65 Days: Yes I still blog..

It's been a crazy week, I'm sorry. I think I made this same excuse last week. I'm like a broken record.. or a person you are in group projects with who never participates.. or someone with a job who doesn't want to do it. Okay that's a stretch.. really unrelated.. but it was the "piss-me-off moment" of the day today. BUT! I had a great workout, and I'm over it.

I started a new set of workouts this week. It was great. A LOT of pullups.. most of which I did unassisted. Today I had to do 4 sets of 10-12. That last wasn't happening without a little help, so I took off 10# of body weight and got them done. I'm seriously loving the fact that I can do as many pull-ups as I can though. Last semester in our exercise prescription class we had to make a workout for someone else and the one created for me had the goal of being able to do x number of pullups (without doing one throughout the entire semester). I don't remember what the number was, but I do remember remember I could only do 6. Looks like hard work pays off, people :) Other exciting things about my workouts this week is that leg press and RDL's are back! It makes me love leg days again. I had that yesterday and my hammies are feeling the love today!

Nutrition has also slightly changed. The amount of fat I'm able to have has dropped slightly - which I'm thrilled about. Honestly, it was getting to the point where I was just taking a Tbsp of flax seed oil at night to get all my fat in, and it is not delicious. This is much more doable for me. I can't tell if the drop in combination with the new workouts have made my energy levels drop, or if its just this whole being a good student thing I'm trying out. I know it's not September yet, but I started my September resolution early. I'm reading EVERYTHING assigned for class BEFORE class.. for the first time in my life. Well, to an extent. I only have books for 2 of my 4 classes that require books. But I'm still reading everything else for those classes so it's a huge step for me. Bettering myself one month at a time.

But anyway.. scheduling has really thrown me off. A typical day? Wake up at 4:30, gym 6-7:30, class 8-4ish, gym to do cardio 4-5, home to read/cook/eat/clean/play with Bliz, bed by 9. That's 4 hours of life. Honestly most days I'm ready to go to bed by noon.. and definitely by the time I get home at 5. But I stay up (after 5) to eat. Gotta eat to grow, y'all. On that note, I met an old guy (story of my life, right?) at the gym Wed am. Previously, we've just had the ol' Good morning! How's it going? Good, you? Well, I'm here.. convo (obv I'm the chipper "good morning" one that early). But Wed we had a couple chats. He apparently used to compete with his girlfriend at the time. He told me they'd have 1 beer and a big thing of yogurt once a week - to have fun and keep sane. And that they only worked out 3 days/week for 3 hours/day. That's great. But I am not doing either of those things. He also then proceeded to ramble off a list of exercises I should incorporate into my routines. I love it. Everytime I'm at the gym - and I'm sure this goes for plenty of you with the gym, or with other goals in life - someone can't go on with their day without stopping to give me their advice. Sometimes, I just mean mug. Not during the advice.. but during the approach. I'm not at the gym to meet a boyfriend, so you all can scram. But I've learned that when they give you advice, listen, smile nicely, nod, do whatever. Thank them for their advice and then go on your way and ignore them. You can't take advice and direction from too many people or you will never get anywhere. Listen to yourself, or whoever you choose to follow, but ultimately it is your journey so make it what YOU want.

I got my shoes today! I'm super pumped about it. I love them. All that plastic clearness and 5 inches that goes along with them. They are surprisingly very comfortable. I'm ready to start learning my poses. Everything is coming together great, and I'm so happy about it. What are your thoughts on these bad boys? After Nov. 3rd if you want to borrow them to wear to the club - just let me know.. quite flattering :)

Well, folks, I gotta get to work. Literally. Working 6 shifts over the next 4 days and then I have to do all of my reading/good student crap on top of it. I love life :) Embrace what you have, y'all, we are blessed.

94: August Resolution

I just spit eggs out onto my plate.. way too hot. They look the same as the one's on my plate, pre-chewed. I don't know if that's good or not, whatever. It's been an extremely busy-but good-week so far. Yes, I realize it's only Wednesday. I give my inservice tomorrow at "work" and am still not sure if I'm working Friday or not. No way I'm bringing it up, though, until Thursday at 4 so that hopefully I won't have to come in because it'll be too late :) I'm awful. Oh well, I want a 3 day weekend! This weekend is going to be extremely busy for me. Why? What do you have to do?, you ask? Well, I have to clean my apartment and respond to emails and pack for 1 week of work, 1 week of home, and 22 hours worth of food to eat while I drive. I also understand this can all be accomplished in a morning, but having a list that I can't start working at yet, drives me nuts. So I'm going to be uptight until Friday or Saturday when I can get to work.

Let's talk nutrition. I've hit my numbers- more or less.. I haven't been over and have been within 3 of everything-everyday since Sunday when they dropped. Sunday evening I was tired, cranky, and hungry. Monday I was pretty exhausted as well, and since I didn't have to work out it was hard for me to spread my meals out how I would if I had went to the gym, so again I was a little tired and hungry. Yesterday went well through the day, but then I woke up at 1am starving. Attitude and energy was much better though, although I did notice my workout wasn't AS great. I still PR'd in 3 or 4 lifts, and didn't drop, but I just felt slow, and it felt harder then I think it should've. So I'm hoping the progress of energy levels and decreased hunger keeps progressing and that today is better.

The great thing about today: It's AUGUST! This year is flying by, but it's going so well so I'm okay with that. My August resolution is to stretch more. More specifically, I intend to start doing Yoga 3x a week, or do 3 hours of total stretching throughout the week. That's it. My body is so tight and sore all the time and I really need to work on my flexibility and just stretching my muscles out so that I'm able to lift more and move more easily. So there you have it. July resolutions went well overall, but I could still work on getting more sleep. The other was to plan out my meals the day before - and let me tell you, it has made my life and these nutrition adjustments SO EASY! You don't have to think about food when you are hungry. You don't have to deal with cooking before any meal (99% of the time). You just get to eat when it's time and stop letting it consume everything else. i loved it and I will continue this at least through the competition.

I'm off to the gym. Only 94 days to be better then everyone else on that stage!

Double Digits and Bad Meat

I am down to the double digits, people!! 99 Days until the competition! How exciting, this will fly by! Today has been such a wonderful day. I got to go into work late, and was off by 12:30, made it back to Chapel Hill in no time--well it seemed since I got to catch up with my Ma--and got paid! Whoo! That doesn't really mean I have money.. it just means Dad and Mere can get paid. I also came home to a clean house, which might just be my favorite feeling in the world, so I feel like nothing can go wrong this weekend!

I had a great workout today at the good 'ol SRC. Back and Delts again, and I PR'd in everything except seated cable rows, which I have been consistently increasing, so I'm cool with that. I felt great. Then I got my 40 minutes of cardio in. A good friend was on a treadmill when I was about to start so I did the elliptical (my only choice.. which should be clear since there is nothing I hate more about working out then ellipticals and guys with sorry form) for 13 minutes which was about all I could stand, then took over his treadmill for the last 27 minutes. So it actually flew by, even though I had no TV to watch. Just got to people watch all the college boys trying to get cut. There was one impressive dude in there doing box jumps - which is my favorite part of the gym probs - so that was cool.. otherwise nothing exciting to report.

Nutrition was a little off today (or will be). I'm trying to hit 100g carbs, 200g protein, and 60g fat, and after my dinner I'll be at 106g carbs, 203g protein, and 55g fat.. but not too bad. I also weighed myself today for the first day in 3 weeks.. and it's up, which I'm not stoked about. I try not even to weight myself, but I'll have to start doing so weekly for Meredith to update my nutrition stuff.

I know you midwesterners and the rest of America, really, is going through a drought, but here in NC it seems like it never stops raining. Last week sometime there was a bad storm and the power went out for a good couple of hours at my Chapel Hill apartment (and basically the rest of the town) and then today as I was walking out of Trader Joe's it started pouring! But my main concern is.. how do I know if the meat in my freezer - unopened - went bad? No one was here to open the freezer door.. but I don't know how long it was out, and I don't know how to tell if I can eat it still or not. Advice, adults/grown up/mature people my age? I don't really want to throw out 10# of meat if I don't have to, but I also don't want to get sick!

Well, I'm off to eat some almonds, watch a movie and just chill out for the night, since my sister, Mary, thinks its more important to get ready to go out with friends I don't even know, then vid. chat me. Sheesh, what is this world coming to? Anyway, I should be doing my inservice.. but there's always tomorrow right? I don't procrastinate with my health so I have to do it somewhere else.. it's only fair :)

Over and Out.

I Hate Change. Yes, hate.

Today I got to give a little soft tissue massage to someone, do some PA and inferior glides to a shoulder of an amputee patient, do lymphedema drainage, and write two notes. Quite an exciting day for only having 2 of the 8 patients scheduled show up!

I started my first clinical rotation yesterday, and it's been fun, but very overwhelming. I have a lot of studying to be doing. Yesterday was also a bit stressful trying to find a gym and trying to figure out my nutrition. By 7:30 pm I had only had 3 meals.. out of the 5-6 I usually have had by then. I was not a happy camper, at all. But today has been much better. I got in my first workout of the week -- Back and Core -- with only minor adjustments. The gym I found only has smith machines, and doesn't have any barbells I can load, or any barbells or dumbbells over 60#. That's a problem when I'm supposed to be doing bent over rows at 100#. But I made it work. I was happy with my pull ups though. Only 2 plates off, which I don't know how much weight that is, but 6 plates off is 22# off, so I was pretty stoked. Hopefully next week I can do at least 1 set of 10 with no assistance at all. That would be my highlight of the month I think! Today food also went better. I didn't have to go in until 9 am -- I've switched schedules around -- so I will luckily be able to eat 2 meals before going to work most mornings. I also only have to work Fridays 8-12 for the first 4 weeks, and then the next 4 weeks I have Fridays off, so I'll be going back to my gym in Chapel Hill 2 workouts a week which will also make things better.

Not much else to mention, I have a lot to review before bed, and it's already 9:25pm. Have a good night, I'd leave you with something motivational, but right now I'm just trying to get through the week without getting too stressed out about all the changes!