• Went in for an early appointment with my dietician 
• Quickly went to the mall to claim my free Godiva chocolate reward before the month ended 😬
• Got my armpits waxed! Yay for summer and sleeveless gear! Might be TMI but we all have hair; t'is the nature of life.  
• Met up with my mom for lunch at a local Italian place. We split this golden beet, watermelon, orange and goat cheese salad & a chicken asparagus pizza. DELISH. Dining al fresco is always a plus too. As I said last week, I'm trying to eat more with others to recreate the social eating support of treatment. 

• After getting home, I booked appointments for a haircut and a massage (thank you Groupon!) in the upcoming couple of weeks. Both very, very much needed. It's been months since my last cut and I can already see split ends. 🙈  Then the latter is something I try to give myself at the end of every semester. That and my back/shoulders are still killing me. 😫
• Attended a mini, check-in therapy sesh
• Then I ran off to my first class 

Eggplant & harvati sammie--fuel to make it through 3ish hrs of class

• For my evening class, we had our 3rd test. Cannot believe the final one is only two weeks away. 
• Cut, filed and buffed my nails whilst watching the latest So You Think You Can Dance ep 
• Checked in for my flight to Vegas (will be posting more about all that later this week!) 
• Threw a load of laundry in the washer before hitting the hay! 

1. My toilet clogged up. I went to pick out clothes for the day and next thing I know my bathroom floor was flooded. I tried calling maintenance and but both brought me to voicemail. After leaving a message for the on-call maintenance, I did what I could to clean it up and mentally took note that it was yet another thing to take care of later in my already long day. Simultaneously as I was trying to solve all of this, breakfast was heating up in the oven. And I had to leave for treatment in an hour. And I had planned to squeeze some homework in. I was getting all in my head and I knew it. I was future tripping.
   
   **As a side comment, on top of this, I was going to take the trash out and left it in the hall for a few minutes. I come out and find that my roommate's dog got into it. I swear I had a mini freakout that the dog ate something that would kill her.
2. I went to IOP and let out a lot of said frustrations with the group, and was feeling better. Then to exacerbate the situation I learned that the number of insurance-covered sessions at IOP was up because of my lack of physical progress (aka weight restoration). Though I feel as does my therapist there that I've made leaps and bounds in terms of emotional/social/mental progress in the past 2ish months, those aren't things insurance companies care about. They want the hard tangible measures. (Insurance is a messed up system but that's a whole different rant.) Because I had already planned to leave IOP in a couple of weeks as school will be starting up soon, I wasn't unnecessarily upset that I would be leaving. I guess it was more that I wasn't leaving on my own terms. It was out of my control and I did not like it. Also, it was hard not to be hard on myself for the whole no weight restoration thing. Cue further frustration. 

Post tear-filled therapy session. Look closely and you can even see remnants of tissue on my eyes. How flattering.

Satisfying snack + paired w/ roasted zaatar walnuts

• Quickly posted some link lovin' prior to leaving last Friday
• Made our way over to Austin with 0 nap for me, which is unusual, and for that I consider it an accomplishment 😉
• Feasted at a late night Ethiopian dinner. If you've never had Ethiopian cuisine, the typical base of any meal is injera, a sour-tasting flatbread made with teff flour. They served all our food communal style over the injera on a giant platter. Our bellies and souls left feeling really, really happy. 

Even the food was smiling

Post SUP sweat faces

• Spent the first part of the morning stand-up paddle boarding in the almost too hot summer sun
• Went for an early lunch at Dai Due, a butcher-shop style restaurant. Aside from our individually order dishes, we got the CenTex Mezze appetizer to share. Components included: marinated carrots, pecan sweet pepper spread, beet puree, among others. 

• Then we went for our first ice cream, err, gelato of the day. I split a small scoop with my aunt and got the fromage blanc & blueberry..
• After a round of showers at my cousins' place, we went house hunting, something we absolutely love to do. We even joke about going to random open houses in the neighborhoods but is it a joke really...In another life, I swear we would've been a family of house flippers not chemists. Unfortunately, however, while hopping from house to house we got caught in the random storms that stayed throughout the evening. 
• Then it was dinner time! We went to a Peruvian restaurant and I got the vegetarian platter that included all my favorites--corn, fried yucca and plantains!!! 😍

• Second ice cream of the day, an early celebration of Sunday's National Ice Cream Day. I convinced them to try Sweet Ritual, a vegan ice cream shop that was featured on Buzzfeed's best soft serve places in the US. Due to my unfortunate almond and peanut allergies, I got a scoop of the sunflower seed butter based dark chocolate chip, which was equally delicious. 
• Then it was time for evening games! We played Machi Koro, which we've been on a kick on for some time now. Didn't win but it was a close match towards the end. 

• Squeezed in some homework before the rest of the clan got out of bed.
• Got our at Whole Foods' 365 concept in Austin. There was a local bakery/beer place & juicery inside where we grabbed brunch as our final meal before heading out. 
• FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY finished Tender is the Night, this month's book club pick that has taken me much longer than normal. Learning more and more that maybe I'm not meant for these "classic" novels.. 
• After getting back from the road trip back home, I joined my parents for our last musical of this season: Finding Neverland! A semi-biographical story of JM Barrie and the Davies, the family that ultimately inspired the character of Peter Pan, it made me remember how much I miss being a kid and playing make believe. It's heartbreaking to come to that realization. On a positive note, the choreography and set were both stunning!  

our ability to remember details of our day-to-day lives are declining as we grow more dependent on technology.

Source

Thank you Kylie for reminding me something I've been realizing more and more: a meal is not always going to be as glamorous as expected. Happiness ≠ food. Food is food. 

Finally, Joyce's 3 Reasons for Body Nonjudgment for anyone struggling with body image acceptance or wants more body positivity in their lives. 

Questions:
Your thoughts on To The Bone? 
Any other cleaning habits/tips you suggest?
What is one thing you can do to decrease your digital amnesia? 

That natural sun flare effect

• Started a new show: The Man in the High Castle on Amazon. If you're in to history/historical fiction/alternate realities, I'd recommend it! It's a what if the US had lost WW2 situation and the land was divided under the rule of Germany and Japan. 
• Posted not once, not twice, but three times! 
• Work x 3, IOP x 3, classes x 3.
• Snuck in some class reading in the fresh (HOT!!!) air while hanging at the mall in between appointments. 
• Every day over the past week I have been trying to start my mornings with meditation (<5 minute Spotify guides) initially to combat my phone scrolling habit. Though I still can't seem to shake the phone thing, I am taking those small steps to get into a meditation practice. Progress not perfection. 

• Made these rye shortcake biscuits, perfectly paired with The Bachelorette 
• Also in the kitchen, cornmeal and honey waffle stuffed with shredded zucchini inside. As satisfying as this was, I still can't manage to get my waffles to crisp up!! Urgh. Got any suggestions? 

• Visited an night street market downtown and treated myself to a lip sugar scrub. How's that for some self-care?? 
• Squeezed in a celebration of both Popsicle Week and the US Independence Day last night with a creamy yogurt and berry popsicle (pictured all the way up there) 
• Taking care of aunt's dog along with my dad and sister over the long weekend. We took her out to the dog park where she lasted a good 15 minutes before calling it quits. Tired of all the "socializing," a very introverted doggo indeed.

Eggs on eggs on eggs on eggs

•  Naturally Ella's tumeric egg and cauliflower skillet that I threw some leftover potatoes into. In addition, I've also got a tomato chutney on the side also courtesy of Naturally Ella
• Zucchini scrambler with cotija cheese on top served with a raisin bread roll to satisfy my sweet tooth
• An attempt at the trendy cloud eggs -- didn't taste as amazing as it seems 
• Got an egg sweet potato hash bowl one lunch out. It was filled with all the goodies: shrooms, sprouts, tomatoes, guac. 

• Chile pecan ice cream with a side of Netflix
• Blueberry and peach crisp (not ice cream but equally delicious)
• A scoop of pistachio and a scoop of lemon gelato to 
• Cashew milk ice cream with a work leftover: chocolate, oatmeal and cranberry cookie