A Visit to the Volturi

Today I visited the Volturi

(source)

…I mean the blood bank. But I don’t think my experience would have been different either way.

My brother who also is blessed with O Negative blood often donates his blood. Both him and the rest of my family has always encouraged me to donate despite me not being the biggest fan of needles. For the longest time I have wanted to, and after finding out that I am also O Negative I felt that I really needed too. In the Fall I was super sick which meant I also couldn’t donate in the Winter.

But today I donated blood in honor of my big brother’s birthday.

My big bro and I

So Happy Birthday Eric!

Nervous smile?

Sooo I should probably rephrase the past couple of paragraphs and say that I tried to donate blood. It ended up not going so well.

Pre blood draw I started off with a blood pressure of 106/70 (relatively low), a heart rate of 66 (a good resting rate) and a solid 14.0 hemoglobin level (iron level). I’m super proud about the iron level. In the Fall it was pretty low.

So they start drawing blood and I’m jibber jabbering away to the attendant then my body starts feeling funny, then I get a little light headed, then naseaus and needless to say I stopped talking. I really faded away and they were trying to keep me conscious. The attendant stopped the machine that was pumping the blood out and by then I really couldn’t talk. I was so sweaty and I felt like my heart was working double time. At this point my blood pressure was now 89/56 and my heart rate was 44BPM.

After I recovered quite a bit, they gave me some gatorade-like stuff which contained 35g of sugar and the second and third ingredients were sucrose syrup and high fructose corn syrup. I took a couple of sips but it was so disgusting I couldn’t drink anymore. It’s funny how my tastes have changed since I started eating healthy. Normally I’d gulp this stuff down.

While I was waiting to be released sent my brother the picture and told him the story. His response was: “That is one of the best birthday gifts ever! Thank you so much …even though you blew it and didn’t actually give blood. Thanks”

I locked it in my phone

When I got home about an hour and a half later I was starving! Can anyone say protein?

Two (whole) egg puff on top of Sunflower millet bread with laughing cow cheese, dijon mustard and hot sauce.

I destroyed it in .2 seconds and ate some unpictured leftover corn cause I was still hungry.

Arg. I’m still hungry though. Here’s what I fueled up with before the unpleasant visit to the Volturi.

Breakfast

Like Megan, I was also craving pancakes with some almond butter lovin.

Reheated Lemon-poppyseed pancakes topped with almond butter and almond milk heated in the microwave mixed together and a naner.

It didn’t last me long so lunch came a bit early today during classes.

Tempeh sandwich with laughing cow cheese, cranberries and spinach

Celery and an orange.

I ate the orange and half of the sandwich during class, and the other half of the sandwich and the celery right before the visit to the Volturi.

I feel that I should have been alright donating blood. I ate plenty of food (lots of stick-to-your-ribs stuff) and was very hydrated. Oh well, these things happen.

Have you ever donated blood? What is your experiences with it?

Stressed to the Max

Happy Earth Day everyone!!

The past couple of days have been stressful to the max. I have felt overbooked, ran into problems galore with an assignment, and working with some personal relationships that are some what changing (not the ex-boyfriend though! He’s great!). All have taken a pretty big toll on me and has caused so much stress.

An education presentation was made to my sorority all about stress. Despite the awful things stress can cause: anxiety, grumpiness, snappiness, nerves and an overall icky feeling; stress can be good because it makes us productive. It helps us get assignments done (like my super huge vector assignment) and gets us to do the tasks you really don’t want to do.

However, when it gets to be too much, like how it has been, stress can be the negative effect that I have been experiencing. There are a few things you can do to prevent stress by the foods we eat.

Good foods are:

• fatty fish
• whole wheat bread
• oranges
• decaffeinated tea

However, some foods to avoid are:

• caffeinated tea
• coffee
• cocoa
• egg yolks
• butter
• cheese
• shrimp and other meat
• coconut oil
• cashews, almonds and other nuts
• soda
• sugar
• alcohol

Foods like soda, sugar and alcohol really didn’t surprise me, but the fact that nuts, coconut oil and shrimp can contribute to your stress is really interesting.

Breakfast

For breakfast this morning I started off with oatmeal, and later had my second breakfast of a naner dipped into chocolate PB

Coconut Oatmeal in a margarita glass

In the mix:

• 1/2 c. quick cooking oats
• 1 c. water (forgot to mix it with almond milk again! doh!)
• 2 T of the MIX

Topped with:

• 1 1/2 T So Delicious Coconut Milk Creamer
• 1 T Coconut flakes
• 1 tsp brown sugar

I had to add in the brown sugar cause it wasn’t so yummy.

As far as being a stress-friendly meal, the only thing going against me was the brown sugar.

For the fruit part of my breakfast, the MaraNatha chocolate peanut butter went against the stress-friendly meal with the cocoa and the nuts

But naturally it was absolutely delicious!

Lunch

Lunch had to be packed this morning, so I packed a Veggie Wrap

How to make a Veggie wrap my way:

Place yummy toppings in a whole-wheat tortilla

todays toppings included:

• european blend salad
• red bell pepper
• onion
• avocado
• pesto
• Chobani greek yogurt
• laughing cow cheese

Attempt to wrap it up, and lay a knife over it so that it doesn’t unroll while I wash the tub its going to go in

Slice it up and take a pretty picture of all of the veggies inside

Then cram it into my tub and shut it quick so it doesn’t unfold. Put it in your backpack and run to class cause you are most likely running late…again.

Enjoy exactly 2 1/2 hours later

This had a little less flavor than I would have liked. I omitted the usual brown rice, just cause I didn’t have an precooked at the time, but adding that would have added just a bit more to it.

This was actually rather stress-friendly with the whole-wheat wrap and naturally all of the veggies, the only little thing was the light spread of laughing cow cheese. Oh well.

Snack

I had the most delicious Larabar ever for a snack

The lemon flavor was perfect. It made me not eat it quite as fast as I usually suck these things down. And it tasted like a real lemon square.

As far a being stress-friendly, this baby is packed with Cashews and other nuts. Sooo not so much.

Destressing

Wow, it is really hard to eat a stress-friendly meal. It’s hard coming up with a meal that doesn’t contain my usual eats such as cocoa, nuts, cheese and a maybe a little bit of sugar.

I have been taking steps to really calm myself. Yesterday I went rock climbing with friends, which was an absolute blast. I have taken time away from my computer just to read. I haven’t turned on my TV since returning home from school (a daily habit of mine) and I opened a window and let the sunshine and fresh air pour into my room.

I was planning to go to a yoga class tonight, but planning my meals around that actually stressed me out quite a bit (isn’t that really ironic?!), so I think I’ll do some yoga and strength training in my room later on.

What do you do to destress yourself?

A Tale of Three Breakfasts

Good Afternoon bloggies!

So the title of the post originally was going to be “A Tale of Two Breakfasts,” a cute play on the novel A Tale of Two Cities,  but then I was still hungry so I had another breakfast, thus making it 3

I started off with 3/4 of a chopped apple, a dollop of Chobani Greek yougurt, and my beloved puffed millet cereal

Before

After

All mixed up with a sprinkle of cinnamon

Later, when a few of my roomies were awake I was hungry for some eggs

Inside my one egg and one egg white omelette was:

sauteed frozen veggies (red bell pepper, mushrooms and a whole lot of broccoli)

turkey

half of a laughing cow cheese packet

S&P

which created this guy…

Yummy.

I started doing some homework and I was still hungry an hour later! Thus came the third breakfast.

Half of a banana dipped in Maranatha Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter

It didn’t stand a chance

The sun started to tease me again so I recruited Richard and went for a walk.

It ended up going for 2 1/2 hours

We followed the river the entire time and saw some gorgeous scenery

Some ducks and geese also joined us.

At the end of the walk my joints were getting pretty sore and my entire body was pretty pooped out. I could really feel the 5K and the elliptical and the walk I went on yesterday.

It was time for some much needed grub:

An amazing turkey sandwich filled with:

2 slices deli turkey

1 slice provolone

tomato

red onion

apple slices

red bell pepper

greek yogurt

dijon mustard

pesto

Tossed into the toaster oven for a couple of minutes. The toasted bread with the crunch of the apple, juice of the tomato, and melted provolone was just perfect!

What is your dream sandwich? Mine is filled with lots and lots of veggies!

Indian Summer

Well it should be INDIAN FOOD and summer weather.

After the 5K I had a hodgepodge of a lunch.

Leftover macaroni salad and Caesar salad from last night’s roomie dinner as well as an egg puff with dijon mustard and laughing cow cheese on a sandwich thin.

As well as a salad with feta cheese, tomato and red bell pepper with Annie’s papaya dressing.

All together now.

Afterwards I still felt like I needed to run. I went to the gym and did 30 minutes on the elliptical before the sun teased me and I went outside for a walk instead.

I tried to keep myself entertained until it was dinner time cause tonight it’s Indian food night, baby!

Nothing like some Indian food porn

Brown rice, a pita bread and TJ’s Indian Fare Jaipur Vegetables

I liked the flavor from last week’s mix from TJ’s just a little more, but it was still very delicious!

My body is really pooped out from all the running today. I’m thinking a popcorn and movie kind of night?

Question of the Day: Do you have a favorite Indian Dish? I’m still trying stuff out, but I’m in love with the Eggplant Curry I had on Thursday.

My Dear Millet

Good news bloggies, I MADE IT on my goal of Limit the Bill.

I got some great stuff from Market of Choice and Safeway.

Sandwich thins, flatbread, coconut milk creamer, millet, parsnip, red bell pepper, 2 tomatoes, 2 oranges, caesar salad, spinach, pesto, sharp cheddar cheese, bananas

European blend greens, cajun seasoning, WW macaroni elbows, WW hamburger buns, black beans, ground turkey

Now the bill………….

Drumroll please……..

Trader Joe’s (from Saturday)       $12

Market of Choice                              $6 (!!!!!)

Safeway                                              $45

Grand total for the week               $63

I made it $12 under budget! I’m so happy

I’m hoping I can keep it up! I actually was a lot less stressed this week only allowing myself to buy what is on the list. There wasn’t any “well I really want it, but I don’t exactly need it, so is it worth the price” buys.

I was super duper excited to have this guy back in my life

PUFFED MILLET!

I quickly celebrated by eating a bowl of Annie’s Fruity Bunnies, Life and Millet cereal.

Oh baby.

This is my most favorite cereal mix. I’m so glad it back

Looks like I need to pull some blog-action magic and rewind a bit to this morning.

Breakfast was another 2 egg white sandwich on 1/2 a sandwich thin (it was all I had left), with laughing cow cheese and hot sauce

But I ate it before I remembered to photograph it. *Lowers my head in food-blogger shame*

Here is what was left of it though!

Nothing.

I also made my friend and I a smoothie later in the morning. She has been super sick lately, so I promised her a spinach smoothie. Turns out I don’t have any spinach left, but I still made her a smoothie.

Into the mix for 2 smoothies

1 1/2 c. frozen strawberries

2 bananas

2 T flax seed meal

3/4 c. Almond milk

3/4 c. water

4 ice cubes

Look at that color!

Hers went into my travel smoothie mug. Note I got green so I wouldn’t freak people out with my green smoothies. Makes non-green smoothies look icky

I added a spoonful of chocolate protein powder to mine

Voila! Magnifico!

I had to eat lunch in class while watching a movie, but I remember to take a picture of it when I was creating it

I was trying to recreate the stellar sandwich from yesterday.

4 slices deli turkey (one serving was 6 slices)

onion

tomato

red bell pepper

1 tsp dijon mustard

2/3 laughing cow cheese

It was really good! Not quite as fantastic as yesterday’s sandwich, but I think food is always better when prepared by someone else!

I also snacked on a pear

Eh, it was ok. It was an Albertson’s pear though so I really shouldn’t have been expecting anything good.

Off to a yoga and body sculpting class in a little while

Then going for my second goal of Eat It, Not Buy It with what’s hopefully a great dinner.

Question of the day: what do you do when you feel sick?

I try to get as many fruits and veggies in me as possible and rest as often as possible. Ideally my day would be: breakfast- oatmeal with flax, chia seeds & goji berries, lunch- a smoothie, and dinner- a salad.

Sandwiches and Sports Injuries

How is everyone’s Monday going?!

It’s fairly sunny and warm-ish here so I’m a happy girl…for a Monday at least!

I feel bad that I have to rely on phone pics today. I put my camera battery on the charger last night, but it didn’t actually charge. It’s so frustrating

Breakfast was a two egg-white sandwich with hot sauce and 1/3 of original Laughing Cow cheese. As well as 1/2 a mango, 1/2 a banana and 2 strawberries with a dollop of Chobani greek yogurt on top.

I had already taken a bite into the egg sandwich before I remember that I could use my phone!

Skip ahead to lunch and my friend treated me to lunch on campus.

I had a gigantic sandwich! It had turkey, provolone cheese, dijon mustard, jalepenos, onion, pickles, lettuce, green bell pepper and tomatoes on a 8 multigrain whole grain bread.

It was huge! But SOOO good and filling I think I’m going to need to recreate this stat!

I had my Zumba class soon after which I really worked up a sweat. I was getting super worried how the first two classes made me really sweat, however the past couple of classes haven’t at all! Today was definitely different. I gave it my all, especially with Lady Gaga

My knee has been acting up lately. I’m nervous about doing any kind of workout, especially Zumba where there is a lot of jumping up and down. I had a really interesting read about a doctor’s take on sports injuries and how they treat themselves. Being the daughter of a doctor’s kid I’ve had a lot of “take a pill and tough it out.” I feel like I’m not getting any better by doing that. All of my life I have been plagued by injuries that just add up.

What has been your take on injuries? Do you ice, rest and recover or take a pain killer and wait till it goes away? What did you think of the article?

I’m eating dinner at my sorority tonight, and I’ll try to sneak a picture on my phone so you can see how I eat when I’m there.