overworked and underpaid

Hi dear friends! Sorry I haven’t been blogging lately, but I’m overwhelmingly busy with school. It’s mid-term and almost Spring Break (YAY!) , which means lots of exams, papers, and projects!! I’m also working over thirty hours a week, so the little time I spend at home looks something like this:Study, study, study….

I promise I’ll return to normal blogging as soon as everything calms down. Hopefully, some warm weather will return soon as well!

Back to ethics essays…..

slammed.

Halfway through the week! Thank goodness! It’s a stressful one for me. I have a paper due today, donation letters to send out,  a PR research project to work on, a Persuasion exam Monday, a discussion to lead in class tomorrow,  an internship application to finish, five nights of working until 11 PM, marathon training, and a hurt knee! Whew.

Monday night after work, I went to the gym to run (gotta love a 24-hour gym!) and I must have strained my left knee. I had an ACL reconstruction five years ago and have torn cartilage in it since then, and from time to time it swells up and gets very irritated. It’s painful! Doesn’t my knee know I have a half marathon to run in 11(!!!) days?! I rested it yesterday, and am going to do some cross training on the bike today, followed by some ice. Crossing my fingers that will do the trick! No time for injuries!

I had a pretty specific craving for lunch today: a bagel sandwich! While at Publix last weekend, I bought a bag of whole-wheat mini bagels. I wanted to recreate a veggie bagel sandwich that I had last year in Destin. I think the sandwich had spinach, sprouts, cucumber, tomato, onion, and raspberry vinaigrette. I went to my favorite local restaurant, Sweet Basil Cafe to pick up some of their homemade raspberry vinaigrette dressing, but they only had sesame-poppyseed vinaigrette, so I grabbed that instead. Of course, I didn’t have half of the ingredients needed so I improvised. I toasted the bagel and topped it with spinach, arugula, sliced apple, shredded carrot, and the dressing. YUMMMMM!

It ended up great. I love bagel sandwiches!! I also had a little salad on the side.

The remainder of my day will be spent finishing up my ethics paper, hitting the gym, and getting donation letters together! Have a happy hump day!

on the go

Happy SUPER BOWL Sunday! What will you be doing to celebrate the big game? I’ll be working, working, working–but I’m not complaining, I can definitely use the dinero! Between a full-time schedule of college classes, work, training, and life, I stay super busy! I wouldn’t have it any other way. The key to maintaining a healthy diet when you’re always on the go is planning ahead. I thought I’d share a few tips about what I do to ensure my crazy schedule doesn’t ruin my nutritious eats! (Remember, these are just my personal thoughts from experience!)

Stuffed bell peppers are quick & easy to prepare if you precut your veggies & precook your rice!

• Prep your food at the beginning of the week. Throwing together a quick lunch is so much easier if your fruit and veggies are already chopped and stored in Tupperware in the refrigerator. Chopped celery, carrots, peppers are also great to have on hand to snack on with some hummus. One of my favorite go-to meals is a quick veggie and tofu stir fry–with my veggies already diced, all I have to do is throw them on the stove and lunch is ready in ten minutes! You can also cook a big batch of brown rice and store for the week. Mix it with beans and veggies and stuff the mix in bell peppers, or throw it in a bowl with black beans, cilantro, salsa, and organic blue corn chips…mmm! You’re more likely to eat healthy if you have it on hand.
• Pack snacks in your purse or car. It’s important to eat every few hours so that you don’t overeat. I usually throw a granola bar or bag or almonds and dried fruit in my purse so that if I get hungry, I have a nutritious snack and won’t be tempted to stop for fast food or a bag of chips! Clif and Luna bars are great and plenty filling to hold me over until my next meal! If you are on a tight budget, granola bars are one of the easiest things to make yourself.
• Eat a big breakfast! This is not a meal to miss! After a long night of sleep, your body needs fuel to jump-start its metabolism. Eat a nutritious, fiber-filled breakfast and you are less likely to eat later in the day.  Some of my breakfast usuals include: oatmeal topped with berries and almond butter, fat-free greek yogurt with granola and fruit, whole wheat english muffin with raspberry preserves, or a piece of millet toast topped with a poached egg and a banana on the side. Green smoothies are also great ways to start the day. Throw a banana, couple handfuls of spinach, frozen berries, flax seed and ice in the blender and you are good to go! Don’t be freaked out by the green spinach in a smoothie–you can’t even taste it, promise!!
• Drink lots of H2O. A good rule of thumb is to drink a glass or bottle of water when you start to feel hungry, wait twenty minutes and see how you feel. A lot of the time, the hungry feeling will pass. And it’s super important to stay hydrated so drink, drink, drink!

Can’t go wrong with water and fruit!

Preparation is key to staying healthy. If you’re new to a whole foods lifestyle, it is important that you keep these tips in mind. It’s easy to fall off the wagon if you don’t have your veggies easily accessible. Do you have any healthy tips for busy-bodies like me?

Enjoy the last day of your weekend!