Bloggy Break

Happy Monday everyone!


Hope you all had a fabulous weekend and got in a good dose of roof-raising :) Or at least did some relaxing. As I mentioned yesterday, I was off in Detroit at the MPA Convention all weekend and it was positively awesome.


I have been sort of slacking in the picture taking department lately, especially with regards to my food. The truth is, I pretty much eat the same kinds of boring food every day and don't want to bore you all or clog up my blog with a thousand pictures of oatmeal, spinach salads, and LaraBars. Although, I did mix it up tonight with my frozen shrimp and sweet potatoe critters (impulse buy last month):

Plus broccoli. Because I need more veg in my life.

In addition to eating boring food and epically failing at taking pictures of it, I have been WAY BUSY with school lately. It's been kind of hard the last couple weeks to find time to actually write decent posts. Any extra time I get is devoted to sleep right now. I mean, look at these shadows that pharmacy school has permanently engraved under my eyes:

So attractive.


This week is no different. I had an exam today, class all day tomorrow, class on Wednesday, work all day Thursday, and another big exam on Friday. I have so much work to do for my classes and too many TV shows to catch up on that I know I'll just end up spamming my blog with more lackluster posts. Plus, I haven't been able to keep up with and comment on all of your lovely blogs either and that makes me sad because I absolutely love reading them! Therefore, I've decided to take the week off from blogging. I just really need to focus on school this week and with Friday being the start of spring break, I know I'll be able to catch up in the blog world next week :)



Of course, you know me and my blogging addiction and chances are I will have at least one post up between now and then but we'll see.



Have a great week everyone and don't worry, I'll still be checking my Google Reader whenever I get bored in class, which is often.



Until we meet again, this is Berg signing out.

That photo's from Vegas last year. I've always wanted to post it on here ;)

MPA ACE

Hey everyone! Hope you all are having a great weekend! I've been having a blast here at the Michigan Pharmacist Association Annual Convention and Exposition. It's held on the last weekend of February every year at the Detroit Renaissance Center for pharmacists and students. It's a great networking opportunity and it's always fun chatting with other students as well as getting advice (and connections!) from other pharmacists all around the state. Here's a brief rundown of our weekend!


We (Eric, Aimee, Brad, Gina and myself) arrived Friday afternoon and picked up our registration packets, ate some Subway, and then headed to the Student Social.

The "ambassador" part of my name tag indicates that I was participating in their Adopt-a-Student program, where a pharmacist agrees to "adopt" me and pays for my dinner ticket to the Annual Banquet on Saturday night. In exchange, we students help out at one of the various CE (continuing education) classes that they offer for pharmacists all weekend.

Saturday I had to be up bright and early to introduce the speaker at my CE and that was not very fun after being out fairly late on Friday night. After I did that, I hit up the hotel gym with Aimee and did about 35 minutes of cardio on the StairMaster and stationary bike. We layed around the hotel the rest of the afternoon and I napped a little before going to a student OTC (over-the-counter) Jeopardy-style competition.

Saturday night was the banquet, and that was a lot of fun because I ended up getting placed at a table with some pharmacists that work for the company that I intern at. I also love the banquet because we get all pretty and stuff ;)

Of course, CE classes and fancy dinners are not the only things that made up our weekend...we always squeeze in time for drinking with pharmacists at the hotel bar fun ;)

This morning I was itching to run since I haven't done it since my bloody blistered long run on Wednesday. My blisters still aren't healed but they're a lot better, so I wrapped them up good and gave it a go. I did a slow and steady 3.0 miles and it went great! Pretty stoked about that.



And now for your entertainment, I present you with these:

I'm off to make a humungo salad for dinner. Time to get back on track after a calorie-packed weekend!


Have a great night!


Have you ever been to a convention?

Priorities

I don't talk about it much on the blog, but I am actually fairly interested in bodybuilding and fitness competitions. I don't ever plan on competing myself, but I really like following the current events in that sport. I enjoy following the women's competitions the most: fitness, figure, and bikini. Amanda Latona is one of my favorite competitors. She is an IFBB (International Federation of Bodybuilders) Bikini Pro and I love reading her blog. She is so motivated, dedicated, and truely inspirational. I admire her tenacity and how hard she works to achieve her dreams. Plus, she has the most rockin' body I've ever seen ;) I can't wait to see her compete at The Arnold next weekend!!

Tonight I was pumped to hit the gym and do Amanda's glute work-out that's featured in the latest Muscle and Fitness Hers.

Holy macaroni this workout kicked my butt! (no pun intended..heh) I did all of it except the reverse lunges and I only did one set of the cable kickbacks because I was sort of having technical difficulties with the equipment. I also added in some calf raises to the routine. My booty's gonna be sore tomorrow, that's for sure!

Random: I have been eating the most amazing broccoli and mushroom casserole that I made on Sunday every single night this week. Even though it tastes foodgasmic, it's not exactly appealing in the looks department; hence the lack of pictures of my dinners the last few days.

Exhibit A:

Yeah, it pretty much looks like a pile of mush. But a delicious pile of mush ;)

I'm off to get some shut-eye, I'm leaving for a pharmacy convention tomorrow! Is it weird that I decided to get a jump start on packing but all I did was assemble my workout gear and sweats for the weekend?



Priorities.

Are there any sports that you like to follow or watch but don't actually participate in? Have you ever been to a fitness exhibition before or would you like to someday?

There's A Reason For Those Socks

I've unofficially deemed Wednesday as my "long run" day. I say unofficially because I am not really following any specific training plan; I kind of make it up as I go along. Hey, it works for me. Anyways, for the last week I've been planning on running 5 miles today. I know 5 miles might not qualify as a long run for a lot of you, but that's definately decent mileage in my book. Unfortunately, this morning it seemed like God was sending me sign after sign to not run:

• My knee was still hurting from yoga yesterday.
• I forgot my wool running socks, which alway results in me getting horrible blisters.
• The cable was out at the gym; can you say boring?
• Who wants to run 5 miles anyways? Let alone on a treadmill?

Regardless of the plethora of excuses I had to skip my run, I dragged myself onto that treadmill anyways. I did a one mile warm-up to test out my knee and it actually felt fine once I started running. Then I stretched and busted out another 4 miles.


A peek inside my mind:

Mile 0-1.0: Hey, my knee feels awesome! I am totally gonna rock these 5 miles!
Mile 2.0: I really wish the cable was working here. I'm sick of staring at myself in the mirror. I'll just discretely people-watch.
Mile 2.3: Hey, he's kind of cute.
Mile 2.4: Wow, so is he.
Mile 2.5: Geez Krista, stop being such a perv!
Mile 3.3: Ok, I can really feel the blisters now. These are going to hurt by the end of this run.
Mile 4: Yeah, I'm definately going to be bleeding through my socks.
Mile 4.3: Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Blisters. hurt. so. bad.
Mile 4.5: Suck it up Krista! If you quit now you'll have endured all this pain for nothing! Finish your damn run!
Mile 5.0: Wow, not only did I bleed through my socks, but...

I will never forget my running socks again.

I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but today's run was actually worth the pain. I set a new distance record for myself and I scorched almost 700 calories. Not too shabby if ya ask me ;)

Total distance: 5.0 miles

Time: 50:49

Calories: 694

Came home and refueled with a fabulous lunch:

Gorgeous salad with all my favorite toppings and some Ezekiel toast.

UH-MAY-ZING.

One last thing before I leave: Did any of you catch The Biggest Loser last night? Can you believe the Black Team?! How much weight they all gained just to throw the weigh-in?! I hate it when teams lose sight of the real prize and forget that the whole point of the show is lose weight and get healthy, not strategize and try to plan out who's going to be sent home. Come on people, get it together.

Have a great night :)

What's the worst injury you've ever gotten from running? Do you have any problems with blisters?

I Stand Determined

I just got back from my first yoga class, and I loved it! Unfortunately, I felt like I spent more time thinking about the poses and focusing on my balance than I did on actually relaxing, but I have a feeling that's normal for first-timers. I definately had my moments though where I was so relaxed that I could have fallen asleep! I could chill in Child's Pose all day :)


Some more of my thoughts on my first yoga experience:

• Get a spot in the back of the class if you don't want people staring at your ass the entire time. I feel sorry for all of the people behind me.
• Socks are annoying, but there's no way they're coming off. I'm going to have to look into buying more "slip-resistant" ones. Are there any other weirdos out there like me who refuse to bare their feet during yoga and have some good sock recommendations?
• My knee hurts. Bad.
• I need to do some MAJAH toning in my arms! Holy Warrior II. It was like I had wings flapping around while I was standing there.

Source

One last thing about the class that I wanted to share with you: We did headstands. Well, the other people did headstands. As soon as I heard the instructor say that's what we were doing, I thought, ha, there's no way these old other women are going to be able to do a headstand. Boy was I wrong.

Before she could even finish giving instructions there were legs popping up in the air all over the place. Ok, if they can do this, then surely I can, I thought. Um, not so much. I did manage to get my legs in the air, but only held them up for about one second before they fell forward onto the floor. I started to laugh at myself, and the instructor saw me and laughed too. After class, I told her that I'd be practicing that all week.



I bet she didn't think that I meant tonight.

You better believe I held that pose for a whole minute.






Please tell me that you didn't actually believe that.

I can say that I will be rockin' that headstand next week.

Have you ever been to a yoga class? How was your first experience? Any tips?

Now I Know My ABCs

Thank you Maryann for giving me something to post today :)

(A) Age: 22

(B) Bed Size: double

(C) Chore You Hate: Chore? As in, singular? Um, I’m pretty sure I hate all chores in general. Or anything that involves any type of work.

(D) Dogs? Love them! I’ll definitely be getting one when I get my own place, after I get my seven cats that is.

(E) Essential Start Your Day Item: I have to agree with Maryann on this and say food! Duh!

(F) Favorite Color: green and purple

(G) Gold or Silver? Also with Maryann here, definitely silver if you’re talking about jewelry.

(H) Height: 5’ 6”

(I) Instruments You Play: I played clarinet for seven years in junior high and high school.

(J) Job Title: Pharmacy student and intern at Meijer Pharmacy

(K) Kids: Talk to me in ten years

(L) Live: Grand Rapids, MI

(M) Mom's Name: Debbie

(N) Nicknames: Berg, Berg Berg, K-Berg, Krita, Bergstradomous; plus all of Eric’s nicknames for me, which include Skanktastic, Skankasorous and Skankzilla among others that I really can’t list here because they might be slightly offensive to some. (To be fair, I have equally derogatory nicknames for him as well.)

(O) Overnight Hospital Stays? None yet

(P) Pet Peeve: When people ask me “what I do to lose weight,” like I’m on The Adkins Diet or something. Um, I do what you’re supposed to do: I eat right and exercise! 

(Q) Quote from a Movie: “Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people don’t shoot their husbands. They just don’t.” - Can you name my favorite movie?

(R) Right or Left Handed? Right

(S) Siblings: 1 younger sister, Courtney

(T) Time You Wake Up? Depends on the day of the week and my school/work schedule, but anywhere from 6:15-7:30.

(U) Underwear: Um, yes, I wear that sometimes.

(V) Vegetable You Dislike: I classify my vegetables into two categories: Those that I absolutely despise and those that I can choke down. The ones that are too gag-a-licious for the choke-down category include brussel sprouts, zucchini, asparagus, and beets.

(W) What Makes You Run Late: Spending too much time reading blogs in the morning, bad roads in the winter, traffic

(X) X-Rays You've Had Done: My foot when I broke it a couple years ago

(Y) Yummy Food You Make: I steal other people’s recipes. I make one heck of a spinach salad though.

(Z) Zoo, Favorite Animal: Is that weird that I’ve actually never been to the zoo?

Anything suprise you about me? I like to think I'm pretty predictable.

Target Made Me Buy It

Remember yesterday when I wrote about how sunny it was outside and posted a lovely picture of my dorktastic self in our backyard? Well, here's what our backyard looks like now:

And the snow's just gonna keep on coming:

Maybe another snow day is in our future...?


Yeah, I'm not getting my hopes up either. We're never that lucky.


......................


Last night, Melissa came to visit! We went to Pietro's for dinner. Started off with some rolls:

And I went with the margarita pizza (+ mushrooms added) for my entree:

Could have used a little more cheese, but obviously that didn't stop me from eating it.

Melissa is much classier than I am.

After dinner we hung out at Meijer and then Target because that's how cool people spend their Saturday nights. At Meijer we stumbled upon some interesting things, like a can of green beans as big as my head:

I also wish I had a picture of the guy's face who walked by behind Melissa when she took this photo. It was like he thought we were strange or something for taking pictures of ourselves with giant cans of vegetables.

Target is notorious for making me buy all kinds of things whenever I go in that store that I had no intentions of buying. That's right, the store makes me buy it. Last night's random assortment included a jar of peanut/almond/cashew butter, a huge box of fruit strips, a casserole dish, and a hot pink sports bra.

I don't ask questions, I just buy what the store tells me to buy.

After our crazy night out, we came home and chilled with Eric at our apartment. I snacked on some of these crack-a-licious chocolates that Melissa got me for Valentine's Day because she's amazing:

I love low-key nights with friends. They're my favorite :)

Tonight's to-do list includes:

• Submitting preferences for my pharmacy rotation sites (I start rotations in June!!)
• Cooking a broccoli and mushroom casserole for dinner that I prepped this morning
• Studying for my pharmacy law exam on Tuesday

Sometimes my life is so exciting that I don't know what to do with myself.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

How did you spend your Saturday night? Are there any stores that you can't walk out of without making a purchase?

This Pose Makes Me Look Really Skinny

Good afternoon friends! Hope you've had a rockin' Saturday so far :) I know I have!


I was still not feeling completely up to par this morning, but I was feeling much better; at least well enough for a run! Well, after I fully embraced the sunny weather, that is.

Yes, there is still snow on the ground but I braved the cold anyways because I am hardcore like that ;) I ran 3 miles and this time I timed it on my iPod: I finished in 30:24. All I can say is that I hope Map My Run is accurate because that's really good for me! Despite the fact that it felt like my chest was bleeding when I was done (probably shouldn't have pushed it so hard quite yet..), I was stoked.


I had a Caitlin-inspired grilled banana sandwich for breakfast before I ran, which I made with chocolate sunflower butter. Yuuuurrrrmmmmmy.

The rest of my morning/afternoon consisted of:

• Catching up on Grey's Anatomy
• Reading blogs
• Laundry
• Grocery shopping
• Eating an epic salad
• Being lazy
• Munching on this yogurt bowl:

Raw oats, strawberry yogurt, blueberries and chia seeds

 
• Having a Myspace photo shoot

Wait, I can't cross that off. That really did happen.

What? You didn't post pictures of yourself with your mouth wide open
on YOUR Myspace?

Emo:





Duck face?



Only MY duckface would be that crooked.





"This pose makes me look really skinny!"

Classic:

If you still read my blog after reading this post, I will love you forever.



Alright ladies and gents, I'm off!

Does anyone even still have a Myspace these days?

I do, but I never use it. This photo shoot was for blog purposes my own entertainment only.