Birthday Weekend was a blast!

I had a wonderful dinner Friday night as well with Mom, Jim, Lia and Greg. We went to Longhorn where I had this humungous beer that I had to drink using a straw. I managed to fling the straw out of the drink while talking with my hands and some of it flung right on mom.....TWICE. But it was so much fun. I got some very lovely bath and smelly stuff from Jim and Lia along with Season 4 of Scrubs (I'm really looking forward to this show). Mom gave me some money and an exercise outfit that I plan on using tomorrow. It was a wonderful time!

Saturday I woke up at 7:30 to get ready and head off to my first class. I was a bit nervous about not knowing where to go but I found it pretty quickly and made it with a few minutes to spare. It opens up with a lecture from 8:30-10:10 then we have a 20 minute break before the lab starts just a few doors down from 10:30-2:30pm. I really like the teacher. He's a Dr. and has been working for the Departement of Agriculture for over 40 years. He loves it to much to retire. Very knowlegdeable and he makes it interesting. He did start the class off by saying that today was a very special day because it is the most depressing day of the year. The day when there are suicides and sadness. I almost raised my hand to say today was my birthday but thought twice. Oh well. It was a happy day for me! I immediately befriended a girl who said she worked for NIH as well so I knew going into the next class I had a good lab parter. Another guy joined us and I think it will be a fun semester with a good group.

No dissections, thank God. But I've heard there could be a cat dissection when I get to my anatomy class. I'm begging that it will be another animal that has not been a pet of mine. If it is a cat, I've told myself, I'll have to get tears, anger, and any other emotion out of the way and deal with it. I have to be strong and get a good grade because when I'm in the job as a nurse, I'm sure I'll see things and feel emotions that I'll have to learn to put aside.

Anyway, I went straight from class to shopping for a few new things and then home for a nap. When I got home Greg surprised me with a beautiful and yummy birhday cake with my name on it. We went out to Rock Bottom right at 6pm and friends started rolling right in. I'll tell you it was one of my best parties ever. Everyone was there for me and I felt so special. Just the thought of everyone making it out and trecking up there was the best feeling in the world. We drank, laughed, joked, and just had a wonderful time. A few of us that stayed until midnight decided to go to a friend's house to continue the party. We stayed for a bit then at about 2:00am headed out to IHOP. I just really had fun and enjoyed everyone's company. :)

My eating and exercising have slacked even through till today but tomorrow its back on that treadmill in the morning, no excuses! I've been averaging about a two day a week workout but i'm not giving up.

The celebrations have begun!

I had a nice dinner with Cindy and Greg yesterday, then I get a beautiful array of roses from Greg this morning delivered right to my office :) then a balloon with a stuffed animal from a coworker (who had the 1st ballooon blow away on her so she had to go back and get another one), then I have dinner tonight with Mom, Jim, Lia and Greg, then Dinner tomorrow and drinks with friends.




Of course in the midst of all this I have my first class starting tomorrow too. Mixed emotions about that but getting nervous. The mixed emotions are the fact that its biology. I hope I like it.

I'm so spoiled! :) :) :) :)

29 tomorrow!

Break today

Today is a break because I feel like I'm coming down with something and liked the extra sleeping in this morning.

Monday-Thursday next week are as follows:

Monday - Treadmill
Tuesday - Elliptical
Wed. - Treadmill
Thursday Elliptical
Friday-Sunday Off

Not a bad schedule. :)

Did it again!

32.5 minutes on the Elliptical (tried to do 35 but ran out of energy and time).

:)

Back to it

When January 1st rolls around every year I get all excited about starting it off right with the eating good and exercising. Then by the time my birthday hits, there are other birthdays in the mix and I end up eating out and not doing so great then giving up altogether by February.

This started to happen but I'm not letting it. We went on our trip where we ate bad, I went to Dad's for his birthday party where we ate bad, and I want to eat bad on my birthday this weekend! But today I started the exercising back up. Just because I have some tough times with the food doesn't mean I can't exercise!

And I did a jog/walk today too!! I also pushed myself a bit more to see what I could do. For the first 15 minutes I did walk 2 jog 1 instead of walk 2 jog 30 sec. After the first 15 I did walk 3 jog 1.

I'm very proud of myself for this. I pushed a little more and it felt good. I'll stick with this for a while. Tomorrow I'm taking a day break from the treadmill and I'll work on the elliptical for 30. Then Friday I'll do the treadmill again.

:)

Fun Weekend!

Well, this past Sunday Greg and I trecked out to West Virginia with dogs in tow. We were hoping for some skiing but all in all just hoping for a nice quiet couple of days....we had the quiet couple of days. We went in search of a new bar with gambling every night we were there. WV has poker/slot machines in almost every bar and its a lot of fun. We had a beer or two at each and just tried to check out whats around there.

Our favorite hot spot was the shopping in Oakland and my favorite store was Cato which is a newer plus and regular size clothing store with awesome prices.

I was glad to get back home but glad we went. Our little princess, Emmi managed to scratch wood off the frame of the door and tear some blinds right in half a while we were out but it wasn't anything Greg couldn't fix.

Needless to say, from now on, she'll be in a crate when we go out while on vacation.

Diet and Exercise:

Diet was very bad but my other favorite thing about the trip was a good 2 mile hike in the woods to get to Shallow Falls. It was beautiful and either downhill or flat going to the falls but all uphill coming back. The pups got to swim a bit in a flat and more calm area of the falls and it was overall, just beautiful to look at.

I weighed myself when I got back home and I was back up but today I'm back down to my lowest so its a fresh start.

I have a busy weekend so the exercise in the mornings will pick back up fresh on Teusday but I will still try to chose healtier options while out and about if I can.

:)

Tumbling down

So at 4 in the morning Greg and I wake up to this awfully loud bang. We thought, maybe the pots and pans rack fell or maybe our wine rack fell.....nope.

To my surprise, the entire cabinet next the fridge fell right off the wall shattering about 70% of our stuff into tiny glass and ceramic pieces.

We were able to salvage some things such as the Dom Perignon from our Wedding we haven't opened and a dish we got from Grandma for the wedding but we lost a few nice things also. :(

Needless to say, we didn't sleep good after that and I'm tired this morning. I think today is a break. I'll be back at that treadmill tomorrow. I've been doing some exercising everyday so today's break is needed. :)

Food has been great so far but not as great as it needs to be. I'm working on it...

ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

1st morning workout

I did a jog/walk this morning on the treadmill! I walked for 2 minutes, jogged for 30 seconds and repeated for 30 minutes. It said I only went 1.5 miles which was a slow pace but jogging at all is very hard for me and I was feeling some tension in my calves. I stopped once to stretch them again but they are going from nothing to a lot right off the bat. I think I'll do treadmill every other day and on the other days I'll do the eliptical or bike. I don't want to push it too hard where I get an injury right away.

Of course, the last time I jogged I was about 80lbs smaller too so I am not expecting to be able to run right away.

Weight was down but it fluctuates so I'll wait to write any kind of success post about that until I see it staying down.

Now...work here I come..

Crockpotness Monster

Hahahahaha I crack myself up.

Yes, I have rediscovered my never-used Crockpot Grandma bought for me a few years ago. What a better way to start getting use to eating at home. Cindy told me about these ready made bags you can just throw into a Crockpot from the frozen foods isle. I bought 2; Pot roast, veggies and potatotes and Chicken, veggies and potatoes.

Once I turn it on a few times for these kinds of meals I'll start looking up different recipes to make some new and exciting soups, side dishes and full meals on my own! I would like to cut up veggies and have more veggies than the potatoes and meat (like you're suppose to) but first things first.

Tomorrow I start down the road to running....er...no, walking and jogging for now.. but running in the future. I really enjoyed it when I ran with Dad (something I thought I would never say); and I was able to run for 30 minutes then nonstop. I would love to take Emmi on runs but she is so out of shape she needs to build up as well. I'll try to take her when it's not cold (I don't want to drag her into too much right away) and will try to use the treadmill in the mornings at first.

Go me!

Successful Weekend!

Well, I exercised quite a bit this weekend. I worked on the townhouse for 4 hours Saturday then took a half our 2 mile walk with the pups, then walked around Chinatown for a bit on Saturday before the hockey game.

Sunday I worked on the townhouse for an hour and called it a day.

Today, its a half hour on the exercise bike for me then dinner with a friend.

Food wasn't terrible. I chose to get a salad and soup at an all you can eat buffet Sunday afternoon. Thats a major plus since I love buffets.

Water, I need to work on it.

But I'm pretty proud of myself for this weekend. My weight goes way up then back down to my starting point but it isn't going down yet. We'll see how that goes. I may have to become more strict soon with my eating out.

Still in the first week

Yesterday I was so tired I scratched the exercise for the day. No biggy. I still ate ok (lets just say, it wasn't terrible). For breakfast I had a banana and 1 poptart. I had Quiznos for lunch with low fat chips and a sprite (sprite doesn't have as many calories as a regular coke). And for dinner I had chicken, broccoli and mashes potatoes (much better than the huge burger I wanted). I also drank 20oz of water.

So my calories were probably high for the day (since nothing was made from home) and I didn't exercise but I don't think it was a dud kind of day. I slept pretty good and have more energy to workout today.

My boss ok'd my new schedule. Instead of 7:30-5 with a 1 hr lunch break, she is letting me do 8-5 with a 1/2 hr lunch break so I have time to workout. I get here at 6:45 so that leaves me with 1 hr 15 minutes to workout and shower in the morning. Perfect for me.

I also signed up for the Discovery Health challenge so I could get a free 8 week pass to Ballys. So I'll try to use Bally's up then start doing mornings after that. I still would like to do the 10k with Jim and Kieran so I need to start working on that soon. I have a long way to go to be able to make a 10k but I can do it!!

On a roll!!

Day 1

Yesterday was a success to me! I did have a starbucks Venti Mocha in the morning (first day back to work after a break...it was needed) but for lunch I had a ceasar salad at Bennigans. Then for dinner we met our friend Moe at Red Robin where I had a chicken sandwhich and veggies with iced tea. I also drank 21oz of water for the day and no soda.

I went home and did a vigorous workout on the stationary bike for a half hour and was done for the day. I felt good that I did it afterwards and slept great.

Today, down the 2lbs of New Years eating and drinking.

Goals for today 24oz of water and 30 mins of the stationary bike.

:)

Wow

Feeling a bit stressed but all in good fun. My calendar is booked up through the end of March now. Lots to do but if you have nothing to do, life gets boring right?

I officially start the exercise today. My goal is to bike for 30 minutes at home tonight. Once I talk to my boss about altering my schedule a bit I'll start working out in the mornings next week alternating from the treadmill to the elliptical. The Federal program I signed up for might allow me an extra 30 minutes in the morning to be able to do this without having to get up any earlier than normal..yippee!

The food, I'll work on gradually. I'm going to try to drink a little more water each day and try to eat better but if I don't thats ok for now. My current goal is to just get some activity everyday and build that up.

I'll keep this blog updated on my activities and weight loss through all of this. For now, its just going to be a normal routine for me like brushing my teeth. It has to be!