cmh

exciting things are happening in my world...

i'm officially an intern...again. my placement is at children's memorial hospital - which is ranked as the #1 children's hospital in illinois. they have a top-notch graduate student internship program for social work. i'm in a cohort of four students (all women, naturally) that were accepted into the program. i know that they interviewed a lot of students, so i feel really honored to have been selected.

my first week has been packed with informational meetings, orientations, hospital tours, and meeting a ton of people whose names i won't remember. but...it's going to be a great year. my field supervisor is really cool. i'm assigned to the NICU service - neonatal intensive care unit (think really really tiny babies that have been born pre-term).

yesterday we had a welcome breakfast & met a lot of the social workers for the inpatient & outpatient units. everyone is so nice; they genuinely make interns feel like part of the team.

i want to work there already. seriously.

pounds

this past year i've been on a path of "health" discovery. learning the best way to take care of my body: to let my body heal itself & build strength.

since march i've lightened my body by twenty pounds. (i realize that in the world of nutrition, training, and weight loss this isn't an incredible amount of body fat loss. but for me it's a significant milestone!) for the first time i feel empowered to change my body and my lifestyle. and i've discovered a few things...

there's no magical potion for weight loss.
there is no cure for self confidence.
you can work really hard at both and feel like you're making no progress. at all.

but in the end: your body begins to show subtle changes (a loose pant here, a compliment there), your habits change (no processed foods for me, please), and you realize that it really is worth all of the injury, sweat, and tears.