Hi Ho Hi Ho off to work I go!

Yesterday, I actually had to work (7 to 6!). I surprisingly enjoyed my 4 days off despite complaining that I was going to be bored in lonely.

Work started with coffee. A lot of coffee. With skim milk and twin sugar.


Then I had some cantaloupe, pineapple, strawberries, and nonfat plain yogurt. I had let the frozen fruit defrost in the fridge over night with the yogurt so it was all runny and delicious, which sounds kind of gross- but its tasty I swear.

Lunch was a big old salad with mixed greens, frozen green beans, frozen mixed "ranchero" veggies, a tomato, raisins, sunflower seeds, and a packet of kraft light done right!
I love using frozen veggies in salads, one of my old roommates got me into it. It lets you have a much wider array of veggies in your salads since you can keep frozen vegetables for so much longer.

I was re-certified in CPR and the AED yesterday at work, but please, no one crash on me anyway!

After work, I was hungry! Again, I haven't been allowing myself to really go grocery shopping since I am trying to move out- so I decided to go to Subway. I usually do NOT eat out this much!

But I love Subway. I keep forgetting to take pictures....
I had a 6" on honey oat with every veggie except onions. I hate raw onions. Mostly because I have a bit of a tooth brushing compulsion and I can always taste the onion in my mouth for about ten days after I eat them. Ironically, for the condiment, I get the sweet onion sauce.


The rest of the evening will be in the post to come....

Lobster, anyone?

SUN BLOCK FAILURE!

Warning: This is alot more of me than any of you have ever wanted to see, but it gets the point across:


I am burnt!! I made the attempt to put sunscreen on, especially around my tattoos- I have this nice random not burnt patch up by my wing- but I managed to miss most of the tattoo any way haha. Today has been painful.
At least I have gotten a sufficient amount of vitamin d!

So my beach trip yesterday was fun...
The other night when I said I was going to hit the hay early.... yea that didn't happen. I couldn't sleep and then to top it off one of my friends kept drunk dialing me every 5 minutes, and I needed to keep my phone on for the alarm clock.

At 3 my friend Andy said since I still wasn't asleep I might as well go hang out... so I did. But first, around 3:07 am....
I realized I was starving! which is why I hate staying up so late since I wind up eating ten more meals. So I made some fruit and yogurt, with frozen strawberries, pineapple and fresh kiwi, and trader joe's nonfat plain organic yogurt.


Andy picked me up and I wound up in Worcester around 5 am, where I finally got to go to sleep, then up at 7 to head to Gloucester!

For breakfast I hada Chex Mix Chocolate Chunk Bar, since I was at my dad's house.. and that was really the only thing I could grab. It was delicious though.

We stayed at the beach from about 10 am til 3 pm. Then headed out to Framingham, where my friend Ari who I went with works. We decided to get dinner at the restaurant she waitresses at.
Joe's American Bar and Grill. Since we hadn't eaten since our Chex Bars we were starving! and we man handled the bread they gave us.

I then had the Asian Chicken Salad - chicken on the side- which I gave to Ariane. Their menu was very vegetarian friendly. Every salad had meat on it. Normally I hate buying food at restuarants without the main component since it seems like a jip- but since we got Ari's sweet discount- and she wanted some extra chicken- it worked out.

The salad consisted of spring greens, tortilla shreds, carrots, lime vinaigrette, and peanut sauce. It was very good, and enormous, I was pretty full after the bread, but I managed to eat it all- It would have been more filling I suppose if I ate the chicken. It was a bit overly dressed, I probably should have gotten the dressing on the side.

Final MSDA Meeting (of the 2008- 2009 year)

Since I last wrote, oh so long ago, I stopped at CVS and picked up a prescription, as well as a sparkling water and perhaps some candy... (which I may have eaten 6 of...)

then started making my way towards Tufts for the last MSDA meeting of the year. Since I didn't have terribly much to do and the weather was fabulous, I decided to walk. On my voyage, McDonalds was giving out free McCafe Iced Coffees, so I had a sample. It was actually really good. It was very strong, which I am a big fan of. It also probably had cream and sugar in it, which I am not used to which probably made it taste even better haha. Though it tasted pretty light, so it might have just been milk. Now I cannot say there is nothing at McDonalds I would get,... though at Kenmore Square I would probably be more apt to continue walking the 5 extra feet to Dunkin Donuts.
I strolled through the Boston Commons. It was hopping! and there were musicians on almost every corner. I found an empty sun drenched bench and took a seat. I tried reading, but it was so hot, and I preferred to just lie down on the bench and work on my skin cancer.

At the MSDA meeting, it was basically a wrap up meeting, we discussed things that needed to be improved for the year, gave out awards, and of course, ate pizza and salad! I did remember picture taking, but I was embarassed to do it (though I was not to embarassed to take pictures of food in my hand while walking down Comm Ave?) The pizza was from The Upper Crust which has fabulous pizza- We had a very good selection of 6 different pizzas- I tried to take the tiniest pieces of each so I could try as many as possible.

I had one Sun dried tomato and feta cheese, on whole wheat dough
one pepper, mushroom and onion, on whole wheat
and one plain cheese on white, becuase it just looked delicious- and was in front of me.

I found them all delicious. Some people weren't a fan of the crust as it wasa little squishy, and its very thin crust, so if you like the thick doughy crust, you won't get it here. I personally put my salad on top of it (including some salad dressing) so it being squishy is the least of my problems (I kind of disgust a lot of people when I eat. I can't be taken to nice places haha).

I also had one trader joes peanut butter cup.

After the MSDA meeting, I headed to the White Horse Tavern in Allston for Trivia Night with some Nutrition Girls Linday and Kelley, as well as Lindsayd boyfriend Jason, and his cousin and roommate, and Kelley's Roommate! I've never played trivia in a bar before, but I have a ton of useless knowledge so I thought it would be fun... Unfortuneately I know nothing about pop culture, and the fact that I haven't had a TV for the past 4 years, and never watch movies was my downfall. Thankfully, I had a good group. I think Kelley got us every answer regarding TV and movies....


Since I have been drinking far too much this week, I skipped that. Lindsay had ordered a hummus platter, but only ate the hummus and pita bread, so I stole the rest, including some jalapenos and pickled onion (?) I love spice food like Jalapenos since they make me drink water.

I'm heading to the beach tomorrow morning, so I am off to get ready and hit the hay!

happy hump day, to those with regular work week schedules!

How soon we do forget...

So, after one day of picture snapping - forgot yesterday!

But I redeemed myself and found most of the items I ate. For starters, since I slept of Jenny's, Buddy, Jenny and I went to Au Bon Pain in the Prudential Center before she headed to Communist China for Work (aka Douzo where we used to hostess together- thank god I got out!) Since I frequently have to analyze the nutrition facts of ABP foods, I couldn't bear to get one of their delightful breakfast treats. Jenny and Buddy split a cheese danish and each got an oatmeal. The cheese danish is 470 calories! I feel like breakfast is one of the easiest meals to eat healthy for so I couldn't bear to do that to myself. The oatmeal has the potential to be healthy, provided you don't drowned it in brown sugar and light cream, but alas, my frugal side got the better of me and I didn't want to spend 3 dollars on a cup of oatmeal, when I know I could get an enormous economy size canister of oatmeal for less than that. I do approve that they have that option for those who are going to have to eat there regardless.

I just stuck to a hot hazelnut coffee with skim milk and splenda.


I then headed home, and made myself a bowl of fruit and cottage cheese including cantaloupe, frozen pineapple and strawberries from trader joes (the frozen fruit defrosted in the microwave for about 45 seconds.)


And I used about 3/4 a cup of hood low fat peach cottage cheese. I usually get the shaws brand fat free pineapple cottage cheese, but this kind was on sale, and I do enjoy peach for a change. I guess the 1 gram of fat per a serving is acceptable. Its kind of odd that I will eat complete junk food without batting an eye, but when its something like yogurt or cottage cheese that I expect to be healthy I will not tolerate fat or unhealthiness to it.
I then did some more reading (more book reviews to come I am sure!) and crossed the remainder of things off my to do list from yesterday.

I had a couple chocolate caramel cups that my old roommate had abandoned in the apartment. I know I cannot have candy around, so after eating a few I threw the rest out... which may seem wasteful, but I figure its also wasteful to binge eat on them as I know is what would end up happening.


I was starting to feel very dizzy and hungry by about 6 pm. I realized it was probably due to the fact that the only fluids I had consumed in about the past 16 hours were alcohol and coffee... I was probably dehyradrated, as per usual. So I had a bit of water.

I then had a craving for a falafel wrap, and since my refridgerator is currently looking kind of destitute, I thought it would be acceptable to go and get one from The Reef, which has some delicious middle eastern foods (Similar to the Campus Trolley by BU). But alas, its gone! The Reef is no more. Which was terribly disappointing.

I headed to Trader Joes instead to get some food. I made it back to my house by 8 pm, and decided a breakfast feast was in order. I had two trader joes multigrain waffles, 2 morning star veggie sausage patties and some log cabin syrup.

I then recieved a phone call from Jenny again, requesting I escort her to a show in Harvard Square where a friend of her's was playing (Jenny is a Berklee Graduate so she has a lot of musical friends...) So we headed to Tommy Doyle's Irish Pub in Harvard Square. Being Irish, I do love Irish Pubs. Her friend performed and did some singing with acoustic guitar. In between sets of performers they played some good Irish Music in the background.

Despite being at a pub, I still don't like Beer. So I got a cocktail, which was large and reasonably priced. I got the Irish Kiss, which had gingerale, orange juice, peach schnapps, Irish whiskey, lime, and some other jazz in it. It was very good.

Jenny and Buddy each got burgers, which they said were very good, and they were served with some awesome steak fries, which I might have stolen several of.

After the show, I headed home to my empty destitute apartment. I am an incredible light weight, and that one cocktail already made me tipsy, and I took this opportunity of having my roommates basically empty room to jam out to some music and dance around like a fool by myself (hey got to burn off those steak fries right?)

I might have also finished off the night with a little bit of this:

I'm not trying to become a lush or anything.... but that might be whats going on.
I hate being alone this much. I don't know how people can actually live by themselves.


So far today, I slept a bit late after my solo dance party, and then spent the morning cleaning. I just showed my apartment again to a potential subletter. ::fingers crossed::

for breakfast I repeated my dinner from last night of waffles, veggie sausage, and also topped it with some defrosted frozen trader joes strawberries.

In order to make my apartment seem a bit more home-y i've been burning my pumpkin pie scented candle for my potential subletters!

Now that I am done being Miss- Wannabe- Relator, I'm off to enjoy this gorgeous weather and get crack-a- lackin on my To-Do list for today!

Cheers!

Summer Reading

One thing I love about the summer is getting to read! Which is kind of ironic in a way. But during the school year I am so busy reading books for school, and doing all sorts of other work, I never feel like I have time to read for fun. And furthermore, after reading hundreds of pages of required reading, the last thing I would find pleasurable would be reading anything!

This semester, I kept a running list of books I heard about and wanted to read, and was getting all excited about getting to check them out. However, when I had my purse stolen in NYC, it contained my planner, which contained my list. So, I am back to the drawing board.

Thankfully, there are a million and one books I have found I want to read anyway, and I am a slow reader so, I highly doubt I'll get through my current list.

So, I shall start my weekly book review:

This week I worked a lot, which meant a lot of commuting, hence a lot of reading.

"Naked" by David Sedaris: This is heard about in a book of books to read for every mood, under the category of "books to make you laugh." The Back of the book stated, "Sidesplitting." Maybe it was because I went in expecting a lot, and expecting humor, but alas. I did not let out even a meager chuckle. There was one line regarding rocking crack babies, that I vaguely almost laughed inside, however, it definitely was not a laugh out loud kind of a book. Other than being incredibly disappointing in the laughing category, I overall was not terribly impressed by it. I have heard very good things about Sedaris, but apparently its not my taste. I'll give it one star.



"Running with Scissors" Augusten Burroughs. I have a problem when I read similar books right after one another (as I did with Naked and Running with Scissors which I read within a period of two days.) I wind up merging their content. This also happened when I read 1984 and Brave New World within the same week, I will never be able to keep straight which one is which. Burroughs and Sedaris are two extremely flamboyant authors, which I have no problem with, but at the same time, I have read too many flamboyant author books already, and reading them right after one another was just excessive. Running with Scissors was funnier and generally more of a page turner for me than Naked. I Had previously read "Magical Thinking" which is also a memoir by Burroughs. Frankly, reading two memoirs by the same person is just overkill, unless you REALLY like the person. For me, I wasn't the biggest fan. "Running with Scissors" was interesting, I suppose, but I think I have read too many books with a similar theme/ storyline. Its like how strange and horrible in a humors way can your life really be? I almost just want to read a book about some horribly mediocre person who simply writes about their day to day life for a change. 2 stars.


"A Clockwork Orange" Anthony Burgess. I love weird/ cultish/ horror etc movies. And I was a big fan of the movie. A friend had recently read this and he told me the end was better and strangely more romantic than the movie, so I have been wanting to read it. Burgess likes to make up his own words, apparently they were suppose to be the up-in-coming teenage slang (whether they ever came into vogue or not is unbeknownst to me) but nonetheless, they made the book hard to get into at first, as I was spending half the time trying to figure out what was going on. THe book was seperated into 3 parts. The first part was very hard to get through, due to the made up words. After that it was fine. The story line is of course great, if you have ever seen the Stanley Kubrick movie, its very similar. Overall, it wasa great book, I enjoyed the theme, and I did wind up liking the style of writing after I figured out his language. 3 stars. I do recommend watching the movie first (Which I generally never do), I think it made figuring out what was going on a bit easier. I also read it almost entirely on trains etc. so its possible it would be much more easy to understand if reading it and actually focusing on it more.



"Of Mice and Men" John Steinbeck. A very easy to read Novella, it was only about 100 pages, and its a classic, so I was embarrassed to not have read it. This could be easily read in an hour or two (again i just read it during my commutes, but I finished it in one daysworth of commuting.) Its a sad book, I refrained from crying because I was in public, but its not one of those books to read to put yourself in a good mood. Fine literary merit. 3 stars.

If anyone has any good recommendations (or books for me to borrow :) ) let me know!

good day!

Picture Taking Success!

I accomplished everything on my mandatory To-Do list yesterday!
Nothing on the "Time Permitting List".

I started with a breakfast of champions! No,... not wheatie. Oatmeal of course. I almost forgot to snack a photo, and i had already drowned by oatmeal with excess water as I enjoy doing, but it was delightful.
In the mix was:
1/2 cup dry oats
3 prunes
about 1 tb almond butter
~ 1 tb craisins
10 butterscotch chips


After breakfast I headed to BU, where I printed my resume, etc. Then I stopped at the BU library to return a book. On the way in I passed over this plaque (I guess thats what you would call it).
Rumor is if you step on it you won't graduate on time. I am kind of a punk and look at anything like that as a challenge- So I have made it a point to step on it every time I pass by. And, yes, I graduated on time. Take that superstitition!

I passed through the GSU after the library to get a tissue, and saw loose leafs was open! I can't pass up a crack salad, so I picked one up for later.

I then headed to the Quickie Job office to see if there were any random jobs I could sign up for, but alas, the selection was not good.

I then Headed to St. E's to fill out my paper work. I got there and was informed it all had to be filled out online. Great. Glad I made that trip.

I then headed to the Pru area to do my present shopping. I have a very hard time picking out gifts for this particular friend, she's very artsy and fabulous, but her taste is very specific and she's very picky about odd things. Also, she's moving to Florida this week, so I had to make sure it wasn't anything bulky that would take up unnecessary space in her car. So it took a while.

While out shopping I became hungry and ate my crack salad. It was italian themed week. My mix consisted of:
mesculin
pasta
tofu
tomatoes
peppers
cheese (no mozzerella balls, very sad :( )
beets
and grapes

I also had a yoplait light pineapple upside down cake yogurt.


While shopping around the Prudential Center/ Newbury Street, for my friends birthday present, Jenny called me to hang out, and since she lives in that area, I planned to just headed over there. However, She needed a nap. So I went to the Boston Public Library and picked out two new books.

After I headed to the Marlborough Manor (Jenny's House). And we made a delicious carb feast of zucchini pizza, pasta and broccoli. Jenny decided she didn't want her broccoli so I wound up eating twice that amount.

Afterwards, we headed to the beehive with Buddy, where her roommate was playing the Sax. I hada diet coke and captain morgan. It was horribly over priced, but good of course. Its rather hard to screw that up. I also tried some of Jenny's Newcastle Nut Beer. I usually hate beer but it was actually pretty good.

It was late and Buddy wouldn't let me walk to the T by myself so I just spent the night with them.

Today, I finally showered. And I filled out that paper work online. Other than that, not to productive just yet.

Keepin' Busy!

Today is off to a fine start.

This past week I had a temp job working at a medical convention, and had my 30 hour weekend at MGH, which meant I had to be up between 4:30 and 6 am every day. Also, I had house guests for three nights in a row, which meant I did not get to bed before midnight anyday. In conclusion: I was sleep deprived.

Last night I went to bed around midnight, and proceeded to wake up at 6:00, since thats been the regular time of waking up. However, I stayed in bed until 11 am. It was grand!

at 11 my phone rang, and it was a woman from St. Elizabeths where I had applied for a job, and I was informed that she was interested in me, so I have to head down there to fill out some paper work before I actually get an interview. I'm not positive that it will actually work out since I have an obnoxious schedule to work around (Mon, Wed not avail til after noon, Never avail Friday, available every other weekend? what the hell...) Plus I can probably get more hours at MGH as of July.
But anyway- in this time of economic hardship- its always nice to potentially have three jobs :)

So, Following my own advise from yesterday, when I finally got up, I compiled my list of things to do.

So the POA (plan of action! I've been trying to get this accronym into popular culture for a while now)
1. Breakfast
2. Send MSDA Meeting Reminder (anyone interested - Wed. May 20th, 6 pm Tufts.)
3. Head to campus- print Resume + Ex Phys stuff
4. Return Library Book
5. Quickie Jobs?
6. Head to St. E's - fill out paper work.
7. BDay Present for Amiga

____
Time Permitting:
8. Gym
9. Shower
10. Clean room
11. Blog- Because I am trying to take pictures again!

So, I'm getting off to a late start, but I shall hit the ground running. And I'm Off!

Prevent Emotional/ Bored Eating

So we’ve all heard the tricks of the trade for avoiding eating when you are not really hungry, but are depressed or bored.
So, I shall compile some here:

• Keep Busy. Its easy to eat when bored, so try to plan out activities for the week. Make plans with friends, plan out time to workout, sign up for a class, get a temp/ quickie job, take on a new hobby.
• Make a to do list/ list of goals. Try to think big, and small. Think of your life goals, and weekly to do tid bits. Once you realize how much you have to work on, you probably won’t be bored anymore! If the problem was that you were stressed out, take this time to break down your to do list into manageable chunks. I always feel so much better after I know when I will do things, rather than just having my seemingly endless list of things that never seem like they will get done.
If you are looking for some ideas for long term/ life goals check out: http://bucketlists.wetpaint.com/page/Popular+Life+Goals?t=anon

• Think about what you want. My friend Jake keeps giving me this advice, in regards to dating, and life in general. Figure out what you want and work towards that. For instance, I want to feel comfortable with my body, so I know that if I eat a whole bag of chips, that is not going to help me achieve that goal. If you know what you want its easier to follow through, whereas if you just keep living each day on a whim its easy to lose sight of the bigger picture.
• Plan healthy meals and snacks. I personally never do this, but I should probably try. Plan out a week, or a few days of healthy meals and snacks. Then go grocery shopping and stock your fridge and pantry full of fruits, veggies, whole grains and tasty healthy treats. If you already have these foods in mind and at hand you will be much more likely to stick to eating them, than if you rely on your cravings to drive you eating.
• Ask yourself if you are hungry. It gets said a lot, but when you start reaching for food, ask yourself if you are really hungry. If you acknowledge that you are just eating to eat, you may be more apt to not do it.


• Keep your hands busy! Inevitably, you will be bored, or just relaxing at some point, whether you are watching TV, online, reading etc. These things are fine! (in moderation). But if you are like me, you will need to keep your mind and mouth and hands busy. So pick up an activity that will occupy a few senses, for instance do a cross word puzzle while watching TV, go through your mail, or take up knitting, or (something I never seem to do …) practice guitar!



• Chew gum. I hate gum! Or really I hate that no one seems to have any gum chewing etiquette. Chew with your mouth closed and don’t pop it! But I hear keeping your mouth busy with something should take your mind off food.
• Brush your teeth and floss. If you have a craving, or just want to put something in your mouth, brush your teeth. You’ll be less inclined to dirty up your freshly cleaned mouth.
• Go for a walk/run. If you are stressed out, depressed, or bored, use that energy for something productive, take a stroll or jog. Plus, working out releases endorphins which should also help the situation!
• Call/ find a friend. Such as last night, I was lonely. But since no one was around, I just ate to fill that void instead. When you feel bored or otherwise, give someone a call. Or better yet, if they are available meet up with them. It will be much harder to eat if you are busy talking!
• Talk to someone positive. Friends are great, but we all have our fair share of Debby Downers. I personally have made it my mission to become a born again optimist. And I find that when I talk to my pessimistic friends, I can VERY easily fall back into my own ways. So when you are really depressed, don’t call one of your depressing friends, even if they are your best friend. Sometimes you need to talk to that obnoxious person that sounds like a self help book (which is what people have compared me to lately haha )
• Drink. No, not alcohol! Water. Or tea if you prefer. Most people cannot distinguish between their hunger and thirst cues, so if you feel the need to eat, try drinking a couple cups of water, or other preferred beverage. It will also satisfy that need to do something with your mouth, and once you are full of water it will be harder to go overboard if you do decide to emotionally eat anyway.
• Keep a food blog! Or food journal! If you write down what you eat, or better yet take pictures of everything, it makes you feel much more accountable for what you eat. This can get mundane though, I’ve been keeping food journals, pretty much forever, and the whole picture blogging only lasted about a week (I hope to get back to that!) enlist a friend to keep you accountable, or post online (and don’t become a slacker like me!). If someone is expecting to see it, you are more likely to keep it up, and thus be successful.

• When all else fails, eat in moderation. If you are going to eat. Try to do so in moderation. If you really just want to be chewing something, try to stick to health options, such as baby carrots, or light popcorn etc. But who am I kidding, when you are sad and all you want is some chocolate to comfort the blow, carrots will never do the trick, so go ahead, eat some chocolate, or whatever your comfort food is. But portion out a reasonable amound before hand (don’t grab the whole pint of Ben and Jerry’s, you know you’ll just feel worse afterwards.)

• Don’t beat yourself up. If you do have a slip up, remember a lapse IS NOT a relapse. Even if you were trying to be good and healthy and not binge eat or anything of that nature, if you get mad at yourself for giving in, you are just going to feel defeated and be more apt to do it again. Get back on the horse, and be nice to you.


Does Anyone have any other suggestions??

Happy Eating!

Blog slacking and Emotional Eating

So, for the past month I have been an incredible Blogging slacker,

It started off with being too busy, with finals and papers etc.

Then came the rejection from all of the dietetic internships I applied to, and alas, I have felt a bit of disconnect from the world of dietetics and nutrition. Deep down I know I still love it, but its hard to keep the same zeal about something when you feel that it doesn’t feel the same way about you.

Today is officially my graduation, I however, am stuck at work. I tried to get the day off, but my boss insisted I must be here. Today I have one patient. Clearly, it was very necessary for me to be here today.

This past weekend has been rather lonely and depressing. Since it is graduation weekend most of my friends have their families here and they are off doing family oriented/ touristy things, such as last night was a Boston Pops performance. Since I did not go to graduation, and the fact that my parents have never come to visit me, I did not do these activities, and since all of my friends were off doing such activities, I caught up on my season finales.

I have also reached the conclusion that I am definitely an emotional eater. Yesterday I worked from 7 am til 7 pm. Since I could not find anything to do for the evening, I decided to walk home from work. I arrived to my abode around 9 pm, to discover my roommate had moved out.
I knew she was leaving, however, I was unsure of the exact date, and in my state of loneliness, this was a sad moment.

I proceeded to eat ½ a pound of peanut butter M&Ms.

One of the reasons I started blogging was to avoid such binge eating- since if I take pictures of things and post them, I would feel much more guilty about this.
I, as aforementioned, have become a blogging slacker.

I need to get back on track.

I love food, and healthy eating. Those M&Ms- not even that tasty- and after ½ a pound, can’t imagine eating and M&M for a very long time,… so I hope to be back in the blogging atmosphere.

And if anyone happens to know of someone looking for a room or two to sublet , holla at me!