Cheese & Chocolate Pick Me Up

Today was a better day, just like I promised yesterday night.

Thank goodness.

I woke up at 8am, a full hour later than normal.  I sincerely love Thursday for that reason.  I dressed and started off the day with a nice filling breakfast of overnight oats with sliced banana, walnut butter, wheat germ, and some maple syrup.

I ate this on the way to campus in the shuttle.  I spent the morning tracking down medical paperwork from all across the country.  Finally, after Cytogenetics class, I received the long-awaited fax. With it in hand I could get working on learning about what I was going to COUNSEL on tomorrow morning.  That’s right, I get to legitimately counsel a patient in the morning.  I am going to be observed/overseen by a counselor, obviously, but it’s going to be so cool.  I can’t wait to literally stretch my legs in the counseling arena.  Woot!  While I was prepping all the necessary material I snacked on a lunch of lentils and leftover thawed Hawaiian chicken.

Preclinic conference came next and it went well.  I presented my research and thankfully I was right on track.  We ended a bit early to make sure we could get to our autism training session from 2-4p.  It was an interesting two hours but a long two hours.  I have never really been around autistic children so I guess I don’t have a real life experience to compare things too.  We were playing with velcro visual aids and time keeping devices and big red circles that designate chairs and such.  It all made sense but I suppose I just didn’t have the proper contextual experience to really integrate all these strategies.  I’ll certainly keep it in mind though.

When I arrived back at home after my school day was over I needed some quick carbs to get my workout on.  I grabbed a caramel corn  cake and topped it with some peanut butter and marshmallow fluff.  Seriously delicious snack!

I then headed over to the cardio room and did 30 minutes on the elliptical while reading Runner’s World and watching the beginning of The Prince & Me on ABC Family.  After I was nice and sweaty, I headed to the weight room for some dumbbell work.  I came around the corner and there was Mary!  How ironic seeing as we had dinner plans a bit later.  She was doing some lifting and lunges, etc. so we briefly chatted a bit and then I did some circuits.  3 sets of 10 reps a piece of the following:

• 20lb dumbbell squats
• Tricep dips under bodyweight
• 8lb dumbbell V-raises
• 10lb dumbbell bicep curls
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• 40lb lat pull-downs
• Skater lunges under bodyweight
• 100lb calf presses
• Exercise ball mountain climbers
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• 10lb dumbbell Olympic presses
• 8lb dumbbell reverse flies
• 10lb dumbbell straight leg dead lifts

I felt nice and powerful afterwards and showered quickly before meeting up with Mary for a night of free cheese fondue at The Melting Pot thanks to the celebration of National Cheese Fondue Day (technically April 11th).  We started with the cheddar cheese fondue: aged medium-sharp cheddar and Emmenthaler Swiss cheeses melt beautifully with lager beer, garlic and seasonings.

It was delicious and the perfect thickness.  Apparently it is supposed to mimic warmed honey if made properly.  Let’s just say it was spot on!  Then we considered the chocolate possibilities.  After narrowing it down to three we chose the flaming turtle version: milk chocolate, caramel, and chopped pecans all flambéed tableside.

This was crazy good.  We ended up just taking the spoon to it.  In our defense, we had already finished off all the dippers.  Pretty sure we might have licked our fingers a few times too.  In the end it was the perfect pick me up for the pair of us.  I was already having a good day but Mary was kind of having a similar day to my yesterday so this was a nice chance to let it all go for a bit and just be around each other without any pressure.  I think we both left rejuvenated.  Cheese and chocolate will do that to you!

A good night for one and all.  I’m so glad today was much better than yesterday.  Now I’m off to pack food for tomorrow morning and finish making visual aids for my counseling session in the morning!!

Questions: What version of chocolate fondue is your favorite?
Do you like cardio and weights more?