Summer Fun

So every now and then I like to indulge in a little harmless art work. Lots of my friends go to the nail salon a LOT to have their nails done. Mostly there's a lot of French manicures running around here. But lately I decided I wanted to do something more fun and funky. And seeing as how its summer in Texas, I felt I needed an appropriate color, or rather colors, to adorn my fingers.

I did all the colors separately and without guides. Yellow, orange, pink, and red. Then I let them set overnight and I then drew on the palm trees by hand (far more difficult on the right hand...eek!). Afterwards I covered it all with a clear coat of polish.

Just keep swimming...

Yesterday was a better day, for sure! Instead of rockin' out the xBox or Wii, I instead went to the neighborhood pool and swam some laps in the pool. I did the backstroke, breaststroke, sidestroke, and front crawl (aka freestyle). Swimming has always been a favorite activity of mine and so I thought this would be a great way to exercise. The pool opens at 8:00am, so I think I'm going to do the same today. I consider myself to be a good swimmer, but this really took it out of me! I was winded after two laps. I'm not going to lie, this kind of made me sad and feeling somewhat defeated. But I went on and pushed through.

I wanted to go to the rec center with the rest of the family, but they didn't care to go yesterday, so we just stayed home and hung out. I have lots of errands to do today, so I'm hoping that I can remain optimistic and keep going on a positive track.

Makeup days and excused absences

I remember in school we had excused and unexcused absences. If you had a note, the absence was excused and you were allowed a makeup day for any work you'd missed. If unexcused, well you were pretty much outta luck. I don't really think diets have excused and unexcused absence days. Don't get me wrong, everyone always has plenty of excuses as to why they didn't stick with their diet, but I don't think many of them are valid excuses.

Yesterday, I had an unexcused absence. I know I can't make up for the lost progress. At the same time I cannot allow myself to torture my will power into giving up altogether. I watched a friend of mine's elementary school aged children (9 and 10). We went to the pool, but we drove there (when we could have easily had walked). While there, I got in the pool and just sat there, telling myself the water was a little chilly and rather than swim mini-laps I needed to focus my attention on the children. After the pool, we went and got pizza. I know that I could have still maintained my healthier choices by only having a slice or two and making sure my choices of toppings were not dripping with grease, neither of which did I do.

So today I start anew, while telling myself that yesterday cannot get me down. I simply need to make better choices today. I joined the local rec center two days ago. I went for a 25 minute workout that day. They don't open until 12pm on Sunday, so it looks like I'll be waiting to go until this afternoon. I'm hoping I can talk the rest of my family into joining me on today's visit. This morning, since the dog and my husband woke me up early, I'm going to take advantage of my current state. I think I'll hop in the bath, shave my legs, and go upstairs to work out on the Wii or xBox 360 for a bit. In fact, EA Active is calling my name this hour.

Be well friends!

Schedules

I've never really been one for following strict schedules, but when I keep a list and plan a schedule I tend to stick with it. So I need to come up with a schedule for my days at home. I just have to decide what my daily activities will be. I know I need to incorporate work on my medical transcription, eating/snacks (healthy options, not crap), cleaning around the house, exercise, and just plain personal time.

There's now a recreation center in my town and not too terribly far away. I'm considering paying for a family membership (its far less expensive to go with that option rather than individual memberships for 3 of us) and making that my gym. Then on days that I can't get to the gym for whatever reason, doing things around the house for exercise or simply going for a nice walk.

I'm not happy with my body or my energy level, and no one is going to do anything about it but me. So over the next couple of days, I'll be planning a schedule for myself.

Be well friends!

Surgery wonders

I'm accompanying a friend to a doctor's appointment tomorrow. She's seeing a local bariatric surgeon to consider a lap-band procedure. She said the office already checked, and her insurance will cover all of it.

I'm not proud to say that I'm at a new high weight. I doubt my insurance will cover as much as hers will, but it'll be interesting to sit in on the appointment nonetheless.

I need to get moving! That's my problem. I've been listening to a taped message at night that is essentially a subliminal recording designed to motivate you to exercise.

If you have any tips to keep you daily committed to exercising, please share them with me!

Thanks friends!

How do I get my groove back?

Its been about a week since my last workout. Last week was a tough one. My grandmother passed away and it hit me harder than I originally thought it would. I haven't been eating lots of junk food to comfort me, I've never really been an emotional eater. But tonight I am getting back on track and back into my workout routine. I'm quite sure it'll be difficult and my muscles will be screaming out to me by the end of it, but I must continue if I want to get to a healthier place in my life.

In the near future I'm looking forward to many celebrations! My son's 16th birthday is just around the corner. My daughter's confirmation at church is just about a month away. My family's annual mother's day camping trip is coming up soon. And then my daughter's birthday and the end of another school year. Things are moving pretty fast this year and I'm confident that if I work hard and keep the faith in my workouts, I can run fast enough to keep up!

Be well friends!

Butt Kickin' Workouts

So my latest foray into the wonderful world of workouts has been EA Active 2 for the xBox 360 with Kinect. I figured I managed pretty well with the original EA Active for the Wii, this shouldn't be too much more intensive. I WAS WRONG!!!

I am fully appreciative of the increased workout I'm getting, don't get me wrong. This game is kickin' my butt!!! I'm on day two of the workouts, and both days I've downed 2 bottles of water just during the course of the 20-23 minutes of the exercising routines. I'm hopeful that this game will also motivate my posterior to lose a few inches as well. Ha!

I've been watching what I'm eating much better lately as well. This year for lent I was originally going to give up Cokes, but my husband pointed out to me last night that I don't drink that many of them to begin with. So I think instead I will be giving up drive-thru fast food. This will be pretty difficult to accomplish, but with good planning I think I can pull it off even with several small trips coming up.

Be well, friends!

Out of town, but not out of touch

So this weekend I found out that my grandmother's health was looking less than pleasant. So I decided (hubby and I decided) that I'd take a little road trip down South to visit with her. I've been keeping up with a food journal with the help of the Lose It app on my iTouch.

I don't have my Wii or xBox Kinect with me down here, so today after I had lunch in the park I decided to take a nice long walk around the park. It was wonderfully relaxing and the weather couldn't have been better!! The only downside is I completely forgot about the fact that I had a tank top on and NO SUNSCREEN. Ugh! So I'm a little sunburned, but I'm not going to sweat it, guess it just means I'm starting to get some color on my shoulders a little earlier this year. hehehe

I'm planning on going back over and visiting with my grandmother, aunts, and uncle tomorrow and probably Friday. I'm so happy that I took the opportunity to make this trip! It's truly been a wonderful experience so far!

The Year of Me

This year I have decided that honesty is the ONLY policy! And in that spirit,  here goes...

I have been a slacker! I have not worked out with any consistency for the better part of a year. I have not watched what I ate. I have touched my feet to the scales maybe all of 3 times in the last 6 months (each time cringing at the numbers that flashed before me).

I have to be honest with myself! I have been bad. I'm not helping myself or my health with this largely apathetic attitude.

Yesterday I had a WONDERFUL workout! I did EA Active (Wii), Dance Central (xBox Kinect), Kickboxing (xBox Kinect), and Dance Dance Revolution (Wii). It felt great! I need to find a way to remind myself that though I might struggle to get through some of the workouts while they're happening (namely EA Active), I always feel fantastic after having completed them.

I've recently enlisted the help of my Red/Pink Hat Society ladies to better motivate me to keep in a regular workout schedule. We have planned workouts 2-3 days a week, held at my house. I'm hopeful that this added accountability to someone local will help to boost my will power and put thinner days well within my grasp.

Be well friends!

Oh the drama....

So my son is 15 years old and has recently been seeing a girl that is 17. This past weekend he went to her Halloween party. While only there a short while he texted me and told me "not to get too comfortable" as he wasn't having the best time there. Apparently this girl sees my son as mainly in the "friend zone." One of his good friends is who she's really interested in, but the dude is a real stand up guy and went with the "bro code" and laid off as he knows my son is really into her.

The night eventually got better and I picked him up several hours after that first text. Upon picking him up we talked about what happened at the party. Let me preface this by saying, you should all know that NOTHING is off limits with my kids. We talk about EVERYTHING and are quite proud of our open-door policy. So he goes on to tell me that he believes "kids" shouldn't be having sex in high school(specifically until after they're 18 yrs old), "there's enough crap to deal with without having to do that!" I almost cried in the car!! I love that he is thinking about this in a very mature manner!!! I had "the talk" with him when he was 10 yrs old when we caught him looking up "girls having sex" on the Internet. I pulled no punches and told him all that I could. I told him it is not a horrible thing, his curiosity was a normal part of life, and that it can be a great thing shared between two people. I also told him how it can be very superficial and dangerous both physically and emotionally. We've had more "talks" through the years and recently my husband and I bought him a box of condoms. I've told my children that I do not expect them to wait until they are married to have sex, but I DO expect them to wait until they are married to have UNPROTECTED sex!

I'm sure most all parents will agree with me that I hate to see my children struggle with relationships, be they platonic or romantic. I'm just very happy to see that all those talks did good and my son listened and took it all in, instead of rolling his eyes and thinking about what else he could be doing instead of listening to his mom prattle on.