Major Catch Up

Welp... it's been awhile. A long while! I didn't think life could get any crazier, but man was I wrong. This summer has been a blast, but it has also been busier than I ever thought possible. Only two weeks until fall quarter starts, but I am chomping at the bit to get back to school. Never thought I would be one to say this, but summer needs to be over already. I am 110% ready for fall weather, cozy sweaters, pumpkin spice lattes, apple picking, rainy days and holidays! I am also really looking forward to getting back into the school routine with regularly scheduled work outs, Circle K craziness, a NEW job (like I really need another one of those...) and just being back in Santa Cruz. Since moving home (well that's kind of a joke and you'll soon see why), I haven't been in one place for more than 5 days unless it was away from home. This blog post would literally be the length of a book if I wrote about my whole summer in detail, so I will try and capture the gist of all my adventures in a few short words and lots of photos!

Warning: I spent my entire summer traveling and visiting friends and 95% of the past 3 months was filled with Circle K :) It was insanely awesome, but it was definitely exhausting and I am feeling a little burnt out from all the craziness. These photos are not in chronological order, just snapshots from all over!

Cliff jumping at Emigrant Gap

Enjoying a guest lecture at Leadership Academy in Indiana 

Cooking for 60 hungry presidents and officers

Our tent village at Lake Isabella

The harbor in Vancouver, BC

View from the Silver Legacy in Reno

Some of the amazing leaders of Cal-Nev-Ha CKI

My wonderful "family" at Leadership Academy

Gracie, the bear at Animal Ark outside of Reno, NV

The view from Animal Ark

                                                       

Team building activities at Leadership Academy 

The playground we managed to build in the pouring rain at Laurier Elementary in Vancouver, BC. One of the most meaningful projects I've ever participated in!

Summer fruit after a great workout

Got to eat so many heirlooms, straight off the vine while house sitting this summer. I LOVE tomatoes! 

My beautiful best friend from school, Annie, and I celebrating Michelle's Birthday and the end of school!

Yummy asian noodle soup

Black tea with boba from my favorite tea place

                                                 

                                            Snacks! 

Hiking with my mama (who turned 61 today!)

Some QT with this cu-tie ;)

                                       

                             Lots of delicious summery dinners! 

That's basically my summer in a nutshell! Here's a map, just in case you got lost :)

I'm headed to SoCal for one last trip on Sunday, but after that I should be back on the Healthy Eats blogging bandwagon. More catching up to come later :)

Healthy Eats in the Dining Hall

I apologize in advance for only having one photo

As a college student, especially a college student with a meal plan, it can be challenging to stay on track with making smart and healthy food choices in the dining halls. Last year when I lived in the dorms and had a 7 day meal plan with no access to a kitchen, I thought it would be much easier to make healthy choices once I lived off campus and could do all my own cooking. In some ways it is so convenient to have a kitchen, but I don't think I really appreciated the perks of the dining hall until I no longer had unlimited access to them. 

The past two quarters, I wound up buying several individual meals so I could stay properly fueled up for the days that I had to be on campus for more than just a few hours. I usually go after my German class which ends a little after noon, so it's the perfect time to have a quick bite and hang out with friends. Actually, it's rarely quick. We usually wind up loitering in the dining hall for solid hour or two (I'm a professional procrastinator when I need to be :)

So let me get to the point. A lot of people struggle with the fact that the dining hall is all you can eat. They almost always have pizza, burgers, fries and other oh so tempting but oh so fattening foods. While these foods can definitely make it challenging to make good choices, it is by no means impossible. At my school, we are really lucky in that we have a lot of vegan and vegetarian options. Even though I am by no means either of those, it's nice to have the variation and the options. Also, the salad and sandwich bars are always good choices. Lots of protein (like cold cuts and tofu) and tons of fresh fruits and vegetables. 

Here's a run down of some ideas for things to eat in the DH!

Breakfast:

1. Scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, fruit

2. Scrambled eggs with cottage cheese (I'm so not a cottage cheese fan but my friend Noam loves cottage cheese and eggs!) 

3. Oatmeal with low fat yogurt and berries

4. Oatmeal with brown sugar and little bit of low fat milk and a banana

5. Peanut butter on toast with banana slices

6. "Pooh Bear Sandwich"- toast with peanut butter, honey and a few slices of bacon (I know it sounds weird but it is SO good) 

Lunch: 

1.Whole wheat or 12 grain bread, sliced turkey (or other cold cuts), low fat cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, sprouts and pesto. 

2.Whole wheat bread, ham, cheese and tomato heated up on the panini press with a side salad or cup of soup 

3. Mixed greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, carrots, jicama and feta cheese (I don't like dressing, but oil and vinegar is always a good choice) 

4. Sushi! Sometimes our dining halls have sushi, and though it definitely isn't restaurant quality, it's still good 

Dinner: dinner is trickier because it varies a lot depending on what the DH offers. I try and stick to lean proteins like chicken and tofu and just eat tons of veggies. Remember Annie from my last post? She's the peanut butter queen so I often follow in her footsteps and have peanut butter and fruit for dessert. We also have ice cream machines that often have non fat choices so that's good when we're craving something a little more desert like! 

Anyway, that's all I have for now. Off to work and then study like a mad woman for my finals on Tuesday! 

Let's Get Real

It's crunch time for the quarter kids (actually if you've read my previous posts you'll know that it's almost always crunch time on the quarter system!) It's week 10 which means at this time next week I'll be done with my sophomore year of college. Holy crap. Not sure if I should be excited or terrified.

Anywho, I've been doing lots of thinking (and talking) lately and I've come to some realizations. Wanna hear? Ok, here it goes:

No matter what I accomplish or achieve, I never allow myself to feel good enough. Ever. I rarely celebrate my victories, am quick to judge myself and can't take a compliment to save my life. This my friends, is not okay!  I am incredibly hard on myself when it comes to my physical progress on this whole journey to health. I've come a longggg way but I continue to put myself down. One of my closest friends and I were talking recently about how we both need to be kinder to ourselves. We are constantly griping about how lost we feel for not knowing exactly what we want in life, how we need to lose weight, how we need to make changes in our study habits etc. However, we rarely acknowledge the fact that we must be doing something right considering we're still here.

At this point in my life, there is a lot going on. And by a lot I mean so much so that I can barely remember my name by the end of the day. With CKI, school, babysitting, volunteering, traveling and everything else that somehow manages to work its way in there, I barely have time to sleep. I try to stay on track with my food and my exercise but it is so hard sometimes.

So here's how I plan to address these things (some suggestions courtesy of my bestie, Miss Annie!)

1. No. More. "Fat". Talk. (Here's the link to an article from the NYT that explains a little more). We need to talk to ourselves like we would talk to a friend in the same situation. Be kind!
2. Take time to figure out what works and what doesn't! My summer schedule is a little funky but I hopefully won't be working as much as summers' past so I have some time to work on my routine. I've been thinking for awhile now that I need to revisit my days of being a morning workout person. We'll see how it goes!
3. Cliche but, "It's about the journey, not the destination." I need to appreciate what I'm going through and what I've already experienced. It's been a tough road but I have worked so hard and I deserve to recognize that and take credit where credit is due.

I apologize if this post was a little all over the place. It's pretty much "stream of consciousness" so it's not the most organized.

To end, here are a few of my recent breakfasts. I've been craving eggs like nobody's business lately! Super easy to make and oh so tasty! Basically I just toss in whatever veggies I have on hand. The picture on the top has really yummy Italian chicken sausage in it from TJ's :D

The Dreadful Week 8

For anybody who's ever been on the quarter system... you know that week 8 is terrible. TERRIBLE. It's that time where professors think it's fun to cram in another midterm or give you some big assignment that is designed to "prepare you for the final" but is actually just a hideous monster that takes up every waking second of your day. Fun stuff.

Anyway, I'm in the midst of paper writing hell and I'm running on very few hours of sleep. I had a midterm yesterday in German which I wound up staying up almost all night studying for.  I've been living in the libraries and coffee shops on campus for the past few days. I have a 10 page paper due Friday that's worth 50% of my grade in my Korean Gender Studies class and I am struggling hard core. I came home from school early today so I could run a few errands (like going to the grocery store, thank god!) I've been really stressed out with all of this school stuff so I thought it would be nice to take a quick break, make something good for dinner and relax just a little before I had back to the library later this evening.

Before I share my recipe, I wanted to share some other news. I know many of you have probably heard about Relay for Life, a 24 hour event designed to help raise funds and awareness for the American Cancer Society. We are fortunate enough to host the event on our campus and I will be participating along with thousands of other students, faculty and staff. Last year I walked 24 miles in the 24 hours but this year we are going for at least 26 (if not more). Never have I been more sunburnt/ blistered/ exhausted in my entire life but it was SO worth it. I am excited to be doing it again in less than 2 weeks! I also saw this video this morning about a boy named Zach who found out he was terminally ill with cancer and had a very limited time left to live. Talk about inspiring! I sobbed through the whole thing (I believe he passed away yesterday). His outlook on life was always so positive despite the circumstances. He was such a beautiful soul and my thoughts and prayers go out to his family. He will definitely be on my mind during our Relay event.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NjKgV65fpo

On a lighter note,  it's recipe time! I cranked up some annoyingly poppy tunes to try and perk me up a little and I threw together this yummy dinner in no time!

Sausage and Veggie Bowl

1/3 cup white rice (you can use brown too)

1tbps olive oil
2 Italian style chicken sausages
2 big handfuls of fresh spinach
2 large carrots, chopped and peeled
1/3 cup onions, diced
8 sliced mushrooms
Optional: chicken broth

I prepared the rice in my roommate's rice cooker (thanks Michelle!) but instead of cooking the rice in water, I used low sodium chicken broth. It makes the rice fluffier and super tasty!

In a small skillet, I heated the olive oil over medium heat and threw in my carrots and onions. Then I added the mushrooms and the sausage slices. After those cooked together for a little while, I put in about 1/4 cup of chicken broth and all the spinach before covering the skillet and letting everything cook together. Once it was all done, I threw it over the rice and it was delicious! I don't like to follow recipes very often, so it's nice when I make something that turns out fantastically! :)

I'm off to the library for a little while. I need to get some sleep tonight as I'm donating blood tomorrow... I'm a little nervous but I'll leave that story for my next post. Cross your fingers!

Birthday and Momma's Day!

A few big things have happened since my last post, the first being my 20th birthday! I know, I have no right to say "I feel old", but dang it I feel old!! I have two whole decades under my belt, I've had my license and my passport long enough for them to need renewing and I am almost officially half way done with college. I also recently saw some of the kids that I started taking care of in high school and it occurred to me that I've know their mom since before all three of them existed (the oldest is almost 4 and 1/2 now). So crazy!

Anyway, my birthday was on April 25th and I had a lot going on so I didn't think I was going to celebrate much. Lucky for me, I have great room mates and one of them got a bunch of our friends together and we all went out and had Thai food. It was delicious! Also, all of my home club Circle K'ers surprised me with some goodies and really sweet gifts. I love them!

Birthday treats!

I wound up having a great day and I also got to spend the weekend with the CKI District board in Southern California which was also really fun!

This past weekend was Mother's Day and I was able to go home and spend a little bit of time with my own Mama! She's the best in town :-) I also got to see my best friends, one of whom just returned from school in North Carolina and I hadn't seen her in 5 months!

My parents after church on Sunday 

 Some of the photos from my scrapbooks 

I am super lucky in that my mom was home when I was growing up (until she went back to school when I was 8). She was a consultant for a scrapbooking company so it was kind of like her job to chronicle my childhood in photo albums. I have two volumes filled solely with photos from when I was born until I was six or so! I'm so grateful for those and my brother and I always have a good time looking through our scrapbooks. 

On a completely random side note, I also made a delicious snack since I last posted. I was inspired by a recipe I saw on Peanut Butter Fingers (a blog that I read religiously). It's for a sweet and salty popcorn treat! 

Decadent Popcorn Treat:

• 1 cup plain popcorn (I used the pre- popped stuff from TJ's, it comes in the purple bag)

• 2tbs nut butter (I used peanut but almond butter is also good)

• Sprinkling of dried cranberries and butterscotch chips (I also had a few chocolate covered raisins on hand)

Basically all you do is throw your popcorn in a bowl with all the add ins. In a separate  bowl, melt down your nut butter so it's runny and pour it over your popcorn. Here's what my final product looked like! 

 

Yum!

Back again...

So it's official: my life has never been busier than in the last 6 weeks. I seriously don't know where the time goes! I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off, trying to be Superwoman. Don't think I'll ever get close to Superwoman status, but I think I deserve an A(+++) for effort! I have been spending about 30 hours a week taking care of my Circle K responsibilities as well as juggling school, babysitting and the usual daily things. That "me time" is hard to come by, but I haven't given up just yet!

This past week has been pretty good in terms of having a little time to catch up on things and relax a bit. I hosted a Banquet for my division this weekend and I basically collapsed from shear exhaustion when it was over. I spent the majority of Saturday sleeping and doing homework. I managed to get in two gym sessions so far this week but I'm not sure if I'll be able to squeeze in any more before heading out of town on Friday. Monday was just cardio and abs and yesterday we did a nice 30 minute strength training workout after a 20 minute cardio warm up (10 min treadmill/ 10 min elliptical). Not too shabby!

In terms of food, here are a couple things I ate this week!

 I made some simple Fettucine with peas, broccoli and bacon (I used low fat alfredo and made sure to drain the bacon grease before tossing everything together).

The other day Karina and I tried one of the cafes on campus. We both got the chicken lettuce wraps in a spinach tortilla. Pretty good for campus food!

Anyway! That's about all I have time for today. I'm doing some interviews tonight and then heading out to a meeting. Oh anddddd... I'm turning 20 tomorrow! I've tried to suppress my excitement but seriously... birthdays are one of my favorite things in the world and I can't wait! I have no big plans because I've just been too busy to get anything together. That being said, I still feel like a kid on Christmas Eve. Don't think I'll be getting much sleep tonight! In my next post, I will no longer be a teen!!!! Yippee!!!!! :D

Spring Break Recap

My spring break is winding down. For the most part it's been pretty uneventful yet somehow I was able to stay busy the whole time. I spent lots of time on Skype with the incoming Presidents I will be helping this year and lots of time reading policy codes and by- laws. Not the most exciting thing, but definitely helpful and very informative! I got to visit with a few good friends and sleep in every.single.day. It was divine!

In terms of eating, this week has been a little bumpy. I've found myself eating out a lot with friends and not paying as much attention to my body when it's clearly telling me it's full. For the most part, I have been making good choices but I always feel like my healthy eating train wrecks when I'm at home (home as in not at school). Something about the familiarity of being at home and not being as rigid with my choice making... definitely a mentality thing that I'll need to keep working on.

I've definitely been getting my exercise in, which has been really fun! Mostly cardio (I don't know if picking up kids and carrying babies around counts as "strength training" but that's as close as I got). In high school, I babysat, pet sat and house sat A LOT so I have lots of families that I like to visit when I'm back in town. It's been fun seeing all my little kiddos growing up and it's also been fun taking all the dogs out on hikes with me. I adore dogs, but we don't have one because my mom is allergic. This is the closest we'll get...

My gargantuan rabbit... We think he's part Flemish Giant, part Rex ;)

Overall, it's been a great week. Here are a couple pictures!

 My older brother and I at Tomatina :-)

                One of my best friends, Natalie!                                       Delicious pasta (got to bring some home!)

 Uphill run with T+C! It was 80 degrees out!

             

 My favorite dog in the whole wide world and his new partner in crime, 10 month old Cricket :)

That's all I have for now, hope you're all enjoying these last few days of March!