After exploring Germany and Alsace (France), we are leaving for Paris tomorrow !
We will spend five days in Paris, then going to Grenoble by train and finally Milan by bus.
While in Germany we went to Baden-Baden and in France we explored Strasbourg, ate gelato, made crepes, went to a vineyard and a wine tasting.
Here is a list of places we plan to visit in Paris:
_ Arc de Triomphe
_ Tour Eiffel
_ Versailles
_ Les Champs Elysées _ Le Louvre
_ La Conciergerie
_ Montmartre
_ Le Sacré Coeur
_ Notre-Dame-de-Paris
_ La Défense
_ Le Centre Georges Pompidou
_ Le Palais de Tokyo
and many more places ....
we also plan to go see "The Great Gatsby" and meet up with a lot of my friends.
We are happy to inform you that you have been officially admitted to the Asian Studies Program at Kansai Gaidai University for the fall semester of 2013. All the faculty and staff members of the Asian Studies Program are looking forward to welcoming you to our campus. I can not express how excited I am to go study abroad in Japan, it's been one of my biggest dream ! In 2 weeks I will be back home in Europe and I will get my flight ticket for Asia. Until then I pretty much live at the library to be able to pass my finals... :(
After spring break,
I decided to try to eat everyday 5 portions of fruit and vegetable. First of all, it's not cheap at all ! Here in America, fruits and vegetables can be expensive, so when I go grocery shopping I focus on fruits and vegetables that aren't too expensive like: cucumber, grapes, apple, carrots. Of course I wish my 5 portions would be all like strawberries, mango, pineapple... but those can be a bit pricy sometimes like $6 for strawberries :(
Also if you are going to start doing this you need to try to plan ahead and determine how much of what is actually a portion.
An on-going research is trying to show that skin tones change after 6 weeks of eating 5 portions a day.
To help you determine what is a portion this pdf will be very helpfull:
It's Spring Break y'all !
With my sorority sisters, we headed to Destin, Florida for a relaxing Spring Break in a beautiful resort. Even though the weather was not too great, we still got a good day at the beach and the hot tubs. As always we ate a ton of good food, including crab cakes and oysters. I slept pretty much all the way there and back. Now it's time to get a bit of study done because there is only one month of class left before finals. But the great news is that when I got to my computer, I discovered that Kansai Gaidai University got my application in the mail. Crossing my finger to see my status change to accepted...
I have to admit it, I though the diet was going to be the hardest but really the after diet is not easy. I felt a bit lost after three days of only eating what a paper printed from a blog tells me, I just had no idea how I was suppose to feed myself.
But, I kept eating pretty healthy, still have not drink any soda. I had a huge diner at Olive Garden that I did regret, and I also had some Krystal food (never again). After three days of only eating a bit of food do not binge eat after, or eat very greasy food, your stomach will hurt badly, I found out the hard way.
Finally still feel the result of this diet, I might even do it again sometimes this summer.
------------------------------NEXT DIET TO COME------------------------------
the "Five-a-day diet"
a diet for a glowing skin !!! can't wait to try it.
Breakfast--1/2 Grapefruit, 1 Slice of Toast, 2 Tablespoons of Peanut Butter, and Coffee or Tea
Lunch--1/2 Cup of Tuna, 1 Slice of Toast, and Coffee or Tea (any brew, as long as it's caffeinated)
Dinner--3 ounces of any type of meat, 1 Cup of Green Beans, 1/2 Banana, 1 Small Apple, and 1 Cup of Vanilla Ice Cream.
DAY 2: Breakfast--1 egg, 1 Slice of Toast, and 1/2 Banana Lunch--1 Cup of Cottage Cheese (Or 1 Slice of Cheddar Cheese), 1 Hard Boiled Egg, and 5 Saltine Crackers Dinner--2 Hot Dogs, (no buns), 1 Cup of Broccoli, 1/2 Cup of Carrots, 1/2 Banana, and 1/2 Cup of Vanilla Ice Cream
DAY 3: Breakfast--5 Saltine Crackers, 1 Slice of Cheddar Cheese, and 1 Small Apple Lunch-1 Hard-Boiled Egg, and 1 Slice of Toast Dinner--1 Cup of Tuna, 1/2 of a Banana, and 1 Cup of Vanilla Ice Cream
While I was doing the diet, I try to choose three days that were not to busy, they actually end up being two pretty busy days and the third was a study day (saturday). I would actually recommend choosing day were you are a bit busy because it helped me not to think to much about food or what I wish I could eat. Avoid study days or week end, because they are rough you have less things to do so you want to eat all the time (in my case). You need to drink a lot of water !!!! I insist drink a lot, in my water I put a slide of lemon that helps me not to be too hungry.
The idea of going on a diet started when i watched this Ted Talk about "Biohacking"
sorry the video is in french, if you understand french I recommend you watch it.
RESULTS
Breakfasts were the best, they got me enough energy for morning class and were enjoyable to eat. Lunches are the hardest because they are small and not as satisfying, during the afternoons I'm easily tired but after an hour or two of being tired, I feel more energy.
Diners are the best part because the diet lets you eat more.
Overall I have to admit that I probably lost 3 to 4 pounds, overly my belly is flat and I look skinnier. But the best thing that I learn with diet is that, I do not need a huge amount to food everyday, specially junk food. I also learned to control portion. So from now on, instead of eating how much I want, I'll eat how much I need, or at least I will try.
After this diet, I'm going to continue eating like I ate before just reduce a bit on junk food, I might keep on doing the breakfast like the two first days of the diet. Being on a strict diet made me appreciate the fact that I have a high metabolism and that I do not need to diet in general.
The blog where I found this diet, as very long explanation about pretty much any question you could have. It also says that you should continue to work out even the day you are doing the diet, I did not. And after the diet you can take a break of 4 days and start again.
Finally as I already said the aim in my case was not specially to drop weight like crazy but to experiment something new, I never ever diet before so this was a first.
Few days ago I decided to try the popular diet called "The 3 Day Military Diet". Since then, I gain a lot of follower on instagram, and many people asked me question about this diet. The most frequent question is: WHY are you on a diet ?
For those who know me in "real" life, I definitely don not need a diet, specially one that claims, "you can loose up to 10 pounds (so about 5kg) in 3 days." But If you know me you also know that my everyday diet is farrrrrr from being healthy. Some example of breakfast, lunch and diner I had in the past couple weeks.
I don't have a weight problem, and did not do this diet to particularly loose weight but instead to see if I could follow a strict diet without snack or sweet drinks (my weakness) and also to see how my body would react. For those you expect a number to be drop, sorry, I actually don't even own a scale so I don't know my exact weight.
Instead, in my next post I'll share with you the component of this diet, how I felt during these 3 days, how I dealt with cutting portion and for the first time of my life having restriction on food.
"Look at the bigger picture", we heard that all the time, but how little we apply this great advice. We complain a lot in our everyday life, I complain a lot, but I saw that college helped me to look at the bigger picture, to be happy because I am chasing my dream.
Even on a rainy day in Milledgeville with wet feet and not enough sleep, I would not trade this life.
I am currently 70 days and 18 hours away from stepping in a European airport and I have never been so excited to see the Old Continent but I will get the best of my days left in America.
PS: If you read that blog please leave comment on what you would like to hear about (american tradition, college admission, visa, life as a foreign student in America, Go Campus, Calvin Thomas) and which language you would rather me writing in.
January is a wake up call, a cold water bucket thrown in your face. The snow man just slap you in a face with reality. Vacation are over and we are back in school, I am back in school.
18 hours this semester, all I can say if that motivational speech like the Kid President Pep Talk are more than welcome
But with January it's not only about challenges, opportunities come along too and it is a bowl of fresh air with a chance, to do better, to be better and set great goals for this coming year.
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_ Le Louvre
