Certifications, Cycling, and Sweat

This was the post I was going to post yesterday, but my interwebs were being stupid while this huge storm tore through Grand Rapids. So, here's yesterday's recap and you'll find today's good stuff after:


Tuesday


Today's post is going to be a quick one. Must. Get. Sleep!


This morning was early, though fortunately not as early as yesterday. We didn't have to be at the Secchia Center until 8 a.m. So, breakfast was oats, eggs, and a banana!

It didn't end up lasting me that long, so I'm glad I packed snacks!

And in case you were wondering what I wore, here's a pic!

The morning sessions included the following: building safety, blood borne pathogens, and yet another student panel about academics. Then it was lunch time! A lot of people went to the children's hospital and ate in their cafeteria, but since I live so close (>10 minute walk), I decided to go home and have lunch there instead.


When I got home, my free Kashi sample was in my mailbox!

It took me more than two bites to eat this

Then I made a quick and healthy lunch:

After lunch, I became certified in basic life skills. So, I can do CPR, use an AED, and resuscitate people who are choking. I even got a certification card to carry with me. Fascinating, I know.


Once I became certified, I came home and got ready for the gym. I ran a mile, did a tiny bit of weights and abs, and then went and changed into my cycling shorts so I could do my first spinning class. 

Sexy cycling outfit

The instructor's name was Deb and she took us on a "15 mile tour of California." There were lots of hills and I was definitely standing up a bit. But it was worth it because I burned about 450 calories in about 45 minutes. At the end, I was impressed with the amount of sweat pouring out of every orifice of my body. It was a bit ridiculous. But I definitely loved the challenge and will be going back for more.


After the gym, I went out and consumed all the calories I just burned. Whoops. I met up with Matt, Kristen, and Jack at TGIFriday's and had the 3-course thing for $12.99. I had the potsticker appetizers and chicken bruschetta pasta followed by the cheesecake. As I was starved, I gobbled up my potstickers right away. When the pasta came, all I could taste was the butter. So, after two forkfuls, I picked out all the chicken and had the rest boxed up to send home with Matt. I also had a strawberry daiquiri and buttery nipple. I know alcohol has a lot of calories, but I decided to treat myself because I haven't had much fun since orientation started.


After dinner, we headed to see Fright Night.

Mostly I went because Colin Farrell is hot, but wow. That was a bad movie. The best part of it was the few minutes where I was eating my cheesecake while watching. The rest of it was just cheesey and predictable. And yet Matt was still freaking out.


Afterwards, I drove home in the rain and then got ready for bed right away.


Wednesday
Today we had to report to Orientation at 7:45 a.m. Ughsss. Soo early! Forunately, I prepped everything last night so I wouldn't have to wake up any earlier than absolutely necessary. So, oats for breakfast! I also had some strawberries and yogurt (I was out of eggs, otherwise I would've had some of those).

We had sessions until noon. Today's were about career development, what to wear while in clinic, professionalism, and probably something else I've already forgotten. It was rough staying alert and focused. So mostly I just sat and played solitaire on my phone while listening.


At noon, we were excused for lunch. Today's lunch theme was spinach. I had a spinach salad and made a spinach pizza.

Though I really, really wanted to eat the whole pizza (I was really hungry), I decided to practice some self control and eat only half (which is how much I usually eat - it's a smaller pizza).


I got back to the Secchia Center at 1:15 (when we needed to be there) and found my group for the afternoon's community service activity. I, along with 10 other students, went to Baxter Community Center and cleaned for the afternoon. I really, really, really wish we got to do more things like this, not because I like doing community service (I don't mind volunteering), but because I really liked being able to talk to people and get to know some kids better. I feel as though I may have actually made a friend!


After volunteering, Mike dropped me off at home (he was our team leader since he's a second year) and then I decided I wanted a quiet night in. I didn't want to go to the gym, I just wanted to do some laundry and get a few more things put away. So I started a load of laundry and then ate the other half of the pizza for dinner.


Yesterday Curt told me to call him when I was done for the day, so I decided to go ahead and do that. I was flirting with the idea of just going to bed, but I gave him a call instead. He ended up coming over and hanging out for about 3 hours. Pretty much we just chatted as I continued to unpack and then we ran to meijer so I could get some more eggs. And because Curt is awesome, he took me to the nice meijer (the last two I've tried have been a tad janky...). He left after I put most of my groceries away and went to pick up his wife from work. And then I logged on to here to update you all on my interesting life!


Now, however, I have some bad news for you. I probably won't post tomorrow as there's a baseball game that a bunch of first-years are going  to. I figure I'll go (despite the fact that I hate baseball) because it should be a good opportunity to get to know some more people.


How are things with you going? Are any of you starting school again soon?

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?

Now and Then

First of all, I want to thank those of you who left comments on my last blog. It has definitely helped me put things into perspective. Also, Happy Mother's Day (if applicable)! And now for an update:

This weekend, though spent entirely in Midland, has been awesome. Work on Friday was not so awesome, but after work, I headed to Ray's Bike Shop in Midland to get some quotes on bikes since I really want a bike for my birthday. I tried a few bikes, got some prices, and headed back to my apartment. I got to talk to Kyle for a while, ate dinner (some of the pizza below), and then headed to the gym for a Friday night workout.

Organic spinach and tomato pizza

After my workout, I came back home and had a lovely video chat with Anthony. Then I sat up and watched 30 Rock and the parts of Grey's Anatomy I missed on Thursday.

Saturday, I woke up early for no reason at all and decided to head to the gym right away. On my way to the gym, I passed by a garage sale where they had night stands for sale. I have been looking for an night stand for about, oh, 8 months now. So, on my way back, I stopped at an ATM and bought myself a night stand. It cost me $25 and was apparently Amish-made. Not that that really makes a difference to me whatsoever.

New nightstand

Anyway, I was pretty hungry after my 2.5 hour workout (which was awesome), so I snacked while the dumplings I was making for lunch were cooking.

Protein smoothie, grapes, Luna bar, and banana for post-gym snack 

Dumplings for lunch

After lunch, I met up with my mom at Ray's Bike Shop and she bought me my awesome bike for my birthday.

Source

I'm really excited about the bike for several reasons. First of all, I'm going to start biking to work. This will save me some gas money aaand I'll get in some morning cardio. Woot. Win-win for me. Second of all, this bike is specifically designed for people with bad hips and knees. Because of the placement of the pedals relative to the seat, it's supposed to unload your joints a bit more than a normal bike. So hopefully it won't cause my knees or hips to flare up more than normal. Lastly, it only takes me about 12 minutes to bike to work (versus about 5 to drive), so it's not as though I have to wake up significantly earlier.

After getting my bike and testing it out, I headed to Alicia's house to enjoy her graduation celebration dinner. We played Five Crowns, ate delicious food, and then went to see Thor. Afterwards, Cayce and I went back to my apartment and hung out for a bit before turning in. It was awesome hanging out with friends in Midland again. I miss those days.

Today, I woke up, went to the gym, had some lunch, and headed to my mom's to do laundry and Mother's day things (which included making dinner and losing to Skip-Bo twice to make her feel good on her special day).

I had a lot of laundry

Our lovely dinner (which we ate outside because it was gorgeous)

Amazing dessert: red velvet cheesecake

After dinner, we sat around relaxing while my laundry finished. I also worked on finally editing some pictures so you guys can see some of the progress I've made so far. But before I do that, I want to say a few things.

Though I've lost about 33 pounds so far, I haven't seen a huge difference in my appearance. Some of my friends have said that you can tell, but until recently, I haven't been sure. However, as I paid more attention to the clothes I'm wearing, I've realized that there is a difference. So, to prove it to myself, I decided to compare how I looked in the bridesmaid dress I wore in Jenna's wedding to now. You can see the difference yourself:

My arms are slimmer and there's a definite difference in my face

Haha - the dress would fall down if it weren't for the halter

So I've got to congratulate myself on a job well done thus far. But I've also got to keep on going. That's one of the main reasons I'm doing this two-week challenge. I just needed to get back on track again. I've also decided to forego morning workouts for three reasons: 1.) I'm too damn lazy to get up that early, 2.) I have a time limit when I go in the mornings and have unlimited time if I go after work, and 3.) I have nothing to do during the evenings so it's best to be at the gym rather than at home eating (because that's what I do when I'm bored).

So, I shall continue this two-week, self-imposed challenge, but I will be going to the gym in the evenings rather than the mornings (though I won't be going on my birthday because I'm going to Ann Arbor...woot!), and we shall see how things continue to progress.

How was your weekend? Do anything exciting? Have you made any progress in any areas of your life? Also, do you walk or ride a bike often?

Willpower FTW!

Ever have one of those mornings when you don't want to get out of bed? That was this morning for me. So I was a tad late for work. But that's not really a bad thing because being that late means that I missed the majority of Carrie's daily unnecessary rambling about about her kids, which is typically the absolute last thing I want to hear about that early in the morning.


I spent most of my morning scrambling to finish an analysis on a sample that would have been done a week ago if Carrie would stop shoving her work off on me and then not updating me with the new information. Grumble, grumble (those are my angry noises). Frustrated when things just wouldn't work, I decided to do some of my own work and then relax a bit before lunch.


During my lunch break, I ran to Jack's, a fruit and meat market near where I work. I was out of veggies to eat with dinner, and I knew I wouldn't have time after work to grab some.


The thing I like most about Jack's is that pretty much all of its produce is waaaay cheaper than meijer's. Also, it's locally owned and all that jazz.

So, I got all of this lovely fresh produce for $4.78. I call that a win - especially since strawberries aren't exactly in season in Michigan...


For lunch, I made a version of my English muffin pizzas. I really like pizza sauce when it's not cooked, so I just toasted the English muffin and then added the sauce and cheese afterwards. I also ate a hunk of honey smoked turkey breast for some lean protein. And I had some strawberries since I don't need to ration them as strictly anymore (being that I have tons more).

And because I was craving it, I decided to have some fudge too.

So far I'm pretty impressed that this thing is still alive and well in my apartment. I'm practicing self control. Shocking, I know. I also practiced some self control later in the day, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.


After getting home from work, I ate some more Schwann's chicken for dinner with garlic potatoes, cauliflower, and some of the broccoli I bought at lunch. Also in the picture are my nerdy salt and pepper shakers that my sister got me for Christmas. In time I will show you the other dorky things I own.

Then I got all dressed up in my volunteer uniform to head to volunteer at the hospital like I do every Thursday night (last Thursday notwithstanding) from 6-9.

I always feel very matronly when I wear it. Probably because the jacket is very shapeless. Anyway, the ER was pretty swamped tonight. People had been waiting up to 6 hours by the time I left. Yikes. Since they were so swamped, they weren't discharging patients very quickly so I didn't have a lot to do. I ended up spending a lot of time in the staff lounge, staring down the delicious pizza sitting right in front of me.

Eventually, I caved and had one piece. Buuuut, I still stayed within my calorie range for the day, so it really wasn't that big of deal. It took a lot of self control for me not to have another piece, or two, which definitely would have thrown me out of my range. One piece packs a ridiculous 14g of fat - that's about 1/3 of the amount of fat I'm supposed to have in one day! I bet the resident who ate three didn't know that... However, one of the nurses ignored the pizza altogether and simply ate a banana when she came in for a quick break. I congratulated her on her self control and she said that she's been trying to lose weight with a group of friends in a friendly competition. She's lost 13 pounds in four weeks. That's pretty impressive. Then we got to talking about what sites we use to track our calories. She made a recommendation, but I really like SparkPeople and I have their app on my phone so I can track easily all day. I also have the app to calculate BMI, to look up calories in certain restaurants, and to estimate my BAC. Yeah...I was kinda bored at work today...


Anyway, after volunteering, I came home and caught most of Grey's Anatomy - for FREE since they still haven't shut off my cable - WOOT! Anyway, I totally predicted the ending. We'll see what they do with this predictable plot twist next week.


I'm really pumped that tomorrow's Friday. These last two weeks of work have been pretty terrible. I don't have any fun plans for the weekend, but I'm just glad that I won't be going to work. Do you have any fun plans for the weekend? Want to come to Midland and hang out with me!?

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.

Lazy Sunday

I got eight hours of sleep last night. It was awesome. Beyond awesome. But with the time change, getting up at 11:00 made me feel lazy. So, I woke up, got some breakfast together, and left for the gym.

Eggs, banana, and a slice of smoked gouda (YUM!)

After the gym, I made the spinach pizza I bought at Trader Joe's yesterday. Oh man, that was amazing!

Note that it says Trader Giotto's and not Trader Joe's - the hilarity continues!

It was all organic!

After lunch, I sat around procrastinating doing anything that I actually needed to do. I still needed to visit Best Buy and angrily rant at them for not transferring my data properly, I needed to go to Verizon to have them apply my Lubrizol discount to my bill, and I needed to start memorizing new terms for medical terminology. So, you ask, how long did it take you to do all of this? Uh, well, since I didn't do any of them, I can't really tell you. I went and napped for three hours instead. It was totally worth it. Procrastination and sleep at the same time? Score.

But, really, when I want to procrastinate, I usually eat. I'm not really sure why or where I picked up the habit, but it's something I still do and it's a habit I'm trying to break. I also use food as a motivation to get something done. For example, I'll tell myself if I do x,y, and z that I can have a, b, and c to eat to celebrate having accomplished something. This is a pretty tough habit to break because it's something I've been doing for so long. But, today, I've been pretty good about procrastinating using other things. Accomplishment? Maybe. Celebrating with food? Nope.

Anyway, after waking up from my nap, I procrastinated some more and made dinner. It was pretty delicious and pretty low in calories too. I had lemon pepper chicken, garlic herb potatoes, and some steamed broccoli.

For dessert, I finished off my strawberries that I got on sale earlier this week.

Now I'm icing my knees and gearing up to do some medical terminology. It's the reproductive system this time, folks. Should be...fun?

What do you do to procrastinate? Do you have any bad procrastination/celebration habits?