This morning I woke up with a terrible headache and a sore throat. Instead of moping around about it, I decided a trip to the gym would help make me feel better. The whole time the lovely fella was here the past week, I only went to the gym twice. Not a huge deal, but it was nice to go back.
Upon returning and the sore throat still going strong, I thought a green monster would be a good cold prevention device.
Breakfast: Green Monster with 3/4 banana+ 2 handfuls of spinach + 5 frozen strawberries + 2 ice cubes + cold water, toast + Naturally Nutty + 1/4 banana and coffee.
Delicious. The only downside to Naturally Nutty is that it doesn’t really melt or spread that easily. Most nut butters melt on oatmeal or hot toast, this really doesn’t. Oh well. Still delicious!
So I’ve decided to make March less stressful than February. Why March? The last week of March is Spring Break, which should be the ultimate relaxation, but I also don’t want to get myself so frazzled in the time leading up to Spring Break that I’m too exhausted to enjoy it. So I’m instating a 9-5 work day for myself.
Here’s the idea: since I’m a student, I lack a strict schedule. I have classes at different times at on different days, and I’m sort of just all over the place. So for this month (and beyond?) I’m testing out a “work day.” I’ll leave the house and go to my 10:00am class then stay on campus until 5 or 6 or even 7 pm, 5 days a week. In between classes, instead of coming home claiming to get reading done while actually fooling around on the internet, I will go to the library or computer lab to get things done, as I tend to be more productive there. That should give me ample time to get everything done. Then I can come home and have minimal work to do.
This will take a little more planning with regard to meals but it’s totally do-able. My hope is that with this schedule, I’ll be more productive and therefore less stressed. I want home to be a place of relaxation, not frustration which leads to overeating.
So today is day one!
Lunch is packed (extra vitamin C since I feel a cold coming on!):
Cucumber slices and carrot sticks with hummus for dipping, sliced kiwi and a cutie!
A sweet potato baked earlier this week and a veggie patty.
All together, ready to go!
See you tonight! (I’m hoping to finally get around to make an eggplant dish I bought ingredients for about a week ago! They’re starting to go bad!!)
Have a fantastic Wednesday! 2 days til Friday!
P.S. Don’t forget to go to Mara‘s blog and vote for my penguin olives for the Cuteiversary Contest!
Foodologie 
Hey! I just stumbled on your blog from Give Me Bananas. Are you from Berkeley/went to Cal? I go to Cal now and saw your mug and got excited 🙂
Sounds like a great plan. Stress is really draining, but manageable. We face a lot of the same issues that you do, but we work at home, so sometimes we change the rooms we work in just to have a change of pace and less distractions.
Hope you feel better! All this snow must have brought us some yuckiness, huh? 😦
Jenn
Boo– I’m sick too 😦
Do you have fun plans for your spring break?
That’s a really good idea! I might try that next semester because this semester all my classes are back to back.
I love that you used a baby food jar for condiments 🙂
It’s actually an empty garlic jar 🙂 But it worked great!
I’ve done something similar and it worked so well! I would no matter what start studying at 8 and go till 4 with some regular breaks. On days with classes I would study a little before and after them. I loved having nights off and I felt less stressed and tired. When I did this I was at home most of the time and it worked for me but lately I can’t seem to study at home. I keep blogging instead 🙂 I think I’m going to try your thing and study at school. I need some discipline! I just hate carrying textbooks to school! This post was so motivating, thanks Karla!
Yummy snacks and breakfast! I’ve yet to have a green monster. My blender might as well be a dull butter knife.
Last semester I had a couple hours to kill on campus in between classes, that wasn’t worth driving home for. Ended up that everyone of my friends were in class at the time, which left me with nothing to do – except get work done! I was more successful and well rested last semester than any other, haha. So good for you for striving to make march stressless 🙂
And I don’t think I mentioned yet how cute those penguins are.
Oh no, you shouldn’t be stressed at all!! And I love that are you are planning making March less stressful when it’s gone by March Madness for the NCAA 🙂 I hope this little experiment works for you or at least gives you some pointers of how to make things a little easier in your day to day.
But at the same time, I want to tell you to screw it and have fun–you’re only in college once and I practically every day I wish I could go back to those days. Being an adult sucks. Hope you have a fun spring break planned!
Yay so you are from Cal! I’m an Economics major and I was actually thinking of going to Cornell for graduate school, weird! What’s Rick and Ann’s? I’ve been trying to go to a lot of new restaurants (outside of the whole Asian Ghetto/Telegraph scene) so I just went to Taste of Himalayas tonight. So good! Have you been there? You should definitely come back and visit! Things are crazy here now, due to the budget cuts and tuition increase. Tomorrow we’re having another strike and it’s going to be crazy.
That eggplant looks fantastic!!! I have actually been oddly craving eggplant parm the past few days, I’m going to have to give this a try!
I think that’s a great goal :). We should all relax a bit more from time to time.
The “workday” plan sounds like a really good one. I wish I had thought of that when I was in school. Let us know how it goes! 🙂