Follow Your Gut

I just love mixing two cereals together! I used to do this all the time when I was little, and no not because the cereals were running low, because I couldn’t decide to have just one so I had a mix of several. What can I say, I was strange. Did any of you ever do that, do you still? Friday was more for functional reasons: I didn’t have a full serving of puffins left so I supplemented with the last of the Envirokids Panda Puffs, and a banana, and some almond butter!

I usual try to balance the carbohydrates a little more- Bananas are pretty high in carbohydrates. That’s not to say they are unhealthy, just a higher carb food. Pair it with carb-full cereals- and its not exactly balanced! I think the almond butter adds a little balance with healthy fats, but I needed some protein. So I did my usual magic mixer of protein mix into the almond milk to create balance.

For lunch on friday, I was on campus and totally knew better. I knew better than to go to the campus cafe and snag a to-go salad because every time I have done that ( twice) I have been really disappoint for the $5-6 I spend. I knew it, and did not follow my gut.

So I got this new salad they have, their old salads with grilled chicken breast, thinking the chicken looked tasty and I knew I needed protein. The nutrition information (on the bottom of the container) said it had 90 kcal and 15 g of protein. I opened the salad to find most of the veggies were translucent (the cucumber) or gummy or wilted (there were black mushy pieces of lettuce underneath), shredded cheese and croutons mixed in, and big slices of chicken.

The positive: The chicken was really good! There is no way that whole salad was 90 kcal though! Just too much cheese and chicken to add up.

I had gotten a side of fries too, my “splurge”, again, not following my gut telling me they probably weren’t worth the money. They weren’t- They were cold and had a funky after taste. Here is what I threw out from the salad:

It looks better than it did in person- that lime green piece at the bottom center is supposed to be a dark green pepper strip. I threw out a good half of the fries too but didn’t photo b/c of the grease. Blech! I wish I could have given it to a homeless person or something but I am also sad that I kind of wasted $10 total. I almost knew this, because I can go behind campus to Whole Foods and get a great salad at the hot bar/cold bar for $5-$8. It would have been so much better!

For dinner, I decided to grill some Mahi fillets that I grabbed at Trader Joes. The foreman grill worked great and I paired it with exactly what I wanted: a big salad and veggies with goddess dressing.

I have been craving fish for some reason… The Mahi Mahi fit the bill, finally felt satisfied after that dissapointing lunch!

After dinner I munched away on one of my new favorite treats-

This kettle corn from Trader Joes is so tasty! It is the perfect combination of sweet and salty.

One of the perks of popcorn, the bag gives you a huge portion for 110 kcal too!

Body:
5 mile Run…. I finally snagged new shoes. My knee started bothering me a few weeks ago, and my mind tells me that I just got new shoes 2 months ago so it must be over-exertion. Then… My gut says: Buy new shoes!  It’s funny because I didn’t pick up on it at first, but its been happening like clockwork every 2 months.  My gut knows that my shoes are no longer supporting my knee enough. So I did follow my gut finally and bought a new pair. Voila, I can run again pain free!

Mind:

My mind feels like its sizzled! I had my coat stolen in lab thursday afternoon!!!  Grr. It was one of 4 girls because the class only has 10 total. When I realized they stole the coat there were still 5 other girls in lab and it was not in any of their bags. My keys to the car and apartment were in the pocket- so I started freaking out. Well I went down the hall and thought to open the bathroom door in case the person ran in there, and found my keys sitting on the bathroom counter! There was a girl in their that had left lab and I think she had stuffed it inside her bookbag. I was in shock and saw the keys, and in an instant my gut said to grab that girl and take her bookbag down as she walked out the door. I didn’t follow my gut.

I called the campus police and not sure what will happen. It happened during a class, it was one of the students, and it was under the watch of the professor. I’m hoping for the best, if I don’t get my coat back, I hope the school will take responsibility for one of their students stealing a coat during their class and help me buy myself a new one. So much for “Honor Code”.

Soul:
So if that wasn’t enough, I went into work and I felt like my mind was everywhere, my soul was everywhere, and I couldn’t focus on what I needed to do. My performance suffered and I feel a well of emotions right now.

I just finished listing out the mistakes I made at work , what I should have done, what I could do for tonight’s shift. I forgot to put in an appetizer, which we easily fixed by getting it on the fly and all were happy. Apparently, the person that entered in the order for to enter in their desserts ( I got the blame for that but I knew it wasn’t me).  I felt like the second host in line was not communicating with me so I felt like I couldn’t do my job the way I should either, I didn’t know what was going on because she wasn’t communicating with me. I usually communicate what is going on for her, I would expect the same. She has worked the same shift as I have recently, and she forgot a salad for a to-go order. Not to point out her mistakes, but it somehow feels like my forgetting the appetizer is somehow more drastic than her forgetting the salad. Or for that matter, these same mistakes have happened with the others all the time but yet, mine are more noticed or something.

I can only work on improving my mistakes. I can’t change the other girls opinions of me or my performance, I can just do the best that I can and leave it at that. I need to follow my gut. I think that is part of why I feel so frazzled, I’m not following what my gut is telling me to do. Note to self blogosphere: Follow Your Gut.