The Roundup: Green Smoothie Cleanse
Happy Saturday everyone! How was everybody's week? Mine was off to great start last Sunday with hosting brunch for a few of my pals - I made hazelnut french toast, bacon, hashbrowns, and cheddar bay biscuits - so delicious! My friends brought watermelon, waffles, and enough OJ to last the rest of the week. As I mentioned in my last post, I had a lot of fun planning for the brunch and ended up getting some great table and place setting ideas from my mom (moms always have the best ideas).
SInce then, I've been hitting the MCAT books and refining my study technique. I realized that I work much better in the morning and my study would be best served if I study from 8 AM - 4 PM and then hit the gym in the afternoon right before dinner. I get groggy in the afternoons and focus tends to slip, which isn't ideal BUT my test is in the morning, so there may be some serendipity at play here! Later on the week I decided to start another 10-day green smoothie cleanse! I enjoyed detoxing the last time I did it (about 2 months ago), but my 10 days of hard work were challenged by the following 3 weeks during which I received free breakfast and lunch at the office nearly every day - and you know me, I can't turn down free food! So the results of the smoothie cleanse were, needless to say, short-lived. BUT now that I am back to studying at home and going to the gym regularly, I'll be able to (hopefully) keep the weight off! I realized that fluctuations in weight can really determine how you feel when you wake up each morning, and I'm trying to get on round 2 of my healthy kick (round 1 happened around my junior year of college) and try to get myself feeling happy, healthy, and energized!
It's been raining a bunch these last few days and is slated to rain even more this weekend (and early on next week). In preparation, I just grabbed Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez from the library and will be digging into it as soon as I finish The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemac Lemmon - another intern at the SSEC gifted me Khair Khana and I had no idea that was largely nonfiction! I've been enjoying it so far (the times of Taliban rule in the late 1990's largely went over my head as an elementary schooler, but looking back on it, I realize that it's a huge part of Afghan history that millenials saw play out in front of (young) eyes.
I recently finished up And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini, which was absolutely phenomenal. It almost reminded me of Let the Great World Spin: a story about relationships (familial, romantic, and otherwise) - how they begin, how they change, how they grow, and how they can be torn down. This is the first of Hosseini's book that I had ever read and it also offered a (very naive) me a look into Afghan culture and tumultuous history. At it's heart, I think it's about how people grow into who they are through their collective life experience. One storyline that particularly struck me was that of Pari and her mother, Ms. Wahdati. Ms. Wahdati was someone who, traumatized by her past and her own oppressive parents, craved purpose. She thought she would find that purpose in raising a child but, as it turns out, had neither the personality nor the patience for child-rearing. This, in turn, led to an even more turbulance later in her life as Pari began to resent her mother for her constant drinking and boughts of depression (which inevitably brought her close to death and in a hospital). Finally, the vingette that undoubtedly touched many readers is that of Pari and her long-lost (but eventually found!) brother, Abdullah. Hosseini weaves the beginning and end of the novel together perfectly by forcing Abdullah and Pari apart to have them reunited in the final pages. Even this, I think, represents how relationships can change - Abdullah and Pari obviously cannot know each as had as children, but there is also the added relationship between Abdullah (who suffers from dementia now) and his daughter (and primary caregiver). The relationship between Abdullah's daughter and Pari is an interesting one - something that I think was meant to remain somewhat mysterious but also give the reader hope for new and old generations to meld and love one another.
I wanted to finish this post by doing a little showcase of two apps that I have been using lately, both of which are incredibly useful and I'd like to share with as many people as possible! The first of these is called Songza. I don't even recall where I heard of the site, but it's akin to Pandora, Spotify, and GrooveShark! The thing I like about Songza is that it's a great curation site. The playlists are put together by the same people who arrange mixes for major galas, parties, and events of all kinds! You can choose your playlist based on genre, musician, or ACTIVITY! I love the activity options because they have some pretty perfect ones (everything from "tea and me" for your rainy days to "your life is a romantic comedy" for your upbeat days, as well as a range of really great workout playlists)!
The second app that I (just recently) decided to test out is Pocket. This app is a great way to build and keep track of a repository of articles that you'd like to read. I find that I'm always running across articles that I want to read at the most inconvenient of times (i.e., times when I can't actually read them). Pocket has a web browser interface and an iPhone app so you can keep track of everything you want to read! You can add tags, archive things after you've read them, and keep track of your favorite articles so you can share them with friends, family, colleagues, etc. at a later date! Try these two apps out and let me know what you think!
Now I have been having a phenomenal summer - I love the sun, all the yummy and fresh fruits, and of course late nights on the deck (sans mosquitoes) sipping tea with my mom. I've really tried to enjoy and embrace everything that has come my way this summer. That being said, I'm ready for AUTUMN! I'll be starting salsa classes up again soon (first Saturday of September) and absolutely cannot wait for all things fall - pumpkin pie, Halloween, candied apples, chunky sweaters, infinity scarves, flannel - the list goes on and on! So I hope you guys have a brilliant weekend - I'll certainly be nabbing some R&R while I dream of autumn :)
