Water Consumption

(The art of mutli-tasking)

My water intake has never been anywhere close to where it should be, so lately I've pushed myself to drink more water than I'm used to. My current goal is to get in around two or three liters a day which I try to break up evenly throughout the morning, noon, and evening.

As a broke college student, I can actually only afford to buy bottled water a couple of times per week. What I normally resort to is getting refills from the nasty water fountain right outside of my door. The water is gross, but it gets the job done...right?

As far as working out goes, I've really been mobilizing and that makes it even more important to keep myself hydrated. My campus job is also pretty labor intensive so it's vital for me to stay hydrated for that reason as well.

I might lose some respect for saying this, but here I go. Sometimes, to make the water go down a bit easier, I add some Emergen-C to give it some flavor. It ultimately makes the water taste like heavily watered down orange juice but hey, it's better than regular water. Each packet has 1,000 mg of vitamin C which is way more than what's needed in a day, but vitamin C is something that, in surplus, goes in through one end and out the other.

I have way more to say on the subject of water, but you'll have to excuse me right now because I'm drawing a big blank on some of the other things I wanted to add. Agh!! Hit me up on a later date...I promise I'll have more for you.

What has college done to my precious brain???

Raw. Love. Y'all.

-Natalie

Morning = Good, Evening = BADDD

(I took full advantage of Free Apple Day a couple weeks ago)

There are only two days during the week that I wake up even remotely early, and those days are Wednesday and Friday. I have class at 9:30 a.m. on those two days, so I try to wake up at around 8 to give myself ample time to get fresh for class. Prior to class on my 'early' days, I usually grab a piece of fruit (such as the apple above), and a calorically heavy beverage. I'll usually take some water with me as well that I try to finish before class is over.

Afterward, I'll still be pretty hungry sometimes, so I grab yet another small meal from the main dining outlet on campus. Today...I was in luck. The dining hall has this pathetic 'vegan bar' stationed in a buffet, so I thought I'd go check it out (something I normally don't do because their options are always atrocious). To my surprise, there were these vegan riblets that looked divine and some collard greens and rice with beans to go along with it. The collard greens looked pretty light (not drenched in oil or flavoring) and I was actually pretty pleased with the clean taste of them. The riblets tasted as good as they looked and the rice was, well...rice.

(Excuse my half-eaten riblet)

As usual with my photos, this one does not do the meal justice. I actually haven't eaten anything this good in awhile. The last time I had anything that tasted decent was when I went to Java Green Cafe a few weeks ago (will talk about that another time). I had their Vegan Burger which was to DIE FOR.

Usually after I knock my first two meals out of the way, both of which are normally within my clean vegan parameters, I start to run into biggg problems.

For some reason, I have a much easier time keeping my diet clean in the morning than in the late afternoon and evening. For example, it's almost 2 p.m. right now and I have huge McDonalds cravings for some reason. Now, I would be a fool to run out and get some, considering the nearest McD's is 10 blocks away, but sometimes my cravings are intense enough to make me do something as stupid as that.

Last night, I was hit with a McD's craving at around 7 and I actually trekked over there and bought some. I won't tell you what I got, for my own protection, but I wasn't proud of myself for giving in.

The ironic thing about my McDonalds run last night? I passed right by Java Green Cafe (a cafe with a vegetarian, vegan, and raw menu) on my way there.

Amazing, huh.

Raw. Love.
-Natalie

It's Been Awhile, Huh....

(Can you believe this thing is 3 blocks from my dorm??)

Clearly, it's been quite a while since I last posted anything. As you can imagine, a lot has been going on for me lately but I think at this point, I'm pretty well settled into my college lifestyle. I really love my studies thus far and I'm very optimistic about what the future holds.

As far as my diet is concerned, things could be MUCH better. On the bright side though, I've started a solid workout program that has me kicking butt in the gym and I can really feel a difference in my body. We all know though, of coarse, a sound fitness program is nothing without a clean diet. My problem lately has been cravings...once again. I'll have a stretch of two weeks or so where my diet will be phenomenal but then all of a sudden, I'll crash and burn without warning. Something's gotta be done about this.

The thing that has been causing me the most problems lately and has had me doing major backflips is SUGAR. No, not sugar as in apples and oranges, but rather sour patch kids, jelly, gummies, chocolate, and every other sugar ridden candy (and sometimes cereal) in the book. I used to do just fine with having tea without sugar or honey, but I have gone back to adding honey into my tea...and I'm starting to get a little too generous with it. When I started my weight loss journey back in January, the first thing I cut out was my morning coffee which was loaded with milk and sugar. Nixing that did wonders for me, and I would hate to have a reverse effect take place.

Just as a side note (and an excuse to add an unnecessary photo), I thought I should inform the general public about the fact that I rid of my kale plant over a month ago. I loved it so, but I could not figure out how to properly care for it and thus, it was dying rapidly. I felt like everyday I looked at it, there was another wilting leaf on it. I still have my one plant left...and here I am apologizing to it about giving up its adopted brother:


Sad, isn't it?

I promise to be a bit more consistent in the future. Watch out for more posts coming soon.

Raw. Love.
-Natalie