A Journey Through Grad School and Weight Loss

Soooo sore

2010-02-19T10:40:00.003-06:00

Ow, I made it to spin yesterday and wow am I in pain. Then again: Hooray! I went to spin yesterday! The funny thing is my legs aren't really sore... my butt is sore from the stupid seat and my neck and arm are sore from leaning over and supporting half my weight with my hands. Ok so I'm plenty used to the part where if you're out of shape you get sore from working out for the first couple weeks, no big deal I can handle that. But I don't like being sore because I was sitting on something uncomfortable while working out, that doesn't seem productive. The jury is still out on if I'm going to keep doing spin or not. I hear that padded bike shorts help, but I'm not sure I want to spend the money.

Does anyone know how to make the seat more comfortable for spin class?

On another note I have been eating 2 servings of fruit/veggies per day. Still eating too much junk, but I'm working on it. I'm watching a ton of the olympics, sort of helping inspire me to get in shape.

Here's to hoping you all are less in pain than me!

Winter Blues

2010-02-16T13:40:00.004-06:00

Ahh yes, I'm back again. I can't seem to get consistency in any part of my life so it's not just the blogging. This is about the time of year where the only way I think I'm going to get out of my "dark and twisty" mind set (see Grey's Anatomy for the quote season 3 mostly) is by leaving for a vacation somewhere sunny for about a week. Of course that's not a possibility due to grad school, money, and well life, but it sounds nice. Hence my winter blues... very little sun, lots of work, not time off. So I guess instead I'll just try again, like I've been trying to restart so many times it feels stupid to say again, but here goes.

So I think I would really just like to start exercising again. That will most likely lead to weight loss on its own as well, but I just feel better if I'm exercising. That might help give me the energy winter seems to have stolen. I also would just like to stop eating a crazy amount of well crap, it's not really even food to be honest, just junk. I think I will change those into goals for the rest of the week and see how that goes before I force myself into counting calories and certain amounts of exercise and stressing myself out about it.

Goals:

1) Blog, even just once more this week

2) Go to Spin with coworkers on Thursday and work out one other time

3) Eat more than 2 servings of fruits/vegetables every day

4) Think before putting candy/chips/non-food items into my mouth

Also, thanks for the support you guys. It helps to know that other people out there are struggling too!

Time Management

2010-02-02T12:15:00.002-06:00

I'm not sure what I want to write in this post. I just know that I have to write, so bear with me for a minute.

I failed miserably at all my goals from last week. I probably have gained some weight, but refused to weigh myself yesterday. I was stressed over a presentation last week and didn't make time to go to the grocery store so I ate out... all week. I made some good choices and some bad ones. I still haven't been to the grocery store. I went on two dates, something I haven't done in a while and my confidence is still on the low side since I haven't lost much weight. Plus it took up time.

Ah ha, I figured out what this post should be about. My awful lack of time management last week. Time management is incredibly key to weight loss. I've read about it in about a million different articles and they all say. Weight loss takes planning and it takes time. Mostly because you need to work out and buy and prepare food. I decided to let my stress and busy schedule take over last week which is why I had no success with my goals. So I need to start with at least a basic plan to help me manage what is looking like another hectic week.

Goals for this week:

1) Make a plan

2) Follow the plan (ok a little too general)

Things to incorporate into the plan:

1) Grocery run

2) At least one work out

3) Two more blogs this week

4) Calorie Counting

Let's see how it goes...

One of those Weeks

2010-01-25T09:27:00.002-06:00

You know them well I'm sure... those weeks where nothing goes right and you just want to eat whatever to make it feel better. Well that was last week for me. I didn't blog, I didn't track calories, I didn't exercise, I barely did any work... Sometimes these things happen, so I'm not going to beat myself up, just get back on my wagon again.

I did make myself weigh-in this morning (164.2 back where I started 3 weeks ago). Back to trying hard again and making goals and following through.

Goals this week:

1) Track calories even if they aren't so good

2) Exercise twice (my knee is finally better!)

3) Go to the grocery store

4) Blog twice more to keep myself on track

Good luck with your weeks everyone!

Beautiful!

2010-01-14T15:19:00.003-06:00

Well gee I'm so excited Meg who writes one of my favorite blogs to read passed on the the Beautiful Blogger Award to me! She's very inspirational and upbeat, and you should all check out her blog.

So the rules are as follows: list 7 random facts about yourself and tag 7 others that I feel deserve it.

Things about me:

1) I've wanted a dog since I was about 3, and I've never had one. I intend to fix that as soon as I move into a place that's big enough for one.

2) My favorite TV show of all time is the West Wing. Ask me anything, I can tell you the answer.

3) Percocet has no effect on me, except to make me slightly more awake. Great combination, no effect on pain and the inability to fall asleep.

4) I'm a complete Band Nerd (can you say marching band in high school)... that's right, my clarinet is currently under my desk. Although I have switched to playing in orchestra now.

5)I don't like the melted cheese on pizza. I take it off and then eat the bread with tomato sauce on it. Sometimes my friends eat the extra cheese for me.

6) I had to have oral surgery when I was 15 to cut open the roof of my mouth, attach a bracket and chain to my upper right canine and sew it back together, so my orthodontist could slowly pull the tooth down into position link by link of the chain.

7) I sing a lot, everywhere (thankfully I'm not bad). If you're in Chicago on a mostly empty street and you hear someone singing to themselves, it might be me.

Ok on to the pass on portion of the post. Although I'm not sure how many of these people look at mine, you should definitely check out their blogs!

1) Slackey

2) Dr. Isis

3) Jenks

4) Fatbridesmaid

5) Penelope Trunk

6) Lorrie

7) Emm

Thanks again Meg!!

Food, food everywhere...

2010-01-12T22:20:00.000-06:00

So here's a little story about my day today:

I made dinner last night and portioned out the extras into 3 days worth of lunches, hooray. Brought it in, put it in the communal fridge, awesome, go me. I go to heat it up in the communal kitchen today for lunch and I'm starving. I look up above the microwave and there are 3 bags of potato chips, and several chocolate chip cookies sitting in a bowl, for anyone.... I have no where to go, I have to wait for my food to heat up, and the chips are staring at me, saying eat me, eat me. I pick up a bag, look at the calories and it's 150 and I think but I'm going to want my nice glass of wine later. I put them back down, stare at the floor until my food is done and run away! Phew, crisis averted. But seriously is it necessary for there to be extraneous food everywhere for people to eat?! I vote this as a problem in our society.

*Spoiler Alert* Biggest Loser Episode 2-to remind you I just sort of say some things I'm thinking

So it's the learn how sick you are episode this week. And wow everyone is very sick. Bob is trying to stand with like 300 extra pounds and freaking out. Jillian is basically throwing up from trying to eat the food. I was surprised it got anywhere near her mouth to be honest. She's so insane about organic and healthy stuff and counting her calories, which is good, but yeah surprised. Oh my god, the white mom fell and like broke her nose or something. Crazyness. Red team gets immunity, yay!

Oh wow, i didn't realize she was terrified of water, good for her getting in there and facing it. Ok weigh-in... Hmm red team playing the game, well that's smart, but still don't you just want to keep losing weight, isn't that the point? Whatever. People are pulling pretty good numbers for week two, except poor purple team :( And the mommy sacrifices herself for the daughter, so sad. Also, she's looking pretty good, still losing weight, good for her.

All the sickness helped motivate me to do my crunches for today and my knee is starting to really feel better, not great but better, so good day!

on to Week 2

2010-01-11T10:25:00.003-06:00

So I in fact accomplished my goals from last week! Go me :) As you can see I posted more than once, I also kept track of all my calories, and I wasn't allowed to work out, so I didn't do that. I also cooked for almost all my meals, so that's good. Hooray for accomplishing goals! I think as a reward I will find a workout video I want and buy it.

I did have a bit of a bad day on Saturday and ate about twice my allotment of calories, but I recorded them. I also discovered that Lose It switches to to the next day at midnight and you can't adjust the previous day after that, so that's a good tidbit, or at least I couldn't figure out how to.

I did weigh in this morning and was 163.0lbs, so that's down 1.2lbs, pretty good start :)

I guess on to goals for this week:

1) Track calories

2) Stay within 250 calories of the total week goal (1350 each day)

3) Cook for almost all meals this week (or make a sandwich whatever)

4) Do daily crunches

5) Post twice more this week

Since I'm still not sure how to work out with out killing my knee we'll start with crunches and I'll see what else I figure out how to do. Have a good week everyone!

Knee Issues

2010-01-07T16:06:00.003-06:00

Well my knee still hurts (although a bit less) and I went to the doctor today. He said, it sound like you strained your medial collateral ligament.... I said Huh? Apparently the muscles connecting the tibia and fibia are called that. So basically there's nothign much wrong with me I just have somehow repetitively tweaked those and it hurts now. So I'm supposed to rest it, avoid stairs, and ice it at night until it goes away... really helpful. He gave me a couple knee exercises, so I guess I'll do those, but no exercising for me for a little bit, which kinda sucks.

Just wanted to update, I'm doing well with my cooking and calorie counting :)

New Building Woes

2010-01-06T12:45:00.002-06:00

So we moved our lab.... and it was only a month and a half after our original move date. However it did manage to be right before Christmas and therefore caused some issues with my vacation plans (which were resolved by me pointing out to The Boss that I had actually informed him of my vacation plans well before the move date was set, to which he had no response, and let me keep my flight as planned). So we were the 3rd group to move in, which is all well and good, but let me tell you, working is difficult in this building for the following reasons:

1) The cold room doesn't work- so all our cold stuff is still one building over and 4 floors down (anyone seeing a problem here?)

2) DI water is still being cleaned-we work with really small concentrations of metals, so DeIONized water is kinda key

3) No natural gas hook ups-biology=sterile things, hard to do without bunsen burners

Those are the major problems, besides not knowing where we stored anything and general other issues. I would however like to give a shout-out to Midwest Movers, who totally rocked. Didn't break anything, including the boxes full of crappy glassware which we were hoping to break, and are sooooo crazy efficient it took them 1.5 days to move everything (we were afraid our 3 days wouldn't be enough). Also, Steve and the connection guys, who made everything work magically and are still hooking things up for us. You guys rock!

P.S. If you're reading this and choosing a grad school, don't pick one where they're going to make you move the lab to a new building. Just a hint....

New Year, New Start

2010-01-04T13:56:00.005-06:00

Hi all, it's a new year!

So as many people have, I'm sure, I've recommitted to getting healthy. I got an iPod Touch for Christmas and have been using the Lose It app to keep track of my calories. So far I am a big fan. I started using it on Sunday just to test it, but have been following pretty closely since Monday. Aiming for 1350 calories a day, it says that's what I need to loose 1.5lbs per week, which seems reasonable. I started at 164.2lbs on Monday, so at that rate I would make it to 125 by mid July. Of course, I'm sure there will be many set backs, but at least I have a plan.

The other part of my plan was to start working out this week. However, I've had a bit of a set back there. My knee hurts like hell and as far as I can remember I didn't do anything to it. I thought it might just go away but it's been 3+ days now, so I have a doctor's appt tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed that it's nothing too bad!

Oh I also decided to do the Pound for Pound Challenge, so you all should too, it doesn't cost anything and it helps feed people in need!

I also watched the premier of Biggest Loser last night! I'll start doing summaries again next week, but the people are really big this season. They inspire me to start before I let myself get to the point where I'm like that. Plus if they can do it, I can too!

So goals for the rest of the week:

1) Blog at least one more time

2) Keep track of alllll calories on my Lose It app

3) If the doctor gives the go ahead, exercise once

4) Continue to cook good food/bring lunch

Sounds like a good start, I also have been thinking about buying a couple workout videos for the weekend when I don't want to come all the way to the gym, so I'll look into that.

Happy New Year! and good luck with any resolutions you've made!

Getting back on the wagon

2009-12-10T15:37:00.002-06:00

So if anyone has been watching weather forecasts for around the country they may have noticed that in Chicago for the last few days it's been ugly. Between snow, sleet, rain, and wind chills of -15 or so, it's been bad. Welcome to winter in Chicago. I knew it would happen, but man, I wished it wouldn't be quite so nasty.

Which brings me to something actually related to the topics of my blog. I got on the scale for the first time since Thanksgiving and it said 163.8... nasty. Ok, well really it's not so bad, especially considering I haven't been to the gym in weeks, I haven't cooked in weeks and I've been generally stressed out about grad school. Now I know that New Years is coming up, and generally people make New Years resolutions, but I have several misgivings about that practice.

1) Most people don't keep them.- Sad, but true. I know I've made plenty that I haven't kept, and I'm sure anyone who's reading this has at least not kept one of their resolutions.

2) Why wait?- I mean what's the big deal about the new year? Why shouldn't I decide to make the change and do it now, not tomorrow, not on the magic day in 2.5 weeks, but now? Anybody? That's what I thought.

3) It's cliche.- Not that good a reason, but I really prefer to do my own thing.

So after this little rant, the point is: I'm making the commitment. And now the room echos back... again? Yes, again. I'm not perfect. I fell off the wagon, well I'll get back on.

And on that note, just two goals for the rest of this week, start slow I say.

1) Exercise at least once- baby steps are the way to go

2) Buy groceries for next week

I'd also like to try doing push-ups and crunches everyday, but I want to set goals I can meet to give myself some confidence before Monday, so bonus points if I start doing those too.

I've been remiss

2009-11-21T13:17:00.002-06:00

I apologize to anyone who has been waiting for an exciting post from me and really to myself as well. Blogging has just not seemed appealing lately and neither has weight loss or grad school work to be honest. I've been spending a lot of time just trying to get my work done. And you know what I found out... work is hard.

I know this doesn't sound like a revelation, but getting stuff done and trying to really focus is entirely too difficult. I know everyone does it, everyone has to do it (except for the indepandently wealthy), but man, it's such a pain. So as I attempt to do lots of work preceding this looming meeting I have with my boss, I've been discovering things about how I work and how to get myself to work. I've discovered (although haven't mastered) that moderation is key. Get this thing done, take a break, get something else done, take a break etc. If I try to go full out all day, sure I get that done, but then tomorrow and maybe the next day, nothing gets done. So moderation is key.

That said, moderation should really be the theme of all our lives. It works with work, should work with weight loss, probably helps with family and friends and other activities. A little bit of this and a little bit of that, helps us lead a balanced life. Now, don't get me wrong, the fact that I figured this out, doesn't mean I have it down. Not even close, but I'm trying.

Just think balance (goes for blogging too).

Stressssssed

2009-11-05T08:55:00.004-06:00

Hi all, sorry I've been missing, but I'm trying to cram in some results before we have to move our lab (more to come on that later). Unfortunately my 3 days of hard work went completely down the drain in about 5 minutes last night, so I get to start over! How exciting.... Needless to say I've been having a bit of a rough time.

Lab is so finnicky, yesterday morning things were going really well. Something that hadn't worked in 3 months, finally worked, the glove box was fixed, life was good. Then it all disappeared. Do other grad students feel like they should never get excited because it will just completely back fire on them? That's how I feel.

Also as a side note, 161.4 on monday and Tracey is gone!! (that's for the Biggest Loser fans).

So sorry for the absence, I'll try to get back to blogging, if just to keep my sanity alive.

sigh... not quite there

2009-10-30T09:34:00.003-05:00

Good morning all,

So I promised I would check this morning to see if I made my goal of under 160 by parents showing up (this afternoon), but I got 160.8 lbs... which is good but not great. Now I'm going to spend all weekend eating yummy free food and drinking wine, so I expect that won't be amazing for my weight loss, but hey, my parents don't visit very often.

We're having a freak warm day here with all kinds of fun wind and rain to go with it, but all will be well. Plus I get to ignore Halloween (not a big costume person), so this weekend should be very good for my overall mood. Hopefully I can also avoid the candy that goes with Halloween as well, which will help with weight loss.

Good luck avoiding the candy and have a great weekend! (don't forget to change your clocks)

Biggest Loser and working out

2009-10-27T21:23:00.003-05:00

Yay! I went to my Turbo Kick class and while it hurt, I feel good that I went. :) One small step at a time.

Soooo Biggest Loser *Spoiler Alert*

Fun challenge at the beginning, too bad the black team just couldn't quite get there. They will though, I have faith. Crazy faceoff week begins with the stupid boxing ring bit, whatever. I don't know about some of these choices, the black team could have a chance. We'll see what happens.

Oh jeeze, Amanda has a complete meltdown, poor girl. Hopefully, she'll figure something out. YAY!!! Black team wins the crazy baseball challenge, hooray happiness.

Oh no, Abbey's sad sad story:( This is breaking my heart.... she's really amazing and strong, really emotionally strong. It just makes you think, if she can live through that, I can do anything I want.

Oh and Amanda maybe having a breakthrough.... maybe, well not quite. Oh dear, crazy blocks and Allen does the insane high one!! I hate those blocks btw, we used to do them in middle school. That was not ok.

Jeeze, this is the emotional death episode. Shay is a mess, awwww :( So sad, jeeze, Yay she can do it!

Wow, Abbey is so sweet, she's such a good person :) And she looks.... really good:)

Life gets in the way...

2009-10-27T10:54:00.002-05:00

...of weight loss. Has anyone else noticed this? I know you're supposed to make weight loss and your health a priority and what not, but come on, we all have other stuff we put ahead of it. For example: work, you have to work to keep your job so you have some way to pay for your life. Let's face it, that and sleep take up a lot of time. Plus all our other little activities (I do orchestra), just add to that time. I'm just saying this because last week I never had time to drag myself to the grocery store, so I bought lunch and dinner all week, which as you all know, is detrimental to weight loss and I didn't work out and well you get the idea.

I know this is supposed to be a change your life kind of change, and I'm trying, but sometimes life gets in the way. Hopefully, I'll stay on target this week, even with all the prep for my parents showing up happening (like cleaning, lots of cleaning).

Anyway, weighed in yesterday at 162.8 lbs.... ugh, but I'll weigh in on Friday this week to see if I meet the under 160 lbs goal for my parents showing up. We'll just have to see. Working out tonight and hopefully blogging about Biggest Loser.

wow, what a week

2009-10-25T21:15:00.002-05:00

OK, so I failed at my post 4 times goal this week. I did weigh in on Monday. I was 161.2 lbs, which is ok. We'll see how tomorrow goes. Again it's just been kind of a rough week. Better posts this coming week I hope.

So we'll try some new goals for this week:

1) Make lunch and dinners

2) Calorie count

3) Work out twice

The parents will be here at the end of the week, so eating this weekend will be interesting, but hopefully I can do well the first 4 days of the week.

Weekend

2009-10-18T21:31:00.002-05:00

Weekends are always kind of tough for me in the eating correctly department. It's hard when I don't have a strict schedule to eat good meals. Also when I'm just home doing my own thing... I have a tendency to short of eat whatever. I have yet to get a fool proof plan to counter this problem. I'm working on it. I'm thinking something along the lines of making the kitchen off limits except at determined mealtimes.... or maybe some sort of reminder note on my door or the shelf to be all "Do you really want to eat this?". Anyway, work in progress. I don't think I did too badly this weekend. I guess we shall see on the scale tomorrow morning.

Ok, on the goals front this week, not so hot. I did post 4 times (including this one). I sort of kept track of calories everyday, but just like in my head, which doesn't entirely count, so that gets a semi-check. The exercise just sort of fell off a cliff between the being kind of sick and just not caring.

So on this list for next week or this week, whatever, starting tomorrow:

1) Post 4 times again :)

2) Count calories by writing them down somewhere everyday

3) Work out at least 3 times

Well I was sick...

2009-10-15T09:53:00.003-05:00

Turns out I made a good decision about not going to my crazy Turbo Kick class Tuesday night, because even without the workout I was sick yesterday. I had a mild fever, headache, lightheadedness for a good portion of the day. I went to work just for the mandatory group meeting portion and stopped for some food on my way home. I think my fever broke at about 7 PM, because suddenly I felt much better. I slept a lot last night and now, tada, all is well.

That said, I figure tomorrow is a good restart to working out, hopefully I can still get in 3 mild workouts by the end of the week and keep that goal. I realize this post doesn't have much of a theme, but I guess I just wanted to put that out there.

Food:

Breakfast-toast, PB, OJ=340

Lunch-yogurt parfait, potato chips=360

Dinner-wine, cheese, crackers, fruit, veggies=? 600

Total=1300

Cold/motivation

2009-10-13T21:00:00.000-05:00

I don't live in the warmest of cities, but for the last week or so it has been unseasonably cold (we're talking lows in the 30's highs in the upper 40's). It's basically winter already and I'm cold. Plus between the weather and the (dun dun dunnnnn) swine flu, everyone is sick. This does actually have a point: I woke up feeling like I'm getting a cold. Being sick completely kills my motivation for pretty much anything. After putting up all my lofty goals yesterday, I'm now trying to decide if going to my Turbo Kick class tonight is a good or bad idea.

So this is the question, at what point during the sickness cycle is it good to work out or bad to work out? I know that Jillian Michaels had this as one of her questions a while ago and I believe her answer was something like: work out unless the sickness has moved into your chest, you have a fever, or are light headed. While I accept the premise that feeling sick shouldn't be a an excuse to blow off your workouts, I also know that generally if I rest and sleep when I feel like I'm getting sick, I can ward it off or at least make it shorter. I guess that's my dilemma, go with Jillian's advice or my own previous experience. I guess I'll just see how I feel by the end of the day.

Well, I didn't end up going... still tired and sore throat, so I will go to bed early and hope that this whole sicky thing goes away.

Also *Spoiler Alert*, Biggest Loser tonight!

So, guess what Tracy gets the power.. again. how on earth did that happen? Also, I'm very proud of Abby for not playing the temptation. So of course she's going to split all the teams up except hers, and then she has to pick one other team not to split up, so she puts what she views as the weakest team together on the black team (Daniel and Shay, also she might be trying to get on their good side-unlikely). Goes ahead to put the strongest players on her team. Pretty obvious Tracy strategy, also basically going to get her kicked off as soon as they have a chance.

Challenge was interesting... fairly predictable ending since there are only two guys on the black team. Once they get to some of the stability challenges and things they'll have a chance to win. Can't believe that Liz gave Danny her video, so super cute! I wish Dina would get up on that stupid platform block thing. I know those things are scary, I've done that, and yeah I get it, but grrr I wish she could do it! Black team is working together really well though:) Jillian is good at that.

Crazy weigh-in tonight. Tracy pulls a decent number again unfortunately. Everyone is pulling decent numbers though. Really proud of Danny... and Daniel!!! (I have a tendency to be for Jillian's team, Tracy is just helping with that fact right now) OMG SHAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok, sorry, got excited :) Ok what's with all the wishywashyness about voting off tracy, they better do it.... I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!!! What are they thinking?!?! I can't even, nope, ok I'm done commenting now.

Food eaten today:

Breakfast: OJ, toast, PB=340

Lunch-chicken noodle soup, potato chips, mint, oyster crackers=700

Dinner-fig newtons, cereal, hershey bar, grapes=515

Total Calories=1555

(possible) revelation

2009-10-12T10:20:00.006-05:00

Alright, so this morning I woke up dreading weighing into the scale due to my lovely: I don't feel like cooking, let's order italian food for dinner, move last night. And I weighed in at 162.2 lbs, yep, gained weight. Then I wasn't going to post it or blog because I had excuses. Well, earlier this weekend I weighed under 160 (which I was excited about btw), so why should I post just this day, maybe I'll wait and try again tomorrow when it's more reasonable. Then I read some other blogs and realized: This is what I wanted to do the blog for!!! I'm holding myself accountable. Ok, I made a bad decision last night and these are the consequences. Good to know, remember this feeling next time you want to eat the entire loaf of garlic bread you ordered (or remember this before you order the garlic bread). Anyhow, back on track, and I thought some goals for the week would be a good addition as well.

Week Goals:

1) Keep track of calories everyday (even if I don't get a chance to post them)

2) Blog at least 4 times (I realized that expecting myself to blog everyday is a little too optimistic)

3) Work out 3 times!

Other slightly longer term goals:

1) Be under 160lbs when my parents get here (October 30th)

2) Get work outs up to four times a week by the end of October.

Hmm, I just realized my little tickers change all of them when I change it online. So they all say the same thing now. I'll have to fix that...

Crazyness

2009-10-08T13:39:00.003-05:00

Well, I've had a very busy first half of this week, including rehearsals, lab, walk-throughs, organizing an open house, getting a little lab work done, moving meetings etc. This was all in the first three days of my week. Yesterday I organized a wine and cheese open house for the first years we're trying to get to join our group, which means I had wine and cheese and then was hungry when I got home, and had food and more wine. Not the best calorie day, really not sure how much I ended up eating. But back on track today!

Food I ate today:

Breakfast-toast, PB, OJ=330

Lunch-salad with chicken, beats, fruit, smartfood popcorn=440?

Snack-mints=45

Dinner-cereal, turkey, chocolate=600

Total=1415

Hump Day

2009-10-07T12:09:00.002-05:00

Ahhh Wednesdays, that whole middle of the week vibe. I thought I might be due for some grad school blogging. mostly the thing about "hump day" is that it's supposed to be the middle day. I, as most chem grad students do, work on saturday, so the term doesn't entirely apply to us. My particular group has our group meeting on wednesdays, which is always kind of a toss up. Depending on who's presenting and how much group business we have or how much one of our group members need to talk about the group business (he has a tendency to go in circles) it can take an hour or three. Thankfully today was only about an hour and a half. So I realize this is completely random, but I think the point is that Hump day means group meeting and sort of signals the middle of the normal work week. Grad students can take the meaning as they like it.

Biggest Loser S8Ep4

2009-10-06T14:52:00.004-05:00

Ate today:

Breakfast-cereal, OJ=300

Lunch-Ginger Chicken sandwich, chips, mint=645

Snack-apple, fig newtons=185

Dinner-toast, PB, yogurt, cheese, celery, truffle=390

Total=1520

Exercise=1 hr Turbo Kick class, I'll guess the 500 calories again

Ok, didn't realize apples had so many calories... note to self. But still good day overall. I had a bunch of little sucesses for myself. I walked past this restaurant at lunch time that I looooovvveee their biscuits and sausage gravy and got a good cosi sandwich instead. Then I really really wanted to go home and skip working out, but I stayed until my class! Go me:)

*Spoiler Alert*

Sooooo Biggest Loser tonight (I hadn't realized I forgot to do one last week, oops). Sooooo happy that Daniel won them immunity! Not sure if he was playing the game with the 0 or not... don't really care if he did, it happens. Crazy take out week, reminds me of the stuff they pull on the australia biggest loser (which I've watched some of on utube). I hate when they mess with the food, because the whole point is to help these people loose weight. I think it would be more reasonable to ask them to eat out once a day, because that makes more sense in real life too.

Also, how is Tracy losing weight without doing anything??? I guess she was just eating so much before that this restricted calories is enough? But like the poor pink team and a bunch of the other girls are working their butts off to lose like 3 pounds and she does it without working out... I guess lucky her, but she bugs me, but yay Mo :) So proud of the pink team this week!

Another Week

2009-10-05T21:21:00.002-05:00

This morning I weighed in and guess what? I was 161.2 lbs, sounds familiar doesn't it? Oh well, at least I'm down from last week, and considering I didn't get to go grocery shopping until Sunday and was living off random food, I say not bad. I'm totally exhausted today between not sleeping well and running around for weird errands all day. I'm super stressed due to a snag in the moving the lab plans. Our lovely boss has decided that he wants to move the three days before thanksgiving, which throws a snag into travel plans for everyone. Anyway, and several other things are all converging into this week, so this is me freaking out and trying to keep myself together.

Food eaten today:

Breakfast-cereal, OJ=300

Lunch-chicken pita thing, yogurt, apple=410

Dinner-turkey, cheese, mushroom sandwich, truffle, grapes=420

Total=1200

It's raining... and I'm tired

2009-10-01T15:38:00.003-05:00

Do rainy days make everyone lazy and grumpy or is it just me? The tired part is my own fault, so I can't complain too much. I had the last disk of Bones Season 3 last night, and kind of watched until after 1 Am to finish the season. As you may of guessed, that's way past my bedtime(10:45). I still haven't unpacked and I need to do laundry again... Things are piling up and I dont' want to do them. Sigh, when did this whole adult thing happen? Anyway as you may have guessed I didn't quite make it to the gym this morning and didn't bring anything for lunch, so I had maybe not the best food. I really need to go to the grocery store.

Food consumed today:

Breakfast-Toast and PB, OJ=330

Lunch-Chicken salad pita thing, potato chips=600?

Dinner-cereal, cheese, turkey, truffle=450

Total Calories=1380

blah

2009-09-30T23:35:00.000-05:00

Food consumed:

breakfast-toast and PB, OJ=330

Lunch-lean cuisine, mint=335

Dinner-rice cakes, cereal, cheese, truffle=740

Total=1405

Not bad on food today.... soooo sore from the Turbo Kick last night, sigh. Hopefully making myself work out in the morning... even if I am sore. We'll see how it goes.

Laziness

2009-09-29T22:55:00.000-05:00

I was reminded of something I already knew about myself today, and well actually it's kind of a law of physics.... a body in motion stays in motion and a body at rest stays at rest. Ok, this does apply to me. I have suddenly gotten very busy and remembered that I am much more motivated, efficient, and happy when I have a thousand things to do. Unlike when I'm lazy (hence the title) and just don't want to do anything then, even simple stuff like unpacking or cooking dinner. So now that I'm super busy, let's see how weight loss goes (ie more likely to work out).

Food today:

Breakfast-PB and toast, OJ=330

Lunch-potato chips, sushi=660

Snack-yogurt, rice cakes=150

Dinner-cereal, truffle, cheese, turkey=440

Total Calories=1580

Workout-Turbo Kick, 1 hr= I have no idea I'm guessing 500

I tried this new class that is mostly like kick boxing but with some other cardio and ab work, it was a lot of fun. I think I will continue going. Plus I work myself harder in a class than I do by myself.

I'm Back!

2009-09-28T20:43:00.000-05:00

Ok I finally made it back from "vacation" or visiting the grandparents and am all set to get going again. I happily looked at the scale this morning to see 161.6 lbs... which means I only gained .2 lbs over vacation. Believe me, I ate whatever I wanted (yummy mexican food), but I did take a walk and go for a swim for the first time in a long time... it felt good, but man was my racing suit tight, which makes sense since I haven't had a new one since I was about... 20 lbs lighter than I am now. I think I would like to give it a couple more weeks before I try that again.

I'm still waiting for the results of my cholesterol test and have a huge purple and green bruise on my arm that's still sore to prove it. Oh the fun...

Also completely exhausted today, darn you time change! So trying to get back to some sort of normal routine tomorrow with a new motivated outlook.. I hope :)

So what I ate today:

Breakfast-toast and PB, OJ=330

Lunch-salad from a salad bar(completely guessing on calories here), mint=300?

Dinner-cereal, too much popcorn, chocolate=1170

Total Calories=1800

Well I was watching the Grey's Premiere and I got distracted and ate a whole bag of popcorn without blinking. So there's that, but I made orchestra, so that's exciting. I realize this was completely unrelated but yeah... On to working out and eating right tomorrow:)

Undergrads...

2009-09-24T10:11:00.002-05:00

The undergrads came back this week...

I know I know, everyone else has had them for ages, but we have one of those screwed up quarter systems and it wasn't until this week (keep in mind they don't leave until mid June). I forgot how crowded they make everything. I was selling lab goggles and notebooks to freshmen on Tuesday and we got swamped with people asking us where things were in the giant sciences building. We dont' know where most things are, it was entertaining. Blind leading the blind. I'll have to get used to the crowdedness of campus again. It also means summer is officially over and I should really stop slacking off.

But first... of to AZ to the gradparents' place this weekend. Wish me luck on not being bored out of my mind! (also no internet, so expect me back on Monday)

Biggest loser S8Ep2

2009-09-23T10:39:00.002-05:00

Ok I know, I suck at posting lately. I have about a million things going on, including getting my blood taken, packing for AZ, laundry, you get it. I did manage to watch BL last night while I was doing my laundry, so here's a few opinions etc. I'll have to get back to posting everyday when I get back from visiting my grandparents in AZ (not so much with the internet there).

*Spoiler Alert*

So I wasn't sure how I felt about this 150lb challenge thing. I always think it's great when they do this stuff that let's them stay on longer, but 150lbs in week 2, that's kind of mean. I do like that they were all working together, less game play, more losing weight is always good.

So glad Tracy is back and mostly ok. I kinda wish they had showed what she was doing to work out for all the people out there with some health restrictions, but hooray for the purple team:)

I also really liked that they gave them opportunities to decrease the amount of lbs needed for this week. I wonder if that was originally the plan, or if Bob and Jillian were like, ummm this isn't cool, help them out a little. I was also super impressed that they all worked together and just did that balance challenge. pretty awesome!

All the phone calls home made me cry... yeah, I'm a little girly.

Amazing weight loss! I feel bad for the pink team, I think that Amanda just hasn't hit her sweet spot yet. Don't give up! I'm sure she'll get there. It was very impressive that they got over the original 150 lbs, I wonder if Bob and Jillian really switched a lot so this would happen. Will we be seeing traditional week 2 numbers next week instead? Also, I still love Daniel, he's amazing and in the 200's!

MIA

2009-09-21T10:46:00.002-05:00

Sorry I completely disappeared for a few days. I wasn't having the best eating habits and everything in lab was going wrong, so I basically curled up in bed and read for a day and a half. So back to the real world and blogging.

I did weigh in this morning and despite my terrible eating the last 3 days I am still exactly the same weight 161.4 lbs... weird huh? Anyhow, it doesn't look like I'll be getting under 160 by the time I go to Arizona on Thursday, but I'll check thursday morning just in case.

More to come later today!

Oops

2009-09-18T08:43:00.003-05:00

Well my internet was weird last ngiht so I didn't get to do this.

Yesterday I ate

Breakfast-toast and PB, OJ=330

Lunch-pork, plum, mint=220

Snack-handisnack=100

Dinner-popcorn, handisnacks, grapes, ice cream, wine=840ish?

Total Calories=1490

And I finally realized that my emotions are all weird and I'm craving food due to PMS... duh. Also I feel like i"m getting sick, which is not good.

Free Food Temptation

2009-09-16T23:00:00.000-05:00

So today, in the lobby outside my lab there was free food... alllll day. Talk about temptation, I was going crazy. I walk through there at least 5 times a day and grad school is full of free food. Plus in grad school it's a culture thing: you get paid no money, you must steal the free food. It's basically implanted in our brains. Resisting the urge, especially when it comes in the form of really bad for you things (pastries, chips, chocolate things...) is really hard. I did bring a supply of snacks today, so I resisted, but I had to think, free food does not mean you have to eat it, about 10 times.

So what I ate today:

Breakfast-cereal, OJ=310

lunch-pork with veggies, celery, yogurt, mint=280

Snack-rice cakes=90

Dinner-salmon, popcorn, ice cream, grapes=1000

Total Calories=1680

Well I had kind of a rough evening. My parents are still talking about moving, and it's still upsetting me a lot. Plus all my lab stuff is not working, so it was a not so good mood and I just wanted something to make me feel better. So food it was, but at least I managed to stop myself before I went completely crazy, I knew I was full and I didn't go get any more.

Biggest Loser Season 8!!!

2009-09-15T21:37:00.000-05:00

*Spoiler Alert*

Oh my god, this season is ridiculous, everyone is sooo big, you could tell the trainers were almost just astonished. But the good thing is they all started and tried really hard. I'm so glad Daniel is back and he's such a good guy, so encouraging to everyone and really helping out his partner since she's in the same position he was last time.

Oooo, I love all the research testing. It could be really cool if they're able to give a little bit of the progress for some of it by the end of the show. It's really scary how sick these people are, I hope nothing more serious than what happened tonight happens the rest of the season.

Oh my god Jillian's crying....oh she's so sweet :) I love Jillian so much. I like all the yelling and puking and then she does the whole emotional thing too.

Well I'm sad that one of the young ones had to go home early, but she looks really good! I bet she'll do well in the finale. I also kind of feel like she was the most negative out of the group, so maybe that will help with nice group dynamics (I get frustrated with the drama). Also sooooo glad that Coach Moe made the weight he needed, hopefully Tracy can come back next week!

Food for today:

Breakfast-toast and PB, OJ=310

Lunch-cashew chicken, mint=305

Snack-yogurt, pringles=160

Dinner-small corn muffin, pork with onions, mushrooms, and oranges, ice cream, 2 handisnacks=585

Total Calories=1360

Exercise-40 min on olipticle =393 calories (or so the machine says)

I had a mental fight with my scale this morning and I WON! yay me, so I didn't weigh myself, sticking to it until Monday. Had a little issue with buying food after my fun GYN appointment at the grocery store, but I didn't eat it all and I made my new yummy orange braised pork dish, so that was exciting!

Food intake

2009-09-14T13:19:00.004-05:00

Breakfast-cereal, OJ=350

Lunch-leftover cashew chicken, mint=285

Dinner-cheese, turkey, pringles, rice cakes, yogurt, kiwi, PB, truffle=605

Total Calories=1240

Workout-weight lifting 40 min, according to some website about 290 calories burned...I think I may have pushed a little hard lifting this morning, but it was nice to get back into it. Probably I'll be sore tomorrow, oh well, no pain no gain right?

Oh tomorrow I'll be posting my opinions of the Biggest Loser Season 8 premiere, but not an entire summary. SOOOOO excited!!

Scales/WI

2009-09-14T10:38:00.003-05:00

And today I was 161.4 lbs.... again, which annoyed me. Also, how likely is it to vary up and down through the week and then get the same weight for WI day?

Anyway, I was mostly annoyed because yesterday when I got on the scale I was 160.6, and was excited. This brings me to my topic: scales. This is always a controversy, how often should you weigh yourself? Well, I've been doing it once a day in the morning every day, but now I bet I wouldn't have been as disappointed if I hadn't known about yesterday's weight and got the same today. Would have been somewhat disappointed but not as much as I am now. I weigh myself everyday as a reminder to pay attention, but maybe it's not such a good idea? I think this week I may skip the scale until Monday and see how that goes.

I also reasoned through in my head and realized all the wine probably dehydrated me so my body sucked up a bunch of water yesterday, hence back to 161.4. It did however motivate me to push hard in the gym this morning, which is good.

Hermit Day

2009-09-13T21:15:00.000-05:00

Today I just stayed home and watched tv and cleaned a little and just hid from life. It was nice. I was thinking about going to work, but it just didn't seem like it was in the cards. Especially since I was slightly hungover from alll the wine last night. Considering how drunk I was I didn't eat much extra food (or at least not nearly as much as I normally would when we go to those). I also only ate as much of the Thai we ordered as I was hungry for and I ordered something without noodles and with lots of veggies. All in all I think I'm learning to think healthier and some better control. We'll see what the scale says tomorrow!

Breakfast-cereal=290

Lunch-5 Shumai, Cashew Chicken and a little rice, truffle=520

Dinner-kiwi, turkey slices,2 pringles, cheese, skiny cow ice cream, mint=465

Total Calories=1275

Wine

2009-09-12T23:50:00.001-05:00

This post is due to a wine premiere I'm going to today and hoping that I don't go completely overboard and kill my weight loss for the week. Btw, I looooovvve wine!

Alright, I know that when you're trying to loose weight alcohol is a bad word, but can we all really do without it for as long as this might take (many months, a year)? I don't think so. Not only does it taste reallllly good, but as a 20-something, there are bars and clubs and parties to go to. Some of those things don't require alcohol, but don't you feel much better in those heals when you can't entirely feel your feet? I thought so.

The next step is, how do you incorporate it into your calories? Well, there's keeping all other non-healthy things out of your day, or the eating less (but that can be difficult if you don't want to be very drunk), or exercising some extra calories off, so it's not too bad.

I think it's possible to indulge sometimes and still lose the weight. Let's see if it works out...

Food?:

Breakfast-cereal, OJ=310

Lunch-plum, turkey, pringles, carrots, yogurt, cheese, mint=355

Dinner-eggbeaters, cheese, mushrooms=200

Wine Tasting-6 glasses of wine, pita bread, cheese=900

Total Calories=1765

Wow, a little big, but I had a lot of wine, and it was soo good, I'll make up for it tomorrow.

Friday (finnnaaaaally)

2009-09-11T22:36:00.000-05:00

So first I just want to say all the people who lost loved ones on 9/11 are in my heart today.

Food I ate Today:

Breakfast-toast and PB, OJ=310

Lunch=PB&J sandwich, plum, yogurt, mint=335

Dinner-cereal, smartfood popcorn, chips, truffle=670

Total Calories=1315

So good on the calories but not the best food... can't have everything.

I didn't get to go to the gym today because my experiment that was running overnight stopped at the first step and I spent all day fixing it. So more time in lab tomorrow, very not fun.

Hooray for the weekend though, just hope I can keep my calories in check.

Sorry not exciting today, but I'll try for some longer things this weekend.

One Week!

2009-09-10T21:47:00.000-05:00

Hey, I've managed to blog my way through an entire week, and I have to say, "I'm loving it!" So I promised you guys some optimism for yesterday and well, it kinda didn't happen. I apologize and bring you optimism one day late instead.

I want to talk about mini-goals. I spent a lot of this week when I should have been working reading the archives of FatBridesmaid, because I wanted to look at how a successful blog started and evolved (She's completely amazing btw, you should be reading her). I was mostly amazed by her perseverance. I get up and think oh my god, I have 36ish pounds to loose, how will I do that? It seems impossible and overwhelming. I'm sure you've had that feeling. Then I thought, what about the people who have even more to loose, how do they do it? My answer was mini-goals. If you can look at just this week, or just those 5 pounds, it seems easier, doable, underwhelming (don't know if that's a word, but work with me here). Alright, so I should make some mini-goals.

Mini-goals:

1) Blog everyday for the rest of the month (Except the days I'm at my grandparents because well internet is a problem)

2) Count calories everyday for the rest of the month-even if I go over, totally destroy everything, I will count them

3) Get out of the 160's by the time I go to my grandparents' house (which is the 24th)-it's only a pound and a half, but I want it, and I just want to do that much right now.

Loftier goals to come after I succeed in these small ones.

Food I ate Today:

Breakfast-ditto=310

Lunch-ditto+nectarine=365

Dinner-Tandori Chicken Lite sandwich, carrots from Cosi and two glasses of wine, one mint=745

Total Calories=1420

Decent day, also wine rocks...

Yay I exercised!

2009-09-09T20:47:00.004-05:00

So just to warn you all, this is going to be a pretty random post.

Food I ate today:

Breakfast-ditto the rest of the week=310

Lunch-PB&J Sandwich, yogurt, mint=305

Snack-rice cake snack bag=90

Dinner-mac&cheese, chocolate covered strawberries=750

Total Calories=1455

Exercise: 350ish calories burned on the oliptical, 30min plus cooldown

Alright, so optimistic first. I got up and exercised this morning and it felt good! I'm going to take a break tomorrow so I don't push myself too hard. I know, I know, people heavier and more out of shape than me do way more everyday on the Biggest Loser. I do not have medical supervision and don't have time to get sick because I pushed too hard, so this is the way it goes.

Next, well you may have noticed the mac and cheese on the food list. I'm not perfect, I never said I was, and I never will. Last night I really wanted mac and cheese and talked myself out of it, but the craving continued through today and I just couldn't stop myself. Honestly, it didn't taste quite as good as I remembered, possibly due to the topping of guilt on top.

Ok, lastly a little personal info that's having a large effect on my mental state. I found out my dad lost his job today, which is not as bad as you are all thinking. He's been looking for a different one for a while since the (now) old one had issues that he didn't like. He has several leads, so it's not that bad. He, however, mentioned that one of these possibilities is in St. Louis, which is my current problem. Explanation: I'm from NJ, my parents still live there, still live in the house I (up until college) lived in my entire life. So when he says St. Louis, my world starts to fall apart. Now, yes I am being waaaaaay too dramatic here, especially since it's only a possibility, but hear me out. Being able to go back to that house for a couple days every 4 months-ish keeps me grounded, and able to survive living so far away from most of the people I love. It would make life really really hard for me if my parents sold the house.

09-09-09

2009-09-09T11:00:00.003-05:00

So the title isn't what I actually want to talk about, but it is kind of a cool day. Anyhow, what I want to talk about is construction. Yep, you got it right.

I hate construction.

That's not the whole story, but it does sum it up. Ok so any grad student or undergrad who stayed for a summer or professor knows that summer at a university=construction time. Ok, I get it, the nice little undergrads who pay you lots of money aren't around, so you use this time to convert the place into a disaster area. Plus, where I live you can't do much construction outside in the winter... it just doesn't go well. However, university, you might remember that other people do work here, all summer.

Also, I have had the good fortune to be in a permanent construction zone since I arrived at grad school. They are building us a brand-new, shiny, clean lab building. We're moving at the beginning of November (well, that's when we're supposed to move). Great, that is actually really awesome, except for the actual moving process, which I'm sure you will here much more from me about. But again, construction, allllll the time. It's loud and dusty and occaisionally turns off the power without warning and there are construction workers everywhere (well sometimes that's not so bad).

Anyway, as I said before:

I hate construction.

Grumble

2009-09-08T22:00:00.000-05:00

Food I ate today:

Breakfast-rice crispies and milk, OJ=310

Lunch-PB&J sandwich, yogurt, carrots=340

Dinner-Turkey, mushroom, cheese, toast, raspberries=385

Dessert-4 chocolate covered strawberries=240

Total Calories=1275

Ok you look at that and you say to me, why is this post titled grumble? Well I'll tell you, while the food I ate today list is within my limit and I feel super full on what I feel like is a small amount of calories, I didn't have a great day.

Yeah, so I wanted to work out today, but I had a bunch of stuff I wanted to do at work this morning, so I said, ok, I'll start work, I'll go to the gym after lunch. I know myself better than this, if I don't go early in the morning, I don't go. Right, so I didn't go to the gym. Then I was going to come home and make this new recipe orange braised pork thing. However, I open up the pork I bought yesterday and it's a funny color, ewwwww. Needless to say, I didn't make the pork dish. Now I have to figure out what to do for lunch the rest of the week...

Sorry, not very optimistic tonight, I'll try to get back to my happy place tomorrow.

Budgets

2009-09-08T13:02:00.002-05:00

A friend of mine mentioned today that another mutual friend had gone shopping and was not adhering to her budget, and this got me thinking about the word budget and what exactly that means to us.

For a grad student budgeting our money can be well difficult and very important, on the other hand having a calorie budget is important to weight loss, and last, but not least, budgeting our time in grad school and in weight loss is also important. Ok, so now budgeting seems to have taken over my life and I'm sure a lot of yours as well.

I recently decided that a monetary budget was something I really needed. Up until now I don't have so much of a spending problem that I was having trouble making ends meet on my lowly graduate stipend, but I am planning a trip to Italy next fall and I would really like to be able to buy souvenirs and still have a savings account when I get home. I've only officially kept track for a full month so far, but I've managed to stay mostly in bounds. Some not fully expended areas covered a couple that I went over in and so far, so good. It is a big step into adulthood to keep track of everything... I always wondered why my mom had piles and piles of receipts on her desk... well now I know. Welcome to real life

Ok so calorie budgets, we all have them, do we stick to them? Well I know we try, which is a good step in and of itself. Sticking to our calorie budget means we feel good, we (hopefully) lose weight, and everything fits into place.

Budgeting our time, ok grad students unite on this one, if you don't budget time in lab, nothing ever gets done. Turns out this is true with the rest of life. Cooking healthy food takes time, exercising takes time, sleeping takes time, well you get the idea.

Overall point: Budgets are important!

Biggest Loser

2009-09-08T10:02:00.003-05:00

Today is the one week mark to the 8th season of Biggest Loser! I am a huge fan. I've only seen Seasons 6 and 7 so far, but I'm really excited for 8. If you haven't seen the preview, here's a link: http://www.nbc.com/the-biggest-loser/video/clips/the-biggest-loser-extended-preview/1152091/

I'm especially thrilled that Dan is back and that it's singles this time. I wonder if it will help or hurt Dan the first couple of weeks since he's already partially in shape, his numbers might not be as big.

Anyway, the point is I'll be following the show and posting my own little comments about it the next day.

Also Tara (from Season 7) has a new website with a blog if anyone is interested: http://www.taracosta.com/

Mmmmm Strawberries

2009-09-07T20:12:00.000-05:00

So I'm planning to have about 1200-1400 calories per day. I've done some research and 1200 seems to be the lowest healthy amount of calories, but that's a little tough, so I'm giving myself some wiggle room. Plus, I'll just lose a little more slowly, which I'm ok with. A lot of my research is from Jillian Michaels (who I love btw). Her books and her old radio show were very informative.

Food eaten today (with calories):

Breakfast-rice crispies and milk, OJ= 310

Lunch-rice cake mini bag, chicken and asparagus, mint=330

Snack-strawberries and chocolate=320

Dinner-egg beaters, mushrooms, cheese, toast with jam, chocolate covered strawberries=500

Total Calories=1460

So I went to the grocery store and they had really good strawberries that I really wanted to make into chocolate covered strawberries (which are amazing), and that's where the extra chocolate calories came from today. There was extra chocolate when I was making them that I just couldn't let go to waste and I know that's like clean plate syndrome, but it was chocolate...

Anyway, so just a few over calories, not too bad. I did have a little exercise walking home with my groceries.

Labor Day

2009-09-07T15:17:00.003-05:00

So today is labor day and from what I looked up on labor day, it is supposed to be a day of appreciation for trade and labor workers and their families. Ok so I think that grad students should definitely go in that category since we are basically slave labor. Well I went to lab today, only for a half a day, but still.

The university does sort of give a lot of our department's grad students a way out of going in this weekend. They do maintenance on our buildings, which shuts down things like fume hoods, water, power etc. This, however, depends on which building you work in. My particular building had the power shut down yesterday and the reverse osmosis water shut down all weekend. So part of the weekend I was off the hook, but I needed to get some things done today, so in I go.

The other problem with the building shut down is it says in the notification emails something along the lines of: Since most of the campus will be gone this weekend. Well, of course, most lab oriented grad students are not actually gone, expecting to be able to work. I wonder if the university knows that we usually work holidays and weekends. Maybe someone should write the dean a letter. I think it should say:

Dean, remember when you were in grad school. Did you work on the weekends? Remember that when sending out notices about building shut downs. Love, the graduate population of your university.

Monday Morning

2009-09-07T11:02:00.002-05:00

Ahh yes, so this morning was my WI morning (I know I started this on a wednesday, but Monday's are usually the day I WI).

So I weight 161.4lbs, which is a little smaller loss than I was hoping for, but still a loss. I figure as long as I lost weight, I can be happy about it. Plus this week I will actually be counting calories and working out more than once, so it should get better.

Also wanted to thank my first follower! I'm so excited that someone is actually reading this. More motivation to keep posting:) Thanks Meg!

Almost forgot!

2009-09-06T23:45:00.002-05:00

I got completely distracted by this new Facebook application that RM1 talked me into called Farmville and almost forgot to do this post.

So very quickly, I ate today:

Breakfast- OJ, Rice crispies and skim milk

Lunch-two slices american cheese, 4 turkey slices, small low fat yogurt, low fat pringles, truffle

Dinner-take out Chinese (including 4 steamed pork dumplings, some assorted beef and chicken veggie dishes that weren't the breaded fried kind, and a little rice), one brownie

Not sure how the dinner part is going to effect my WI tomorrow, but most of the chinese was not that bad being mostly veggies. I'm just worried about portion size and the brownie. We were at an outdoor concert, and they just looked soooo good.

More interesting things tomorrow I promise!

Evolution of weight gain

2009-09-05T22:45:00.003-05:00

So today at the jazz fest, a friend of mine from college and I were talking about the way this girl an ex-friend of ours married looks now (namely she's gained a lot of weight and looks kind of terrible). It got me thinking about my own weight gain and how it came about.

Ok, we all know that everyone warns you about the freshman 15, so as a freshman I paid attention. I wasn't amazing looking but I was still in the healthy range for my height. I worked out, kind of watched what I ate... no problem, also spent the summer after freshman year losing about 5-6 lbs. Great good times, so this is 130lbs about.

Sophmore year, I gained back the weight I lost over the summer and a couple more. Then I went to Europe for the summer, welllll let's just say the czechs don't exactly have light food. So add another 8ish lbs.

Junior-senior year slowly gained up to 155lbs, decided spring semester that wasn't ok and did online WW, lost 10 lbs, then drank my way back to the 155lbs in the last month and a half of senior year.

Ok so everyone is warned about that freshman 15, no one mentions the grad school weight gain (which I know many people have had). So I entered at around 150 having tried WW again during that summer. It took about a year to gain the 15lbs to get me up to around where I am now. I kept trying WW, but I didn't want to trek to the meetings or the points were annoying or whatever... so that's where I am and how I got here.

Jazz Fest...

2009-09-05T21:30:00.002-05:00

So today was an absolutely gorgeous day here and I got to go hear free excellent jazz music outside all day. Something to note, anything free is a must do for grad students.

Anyway, good day of sun and fun, not too bad on the food front either I don't think.

Food for today:

Breakfast-rice crispies and skim milk

Lunch- rice crispies, skim milk, turkey slices (3), nectarine, mint

Dinner-pot stickers (chicken and veggies), skinnycow fudsicle, lowfat pringles, truffle

Not bad considering I went to a festival with plenty of bad for you temptations... like funnel cake and burgers and well you get the idea. No exercise besides wandering around the festival, but at least I didn't stay in my room all day and do nothing.

Free Pizza

2009-09-04T20:35:00.002-05:00

Ok, so something that's vaguely relevant to weight loss, at least to eating habits anyway. I don't actually like pizza, at least not as is. I like pizza without the cheese, so at least I feel like I'm not getting quite as bad for me food when I eat pizza as everyone else. This is relevant because we had free pizza at our Chem department social today and it was dinner.

So food consumed today:

Breakfast-toast, PB, OJ

Lunch-chicken and asparagus, pretzels, mints (H2O)

Dinner-3 pieces of pizza (one sausage), half a cup of root beer

Snack-2 truffles, mint

Anyway, overall not bad, no exercise because I was sooo tired after yesterday. Slowly but surely.

Hg...

2009-09-04T13:02:00.004-05:00

Alright, so I never thought much about the heat block that's kept on my bench until today. I broke the thermometer, and it turns out it was a mercury thermometer. Yeah... so instead of doing my little assay I was planning to do, I got a crash course in Hg clean up, needless to say, I am now somewhat behind on my plan for today.

So for all you lab slaves out there... check and see if your thermometers are still mercury, and get rid of them if they are. Mercury clean up is no fun!

Graduate Social Structure

2009-09-04T08:49:00.003-05:00

So later today we have the first department social of the year to "welcome" the first years, which lead me to thinking about the chemistry department's social structure. In my experience it goes something like this:

First years hang out together- this tends to be obvious due to orientation, classes, TAing, and the lack of a lab to live in. Sometimes this group splinters into Chemistry disciplines (Organic, Inorganic, Pchem), although I assume this depends on how big the department is (ours is rather large).

By about the middle of 2nd year people splinter off into hanging out with their groups- generally you rarely see anyone outside of lab, so this is natural, as long as you actually like your group. There are also groups who tend to hang out with specific other groups depending on the situation.

Ok so those are the basic rules. I happen to meld a few of my first year friends into my hang out circle, not sure how common that is. It also helps that I live with one of them... plus I'll meet the 1st years due to my 1st year roommate.

So at this social this is what normally happens. People show up with their groups, often they will see some long lost year-mate and wander over to talk to them. Creating either little clusters of lab groups or little clusters of year-mates, generally there isn't much mixing besides that. I feel that this is really not optimal to our socializing, but have yet to figure out a way to fix it. So I just try to actually talk to people not in my year or my lab group.

Anyhow, that's my morning thoughts... time to get some lab work done before this lovely social (they do give us free food, which is nice even if it is pizza).

Food for Thought

2009-09-03T20:41:00.000-05:00

I generally intend to list food intake and any exercise I've done everyday along with any other tidbits about weight-loss that seem relevant.

Today I ate:

Breakfast-whole-wheat toast, PB, OJ

Lunch-chicken and asparagus, pretzels, 2 mints (lots of H2O)

Dinner-turkey, toast, cheese and mushroom sandwich, nectarine, pretzels, truffle, mint, gingerale

I'll start counting calories next week when I know for certain I'm completely not sick anymore.

Exercise:

half an hour on the stationary bike

The exercise was amazingly tiring, probably due to the fact that I've been sick and not working out for the last well almost 2 weeks. Note to self: take recovery slowly in order to not get injured.

So overall I've done pretty well today(assuming I don't eat a ton after I finish this). Good first day of the blog!

Little bit of background

2009-09-03T16:45:00.003-05:00

Alright, as I'm hoping this will stay semi anonymous names and actual locations will be changed for all of this part. And yes, I do understand that having my picture on the blog will make it less anonymous, but that seems essential for the weight-loss portion. The grad school stuff will be more hidden as to not embarrass or get me into trouble with any important people (not that I want to bash anyone, but all information may not be favorable). With that out of the way...

I just became a 3rd year chemistry grad student at a fairly prestigious university, which I will call Univ. for the remainder of this blog. I live with two roommates to cut costs (grad school is not impressively well paid) who will be called RM1 and RM2. So the point being, RM2 just moved in a few weeks ago (RM1 has been my roommate since the beginning of grad school) to start our program as a first year, which began just on the 1st. And of course, when they start, we all move up a year, making me a 3rd year. Upon becoming a 3rd year, I am a little confused. Mostly due to the fact that I in no way feel as if I know enough to be a 3rd year. I remember what it felt like to look at a 3rd year when I started. My opinions of them went something like... wow, look at all the information they know and they have actual research projects and they know how to do grad school. I can now, for certain, say that most of those things were absolutely not true. The amount of knowledge I have seems to decrease with each passing year, and I have no idea how to navigate grad school. I do actually have multiple research projects, but that doesn't seem to help.

Anyway, that's what has been on my mind mostly this week as well as... I wonder if any of the 1st years are cute and are they too young for me to be thinking about dating them?

Starting Picture

2009-09-03T12:03:00.005-05:00

I thought a beginning picture would be a good start... as you can tell I'm still working on what this whole thing should look like, more to come later!

The Beginning...

2009-09-03T10:28:00.004-05:00

Well hi anyone who is actually reading this! I have never done a blog before, so you'll have to bare with me and we'll learn as we go. This blog is going to have two sort of functions.

The first being to hold myself responsible for losing the weight I've been trying on and off to lose since I started Grad school (2 years ago), and to inspire others to get healthy (and happy) along with me.

The second is to share what the life of a chemistry grad student (otherwise known as a scientist) is really like and share my limited insight on that subject.

I expect other subjects will come up considering I'm prone to tangents, and hopefully this will evolve with me. So welcome! and feel free to comment.

So to start off with I'm 5' 2" and well this week my starting weight was 161.8lbs but before I got a stomach virus about a week and a half ago I was about 168 lbs, so that's the official starting weight. My goal is 125lbs and I would like to meet that goal by my 25th birthday (next August 5th). Of course optimistically, I would love to get there earlier, but that's my reasonable goal.