Making A Come Back - Take Two

Since my last post I've been working out pretty consistently 3 times a week for 30 minutes at the YMCA I joined in January.  So my fitness come back has stuck!

My blogging come back not so much as you can tell.  I still enjoy blogging and think it will be beneficial to continue doing it but it seems that when I put pressure on myself to blog on a regular basis I avoid it like the plague.  Not really sure what's up with that.

So, my new "plan" is to not put that pressure on myself.  I'm just going to blog when I feel like it and have the time - which is hopefully at least a couple times a week.

But again, no pressure!

To catch you all up on what's been going on I'll give you the bulleted list for high lights.

• Fitness - 30 minutes 3 times per week all cardio.  This Wednesday (15th) I will be starting the Commit to Fit program at my Y.  I'll give you more information on that soon I hope.
• Nutrition - I've been eating and drinking whatever I want pretty much.  I've been employing the everything in moderation idea without the moderation part.  Definitely need to start focusing more on my nutrition to go along with my new fitness routine.
• Weight loss - The last time I stepped on the scale I lost 0.4 of a pound.  Not even a pound but it was better than gaining and it was a tiny step in the right direction.  Obviously adding 30 minutes of cardio 3 times a week is not enough to see weight loss so I really need to start focusing on my nutrition.
• Sleep - I was doing really well at sleeping for at least 8 hours every night and then I had one crazy weekend where I went out 3 nights in a row and since then my sleeping has just been all messed up.  I've been staying up to watch shows I've recorded on the DVR and/or reading books on my Kindle.  I definitely need to get back to sleeping at least 8 hours every night so I can get back into a good routine in the morning of waking up when my alarm goes off instead of hitting the snooze button repeatedly.
• School - I'm also going to class 4 days a week (1 class per day) plus an online class.  Nothing really exciting worth reporting there.  I do need to start focusing on school a bit more during the week.  I really enjoy coming home and not having to do anything but I know that's not ideal for my grades and stress level so I'll be working on that too.

Not that I'm putting any pressure on myself (you got that self?) but I hope to provide you with more information about the Commit to Fit program I am starting Wednesday, ways that I'm changing my nutrition to help aid in the weight loss, and how I'm doing on changing my study and sleep habits (once again).

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

Things have been busy...

...and I just haven't taken the time to write any blog posts.  I want to get back into it and with the fall semester coming to an end in two short weeks I should start having more time.

I'm going to share with you some big things (I think anyways) that have happened since my last blog post.

• I maintained the same weight from August 30th until November 29th.  It's not what I was hoping to do but at least I didn't gain.  Tuesday marked the day I re-committed to my weight loss journey.  No matter how many times I have to do this I will until I've reached my goals.  And speaking of goals I have an upcoming mini goal of losing 5 pounds by December 31st and a bigger mini goal of losing 20 pounds by April 1st.  This should give me something to blog about. :)
• I have been soda free since Tuesday.  If you knew me in "real life" you would know that soda has always been a part of my life, and has probably contributed to my weight gain over the years.  Because it's always been a part of my life saying no is such a tough thing to do.  I have had a headache Wednesday evening and yesterday afternoon through the night.  I am hoping that today I'm past the headache stage because having that headache just makes me want to give in to the craving of having a soda even more.  I've kept myself sane by having a drink or two here or there from my mom's.  But even she's trying to be better about her soda intake so at least I'm not completely alone in this struggle.  The weekend is going to be the hardest struggle of them all but I'm going to stay strong and say no!  Cutting out soda should help with the weight loss so I'm going to really work at staying on track with this.
• I went out a total of four nights last week; three of the four nights I was out until the bars closed.  It's messed with my sleeping schedule a bit since I was getting used to sleeping until 11:30 to make up for being up until the wee hours of the morning.  But I'm getting that back on track and I think the messed up sleep schedule was completely worth it.  I've been having a great time going out and meeting new people and reconnecting with those I already know.  So far this week I haven't gone any where but it's only 10 am on Friday so the weekend is still early - never know where it will take you!

That's probably about the biggest stuff that's been going on in my life that's actually blog worthy.  With only two weeks left of the semester I'm realizing that I have a lot of work to get done in not a whole lot of time any more.  With that being said if I disappear for another two-ish weeks you know that my head is buried in a book or I'm typing away on a computer for school.  I finally have a battery charger for my camera so maybe I'll remember to take some pictures during these upcoming weeks so when I do have a chance to blog again I can share with you all a bit better what I was up to.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving the other week.  I can't believe it's December already and Christmas is right around the corner!  I look forward to the break from school coming up so I can spend more time reading and writing blog posts.  Talk to you all again soon!

Highlights of the Last Two Weeks

It's been two weeks since my last post and I honestly don't have a reason for why it has been so long.  Sure I am busy with school and work but what blogger isn't busy with life?  I know my life doesn't revolve around blogging, or it shouldn't, but I also want to put in a decent amount of effort into it.  I can't have a "journal" of my life to look back on if I don't post right?

Moving on to the highlights of the last two weeks...

October 29th one of my friends turned 21 so she had a birthday party at a local bar.  Costumes were welcomed so it also doubled as a Halloween party I guess.  I didn't put much effort into dressing up - a plaid shirt, jeans, and cowboy boots so I guess that means I was a cowgirl?  Like I said, not much effort went into that.

I considered going out at all a success in my book.  I haven't discussed this on my blog but since a breakup a year ago I haven't been very social.  It wasn't done purposefully but when you lose touch with those people you hung out with in high school and didn't really care because you had your boyfriend when you lose the boyfriend what are you left with?  Your family and yourself.  I'm definitely working on growing from this experience and breaking out of my shell to make new friends and meet new people.

I considered going out a success because there was only one other time I have gone out since the breakup in October of 2010.  Definitely room for improvement but I have to start some where and it's OK to start small.

The other big highlight to the last two weeks would have to be that Bo, our almost 6 month old puppy, started limping.  Today I took him to the vet and discovered that his elbow joint in his right front leg didn't form properly so his bones are rubbing on each other which is painful, or will be painful.  There is a surgical option but at this time we don't really know much about it because the vet said she would go with the other option for now.  That other option is anti-inflammatory medication and some chews that will help with joint health.  Bo will deal with this for the rest of his life but will be able to live a normal life for the most part.

Going into this I was scared that something would be seriously wrong with Bo and I wasn't sure how I would be able to handle that after going through something similar with Duke roughly 6 months ago.  If you missed what happened with Duke and want the story you can start with this post here, then read this post here, followed by this post, and finally this post.  I can't really go through it again because it makes me teary eyed still.  Duke is always in my heart and he won't be forgotten.

Sorry this post took a turn to the negative side.  Back to the positives, I went out to a party to meet up with friends and Bo while not 100% is going to be OK.

Tomorrow I will be running the same route I ran at the beginning of the semester.  Mission Accomplished! is the post I wrote about the first time I ran this route.  My goal for tomorrow is to beat my previous time of 19:07.  I haven't been "training" to do this but I have been more active that I was before I ran the route at the beginning of the semester so I think I can accomplish my goal.  Wish me luck!

I've got to study for a test for tomorrow night.  My goal is to do do better on this one than I did on the first class for this semester.

Do you ever consider something small as a success simply because it's a step in the right direction?

Are your pets simply pets or are they your fur-babies and are part of the family?

My Thought Process - Coming to Terms with my Purpose for Blogging

It's been a while since I've posted something here, mainly because I've been struggling with finding my purpose for blogging and what I want to blog about.

Do I want to be a food blogger?  I don't think so.  While I would like to document recipes I try or share something really delicious that I eat I don't know that I want to be toting a camera around to be taking pictures of food all the time.  Also, I'm not going to lie but I don't eat the healthiest right now so it doesn't seem like being a food blogger is the right thing for me to do.

On that same note I don't know that I could have a blog focused on fitness.  While this aspect of my life has been improving since starting a new semester of college my workouts are nothing exciting or worth blogging entirely about.

I keep coming back to the same general feeling about what my blog is - a journal of my life.

Is this a bad thing?  No, I don't think so but I do wonder if the people that read my blog enjoy it.  When I blog I do it for me but there is a part of me that wants people to enjoy reading what I post about.

Honestly, if I could have this blog be anything I want it to be it would be a documentation of how I went from the overweight college student to the healthy, happy, young adult in the "real" world - a success story.  Ideally someone would find this and be inspired, motivated, encouraged, whatever you want to say, that they can do what I've done.  But right now I haven't been succeeding in reaching my goals so this blog is just a journal of my life and doesn't seem like it is worth the time to read.

Can this be a journal of my life?  Yes!  But I want it to be a journal of my life on the road to a healthy lifestyle.  So I guess that means I need to step it up and start doing things that are on the road to this healthy lifestyle.

Writing this out has been helpful - I have now put the thoughts in my head into an actual pattern that makes sense.  If you get nothing out of reading this that's ok with me because I got something out of writing it.

Here's what I got out it...
1. Start doing! - Instead of talking/writing about the things I need to do just do it...and then write about it.
2. It is what you make of it - My blog can be a journal of my life to a healthy lifestyle if I make it one.  By doing #1 I will be able to make this blog what I want it to be.

If you stuck around to read this whole thing, congratulations - you've reached the end!

Questions for you...

If you blog how did you decide what your purpose would be?

Ever struggle with blogging?  If so, how did you get out of that "funk"?

Workin' on the blog

I am working on finally getting some pages set up.  I just completed my About Me page which gives you a peek at who I am.  Please check it out and if you want to know more let me know.  I'll either add it to the page, fill you in, or maybe do a post about it if I have enough to say.

I'm also going to work on potentially adding the following pages:

• My Journey - giving you a look into my struggle with my weight and body image
• About the Blog - explaining the purpose of my blog
• Recipes - posting some of my favorite recipes to bake and as I learn to cook better/more things those recipes as well
• Work Outs - a log of my work outs

I'm confident I will post the My Journey and About the Blog page but the others I'm on the fence about.

So, be sure to check out my About Me page and be on the look out for some new pages as well.

Upcoming Posts

Good morning blends!

I'm just going to come right out and say it, I've been lazy.  I have yet to type up my Camping Part 2 post or my Country Fest 2011 recap post even though I've been talking about doing them soon for quite some time now.

All of this laziness sparked a new post idea with some help from Navigating North, a new blog I'm following these days.  So that's been on my to-do list too since Tuesday and I haven't done that yet either.

Anyways, I just wanted to put it out there that I know I need to post everything that I've been telling you about, and I need to keep up with posting on a regular schedule.

This weekend is going to be the perfect time as I have no plans (other than what's on my to-do list) at this point.

Be on the look out for my Camping Part 2  post, Country Fest 2011 recap, and my Navigating North inspired post!

Enjoy your Friday blends!!

It's finally time!

Yes you read that right, it is finally time that my surprise/secret (whatever you want to call it) is revealed!

As many of you know my family had to put our dog Duke to sleep in June.  The day after was weird.  We no longer had a dog in the house, or outside.  The first time in my 21 years of life that I didn't have a dog.  It was sad.

[caption id="attachment_206" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Duke after a grooming appointment 4/22/11"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_200" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Duke waiting for my mom to come up the driveway 6/3/11 (while he was sick :( )"][/caption]

No dog can ever replace Duke but we wanted a dog in our family again.  And funny enough the one thing my mom agreed to before she married my dad, he would always have a hunting dog.  So the topic came up the very next day about getting a puppy.

Monday (6/13/11) we attempted to contact Holly, the breeder we had gotten Duke from.  Her number was no longer in service.  I searched online but kept coming up with the same number.  So our search turned to the internet.  My dad and I were Googling like crazy.  We ended up emailing two kennels that night; one responded within 10-15 minutes with a video of his puppies and then shortly after called my dad.  We ended up setting up a time to come out and look at the puppies as there were four males available.

Tuesday morning at work I checked my email and was pleasantly surprised to see an email from the other kennel we had emailed.  I responded back requesting that he call that evening.

Again we set up a time to come out and see the puppies.  We were lucky that we could visit both litters on the same day which also happened to be my birthday.  Bet you were wondering why I was on the road when I mentioned it in my last blog weren't you?  ;)

Finally Saturday rolled around and we went to see both litters.  The first puppies we saw were much older and would be ready to be picked up the weekend of the 25th and 26th.  While the puppies were cute (but what puppies aren't?) they weren't what we were looking for.

We ate at Red Lobster between stops.  The second litter of puppies were much younger and wouldn't be ready to go to their new homes until mid July.  Even at a young age we were able to pick a favorite, boy #7.

We decided we wanted boy #7 by the time we got on the high way but waited to call them back until the next night.  We put a deposit down and then all we had to do was wait.

We were expecting to pick up our puppy, who we decided to name Bo, on the 16th of July until we received a call on June 30th saying they had miscounted how many weeks old they would be and we could actually pick Bo up on the 9th.

We were prepared with a new blue collar and leash along with treats.

And finally what you've all been waiting for....pictures!

[caption id="attachment_201" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Bo in the car on our way home :)"][/caption]

Bo weighed in at 12 pounds Saturday at our vet and already by Wednesday night he weighed 14.5 pounds.  He's growing up so fast!! :) or :( ???

[caption id="attachment_204" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Sleeping next to me on the way home"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_203" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="He decided he needed a new sleeping position"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_202" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Bo between my feet :) Love my puppy!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_205" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Sleepy puppy after hanging out in our yard. Much bigger than he's used to so he did lots more running around"][/caption]

Well there you have it!  My secret/surprise has finally been revealed and I posted all the pictures I have of him right now.

My parents and I are going camping this weekend so I'll be sure to take more pictures.  Sadly, I do not get cell phone reception or internet connection at the campground we're going to so I'll be unplugged until I get home.  I don't mind being unplugged but I would like to be able to do some blog posting while it's just me and Bo at the camper while my parents are at wedding.

Still to come my Country Fest 2011 recap!  Have a great weekend!!

You can't sip whiskey gotta drank it!

When I was trying to come up with a title for this post my new favorite song popped into my head and I thought it was kind of fitting.  The title comes from Justin Moore's song Hank It off his album Justin Moore.

So it's been a while since my last post about the Good News & Bad News.  A lot has happened and I'll do my best to summarize all of it without boring anyone to death.

First of all, that good news that I mentioned in my last post that I kept a secret from y'all will be revealed this weekend.  Get excited because I know I am!

Three days after my last post I celebrated my 21st birthday.  My parents and I were on the road so when we had the opportunity to eat a Red Lobster we jumped on it.

[caption id="attachment_195" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Red Lobster's wait staff singing Happy Birthday to me."][/caption]

Wow I don't know how I ever let myself leave the house like that.  Yikes!  But anyways, I ordered my first legal alcoholic drink and was carded for the first time, enjoyed some awesome shrimp, and some awesome dessert.  Red Lobster apparently does nothing but sing when it's your birthday.  No free dessert or anything, boo!

I went out with only my mom and my aunt that night for drinks.  We ate dinner at Texas Roadhouse and bar hopped our way home.  No, I didn't enjoy 21 shots but I still had a good time.

Following the birthday weekend I only had a three-day work week as it was time to hit the road to Country Fest 2011.  I don't want to say too much about it now since I have a post in the works with pictures!  But you can read about who I got to see here.  I will share that I fell in love with Justin Moore after seeing him at Country Fest :)

I came back to work on Tuesday, nothing exciting happened that week.

This past weekend I did some fishing with my dad, some farm work, and a lot of reading!  Oh yea, I got a Kindle for my birthday and have been loving it.  I just wish they had more free books haha!

Now it's Thursday night and I've been hoping and thinking it's been Friday pretty much all week.  Like I mentioned earlier my secret can be revealed this weekend and so of course I am looking forward to the weekend more than usual.  Anyone want to take a guess at what my secret is?

In a nutshell these past couple of weeks have been full of fun and not so much healthy living.  That's all changing this month though.  I've once again recommitted to leading a healthier lifestyle and using www.sparkpeople.com to help me.

What's coming up:

Surprise Revealed

Country Fest 2011

I'm getting back into the blogging world so if I've been missing from your comments section be prepared for me to make a comeback!  And if you're a reader of my blog I hope you come back too!

 

Good News & Bad News

Where oh where do I begin...?

I guess I'll start with the good news first.  Who doesn't like good news, right?

Something exciting should be happening between now and the end of July barring no unexpected events that would change that.  What you ask?  Well, I'm going to keep that a secret.  Partly because I think it will be fun to keep you all in suspense until the official announcement can be made.  And partly because I'm concerned what y'all will think of me.

Gosh, that makes it sound bad doesn't it?

Oh well, it is what it is and it's staying a secret!

Now to the bad news :(

These past two weeks have been crazy to say the least but that's no excuse for letting myself do what I normally do.  What I'm saying is just because there was a bunch of stuff going on in my life doesn't mean I should have let myself revert back to having Mountain Dew on a daily basis.  I shouldn't have let myself forget about my goal to get back on track with exercise and eating better.

Life happens, on a daily basis, so I need to learn to deal with what life throws at me in a way that doesn't result in feeling badly about myself.  I need to learn to deal with what life throws at me in a way that I don't use it as an excuse to do what I normally do.  I need to learn to live my life the way I want, and need, to live it.

There!  I've said it...again.  I'm starting over, or however you want to say it, again.

Blogging consistently is something I need to do.  Even during the tough, crappy, blah times that I go through in life.  Why?  Because I'm not accountable to myself.  I feel more guilt and want to change my ways for the next day more when I put it out in the blogging world for all to read than I do when only I know what I've done.

Is that weird?  Is that bad?

Shouldn't being accountable to myself be enough?  Or is that something that comes with time?

Maybe some day being accountable to myself will be enough...

Back on the Wagon!

Hello Summer!  While the weather here in Wisconsin might not always feel like summer right now I am officially done with school for the semester so it is my summer, woot!  With summer should come more consistent blogging from me (yay!) and less whining about being stressed (double yay!).

I want to say a quick thank you to my readers who have stuck around despite my lack of interesting and regular posts.  Also, I'm excited to say I've reached 200 comments!!  Some of those comments are my own replies to your comments but still, 200 comments!!  I'm excited if you can't tell. ;)

Yesterday marked day one of working 8-hour days at my job.  I don't really get much of a summer break by working 40-hour weeks but I am making money which I need to be able to pay for school so I can't complain.  And I work at the same place my mom does so we carpool all summer.  Not having to pay for gas basically all summer is awesomesauce!

Yesterday also marked day one of no Mountain Dew...again.  Last week I stepped off the no Mountain Dew wagon for a few days.  I got myself back on yesterday, yay for something positive!  I have come to realize that I will probably never be completely Mountain Dew free and I'm OK with that.  If I can consistently limit my intake to 2 per week I would be super happy with that.  So that's my goal, 2 per week...I better drink them slow when I have them then eh?

Sunday Sami and I were schedule for a ride at 10am but let's just say I woke up after 10am and Sami never contacted me so I just said whatever to it.  We aren't schedule for any rides as of right now so I need to get in touch with her.  Because of the full-time hours I'm working for the summer we're only going to be able to get together on the weekends so I really need to get my butt in gear about riding without her.  Here's to getting back on the fitness wagon!

I have an interesting post floating around in my head that I will try to write tonight.  It will have pictures instead of just my boring ol' writing (yay!) so hopefully that helps make my posts more interesting.  I know bloggers love to see pictures and not just a bunch of words.

You are now semi caught up on my life.  I will catch you up a bit more this week with some more posts woot!!

Questions...

What are your summer plans?  Are you working or do you actually get a summer break?

Carpooling: yay or nay?

Blah Blah Blah~Ke$ha (Thanks iPod on Shuffle for my blog title)

Good evening bloggers...it's been a bit longer than I had hoped since my last post (so much for the 5 days/week :( )  I honestly just haven't had anything that I really wanted to write about...and I really still don't.  What do you do if you have nothing "worth" writing about; post a blog just because or take a few days off?

Thursday I did go to Best Buy and get my new laptop.  As soon as I got home I was of course taking it out of the box and getting it all set up. Everything was working just fine and dandy for me until this morning when I turned it on for the first time.  It had just started up and installed some updates when it blue screened on me.  I was shocked and seriously upset.  Alexis helped to calm me by letting me know that it could just not have recognized the start-up (which sometimes happens) and that as long as it didn't happen again soon it should be alright.  I seriously don't know what I would do without my tech-savy friends sometimes.  I'm not horrible when it comes to computers but there are just some things I need someone smarter than me.  For instance moving my music library from the iTunes on my old laptop to the iTunes on my new laptop...Putting the music files on my flash drive should work right??  But then my next question is, how to I get the music into iTunes?? Sorry if that's a totally dumb question and has a super easy answer to it.

Friday my dad and I went fishing by dams where the water is open.  Because of the snow storm we had on Tuesday there was A LOT of snow to walk through to get from the roads to the water.  I guess plowing those areas out isn't something they're concerned with.  It was a good work out though...I'm talking knee-deep snow.  Unfortunately no fish were caught :(  I did take pictures of the geese at one of the fishing spots but haven't uploaded them onto my computer yet so I can't post them to my blog.  Which is another thing I have to move from my old computer to my new one, pictures.  And I need to figure out how to install the camera program on my new laptop.

My dad and I ate lunch at Freddy's Pub & Grill; both of us having chimis (shredded beef for my dad and shredded chicken for me).  It was soooo good!  I'm sure it helped that I had forgotten to eat breakfast because I woke up late to be ready to go fishing.  Dinner was a home-made fish fry with the fish we had in the freezer from prior, more successful, fishing trips during the winter.  Usually we have home-made french fries with our fish fry but we didn't have enough potatoes to make french fries so we used frozen waffle fries.  I don't know what it is about waffle fries but I really really love them.  Strange that I could like different styles of fries more than others even though they're all made out of the same thing, potatoes.

Today has been a pretty uneventful day other than my freak out this morning about the blue screen.  I actually read the text for my history of rock and roll class last night and then today I listened to the lecture, took the quiz (13/15), posted to the discussion board, and responded to two other student's posts.  All of this was due either Monday or Wednesday so I feel great having it done already today.

Tomorrow I will be working ahead a week by reading the text, listening to the lecture, and doing the discussion board posting so that I can use the next two weeks to work on my organizational behavior class.  My next exam is coming up and I have yet to do any of the work (readings & assignments).  Because this class does not have weekly assignments, unlike history of rock and roll, it's very easy to put off doing the work until right before the exam.  I also need to look at my speech class to find out when the next unit has things due.  I am going to do my best to NOT put off doing the speech until the night before because as we all know that did not work out very well last time at all ;)

Starting this week I will only meet at school for class on Thursdays from 11-1:30 which means I will have Tuesdays off.  I am thinking I might work a full 8 hour day (8-4:30) on Mondays rather than just 7 (8-3).  Or maybe I should start going in for a couple of hours on Tuesdays?  I mean I did just spend quite a bit of money on a new laptop that I didn't REALLY need... Ugh I don't know.  On one hand I think I should work more hours to make more money and help out my department but on the other hand in my perfect world I would use the time off from school and work to work on homework/studying.  Realistically we know I don't use the extra free time to be working on school.  Maybe if I had a fuller schedule I would be more on top of my school work because I would only have limited time to work on it??  Who knows...

Sorry for the completely random and boring post about my life...Like I said I had nothing I really wanted to write about :(

Questions...

When planning to make a semi-expensive/expensive purchase do you get nervous?

Thursday leaving work to go to Best Buy I was very nervous and I think it was because I was spending quite a bit of money on something that I didn't need.  I didn't leave the store feeling much better because the employee that helped me made me feel rather dumb.  I walked in there knowing what I wanted and told him that.  He went on to ask me a bunch of questions like "Do you need anti-virus or Microsoft Office?"  "You sure you know what you want, did you do your research?" UGH!! I was thinking to myself the whole time "Yes!!! I know what I want and if I needed something else I would ask for it!!"

I guess I should clarify that it was more the way that the guy a Best Buy was asking me these questions that irritated me more than the actual questions he was asking me.  I do love a good helpful employee at a store, don't get me wrong!


Are you tech-savy or do you rely on tech-savy friends to help you out with those things?  If you aren't tech-savy do you try to learn from your tech-savy friends?

Like I mentioned before I'm not horrible when it comes to computers but there are things I definitely ask for help on.  Thank goodness for Alexis lately :)  I'm super happy that I "met" you through your sister's blog!

Check out Alexis's blog here!

Until next time peeps!

Real Quick...

Just wanted to post a quick little something so I can keep up with the 5 days/week blogging thing.

• Blogging - Monday and today...guess that means I need to blog every day for the rest of the week as I already didn't blog Sunday and now yesterday.


• Nutrition - Logged pretty much everything in Spark on Monday but now haven't done it yesterday or today.  Buuut I have been watching my portion sizes.  Staying away from Mountain Dew has been a fail except for yesterday.  Moving on to tomorrow, not going to beat myself up about it.


• Fitness - Monday I took my dog for a 33 minute walk.  We made it 1.89 miles.  Yesterday due to yucky weather I did nothing.  I should have done something today but it was like a half-day snow day for me so I ended up being rather lazy.  On the bright side, my mom and I have talked about where we could put the Wii in our basement for quite some time but never followed through with our plan but today we came up with a new plan.  This new plan is much more attainable than the last one so I have a good feeling it will be happening soon which means I'll have no excuse to not use the Wii as a form of indoor exercise.


• Weigh in - Did not weigh in yesterday as planned.  My grandma called me right at 9 when I was going to be getting out of bed and invited me over for breakfast (waffles yum!) and to use her oven as our new one still has not arrived.  I made 3 loafs (is this the correct "term"?? Spell check doesn't like this word for some reason??) of banana bread, sooo good.  I will for sure weigh in tomorrow or Friday.


• Weather - Like I mentioned in my last blog there was some yucky weather headed my way and it came in full force.  It snowed pretty hard yesterday morning, stopped for a while, and then snowed in the afternoon into the night.  It was like a thunderstorm but instead of rain it was snow falling from the sky.  This resulted in my dog being scared and keeping me and my dad up the whole night between the two of us.  This morning it took my dad an hour to make it to work (normally 30 minutes or less) with a 4-wheel drive truck.  Yea, that's how bad it was.  So my mom and I called in to say we would be in no later than 10.  We work at the same place so we rode together in one car and ended up making it there by 8:30.  My mom's boss later decided that anyone who didn't live in town should really consider leaving early; translation = my mom should go home.  We left at 1, meaning I only got 4 hours of work in so I will have to go in tomorrow to make up the 3 hours I missed but I will probably work 4 as I was planning to today for an even 8 hours.


• Laptop - After work tomorrow I am going to get a new laptop.  There is nothing really wrong with my current laptop other than it occasionally likes to blue screen on me (usually late at night for some reason??) so I am getting a new (better) laptop and will let my family use my old one for as long as it lasts, which with their light use it will probably be ok for a while.

Wow so that turned into a longer "little" update that I was planning.  Anyways, I'm off to finish making my bed from last night...I was lucky I got the fitted sheet on my bed last night before my dog jumped on my bed and laid down, not that I'm complaining because prior to this he wouldn't lay down and was pacing and panting.

And real quick, new readers thanks for checking out my blog and leaving comments!  I enjoy comments and am glad to see new readers commenting.  Keep 'em coming!!

How Bad Do You Want It?

Hey there blogger friends!  I hope you all had a fantabulous weekend!  Hopefully you had good weather.  Wisconsin's weather got a little crazy yesterday.  It was cold and raining/snowing.  Today sounds like it will be our last nice day with a high of  45*F until Thursday.  Tomorrow is supposed to only get up to 36*F and is going to be ice to rain with wind and Wednesday isn't going to be much better (probably worse actually) with a high of 28*F and a wintery mix to snow with wind.  Winter just does not want to let go yet I guess ;)

Enough about the weather...

Nikki recently wrote an amazing post about weight loss (read it here) that got me thinking about my own weight loss journey, or lack there of.  It was specifically this line that made me think, "But before anyone ever starts a weight loss and exercise program, you have to want it."  I question whether I really want to change my lifestyle and lose weight.

If someone randomly asked me if I wanted to lose weight my answer in a nanosecond is yes.  There is no doubt in my mind that I want to lose weight.  As Nikki also wrote, "I was unhappy, unhealthy, and out of shape." only I am unhappy, unhealthy, and out of shape.

So why am I questioning if I want it?  Because I am heavier now than I was in 2009 when I first decided to lose weight.  I have made no progress in my weight loss.  If I want to lose weight why haven't I committed to eating healthier, and exercising regularly?  That is exactly what I ask myself every time I look in the mirror.  To be honest I don't know why I haven't committed myself to changing my life for the better, or I at least haven't figured it out or admitted it to myself.

I apologize if I sound like a broken record whining about not losing weight when I'm not doing anything to change that.

As you all begin to know me better and better you will start to pick up on the fact that I relate things in my life to songs, a lot.  Of course this situation is no different.  The song that I think fits this situation in my life really well is How Bad Do You Want It? by Tim McGraw.  It is exactly what I need to ask myself...how bad do I want to change my life for the better?  Obviously the more I want to change the more dedicated I should be.  Right now I'm a bit off-balance, I'm not as dedicated as I should be.  I am going to change that, I want to be balanced.

I am a member of the weight loss site Sparkpeople but lately haven't been using the tools available to me.  To start the process of dedicating myself to weight loss I am going to re-set my account on Spark so I can start fresh with my nutrition and fitness log and my goals.

Here are some goals I have for myself with re-setting my Spark account, and with re-dedicating myself to losing weight.

• Nutrition ~ I will do my best to log everything I eat.  I always struggle with logging meals at home because I do not measure my food.  It may sound stupid because my family supports me but I do not want to measure my food in front of them.  It makes me feel awkward just thinking about do it in front of them.  So, I will do my best to estimate.  I will work on eating smaller portion sizes and limiting my junk food, including soda.


• Fitness ~ I will commit myself to 3 days/week cardio of at least 30 minutes and 2 days/week strength training of at least 15 minutes.


• Blogging ~ I used to try to blog on Spark but since starting this blog I think I will not set a goal to blog in both.  This blog will be my primary blog with maybe occasional posts on my Spark blog.  I am going to commit myself to blogging 5 days/week.  I am not going to specify what my posts have to be about; they could be nutrition, fitness, or just my life.  This is basically what I am doing now so it will not be something I need to change other than making sure to blog at leat 5 days/week.

Well there it is, my plan of action.  I am going to re-set my account on Spark tomorrow morning so I can start fresh with a new weigh in.  This does not mean I am putting off what I can do today.  I will begin to work on my nutrition and fitness today, not tomorrow.

I can do this.

I want to do this.

I will do this.

Until next time =)...

Little Successes

Why hello there!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Sunday :)

I've made progress towards three of my five goals today. Yay!

• Homework - I am actually working on my History of Rock and Roll class stuff prior to the night it's due (tomorrow).  Lately I have been putting it off until the last-minute and as a result not finishing the assigned reading or listening to the lecture which leads me to not doing the greatest on my quiz and BSing my way through the discussion board posts.  But not today, I've done both!  I'm currently working on my discussion board posts and then will be taking the quiz for the week.  Part of the reason this is getting done tonight is I have a 5 minute pro/con speech due tomorrow that I have barely started to work on.  Tomorrow after work will be devoted to working on that and then recording it.  (Speech class online, awesome? I think so ;) )


• Blogging - I am posting for the second day in a row.  Woot Woot!  I apologize it isn't about anything super exciting.  Our oven is broke currently so there will not be any baking going on in my house until our new stove/oven arrives in a couple of weeks.  Guess you'll just have to suffer through my random thoughts for the day. ;)  I'm still looking for shrimp recipes so if you have one please let me know!


• Mountain Dew - I have not had one today, unless you count the small amount that was mixed with the Cherry Dr. (Dr. Dew as my aunt and I call it).  I am taking this as a success because usually on a Sunday I would be enjoying a few Mountain Dews (YUM!).  Especially when there is a family dinner at my grandparents'.

In other awesome news Alexis (check out her blog here) enlightened me how to change the font and font color in my blog.  She even posted the step-by-step instructions (with awesomesauce screen shots) on her blog.  Simple things in life make me happy/excited so I am super happy/excited that I know how to do this.  Thank you again Alexis!

I must get back to my history of rock and roll class before I find more ways to avoid doing the work.  Sorry my blog isn't very interesting right now...I just feel frazzled right now and even though I want to work on posting more consistently I need to make school my priority right now.

Questions...

What is one blog you highly recommend and think I should check out??

In a bit more than a month I will be able to renew my contract with AT&T and get a new phone.  What are your thoughts on Blackberry, iPhone, and Droid phones??