Grumpy Dietitian

maybe that will be my next blog name. It is certainly accurate.


I AM GRUMPY ABOUT STUPID STUFF AND I WANT TO YELL ABOUT IT.

--My back is killing me right now. I haven't been sleeping well, either. So less sleep=more pain. Ugh. It isn't so much the pain as it is the anxiety-like I will never, ever be comfortable again. It is completely irrational, but the longer I am uncomfortable, the more hysteria rises. Pain makes your brain process things incorrectly.

--This one won't make sense to non-dog people or people with actual kids: I thought my Bean died yesterday. We have this enormous leaf pile where our yard guy just puts all the leaves (our backyard is huge and mostly forest.) So earlier I had seen her emerge from under this pile, but in a weird way. not up through the leaves, just like out a tunnel. I don't even know. I called for her to come in and she didn't, so of course I start worrying. I decide she is trapped in the leaf pile and smothering. So I'm freaking out, trying to dig through like feet of leaves convinced I'm just going to find her body. My dog died traumatically in my arms 2 years ago, and I clearly still have issues. Eventually I unearthed her and she was fine, but I was a mess.

--My husband has been working too damn much lately and it is annoying me. Also, it isn't a good idea to bitch to your husband about how his working so much is negatively affecting you. Just a helpful tip. Turns out, he isn't very sympathetic to my pain. Can you even believe that?


Ok. I'm hoping by just ranting I will get it out of my system. I can objectively look at it and realize none of these things are big deals and I am a little crazy. 

Weenie

*I did not go to boot camp today! I still can't bend my arm much. Now my elbow is a little swollen, like there is some fluid in it. M's been offering to hit it with a large book, but I'm going to pass for now. I'm going to go for a walk very fast and long run later b/c it is actually nice out. Nice in AL is under 88 degrees.

*I'm going to have to go to boot camp earlier now. This displeases me greatly. I am not a morning person.

*New laptop is on its way to me! I am so hard on laptops. My current one is falling apart. The screen part is tearing away from the key pad. It is held together by one screw and tape. And the screen part itself is splitting so you can see into the sides of the monitor. I don't know how I'm doing this to computers. My last laptop did this, too.

*Actually, I think my last laptop was the one stolen when our house got robbed.

*This is a seriously random post. 

This is what dying feels like

You guys. My arms. I have never been this sore in my life-even after the hellish first day of high school softball where we had a practice that lasted for 6 hours.

Yesterday at boot camp we did the following arm killing things:

*3 sets of assisted pushups. These were both awesome and terrible. Basically one person is doing push-ups and the other person is a spotter. You loop a strong, rubber belt around your middle and your spotter helps lift and lower you. So you can get all the way down into a push-up without using all your body weight. This is my main problem with pushups-they are fantastic exercises, but I just straight up am too weak to get far enough into the move to benefit.

I can not tell you how sore my arms are right now.

*two sets of sprints with the same bands/spotter holding you back. These entertain me though they are tough!

Then three sets of:
*kind of a tug of war thing where one person is pulling the rope through and the other person is holding the end with resistance, but also walking to the puller. Like if you were pulling something heavy out of a hole or something. (So basically 6 sets b/c half the time you are the puller, the other half the pullee.)

*pulling a tire with 20 lbs of kettle balls in them. Using the TRX handles at our shoulders, we would take a huge step forward into a lunge and bring the back foot up. Then take a big step lunge with the other foot. Until you die.

*Weighted squats-leaning back holding onto a TRX handle you can lean back into a squat in a new and painful way! We did these holding a 10 lb kettleball.

*Shoulder presses with resistance tubing. These would  be better for me if I could actually stretch the tubing!

Then a fun maybe 0.1-0.2 mile sprint!

Then! Two minutes of ab planks. After all that arm work Abs? Fine. Arms? Shaking like you wouldn't believe.

During, I feel like I'm going to die. We are moving quickly through the exercises and then on to the next ones so you never get a break to catch your breath. I feel like if I could just have 20 seconds b/t things to rest I would be able to do more reps.  And at the end I feel 1) I could've pushed myself harder and 2) I'm going to die. Can someone carry me to my car and then drive it home? The trainer did make me feel better. He said I should be exhausted and barely able to do each rep. So that's good, I guess.

It is definitely a different experience! We are in a park and close to a side road, so whenever we start warming up I feel like a self conscious nerd. He also has music playing  while we do jumping jacks (which you may remember from 30DS I haaaate). Let me tell you, mid workout I have no idea where I am, if music is playing, etc.

Today, my right arm is CRAZY sore. I'm a little worried I have sprained my elbow. I'm a regular sprainer, so this isn't really unusual and I'm sure it will be fine in a few days. Just part of the fun of having ligaments made of silly string. I can't bend my arm much past 90 degrees without it hurting my elbow/tricep. I can't feed myself!! My elbow can not move my hand to mouth! This might be a good thing, actually.

Have you ever sprained something? An elbow? I'm old. Have any remedies besides RICE? 

Don't forget to enter my giveaway!
**yes Megan, I will allow LJ posting ; )

Favorite Things!

AND A GIVEAWAY AT THE END!

Get excited! I'm the next Oprah.

I had originally wanted to do this on Friday, but then decided to wait until this week because:

Today is my 8th wedding anniversary! It doesn't seem possible. I don't feel old enough to have been married for 8 years. 

So in honor of that, I present the very first ever (here) FAVORITE THINGS! 

 None of y'all are getting cars. Sorry. 

 Though the giveaway is pretty awesome.

Obligatory first favorite:*

The husband. He is literally the best person I know. We've been together almost 11 years and I still have big, shmoopy, puppy love for him. He's pretty awesome. 

 Seriously. We look like 17 here.

This is my favorite one b/c we are just cracking each other up about how weird it was to be married.

 

*I promise no sappy declarations of love each time. 

 

2.) Mizuno Wave Riders 13 

The first shoe that doesn't hurt me when I trot along. I have weak ankles that want to roll out vs normal ankles that roll in (pronate.) M says physiologically this makes no sense b/c the ligaments on the outside of your ankle are much stronger. Yet another way my body defies medicine. 

 

3.) Reef d-lish

 

I have been wearing these non-stop since 2007. Now, sadly, this is D-lish 2. The first one doesn't have that little silver tab and look a little 'dressier'. It is hard to tell from the picture, but the upper is leather and super soft. When I bought them the first time they were like $20. The bottom is like this pillowy soft bed that actually has arch support (nonexistent in flops, unfortunately) and then molds to your feet. For you, my lovely readers, I did the hardship of purchasing the updates since you can't buy the old ones anymore (sob!) I do this for you. I can report that they are just as soft and awesome as the original. You are welcome. 

 

 You know that a flop has to be magical and wonderful for me to pay $30 for flip-flops. 

4.) Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Fast Dry Nail Color

I have these in so many colors. It does dry very fast AND has this wide/fat brush that makes it so much easier to do your nails. Though I pretty much exclusively use it on my toes. 

 

Cheap, fast, easy.

My life's motto. 

5. Rhapsody/I-tunes 

Not much to say here. I could not work out without music! I actually use Rhapsody b/c it is like $15/month and has unlimited song downloads. 

6. Camelbak

Here in AL it gets very hot, very early. It is 88 degrees outside right now! I love my little Camelbak holder b/c it insulates and gives me something to hold onto. Usually when I run outside I run loops so that I don't get too far away from my water (and car, just in case I hurt myself. Which, let's be honest, happens frequently.) I don't really run long distances such that I need to carry water on me, but this is a good compromise.

 

 Onto the fun stuff! 

Since it is my anniversary, I thought it would be fun to do a giveaway! 

 

Wait, that's backwards. Y'all should send me presents. 

 

I'm giving away:

*Camelbak bottle with holder

*Sally Hansen nail polish

*$25 Itunes or Rhapsody gift card.

Which ever you prefer.

 

All you have to do to enter is the following-one entry per item, leave me a comment for each item, etc

1.) Follow/become a follower of my awesome blog.

2.) Tweet a link to this sweet giveaway.

3.) Post a link on your blog. 

So that is 3 entries per person! And the entry pool is pretty small ; ) 

Entry ends 6/1! Tell your friends! I will announce a winner on 6/2

This will never not be funny to me

 

 I giggle every time I see it. 

Check back tomorrow for anniversary shmoopiness, and an awesome giveaway! *

  

*assuming  my second boot camp doesn't kill me first. So it is about 50/50.  It hurts me to lift my arms to type this.  

I'm already sore

This is not going to feel good tomorrow, I can tell you that.

I will also tell you what we did today because it was fun in a really evil and sadistic way.

4 circuits:
--idk inverted pull ups? basically handles where you lean really far back/horizontal to the ground and pull yourself up. These were fine.
--Standing rows with resistance tubing. 2 sets pulling back, 2 sets pushing forward. Again, fine even though I had difficulty actually pulling the tubing.
--Walking lunges while twisting with a 10 lb medicine ball. This is where things started to get dicey. the second 2 sets we flopped giant ropes. I don't even know.

--PULLING A FRICKING TRACTOR TIRE. FIRST 2X PULLING IT BACKWARDS, SECOND 2X WALKING FORWARD. We split it but I was still dying. My partner straight up pulled 95% of it.

This is me, basically.

Just kidding. I couldn't lift that tire under threat of death.

--one armed push-ups. Are you fricking kidding me after dragging a tire? I can't do a regular push up dude. Granted it wasn't a true one-lay flat, push up with one arm to knees and then lift knees.  My modification was basically to stumble from the tire to my mat, and flop face down on it. And then lie there until it was time to move to the next station.

I'm doing the same workout as Cameron Diaz. I expect to be this ripped by the end of my Groupon.

Then it was time for abs. Abs>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>tires

We were doing these straight leg/jack-knife/cross over crunches first. My back is not strong enough for me to drop my straightened legs very far. At all. So I just start lifting one leg to cross and leaving the other down. He pointed to me as a good example of how to modify. If there is one thing I know it is how to modify so I don't get hurt/make things as easy as possible. I'm kind of proud, honestly. 

I think I will do much better next time now that I know more what to expect. I thought we would do different things each set, so I didn't conserve enough energy at the start. And I definitely need more breakfast! 

Has anyone ever done a boot camp? Does it get easier? Ever tried to drag a tractor tire? What do you eat for breakfast before a workout? I'm not a morning person nor am I super hungry early.

This is what dying feels like

I think it is safe to say that bootcamp kicked my ass hard today. It is taking all my energy to type this. Going to go die now.

uh oh

So I finally am using my Groupon for Bootcamp. Tomorrow. You guys. I'm scared. I'm going to puke and then die.

Random

--My parents were here this weekend which is why I haven't posted in forever. My cardio last week was cleaning the house! And then shopping once they got here. We went shopping every single day. My mom likes to visit the stores they don't have in her town.

--Related to above: I bought everything ever. Shopping with my mom lowers my inhibitions and I'm all I CAN TOTALLY AFFORD THIS. IT ISN'T A BAD PLAN AT ALL. Which is not the case! I'm going to go back through and double check what I want to keep. I'm a serial returner!

--Though I'm still internet shopping. I need a bathing suit (horrors!) b/c we are going to Destin for a long weekend in June for our psuedo-anniversary (our real anniversary is the end of May, but shockingly, M is on call.) Hopefully will be going to Pensacola with my parents in September! Maybe even over my bday. I got to turn 30 on the beach; cushioned by many, many margaritas and key lime pie.

Ahh, the beach. I'm petitioning hard for the beach when M finishes his fellowship. In like 26 months.

--Not at all related to beach talk-does anyone know how to lose 20 lbs in about 3 weeks? I missed that day in internship. 

Anyone have any trips coming up? More importantly, what is your favorite source for bathing suits? I'm loving zappos free, over night shipping. I'm old and squishy, but don't want like a full bathing dress.

hotness

Last Chicago

So our last full day in Chicago happened to be M's bday! So we actually managed to spend some time together just the two of us.

We had Lou Malnati's. Yum Chicago pizza. All cheese. Tiny individual ones.So cute!

Then we walked around the park and saw The Bean. I'm in love with the Bean. It was way too cold to go last time.

 Self portraits in the bean are required.

How cute is that? 

Not as cute as this Bean!

When she was a little Beanie puppy. Look at that face!

The view inside the bean

 

Beautiful Spring!

We went to Navy Pier after. It was kind of meh. Mostly just a pier with various fried foods (thumbs up!) but they were largely still closed for winter (thumbs down.)

We did ride the ferris wheel. I had a couple almost freakouts, but largely held it together. I am not a big fan of heights if I feel like I could fall. At one point I became convinced the only thing holding the ferris wheel on was a 6 inch rail rolling over a wheel-thus if it went right or left we would just fall off and roll into the lake. M tried to convince me that there were probably more safety measures in place. 

 But it was a pretty view!

And then we ate dinner. And then we went home. The end to Chicago!

Chicago even more

Fancy dinner time!

So, one of the residents knew a drug rep who wanted to take us to dinner. Drug rep dinners are stuff of legends. They are pretty rare due to rules (boo!), economy, and the fact that these kids are radiologists and thus have nothing to prescribe. Drug reps pay for dinner-anything, anywhere. Someone suggested Chicago Chop House...because it was crazy expensive. I'm going to be super tacky and talk money, only b/c it was so insane and SO not the norm for us. We cheap. I'm only talking about money b/c it was so mind boggling. And we ate a lot.



Hello, beautiful. This is a dry aged ribeye. Y'all, this steak was everything that is good and right in the world. Cartoon birds starting flying around my head. You could cut it with a fork.








all for a mere $99. A bargain.

Usually I'm too embarrassed to take a pic of my food, but I was straight up like "I'm taking a pic of this $100 steak. I don't even care. once my phone came out, so did everyone's.

We also had these amazing giant scallops with ahi tuna for an appetizer. And like 9 bottles of wine (for 15 people. not all for me, sadly.) The thing about fancy expensive places is they never let you run out of wine. I have quickly become accustomed to this level of service and opulence. I think my steak was the best. A lot of the boys got kobe steaks and they weren't amazing. They were tasty, but for $100 that steak better make me see the face of God imo. Everything was crazy delicious, but I would neeeevvvveeer pay that for food.

Then we went out to Moe's for many margaritas. I have pictures, but apparently after 5 glasses of wine and 2 margaritas, I decided I didn't need to use the flash anymore. So if you want to see pitch black, blurry pictures let me know.

Thursday I think
M went to conference, then a riverboat casino. Seriously. I don't like to just throw money away, so I went shopping ; ) At least I get something in return for my money. Made it all the way up and back down Miracle Mile and felt like I was going to die. Even comfy shoes aren't comfy after that much time on your feet.

It is really hard to get a pic of the back of your own foot/achilles tendon. This is the fricking bruise I got from my shoes (cankles also pictured.) These are from comfy, broken in Clarks that I wore all during my internship. wow this is a weird picture.

All the flowers on Michigan ave were blooming. Each block had these amazing planters. They even smelled good!

Then we had dinner at Shaw's where I had some kind of lobster cheese pasta. No pics b/c I inhaled it. 

We walked around Hubbard St. and went into a few bars for Cinco de Mayo. I was super tired for shopping and the night before, so I folded early. Mostly going out made me be really, really happy to be married. Boys are brutal, even the nice ones, it seems. 

Posting for now b/c my laptop is overheating and burning me.

Preview

Interrupting the Chicago recap extravaganza for something fun!

Starting on Friday I'm going to start a hopefully regular post of my favorite things. I'm going to be as big as Oprah! Actually, I just love finding new things I never knew I needed and now can't live without. So I'm going to start posting mine and hopefully you guys will also!


this is the extent of my graphic design abilities. don't judge me

And there is going to be a giveaway!! So stay tuned. Get excited people!

Chicago continued

Onward with more Chicago! I know this happened last week, but I swear I can't keep my days straight. I'm looking at pictures like 'when did this happen? was I there?'

Wednesday (?)

Lincoln Park Zoo! We love zoos. Zoos are our thing-we go in every city if there is a decent one. We wanted to go last visit, but I just wasn't up for a zoo visit in 25 degree weather. Princess, that's me. It was a beautiful day. That cold but crystal clear and sunny kind of weather. It had been pretty cool earlier in the week, but it started to warm up finally into the upper 50's. So it was perfect zoo weather.


We went to Rockit Bar for lunch first. This is the home of, maybe, my favorite hamburger on the planet. And I'm a connoisseur of cheeseburgers. I take my food very seriously.
Burger with brie, wild mushroom mix, and truffle aioli. and sweet potato fries. M had truffle oil fries which were pretty rad as well. This burger is truth, justice, and the american way. Sorry to my veg/vegan readers for the beef porn.









Walked around for a bit before catching a cab

Onward to the zoo!

How pretty is this little area? Everything in Chicago was blooming. It was Spring part 2. 

This tiger was stalking back and forth at this window for like 30 mins. Michael made me stand here for 10 of them trying to take a picture. This is that picture. I didn't feel like a goober standing there with a fake smile plastered to my face for 10 mins at all. 

Pretend there are giraffes behind us

This is taking a long time, so I'm posting. Next up: the most glorious and expensive meal I have ever had. 

Chicago

I love Chicgao! I'm really not a city vacation person. I would rather sit on a beach drinking. The sitting part is pretty non-negotiable. But this year has been all about the city vacations. We have actually gone more places this year than we have in the previous 7 yrs of our marriage.

I'm not going to do a day by day recap b/c I'm lazy and easily distracted. Mostly just pictures and commentary.

Monday
Flew out bright and early and got to Chicago at 11 am or so. Checked in, etc. M had to check into his conference and then had a resident meeting (where he did NOT win a free Ipad), so we had lunch and split up. We went to Billy Goat's Tavern which is under Michigan Ave in a sketchy parking garage. It is famous though because of the SNL skit

which you should really watch b/c it is classic and hysterical. The owner was exactly like this. I got the death glare and "No coke, PEPSI. No fries, cheeps." It was a fun experience, but not amazing. Just a good, greasy cheezeborger and cheeps.

 Then I went shopping and M went back to the hotel for the rest of the day. We went out to dinner with like 15 of us to an Italian place that I can't remember and didn't take a picture of. But it was good.

Tuesday
My husband is seriously adorable, y'all. He kills me. I swear, he was the Social Chair of this whole trip for all 20 or so residents. He picked where we were going, got tickets, arranged everything. He was on top of it. Which was huge for me b/c I HAAAATE doing things in groups where no one can make a decision and we stand around for an hour only to go to the first place.

During the day I went back to Michigan Ave to shop. I have my priorities. M went to the conference.

That night, M had planned and procured tickets for everyone to go to Second City. There were 24 or so of us. M kept calling and adding people-we got a group rate there were so many of us and Social Chair was on it. We had gone when we were there in Dec and had a great time, so he organized a second trip.

Another place we found last trip was Ra. Y'all. This place. We love it. They have a 3-7pm happy hour with sake for $2 (!!), $4 martinis, and so many half price appetizers and rolls. I can't emphasize how much we can eat and drink there for like $30. I drink the lemon drop martini and it is so tasty (and seemingly devoid of alcohol.)

Both of these are mine. Yes, I order them 2 at a time. there are a lot of us and we were on a time constraint. I took pictures of the entire group doing sake bombs, but it occurs to me that these doctors may not want sake bomb pics out there. The staff of this restaurant was awesome b/c we were loud and drinky.

Then Second City! It was great. They did a hysterical Obama skit to open. You can't take pictures of the show, but I took one:

I had to. Come on.

Michael and I at Second City. And an attending creeping on us, obvs. Fun story: this is the guy who did my CT guided SI joint injections (basically he puts needles in your spine, shoots you into the CT to see if they are in the right place and then adjusts. It is almost as fun as it sounds.) so this guy has just straight up seen my ass. Awkward. I was glad the injections had occurred before I saw how much fun this guy could have. He is hilarious.

We somehow ended up at a bar with karaoke.

Other guys started hitting on my husband.

they both would kill me if they saw me posting this. We won't tell them. No names are named, so it is fine.

Then things get a little fuzzy, so I'm sure we went back to the hotel and crashed.

This is long and I'm tired of typing-so posting for now!

PS-Checkout Janae's giveaway


Do you like city vacations? What is your favorite city to visit? Do you love Chicago? Been to Second City? Love lemondrops?