I posted this article on Facebook, and I read this one a while back. I don’t agree with all of them. Women need to apologize for some things just like everyone else. And, being assertive does not mean we can walk all over people to get what we want or be rude. I especially don’t think we should stop telling other people yes and stop telling ourselves no. I think as a whole, twenty-something-year-old women are becoming more and more selfish and self absorbed and should probably commit more to doing for others and less to “pampering” themselves. It didn’t escape my attention either that the first one, the buzz feed article, is sponsored by Pantene. Have you guys seen their new ad campaign? I like all the things it makes me feel. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOjNcZvwjxI&w=560&h=315] I like female empowerment. It’s a big part of why I run. It makes me feel powerful. I’m not of the crazy feminist variety, but I think women can do a lot more than they are. For me, it’s not all about how many women are in Congress or even about how much women get paid. It’s about expecting more from women, setting women up to not be helpless. Then, it can carry over into women raising strong babies that aren’t helpless, dream big, and set their own standards according to what works best for them. Men have a part in this too. They’ll expect more from us women the more we expect of ourselves. The hope is that it will be less about who stays home with the kids or who makes more money in the household and more about supporting each other. I think where we get stuck, unfortunately, is when we see other women succeeding at their life goals, whatever those are. As my mom says “Comparison steals your joy.” It happens a lot more often now that you can look on Facebook and see Holly Highschool get that amazing internship in Nashville or Charlie Church girl’s adorable babies’ pinterest worthy photos and we think we are doing something wrong on our own journey and get discouraged. We get overwhelmed with all the things we want and say “Well, I’ll never have that “fill-in-the-blank” and so starts the pity party funk of all we have not accomplished and how life isn’t what we thought it’d be. If we just realized that encouraging each other is so much better of a way to help other women reach their goals and reach our own goals. Because when it comes down to it, you don’t really want their life, as perfect as it looks on Instagram. You want your life because its the one you’ve been given. And its a good one. “Though it may feel otherwise, enjoying life is no more dangerous than apprehending it with continuous anxiety and gloom.” -Alain de Botton So here’s my list of things women should quit doing. 1. Quit comparing their lives to other people- online or in person. 2. Being ungrateful for what you have. 3. Quit acting like you aren’t strong, because you are.
I’m getting out my trusty calculator for figuring out how much fresh juice cost versus juice companies and places you can buy fresh squeezed juice.
I spent $52.79 on fruit for 3 days $17.60 a day seems a little steep, but this gave me 6 juices a day. That’s $2.93 per juice which was anywhere from 400ml to 1L. Compared to blueprint cleanse at $195 for three days ($10.83/ juice) that’s 73% off! (I modeled some of my juice recipes after some of theirs but you will never see me juice celery or ginger). I’m pretty proud of my juices if you couldn’t tell. Also, I got fresh juice from a juice/smoothie place in Chicago and they were charging $9.95 for 16 oz. of juice and it didn’t taste any better than any of mine. So if you want to invest in a juicer or already have one sitting on your shelf, I say do it yourself because its way worth it. It took an hour of prep of like 45836543 lbs. of produce and I had it all in baggies- washed dried and packed with its future juice buddies. For example, after I made my favorite juices, I still had green apples and spinach and a mango with no where to use them. So, I put them all in a baggy together and juiced it this morning and it was THE BEST.
Pssttt- Changes are coming to my little blog soon! I never expected it to grow like it is; so when my brother-in-law offered to webhost my blog and make me a new logo and design, I jumped at the chance. You can see his website here and here’s a sneak peek of things to come!
This weekend was busy busy! I got a lot done. I painted my bookshelves for my study room and did a couple more DIY projects and finished up some loose ends. I’m still working on recapping my trip. I had some shopping to do today and it was as I was buying a large container of body wash that I realized…I will be using this body wash WHEN I’M IN MEDICAL SCHOOL. This will be the body wash I will use when I start medical school. 37 days until orientation begins. That is crazy stuff right there. I’m getting all my ducks in a row. I’ve been budgeting, I bought a backpack, throwing bunches of stuff away, etc. One thing I’ve been focusing on that I don’t usually do is taking extra care of myself. I usually don’t have a high maintenance beauty routine in the morning- I usually forego full-on make up and just use mascara. And other than being a night shower-er, I don’t have much of a night routine either. When I was little, I used to watch my mom get ready for bed. Sometimes I got bored so I climbed the bathroom door frame. I also specifically remember sitting on her bathroom counter, taking “shots” of water straight out of the second vanity faucet in a paper dixie cup with a Lion King print. Then, I’d jump off the counter and jump up and down and listen to the water slosh in my belly. My mom would take off her makeup, wash her face, remove the residual makeup again, apply six different night creams and then coat her whole face in vaseline. (Maybe that’s where I got my love of the stuff.) Anyway, the whole thing was a process. I found this little gem when cleaning out my keepsake box All that to say, I’ve been taking my time getting ready in the morning, filing my nails at night, putting lotion on my elbows. My new thing is brushing my teeth when I’m in the shower. Is that weird? I guess the thought is that I won’t have as much time to take this much care in my upkeep once school starts. Do you have any nighttime habits that you can’t skip?
When I last updated you on Day 2, I was about to have my cashew banana shake for dinner. I did drank it again and was feeling fine. After that, I went to Lowe’s with my parents and started thinking about the benefits I had gotten from solely juicing for two days. Honestly, there weren’t very many. Is juicing healthy and beneficial? Yes. Does it constitute a balanced diet on its own? No At this point I really really really wanted actual food with substance, and I began to get a headache. And then my parents stopped at Chili’s and the whole thing was settled. I decided to listen to my body instead of depriving it just to complete the arbitrary three days. I needed food. At Chili’s, I had chips and salsa and a cup of potato soup. Though it wasn’t much food, I was completely satiated. I finally had energy again! I will say that it is a pretty amazing feat to eat only fresh fruits and vegetables and it did make me feel healthier in my mind, knowing I was getting so many vitamins and consuming things straight from a farm. But, I didn’t feel particularly cleansed of toxins or stool like I was expecting to. Also, I did lose a lot of water weight and felt like I had tighter muscle tone. Though, that could be because my muscles were breaking into their glycogen stores for energy, haha. On the first day before I started I weighed myself. So there’s that. Take it as you will. Day 1 – 117 lbs Day 2- 114 lbs Day 3- 115 lbs Day 4 The next morning (Day 3) I was not hungry at all, but I ate some raw cashews for my last day’s dinner juice because they were delicious and crunchy and so what difference does it make if I puree them or eat them plain? Then, I had my morning green juice just because it tastes so good. Life is much better when you can juice and eat what you want. What did I learn from this? “Juice cleanse” is probably just another fad diet. And yes, I got sucked in. None of us are immune. Fact is, a balanced diet is just that… balance. One food group will never get you whatever it is you are looking for from your food. I’ve always gone off of all things in moderation. I eat what I’m craving, usually whatever I want. I don’t eat much, I walk a lot, stay active, and work out and run when I can. I did explore lots of yummy juice combos and found out easy it is to get a lot of different colors in my diet. And, I think it really did help my digestive system. I had a couple people interested in the “digestive cleansing” that may/may not occur. If you have no interest in my bowel movements, feel free to stop here. To any men reading this : I still uphold that girls do not poop and all of the following is a lie. Day 1- I went to the bathroom and felt emptied completely, though it was too soon to be from the juice and was probably just a regular stool. Day 2- My stomach was crampy and I was bracing myself for diarrhea, but it never came. Stool was pretty soft though. Day 3- This one’s sorta weird. But here it goes, I had wayyy more stool than usual and the beets made their appearance! Since I have never eaten beets before it was new to see dark red stool tinge the water pink and not want to call an ambulance. So there you have it. I usually have a pretty slow digestive system but the juice seemed to regulate things and I felt like I was passing yesterday’s food each day (which is good) and was emptying completely. Very little discomfort and no diarrhea like I was expecting. I also noticed that without sips of soda and greasy chips, I hardly had any gas whatsoever. My Take Aways: 1. Juice! Juice a lot, juice a variety of fruits and veggies- and even nuts! But don’t ONLY juice. 2. There is no cure-all, miracle food to make you feel magical all the time. (I knew this- I just was in a little juice bubble and had high expectations) 3. Try new things! 4. Be happy, be healthy! Just like the cheerio’s honey bee tells us.
After the St. Louis show, I was able to keep driving for an hour and a half. Dani tried to sleep in the front seat so that she could (hopefully) wake up and drive; so that we could get as far as possible. For some reason, I didn’t think to suggest that she move to the backseat where she could have stretched out and had way more space. Anyway, I never got overly sleepy, but I knew I would be soon; so we stopped for gas for the next morning and got a hotel in Springfield, Il. Breakfast in the hotel again around 9, on the road before ten and Dani drove. I was anxious and irritating Dani thinking that around any corner or over the next hill we would see all of Chicago. (From two hours away). So, that was probably the longest part of the trip; for me anyway. We switched back to me driving, right outside Chicago. We couldn’t understand why the GPS only said 34 more miles, yet we couldn’t see any signs of a big city, and the “time of arrival” was more than an hour away. Oh, traffic. I mean I knew there would be traffic, but I didn’t know. We had a terrible time getting to the hotel. Some highway was closed and I wanted to get off the highway as soon as possible. Little did I know that the cross streets through downtown were much much worse. Somehow we ended up on a “lower” street when our hotel was on an “upper” and the stupid GPS really had no idea where we were wanting to go even though we had the correct address. It was very stressful because people and cars were everywhere. We eventually made it, and checked in to the fanciest hotel I have ever been in.
14th floor ya’ll. Right on the river.
To Be Continued… Anyone else have experience driving in Chicago? We found out pretty quickly that we were the only tourists stupid brave enough to drive straight into the actual city.
You may remember this post. With 6 weeks left before medical school, I thought I would post an updated list posting my progress. Just under halfway there, and I’ve already started working several others. 1///Sleep until 2 PM. 2~GO TO CHICAGO WITH YOUR BEST FRIEND! 3-Make the perfect tiramisu. 4 Run a lot. 5) Take a nap an hour after you wake up. #6 Go on a random road trip. 7> Journal. 8* Do a bunch of Pinterest projects. 9} Take a bubble bath. 10: Stay up until 4 in the morning. 11///Make a gourmet meal for mom and dad. 12~Have fun with your nieces. 13-Do nothing. 14 Go on a long bike ride. 15) Read a magazine outside. #16 Watch movies you haven’t seen yet. 17> Sunbathe on a Monday afternoon. 18* Take the girls to Bigsplash. 19} Go shopping with mom 20: Try a new food. 21///Take a 30 minute shower. 22~Have a spa day. 23-Lay tile with Dad. 24 Organize stuff. 25) Take pictures #26 Jump in a neighborhood pool. 27> Watch Netflix until your eyes hurt. 28* Go hiking. 29} Find a new hobby. 30: Focus on others. 31///Try a juice cleanse just because. 32~Get a tan. 33-Make over your study room. 34 Have fun.
Juice Cleanse Day 2 isn’t near as bad as yesterday. First of all. Last night I didn’t drink my 6th juice because juice sounded so nasty. I had a splitting headache, and was also getting nauseous. I considered eating real food but powered through for two reasons. 1. In spite of thinking I was hungry, craving food (mostly bread and crunchy, salty things), my stomach never growled. So, I know physiologically, I am not starving myself. If I felt like I was starving myself I wouldn’t do this. That would be defeating the purpose of trying this- which is to discover health benefits of a raw, juice diet, and “cleanse” my body with easy-to-digest, nutrient-rich juice. Starving yourself is never healthy. 2. I’m stubborn. I did the same breakfast juice as yesterday but instead of the pineapple/apple/cucumber mid morning juice I used one of my extra juices to try something new. I pulled a baggy out that I prepped. It had a bunch of baby carrots, a bunch of strawberries, a large handful of spinach, and two nectarines. It made a orangeish colored juice that tasted really good. The strawberries weren’t quite sweet but I liked the tartness they added. The carrot and nectarine went well together. I made the same lunch and afternoon juices as yesterday: the beet/apple/carrot and lemon/blueberry respectively. I would definitely say I am glad I have nothing better to do that get stuff done around the house because I don’t have a whole lot of energy. Its also annoying to have to juice about every 2 hours and immediately clean out the juicer. So Blueprint and Suja pre-made juices definitely have the convenience going for them. If you don’t clean out the juicer right away, it never comes clean. It definitely wouldn’t be feasible to make your own juices everyday if you had, say, a job, or school, or a life. I have also decided that running on this diet wouldn’t be feasible either. I’ve only been doing core and body-weight exercises at home and it sort of makes me want to die and eat everything.
We woke up around 9 on Friday. Dani took a shower and went down to get breakfast while I stayed in bed and chilled. I had a bowl of cheerio’s at the hotel, we both got ready, checked out of the hotel, and then we went off! The venue was on Delmar Blvd which has a lot of shops and places to eat. We parked the car behind the venue and walked up and down the street but there wasn’t really any shopping that we needed and we weren’t quite hungry for lunch yet so we sat at Starbucks and tried to find something nearby worth going to. I wore some new flats from Target and they blistered my heels after like 10 seconds so we decided on going back to the car then going to the mall via the Metrolink train. We bought passes to the train at a kiosk on the underground platform and stood around for a little bit before realizing that we probably should figure out which side of the platform we needed to be on because things like that matter in public transit.
We went to Saint Louis Galleria, ate lunch at California Pizza Kitchen (we had spinach, artichoke, and chicken pizza). It was super yummy. We only went in a couple stores; mostly those that we don’t have in Tulsa. At Urban Outfitters I got an 11×17 artwork that was on sale for $10 and Dani and I both got a pair of Mary Jane canvas slippers that were 2 for $20. I basically bought the two cheapest items in Urban Outfitters. Right as we started browsing in H&M I got a twitter message from Needtobreathe’s online/promotion lady that their merch guy needed help. We hurried back to the train station, triple checked that we were getting on the right train and then went back to help. Helping mostly consisted of putting the shirts up with prices on them and display tables together, but we got to hang out with a couple crew people and joke around. Before we knew it, it was time to change clothes and get ready for the VIP/early entry thing. The merch guy, Hayden, takes the pictures at VIP too so he pretended to move us through and skip over us getting to chat with the band, yelling “Next” instead of helping us through. The guys greeted us familiarly- high fives, hand shakes, and “Good to see you’s”, etc. Hayden held our stuff for us and snapped this cutie patootie shot. I can’t decide if I want it tattooed on my face or screen printed on the side of my car. Just kidding. Then we took our place (front row between center-ish stage left-ish) for the show. The actual standing room in The Pageant is actually pretty small, and it felt like forever before it filled up so I was worried the turn out would be lame but as is the norm for NTB now, they packed the house. The show recap is an entirely new post so you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for that one 🙂 ***Juice Update It is safe to say that I am sick of sweet liquids. Matter of fact, I have one last juice ready to go before bed and I really don’t know if I even want it. I feel like I have been drinking juice literally all day. After my breakfast juice was my ‘Mid Morning Juice” that I am going to call “Apple Pineapple Blah” (Can you tell my mood is decreasing in enthusiasm for this wonderful stupid juice cleanse? Anyway, that juice has probably been my least favorite so far, and its the grossest color as well. Apple/Pineapple Juice is one of the best tasting- and sweetest juices there is. But, I thought I would throw in a cucumber for some vegetable-ness. Into the juicer went half a cucumber, half a pineapple, and two small pink lady apples from my 5-lb sack. You can barely see the cucumber because its so dark. This made a lot of juice. Pineapple and apple are usually really juicy, but apparently so was this cucumber because I got almost a full liter out of it. 2 Full Glasses like the one pictured below. You better believe I drank it all.
Don’t get me wrong this juice wasn’t bad. I would definitely drink it again. (I have to. Tomorrow.) Its just that the cucumber icks me out a little. However, it does do a nice job of cutting some of the sweetness of the apple and pineapple. In between this juice and the next juice I got very weak and sleepy. I considered going back to bed or going straight to my lunch juice, but I powered through and hung up clothes and did some unpacking and laundry. Then, I went to the chiropractor about my neck and shoulders because I’ve been sleeping weird. I could lay on the roller massage table all day. For some reason, though, my timer dinged much too soon and it was time for my adjustment. I came back home and juiced my “lunch”. I don’t have a name for this juice but something like “Super-Awesome-Beautiful-Delicious-Red-Juice” suits it best. Into the juicer, went 1 peeled beet, 2 pink lady apples, a bunch of baby carrots. Fun fact: As I was peeling the beet, I also peeled my finger. Ouch. Also, when handling beets and bleeding, one cannot be sure if it is beet juice or blood one is seeing. Panic ensued, yet no stitches were needed. Isn’t it beautiful? I wanted to just paint all the walls with it look at it forever. This is my favorite juice. The apple part was, of course, my favorite but the carrots actually add a lot of sweetness to any juice too. It made the whole thing taste like candy. And honestly, I didn’t even taste the beet. Basically its Kool-Aid that makes you feel like a super hero inside. I will definitely make this one as a regular juice once I can handle the sound of the juicer again. In between lunch and my afternoon juice I drank a tall glass of water and was feeling pretty good. I was hungry but it wasn’t unbearable. Sure I wanted boneless buffalo wings, mac and cheese, olive garden, and movie popcorn, but I didn’t feel like my stomach was empty. It may have been mostly for the satisfaction of chewing something. My afternoon juice was more of an infused water. I juiced a lemon and a handful of blueberries and then added enough water to make a liter. I added some honey to it, and drank that while watching a movie with my friend Jenna. It tastes exactly like watered down Simply Lemonade with blueberry, which is exactly what I was aiming for.
About this time I realized I was peeing a lot. So that’s fun. Considering I’ve had over 3 liters of liquid today, that makes a lot of sense. For my dinner juice, I soaked 6 oz. of raw cashews in water for an hour. I put the softened cashews and water into a blender and pureed it with a banana. I added some water and ice to thin it out and make it a chilled smoothie. Then, I put some honey and cinnamon in it. I’m not sure this can be counted as a juice but I honestly don’t think I could make it without it. Its very much like a milkshake. Most of the expensive juice cleanse companies out there have a vanilla/cashew “milk” so if they can cheat by not using fruits and veggies only, so can I. Again, this made a whole liter, and I drank it all. The only time I haven’t thought about eating something carb-y and crunchy is when I’m actually drinking this juice. I’mma be honest. This is hard. Both before and after dinner I was hungry, cranky, and weak. Now, an hour and a half after my cashew juice, I have a headache and can barely focus on this blog post so I’m going to quit and entertain the idea of going to bed.
It looks as though I’m tied down to home (aka my juicer) for the next three days so I will get some writing, unpacking, and juicing done. Sounds good to me! The Bad News: I got really hungry. Like really hungry at about 2 AM last night. I thought “Oh boy” The Good News: I woke up ready for some juice. I prayed “Give us this day our daily juice” and then jumped right into getting my first juice out. I prepped last night so it wasn’t hard. I just grabbed the baggie labeled “Morning Day 1” My first juice this morning was a big handful of kale, a big handful of baby spinach, a whole kiwi, and two small granny smith apples. I juiced that in my fancy juicer and then put the juice in a little blender cup and pureed it with a banana. Why? Juicing a banana definitely adds the banana flavor. I wanted something a little different out of the banana. Namely, its anti-diarrheal qualities. You know the BRAT diet? Bananas are the B. I just don’t want to have crazy intense juice poops if you know what I mean. I’m calling this juice “Green Apple Jolly Rancher” because that’s what it tastes like. Seriously. It’s freaking delicious. The banana makes it more filling too. It made about 400ml of liquid and that is a lot to drink. I sipped my juice as I cleaned out my juicer. Then I went outside to sip my juice and dumped the pulp receptacle in my mom’s garden. The neighbors were like “Dang look at that perfect hippy girl composting and drinking juice; I wish I could be like her.” Don’t fret neighbors! My Nike shorts were made in a sweatshop, so nobody is perfect!
Ahhh, it feels good to be home. Mostly. First of all, I want to thank so many of you for stopping by on my page! On my stats, I could tell people were checking into my homepage a lot more than usual. It could have been a fluke, but it made me excited to be able to post again. I didn’t have wifi and we were eating walking around and doing various concert things an awful lot for me to do much posting. Currently, I am in sitting in bed with a mess of crap all over my room to unpack. Some things I am not ready to face though. I am refusing to take off the most comfortable merch sweatshirt I got from Needtobreathe’s merch manager, and I have not removed my mascara fully in over 6 days. At this point it just sort of crumbles off when it dries out enough and then it falls into my eyes and becomes rather painful. I’m a stubborn lady though and I’m just not ready to go there. Still, I must accept on some level that vacation is over. The self-tanning lotion has all but rubbed off, and my blisters from walking around the city in new shoes (bad horrible idea) are healing nicely. Last Thursday, I hustled around Tulsa getting stuff done before the trip. I had to pick up Dani at 4. I got to her apartment/work, got her keys and got to work terrorizing her cats loading up her stuff into my car. We got on the road and quickly tired of any music that wasn’t “Fancy” by Iggy Azalea. In Springfield we stopped for dinner at Hebrews Coffee. We found it on Urbanspoon. Sandwiches and coffee were exactly what we needed to get us the next three hours up the highway to St. Louis. I got a chicken caesar wrap and it was the best one I’ve ever had. I wanted a Hazelnut iced coffee to go too; they didn’t have hazelnut syrup but they make their own almond syrup in-house so I got that and it was the best thing I have ever tasted. Selfie Time Fun fact- a guy that worked there was wearing a needtobreathe shirt. This was the look on my face when he said he wasn’t going to the show the next night. Back on the road… More “Fancy” We got to #stl and went to our hotel in the Central West End/Forest Park neighborhood. As it turns out this is right in a network of hospitals, medical centers, medical/pharmacy schools so it was cool to see all the apartments, medical institutes, and stuff nearby. The neighborhoods were very quaint, well-lit, and cute so we felt comfortable walking around after midnight, seeing sites like these.
Of course, at night it looked more like this
(These people take much better pictures than I do on my phone) There were a lot of cute patio cafes with cute white lights strung, but nothing struck our fancy to eat so we kept on walking. We went back to the hotel, I took a shower, and went to bed; ready for a day of Needtobreathe when we woke up. I’ll stop there. ADD Moment Change of subject. On my list of things to do this summer, I have that I want to do a juice cleanse. Well, what better time to do that than right after vacation (read: eating out all the time)? Plus, all I wanted to eat on my trip was bananas anyway. How weird, right? So, right when I got back into T-Town, I stopped at the grocery store and got stuff to make my last meal dinner and dessert for my parents and I. I noticed that Target had a particularly wonderful selection of produce. I freaking loaded that cart. Seriously I’ve never bought so much fruit in my life. So, 3 day DIY juice cleanse starts tomorrow. Why? 1. It’s summer 2. I love fruit 3. I’ll try anything once 4. I’m interested to see if it changes the way I feel. For instance, I think it will make me feel hungry 🙂 5. I have no major plans/events this week 6. I’m young and I can do weird crap like this
Other details, things to keep in mind… If you look into juice cleanse you will see that the lemon-water-honey-cayenne is a popular one, but for me it’s just not feasible. I have pretty quick metabolism and running means I have to have calories or it would just be a 3 day-headache-y-jitter-y mess. Then, there are the online juice cleanses where they send you each day’s juices to your door. Sounds awesome right? Well, it runs you about $10 a bottle. 6 juices a day means $60 on food a day times 3 days =$180. Mama no likey. Enter, the DIY Juice Cleanse! Obviously this diet is not sustainable or healthy for any amount of time, but spending $180 on food for three days isn’t something I even did on vacation. Incorporating fruits and veggies is something I want to work on and $10 for juice isn’t the way I ever want to do it so I will also be working on a cost breakdown and see if this much fruit/veggies actually costs that much and if eating healthier really is more expensive. Pound for pound though, I got A LOT of food. Granted, these companies juices are very good quality and have a lot of ingredients I, as a novice juicer will not be using. Parsley, ginger, etc. Also, I only got organic produce when it was available and priced reasonably. I’ll do a breakdown of my juices and prep later but I basically have 5 juices that I will drink everyday along with as much water as I want. Then I have a 6th backup juice that is different every day for the times when I’m dying of starvation and want a Quiktrip Pretzel. This was my Target Haul, we’ll see how this goes. My dad laughed when I told him this was happening. #longhairdontcare Fun Fact: The cashier at Target asked me what fruit my mango was.
