Stella!

Whenever I get a day off, I try to catch up on my hobbies and get in some blogging time.

I've realized that when I am dedicated to my blog, I am more likely to be more productive in my day and eat healthy. I think my blog just holds me more accountable to myself. Therefore, I am going to try and update this blog regularly.

I am happy to say there is a new addition to my furbaby family...and that is a 12 week kitten named Stella! She is absolutely darling and the sweetest kitten I could ask for! Anto is already obsessed with her, and she chooses his tummy to sleep on at night.

She definitely has added a ton of happiness to my life! I totally foresee myself with 10+ cats in the future, being a crazy cat lady ;)

Calm Before the Storm Part I

Before the craziness of my summer schedule happened, Anto (my boyfriend) took me to San Francisco as a birthday present! It was a well needed vacation and allowed me to get some much needed rest before the summer of no fun began.

I worked until 11:30 on Sunday night, and took a three hour nap. By 3:00am we were on the road! And yes, we drove the entire thing. Eight hours from San Diego to San Francisco! It was fun experiencing a long road trip with my boyfriend, even though there isn't a whole lot going on in the drive through Central California!

Seriously, the scenery for hours.

We took lots of mini breaks and ended up in SF around 12:00. Our hotel was delightfully cute and the perfect price for two struggling students.

Casa Loma Hotel!

I loved that it was in the middle of a neighborhood that wasn't directly in the middle of all the hustle and bustle tourist areas. Driving in SF was not my thing and definitely had to handled by Anto.

We took a super long nap, and I woke up to discover I had left ALL my toiletries and makeup at home! This was a disaster for me, so we had to walk to the nearest Walgreens so I could buy some cheapo makeup to use for the trip. Turns out, the cheapie makeup actually works almost as well as my expensive makeup. I've actually continued to use some of the cheapie products once I returned home after the trip.

Our first goal was to drive around the city and take it in. San Francisco is gorgeous and I absolutely adore the architecture there. Why can't there be cute buildings like this in San Diego?

After sightseeing for a bit, we decided to go to Chinatown to eat some delicious Chinese food. Unfortunately, the restaurant we ate at left us very disappointed and unsatisfied. It took us 40 minutes to get our food, we received horrible service, and they AUTO-GRATTED us! We were a party of two and they tried to autograt us. I get it, I was a server for almost three years, and I've worked in the restaurant industry for longer. I am a generous tipper because of this, but I expect my service to be decent...and I KNOW that autogratting a party of two is completely unacceptable. We looked at the menu, and sure enough, in writing, they said they would grat parties of 5 or more. THERE WERE TWO OF US.

Anyways, we received our food after waiting for 40 minutes. It was disappointingly bland, and THEN, the server comes and drops off our check about 5 minutes after we had gotten our food. She said, "Oh, you're not finished yet?" Well, no...considering we had just gotten our food 5 minutes beforehand.

Anyways, we took it in stride. We were there on vacation so we just let it go and enjoyed the fact that we were in SF!

"Free" Appetizer

Kung Pao Chicken

Lemongrass Chili Chicken

Chinatown!

Outside the restaurant.

After that, we decided to head to Ghiradelli's Square, and be, well, touristy :)

The Cable Car Sundae

Decadent Drinking Chocolate. SO SWEET.

Our goodies.

How they make chocolate!

Being a tourist!

 That concludes our first day in SF...I'm off to get ready for a twelve hour night shift at the hospital..hoping to get some study time in because I have a test on Monday!

Summer

This summer has been CRAZY busy.

Example of my weekly schedule:

Monday: Lecture 9-4, Support Group Meeting for Psych 6-8 (then tons of hw)
Tuesday: Hospital Clinical 11-7 (tons of hw)
Wednesday: Hospital Clinical 11-7 (tons of hw ;))
Thursday: Lecture 8-4, Support Group Meeting for Psych (6-8)
Friday: Work 7:00pm-7:30am (study/hw)
Saturday: Work 7:00pm-7:30am (study/hw)
Sunday: Work 3:00pm-11:30pm (study)

I just keep telling myself it will all be worth it once the summer is over.

It's pretty crazy! I'm planning a trip for the one week vacation I get between summer and fall, so I have something to look forward to, at the very least!

Blogging Fail

I haven't updated this blog in quite a while due to many reasons-school, work, exhaustion, etc. But the biggest reason I haven't updated is because I derailed from my journey to healthy and have been living a lifestyle of my journey to congestive heart failure!

Seriously, though.

I've been too exhausted to cook, let alone think about working out. I have been subsisting off instant cup o noodles alone, and I can literally feel the difference in my body.

So.

Finals are over and I have no excuse to continue to live this way. My biggest obstacle is just getting into a routine. Once I have my routine down, then it will make things easier. The only problem is that I work nights on the weekend, and go to school during the days during the week. That makes it pretty hard to create a regular schedule. And it's not doing wonders for my metabolism.

My biggest fear is getting burnt out. I can already feel it happening, so when I can make my work schedule for August, I'm definitely going to schedule less days in a row, and maybe switch over to 8 hour shifts. I need the money, but I also need my sanity.

Blogging resumes today!

It just so happens to be my 24th birthday, so what better beginning is there? 24 is the year of being healthy! :)

Getting back in the groooove

Whew! April has been a busy month and honestly, it's kicking my booty!

I've been overwhelmed with school, moving, financial & housekeeping issues, starting a new job, and finishing up my two weeks at my old job.

Not to mention, my dog has been an absolute terror these past couple of weeks and has chewed up SO much stuff. I thought he was over this phase, but apparently now. In fact, today I just lost my phone charger to his naughty ways. I only have two bars left, and since my phone is pretty old, I have to order the charger online unless I manage to find it at Wal Mart or something. There is no way I can be phone-less this entire weekend, especially since I will be working 4-5 shifts between my two jobs within three days.

Although my life has been crazy hectic, I have to say I've been enjoying every (almost) minute of it! I'm excited to begin a new career and move closer towards my dream of being a nurse. I'm excited to close one chapter in my life and open another. I'm excited to move into this new place with my boyfriend and friend. I'm excited to being closer to being finished with nursing school.

The one regret I have is that I haven't been eating healthy at all. Since we moved into our new place and didn't have many groceries, I've been buying fast food and eating junk. I'm talking donuts, oreos, chick fil a, milkshakes-you name it, I ate it.

That needs to change now! I haven't cooked in so long because I've been so busy, but I'm going to make time. My health shouldn't be put on the backburner, it should be a priority. Unfortunately, I haven't spent much time at the gym either. Especially since my new apartment complex doesn't have one :(. I do have a gym membership, but I miss the quietness and closeness of using the apartment complex gym.

I'm finishing up some online modules and then I have to run to Wal Mart right now (at 11pm, ugh) to run some errands, come home and print out some study material, and hopefully get some sleep before my 5am wakeup call.

This weekend will be crazy! I can't wait til Monday at 4pm when I can finally *breathe*, although it won't last for long!

Two Weeks Notice

I put my official two weeks notice in at my current job at the restaurant!

It definitely feels liberating, because I'll be moving on to a new job that should help jumpstart me into my future career.

However, it always sucks leaving a job that you are completely comfortable in and having to start over at a new job where no one really know you and you have to prove yourself all over again. I'm pretty nervous. But, definitely excited!

I'll also miss my coworkers, but the turnover at our restaurant has been so high that in a few months, I probably won't know many of the people.

My boyfriend grilled burgers for me and made strawberry margaritas to celebrate. I'll be sure to enjoy them after I finish writing my care plan for nursing school!

The stress has definitely decreased. I feel so lucky and blessed that some things just seem to work themselves out on their own, and I get lucky enough to just have some things go my way! I am starting to take the time to really appreciate these moments cause they can be few and far in between.

Agenda for today:
-Finish careplan
-Finish unpacking (ugh)
-Go back to the gym and continue C5K (finally!)
-Return some stuff.
-Enjoy strawberry margaritas and have a movie night.
-Go to bed early. I have to wake up at 5:00 tomorrow :(

I miss the carefree days of my undergrad! Nursing school is 1000x more intense than my undergrad experience! I miss spending time with my girlfriends, who I rarely see anymore.

Song on repeat: Heartache That Don't Stop Hurting-Jason Aldean

Stress Overload

I was reading one of my favorite blogs (I finally got internet installed at my new place), Peanut Butter Fingers, when I came across this post.

It's about stress.

Right now, I'd say my stress level is excessively high. There are constantly things on my mind weighing me down. I feel myself getting stress headaches. I can feel my heart rate going up, cortisol levels being released, etc. It's definitely the highest it has been in quite some time.

We are still in the process of moving, which helps contribute to the stress. But that's just a small part of it.

I could sit here and list all the things that are stressing me out and giving me a constant headache and interfering with my sleep and eating patterns, but instead I think I'll highlight recent things that have made me happy and things that I am looking forward to. Things that make me smile. :)

-The Jason Aldean concert was AWESOME. I heart him. Definitely a great concert with great seats, and better yet, completely free!
-I'm going to the midnight showing of Scream 4 tonight. The Scream series are my favorite movies EVER. I am so incredibly excited it's ridiculous.
-Just three more weeks of clinicals left for this semester!
-Reliving my childhood by reading old Babysitters Club books that I bought in a huge Ebay haul.
-Spending time with my furry babies. They are the ultimate destressor.
-Getting massages from my boyfriend.

These are just some of the things that keep me going. With all the stress that's been filling my life, I haven't been sticking to the C25K plan. I plan to restart tomorrow, but I'm a little nervous about how my stamina will be, but oh well, I just have to get back up and try!

Enjoying the concert!

Jason Aldean makes me smile!

Jason Aldean Concert!

I've been a little busy so I've been a little behind on my daily blog posts, but I got an awesome surprise from my friend Mo last night!!

I'm going to the Jason Aldean concert, free of charge! I don't know how he got this tickets, but I owe him big time!!

I love country music, and especially Jason Aldean, so I'm super excited for tonight! Gotta go get ready ;)

Shin Splints!

Yesterday was my first time experiencing shin splints while working out.

I was doing Week Two, Day Two of Couch25K and felt fine, when all of a sudden I felt this sharp pain everytime I jogged on my left leg. I made it through the program, but I always like to add more jogging/walking to make my workout around 45-60 minutes. Yesterday, it wasn't gonna happen. I was in serious pain, even while walking.

Another first for yesterday was that I had my first protein shake! Annnd...it was disgusting! I felt like I couldn't hold it down, it was just gross. All it was was Whey Chocolate Protein Powder mixed with low fat milk, but I just didn't like it.

I wanted to give the workout another try later in the evening, but was still hurting when I walked. I opted to go to a panel to listen to hiring managers and nurse recruiters speak, and was glad I spent my time there instead. I definitely learned some valuable information!

I ate pretty crappy yesterday, as well. Anto stuck a pizza in the oven and I just had to have some, I couldn't resist. It was delicious!

After I came home from the panel, Anto came home and surprised me with Crab Hut!! Crab Hut is our absolute favorite place to go eat together, we go at least once a month and always order the same thing. It is our little tradition. He picked up a pound of shrimp and a pound of sausage smothered in full house sauce, extra spicy, with steamed rice. He even peeled all the shrimp for me before I ate it so I could just dig in to the good stuff!

 

Aye Caramba!

Living in San Diego, I get to enjoy wonderful Mexican food anytime I want it. It's one of the many perks of living in this wonderful city.

I was craving some Mexican food and my dad was coming over for dinner so I decided to cook Huevos Rancheros (which is usually served as a breakfast/brunch meal), and Flan for dessert!

I got this Huevos Rancheros recipe from Food Network. It was pretty tasty. I added one habanero in place of a jalapeno pepper because I looove my food spicy, and it gave it more of a kick. I also added two garlic cloves instead of just a teaspoon. My motto is, you can never add enough garlic!

Making the sauce.

Ready to eat!

This is literally the first free moment I have had to myself tonight and I'm feeling pretty sore, so I decided to take a rest day from working out. I feel guilty about it, but I know this will help my muscles heal and tomorrow I'll be back at it!

Lazy Dinner

Last night I was feeling a little lazy after spending my time studying for my quiz, so I looked in the pantry to see if there was anything quick I could make for dinner.

Alas, I found a package of Tuna Helper and some pre-made Peanut Butter Cookie Mix! I called Anto to pick up some extra supplies for me, and I was on my way to cooking a quick and easy dinner.

It was super easy to make, but not the healthiest. I want to stay away from a lot of preservatives, but the package was going to expire soon, and it's been sitting in our pantry for MONTHS. I didn't want to let it go to waste, and I only had a small bowl.

All you have to do is mix milk, the sauce mix, the noodles, tuna, butter, and hot water.

Before

After.

Not my favorite dish, but it'll do!

For dessert, I wanted to bake the peanut butter cookies, but the idea of plain peanut butter cookies sounded boring to me. So we improvised and made peanut butter chocolate bars! We pulled them out of the oven a little too early, (Anto SWORE they were ready), so they are a little doughy still, but tasty nonetheless. Tasty, but way too much of a sweet overload for me. I could only have a couple bites, but we saved the rest for later in the week!

Wasn't quite ready..but almost!

The hot cheetos are Anto's..

All finished! Ready to be cut into bars :)

It's gonna be a busy and stressful week! 

Sunday Blues

Sunday always manages to come way too soon! I must admit, Sunday night is my least favorite part of the week! Especially this Sunday night, being that I go back to school tomorrow, and have a Neuro Quiz waiting to welcome me back!

I woke up late today, and didn't feel bad about it because I knew this would be my last day I could sleep in for quite some time. I headed to work, and it was incredibly slow, so I got to go home relatively early, but didn't make very much money :(.

When I got home, I downloaded some Med/Surg lectures onto my ipod to prepare for my workout. I'm officially on Week Two of C25K. This includes a brisk five minute warm up, then alternating 90 seconds of jogging with 2 minutes of walking. I did this for the first 25 minutes as indicated, then decided I wanted to continue my workout to coincide with my lecture. Listening to lectures about intercranial pressure and strokes is definitely motivation to keep my butt moving on the treadmill! I need to stay active in order to stay healthy. No dying of strokes or heart disease for me!

After the 25 minutes of C25K, I alternated one minute of running with 90 seconds of jogging until my legs were exhausted, and I decided to walk the rest of the way. My goal was to accomplish 60 minutes on the treadmill. I managed to go 4.08 miles in 60 minutes. I know this is incredibly slow, but this is my first time ever doing it! Baby steps, right?

I felt great after finishing my workout, just incredibly tired! My calves are extremely sore. However, I love that I got to incorporate studying with exercise! I will definitely do this more often.

I'm off to finish listening to the stroke lecture and studying for my Neuro quiz. I have 8 hours of sitting in ONE lecture hall tomorrow, and it is torture! Things I need to take care of tonight include:

-Packing a lunch for class tomorrow.
-Setting the coffee machine timer.
-Packing my school supplies in my backpack ;)
-Picking out a recipe to cook for dinner tomorrow, since my dad is visiting.
-Setting aside my outfit, and setting my alarm.
-Cooking dinner tonight!
-Study, study, study.
-Picking out a strength workout and writing it down, so I can immediately head to the gym tomorrow!

Things on my agenda tomorrow include:
-Lecture 7:30-4:00
-Deposit money at the bank.
-Strength workout.
-Cook dinner and enjoy dad's visit.
-Pick term paper topic and research articles.
-Start packing!

Hopefully I don't end up super lazy like Lily here ;)

Asian Beef with Stir Fry Veggies

Yesterday was a good day. I managed to get a lot done. Work, study, work out, cook, clean, etc.

I was in a great mood so I decided to cook for Anto. He's been super busy lately with work and school, that I only see him for a couple of hours before he falls asleep at night. He works 12 hour days 4 days out of the week, then has 8 hour classes the other 3 days. I know it is temporary, but it can get difficult. My schedule is pretty packed too, so we are limited on the amount of time we can spend together.

I wasn't in the mood to cook something that took a long time, so I looked up quick and easy recipes on Allrecipes.com, and found something that sounded perfect. Asian Beef with Snowpeas. I modified it to add stir fry veggies instead of just snowpeas, though.

I doubled all of the ingredients that were listed on the original recipe and it definitely made it more flavorful. I would add even more garlic and ginger (my absolute favorite) next time!

Modified from here.

The ingredients:
-6 tablespoons soy sauce
-4 tablespoons rice vinegar
-2 tablespoons brown sugar
-1 teaspoon cornstarch
-1 tablespoon vegetable oil
-2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger root
-2 tablespoons minced garlic
-Pre-sliced Stir Fry beef strips from Vons
-One bag frozen Stir Fry Veggies, included corn, snowpeas, broccoli, mushrooms, water chestnuts

Quick and easy meal!

Trader Joe's Brown Rice!

Directions:
-Combine soy sauce, rice vinegar, brown sugar, and cornstarch in a bowl and set aside.
-Heat wok with vegetable oil, add in garlic and ginger and cook for 30 seconds.
-Add in meat, brown.
-Add in veggies, thawed (Don't put it in frozen like I did...oops!)
-Add sauce mixture, bring to boil, then let it simmer and thicken.
-Serve with brown rice and enjoy!

I don't have a wok, so I had to improvise with my small pan.

It wasn't spicy at all, and we LOVE spicy dishes, so we added some Sriracha sauce on top. Anto loved it! He literally cleaned his plate, half of my plate, and then went back for seconds and finished the entire thing! What a growing boy ;)

Sriracha Sauce makes EVERYTHING better!

First 3.1 mi (5K) on a Treadmill!

Today was the first time I have completed 3.1 miles utilizing jogging/walking on the treadmill! In fact, I think the only other times I've done 3.1 miles is while hiking, and that was at a very slow pace :)

It took me 43:31 to complete it, but the fact is, I did it! I have only just completed week one of the C25K plan, so my goal is to continue to improve! I have definitely noticed an improvement in my endurance and breathing. Before, I wouldn't be able to do more than 3-4 minutes COMBINED of jogging.

I stuck to the C25K plan for the first 25-30 minutes. This included a 5 minute brisk warmup, and then alternating jogging for 60 seconds, and walking for 90 seconds. When I got to 30 minutes, I did a lot of brisk walking, and stuck in 1 minute of jogging whenever I felt like I could.

The rest of today will be spent studying and cleaning! I go back to school Monday and have a lot of catching up to do, unfortunately. I've already done some Pharmacology studying, where Lily was my faithful study buddy.

I may be biased, but she's gorgeous! :)

Comfy in my lap!

This was my breakfast yesterday, a Boca burger with a side of veggies.

Today, I opted for some oatmeal.

For lunch, I had my favorite go-to meal. Whole wheat egg sandwich with fat free cheese, mustard, and Tabasco. Delish! I also had a side of veggies with it.

My favorite sandwich!

I was also very distressed to find that I was out of coffee!

Look how much that bag has been through!

But after some quick digging through my pantry, I found an entire bag of coffee beans Anto had bought me a few months back. Love him. And I love coffee. I have come to the point where I CAN NOT function without my cup in the morning. A cup in the morning usually tides me over for the entire day though, unless I wake up incredibly early, then I have to have my mid afternoon Starbucks ;).

This bag literally saved my day.

I have officially finished Week One of C25K. I plan to start Week Two on Monday. I'm already really sore and have a feeling tomorrow should be a rest day. I do want to start strength training, so maybe I'll find some good workouts and try one of them out tomorrow? I need to make use of my 24 hour membership instead of spending all my time on the treadmill at my apartment gym ;)

I also joined the Daily Mile today. It's a very motivating website and tool and I'm glad there is a place I can be held accountable for my workouts and runs!