What feels like my semi-annual update

I'm alive!  Sorry for the delay - it has been a little nuts around here.
 
I just started my third semester of my BSN/MSN program, and I'm still totally loving it! Admittedly, I've never studied so much in my life, but I find everything (well, almost everything) really interesting, so it hasn't been too bad.  This semester, I have pediatrics the first half, maternity the second half, and geriatrics throughout.  Corresponding to the pediatrics and maternity classes, I have 12 hour clinicals! Exhausting, but I think it should be great!  It will be very interesting trying to figure out if pediatrics is my truly what I want to do, or if I want to look at other avenues.

As of August 2, I'll officially be done with the semester, and I have a whole month off! Because I went a little stir crazy with all of my free time during winter break, I knew I needed to have a plan to stay busy.  After talking it over with Chris, I decided to do a solo-road trip across the country!  My plan is to leave sometime between August 4-5, or maybe after the weekend is over.  I'll drive a big loop hitting Chicago, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, San Diego, Phoenix, Alamagordo (NM), Bella Vista (AR), and some points in between there and home!  I'm pretty psyched about it.  If I can, I'll try to take photos and tell my adventures here!

That's all for now! Making some dinner... black bean burgers with broccoli on the side. Yum!

Vegan? Me? Pfffft!

So... I'm doing it!  I'm participating in a 28-day Engine-2 challenge at my local Whole Foods.  Engine 2, simply stated, is fully plant based and limits unnecessary oils (i.e. fats).  The diet/way of life is based on significant scientific study of the diets of different populations and the diseases that they experience throughout the life span. The research shows that populations whose diets are plant based are less likely to experience many forms of cancer, and almost no heart disease.  While I'm not currently at an increased risk for heart disease, I don't ever want to find myself in a place where I am!

So anyway, I decided to give this challenge a try, and I am finding myself LOVING it!  I've been technically pescatarian for a few years, and thought it'd be difficult to give up dairy especially.  I love loved cheese, ice cream and other milk-based products, but I've been completely fine without them!  I've been using some Daiya shredded "cheese" for things like pizza. While it doesn't taste like cheese, I do like the flavor and texture that it does have, so it has been a perfectly fine replacement. 

The best part of the veganism is that I haven't been experiencing the acid reflux that I've been having for the past 5+ years.  I haven't had the feelings of nausea at all, and I can't argue with that!  I've also mysteriously lost 8 pounds in just over two weeks, double win!

And that's all the time I have to procrastinate - time to study!!

This is my life!

Nursing school is fantastic.  I love it.  I just hate studying, so I'm procrastinating right now, to be honest.  I have to be honest, life in general is fantastic right now.  I love my classes, my clinical placements, my husband, and my house (because currently, it's on the clean side, which is always great!).

Have you ever thought about how different things can provide interesting snapshots of your life... like for instance...

My last 5 Amazon.com orders...
1. Nursing Diagnosis Handbook
2. Vegan Slow Cooker Cookbook (because yea, I'm working on going vegan. So far, so good!!)
3. Case Study textbook for school
4. Engine 2 book (have you read it?? That was my impetus for going vegan)
5. Psychiatric Nursing textbook

Yikes. My life is food and school. Actually, that sounds about right. :)

New Years Resolution

I've spent a lot of time over the past few days thinking about New Years Resolutions.  One of the best resolutions I ever made was in the early 2000s.  I decided that I would save 10% of every paycheck. I set up an auto-withdrawal into an ING savings account.  Because of that account (along with Chris' savings), we were able to completely pay off our wedding and honeymoon upfront, as well as make the down payment on our house! Also, now that I'm in school, I have a little cushion of money for necessities.  As my paychecks increased, I increased the auto withdrawal, and I think I even got up to saving a little over 20% of each check.  As soon as I'm back in the working world, this resolution will be back.
*If you don't currently do this, try it! You accumulate this tidy sum of money that can really come in handy.

So anyway, I've been thinking about New Years Resolutions a lot.  I have considered a lot of things, but don't want to have a list of failed attempts.  After watching the movie Forks Over Knives, I considered trying my hand at becoming vegan. The health benefits discussed in the film and in it's somewhat companion book, Engine 2 Diet are incredible. While I think I could do it, I love cheese and ice cream too much, and I think I'd really miss them. And I think they're fine in small amounts!


Without further ado, I've decided that my New Years Resolution is to be more conscious.

The definition of conscious: 
adjective

1. aware of one's own existence, sensations, thoughts, surroundings, etc.

2. fully aware of or sensitive to something (often followed by of ): conscious of one's own faults; He wasn't conscious of the gossip about his past.

3. having the mental faculties fully active: He was conscious during the operation.

4. known to oneself; felt: conscious guilt.

5. aware of what one is doing: a conscious liar.

More conscious of what I say to people, more conscious of what I eat, more conscious of all of the decisions I make, to ensure they're truly in the direction that I want my life to go.  From not procrastinating with school-related "stuff," to biting my tongue when it comes to making unnecessary criticism and judgments of people and things, to ensuring that I'm simply living with the best goals in mind.

So, let's see how this goes!  Happy New Year everyone!!

The hardest thing ever?

-----I wrote this post as a New Years Resolution post, but then kind of chickened out on going vegan... but now, I'm totally in!!! -----

So, have you ever heard of the "Engine 2" diet? It's vegan, or as they call it, plant strong. I had seen the bright red book at my local Whole Foods for the past year or so, but never really paid much attention to it.  Little did I know, it is just up my alley.

I was introduced to Engine 2 when a friend asked me if I had ever seen the documentary "Forks Over Knives." Forks Over Knives documents the studies and experiments of Drs. Campbell and Esselstyn as they research how food affects the body, both positively and negatively.  Dr. Esselstyn is the leader of the Breast Cancer Task Force at the Cleveland Clinic.  In a nutshell (no pun intended), he found that cancers are virtually unknown in areas where animal fats are rarely consumed. Dr. Campbell participated in a research study regarding high incidence of liver cancer in a certain population. (For a whole rundown of their work, visit the website. I can't do them justice.)

I went vegetarian some time in 2007 (I think?) after watching the movie - not even documentary - Fast Food Nation.  The movie highlights a number of injustices that take place in the food system.  From illegal immigrants being exploited as cheap labor in very dangerous jobs, to the amount of fecal matter that is "acceptable" to be present in meat (EW!).  At the end of the movie, a guy falls into a meat mincing machine. That little scene right there is what did it.  It was easy. I simply stopped wanting meat.  I do, however still eat fish, dairy, and eggs.  My goal, starting Jan 1, is to go vegan for 30 days. If I can make it 30, I'll go for 60, then 90, then... life?

Why?

There are diet plans all over the place that help you lose weight, but that's not exactly what I want. For the past 6 years, I have been reacting to preservatives and artificial sweeteners. A simple can of soup or sniff of Splenda (aka sucralose) sends my stomach and gastrointestinal system into a tailspin. So if I can, I want to eliminate the fake stuff.  I don't need to replace meats and dairy, I just need to not eat it. Easy... right?

I want to overall feel healthier. Bill Clinton's road as a vegan and recovering cardiovascular disease time bomb is documented here and in the television documentary called The Last Heart Attack.  Forks Over Knives documents a number of individuals who have taken on a plant based diet in order to reverse their risks for heart disease.

I want to be next... wish me luck!  Come Jan. 1, I'm going for it!

Catching up!

Things have been wonderfully crazy since my last post - in JULY!!  Many fantastic things have happened since then...

First - August. We decided to take a cruise to Alaska for our summer vacation! It was an incredible experience.  We biked through Juneau, and meandered through Sitka and Ketchikan. We stopped for an evening in Victoria, British Columbia, and had a few "days at sea" that allowed us to see the famous Hubbard Glacier.  It was amazing, huge, and wow. (Coincidentally, Mayor Tom Menino of Boston was also on our boat!  Of course, I insisted on introducing myself and probably looking like a dope!)

Just before leaving for vacation, my sister welcomed into the world her first BABY!!! Baby Natalie was born on August 10, 2011. She is absolutely adorable, and such a sweet little thing!  We finally were able to visit them in Thanksgiving.  Even Chris is in love!

Despite the fact that August held a trip to Alaska and my gorgeous niece, September was equally exciting.  In September, I started the first semester of my 3-year program to become a Nurse Practitioner! I am attending Regis College in Weston, MA. I love, love, love it - but I have never in my life spent so much time studying!  The semester is already over and I can't believe it.  I not only learned many basic nursing skills, theory, and health assessment - I learned just how extensive the role of nurses is, and I have much more respect for them.  (I've never not had respect for nurses, but the amount of responsibility they have is incredible.)  We're required to earn at least 80% in our courses in order to continue the program, and I managed to pass with a very comfortable cushion in all three of my classes!

Now, I'm relaxing on Winter Break... trips to Florida, Minnesota, Arkansas and maybe even North Carolina are squeezed into my 30 days of relaxation... ahhh...

I'll try to be a more regular Blogger... but who knows how crazy school will be next semester! Up next: Psych Nursing and Acute Care Nursing, plus 20 hours of clinicals (in hospital work) per week!

Exploring the Fells

Not really dressed for hiking...

Monday's hiking adventure took us to the Middlesex Fells Reservation, or "The Fells."  The Fells is literally one town over from us, and yet we've never really taken the time to explore it.  We've gone to different parts of the Fells to walk around a time or two, and I've had a trail called "Skyline Trail" stuck in my head for months because I've wanted to go try it out!  I've really wanted to run it, but it might be a little too adventurous for me right now.

I got up somewhat early to go for a run with Natalie, and it was hot and humid. She pushed me to get through six hot, humid, hilly miles. I'm so glad she did! She is a much, much stronger and faster runner than I am, and my goal is to get to a place where she doesn't feel slow as a slug running with me! Thankfully, she never makes me feel like I'm slowing her down, though I can tell I definitely am!

This was at the top of something...

After a nice cool shower and breakfast, we decided to go up to the Fells for some hiking.  We parked up at Sheepfold and took a look at the Map.  We didn't pick a specific trail, just walked through the park (looks like a pretty active dog park) and towards the woods where we saw some trailheads.  One of the trailheads was Skyline! I was excited to find it, and we started walking. We didn't bring any water with us this time (unlike at Wachusett) so we weren't going to go too long or too far.

This is the description of "The Fells" from the DCR Website (link above):

Something like five miles northerly from Boston lies a great tract of country, all stony hills and table-lands, almost uninhabited, and of wonderful picturesqueness, and wild rugged beauty.

- Sylvester Baxter, Boston Herald Supplement, December 6, 1879

Open year-round, dawn to dusk. The Middlesex Fells Reservation's 2,575 acres offer a welcome retreat for city dwellers and a suitable terrain for hikers, mountain bikers, horseback riders, rock climbers, cross-country skiers and picnickers as well as natural and cultural history buffs. "Fells" is the Saxon word for rocky, hilly tracts of land - an apt name for this scenic area which is rich in local history. This picturesque area was once favored for timber, granite quarrying, ice industry, and water power for the many mills including one that manufactured some of the first vulcanized rubber products. The area was first explored by Governor Winthrop and his men in the winter of 1632: " ...they came to a very great pond, having in the midst an island of about one acre and very thick with trees of pine and beech and the pond had divers small rocks standing up here and there in it, which therefore called Spot Pond." (quote from Gov. Winthrop's private papers)

We started out on Skyline, and I'm glad that we were walking it for the first time.  I'd have gotten SO lost! (We did take a few wrong turns... but quickly corrected ourselves.)  The paths were anything from rambling over rocks, to dirt paths, to a really cool "rock bridge" (at least I thought it was cool!). See the photo below...

At some point, we switched from the Skyline Trail to the Reservoir Trail, and turned around to come back.  It was even hotter than when I ran in the morning, and now very sunny.  If we had brought some water with us, we would have likely stayed out there longer. But we're definitely going to be going back! I'm thinking that I may have to take my Camelback out there to do the whole loop soon! (Maybe my next free Friday!)

Here are a couple more photos...

The Middle (Winchester) Reservoir

A smoother part of the path