<center> <a <span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">href</span>="www.<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">prettystrongmedicine</span>.com" target="_blank"><<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">img</span> alt="Weigh In <span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Wedneday</span>" <span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">src</span>="http://i52.<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">photobucket</span>.com/albums/g30/cheerxflip9/<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">weighinbutton</span>-1.<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">jpg</span>"/></a></center>

Hello everybody! Welcome to Weigh-In Wednesday!

Please go check out my sweet co-host!

Ash @ A Step in the Right Direction

If you're new to the link-up, please leave a comment & say hi!

Here's to a fresh start in 2014! I hope everyone had a relaxing Christmas season/New Year/any other holiday you celebrate but now it's time to get back on track! For the past few link ups, our numbers have been down so I'm hoping everyone was just busy with the holidays. If you love WIW, please share us with your friends. I'm going to fix the link up button finally so hopefully that will help as well!

As for me? I gained a few pounds over the holidays and now I'm back to where I started again and losing. What is my plan for the year?

Right now I'm pursuing a gluten-free & dairy-free clean eating lifestyle change (I hate the word "diet"). You may remember when I did the 10 Day Advocare Challenge back in the summer. I ended up losing about 8 pounds (and kept it off) and I felt great! As soon as I was done though, I had a whirlwind of events that included lots of alcohol, fried & otherwise unhealthy foods - the wedding, trip to Atlanta, baseball games, etc. Then I went off to school. 

So why do this if it appears to be unsustainable in my life? I have a lot of reasons. I know that the proteins in wheat products and dairy products often cause inflammation in our bodies - even if you don't have a full blown intolerance or severe allergy. I also know from experience that I feel better when I'm not consuming these products - I feel full of energy, lighter, more regular, etc. 

I've also read and researched a lot of anecdotal evidence that suggests giving up dairy may reduce or eliminate my acne and keratosis pilaris (those red bumps on your arms and legs...). This is REALLY important to me with the wedding coming up.

Pumpkin oatmeal Pancakes!

This is an experiment. I'm going to eliminate these products as much as possible for as long as possible and see how the results stack up. I'm pretty confident that I will never, ever completely give up dairy products. I think I will always allow myself to indulge in cheesy goodness once in a while. I will probably never totally 100% give up wheat products either - it sneaks its way into sooooo many products that you wouldn't even guess contain wheat. But I will do my best to limit their consumption.

So what do you eat instead? All the things I SHOULD be eating more of! TONS of veggies! I can get almost all my nutrients from a plant-based diet. I'll also throw in some lean meats, fish, eggs, and lots of beans and nuts. (I would be bad at Paleo - I love beans & legumes!). 

I'm cutting my alcohol intake WAYYYYY back. When I look back at Winter Break, I probably drank half of those days. I really don't need it slowing me down while I'm training - or ever. Again, I'm still going to enjoy a drink or two once in a while but I'm really limiting myself. I just don't need it. And those darn craft beers are loaded with calories!

My last bad "meal" - Yes that's a cup of garlic mayo

Long story short, it's all about clean eating! I'm trying not to focus on the things I "can't" have and instead on what I can have and what will make me function at my highest level. 

It's been rough at school so far - we've been piled under a foot of snow so I haven't been able to get my car out yet (I don't have a shovel at school). Therefore, I've been living on whatever I had in my apartment which is pretty much just soup, canned vegetables, a few frozen meals from trader joe's, and exactly ONE apple. I'm all out of fresh fruit (except a jar of prunes & applesauce) and I'm hopefully going to figure a way out of here so I can go grocery shopping!

I start half training officially next week. Until then, I'm just trying to get some type of activity in daily. Starting the day with some stretching/easy yoga and progress from there.  

Time to go study! It's my first day back to school. I'll do a Wedding update later :)

How cold is it where you are?

What's your goal for the week?

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Hello everybody! Welcome to Weigh-In Wednesday!

Please go check out my sweet co-host!

Ash @ A Step in the Right Direction

If you're new to the link-up, please leave a comment & say hi!

I'm doing something completely out of character today - I wrote this post on Tuesday instead of 5 minutes before anatomy lecture like most Wednesdays. That said, the code box still doesn't work so add that to my list of offenses in the blogging word.

To say my life has been a whirlwind would be an understatement - I'm floating in the middle of the ocean, trying to keep my head above water and I only took a week of swim lessons. Yeah...something like that. 

I knew med school was going to be hard. 
I knew I was going to be tired and I knew what to expect based on what other people said but knowing what to expect and actually experiencing something are two totally different things. 

I find myself cycling between intense emotions of love and hate with school - 

I hate that I don't have time to do a lot of the things I love

I hate that I can't see my family and friends

I hate that I don't feel like I can give 100% to all the areas of my life. 

But...

I love learning! 

I love being (somewhat) knowledgable about the human body. 

I love that my classmates have already become a family

I love how freaking cool medicine and science are! 

Most of all, I love that I am finally taking real steps towards being a physician.

At the end of the day, I have to remind myself that I chose this life. If I didn't want to put the time and energy in, I shouldn't have chosen this profession. 

The next month is going to be hellish - the Monday after Thanksgiving I have two exams (Anatomy and Hematology). The next Monday I have a Heme final and my final for Intro to Clinical Medicine (history and physical on a standardized patient). The last week I have an OMM written, practical, and Skeletal Muscle final. So - 7 exams in three weeks. I die. (I'll update you all on school later this week - I will blog!)

Anyway, weigh in things. I've been pretty bad at keeping track of things lately. Being swamped is no excuse but weight loss just hasn't been at the forefront of my mind. I'm hoping to get through the holiday season without gaining (maybe losing some) and then start fresh at the New Year with my mini marathon training. As of today, I'm still where I was last week. :/ 

Speaking of running...Thursday I will be running my very first 10K race in Cincinnati! At least I'm still working out a fair amount...

This past weekend I was a little concerned about being able to run 6.2 miles since I've never done it. I know you aren't supposed to do the full distance before a race (I never understood that...I can't just pull a mile out of nowhere without practicing first!) but something got ahold of me and I ended up doing 6.2 anyway! I planned to do 5 but I was in a groove so why not?

My left foot is still bothering me a little after long runs so I'm sure it will be a problem on Thursday but I'm doing it anyway. I think I just need to strengthen it since my left ankle has always been kind of lame. 

Oh, by the way,  it was FREEZING! Helpful hint - bring tissues when you run in the cold! I had to resort to using my glove as a tissue and it was nasty!

So Thanksgiving - I'm going home today, studying, running my 10K, going to Thanksgiving festivities and driving back to school Friday morning to study all weekend before my two exams. No time for wedding planning, no time for relaxation. It's going to be...thrilling. So let's do this!

To the person who asked last week, yes - I will still be updating but no, I'm not going to sacrifice study time to write. Passing classes >>> blog. Obviously I can't balance everything but I hope to catch up on EVERYTHING over Christmas Break!

Hope you all have a fantastic week and thanks for sticking with me! I'll get my stuff together here eventually!

What are you thankful for this year?

Any special Thanksgiving plans?

Welcome to Weigh-In Wednesday! 

As always, we are so glad to have you linking up with us!  Please make sure to check out my co-hosts & like, friend, stalk, whatever them as you please

• Amy @ Write This Down
• Bailey @ Being Bailey J
• Ash @ A Step in the Right Direction

I'm not feeling too confident about this week.  I'm predicting staying the same or even gaining a pound or two.  In this post I discussed a little bit why.  I've been unfocused and unmotivated.  I've been lazy, overwhelmed, and not sticking to my commitments.  I let a few good weeks go to my head and I made the choice to go easy on myself. Well, I'm OVER IT.

So when I see a gain later today (after my sleep time, of course), I'll be happy for the kick in the ass.  I have far too much to look forward to in the next few months to lose steam now.  There will be plenty of time for fun along the way but I need to dedicate myself to my goals.  It's crunch time.  

Today I start running & training & sticking to my plans, again.  I don't want to look back a few months from now and wish I would've pushed myself harder. I've spent too much of my life doing just that - it's exhausting and disappointing. 

I hope the tone of this post doesn't seem too negative - I promise this is coming from a place of inspiration (will a little a lot of frustration mixed in).  

I hope you all had better success than me and I can't wait to read how your weeks are going!  

While I'm here, I want to remind you all to make sure you follow me on Bloglovin'!  Google Friend Connect will be gone on July 1st so it would be really sad to lose some of you!  I'm excited to say that I just hit 50 followers today! Thank you a million times!

One last thing before an update later on today.  I have a new button swap option under my "Sponsors" tab.  If you are interested, please go check it out!  All that I ask is that you place my button on your sidebar in exchange. I will do periodic social media shout outs and I am always open to guest posts or anything else you have up your sleeves! 

*Update*

Well I'll be a monkey's uncle...NO GAIN.  If we're getting technical, I had a 0.2 lb loss but that's the different between eating a marshmallow or not...

Wow. Just wow.  This is the part where I let my entire mood be affected by the scale.  I can't do that...Sure, I'm excited that I didn't do more damage than I expected but I'm still disappointed because I know I can do better.  Lesson learned, let's move on!

Eyes on the prize - I have some Dietbets that are wrapping up soon and I need a new dress or two for the wedding and the concert.  

Don't forget to link-up below!  Leave a comment if you're new :)