Happy Monday! I hope everybody had a great weekend. My Friday night was quiet, because the rest of my weekend was nonstop. Just like a weekday, I was up at 5:30 am on Saturday. Instead of going to work, though, I went to the northwest suburbs for a fun nutrition seminar. 

As registered dietitians, we're required to log a certain number of continuing education credits every five years. This requirement keeps us current with research in our field, and in a bustling city such as Chicago, there are never shortages of options for us to get our hours. 

One of my friends from school caught wind of a half-day seminar by the Northern Suburban and Western Suburban Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and many of us jumped on board after reading the event schedule. It sounded very interesting. Plus, it was even more attractive with this seminar giving us  six continuing education credits (we're supposed to get 15 per year). 

The biggest downside was having to get up very early and drive about 45 minutes. Luckily, I carpooled with two of my friends and we made a pit stop at Dunkin Donuts for coffee on the way there. 

Once we registered, we were given a delicious buffet breakfast that was sponsored by the Egg Nutrition Center. I should have taken a picture of my plate, but it included scrambled eggs (makes sense), shredded hash browns with bell peppers, bacon, sausage, croissants, fresh fruit, and coffee. We dove right into the lectures once we finished our breakfasts and had minimal breaks from 8am-2 pm. This was tolling at times, and we were very hungry since we didn't get lunch (just a few snacks from vendors). Regardless, the benefits outweighed the costs. 

I'll hopefully have access to the slides soon and will be able to write more about what we learned. The egg and cholesterol lecture, even though it was sponsored by the Egg Nutrition Center and had me worried that it would be overtly bias, was informative and confirmed what I already believe about eggs: whole eggs are very nutritious foods and eating eggs generally does not affect your blood cholesterol. A small percentage of the population are considered to be "hyper-responders" to dietary cholesterol, and these people are difficult to pinpoint unless they are in clinical studies. The jury is also out on whether diabetics need to watch their intake of egg yolks. 

We also heard good lectures on gut microbiota and alternate day fasting. There is still so much research that needs to be done on gut microbiota (or the bacteria that lives in our intestines that is good for our health), but recent studies on mice have shown that lean and obese bodies have different compositions of gut bacteria. Our diet can largely affect that. Also, taking prebiotics and probiotics are most likely good for us, but there is not one best type to take. Eating fermented foods (which contain probiotics), such as yogurt, kefir, kambucha, tempeh,  miso, and others are good, but there may also be benefits from taking tablets.

The lecturer for the alternate day fasting research was our Vitamins and Minerals professor at University of Illinois at Chicago, so my school friends and I were pretty pumped to hear her speak. I'll probably write another post about her research in the future, but I have been fascinated in the past (from her research) to hear about how eating approximately 1/4 of a person's calorie needs on fasting days (average of 500 calories per day) and eating unrestricted on the other days could lead to successful and manageable weight loss in obese, sedentary individuals. Now that I think about it, it may be easier to eat very light three days per week (and normally the rest of the week) than to constantly restrict my caloric intake every single day. There is still more research required for alternative day fasting, and if you're interested in trying this for yourself, I would highly recommend discussing this with your doctor and seeing a dietitian first! 

We also heard from six panel speakers (one of them was an author of Too Busy to Diet), and then, completely ravenous and slightly stir-crazy, we headed back to the city. My carpool party made a quick stop at L'Patron for tacos once we got back into the city, and then I was dropped off at home. I only had enough time to change, fix my hair and makeup, and put a few layers of polish on my nails before it was time for the next event. 

My parents were staying in the city for their birthdays (my dad is March 4th; my mom is March 6th), and my brother Jon decided to take us to The Aviary for drinks before dinner.  It was so generous of him, and I had some of the best drinks I've ever had. I'm used to going to hole-in-the-wall neighborhood bars and buying the beers on special, so this place was up about 100  notches from that. 

The Aviary is owned by Grant Achatz, who is a culinary genius. He also owns Alinea and Next, which are some of the best restaurants in Chicago. In order to guarantee yourself a reservation for drinks at The Aviary, you need to purchase tickets in advance. While I would usually roll my eyes at that requirement, I had heard excellent things about this place.

This place creates drinkable art in a glass. My first drink (pictured above) was called Up the Ice Ante, which contained oat, horchata, and peach. Our server told us that it was going to taste like the milk in the cereal bowl after finishing Cinnamon Life cereal (or Cinnamon Toast Crunch, as my brother said), and he was exactly right. I also nibbled on the ice cubes once I finished the liquid portion, and they were intensely flavored with components from the drink. Until Saturday night, I had never eaten an ice cube that tasted like a cinnamon peach pie.

Other highlights include my bite-sized melt-in-the-mouth tempura sweet potato on a cinnamon stick that was beyond delectable (above, left), Jon's over-sized ice cube that kind of resembled the Epcot ball at Walt Disney World (above, right), and my brother using a sling shot to break the solid ice sphere that held his beverage inside of it (not pictured). Once the ice shattered, the liquid filled the glass and the ice that used to hold the drink was just the standard ice cubes in the drink. I heard about the sling shot before, but it was fun to see in the flesh. 

Aviary-goers tend to visit for drinks prior to going to Next next door, but we went to a different, more normally-priced restaurant for dinner. While I can't say that I'll go back to the Aviary soon (I would really love to, but my preferred drinks are $5), I would certainly go back there for a special occasion. I'm very happy that I got to experience it. It was a treat.  We also did a larger family celebration in the suburbs on Sunday night for my parents and my grandma (her birthday is today!). We have a lot of birthdays this month!

On Sunday morning, I laced up my running shoes and hit the pavement for an easy four-mile run. It was 39 degrees by the time I left the house, and I was perfectly comfortable in running capris and long-sleeved pullover. I wanted to do my first lakefront run of 2016, so I headed east to Lake Michigan. It's about 1.1 miles from my house to the lakefront trail. Since it was Sunday morning, I was weaving my way in and out of brunch enthusiasts and small children on scooters. I also had to jog in place at some stoplights. Once I got to the park lands, though, I didn't have to worry about traffic lights anymore. 

The lakefront trail, even when crowded and exposed to the whir of cars zooming past on Lake Shore Drive, is peaceful and is a beautiful place to run. I generally plan how many miles I'm going to run in advance, and then I map out exactly where I need to turn around and head back home. For my usual four-mile runs, I go one mile to the lake, another mile to the Fullerton Avenue exit, and then I turn around and retrace my steps. Easy peasy. 

Although my pictures have few, if any, people in them, there were plenty of runners, walkers, and bikers of all sizes and athletic abilities. It's motivating to see all of the people out there. 

Aside from foot cramps for the first half mile, my Sunday morning run was pain-free. I'm hoping to continue with minimal pain as I increase my mileage. 

Total miles logged this week: 7 (3 on treadmill on Tuesday; 4 outside yesterday).
Goal for next week: 7-8. 

Have a great start to the week, friends!

My bachelorette bash was better than I could have imagined. First, it was different from my typical Saturday night. Second, my girls deserve an award for all of their hard work. The decorations were unbelievable, down to the posters with potentially humiliating material from my crazy years in college, the Disney balloons, the streamers, and the 9-hour playlist of almost pure musical theater. I was in Heaven. 

Andi went through all of my recent pictures from the blog and Facebook and printed off the majority of them. Do you see the picture that says, "Am I the only one who talks to their pets and pretend they answer back?" 

We started the night at Andi's apartment in Lincoln Park. We thought about going out to dinner or renting a hotel suite originally, but I wanted them to do everything they could do to keep the costs down. As you probably know, everybody is putting out the big bucks to fly to San Francisco for the wedding. I don't want to keep tacking on money to their "Jenny" bill. My friends are a very fun group of people, so we all knew that we'd be able to plan something cost-effective and have a blast-tastic time. 

For dinner, the girls ordered food from Lou Malnati's. If you're not a Chicago native or have never been here, then put it on your list of things to do when you visit (because you must!). Even if you don't like Chicago-style deep dish pizza, it's one of the best pizza places in the city. You can pizza with thinner crust, too. 

They ordered one gigantic salad that apparently wasn't supposed to come with cheese and bacon, but it did. 

We had plenty of pizza. I made sure to have a few pieces to "line my belly" for the amount of drinking that was about to take place. 

There were meatballs and baked ziti. 

My amazing baker bridesmaid Jessie made phallic cookies. They tasted so good! Kate also made vegan rice krispie treats that were shaped like Jessie's cookies. Everything was great. 

I made sure that my mom was there for some of the night. She had no intention of coming to the bar later in the night, but she was there until we all went out. My maid of honor Jess's mom Karen was also there (and spent the whole night out with us since she is a trooper!). 

Once we were all settled in and fed, Jess cranked up the volume for our sing-along. I originally wanted to go to a karaoke bar, but I eventually realized that we could have just as much fun (or more fun) singing at Andi's. 

I took a break to open some presents, and I got right back into the singing. 

The rest of the photos are from Karen's iPhone. Thank you, Karen!

Around 10:30, we piled into cabs and went to Public House where our table and bottle service awaited us. I took my pink fluffy goblet, my pink bell, and my inflatable genitalia friend who I started calling "Drogobob". 

We all had a wonderful time!

My bridesmaids also made a funny checklist for me that included "getting proposed to by a stranger". The stranger gave me a very good proposal, didn't he?

Irene's dad drove me back on Sunday morning, and I slept about four hours until I had to get up to receive my family for Mother's Day. My uncle was in town from New Jersey, and my brothers and Aunt Harriet came over too. I was surprisingly able to be normal and enjoy the company while eating food. I was very tired, though!

I also don't have any pictures up there with my bridesmaids Irene and Goda, but they were certainly there and just as awesome as everybody else. 

In case you have been genuinely concerned about me and my well-being, I assure you that I am alive and well! My days have been packed full to the brim with friends and food and Libby (on weekends), and studying and wedding planning for the other days of the week. I have been neglecting my little blog, however, and that makes me sad. 

Let me make it up to you by telling you about my friend Goda and her wine and cheese party. She just returned from almost a year abroad in China and moved into a new apartment. She had a bunch of her friends over to eat one of my favorite creations in the entire world: cheese. There was more cheese than the eye could see. 

She provided other nibbles such as chips and salsa and Lithuanian bread sticks (below, top right). They tasted like long, garlicky, buttery croutons that just melted in the mouth. I was going to town on them by the end of the party, and let me just say that I had top-notch garlic breath. Still, the star in my mind was the cheese. My favorite was the brie spread on the crostini. 

We also had plenty of wine, since each person who came to the party brought at least one bottle. I brought a bottle of Chateau St Jean chardonnay, and that was empty in no time. We all had a great time sampling each others' wines. 

I think that the most creative thing that Goda did was personalize all of the wine glasses so that they didn't get mixed around with other glasses. She had a bunch of different plastic flowers to tie around the stems. I thought that it was such a smart idea.

After a few hours, my friends grew antsy and wanted to hit the bars. After chewing a few sticks of gum and downing strawberries with cheesecake stuffing (they were amazing) in hopes of alleviating my garlic breath, we piled into cabs and went to The Tin Lizzie in Lincoln Park. My friend Andi knows how much I suck at taking pictures when I'm out and about, so she walked around for most of the night with my camera. In most of the pictures that she took, I either looked very angry or I was happy and on my phone. There was no middle ground. It was a shame, because I had a fantastic night!

My friends are such a blast. Now, back in the present, I am enjoying myself in the comfort of my own home while I study for my finals that are on Tuesday. My bachelorette party is next weekend. When I think about it, I feel both excited and frightened. I am excited for all of the obvious reasons, but I am frightened for two reasons. First, my friends try to force feed me shots on normal weekends, so imagine what they will be like next weekend. Second, the Bud Lite Monster (the name I occasionally use for Andi's boyfriend) will be in town then. He moved to Nashville, but he's still close enough to come back all the time. If he meets up with us at the end of the night, I have no hope whatsoever of feeling like a normal human being for the days that follow the party. No hope. Not even a chance. I really like feeling like a normal person....

Now, back to studying Anatomy and Organic Chemistry! Has anybody ever taken organic chemistry and enjoyed it? Just wondering. I am certainly not one of those people.