My 'Aha' Moment

Ugh. I’m so disappointed in myself. At first, I thought I was only craving a burger and fries because I was upset over my breakup, but no it goes way beyond that. I’ve realized that my food cravings only occur when I’m studying in the library. We have a cafeteria upstairs and I’m literally obsessed with their sandwiches and French fries, which are super fatty. On the bright side, now that I’ve realized my trigger, I’ve come up with a few strategies to reduce these hunger cravings and eat healthy while still being able to study in the library. I’m going to try and pack richer, more flavorful meals that are comforting to me and hopefully those will prevent me from running up to the cafeteria when my hunger pangs strike. I’ve realized I really really crave fried, fatty food when I’m studying or stressed. I tend to reason myself into thinking that if I eat a big fatty meal for lunch, I won’t have to take breaks to go get food and can study 6 hours straight. Really really unhealthy habit. So instead of packing salads and veggies, which aren’t really appetizing to me when I’m really stressed out during studying, I’m going to pack meals like pasta or frozen meals that are more appealing to my palate. They are a little carb-heavy, but it’s much much better than denting my wallet AND clogging my arteries with cafeteria food. And it’s a good start to what I’m hoping is progressive changes to my eating habits. I’m going to try and employ this strategy this upcoming week and I’m hoping that these work. I think that if I can successfully stop eating so much at the cafeteria, I’m definitely going to accelerate my weight loss. While I’m super disappointed in my lack of self control when it came to fatty food this week, I’m glad I’m able to recollect my thoughts and re-adjust and plan ahead instead of totally being dejected and giving up on my diet like I have in the past. I think that not giving up is really challenging during setbacks and this was a really good exercise in how to overcome roadblocks. I’ve been a junk food addict for the past 3-4 years now and I knew this habit wouldn’t be easy to break. I’m glad I’m trying my best and taking baby steps. I’m glad I was able to look back at my eating this week and reflect on how I can improve. No major damage was done this week and I think I’m even starting to look a little slimmer around my waist but like I said, if I can stop making trips to the hospital cafeteria, that weight loss will be even more drastic in the future. 

Food Adventures!

The last few days have been quite eventful. Some great memories were made these past few days and some not-so-great memories were unfortunately made as well. So this is the week I was really skeptical about because I had a lot of dinner dates planned, which involved eating crappy calorie-rich foods and spending money. But I feel like I handled it quite well. And this week was actually (surprisingly!) quite successful in terms of exercising. I worked out 4x this week and if I make it to the gym tomorrow, it will be a full 5x this week! So proud of myself. Although I did just check my credit card statement and my bill is $380 right now, which makes me a little upset :( I guess this is a good life lesson for money managing: everything adds up! Literally, most of my daily purchases are only $5-10 at the hospital cafeteria, but it's so surprising how it adds up to create a big humongous bill! 

Anyway, so stop number 1 this week was a post-exam lunch at Nicky's Thai Kitchen, which happens to be rated one of the top 25 restaurants in Pittsburgh. I got their cashew nut chicken with white rice, which was absolutely delish and quite affordable. And to top it off, it was actually really light! I didn't feel stuffed or bloated after eating that and I got hungry again around dinnertime, which proved that the dish was probably only 500-600 calories at maximum. Not too happy about all the salt in the dish, though. Loved this delicious post-exam treat. Definitely looking forward to going back there again sometime to try out their curries or other chicken dishes. 

Next up is Wednesday evening post-Wicked dinner. It was my first time seeing Wicked and oh my goodness, I LOVED it. The performers were all so talented, especially the girl who played Elfy. I cannot wait to download the soundtrack! After dinner, a group of us headed over to Meat & Potatoes for our post-show reservations. I got my favorite dish there, the lamb burger with fries. I'm not not a huge lamb person, but oh my goodness...this burger was absolutely divine! Super tender, juicy, and moist. And it went great with the fries, even though you can clearly see the salt crystals smothering them. I'm sure this dish was very high in calories, so I decided to make Wednesday my diet day off. Definitely worth every single calorie in there. Spent $20 there, however, which is super high for just a burger and fries, but the ambience of the restaurant was beautiful and it was a nice way to end the evening after a great musical performance.

Thursday evening, me and another curriculum committee member had to take the Grand Rounds speaker out to lunch. We took her to Spoon, one of the fanciest restaurants around Pittsburgh. This picture was actually taken in the bathroom.....yes shameful, but their napkins were just so beautifully printed and arranged! Also, I figured it wouldn't be very professional to be taking photos of my food during a formal dinner, so I just skipped it and decided to take a picture of the napkins instead for remembrance :) all three of us had a delicious 3-course dinner. I started off with a caesar salad (only ate half of the parmesan croutons!) followed by the chicken trio dish. It featured grilled chicken breast, spinach and mushroom stuffed chicken, and chicken coated with veloute (some sort of cheese sauce). It was SO good. The portions were super small, but it was actually quite perfect because dinner didn't leave me feeling overly stuffed. To end dinner, the speaker decided to get a carrot dessert dish, whereas I opted for some coffee. Even their coffee was delicious! It was definitely a much-needed fancy pampering experience, and I'm glad I volunteered to take the speaker out. She was such great company and gave us great advice for medical school and beyond.

Annnnddd lastly Friday night. Probably one of the worst nights I've had. The day started off fine, but towards the evening I was really disappointed and demeaned by a really good friend of mine. I don't really want to spill too many details because I don't want to re-experience the emotions, but suffice it to say that I was quite hurt and miserable last night. I decided to just say fuck it and treat myself. I was really really really craving a cheeseburger and fries...with mayonnaise. So I stomped through the snow, marched up to my hospital cafeteria, and got one. I didn't think about the calories or anything, I just wanted to treat myself and take the day off from studying. And I've got to say it was really therapeutic. I awoke feeling super refreshed and started the day off fresh by cleaning my room, catching up on beauty blogs, doing a pilates workout, and just relaxing. I'm off to the museum now with some good friends and then will be probably studying late into the night. I'm not one bit sad that I caved in yesterday because I've learned that sometimes in life, you have to just stop what you're doing, drop all your responsibilities, and just indulge. 

I'm so ready to tackle this week and the rest of this month. Bring it on! :) 

Post-Exam Meals and Studying!

Lots of things to update about! I took my Musculoskeletal/Derm exam yesterday and boy was that a nightmare. A lot of students and I felt as if we hadn't heard of half the stuff on the exam, so I was quite worried about failing right after I completed the test. Crazyness. I don't know though, I feel as if the average is going to be low, and I think I should be fine. To brighten up my day, however, I had a delicious lunch at Nicky's Thai Kitchen. The photo above is a snapshot of my yummy (and beautiful!) meal, cashew nut chicken with white rice. I ate worse than I expected on Sunday, so I decided to lighten things up on yesterday and opt for a chicken/veggie dish rather than indulging in fattening yellow curry. I'm so proud of myself for not caving in! I even skipped the super-salty soup they gave as an appetizer!

As a diet update, I think I'm finally dropping some weight! A lot of it is probably water weight, but still, I'm so excited to see some of my stomach bloat drop and my jeans fit a smidge better. My legs feel a lot skimmer in jeans, but my waist is still a little tight. The fat area around the waist is always lost later so I'm not too worried. This is coming up on week 2 of my diet, and I'm really happy to see progress already! I'm not getting too excited because I still have a lot of work to do, but this proves that my efforts are paying off!

Also started studying for Step 1 yesterday!! Only got through 2 sections of Pathology, so I think I need to speed up a little bit. It's a lot harder than I anticipated since I don't remember learning ANY of the stuff I went through yesterday. I rather spend longer on my first pass through the material so that pass #2 and #3 will go by a little smoother and be more of a review than learning things for the first time. Another full day of studying planned today :( but, new episodes of Ravenswood and Pretty Little Liars tonight! So exciting! :)

Spring Fashion Haul + Lippies!

I've been in such a spring mood lately! I love bright and pastel colors, and the new Spring 2014 makeup has been really exciting and fresh! I've been re-organizing my makeup drawer and finally separated my lip products into spring/summer vs. fall/winter. This blog post is about the current spring makeup I own and also a little haul about some of the sweaters I picked up this winter that would be beautiful for spring as well!

MAKEUP

Left to right: Revlon Sugar Frosting, Maybelline Totally Toffee, Clinique Bamboo Pink, Clinique Mega Melon, Revlon Honey, L'Oreal Everbloom, L'Oreal Vagabond Mauve

Some of the colors for some reason look different swatched on my arm than on my lips. Revlon ColorBurst Lip Butter in Sugar Frosting is a super pretty light pink colored balm. Usually, light pink lip products look horrible on me, but this one look absolutely flattering and summery since it's more warm toned and sheer. Maybelline Lipstick in Totally Toffee looks very different swatched above. On my lips, it comes off as a nude with no hints of pink unlike the swatch. It pairs beautifully with a nude or light gold lipgloss for the perfect nude lip look. Clinique Lipstick in Bamboo Pink is a cool-toned shimmery light pink lipstick. It's not my favorite because it makes me look dead, but it goes great with a coral-pink lipgloss on top. Clinique Chubby Stick in Mega Melon looks way more opaque swatched above than it actually is. It brings out the pink color of my lips and it's quite sheer and appropriate for everyday wear or with a heavier eye. Revlon Lip Balm Stain in Honey was my favorite summer lip product last year. It's a pink-mauve balm that looks universally flattering. Again, goes great with a pink gloss on top. L'Oreal Lipstick in Everbloom is a really bright warm pink. I put it on my lips and then dab it out with my fingers to sheer it out and pair it with a pink gloss. L'Oreal Lipstick in Vagabond Mauve is a raspberry colored lipstick. Again, super bright so I usually dab it after applying to make the color more sheer.

Left to right: L'Oreal Pucker Up Pink, Benefit Dandelion, Bare Minerals Smooth Talker, Benefit Sugarbomb, L'Oreal Raspberry Flush

These are my springtime lipglosses. Not too many, so I'm looking forward to expanding my collection this spring! L'Oreal Le Gloss Lipgloss in Pucker Up Pink is a shimmery baby pink gloss. It leans more towards cool toned in my opinion, but it still looks really nice on my lips. It's very sheer so I usually put it on top of a lipstick or lip balm, but it can be worn over the lips to brighten them up. Benefit Ultra Plush Gloss in Dandelion is one of my favorite light pink lipglosses. I'm really going to miss it when my small tube runs out (shame they're so expensive!).  It's a beautiful warm baby pink color that looks stunning on its own for a sheer wash of color on the lip. BareMinerals Marvelous Moxie Lipgloss in Smooth Talker is new to my collection, so I haven't worn it too much. It looks more pink swatched above, but it comes off more peach-gold on my lips. It's more of a summer color, but would look great on warm sunny spring days. Benefit Ultra Plush Gloss in Sugarbomb is a shimmery cool-toned pink mauve lipgloss. It's one of their more pigmented glosses and adds sparkle to my lips. L'oreal Le Gloss Lipgloss in Raspberry Flush is a cool-toned magenta. It's super pigmented so I have to dab my lips after applying. It's also very cool toned, so it doesn't look good with my complexion when it's applied thick. 

FASHION HAUL

Victoria's Secret. Quite thin, cotton hoodie. Would be excellent for cooler, sunny days.

  

New York & Company. Thick, sequined scarf. Such a pretty lilac color to wear on cooler days. 

 New York & Company. Soft, cotton, thin sweater. Way brighter than in the picture! Great paired with shorts. 

 New York & Company. Coral polyester tank. Good top for work on sunny spring days. 

  Target. Cotton long-tee. Super bright hot pink color! I imagine wearing this with shorts on warm days.

 Target. Soft, medium thickness sweater. Looks bright red here, but it's actually more of an orangey-red.

Life Updates (1 week into the New Year!)

So, life has been super hectic since Tuesday. I've been meaning to do this blog post for a couple days, but something or another has come up. Lots of deadlines, errands, and of course school work prevented me from writing this until now. But the good news is that I've finished my Scholarly Project proposal (and submitted it!) and I did my first Advanced Medical Interviewing session! That's the class I was super nervous about because we had to interview emotional patients. It was really really hard and I definitely think I could have handled my patient better, but it was an excellent learning experience. I realized things I did need to improve on (such as not saying "I understand" all the damn time). My patient even said "you know the 4th time when you said I understand, it was a little wearisome" haha. Oh well, embarrassing but a good learning experience anyway.
After AMI I was sooooo beat that I decided to take the evening off and do some much needed cleaning and make it my diet day off for this week. I also kinda started feeling a little feverish and sick, so I took a little nap and just chilled out, watching YouTube videos and stuff. Unproductive night, but I got all of my post-Xmas goodies stashed away and finished washing my dishes this morning. I just need to vacuum, fold my clothes, and do some laundry, which I was going to do tonight. Otherwise my room is pretty clean! I have been thinking of all our Christmas decorations and I think I'm going to keep them up probably until either Valentine's day or until my spring decorations come up. I don't have a lot of spring stuff, but I love decorating my apartment seasonally so I'm sure I can find something.

Although this week has been super busy, I've been somewhat annoyed with myself because I'm already slacking on some of my resolutions. For instance, I had to eat at the hospital cafeteria 2x this week because I had been so busy in the morning that I had forgotten to pack a lunch, or the snacks I did pack weren't filling enough. Wednesday was really bad...I checked my food diary at 4pm and realized I had only eaten 400 calories. Needless to say, that was a no-workout day (hey that rhymes!). I guess I just need to plan out my meals ahead of time and make sure I leave enough time in the morning to prepare and pack food. It's a learning experience! I think this is gonna put a dent in my money savings resolution, butttt hopefully no more than $350 this month? Only $50 more than intended. Not bad since I had to get all my Step1 books and everything this month right?
And then there's next week, where I have 3 dinner dates planned. AHHHH. Diet disaster, much? However, Monday is going to be my diet day off so I'm not worried about that. Wednesday I'm going to a restaurant after the Wicked show. I'm just going to exercise like crazy that morning (an hour on the elliptical = 600 calories!) so I can eat a bigger meal later. And then Thursday, I have to take a guest speaker out to a fancy dinner. The place hasn't been decided yet, but hopefully it's somewhat fancy enough that they have smaller meals or yummy salads for the super skinny rich guests they regularly have. I'm a little nervous because I'm hoping that it won't derail my diet and make me super duper bloated.

This is shaping up to be such a long blogpost, but soooo many things happened this week. Oh! I also subscribed to LaurenConrad.com, which is slowly becoming my favorite site. She's such a doll and such an inspiration! I've loved LC since Laguna Beach and I'm so glad I discovered her website. It's literally everything I love in one blog. And I love the pictures she posts of her life, they make me so happy and actually optimistic for a change :)

Anyway, back to studying I suppose. And time to workout to burn all those tortilla chips I ate yesterday! :X

Morning Routine! :)

Blah it's about 5pm and I'm feeling SO tired, exhausted, and sickly. I don't know if I'm actually getting sick or if it's from my sleep deprivation. Or it could be from the 3 cups of coffee I've chugged today :X oops! I've managed to get a whopping NOTHING done today so kind of bummed about that, but going on a light jog right after this and hope to feel better after that and pow down on some more coursework and errands. SOOO excited for Pretty Little Liars and Ravenswood tonight though! I've waited so long for PLL to come back!
Anywhos, during my break I saw some great tips in my February edition of Fitness magazine on how to cut down on time from your morning routine was super inspired by the article. So I figured I should jot down a morning routine that will hopefully get me looking glam every morning. Here's my revised morning routine for post-7am workout mornings to get ready in a jiffy!

Step #1: Shower! 
I've pretty much stocked up high on my favorite body washes, the Bath & Body Works Shower Gels. They're super moisturizing and most of the time, I don't need to put on moisturizer once I get out of the shower.
For my hair, I like washing it after workouts or every other day with Pantene Classic Clean Shampoo and Pantene Smooth Conditioner (don't know the exact name, but it's something along those lines). The conditioner leaves my hair super duper soft and only costs like $5, love love love. I've also kind of converted into a morning shower-er since I love the refreshed feeling I get, kinda like I'm ready to tackle the day. Night showers are relaxing too, but there's just something awesome about morning workouts that gets my day kickstarted. I don't know, I'm weird I guess.
For face wash, I like to use the Neutrogena Deep Clean Cream Cleanser in the morning because it leaves me with a nice, clean, tingly skin that feels super refreshing in the morning.

Step #2: Moisturize
Like I said, most days I don't put on a body lotion, but on days my skin is feeling parched, I either put on a body lotion or a body butter. Currently, my favorite body lotion is Bath & Body Works Body Lotion in Winter Candy Apple, but I kinda wanna swap it out for an unscented body lotion or even a lotion spray. I also have two body butters at the moment that I'm going through for the winter-spring season and they are the Lavanila The Healthy Body Butter in Pure Vanilla and the Bath & Body Works Body Butter in Warm Vanilla Sugar. I love both of the scents, but the Lavanila butter is super duper sweet and can be a little overwhelming sometimes. And I think they just discontinued the products at Sephora, so that's really sad :( However, to continue my vanilla body butter scent fix, I just bought the B&B Warm Vanilla Sugar butter when it was on sale post-Christmas. I've tried it at the store before and it smells diiiiiivine! Vanilla's definitely my favorite body scent since it can be worn at any season and isn't super overpowering, but yet really girly and fresh.
Anyway, enough about body lotions and smells. I also like to tone and moisturize my face after I get out of the shower. For toner, I use the Clinique Acne Solutions Clarifying Lotion and for moisturizer, I love the Aveeno Smart Essentials Daily Moisturizer with SPF 30. 

Step #3: Haircare
While my moisturizer is setting, I like to do my hair. If I have time, I try to blow dry my hair so I look more put together. I towel dry my hair until it's damp and spritz on my Organix Moroccan Argan Oil Healing Dry Oil and comb it through with a comb or my wet brush. I blow dry it using my Revlon hairdryer at the low setting to reduce frizz. If I'm reaaaally in a rush, I just set it to the high setting, but I try avoiding this if possible. Once dry, I put a dot of the Organix Coconut Milk Anti-Breakage Serum throughout my hair to provide shine and reduce frizz. Then, I pull my hair into a low bun so I can focus on mah makeup. Oh and I always make sure to wash my hands after I do my hair, because the products I use contain oils, which can cause breakouts if I touch my face after using them.

Step #4: Makeup Time
This, unfortunately always takes me the longest time. If I don't have time to do any makeup, I always make sure to dot on some concealer on my darkest spots. Right now, I'm using the BareMinerals Correcting Concealer in Medium Tan. If I have time, I dab on some BareMinerals Mineral Veil to set the concealer. Most of the times, I do this, grab a lipgloss, and run out the door.
Buttt, if I have time, I like to put some mascara, undereye concealer, highlighter/blush, and eyeshadow (in that order!). I'll do a separate post about quickie products, but some of my favorite grab&go makeup items are the Clinique Chubby Stick Shadow Tint for Eyes in Fuller Fudge, Benefit Ultra Plush Lipgloss in Coralista, and any of the Revlon Lip Butter in Pink Truffle. I can either put them on in a jiffy without makeup or stow them in my bag to take with me to school and apply later. I'm trying to make more time in the morning to do my makeup, but this is always really hard for some reason :( I get too bogged down in perfecting my concealer, I think.


So that was a really detailed post, but basically, my routine can be broken down into:

1. Shower/wash hair and face
2. Skincare -- tone and moisturize my face and body if I need to
3. Hair -- blow dry, put anti-frizz serum
4. Makeup -- apply concealer, powder, mascara, blush/highlighter, eyeshadow if possible
5. Stash some to-go items in my bag for later

That's about it. Doing all 5 of these steps ensures that I look put together and fresh-faced for the day. Now if only I could fit into super clothes, I'd be a bombshell ;) jk jk, haha.

New Year's Resolutions Update!

It's officially been one week into 2014! Woo! Have you kept up with your resolutions? Let's check in and see how I'm doing on my resolutions.

#1 Weight

So I'm kind of sick of weighing myself on the scale because I find that it really makes me nervous and totally derails/damages my diet if I gain even half a pound. Therefore I've stopped weighing myself religiously like I used to. As far as clothes fit, I think it's still a little too early to tell, although I kinda I'm a little less bloated! Not much, but I'm trying to take baby steps rather than make big, huge changes at one time. Currently I'm up to working out for 30 minutes at a time for about 4-5 days a week. Not too shabby, but I'd like to eventually hit 45-60 mins each day for 4-5 days a week. I'm drinking as much water as possible, but not as much as I'd like to, so I want to work on that as well.

#2 Capturing memories

UGH I hate the weather for ruining my plans!! It's been super duper chilly here the past week (-30 wind chill today! ...yeah!) so my plans of hanging out with a friend before she moved out to Greensburg for PA school kinda went down the drain. The roads are kinda icy and it's seriously SO cold outside! So glad we don't have mandatory school this morning. However, I have some pretty awesome get-togethers lined up this weekend/next week like Ikea, Thai food, Wicked show, etc. which should be tonssss of fun since I haven't seen my friends in like 2+ weeks :) 

#3 Old friends

This kinda ties in with #2, but like I said lots of get-togethers planned once I get outta Cranberry and back into the Oaks! :) As far as old friends go, I've kinda texted Dan and Emma a little bit over break, but I'll probably check in with them towards the end of the month. Kinda bummed that a few of my college friends visited over break for a wedding, but I couldn't get to see them ;( and again bummed about not being able to see Anne before she leaves for PA school. Ughhh friends moving away totally sucks! :( I have a feeling that this may be my hardest resolution this year...

#4 Processed foods/refined sugars

I'm doing pretty well with this one. I'm slowly trying to cut processed foods from my diet. I will admit I ate some white bread yesterday and white pasta but only because I'm at home and my parents hate anything whole wheat and mostly only stock refined pastas and breads. I just went grocery shopping yesterday though and didn't get anything refined and really really cut back on the processed, canned foods. I mean I'm not gonna go crazy and cut out EVERY little piece of processed food because that would just be completely impossible because of my hectic lifestyle. But I think I did cut out a good bit. Like no more Cheez-Its for snacks, no more Lean Pockets, not even Ritz crackers! I got some healthy-ish snacks, soups, and frozen foods at Whole Foods that look a lot cleaner than the stuff I was eating before so I'm really excited to try those! But yeah, I'm going to see how I handle all my January groceries and make adjustments likewise, but so far so good!! Really proud of myself for eating healthy these last few days. Like I said, not pristine clean food, but definitely much better than I had been doing last semester. Let's keep this going! 

#5 Sleeping 7+ hours a night

I'm doing well on this too! Although it's only the second day back at school haha. I've been trying to change my sleeping patterns to wake up earlier and earlier. I went from waking up at 10 am Sunday to 8:30 am Monday to 7:30 am today. So hopefully will be waking up at 6am in the next few days here! I only slept 6 hours last night though but I think that's okay since I'm still changing sleeping schedules. I'll probably be super tired tonight and end up sleeping at 9am. I love waking up in the morning with the sun, and that's a great motivator for me to get my butt up and get my day started. Can't wait until the weather clears up and I can start doing some light morning walks at sunrise too. 

#6 Money

Ah, last but not least my new year's resolution to fix my shopping problem. Alright, sooooo I may have kind of cheated on No Buy January and bought some sweaters at Target :X buttttt I've really been wanting some new sweaters since November because a lot of mine are starting to get old and worn. Target had 50% off their sweaters and so I figured what the heck, my exception to the no buy rule is only if there are good sales, and this fit the exception! So I got 2 sweaters and 1 long t-shirt for $30 and I'm so so so happy because two of them can work for spring as well. And I'm actually proud of myself for not wandering around picking up more stuff at Target like I usually do. And I still have not bought a single beauty related product this month! Woo woo! As far as my credit card bill goes, my limit was $300 a month ($250 = brownie points!) But I did just spend $115 at Walmart yesterday and $15 at Whole Foods the other day for groceries, which is gonna amp up my bill quite a bit. I literally threw away most of my food at the end of the semester because I figured it was time to get some fresh stuff, hence the high bill. Usually my grocery bills average $50 so we should be good from here on out. 

Unfortunately though I think my January bill may also top off at about $300 or more this month not only because of groceries, but also because of Step 1. I just spent nearly $75 getting study books. Combine that with groceries and sweaters, and so far my bill is around $250. Ughhhhh. Responsibilities totally suck. My expenditures have mainly been: Study books, groceries, Target sweaters, my brother's $5 Pokemon cards (his gift, don't ask). Yep so nothing crazy, just mainly groceries and study books, all of which were accounted for in my loans. Only $50 play money this month :(  I have a feeling I may not be able to keep up this resolution this month.