Had a really awesome tae kwon do class tonight! I wish I could have sparred. Should find out late this week if I will be able to or if I'm going to have to take a break from contact for a while.
We did some drills using pads tonight and I paired up with one of the black belts. She really pushed me and I liked it! I feel successful in what I did and attempted. I've been struggling lately trying to get people to come at me faster so that I can have a challenge and improve. I've been feeling frustrated in that aspect for about a month now.
Tonight the black belt I worked with came at me at a nice good challenging pace and I loved it! Working with her is exactly what I have been looking for! Was I perfect? Heck no! No matter what rank you are in TKD, there is always room for improvement.
Did my skill grow? Definately!!! That is what I strive for! Every class I push myself to become faster and better than I was in the last class.
What people need to realize is that improvement doesn't happen overnight like we would like it to. We have to work at it. If I learn something new in one class and attempt to use that skill or do my best to improve my form on an existing skill, that is advancement to me. I know that if I stick with it, I will eventually reach my goal of improved form or landing that kick that I've been working on forever.
I remember when I was a white belt a year ago and couldn't land a back kick when someone was walking toward me to save my life (I could hardly land one standing still)! Tonight I totally nailed it! I need to work on getting faster.....having the person holding the pad run at me. Like I stated above, it's an improvement on an existing skill I'm going to work on. Hopefully in a year I will be able to look back to this day and see the improvement I've made through dedication.
Tomorrow is weigh in #4 at Weight Watchers. I've been slacking this week in weighing myself. I don't have any excuse as to why, I just haven't been. I'm a little nervous becuase I'm not too sure what to expect when I step on the scale tomorrow.
A little part of me is expecting either no change or a small, less than a pound, change just because of where I am at in my cycle. I've been feeling a little water logged these past few days........go figure.......I've been craving salt.
We shall see.
Night all! Be safe if you are getting snow!
Watch out Albuquerque Fit folks! Terie's back (but not as a coach)!!! Hahahahahaha!
It felt good to be out with the group again. I've sure missed all these people! I needed the break but I'm so ready to do this again.
Right now I have no race plans. I'm just running to run so there is no pressure either way to run more, harder, faster. I'm going to run what I run and that's how it goes.
I ran with the half marathon people today. I did 3 miles. That was enough. Any more and I think I would have been too tired. Can you believe that? Tired after only 3 miles?!?!?!?!?! How crazy is that?!?!?!?! Needless to say, I have to build my base back up before I think of doing anything big. Right now the only thing on the radar is Boulder Boulder over Memorial Day weekend. Even if I end up walking that, I'm perfectly OK with that. I'm just excited to be back.
I'm oficially signed up for the 10k program but they start at 2 miles so the plan right now is to follow the beginner HM program until they get to 6 miles wich will be in about a month and then I will evaluate from there how I feel and how things are going and make a decision on if I will continue with the half program or modify it to keep me in shape for a 10k.
The reason I'm not trying to push it is because running is for fun and to enjoy. Plus tae kwon do is still my primary sport. I LOVE it and if I let running take over, there will be no time for TKD which would be tragic.
Off to church I head now. I'm singing in the choir for the first time in about 6 months or so. This is going to be fun!
I can't believe I've been at Weight Watchers for only 3 weeks and have already lost 6.2 pounds! This really works!
Those of you who know me well know that I once let myself get up to around 235 pounds and have lost a lot of that on my own. It took me about 2 years to lose it all. I wonder what I would have done if I had taken on Weight Watchers back then! Before it took me about 2-3 months to lose 6 pounds.
I also tried using Sparkpeople last winter. I had success. I lost the same amount of weight that I have with Weight Watchers but it took me 8-9 weeks.
There is something to be said for finding a group to hold you accountable. The rewards are also very nice to get as well. I've been looking forward to getting my 5 pound sticker since I joined and I got it today (along with a bravo sticker)!! The support is so amazing and I really like the group leader. She's so motivating even though she's about 40 years older than I am (this is not an exaggeration).
I know I am over the average 1-2 pounds a week right now but I have a feeling it's going to slow down soon.
Week one -3.6
Week two -0.4
Week three -2.2!
Woot!
Maybe that is the pattern my body will follow.
Either way I am super happy with the results I've been seeing. I will take my weekly measurements tomorrow morning since I've already filled my stomach with my yummy dinner tonight.
This week I had two yummy splurges. One was a frozen pizza I made and ate however much of it I pleased. The second meal was at Sadie's. If you live in the Albuquerque area, you know how dangerous Sadie's can be. It's so yummy and they serve my favorite New Mexican food.
I tried at first to resist the chips n salsa but was too hungry and I gave in knowing I was having a splurge anyway. We did so good though in that we did not get a second basket of chips when they came around to ask us. Yay us!! Instead of ordering my typical chicken tacos (I usually order two tacos, one to eat there and one to take home for leftovers), I changed it up and ordered a chicken burrito instead. I still got double papas with red chile that of course came with cheese. I decided since I really wanted this splurge, I was going to eat as many of the papas as I wanted until my heart and taste buds were content. I made this decision since I didn't get a whole plate full like I would have with the tacos. There was about one cup worth of papas on the plate. Perfect portion to satisfy!
The burritos are pretty big that they serve so I menally broke it up into thirds and decided I was going to eat one third of it and then stop. Before I asked for a box to go, I asked Scott if he would eat the leftovers. He was a little shocked that I asked him because usually if he eats my leftovers before I get a chance to get at them, I'm not happy. This time I was happily offering them to him. He seemed hesitant at first, probably a lesson learned from before. :) Once he was sure I was 100% for real about it, he was on board and agreed if the burrito came home, he would eat it so I wouldn't be tempted.
That's what I got my Bravo! sticker for! :)
Work is still going well. I had to take a class today on sprituality. As if I weren't already bombarded by this through school, orientation, and continuum! It was so boring! Luckily we got out an hour early so I didn't have to deal with rush hour traffic.
The lady who taught this class was such and idiot though! She asked who the person was that works NBICU and I said it was me. She then proceeds to ask me if I know any cultural rituals around birth! I gave her the, trying not to be sarcastic answer aka biting my tounge....hard!, that we don't have anything to do with the birth of the babies, that is L&D (I had to point that one out to her since she she seemed to think I do L&D in NICU...eye roll), we just deal with the babies after they are born.
The person teaching the class is a seasoned RN. Wow is all I can say.
Tae kwon do is going well. Had a super awesome workout last night. I wish I could have sparred but I wasn't able to so I worked the bag using techniques we did in class earlier and I also practiced my test kicks and combinations that I like to use to see if I can add on to them for future use.
My speed has been increasing. I was surprised at how much faster my slide in turn kicks have gotten! I was so surprised that I had to do them several times in a row on each leg just to make sure it wasn't a fluke or something!
Have I mentioned how much I love TKD?????? :) Even after almost a year, I'm loving it. Probably even more than when I started!!!!!
I'm feeling a little nervous about stepping on the scale at my meeting tomorrow. I really hope I have lost. I've been tracking fairly well. The only thing I haven't tracked was last nights meal out at Rudy's. I had 10 points left to use and I ordered a quarte pound of turkey and a baked potato. Well within my 10 points. For a bedtime snack last night I had a can of drained and rinsed mandarin oranges, 0 points and super yummy.
I've been weighing myself throughout the week and have seen about a half pound loss on my scale at home. I went to weigh myself this morning and forgot to do it before I took my morning pills with a huge glass of water. Doh! I won't weigh again until my meeting at noon.
I feel I've done a pretty good job with tracking everything I put into my mouth, no matter how healthy or unhealthy it is. I've also reminded myself to have a treat every now and then.
My "big" meal out this week was at Dion's. I ordered a turkey sub on wheat. I wasn't super hungry going in so it was really easy to only eat half of it (I ordered the 6") and about half of the chips that came with it. I'm very proud of myself for that. It would have been really easy to eat the whole thing and then some.
That's been the biggest challenge for me so far. Not letting myself get too hungry. Last week I was terrible at it. This week has been much much better. Every once in a while I will feel those "overhungry pangs" but I've really been trying to keep on top of it. It makes it easier to make healthier choices and if I know I shouldn't eat all of something, it makes it easier to stick to that plan.
I called the orthodontist this morning to make my second appointment to get braces put on. I thought they were going to put them on at the appointment but it doesn't sound like it. At least I have the ball rolling on it. They called this a records appointment. I know they are going to take molds of my mouth.
As nervous as I am about it, I really hope that they put the braces on that same day as well. I can't believe I'm this nervous! I really wonder how it's going to change the way I look with them on and how it's going to feel. I'm not worried about the pain at all. Nothing a little Tylenol can't help. That and some cold food or ice water to numb it (probably ice water for me).
Our new furniture should be here today. It will be nice to be rid of our old furniture. Especially since the couch is broken.
TKD is going alright. We've been doing a lot of sparring lately. A lot. I'm ready for a break. Just one week off would be nice and then we can get back to it. Last Wednesday I had a terrible day. I just couldn't think straight and wasn't throwing and landing things like I have been doing. I'm pretty sure it's a mental thing.
Sparring, for me, is mentally taxing because it's comparable to a game of chess. It's a game of strategy so you are constantly watching cues from your opponent and looking for the right time to attack. When it's right, you just know it and go for it. I got some good rushes in but I wasn't happy with what I did otherwise. I really hope tonight goes better. I have some frustration I need to get out.
I'm pretty excited! I had my weekly weigh in yesterday with WW. I was surprised at how nervous I was about going! I'm used to weighing myself 2-3 times a week but when the weigh-in counts, it felt different. It shouldn't have. But it did.
It was really awesome to see the face of the person who weighed me in. She smiled at me real big and was very happy and proud. I had lost 3.6 pounds in one week!
I knew I had lost because of tracking my weight at home. I wasn't expecting it to be that much though. I was expecting around 2 pounds so needless to say I was super super happy.
I need to take some before and after pics. I plan on doing that today.
The thing need to be careful of now is to not expect this every week. Weeks like this, in real life, are the exception, not the rule.
I would be thrilled with a 1.5 or 2 pound loss next week. That would give my my 5 pound sticker in two weeks. If that's realistic or not, we shall see.
That's the other key to success in weight loss. One needs to realize that there will be ups and downs and we have to take the highs with the lows.
I made a goal this week of having fresh fruit with my breakfast. So far I haven't done that. I am planning on having an apple with peanut butter for my snack today. Our group leader challenged us this week to make 10 meals of just power foods. I'd like to do that as well. I know two goals can be quite lofty. I'm going to try my best. If I don't reach one, then it will be my one and only goal for next week.
Last week I used all of my activity points (I have it set up to use those first) and had 35 "bonus" points left over. I hope to do the same thing this week.
I saw this on a message board that I like to hang out on and it just stuck.
This is how I feel as a new nurse. I've had to fake my confidence. It's still not all there because there is so much I don't know about but it's getting there. I'm able to speak to parents with more knowledge in my arsenal which also makes me more confident in what I'm telling them and hopefully that will help them have confidence in me as I take care of their tiny one.
I've been taking care of more chronic kids lately and am ready to go back to higher acuity.
That's what I like about working where I do. Yes it is a critical care environment but we really see different spectrums of care from the super critically ill 1:1 patient to our more chronic kids who still need our care because things can go wrong very quickly, of course, but are pretty stable on the grand scheme of things.
I think I would get burnt out if we had all super critical kids all the time or if we had more of the chronic type all the time. The variety keeps me thinking in different ways and I really appreciate that.
Over the past two weeks I've had two orthodontic consulatations for braces. I'm super exctied to be able to get them. I'm amazed at the cost difference between the two different docs I visited. They both offered the same treatment in the same amount of time. There was about a 1500-2000 dollar difference though.
It seems the only difference between the two was the office. Both of their before and after pictures looked absolutely fantastic. Nice neat and precise work. Dr #1 has a brand new office which is a 5 minute drive from my house. It is very nice but to the point. Not a lot of extras which is just fine for me.
Dr #2's office was amazing. It was very modern and inviting. There was pretty awesome music being played in the reception area. They had a tray of cookies out for patients, two different sinks you could use to brush your teeth. The sinks were really neat looking, something like you would see in a nice custom built home. There was a pretty big tropical fish tank in the office built into the wall. Outside the consultation room, there were actually video games like you would see in an arcade! In a dentists office!!!!!!
Can you guess which dentist/orthodontist charged more???? Yeah, nuff said.
I did like Dr #2 but I cannot justify spending that much more. If it were only a $500 difference, I could totally justify going to Dr #2 if I had wanted too.
As an adult it was kind of rediculous to me to see arcade games in his office. The whole thing seemed so over the top that I wonder if he's trying to make up for something or if he's really that popular and successful. It was very "showy" to me.
I go for my second weigh in with Weight Watchers tomorrow. Will be interesting to see if I've lost anything. I think I have.
I weigh myself at home pretty regularly and the past several times I've weighed myself, the scale has been reading 2-2.5 pounds lighter. I hope the WW scales pick up the same thing. I'm not tracking my weight at home on anything because it's the weigh in at WW that counts toward my goal.
I admit I have a hard time sticking to my daily points allowance. The good news is that I'm tracking everything that has been going into my mouth. That has made a difference in my food choices. I also earn a lot of activity points from working out so I only used 15 of my weekly allowance points on top of using all my activity points. I'm very happy about that.
I also wear a pedometer at work that calcualtes points as well so I'm getting activity points every day I'm at work. I really like that a lot.
I've been wanting to lose these last 20 pounds for way too long now and finally decided it is time to do it. I joined Weight Watchers.
I've only been tracking for a few days and had my first weigh in/meeting last night. I like the environmen! The meeting leader's name is Keri (or however she spells it) and she seems to be very realistic and fun.
I thought walking in there that I would be the only younger person in there. I was wrong! Granted, it IS mostly older women in there but it's nicely sprinkled with those of us without grey hair as well.
Last night someone recieved their lifetime membership. She lost 70 pounds and some change in 10 months! She looked so good. It was inspiring seeing that.
They also hand out little "rewards" as you lose. For every 5 pounds you lose, they give you a sticker that you can put wherever you like. I plan on putting mine in my weight tracker as a reminder of my hard work. Then you get rewards for losing 5% of your body weight (my first goal), 10% (my second goal), and then you get a reward for reaching your goal. If I remember right, once you stay at your goal for 6 weeks, then you can become a lifetime member.
What I like about this program (not having done the old one ever...I lost my first 70lbs on my own) is that they point out what they call power foods, I call them clean foods. They tell us it's "the most bang for our buck." I love that they are trying to get people to eat more healthy food like that.
Fruits and most veggies are also zero points!!! I've always liked eating those but now that I'm tracking points, it's that little extra incentive to eat even more. Last night, for example, I had eaten at Chick-fil-a for dinner. I ordered a grilled chicken and fries, yes I tracked it. That took up the last of my points for the day plus a few extra. I was hungry last night before bed but didn't want to add any more extra points than I already did so instead of snacking on triscuits, I opened up a can of fruit and then went to bed. It was nice that I got to eat and didn't have to add any more points to my daily total.
Let's be real about this though. Weight Watchers is nothing special or any different than eating good and reducing calories. What is different from say, sparkpeople.com is the support and extra stuff that you get.
I was searching for quick meal ideas for breakfast and lunch for when I work because that is really hard for me. I found a place on the online tools that has quick meal ideas and it's right up my ally! They're quick, easy, and something that I can put together before I go to work.
It seems that everything I was lacking on sparkpeople.com has been included in WW (so far).
I also like the idea of weekly meetings. It gives me a little extra edge to know that someone is going to be holdin me accountable for what I put into my mouth for a week. I can't wait until I get to put my first 5lb's lost sticker on my weight tracker.
I also like the fact that I know I will have support to help me lose weight after I have a baby. They don't want you on the program while pregnant, understandably so. What they do is put your membership on hold and you go back when you get clearance from your Dr. One of my fears has been weight gain with pregnancy and it really eases a lot of that anxiety knowing that I will have something to look forward to to help me with that when it's over.
Wish me luck. I think I've made a good decision.
