And We're Back...

So my life has been absolutely insane!  I have taken the NY bar (I wont find out if I passed until sometime in late October, early November).  I am looking at moving to NY, looking for a job, and trying to catch up on all the things I failed to do while studying for the bar.

The truth is that my life has been pretty boring.  I have been doing work that got neglected while I was studying and I have been spending as much time with the boy as possible.  He leaves to go back to school here soon and I don't want to have to say goodbye.  It will mean that I wont see him again for a couple of months.  Just the thought makes me want to cry.  But we will make it.  We always have.

I am working on getting better (I fell down some stairs yesterday) so that I can get my exercise back on track.  During bar studying I ate like crap, didn't exercise, and barely slept.  So I am trying to remedy two of those three things (the eating and sleeping) so that I can get back on the exercise routines starting on Monday.  I was doing pretty good with my physical therapy (which was sort of a "mini-exercise" everyday) until about two weeks before the bar.  Then I put that on hold to study.  I went back yesterday to start again and then immediately preceded to fall down a flight of stairs.  So now my PT is on hold until the swelling in my knee goes down.  No worries, I was not seriously injured, only bruised.  This is not like the last time I fell UP the stairs and ended up in the hospital.  I am the biggest klutz ever.  :)

So, sorry that my first new post is super short, but I really have nothing else of interest to say.

Changes

The boy came home a little over a week ago.  I have been on a hiatus because of hanging out with him.  I just wanted to absorb as much of him as I could.  We had a fantastic time!  My life is at the best point it has been in a really really long time. :)

I am doing bar prep now.  Serious bar prep time is here.  So, for all the millions of readers I have out there, I know this is going to depress you to no end, but I wont be writing again until after the bar.  But after the bar, I will definitely be back.  Try not to miss me too much.

Love love love.

I Cheated

That's right.  I am a cheater.  I couldn't help myself.  My craving was just soooo bad.

Bet you can't guess what I cheated with.

Nope...you're wrong...I didn't cheat with that.

I cheated with carbs.

And creamy, delicious goodness (a.k.a. fat).

I bet you are still wrong in what you think I cheated with...

Yesterday was crazy.  I had a doctor's appointment for my knee that was scheduled for 11.  I arrived at the doctor's office to check in at 10:50.  I sat in the waiting room until 12:10.  That's right, an hour and twenty minutes in the waiting room.  The doctor then told me nothing new, but he did schedule me for physical therapy, gave me a brace, and some medication so that my knee will hurt me less when I exercise.

Then I had to catch up.  So much work, so little time.  I got a good deal accomplished yesterday. By the time the day was over, however, I had eaten nearly enough, was tired and cranky, and my cravings were out of control.  So I cheated with one of my favorite things in the whole world.  Peanut Butter, Pumpkin Butter and a Bagel Thin.  250 calories of pure goodness. 

I toasted the bagel thin, put a carefully measured tablespoon of organic peanut butter on one of the slices and a heaping tablespoon of organic, all natural, Trader Joe's pumpkin butter on the other.  Can you say yum? Cause I can. Yum.

Did you guess it? I bet not! :)

OHHHHH, I almost forgot.  My weight loss is at 4 pounds! Four pounds in four days! Woohoo.

Yesterday's Menu
Breakfast: Forgot (oops)
Lunch: Salad with spinach, carrots, cucumbers, mushrooms, mango (which I think is also cheating) and a low-fat raspberry vinaigrette
Dinner: Chicken with asparagus (I don't know what my mom did to the chicken but it was DELICIOUS) dipped in organic, plain, low-fat yogurt; green tea
Snack: Glorious delicious goodness (a.k.a. my cheat)
Water Intake: 48 oz.

Basically - yesterday was a bad day for my diet...KS's *wah wah* noise.
 

Cravings

Day three has come and almost gone.  And all I can think about is sugar. Cookies.  Cake.  S'mores.  Hmmmmm s'mores.  It is literally driving me crazy.  I was going to cheat tonight but a certain someone talked me out of it.  I don't know if I want to hug them or murder them in their sleep.

I keep telling myself that if I could drink a homemade lemonade concoction, and nothing else, for five straight days, I can do this.  I don't know though. For whatever reason this is so. much. harder.

Maybe it is stress from bar studying that is creating the overwhelming desire to eat something sweet and gooey. Who knows? All I know is that at some point between now and the end of this diet my self control is going to give and I am going to eat a s'more or a cookie or something.  It will be a glorious day.  It may be tomorrow.

Anyways, back to studying.

Today's Menu
Breakfast: two eggs, spinach; green tea
Lunch: salad with a hard boiled egg, carrots, celery, mushrooms and spinach, an apple; green tea
Dinner: Chicken breast with tomato sauce, vegetable medley; green tea
Snack: yogurt and grapes
Water Intake: 96 oz. (and counting)

2 Days In...

And all I can think about is s'mores.  Specifically these s'mores.  Yum.  But I can't eat them.  I just can't.  I have to stick to it and lose weight.  So no s'mores for me.

Anyways, my parents are cheating today.  It's Tuesday and my Dad has his friends over tonight.  So they are having a few alcoholic beverages.  They keep telling me to have a s'more or eat ice cream.  But I am trying so hard to be good.  It is only day two, this is not boding well for the future.

The boy comes home in THREE DAYS! OMG I cannot tell you how excited I am about that.  I cannot wait to see him.  One sad thing? I can't pick him up from the airport.  I have to do a 1/2 day simulated exam for my bar review.  It is at the same time as picking him up from the airport.  I could pick him up and then do it, but he didn't like the idea of seeing me and then having to let me go do work.  So, I am going to see him when I finish the practice exam.  Which means I have to wait three whole hours after he lands to see him.  I know that doesn't seem like a lot, but is the rough equivalent of ... FOREVER! Oh well.

Anyways, back to the diet.  I am going to report my weight loss roughly every four days.  Hopefully the number I am telling you continually gets larger and larger! :)

Today's Menu
Breakfast: two eggs, tomatoes, spinach and a peach; green tea
Lunch: Salad with tuna, spinach, tomatoes, carrots, celery; green tea
Dinner: Chicken in a balsamic vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper marinade and a broccoli, cauliflower, and carrot vegetable medley; green tea
Snack: yogurt and grapes
Water Intake: 72 oz.

Family Plan

Hey everyone!

So, with bar prep and everything else, I do not have the energy to work out for an hour and a half everyday.  Knowing that, but still wanting to lose weight, I decided to try this diet that my future mom-in-law has been doing.  It's called the 17 day diet.  It is basically Atkins with more of a focus on the healthy part, rather than the just not eating carbs part.  You eat lots of greens, which help cleanse your system, and lean protein.  For the first 17 day cycle there are no carbs.  That makes me sad.

This entry is entitled "family plan" because my family agreed to do it with me.  So far today, my mom has fully participated.  I am not sure about my dad because he went into the office.  But I am going to go grill him for a bit.  Hopefully he didn't eat anything he wasn't supposed to.

Dinner is in the oven.  Mom and I have to work out for our 20 minutes tonight before we go to bed.  And I have to do a bunch more Barbri.  I will let you know what my dad says tomorrow.

Todays Menu:

Breakfast: one egg with tomatoes and spinach, and 1/2 a grapefruit

Lunch: Salad with tomatoes, spinach, carrots, celery, tuna, and a homemade balsamic vinaigrette; green tea

Dinner: Tilapia with a vegetable medley; green tea

Snack: Yogurt with grapes

Water intake: 72 oz.

Fun fact

The boy told me this today.  I have not researched it to prove it, but he usually tends to be right about these things.  This is in relation to my Jamie Oliver post.

L-cysteine is an amino acid chain that is CONTAINED in human hair and duck feathers. The protein is extracted through hydrogenation and added to almost anything that needs to stay soft including breads and hamburger buns. There is no actual hair or feathers and the process actually makes L-cysteine an "all natural product."

So I was not incorrect.  Human hair is used to make cookie dough ice cream soft.  It just isn't the actual hair.  It's still kinda gross, although I guess less so.  Also, it worries that me that it is used in ANYTHING that needs to be kept soft.  Ewww.  Although, I guess when you think about it, we probably all ingest a decent amount of human hair during the course of our lifetimes, without any processing at all!  

The goal of this blog is to learn as much as I can about health, and to teach others what I know.  So if you have any other fun facts like this one, please feel free to share them.  It would make my day! :)