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Late Night, Lady Business

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I realize it’s a bit ridiculous that I’m blogging – let alone awake – at 1am, but I’m hoping this well serve as a ‘final shut down’ activity for my brain.  We got home late and I got into a homework productivity groove that I didn’t want to abandon for sleep.  After a solid 3weeks of slacking in my classes I’m ready to dive into the books again 🙂

I abhor when bloggers discuss their lady business online, but I need to mention mine to address the hungry beast issue.  I was starving again today.  After the 8th-million time I mentioned this to the husband he expressed some concern; both for my health and my ever-expanding-ass.  When I defended my hunger (No, it’s not just that I think it’s funny to see whether or not you’ll still love me if I get fat.  Yes I’m really really hungry.  No I really ate people food today, not just popcorn.  No I don’t have kidney disorder, stop being such a medical student!) I realized we had the same conversation last month.  And roughly the same time the month before that.  So, the point of that rambling paragraph was to share my hypothesis that my hunger spike is related to my cycle.  And now I’m ending the lady business discussion.

Breakfast was 1cup Kashi H2H with fresh raspberries.

I added a couple shakes from our cinnamon-sugar duck to keep things interesting.

And yes, I did use skim milk, I just wanted to snap a dry shot first.

Within 20minutes of breakfast I ate a salt water taffy.

<begin day-long snackage here>  And the last serving of TJ’s Gummy Tummies.

And the last of the lemon curd (~2-3T) with some Biscoffs.

The lemon + gingersnap combo sort of rocks my socks, I have several awesome dessert recipes whirling ’round my head.

I picked the husband up before class and stopped at Starbucks in an attempt to go green(x2).

For Tax Day Starbucks was giving free coffee to anyone who brought in their own mug.

Great idea in theory, not so great in practice – I spat out my one and only sip more quickly than you can imagine.  I am usually not a Starbucks hater but this was nasty bitter.  Thankfully the amazing array of snacks now available at the counter more than makes up for bad free coffee.  I snagged a package of Sahale BBQ Almonds to eat during Anthro.

Mmmn.  I adore Sahale Snacks, I haven’t bought them in ages but I mentally added them to next week’s grocery list upon my first tasty bite.

In between classes I ran some errands around campus with the husband.  Our travels to the copy shop led to the discovery of an adorable Japanese spot.

Bubble tea on campus?!?!  I’m not sure if it’s a good or a bad thing that I didn’t know about this until my 2nd to last week at UB!

Almond flavored milk tea with bobba = huge smile from Emily. 

I’m not really sure if it was lunch or dinner, but at 5pm I split a $5 Footlong with the husband.

My half, tuna with provolone.  Not the healthiest option from Subway by far, but the husband is kind of obsessed with them and they are pretty darn tasty.  Plus they are pretty much the only thing I really eat with mayo and I have one maybe once every few months.

I also snacked on a HUGE marshmallow dream (i.e. rice krispies from Starbucks) bar during Chemistry but it had to go unphotographed.  The boys near me were being rude and loud and I felt bad pulling out a camera with the professor staring at my section.

The reason for our late homecoming is that we had to head to the mall after class.  The husband has a strange obsession with dorky sports (he used to be a championship ping-pong player!) and we had to hit up Dicks so he could buy a myriad of rackets.  I don’t think the man has touched a basketball since high school but he now plays ping-pong, tennis, and squash on a weekly basis!

During my monster homework session (10pm – 1am) I snacked on a big bowl of fresh-cut pineapple.

And that’s all she wrote, sweet dreams folks!

*Note* I hate these long posts and my goal (at least for this weekend) is to go back to 3-a-days.  However, I’ll be at the hospital most of tomorrow for my bone scan so don’t expect to hear from me.  But do wish me luck!  🙂

New York, New York

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My apologies that this post is delayed, but I knew it was going to be a loooooong one.  On Monday, after a weekend in PA with my in-laws, Adam and I traveled “home” for a day in New York City.  I grew up in St. Thomas, went to college in Miami, and currently live in Buffalo, but the 2 years and I spent teaching in East New York and living in Park Slope are the ones I am always homesick for.

It rained, hard, all day but nothing was able to dim our spirits.  We ended up not being able to do the trip we had originally planned – on the agenda was a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge – but it was a fabulous day nonetheless.  We skipped all of the tourist stuff, and instead did all most of our favorite things to do when we lived in the city. 

Physically it probably wasn’t the healthiest day: we walked too much on my hurt leg and ate way too much sugar.  But mentally it was just what I needed.  I Love New York.  All of the reasons people complain about the city – the crowds, the noise, people walk too fast, you can’t drive – are all of things I love best about it.  I adore the crowds of people, and it helps that I’m naturally a fast walker and a walk lover.  I think New Yorkers are friendlier than the rest America and the ‘concrete jungle’ is my definition of beauty.  I was obviously raised to love the beach, and I can see the magical quality of the dessert and the allure of the fairy-like sense of the forest, but the city is where I feel most with serene.  I love the buildings, the gardens, the graffiti.

Adam and I got into the city around 10am.  As soon as we hit the Verrazano Bridge we both started to smile.

We actually parked the car in ‘our spot’ in our old neighborhood for the day.  We didn’t have a car until we moved to Buffalo so when we lived in Park Slope we did a lot of walking.  Most days when I got home after school I would walk the 8+ blocks from my subway, then the 8+ blocks the other direction to Adam’s subway, and then back home, in addition to the walk in the morning and making at least one trip out at night.  7th Ave feels more like home to me than our apartment did!  So our first item one the itinerary was a long walk down 7th Avenue.

We stopped at Pinos pretty much the second we got out of the car.

Pinos used to be our spot for pizza, we had it at least once a week for two years.  In fact, it was such an institution that I mentioned watching Scrubs and eating pizza in my wedding vows!  I split a plain slice with the husband.

And he saved me his crusts to dip in my diet coke.

Delicious!

I think Park Slope is one of the most beautiful spots in the city.  There are so many interesting and beautiful things to look at.

Just to give you an idea of how much we walked, we covered 2.5miles before we even left our neighborhood!  All that walking made us thirsty, so we headed to ‘Snice, our favorite vegan spot.

We split a vegan malted milk-less shake before we headed to the B Train.

Then we headed uptown for a walk in Central Park.

We were statues for a little bit,

before we headed inside Whole Foods for a break from the weather.

I managed to resist the pull of the salad bar but we did a little sampling.  I had about 4 shot glasses worth of food, but was told I couldn’t use my camera in the store?!

Next we headed to Delancy.  We cut the ambling a bit here because we had a mission – Sugar, Sweet, Sunshine!  SSS is our favorite spot in the city.  They have cupcakes – delicious, crumbling, innovative, wonderful cupcakes, for a $1.50, unheard of in the land of Magnolia Bakery.  We always used to bring our visitors here.

Honestly I could not decide on my flavor, I ended up getting two!  It took a lot of willpower, but I cut them in half and shared with Adam, ultimately eating only one full cupcake.

Strawberry with cream cheese frosting.

This was a seasonal flavor that I’d never tried before and I am so glad I decided not to skip it.  Cream cheese frosting is always a favorite, but what made this was the actual chunks of strawberry in the cake.

Pistachio.

This.  This cupcake is my favorite thing on earth.  I don’t even really like cake, usually I lick the icing off of cupcakes and am done with it, but the cake part of this is even better than the icing.  It is pistachio perfection.

In an absolute sugar/love cloud we hopped on the F Train and headed down to Cobble Hill, an artsy little area of Brooklyn.

As we walked around we spotted a bar with an Abita sign (my favorite) so we stopped in for a beer.

I drank most of my Christmas Ale, then switched with Adam and polished off his Turbo Dog.

Our real destination in the The Hill was Trader Joe’s.  My parents requested 10gagillion #s of unsulphered dried fruit and we picked up a few staples for ourselves as well.

Carrying multiple jars of TJ’s Sun Butter = so worth it!  I also bought a honey Greek yogurt to get a little protein into my day.

And we stopped in at Starbucks for some calorie-free rehydrating.

Our final stop was back to Park Slope for dinner with Lana, one of my oldest friends.  We hit up Beet.  If you read my old blog and saw all the Thai food we ate at Mango, Beet is its brother restaurant.  I love how funky all of the restaurants are in the city.

And Beet was totally artistic; my diet coke had a straw wrapper rose in it and Adam’s scallop fried rice came in the shape of a star.

I ordered the Pad See Eiw with veggies and tofu.

Buffalo has been totally unable to satisfy my Thai cravings, but this hit the spot!  The Pad See Eiw I’ve had since we moved can’t even compare to how good this is!

We were sad to say our goodbyes to Lana, but it was 9pm and we had a 7+ hour drive ahead of us.  You know how that turned out already, but I will add in the fact that Adam drove the entire way home and basically deserves ‘Best Husband of the Year.’

All in all, it was a fabulous day in the city.  The husband and I both gave it a 100%.  The rain might have been frustrating, but the temperature was perfect and we were comfortable all day.  It sucked that my leg hurts, but I managed to walk a TON.  We did exactly what we wanted to do and came home feeling invigorated.

Have you ever been to NYC?  Love it or is it not for you?

Newsies

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Hello, hello!  Sorry for the late breakfast post but I had an 8:15 advising appointment this morning.  Which leads me to the news I’ve hinting at ……. I was accepted to the Dietetics program at Buffalo State College for Fall 2010.  My meeting this morning had to do with applying for summer school, I’m hoping to get a jump on classes.

I almost missed my meeting, I forgot to take my cell phone alarm off vibrate last night; thank goodness the buzzing woke up the husband!  Since I overslept a bit I made breakfast an on-the-go affair:

So delicious, key lime mix1 enhanced protein shake.

The drink held me over well, but I did eat a yogurt when I got home.

Yoplait Fat Free Banana Cream Pie.

I’ve got an easy morning scheduled, but I do have some packing to do.  More news?!?  Adam and I are going to PA this weekend!  My sister-in-law is pregnant and on extended bed-rest and since Adam’s Spring break is next week it seemed like a good time to visit.  We also have a super exciting surprise stop on the way home.  I can’t wait!

Are any of my readers career changers?  I taught 8th grade English for two years before quitting my job to persue a career in nutrition.

Movement is Good

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We’re going to pretend like I didn’t magically skip two days of posting, ok?  Ok.  Because in reality it was more like I skipped two days of life, leaving not a whole lot to post about.  My first test went pretty badly, probably because I spent Thursday watching TV and eating nachos.  And my bone scan appointment was canceled indefinitely because the hospital waited to call me until 10hours before my exam to tell me that I had to have an in-state referral.

Since my journey back into fitness could be a long time coming (now I don’t even have a doctor’s time-frame) it’s officially time for me to quit wallowing.  I can’t do any form of cardio (swimming would probably work but there’s no pool available) and I can’t strength train at my gym (I’m walking better but stairs are super painful and my gym has a ton) but that doesn’t mean I have to sit on my butt and get fat fatter.

So I stayed in bed and felt sad until the husband left at 9 this morning and then I decisively limped to the living room to set up my workout area.

20minutes later I had completed arm/ab/back/leg strength work and stretching.  I felt great to “move” again!

I was less excited about cleaning around the house, but I made myself do that before my shower too.  Then I made the husband and I a tasty brunch.

Adam is sick so I made the smoothies around his tastes.  For two – 2medium bananas, 7oz frozen peaches, 2T fat free sugar free pudding mix, 1cup oj.

I’ve got to clip some coupons and do my recipe planning while I sip my smoothie (lots of alliteration in that sentence!) and then we are headed to the grocery store.  We are hoping to head to the movies later too.  Happy Saturday!

I need your help!  Does anyone have a genius non-impact cardio suggestion that I haven’t thought of yet? 

It Must Be the Jalopenos

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I’ve come to the conclusion that a month spent eating nachos on the couch somehow turned me into a certifiable bad-ass.  I’m probably really a dumb-ass but for now I’ll keep feeling cool.  Why am I a dumbbad-ass?

  • the biggie – I quit a job I hated to persue hapiness
  • I ran a half marathon without training
  • I finished said stupid idea in two and half hours
  • I’m going to lose a couple toenails before all is said and done
  • I got a 2nd tattoo
  • I spent the last 5 days walking around on a semi-broken leg!

That last one came from my doctor’s appointment.  The x-ray was inconclusive and I’ll know more after tomorrow’s bone scan but she’s pretty certain its a stress fracture.  I’m not even going to address what that might mean as far as when I can start running again (bad-asses don’t cry!) but for the time being I’m rocking crutches.

Before I headed to my appointment I ate a Nonfat Peach Chiobani for breakfast.

And once I got back I had lunch.

A baggie of baby carrots,

and the other half of yesterday’s airport chicken sandwich.

Then I spent the afternoon reading blogs, whoops!  I have a TON of make-up work to do for school this week and I have got to get on it.

What have you done lately that made you feel like a bad-ass?

Mostly Monday

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Sorry for the lack of postage yesterday; Monday ended up being a bit crazy, in a good way!  The crazy combined with my diminished appetite means my eats for the day were just a bit off.  I never did get around to eating the rest of lunch, as soon as I hit publish I passed out into a hard-core nap.

I got woken up from my sleeping beauty session around 4 to ….. get tattoos!  I’m not showing any picture yet, because I’m getting a tiny touch-up this afternoon, but I got a small bow on my back to celebrate my first half marathon.

Camile’s tattoo was painful and ended up being a pretty long process.  I drank half a purple Rockstar to refuel.

This probably wasn’t the smartest snack choice but we spent the entire weekend hunting for purple (I really wanted my favorite flavor the morning of the half) and when I spotted it in the gas station I just couldn’t say no.

Camile needed ice-cream post-tattooing so we hit up Jeramiah’s again!

I had half of this small gelati; strawberry lemon ice with vanilla soft serve.

The combination was perfect, tangy and creamy go really well together in my opinion, but my stomach just wasn’t having it.  Honestly my leg hurts so badly it’s making my stomach hurt 😡  Which is why dinner never really happened either.

Although I did have an awesomely spicy Bloody Mary while we were out with some of Kristen’s guy friends.

I never munched on the appetizer plate the rest of the table had but I did take home the leftovers.  I’m having them for breakfast 🙂

P.S. Check out this tea package Olga’s giving away.

Vegan Challenge Recap

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*Sorry this is a little late!

If you didn’t check it out already, click HERE for the intro/explanation to my vegan challenge.  I knew going into the two weeks that I had no long-term plans to become a full-time vegan.  That did not change, at this point I can’t see my life without eggs, yogurt, and the occasional turkey burger.  That said, I really enjoyed the two weeks and would like to repeat the challenge again at some point this year.  Maybe even a Vegan Month.

I am really proud of myself for sticking to this challenge.  Maybe I can’t be bothered to train for a half marathon, but I did successfully make it two weeks without losing it to any meat or dairy products.  I am also proud that I did not depend on imitation products during this challenge.  No soy yogurt breakfasts and tofurkey sandwich lunches here!  While I recognize that many people have healthy, happy diets with those products, the point of the challenge was to rely on whole foods.

Here are some of the main things I learned during my 2 weeks as a vegan –

  • Green Monsters rock my socks
  • I prefer smoothies without milk or yogurt in them
  • Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan is a book no kitchen should be without
  • I actually like tempeh
  • vegan baked goods taste better than ‘normal’ ones

How do you classify your eating habits?  Vegan, semi/vegetarian, raw, carnivorous?  For now I am semi-vegetarian who doesn’t eat mammals.  But I’ll be eating a little less dairy than I used to.

March Madness

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Good morning!  Since most husbands and wives don’t stay up to all hours of the night watching Buffy reruns I assume my breakfast post will be read during lunch for most of my readers 😉

Even though it’s noon I figured I’d start my day with a beautiful breakfast –

A blueberry bagel with light cream cheese and Crofter’s Superfruit Spread.

And most of a Cara Cara orange.

Delish.  I really enjoyed my 2 week vegan challenge – and I plan on doing a post on it tomorrow – but I am excited to get back to dairy.

I’m also excited about flying to Florida this Thursday!  I can’t believe how busy the next 2 weeks are.  Thankfully/sadly the husband doesn’t have the same spring break as me so he can hold down the fort and be my personal airport shuttle.

  • 03/03 – Chemistry quiz
  • 03/04 – Fly to Orlando (to stay with two of my best friends of all time)
  • 03/07 – Die trying to run in the Disney Princess Half Marathon
  • 03/09 – Fly back to Buffalo; get in a 8:30pm
  • 03/10 – Fly to St. Thomas; leave at 5:30am
  • 3/15 – Fly back to Buffalo
  • 3/19 – Chem Test
  • 3/22 – Anthro Test

Yikes.  I’m really excited though.  I’m also really behind, I have a TON of reading to do while I’m home.  And today I’m meeting Caroline at the Spot for a study session.  Dinner is going to be posted late but we are trying out a new spot and I’m really jazzed about it 🙂

What are you excited for in the upcoming month?