I didn't really intend to update every day of the challenge, but I find that I have the time to, so I might as well. I am doggy sitting. It's fun! :) I <3 Juno! So far we've played who is that at the front door?, talked through the back door, played follow Hammy's finger along the back door, played how do we get Lisa into the house? (Jen won that game by telling me how to get in. THANK YOU JENNIFER!!!!!), played "omg, I thought you were never coming inside, let me jump on you and lick you and dance with you" (I didn't do any licking... or jumping), chased each other in the yard, danced some more, played tickle monster, played tug-o-war, and played belly-rubs! I won tickle monster and belly-rubs, but Juno won tug-o-war. (Don't tell her, but I threw the game. I totally let her win.) We may have a rematch later tonight!
So... as you may have noticed, I seem to have gotten locked out of my friend's house. When I called home freaking out about it my mom gave me two very good pieces of advice. 1. Call Jennifer to find out how to get in. ("but mom, I don't want to freak her out." "Lisa, you need to call her! It's her house" LOL!) and 2. Always try a key when giving it to someone or taking it from someone, before you leave. I shall not forget that in the future.
I'm glad it's a "rest day" in the "challenge" because I am sore. Not super sore, but sore enough to feel it when I crouch down or when I stretch out. It's that good kind of sore, you know? The kind that tells you that you're alive and mobile and that you're actually using your muscles. I can't remember the last timeI enjoyed being sore. hahaha!
So, other than dog-sitting, what am I doing on my rest day? Well... resting of course! ha ha. No really, I'm going to make Pumpkin Pie Bites! Yeah, so I probably shouldn't make junk food if my goal is to lose weight and exercise, right? Well to you I say, SHUT UP! I'M MAKING THEM ANYWAY! O:-)
I'll let you know how they turn out. :)
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
Day 2 - Check!
So I just finished Day 2 of my 30-day Challenge. According to the program, I burned 172 calories today, which is curious because I decided to do the low-intensity workout instead of medium today. I feel so much better today than yesterday. I mean I don't feel entirely defeated and I don't need to go lie down in front of a fan! LOL I am perspiring and I feel hot and I feel like I am stinky (TMI?), but I don't feel like I'm going to vomit or like I'm close to death. hahaha I feel really good. I also took a hint from yesterday and got water handy ahead of time and turned the fan on before I started working out. :) Kept me much cooler. Duh, that was a stupid rookie mistake yesterday.
Now, I'll again admit I took a little break in the middle of the workouts, but that wasn't because I needed a break. My mother called and I was talking to her for a little bit. Actually, I talked to her while I was doing kick-ups for a little bit, then that portion ended, so I just finished our conversation before continuing on to the next exercise. All in all, I think it was a 15 minute break. I can see how difficult it is now for mothers with newborns or toddlers to get their exercise in! I got interrupted and I don't have a job or kids!!
I feel as though I could continue to workout. The program allows you to keep working out and pick your individual work outs if you want, but I'm not going to do that yet. I will take the dog for a walk later, I suppose that counts for something, right?
My side lunges today were so much better! I assume it's because of having the previous ones as practice. In any case, I'm improving on those. yay! But, we did forward and alternating lunges today... those will take some getting used to. I noticed the program holds lunges for 2 seconds when I have to step with my right leg and 3 when I step with my left. I find my left leg lunges more difficult to hold and I don't know if it's because that leg is weaker for some reason, or if it's just holding it that extra second. Strange. I know my right arm is stronger than my left because I use that arm more often, but I use my legs the same amount, so I don't necessarily believe my left one is weaker.
Looking at the calendar, my "trainer" says tomorrow is a Rest Day. It looks like ever 3rd day is a rest day. That's nice.
------
On to other things. I passed my POST test. This means I now have an Oral Board Interview, which to me means I have an interview in front of multiple people who will be judging how well they think I'll be able to perform the job. I assume the Interview will take about 30 minutes as there is 45 minutes schedule between the start of each interview. It looks as though there are 41 people who have an interview schedule and there are only 3 open positions. That gives any one of us a roughly 7% chance of getting picked. I don't have any dispatcher experience, but I do have a lot of phone experience and a lot of experience dealing with different types of people who are in varying degrees of stress. We'll see how it goes... Cross your fingers!
Now, I'll again admit I took a little break in the middle of the workouts, but that wasn't because I needed a break. My mother called and I was talking to her for a little bit. Actually, I talked to her while I was doing kick-ups for a little bit, then that portion ended, so I just finished our conversation before continuing on to the next exercise. All in all, I think it was a 15 minute break. I can see how difficult it is now for mothers with newborns or toddlers to get their exercise in! I got interrupted and I don't have a job or kids!!
I feel as though I could continue to workout. The program allows you to keep working out and pick your individual work outs if you want, but I'm not going to do that yet. I will take the dog for a walk later, I suppose that counts for something, right?
My side lunges today were so much better! I assume it's because of having the previous ones as practice. In any case, I'm improving on those. yay! But, we did forward and alternating lunges today... those will take some getting used to. I noticed the program holds lunges for 2 seconds when I have to step with my right leg and 3 when I step with my left. I find my left leg lunges more difficult to hold and I don't know if it's because that leg is weaker for some reason, or if it's just holding it that extra second. Strange. I know my right arm is stronger than my left because I use that arm more often, but I use my legs the same amount, so I don't necessarily believe my left one is weaker.
Looking at the calendar, my "trainer" says tomorrow is a Rest Day. It looks like ever 3rd day is a rest day. That's nice.
------
On to other things. I passed my POST test. This means I now have an Oral Board Interview, which to me means I have an interview in front of multiple people who will be judging how well they think I'll be able to perform the job. I assume the Interview will take about 30 minutes as there is 45 minutes schedule between the start of each interview. It looks as though there are 41 people who have an interview schedule and there are only 3 open positions. That gives any one of us a roughly 7% chance of getting picked. I don't have any dispatcher experience, but I do have a lot of phone experience and a lot of experience dealing with different types of people who are in varying degrees of stress. We'll see how it goes... Cross your fingers!
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Day 1- check!
So, after my surge of motivation, I decided to buy the Wii Active. I set up my fitness profile last night and decided to start it today. It allows you to do individual work-outs or select the "30-day challenge" which is basically a 30-day structured workout plan (including rest days). I opted to start the 30-day challenge today because I didn't know what work-outs I would want to do at first. I chose the medium intensity because I wanted a good work out... and boy did I get one.
The exercises themselves were easy, but I miscalculated just how out of shape I am. Omg! I also apparently have weaker knees than I thought. During the first set of squats I thought I was going to seriously hurt my knees, but during the next set later on, I felt fine. I guess they just needed to get back into the swing of things. During the side lunges, I realized that I SUCK AT SIDE LUNGES! I swear the chick on screen kept telling me to "try again," "watch me," and "hold it a little longer" and here I am talking back to my tv going "I'm trying!" and "well, how about you not hold it as long?" I'll admit, I may have half-assed the second set of side lunges that we did... hee hee hee... I'll try harder later.
Sadly I had to sit down and cool down a little in the middle of the exercises. I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, drank a little and turned the living room fan on before I got back into the program.
...
okay, I didn't want to admit it, but I really should hold myself accountable. There was 1 exercise left. It was a cool down run/walk.... but I just struggled through the exercise before because I was so hot/tired/just not feeling good... that I walked away from the TV. Yeah, I went and lied down on my bed with the fan on me for 10 minutes, then I went back in the living room and finished the "cool down" after my own personal cool down. I know that's not the proper way to do things, but I also know that if I'm going to work out on my own, I'm not going to push myself harder than I think I should. I seriously felt nauseous for a moment there and lying down helped. After the last run/walk, I felt good.
I feel good now, I feel like my thighs, primarily my left thigh will be a little sore tomorrow, but I feel good. I actually feel more energetic than I did earlier today (whether that's just because of the time of day it or or because of the work-out, I don't know). The program says I burned 169 calories during the work-outs. That doesn't sound like very much, but hey it's something, right?
I feel good about this 30-day workout and so far about the active in general. I'll be keeping up with this, but I think tomorrow I'll change it to a low intensity work out! :)
The exercises themselves were easy, but I miscalculated just how out of shape I am. Omg! I also apparently have weaker knees than I thought. During the first set of squats I thought I was going to seriously hurt my knees, but during the next set later on, I felt fine. I guess they just needed to get back into the swing of things. During the side lunges, I realized that I SUCK AT SIDE LUNGES! I swear the chick on screen kept telling me to "try again," "watch me," and "hold it a little longer" and here I am talking back to my tv going "I'm trying!" and "well, how about you not hold it as long?" I'll admit, I may have half-assed the second set of side lunges that we did... hee hee hee... I'll try harder later.
Sadly I had to sit down and cool down a little in the middle of the exercises. I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, drank a little and turned the living room fan on before I got back into the program.
...
okay, I didn't want to admit it, but I really should hold myself accountable. There was 1 exercise left. It was a cool down run/walk.... but I just struggled through the exercise before because I was so hot/tired/just not feeling good... that I walked away from the TV. Yeah, I went and lied down on my bed with the fan on me for 10 minutes, then I went back in the living room and finished the "cool down" after my own personal cool down. I know that's not the proper way to do things, but I also know that if I'm going to work out on my own, I'm not going to push myself harder than I think I should. I seriously felt nauseous for a moment there and lying down helped. After the last run/walk, I felt good.
I feel good now, I feel like my thighs, primarily my left thigh will be a little sore tomorrow, but I feel good. I actually feel more energetic than I did earlier today (whether that's just because of the time of day it or or because of the work-out, I don't know). The program says I burned 169 calories during the work-outs. That doesn't sound like very much, but hey it's something, right?
I feel good about this 30-day workout and so far about the active in general. I'll be keeping up with this, but I think tomorrow I'll change it to a low intensity work out! :)
Sunday, September 27, 2009
My cup is half full.
You know, I find that my happiness in life is slowly increasing. It was a shock to move back to the bay area away from all that's been familiar for 8 years. I put a strain on my life momentarily, but as things settle and I become more used to being back, I'm finding that I'm becoming happier and happier. This may have something to do with no longer working for LPL too. (I suspect it actually has a LOT to do with that.) However, with all this, I find that my life is feeling more and more empty. How is it that I can be "happy" and still feel "empty?"
What I mean by empty is that I'm finding that there are things I want to accomplish but either cannot right now or just plain don't. With all this free time I feel like "now is the time" to do these things and yet there are other constraints which keep me from accomplishing them. For example, with the lack of job comes the lack of income. I have enough saved up to comfortably live. I am by no means "just scraping by" and luckily I have no outstanding debt. But with the lack of income I am more reserved in my spending, which in turn means I have a very hard time convincing myself that the roughly $400 bill in air travel to see my friends Lizzy and Matt in Georgia is worth it.
With all this time, I should be volunteering with organizations and helping out and yet I keep myself from doing these things because when I do get a job, I'll probably have to cut back on that and so I don't want to make a commitment right now that I may or may not be able to stick with later. Of course I have thought, "well, some help now is better than no help ever," but I somehow always dismiss that.
For those reasons I feel empty. I feel like I'm not accomplishing things with my time right now. I should put forth a greater effort. I need better time management skills in my personal life. I can time manage just fine with work, I'm good at prioritizing work responsibilities, but when it comes to my personal life the gauge for what is most important is hard to distinguish. I feel like a sim whose social, fitness, philanthropy, and love bars are in the red and I don't know which one to work on first.... and yet somehow my happiness meter is in the green (probably yellow-green). It's a strange feeling.
...
I think the first thing I want to do is what I've always said I wanted to do. I want to work on my fitness. I see my friends and they're all thinner than I am. I don't compare myself to them, as everyone is different, but I'm not blind. I can see that I'm usually the largest one when I hang out with people. It's easier here, in the bay area, surrounded by people I know care about me (friends included) than it was in San Diego surrounded by tanned and toned beach bodies all the time. My goals seem easier to reach here, partially because of my "motivating" father (he means well even if I don't always take it well), and partially because my goals are more realistic. I still have the same ultimate "goal weight" but I think the time-frame in which I wish to accomplish such a task doesn't seem like it needs to be as rushed as it did before.
I said before that I have a subscription to Fitness magazine. I changed my address with them and finally got the next issue here, maybe that is where all this is coming from. Or maybe it's just that time of year where I get the motivation bug. I have the resources, the support, and for the moment I have the motivation. I want it to stick this time, I have a glimmer of hope that it just might.
What I mean by empty is that I'm finding that there are things I want to accomplish but either cannot right now or just plain don't. With all this free time I feel like "now is the time" to do these things and yet there are other constraints which keep me from accomplishing them. For example, with the lack of job comes the lack of income. I have enough saved up to comfortably live. I am by no means "just scraping by" and luckily I have no outstanding debt. But with the lack of income I am more reserved in my spending, which in turn means I have a very hard time convincing myself that the roughly $400 bill in air travel to see my friends Lizzy and Matt in Georgia is worth it.
With all this time, I should be volunteering with organizations and helping out and yet I keep myself from doing these things because when I do get a job, I'll probably have to cut back on that and so I don't want to make a commitment right now that I may or may not be able to stick with later. Of course I have thought, "well, some help now is better than no help ever," but I somehow always dismiss that.
For those reasons I feel empty. I feel like I'm not accomplishing things with my time right now. I should put forth a greater effort. I need better time management skills in my personal life. I can time manage just fine with work, I'm good at prioritizing work responsibilities, but when it comes to my personal life the gauge for what is most important is hard to distinguish. I feel like a sim whose social, fitness, philanthropy, and love bars are in the red and I don't know which one to work on first.... and yet somehow my happiness meter is in the green (probably yellow-green). It's a strange feeling.
...
I think the first thing I want to do is what I've always said I wanted to do. I want to work on my fitness. I see my friends and they're all thinner than I am. I don't compare myself to them, as everyone is different, but I'm not blind. I can see that I'm usually the largest one when I hang out with people. It's easier here, in the bay area, surrounded by people I know care about me (friends included) than it was in San Diego surrounded by tanned and toned beach bodies all the time. My goals seem easier to reach here, partially because of my "motivating" father (he means well even if I don't always take it well), and partially because my goals are more realistic. I still have the same ultimate "goal weight" but I think the time-frame in which I wish to accomplish such a task doesn't seem like it needs to be as rushed as it did before.
I said before that I have a subscription to Fitness magazine. I changed my address with them and finally got the next issue here, maybe that is where all this is coming from. Or maybe it's just that time of year where I get the motivation bug. I have the resources, the support, and for the moment I have the motivation. I want it to stick this time, I have a glimmer of hope that it just might.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Motion Traxx
So, now with all this time on my hands I've been trying to get into better eating (translation: not blowing money on fast-food) and exercising (omg! what? moi? exercise!? ... i know). Anyway, I have a subscription to fitness magazine (gift from a friend) and it has helped a lot with the motivation. My first free week I started the Couch to 5K regimine and while I was exhausted afterwards (yeah... I'm REALLY out of "cardio" shape, but quite strong) I felt good for doing it. I got side tracked quickly and then semi hurt my ankle in a freak bar slip (NOT a party foul! I literally slipped in someone else's spilled drink) and since my medical coverage is ending I wanted to stay off it since it felt a little sore. Anyway, now I'm back on it and will probably do more since as I said I have a lot of time on my hands (other than packing).
... wow... can you say side tracked??
I wanted to post this so I don't forget! In Fitness magazine I read a bit about a free website which posts work-out (more specifically: running/jogging) music. They're brand new and update every 2 weeks with a new track. They give you the BPM, beats per minute, of the music and tell you if you keep pace with the music the whole way through roughly how much you will have run and approximately how many calories you would have burned (they give a guideline too, like this is for a 140 pound person or 150 pound person or whatever) and the food equivalent of that. I think it's kind've interesting. The beats are all pretty easy to listen to and run with, so I enjoy that.
http://www.motiontraxx.com/
You can subscribe to it via podcast on iTunes and save to your iPod or you can download the songs to upload to another MP3 player. And again, it's FREE. :)
I got ready to go run the other day and was listening to one of the tracks. I enjoyed it, so I opened iTunes and subscirbed, downloaded the ones they have out right now and synced it to my iPod.... then I got sidetracked and realized I have a $15 iTunes gift card, so I redeemed that and downloaded some more music and synced my iPod ... next thing I know, I'm listening to music and got side-tracked online. Blah! Like I said... the exercise for me is a work in progress.
... wow... can you say side tracked??
I wanted to post this so I don't forget! In Fitness magazine I read a bit about a free website which posts work-out (more specifically: running/jogging) music. They're brand new and update every 2 weeks with a new track. They give you the BPM, beats per minute, of the music and tell you if you keep pace with the music the whole way through roughly how much you will have run and approximately how many calories you would have burned (they give a guideline too, like this is for a 140 pound person or 150 pound person or whatever) and the food equivalent of that. I think it's kind've interesting. The beats are all pretty easy to listen to and run with, so I enjoy that.
http://www.motiontraxx.com/
You can subscribe to it via podcast on iTunes and save to your iPod or you can download the songs to upload to another MP3 player. And again, it's FREE. :)
I got ready to go run the other day and was listening to one of the tracks. I enjoyed it, so I opened iTunes and subscirbed, downloaded the ones they have out right now and synced it to my iPod.... then I got sidetracked and realized I have a $15 iTunes gift card, so I redeemed that and downloaded some more music and synced my iPod ... next thing I know, I'm listening to music and got side-tracked online. Blah! Like I said... the exercise for me is a work in progress.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Commercial Slogans
I would really love to write down random memories that I have. Every now and then stories from my past just pop into my head and I laugh even though no one is around. Like the following:
In the 80's there was a truck commercial (which I assume was for Toyota... you'll see why) where the "driver" would be standing outside the truck (which was usually up on a rocky mountain) and would jump in the air, kick their legs tot he side, and throw their arms up into the air. The camera would then freeze in that position, so you'd see them jumping for joy. Growing up my friend and I would run down her hallway and jump off the steps into her living room and yell "I love what you do for me, Toyota" and strike that pose mid-aid. We would do that over and over and over again and laugh hysterically. It still makes me smile and laugh when I think about it.
On a related note, when I was a kid my crib was in my sister's room. I remember standing up in my crib and reaching out my hand towards my sister in her bed. She would lean as far out of her bed as she could and would stretch out her hand and we'd say "Reach out and touch someone." Again, just like in a commercial. I think that slogan was for AT&T. It's a really great memory that my sister and I both share. :)
In the 80's there was a truck commercial (which I assume was for Toyota... you'll see why) where the "driver" would be standing outside the truck (which was usually up on a rocky mountain) and would jump in the air, kick their legs tot he side, and throw their arms up into the air. The camera would then freeze in that position, so you'd see them jumping for joy. Growing up my friend and I would run down her hallway and jump off the steps into her living room and yell "I love what you do for me, Toyota" and strike that pose mid-aid. We would do that over and over and over again and laugh hysterically. It still makes me smile and laugh when I think about it.
On a related note, when I was a kid my crib was in my sister's room. I remember standing up in my crib and reaching out my hand towards my sister in her bed. She would lean as far out of her bed as she could and would stretch out her hand and we'd say "Reach out and touch someone." Again, just like in a commercial. I think that slogan was for AT&T. It's a really great memory that my sister and I both share. :)
Religion, Lent, and Weight Loss
I don't go to church, I rarely read the bible, I pray only in dire situations, but I consider myself Catholic and I particpate in Lent. Strange, right? I have been known to have religious conversations with friends and the thought of demons and humanizing the devil freak me out. For instance, a friend of mine told me once about how he frequently has "dreams" of someone that looks just like him except with blonde hair (he as dark brown hair) staring over him menacingly and reaching out to him on occasion. He said he researched about it on the internet and supposedly it is his ... anti-angel? I don't know how to descirbe it, but it is basically the opposite of a guardian angel... instead it is something sent by Satan to tempt you. That freaked me out and for the longest time I refused to sleep over at this guy's house (he was just a friend, never anything more, completely platonic). Even typing that out names me anxious/nervous. Again... strange, right? ... I digress... the point of this post was to discuss my actions for Lent this year.
Lent 2009
I have been trying to lose weight for as long as I can remember (okay that was an exaggeration, but it has been a very long time). Some things work, some things don't. This year for lent I have decided to give up fast food burgers and fries and the all too-easy, too-good Taco Bell. It's just under a week into lent and I've been on track so-far (with the exception of forgetting that I shouldn't have red meat on fridays... oops). The only down-fall is that I feel like this isn't enough. This isn't much of a sacrifice as my resolution has loop-holes. So I was thinking of adding more to it... I think I should force myself to work-out during this time. Working out is my all-time weight-loss pitfall. I absolutely hate working out because I'm so ashamed of my body and my out-of-shapeness that it sadens me. I think back to when I was active and wouldn't get out of breath going up a flight of stairs and I go on a downward spiral thinking about how I got to this stage of my life.
I know what I need to do, but how do I get myself to do it? I hope that Lent is the answer, but I can't say for sure. I have the ideas and I know the reasons behind why I should do these things and what should motivate me to do them, but I lack something that actually makes me get up and do it... hmm..
wow, this post took a 180 degree turn, didn't it? haha It's 6am and I've been up since noon... that's my excuse. :-p
Lent 2009
I have been trying to lose weight for as long as I can remember (okay that was an exaggeration, but it has been a very long time). Some things work, some things don't. This year for lent I have decided to give up fast food burgers and fries and the all too-easy, too-good Taco Bell. It's just under a week into lent and I've been on track so-far (with the exception of forgetting that I shouldn't have red meat on fridays... oops). The only down-fall is that I feel like this isn't enough. This isn't much of a sacrifice as my resolution has loop-holes. So I was thinking of adding more to it... I think I should force myself to work-out during this time. Working out is my all-time weight-loss pitfall. I absolutely hate working out because I'm so ashamed of my body and my out-of-shapeness that it sadens me. I think back to when I was active and wouldn't get out of breath going up a flight of stairs and I go on a downward spiral thinking about how I got to this stage of my life.
I know what I need to do, but how do I get myself to do it? I hope that Lent is the answer, but I can't say for sure. I have the ideas and I know the reasons behind why I should do these things and what should motivate me to do them, but I lack something that actually makes me get up and do it... hmm..
wow, this post took a 180 degree turn, didn't it? haha It's 6am and I've been up since noon... that's my excuse. :-p
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