Hello Pumpkins!  After my deliciously disasterous weekend of less than perfect eating, I knew it was time to hit the reset button and recommit to clean eating.  

I started getting interested in clean-eating a little over a year ago when I found Tosca Reno’s book The Eat Clean Diet Recharged.  I highly recommend picking this book up!  The basic principles are simple - eat whole, natural, unprocessed foods as much as possible.  The great thing is the plan can be tailored to any of your diet needs - vegetarian, gluten-free, food allergies, etc.  Tosca stresses the importance of getting LOTS of water, eating smaller, more frequent meals, and combining lean protein and complex carbs in every meal (along with a little healthy fat).  Read her books for more details! 

The biggest problem with the plan is you MUST plan ahead...at least I have to.  “A failure to plan is a plan for failure.” I need to have things ready to grab-and-go or I will get lazy (like I have been lately).  It’s a lot easier to be tempted by what others are eating if you don’t have proper meals and snacks planned. 

In addition to Tosca’s book, I also purchased the Tone It Up plan a little bit again which pretty much follows all the same principles while being a little more specific about when and what you should be eating at certain points of your weight loss; obviously there will be a slight difference in what you eating when trying to lose weight vs. maintain.  Please go check out the TIU girls!  They are so inspirational and amazing. They put out new weekly workout calendars, new workouts, and always have challenges and contests going on.

Today I went to the grocery store and loaded up on yummy foods!  I hard-boiled some eggs and made grilled chicken for the next few days - see, I’m planning!  

Here is my haul (I already had some of the items - just showing some examples of what I would get):

I obviously picked up more than this...these are just some examples!  As far as protein goes, I love almond butter, eggs, turkey, greek yogurt, and chicken.  The salmon will probably not be eaten by me but I might try it :) 

In my freezer there are also frozen vegetables, berries, bananas, and other smoothie items.  There might  be a frozen dinner or two but I actually am not a big fan of them.  We also have fruit bars which are loaded with sugar but are still probably better than my ice cream that I love.

For produce, I'm a biiiig fruit fan!  I love it all so I have mango, all sorts of berries, lots of apples, and peaches.  I got a veggie tray because I'm too lazy to cut everything up (at least I'm honest) and some romaine lettuce & spinach for salads and green monsters.  

You'll see I managed to sneak some treats in there too - chocolate milk for post-workouts, protein & fruit/nut bars, and I have some cheeses in my fridge as well.  I plan on doing a whole post about protein bars in the future!  I'm trying some new ones.

So that's my grocery store trip!  It's not perfect, but I'm taking it one step at a time.  I REALLY wanted to add some not so good options to my cart today but I resisted!  NOM NOM NOM

Tonight was an 80 degree boot camp - I was dripping sweat!  It felt soooo good to grab a cold shower when I got home and enjoy the AC.  Now it's off to bed early!  I love when I actually get to sleep at home in my bed.

Yay for a second post!  I have so many ideas for what I want to write about - now I just have to get it all out.  I will admit right off the bat, I am not a good storyteller but I’m gonna work on it!

So I mentioned in my first post that I am taking a gap year between college and medical school.  During my gap year, I knew I was going to need a decent paying job to pay for all my med school applications so I started to do some research at the end of my senior year. 

Large iced coffee for the long night ahead.

I decided to take a class to become a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) in hopes that I could get a job in a hospital.  Unfortunately, hospitals typically only hire applicants that have at least 6 months of experience so I spent some time working in a nursing home and now I work in private home healthcare instead. It’s only one year - how bad can it be?

This year has definitely been filled with ups and downs.  One of the less desirable parts of this year has been my work schedule.  In order to maximize my hours and still have time for a life, I work third shift overnights which means I don’t get much sleep...at least not like a normal person.

As I type this, I have just returned home after a 7p-7a shift (I do this four days a week) and I don’t plan on getting any sleep until this afternoon after I run some errands and get a workout in. 

The irony in this lifestyle is that I am NOT a night owl.  I wasn’t in high school. I wasn’t in college (much to the chagrin of my roomies...) and I am quite content with going to bed at 10 pm when my schedule allows.  Never have I ever pulled an all-nighter for school - not even for finals week. Sleep has always been my top priority...so what the heck am I doing?

The great part about this schedule is that I can still have a life during the day.  I can usually get by with about 4-6 hours of sleep during the morning right after a shift (sometimes I throw in a nap if I have nothing else going on) and then I can go about my day.  As someone who requires cold and darkness, I am utterly amazed at how easy it is to sleep right as the sun is coming up.

Another nice thing is that for about 60% of my shift, the elderly person I care for is sleeping. Aside from doing some light housework and checking on him periodically, I have this time to myself.  I usually end up watching Netflix, reading my favorite blogs and magazines, and counting down the days until I get to quit this crazy schedule and relax a little before school starts.

While this situation definitely isn’t ideal, it is something I freely chose and it has afforded me the opportunity to meet some truly amazing families.  I would love to do a future post on all the things I have learned just from interacting so personally with patients and their families one of these days. As for now, I consider the sleepless nights to be good practice for the hectic schedule of a med student and resident. Maybe I will become a night owl after all!