it couldn't be that bad. And, honestly, I'm glad I went. I was sweating up a storm and I know I'm building up my quads, which should definitely help with my knees.


Once I was done at the gym, I headed to Starbucks to get a birthday cake pop. Why? Because tomorrow's my birthday and you deserve birthday cake on [the day before] your birthday. If you've never had one, you need to get your ass to Starbucks this instant and get yourself one. Why? Because they're amazing. It's basically cake at the end of a stick.

Starbucks birthday cake pop

Inside view

Apparently they are made by baking cake, mashing it up with frosting and then shaping it into a ball. They poke a stick in it and the coat the whole thing in a chocolate/frosting coating. Sound heavenly? Oh, it is. So you must give me many kudos for driving all the way home to take a picture of it rather than gobbling it up immediately like I wanted to. And, I also deserve some kudos because I only got one though I could easily eat a dozen. But, you should be warned. This little piece of heaven packs 170 calories and 9 grams of fat. And they cost $1.50. 

Anyway, now I'm chilling at home, updating you. And now that I've reached this point, I'm pretty pooped. I guess my thoughts (and your opinions on said thoughts) will have to wait until another day. I most likely will not be blogging tomorrow as my day is packed with fun birthday stuff, but I shall be back soon!

What do you like to do on your birthday? Also, what part of cake do you like most: the cake or the frosting?

Monday was not such a fun day

When I woke up at 5:00 this morning, it was raining/snowing/sleeting and foggy. So, I got out of bed, stood by the window, and tried to decide if I wanted to risk it and head to the gym. I decided against it because Mark is back from Florida which means that I had personal training to look forward to. So, I went back to bed and then hurriedly got dressed, shoved a bagel in my mouth, got my snacks ready, and still magically got to work on time.

My snacks for the day

Once at work, I spent an hour making two samples that needed to be shipped out today and then left them on the stir plate to heat and mix while we had our Monday morning meeting (it's a new thing we're trying out). I came back to find that both samples had burned. What was supposed to be a nice, odorless yellow oil was a not-so-nice-smelling black-orange one. So, I remade my samples and then had some yogurt while I learned about the industry online again. 


Then I came home for lunch and had my typical English muffin pizza. This time I paired it with one of my organic oranges. Yum! So good. Also, after seeing that I had only eaten about 500 calories for the day so far, I decided to grab a Kellogg's FiberPlus bar on my way out.

When I got back to work, I shipped my samples and did some more online training. I also started feeling sick, so the afternoon dragged on forever. Being sick at work is not my favorite. I was hoping it would pass, but at 4:30, I decided to cancel training. I was super bummed because I hadn't trained with Mark in a while. But, the good thing is that I was home when my new gym shoes came!

I've been having some pain on the tops of both my feet so I decided it was time for a new pair of gym shoes. I'm pretty pumped to break this pair in tomorrow morning.


However, I'm not so pumped for all the medical terminology I need to do tonight. I have two papers to write: one on Otitis Media (which is just a fancy way to say middle ear infection) and the other on osteoarthritis (which I basically already know all about seeing as how I have it in both my knees...). I'm also not so pumped for what's going to be a bland dinner since my stomach is still upset.

Could be worse though. I'm sure I'll still be able to get some 30 Rock in tonight. Woot.


How was your Monday? What do you like to eat when you're sick?