Sriracha Lime Chicken

This past weekend was absolutely awesome. It was my first two day weekend since  probably September! I can't tell you how nice it was to have two days off of work in a row. On Saturday I kept thinking that I was going back to work on Sunday and then I would remember I wasn't :)

Overall my weekend was full of yummy clean eating, working out and errands. I went to the gym with a friend which I loved. It's nice to have an accountability partner. We both did some intervals on the treadmill of walking on incline and sprinting, hit the weights and finished up with abs. Saturday night I was invited to a work function of one of my other friends. The theme was Mexican food, one of my many weaknesses. So, I was really proud but I ate some ground turkey wraps before I went. Everyone said the food was fantastic but I was still full from my much healthier meal!

Sunday was a relaxing day consisting of the gym, Barnes and Noble shopping (my favorite) and then making a dinner. I have a lot of cilantro, onion, carrots and bean sprouts left over from my ground turkey lettuce wraps so I wanted to use some of it. Thankfully I stumbled on to a recipe and changed it up a bit! I combined cilantro, sriracha, olive oil, lime for a marinade. The marinade and chicken were baked in the oven with the carrots, bean sprouts and a zucchini added to make a really delicious meal! The only problem was that I wished I had made more for leftovers. I usually do meal prep on Sundays and make big batches of food but my freezer was getting too full so I figured I better eat some of my leftovers in there first before making more!

XO

Sick Day and Progress

Yesterday I woke up not feeling that hot. Sore throat, congestion and just tired. Not exactly fun. I took a lot of time off to go to an extended vacation in Colorado in the beginning of January, so I knew I needed to go to work no matter what. I took some OTC medicine and figured I'd feel better in the afternoon. Sadly that didn't happen. I went home after work, watched some Netflix and went to bed.

This time last year, or even 4 months ago I wouldn't have given that evening a second thought. But yesterday I was really mad, I didn't want to sit in bed all night, but that's all I felt up to! As I said in my introduction post, I was in athletics for my entire life through college. We had practices, workouts and training sessions that were required almost every day. That kept me in pretty good shape with minimal effort outside of the team. Sure I ran, hiked, skied and did other things, but the team kept me in good shape so that I could do those other things! 

Since I started my research position in June, it's the first time that I've ever not been involved in my sport and regimented workouts. I started more seriously mountain biking and I love it! Unfortunately though, most of my favorite places are pretty far from where I'm living and I won't go if it isn't light out. I'm usually alone, so I don't feel comfortable being in the woods at night by myself if I were to need help. I started thinking about other ways I would enjoy being active. I also needed some more options as it got colder and as it started getting darker earlier.

Enter the fitness portion of this blog. I joined a gym! I used to really dislike gyms... ask any of my friends from college. I think it reminded me too much of team workouts. I was always advocating for working out outdoors! Thankfully I went to college in the south so that was possible. When we finished class at noon or 2 pm and didn't I have practice we took a ton of walks. I loved that part of my day. It was my favorite! 

But, seeing as you don't finish work at 2 when its still light out I needed another option and that was the gym. After a few weeks I got a personal training session for free with my membership. The first session was an overview of my goals and a little workout. I told him basically what I just wrote. Well he kicked me into gear. The workout was pretty simple: Bosu ball squats, weight assisted pull-ups & chin-dips, a few exercises on the TRX, leg machines and abs. I WAS DYING THE NEXT DAY. I'd lost most of my strength and I was pretty sad about it. That day after I decided that I needed to be more aware, and more proactive about my fitness. I've been working out a lot, bought 8 sessions with my trainer and I even got a Nike FuelBand (more on that in a later post)!

So if anyone out there is reading this story, you're probably wondering what this has to do with my day yesterday and being sick. Well yesterday I really wanted to go try a new class at my gym, RPM. It's a cycle class and I haven't been on my bike in a while so I was excited to try it out! Nevertheless it didn't happen and I was feeling bad about it. But I'm glad I feel bad! It's been about 4 months since I started trying to be healthier and I think it's really stuck and I've made some progress. Which is another reason I started this blog, I read a lot of blogs when I was getting into this for workouts and recipes. and now that I don't think it's going to pass in a few weeks I want to chronicle the journey!

So I know people try and define what "type" of blog their's is. I envision this as a space for me to share my health and fitness, but also my travels/adventures and the crazy journey that is med school that will begin in the fall.

Until next time! 

Steamboat and the Hogan Park Trail

Posting here again for a little recap of an adventure last week! (hopefully I can post some pictures later tonight)

Steamboat Springs, Colorado is my most favorite place in the entire world. I'm really fortunate that I get to spend of lot of time there and I WILL live there when I can. When I was in high school I dreamed up this master plan... One day, I'll be back-country skiing there and find the CEO of The North Face in distress. Being the great doctor I am, I'll save his life in the woods. In return, I'll get free North Face for life! While the chances of that happening are slim to none, I do hope that one day I will be able to practice there!

Back to the adventure from last week. If you drive to steamboat from the front range, you most likely will drive over Rabbit Ears Pass to cross over the continental divide and descend into the Yampa Valley. There's nothing but fresh snow and trees surrounding the pass. I've spent time hiking the area in the summer and cross country skiing there in the winter.

Well this year I wanted to try something different. I wanted to do the Hogan Park Trail! Hogan Park Trail is 7 miles through the back-country that leads from Rabbit Ears to Mt. Werner (where the Steamboat Ski area is). I was expecting there to be some uphill terrain, we were on AT skis for on a reason, but seeing as you have to drive up the pass to get to the starting point I was hoping for some fun downhill sections. What goes up must go down right? Not exactly. It seemed as if most of the way was my dad and I trekking up the hill. 

I was relieved to finally make it to the bottom of Morningside, the lift on the backside of the resort. By the time we got to the mountain I was exhausted. The trip took us just over 3 hours including a little stop for a snack and several water breaks. I got 3911+ on my NikeFuel for the trip. (That's better than I do on some days just sittingworking on the research grant, let alone 3 hours) Overall, the views and experience were incredible. I definitely want to do it again!!

If you've never been to Steamboat you need to visit, and if you like back-country skiing you should definitely try the Hogan Park Trail. (Make sure to heed the warning signs, we were prepared and have experience, but I can see how you might run into problems on stormy day if you don't know where you're going!)

Introducing: Med School & Adventures

A little introduction...

I wanted to start this blog in order to chronicle this exciting time in my life. And I LOVE reading everyone's blogs so I wanted to join in on the fun! I read a lot of different types of blogs, but some of my favorites are health and fitness. I'm 22 and a lover of all things outdoors, sports and will be going to medical school in the fall!


I'm currently working as a research intern for a hospital network on a cardiology grant. I graduated from college in May 2014 with a degree in business, biology and biochemistry. All throughout college I was on an NCAA Division I team, which left little time for anything besides studying and sports. So, I decided to take a gap year before starting medical school. Overall, I have loved this year. I've gotten to do a lot of different things that I wouldn't have had the opportunity to do if I was already in school. I went to college 18 hours from home and will be returning home for med school. However, my internship is close to where I went to school so it's been fun to be close to all my college friends, but in an even bigger city. That being said I can't wait for this next adventure! 


2014 ended with QUITE the bang for me! I had interviewed at several schools already, but right before Christmas I got the best present ever. I got into two schools in less than two hours!! I had interviewed at one of my top choice schools and was quite anxious to see if I got in. The interview was MMI and I definitely wasn't sure if I did well, it's such a weird speed-dating process. Afterwards they sent us an email thanking us for interviewing and letting us know that it would be about 4-6 weeks until we heard back. Well fast forward two weeks and one day. I got a call while at work that I had gotten into a different school. It was my first acceptance but I really didn't like the school. Based on the interview day, it wasn't a great fit and I really didn't want to end up there. Don't get me wrong I was glad to have my first acceptance, I was going to med school, but I just wasn't thrilled. WELL..... two hours later and I saw an email with the subject "Status Notification..." and my stomach dropped. It hasn't been four weeks! BUT I GOT IN! Needless to say I was done working for the day at that point, haha, they wouldn't have wanted me getting bad data after being so distracted anyways! That night I had a celebration with some friends and it was truly wonderful to know that I DID IT! I didn't have any further interviews scheduled yet but I really didn't care because I knew I'd be happy going to one of my top choice schools!


Right after Christmas however, the good news kept on coming. I got another email inviting me to interview at one of my other top choices! Throw in time with my wonderful family and a New Years Bowl game and 2015 is off to a great start.


That's all I have time for now, off to work-out and make a healthy dinner but I hope this blog is a helpful reminder of the crazy, adventure that is 2015 and beyond.


TF