Shopping and challenges!

Well, day one of the challenge was a success! I woke up nice and early at 7:30ish and fiddled around on my computer until the gym opened at 8. I distracted myself enough to not get to the gym until 8:30ish. Anywho, I did a good hour of strength training since the gym was pretty empty that early on a Sunday morning. The busiest times are definitely after work hours. Sometimes all the treadmills are taken during those times. It's crazy! And I'm not really one to wait for machines or try to sneak in to get machines, so I prefer the gym when it's a little emptier. So, this morning was lovely.

After my strength training, I came home, showered up and then Skyped with Nasur. For those of you who are new to the blog (welcome!), Nasur is my Ugandan boyfriend whose fiancé visa was recently granted. He'll arrive at the end of December and we'll have 90 days from that point onward to get married. That's a bit terrifying. I've never been super excited about the thought of marriage, so I guess that'll be...fun? I am pretty excited about growing old with Nasur though, so that's something.

After Skype, I headed out to get some Christmas shopping done and finish up getting things for my Secret Santa. All the residents are doing an exchange and were supposed to spend about $25 on our gifts. The rest of the afternoon, I caught up on some charting that I probably should have done earlier...

I also finally cleaned off my dresser. It's the first time that's happened since I moved here back in June. It had to happen eventually!

Anywho, I'm going to head to bed! 27 days until Nasur's here! And 6 more days of my one-week challenge!

A day of many errands

Well, I almost forgot to blog before starting the bedtime process. So, you can thank my hippocampus for reminding me. Today was mediocre. I didn't get to the fitness parts of my life the way I wanted, buuut, I do have some starting points. Let us begin.

Today was supposed to be Mom and Danika day as in my mom was going to come down to see my new place, we were going to go to IKEA, and then hit up Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. However, the mom's digestive tract thwarted our plans and she was stuck in Midland. I decided to go ahead and run the errands as planned given that I will be out of town for the next two days. 

My first stop was actually meijer to return a TV stand I bought earlier in a semi-panic. I got harassed on my way to the customer service area and smoothly roped into buying a subscription to the Detroit Free Press in return for a $25 meijer gift card (without being told that I was being signed up for a subscription when given the gift card). But when I read the fine print and I called to cancel my subscription, I got the run around. Needless to say, the gift card will not be spent because they will make me pay for it if I do spend it. And I'm not technically allowed to cancel the subscription until my first paper arrives. Great. Add it to my to-do list.

Then I went to JoAnn Fabrics since they were having a 60% +15% off custom framing special and I have two paintings from like three Uganda trips ago that I've been meaning to frame. I'm pretty pumped to see the finished product as they're pretty beautiful paintings. I'm also pretty glad I wasn't swindled at that store.

The next stop was IKEA, which is a terrifying store. But, I left with the drawer set I wanted and the bookshelf I needed. I've put the shelf together already and it matches my desk very nicely. But, I'm a little stuck with the bookshelf and it may need to be on hold until the mom makes her trip with the brother so I can use him enjoy his company.

After IKEA, I hit up Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. I didn't buy anything from either bakery which is a win all around for me and I checked all the labels of the food I was buying to make sure it fit into the type of diet I'm planning to get started on. I also got pumped because of all the different delicious things they have in the freezer section at TJ's. Seriously, folks. Meals that simply need to be heated? Sign me up! This intern-to-be will not have time for lots of cooking.

I came home to drop off some of the goods and then headed back to meijer to do finish up the shopping - getting the rest of the little things I wasn't able to find at other stores. I haven't had much success finding a tape measurer - I want to do body measuring, you know, like hips, thighs, etc. to track my progress.

By the time I got home (7:00 p.m.), I decided it was time to build some furniture. So, my grand plans to go to L.A. Fitness were rescheduled to Thursday. I even signed up for an "exploration" appointment online so I wouldn't back out.

And I also did a weigh-in today. I'm not thrilled with my weight, but I expected worse, so that's good.

Today's weight

And today's other photos:

Breakfast

I like my egg cartons to have even weight distribution...

A terrifying place

Dinner from Whole Foods (Salmon Avocado Roll)

Had to show my mom that this exists since she loves TJ cookie butter

I built this. Call me Rosie the Riveter!

Tomorrow I'm heading to Grand Rapids for a whirlwind of meeting up with people and such, but I'll try to blog on my phone since I'm definitely not taking my computer. And then Thursday, I expect I'll do some goal setting and some real talk. Cheers!

Plus size shopping

I have a lot on my mind and nothing on my mind at about the same time. Over the past weekend, I've been searching for a suit to wear for upcoming residency interviews (so far, I've got 4 set up) and let me tell you: plus size shopping is no fun. It's hard to even find anything your size and when you do, it's not always what you'd like it to be. I found one contender on Sunday, but the jacket was quite short and I haven't been able to find many longer ones.

Today, after work, I watched some TV, did some apartment cleaning, and then headed to the mall to attempt to find a suit. I ended up at Kohl's and found something that was okay, but wasn't my favorite. It was my "at least I have something" suit. I'm going to head to the other mall tomorrow most likely to try my luck again. It's kind of disheartening though when the selection is so tiny.

This shopping problem of mine makes me both sad and serves as motivation. I'm sad because I'm large enough that I have trouble finding clothes and have so few options of shopping places. But it helps motivate me to lose the weight. That being said, I didn't hit the gym today because my knees have been giving me some trouble. Last week near the end of the week, they were pretty inflamed and then last night, I had trouble falling asleep because they were bothering me so much despite taking some ibuprofen. So, I thought today I'd give myself a gym pass and take it a bit easier - I'd do some walking at the mall and try to keep as active as possible at work. Today was also the first day of my period, which was what pushed me to take the day off.

Anywho, here are today's photos:

Breakfast

I made banana bread last night

Snacks and lunch: fiber bars, grapes, pretzels, turkey meatball, slice of banana bread, and apple

Today's positive: Not getting down on myself for not going to the gym and trying to stay active despite my knees hurting.

Apologies, vets, and workouts

Hey pals. Sorry for the lack of posts. Working nights is the worst. Well, I'm sure there are worse things, but this week was busy, especially when I wasn't working. Since I last blogged, I hit up zumba a few times, went to yoga on Friday with a different [and not nearly as awesome] instructor, took my cat to the vet, went shopping with my sister, had a reunion with a med school friend who's at a different campus, and overslept for my weekend shift.

So, let's focus on the bigger pieces of news: the vet trip. My cat has been getting freakishly skinny as of late. After having my mom watch him while I was in Africa, Bailey put on quite a bit of weight. My mom gave him treats like three times a day, sooo yeah. He probably weighed 12-13 pounds max. Well, I put him on a diet and then he got super skinny. So I put him back on a normal diet, but he didn't gain anything. So, it was time to take him to the vet. The vet was like "Yeah, he's definitely hyperthyroid - his thyroid feels massive and he definitely is skinny." So, he had to have a blood test to confirm and yeah, very hyperthyroid. But she also felt a mass that she thought could be a kidney, but maybe wasn't. And on top of it, he had an elevated white count (indicative of an infection) and his liver enzymes were off the chart. So, there's a possibility of major liver problems. Now, as a doctor-to-be, any time you hear liver injury, you say to yourself, "Fuck." Why? Because the liver does a lot of important things - like making proteins for your blood, like filtering your blood, like metabolizing your medications, etc. A liver disease is never a good diagnosis. And I can't be sure that that's what's going on with Mr. Bailers, but it's possible. So, he's on antibiotics, a hyperthyroidism pill (methimazole) and a liver support pill. He's not a fan of taking pills, so we get to have that fight twice a day. What fun.

In other news, my sister came and we got some major deals at JCPenney. I bought two new tops, four new bottoms, two bathing suit tops, and one bathing suit bottom for $160. Baller. I was waiting for Memorial Day sales for a couple of weeks now. I wanted to get sunglasses and a new bathrobe too, which I forgot about but went and got today :-)

This morning, I woke up late for my weekend shift. I was supposed to be at work at 8. I woke up at 8:15. I blame this on the software update on my phone that changed the format of the alarm feature. It used to say "snooze," or "dismiss." Now you have to swipe to the left to snooze or swipe to the right to dismiss. Well, you're supposed to swipe to the right to answer a call, so I figured that was the right way to swipe when I wanted to snooze this morning. Guess not. I frantically texted my attending, washed my hair in the sink (faster than showering), toasted a bagel while I blow dried my hair, and ran out the door. Not my finest moment. To punish me for my tardiness, my attending ran around the hospital like a mad man, kept me until 4 (we're supposed to be out around noon) and then assigned me the craziest (diagnosis-wise) patients. Thanks. Needless to say, I'm not excited about working again tomorrow.

And can I just say that working two weekends in a row in addition to working the entire week fucking blows? Especially when one of those weeks is a night week and you're transitioning twelve hours in a day. Fuck that. Fuck that really hard.

Anywho, I haven't been the best at taking photos, but here's what was on my camera. I promise to blog tomorrow. I'm sorry to have missed so many days.

Positive for the day: I didn't explode from frustration and finally did get Bailey to take his damn pills.

My to do list is getting out of hand!

Today I slept in until 10:00 a.m. It was awesome! But because it was so awesome, it was hard convincing myself that I should get out of bed. However, I managed it because I had a lot to do today. I started the day off with an awesome breakfast:

Then I headed to dress barn and to the mall to start on my quest of finding a dress for tomorrow's white coat ceremony. However, I got a few other things on my trip as well.


I started out at dress barn and bought two dresses for about $50. Woot, woot! Then I headed to MC Sports to try to find new lifting gloves (since I already lost my last pair). No such luck. Then I stopped at Bed, Bath, and Beyond to try to find a good paper towel holder. I didn't find any that were less than $12 (which I refuse to spend for something holding my paper towels), but I did get a pizza cutter, some measuring spoons, and a toilet paper holder since my toilet paper holder is behind the toilet.


Then it was off to the mall to continue my search for a dress and to return a few things. I didn't find anything I liked that much at Macy's (at least not for less than $100...). Then I returned some things to Kohl's and Lane Bryant. I also stopped at Old Navy. I found two things I liked there, but the line was super long and I didn't want them that badly, so I put them back. Then I finally stopped at Panera for lunch:

I got the french onion soup and turkey artichoke sandwich. It was awesome. I love Panera!


Then it was back to the shopping game. I went to Dick's and got some new compression shorts for tomorrow. I also bought some Under Armour no-slip head bands and a pair of shorts on sale. And for my last stop, I went to JCPenney and bought two more dresses. I couldn't decide! I needed to see the dresses with my coat on.


After shopping, I headed to the Spartan Stores YMCA since it's super close to the mall. I banged out 3.1 miles on the treadmill in 42ish minutes (there was some walking included - stop judging me!). Then I went to meijer all gross and sweaty because I decided it would be best to stock up now rather than try to go out during my crazy week of class this coming week.


I got some good stuff and then decided to head to the Coldstone nearby to get a child's size cake batter ice cream. Now, before you judge me for that, you need to know the following: 1.) I have been craving something sweet for a while now, 2.) I didn't get any mix-ins, and 3.) I got the child's size. So, anyway, it completely hit the spot.

Then I finally headed home and tried my dresses on for my mom and sister. I also took pics and sent them to Matt so he could help me decide which dress to wear. Here's a pic of all four (plus one I already owned):

Everyone seemed to like dress four the most, but it looked the dumbest with the coat on. 

So, I settled on dress one.

Don't I look so doctor-y? Ignore my post-workout hair and I think I do!


Anyway, after figuring out which dress to wear, Eric and Laurie came over to check out my new abode. We chatted/hung out for a little over an hour and then they headed home so they could finally have dinner. I hurriedly ate dinner too and then invited Lawrence over to teach him how to iron so he could iron his clothes for tomorrow. He and Bailey became good friends during his visit (Lawrence loves cats). And now he's an A+ ironer!


Though I got a lot done today, I didn't get nearly enough done. Like finishing my unpacking? Definitely not done. Hopefully my family doesn't mind tomorrow!


Oh, and here's what I had for dinner since I didn't already show you:

half a pound of chicken salad

I also ate some cantaloupe. Shortly, I'm going to scarf down some oats and head to bed. My first 5k is going to force me to be up at about 7:30 a.m.! Yuck! I'll let you guys know how it goes!

Conjoined Twins are Organic

This morning I woke up at 9:40 a.m. after snoozing on and off for a bit. My main motivation to collect my wits were Mark's texts telling me that he's hoping that I'm having a good time. Aww, shucks, Mark. After I was awake, we attempted video chatting, but Mark's computer sucks and we were unsuccessful. That was fine with me though since I needed to eat breakfast and get ready to go shopping for something business professional. Ughs.


Breakfast was oats!

And then I had a mediocre salad for lunch that I didn't end up finishing.

It was mediocre mostly because I used awesome home-grown tomatoes that probably shouldn't have been tossed around as violently as I tossed them. All the good gooey insides ended up at the bottom of the salad and it was kinda gross as well as slightly depressing. So, I topped off lunch with a Luna bar. Yum!

After finally showering and getting dressed, I headed to the meijer next to the mall to return some things I ended up not needing. Then I met up with Matt in Kohl's and we began our shopping spree. We started in New York and Company where I found a few things that were okay and then we went to Macy's where everything was simply too short. I'm in this awkward stage where I'm not quite misses sizes and not quite plus sizes. Everything in the misses section is too short or way too tight across my chest and everything in plus sizes is the perfect length, but a tad too big. Not a fun size to be, trust me.


After Macy's, we met up with Matt's mom (Mama Sue!) for lunch at Panera, which was awesome. I decided to try something new and went with the turkey artichoke. It was awesome. I wasn't able to read the description in as much detail as I've posted below, so I really made my decision based on the name of the sandwich.

Once we were done having lunch and chatting, Matt and his mom went to Express while I headed to Old Navy where I bought three new pair of jeans (in a size 14!) and two cardigans. Then we went searching for more business attire. We spent quite a bit of time searching and then ended up at Lane Bryant where I bought a simple button-down shirt and called it good. I was sick and tired of shopping and I'm sure even Matt's patience was running out (I'm not fun to shop with - at least when we're shopping for me).


Then we headed to the new YMCA near the area. Matt wasn't able to get in though because he's been a guest more times than you're allowed in a calendar year. So I was forced to work out alone. That was a bummer because I really enjoy working out with him. After getting a feel for the facilities, I decided to do some Chi Running on the treadmill. I wanted to see if I could run a mile, so I tried it out. And I did it! I know that seems inconsequential to some, but I wasn't sure if I'd be able to last that long. So now I really want to get working on my running.


After the gym, I headed home and decided to cook a nice, balanced meal for myself since MSU will be feeding us tomorrow. So, I grabbed this out of my fridge:

I threw it in the oven for 30 minutes while I seasoned and cooked some sweet potato fries and steamed some corn. While all that was going, I decided to finally clean the fruit I bought last week. Strangely, there were some conjoined twins in both my grapes and strawberries.

Strange. Perhaps organic fruit results in more conjoined twins. The good news is that they were doubly delicious!


I was super excited for my corn this evening because I would be able to try out my organic butter

Woot. I could tell it was going to be an awesome meal. And look how pretty it was:

Okay, maybe pretty wasn't the right adjective. Whatevers. I ate everything on my plate because I'm a champ/bamf/badass.

Then I cleaned up and decided to start learning how to do CPR, use an AED, and stop people from choking. Don't worry, I didn't do this just for fun - I had to do it for school. It took me about 3.5 hours to go through everything (I took copious notes) and I had 11 pages of info to use.

Not fun. Then I took a 25-question test to see if I learned anything. I had to get at least 21 questions right or else I'd have to take another version of the test. And if I didn't pass that, I'd be humiliated in front of all med students. Fortunately, I got it on the first try with a 24/25:

The bad thing is that I didn't use my notes. Wasted a bit of paper there...


Anywho, I'm off to figure out what I'm going to wear tomorrow and where I need to be since I have to be there at 7:00 a.m. Gross.

16 Miles - Who knew I had it in me?

Yesterday was a lovely day. I got up around 8:30 and hopped on the scale. I was up 0.4 pounds from Wednesday. What? I've been going to the gym twice a day... So, I decided I'd better hit the gym hard. I did a ton of cardio and was pretty exhausted by the end. I came home and made a huge protein smoothie with blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries.

Yes, I did drink all of that. I also had my favorite bagel sammich.

Then, my sister and I headed off to Birch Run for some serious shopping. We went to Lane Byrant, Old Navy, Fossil, Coach, and Hanes. At Lane Bryant, they were having a bra sale, Buy 2, Get 2 Free. So, I now have 4 new bras. Woot. I also got a swimsuit cover up. Aaaand, I've definitely gotten smaller - I'm in their smallest size! Partay!


Then I ran into Fossil to have them take a link out of my watch because that's a bit big now, too. And after that quick stop, we headed to Old Navy so I could use my Groupon. I got a pair of shorts and some size 14 (yay!) bermudas. And I only spent about $13. Win.


After Old Navy, we stopped in Coach to oogle at purses and then I stopped in the Hanes store quickly to see if they had any thinner bathrobes since the one I have is super thick and not really great for summer. They didn't. So, we ran to Saginaw to try their JCPenney. There, I got 3 new workout shirts, 2 new workout tank tops, (I'll probably just wear them when blading or biking), a thin bathrobe, and a new bathing suit top that is super cute.


We got home around 4. I found Bailey sleeping by the window like the little baby he is, and then I decided to suit up and hit the gym again. 

I did the elliptical interval session for 30 minutes with my high at 14 and my low at 12. The guy next to me was really pushing himself, which motivated me to keep pushing myself. When I was done, I told him I was really glad he was next to me because I'm pretty sure my speed would've been much slower if he hadn't been there. He told me he keeps his resistance low so he can go so fast (he was at 4) and that he goes for 45 minutes. That's pretty solid.


After the gym, I headed to my mom's house to see if I could find any more one-piece swimsuits that I can wear to my CardioMax class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I found three, but they're a tad worn in the bum, so I'm probably going to wear shorts over them. While there, she fed me! We had shish-ka-bobs, some veggies, and my sister made Cheddar Bay biscuits like the ones at Red Lobster. She found the recipe online. They were amazing, but I only let myself have one. I probably could easily have gobbled up a dozen.

Cheddar Bay Biscuits. DELICIOUS!

Shish-ka-bobs

My plate

After dinner, I headed to meijer and bought a bike rack for my car and I was going to test it out, but instead, I went to Allyson's house to visit with her a bit since she was home for Father's Day. We caught up for a bit and then I headed out because I was tired. It was 10:15 p.m. I'm pathetic.


This morning, I got up around 9:30 a.m. and decided to try out my bike rack and go biking on the rail trail rather than going to the gym. It took me a while to load up my bike and then I drove down to the tridge. It was a beautiful day for a bike ride!

Pretty, but very, very dirty river 

Rail trail 

My beautiful bike

I biked 16 miles, so 8 miles out and 8 miles back. Here's the mile marker for proof!

Mid 8 - 8 miles from Midland

Me sporting one of my new tank tops and the mile marker in the background

The ride out was awesome and I was loving it. The ride back was a tad more rough. I was going against the wind and my knee was really acting up. Also, I only brought one water bottle and didn't eat beforehand, so I was dehydrate and hungry - an awesome duo. Thus, it took me way longer to get back than it did to get out there, but I'm glad I did it. It was way more fun than going to the gym, that's for sure.


After my bike ride, I made a strawberry banana protein smoothie and it was huge again.

While I drank this down, I video chatted with Lisa and made lunch.

Chicken Pizza

I was starving after that bike ride as I hadn't eaten yet and so I gobbled these down in about 5 minutes. Yum! Then I gathered up my laundry to head to my mom's. And that's where I am right now. As soon as I'm able to switch my laundry, I'm going to head outside and splash around swim in the pool, but right now my mom and Malena are vacuuming it so I figured I'd take this opportunity to catch you up!


Also, check out my About Me page. I updated it a little bit. I also redid my banner (if you didn't already notice). I'll be making some more small changes soon, so keep your eyes peeled!