1. My new camera and photography

My dad just got a brand new D7000 a few months ago so I bought his D80 off him. Then around Father’s Day, I saw a Groupon for two photography classes in Central Park and bought one for each of us so we could take it together. We just took the second one together on Saturday and I loved it! I learned a ton. Here are some photos taken on my D80:

Look forward to some better quality (AKA not taken on my iPhone) pictures around here soon!

2. Qi

Qi’s the name of a Thai restaurant in New York with two locations. I went to the one in Times Square last last Saturday and my dad and I went to the one in Union Square this past Saturday after our photography class. It’s official – this is one of my new favorite restaurants. I love the atmosphere and decor of the place and the food is awesome and reasonably priced.

On Saturday, my dad and I started with the Herbal Coconut Calamari. I feel like calamari is usually a hit or miss for me – I either find it really oily and heavy or light in a you-can-barely-tell-it-was-fried way. This was the latter and I really liked it! Super flavorful and the sweet chili sauce it came with complemented it perfectly.

My dad ordered the Gai-Yang & Som-Tum. It came with two huge pieces of perfectly tender chicken with a dipping sauce, a pickled vegetable and papaya salad, and black forbidden rice. It was delicious!

I had the Triple Mushrooms Gravy. I absolutely love mushrooms so I knew this was what I wanted when I saw it on the menu. It was really flavorful and full of mushrooms, so of course I loved it. I will say that it kind of struck me as just a generic Asian dish though, and not particularly Thai. But it was still good and we finished every bite.

3. Eating clean

The last two dinners I ate at home were both clean and tasty. First up, a roasted zucchini cucumber hummus wrap:

And a black bean burger with zucchini fries. Yum!

I also bought this Muscle Milk last night so I could get my protein fix this morning and it’s not bad! I still prefer my own protein shakes, but this isn’t bad for when I’m trying to clean out the fridge.

4. The fact that I will be in Hawaii in less than 48 hours!

This is why I’m working on cleaning out the fridge. I cannot tell you how excited I was to put on my out of office and get out of the building yesterday at 6 pm! Hawaii, here I come!

I’ve been MIA all week! Has it really been a week since I posted? Whoopsh.

Life has been pretty uneventful for the past week. I’m just counting down the days until I leave for Hawaii – for the record, there are five left with only one workday! Yay!

You know how knowing you have a day off makes the days before go so much slower? Well, considering this is my first vacation all year, the slow day feeling has been times a million this past week. I leave on Wednesday!

On another note, I’ve been eating out more than I should considering I’m about to go on a week and a half long vacation to Hawaii that costs a little bit more than chump change. But it’s been delicious!

Last Saturday, I ate at Qi in Times Square. It’s a Thai restaurant with good food, fast service, and reasonable prices! Total win. I got the tofu pad thai and loved it. My dad and I may be going to the one in Union Square tonight.

On Wednesday, I went to Raaz in Newport for dinner. It’s one of my favorite Indian restaurants, but I usually go for the lunch buffet which is a good deal. For dinner, I ordered the Veg Jalfrezi, a mix of veggies cooked in a tomato-based curry. We also had a basket of naan for the table. I’m still working on those leftovers!

I had two spectacular lunches at work this week. The first: romaine lettuce with corn, bell peppers, quinoa, hummus, and grilled chicken. Loved this combination!

Second: tofu with a sweet chili sauce, hummus with toasted pitas, and roasted zucchini. The tofu was especially good!

At home, I’ve been eating some good stuff too. The other night, I made a veggie burger and roasted zucchini hummus wrap for dinner. Definitely a combination I will have again! And some Rainier cherries on the side, which I recently realized I’m no longer allergic to. I can’t get enough of them now!

Lots of corn. It’s so sweet this time of year! Though I read that the prices will be going up soon due to the drought.

And yogurt bowls whenever I eat breakfast at home. I had this one this morning! Greek yogurt, blueberries, homemade granola, raisins, chia seeds, and peanut butter. I need to figure out a way that I can have this breakfast at work too.

And finally, I have been staring at this picture of my baby Cissie that my mom sent me two days ago. So precious! I miss her.

Tonight my dad and I have our advanced photography course from 6 to 8:30 in Central Park. Can’t wait!

Today was one of my slowest days at work in a while. Some days I’m really busy and want nothing more than one of these slow days, but then when it finally rolls around, I can’t stand it. Having little to do is so much more boring to me than keeping busy! But I think that may just be my type A personality talking.

I meant to write a WIAW yesterday, but never got around to it. I had pictures ready to go and everything, but I was just beat after running some errands after work. So I thought I’d share today!

Breakfast

Love Grown carrot cake granola (so good!), strawberries, blueberries, and a Chobani. Here it is all mixed up!

I’m especially excited to share this one because for once, I had something other than overnight oats for breakfast! My parents just brought two Costco-size boxes of strawberries and blueberries and I’m determined not to let them go bad, so I washed and cut a bunch the night before. I should do this more often.

Lunch

My boss found a place called Energy Kitchen on Hoboken menus and man, was I excited when I saw the menu! Nothing over 500 calories and it all looked delicious. I had a California wrap (hummus, guacamole, roasted red peppers, and cucumbers). Yum! I want to try making this combination at home sometime.

Snack

My building’s cafeteria just put in a Wicked Spoon froyo machine. Mmmmm. This may require a lot of self-restraint.

Dinner

I went for one of my favorite post-workout dinners: veggie protein nachos! I just throw veggie protein crumbles, black beans, and salsa in a bowl and heat it all up. I love that it’s easy and healthy too.

In Hawaii prep news, I just bought an underwater case for my camera online and I think I’ve found the perfect dive shop for my sister and I to go scuba diving with. Off to give them a call back and hopefully book our dive! I’m so excited.

I’ve written before about how I have trouble stopping to smell the metaphorical roses. I’ve always known that I’m the type of person that needs to make a conscious effort to slow down. Otherwise, I end up doing too much and getting burnt out. It wasn’t until last week that I realized that I really need to make more of an effort to “smell the roses” though.

To give some background on this, I struggled with a few stress-related health issues in high school. It took a lot of work, but I eventually got rid of them… up until recently when they resurfaced. In the past month or two, I’ve noticed some changes in my body. Two of them have been discussed on this blog: sleep and stomach problems. The other one is a little too embarrassing for me to be comfortable mentioning online, but it also affected me in high school.

Last Tuesday, I went to my doctor’s office to ask about my recent health problems. She suggested that the the sleep problem may be due to light in my apartment in the morning, which I definitely agree with. She also mentioned that the stomach problem could be a problem with my diet, specifically eating too much fruit and vegetables! Shocking, I know. I know that getting too much fiber can cause digestion problems, but I really didn’t think that I was getting too much. She didn’t totally nix my idea that my stomach problems could be due to stress too, but she did suggest making some small modifications to my diet and seeing how that affects me. Lastly, she confirmed that my suspicions that my more embarrassing problem was caused by stress. She gave me a request form to get my bloodwork done to find out if there could be any hormone issues going on and also a recommendation for a dermatologist in the area. So we’ll see!

With that said, it’s become very clear to me that I need to work on reducing my stress levels and to help me do so, I’m setting some health-related June goals for myself!

Goals for June

- Go to yoga

My gym has yoga classes, but I almost never go. I always prefer to lift weights, run, or row, but I think this would be better for both my fitness in general and my mind. I think I may join in on Courtney’s June Yoga challenge to help me meet this goal, actually!

- Take rest days

This is something I have trouble with. Meg’s recent post about taking more rest days really hit a note with me. I definitely don’t take enough rest days, even when I feel my body needs it. Instead, I often just force myself to push through it, though I’ll know I’ll be better the next day if I do.

I also want to apply this to Sleep and Repeat! Since I started this blog, I’ve felt like I need to share every food-related photo or fitness-related experience I have, which I realized is actually kind of an absurd goal for me. I took a break from the blog this weekend because 1. I didn’t have much to share and 2. I had plans for a rest weekend following my doctor’s recommendations about my stress levels. So as much as I love sharing my life, I’m going to try and pull back and take “rest days” from the blog a little more often as well.

- Eat more balanced

I generally eat very healthy, but according to my doctor, I also need to work on eating more balanced in general. She suggested that I might be getting too many veggies and fruit, so I’m going to try and cut back a little on both and see if that helps my stomach issues.

- Improve my work-life balance

Last week, I worked two 11-hour days. Way too much! It’s not what I’m used to at all. I haven’t mentioned this before since I try to stay away from real-life talk on the blog, but my boss and I are changing groups and our new group manager is a crazy workaholic. I’m talking 6 am to 10 pm days. Insane, I know. I absolutely am not ready for that to happen to me. Luckily, I have the coolest boss ever and he is really understanding of it being my first year in a full-time job. Usually when he offers to let me leave early (early being a relative term to my usual 6 pm leave time), I turn him down. I’m not unwilling to work and I want to make a good impression, but one of my goals is to take him up on that offer a little more in the interest of finding a better work-life balance.

And I’m leaving the June goals at that for now.

Dinner

Tonight’s dinner was a new creation that I think I’ll be throwing together for quick dinners more often: a hummus egg wrap!

Ugly photo, I know. But trust me, it was delicious and super quick! I just slathered a whole wheat tortilla with red pepper hummus, then topped it with spinach, an egg (cooked in the microwave), and a sprinkle of goat cheese. It was literally done in five minutes! The perfect speedy after-work meal.

Just finishing up The Bachelorette and I can’t wait to see who gets booted! I’m loving Arie, Jef, and Sean. Obvious choices, I know. But what can I say, I’m a sucker for reality TV editing. If you’re watching, who are your favorites?