>Room service solves all problems

>Hey kids,

How are ya? I’m well on my way to getting into PA (physician assistant) school, fingers crossed! First step: Passed Nursing Aide test. Let me tell you that exam was one of the most annoying/aggravating/painful experiences of my liiiiife!

The written portion of the exam lasted from 8-8:30am. Next they had us wait in a room to be called for our Skills portion of our test. We were told not to leave the room in case they call our names. I was called at 4:30pm! Yes, I waited in a classroom with NO FOOD, book, computer, etc. for 8 HOURS! I felt like I was in detention. After taking the skills exam which lastest about 25 mins, I had to drive 4 hours home (which took 6 due to traffic). Ahhhh, what a day! Sorry for the rant 🙂

The trip wasn’t allll bad I did pass the exam aaaaand order some room service. Friday night I ordered a class of Shriaz and piece of chocolate cake. You bet I ate it in my whirlpool bathtub. Yep, I felt like I was straight out of a movie 🙂 For a wake up call, I ordered some fruit, coffee, and tomato juice to accompany my oats and protein breakfast:

Unsure what the food situation would be, I packed some regular oats and a baggy containing SunWarrior protein to mix in. SO GLAD I ate a big breakfast considering I wasn’t able to eat for 10 more hours!

Did you know you can steam hot H20 in your coffee maker? haha…Maybe I’m the only one..

Steaming hot H20 for oatmeal

Once I arrived back in the District I had to snap this pic to show you the craziness that is Georgetown Cupcakes:

Ever since the show DC Cupcakes aired, Georgetown Cupcake has become NUTS! This picture shows about 1/10th of the line and was taken at 10pm on a Saturday!

When did cupcakes become so trendy?????

Today I woke to a delicious Strawberry-Pineapple Green Monster Smoothie:

Vanilla SunWarrior, frozen strawberries, frozen pineapple, 2 huuuge hand fulls spinach, ice, h20, stevia, 1/2 tsp xanthan gum (to thicken), pinch sea salt. Yummm.

[Insert 2 hours of application writing]

I was craving a weights sesh at the gym. I took a BodyPump class and it did the trick. Has anyone tried the new BodyPump series?? I think it’s BodyPump 74?? Well, it’s HARD! The lunge and triceps tracks are killer!!

I met my friend Alyson for lunch at Chop’t, my favorite salad place.

Mmm.

Speaking of good eats, here are two recent favorites I’ve made within the last week…

Healthified Mac N’ Cheese:

Diced medium-firmness Tofu (~1/6 block), 1/4 cup oats, 2 tbsp Nutritional Yeast, ~2 tbsp shredded lite cheddar cheese, mixed frozen veggies, sea salt, pepper & topped with hot sauce.

Chocolate Protein Pancakes:

1 scoop Chocolate SunWarrior, 1/3 cup egg whites, 2 tbsp PB Flour, 1 heaping tbsp spelt flour, 1/2 mashed banana, stevia, dash sea salt, 1/2 tsp baking powder. Topped with a PB smear and 1 tbsp organic maple syrup. Perfection, I tell ya.

Alright I’m off to volunteer with some kiddos then take a spinning class with Alyson. Happy Monday!

Cute/weird Pic of the Day:

Michael doing some yoga

>To splurge or not to splurge

>Hi Y’ALLLLLLLLL!!!!! How are you? I hope you had a fantastic couple of days. I spent the last couple in Myrtle Beach and left for the DC this morning.

I will miss you.

How do you eat when your on vacation? Do you stick to a diet or splurge on food and drinks? Do you exercise every day or not at all?

I used to go all out and really ‘live it up’, having whatever I wanted allll week long. Inevitably however, it always left me with a stomach ache. My bod is pretty used to all of the greans, fiber, veggies, and when I go all-out with pure carbs and sugary drinks – it leaves me in pretty rough shape.

The last few vacations however, I haven’t gone quite overboard. I’ve done the following instead:

– Kept at least 2 meals a day on the healthy-side (more veggies, fruits, whole grains the better)

– Splurged on 1 meal/item per day. Went for local favorites and not dishes I can order any time at home

– Had 1 sugary drink per day (pina colada, strawberry daiquiri, margarita). Sipped wine spritzers or clear liquors/soda/juice instead (light beer if your a beer drinker)

– Drink lots of H20. Have a water in between drinks and especially in hot weather

THIS WEEK I had lots of fruit:

And fruit plates:

Visited a local fruit & veggie stand:

Sipped refreshing white wine spritzers:

1/2 white wine, 1/2 soda water, ice source

Had a Protein & Fruit smoothie for breakfast on many days:

Yes, I packed my SunWarrior 😉

Splurged on Bailey’s on ice:

So. worth. it.

Tasted local food:

And still ate my veggies:

And how did I do???? Well no complaints in the stomach department all week! I woke early this morning for a farewell run on the beach then we headed out for our 6 hr trek to DC. On the way we passed several beautiful farms and extensive fields:

I seriously have so much fun on road trips with Seth (aka Manfriend)! We are such goofballs and like to play random games, belt our lungs out, and just have the most ridiculous conversations. The only downside…I have a bladder the size of a pea! At least it makes for some interesting stops 🙂

Well kids, I’m gonna catch up with Sir DVR and a glass of Shriaz:

I’m not watching Jersey Shore

Some dark chocolate:

And cuddle this guy:

QUESTION: What are your vacation tips???? Do you play by ear?? Go overboard??? Or not care at all 🙂

SOMETHING TO DO: Are you on TWITTER?? Follow me here!

G’NIGHT!!!!!! XX

>All in a days work

>Whelp, this is gonna be a quick one, because I am EXHAUSTED! I hope you all had a wonderful day!

Mine started with a gigantic protein pancake:

1/3 cup egg whites, 1 scoop vanilla whey protein, 1 tbsp spelt flour, pinch baking soda, 1 banana (half smashed, half diced), 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp apple pie spice, stevia, dash sea salt. Topped with 1/4 cup microwaved blueberries and 1 tbsp organic maple syrup.

Please try this ❤

After digesting, caffeinating, and catching up on the news I did the 45 min TurboFire workout (Fire 45) and ended up looking like this:

No lie, these workouts are FANTASTIC.

I had several Strawberry Lemonades to refuel:

Ice H20 + lemon juice + stevia + frozen strawberries

And reheated the leftover chicken parmesean and got back to work on the thesis train.

For a snack I was craving something tropical. I could have happily made a pina colada but that might have not been the best choice for a writing mind. Instead I made a Tropical Yogurt Mess and called it a day:

FF Greek Yogurt, frozen pineapple, unsweetened coconut, stevia

After more and more work and a long walk with the pup, I decided to make some Magic Soup since I haven’t had it in sooooo long. And a BONUS of magic SOUP in the SUMMER???? It tastes FANTASTIC eaten chilled.

Roasted Red Pepper soup, shrimp, spinach, kidney beans, sugar snap peas, edamame, carrots + red chili powder, cumin, pepper, dash sea salt

Dear Magic Soup,

I have missed you.

The Manfriend was home early tonight so after an early dinner we relaxed on the deck and enjoyed a new bottle of Shriaz:

❤

Have a great night and fantastic Thursday!

QUESTION:

What’s your favorite wine?

Do you ever make soup in the summer?

XX

>Nurse Lauren to your service

>HOWWWDYYY HOOOO,

Happy Monday, y’all! Hope your day was spendid. I had my FIRST DAY OF CLINICAL TODAY!!! I seriously can’t believe how much my life has changed in the last month! In case you don’t know I left my PhD program (currently declaring my MS) for a career as a physician assistant (PA). You can read more about WHY I made this decision here. A requirement for PA school is a TON of DIRECT patient care experience. At first, this really bummed me out as I had NONE. But now I think having this experience will make me a much better and compassionate PA in the future.

To obtain these hours I’m completing a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) course at the Red Cross and this is our week of clinicals! I would be lying if I told you I wasn’t a liiiiitle nervous – OK petrified (!) but that all subsided after the first hour and I REALLY LIKE IT! I can tell this is going to be a great week and can’t wait to report more later on 🙂

^How cool is this old ad I found?? source

Now that I’m home I’m completely EXHAUSTED. 1) I slept in waaaay too late the day before so I was wide awake when I should have been sleeping and 2) I was antsy in anticipation of the day. Thankfully, my lovely Manfriend decided to cook us dinner while I caught up on these girls (since I was busy gettin ready for class last night):

source

Seriously, what could be better after a long day? Kourtney, Khloe, vino, and a Manfriend cookin’ up a feast sounds pretty good to me!

Action shot:

Vino:

^I usually don’t order Malbec, but as Seth’s much more the wine connoisseur then me, I trusted his choice. And it was GREAT! I’d say it’s somewhere between a syrah (my favorite!) and a Zin. Smoky start and smooth/fruity finish. YUMM.

Meal:

^Trader Joe’s Tomato and Basil Chicken Sausage with sauteed onions and peppers in a whole grain pita. SO GOOD!

Traditional (aka PIG) sausage normally creeps me out. The thought of ingesting pig intestines makes me squirm, BUT CHICKEN sausage does nothing of the sort! In fact, it’s GREAT!

Aiiiight peeps, gotta get ready for tomorrow. Clinical STARTS at 7am! Early bird over here!!!

Have a great Tuesday!!!!!

Lauren

>Welcome backkkkk

>Hi everyone!!!! I’M ALIVEEEEEE!!!!!!! My life has been NUTS lately! I haven’t been this busy since undergrad when I was doing research, finishing finals, applying to grad school and tryyyying to have somewhat of a social life.

Here is a taste of what I’ve been up to…

Planning AND executing a Bachlorette party for my bestestest friend Brandy in Boston…

^haha, nice face!

Attending a 9hr/day (beginning at 8am) nursing technician course (4 weeks total):

^Our SUPER CREEPY dummy from class, Lol

For the PA programs I’m applying to, most require a minimum of 1,000 hours of direct patient care – which I DON’T have. I thought of getting a clinical research position (ex: administering MRI’s to study patients with brain trauma), which I could easily get from my research background but that really wouldn’t give me GOOD patient care experience. I think having a background (I’ll be a nursing tech until next May) in nursing care will make me a much better physician assistant down the road.

Attending Brandy’s wedding in GORGEOUS York, Maine:

^Rehearsal Dinner

Moving to a new apartment. Same neighborhood, upgraded the pad. And some SERIOUS UNPACKING TO DO:

And spending Memorial Day weekend with the fam in New Hampshire:

^hahaha…found this pic the other day and thought it was appropriate. It’s from a dance recital when me and my sister were 6 and 4 years old!

And now, what I’m LOOKING FORWARD to…

Eating BETTER! Being on the run has made me consume less of these:

^Salad monsters from Whole Foods

^Fruit/veggie smoothies

And (a little) less of these:

^But side note: SO GOOD! MickyD’s has a new Reese’s pieces McFlurry! Yeeee-UM!

And DEF more of these:

^REDIC sweaty workouts

And a little more R&R!!!

Alright kids, I have some studying to do. Have a great week!!!!! GLAD TO BE BACK 🙂

Lauren

QUESTION (!): I want a new mission statement for this blog (as I left my PhD program) – Can ya help me out?!

>Will run for wine

>Hellooooo,

How was your weekend??? I had the laaaaaziest yet most productive weekend everrrrr…..Lazy as in I slept til at least til 1pm each day the watched tons of TV. And productive as in I went grocery shopping, lab each day, did a good core workout, and ran a 15-miler today! Wooooop.

Here are some eats from the weekend:

^Diced honey crisp apple, diced nanner, Kashi go lean, coconut Kefir, cinnamon, stevia

LOVE this new find:

^Any other recipe suggestions for this???

Green monster:

^My recipe is featured on the Green Monster website!

Tuna salad:

^Tuna, 2 tbsp. red-fat mayo (made w/ EVOO), diced yellow onion, diced celery, diced pickles, dill, parsley, pepper, dash sea salt.

Margarita pizza:

^Could have done with 9/10 less cheese. But still dece.

Shriaz (Peter Lehmann):

^Soooooo good. And affordable!

Organic “Oreos”:

^How is that even possible???? Lol.

Fiiiiinally tried this gem:

WOW.

It paired nicely with this guy:

^Cinn Raisin swirl PB + nanner

And tonight’s dinnah (best eats all weekend):

^Baked then broiled sweet potato topped with 1/2 cup Amy’s Low-fat Black bean chili, diced avocado, salsa, and dollop FF Greek Yogurt. I am making this again ASAP. Such a great post-run dish!

Speaking of run, it was soooooo nice today (even ran in ma tank top!) the entire city of DC seemed to be exercising…either running or rollerblading, cycling, walking, boating, etc! And of course I have some pics from my 15-miler 😉

Active peeps:

^Not sure what this is called but it looks neat!

^Flag football, kickball, soft ball games everywhere

^Beach volleyball. Seeeee Seth, just like LA! ha

Aaaaaand some scenic pics….

Watergate:

Georgetown waterfront:

View from Arlington, VA looking at Lincoln/Washington Monument:

And my shirt of choice:

^I think it sums me up pretty well, don’t ya think???

Well I’m off, considering its past 8pm and I’m still in lab…I better head home.

QUESTIONS:

1. Does living in an active city make you more active??

2. What should I do with my new coconut kefir?

3. What are some food ‘gems’ you wanna share with me??? 😉

Have a great night!!!!

xx

Lauren