Successful one-week challenge and strength training

I didn't weigh in today - mostly because I forgot, but also cuz I didn't want to. I ate poorly over the weekend, so I worried that I'd be up on the scale despite working out so much last week. 

In other news, my one-week challenge was a success! I got a bit of break over the weekend and hit the gym today. I was super proud of myself because I did a strength training workout today during the after-work rush. Usually, I don't like to do strength workouts during the week because it's always so busy and I don't like to have to wait for machines. But today I was all, "I fasted today and doing cardio would make me wanna die." So, obviously, it was either strength training or nothing at all. And I definitely needed to do something. It wasn't that bad - I did have to watch the benches like a hawk so that I didn't have to wait for one of those. And I did all my bench work at once so I wouldn't have to worry about finding one again later.

Now that I'm home, I'm going to video chat with some of my best friends from undergrad and I can't wait! I also need to do some laundry and clean up a bit. Cheers!

Life without Zumba is sad

You guys. Ankles are dumb. Especially my right ankle. Dumbest ankle ever. 

Today I really needed to do laundry because I was out of workout gear. So, I started the day with some laundrizzle. This was not fun as the laundry is located in the basement and I'm on the second floor. This meant lots of stairs. You know what doesn't like stairs? My ankle. It's the thing that aggravates it most. So, that was awesome. Thankfully, I only had two loads because I'm going home next weekend and my mom loves it when I bring home lots of laundry lets me launder for free. Anywho, it wasn't an excellent start to the day.

And then midday, I started getting a bit restless. I was attributing this to my lack of gym time and abundance of sitonmybuttstudying time. So, I decided, "Fuck it. I need a break and I need to go to the gym." I didn't go yesterday, so I really wanted to do some weights since cardio didn't seem appealing. It didn't really bother my ankle, but there was baseline ankle botheredness today. I don't know if I'm pushing myself too much, but it seems so stupid to not exercise just because of a tiny ankle injury. Plus, I like working out and I miss Zumba. A lot. Like probably more than I should. But I know jumping on it would be stupid. So, I shall live a sad, Zumba-less life.

The rest of the day was spent studying and photographing my ankle for you guys. And taking food photos. I had a lot of calories for dinner, so I heated up a Trader Joe's Chicken Lasagna. It was pretty calorie and fat heavy, but I went for it. It was a teeny tiny tray that had "four servings." Right. I had one serving (which is pictured below) and went back for a second since I could/had the calories for it. It was okay. The reason I got it was because it was way healthier than standard lasagna, but you definitely sacrifice some flavor. I wouldn't get it again, but I'm not a huge lasagna fan to begin with. I just liked the idea of throwing it in the oven and being done with it.

That's it. The exam is on Thursday, which makes me panic a bit when I think about it. I mean, I've been studying for a while now and am getting pretty sick of study days, but I also would rather not take the exam...

Anywho, here are your photos.

Breakfast (there was more watermelon, but I ate it pre-photo)

Morning snack

Lunch (chicken sandwich with lettuce, tomato, and avocado), and my favorite beverage treat (they were on sale)

Afternoon snack/pre-gym fuel

Protein smoothie post-gym

Serving #1 

Dessert

It's hard to photograph the extent of the bruising

The top of my foot has a slight blue tinge to it (you can kinda see it in the below photo)

Still swollen - I can't even set it on the ground properly...yikes

Something else I wanted to blog real quick: my smoothies for post-workout. My friend Lisa asked how I make them.  

• 1 cup of skim milk - you can use water to save on calories, but it gets kinda weirdly frothy
• Half a scoop of vanilla protein (the powder I have is like 28g of protein per scoop and you really only need 12ish grams after a strength training workout)
• Half a cup (70ish grams) of some kind of frozen fruit - I tend to go with blueberries or pineapple lately. I've done strawberries, raspberries, bananas, etc. You can use fresh fruit too if you add a tad bit more ice
• 1 packet crystal light to kill the protein flavor - I've been using the mango energy one lately
• 4 ice cubes if you're using frozen fruit; 6 or more if you're using fresh fruit

Throw it all in a blender and blend to the consistency you like. If you want it thinner, use less ice or more milk.

Today's positive: Um, not chopping off my foot out of frustration? Does that count?

Sprained ankles are totally in this season

You guys. Today was silly. Which is my somewhat nice way to say stupid, but really it wasn't that bad, so I didn't want to be that negative. Anywho, I got up early...ish and was studying when this pounding on my roof started. At 8:00 a.m. Um, what? Being the genius that I am, I put two and two together. On Monday, my landlord had some guys come into my apartment to look at all the damage caused by the snow melting this winter. Obviously, they were here to fix the roof. One week before my exam. During PRIME STUDYING TIME. Without warning. Didn't even know they were going to be there. Because that would be courteous and we can't have that. Booooooo. Not a fan of my landlord and I'm so, so, so excited to be moving out in December. But seriously, a warning wouldn't have killed him. Asshole. And before you go siding with him, let it be known that he's been discourteous before (renovating apartments next door despite promising he'd be done the day before; turning my water off mid-shower; not fixing the heat outage for 2 days mid-winter).

Anywho, after getting fed up with the banging, I decided it'd be best if I hit something/lifted heavy things, so I got ready for the gym. Let me just say this: wearing shoes with this stupid air cast is difficult. Also, it's very attractive. The worst part of the gym trip: getting in and out of the car and going up and down the stairs. Also, getting poked in the near armpit region by my underwire. Not fun. Anywho, the main part of the Y is on the third floor, so I totally took the elevator and got majorly judged by the cute tiny girl behind the desk when I got out of the elevator. I wanted to be like, "I SPRAINED MY ANKLE. I'M NOT LAZY." But I simply smiled and headed to the elliptical which magically didn't really hurt. In fact, most of the things I normally do for strength training didn't hurt. I skipped two things that I like to do pretty regularly: the seated leg press and the seated leg extension.

Seated leg extension

Seated leg press

When I got home from the gym (after a pretty legit workout - burned over 600 calories), my neighbor was coming out to take her trash to the dumpster and saw my ankle and had to ask what I did. Well, I'm 100% positive you heard me fall down the stairs (it was loud), but let me just go ahead and say the words aloud so you can think less of me. I have really got to come up with a better story. 

There was still a lot of banging when I got home, but it wasn't terrible. I showered, fed myself and then decided to take Bailey in for his weigh-in and med refill. The little guy gained a pound since his last weigh-in on June 19 and is now 8.75 pounds. This is good because he was dangerously skinny when his thyroid wasn't controlled - a whopping 6.5 pounds back then. I'm told that at most, he should be about 10 pounds. We'll see how that goes given that he will only take his pill twice a day with the promise of treats afterwards...

When I got back from the vet, I was told a little less than an hour until the roofers would be done (I sorta kinda mentioned to them that my landlord's a dick) and then I'd have silence again. Baller. Then I studied the rest of the day and did lots of questions. Now I'm blogging so that I can have the rest of the night uninterrupted for taking pictures of my swollen ankle studying. 

Photos from today:

Post-injury weigh-in so I can make sure I don't gain (also, this is down from the last weigh-in)

Pre-gym fueling

Pineapple protein smoothie

Can you even tell that it's the right one that I sprained?

Mild bruising

Blurry and swollen

Breakfast/lunch

Ready to head to the vet - not a happy cat

8.75 pounds of cute

Snack

Steak and some "roasted" cauliflower

Dinner, part 2

Dessert

Last snack of the day

My awesome homemade non-sock

Today's positive: Going to the gym and getting in an awesome workout despite my "injury."

Medical Students Are Terrible Patients

Today was a shitty day. Let me tell you why. Getting up this morning was rough. I was so tired. And then once I was up, I quickly realized that the weather was going to blow. How did I know this? It downpoured. For a long time. So I opted to wait to hit the gym until this afternoon. The gym was pretty legit. I upped most of my weights for strength training over the last week or so and today I finally went up with my arm weights - moved up to 25 pounds from 20. Baller. My arms were a little shaky the rest of the day though, which made writing a challenge.

Today was nephrology studying day. Let me tell you: the kidney is confusing. It does a lot of thing and almost everything affects it. So, studying was rough. After dinner, I took a break to take out my recycling. I have a standard recycling bin in my apartment to dump in the recycle container (that's basically a trash can) outside. On my way down the steps, I totally thought I was already at the landing, and missed a step, rolled my ankle and heard my ankle pop. My first thought was, "Fuck." The second was, "Ow! Fuuuuuck!" So, I did what any rational person would do: laid there for a minute in agony, got up, took out my recycling, wheeled the bin down the end of the driveway, went upstairs and tried to assess whether I needed to go to urgent care. A sprained ankle isn't that big of a deal - gotta do some compression, icing, elevating, and resting - but I wasn't entirely sure that I didn't break anything. And it really hurt. Plus it was already starting to swell. So, I bit the bullet, called a friend to drive me (of course I sprained the right foot/my driving foot), and headed to urgent care.

There, they did some X-rays and determined nothing was broken. Then the doctor told me all things unrealistic: don't drive, follow-up in 4 weeks with my primary care physician, use crutches, and take some pain meds. Allow me to explain why none of those things are practical: driving is absolutely necessary. I have to get to my rotation next month and it's not exactly within walking distance nor do I have someone available to drive me. Second: I don't have a primary care physician in the area. Why? Because I work with doctors all day everyday. Also because medical school doesn't really allow you to get sick. Seriously. You work the same hours as doctors, so it's kinda hard to see one. Also, I'm healthy. Third: use crutches. Uh, I'm on my study all day everyday month. I'm not exactly super mobile. Crutches would just be a waste of money and armpit pain. The doctor insisted I'd need them since I wasn't putting weight on my ankle (I just sprained it - it hurt), but if he told me I couldn't walk on just my toes, then fine - I'd put weight on my ankle despite the pain. Just no crutches. No, no, and no. Fourth: pain meds + me = sleep. I have to study. Nope. Ibuprofen will be just fine, thanks.

So, essentially, I got an air cast out of the visit. Plus the reassurance that I didn't break anything. I guess I didn't realize how bad of a patient I am. But it's just a sprained ankle. I'll take it easy on the ankle so it'll heal faster, but I'm not about to go out of my way for a sprained ankle. 

And I'm officially extremely bummed now. I need to limit weight bearing as much as possible. This is my only month where I can go to the gym as many times as I want given that I'm only studying for boards. I think I'm going to go tomorrow and use the cardinal rule: if it hurts, stop doing it. But I can't let this be an excuse to not exercise. I've done that before and gained a lot of weight because of it (I sprained the other ankle waaaay worse in undergrad and gained back a lot of the weight I lost). So, I'm going to shoot for 1800 calories a day and really keep track of my eating since I know my mobility will be limited. Hopefully it will be a quick recovery!

Photos from today:

Breakfast

Morning snack

Post-gym protein (not pictured: leftover rice-a-roni for lunch)

Snack

Munching while making dinner cuz I was starving

Another snack while making dinner

Dinner with the flat beans I got at the farmer's market - they had a great flavor

Coffee cup brownie for dessert (with recipe)

Close-up of recipe

Air cast. Boooooo

Awkward times at the gym

At the gym today, I saw my first guy ever flexing. I'm not talking like while you're busy lifting weight and watching yourself. I'm talking standing in front of the mirror, flexing. And not just checking out his biceps, but like six or seven different poses. Then he walks up right between my bench and the adjacent bench and starts lifting up his shirt and looking at his abs. Um, sir, I'm sorry, but do you not have a mirror at home? Cuz I'm pretty sure you'd look the same there and this is just awkward. I know some of you are all like, "What the eff, Danika. This is a good-looking man showing you his muscles." But I'm really not into that and second, it just felt weird. Like really weird. And later while I was strength training, there was this old bald man doing bicep curls with a bar that was maybe 60 pounds, and despite having my head phones in, I heard him counting and between every count he kept saying "Oh yeah!" over and over. Half of me was amused because it was weird and the other half of me was just kinda glad he motivated himself to get to 10. In summary: weird day at the gym.

I didn't hit the gym until about 6 today because I wanted to be as productive as possible during my peak hours. When I got home, I made a kick ass dinner. I studied some more and decorated my friend's cake for her bachelorette party that I'm only attending half of thanks to an 8 hour exam on Monday. So, I head to Ann Arbor tomorrow for some canoeing and obviously, cake. I made it a two-layer cake with one maize layer and one blue layer because those are her wedding colors, but I'm not sure if it looks legit.

The yellow one looks like normal cake and the blue layer looks more green. Maybe the white frosting will help? Also, for those of you who didn't know, bachelorette parties are all about alcohol and penises. My mom didn't know this, so I thought I'd inform the rest of you before showing you the end/inappropriate decorating I did. Also, don't judge me. The frosting bag exploded when I was drawing the right testicle.

So, yeah. Penis. Cake. We'll see how it goes given that I'm attending the chill, non-alcohol portion.

I've gotta get back to studying. I'm going to do a weigh in on Monday, but I'm super not optimistic about the results. I've been eating okay, but I've been dehydrated a lot and spending long stretches without eating at all - which is not good for weight loss. Probably won't blog tomorrow, so keep your eyes out for a blog on Monday.

Today's positive: making time for the gym later in the day, which is so, so hard for me. Also, penis cakes because they're amusing.

The rest of today's pictures:

Snack as I was making lunch (that I forgot to take a picture of)

Noms. 

Baby bananas! I was introduced to these in Uganda and found them in meijer this week. THEY'RE THE BEST.

See how cute they are? SO CUTE.

My awesome dinner: steak, biscuits, and the delicious asparagus!

Oh! Something I forgot to mention! Today when I went to the gym, I was ready to hit the elliptical for a warm up, per usual and then I was like, "Nah. I'll just do a mile run and cool down for 15 minutes instead." So, I pounded out a mile at 5mph (which is pretty legit for me) and then cooled down and holy hell, my right foot hurt like whoa. I had an inkling that I may have had a hairline fracture a bit ago cuz of some pain I was having, but I never saw a doctor because I know what they do for that and it's pretty much pain pills or pain pills plus some sort of immobilization and no thanks to either of those. But the main point is that though my right foot hurts like a bitch, I RAN A MILE AND I DID IT RELATIVELY FAST WITHOUT TRAINING. So, yeah. Maybe that should have been my positive. 

Muscley men

Today was a weight training day, so I hit the gym an hour or so after I woke up. I like to eat something small before I go to the gym if I'm going first thing in the morning. I just have to make sure it's not too time consuming or I won't go to the gym. So, this hit the spot:

When I was at the gym, I needed to do the seated leg press, but all the 45's were dispersed throughout a couple of machines. I usually do 340 pounds and can usually use the 100 plates and then the 45s. But, the 100 plates were on the ground, which is waaaay too hard for me to lift by myself. So, I was forced to ask a muscley man to do it for me. I asked this guy that I've seen at the gym a couple of times. Our conversation:

Me: Hey. Could you please help me with some 100 plates?
Him: Hell no.
Me: You say no, but your biceps are telling me yes.
Him: Haha. That was great. I'm going to tweet that.

So, yup. He helped me out and then asked me my name and said he saw me using the other leg press the other day. I explained that I had no preference and that the 100 plates were closer to the one I was going to use today and I didn't want him to have to put forth any extra effort. He laughed again and went back to lifting a gazillion pounds. The rest of the trip, I felt like I should go talk to him more to say thanks again, but I never did. Maybe next trip.

Anywho, I've gotta get going to work, but here are a few photos from today's eats so far:

Protein shake

Lunch...?

Dinner?

I put question marks cuz Idk if I'll eat again today. Depends on how busy we are. I'll try to post again tomorrow.

Today's positive: talking to a muscley man and not feeling self conscious.

Night shift = blech

Dude. Nights are rough. Not because of what happens during nights, but because changing your sleep schedule by like 12 hours in one day is not fucking easy. Come 4:00 a.m., I'm super close to falling asleep standing up. Then I just start yawning like it's my job. And then I hope the attendings take pity on me and send me home. That kind of worked for me today. I got sent home at 6:30.

The other thing that's hard about nights is eating. What the fuck do you eat at midnight? Like it's definitely not breakfast time. But it's midnight so lunch feels weird. Most meals I've had at midnight include a lot of grease. And then when you wake up after sleeping after your night shift, what do you eat? Cuz it's mid-afternoon, so breakfast seems weird. But then it's your first meal of the day, so breakfast seems right. Fuck it. I only have two more night shifts this week. I'm just going to do what I want. These are my problems, folks. I realize they're not legitimate problems. Just humor me.

Yesterday, since I didn't make the switch like I tried, I woke up and went to yoga with my all-time favorite yoga instructor, Daniel. He only teaches Mondays 11:30 to 12:30, so I legitimately can never go. And I almost didn't go yesterday, but man, am I glad I went. My hamstrings got all stretched out and my plank...well, I tried. It was just a great workout and I felt awesome after.

Once home, I had some protein (because for me, yoga is strength training) and then made some lunch and headed to get some titers drawn. After getting some wrong information from the people at employee's health, I had to take a considerably longer bike ride to occupational health and wait FOREVER and finally got the titers I needed. I also had to bike up the big ass hill that's downtown. It was a struggle. And probably a good work out...?

Then I napped and headed to work. Work was work. One of the attendings who works until midnight was a great teacher. The one who works midnight to 8 - not so into teaching. Boo. But then I got to leave early and head to bed!

I woke up around 1:30, ate some breakfast, and ordered some new shoes (the ones I legitimately wear everyday are so old (like 7 years) and they just can't do it anymore). I hydrated as much as possible before hitting up the gym for strength training. It was a great day of strength training because it was beautiful outside (and the gym is like all windows), because it wasn't crowded at all, and because I added quite a few reps and weights from when I first started. So, boo yeah.

And now I'm going to study before heading to work.

Today's positive (that I keep forgetting about): Yesterday, I finally pumped up my bike tires and took her out for a spin rather than driving. Saved some gas and got a bit more exercise. Win, win, win.

And here are the photos that y'all really want:

Monday's breakfast

Hydrating with some crystal light

Protein smoothie post-yoga

Epic sandwich fixings

Monday's lunch

My bike

What I was expecting to be one meal for overnight (I didn't end up eating it)

Dinner before my night shift

Salad I packed while dinner was cooling

Monday's dinner

More fruit that I didn't actually eat overnight

Tuesday's pre-gym breakfast

Post-strength training protein

Cheese snack

See y'all tomorrow!