Category Archives: Grad School

Day 126: No Case of the Mondays Here Edition

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Who knew Mondays could be so awesome?

After an insane week of craziness, it was great to start a week off on a positive note. I’ve been trying to catch up on everything because I’m going to start an internship with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services on Wednesday! I’m really excited to see what that great opportunity brings (not to mention a great practice in effective time management.) Anyways, so today was just a good day.

Breakfast: So we got these coupons through Facebook for a free thin bagel from Einstein Brothers and we were going to do it but we I forgot to bring it with us to school. We went anyways =). I got a combo with a thin bagel with light smear and a fruit cup. It was awesome and (sorry Starbucks) their black coffee is the best hands down. Overall, it was a 6 point breakfast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lunch: After my class, I came home and ate what was left of the Turkey Mexican Casserole from last night. I also had some of the Baked Beans Formerly Known as Pinto Beans. It seriously made the meal. Frankly, this picture doesn’t do the epic awesomeness of this meal justice. A thick 8 point lunch. (Oh yeah, and I ate it with a spoon. It seemed like a spoon appropriate meal. It’s like what Teddy Roosevelt always said “Speak softly and carry a big spoon” or something like that.)

 

 

 

 

Snack (This is where the adultery comes in): No I did not cheat on Megan, however I cheated on my favorite yogurt place, Hiro’s, today. I went to go get some pants altered on the other side of time and then we decided to grab some frozen yogurt (Please Note: these two destinations are not a cause and effect of each other.) Now we are die hard Hiro’s fans, but we decided to try this place called Nuberri. Sadly, I think I have a new favorite place to get my frozen yogurt on. They have some awesome flavors, a lot more toppings and they have a scale with a price chart that you can look at by the toppings so you won’t end up with a $10 sundae. (Oh yeah, they also have hot fudge, but I’ll never try that) The biggest thing is they have the nutritional info of their yogurts. Pretty awesome place and my yogurt was 5 points.

 

Dinner: So it was my turn to make dinner so I tried to make a new recipe that I made up. We bought some Jennie-O spicy Italian sausage this week so I made some sauce with cut up bell peppers and poured it over the cut up pieces. It was pretty awesome if I do say so myself. Overall, the meal was 12 points. Pretty legit.

Today, I got to 31 points which is my limit so that works! See ya tomorrow.

 

 

 

Day 122: TGIThursday

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I’m watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for the first time and it’s ripping my soul apart. This movie is sooooooo awful and ridiculously inaccurate. So now I’m writing my daily post. Even though it was a 4 day week, it has been packed with a lot of school and just being off kilter. I’m ready to get back in to regular schedule. We’ll see how that goes. Hooray for Friday.

Breakfast: This morning I went to a panel/advisory board meeting for the Hispanic Marketing Communication Center at FSU. It was a pretty cool meeting with a lot of big wigs in advertising. Anyways, there was a big plate of bagels but I resisted and ate my PB fiber snack bar thing from Publix which was really really good and 3 points. Caloric crisis averted.

Lunch: On Thursdays, our awesome college minister Adam (and sometimes his awesome wife Crystal) come up to campus to have lunch with whoever shows up at the food court. I usually just get Pollo Tropical in the food court, but today I tried the sushi/stir fry place. I got the Shrimp Tempura roll and it was pretty good and not that expensive as far as sushi goes. My roll was 13 points for 8 pieces which is a little high but a nice treat.

Snack: Surprise surprise, I went to Starbucks again (I need to stop!!!!!) and got a Iced Grande Skinny Caramel Machiatto for 4 points

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner: Megan made a massive crock pot of pinto beans for dinner and it was glorious. I had 4 massive ladels full. It was really good and that much was a ton of food. Not to mention only 8 points. Hollatastic.

Snack: Just a banana 2 points

So today I only got to 30 points which is actually not bad at all. Again… Thank God tomorrow is Friday. See ya tomorrow.

Day 120: The Mourning After

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(Yes, mourning was intentional. Please don’t comment.)

They always say that the day you go back to work from a vacation is really hard and let me tell you today was a doozie. I got more done in a day than I ever had (which is good) but even after working hard all day I still have more to do. It just never ends. Consequently, I’ve made a lot better use of my time and have become more efficient with the time I have. Welcome to Grad School I guess. Even though today has been rough and kind of discouraging, I have been getting awesome feedback about last night’s post which has made my day. Thanks again for being awesome. If the rest of semester is going to be like this, I’ll need all the help I can get. Alright, food time.

Breakfast: I tried to make a wafflewich with toast this morning (toastwich?) and it was a complete disaster. In it’s defense, my toast was cold so maybe that had something to do with it. I ate about 5 points of it and threw it in the trash.

Snack: Luckily, the FSU library has a Starbucks and since I got a Starbucks card from my awesome in-laws, (thanks Mark and Pattie!) I got a Grande Skinny Caramel Machiatto for 3 points. (Has anyone seen the new Starbucks cup size? It looks like the fuel tank on a Vespa. Just saying.)

Lunch: Since we were on campus, we met up at Pollo Tropical and grabbed some lunch. We both had the TropiChop which is white chicken, white rice and black beans. Soooooo good. The bowl is 11 points.

Dinner: Lunch was pretty early and dinner was pretty late so I was starving through out my classes. I’m definitely going to pack some snacks tomorrow to avoid that (and by drinking more water!) Anyways, we had chili which was just awesome. Some comfort food goes a long way. I know a lot of people think that comfort food usually has to be unhealthy but I totally disagree with that. Next time you want some comfort (stick to your ribs) food, make some beans and rice. It soothes the soul. Trust me, I’m a glutton (well… used to be.) So I ate a lot this evening but ate well. Dinner was 13 points. Yumtastic.

So today I got to 32 points which use to be okay, but since I broke 300, according to our older system, I’m down to 31 points a day. You might think it’s just a point, but I rely on that little guy a lot so that should make things interesting around here. Either way, I’m over a point today and it happens. I’ll take it. See ya tomorrow.

Day 119: Weekend Recap and New Goals Edition

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I’m back. What a great weekend. It was awesome to get a way for a few days before life gets really interesting. My advice to you: Hotwire is the best thing in the world. We stayed in a condo bigger than our house for really cheap. So worth it. Anyways, we walked easily more than 10 miles all around Disney this weekend (in some cases, jogging/swimming through the torrential downpour today) and we ate pretty sensibly. We packed lunches, ate a lot of trail mix and carrots, and drank a lot of water. We did eat out a few times, but we shared entrees most of the time which cut down the calories and the cost. Overall, a pretty awesome weekend.

Short Term Goal: as you may recall from Thursday, I broke my 300 pound goal (hooray!) so this weekend I thought a lot about what my new goal is going to be and I think I’ve figured it out. On March 5th, we are planning on doing the ESPN The Weekend 5k at Disney (we still haven’t registered, but we are going to soon) and by then I want to be down another 20 pounds, so 279. It’s only 47 days away, but I’m hoping to blow it out of the water. It would be pretty awesome because I haven’t weighed that much since… middle school? I think setting up these mini goals really helps you keep your eyes on the prize. When I think of how much weight I need to lose it’s really overwhelming and frankly terrifying, but when it’s chopped up like this it makes it a lot more manageable. So that’s my short term goal.

Longer Term Goal: When I was a senior in high school, my computer teacher Mrs. Merritt wanted us to write down some goals at the beginning of the year and put them in an envelope. Mine was to lose 100 pounds. I had my mind set on it that this was going to happen, but then I started to tell people and they were like “are you kidding?” “That’s a ton of weight!” (actually, it’s way less than a ton stupid) and “Well… good luck with that.” So I just gave up on it really soon. Really, it wasn’t anyone’s fault but mine. I would exercise, but at that point I was eating 2 double cheeseburgers a day from McDonald’s so it wasn’t going to happen. Anyways, I had my mind set on losing weight, but I didn’t have my heart set on it too. Weight loss doesn’t work unless you give it your all where it becomes a part of your identity. It has to be top of mind all the time because that is when you’ll make the smarter decisions. It’s easy to mindlessly eat chips but if you know it’s the wrong thing, you’re able to eat only a serving. So I say that to say this. This time, my heart and mind are all in it for the weight loss win. [Takes deep breathe… not the computer, me] I’m going to try to lose a total of 100 pounds by April 27, 100 days from tomorrow. I have 100 days to lose 43 pounds and I’m going to do it the healthy way. I’ll still eat all my calories and I’m going to keep exercising. The way I look at it, if I don’t make it but I’ve still given it my all, then I’ll still win. So here’s what I need from you, dear reader. KEEP UP THE AWESOME WORK! You guys are so awesome!!! I feed off of your energy and support. Want a workout partner? Call me up! Want to go running? Call me up! You need a partner for a pie eating contest? Call someone else. But seriously, you guys rock and I thank you all for being so supportive. I really couldn’t have done it with out you.

Alright, so that’s that. March 5th and April 27th: prepare to be dominated. See ya tomorrow.

Day 115: Birthday Edition!!!!!!

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[As I’m writing this it’s 12:04 on  the East Coast so it’s still my birthday in the majority of the country!]

So… I know why you’re reading. You want to know if I did it. WELL I TOTALLY DID!!!!!!! I worked hard this week and it showed. I woke up this morning tired and then I got on the scale and after that my day was great! I still have a looooooong road to hoe, but everyday I’m getting in the right direction. For that I have you, dear reader, to thank. Thank you for all of your love and support.

Breakfast: I just had a bowl of cereal and milk 4 points.

 

 

 

Lunch: So after a crazy escapade of trying to find a parking spot that involved me actually driving back home to catch a bus back up to campus, I met up with Adam and some of the AFC folks for lunch on campus. I went with some Pollo Tropical and it was so good. They have some of the best rice and black beans I have ever had. This is the best kind of fast food in my opinion. I didn’t eat the roll so it the plate was 11 points.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh yeah, I was walking by this fountain on campus and it was partially frozen over. It was really cool so I thought I would show it off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner: I had a free bowl at Genghis Grill since it was my birthday so I went out with a few friends. It was a blast. I might have went a little overboard but it was so good. I did a surf and turf with marinated steak, imitation crab, scallops, and chicken along with a bunch of veggies and brown rice.

 

 

 

 

So we aren’t going to be able to be able to weigh in on Sunday so we both weighed in this morning. In this short week, Megan and I dominated! I lost 3.6 pounds and Megan, who had been struggling with a plateau, lost 4 pounds!!! It’s been a pretty awesome short week. Thanks again for all the support and birthday wishes! See ya tomorrow.

 

 

 

Day 114: Wednesdayness

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Sup Champs!

Before I start my typical ranting and food pictures, I just want to congratulate my good friend Christi for joining Weight Watchers Online! I’m really excited to watch her progress and celebrate her success. Definitely check out her awesome blog, The Frugal Novice. She has some great tips on saving some change and really awesome giveaways so check it out…. now!

Breakfast: I just had a bowl of cereal (4 points) and I forgot to bring a snack to my noon class so I was pretty hungry the whole time.

Exercise: So Matt and I had planned on getting some lunch and then get our racquetball, but then we decided to play first (which was smart. I’ve never played racquetball when I was full but I imagine it would not end pretty.) Anyways, it was a lot of fun and I worked up a really good sweat.

Lunch: As you can imagine, I was pretty hungry. We decided to try Jersey Mike’s which is pretty new to Tallahassee. It was the first non-subway sub I have had in… forever and it was pretty good, but no Jimmy John’s. I had the Turkey Breast and Provolone because the sign said the turkey was 99% fat free. Way to be tricky Jersey Mike! I got home and looked up the nutrition information and it was rough. My sub still had 15 grams of fat and it was 11 points. It also had almost 70% of my daily sodium. Pretty nuts, you could say I couldn’t get any nuttier OR CAN I!?! I kept looking at the nutritional info and most of the hot subs actually have trans fats. Those are still legal???? Pretty crazy. Overall, it was good, but I’m not sure when I’ll be back.

Snack: Megan and I went and studied at Starbucks. They just came out with a “skinny” Carmel Macchiato so I gave it a shot. It was actually pretty good and didn’t taste much different. I had the Iced Grande and it was 3 points.

Dinner: So far this week we have been pretty good about eating early, but tonight we ate a little late. I put some chicken in the oven and while that was baking, I made an awesome salad with all the fixins. 4 points. Then I steamed some broccoli to go with the chicken. It was really good. The chicken was only 3 points too!

So overall today, I ate 25 points while is not a lot but the sub really filled me up, but not in a good way. I’m really at the point where I don’t care how many points food is, rather I care about what I put in my body. Anyways, TOMORROW IS MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!! Which not only means I’ll be 24, but I’ll find out if I beat my challenge to break 300 before tomorrow. I’m really nervous to weigh in tomorrow but we will see how it goes. Either way, I will break 300 and if it doesn’t happen tomorrow, it will happen soon. [Thinking thin] See ya tomorrow.

Day 112: Monday Mayhem!!!!

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Sup Gang!

Today started pretty awesomely, this week my blog is featured on Fitblogger! I wrote an article on what I’ve learned after losing 50 pounds. You should definitely check it out. It’s been cold and drizzly with sadly no snow in sight (I know school just started back up, but a snow day would be nice. Especially since I doubt it would take much precipitation for Floridians to shut everything down.) I just have one class today, so I got home, listened to jazz, habitually checked for comments on the article, and did homework. I have to say it was an okay day (rhyming not intended.) Anyways, let’s talk food.

Breakfast: I just had a bowl of Kashi Berry Crumble cereal. It was the bottom of the box and for most cereals that means a lot of sediment from broken pieces, but with granola it’s a dense amount of chipped away deliciousness. It was a thick 4 point breakfast.

Lunch: So I was going to have salad and a sandwich for lunch, but I didn’t get past the salad. As you might recall, I had this awesome salad last week that had nuts and dried berries in it so I tried to make my own with some trail mix. The mix we have is mostly pumpkin and sunflower seeds and pine nuts so it made it a lot more filling. I ate the first bowl and I liked it so much I made another! For two salads with Fat Free Honey Dijon was 6 points. Awesomeness. (Oh yeah, and green tea!)

 

 

 

 

Snack: On Sunday, we bought some Spicy Blue Corn Tortilla Chips from Earth Fare so I had some of those. They are pretty hot but pretty good and for 14 chips was 3 points which isn’t bad for chips. This face is of terror from their deliciousness.

Snack: Since we are out of Publix Multigrain Waffles 🙁 I had a piece of toast with peanut butter. 3.5 points.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner: It was my day to cook, so I made chicken spaghetti… again (and no I’m not saying that like it’s a bad thing.) This batch was a lot better. I baked the chicken with some sage, rosemary and thyme (no parsley, sorry Simon & Garfunkel) and some minced garlic. It looked and smelled really good, but my meat thermometer is broke so I dried them out a little. Anyways the chicken spaghetti was 13 points which is a lot of points but it was was a lot of food!

 

 

 

 

Exercise: Today was our round 2 of Couch to 5k and it went pretty well. Since it was cold and gross outside, we went up to Leach (WHICH WAS EVEN PACKED AT 9:30 AT NIGHT!!!!)  and ran on their track. The running surface has no give so I’m a little sore in weird places like my neck. Anyways, we had a good run and worked up a pretty good sweat. 

Snack: After the run, I had a banana and some Unsweetened Chocolate Almond milk that we bought on sale. It was good, but could have used a little sweetener. It was 3 points so a good post run snack.

So overall today, I ate 32.5 points worth which is over, but with the run I’m good. See ya tomorrow (and be sure to check out my article and let me know what you think!)

 


Day 110: The Tale of Two Exercises

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It’s been a pretty tiring day, but the lack of homework makes it okay. (The lack of homework actually means the lack of doing any.)

Breakfast: I was going to play basketball at noon so I bulked up with some peanut butter and waffles. It’s such a great breakfast before any kind of exercise. Hooray for 8 points.

Exercise: Basketball was great. It was a heckuva lot better than the last time we played when it was 20 degrees outside. We played 4 on 4 half court and I made a few decent shots. Overall, basketball is a lot easier than it use to be (a lot less wheezing and begging for death.) That was 13 exercise points.

Lunch: After bball, my friend Kyle wanted me to try his favorite salad at Chick-Fil-A really bad so we picked up Megan and went over there (I’ve never seen a guy so ecstatic about a salad.) We all had the Chicken Tender Salad and I went with Fat Free Honey Mustard. The salad definitely lived up to the hype. It was 15 points so a little high but really filling.

Exercise Round 2: Megan really wanted to go for a run but I was pretty tired. I went anyways :). We decided to start up Couch to 5K since there is a 5K at Disney during ESPN The Weekend that’s 8 weeks away that I really want to do. The first workout wasn’t too bad (and would have been a piece of cake if I hadn’t had played basketball earlier in the day.) I’m really excited to see how it affects my time. We’ll see how it goes. Anyways, I went 2.2 miles and burned 4 exercise points.

 

Dinner: We had chili and watched the Seahawks defy the odds and whip up on the Saints. It was fantastic and 8 points. A lot of food for not a lot of points.

So I had another good food day in my effort to finally get down below 300. (I’m so close!!!!) Anyways, I got to 31 points and with the exercise points I was well under. Other than my snafu on Thursday, it’s been a pretty good week. I’ll definitely have to keep it up! Before I go, I just want to give a shout out to my Parents and my Sister who tore up their 5k today! My parents shaved off more than 10 minutes on their times from the Turkey Trot and my Dad even won a prize for his age category! I’m so proud of y’all!!!!

Weigh in on Sunday. Bring it. See ya tomorrow

109: The Day After the Doozie

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So… sorry I didn’t have a post last night, I’ll explain a sec but let’s get to it. Since on Thursday I made some bad food decisions so Friday I decided to make up for it and I think I did pretty well. I’m still trying to get back in to the swing of things after vacation which is always a little hard but I think Friday set me in the right direction.

Breakfast: I just had a a banana and tried my hand at making a smoothie. I just put strawberry, banana, and orange juice. Oh yeah… and cinnamon? I was watching the Today and they said that putting cinnamon in food serves as an antioxidant. I put 1/2 a tsp of it before I blended and I actually couldn’t taste it. Anyways breakfast was 4 points.

 

 

 

 

Exercise: Matt and I played racquetball and it was awesome. It felt good to get a good sweat out. Then we worked out for a little bit but the gym was still pretty packed. (Plus they were playing Jonas Brothers so the music was very uninspiring.) I worked out 13 points worth.

Lunch: Lunch, which was like at 3:30, was really good. I baked 3 chicken tenderloins and steamed some broccoli. This is possibly the densest meal you can eat for the points. This plate is only 4 points!!!! Since the broccoli is free. I was really full after. The chicken took a while but it was worth it.

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner: We were invited over to the Schuberts house for dinner and to get to know each other better. We know the Schuberts from church and Sharon has had her own success with her weight loss journey. She has lost more than 50 pounds too! We had spaghetti and this awesome salad with dried berries, pecans, tomatoes and croutons. I put this home made sesame dressing on it. I had seconds on both since I was still not even out of my exercise points for the day. For dessert we had some angel food cake with heated up blueberries and some cool whip. It was really good.

So we were both really exhausted from the week and we got home around 10:30. I went straight in to the bedroom to watch TV, thinking that I would write my post in a bit. Then Antiques Road Show came on and I was glued in (I’m a loser.) Then before I knew it, I woke up and it was 6:00 am. I woke back up a little later and I realized I forgot to write it. So now I’m doing it. Overall Friday was a good day. Today I’m playing basketball with some guys from church. Should be a blast. See you… later.

Day 108: A Doozie of a Day

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So just a heads up, today was a bad day for food. I haven’t had a day like this in a while but that’s how it goes sometimes right? It was one of those things where you expect a day to go to certain way and then it goes a different route. I’m not mad at all, it’s like Megan told me: there’s no reason to be mad about it because it’s a lifestyle change not a diet. There are going to be days like this and I’ll just have to do a better job next time.

Breakfast: I had a 2 waffles with pb which was 8 points but then we went up to campus so both of us to do schoolwork (already… yes it is still the first week. Welcome to Grad School) at 8 so I got a Venti Iced Nonfat Caramel Machiatto to stay awake and it was 6 points. I thought that I had the points to eat this much but I was sadly mistaken.

Lunch: I finally left the library around noon and we met back up at the lovely Pitarita. We were going to get some of their low point soup but they were out so I went on the complete other end and had a gyro and we split some pita fries. Isn’t weird that you have these intentions of being good and then you go on the complete opposite of the spectrum? It’s so weird! Anyways lunch was 15 points so by now I was pretty much already at my limit.

 

 

 

 

Dinner: (Here’s where it got fun) we were invited to dinner with Catherine (check out her awesome blog!) and Tristan so we went to this Mexican restaurant close to campus. I was scrambling to figure out what I wanted to eat and I spazzed out and got that. Looking back I could have gotten a billion different things that could have been a better choice but I didn’t and that happens. I got refried beans, a chicken quesadilla and a burrito covered in cheese full of ground beef. At first I thought “I’ll just eat the inside of the quesadilla” then I ate the tortilla. I ate the beans and then I wasn’t going to eat any of the burrito but I ended up just eating half of it. I have no clue how bad it was but I know it was bad.

 

 

So I haven’t done this in a while but I’m going to do it. I haven’t used any of my weekly points this week so I’m not going to use any at all for the rest of the week. Here’s what I think: my jeans still fit and it was one day meal. I’m not back to 357. I’m not backtracking. I’m not quitting. It was just a hiccup of a day. But it was providential that Matt texted me and asked if I wanted to play racquetball tomorrow. I have a feeling I’ll be making it up then. See ya tomorrow.