Roller Coaster

These past few weeks have been overwhelming. I have too much to do so it makes me do NOTHING. grrr.

I finally went for another run outside, it was in the 40s today. Here's my run:



More updates on life coming soon... I promise.

Exciting Puzzle Pieces

Have you been to that point when everything just MAKES SENSE. You have a sense of where you're supposed to be and what you're supposed to be doing. The pieces to lead me to that point have been appearing one by one over the last month and I'm really REALLY excited about it. I am more motivated than ever to make them all true.

I know where I want to live - Summit County, near Akron. I loved it when I lived there before and I was the most "adult-like" and grown up when I was there. I also found a running store that has 5k training!! (in that area)

So my goal is to get a job up there and move there this summer.

(and if you've been keeping up with my posts - I'm starting to lose weight again, and I'm pursuing additional licensure so that I WILL BE able to teach upper level math!!)

Well I need to go to bed.

Happy Presidents' Day!

Happy Day

Today was a great day. The scale was friendly - 210.0 !!! and I had a great workout, a whole 60 minutes on the elliptical. I had a shower to go to and they served fruit and grilled chicken! I did have some cake but it is all accounted for and permissible :)

I have realized I really MUST eat more. I will lose weight better by eating my WHOLE 1800 calories and if that means I need to move my butt even more to get the deficit I want, than that's what it has to be.

Not eating enough is NOT a shortcut. You'd think I'd have learned this by now!!! Ok I'm going to curl up in my nice warm bed and watch a movie... then sleep!! :)

Goodnight!

Today also turned out to be a 41 point day (43 is my highest) and I logged 12,164 steps (my best is 13,732) That's by far my best step count for a WEEKEND. YAY!

Tried something New

Today I did an experiment that is very unlike me. I experimented with a recipe and I must admit, it's not bad. There are few tweaks I will make, and I will definitely try again.

Low Fat Potato Soup (my interpretation)
Makes 4 1 cup servings - supposedly
1/2 bag of Ore Ida Shredded Hashbrowns
2 cans of fat free/low salt College Inn Chicken Broth
1 packet of McCormick's Country Gravy (this I will try others next time - a little too spicy for me)

Brown the hashbrowns... add them to chicken broth, cook until potatoes are "squishy" then add the gravy mix. I let it simmer for a bit and then let it set - so the gravy would get thicker.

Surprisingly it really did taste like Potato Soup. :) and here are the nutritional stats for 1 cup:

Calories: 155
Fat: 4g
Saturated Fat: 0
Cholesterol: 0
Sodium: 1010mg (mostly from the gravy mix)
Carbs: 26g
Fiber: 2g
Protein: 5g

Changing the prize

Ok the last two days have been HORRIBLE. I'm blaming stress and it ends tonight. I'm going to put some relaxing lotion on, crawl into my nice warm bed and read my book until the real world just fades away (at least until tomorrow)

I decided that I would much rather have the new Madagascar movie (with additional Penguin Movie) instead of the Wii Game. So I switched it. I can do that right? After all it is MY point/reward system right?

Ok I'm off to la-la world.

FRUSTRATING DAY- Expensive Lesson

I won't go into the details of the day, because I'd rather forget them. The day started off rocky since we lost electricity and my alarms didn't go off! But anyway... on my way home tonight, I stopped for a DQ SMALL blizzard, my throat was sore and I thought it would do nicely for it. I estimated in my head that a small would probably be between 300 and 400 calories, and I had space allotted in my "calorie count". Of course, I also stopped for an Arby's Roastbeef -- I told you it was a bad day. I know the Arby's is 400 and I really did still have room for the DQ (at my estimation).
So I came home and looked up the Blizzard details... then rechecked them, made sure I picked small and looked again... let's just say there will be NO MORE blizzards in my future!!! I'm glad I enjoyed this one.
710 calories, 27 grams of Fat!!!!

Ok That being said, I'm going to bed so I get up EXTRA early and go burn some EXTRA calories. I declared today my rest day -- since between my alarm issues and class, I had no chance to get to the gym.

Back in the Saddle

So, it's a new week, I took a few days off (Thur-Sun) and came back refreshed and energized. I've been to the gym twice this week - both times before the crack of dawn. I like this new schedule I've set for myself. I try to go to bed between 9 and 10 and get up somewhere between 5 and 5:30. My points are going well. I should reach my next goal tomorrow. Of course this prize doesn't interest me nearly as much as I thought it would.

Tonight I went to dinner with my parents, and ate too much. I wanted something new- different... but I think it was a bad choice, but i"ll make up for it at the gym tomorrow.

Well Biggest Loser is on and I have Valentine's to write.

I need routine

Maybe I'm a little OCD, (actually I've always thought I had a few OCD tendancies) but MAN do I miss my regular routine. I'm content eating the same thing, at the same time, day after day. I like predictability. (but at the same time I also like spontanaity - I'm weird)

I'm here in Columbus at a conference. I accidentally booked the wrong hotel, so I have no fridge or microwave, which changes my food plan.

Yesterday I did ok food wise but exercise was tough. I tried 3 machines before settling on the recumbant bike. My stomach was... kinda crampy and legs were just dragging, overall I was only able to go about 20 minutes. (By the end of the day though, I did come in with over an hour of at least moderate activity) I also realized I really really did not like the water at the hotel. It's great for brushing my teeth, but offered no comfort while working out.

Because of my being out of townness... and my stomach acting up (I'm thinking it was the effects of my pizza Sunday night) I decided to allow myself an extra day before my weigh in. So my official "Tuesday" weigh in will be "Wednesday" this week.

Last night I stayed up late reading my book and so my morning workout didn't happen - my stomach was still bothering me last night, so I decided to sleep in (till 7am) and do my workout this evening. On my way back to the hotel tonight, I stopped at Kroger and bought some bottled water - that in itself gave me some extra motivation to workout. Plus I wore my Great Big Sea gear all day to help remind me of what's at stake (besides my life, health, etc).

Anyway, so I decided to try the treadmill, and used a makeshift playlist (my GBS one) I felt much better than recent treadmill workouts. I'm guessing that it had to do with being more relaxed (by myself) and maybe the speeds are different on these treadmills. However I did notice that I kept getting statically shocked! I was watching Biggest Loser as I was running and when I ended my workout, I forgot to end my Nike+ workout, so my graphic will probably look weird. I won't be able to upload it until I get home, I use my other computer for that.


Well, I have some homework to attend to, and then to sleep. I can't wait to get to the Gym Thursday morning and hop on the elliptical. I miss it. :)

Getting it right...

Today I had a good workout... but was on a different elliptical and my quad was hurting pretty bad. I think because it was a different "ramp" angle. I didn't push quite as hard as usual. And of course tonight was my splurge night - which means I will be kicking my own butt tomorrow morning.

I'm in Columbus, at a conference and trying to eat as well as I can, and workout as much as possible (according to my usual schedule). I've even brought my scale with me!! I need to see those numbers.

Since I will be getting up extra early, I'm going to go read my book and call it a night. The game will keep me company - the commercials leave much to be desired. Although I did like the "Go Fetch" budweiser one, and the one with the Potato Heads.

Have a good week!