Day 5: life is about unexpected changes!~~

Remember what I said in my last post:"Apparently I'm getting a new apartment... ". Very clever of my part to use that word, because I'm NOT! The leasing office had offered me an apartment in another community which is close by, but not where I want to be, so I rejected and still on the waiting list. You might think that I was very disappointed at that moment... actually I was not, not even 1 second. I've learned during these years that I'm in US alone facing obstacles and overcoming them, that life is not about planning and is not perfect and sometimes we just can't do anything about it. You can not change the facts, but you can change your attitude toward them. This positive attitude was not innate in my case, it's a developed quality. I'm glad of being this way now and I hope everyone can try to acquire it if you're not positive minded person by nature, because it is good for your soul. ^_^

The rest of my day went well... not too much work because of some errands in campus. And ChallengeS went great again!
Breakfast was again the Tina's combo made with oats, wheat berries, banana, almond milk and egg white. An apple and Cinnamon PB.AM snack: orange.Lunch salad: a massive pile of spinach, mushrooms, red peppers, tomatoes, canned beets (not as good as Tj's baby beets), mix sprouts, celery and 1/2 c. lentils. For dressing I used 1 tbsp PB + 1 tbsp balsamic + 1/2 tbsp olive. It was good, but not super exciting. I'll stick to olive and balsamic.Dessert: coconut jelly~PM snack 1: WW bread + 1 packet of BB.It didn't fill me and I went for another bread 10 min later. Somehow, I still feel empty but I wasn't sure... so I waited for 10 min more and confirmed that fact. Instead of having more bread, I microwaved 1/3 c. egg white and had it with some BBQ sauce (It's Tj's, I checked its ingredients and it's pretty clean for me).The protein made the trick and satisfied my unusual hunger!
Worked through until 7pm and went to a spin class. Too many hills that killed my butt... I wish she had done more speed work.
Anyway, back home and made a quick dinner: stir-fry pasta!!! yeah~~~ As the massive salad at lunch wasn't enough for me, I craved more veggies at night. It was INCREDIBLY delicious!!! I'm adding this recipe to Coco's creation section! It's sooooo tasty and so fresh!!! And it was done in <10 min!
Dessert 1: pumpkin pie mousse (made with silken tofu, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, pumpkin spice, all blended).Dessert 2: black rice porridge with white fungus.I had a belly-expansion a la Sarah~~~ ^_^

Question: Are you positive by nature? If not, what do you do to stay positive?

Today's plan:
- work
- teach
- more work
- Maggie's recommended yoga class
- Help to Qiao to do some cookings

Motivation break down~

Sorry to put such a negative title for this post, but it was what I felt yesterday. Morning meeting went good in term of help my professor was offering me, but not well in term of the relevance of my research. So, I began to feel bad. And then it came my best friend's presentation (to all faculty and advanced grad students). It went bad.... they criticized him about the motivation of his paper. Put it crudely: "why are you doing something that you don't even know why and what for? what's the point to do something so complicated computationally for no purpose at all?" And then his adviser told him that if he can't come up with a good argument, he needs to change topic for his dissertation proposal. oh... God! I don't be in his place!!! And I'm presenting in less than a month. I had an idea and a good motivation I think, but I kind of couldn't put all pieces together to say okay, this is what I want to explain and that is how. I know that I'm not in a bad situation... but you know when your negative thoughts trigger the chain of negative thoughts...it's hard to stop. The reason that I felt so bad is because I make the little obstacle a really big life threat. And then I made me to think I’m a looser, that I don’t worth appreciation from my professor, that I’m a useless person, that I got into grad school by mistake… etc. When I think about it more, I feel worse. But I know that when I am positive, all these negative thoughts disappear right away and this little obstacle might be a good thing to help me to achieve something bigger. I know all that... it's just hard to do it. Maggie wrote a inspiring post yesterday related to this kind of feeling.
Let me finish this post with pic of my yesterday's eats and let it self explain.
Sorry to everyone for such a negative post, I hope I feel better today so I go to Argentina motivated and happy so I can enjoy it more.

Energy break down~~

It was a weird day yesterday. I went to bed as my usual time around 10.30pm and didn't woke up until my roommate's alarm ringed at 7.15am. Since then, I didn't feel 100% okay but moved on. But after lunch I felt terribly tired/exhausted/asleep that even a big mug of coffee couldn't help. I was going to have meeting with a professor to talk about my research (my top 1 priority now) and I felt so bad that I had to cancel the meeting and went home. I had a two hours long nap and got up around 4pm. I tried to work a little more but by 6.30pm I quit. By 9.30pm I was in bed. I don't know where this energy break down came from... maybe it's close to the "day"? (you know what I mean, right?) I'm glad I was intuitive with my body and did what it needed.
Back to eats. Breakfast was another bowl with fresh blueberries, but I had oatmeal. 1/2 c. oats, 1/2 c. almond milk, 1/4 c. egg white, vanilla/cinnamon, flax meal, blueberries and GYG.Very satisfying bowl.
AM snack: BB and Quaker TrueDelight. I didn't need two snacks, but I was trying to bump up my energy level, although not effective at all.
Lunch: cherry tomatoes+mini pepper+mini quiche+ wrap made with spinach and a spread made with canned salmon, yam puree, onion and mustard.PM snack at home: an orange.
Dinner: chinese spinach warm salad made with soy sauce, sesame oil and toasted sesame. Leftover grilled shrimp and black rice porridge.Dessert: frozen strawberries + fage + cinnamon.Even though I know I shouldn't have Fage, I just can't help. I guess I need to get some silk tofu to make Maggie's vegan yogurt.

Question: Do you have discomforts before the special week?

tiger hunger came and stayed! ^_^

I began to feed my inner tiger at 4am!!! yeah~ somehow I woke up at 3am and couldn't go back to sleep. I blamed this to my Monday's excitement (meeting 3 advisers in the same day) and my mind kept working afterward thinking about what should I do next and how to organize my working schedule in Argentina balancing work and leisure for a change.
Anyway, I enjoyed being up early so I have plenty of time to read blogs, write post, do a 45 min morning flow and arrived at the office at 7am! yeah~ I made my morning very productive.
okay. Now let me know you how to feed a tiger hunger! ^_^
4AM snack: 1/2 soft wrap with chocolate PB (This is my fav snack/treat now!)and 1/2 toasted plain.6AM breakfast inspired by Tina, I tried to add cottage cheese to my oats. I followed almost exactly her recipe although I used frozen blueberries and 1/2 c. of oats. I was a little disappointed because it turned out to be a little watery and the flavor wasn't especially exciting. I guess with fresh berries might taste better.
9 AM snack: BB.11AM snack: Quaker's truedelight raspberry chocolate.1PM lunch: bok choy & sausage rice and warm salad made with 1 c. of broccoli slaw, 1 c. of chickpeas and 1/2 c. marinara sauce.dessert: 3 minis. (forgot to take pic, so I used an old one).PM snack: another soft wrap with 2 tbsp of chocolate PB. I needed a energetic snack because I was going to a spin class at 5pm.
Spinning class was okay. I didn't sweat too much and my HR got normal. Here's the stat
Duration: 53:00
Average Heart Rate: 140
Maximum: 159
Calories burned: 315
After spin class it was only 6pm, I could have worked a little more since because of meeting again with my advisor and seminar, I only worked 6 hours. But, I said to myself:" take a break girl! you've been up since 3AM. Cook something yummy and you'll have more energy tomorrow." Obviously, I listened and went home happily! ^_^
So, dinner: sauteed cauliflower with sun dried tomato and Tj's turkey meatballSauteed greens with fresh ginger and garlic (that's what I alwasy add to green veggies)Kabocha fries (which makes it a perfect meal!)and black rice porridge.Dessert: 1/2 c. fage 2% + strawberries + fiber 1WEll..... that's a lot of food, isn't it? I don't have idea of how much cal. was..... but I don't care! ^_^ I'm a intuitive eater! if I'm hungry, I'll feed it, as long as it's a healthy, no guilty is necessary. Right?

Okay. Teasing you a little more about my culinary trip to Argentina. Look the dessert section of the brunch!Thanks for everyone to answer my question about being modest. After your encouraging words, I wrote a NOT modest at ALL letter of recommendation of me! ^_^
Question: How others opinion affect your self-confidence? Do you need to hear compliments from others to be confident?

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