Food.

Random fact about me: I grew up a vegetarian! My father raised us kids(my brother and sister) vegetarian and we were not allowed to eat candy or watch tv either. To this day my father is still a vegetarian...it's probably why he looks like hes 30 years old (when hes actually 60-something;) shh dont tell him I told). Anyway I too to this day would rather a delicious vegetable dinner over a huge steak.(Although I do enjoy a delicious steak once in a while..shh dont tell my dad that either he still thinks I am a vegetarian).

As Miss California(in November) and Miss Los Angeles(in August) near I have begun focusing alot on my diet. For me it's about making better choices. With the ton of school work I have it seems way easier to stop and get a quickie meal to go somewhere when in reality taking the time to make my own meals is a)WAY healthier and b) doesnt even take that long.

What do I eat??Well, I am obsessed with farmers markets. There is a great one every Sunday in Brentwood and they have the best fruit, flowers and veggies. They also have really good Mexican food....:( My typical farmers market bag will be filled with beets, carrots, kale, parsley, spinach, cilantro, yams, all sorts of berries, peaches, lemon, garlic etc. There is just something about picking out your own fresh food from local farmers... The only things I usually pick up from the grocery store are extra firm tofu, soy milk, soy yogurt and granola.(I love using soy products over dairy!They make me feel better and they are better for you)




I sometimes slip from eating healthy especially on weekends but I try to stay on track especially when I think about being in a swimsuit on stage in a couple of months.

Anyway I am off to do more physics problems:( I have an exam next week. I am officially done with the second half of Physics(and Physics in general!!) in about a month...well that is until the MCAT. After this summer I venture into the lovely world of Organic Chemistry in the fall! Wish me luck!

Early Summer 2010.

(AVAILABLE IN HD ON MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL!)


I love to travel and I am usually blessed to travel somewhere in the world every summer. This summer sadly I can't.. I am taking physics as a part of my Post Baccalaureate Premed Graduate Program at USC and it literally takes up all my time. I am basically taking a years worth of physics in about 10weeks:/


Besides studying I have begun preparations for Miss California this fall:) I was planning on doing a prelim this June, however final exams for my summer course fall the day after the event so I had to postpone for a prelim this August(Miss Los Angeles County)...what does all this mean: I have reunited with my running shoes and workout clothes. I am naturally muscular so my workouts and eating habits before an event like Miss Los Angeles County and Miss California are probably opposite from what most girls do. I try to stay away from too much protein and do massive amounts of cardio. I never weight lift, but you can probably find me swimming or jogging. I live in Santa Monica so I usually will run to the beach. This is weird too but I love to workout at night...there's just something about ending your entire day with a good run!


I am a woman of few words this blog post as I must get back to the books(yep studying on a Friday night and lovin it!), but I made a fun little video to compensate(It is posted above)...you know what they say a picture says a thousand words, so hopefully videos say a million! If you can't access it or want to view it in a bigger screen you can find it on my youtube channel! Enjoy and see you at my next post!

Miss USA.

Last week I finally finished finals and this past weekend I got to travel to Las Vegas for Donald Trump’s Miss USA. I started doing pageants in 2007 after I “retired” from volleyball. I still felt a need to compete in something so I entered my first pageant Miss Malibu. I won and got the opportunity to compete for Miss California USA!







I have told many people this, but it is so amazing how just one weekend out of the year can allow you to gain so much confidence in yourself. It’s like nothing I have ever participated in and every year I grow and take from my Miss California experience values and lessons that I apply to all aspects of my life.


It is sad there are so many stereotypes of what it means to compete in a pageant, but the truth is it takes a lot to put yourself out there! When I started I had little to no self confidence in myself. I can proudly say competing has provided for me what I was missing and that is facing and challenging yourself to really understand who you are and what you believe in. I can tell you if you don’t know who you are and you haven’t mentally prepared, it becomes immediately apparent the second you set foot on stage. It takes a whole lot of self evaluation and I am thankful that my experiences have allowed for me to open up and be the confident, ambitious, intelligent, personable woman I am today!

I am blessed to have the opportunity to compete and this year I am excited to start the season off by competing in the Miss Regional California pageant in June. It is an official prelim to Miss California 2011 in November.


Preparing for Miss California (and any prelims along the way) is tough and takes great discipline. Even from many months before an event, I begin tailoring my diet and workouts. Having to be in a swimsuit in front of hundreds of thousands of people in the audience, on the internet and on tv definitely keeps you on track!






As I said before apart from the physical, there is the more important journey of mental preparation. The whole weekend at Miss California you are surrounded by media and have to go through interviews both behind the scenes and on stage. Preparation for this part of competition really involves getting to know yourself to the core. It is my favorite part of competing and is the most valuable reward I have ever and will ever take home with me!

(PS: whenever I tell people I compete for Miss California USA the first response is “what is your talent?” and I would like to straighten this out once and for all: Although I am very talented;), the Miss California USA competition is a state prelim for the Miss USA pageant put on by Donald Trump and only entails interviews, swimsuit and evening gown to compete. Every year all 51 state delegates travel to a city(Las Vegas for the past 3 years and I believe 3 years to come) for 2 weeks to compete and the winner gets to move to New York, live in Trump towers, travel the world, attend red carpets, represent a great cause etc. for 1 year. It is truly a dream!
In contrast, the Miss America pageant is the one which entails performing a talent as a part of competition. Miss USA and Miss America are thus 2 completely different systems!!)

That is all for now! Thanks for coming and see you at my next blog!!!

Volley.

As many of you know I used to play volleyball! I started in the 8th grade after my best friend Naabia urged me to take volleyball as my PE class. My older sister(Fortune) also played and I can clearly remember running to the high school gym every day after school to peep into her practices. It was probably really annoying to have her younger sister snooping around, but from the day I was born I have looked up to her and tried to do everything she did. Fortune ended up going to Stanford University where she ran track for 3 years and graduated with honors in Human Biology…she went to University of San Francisco Medical School following. From watching my sister on those fall afternoons, I knew volleyball was the sport for me(even though I also played basketball and ran track). By the end of high school, I ended up achieving 12 varsity letters in all three of the sports I participated in (meaning I played varsity in volleyball, basketball and track starting from my freshman year to senior year).




My father strongly encouraged me to run track and do high jump. At the age of 28, while already practicing medicine as a full time doctor, a friend of my fathers told him to enter a meet…he did and by the end of his track career he had run in the World Championships and was Olympic Games bound. He unfortunately tore his hamstring and couldn’t go, but keep in mind his age!can you imagine if he had competed when he was younger…or maybe it’s in the Meriwether genes to reach your prime at 28 which would definitely put my mind at ease for reaching the ancient age of 25 this May! I digress...sorry..my father ended up breaking (and still holding) the world record for the 100yrds because soon after he broke it, they changed the race to the 100meters..as a result he will forever hold that record(which I think is really neat!) He also made the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1971 wearing the typical uniform he became famous for wearing while running: a white undershirt, yellow (SHORT) shorts and suspenders!(back then nabbing a cover was a very rare accomplishment.)





After high school I was recruited to play volleyball at Duke University (my father’s alma mater...he was actually the first African American to go to the prestigious university). After one semester I decided to transfer to sunny southern California where I was recruited to play volleyball at UCLA. (I ended up also joining the UCLA track team as a high jumper for one season) By the end of my career at UCLA I was a 2 time All American and on my way to play professionally in Puerto Rico for about 5 months in a wonderful town called Mayaguez. After my professional season, I was invited to train for the 2008 Olympics in Colorado Springs.





The 3-4years I spent on the UCLA volleyball team were the best years of my life. Playing for UCLA was not just an athletic experience; it affected who I was off the court as well, allowing me to become the confident, ambitious, intelligent woman I am today. I made such good friends that I know I will have for the rest of my life and I am so grateful to have had the experience of being a student athlete during my college years. I to this day, have a closet full of blue and gold sweats and it was not till I stopped playing that I realized I needed a new wardrobe!!! (SHHHH don’t tell anyone but, I currently attend USC (UCLA’s biggest rival) and I must say, I still bleed blue and proudly wear a blue backpack around USC’s red and gold campus) I am a true BRUIN FOR LIFE!

(the game pic below where we are in a sea of red is from my senior year when we made it to the final four vs. Nebraska. We played in front of a record breaking crowd...my last night of college volleyball:(

Student life

This is my first official post thanks for joining me! My life right now is a little crazy. I graduated in 2007 from UCLA and about a year later I decided to do post graduate work at USC.

I am currently a Post Baccalaureate Pre-Med student at USC. It's a 2 year program for students or professionals who graduated with a degree not sufficient to apply to med school(aka I took no science classes during my years at UCLA as a Political Science major) or for people who decided to change their careers and go to medical school. As you probably know, to go to medical school you need certain prereqs(like biology, chemistry, physics, organic chemistry etc) and the post baccalaureate program allows me those classes as well as MCAT classes. It's about a 2 year program and I will be done next year, then off to med school!

The classes are really intense(especially since I haven't taken science classes since high school..don't ask how many years ago that was). On top of my classes I am a Med-Volunteer at Cedar Sinai Hospital in Beverly Hills where every 3 months I rotate between different departments in one of the most well known hospitals in the world. I am currently shadowing trauma surgeons and my next rotation is following anesthesiologists! My dad is an Emergency Room doctor so I got to get a glimpse into his hectic world. I am looking forward to shadowing the anesthesiologists because I will get to see such a wide variety of surgeries! (the pic above is of me shadowing med students, residents, and attendings all part of the trauma team at Cedar Sinai, we are off to the ICU)

Anyway I am off to go study once more...I have an exam in chemistry this thursday on various topics including complex ions: wouldn't having to know diaquadiamminedihydroxocopper(III) nitrite drive you crazy too! eep wish me luck!