Category Archives: College

Day 15 (It’s Friday!!!)

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Hallo, my name is Nathan MacDonald. I’ve written a blog. Prepare to die.

This morning I went and played racquetball with my bud Adam at an outdoor court. Not having a roof was a little different, but sadly it was still nice than ACU’s courts in Gibson. (You ACU folks better enjoy that new rec center!)

Breakfast: Although I did remember my water bottle, I didn’t have enough time to get some breakfast. So I ate an 1 point orange and Emerald Trail mix which was 5 points. I was planning on pigging out (bacon, eggs, the whole shebang) but I knew lunch was right around the corner so I held of.

Lunch: For lunch I encountered one of those annoying situations when you see something at the store that looks good but is then just gross. These situations usually occur with canned soups. I bought Campbells Chunky Meat and Potatoes soup. Basically it was a bizarre brown gravy, preservative-caked potatoes and some protein that might have been beef. Usually I really like Campbells Chucky soups but that one was no bueno. Either way it was on 4 points for the whole can so live and learn I guess.

Snack: After sitting and waiting to get a tire fixed at Tire Kingdom for 2 hours (should have went to WalMart. They might be evil but at least they are cheap) I was ready for something substantial to eat so I made a sandwich. The Hillshire Farm (Go Meat!) turkey that we buy is 1 point for a third of the container which is a ton so I just put a little mustard and a pickle (both no points) and two slices of bread were 4 points so it hit the spot.

Dinner: We went out with Megan’s department to a local dive called Monk’s. They had all kinds of food from healthy cuisine to a 5 patty burger challenge. I went with the Vegan Garden Burger with sweet potato fries. They had a lot of healthier sides like celery and like chips and salsa, but I’ve always want to try sweet potato fries and they were awesome. The burger looked a little rubbery but went I took a bite the texture was just like ground beef. (By the way, those are regular fries so they gave me these ones for free but I was good and gave them away.) So I have no clue how bad it was but to ere on the side of caution I’m going to just assume it was more than I had left for the day (18 points) and not use the rest of my flex points this week (which won’t be too bad because we go Sunday-Sunday. So I just have to be good tomorrow!) I seriously doubt it was that bad but I’d rather be safe than fat. (That was suppose to be funny not mean.)

Sorry this post is really late, we were out with some friends in this really cool art district of Tally. I hope you will forgive me and will keep being awesome. See ya tomorrow.

Day 7+7

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Përshëndetje (That’s hello in Albanian)

Once again, another gorgeous day in FL (are you seeing the pattern?)  This morning I played racquetball for the first time in about a year and a half and it was awesome. I felt like I wasn’t near as sluggish on the court so I’ll definitely call that a win (even though I lost. Regardless, Gerard and Adam better watch out tomorrow.) I did forget to bring my water bottle (this comes in to play in a few paragraphs.. well in a few sentences but whatever) so I was hurting after. (Tip of the day: always drink water when you work out.)

Breakfast: Kashi Honey Sunshine. Awesomeness in a box. 5 points.

Snack: After forgetting my water bottle this morning, I decided to buy a Powerade before my class to rehydrate (I was going to get a smoothie at Leach but all the fruit was frozen! How are you suppose to make smoothies with out fruit? Fail.) but anywho one bottle was a thundering 4 points along with something like 54 grams of sugar! Holy schnikes what a fail! I was not impressed, but a little more hydrated.

Lunch: I was super starving (the highest level of hunger) and a Smart One did not sound appealing but it was pretty much all we had in the house. It turned out to be really good since it was one of my favorites. It’s really good if you sprinkle a little cheese on top (not too much though!) Plus there were coupons in the box. Score! As you can see from the box it was only 4 points so a good light lunch but you’ll need a snack later in the day. And of course.. an 1 point orange.

Afternoon Snack: After Megan’s class we went to my “Diet Coldstone”(if you say that you better give me credit)  Hiro’s Frozen Yogurt and as always it was amazing. I’m such a huge fan of their Taro yogurt but if I wasn’t doing this whole living better thing I would totally jump on the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies and Cream (Yes, it’s one flavor.) So as you can see I got a ton of blueberries and strawberries and not as much yogurt this time. It came out to a legit 3 points and last time I was in there I told the girl who worked there about the blog and then she asked me about it today. Pretty tight. So if you are reading this Hiro’s gal, thanks for reading.

Dinner: We made that awesome Tamale Casserole from the Weight Watchers cookbook (if you haven’t bought this cookbook yet, click on this link and buy it or at least put it on your Amazon wish list!) The serving sizes are huge for it and it really doesn’t feel like you are on any sort of diet. It’s also good because it’s ground turkey. Although it has a a whole chopped up jalapeno in it, its really good with a little salsa and a few chips. I had 2 servings which was only 12 points and the 9 chips were 3 points. By then end I was stuffed but not gross (and that’s the difference between eating well and being unhealthy.)

So overall, I ate a total of 32 points plus a Fudgesicle coming right out to 33 points. So like I said tomorrow I’m going to play racquetball. What do you do with your friends to get some exercise? Any tips? See ya tomorrow.

Lucky Day 13

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WAAASSSSSSUUUUUUUPPPPPPP!!!!!! (Yep, I just referenced that.)

Another awesome day in the good ‘ol FL. We were shocked when we went to go swimming and the water was freezing! (Could have been we are just pansies.)

Breakfast: I just had a bowl of my new favorite Kashi cereal: Honey Sunshine. Such an awesome 5 points for just 1 1/2 cups of cereal and a cup of fat free milk. Legit.

Lunch: In keeping with my new brand loyalty to Amys Kitchen, I tried another one of their amazing meals: their Teriyaki Bowl. Now before you run to your local frozen food section, just a word of warning those protein chunks aren’t chicken, they are tofu. I was a little apprehensive to try it, I mean I’ve had tofu before but every time I’ve tried it, it’s always been different. This time however did not disappoint. The Teriyaki sauce had a little heat and it was just amazing. The veggies were really good and the brown rice was nice and fluffy. I highly recommend it and if you are scared of tofu, just act like you are on Bizarre Foods. The bowl was only 5 points, my milk was 4 points and my orange for dessert was just 1 point. (Buy organic oranges! They are so juicy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Snack: So for a snack today I was in the mood for something more than a few carrots because although the bowl was good, I was hungry around 2:00. I decided to try to make healthy nachos (relatively.) I used 3 tablespoons of WW Mexican style cheese and one serving of regular tortilla chips (9 chips.) I just threw it in the microwave (I should have kept them in there for a little while longer but oh well) and since the cheese is made of 2% milk they weren’t that greasy so it was a good 4 point snack for if you just need to feel like you’re not on a diet for a while.

Dinner: Tonight we had Monterrey Jack Turkey Burgers with Oven Baked Fries. We make the fries every time we make burgers but the Turkey burgers was a first. Oh, did I mention they had BACON on them! They were awesome I mixed in cheese, shallots, and some other stuff that I will post if this recipe sounds good to you. They only took 8 minutes on each side. The recipe calls for hamburger buns but instead we put our burgers on whole wheat bread just because we have it around. The burgers (bacon and all) were only 6 points and the fries were 3 points. Such a legit 9 point dinner!

Dessert: After church tonight my sweet tooth was going nuts so we ran to Wal-Mart and we grabbed a few low point treats. My favorite ice cream is peanut butter cup and Smart Ones have these single serving sundaes that are only 3 points. They’re not huge but it’s not bad if you just use a small spoon. It hit the spot.

Overall today I totaled out at 32 points. It was a delicious day. Tomorrow morning I’m going to play racquetball with some guys from my department so I’m pretty stoked to actually have fun while exercising. See ya tomorrow.

Day 12 (Drummers Drumming)

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Salutations!

It was a gorgeous morning here in Tally. I love living in a part of the country that actually has seasons. In Texas there was hot, really hot and then really cold.

Breakfast: a few blogs back (the first one I think) I talked about cooking up some turkey bacon and how it was such a good alternative to regular bacon. Later on someone wrote me that center cut bacon is just as good so we picked some up this week. She was awesomely right. It was actually lower points for 3 slices. Only 2 points! Although iwas less points, it was still weird to see all of the grease come off the bacon, so I was sure to pat off all the grease I could. I also I cooked up some eggs (cage free of course) and made them over medium. Back in my bigger days, I would just fry up the eggs in the bacon grease which tasted (ana) divine but today the thought of doing that made me sick so my body is still surprising me about what it’s craving. So sans the bacon grease the eggs were only 4 points.

I also tried to make a bacon face, because they’re awesome.

Snack: I went straight to workout after my class so I packed a Emerald Trail Mix pack because I knew I would need to eat something in that time. It’s always good to have a healthy snack in your backpack, satchel, la mochila, or even your trapper keeper. So that was 5 points.

Exercise: I went to Leach so excited to exercise it up! It felt like it had been forever! I hopped on the treadmill ready to jog/run, but I usually start off slow with a warm up walk. So I was on my iPod (answering fan mail lol) and I just kept walking and turning up the speed. Before I knew it I was up to 4.3 mph (at this point I would have been jogging) so it was feeling good and I just kept doing it, and I was feeling the burn! So I briskly walked and threw in a couple of jogs in there during certain songs.

I have a running mix on my iPod and I keep it on shuffle, but there are a few I will play at certain times for that extra boost. The first song is always Live Your Life by T.I featuring Rihanna since it’s 5 minutes and a good warm up song. Then about 15 minutes in I turn it to I’m Shipping to Boston by Dropkick Murphys (that awesome song from The Departed) and I’ll kick up the acceleration and run since it’s only 2 1/2 minutes. Finally when there’s about 9 minutes left the last two songs are D.A.N.C.E. (MSTRKRFT Remix) and Wolf Like Me by TV on the Radio. Wolf Like Me is good because towards the end there is a slow part and then the last 1:30 is super intense. If you were cool you would download these songs right now and start sweating to the awesomes.

So overall I wogged 4.11 miles in about an hour, burning 829 calories according to the treadmill (I had the soaked shirt to prove it.) I’m sure you’re wondering if that number seems to be a little high, well… it is. When you’re has big as me, it’s a lot quicker to burn off calories. I was a great day.

Lunch: So thanks to a long workout and bus snafu (long story) I didn’t make it home until around 3 so I was starving!!! I warmed up my favorite Amy’s meal: Tamale Verde. It was fantastic. The best 9 points I’ve ever eaten, and the 1 point orange was great as well. (At that point, I could have eaten a piece of tire and enjoyed it.)

Dinner: 2 hours later I had dinner. When you start WW, it’s hard to find a restaurant that not only has their nutritional value available, but are also a place where you can eat and still have points left. This is especially annoying since most local places (the good places) generally don’t have that information. Anywho, after about 30 minutes of investigating, I found the Pita Pit Website where you can build your pita and it will calculate the nutritional value. I found the Chicken Souvlakia and it was only 12 points. It was a really good alternative to the gyro I wanted which was 17 points because they use the same Greek seasoning on the meat. It was a good choice.

Megan being a cute little food model.

Today I racked up a total of 33 points which was my limit today. BTW we are using an older WW system so I’m actually suppose to have something like 44 points but I couldn’t eat that many points a day if I tried. Anywho, usually you get exercise points (here’s a way to calculate it oh and read her blog it is really good!) but I’m not hungry so why eat? See ya tomorrow.

Oh Thank Heaven For Day 11

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Γεια σας (Daniel Wise, you better know this or you didn’t study hard enough for your Greek Test)

It’s been another rainy day but I’m still not complaining. I’m thinking about changing my fantasy football team name to the San Francisco 49ers since I’m about to be 0-3 unless Devin Hester can get me 11 points (help a brother out Hester!)

Breakfast: If you haven’t discovered the wonderful world of Kashi you are missing out my friend. After TrailMixGate 2010, I was on a mission to find a better breakfast/snack option. We had bought Kashi Honey Sunshine cereal in the past so I went with an oldie but a goodie. It’s a little expensive (but since I just gave Kashi a shout out I hope they’ll send me some free cereal) but it’s really good for you. The 2/3 cup serving has 6 grams of fiber alone! I had 2 servings (3 points) and a the milk was 2 points. It was a really filling breakfast.

Snack: Usually I wouldn’t go on a rant about something orange related (unless it was burnt orange) but am I crazy, and did no one else have an  orange peeling device that looked like a crochet needle with a hook? I told Megan the other day that we needed to buy one and she tried to convince me that such an instrument didn’t exist. Anyways, today I just used a pairing knife and cut that 1 point sucker up. I usually butcher anything I try to cut up but after doing this (pictured left) I think I might drop out of this PR thing and become a surgeon instead. (This is the most boring paragraph ever.)

Lunch: Today I did the leftover thing and more and more that’s becoming the trend. Before, instead of leftovers, I would just go eat out which was getting expensive and getting pretty bad for me. As you may recall from yesterday’s blog the tacos were only 4 points a piece. The shells weren’t big enough to fill the meat that the recipe calls for so I made some nachos sans the cheese. Instead I just put the taco meat, the pico de gallo, and a little H-E-B salsa from a bottle that we brought with us unopened from Texas. (I could do a whole blog series about how much we miss H-E-B, but that would be more boring than that orange paragraph.) Anywho, the chips were only 3 points for 9 chips and the tacos were 8 points total.

(This is where a picture is suppose to be but I failed and I was too hungry to take a picture but let’s be honest, you know what Chick-fil-a looks like.) Dinner: Megan and I went on a little Chick-fil-a date for college night. We each got an 8 piece nugget and we split a large fry. Chick-fil-a is actually pretty good if you are on a diet if you need to eat something greasy and delicious. So the nuggets were only 6 points, half of the large fry is only 5 points, and 2 points for BBQ sauce. Overall a really good eating out meal.

Snack: another 1 point orange. We all know how I feel about that.

Overall today I wrangled up 31 points. I wanted to work out today but it didn’t happen this morning but I’m going tomorrow and it shall be epic. See ya tomorrow.

P.S. We just started to watch that Mike & Molly show (the one about 2 heavy folks getting together.) From what I’ve seen so far, I might have a really good rant tomorrow. You’ll just have to see…

Day 10 Weigh-in Funfest!

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Good Sunday to ya!

It has been a cool and rainy day in Tallahassee. It’s a nice change from the sauna it has been. This morning, I hopped on the scale (actually I didn’t hop on because it’s generally dangerous for fat people to jump on anything) and I lost 1.6 pounds! At first I was a little disappointed, but then Megan put it in context for me. She pulled out a can of soup and said “you lost this off your body this week.” That’s pretty cool (my wife is a stud) and considering I didn’t work out at all I’m pretty stoked about it.

Lunch: (I skipped breakfast again unintentionally. Fail.) Today we had a luncheon after church and they had sandwich stuff available so we ate there. It was a pretty good spread and the fruit medley was fantastic (I have always been an endorser of fresh fruit, especially when it’s only 1 point.) They had some bags of chips and I saw that the regular lays had 10 grams of fat in them for the serving of the small bag. Bad news bears. So I snatched the last bag of Sun Chips which was only 3 points. I figured out my sandwich was 5 points (skipping the gross looking processed cheese was worth it.) and I just stuck with ice water.

Snack: So since I started this thing I’ve been going on and on about the Emerald Trail Mix Berry Blend pouches that I thought were only 3 points. Well folks I have been duped. I’m usually really good about reading nutritional facts but this packaging is really confusing. I guess in my mind (even though I’ve looked at the facts many times) something in individualized packets would just be one serving. Turns out there are 2 servings in a 1.81 ounce pack, making it 5 points instead of 3. This is really frustrating to me because it is obviously intended to give the consumer a false sense of how healthy the product is for you. Granted, it’s still only 5 points and they are super filling. Anywho, the moral of this story is to watch out for these traps because next time it could be on something really bad like a doughnut or a candy bar. (This is The Scandal referenced on Facebook BTW)

Dinner: we had some amazing Tacos with Salsa from the WW cookbook. They are super filling and only 4 points for one taco (that’s with light sour cream and salsa.) So I had 3 tacos for 12 points.

Dessert: This evening I learned a lot about how much your eating habits and tastes can change over a short period of healthy eating. Tonight we went to Hiro’s Yogurt on Tennessee which is one of my favorite dessert shops in Tallahassee. It’s one of those places where it’s self serve yogurt and self serve toppings and you pay per ounce. Last time I went there (the first day of my diet pre-blogging) I went a little off the deep end.

Exhibit A: This is what I had the first time I was there. (This picture is named “ice cream fail.jpg” on my computer)

Exhibit B: This was tonight. Instead of chocolate I got Taro flavor and instead of sundae toppings I got strawberries and blueberries. The yogurt was 102 calories for 1/2 a cup so it came out to 4.5 points. I was really proud of myself about this because my sweet tooth is what got me in to this obese mess so I know substituting fruit for refined sugar is going to make this sucker work.

So today I came out at 30.5 points. Which is funny because I was full all day long but yesterday after eating out twice totaling over 40 points I felt empty.

My Tip of the Day: If you want to keep track of your points or to at least try out WW, bookmark this points calculator on your iPhone or iPod Touch (or what ever inferior product you might have) and just try it out this week. All you need to calculate your points is the calories, fat, and the fiber content. So try it on this week.

Day 8 (IT’S FINALLY FRIDAY!!!!!)

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Sup G skillets!

It’s Friday! I don’t know about you but it has been a long week and I’m ready for some college football and maybe a Cowboys win? (If you are reading this Jerry Jones… call up Bill Cowher and offer him a coaching job… or at least meet me halfway and fire Jason Garrett.)


Breakfast: So I don’t know if this is a trend, but in both at ACU and FSU there have been a Starbucks in the libraries. Which is fantastic because I had an early study group today and I needed the caffeine. But anywho, earlier this week I posted a question about what was your favorite Starbucks light drink. As I was rushing through my iPod Touch to find the responses while I was in line, I was asked what I wanted (I hate it when they ask the people further back in the line what they want. I know it saves time and all but we have been conditioned to know what we want when we are at the cash register, not 4 people back, but that’s for another blog.) In my haste I looked up at the board and saw Mocha Light Frappuccino. So I decided to go with that. I have to be honest it kind of tasted like Chocolate Slim Fast which is not my favorite but my breathe still tastes like toothpaste so who knows how good it actually was (but I’m not optimistic.) One the other hand, its not too bad for you. It only had 167 calories, 2 grams of fat and 3 grams of fiber so it was only 3 points for a Grande. I did miss the whipped cream but you gotta do what you gotta do right?

Lunch: Once again, I was on campus and I didn’t bring a lunch (which I should have brought one but I kind of ran out of time this morning and we are out of lunch meat (Fail2 ) but it worked out because I ate a Pollo Tropical with some people from my class. I tried the Chicken TropiChop with Bean and White Rice. Last time I didn’t get the combo and I wished I had because they don’t have free water cups (lame right?) so I go the combo which came with a side and a drink. Sides are usually what got me especially since one of the sides was mac and cheese [insert Homer Simpson mmmmmmmm soundbite here] but I was good and had the Balsamic Tomatoes which were really good and only 2 points! The TropiChop was only 11.5 points so so far so good today!

Snack: 14 amazing almonds for 2 points

Dinner: We did the leftover dance this evening which was fine for my because I think Uncle Jim’s chili gets better after aging in the fridge for a day or two. Growing up in Texas, Friday nights in the fall (but in Texas it was still summer) were dedicated for high school football and nothing else. My favorite concession food (other than sausage in a tortilla) was Frito pie. Tonight, in honor of Hillsboro playing Maypearl (not really) we made Frito pie with tortilla chips. As always, it was awesome. 12 tortilla chips were only 4 points, the chili was on another 4 points, and the WW cheese was just 1 point!

Dessert: We had some friends over and we made our favorite Disney World treats: Pineapple Floats!!!!! We originally found these treats during our honeymoon at Disney World and it hit the spot during that super hot July. They are a great lighter answer to root beer or coke floats and if you get some Publix Low Fat Vanilla Ice cream it’s the prefect treat. The 1/2 cup of ice cream was on 2 points and a cup of pineapple juice was only 3 points!

(Left) Megan slurping her float down

(Below)Our friend Leah trying not to laugh

So today totaled out at: 31.5 points so not too bad of a day. Enjoy your Friday evening and I’ll see ya tomorrow. Go Noles!

Day 6

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Greetings! (I’m trying a new opening every time.)

Breakfast:

This morning I tried to cook some eggs and for the first time I burned the crap out of them some how. The smell was unbearable lol. Luckily, I bought a Lean Cuisine Denver omelet sandwich. It was pretty bad, processed eggs are not my favorite and that’s all it was and for 5 points it was not worth it.

Lean Cuisine Denver Omelet Sandwich: 5 points

Glass of Orange Juice: 3 points

Lunch:

It felt like I hadn’t eaten out in like forever (it’s been like a week lol) andI had some time to spare so I ate at the Pollo Tropical on campus. Now I don’t know  a lot of Spanish, but I’m pretty sure Pollo Tropical could be translated as “Grilled Chicken Awesomeness” it was fantastic. I had the 1/4 chicken combo with black beans and rice and a roll. Usually I would eat the whole thing including the plate and silverware, but I’m slowly developing this mindset that it’s okay to eat until you are full, but not stuffed. If you say “well Nathan, I have to get my moneys worth!” The reality is that you’ll never get your moneys worth because food is marked up too high anyways. That use to be my mindset too. Anywho, I only ate half of the rice and didn’t eat the roll so I’m pretty proud of myself.

Pollo Tropical 1/4 Chicken Dark Meat w/ Skin: 7 points

1/2 of the Entree White Rice: 2 points

The Entree Serving Black Beans: 1 point

Snack:

Banana: 2 points

Dinner:

Megan made her famous (well… famous to me) grilled chicken and grilled vegetables.

It was also fantastic, but it was quite a bit of points.

3 servings of grilled chicken: 12 points

A ton of grilled vegetables: 4 points
So the total today came out to 36 points which is 3 flex points over. That also included eating out. Overall… I ate well.

See ya tomorrow.

P.S. Did you watch Biggest Loser last night!?! How has it inspired you?

Day (High) 5

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Sup yo’s!

Today has been on of those weird off days where life is running a little askew to normal. My morning class was boring, it took me like 45 minutes to catch a bus, and it’s so hot!!!! (I have a theory it has to do with Twitter going bananas and it just shifted the world’s axis, but that’s for another blog.)

Breakfast:

I committed a cardinal sin and did eat a full breakfast. I just ate another pack of the Emerald Berry Trail Mix (if you can’t tell I love that stuff!) So I only had 3 points

Lunch:

I brought my lunch to school and it was alright. My sandwich was only 4 points and my banana got smashed so I only ate half of it which is 1 point.

Snack:


FSU has this really cool free standing Starbucks (which is where most of this blog was written) and I wanted to get a cool drink to fight off the heat. I told the barista (is that what they are called?) that I wanted to get something that was light but wouldn’t curdle in my stomach (gross I know sorry.) Starbucks, in the past, has been my dietary weakness. I really like the Iced White Chocolate Mocha with Whipped Cream which is a redonkulous 18 points (in non WW terms: 720 calories and 49 grams of fat. AND THATS JUST FOR A GRANDE!!!!!!!!!! OMG YALL!!!!!!!!!) So anyways, he recommended the Passion Fruit Lemonade Ice Tea so I gave it a shot and the venti is on 70 calories (1 point.) Legit huh? BTW if you haven’t been on http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/ they have a lot of calorie counts for a ton of different restaurants. Check it out.

Dinner:

Dinner couldn’t have come at a moment too soon! As you can imagine I was STARVING!!!! I was going to get a Snickers (to quote my Facebook, I was about to turn in to Betty White) but the machine wouldn’t take my quarters. Lame!

Anywho, we made the Orange Chicken with Broccoli from the newest WW cookbook (page 164) and it was fantastic. It was only 6 points a serving (which includes rice) and so I had seconds.

Orange Chicken with Broccoli: 12 points

2 glasses of milk: 4 points

So the total right now is 26 points but I plan on grabbing a little something (healthy of course;) a little later.

Biggest Loser 10 is on. You best be watching it! See ya tomorrow!

P.S. What’s your favorite healthy snack? Don’t say: chocolate, steak or lobster because they have already been mentioned lol.

[insert Tomahawk Chop here]

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The year was 2004. Bush was in office, I still lived at home, and the “Awkward Nathan” stage of my life was quickly coming to a close. During Christmas break that year, my family and I drove the exhausting 17 hour to Walt Disney World from Hillsboro, Texas. The trip was amazing. As I recall the lines at Disney were short and the weather was in the 60’s which was just swell. Anyways, on the way there we stopped in Tallahassee, Florida to see my childhood mecca: Doak Campbell Stadium. You see growing up, I had always dreamed of going to either Florida State or Michigan but after I stood under the statue of Renegade outside this glorious brick monument to the institution of the gridiron, I knew that one day I would come back as a Seminole.

As most of you know, I ended up going to Abilene Christian University for my undergraduate, but I still knew that one way or another I would eventually end up in Tallahassee. I now know that I ended up at ACU so I could meet my awesome wife Megan. I knew it was true love when one day we were talking in the computer lab in the WPAC and she was talking about the different options she had for grad school. She said “One of the best music schools is actually Florida State.” I could feel the grin on my face grow disgustingly to Joker proportions thinking “Okay, I already knew I loved this girl, but now it’s providential.” After hours of prayer and asking God why certain doors weren’t opening, Megan found out she got in to the FSU School of Music.

After she got in I started looking for a PR job in Tallahassee (you know… my major) and nothing was working out. I knew I was particularly in trouble when I called about a pretty low paying menial and they said I was one of 76 applicants. Then one night Megan turned to me and said “I think this is a sign for you to apply to grad school.” The next day I bought a GRE book and started the application process. I found out last week that I got in to the graduate program as a non-degree student which means I’ll take classes this semester and if my GPA is acceptable I’ll be able to be in the program as a full-time student.  I know this might not be ideal, but I regardless I am super stoked to be here. I know that God put us here for a reason and I am stoked to watch his plan unfold for us.

I say all that to say this: for so long I really didn’t think that my dream of going to Florida State would ever become possible. I had honestly come to terms that that dream wouldn’t ever happen. During that time I had applied for a lot of different jobs in all over the country, thinking that this or that job was the end all be all of jobs. Every time I didn’t get it I would get really frustrated, thinking that my career life was over. Now I know that these closed doors were just leading to the eventual (and the most awesome) open door. So just remember, there is an open door out there, it just might take you a while to find it.

Oh yeah, I know the last time I posted something was 11 months ago. I’ll be sure to work on that.

Thanks to “iEverything” I can’t stand the way the letter I looks capitalized. Is that weird? But that’s for another blog another time…