Insanity Begins (plus a new packed lunch!)

Good morning, friends! Life is getting busier and busier over here — I only have 7 more weeks of classes left in my grad program! Can you guys believe it?! I feel like just yesterday I was announcing my decision to attend UNC. It’s going to be an insane end though — here’s what’s going on:

• April 13 — Comprehensive Exams for my graduate program. This is a 4 hour, 3 question exam covering public health, medical nutrition therapy, and biochem — and if you don’t pass, you don’t graduate. No pressure. Gahhh
• Regular final exams (the weeks of April 23 and 30th depending on the class) — mostly take home/assignments, but we do have a real biochem cumulative final.
• May 6 — Our lease in Chapel Hill ends.
• May 6 — Move back to DC, place so far still TBD. Get settled and start preparing myself for work in the hospital (reviewing worksheets, doing some prep work they give me, etc.)
• May 18 — Reach the Beach Relay up in Massachusetts!
• May 21 — Clinical internship starts at a hospital in DC.

Also thrown in there is two weddings up in DC in April (April 1 and April 14), the Tarheel 10 Miler on April 21, and about a million assignments/group projects/presentations as we wind down the semester. Oh, and wedding planning. One day at a time, right? Whew. Feeling sliiiightly overwhelmed. But just because I’m busy doesn’t mean I can’t take 5 minutes to pack myself a healthy lunch for school. 🙂   I had a long day at school yesterday so I packed lunch and various snacks to fuel me through the day. First up — leftover Vegan Mexican Quinoa Salad!   Plus a salad with mixed greens, canned beets, and feta cheese:   I threw together a 2 second homemade dressing in a ziplock since we’re out of dressing — this was just olive oil, balsamic, lemon juice, dijon mustard, and salt/pepper — no measurements, just eyeballed it:   And for snacks, I packed some strawberries and almonds:   And a Stonyfield blueberry Oikos — my favorite of their flavored Greek yogurts (usually I just buy plain and add my own fruit, but it’s nice to have these on hand for portable quick snacks):   It was super hot here in Chapel Hill yesterday — 85 degrees?! So I was in the mood for something fresh and cold for dinner. I whipped up a variation of my Mediterranean Pasta Salad (click for recipe):   So. Good. I love that recipe because it’s so customizable — just throw in all sorts of veggies, based on what you have on hand! I added green peppers, cherry tomatoes, some wilted spinach, artichoke hearts, and lightly steamed zucchini. Plus, some unpictured white beans that I added at the last minute — great flavor addition plus some added protein and fiber! Matt gave the pasta salad two thumbs up. 🙂 Time to get down to some serious work. I will leave you all with this hilarity I saw on Facebook the other day. Sooo true. 😉   Happy Friday! How do you keep your sanity when life gets even more crazy than usual? Sticking with healthy eating and my normal exercise schedule always helps me — even if I feel like I “don’t have time” to exercise I still make time. I always come back clearer and more focused after exercising, so I find it actually ends up helping, not hurting, productivity! Plus it does wonders for stress levels. So do walking breaks! And the occasional glass of wine. 😉