Week Nine: Dear Dorms, I Need More Greens!!!

A really quick entry today.

Most of you who know me, know that I grew up with eating spaghetti like 2x a week.

This reminds me of home... and makes me salivate

So I'm no stranger to eating a TON of carbs. But, the Cafeteria here at school has pushed me to my limit. They have carbs and starch galore! It's just too much! And I'm trying to eat better, but m choices are: Rice, potatoes, pasta, pizza, hamburgers, and salad bar. I love salads. Salads are the bomb. I intend to have an entry in the near future about the deliciousness, and variety of salads. But the lettuce is often wilted. That's gross.

 Uhhhh. . . delicious. *gag*

And honestly, I can only have salad for lunch and dinner every day for so long. 

But they only offer ONE vegetable per meal (usually overcooked, and reeking of butter), and they are not well stocked with fruit. The last couple of days, they've been toting very very VERY brown bananas, and rotten oranges. You would think that they would at least remove the moldy ones. Super lame.

And the quality of the food is not very high. ESPECIALLY on weekends. It's like they have no pride in their product simply because we're college students. I do not know this for sure, but sometimes it feels that way.

Me in the caf.

You'd think with the queasiness that overcomes me whenever I enter the dining hall would increase my weight loss, but it really doesn't. Because, I don't eat that much at my meals, then I snack, or try to get another dinner in because I'm hungry, and the food I ate was not satisfying. 

One thing that I think is interesting is that they often have 3-5 desserts, and those always taste AMAZING! It's like their goal is to make everyone fatter.

This is your body on cafeteria food

In exercising news, not total failure! However, I seem to be stuck in a rut of only exercising 2x a week. I can't seem to break the trend. Therefore, my goal for this week is to exercise 4x! I CAN DO IT! I BELIEVE IN HARVEY DENT!

Vote for President 2012

Week Eight: Sickness

Okay Gang! Here we go!

Sorry about my little hiatus the last couple weeks. Things have been cray cray (I am so sorry. I swear I will never say "cray cray" again). But recently I've had some inspirations to eat better and such.

Quick warning, I will try to keep doing this blog every week, but I feel like the entries will be shorter because I have a lot of long term projects I need to be working on, so the stress is on.

As I said, I've had some inspirations to eat better and work out and such, the main being the pictures from Canada. I did not like what I saw. I can totally tell that I've gained a lot of weight. "But the camera puts on ten pounds!" The fat side of me says. "You actually look really hot in those skinny jeans". Note to fat-self: you aren't fooling anybody. The second inspiration was a video I saw. It was me a year ago. I was experimenting with the camera on my computer, and trying to think up things to do for a video blog (If anyone has any ideas, let me know! I'd love to get one of those started). I looked really good. Thus, I can look like that again, I just have to work for it. Thus I have started a new workout routine, and I'm sticking to it pretty well so far, and I'm trying to eat better.

BUT I don't want to talk about that this week, I just wanted to give a little up date. This week, I want to talk about things to eat when you are sick. This is inspired by the REAL-LIFE! experience of me being sick. Right now. During tech week. Sigh.

I got a wonderful list of things that people with a cold, or whatever it is I have, should have.

Mucinex DM (over the counter)
Orange Juice
Kleenex with a hint of Vicks

I was so touched that she made me a list! Then I felt bad because I have no money, so I probably will not be utilizing her great advise. (I DID end up getting Mucinex from my amazing, super awesome director).

SO! Based on Erin's list, and a few things I've actually picked up in my life of ailments, here are the best (and worst) things to consume while sick.

Cold/Fever: Good
Orange juice
Chicken Noodle soup, or other non cream based soups
tea
Water
EmergenC
Fluids
Sleep

Cold/Fever: Bad
Cough drops (excessive)
cream based soups
Anything with lots of sugar

Anything where you are barfing: Good
Sleep
Popsicles
Saltines
Water
Gatorade

Bad:
Pretty much anything else

So obviously, I'm not a doctor (For the record, if I was, my main prescription would be for people to take less stupid pills. So, it's probably best that I stick with my current studies), but these are just things I've picked up on.

I say nix the cough drops because most of the time, people don't take just one to sooth their throat, they pop them like candy. The aromas help, but cough drops are still chock-full of sugar, which irritates your throat even more, thus keeping you from full recovery.

The reason to pick a non cream based soup over the creamy delicious ones is two-fold: first of all, cream based soups are thick, and might sit in your stomach uncomfortably, and second, more fluids! I all know the way to get rid of a cold is to drown the sucker. Leading us to...

Water, Tea, EmergenC(hey that rhymes!): Water is a no brainer -- its good for you all the time, you need to be extra hydrated, drink MORE water. The heat of the tea soothes without the sugar of cough drops (so yeah, if you're sick drinking your tea with sugar, that might be counter productive). Honey will help with the flavor, but I personally prefer straight up, no additives when I'm sick.

And emergenC has, yes, Vitamin C, but also other good vitamins to help you get better faster. A fun fact is that Vitamin C is not what makes you better from being sick, but it's what keeps you from getting sick. That doesn't mean take EmergenC all the time, just be conscious of the fact, and maybe eat more oranges when you are at a point in your life where getting sick is a big no no. i.e. The month of your wedding, midterms week, if you know you will be coming within 100 yards of a baby, etc.

I personally hate EmergenC, but I have a system that works for me, AND IT COULD WORK FOR YOU TOO!!!!!!!!!! (imagine a terrible info-mercial).

Have you ever gotten sick? Of course you have! But now it's time to beat that cold with EMERGENC!

 (slow pan of emergenC packet)

But Steve! (it's always something like Steve)
EmergenC tastes like watered down, berry pee!

Heh heh heh! Of course it does! But here's the hidden instructions that NO ONE EVER TOLD YOU!

Take your packet of EmergenC
Tear it open
pour half in one shot glass, and half in another shot glass
Now, add a little bit of water to each and stir.

SHOT, SHOT, SHOTSHOTSHOT!

Now, drink a whole glass of water. You have just gotten through the process of drinking EmergenC with as little pain and gagging as possible.

As for the Barf list, 

You need to be hydrated = water

Absorbs acid, and settles stomach = saltines

Tastes good going down, and coming up/ not chunky = Popsicles

IT HAS ELECTROLYTES! = Gatorade

Idk why you need electrolytes when you're sick, but they help apparently.

Um... I think that's it! I need to get back to drinking my tea and OJ now. Thanks!

Week Seven: What happened to Week Six?!

Ok, I know I missed last week. My bad everyone. I had a super awesome topic too! It was gonna be called "Whore d'oeuvres". I had gone to a baby shower that week, and was reflecting on the fact that a party is not a party without snacks. Or, maybe it is, but it's not a party that I will attend.

But that was last week, and my topic this week kind of pertains to why Week 6 never happened. This week's topic is called:

Pretty self-explanatory. Without getting too into it, last week was a hell-and-a-half, and I did not have any time on Tuesday to reasonably write out a good blog for all you lovely people.

Stress Eating is one of the worst things that could possibly happen to someone, and is all too common for a college student. I'm pretty sure I ate a whole bag of Goldfish crackers. And a pizza with cheese in the crust. And a lot of sherbet. And M&Ms, and chocolate. LOTS of chocolate. Boo. Then, of course, if you're stressed, it's probably because you're really busy. What is one of the first things that gets squeezed out of your schedule when you're busy? Why, it's your workout rutine. So, my calender has no gold stars on this past week.

Unfortunately, this coming week isn't looking like it's going to be much better. However! Now that I know the problem, I can easily avoid it! Plus, I don't have any money, and I'm running out of stress food. That being said nothing makes me feel better than a can/glass of Diet Dr. Pepper. Delicious.

Okay, I gotta end this now because I'm still super busy, but I will leave you with this:

 This is wisdom far beyond my years. Good luck with your week everyone!