Listen to your body

Yeah, soooo that sore throat turned out to be strep. Unfortunately, the PA that attended to me at the UHS didn’t believe me when I told her I thought it was strep and didn’t do rapid culture test, and by Wednesday my throat was so sore and swollen I was occasionally choking on my saliva. Luckily, I went back the next day and the Z-pack kicked in pretty quickly….I’m still not quite back to normal, but getting there. Moral of the story: listen to your body. If you know something is not right, be insistent with your health care provider.

Yesterday my boyfriend and I hosted a pool party. It was so much fun, and so long awaited…he and I have both had an intense semester. We swam, we grilled, we played some card games, we ate some amazing desserts, we had some beer, and we stayed up until the wee hours dancing to an iPod mix and talking with friends. It’s nights like those that make me feel alive and so young, and so very lucky.

Today was chill. I’m still not feeling great, so I slept in late and skipped my workout, but I did spend most of the day running around Ikea like a kid, which was awesome. We even got ice-cream cones on the way out. :-)

Ugh, I still feel like such a space cadet, my mind is just completely untethered to any coherent string of thoughts. I am looking forward very much to getting my health back. I miss my running and my intense yoga sessions. I’ve noticed since moving to Austin I get sick much more easily, and I’m wondering what it is. I already eat healthy, but I definitely have poor sleeping habits. I think I’m going to try to be better about getting more sleep this summer, and set up a good routine that I can carry into the very busy fall I have coming up.

Hmm. I guess the only other exciting thing that has been going on has been that I did a TON of cooking the party: triple chocolate mousse cake (YES), homemade brownies with a delectable icing, dip for the chips, and an amazingly scrumptious salad dressing that I’d like to share.

Honey Balsamic Dressing

Ingredients

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

1 small onion, chopped (I skipped this since there were onions in the salad)

1 tablespoon soy sauce

3 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon white sugar (I used brown sugar instead)

2 cloves garlic, minced (I added some garlic powder since i didn't have garlic on hand)

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Directions

1. Place the vinegar, onion, soy sauce, honey, sugar, garlic, and red pepper flakes into a blender. Puree on high, gradually adding the olive oil. Continue pureeing 2 minutes, or until thick.

(I just whisked everything together in a bowl since the blender was being used for frozen drinks, and it still came out delicious!)