Live to learn. Learn to live.

If you're my friend, family, or anyone remotely close to me, you know I am obsessed with crossfit. Crossfit makes my world go round. The amazingly cool thing about crossfit is that it's not just about fitness. Crossfit gives you physical AND mental strength. I always tell people, "yoga taught me to accept myself, and crossfit gave me confidence in myself. " I did my first crossfit competition a few weekends ago, and it really freaked me out. The concept of competing doesn't scare me as much as getting caught in the mindset of comparing myself to others. I don't want competing to change what crossfit is about for me. This is me when I was 16. I was under 100 lbs and really unhappy.  I remember this evening perfectly. This is the night I decided to start eating again. My parents took me to Macaroni Grill where I ate the loaf of bread, an appetizer, an entree, and dessert. I then proceeded on to a halloween party where I decided to drink and wound

Everyone knows no one is perfect. We all know that striving to be perfect will eventually fail us. But for some reason that still doesn’t stop us. What stops us is failing. But what if failing weren’t possible either? What if everything that happens is okay. It’s okay to hit rock bottom, because the only place to go is up. It’s not that scary to hit rock bottom. What is scary is on the way down. But maybe the way down wouldn’t be so scary if we knew that the destination would only bring us back up. What if. My idea of perfection is “by the book.” The book is whatever we’ve learned to be perfect. We’ve put together this perfect story that we’re supposed to follow, and if we don’t follow it something horrible happens. We don’t know what that is, but that is what we believe. Growing up is scary. I’ve been in the nest my whole life. I graduated high school, went to college where my parents paid my bills, graduated college, came home to take a year off before medical school, and

Hi friends, Yard House Poke Stack without chips. Cuter than food. Roasted baby bell pepper. Like Candy. It's been a while. I know you missed talking about food like I did. I am officially obsessed with instagram. I take pictures of food A LOT. I'm not really sure if people like it or not, but haters can unfollow me. Salmon with lemon, kelp sea salt,  and pepper. Baked s'mores. Betty Crocker Recipe.  I ate too many. Gluten free bratwurst. I have kind of been experimenting with my diet, and I'm not really gung ho (sp?) on paleo anymore... at all. Let me tell you what I think rocks about paleo: 1. If you eat paleo you eat clean... eating clean is just smart. 2. It cuts out gluten and dairy without even thinking about it. 3. This is the best one. You learn that fat is NOT the enemy. It's your friend. I can't emphasize #3 enough. I grew up around fat-free everything. Since fat has 9 calories per gram in comparison to 4 calories

Yesterday I had my committee letter interview for medical school. A committee letter is something CU does to prepare you for applying to medical school. They interview you, give you feedback, tell you where your weak spots are, and then write a letter to send out to all the medical schools you're applying to about your preparedness. I went in feeling like this is my year to apply, I'm awesome, go Danielle, etc, etc. I walked out a hot crying mess. Yep, I know. Sad. They told me my clinical experience is weak and my personal statement should be scrapped because it's too brutally honest. That's not that bad, but my eyes welled up and out came the streaming tears. After I called everyone in my phone who I needed to cry to, I took a deep breath and laughed about it... and maybe drank some wine. I also talked to my Dad who essentially told me that I'm still awesome (that's his job), and just because I have one thing that is average (maybe a little below - my clinic

That title sounds awful. I think it's funny, because that's the kind of sense of humor I have. Explanation: I was in Australia and NZ with my grandparents and aunt, and my diet was a far cry from paleo. At first I tried to stick to it, and then I became resentful towards it, and then I decided to enjoy my vacation. I don't regret this decision one bit. I didn't blow up, or have GI problems, and my skin actually got better. Hmmm....  These are some of my early attempts at eating paleo. They call these bugs. Gross. That's all I have to say, and I LOVE seafood.  :( I did not eat this. Perhaps one of my favorite parts of cruises. Towel art! And this of course was my favorite. On the skin note, my Aunt Cathy treated me to Jurlique facewash, and it's absolutely amazing the difference it has made. It is all natural, and somehow it's the only thing that my skin hasn't reacted to. I wanted to give my Aunt a hug every time I looked i

You know what sucks? Breaking up sucks. It's a well known fact. It makes me want to swear off men and become neutral (not gay, not lesbian, not straight). Yes, neutral. So then why do I do it over and over again anyways? Why do we all do it over and over and over again, even though when it ends it sucks the life out of you? Oh right, because of the high that comes from falling for someone. The comfort you find in being held. The joy you feel from having a best friend who wants to be with you, and only you. That's why we do it. And we hope that someday one relationship will last forever. I am reminding myself of this right now, because it would be easy to be neutral. But how joyous would it be? To miss the highs in order to avoid the lows. It would be a very boring and neutral life. No one wants that, so we keep hoping and trying, and one day maybe it will work out. Maybe it wont, but at least we got to experience what it feels like to feel for another. And feeling, whether it