like a black hole

I swear, I have been trying to get out of the C pod for a solid month! It's loaded with chronic patients and I am slowly dying a bit more each day just being over there...so today I successfully made the transition.

Here's how it works. Both pods (B and C) are part of the cardiac critical care unit, but pod C has 9 rooms and B only has 8. So, since there are 2 nurses per side splitting the patient load, if you are stuck in hell (aka pod C) you may have 5 patients, but if you are in B you are guaranteed NO MORE THAN 4 patients. Saaweeeet! The difference may not sound significant, but trust me 4 vs 5 is HUGE in the CPCU. I mean come on, an ICU setting is no place to compromise patients' lives by overloading nurses with such acutely ill post-op fresh hearts. Here's how you get sucked into a black hole: by being a nice, flexible person (simple, right?). Since we encourage continuity of patient care, once you get a patient, you basically keep the same patient every day you are working...not so great if the patient is there, oh, say, post op day 96 (room 8). Fo real!

Pod B - finally! SO EXCITED! Here's how you know you've been somewhere too long: random doctors who hardly even know your name comment on how rare it is that you're in pod B. Um, since when do random GI consults know that I've been sucked into the black hole that is pod C....oh right, since I've been there a month.

Ok, enough.

Food-ing. Check out my latest shopping trip. I'm set for the next few shifts at least.


Todays lunch: smart deli sando

PLUS Brunos' vegan soup of the day (carrot ginger)

Warmth all through my body...also, the snow subsided by 11, so it wasn't too bad by the time I made it out for lunch (2:30 pm). I was good busy, not crazy chaotic annoying busy.

Sando ZOOMed in :)

On the way home I sat next to a crazy person on the subway (throwing his bags and chicken bones all over and under the seat), never a dull commute in NYC.

Started grilling within 10 minutes of walking in the door. Hungry, yes ma'am.

For some reason the eggs were sticking to the pan, so I burned them a bit. I also heated up half of the remaining tofu from last night (bbq, sweet and sour, and baked)...like I said before, eggs and tofu = winning combo (especially warm tofu).

The chunks of tofu should have been smaller, when they are so big, I don't realize how much I am eating. That's really a massive plate 'o FU (yep, that's short for tofu, hehe).

I tried to guzzle water to fill me up so I wouldn't have seconds...but the problem is, I knew there was more...so I wanted it. BTW, don't freak out thinking I'm drinking a new smartwater each time I mention it or show a pic of my bottle (I am just refilling the same bottle). I'm a hippie remember?! Reduce, reuse recycle. Same ziplock baggies for lunch, same tin foil for lunch, and everything else that I can possibly use more than once. The Earth is in nobody else's hands but ours!!!

See my name written on it, so it doesn't get thrown out at work :)

Ok, here's my second helping. This time I was successful in keeping the egg beater in one big piece (my fave self made top chef quick challenge). I'm a dork, love it.

The big (fake) eggy slab with the rest of the tofu.

Killer TOFU!!!

(Did I just quote Doug?!?)

I'm getting punchy, time for bed!

Yup, polished the plate!

ready to chew my arm off

1) I was starving ALL freakin' day long, why so hungry?? No idea.

2) My patients were making me craaaaaaaaazy!!


3) My subway train was stuck at the 50th street station (no express trains on weekends - BOO!!) because my car's door wouldn't close properly. It added an extra 30 minutes to my already horrible commute. Sweet. I was about to pass out because my stomach was eating itself.

ANYways...I was starving by 10 and I was out of odwalla bars (sad), so I stole some food from the extra hospital breakfast trays (even more sad). Not so hot. And yes, that is a Splenda (shh, don't tell).


Total is kinda blah without something sweet (good thing Lactaid is also pretty darn sugary). I also added in some raisins from my pre-packed lunch.

Mmmm.

Here's my lunch. Same old same old.

It stopped snowing by the afternoon, so I braved the cold and darted across the street for a Bruno's soup. I honestly, can't for the life of me, remember what kind of soup it was!! I always order the vegan option, so I guess I kinda zoned out when I got to the counter...either way, it was delish as Bruno's always is!!

Heart it.

Plus my yummy smart deli "turkey" sando (this time with an extra somethin' somethin'). Yup, I added hummus to break out of the mold. Watch out.


By the time I got off work, I was about to eat the first thing I could get my hands on...this is dangerous overeating/binging territory for me. So, I tried to go to Whole Foods with a semi-game plan and be mindful while shopping.

No such luck. The second my eyes landed on this, I knew it was all over.

WW tandoori naan! Could there be a more perfect carb? (Answer=no!)

I started slow, but let's be honest, there is no way I wasn't going to finish the whole thing. I was starving after all...below is 1/3 of a piece of naan.

(So multiply that by 12 and there's my carbo loading for the night) Yep, I finished the rest of the hummus AND all 4 massive naan pieces.

Last bite :(


And that was just the appetizer.

As if that weren't enough...I got a huge container full of 4 different types of tofu (baked plain, sweet and sour, bbq, and lemon pepper). I was f-u-l-l after a few bites, but for some reason I forged ahead.

Don't worry, I only managed to get through a quarter of the box (which is way deeper than it looks btw) before I called it quits.

Two cups of tea. So full. Bed time.

trouble is a friend, trouble is a foe

My patients are trying to make me FAT!!! Look at all the shit below. I have been collecting all the presents from my patients and their families in my locker for a while now, and I finally just brought it all home (since my locker was overflowing with candy). I still left mentos and lollipops behind though. Talk about an unhealthy work environment! How can I possibly resist all this delish crap? So, I will most likely cave now that I brought it home...

So, I finally got to sleep in today. Hooray for weekends off!

Coffee me!

I lazed around all morning since it was pouring rain outside. No way am I going to the gym in this weather (ignore that horrible non-logic).

So for my brunch I had Nature's Path oatmeal. I made a big bowl to which I added silk vanilla soy milk and cinnamon. Ok, let me preface this by saying I LOVE oatmeal. It is one of my favorite food items of all times, and I could probably eat it for every meal. That said, I don't really like this brand of oatmeal! I've tried making it a few different ways (with water, milk, and soy milk) and it is always so bland. The only way I have successfully made it taste good is by adding in a LOT of peanut butter (which is generally a good rule to improve any dish).

Strawberry soy yogurt for a snack later on :)

Look at me being lazy all afternoon long...tv, internet, drawing, nothingness (love it)!

I had these braided wheat pretzel twists (some with the rest of the hummus I had left over from the other day). Then I had 4 slices of bread and 2 apples with hummus.

I like yellow apples SO much. The red apple was just kinda bleh.

For dinner I took another stab at the tofu spreads from whole foods' hot bar. I didn't quite finish it tonight either!! It's SO good, I just wanna savor it for days and days and days.

But I wasn't full yet, and I needed some carbs (nevermind the entire bag of pretzels I had earlier). So I toasted bread with smart balance butter. I am really just abandoning all self control at this point. Clearly thanksgiving was just the beginning of my downfall. What happened to moderation? No clue.

Then I broke into my goodies that I brought home yesterday. Reese's white chocolate covered peanut butter cups. Orgasmic. I'll pay for it tomorrow, I'm sure!

still stuffed to the brim

Ughhhh.

Too much food. I don't know how I managed to feast and feast and feast - like it was my last meal or something!

Anyways, working the day after t-day was neither pleasant nor comfortable as a result of my out of control eating. I managed to make a sando for myself before work (the same old smart deli turkey).

I had 2 cups of Bruno's coffee (one before work and one on my lunch break) and 2 cups of applesauce that my patient's family brought me (no pic).

Super protein!! Delish odwalla goodness = PM snack.

I was way too tired to go to the gym after work (I can't even remember the last time I had a decent work out). I definitely wanted to sit on my ass and grub without putting in any prep work or cooking. For my first course, I settled on Stacy's pita chips with hummus. There are a few different flavors of Stacy's pita chips, but I always come back to the original (simply baked = simply perfect). I definitely finished the entire bag (yes, the big 10 oz bag), but there was still some hummus left over -- as well as room in my stomach ;)

I treated myself to a whole foods feast (after 3 days in a row at work I figured I deserved some sort of treat). I filled one of the hot bar big boxes with my top 3 favorite kinds of tofu. This was a $$$ treat (I kinda went overboard).

The top portion is my ultimate favorite whole foods hot bar item: "chik'n" salad. It is to DIE for good, but the reason I rarely get it, is that it's kinda fatty, which would be fine if I ate it in moderation. But, we all know I'm not good with that, so this above portion is actually 6 servings. The bottom left tofu is just plain baked tofu. It's another one of my faves, and is simple, but wonderful. Finally, the bottom right corner of the box contains sweet and sour tofu. There was a light sweet sauce drizzled over it that collected in the bottom of the carton. I had about half of the container...it was weird, it didn't look like that much, but I kept eating and eating, and it didn't even appear to make a dent! (Then I remembered how much it cost, which was a LOT, so I guess there was way more there than I thought...it makes sense)

But I couldn't go to bed without dessert!

I had a stack of oatmeal raisin cookies (I won't say how many I actually ate) with a mug of silk vanilla soy milk.

And now I'm just as full as I was yesterday! Eeek!

holy september

I can’t even believe it is already September again, it has now been a YEAR since I have been in NYC and I am happier than ever (insert mushiness here). Anyways, today I wasn’t that sore, but I was still WAY glad to be getting a massage in the evening. Also, Kyle was getting home from Las Vegas so it was a double-y good day.

The AM started with this deliciousness. Coffee/latte with ff milk and ff vanilla creamer. Then I went to the gym for a low key work out to stretch myself out from yesterday and cool down. For lunch I had some sweet and sour tofu from WF and cantaloupe.

The tofu was good, the cantaloupe was great. The combo of sweet and spicy hot food with cool fresh fruit was kinda awesome. Then I got my massage, met up with Kyle and walked home with him and got dinner ready (and by got dinner ready, I mean microwaved).

Dinner was this vegan Indian food from WF hot bar. I liked some of it more than others, like the rice combined with the pea dish was really good, but the potato slices were kinda dry. I ended up giving the dish on the far left to Kyle because I got full and didn’t really like it too much. Plus he kept commenting on how great it all smelled so I could sense he was interested in trying it out. I don’t remember if I had dessert or not…maybe an apple?