So here I am, Im already getting lazy about this blog!
This past Saturday I weighed in and was down another 1.2 which is putting me at 8.8 down so its pretty good. I may have put expectations too high when I was hoping to get to the 10 pound mark.
I went and bought Women's Health's big book of exercise and am now doing their six week workout and its kicking my butt.
However, Im a bit worried about my weigh in this Friday because...
This week was my birthday AND I got engaged. So I was partying 3 days in a row!
Im really excited, but I can't write anymore, details later!
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
dieting Friday
So I have decided that Fridays were going to be used for blogging about my dieting adventure. This way, I have a way to write it all out, and I am forced to get on here at least once a week.
In high school I did weightwatchers and was very successful. When I got to college that went down the drain because, well, all healthy eating goes down the drain when you are forced to eat campus food or the cheapest stuff off campus. So here I am, after my 5th year of college, getting back on to weightwatchers.
Certain things have changed since I did this diet in high school. 1) Even though that was only 6 years ago, I have found that my metabolism has changed drastically and I am not able to get away with my estimated portions or using my points to eat what I want as long as I was in the point range without eating "healthy" anymore. 2) While I am in a healthy loving relationship (which as many of us know only good relationships will pack on the love pounds) just as I was in high school I am now dating a guy who cannot stay above 116 pounds and therefore has no concept of what a diet is (although is very helpful and supportive of me) 3) I don't have my mom to cook all my meals for me. I know we live in the same house, but she is not making my lunches or dinners anymore, most of that is left for me and Aaron to do. 4) My schedule is not even CLOSE to being the same as the structured schedule I had when I was in high school. Everyday is a bit different and that screws up alot of things.
Now, I have never been one to tell people about my dieting. I am generally a private person and am sometimes embarrassed about my dieting totally. This time, Im trying something new. (Thats what this period in my life is for right?!)
I am a workout freak. I workout 4-7 times a week and prefer to stay in the gym and switch up my routine. I am up for trying out anything and am excited to try something new. So if we look at the equation for weight gain, it would show that what I eat is my problem, not my exercise so for me, the logical turn was to weight watchers to get my eating under control.
I have always liked weight watchers. It is like a game to me , see if you can get your target "points" for the day. So far so good, I am eating my points (or close to it) everyday and as of last Saturday was down 6.2 in 2 weeks. What is exciting is normally you lose alot of water weight at first because you are changing your soda intake or you are drinking more water which for me was already true so those 6.2 are actual pounds!
It hasn't been an easy week though. I have spent the majority of the week working on temptations for icecream or cake. We celebrated a birthday this week and I managed to eat just a small piece even though it was one of my favorite types of cake and I would rather have just dived in and eaten the whole thing (look mom, no hands!). Working on temptations is going to be a big challenge over the next few weeks, but it's a sign of maturity that I can handle now better than when I was 17.
I am going to get on here and try to post week results and challenges every Friday or Saturday depending. I hope that you stick around and check it out. Feel free to ask me any questions about weight watchers because trust me, its a totally different program when you are only 23 years old than the standard program that most 40 somethings that go through it do.
In high school I did weightwatchers and was very successful. When I got to college that went down the drain because, well, all healthy eating goes down the drain when you are forced to eat campus food or the cheapest stuff off campus. So here I am, after my 5th year of college, getting back on to weightwatchers.
Certain things have changed since I did this diet in high school. 1) Even though that was only 6 years ago, I have found that my metabolism has changed drastically and I am not able to get away with my estimated portions or using my points to eat what I want as long as I was in the point range without eating "healthy" anymore. 2) While I am in a healthy loving relationship (which as many of us know only good relationships will pack on the love pounds) just as I was in high school I am now dating a guy who cannot stay above 116 pounds and therefore has no concept of what a diet is (although is very helpful and supportive of me) 3) I don't have my mom to cook all my meals for me. I know we live in the same house, but she is not making my lunches or dinners anymore, most of that is left for me and Aaron to do. 4) My schedule is not even CLOSE to being the same as the structured schedule I had when I was in high school. Everyday is a bit different and that screws up alot of things.
Now, I have never been one to tell people about my dieting. I am generally a private person and am sometimes embarrassed about my dieting totally. This time, Im trying something new. (Thats what this period in my life is for right?!)
I am a workout freak. I workout 4-7 times a week and prefer to stay in the gym and switch up my routine. I am up for trying out anything and am excited to try something new. So if we look at the equation for weight gain, it would show that what I eat is my problem, not my exercise so for me, the logical turn was to weight watchers to get my eating under control.
I have always liked weight watchers. It is like a game to me , see if you can get your target "points" for the day. So far so good, I am eating my points (or close to it) everyday and as of last Saturday was down 6.2 in 2 weeks. What is exciting is normally you lose alot of water weight at first because you are changing your soda intake or you are drinking more water which for me was already true so those 6.2 are actual pounds!
It hasn't been an easy week though. I have spent the majority of the week working on temptations for icecream or cake. We celebrated a birthday this week and I managed to eat just a small piece even though it was one of my favorite types of cake and I would rather have just dived in and eaten the whole thing (look mom, no hands!). Working on temptations is going to be a big challenge over the next few weeks, but it's a sign of maturity that I can handle now better than when I was 17.
I am going to get on here and try to post week results and challenges every Friday or Saturday depending. I hope that you stick around and check it out. Feel free to ask me any questions about weight watchers because trust me, its a totally different program when you are only 23 years old than the standard program that most 40 somethings that go through it do.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
So what are you going to do?
Ever since high school when small talk runs out at family or friend events the topic always turns to the future. "What college are you going to apply to?" "What colleges did you get into?" "What are you going to major in?" It gets even worse when the person you are talking to can relate with where you are going or what you are going into because then the questions get more detailed. "What dorm are you moving into?" "What is your summer reading project?" No one actually likes answering these questions unless you are that full of yourself and like to brag about how awesome you are.
The question gets worse at the end of undergrad.
"So what are you going to do after you graduate?"
In all honesty I feel like flicking them off and telling them " I don't f*cking know" but instead I put on my happy face and start with the well I think.....
The truth is, I really do not know. I could go to grad school, but I don't know if that is what I want to do at this point in my life. I would prefer to get my life started and get a job that could pay a decent amount so I afford my wedding and a house. I do have an undergraduate degree and while I was always under the assumption that it would not get me anywhere, I have found some options that may leave me in a pretty position. The other downside to going to grad school is it would be another 20000 (at least) in loans that I would rather not accumulate at this time. I would rather have the student loans I have now and add a house loan instead.
The only problem with this scenario is that I would not be going into what I exactly want to go into and what I know I would enjoy the most. If I took option 1 it would put me most likely in pharmaceutical sales which I am pretty sure I have the talent for, but my heart does lie in working with kids.
Another thing for me to consider is my family money situation. In the last year my mom has REALLY struggled with her finances and has been barely able to pull off what she had. In April, Social Security finally payed on some back payments that they owed her and now that is what we are living on for the time being, but that money has a lifespan as well and unfortunately its end is sooner rather than later.
I cant help thinking that that money my mom received was a gift from God saying "I can help you for now until you are done with school then you have to start supporting more." It makes sense, if I were to get a job and start paying more around here it would be good. Mom has even thrown out the option of selling this house to Aaron and I for a reasonable price.
That brings me to another point that I want to make clear. I want you all to understand that Aaron is doing his best to help out around here as well. He now pays our cell phone bill and helps with groceries when we need them. Its not alot, but what can you really expect when he is working 38 hours a week and still only making 7.40 an hour. It will help when he becomes a manager in July which will push his income up to 9.25 an hour, but at some point he needs to build a savings for a car and for emergencies.
It kind of becomes apparent where my heart and mind are at this point in my life. Maybe I need to get a job so that I can support myself and start my future. Maybe the satisfaction of having what I want is better than the happiness I would have getting to do what I know I am best at.
The question gets worse at the end of undergrad.
"So what are you going to do after you graduate?"
In all honesty I feel like flicking them off and telling them " I don't f*cking know" but instead I put on my happy face and start with the well I think.....
The truth is, I really do not know. I could go to grad school, but I don't know if that is what I want to do at this point in my life. I would prefer to get my life started and get a job that could pay a decent amount so I afford my wedding and a house. I do have an undergraduate degree and while I was always under the assumption that it would not get me anywhere, I have found some options that may leave me in a pretty position. The other downside to going to grad school is it would be another 20000 (at least) in loans that I would rather not accumulate at this time. I would rather have the student loans I have now and add a house loan instead.
The only problem with this scenario is that I would not be going into what I exactly want to go into and what I know I would enjoy the most. If I took option 1 it would put me most likely in pharmaceutical sales which I am pretty sure I have the talent for, but my heart does lie in working with kids.
Another thing for me to consider is my family money situation. In the last year my mom has REALLY struggled with her finances and has been barely able to pull off what she had. In April, Social Security finally payed on some back payments that they owed her and now that is what we are living on for the time being, but that money has a lifespan as well and unfortunately its end is sooner rather than later.
I cant help thinking that that money my mom received was a gift from God saying "I can help you for now until you are done with school then you have to start supporting more." It makes sense, if I were to get a job and start paying more around here it would be good. Mom has even thrown out the option of selling this house to Aaron and I for a reasonable price.
That brings me to another point that I want to make clear. I want you all to understand that Aaron is doing his best to help out around here as well. He now pays our cell phone bill and helps with groceries when we need them. Its not alot, but what can you really expect when he is working 38 hours a week and still only making 7.40 an hour. It will help when he becomes a manager in July which will push his income up to 9.25 an hour, but at some point he needs to build a savings for a car and for emergencies.
It kind of becomes apparent where my heart and mind are at this point in my life. Maybe I need to get a job so that I can support myself and start my future. Maybe the satisfaction of having what I want is better than the happiness I would have getting to do what I know I am best at.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
almost grown up....but not enough for the real world
Aaron and I need him to get a car.
We have saved some money, Aaron has been trying to get as many hours as he can. We opened an account together and then, Aaron applied for the loan.
We were denied.
Even though Aaron is working close to 40 hours a week, because he is at minimum wage, he doesnt make enough to qualify.
Oh and he doesnt have any credit. That I will say is our fault.
My mom, being the wonderful person she is, co-signed for us and after jumping through all the hoops we had been given to jump through we thought we had it. Until Wednesday, when we got that fateful call to once again tell us...
we are denied.
Turns out, the co-signer has to be related to the person seeking the loan. So for reasons I am not going to discuss on here, we are stuck with no loan and no car.
Maybe this wouldnt have been such a big deal if we hadnt found the perfect car. It was a 2009 Ford Focus SES (the high end model). It had the spoiler and the fog lights the changeable dash color lights. It was perfect, oh and did I mention it was ridiculously under priced with nothing wrong with it. *sigh*
So when do we become adults? Aaron is 23 working a close to full time job with benefits and yet we still need a co signer? Why do people think that at 23 we are not responsible to sit down and figure out what we can and cannot afford? Aaron and I would have never even attempted this without first sitting down and figuring out our expenses and how much a car loan would affect our lives. Not to mention the expenses of regular maintenance along with an emergency fund. Ugh...I want to grow up and I want the real world to let me.......
We have saved some money, Aaron has been trying to get as many hours as he can. We opened an account together and then, Aaron applied for the loan.
We were denied.
Even though Aaron is working close to 40 hours a week, because he is at minimum wage, he doesnt make enough to qualify.
Oh and he doesnt have any credit. That I will say is our fault.
My mom, being the wonderful person she is, co-signed for us and after jumping through all the hoops we had been given to jump through we thought we had it. Until Wednesday, when we got that fateful call to once again tell us...
we are denied.
Turns out, the co-signer has to be related to the person seeking the loan. So for reasons I am not going to discuss on here, we are stuck with no loan and no car.
Maybe this wouldnt have been such a big deal if we hadnt found the perfect car. It was a 2009 Ford Focus SES (the high end model). It had the spoiler and the fog lights the changeable dash color lights. It was perfect, oh and did I mention it was ridiculously under priced with nothing wrong with it. *sigh*
So when do we become adults? Aaron is 23 working a close to full time job with benefits and yet we still need a co signer? Why do people think that at 23 we are not responsible to sit down and figure out what we can and cannot afford? Aaron and I would have never even attempted this without first sitting down and figuring out our expenses and how much a car loan would affect our lives. Not to mention the expenses of regular maintenance along with an emergency fund. Ugh...I want to grow up and I want the real world to let me.......
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
A New Blog, but No Where Near My First.
Xanga.
Remember it?
For those of you who do not remember Xanga, Xanga was a blogging site similar to the one I am blogging on here. Everyone I knew was on it when I was in highschool (for reference that would be 2001-2005). There was no facebook, or at least that was attainable to me because you had to have a college email address to have it, myspace was still an up and coming thing and the days of AOL and dial-up were falling off fast.
So there I am, a young blogger blogging about the daily perils of being in high school. I had just started dating my first boyfriend and was soon religiously checking his xanga along with all of his friends (or my new friends). It was always fun to check up on people, to see what they were up to. It would be even more fun when "drama" would pop up on someone's blog and you would spend time trying to figure out who was mad at who and for what reason. Well, at least I had fun doing it.
Not much was ever learned from having blogs. When some of my friends and at the time boyfriend went off to college I started learning about college life via blogs, but that was about it. The one thing that I loved, and truly miss, about Xanga was the ability to be involved in someone's life without necessarily stalking like we do no through facebook.
Your blog was a place that you could write your ideas, thoughts, feelings exc, but no more no less. You were in control of who read what instead of jumping through hoops blocking this group of people from viewing your friends list while blocking this group from your pictures. It was nice, it was almost like you were catching up with old friends by reading what was up.
So maybe thats why I am here. I have had a blogger, or what used to be known as blogspot, since I started college and very infrequently updated it. I could sit here and say that I am going to update religiously, but I know that life gets in the way with anything enjoyable and since I am still living the college life of no routine being the same everyday I cannot guarantee that.
I have decided to start fresh because I have changed so much in the last 5 years that I do not think that I could possibly imagine bloggiing where I left off 3 years ago. I did, however, consider it and re-read all the old posts I had made, and was left feeling a bit scattered. I could not believe that was who I was just 3 years ago, and no that is not necessarily a good thing. I was trying to be approved by once friends that I knew would never approve of me again, I was dating someone who was completely wrong for me that my mom did not like and I was still being walked on by a couple of people that I thought I was good friends with.
I really do not feel like I was the only person that was like this just a mere 3 years ago. As I looked past my own distorted view of reality I saw people dealing with relationship issues, friendship issues, and in some cases, just what they wanted to spend the rest of their life doing issues. Some of them have worked through their issues, and some have not. There are some of them that I feel inspire me (or could if I spent more time around them) and others who I wish not to speak to anymore. The greatest change that I have seen between now and 3 years ago is the sense of security that I have gained in myself and I have to say part of that is due to who I have let myself continue to be friends with and those who I knew were weighing me down and I let go of.
Now that I have blogged your ear off, I leave you with this side note:
I am going to do my best to keep up with this, I must say that it is kind of theraputic to write out my thoughts a feelings knowing that people can give me feedback. However, I am in no a way a grammar person and do apologize if you find yourself getting lost mid sentence because my thought has gone on for just too long or I have used way too many commas. I suck at grammar and frankly, unless its professional, do not try that much so please bare with me, I will do my best!. Finally, I do not plan to use this blog as a look into my past, but merely for talking of what's going on now and what the future holds for me. While it may be used to give me a solid foundation of my blog, history is is history and I have an extremely exciting future ahead.
Thanks for checkin in!
Steff
Remember it?
For those of you who do not remember Xanga, Xanga was a blogging site similar to the one I am blogging on here. Everyone I knew was on it when I was in highschool (for reference that would be 2001-2005). There was no facebook, or at least that was attainable to me because you had to have a college email address to have it, myspace was still an up and coming thing and the days of AOL and dial-up were falling off fast.
So there I am, a young blogger blogging about the daily perils of being in high school. I had just started dating my first boyfriend and was soon religiously checking his xanga along with all of his friends (or my new friends). It was always fun to check up on people, to see what they were up to. It would be even more fun when "drama" would pop up on someone's blog and you would spend time trying to figure out who was mad at who and for what reason. Well, at least I had fun doing it.
Not much was ever learned from having blogs. When some of my friends and at the time boyfriend went off to college I started learning about college life via blogs, but that was about it. The one thing that I loved, and truly miss, about Xanga was the ability to be involved in someone's life without necessarily stalking like we do no through facebook.
Your blog was a place that you could write your ideas, thoughts, feelings exc, but no more no less. You were in control of who read what instead of jumping through hoops blocking this group of people from viewing your friends list while blocking this group from your pictures. It was nice, it was almost like you were catching up with old friends by reading what was up.
So maybe thats why I am here. I have had a blogger, or what used to be known as blogspot, since I started college and very infrequently updated it. I could sit here and say that I am going to update religiously, but I know that life gets in the way with anything enjoyable and since I am still living the college life of no routine being the same everyday I cannot guarantee that.
I have decided to start fresh because I have changed so much in the last 5 years that I do not think that I could possibly imagine bloggiing where I left off 3 years ago. I did, however, consider it and re-read all the old posts I had made, and was left feeling a bit scattered. I could not believe that was who I was just 3 years ago, and no that is not necessarily a good thing. I was trying to be approved by once friends that I knew would never approve of me again, I was dating someone who was completely wrong for me that my mom did not like and I was still being walked on by a couple of people that I thought I was good friends with.
I really do not feel like I was the only person that was like this just a mere 3 years ago. As I looked past my own distorted view of reality I saw people dealing with relationship issues, friendship issues, and in some cases, just what they wanted to spend the rest of their life doing issues. Some of them have worked through their issues, and some have not. There are some of them that I feel inspire me (or could if I spent more time around them) and others who I wish not to speak to anymore. The greatest change that I have seen between now and 3 years ago is the sense of security that I have gained in myself and I have to say part of that is due to who I have let myself continue to be friends with and those who I knew were weighing me down and I let go of.
Now that I have blogged your ear off, I leave you with this side note:
I am going to do my best to keep up with this, I must say that it is kind of theraputic to write out my thoughts a feelings knowing that people can give me feedback. However, I am in no a way a grammar person and do apologize if you find yourself getting lost mid sentence because my thought has gone on for just too long or I have used way too many commas. I suck at grammar and frankly, unless its professional, do not try that much so please bare with me, I will do my best!. Finally, I do not plan to use this blog as a look into my past, but merely for talking of what's going on now and what the future holds for me. While it may be used to give me a solid foundation of my blog, history is is history and I have an extremely exciting future ahead.
Thanks for checkin in!
Steff
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