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!

Week Five: Canadians call Soda "Pop"

This week has been hard. I knew that the trip to Canada would be hard on my diet, but I am feeling especially low this week.

We literally ate out for every lunch and dinner, and I definitely was really excited to eat some real food when I got back.

I am really self conscious of my gut this week, and now that my fat pants are too dirty to wear in good company, I had to wear my regular, very unforgiving pants. I tell ya, nothing motivates you like being disgusted with yourself. Seriously. Up to now, it's been all fun and games. But now I am REALLY cracking down.

RULES FOR THIS WEEK AND EVERY OTHER WEEK FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE:
-Fast

Just kidding. But it has been rough.

Besides the waistline troubles, Canada was marvelous. The poutine was delicious, and the Pizza Pizza was cheep. And I found that I have a love for Guinness. (153 cal/12oz.) It has been said that "a Guinness a day keeps the doctor away". I'd believe it. It's delicious.

Sorry I don't really have anything to talk about other than Canada, but that's what I did all week! I'll give you the low down on the places where I ate.

On the way down:

- McDonald's
  -- I tried their Fruit and Maple Oatmeal (145 cal per serving) for the first time, and it was actually delicious! It has been criticized for not being "wholesome" To the people saying that, all I can say back is DUH! It's still McDonald's.

- Big Boy
  -- Yeah, this is the second time I've ever eaten there, and probably the last. It took forever, and it didn't taste good. I feel like it was made to order, but it tasted like I ordered 4 hours in advance.

While there:

- Pizza Pizza
  -- Made popular by the awesome movie Scot Pilgrim vs. the World; and the fact that they sell 2 pieces of pepperoni and a pop for $3.99. The food itself is decent. Worth all 399 pennies. It's the service that really sucked for us. BUT if you ever get the chance, I suggest the chili with the garlic bread. It was ridiculously tasty. And then try the poutine there, and tell me if it's good or not because I got it elsewhere.

- Molly Bloom's
  -- This is a local bar in Stratford. The food was disappointing, and the service bad. (I'm going to mention now that the service was pretty bad everywhere. It's a tourist town, but only 3 months out of the year, and it seems like all the restaurants in town were unprepared). The drinks here were pretty good, and the cheapest I saw. This is where I had my first poutine (reminder, that is french fries, topped with gravy and cheese curds). It was only ok.
I will give it credit though: I had my first dark beer there last year, my first poutine, and my first scotch and soda. We've been through a lot. And I had the best night there with 3 close friends, a couple drinks, and a big bowl of sweet potato fries. Awesome.

- Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory
  -- This was the exception to the bad service. They had delicious food: fudges of all kinds, tons of ice cream flavors, carmel apples, bon bons; basically, it was an awesome candy shop. You could even watch them make chocolate in the window. Sam and I split a piece of cheesecake on the a stick dipped in dark chocolate. It was so good! (although, I don't even want to think about the calorie content)
5 Stars for them.

- Tim Horton's
  -- I very much enjoyed that experience. I'm not much of a coffee drinker, but I had only heard rave reviews about the coffee, so I had to try it. IT. WAS. DELICIOUS! I also had soup, a sandwich, and a cruller. It was all really good, but it had a long line.

- Backstage
  -- This was a bar that sold a ton of different shots, so Sam and I tried two: a Sicilian Kiss (amoretto and SoCo), and a Sour Jack (Sour Puss and Jack Daniels). I'll be honest, I didn't like it. But I do not like shots. I like to enjoy my drinks, not swallow them as fast as I can and wait to get drunk.

- Bentley's
  -- Probably the most expensive restaurant I've ever been to. The food was alright, but not worth how much we paid for it. And their mixed drinks seemed outrageous to me. Granted, I don't go out drinking here, but I got 2 mixed drinks for $10 a pop! The poutine there though, was excellent. ($8.95 I think, which isn't terribly expensive).

The Way Back:

- Tim Horton's (US style).
  --Still good coffee, but the experience wasn't as good.

- Steak 'n Shake
  -- This was the most disgusting place I've ever eaten. I seriously wish I knew what town I was in so I could warn you to never go there. I will admit, I thought the "Steak" part of Steak 'n Shake was actual steak. Not just burgers. I got a avocado burger, and the actual burger part was so gross, that I just ate the avocado off of the bun. The food was gross, and the shakes were lack luster. The service can only be described as incompetent. Someone asked for a certain kind of shake, and the girl at the counter couldn't seem to wrap her mind around the flavor combo. AND flavor combos were advertised there, so it wasn't like that person was being picky or anything. Then she got it wrong anyways. And the bathrooms were disgusting. The smell in there. . . I don't know how to describe it. I have never smelled anything like it. It didn't even smell like poop, it smelled rancid. I gagged. I literally gagged while trying to pee. It was just bad.

Sigh. I was going to post some pictures of the trip on here, but my computer refuses to acknowledge that my ipod is plugged in, so I will just have to post them next week (3 weeks of Canada in a row?! Awesome Sauce).

Feel free to comment below, or send me a Facebook message. OR you could follow me on twitter! (Olivia Ludwiczak).

Tune in next week, it will be funnier!

Week Four: Trips

Oooooh Canadaaaaaaa, 

My home and native laaaaaaand

True patriot heart

In all thy sons commaaaaaaaaand. . .

Oh! I didn't see you there. Today I have an especially special post. I'm actually writing this at 2 AM. I am pulling an all-nighter because at 4 AM, I'M LEAVING FOR CANADA! WOOT!

BUT since I'm probably going to be busy basically the whole time, I'm not going to bring my computer on this adventure. I know most of you live for my weekly posts, so rather than force you to fend for yourselves this week, I thought I'd give you a short, and somewhat muddled morning post.

For anyone who's ever been on a diet (a show of hands anyone?) you know what leaving the country means: lots of cheating. 

What with the syrup, and poutine (that's french fries in gravy yo), and Pizza Pizza, and Tim Hortons, and beer! How can you do it? It's not like I can just get a little every once in a while because I don't live in Canada!

That being said, I've kinda been cheating this past week. Idk what exactly my problem is. I am eating less, but I can't seem to actually give up any food entirely. And I know you're not supposed to really, but there are some foods that I really think I could live without, and would be better off without, but I can't seem to say no. I'm such a food slut. Sigh.

Well, maybe I'll get inspired by the Canadians.

I gotta end it here because, as I said, I'm staying up all night, and it's not treating me well. I mean, I used the term "food slut". That's a definite signal to hang up the blog towel for the day.

Have a good week everybody! Feel free to leave a comment, email me, FB me, or tweet me! I love hearing from you, and if there's anything in particular you want to hear about, let me know :)

Week Three: Fat Pants

Today I want to talk about fat pants. Why you ask? Because I'm wearing them right now.

This past year I happened to find 10 lbs. (Yeesh). Therefore, my regular pants aren't exactly fitting right. Here's a visual:

Or something like that.

Therefore, I have retreated into the safe, and elastic world of fat pants.

Ok, admit it. You have at least one pair of fat pants. If you are unsure, here's a list of potential fat pants:

-Jeans from before you lost weight previously (If you're lucky enough for that to have happened)
-A pair of elastic pants that look like regular pants if you pull your shirt over the waist
-Old maternity pants that are still floating around
-Jeans that you got for Christmas from someone who thought you were fatter than you are, but you feel   bad getting rid of a gift, so they just sit at the bottom of your drawer gathering lint.
-Jeans that have no concept of size. i.e. they say fourteen, but fall off your 14-sized butt whenever you wear them.

The only real standard to fat pants is that you can (and at times must) wear them in public.

Usually fat pants look like this:

But when you've put on a little weight, or are bloated they fit like this:

I know what you're thinking. Super sexy.

But seriously, fat pants are like a judgmental, but very forgiving friend. It's like they say "Hey, you're fat. But that's ok. I'm just going to show everyone your bulging belly, and make your butt look as big as possible, yet make sure it looks unattractive! But other than that, you can breathe easy, and don't have to feel like a balloon stuffed into a tube sock. I hope you don't run into anyone attractive or important today!"

Aaaand that's pretty much how it goes.

You would think that would be inspiration enough to get a diet going. One might ask "Why don't you just get bigger pants?" Well, that's simple. If I were to get bigger pants, I would not only have to spend money (a precious commodity for the college student), but I would also have to admit to have gained weight and do not fit in my regular pants. And that's not really an option. I'd rather wear pants that lie and tell me they're a size 14, when they're clearly more of a 15.5 ish.

All that being said, the diet is going only okay.

I've been eating less at meals, while eating small snacks throughout the day. Try, one or two crackers just to hold me over. If I want a really mind less food, I really like sweet bell peppers. At Pick N Save you can get a big bag for about $5. Yeah, rocking the peppers. Still avoiding meat, but not ruling it out altogether yet. Although I feel like I might do some sort of cleanse in the near future. Deets coming soon.

As for exercise, I did it only 3x this week. But hey! That's 3 more times from last week! Instead of the eliptical machine, I've been doing an exercise bike. It's funny, I never even considered doing the bike before, but I've lost weight in the past, and it was before I got my driver's license and had to bike everywhere. DUH! So the bike gets me dripping sweat, and it gets me thinking "There's my fat dripping away!"

Except, that's not how that works. If it was, I'd been skinny as hell thanks to the dorms being 10 trillion degrees all the time (That's 5555555555537.778 degrees C for anyone not in the states).

i also like the bike because I can get a lot of reading done for school while working out. Hello two birds! Let me throw this one stone at you!

The core workout is not going as well. I just can't get myself motivated to actually DO it. Boo.

Alright, I gotta wrap it up! This week the goal is to do 45 mins of cardio 3x, and keep track of the food I eat. Sloooooowly working my way to actual calorie counting, but now trying to just make good portion decisions.

Question for the people of the internet: Is it really that weird to just eat a whole pepper if they're the little ones? I've heard yes and no, but I want to hear your opinion! Feel free to FB me: https://www.facebook.com/LivLifeQuinn, or follow me on twitter: https://twitter.com/OliviaLudwiczak.

Have a great week, and tune in next Tuesday for more diet blues.

Week Two: Dorm Food

Hey everybody! I think today is going to be a shorter post because classes just started yesterday, and things are still pretty hectic. With that said, here we go!

This past week has been a mixture of eating whatever I feel like (I totally went back to IHOP two more times!), and getting used to dorm food again.

For those of you who have never had dorm food, I'll describe the experience: You just finished class and you're starving. You smell something delicious down the hall. You go to the caf (in college it's not cool to say "the cafeteria"), and feel the air conditioning wash over your slightly sweaty body. You follow your nose to the food line. The food generally looks anywhere from "decent" to "get-in-my-tummy-now!". You trek to the drink station, get back to the table, realize you forgot your silverware, go back and get your silverware, and finally sit down. You take that long awaited bite and. . . whatever you eat tastes pretty much "meh".

That's why college students hate dorm food. That tiny spark of hope that whispers at the back of their brain "Thisss smellss really gooood! Maybe today the food will be deliciousssss..." Then the student is embittered by mediocrity.

This can be avoided however. One must mentally prep themselves not to be taken in by the aromas. Then, take a good look at the food. The taste is related to the look of the food by -2 to -5 points. (So basically, if it looks really good, it will only taste alright). All dorm food is edible, but one can't set their standards up too high. Or, even high. I'm 5'2''. They should be a little lower than that. And no matter what the standards, the food will always be bland. No matter what.

That being said, given the circumstances, I am trying to eat better. My school does offer a lot of vaguely healthy options. There's always at least one vegetable, a grain, and soup. I know soup isn't necessarily healthy, but I LOVE IT. They also have soy milk upon request.

As far as my personal diet is concerned, I am doing the absolute basics. I'm making half my plate veggies (legit veggies, not corn or potatoes which is are starches that often impersonate vegetables), and I'm trying to eat less meat and cheese (my kryptonite). And of course, eating a little less in general. I'm trying to drink 8, 8oz glasses of water a day, and I start as soon as I wake up. It jump-starts my metabolism before I go down for breakfast. And for breakfast, I like about a cup of plain oatmeal and about a cup of fruit. Idk why, but I'm super in love with the blandness of oatmeal. However, it's still really good for you if you put a little cinnamon or brown sugar in it. Even raisins are pretty good in it.

As for exercising, I'm doing a cardio/core routine. MWF, I will be using an elliptical machine. Currently I am only going a half hour because, let's face it, I'm mega outta shape (that is really fun to say out loud btw). However, I'm planning on doing the half hour this week, 45 minutes next week, and hopefully by the third week I'll be up to an hour.

TRSa, I will be doing a core workout that I actually got years ago from a friend who was in soccer. I will add that list at a late time. I'd add it now, but there's a few that have really odd names (try "pregnant lady") that need to be explained, and I don't have time just now.

I know I sound confident about the work out, but Sam and I went yesterday, and not even five minutes later, we were pouring sweat, wheezing, and b****ing about how we wanted to stop. Had I not been so distracted by how much my brain needed oxygen, I might have recognized the hilarity of the situation.

That's all for this week. Sorry there's no pictures or cool stuff, but next week I'll give you some really good stuff!