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.