I trotted, sort of...

My friend Amy and I, along with 3000 other people, participated in the Lansing Turkeyman Trot on  Thanksgiving day.  Of course, I completed this event after only two hours of sleep since I was up most of Wednesday night cooking for Thanksgiving.  But, I still completed it!  Hopefully next year I won't be so sleep deprived.  Also, next year, Luna the Puppy-Dog will be joining us, possible dressed like a Turkey.  I'm sure that she'll enjoy that, or not.  But she doesn't have a choice in the matter.

But Amy and I walked the entire way, except for the last 50 feet or so at which point we jogged.  We completed the entire thing in 57 min and 4 seconds.  The goal for next year is to beat that time, along with the beagle dressed like a turkey and my friend Amy.  But, regardless of the time it took to complete, I will get Vitality points.  Especially since I already turned in the form to get those points.

In other news, I am now coming on the last couple weeks of school until GRADUATION!!  I'm so excited about graduation, but really NOT excited about the work I have to do before then.  That includes:

• Finish the ePortfolio
• Finish the Microsoft Encoder video
• Write the 15-20 page paper on some information behavior (I'm thinking the topic is going to be blogs)
• Maybe buy yet another textbook and take each chapter quiz as I read the chapter
• Continue to keep up with the discussion board

Hopefully that's all.  Hopefully...  The 15-20 page paper is actually due AFTER the graduation ceremony, but my goal is to complete it beforehand so that the ceremony actually is the end and there is some sense of closure there.

Anyway, wish me luck!

"Planning out meals for the week can help cut out processed foods for families"

Here's an interesting article that was published in the Lansing State Journal about clean eating and processed foods which, by the way, are indeed mutually exclusive.  I've known that processed foods are the reason that waistlines are expanding for awhile now, I just never acted on it until recently.

Yummy Bean Soup

Yesterday I made a pot of yummy bean soup for dinner.  Here's the part that was amazing.  It was INCREDIBLY easy and tasty.  Additionally, I had less then a ladle last night for dinner along with a little bit of bread, and I was comfortably full after that.  I also have a huge pot still, which means I probably don't have to cook again this week except for Thanksgiving stuff to take to my sister's.  If I think of it, pictures may be forthcoming.

Before cooking the soup, my kitchen was in dire need of being cleaned.  When I was almost finished cleaning, my garbage disposal decided it didn't like me a broke down.  :(

Otherwise, I think that I've mostly regained my emotional equilibrium which is good.

Also, the Turkey Trot is on Thanksgiving!  I'm pretty excited about walking the 5k with my good friend Amy, who I haven't really been able to chat with in several months.

Inadequacy

For some reason today, I am plagued by feelings of inadequacy.  I know that I have something to contribute to this world.  Well, I know in my head that I do.  I also know in my head that there are people that care about me.  But there are more important parts of me that aren't always completely convinced of these things.

The last 24 hours have been crazy stressful.  My computer stopped working when I was trying to work on a paper.  After some running around, I figured out it was the cord, but nonetheless it was extremely stressful.  This is especially true considering that I have a paper due in five hours that I can't seem to bring myself to work on.  Or even open the document up for that matter.

I was supposed to drive to Detroit today to pick up graduation stuff.  Luckily I was able to reschedule that.

My ePortfolio was essentially rejected.  They didn't like the color scheme or the layout.  Said the background color made it functionally illegible and that the organization of it was unorganized.  That's all in the eye of the beholder, I suppose.  I thought it was clearly organized.  Added to that, the background is a dark texture with light colored text.  It passed all accessibility standards according to the world wide web consortium, but apparently my school has different standards.  I have until November 28 the make the changes that they want made.

Maybe part of my problem is that my three closest friends live so far away.  Sometimes I'm here in Ypsi and I feel like I'm all alone.

Anyway, it's times like these that I tend to gorge on cookies, and yesterday really wasn't an exception.  I have been introducing more healthy foods like vegetables, fruits, whole grains, etc, into my diet.  But then I start feeling like this, gorge on cookies, and I feel like everything that I've accomplished so far is down the drain and I'm starting from scratch.  That doesn't really help with the feeling inadequate thing.

Blood Screening

For the Vitality program at work, I had to get a blood screening where they test your blood for cholesterol, glucose, whether I'm a smoker, etc. They also weighed me and took my blood pressure.  I already knew that my BMI wouldn't be in range, but some of my cholesterol numbers were surprising.  My bad cholesterol number was within range, as well as my overall cholesterol number.  A couple other numbers were high and low, depending on which is bad.  In terms of blood pressure, it was on the high range of normal.  I'm cool with that because it's not incredibly high.  Overall, I think that my health is a little better then I was anticipating, and everything can get better if I stay on track with healthy habits.  I'm calling that good news.

In addition to these numbers, this also adds vitality points to my overall score.  I hope that my due points are going to be posted soon.  But this means one step closer to lower health care premiums next year!  Oh, and my vitality age (similar to WiiFit age, but probably more accurate) went down four years because of my blood screening results.  Woohoo!  Also, vitality will generate goals based on the information that they have about me.  They just created a goal for me to MAINTAIN my cholesterol, not lower it.  I find that something to be proud of. :)

In other news, I bought a new cookbook.  It has a lot of yummy looking recipes using fresh ingredients, some of which I've never heard of.  That last part is one of the reasons I bought the cookbook; I want to encourage myself to try new things, particularly healthy foods.  This should be an adventure.

Turkey Trot

It's official!  I am registered for the 2011 Lansing Turkeyman Trot!  I'm pretty excited about it because this is my first 5k.  By no means am I running, because I'd like to not break my ankle or anything.  But walking it will be beneficial for me, and it will provide a great baseline for future 5k events that I sign up for.  Additionally, I will get vitality points for work which is never a bad thing.  Especially since it looks like next year they will be basing how much we pay for our monthly health care premiums off of how many points we earn this year.  That means that I need to earn more points to pay less. 

Small Victories

Sometimes it's easiest to achieve goals one day at a time.   That said, yesterday was a good day for my health goals, but a bad day for homework.

After work I went to the gym and did thirty minutes of cardio.  I know that I need to do more resistance training but at this point I think I'm going to stick to working mostly on cardio.  After that, I went home and cooked a stir-fry with delicious veggies (red pepper, onion, carrots, sugar snap peas).

Therefore, I'm going to start to rate my goals of eating, exercise and motivation on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being that I feel that I did very well.  For yesterday, those ratings are:
Eating: 8
Exercise: 10
Motivation: 9

Eating is 8 because I did partake in more treats during work then was necessary.  One of my co-workers is getting married and we had a cake, ice cream bars and a cream cake thing.  I tried both of the cakes but, and this makes me quite proud, I didn't have an ice cream bar.  On the bright side, dinner was home cooked and healthy, I packed a relatively healthy lunch that included vegetables and breakfast was an oatmeal breakfast cookie.

Exercise is 10 because I made it to the gym for the first time in a week.  I hope to keep up going to the gym at least three times a week and taking walks or doing something at home (like WiiFit) the rest of the week.

Motivation is 9,  mostly because I didn't really think about my goals before having a second piece of cake.  Even if I choose to disregard those goals for a piece of cake, I would like to consider them.

New Month = New Start

So the last couple weeks have been crazy (vacation, ePortfolio, Halloween and birthday) and I've neglected my goals in regards to getting some of this weight off.  So to get myself back on track, here's a motivational picture to help myself along.


So here is a reiteration of my goals, maybe with a few changes.
1) Exercise at least three times per week for at least thirty minutes each session.
2) Plan my meals by making a menu and grocery list.
3) Continue planning when I exercise and what I cook using my dry erase calendar.
More goals are forthcoming as these goals become habit.  But I'm trying to keep it slow and steady as the tortoise won the race, not the hare.