Another FurBaby On The Way!

   I know a lot of people like to shop on Black Friday for Christmas presents, but this year, BF and I had a very special Black Friday.  We started out by hitting up the sales at Petsmart (alongside all of the crazy cat ladies).  We almost had to throw it down with some crazy cat ladies to get the last cat tower on sale, but we got it, and the kitties LOVE it.  Anyway, I digress.  We bought the very best thing you could ever buy this Black Friday: our puppy!

   After a long time stalking the classifieds for golden retriever puppies, BF and I are now finally the proud fur-parents to a sweet, month old golden retriever puppy.  In our search, I came across a lot of puppies that were too expensive, ready to be picked up too early, located too far away, etc.  This puppy was meant to be.

  We drove to the breeder's rural house, and as we were getting out of our car, were happily greeted by the mama dog and an older sibling of the litter.  Naturally, the older sibling dog brought us a pinecone as a friendly offering.  We went into the garage where the pen of puppies was located, and when all 9 of the litter spilled out of the little pen door at once, I squealed in excitement!

   We picked out an adorable little male puppy, who had a sweet temperament, though the entire litter was adorable, so we really couldn't have gone wrong.  He has to stay with his mama and the rest of the litter until he is at least 8 weeks old in order to be properly socialized, but we won't be ready to pick him up until even later, after we get back from our holiday trip to Connecticut.  So we made our deposit, and we even brought our own collar to mark our territory, so other interested buyers wouldn't be tempted to try and snatch him up as the rest of the litter is sold.  I absolutely can't wait till Melvin gets to come home!

Cat tower 

Little sleepy Melvie with the collar we brought for him on

Baby Melvie!

So fluffy!

Something's Gotta Give

   I've always been a stress eater.  In fact I'm the type of person who eats for comfort after a long day, even if the day was good.  It just makes me feel good.  And I can't control myself.  It's my drug, I'll admit it.  So every now and then I need to go to rehab, aka go on a diet.

   Depending on how long you've been reading my blog, you may or may not know that back in 2010, I lost 30 pounds through diet and exercise.  I was taking a class on nutrition at UCLA, and learned a lot about healthy eating, as well as the fact that I was borderline obese based on my body fat measurement.  That was a wake-up call.  Using all the tips I learned from my nutrition class (taught by the amazing Dr. Heber who wrote What Color Is Your Diet), and with some moral support from my friend J who also went on a diet with me, I was quite successful in getting down to weight which put me in a healthy BMI.

   I kept that weight off for two solid years... until boards.  Boards rolled around and I crept up 8 pounds-ish.  Normally, I fluctuate a good 5 pounds or so at any given time, but this weight was staying on.  And then my surgery rotation hit - another 8 ish pounds on top of that.  And since then, I've been about 15 pounds heavier, and holding this weight.

   I refuse to get back into an unhealthy weight.  So that's why I have to do something about it before it gets out of control.  I think the major wake-up call for me was trying to put on some jeans a few weeks ago, and none of them fit.  NOT EVEN MY FAT JEANS.  When you wear scrubs all the time, it's easy to ignore the weight gain.

   Since my jean-nightmare-wake-up-call, I've been trying to "diet" again, but I put that in quotes because I have been extremely undisciplined.  I last like one day and then eat horribly again the next.  It's very hard battling between my logical reasoning of needing to eat healthy and my emotional longing for a good box of mac n cheese, especially when my brain is fried after a long day.  It's too easy to make bad decisions.

   So today, I went jogging with my friend E, who has recently decided she would like to get down to her own healthy weight.  She was telling me about her recent discovery of keeping a food diary to keep herself accountable for what she eats.  I used one in the past when I lost all my weight, and it was extremely helpful and motivating.  I think I've been resisting it lately because I thought I could lose the weight without it, but obviously I can't control myself.  So I've decided I'm going back to food journaling.  It becomes tedious sometimes, but it's often a necessary self-check, and makes you reflect in the moment, "Do I really need to eat that entire box of mac and cheese, when that's the calories allotted for my whole day?!'  Also, it's nice to have someone else who is going through the same thing I am, so we can motivate each other.

   Hopefully this works... because I'm getting really frustrated.

Baby Z Gets Her Hair Did

   BF and I had a fantastic weekend with Cody-the-dog.  He was very well-behaved, loving and cute.  We hope to have a dog just like him some day.  By the time he left, he and Sif were practically besties, although Zoey was still hiding in the other room.

Laser eye buddies

   Today, I took Baby Z to get her lion haircut.  Since her fur is so long, it gets matted really easily, and even with brushing, the mats get so bad that they pull and irritate her skin.  So every now and then, I have to get her shaved.  Poor thing.  I took her today, and the groomer absolutely loved her, and said that she was super sweet - didn't try to scratch or bite, or anything!  I was so pleased with the results.  This groomer even put cute little bows on her, which is something they've never done!

Sif followed her around, trying to play with her tail poof

I Can't Wait To Be A Fur-Mom

   I've been wanting a dog for some time now, and now I don't want to wait anymore.  In pursuing a career in medicine, we are constantly settling for "delayed gratification" - putting in countless hours of work and sacrificing having lives for our hypothetical futures we desire.  While other people our age have jobs, houses, cars, marriages, and sometimes kids, we hold off because we don't have the time yet.  BF and I were planning on waiting until our fourth year to get a dog, because we figured we'd have more time.  But the more we think about it, the more we realize that fourth year is going to be busy too, and why wait if there is never going to be a "good" time.  And since we both have less demanding rotations after the holiday break, it will be a perfect time to introduce a new four-legged family member into our home.
   We've been hunting online for puppies, but haven't found a match yet because all the puppies are ready to go home now, and we aren't quite ready for them yet.  We are looking to get one right after we get back from our holiday trip to the east coast, and I'm sure something will work out.

   I was feeling desperate for some canine-time, and it just worked out perfectly that a family friend needed a dog-sitter this weekend!  So this weekend, I brought Cody over to my house to hang out.  He is so adorable, and we've been having a blast.  And I've been practicing my fur-parenting skills haha.

Medical Mondays - Reality Slap

   Time to link up again!  Head over to Your Doctor's Wife if you are on the hunt for more fabulous medical related blogs to read.

   I'm still partially recovering from the reality slap of a meeting I had with my advisor for OBGyn the other day.  I met with him to discuss what kind of candidate I am for applying to OBGyn residency, what I should do to make myself more competitive (especially because I'll be couples-matching), etc.  Unfortunately, I have a lot of work to do.  He said my scores and such are good, however, I am seriously lacking in the extra-curricular/research section of my application.  Compared to my classmates (who over-commit and spread themselves wayyy too thin, in my opinion), I look like a slacker.  Womp womp.  I am just the type of person who is "all or nothing".  If I commit to something, I go full-force, gung-ho.  That's why I don't commit to just anything.
   So, as much as I thought I would never do research in med school, here I am looking for a project.  I have never done research before, so I have no idea where to even start with anything!  I think I've been so hesitant to do any research because I know I'm going to need a lot of hand-holding.  I definitely need to come up with something that really interests me, though.  If I have learned anything about myself, it's that I am capable of really hard work, but only when I'm extremely motivated.

   I also think my advisor is sorta pushing me beyond where I really need to be as a candidate, because I think he wants me to just get in wherever I decide I want to go, easily.  And that's okay.  I need to be pushed sometimes.  We all saw what happened when my advisor pushed me farther than I thought I could go when studying for boards...