Lists Galore!

Goals:
Be able to do a sit-up with good form without struggling
Go to bed at or before 11pm at night (especially work nights)
Wake up in time to take the beagle on a good walk in the morning
Wake up no later then 9am on weekends
Finish the active.com beginning weight loss fitness plan

Victories since starting to exercise most days:
I sleep better at night
I wake better rested in the morning
I'm generally in a better mood and more cheerful

Beautiful weather!

This is a beautiful time of year.  70 degree temps, warm sunshine...  But of course that's not really supposed to happen in March, but I'll take it.  With the warm weather, I am discovering my new obsession, so to speak.  I absolutely LOVE geocaching.  I love going out in the nice weather with my usually trusty handheld gps unit and walking around parks until I find the hidden treasure.  It's great.  The fact that it also means getting off my butt and in the sun is only one of the benefits.  Sometimes it's even aerobic as it often involves walking up and down hills a lot, maybe some climbing, etc.  One of the cool things about geocaching is that it can be as easy or as difficult as you want it to be.  Regardless, it's definitely turning into an obsession for me.

In addition to geocaching, I've also picked up Zumba, which I find to be really fun.  It is my new Monday night activity.  Tonight I am going to Fit Barre at my gym, which is more resistance training.  I'm really trying to not focus completely on cardio work because, while the benefits of cardio can't be denied, resistance training is also an integral part of it.

I'm also intensely curious about kettlebell; so much so that I'm half tempted to buy one on the way home.  Clearly I'd buy the lightest one (7lbs) as I'm a beginner and I don't have any experience with it.  But I'm extremely curious about it and it looks like something that I might like.

Finally, nutrition is a key component of weight loss as well.  I've been increasing the number of servings of fruits and vegetables.  But, I've also given up pop for the time being.  There is really no reason to drink pop from a nutritional perspective.  Maybe someday I'll drink pop again, but right now I'm trying to get used to how I feel not drinking it.

Happy thought of the day:  my best friend informed me that if I keep going the way that I am currently, I will visibly be losing weight in the next few months.  Hopefully that's right!

Graduation: It's kind of a big deal

Graduation is coming up and hopefully soon after I will finish all of my coursework.  With that, I will have a Masters in Library and Information Science, which is pretty cool.  After I finish my coursework and graduate, I will be able to come home from work and do whatever I want.  I won't have to worry about the paper that is due in a week or the discussion board stuff that I have to do that night or anything like that.  Because of this, there are several things that I am looking forward to:

1. Reading:  I have a list of books longer then I care to admit that I would like to read.  Now that I'll be able to read for something other than school, I'd like to read some of those books.
2. Social activities: I have many friends that I've lost touch with or just don't see as often as I'd like.  Since I'll have more free time, I'll be able to spend more time with these wonderful people who have put up with my absence during my Master's program.
3. Exercise: I really want to give this healthy living thing a shot.  The lack of schoolwork will eliminate excuses to not exercise, which I really need to do more consistently.  I would like to try geocaching and I would also like to explore the border to border trail that I have found here in Washtenaw county.  I'm also thinking about giving biking to work a try next year, especially since the company that I work for will reimburse me for some expenses related to biking depending on how much I actually bike to work.
4. Food: In addition to not exercising as consistently as I should, I also haven't been cooking as consistently as I should.  I can definitely tell the difference when I eat good, real food instead of food filled with additives and such.  There are a lot of recipes that I'd love to try my hand at and I'd really like to explore cooking in my crock pot more as well.
5. Hobbies: I really like knitting and I'm looking forward to finishing some of those projects that I started two or more years ago and starting new projects as well.  I also hope to learn new techniques along the way.

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.

30 Day Exercise Challenge

I've been doing fairly well with the exercise thing (you know, for all of two weeks now) but I thought that I could still do something to motivate myself a little more.  That said, I signed up for a 30 day exercise challenge through about.com.  It hasn't started yet but, according to the website, they are going to send me an email each day with some sort of stretch, cardio workout, etc that I have to do.  They apparently give several options to choose from each day, but they all have the same goal.

Also, I was successful with making my list and planning my meals.  Yesterday I had grilled pork and grilled asparagus.  Today it is garden vegetable chicken brats and broccoli.  I think that making a list and planning the weeks meals in advance is going to work for me.

One thing I would like to do, however, is to introduce more oatmeal into my diet.  Therefore, I am currently on the lookout for good oatmeal recipes (muffins or whatever) that I can make in batches in advance and then grab and go in the morning on the way to work.