27 March 2010

I think that is what has been missing from my life

Exercise.  Ever since I started this whole teaching thing my exercise level has gone way down.  Between teaching school, having to prepare lessons, plus going to school, I have had little time to work out. Or so I told myself.  Yesterday was my most active day in a long, long time.  I did the ellipitical in the morning for 30 minutes.  Walked the dogs around 4.  Then after dinner rode the stationary bike for 30 minutes.  Last night I was tired and slept pretty good.  It's not an insane amount and it wasn't really high intensity (I hardly broke a sweat on the bike) but it felt good to be active and moving.  This morning I feel great and actually got out of bed a few minutes before I had to.  Yeah!!!  So I'm going to stick to my new routine for at least 2 weeks and see how it goes.  I think it will help a lot.

While I rode the bike I started reading articles for my thesis topic.  I also had, what I think, is a pretty good idea about my topic.  So if the bike does nothing but helps me progress on my thesis that is a huge bonus. In a side note, I've got stuff for my thesis all over the place.  I have 3 computers, my desktop computers, actually only one of them, my laptop and a netbook. I want to keep all my info on the netbook because that is the one I'm going to actually write my thesis on, but the only one that prints is the desktop so I have to send everything to there to print. It gets very confusing what is where. Maybe I should just keep everything on a thumb drive and move it between computers, that way it's all in one place.....

26 March 2010

Two posts in one day, oh my!!!

I'm just so proud of myself I have to brag a little.  Even though there was a point a few years ago where I was in awesome shape and I managed to find time for everything; running, swimming, strength, biking, hiking; not to mention working full time, I still use the excuse of not having enough time.  I'm doing next to nothing now and still working full time but I'm home by 4:30 instead of 6.  Yeah, it's an excuse and I'm working it for all it's worth.  In all seriousness I've been trying to come up with ways to make workouts not only convient but super easy.  Well, I've come up with a couple of ideas and I'm so pleased with myself.  First, I'm worked it out so that I can walk the dogs again.  Yea!!  This means that when I come home from work I will now take an hour long walk, a half hour with each dog.  Sweet.  I love walking my dogs and this is a fabulous way to end a day.  Also, I moved my stationary bike into the living room.  The living room in this house is large enough to hold 2 couches and my bike and still have plenty of room. So my plan is in the evening instead of sitting on my butt watching TV I can sit on the bike.  I plan on doing it for at least 30 minutes every night and will work up to more.  There is even a magazine holder that is big enough to hold my netbook if I really wanted to.  I've been trying to do some research and get another insurance quote for the house and car.

I've also set some goals for myself.  I want to be able to take CrossFit Hawaii during summer break but I need to be in better shape then I am now.  I also want to start running again and have a driveway built for hill repeats.  My goal is to be able to run up that driveway 10 times without stopping. Things to work towards. 

I'm excited. I want to get back to where I was when I had time to do everything. That is my ultimate goal.

Sometimes I wonder about me

There is a commercial on TV for a quit smoking aid (I forget which one) and the person in the ad says something to the effect of they have tried to quit smoking so many times and failed but it was just preparing them for the final time.  I'm not paraphrasing it very well but basically the previous attempts were practice for the one that worked.  I kind of feel that way with losing weight.  I've done it and I've been successful at it but then I regained some.  For the last year or so I have been on a slowly upward creep.  I want that upward creep to stop and I want to lose some.  I've said a thousand times that I'm starting over and this time is it.  Then something comes along and I get sidetracked and boom, that attempt fails. I purchased expensive gadgets to motivate me, and they do - for a while.  I've tried all kinds of eating programs and workout programs and..... you name it I've tried it or at least seriously considered it.  But nothing has worked.  I don't like the way I feel and I'm not happy with the way my clothes look.  Forget about the way I look naked, we won't even go there.  So it's time to try one more time and hopefully this will be the time that works.

I'm going to follow a few simple rules:

  1. No sweets.   That's it.  No candy, cake, ice cream, nothing like that.  I have a blood sugar issue and really don't need to be eating this things anyway.  
  2. No snacking.  I've noticed that since I started with the whole 5-6 meals a day I've steadily gained weight. No more.  3 meals and that's it.  
  3. Whole natural food only.  No processed junk, no heavily preserved stuff, food as close to the way nature made it as possible. 
  4. Eating on a small plate.  I did that for a while and I started to feel really good.  Using a snack size plate for dinner was great and visually appealing since it looked full. 
  5. No eating after 7 pm. 
  6. Workout every day. 

School starts again next week so this really shouldn't be too hard.  I will pack my lunch everyday for the entire week.

Now,  I need to come up with some good breakfast ideas.  I stopped drinking milk about a month ago because I realized I was lactose intolerant.  But for the past 2 weeks I've been having the most awesome breakfast - oatmeal, almond milk, whey protein, yogurt - and I think the whey and the yogurt are beating up on my digestive system.  Also, they fall into the highly processed catagory so they are pretty much out.  But I need a good breakfast.  It has to be something I can make and take.  I used to make breakfast burritos - maybe I'll go back to that. I have to think about it.  Lunches are easy, salad, sandwich, whatever - breakfast is the tough one.

Okay, I have a plan and I'm ready to give it a go.  Time to put the work gloves and get busy. I'm off to work out.

25 March 2010

What else have I been doing?

Aside from moving, unpacking, painting, cleaning, organizing, etc.... Well, I've been thinking about my future. I'm in the final stages of my masters degree and it's time to consider the next step. In all seriousness, I'm looking at online universities. Going to class one or two nights a week is hard and usually inconvenient. I would prefer an online program where I can do it when I want to. There are times when I feel like working on things at midnight, with an online program I could. I found one program that looks really good and I wish I had found it before I started the brick and mortar program I'm in. At Western Governors you can get an online degree in a number of different areas; teaching, information technology, business, nursing, etc. They even offer many masters degree online. I could have gotten licensed and got my masters in teaching all online. And there tuition?? Don't get me started. Where I go they charge me $700 a credit. So a 3 credit class costs me $2100. Last semester I took 9 credits. That's $6300 for one semester. I'm starting my teaching career seriously in debt. Western Governors charges tuition per 6 month period. So if I can take more courses in a 6 month time frame because I have the time, I still only pay one flat rate. For their two-year program it would have cost me $11,560 for my degree. As you can imagine I'm paying a whole lot more.

So I'm almost done with my masters in education and it's time to think about the next step. Do I just stop here? Do I continue on to PhD? Do I get another masters in another area? There's a lot to think about and Western Governors is definitely worth considering.

22 March 2010

Definitely better today

Okay, so I thought I was recovered yesterday from whatever hit me Saturday night but I was wrong.  I was very lethargic and tired most of the day yesterday.  This morning I am definitely feeling back to my old self so that is good.  I felt so tired and drained yesterday I was considering taking some bsn xplode to get a little energy boost. I do use whey protein in my morning oatmeal because I just do not get enough protein. I don't. I can go for days without eating protein and it doesn't bother me at all then, all of sudden it will hit me. So in order to avoid that I try to have protein with each meal. Okay, this was not what I planned on writing about.

I've been doing a lot of reading about weight loss lately and I've come to some conclusions. I've heard people saying that you need to take small steps and you need to reward yourself for every little thing you do. I'm not buying that anymore. I think big, drastic changes are the way to go and instead of taking little steps push yourself. Push yourself as hard as you can. In the beginning that's not going to be that hard but gradually it will get harder. I'm really tired of mediocrity. I want something outstanding and grand. I want something that pushes me to the absolute limits of my abilities. I want to become awesome in my own eyes. So I'm starting now. I'm pushing the limits of what I can do. No stopping when I'm tired, I don't stop until I'm trembling. I'm going to go hard or go home.

21 March 2010

Wow, what hit me?

So yesterday was going along rather nicely.  After breakfast I washed my car, she's going to hang around the Shelbys and GTs today so she had to look nice, then headed off with Hubby to do our errands.  We had to run to Home Depot and a couple of other places for stuff for the house then we had lunch at Gordon Biersch.  All was well and I felt great.  By the time we got home at 4:30 I was getting pretty tired.  This is common when I drink beer in the afternoon so I really didn't think anything of it.  After putzing around for a bit I went and laid down.  About a half hour later I got up and I felt like crap.  I was freezing cold but it was an internal cold. No matter how many sweats or blankets I put on I could not get warm.  I also developed a headache and really felt horrible.  Finally I had some soup and headed off to bed after taking some NyQuil.  I woke up this morning and feel fine.  Not 100% but about 95%.  Weird.  Hubby has something like this happen a week or so ago.  My thoughts are that it's from all the stress we've been under.  For the past three months it has been constant stress with the house and the money and everything.  I think that now that it's all over the body just shut down.  I also haven't been sleeping very well so I've been a bit tired.  Yep, I think my body just said that's enough and turned off.  I slept really good last night, I mean really good.  Today will be a busy day... There is organizing and painting and such to do. 

Conversation with Hubby

 So yesterday morning I presented my idea of working out at home to the Hubby. Once I presented it to him, he said he was in. I told him I h...