Fat FEMBA

Halfway through the first quarter! Stats exam went okay, OB paper was submitted on time, a bunch of us celebrated with beer and ice-cream (Diddy Riese!) and for the first time in a week, I slept more than 5 hours last night.

But now comes my first major grouse about this whole work and study thing. FEMBA is making me unfit/unhealthy/fat.

How? Well, for starters (no pun intended), the program provides breakfast before class every weekend. There is -

1. Oatmeal/Cereal/Fruit/Orange juice

2. Bagels/Doughnuts/Croissants/Cakes/Scones/Muffins/Coffee

They're all laid out together but you can guess why I separated them. Which category do I help myself to? #2 of course. After waking up at 6am and driving two hours to school, I automatically gravitate towards the sugar and carbs! To make matters worse, there's no lunch available nearby and I always forget to pack a sandwich. So I've been skipping lunch and helping myself to the snacks which are laid out for the afternoon class. Cookies/cereal bars/some raw fruit and veggie and coffee. As a result, by the end of the day I've had about 7 servings of sugar and 5 cups of coffee. 

Even on weeknights, I don't find time to cook so I haven't been eating fresh or healthy. And given how busy I've been juggling school and work, I haven't been working out much either. Just 5 weeks of FEMBA and I'm already finding it hard to run 5K!

When I started the program, I was resigned to the fact that I wouldn't be regularly running/hiking/biking on the weekends anymore, but I never thought my entire diet and fitness regimen would come crashing down like this. I know it's not the program's fault, I just need to re-prioritize and plan my time better. I'm going to seek inspiration from classmates - the one who wakes up at 5am to workout, the one who ran 36 flights of stairs everyday at lunch, and the ones who are always training for some marathon or the other. If they can incorporate fitness into their schedules while juggling all the same responsibilities as me, I'm sure I can too! Time to haul my sorry ass to the gym now.

p.s.:

In the spirit of Halloween, the caterers got creative with our afternoon snacks yesterday. Ghosts and bats in my veggies! :)

p.p.s.:

Despite my rant, I don't regret pigging out at Diddy Riese. They have the BEST custom ice-cream sandwiches for just $1.50 and I can see why the place is such a UCLA legend. The espresso choc-chip flavor rocked my world and I don't even normally like ice-cream! Thanks to AH for taking us there:)

Mid-term week

Stats mid-term + 3 papers to read for OB along with a group case analysis due Saturday. Too much FEMBA work, and as it happens, too much work-work as well. I find myself unable to elegantly navigate between studies and my day job. When I'm working I'm worrying about studying and the case write-up, but when I sit down to study I start worrying about completing my project in time for the big meeting. And when it all becomes too much for my poor brain, I can't function at all. That's when I escape to blogs/gmail/facebook. A friend aptly captured this propensity here.

Don't be surprised if I change my profile picture everyday or post frequent status messages, or "like" all your updates on Facebook. I'm not bored, I'm just stressed. Okay, and maybe I really do like your update.

p.s. - Perhaps it's time for all my fancy time management gimmicks to kick in.

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head

It is gray and rainy outside and I'm loving every bit of it. 


When I was around 8, I remember running outside to get wet in the first rains of the season, sailing paper boats in the flood waters, being punished for jumping in dirty puddles...
At 15, I remember studying for the boards with soft music playing as the rain lashed on my window, often reading by the emergency light because the rain had felled some electricity pole nearby. I remember throwing open the window in the school bus to get drenched on the way back home, and then drying my soaked books with a hair dryer before my mom found out.
At 20, I remember enjoying "cutting chai" and spicy "vada paav" in the college cafe as it poured outside, I remember sitting on wet seats in the buses and auto-rickshaws and entering the classroom dripping wet and very late, I remember watching the rains from the sloped terrace of our engineering school...


I will always remember the smell of first rains on parched Indian soil, the promise it brought far out-weighing the inconveniences. 


Oh California rains, you don't come close to the Mumbai monsoons, but I'll take what I get. 
In honor of the current weather, my typical Pandora and Youtube playlists have been replaced by old songs dedicated to the rains. And no bitching about the weather on Facebook :)


Raindrops keep fallin' on my head
But that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turnin' red
Cryin's not for me
'Cause I'm never gonna stop the rain by complainin'
Because I'm free
Nothin's worryin' me...
(from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid)