January 19, 2016

Pregnant Life, Tea Parties, & Crafting

Hey everybody! I rarely have Monday and Tuesday off, so it’s been a nice change! I typically like to work Tuesday/Thursdays, so it’s rare that I have two days off during the week. I’m working tomorrow though and it’s at my PCU/tele job (I normally have to do tele on weekdays which honestly, I kind of despise). I’m definitely on the countdown for the number of days left at that job! In case you were wondering, I have 6 days left.

Yesterday morning I had picked up from 7-11 in the ER. Thankfully I did cause we were slammed over on the children’s side! I walked into kids in the waiting room and that almost never happens at 7am! I left around 11:30 and headed over to Andrew’s to let his dog out again.

I came home and took another really solid nap for about an hour. My energy levels are apparently remaining super low. Once I finally got up, I threw some clothes on and headed over to Gina’s for some baby shower crafts!

12558478_1198970703464744_118520982_n

Gina and I crafted for a bit and then Kassie showed up a little later. We finished up quite a bit of stuff and I headed home to hang out with Jon for the evening. I was feeling pretty miserable with a headache, back pain, too many movements in my belly, and just feeling overall blah. I’m totally understanding now why people get tired of being pregnant. We did watch The Bachelor and talk about how dumb the girls on the show are… It amazes me that there are actually girls out there like that. I’m so glad none of my friends act like that.

This morning I got out of bed at 10am and that’s probably the earliest I’ve been up on my own in awhile. I could have kept on sleeping without a doubt, but knew I needed to get my day started.

I headed over to LA Fitness first thing where I started with no motivation. I was cold this morning and feeling frustrated with not being able to move around like a normal person (even wiping after I pee has become 10x more difficult) and not fitting into any clothes. But I figured I needed to get in some gym time, solely because I don’t want to get out of the habit of working out, even if my gym time is completely unproductive. After 7 minutes on the elliptical, four sets of back squats, and two sets of Russian deadlifts, my back was killing me. I had a little party with the foam roller on my lower back and called it a day. (Also, I read everywhere that you should never get massaged to the point of pain while pregnant, but I just have to ignore that. That foam roller hurts insanely bad on my lower back but I felt about 100x better after I stood up from rolling it out. It reminded me of when I used to get my braces tightened and I would literally chew on wooden clothespins because the pressure just hurt so good!) Also, two people told me I was pregnant today. One lady was like, “I had to look real close to be sure, but you’re pregnant!” and that was all she said about it. Yup. I don’t think this 33 week huge belly is confusing though.

I stopped by Whole Foods after where I felt completely turned off by every single food item I saw. If I could sum up my pregnancy right now, it would look like this:

Things I want to eat: Oranges, pineapple, plain corn tortilla chips, and pepcid tablets. (Fun fact: I don’t even like chips normally.)

Things I want to do: Sleep and get back massages.

Favorite workout: None.

So, tomorrow at work, I’m probably going to be really hungry. All I bought was four pizzas on sale for Jon, a few green beans from the hot bar, and a bean and cheese burrito in hopes of wanting to eat that tomorrow because I still don’t want anything to do with eating meat. I already have pineapple and oranges at home so I’m set with my fruit selection for tomorrow.

I came home, hopped in the shower, and then went to meet up with Crista. Unfortunately, she got some bad news about her grandpa just before we got there, so it wasn’t as upbeat of a day as I was hoping for, but I was totally fine with it. I’m more than happy to spend time with my friends in whatever way and am glad I could be there for her! We went to Dr. Bombay’s Underwater Tea Party, which was pretty good! Afterwards we went into a bridal store and looked at wedding dresses for Crista since she’s getting married this October! Definitely good to see her since I feel like we rarely get to hang out anymore and it always seems so rushed when we do! I miss the days of sleepovers and spending all weekend together! How cute is this tea set up?

I just got home a few minutes ago and am about to start working on some grad school stuff. I think I’m in denial that I’m back in school cause I’ve barely spent any time at all on schoolwork. I just don’t want to! I want to do school stuff about as much as I want to clean my house, and if you all could see my house, you would see just how much I don’t want to do schoolwork, hah.

I need to hire a maid. And somebody to write papers for me.

December 1, 2015

Eating Unhealthy

Lately, I’ve been totally failing on the eating front. Well, that may be a bit dramatic. I still eat quite a bit of healthy foods, but now I just tend to eat a lot of unhealthy foods too. But I have always been healthy and have always had quite a bit of self control when it comes to eating. Aside from my nightly handful of Enjoy Life chocolate chunks (which I had just recently started eating), I didn’t buy sweets at all. I didn’t bring bread into my house. I stopped eating yogurt because it just is really not friendly to my digestive tract. You know, things like that… Just being in tune with how my body reacted to foods and keeping those things out of the house.

Lately? Well, it’s been quite the eating shit show over here. I used to be able to easily pass up the peppermint bark pretzels and chocolate and peanut butter drizzled popcorn, but now? Those sneaky treats just keep on making their way into my shopping cart, and then I eat them all. Sometimes in one sitting, sometimes in multiple. (Just a side note here: Those peppermint bark pretzels are seriously amazing. I mean, they may be up there as my number one favorite store bought dessert. I can’t even put into words how freaking delicious they are.) I also used to be able to look at the box of Dunkin’ Donuts on the break room table at work and pass them by, but those days are long gone. A donut and three donut holes? Sure. Why not?!

The sad thing about this is that my body is getting accustomed to this type of eating again. I will never forget visiting my sister in Wisconsin a few years back. I had been eating strict Paleo for a solid five months, and I’d say that I ate Paleo 99.9% of the time. I was even eating Paleo at Mexican restaurants, and all I ever want is chips, cheese dip, and a bean burrito. But I stuck to my diet. And I was totally fine with it. I mean, I ate Paleo baked goods occasionally, but I had no problems with eating that way. It became easy. But when I went to visit my sister, we made some muffins and they were so freaking good. I ate three of them. (I could easily kill three muffins now like it’s no big deal.)

480291_779584340082_1598308405_n

I actually just came across this picture of those exact muffins! They were pumpkin cream cheese muffins. No wonder they were so good!

After my muffin gorge, I went to bed. I woke up in the middle of the night and was miserable. I was sweating, my heart was racing, I was nauseous, and I felt insanely uncomfortable. It was like there was a rock sitting in my stomach and I had literally never felt that before.

(Another random site note: I was a vegetarian for 13 years and expected to feel that way when I started eating meat again because I thought my body wouldn’t be used to it. Oddly enough, I have never had that reaction to any meat product. The fact that it was so severe to bread after just five months of not eating it was crazy to me.)

I’ll really never forget that experience. Clearly, my body doesn’t tolerate bread. I just never knew it because I had never gone without it before I started eating Paleo. If you read about a lot of food intolerances, you won’t even realize you have them because your body is in a constant state of inflammation. Until you cut the foods out, you won’t notice your body react to them. And I had a major unexpected reaction.

Lately, I notice when I binge eat sugary stuff at home and then sit down and relax, my heart is definitely beating faster than usual. It’s that same response that I had to bread, but it’s not nearly as severe because my body is already constantly inflamed from eating these foods on a daily basis. It just gets worse when I eat a bunch at once.

I have no idea why it suddenly became so hard for me to go back to Paleo. It wasn’t a hard transition the first time around. Then again, I was living on my own, not pregnant, living at a CrossFit gym pretty much, and my best friend who I spent all of my time with was eating Paleo too. I know how much better I feel when I cut out certain foods, but it has been so hard to get back on track. And I know it isn’t time. I was working close to 60 hours a week back then and I was working on my bachelor’s degree online, plus going out all the time. Yet I still managed to shred my own sweet potatoes to make hash every week and cook literally every single thing that I ate.

Anyway, so I have no idea what the point of this was. Maybe that I need to somehow find a way to motivate myself to eat healthier. You would think growing a baby would be enough motivation to make sure he’s growing healthy in there (especially since the effects of glyphosates on babies in utero seem like to they could cause some serious health issues- although I think further research needs to be done and I’m sure Monsanto would have a field day trying to hide those studies). Perhaps I’ll just blog about this more frequently until eating healthy becomes more of a habit again as a way to kind of hold myself responsible. We’ll see.

Fun fact: I also maintained my heaviest weight while eating Paleo. I was 105lbs, but also lifting heavy. I easily grew and maintained muscle though and never used protein powders. So I know I was properly fueling my body for muscle gain.

529636_738529095122_909933952_n

I just scrolled through my mobile uploads and found a picture from that time! So much muscle! Man, I miss those days! Also, I forgot how much fun I had back during that single year (2012- when Jon and I were broken up. I also had some harder times, but overall, it was quite the fun year!) And now I’m having a baby and life will NEVER BE THE SAME! Waaahhhh!

Anyway, time to go relax for a few more minutes before heading off to LA Fitness for a quick and easy workout (I’m doing CrossFit for the next 3 days, so nothing crazy today).

July 13, 2015

Sushi & Baby Talk

Holy Moly, Monday! You couldn’t have come fast enough!

Thursday, there was no gym. I went to the pool instead. My body was so tired and I had no energy, nor any desire, to lift any weight or move my body any faster than I had to. While I’m struggling a bit with this “being too tired to work out” or “wanting to keep going to the gym so I don’t get out of the habit of working out,” I guess I just have to listen to my body.

I spent Thursday evening at my mom and dad’s. It was definitely fun having Annie and Tank in town for almost 3 weeks, but it’s nice not spending all of my days off over there too! I really wish they lived closer than Wisconsin, but I guess I’ll just be glad Jon’s family is only half as far away (in Jacksonville, FL).

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were 12 hour work days (and I got out at 7:30 all three days). I didn’t sleep well on Thursday or Friday night, but then managed to get a good night of sleep on Saturday night. Thankfully, none of the days at work were terrible because I don’t think I even have the mental capacity right now to handle a rough day. I feel like my mind is mush and my critical thinking is going downhill. I got my feet wet yesterday when I helped my neighbor with her critical patient for about 20 minutes, but that was more than enough and I was thankful that it wasn’t my patient!

Jon and I decided to go to sushi last night. Actually, I decided. I have tons of cravings lately, but most of them are fleeting. Like, I decided while I was on my way to Whole Foods the other day that I needed carrots! So I bought a huge thing of carrots. By the time I got home, I really didn’t want carrots at all. And still don’t. But now I have three containers full of chopped carrots. My most frequent cravings are bagels and Panera. I have only had one bagel so far (from Panera, actually), but I think it’s safe to say that I’ve increased my carb intake exponentially. I’m just going to buy bagels for myself at the store, which I haven’t done in years (we’re a no bread house). But, with not feeling all that great most of the time, I don’t want to eat chicken (at all, even though I made 2lbs of chicken and couldn’t bring myself to eat one bite) or tons of veggies. I am trying to keep myself eating a fairly well rounded diet still though. I’ve been fairly successful, even if my lunch at work for three days consisted of a white potato, strawberries, and carrots only.

Okay, that paragraph ended up being all about food. So, Jon and I went to eat sushi last night. It was so good and it was nice to have a little date night with him. I’m pretty bummed because our schedules won’t line up for us to have a weekend off together until the second or third weekend in September, and now that he’ll be working full time again, I don’t have weekdays off with him either. I guess we’ll have to fit in these date nights as much as possible!

I got in bed shortly after we got home and slept so good! Aside from the loudest thunderstorm I’ve ever heard in my life at 12:30, followed by Kitty throwing up such a big hairball that she then threw up her dinner and three piles of blood, I really had a great night of sleep! I slept so good, in fact, that I stayed in bed till almost noon. I was awake for a lot of it, but just had zero desire to get up. I had really hoped that exhaustion in early pregnancy wouldn’t hit me, but it has! I’m sure working 38 hours in the last 3 days didn’t help, but I have been more tired lately than I have been in as long as I can remember. I’m trying to rest when I can since I’ve had so many sleepless nights and besides, I won’t be able to lay in bed till noon again once this baby comes, so I will lay in bed till noon if I feel like it. I need to enjoy these childless days as much as I can! I hope these next 33 weeks are the slowest 33 weeks of my life!

Another girl at work is pregnant with me. She has a two year old and she’s 9 weeks pregnant now. We were chatting yesterday and she was basically super realistic and saying how really, until your baby is a year old, there’s nothing fun about it. She wasn’t one who enjoyed being pregnant (I think it’s totally weird to have a baby growing in me and I don’t have that “life is so beautiful” feeling at all) and didn’t enjoy the newborn phase at all. She said it wasn’t really till her son was a year that it really made sense to have a kid. I feel like I’ll be the same way and it’s refreshing that moms are open about feeling that way, so that the other people who feel that way don’t feel like awful mothers for going through that natural progression. It wasn’t until the last few years that I realized people don’t actually like the newborn phase and that some moms feel no connections with their babies for a few months. I’m really excited to have older kids, but none of the next year or two seems like any fun to me. Babies are cute, but I don’t particularly enjoy them. At least not 24/7. And you know what? That’s okay. I don’t have to love every stage of having a baby. And it’s okay if it takes a few months or more to even really like my baby. I don’t really see how women are supposed to like the thing that makes them hormonal and fat for 9 months, rips open their vagina, and then takes their normal life from them and exchanges it for sleepless nights and stressful days and worries of daycare and who will watch this child and WHAT DO YOU EVEN DO WITH THIS BABY?!

Guys, this is not beautiful. It’s not even fun. And it’s not cute. Just like my boobs won’t be cute after they start sagging from the extra 10lbs each boob has gained.

Alright, I promise not all blog posts will be about babies. I don’t want to be that person. I’m going to go try to have a productive day running way too many errands, which I hope will include the gym somewhere at some time. Probably via ClassPass, which I need to go ahead and activate since this should be a better week than last.

February 9, 2015

Making Your Health a Priority

Yesterday, Jon and I had plans to go to my mom and dad’s house for dinner. I had to work till 3 so Jon decided to head to their house in the later afternoon. I had already told him that I’d be stopping by the gym on my way there and invited him to go, but he said we already had plans and he wasn’t going to the gym instead. (I did try to tell him that there is no set time to go to my parent’s house, which he knows too, but he wasn’t having it.)

When I called Jon at 3:45 saying I just arrived at the gym, he sounded grumpy. I asked if he was mad that I came to the gym and he said no, that he was just disappointed.

I had actually been thinking lately about the sacrifices you make in order to work out regularly. Back when I was doing CrossFit all the time, I’d tell people we’d have to make plans at a certain time so that I could shower before we met up on a Friday night.

Or does anybody have this conversation with themselves? I have two hours before I need to leave for class. I can either shower and nap, or I can go to the gym and eat and just go to class really dirty again? or If my haircut is at 2, I can either shower and be clean for my haircut, or I can just go to the gym and show up dirty. Is that gross to make them wash my hair after sweating that much? or If I go to the gym right now, I will have to meet up with Laura in my gym clothes. Should I just go home and change or show up again in gym clothes?

Part of being dedicated to staying active is making sacrifices. Instead of being lazy on the couch like you really want to do on a rainy day, you get up and move. Instead of having time to shower, you go to the gym. (By the way, the gym almost always wins, no matter what the dilemma is.) Sometimes I have to postpone my plans with Jon so that I have time to get a workout in and take a shower. I also always meal prep the night before work because I don’t eat prepackaged lunch foods, so I always have to allow time to cook when I’m planning my off days. I really do plan a lot of my life around having time to maintain my health.

It can be difficult staying active when you’re married to somebody who isn’t nearly as active. I’m really glad that I’ve finally recommitted to the gym and go very regularly, but when Jon and I are traveling, he won’t stop at a gym so we can work out. He still gets disappointed if I show up to my parent’s house an hour late so that I can have 35 minutes at the gym for a day! And I get it. I’d be frustrated if he wanted to go shooting on all of our trips or go fishing. But, he can tell me I’m being selfish for stopping by the gym before making it to my mom and dad’s. In my mind, it’s not. I mean, I wouldn’t show up to a wedding late for the gym and I wouldn’t make my family wait on me for dinner- I was getting there well before dinner! I don’t think taking care of yourself is selfish- it is what will preserve your health for when your have grandkids or even just 15 years from now if I have to be a caregiver for my mom and dad in their old age! (Note: I was not upset with Jon for his opinion and he wasn’t really upset with me for going to the gym, but I’m trying to show the two sides of this in a marriage as well.)

But we have fully capable bodies and the way to keep them capable as we age is to be active and to use it! I work with too many elderly patients who are overweight, have osteoporosis, COPD (can’t breathe), can barely walk, and I never want to that to be me. I’m really trying hard in our pre-baby phase to make sure working out is one of my top priorities so that it will remain important throughout our life, so that when we are two saggy geriatrics sitting next to each other, we can still live our lives to the fullest. Besides, when I go out on a hike or to enjoy nature with friends or family, I don’t want to be struggling to keep up or to breathe. Doesn’t it take away from the beauty of what you’re doing if you’re more focused on how you feel like you’re dying? I don’t want to that to be me.

January 23, 2015

ClassPass: Stage 3 Fitness

I’ve been reading about ClassPass lately on a few blogs and it sounded like a neat idea! I had mentioned it to Laura and she said she’d be willing to give it a go for a month. So we signed up this past week and I picked my first class for 12:30 today at Stage 3 Fitness. I had signed up on Wednesday night and then yesterday started getting sick. One thing I didn’t realize about ClassPass is that there is a $20 fee if you cancel the class within 24 hours. I slept terribly last night. I woke up with a headache and tons and tons of sinus drainage. I felt miserable. But I didn’t want a $20 fee so I got out of bed around 11 just to make the 30 minute drive over there!

I mapped out the studio and got there at 12:10 and was really confused. The sign said Stage 3, but none of the shops looked like gyms! I tried to call the studio but no answer. I drove around some more, really confused, but never found it. I went back and forth between googling for ClassPass and the studio and it said it was at Ste 245 but there was no Ste 245! Then I saw Ste 140 and confirmed that the studio was in front of me, but it was closed. So, at 12:30, I left.

I was so frustrated! I emailed ClassPass about not being charged the fee for missing since I didn’t even know where the gym was! I drove a total of an hour and never even made it to a class! Despite being sick, I was actually really excited to try a new place!

When I got home, I tried to look up Stage 3 online! The first thing that comes up online is that it’s at a new location! That does not show up on the mobile site, so I had no idea there was a new location! I looked up the address on ClassPass and realized that they do have the updated address, but my Maps wasn’t updated to it apparently. And I didn’t realize the difference when I looked it up on google because they are still on the same road.

So, I realize ClassPass wasn’t at fault for this, but I plan on canceling the membership if I am charged for it. I don’t like the idea of being charged if you can’t go (like sometimes, with less than 24 hours notice, there might be something more important than going to the gym?!) and there was no phone number listed to reach ClassPass online, and the email I sent to them got a response about there being high volumes of emails. It’s already $80 a month, which I can pay for CrossFit and not get charged if I decide not to go to class. So, we’ll see.

I did email Stage 3 so we’ll see what they say! I explained the confusion with the new address, so who knows. Regardless, I’m a little frustrated that I drove an hour for nothing when I wasn’t feeling well, and that I didn’t even get to experience the gym!

Tomorrow morning, Laura and I are trying another class, so we’ll see how that goes! It’s a Cardio Muscle Mix class. I just hope to make it through without snotting everywhere, which isn’t looking very promising!

Now I’m off to bum on the couch and do nothing! I haven’t even done the dishes or laundry today. Definitely feeling very under the weather! I hope I feel better tomorrow for mine and Jon’s one year anniversary!

Edit: Stage 3 Fitness emailed me back! They were awesome about me missing the class and I’ll definitely be driving out there AGAIN in the future to check it out!

January 22, 2015

Friend Dinners, Coffee, Gym, Cat

It has been a busy week so far! Still loving being at home! I made an awesome chicken/veggie soup on Monday that was delicious! I’m really loving the whole cooking thing again! I actually get excited to be making food in my own house!

Monday night I met up with Gina and Kassie for some dinner at 10th & Piedmont in Midtown. Not really my favorite restaurant, I’ve decided. I gave it two chances but I think that’ll be the last. But it was great catching up with the girls and hearing about Kassie’s new job and her engagement!

Tuesday I worked all day and had a fairly good day! Jon and I watched McConkey on Netflix last night. I definitely recommend it! Very interesting documentary on Shane McConkey, who was a famous free-skier and base jumper. The views in the movie were also totally awesome since I’m obsessed with snow covered mountains.

Today I woke up and headed out to the gym for a quick (accidentally) fasted workout. I did a quick run and some legs before heading home to shower. I had lunch with a friend at Fresh 2 Order and it was good to catch up with her! Her and her husband (who was actually Jon’s twin sister’s ex-boyfriend) just moved back a few months ago and I have only seen her once since she came back to Georgia!

After lunch, I headed out to the Chattahoochee Coffee Company! Hands down my new favorite coffee place in Atlanta! It’s about 20 minutes from my house but the coffee was delicious and look at the view:

It was the perfect place to go on such a beautiful day! I stayed there for close to 2 hours! I’m pretty sure I’m going to have a weekly date with myself there!

I stopped by Whole Foods for some dinner foods (we had a big mahi mahi fail tonight- hate when fish fails since it’s not a cheap fail) and then watched two episodes of the Bachelor before Jon got home from work. Tom and I had a cuddle sesh and took some selfies. He wasn’t entertained.

Jon and I went on a walk together and then had our bad dinner. Now I’m just typing this up, preparing to go to work tomorrow!

In other boring news, I’ve started rolling out my feet finally. I have one of the foam rollers that has the little jutting out pieces on it, so I’ve basically been doing an ischemic compression technique on the foam roller (read about it if you’re bored). I’m hoping to help with my flexibility in the bottoms of my feet. My plantar fascia is so insanely tight and I wonder if that actually has something to do with why squatting was always so difficult for me. My posterior chain is really tight anyway, but maybe it’s stemming more from my feet than I thought! Either way, I’m giving this a shot. And, also in boring news, the gym is definitely back to being a normal habit. I’ve gone every day that I’ve been off again and I never really feel like skipping it anymore!

Alrighty, have a good night!

January 13, 2015

Life These Days: Gym, Sushi, Hangouts, Work, Volunteering, & Cooking

I’ve definitely been enjoying my time away from the computer lately! It’s been so busy being at home and when I’m not busy, I’m enjoying my own bed and my cats. As much as I love traveling, I’m really just loving being at home. It’s hard to imagine leaving here for months on end again. So here’s what I’ve been up to! I ended up working a bunch last week, which I suppose I should be really excited about since I’m getting paid better than I was expecting, but still- a break would be more welcome!

I also volunteered at the clinic that I mentioned in my last post on Tuesday night! Surprisingly, I enjoyed it. My role was super easy- I flowed patients from the different areas and then gave them their meds before they left the clinic. The clinic is a “free” ($20 donations suggested by patients, but apparently is rare) clinic for residents of certain areas in the county and they only take care of certain things (hypertension, diabetes treatment with oral meds, hypothyroidism…), but it was good! People were so grateful for the care and most of the people there have been working the clinic for awhile and the time really did go by fast! I plan on volunteering every Tuesday until I leave, and hopefully even when I get home from my final travels!

Last week, I finally broke out my Toasted Marshmallow coffee that I’ve been saving up! I think that light roasts just aren’t my favorite anymore! The flavor was good, but it’s just not bold enough for me. I prefer a little more oomph to my coffee. I’ll still be finishing the bag, but I’m looking forward to a darker roast next time. (Note my Death Valley cup!)

Although I got to cook while I was traveling, I missed my own kitchen! I missed my food processor and my own pots and pans and all my spices. I would buy things I knew I’d use in a shorter amount of time, but at home, I can buy whatever I want! So I had a day of cooking for work and making my main man some dinner in my kitchen!

The outcome of all that hard work:

I had what felt like a really long day at work on Friday! I loved my assignment, but we had a ton of back to back traumas with a bunch of ambulances coming in as well, so we got slammed. And the person who was flowing our department is not my favorite and always makes for a long day! So… By the time I left work, I was starving and in need of a break! Sushi it was! I haven’t had sushi since I stopped at a Hy-Vee on my way to Colorado the first week in October! Love me some sushi!

On Saturday, Jon and I went to the gym together. My hip has me even more limited these days and it was crowded as all get out with all these New Years Resolutioners, so we kept it to a fairly quick trip. We headed over to look at some shoes for work and then ended up meeting up with Crista and Billy for the evening! We had planned on ice skating but none of us were really feeling it, and since I have a cold, we decided against it! Instead we all just chilled inside and took down Christmas decorations!

Today I stayed in bed till 11:30 watching my cats sleep and then ran a ton of errands! I had a good hour at the gym, although my leg workouts have been pretty much non weight bearing and that’s a bummer! But I’m back to walking inclines on the treadmill and I maintain my heart rate around 180 during the inclines, so I’m happy with it. It’s definitely more tiring than just running is for me right now since I still can’t run that fast comfortably with my hip. Tonight, I think I managed to finish up my resume, so I’ll be sending that out to grad school since all my application stuff is due by Feb 1st! I meant to work on taxes today, but oops, I forgot. Instead, I enjoyed this face and am now about to head to bed!

December 3, 2014

Pittock Mansion & Portland

After tossing and turning for hours last night, I got out of bed at 11:45 so that I could spend my very last free day in Portland doing something better than laying around! I headed out the door to see the Pittock Mansion, which I’ve heard has good views of the city and was all decorated for Christmas! The mansion was built in 1914 by a couple who basically helped develop Portland as a city!

The mansion was beautiful on the outside but no Christmas decorations! I was really expecting some Christmas lights on the outside or something! It was pretty neat though because all the snow was blowing off the trees, so it felt like it was snowing outside!

You all know I love me some Mt Hood! Not only that, but I could see Mt St Helen’s and Mt Adam’s as well! My phone wouldn’t have captured them and I haven’t uploaded the photos yet from my camera, but this was the good one! Apparently Mt Rainier is visible on clear days as well!

The mansion was only $10, but I was really disappointed in it! The actual mansion itself was really neat, but the Christmas decorations were so gaudy! I wish I had taken one on my phone! In on of the bathrooms, they stuck two gigantic gingerbread houses that literally took up the entire bathroom so you weren’t able to see any of the original features. Strange. But I still enjoyed the afternoon! It was definitely much quicker than I had planned!

I headed into Portland to see the Ira Keller Fountain but all the water was drained for the winter! I was so bummed! I probably should have snapped a few photos of it empty, but it just looked like a bunch of cement blocks! I did buy a new scarf from H&M and get to walk around the cute streets of Portland again though!

I ran by work to grab my daily planner (I was lost without it and so worried I’d mess up my work days) and then headed to Whole Foods for some groceries. I threw together some stuff to take to work and then headed out to the gym! I ended up doing a mile run (I made it to 6.2 with no pain!) and then walked 3/4 of a mile at an incline. I get so much more tired doing that than running right now (since I’m still watching my pace till my hip is 100%) and I’m kind of liking the different challenge. I had planned on doing some legs, but a bunch of bros were taking up my leg area so I just did a few leg presses and a few planks and moved on with my night!

Not that I’m a foodie blogger, I figured I’d snap a quick picture of my dinner tonight (that I ate at 10:30pm)! I found some pretty good peppered deli turkey at Whole Foods and got some salami for my protein. I really would have liked some cheese on that spaghetti squash and on my meats, but I thought I had a lot left so I didn’t buy any when I went grocery shopping. Come to find out, I barely even have enough for my hash browns these next few mornings! Ah well. And I had more grapes but dropped them on the floor, and since the floor here is lived on by a 2 year old, I decided to just let those ones go.

I’m going to chill for a bit and I’m really hoping to get to sleep around 1am! I’ve been relying on Benadryl for sleep a lot more lately and I really want to try to go without it, but I just don’t do well swapping back and forth so much with the hours that I sleep! I notice that I’ve been tossing and turning a whole lot more lately than I ever used to!

Tomorrow marks one week until Jon gets here and 9 days till I leave Portland!

November 26, 2014

Randoms

What do people call these posts where they make a list now? Coffee talks? Or something?

Whatever. I’m just calling it “I’m too lazy to form any sort of train of thought, so you get numbers.”

1. I had such a good workout last night! I slept till 3 again (how do I do that?!) and then ate 1/2 a mashed banana scrambled with 1 egg and a little kefir so I’d have some energy. Then I just killed it at the gym! At least for what I can do with this hip. I ran a mile at 5.7 (running faster than 5.5 is so exciting- but I’m not pushing it till all my hip pain is gone so I think that’ll be the top of my range!) and then I’ve been working on inclines. I walk them since I don’t think running them is a good idea yet, but I did 1/2 a mile starting at an incline of 12 and going up every .1 miles. I have done this a few times and I’m dying by the end of the 1/2 mile (speed between 3.2-3.5). How do I even hike? Then I ran another 1/2 mile with an incline of 3. Definitely sweating! And then I worked out upper body and was done by the time I left! Felt great!

2. I made some Asian dish. I don’t know if it really counts, but I used peanut sauce.

I used sugar snap peas, carrots, water chestnuts, broccoli, chicken, and basmati rice. It ended up being pretty good! I was impressed! Sorry for the horrible photo. Night time, bad plates, and my phone don’t work well together.

3. I feel so lazy for buying pre peeled mandarin oranges at Whole Foods, but I did it anyway! I’m sure it would have been cheaper to buy the whole thing, but I tend to buy oranges and let them all go bad because I hate peeling them so much! I ate one when I got home from the grocery store and I must say, it was divine, and there was no hassle.

4. Jon sends me cat pictures occasionally and I always get so happy when he sends them! Tom is such a good little buddy and is always cuddling with Jon!

5. Time to go. I work Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this week! I bought some stuffing at Whole Foods to make on Thursday morning! I wanted to make this soufflé but didn’t want to buy a bag of sugar and Whole Foods doesn’t have canned pineapple. I made that recipe last year and it was so good! I’d definitely recommend it for any of you needing a dish for a Thanksgiving meal! Not for those of you who want to eat clean on the holidays though!

October 25, 2014

Everybody Poops! But What Does Your Poo Tell You?

I’m going to do something really unladylike here. I’m going to talk about poop and then I’m going to post this and go to sleep before I change my mind cause the world doesn’t need to know about my poop.

The thing about poop is that it reflects upon your digestive tract, so everybody really should pay a lot of attention to their poop. In the last few weeks, I’ve been eating tons of sugar and tons of dairy. I’ve mentioned before that I cut out my Noosa (yogurt) all together, even though it’s probably one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. I noticed I was feeling much better when I wasn’t eating it. I was pooping less. I wasn’t feeling such an urge to go all the time, and I had way less gas (I can talk about poop, but hate talking about gas).

I’ve been eating Noosa every day at work again because it’s easy and it’s good. I get a lot of breaks at this job and it’s easy to just eat something cold instead of having to heat something up and then eat it (10 minutes is too short for that). I’ve also been snacking on a lot of chocolate lately. I just bought a gallon of Tillamook Fireside S’mores ice cream (to die for!) and I’m already almost done with the whole gallon! And aside from the chocolate/ice cream combo goin’ on, my Noosa has 27g of sugar just in one container!

After two weeks of eating all this mess, I’ve been noticing an increase in gas over the last few days. Today, I noticed today that there was a lot more clear “jelly” in my poop. I’m quite in tune with my normal poo, and this is not it! Your intestines creates lubricant to help everything move through nice and smoothly, but when the lining of your intestines becomes irritated, it creates more of this lubrication. So clearly, something is causing this irritation in my intestines. I can take my guess and assume it’s a combination of all of this mess I’m eating! Oh, and I’ve had two beers in the last two weeks too- also abnormal for me.

I’m going to attempt to really clean up what I’m eating. I felt so fantastic when I ate Moo Paleo (but I only ate small amounts of cheese- I seem to do fine with cheese), but I also felt absolutely miserable when I strayed from that diet. It would take one muffin to have me up with palpitations and feeling sick all night long! (Oddly enough, after being a vegetarian for 13 years, when I went back to eating meat, I never once got sick and always assumed that I would.) And I don’t need “gluten free.” I just don’t really do well with processed foods at all and have just been ignoring it because I’m surrounded by delicious food in Portland!

Also, when I decrease my veggie intake and eat too much bread (which is not super common, but happens every once in awhile), I get super constipated. It really only takes about 2 days to mess up my BMs if I start eating bread (on sandwiches or an English muffin at breakfast, usually when I’m road tripping), and I can feel disgusting and constipated for days after I start eating normal again. Not to mention that my stomach gets hugely bloated when I eat grains.

I even had a short stint of drinking avocado smoothies every morning. After a few days, my gallbladder threw a dang fit. I ignored it and kept on drinking my smoothies every morning (they were so filling! I could go till 1-2pm at work without needing a snack), and about 20 minutes after I finished, my gallbladder would get severe pain and then an hour later I’d be having the biggest BMs of my life. I’m pretty sure I could have had a colonoscopy on a daily basis without needing any other prep for it. Finally I had enough and quit drinking them, no matter how good or filling they were.

So, the moral of this story is really not all about my poop, but just to really pay attention to what your body is telling you. It always surprises me when people discuss their bowel issues with me and then act like I’m a fool for telling them that it’s probably what they’re eating, or when they act like they can’t stop eating a certain way. Really? You can stop. Your poop is a direct reflection of what you eat. For that matter, so is your entire GI tract. It responds to what you put into it. If you notice something seems off, don’t do it. It can take 14 days for the inflammation in your GI tract to go down after you go eating something it doesn’t like, so is it really worth it if it causes that many problems? (Luckily, I just get a little gas and jelly poop, not severe pain at this point.) I read a lot of blogs about “intuitive eating” that never even touch on this topic, and I think your poop (and urine, for that matter) are really good indicators of how intuitively somebody is actually eating.

	lavitanuestra on Short post
	Liz on Short post
	lavitanuestra on Short post
	Angela on Weekend.
	Liz on Weekend.

at20something

The life of an average 20something girl.

health