Chocolate and First Barefoot Running Mistake

I'm guilty. I ate like **** while in Switzerland. The first day when we arrived all of the stores were already closed and eating out was way out of budget. Are you serious that McDonald's burger is 8$ and actual food is more along the lines of 30$. So if you ever come to Switzerland remember to pack some $$$, it's quite a pricey country! What did I eat that night? Umm... granola bars dipped in PB! Hey it was delicious! I did go to sleep hungry though with the hopes of a proper breakfast buffet to make up for it.

Oh wait. Did I forget that I was staying in a jail? I somehow managed to eat that stale bread after covering it with tonnes of butter and honey. C'mon, butter makes everything tasty :) For lunch, I went to a grocery store and there it was waiting for me. The gold of all gold (unless you're vegan), what I was waiting for in Switzerland, the gorgeous and ridiculously cheap Gruyere Cheese. Yum! Ate like 200g of it within 2 days. Along with that I bought a huge loaf of bread and went to go sit along side Lake Lucerne. So European care-free style! Until the swans showed up and starred me down to give them some bread...

Saying thanx

The last week has been a bit of a blur. Being busy at the lab, extracurriculars, finishing my last midterm yesterday and much much more. It's been one of those 60+ hour work/study weeks and I'm at the lab at the moment (hopefully I'll have tomorrow off). I'll be honest, I haven't cooked anything this whole week. I pretty much haven't been home during the day and my mom doesn't allow me to cook after 10-11pm. Well technically, I've been making Green Smoothies and maybe cutting up some veggies for a salad but that was it. I have been surviving on PB & J bagels, fruits, granola bars, salads, Kashi cereal, and a bit of fish. I remember when I was living on my own I used to freeze some food whenever I had extras and save it exactly for these kinds of weeks.

I'm actually pretty happy because I have had a Green Smoothie everyday this week and I've been keeping up with my exercises to transition into barefoot running. So those are becoming habits- yay! Apart from that my exams will be starting a week from now and I might be going to Mexico after those are done. Don't quote me on that :P

I found it really cute how there are so many people posting what they're thankful for in their lives. I know that Canadian Thanksgiving has passed a long time ago, but that doesn't mean that I can't right a post about it :P

Going Barefoot

There has been something bothering me for the past few days. My running form has worsened- when I started running in February I used to be a midfoot striker. Now I catch myself constantly lending on my heels. What has happened? Isn’t it an unnatural way to run, if so why have I made it a habit? If only it was a bad habit! It’s making me overprotonate and now I’m having these horrible side ankle pains.

One night I reminisced my childhood and remembered what I used to run in as a kid. It wasn’t sneakers! In fact it looked more like tennis shoes with tiny thin soles. I remember running on a track with small rocks and feeling those rocks through my shoe. Strange, ha? The other thing I realized is that when I run around the house (I do that and jumping a lot), I lend on my forefoot. So I wanted to give barefoot running a try. I started off by running back and forth in my room for about 10 minutes. It felt fine and nothing hurt the next day. I’ve heard that a lot of people have trouble with barefoot running because their foot muscles and calves are weak. I felt fine, but then again I have very muscular calves.

On Saturday I went for a nice 6-7k run outside. The first 4k were a pain, I could barely run. My ankles hurt like **** that by the time I reached the park I just took my shoes off. The last 2-3k were surprisingly pain free while landing on my forefoot. It felt completely different, my feet were more springy and light while my foot turnover dramatically increased. It felt good, natural. Until I noticed broken glass but I didn’t step on that :P

How a green monster made its way into my mouth.

I have confession! I'm not quite sure how it all started but I had kale. I used up most of it to make some kale & ricotta stuffed cannelloni and I had some left over kale. So I was like hmm... I should try one of those green smoothies! That's when it all began.

Where do human stem cells come from?

Before taking stem cells class at my university, I used to think that human stem cells were evil, cruel, unethical monsters! It was basically an embryo obtained after an abortion and hence killed. Well that's far from true today! Technically, it's true in the case of mice. They mate the mice, then sacrifice the female, extract the blastocyst and culture it in a dish.


So how do we get human stem cells?

They come from In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) clinics. When two parents can't conceive a child on their own, a women is given very harsh medicine to make her release multiple eggs at a time (superovulation). The men donates his sperm and the gametes are fertilized in a test tube. Since IVF technology has really progressed, very few (or maybe just 1) of the fertilized eggs are placed back into the women's uterus. The rest of them are frozen for storage. The reason for freezing is in case the procedure doesn't work out,  the women doesn't have to use carcinogenic medicine to superovulate.

Up and Bellow the Alps

Hey Y'all! Sorry if I haven't been commenting on your posts for the last two days. My internet has been a pain in the *** I'll be reading your post, have my comment ready, and realize that my internet crashed a minute ago. Grr! Hence, I'm currently invading my dad's computer :P

On the brighter note, I'll share my journey through the beautiful Swiss City of Lucerne. It's located right by the lake Lucerne which has the most beautiful water. I'd day it's a jade colour and there're so many swans there 0.0 I guess my Canadian geese and squirrels are their equivalent of a swan. I actually fed them some bread :P

Antibiotics and Tofu

It was an ordinary day, I opened my e-mail and checked a particular letter from my universities Institute of Infectious Disease Research. Apparently this week is the Antibiotics Awareness Week! Also, two years ago I used to work in Dr. Loeb's office and apparently they published a new study recently stating that "new cases of C. difficile associated diarrhea among hospitalized patients taking antibiotics can be reduced by two-thirds with the use of probiotics". Probiotics to the rescue! Personally I find all of this probiotic stuff fascinating, it could be one of the big links between nutrition and our health :)

This picture was too cute that I couldn't resist including it!

Over the last two weeks, I have been on a tofu roll. In fact I'm having some tofu for dinner today too. That's what happens when your daddy shows up home with 4lbs of tofu and your undying curiosity wants to experiment with a couple of different recipes.

The first recipe I made was the Szechuan Marinade Tofu. It had a nice gingery and slightly spicy taste. It paired nicely with rice (no duh Chinese food) and kale, so it makes a perfect light meal. Totally a keeper but it really depends if you're into ginger!

Next off, I prepared a very classic Lemon Herb Tofu. This is exactly what you would expect from Mediterranean food- lemon, olive oil, basil, oregano, and thyme. The only change I made was that I subbed honey for agave syrup. If you're have guests coming over and need to quickly whip something up, this is the perfect marinade. Who doesn't like the simplicity of a few herbs?

Then I got creative and made Honey Mustard Tofu. The recipe was funky, but in a good way. I wouldn't recommend making it for guests because it might be a little to much for their taste buds. It would also be pretty hard to pair with things unless it's quite plain like rice. To be honest I ate it just the way it was as a post-workout snack. Lots of Dijon Mustard Goodness!

Lastly, I tried Ellen's BBQ Tofu. It required a bit more ingredients but so worth it! The sauce is to die for and is filled with some many different flavours 0.0 I made a few changes in that I actually marinaded the tofu beforehand (I really liked that sauce... I drank some too) and I used red wine vinegar in place of cider vinegar. Definitely a keeper recipe ^^

That was a lot of Tofu, technically my parents helped me consume it... Whoever said that tofu is tasteless lied, don't believe them :P

Have you guys been experimenting with any new foods/ recipes?

Height and Dress Sizes

These days women tend to talk a lot about dress sizes... It's shameful but true :( Not quite sure how it goes but you know you're small if you're size 4-6, medium if you're 8-10, and so forth, right? However, what the **** do these numbers mean and gee they're so not standardized...

I will not complain complain about my size, but I do want to express my frustration with labels. Often times I feel like women think that something around a size 6 is ideal (highlight on the women think). Ideal for who? What height?

If you're of an average female height, I am probably a head taller then you. I'm supposed to be bigger then you, I'm supposed to weight more then you and for goodness sake my waist should also be wider. I'm talking significantly... According to the BMI chart, I'm supposed to be 15lbs heavier than a typical 5'5" women. In fact being 125lbs is slightly overweight for a 4'11" women and almost underweight for my 5'8" frame. 

The Black Forest

Have you guys ever heard of the Black Forest. Yes, that's the area of Germany where the Black Forest Cake (BFC) originated from. Well that's the first association that came to my mind, hehe... To be honest, I've always hated store bought BFC. It is way too sweet and tastes fake. That's when I came upon  some original German BFC and bought myself a piece. It was hands down DELISH! It was not sweet at all, but instead was rich and creamy. Later on I was inspired to make some BFC myself which turned out a success.

Going back to the Medieval World

You think I forgot about my Europe stories? Well never fear! I got some pictures from my friend and I'm back on track with that ^^ Today I'll take you back to the little Medieval Town of Heidelberg in Germany.

Plain damn awesome!

I have no plunged my self into preparing for my stem cells midterm this monday and gosh it's so cool! While taking a  break I managed to run into this video. Trust there are mouse that glow in the dark and it's not that difficult to make them :) The other cool thing is that the Nobel Prize Physiology and Medicine winners this year are in the field of stem cells. They received the prize for showing that you can take regular cells and convert them into their original undifferentiated form. Pretty cool! I actually had to read one of Dr. Yamanaka's papers for class :D

Another cool thing I'd suggest watching is this video. It talks about the benefits of being an introvert and with respect to science it is more than true. Being in a lab is quite a solitary job and even though there're other people with you in the lab there is minimal communication. To be honest, you are the most productive in the lab when you are alone without distractions. Kind of ironic because science also requires collaboration to progress...

Apart from my TED video watching, I have had the chance to try some more of my nutritional supplement samples.

Halloween Haunt! Boo!

Haha... oh bus rides can be so much fun, particularly when you fall asleep on someone. Guess what happened to me! There was this guy sitting beside me on the bus and I ended up dosing off. When I woke up, I realized that I have been pretty much resting my head on his shoulder for probably the last 20 minutes. Not sure how that happened :S I quickly apologized and he quickly replied "Oh don't worry, I didn't mind that". Then we just laughed it off! Oh the stuff that happens on the bus. By the way that guy was pretty cute, shorter then me by an inch but still cute :P

Now... HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE! Hope you've all enjoyed trick or treating with your kids or just treating yourself to some candy. I know enjoyed it as a kid!

All Mine! No, my mom ate half...