Week 1- Progess...

Well, I feel I did okay this week. I definitely failed in the exercise department. First, I'll give you a quick run down on how my week went:
Sunday- 3 mile walk with the dogs. It was a beautiful day. Ate well and drank a fair amount of water. Can do better though...
Monday- Ate well and drank a fair amount of water. Did not exercise.
Tuesday- Ate well. Had a tall mocha lite at Startbucks. Fat free but about 120 calories. Of course, did not exercise.
Wednesday- Same as Tuesday.
Thursday- This was the worst day. Sabrina brought home her left over St. Patty Day cookies. These cookies are those big sugar cookies with the glob of icing on them you buy in the bakery department of grocery stores... ummm yeah, ate three of those. Aaaaand of course, did not exercise.
Friday- Did  not have to go to school (YAY!), so I spent the majority of the day outside working in the yard. Nothing strenuous, but it is something. Did not eat badly because I was occupied, but didn't drink enough water either.
Saturday- Going for my three mile walk once I'm done with this. Eating fairly well so far. I have to go grocery shopping also, so I'm going to eat something filling yet healthy, so I don't splurge at the grocery store.

Now that I've got that out of the way. Let's see if the scale agrees with how I feel...

Scale weight:         154     =  2   lbs lost!!! YAY!!  I didn't do nearly as well as I wanted to, but just staying away from the fast food places on the way to school (notorious for a large sweet tea and fry), and drink a bit more water than usual, I was able to get the 2 lbs. It's probably water weight, but hey, its something.

Goals for week 2:
(Same as week 1)
- lose 2lbs
- drink more water
- exercise 5 x week (I'm working my way up to this, but its a goal)
- pack lunch/snack for week (did well with this- however didn't need the Starbucks)

End of Day 1...

Ok. Day 1 is over. I finish the day strong with a salad and some root-vegetable hash. I'm going to try to limit my bread and pasta consumption because it is a weakness. Also, I am thinking I might just have a gluten allergy, but that is for another topic to discuss in the near future. I was having a sweet-tooth craving attack around 8pm. I decided to curb it with a cup of Honey Rice Chex cereal. It worked. So, good start to day one. I have to make a plan for the week.


Lets start with this weeks Goals:
- Lose 2lbs
- Increase water consumption
- Walk/Run 3 miles 5 days per week
- Pack lunch/snack for school

That last goal is going to be hard. I am at school all day. I have to park my car in commuter parking and take the bus in. This means I must carry everything with me all day. This includes all my books for that day's classes AND my lunch. This is going to be a pain in the ass. Not to mention, packing healthy lunches/snacks that won't spill, spoil, smash, or smell... this is going to be fun!


Tomorrow:
I will take time to plan out my lunches and how to pack them. This is going to be time consuming. However, once I get this down it will be a piece of cake (poor choice of words, I know) for planning in the future.

I need to get my butt up in the morning and walk/run. I need to do this before school or else I won't do it. Tuesdays will be impossible because I have to be up so early as it is to get to my 8am class. Thursday and Fridays I do not have an excuse because I do not leave the house until at least 10am. Mondays and Wednesdays I have to leave the house by 7:30am. I'll have to be to workout by 5:30am in order to be home in time to get ready. These days will be the hardest for me. Thursday-Sunday are 4 days that are definitely doable. I have to commit to making sure I workout Monday or Wednesday...

So stay tuned to see if I sail or fail...

Accountability

Ok... I am at my fattest EVER! I got on the scale this morning and I thought it was broken. It said 156lbs! I haven't seen 156lbs since my second trimester of my last pregnancy!  What is worse is that I'm going to school to be a Dietitian. What kind of example am I setting?

The main problem is that I'm in school full time and since I started ECU last fall, I haven't paid attention to my diet and exercise habits one bit.  What is the best way to get back on track?? BLOG IT!! This will give me some accountability because I'm putting it out there for the world to see. Hopefully,  the thought of publicly failing should be enough to keep me going long enough to establish healthy habits.

The Plan:
To write on a semi-daily basis on how my day went, how I am feeling, and maybe some tips I'm learning along the way in school. Also, I will post weekly updates on my progress. Maybe I'll get a few tips from my readers as well. I will have them all neatly tagged under my "Diet & Exercise" page so they can all be viewed on one. 

So, lets start this thing off right!

Today I woke up and ate the last two homemade chocolate chip cookies... had to get rid of them! Now, that the temptation is out of the way,  I had some scrambled eggs and a cup of coffee w/ skim milk and truvia sweetner. Then I went for a 3 mile walk!! Pretty proud of myself.  Not that I have the abiblity to walk, but the fact that I took the time to do it. My goal with this is to work my way up to a 3 mile run... Think I can accomplish by June?? I think so...

Ok... Now that I've got this ball rolling I hope I don't live to regret it. Worse case senerio... I delete the posts and pray no one read them. I need to stay accountable. Hopefully this is the way to do it. I will finish my day's progress tonight and layout the plan for the week.

WISH ME LUCK!

And you thought algebra was confusing???

     Well, try chicken math! That's right... chicken math. I know what you are saying right about now... "That crazy chicken lady is off her roost." Nope. It is well known amongst us chicken enthusiasts, and it will even have the nerdiest of math lovers scratching their heads. Any attempt at understanding chicken math, will put any confusion of algebra to rest.

This is basically how it works:

    First of all, 1 chicken + 1 chicken NEVER = 2 chickens. At the bare minimum, it equals 4. Second, a dozen chickens = 16. Just like a baker's dozen = 13 (so the baker has one to eat), a chicken owner will mailorder a dozen chickens which will have 12 + 4 ''packing peanuts'' (16). Third, if you go to your local farm and garden store to buy 6 day old chicks, it is guaranteed that you will leave with at least 7. Why you ask?? Don't know... it is just how chicken math works.

  Lets take my situation for an example. Last summer, I decided I was going to purchase my first, and at the time only, flock of chickens. I thought long and hard about how many I wanted and decided on 3. Yet, when I placed my order, I got 5!  This was my first experience with chicken math. However, at the time, I was new to the whole chicken experience and was still pretty skeptical about this chicken math everyone warned me about.

    Then the neighborhood dog came by and snatched 1... down to 4. Ok ok. That math is correct. 5-1 does in fact equal 4. The difference is, whenever one chicken is lost it is replaced by at least 2. Now, remember I said just a moment ago that the intended 3 that I ordered (which somehow turned into 5) was going to be my ONLY purchase. If the neighborhood dog never ate my Edy, things may have stayed the same, but since I lost her, chicken math intervined. Now, I have 4 more chicks coming Thursday... which, in fact, was only going to be 3!

   Still skeptical?? Fine, that is perfectly normal. Like I said before, I was once a disbeliever. So, try and prove me wrong. Go get yourself some chickens and see what happens. It might not happen instantaneously, but it will happen.

FYI... before my chickens, my daughter was failing algebra. 

I rest my case.

Organized Chaos

  

   I live a very busy life. The five kids alone is enough to keep me on my toes. However, being a full time student, reservist, wife, maid, cook blah blah blah... I am constantly running. When people ask me how do I do it, I say, "It's just organized chaos." 

     From the outside looking in, I may look like I'm on top of everything and I have everything running smoothly like a well oiled machine. Actually, this is the furthest from the truth. There is always something that gets pushed to the back burner while I try to juggle three or four other things. None of which get 100% of my time. I can only imagine how great they all would be if each task/obligation had individualized attention. For instance, I am maintaining a 3.5 GPA at school. If, I had no other obligations or distractions, I am more than certain my GPA would be a 4.0.  I also can 'if' things to death, but like my step-father always says, "...and if a frog had wings, he wouldn't bump his ass when he hopped." Whatever that means. 

     A part of me thinks that I thrive off of stretching myself thin. I always have to be doing something or I get into a funk. Four years ago, I tried to be a stay at home mom when my last child was born. It was heaven for maybe the first 3 months. Then I started going stir crazy and ended up in a depressive funk. I went days without getting out of my pajamas. When I would finally decide to shower, I would just put a clean pair of pajamas back on. I didn't cook and clean like I imagined the perfect house wife would do, and I wasn't the greatest person to be around either. 

     Yes, I have a lot on my plate. There are all the house projects that does not include my yard work and gardening adventures. There is school, which of course take a lot of my time if I want to maintain a decent GPA. However, I think I spend more time traveling to school than actual class time (I live 1.5 hours from my college). Then there is the every day chores such as cooking, cleaning and my chickens (It is the cleaning that gets put on the back burner the most). Lets not forget my homework and making sure the kids have theirs done as well. The kids are my #1 priority of course, but sometimes I think they get the short end of the stick. 

     I try to take time every day to reflect on my day in order to stay present and appreciate the moment. This is an absolute requirement of the day or else an overwhelming drowning feeling sinks in and all the future goals seem out of reach. Its amazing how well this works. It brings everything into focus and makes the big things not so big. I think of my family each and every day. They are the 'why' behind it all, and the saying "We may not have it all together, but together we have it all" rings true each and every time. 

     So, yes my life is busy and it can look like I do it all with ease. The truth is, the only thing organized about any of this... is the chaos.