Feelings Pass

So I thought I’d update ya’ll on my life a little bit.

Last Sunday I left Oberlin. I spent a week at home with family and friends before returning to Oberlin for commencement. Honestly, the past week I spent at home was great, but a little challenging at the same time. I had a really great time with my family, but I had a lot of free time to myself. As I’ve written about previously, being alone with nothing to do puts me in a weird/anxious/sad mood. I need to continue working with this feeling and just allowing it to pass. All feelings, no matter how unbearable they are in the moment, pass with time. Nothing is permanent.

Here’s what I’ve been up to in the past week:

I apologize for the pixel-y photos from my phone. I really do plan on getting a new digital camera sometime soon. Or maybe my sister will let me have her D40 again now that she has her spiffy, new D800? Pretty please sister?

Shopping with the sisters. We are kind of good at spending money.

Random photo shoots with Allie. This is about picture number 14, and the only good one we got.

Something was clearly hilarious.

Breaking in my new running shoes with a lovely 4 mile road run in the country. My new shoes are Brooks Launches, and I’m already in love with them. They are super lightweight and lack a bulky heel, so they promote a mid-foot strike. They really force me to run with proper form which is exactly what I need since I tend to get lazy and fall back onto my heels.

Ice cream and a walk with my best friends from high school (and junior high and elementary school). It was so great to catch up with these girls! Whenever we get together, I feel like I’m in high school again. That is a pretty carefree and wonderful feeling.

Many of you have noticed that a few months ago I pretty much just stopped talking about Darren on the blog. He used to appear very frequently on my blog because he was a huge part of my life. We broke up, and now is the first time I’m acknowledging it on the blog. It’s something very personal, and I didn’t think it was fair for me to publicly announce our break-up. I’m mentioning it now because I think enough time has passed, and also because there is a new boy in my life. I spent this weekend in Oberlin with him, and have had/am continuing to have a really great time.

He took me to a pig roast yesterday. Yes, I ate pork from that pig. It was damn good too!

XOXO,

Jamie

 

Bittersweet

First of all, I want to say super big sorry for slacking on the blog front. I’ve been completely immersed in my finals and just life in general (which is great by the way!), and I haven’t been making time for my blog.

Well, now exams are over, and things are about to change! On the plus side I will have a lot more time for blogging, and I’m really looking forward to my research assistant-ship this summer. I don’t think I told ya’ll about it, but I’ll be working with professors at Boston University on a research project examining attitudes and perceptions of eating disorders on college campuses. This summer I’ll also be applying for medical school, and continuing training for the half marathon I’m running August 19th! Needless to say, I’m looking forward to a fun-filled and rewarding summer.

On the flip side, summer brings change and change makes me anxious. I love the routine that school gives me. I have an entire week left at home, and frankly, I don’t know what I am going to do with myself. It drives me crazy to not have a million things to do and deadlines to worry about. I’m already getting anxious about how I’ll spend the entire month of August at home!

I have some serious thinking, relaxing, meditating, and planning to do. I should value my free time as a blessing instead of seeing it as a burden. There are plenty of things I would love to do with my free time. I could spend an entire day baking and decorating a five tier wedding cake. But then what would I do with a five tier wedding cake? Hmm…I wonder if I could talk my dad into storing it in his walk in freezer. A frozen cake can last for years…

okay now I’m just rambling.

Look at the pretty cupcakes I made!

Nothing fancy. Just boxed funfetti cake mix with store-bought frosting. I really just wanted to decorate them.

XOXO,

Jamie

Brinner

I love breakfast, but I especially love breakfast for dinner.

Enter, brinner:

Tonight’s dinner was three pieces of cinnamon french toast topped with vanilla yogurt and syrup! For me and probably the rest of the world, dinner is usually a more savory meal. However, today my sweet tooth was raging, so I went with it! The warm syrup made the yogurt all melty and yummy.

Okay, now this picture just cracks me up. I am the kind of person who continually adds more syrup to my french toast/pancakes/waffles as I eat them. So of course, when I got to my last piece of french toast, I needed more syrup. I poured the syrup in one spot, and accidentally made my yogurt/syrup look like a fried egg! Don’t you think so?! I love food that looks like other food. Meatloaf cupcakes with mashed potato frosting anyone?

So that was my most exciting eat of the day. Now onto other things…

Today was a super happy day. I took a scary exam this morning that I’m so thankful to have behind me. The last week or so has been really stressful and busy. Today I finally felt the return of normalcy (which will be short-lived thanks to my approaching final exams). The weather was beautiful! I was able to just lay out in the sun, relax, and clear my mind for a little while.

But even on beautiful, relaxing days, I still have to make time for academics.

This is my friend and I in bio-organic chemistry lecture today. We should probably pay better attention so that we don’t have to repeat the labs five times each before getting them right….

Nah.

This is a page from today’s bio-organic chemistry notes. After I took this picture, I was thinking to myself, “When did I become such a bad student? I was so studious in high school…” Then I realized…no, I was exactly the same in high school. I just had all the teachers fooled into thinking I was studious! I admit it, I fell asleep in Spanish 4 every day. Also, I may have skipped VHS on occasion for coffee.

Oh who am I kidding…I’m hardly a slacker.

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! I might be setting a new personal distance record on Saturday, so I will let you all know how that goes!

XOXO,

Jamie

For the Love of Brussel Sprouts

Normally I write my posts at night, but this post is coming to you right after breakfast! I have 15 minutes before I have to run off to class, dissect a tadpole/frog and then hopefully rock my chemistry exam!

15 minutes is totally enough time for a quick post.

Yesterday’s lunch: A turkey and blue cheese wrap with a side of roasted brussel sprouts. I should really try to eat more veggies. I naturally gravitate towards fruit or dairy for snacks and sides. I have a feeling that I will be on a brussel sprout kick for a while though because these hit the spot. I just tossed them with olive oil, salt, and garlic powder and baked them at 425 for about 25 minutes. The burnt parts are my favorite!

I just noticed that just about every sentence in that last paragraph starts with the word “I”…When I’m in a hurry, varied sentence structure is not a priority.

The purplest smoothie ever! My roommate thought I added food coloring to it because it was so purple. Nope. Just blueberries. In the mix is blueberries, cottage cheese, soy milk, and stevia. This was totally delicious, but my mouth was blue even after brushing my teeth. You’ve been warned.

My chapstick also makes an appearance in the above photo. Right now I am loving strawberry Carmex. My junior high/high school best friend, Megan, got me addicted to chapstick. She put it on like every 20 minutes, and the habit wore off on me.

And with that, I’m off to class. Have a good day friends! And may the chemistry gods be with me!

XOXO,

Jamie

 

You Won’t Believe It’s Not a Milkshake

Okay, I have to get to a chem review session in 20 minutes, so this post is going to be super quick.

I present to you The White Chocolate “Milkshake” that is SO DAMN GOOD You Won’t Believe It’s Actually NOT a Milkshake and is Actually Super Healthy.

Whew…that’s quite a mouthful, but no other name would do this creamy, frozen beverage justice. When I brainstormed this gem, I had super high hopes for it. I LOVE white chocolate. The outcome completely exceeded even my wildest expectations.

It all started a couple weeks ago when I was browsing the internet for new smoothie ideas. I kept reading about how a pinch of xanthan gum makes smoothies super thick and creamy…so I made a super major impulse buy and spent $10 for xanthan gum on Amazon. TOTALLY WORTH IT!

Today I got my xanthan gum in the mail, and I made this. I must warn you, the ingredient list is a little scary. Trust me on this one though!

White Chocolate “Milkshake”

1/2 cup cottage cheese

6-8 ice cubes

3 tsp stevia (or other sweetener of choice)

2 tsp Jello Brand Sugar Free White Chocolate Pudding Mix

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

enough soy milk (or milk of choice) to blend everything together (probably about a cup)

Put it all in a blender and blend. Enjoy bliss.

XOXO,

Jamie

 

Little Rascals and Mulan

Right now, I want more than anything to snuggle up with friends or my sisters (whom just so happen to be my BEST friends) and watch Little Rascals or Mulan. After the past few crazy days, I totally need to relax with my favorite kid movies.

So here’s what I’ve been up to lately:

Today I ran the Oberlin Earth Day 5k! Two of my friends ran it with me, and we all had a super amazing great time.

(sorry for the blurriness in this picture and all the rest of them. My phone has a lovely 2 megapixel camera. I really need to get a real camera…)

Anyways, that is clearly the face of a girl high on running endorphins! This picture was taken just after I walked home from the race. My hands were FROZEN! Also, I’m awkwardly holding up my shirt, so you can see my super cool official number.

I ran the 5k in 30:29. I know that’s still not fast, but I’m improving! I’m super happy with that time!! (Especially taking into consideration that I decided to run this race on a whim, I was going on a 5 hours of sleep, and I was probably a little dehydrated from Friday night’s festivities).

So today, after the race I forced my super tired self to study lots of chemistry and anthropology. I really hate when I’m not particularly interested in the classes I’m taking because I literally have to force myself to study for them. Studying for my biology classes isn’t always easy either, but it is much more enjoyable to me!

Onto some recent eats:

This could quite possibly be the most un-photogenic meal ever, but I promise it tasted amazing.

It’s taco salad containing shredded lettuce, refried beans, corn, salsa, and cottage cheese. And then of course there is a flat bread on the side for making tacos. I absolutely love food that involves dipping or wrapping as you eat it…playing with your food never quite grows old.

Speaking of which! Totally awesome date idea is to make a spaghetti dinner and eat it with your hands. Darren and I did that once, and it was super fun.

This is just toast with homemade white bean dip along with carrots and broccoli slaw salad on the side. My roommate, Emma, introduced me to this amazing white bean dip “recipe.”  Just put a can of white beans into a food processor or blender with about 1-3 teaspoons of Penzy’s Greek Seasoning (depending on your taste preference). I’m super in love with this Greek seasoning blend. I also love homemade bean dips/hummus because it’s SO much cheaper than buying store bought. A container of hummus= more than $3. A can of beans= about 66 cents. Winning.

Well that was a whole lot of random, but it felt good to write Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

XOXO,

Jamie

I’m moving in with my one true love <3

And no…it’s not a boy…

I’m moving into the library to live forever amongst my beloved books…or at least that’s what this week has felt like so far. Unfortunately, textbooks are not the most thrilling reads.

However, I do love reading books.

Books have helped me through so much in life. Harry Potter was my best friend during my angsty, emotional teenage years. I quoted Harry Potter in my Valedictorian speech, and my admissions essay to Oberlin was themed around Harry Potter. Needless to say, the books really impacted me. Aside from my friendship with Harry Potter, I might not have recovered from a terrible illness if I hadn’t read the library’s entire collection on eating disorders (Dewey decimal number 616.8526…seriously).

Books are the perfect escape after a long day. Sometimes you just need to turn your brain off and get away from the world for a while. Fiction provides the perfect opportunity for that.

Also good for turning off your brain?

Trashy television. Can’t wait to watch Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 23 tonight!!

Show is hilarious!

Enjoy the rest of your week loves.

XOXO,

Jamie

 

What I’ve Learned [from running]

Good evening lovelies! I’m starting a new series on the blog entitled “What I’ve Learned.”  I plan to do a few posts about running, college life, and anything else I think of that I feel qualified to write about!!

Before I get into the meat of this post, I want to talk about something that’s been on my mind lately. As you’ve all noticed, I haven’t been posting very frequently…at all. I’ve said it numerous times before, but second semester of my junior year has been insane. Usually, when I find (or make) time for myself, I just want to veg out and watch one of my favorite television shows. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE to blog. I love to really reflect on my experiences and share them, and blogging allows me to do that! However, I’ve been feeling a bit guilty about my lack of posting…

I thought about quitting the blog altogether because it didn’t seem fair for me to only post once a week or once every two weeks. However, I’ve come to the conclusion that I WILL keep blogging. Sometimes I just feel the urge to write. Just like with food, I need to listen to my body. I will blog when inspiration strikes or when I need an outlet. I am not going to force myself to blog though because I CANNOT handle anymore obligations at the moment.

Anyways, I just wanted to inform you all of that. I’m still here Just not as frequently as I have been!

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Now, onto the good stuff!

Yesterday was my long run day, and I totally beasted 5 miles! Let me rephrase that, I physically beasted 5 miles. Mentally, I was struggling.

Backtrack to Sunday morning. I wake up and begin getting around for my 5 mile run. All the while I’m rationalizing in my head why I should run 4 miles instead of the 5 I had planned. For an entire 20 minutes the only thought going through my head was “I should do a 4 mile run. 4 miles will be great.”  Over, and over, and over again…

Until I finally said to myself, “SHUTUP!”

Then my head was quiet.

And I asked myself, “Why shouldn’t I run 5 miles? I’ve successfully ran 4 miles on numerous occasions. This 5 mile run is part of my half-marathon training. I need to keep increasing mileage (albeit, slowly). SO WHY ARE YOU SO ADAMANT ON RUNNING 4 MILES INSTEAD OF 5?”

Then the realization hit me: I didn’t want to plan on 5 miles because I was scared of failure. I was scared I might not complete my planned workout.

So, I made a mental list of all the reasons I should plan for a 5 mile workout:

1. If I feel too tired before 5 miles is over, I can always stop.

2. I can take walking breaks whenever I am tired.

3. Even if I quit at 2 miles, I DID NOT FAIL. I (and you!) should be proud of ANY workout whether it is walking a block or running a marathon! We are challenging and bettering ourselves!

And with my new mindset, I set out to complete 5 miles. And I conquered it! Sure it was a slow 5 miles (12:00 mile pace), but I felt great at the end!

Take note: Do not be afraid to set goals out of fear of failure! At worst you can learn from your experience, pick yourself up, and try again.

Have a fantastic week my dears.

XOXO,

Jamie

 

Nothing is Permanent

that’s pretty much the truth. And now for a little Monday Motivation a la Pinterest.

If you are sad or angry, the mood will eventually pass.

A rainy day can eventually lead to a beautiful rainbow.

If you are unhappy with something in your life, change it. Be the change you want to see in the world.

Every day is a new day, a fresh start, a clean slate.

Nothing is permanent.

“Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light”.- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

It’s a new week my loves. Let’s kill it

XOXO,

Jamie

 

A Whole Bunch of Randos

Randos=short for Randoms. Why? Because it sounds funny…and why not?

Alright so here’s the deal, midterms week is happening, and I am losing my mind. Literally, I think I’m going off the deep end. I find myself studying, then laughing hysterically for no reason at all. I think I’m just on emotional overload right now, and my body can’t deal with all the stress/happiness of finishing an exam/sadness of upcoming exams. My natural reaction is just to laugh about it. I get some weird looks in the library…

Anyways, this post is just going to be a bunch of random pictures that have went unblogged recently.

Remember how I said I hurt my foot? Well this is me icing my foot…for 10 minutes. The freezing cold excruciating pain of ice only hurts for the first 3 minutes though. Then you can’t feel a thing.

This is me clearly being happy about studying. If I wear my glasses I automatically gain 10 IQ points right? Right.

Studying…in my swimsuit…in March. This is not real life! Also…totally still not happy in this picture. Clearly.

FINALLY A SMILING FACE!  This is me after a super hot workout. My face is so red! I hope running (when I can fully get back to my half-marathon training) will put some muscles on my dinky calves. Also, I promise no more pictures of me from here on out.

This was dinner tonight. And last night. Microwaved potato with black beans and cottage cheese. Fastest/cheapest/most satisfying meal ever.

This is my healthy protein packed strawberry milkshake. Yum. Yum. Yum.

I know every single bone on this kitty! FYI this is not a real skeleton. However, I did have to dissect a real cat. I had a moment of silence for her.

French toast is a super-food. Perfect carb to protein to fat ratio. It’s a fact (maybe).

Oh, Ben & Jerry’s you know me so well.

I’m off to relax for a couple minutes before heading to bed. Another fun-filled day of studying awaits me tomorrow!

XOXO,

Jamie