Thesis Archives - Squash on Squash

Post Thesis Life {Friday Favourites}

May 1, 2015 by Nicole 7 Comments

Happy Friday everybody! This post maybe be one of the happiest posts I’ve ever written. Its alternative title probably could have been, “Why I’m So Happy Right Now”. Can’t complain about that, right?!

Friday Favourites

Turning in the Thesis!

Although it’s been mostly done for a couple of weeks, I officially handed in my thesis on Monday!

“Subsistence Strategies and Bone Rigidity: Comparing the Relative Femoral Rigidity of the Hasanlu and pre-Holocene Homo”

I can’t tell you how nice it is having that stress off my shoulders. I can only imagine how people whose due date was early April have been feeling for the past month! It’s pure bliss!

Post-op rehab

I kind of thought I would hate rehab, but so far I’m enjoying it! I noticed a huge difference in my mobility and strength just from one rehab session yesterday, and I’m actually excited to go back today. This is pretty strange for me, since I’m not usually one to love stretching or boring exercises. However, I am determined to get my strength back, and I know that doing these exercises religiously is the best way to get me there!

This squirrel

About 3 minutes ago I had to kick this guy out of my room.

Thank goodness my screen was closed, or I would have had a squirrel fiasco in my room!

Spring Formals

Every spring, the eating clubs put on “Houseparties”. Friday night is formals, Saturday is semis, and then Sunday is Lawnparties (a day party where you have a free pass to dress up as pastel-y/preppy/flowery as you want).

It’s probably my favourite weekend of the year, and since I haven’t really celebrated my thesis turn-in yet, I’m looking forward to it even more!

nicolerosebday2015 — Rose (my roommate) and me, Fall Lawnparties 2013

mealexformals2014 — Alex and me, Spring formals 2014

It’s one of the few events a year where I am adamant about taking pictures, so I’ll be sure to share some next week :).

This veggie-filled dinner (from Wednesday)

I don’t think Tuesday was a very veggie-riffic day, so I was sure to make up for it when visiting the dining hall with a few friends on Wednesday! I filled my plate with kale/quinoa/cucumber/tomato/chickpea salad, a couple baby carrot, pesto broccoli (which I picked out of the pesto pasta), farro/edamame salad, and beets!

I think I filled my veggie quota that day!

Alrighty, now I’m off to run some errands before rehab, and then it’s time to get ready for formals!!!!!!

Questions:

What’s one thing you’re loving this week?

Has a squirrel ever climbed into your room?

If you are/were in college, do/did you have spring formals? (For sororities etc).

Knee Surgery + {Friday Favourites}

April 24, 2015 by Nicole 4 Comments

HELLO!!!!

It’s been about 2 weeks since I last blogged, but it feels like it’s been months! Okay, maybe it doesn’t seem like quite that long because I’ve been so busy, but I have missed it!

Let’s start with the biggest and most recent news….

Thursday

Remember back in October when I told you about my Baker’s Cyst? Well, the MRI ended up showing a small tear in my medial meniscus. The tear was significant enough that it needed to be repaired at some point, but not so severe that I couldn’t finish out the squash season. However, after almost two months of being out of season, I realized I needed to get the knee fixed, so…

Guess who had her meniscus operated on yesterday? Yup, this girl…

Overall, the surgery went pretty well I think, and I felt absolutely fantastic yesterday, mostly because my knee was all numbed up and I was able to walk perfectly fine!

Then, around 10:30 pm the numbing agents started to wear off, and my leg really started to throb. Unfortunately, I hadn’t had time to pick up my pain meds, because as you can see from the above picture, I went straight to the library when I got back to campus. The thesis isn’t going to finish itself!

Without pain meds, I tried to sleep from roughly midnight to 3 am, waking up every hour or so, unable to find a comfortable position. Finally around 4 am, I realized I was not only unable to sleep- I couldn’t even focus on a movie I was watching because the pain in my leg was so bad. I ended up calling the university health centre to see if I could get some emergency pain meds (Percocet) which would hopefully help me get to sleep, and tide me over until the pharmacy opened at 9 am.

I ended up getting a ride from Public Safety to the health centre, and was fast asleep in my own bed within the next 40 minutes or so. Thank goodness for pain meds!

Today

Today has been much better in terms of pain management, but much worse in terms of mobility! I have a poster for my thesis due later on today, which meant I had to get to the library to work on it this morning. And by work on it, I mean start and finish it. (By the way, I’m happy to report that it’s almost done!).

Unfortunately, the Percocet made it very difficult for me to concentrate, and gave me some pretty terrible nausea. After having not eaten since 10 am, I finally got some bland food in my system around 4 pm, which helped both my stomach and my mood.

Anyway! That’s the latest and greatest from me. How about some more positive things to finish off the post? Hello, Friday Favourites!

Friday Favourites

NuGo Dark (Peanut Butter cup flavour)

I picked up this protein bar at the Ustore the other day as a supplement for my morning Greek yogurt. It was surprisingly filling, and every last bite was delicious!

Spring Weather

How gorgeous are the trees that are blooming outside the dorms?! One of my favourite activities during the spring is to spend the warm evenings hanging out, chatting, and reading by the benches. Plus, there’s always lots of people who walk by, so it turns into a bit of a social event!

Almost. Done. Thesis!

The countdown is on… 3 days! To be honest, I’ve actually now finished 99% of my thesis, I just have to make sure that the table of contents is properly in order. What a relief it will be once this project is in…

And I most definitely won’t be missing the late evenings in the library…

Drop Dead Diva

Have you ever seen or heard of the TV show Drop Dead Diva? It finished its sixth and final season last year, and now the entire series is on Netflix!

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I started the show on an absolute whim, and ended up getting hooked within the first few episodes. Needless to say, I finished the entire series pretty quickly. (45 min episodes, 13 episodes/season, 6 seasons…. all in the span of two and a half weeks, I’d say?).

To be fair, I had a decent amount of down time when I was putting graphs and tables together, or doing boring formatting. I put Drop Dead Diva on in the background, and got to work on my mundane tasks!

That’s all from me for today. Next time you hear from me, I’ll be done with my thesis!!!

Questions:

What have you been loving lately?

Have you ever had surgery? What kind? Any tips?

My Thesis Alter Ego

March 31, 2015 by Nicole 3 Comments

Hellloooo!

Didn’t get a chance to pop in yesterday, but I’m here (briefly) today! My lack of blogging doesn’t reflect at all the amount of content I have to say- it reflects my lack of time! As I have stated in probably every single post for the past couple of weeks, my life has been constantly consumed by thesis- so much so that I even had trouble sleeping this weekend! (And I usually sleep really well…).

Anyway! Although thesis has turned my life upside down in some ways, I am finding joy in some strange ways, and kind of feel like a completely different person which is weird. Read on…

Not getting hungry/ignoring/putting off hunger

I like to eat. You know that. However, when “more important” things get in the way (like shopping…or Disneyland!), I forget to eat, or just postpone it because I am so consumed with the task at hand. For example, yesterday I think I had a yogurt for lunch, and then a salad at like 9 pm. I have no idea what is going on with my body.

Running

Although running long distances hurts my knee (ahem… catch up post to come on that once thesis is done), I have been turning to it for physical exercise and a mental break.

Yesterday I think I just went and sprinted for about 45 minutes and swear I could have kept going. My mind never gets bored, and I am constantly thinking of things I have to check off my to-do list.

Panera online ordering

Did this tonight at 9:30 pm after I forgot to eat dinner when I was in the library. Saved me. Food was ready in 10 mins. Panera, thank you.

Breakfast in library at desk

Fage 0% Greek yogurt + protein bar.

Not a bad way to start off yesterday morning.

Freshly baked cookies at midnight

This building on campus called Murray Dodge offers free tea and freshly baked cookies every night from 10 pm -12:30 am. They are delicious. (Don’t judge their deliciousness based off of my subpar picture).

Sunday night, Hadley and I stopped by on our way back to our dorm rooms from the library. I had three chocolate chip cookies and felt like a million bucks.

Gratitude “Dream” Juice

My teammate, Kira, surprised me the other day by bringing my my favourite favourite favourite drink ever- Raw cashew, agave, vanilla and cinnamon juice! It really tastes like a creamy, cinnamon-y smoothie, and it’s pretty filling!

It was so delicious, and fortunately I was able to savour it over a few days. Thanks, Kira – you rock!

Ghee & Himalayan Salt Popcorn (sent from home)

I got a package the other day from home, a little unlike things you might usually order- organic, locally produced popcorn, from Victoria, BC!

You know it’s supposed to be “healthy” when it has chickens on the front- right?

Thanks Mom! I look forward to more of these packages 🙂

OK that’s all from me! Time to go study!

Questions

When you have academic stresses, do you find your body doing different things? aka does your hunger go away???

A Day of Thesis(Eat)ing {WIAW}

March 25, 2015 by Nicole 7 Comments

Hello! This is going to be the ~~week~~ month of pictures with minimal text because writing pages of schoolwork (ahem, thesis) followed by blogging just muddles everything up in my head.

So, I thought a nice change of pace for today would be to let you in on what I’ve been eating (or some of what I ate one day) while stuck in libraries! (And by libraries, I mean the same, single library. I like working in one exact spot for a single specific project). Also, thanks to Jenn from Peas and Crayons for creating this link up, to Laura for hosting hit this week!(Ps. Laura has a recipe for Banana Walnut Protein Pancakes up on her blog today!) It’s been a while since I’ve participated, and I’m so excited to hop back on the bandwagon this week!

Thesis Eats {WIAW}

Sunday I was cooped up in the library all day, so I grabbed lunch and dinner to eat at my table while I worked.

I think I started off the day with a Greek yogurt before my run, and a bowl of oatmeal afterwards!

Breakfast

Lunch

My breakfast held me over for quite a while, but that didn’t stop me from snacking on some carrots and hummus!

This actually ended up being my “lunch time meal”, since it occurred around 1:30 ish pm.

I finally felt the “real” hunger arise around 3 pm, so I went to Olives to grab some sustenance. I began with a sweet potato jalepeno soup and an apple (not pictured).

Dinner

I thought I would be satisfied until pretty late (like 8 or so), but ended up eating around 6:30-7 pm. I had the “protein” wrap from Olives, which consists of spinach, grilled chicken, egg whites, and avocado on a whole wheat wrap.

It was deeeeelicious! I think I also had some snacks later but I cannot for the life of me remember what they were. Oh wait, I do.

Cinnamon teddy grahams!!! These guys are the best.

Ugh, truth be told, I actually wrote this post last night before going to bed, and I was famished writing it (it was almost 1 am), so putting up these pictures/writing about food was torture. I sure looked forward to breakfast this morning!

Questions:

What’s your favourite thing to eat while you’re studying or working on a project?

I try to eat healthier when I’m working on big projects so that I can stay mentally alert. Drinking a lot of water and coffee helps too!

Spring Break Recap

March 23, 2015 by Nicole 2 Comments

Happy Monday! I wish I’d been able to find time to publish a post before today, but between thesis, hanging in the sun, and just taking a break in general from technology, blogging was pushed to the back of the list. Sadly, thesis is going to be taking over much more of my life for the next month, so I will be blogging when I can, but it could be sporadic. You have been warned! (Again…)

So, speaking of busyness due to thesis, let’s catch up the past week in bullet-point form! I’ve written way too many words the past few days, so today’s post is going to be mostly pictures :).

Getting sun in Florida

Thesis work in the sun (and on the plane…)

Bike rides

The beach with Bits and Alex

Eating and using a real aloe leaf!

Delicious chopped salads at lunch

Aaaaaand now I’m back in Princeton, in the cold spring weather. Time to run to class, but I will have a post tomorrow about my experience as a female student-athlete coming up this week :).

I am so ready for spring weather!

Questions:

Has spring sprung where you are? Are you looking forward to the spring weather?

Friday Favourites

Turning in the Thesis!

Post-op rehab

This squirrel

Spring Formals

This veggie-filled dinner (from Wednesday)

Thursday

Today

Friday Favourites

Thesis Eats {WIAW}