Sofia Alejandra

Day UNO

Okay I cheated. But in my defense it was a responsible cheat. I opted for a different salad...plus two cookies. Shhh.

So I know it has been a LOOONG time since I last wrote. Much has changed. I am a very busy junior this semester. I work, work, work and then I Netflix.

But as a reinstatement, and sort of like a 14-day blog challenge, I will be documenting my journey through Buzzfeed's Clean Eating Challenge.

Lets get something straight, I am no good at following plans. I get bored easy, frustrated and lazy. But there was something about this challenge that intrigued me.

First, it's incredibly organized. The weekly shopping list, menu and recipes are neatly laid out for 14 incredible days of clean eating.

Second, take a look at the recipes. They are incredibly delicious and so easy. Plus you get three meals and two snacks EVERYDAY.

There are some downsides though.

It is not vegetarian friendly. There is some chicken and some fish. As a vegetarian, I did not buy the chicken and instead I will supplement with more eggs or beans, quinoa etc. So that's a manageable obstacle.

Also, it is kinda expensive. I didn't even buy all the first-week ingredients and I spent $81! For one week, one person. Talk about motivation to keep doing the challenge. Was that intentional Buzzfeed?

Anyways, I highly recommend you try it out, or even get inspiration for some healthy options to add to your daily meals.

Now for how day one went.

Breakfast: a delicious green smoothie. The recipe called for kale, I chose spinach. Nothing personal to kale its just I really like spinach (this is Spinach Strength after all). Honestly though, I'm scared of a kale smoothie. I made one a long time ago and it was yuck. I pretended to drink it cause I felt bad for wasting food, but then I couldn't handle it anymore and I fed it to the plants (plant cannibalism?).

Lunch: This is were I deviated and had a goat cheese, roasted red pepper salad with falafel and pita slices from Hummus Cafe.It was delicious. No ragrets.

Snack 1: I deviated again (isn't the first day supposed to be the strongest?). I had two cookie butter cookies. Yummy.

Dinner: I made the lunch salad for dinner,the asparagus salad. WOW. It was really really good. I added some balsamic to the dressing (it was just lemon), and fried mah egg. I love asparagus and this was great.

Snack 2: My last deviation from the plan, I promise, but I was craving all day my tortilla with peanut butter, honey and granola. Currently, more addicted to peanut butter than ever before so it was a sanity treat.

Overall this clean eating thing is not so bad. For once my tummy does not feel bloated and I am not tired. Right on. I am actually so excited for the coming days.

The Clean Eating Challenge: Day 1

By Unknown

Day UNO Okay I cheated. But in my defense it was a responsible cheat. I opted for a different salad...plus two cookies. Shhh. So I know ...

Ebola is out of control. And no, by that I don't mean that it's going to infect you because it's not.

The ebola I'm referring to is the one the media has decided to hype up for the past couple of weeks. That ebola is different then the true ebola, that we might as well call it "mebola" = media ebola.

I am flabbergasted at the mebola coverage. For starters, its creating unnecessary fear. No, you will not get ebola. Believe it or not, ebola is actually easy to contain with proper equipment.

The reason it spread so quickly in West Africa was because:

the symptoms (fever, nauseous, vomiting, diarrhea to name a few) are so generic to other illnesses that people initially didn't realize it was ebola.
the facilities, like in most rural areas in West Africa, do not have proper equipment or space to house all ebola patients. Dr. William Fischer, II, who recently spoke at a Fast-a-thon in my school about his travels to Guinea to help treat ebola patients, said there were hospitals he went to where patients were literally lying outside. At other hospitals he came saw pools of blood which had been there for 3 days.
there aren't enough trained healthcare workers
there is a lack of education about the disease and how to treat it
according to Dr. Fischer another reason is the mistrust between the locals and the government.

An interesting point Dr. Fischer made during his presentation was that the patients he saw were not coughing up blood or ill-looking. Contrary to the images that the media has presented, these patients looked just like you and me normally do, properly groomed or not.

The worst symptom that Dr. Fischer saw was the diarrhea. I know, not something you want to discuss at the dinner table, but even the bloody diarrhea is not as common as the media makes it out to be. As Dr. Fischer said in his blog, "Hemorrhagic complications occur only 50-60% of the time and many of them are mild (bloody diarrhea and hematemesis [vomiting of blood]). It is different than what the movies and books have projected although I suspect that early descriptions came from end stage cases that received little care."

Furthermore, ebola is only contagious if you come into direct contact with an infected person's secretions such as blood, organs or other bodily fluids. It's also only contagious once the person starts to show symptoms. So unless you go kissing someone with ebola, touching a bloody pillowcase, share a needle or do something along those lines, you will not get ebola from breathing the same air. Chill. Especially you Gov. Christie.

Unfortunately, there is no cure, as of now, for ebola. I am sure they are working on one, but with proper containment, we have nothing to worry about. Especially here in America.

Also, it is important to highlight the work of the health workers, whether they are locals in West Africa or ones traveling from America. What they are doing is incredibly courageous.

Image from:
http://wunc.org/post/listen-doctor-tried-save-boy-ebola-virus

So what can we do? First, put your fears to rest because there is no way that you will contract ebola. Secondly, you can start educating other people with the truth behind ebola and hush those media outlets. Yes I love the media, I am a journalist after all, but sometimes they think like this: <ratings. You can also join the ebola grand challenge and help come up with better suit designs for health workers. The suits that they currently have to wear can get very hot. You can find more information here. FYI: this is not acceptable.

Lastly, according to the World Health Organization, it was through fruit bats that ebola originated. Then humans got it from direct contact with animals such as chimpanzees, monkeys and antelopes. Isn't there something fishy about most of our health outbreaks occurring from some form of contact with animals? Just think about that.

EBOLA? I meant ABUELA.

By Unknown

Ebola is out of control. And no, by that I don't mean that it's going to infect you because it's not. The ebola I'm referr...

A blog of quotes

By Unknown

Work hard in silence. Let your success be your noise . Everything you want is on the other side of fe...

I have to be honest, my sleep patterns have drastically evolved these past few weeks. I used to be a morning person, but now I am more of a zombie. I do not sleep. So while I continue to awaken at 7:30 a.m., I also go to be at 2 a.m. This is incredibly unhealthy I realize that, but I am working on it.

Believe me the headaches and developing coffee addiction is not worth it.

Either way, I speak to all you sleep-sane individuals who happen to also be morning people. (P.S. my definition of a morning person is someone who wakes up early regardless of whether they are chirpy or grouchy). If you are waking up early either by choice or not and find yourself wasting away the hours, listen up:

YOU SHOULD BE WORKING OUT.

Yes, lets mix some heart pumping cardio into the morning grudge. Trust me exercise will instantaneously make you feel alive and full of energy.

Speaking from personal experience, I have listed below some of the benefits I have found to working out in the morning.

Numero one: get up, work out, be done. One of the greatest benefits to working out in the morning is that you are done with it early and can continue your day without that burden and constant battle of whether to workout or not. We have all been there, your gym shoes, gym clothes and clock are staring at you. They whisper for you to go and workout, yet your body is telling you "no." It's kinda like the usually a procrastinators' secret to not procrastinating working out.

Numero two: apparently you burn more calories. If you workout first thing in the morning before breakfast, your body uses its stored fat as energy. So you are burning dem jiggles away.

Numero three: it literally wakes you up. Yes it takes a tad bit more will power to get up, but afterwards you will feel amazing. Incredibly energized and ready to tackle the day. So instead of using a bucket of cold water to wake up just exercise. Simple.

Numero four: you'll be a loner. Being a loner, in my opinion, is only great if its at the gym. When there are crowds of people it is uncomfortable AND there is probably someone already on your machine. Annoying I used to know, I do not anymore because I workout in the morning.

So get out of bed sexy loser, and go workout!