Thursday

I'm still at my grandmother's house, which is super nice. It's so relaxing, which is great.

Things I've done today...

Sleep, a lot. I don't know why I've been so tired (maybe because I haven't been sleeping well at school), but I took two realllly long naps today. I hope I'm going to sleep well tonight :S. Hopefully I can get back on a more reasonable sleeping schedule. I'm also thinking that I might try to get on more of an early to sleep early to wake up kind of schedule when I get back to school. What is everyone else's preferred sleep schedule?

Went to the dermatologist. As I said yesterday, I'm still not delighted with how my skin's looking with all the hyperpigmentation but the dermatologist seemed confident that they'll fade in a few months. She wants me to keep doing what I've been doing (duac in the morning, atralin once a week at night) and come back in six months. Hopefully, things will start to clear up soon.

Thesis...I at least started on my goal for this week. I wrote about 2.5 pages of the introduction and I'm going to spend time tomorrow thinking about what else to put in the introduction. At least I'm getting going on it!

I didn't get a chance to go to the gym today, or really do any exercise, but my eating was generally pretty good. I had salmon with onions and tomatoes for dinner which was super yummy! I also had sweet potato, which was so good. I haven't had it in a while and I really missed it :(

PS I'm really bummed - I bought my camera to Connecticut with me, but I didn't bring the cord so I can't upload all the photos I've taken. I promise lots of photos on Saturday or Sunday when I get back to school though!

January Recap

January was an interesting month, with lots of highs and lows.

The Highs....

Exams and Grades

This was basically a month of exams, but at least I'm done now. I'm still waiting on one more grade (Econ), but my others were good, and I was really pleased with them. There's been a bit of stress because my boyfriends grades weren't as good as he was hoping they'd be (as always). He's a bit of a perfectionist and he's also not great at taking exams. Plus his writing style isn't...exactly the clearest. Anyway, it's been a bit stressful trying to make him feel better about that.

Thesis

I'm not sure if this should be a high or low. It's a low in that I'm miles way from finishing (so so far). But...it's a high in that I've at least started and I've come up with a plan to set weekly goals for myself.

And the Lows...

Food

My eating's been...so far from great this month. I seriously seriously need to work on eating less sugar. In a really weird way I'm looking forward to lent when I'm giving up dessert because then I'll have a big incentive not to eat sugar.

On the plus side the boyfriend and I got to cook a lot during the last week, and we made a bunch of really yummy dinners including shrimp, tomato sauce and pasta, chili con carne and rice and pork with apple sauce and pasta. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take pictures because my camera was out of battery :(.

Exercise

I haven't gotten in anywhere near as much exercise as I'd like over the last month. I did get in some great weights workouts at the end of the month because I went with my boyfriend.

Goals For Next Month

Thesis

Set weekly goals

Feb 1-5: Write the background section and read 30 pages

Feb 6-12: Talk to my advisor, come up with an overview plan, [other things...]

Get a new sub-project (a few new compounds in the series I've already been working on)

Spend 2 days/week working in lab (probably Tuesday and Thursday)

Food

Lent is starting during February, so I'll be giving up desserts when that starts.

Two of my closest female friends have a pact to only eat dessert once a week starting at the beginning of next semester, so I'm going to start off doing that with them.

Trail mix - I'm going to make up some "healthy" (as healthy as it can be) trail mix. I'm going to put in cereal, pumpkin seeds/sunflower seeds, golden berries, chocolate covered goji berries, yoghurt covered cranberries and some nuts. Does anyone have any other suggestions for what to put in?

Exercise

I'd like to get a regular exercise routine organized. I'm going to try to get one set up with my friends, because I'm far more likely to go when I'm going with others. I'd like to get a mix of cardio (~twice a week) and weights (~twice a week) and maybe pilates once a week.

Sleep

I'd like to try to sort out what's happened to my sleep schedule. I want to try to make whatever changes I need to make so that I'm not tired during the day and feeling like I could nod off at any moment.

Skin

My skin is looking at bit better, but still not anywhere near as good as I want it to be. The main problem now is the darkened pigmentation on my chin, which kinda looks like scars. I'm going to the dermatologist tomorrow, so one of my goals for this month is to follow whatever advice she gives me to reduce the pigmentation.

Resolutions

I've looked back at my resolutions for this month and I've haven't done too much on them. I'd like to continue working on my posture (with my back support - 30 minutes/day, working up to an hour or so/day), improving my clothes choices (I'm going to try to take photographs of my outfits twice a week) and epilating (more than I've been doing).

Tuesday

Good news! I think I might have finally worked out why I'm so tired! This morning the boyfriend told me that I'd woken him up numerous times during the night trying to get him to scoot over in bed. I realised at the beginning of this semester that I sleep much much better when I'm sleeping with him. But...for some unknown reason recently the bed keeps sliding away from the wall, so I've basically ended up sleeping in a crack, not super comfy! Anyway, we're going to see what we can do to keep the bed next to the wall/me not sleeping in a crack.

I also spent a bunch of time in lab today, which was somewhat productive. I'm getting nervous about getting my thesis done on time, so I'm going to set a goal of getting a first draft of my "Background and Significance" section done by the end of this week (Sunday). According to the guide we've been given, the background and significance section needs to include:

"Why is your work important? Briefly sketch the background to your thesis work; critically evaluate relevant existing knowledge; explain the problems and challenges in the field; and identify gaps in our present understanding that can be addressed by the thesis work. Conclude with a statement of what the thesis is about and why you believe it represents an advancement of the field. This exposition is intended to place your work into a broader scientific context, and to provide clear and logical motivation for both the general approach and the specific aims (below) of the thesis. This section may need to occupy as much as 5-6 pages, but not significantly more. "

It's going to be super general and I'm going to discuss some of the basics of magnetism.

My second goal for this week is to read at least 30 pages on the topic from the textbooks I've borrowed.

In other (food) news I found a place in town that sells bitter lemon! It's a lemonade-like drink but more bitter. I love it and they sell it at home, but I haven't managed to find any in the US.

Tonight for dinner the boyfriend and I made prawns sauteed in white wine and garlic on pasta.

It was delicious (I tried to take pictures but my camera was out of battery)!

I'm headed off to Connecticut tomorrow to visit my grandmother which I can't wait for. I should have lots of great food when I'm visiting her!

(Also, I have no idea what's happening to the font here).

Good Start to the Week

Today was a fun and somewhat productive day. I slept until 10:30 (so hard to get up when the boyfriend is still asleep!). I'm still finding that I'm oddly tired during the day, especially given how much I've been sleeping (maybe I'm sleeping too much?).

I went to lab for most of the day. I'm still stressed about the lab bench situation, but I'm just trying to make the most of it. I also started working on my thesis properly today - I realised that I'm going to have to average a page a day for the next 90ish days (until it's due - April 23rd!).

For lunch I had hummus on rye bread with sprouts (which was surprisingly good).

I've also watched loads of Friends today...I only started watching it at the beginning of January and I'm already half way through season 5 (argh! Talk about too much TV!). We also went out for chinese for dinner - not the healthiest, but it tasted good!

I also got one other piece of good news...my art grade: I got an A-!! (Which I really wasn't expecting, so I'm really pleased with that!). I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much, but if I get an A in Econ (fingers crossed crossed crossed) I'll be at my year goal of getting my GPA up to 3.4. If I get an A-, I'll be at 3.39, which I will still be happy with. I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much, especially as I'm not sure how well the final went. An A- would also mean that I'd have one semester where I got all A's and A-'s. Anyway, that's enough on grades, I'm sure I'll be happy with whatever I get.

I'm going to spend the rest of the evening...

watching Friends

doing a few small tasks (getting off some emails mostly)

going back to lab and setting up a reaction that needs to run over night (not looking forward to that one so much!)

Anyway, that's all from me!

Last three weeks!

So, the last three weeks have been incredibly busy for me (which is also why my blog has been so neglected :( ). My college has exams after Christmas, which is a bit unusual. At first I wasn't sure about it, but it's (mostly) grown on me. It still feels a bit tough coming back from Christmas and feeling like you've forgotten everything, but I also think it's worth it not to have exams before Christmas!

Anyway, my first week and a half back was studying/writing my one super short (1000 word) optional paper. After that I had exams - I had two take homes (for psych and politics) and two in class exams (art and econ). I used to really like take homes, but now I just find them annoying (Professors really only assign a take home final if they want you to spend more than three hours on it). Regardless, my two take homes went fine and my two in class ones went okay, but not great.

I've also gotten back two of my grades (in psych and politics) and I'm really pleased with them: I got 2 A's :D. My first two years were academically and socially challenging, so my GPA hasn't been too happy since then. I'd love to graduate with a 3.4, which means that I need a 3.7 average this year, so I'm now well on my way to that!

In other grade news, the boyfriend got an A- in politics (his major!). He's struggled much much more than I have with grades, and has only ever got 1 A and 1A-, so this is a big deal for him! I'm so proud :D.

We have a week off between semesters, but I'm staying at school to work on my thesis (as is the boyfriend, which is nice). I went into lab yesterday and apparently my lab bench is no longer mine. In my lab there are good benches and bad benches, and after having a bad one for 6 months I got a good one over the summer, which I've had since then. However, we have a new grad student in lab ( who is technically senior to me) and apparently my boss (Professor) just decided to move all my stuff and give him my bench. It does sort of make sense (he is more senior than me, and I'll only be in lab for another 3 months), but still! I was really hurt that no-one told me and it made me feel very undervalued. After talking to my best friend about it yesterday I've decided that I'm just going to work really really hard on the thesis and hope it all turns out okay.

In better news, having a week with the boyfriend is bliss! For the last two evenings we've cooked - we made chili con carne and rice on Friday and a asian chicken stir fry last night, both of which have been very yummy! We also made it to the gym yesterday, and I did his biceps/triceps workout with him, which was seriously tough! (And I'm feeling it today!). Anyway, hopefully the rest of the week will be filled with those kinds of things instead of lab bench stealing type things!

Part 2: More on New Years Resolutions

Skin

My skin has been (what I consider to be) terrible since August. I have no idea what caused it (though I suspect a mix of sunscreen and stopping the nuvaring temporarily), but it's been driving me insane. I've been to see the dermatologist twice (once so she could give me a regime and once so she could tweak it). She's put me on two prescription medications (duac which is a topical antibiotic and atralin which is a retin-A) and wanted to put me on a third (oral antibiotics) which I refused to take. Anyway, it's still not looking great.

Originally I had lots of little white bumps under my skin, and those do seem to be clearing. (I think the basic idea is to get all the junk under my skin out so that my skin looks healthier, but it makes it look terrible in the meantime). I also now have scars that aren't actually scars on one side of my chin and they look terrible (they're actually just spots of damaged pigmentation which should go away in, according to the internet, 6-12 months). I also purchased a new coverstick today, so at least I can cover it up fairly effectively now if I want to!

I'm going to be seeing her again at the end of January/beginning of Feb, so I'll see what she has to say. I'm going to do whatever I can to make my skin look great by graduation though.

It's a bit hard to see in the photos, but parts of my skin have a pink-y purple-y tinge to them, which looks like scar tissue (it's not though, luckily!). Can't wait for the skin to fully heal so I don't have those patches!

My new cover stick! I haven't had one for ages (I just used foundation), but this one works really well to cover up the pigmentation strangeness on my chin!

Hair (not the kind on my head)

I have this weird itchy leg problem, which I think is caused by stubble (from shaving) irritating my legs. Putting on lotion after shaving helps, but it doesn't solve the problem completely. My UK best friend recommended that I try epilating, so I've bought one of them online and I'm going to try it as soon as it arrives! (Does anyone have any tips for that by the way?). If I don't like epilating I might try laser, although I'm still up in the air about that one (see below).

My mum also purchased (at my sister's request) a series of bikini line laser treatments last year. It's a series of six and I think I've had three or four of them, but I'd like to finish them off this year. So far, I don't think I've had great results - I have reddish hair naturally, at least on my head, not really down there, but apparently it doesn't always work so well on hair with any red pigment in it. Also, the treatments are in the UK and I'm not back here to do them every 4 weeks like they recommend. I'd like to finish up that set of treatments this year (if possible) and also to consider alternative options if I'm still not happy with the results.

Because I know that everyone wants to hear about my adventures in permanent hair removal I have one more, that occured yesterday and that I'm particularly pleased with. I currently have more hair on my upper lip than I'd like. (Urgh, I hate admitting that). It's by no means terrible and the hair is fairly fine and blonde, but the boyfriend commented on it once and I've been self-conscious about it ever since. I've tried a bunch of different things (creams, bleaching, plucking), but I'd be quite happy with almost no hair there forever. So...today I tried (proper) electrolysis. I have a small self-electrolysis machine (sounds weird) at school, which I barely ever use (it's so time consuming), but I'd never try it on my face because I'm too worried about scarring and it's too difficult to get the right angle etc. Proper electrolysis hurt, but not nearly as much as I thought it would. Margaret (the electrologist) seemed to think that even with just one treatment I might see an improvement, and that with a few more I'd pretty much get to where I want to be, which is great. I'm definitely going to try to see her a few more times this year and get rid of some of that hair. I'm also feeling more enthused about the self electrolysis machine, so might try that out again when I get back to school on my ankles/bikini line. (I'm really really bad at shaving my ankles).

Teeth

This one's a bit of a cheat because I already did it, but I have slightly mottled teeth (probably from too much fluoride as a child). It's always annoyed me a bit, so when I went for my yearly checkup at the dentist (in December) I discussed tooth whitening with him. I ended up using gentle whitening strips, and I'm really pleased with the result!

Part 1: More on New Years Resolutions

This week I've spent a lot of time thinking about what I achieved last year and what I want to achieve next year. I realised that (to me, probably not the rest of the world but w/e) I spent a lot of last year focussing on more "mental" things - amongst others, I spent time trying to tackle my anxiety (including my dislike of public speaking), time meditating/EmWave-ing and time practicing mindfulness. I still think that those things are all super important, and I definitely want to continue with them (and will) into the new year.

But...I also realised that there's a lot that I could do to improve my physical appearance, and I want to spend time this year focussing on that.

Posture

Posture has been a bit of an issue for me for a while. I've seen physios and doctors over the years, but have never really been able to stick to anything for long enough to noticeably improve my posture. I (apparently) have slight kyphosis and lordosis (excessive curvature of the spine), which doesn't help but should be fairly easily correctable.

From: http://tle.tafevc.com.au/toolbox/file/c53ab17c-6542-4c66-f587-3e2858a9d41f/1/805_009_2.zip/fit009_2_lr11/fit009_2_lr11_1a.htm

There are gazillions of studies showing how important good posture is for self-confidence, health, impression you make on other people etc etc, so I do think that this is an important thing to work on. In order to do that I'm going to do two things. Firstly, strengthening my abs should help - if my abs are stronger they'll be better able to support my spine, reducing the lordosis. Secondly, I have a rather strange contraption called "Shoulders Back". It's basically an elastic/mesh combo that you put around your back and shoulders and tighten slightly so that it holds your shoulders back therefore improving your posture. I'd like to try to wear it for 1-2 hours per day (although sometimes it starts to drive me insane because it kinda rubs under the arms).

This photo makes me look a bit deformed, but I was trying to take a picture of myself in the mirror reflected in another mirror, so it all got a bit confusing! Also, the "brace" has a bunch of velcro on it, so I don't like it wear it with tops that I really like in case it snags them!

Weight

I've talked about this a lot before, but at the moment I probably weigh about 133lbs (I'm five five). When I met my boyfriend (at the beginning of college) I was 122 lbs (but that was also because I hadn't eaten properly in about a month because I was worried about starting college). At the end of freshman year I was about 137 (eek!) and since then I've hovered around 130ish. Previously, my goal was to stay under 130, and I'd still like to achieve that (I'd like to be 124-125). That might end up changing throughout the year (I think I have a lot more muscle now, I'm not even sure if I could get down to 124, but we'll see). My main "problem area" is my stomach (which you can see in the picture). It used to be my legs, but running's sorted that out for me :D.

Clothes/Shoes

I have a lot of clothes and shoes, a lot of them randomly acquired from my mum/grandmother when they decided they didn't like them/they didn't fit them (we're all roughly the same size). I've realised that I'm not really growing out of things any more, so at some point (soon) I'm going to have to chuck some of the things I've had for 7+ years that sort of fit and have holes that are sort of not noticeable! I also have a lot of great clothes and shoes that I don't wear much because my wardrobe is so cluttered with all the other things. It's also so easy to just throw on sweatpants at college, but this year I'm going to make an effort to plan clothes and outfits better. I've got some awesome new clothes this Christmas, so I want to make the most of them!

Yay! Three new tops (brown, orange and purple), a new jacket (bright pink!!), two new pairs of trousers (orange and pink - I like bright colours!), London pjs, leopard boot liners, new orange leggings and brown bear socks! :)

[More on this to follow tomorrow...]

New Years Resolutions

So...it's 2012. It still hasn't quite sunk in.

2012 is going to be a big year for me with a lot of important changes, most notably that I'm graduating from college and starting law school. There are going to be lots more changes associated with those things:

• Not having the boyfriend around 24/7 (I'm going to law school, he's going...somewhere else, as of yet undecided, but almost certainly not the sleepy little town I'm going to be living in).
• Having to live in my own apartment (it's just not going to be the same as living in a dorm room).
• Cooking for myself (I can't wait to do this, but it's also going to be a big job!)
• And tonnes more things that I just haven't though of yet I'm sure!

Anyway, as always I've made a bunch of resolutions for this year (but, also as always I'm going to keep changing them around and being undecided and adding things for about a week):

• Blog resolutions:
• Blog three times a week and actually use my twitter account! (I just got it and it's all shiny and new - http://twitter.com/#!/jinxsjourney!)
• Post more pictures on my blog (at least once a week!)

• Personal Goals
• Learn the location of a new country every day (I already missed this one yesterday, but I'll do 2 today!). I know this is really weird, but I'm pretty terrible at knowing where countries are in the world (I realised yesterday I'm not even sure if I could point out some big/important counties like Japan...not good!).
• Write 52 letters/postcards.
• Run 6 "official" 5Ks

• Not failing at life resolutions (ie things I need to do to graduate from college)
• Find a summer internship
• Finish my thesis (actually do stuff in lab)
• Graduate with closer to a 3.4 than a 3.3 (I'm at 3.33 at the moment, so this will hopefully work out!)

• Couple Resolutions (with the boyfriend, obviously)
• Try to reduce sugar intake - only eat dessert at one meal/day
• Work out a minimum of 3 times a week
• Go out for a meal together at least once every three weeks
• Sleep together twice a week (sorry, I know that's TMI)
• One self-improvement type thing each month (chosen by the other person)

Once again...

I've been MIA.

I was super busy with finishing up the semester and trying to stay on a healthier eating plan. I'm back home now (which is wonderful!), but my sister is (of course) stressing me out.

I finished the biking part of my ironman yesterday, which was super exciting! I'm about to go swimming to start (eek!) on the swimming part of it!

I promise a longer post later - with all the transitions in my life next year (graduating from college and heading off to law school) I think my blog is going to become an increasingly important outlet!

Ironman!

So, to start with I would never ever do an ironman race. I think it would just be way too much for me. However, on the food tracking website I use someone came up with the idea of doing the traditional ironman distances (26.2 miles running, 112 miles biking and 2.4 miles swimming) over the course of the month. So...my exercise goal for this month is to do just that.

I almost never swim and rarely bike in the gym, so it's going to be a bit of challenge, but it's one that I'm looking forward to and have been enjoying so far. I've also been trying to convince my friends/family/boyfriend to do it with me (or at least do their own version of it with different activities/distances).

Anyway, so far...

1/12 Ran 2.5 Km = 1.55 miles (14 ish minutes)
2/12 Biked 8.15 miles (30 mins, 30 seconds)
3/12 Biked 12.33 miles (45 mins, 3 seconds), Ran 1.61 miles (15 mins)

Totals so far:

Swim - 0 miles/2.4 miles left
Bike - 20.48 miles/91.52 miles left
Ran - 3.16 miles/23.04 miles left

I *love* that I can already feel my muscles getting stronger from working out :D

And..gratitude! I haven't been very good at keeping on top of that challenge. Anyway, onto Day 3 of that challenge: Happiness

A lot of thing’s make me happy, and I couldn’t possibly cover them all in one post.

My family and wonderful boyfriend are definitely at the top of the list.

I also love going home and spending time with my high school friends. I do feel that I’ve been drifting away from them though. It’s kinda sad, but I think it’s a function of the fact that I’m on a totally different Uni schedule to them, and I also have less in common with a lot of them now than I used to.

Flowers: I’ve always been into gardening even when I was pretty little (and still am! I have awkward amounts of greenery on my window ledge at school.) I also love having them in my room, so it’s a big treat when the boy gives me flowers!

Dressing up: Another one of my favourite things is dressing up for formals or dances.

Good food and now 5K’s!

That was a weird post. I feel like I’m grateful for anything that makes me happy, plus there are gazillion’s of different random things that make me happy!

Food

Given that everyone is doing WIAW, I thought I'd do my own version of it. I never end up taking pictures of my food, because I eat in a dining hall and it's weird/awkward to take pictures of food.

Over Thanksgiving I had a bit of a tough time with food - I ate so much Thanksgiving-y and Birthday-y food and I ended up gaining 2 lbs :(.

Anyway, I've been trying to be good today which feels great! I also go to the gym which felt really good! I also recorded all my food today which is below:

(yeah, I really need to watch my sugar. I have can never seem to stay under it :( ).

For the rest of the week my food plan is:

Thursday:

Lunch: Cheese ravioli with tomato sauce

Dinner: chickpea stew with rice

Friday:

Lunch: Chef's Surprise?! (I never like these things). Nutella and banana crepe

Dinner: Burger with french fries

Saturday:

Brunch: Fruit, caramel swirled french toast (how good does that sound?!)

Dinner: pasta, carrots

Sunday:

Brunch: Cheese blinzes and fruit

Dinner: Leftovers/chef's surprise

Fingers crossed that I can keep to that! I've been finding it much harder to make good choices when I don't have the menu and I haven't made a decision about what I'm going to eat.

Thanksgiving! (Properly!)

As I said before, I spent Thanksgiving with my family which was wonderful! There were a few tensions between my sister and me (more on that at some other point), but otherwise it was great.

I took the train down late Wednesday night and got picked up a the station by my Mum and Grandmother. The journey was fine, but obviously the trains were all super crowded and I was running late etc etc. I'm also a nervous traveller (not normally with trains though), but the presence of lots of armed police and police dogs on the trains didn't exactly make me feel super relaxed.

On Thursday we headed into NY to go to the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, which is a *huge* parade through NY with giant balloons and floats with people dancing/singing/ice skating/all sorts of other crazy things.





This was the first photo I took all day and it's my favourite one! I just find random floating pumpkins hilarious!



I really really really HATE McDonalds (it's pretty much evil incarnate in my eyes), but I like the picture!



...and I like this picture too




Another picture that I find ridiculously amusing. I have no idea who these kids are but it's a) health and safety gone mad and b) something that my parents would've done if they'd thought of it when we were younger!

We also, of course, had traditional Thanksgiving food which was delicious! (And I ate wayyy too much!) (I thought I had a picture of my Thanksgiving dinner somewhere but I can't find it. Maybe it was on Dad's camera).

On Friday we headed into NY again, but this time to see the Rockettes. It was the first time I'd ever seen them and they were so incredible!

The Rockettes were incredible! If anyone ever gets the opportunity to see them definitely go!

I really liked this chandelier in Radio City Music Hall (the theater)!

Plus: there was lots of Christmassy stuff in NY. The Rockettes are also a Christmas show so those two things put me into the Christmas mood! (I'm listening to Christmas music now...it's almost December!)

Christmas Trees in NY!

There was also the most beautiful sunset when we got back to my grandmother's home, so I took a bunch of pictures of that!

Saturday was my sister's birthday. (She's turning 20). I also had a terrible skin allergic reaction to something (I think putting my facewash on dry instead of wet?!), so that put me in a bit of a bad mood. (TMI but the skin on my face all started peeling off).

I also had a super yummy/intense salad for lunch:

I travelled back to college on Sunday. The journey was much better than it could've been and I got to meet up with my boyfriend in NY, which always makes things easier (someone to carry my bags. Hehe.).

So now...just back to the grind of school for another three weeks. I've been finding it a bit difficult to settle back in/motivate myself, but today's been a good (better) day with work and a less bad day for food :).

Thanksgiving!

I had a bunch of posts written up to post over Thanksgiving and some how none of them got posted :(.

Anyway, this is just going to be a quick post because I need to get to lab (urgh!), but I'll write a proper one later!

Thanksgiving was great. I spent it with my family (brother, sister, mum, dad and grandmother) at my grandmother's house. We ate all the traditional Thanksgiving-y foods (and I ate way to too much), but it was a lot of fun. We also celebrated my sister's birthday over the weekend, which was fun. I didn't really get up to much, mostly just hanging out with family, but I'll post some pictures later on (after lab!).

Hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving (if you celebrate it!)

Gratitude, Day 2: Smile

I don't really like my smile. Occasionally I seem to smile in some kind of different way that I really like, but in almost all photos I me I have the "bad" smile (which I basically think looks like a pained grimace).



The pained grimace smile! :P

There is one thing that I do really like about my smile though: it's exactly the same as my grandmothers.



My grandmother's smile!

My mum's mum is my only grandparent who is still around and she is wonderful! She lives pretty close to me at college and has been a constant source of support. She's 80 years old, and is still incredibly active and mentally sharp. (Occasionally she can drive me nuts! But on the whole she's pretty perfect.) Anyway, I'm grateful (even if I don't like my smile) that it reminds me of someone I love.

I'm also grateful that my skin seems to be improving. I posted about this earlier, but the worst part was the area on the left and right sides of my chin (I think it's genetic. My mum said that was always the worst part of her skin). Anyway, the really important thing (to me) is that it doesn't appear to be scarring that much. Fingers crossed that the rest of it will clear up soon! (The scarring aspect of things is, I think, looking good. However, the medicine is designed to bring everything to the surface and make my skin essentially break out/look terrible, so that part doesn't look to good. I'm not even sure if that makes sense? Anyway, I just tried to take a picture of it and it looks yuck and was putting me off my breakfast, so I'll post a picture once the breakout's died down a bit and you can see the "extent" of the scarring better!).

Eating Plan for Next week!

On the whole, I made good food choices last week. I'm finding that Thursday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday are the hardest day for me to make good choices on. Thursday is my lazy chill evening, so I tend to watch TV. It's a terrible habit, but I always want to eat junky food when I'm doing that. Friday is a weird day because I don't have class. Because I'm not on such a regimented schedule (and don't have to get up a reasonable time in the morning) my meals tend to get messed up. On weekend days we have brunch instead of breakfast/lunch. I love breakfast food (much more than lunch food), so that means that I tend to eat breakfast in my room (oatmeal) plus a second breakfast which is usually something like pancakes or french toast - not the healthiest. Anyway, it's not ideal but I know that totally depriving myself of the foods I want to eat doesn't work well either, so I'm trying not to stress too much about it. (And I'm still losing a little weight eating that diet, so I guess it's not too terrible. To anyone who doesn't know the history of why I'm trying to lose a bit of weight: I put on weight when I was working on my law school applications (~14 lbs). I'd like to shed most of it by Christmas, just because I feel better when I'm a little lighter.)



Anyway, onto the important things: my eating plan for this week! (I know these are boring for everyone else, but they keep me feeling accountable).

(This week for some reason they still haven't posted the menu. I'm just going to make good choices and I'll update this post as soon as I have a menu!)
Sunday
Brunch: Fruit, belgian waffle with cherry topping (yes, not the best I know) or a broccoli cheddar bacon omelet (I generally don't go for the lunch-y things, but this sounds good!)
Dinner: No idea, it's always leftovers :S
Monday
Lunch:
Dinner: Pasta
Tuesday
Lunch:
Dinner:
Wednesday
Lunch:
Dinner onwards: Thanksgiving with my family!