Jason Mraz and my new biker jacket

I had a really good last 24 hours.

I got my proficiency stamp for both retinoscopy and the slit lamp this morning. This means that I am now capable of determining your refractive error for your glasses/lenses prescription and evaluating the heath of the front of your eye. WOOOHOOOOOOO!

I realized that I just don't have enough workout clothes. I keep having to do laundry because of my workout clothes and I handwash my two sport bras. So I went over to Bebe Sport and while I was there I found this really cute biker-inspired jacket that was on clearance.

I also finally got a ticket to the upcoming Jason Mraz concert thanks to one of my dear classmates!

I went to my first spinning class in years! I'm anticipating being sore as hell in the morning. Ok so remember that hot guy at the gym? I assumed he was a trainer or someone that worked at the gym because of his body and the fact that he looked older. I found out via a casual question to my trainer that he's actually a medical student!!! Ok I thought I know of all the Arab guys in the health professions campus, how on earth did I miss this one really hot one? He must be like a 4th year doing off-site rotations or something. So now I'm on a little mission.....

That's cardio my love! plus the hot guy at the gym

Before last week's workout session I sent the following text message to my trainer:

Can we do more ab stuff? we all have muffin top issues.

"We all" includes the 3 other girls I train with as a group.

Here's the reply I got:

That's cardio my love!

I went through this stage where some misguided advice had me belive cardio was bad and the focus should be on strength training. I think they're both pretty important for success. Not only that, but how much strength training can one stand to do? If I can get it in just twice a week I'm happy.

One major issue I have that prevents me from working out everyday is washing my hair. I have naturally dry curly hair and I can't wash it everyday. I also hate working up a sweat and not being able to wash my hair, so I try to focus on getting in a comprehensive workout 3 times a week and just staying generally active throughout my day over working out on consecutive days. Today however I tolerated not washing my hair when I got back from training because I told myself I'm going to go for a jog first thing in the morning. My hair is still damp with sweat, ewwwwww

In different news, today at the gym while waiting for my trainer the absolute hottest guy approached me. He said "salaam alaikum" (the Muslim greeting) and asked me if I spoke any Arabic, if I was a student and in what college, how I like it here, bla bla bla. Not only did he have the nicest eyes and smile but really nice biceps too. He told me he was Syrian. The arrival of my trainer cut the conversation short and I could swear I saw a hint of disappointment across his face. He seemed too old to be a student, even a grad student, and if he was a trainer I think I would have seen him before. When he turned around after saying bye I was disappointed to see a huge tattoo across his bicep :(

I'll do anything for my treats!

Hey Folks!

I realized yesterday that some of my newly acquired habits aren't the healthiest. I'll do anything for my deserts (sweet and salty), even if it means not eating other stuff to make room for it. Yesterday I had a mere 220 calorie dinner so that I can have 3 nestle toll house break and bake cookies (dude these are to die for).

Also because I plan on snacking on a handful of tostitos and dip (I'm craving these so bad) lunch will probably be an apple.

Today I'm wearing pants for the first time that I bought about a month ago but couldn't fit in. I got them from Victoria's Secret in a size 8, I couldn't find the exact pair on their website but they look very similar to the one in the picture-they just don't thave those cargo side pockets. It's surreal to think that a year and a half ago I was a 16, which is really not a good place to be if your 5"1.

My lowest weight in years

I weighed in at 143 today! that's 2 pounds less than the last time I weighed myself and the lowest weight I've been in years. It's pretty exciting!

Although I still have a bad starbucks drink almost on a daily basis (yesterday I had TWO, a mint hot chocolate and a pumpkin spice latte) I attribute this to the fact to two recent trends. 1) I'm pretty physically active nowadays. I walk a lot and I walk fast. I almost never take elevators even if I'm carrying a lot of stuff. I've been working out 2-4 times week but even if I dn't get that in it's ok because I feel like I'm always running around.

TWO...I've been eating LESS. Although this isn't the greatest thing with the amount of stress and the work I have to do there have been a few days where I forget to eat (today was one of those days, I had an anatomy lab practical and was on panic mode for mostof the day before the exam so I totally forgot to eat). The weird thing is in the past that would never happen to me, being stressed out means I EAT! Also I realized that being full isn't conducive to studying and the possibility that I may fail out of optometry school is good enough motivation to not eat a lot these days.

Checkout my new profile

I just realized that I never actually had a blogger profile set up for this account. I have just spent my studying break updating it so check it out and see all the cool stuff we have in common!

BTW this past couple of days I've been eating really well (with the exception of the starbucks drinks, I just can't get around that at the moment) but I'll be honest I'm always hungry and I feel miserable and angry at the world. I just kinda want some fries and big mac.

Eat breakfast like a king

That was the advice my trainer. Basically have what you want for breakfast if it's going to keep you from splurging at lunch and dinner.

So that's what I did. I had the leftover hamburger helper (that I made with 2% milk and lean turkey meat), tostitos with spinach artichoke dip, and one of those frozen Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches. Then I drove to starbucks and got a mint hot chocolate and a cookie that I ate half of.

I don't think I would have wanted all that if it wasn't for the amount of stress I'm under. I have a killer anatomy exam this tuesday and wednesday (2 part). Anatomy is basically the class they put in to weed out the first year optometry students. If people fail out the semester it's usually due to this class. So that's why I'm not being too hard on myself, I can only balance so much at once. I won't be too upset about not losing anything this week...the goal is to make it through the week without having gained anything back.

My Weaknesses

The Starbucks pumpkin spice latte

The Starbucks line of hot chocolate. Yesterday I had a mint hot chocolate but I've also been known to get the new salted caramel hot chocolate.

Both vivanno drinks. The banana chocolate and the mango peach banana, but usually I go for the banana chocolate with a shot of espresso. What's bad about these is they only sell them in size grande. I got the mango peach banana today and asked for an extra cup so that I could pour out half of it to give to my friend.

Lost a pound this week, back on track

Woohooo I'm now at 145, down 1 pound from the last time I weight myself (last week I think).

I think I'm safely back on track. Yesterday I started training with a trainer again in small group sessions. The session is an hour long and then I did 30 min of random cardio while I was waiting for my roomie to finish her assessment. I had an early relatively healthy dinner ( I did follow it with a handful of chips and dip), and when I got home I didn't feel like eating anything.

I highly recommend working out with a trainer, it just takes your workout to a whole new level. If money is tight see if your gym offers small group training sessions for groups of 2 or 3 to subsidize the costs.

Pigging out and feeling skinny

Lately I've been pigging out a lot. I haven't been eating huge portions as much as it is that I've been eating bad food. I just get these strong cravings and when I'm under a lot of stress it's very difficult to resist.

I've been consistently having a bad Starbucks drink like everyday this past week. Usually a mint hot chocolate or that new salted caramel hot chocolate. I've been eating this to-die-for Whole Foods chocolate cake, and lots of sugar cookies. I got my wisdom teeth pulled a week and a half ago and since then I've been on a super soft sugar cookie spree, and a starbucks sugary drink spree as well. In the past 2 weeks I've had chinese takeout twice, french fries a couple of times, and a couple of cheeseburgers. I've haven't been able to work out more than twice a week this past month, IF I can even get twice in (that'll change starting this week though).

Now here's the weird thing, I feel thin! I haven't beel feeling gross, I feel like my stomach is more tucked in, and my butt less jiggly, and sometimes I have these bursts of energy. It's really weird and I'm not sure what to make of it. I could swear some of my pants are looser on the thighs. I weighed myself and my weight hasn't significantly changed from what it was a month ago.

Does anyone else have this experience? I feel like God is giving me some freebies. Either that or my careless habits will soon be catching up with me.

Take Advantage of Resources

If you are affiliated with a university or a large company/corporation...nowadays chances are that you're provided with exclusive health resources to assist in promoting healthy lifestyles. The funny thing is most people don't even know about these, some people don't really care. It's unfortunate that these resources aren't better advertised, but I think they do that on purpose they wouldn't want everyone taking advantage.

For example, my university offers affilliates personal training packages at deeply discounted rates. I just signed up for 8 1-hour personal training sessions plus an assessment and I paid exactly $108. The tradeoff is that they're done in little groups of 2-4 so that the trainer is still making money and it's also good worth of mouth promotion for the trainer until they get their "business" rolling...but for me that comes out to be $13.50 per session. Compare that to the $60 + per hour rate my gym at home charges.

This is a renewal package for me and although I haven't lost a significant amount of weight since school started these weekly intense sessions are really the reason why I've been able to at least not gain any weight during a crazy semester. The hard work, the team support, the pep talks....all of that keeps me in check for not too great of a sacrifice on my part.

Am I still on anyone google's reader?

I haven't blogged in forever and I would like to get back into it. I miss having that support and encouragement. If you read this please put me on our google reader, and link my blog to yours and what not.

Quick update: I'm now in the middle of my first semester at optometry school in South Florida. I love it and I'm soooo glad I chose this profession....but it's crazy! I'm taking 8 classes and 3 labs and I'm quite sleep-deprived. I've had some struggles and bumps in the road especially after hurricane Gustav which left my family with a very damaged house. I got depressed for a bit and it affected my academic performance. However I've been doing ok since then.

In terms of health and weight loss, well I formed a workout group. Me and 3 other classmates meet with a personal trainer (pictured above) every week for one intense hour of a session. I think this has helped me stabilize my weight in crazy times. We're about to renew our package and we start again next Monday. However I need to get the ball rolling on actually lowing weight again.