Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Happy Hump Day

I'm sorry. I happen to have a very boring and uneventful life.

But there are exciting things happening.

My sister, Annie, is about to have her first child. She is a few weeks from her due date but the amniotic fluid around the baby is running low so they the baby needs to be born soon to make sure everyone is safe. Since she is within six weeks of her due date, the baby, Nayomi Alane, will have a very high chance of survival. Annie is starting to get nervous but has been able to keep a steady mind through all the stress. Unfortunately, it looks like the baby might come before I get home. I wish I could be there for her but I know that we need to do whats best for the baby. I can't wait all the same.

I am nearing the end of my internship and I am already done. With everything. Completely done (sort of). I have a presentation to give the Thursday after next which I am almost ready to give. I am ready for a practice run to check timing and then for a couple real runs. I just want to get it done and over with. I'm homesick and am ready to leave.

Well, that was a peak into my boring life. Ttfn.

Weight-loss tip of the day - Fruits and veggies are yummy so eat more of them!

Monday, July 20, 2009

Well then

I may have been slightly bad these past few days but now I am back.

The past week has been ultra busy. I saw the movie Moon. I didn't get much done at work. I did laundry and stayed up late with friends. I made a cheesecake from scratch!

But this past weekend was the best of all.

On Friday, I and a bunch of friends from work got together and made chicken tacos (and soy tacos for my vegetarian friend) while watching The Matrix. We also made a cheesecake.

Then I woke up early on Saturday and donned my swimsuit for the beach! I had never seen the ocean before and I don't know if I can describe how beautiful it is. Or salty. It isn't like in movies with the water lazily lapping on the beach. The ocean is a power beast that attacks the sand and tosses it about. Swimming in the ocean was tons of fun and very exhausting. The waves push and pull you about and it takes some practice before you can get out past where the waves break. You have to be careful of things like jellyfish, the people in front of you and all the things you can kick in the ocean. All in all, I hurt my toes, got kicked in the face and was mysteriously cut on the nose.

I spent about three hours in and around the water. The waves were too rough for me as the tide started coming in so I decided to go lay on the sand and enjoy the sun. Two hours later, I am well rested and very burned but it was all worth it.

Then we went back to the suites and ate a bit of cheesecake before going to sleep. I didn't sleep well because my hurt foot spent the entire night making me uncomfortable but I did get up for church. After church, I had more movies and more cheesecake.

Then I weighed myself.

Let me recap the last four weigh-ins, 208 lbs, 209 lbs, 209 lbs, 210 lbs

I weighed in at 203 lbs!

That was just the icing on the cake of a wonderful weekend.

Ttfn everyone!

Weight-loss tip of the day: Don't get discouraged by plateaus. Push through them!

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Another Thursday!

I cannot express how excited and nervous I am for Kk's wedding this weekend. I cannot wait to get on the plane and get home and see everyone. I cannot wait to stand at her side as she marries the most perfect man in all the world for her. I just cannot wait!

But enough about that, lets talk about the wedding tip of the week.

Weddings, as I mentioned last week, are stressful and difficult to coordinate. There are flowers to order, cakes to design, tuxes to rent, bridesmaids to dress and the list goes on. No couple should ever have to plan their wedding alone.

Now I am not saying that everyone needs to fork up their hard earned cash for a wedding planner. All you really need are friends to help you along the way.

So find a friend that is good with pastry to help you figure out how you want your cake to look then give her a budget to go and order the cake. You'll have the final say so on price and look but you will be able to skip the shopping around part. Give your bridesmaids a picture of what kind of dress you want them to wear and let them shop for the best match. Have a flower party to help decide what flowers you want.

All of these little things will help along the way and help renew your friendships that you will need after you get married. (You can't spend all your time with one person!)

Well that's all for now. Ttfn!

Weight loss tip of the day: When travelling, pack your own food.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

My Family

Today, I read my best friend's blog and she talked all about her family so I guess it is my turn.

Now, hold on, kids. It's gonna be one long, bumpy ride.

My parents met while working at a factory, which is what many young people do in Indiana. My grandfather approved and they got married when my oldest sister was still very young (My oldest sister was born when my mother was very young and is my half sister). They have been married nearly 30 years and are still very much in love. My mother, however, has been very sick for a long time but it seems that she will pull through even though she won't ever quite be the same. My father has stuck by her through it all. My father works as a design engineer and graduated from Purdue.

I have two sisters and one brother. Adam Jay, or AJ for short, is the youngest at 14. He is EXTREMELY tall, pushing 6'1" and still growing. He is in junior high and is working hard on his classes. AJ has ADHD and is nonmedicated as he has hit puberty and brain drugs don't work well (and can even cause more harm) at that age. In spite of that, this last semester, AJ made the honor roll. I am so proud of him and I know that he will do well. AJ loves drawing and playing with computers and History.

My older sister, Annie, is 22 and is married to Tony. They got married 2 years ago. Annie is three years older than me and when we were young, we used to fight all the time. But now that we are older we get along much better. I love Annie dearly and her husband is amazing. Right now, she is pregnant and due in August. She is extra cute with her pregnant belly and short stature. On Saturday, I'll get to see her. I can't wait for that either. Tony is a tall man of color and he and Annie met while they were working at Pizza Hut. He is a good man and I know he'll take good care of my sister... or else.

My oldest sister, Shellie, 11 years older than me and is my half sister. She married her husband, Jason, when she was very young. They are both deaf and together have had three hearing kids and one deaf kid. From oldest to youngest, they are Austin, Ethan (deaf), Sammie, and Devin. They are sweet sweet kids but I don't always get to see them very often. I am not able to sign and have a hard time communicating with Shellie, Jason and Ethan but I try anyway. As Ethan gets older, I hope he understands that I am trying and that I love him. Austin was born only a year or so after Adam and they are close.

My mother has three sisters and my father has two sisters. On my father's side, his sisters have been married for a long time. I have six cousins on my father's side. My mothers side is the opposite and they have been wildly unstable so I don't count many uncles on that side as my uncle. Except Uncle Terry, my Aunt Janna's new husband, because he is awesomely wonderful and the whole family loves him. I have nine cousins on my mothers side with two sort of cousins by marriage.

My family is large but I love them all, even when they are fighting.

Well ttfn!

Weight loss tip of the day: Take the stairs, walk if you can, offer to hold other people's groceries. The little things will can make a big difference.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Ten Hours? Is That All?

I went to bed early last night and had a glorious night sleeping. A whole ten hours of dreaming and I woke up refreshed.

My legs, however, were redder than ever. And I still feel sick.

Over the weekend, which I detailed in my last post, I got maybe 4-6 hours of sleep each night. That includes Sunday night. So yesterday came around and I found myself falling asleep at my desk. That night, I desperately needed more sleep and I thought that I would feel better and that my legs would start healing if I did.

No.

So sorry Kk, my legs will be as red as my bridesmaid's dress.

At least I'll match.

Well sorry for the short post. Not much to say today. Ttfn

Weight loss tip of the day: Make exercise not exercise. Make it fun like playing tag with the kids or walking with your best buddy.

Monday, July 6, 2009

A New Week, a New Start

Sorry I skipped the entire weekend blogging. It was a very busy weekend full of great experiences, and some not so good ones too. Lets start with Thursday night.

Thursday night, I usually do laundry but I wanted to play Ultimate Frisbee. Since I had Friday off for the holiday, I went to Ultimate instead and got horribly sweaty and gross playing. It was fun. We also went out to dinner at Noodles and Company and I had the Tuscan Linguini without cheese. It was delicious. Thursday night went well.

On Friday morning, however, my alarm went of at 6:15 and I couldn't fall back to sleep so I went and did laundry in the very early morning. I should have been doing that all along. With no one else fighting over two washers and three dryers, everything gets done much faster and without so much heartache. After laundry, I bummed around and went to the store to get fixings for an Ice cream cake to bring to the potluck we were having. The cake is a whole 6 points a serving but it was delicious and got eaten very quickly. I also had some great pasta and this wonderful spinach, strawberry and pecan salad. Oh and chicken fajitas! I had planned for that potluck to be heavy so I was in the green to pretty much let my stomach have what it wanted. Then we played Midnight Ultimate with some pretty mediocre glow sticks. Other than getting beaned in the head with the light-up frisbee and not being able to see anyone, it was a blast. I even caught a frisbee and scored a point for my team. (I'm horribly clumsy with not much hand-eye coordination. That was a miracle!) We headed back, played some smash and hit the sheets around 2 am.

I got up early on Saturday too because we wanted to go see the 4th of July parade in DC. So I and 4 other people left for the Metro station at about 9:00 and went into DC. The parade was a lot of fun and very long. We had a great spot in a semi-shaded area and I could see everything really well. Then we went to the mall to wander the Folk Festival and to eat fun and weird foods. I had a Welsh Lamb Stew and it was really good except that it was about 90 degrees F outside and the stew was boiling lava hot. And because it was so hot, I got a little dehydrated and became miss grumpy pants. I feel really bad for how I acted but thing weren't going according to plan. We went early and were kindly saving spots for about 20 other people so the could see the DC fireworks. They were late. And then they didn't like our spot and picked a new one. At least they told us. There spot was better though. Unfortnately, I sat crosslegged in the grass for so long in the sun that I have a very strange shaped sunburn on the insides of my legs. I hope they fade before the wedding on Saturday.

The fireworks were spectacular. Just beautiful. Leaving from the fireworks was NOT. As soon as the last light in the sky extinguished, my group and I immediately started packing up camp and jogging to the Metro to try to beat much of the crowds. I tried to keep up with them but I got stuck behind an old, fat woman who was trying to step over a rope fence. After helping her, I looked up and everyone was completely and utterly gone. I was alone in a giant crowd in DC without a map.

Let me break from this for a moment so I can describe three irrational fears, also known as phobias, that I suffer from. One is a fear of stinging insects, Cnidophobia, another is a fear of small spaces, Claustrophobia and the last is a fear of crowds, Enochlophobia. Any one or combination of those can cause panic attacks for me. If you have ever had a panic attack, you know how debilitating, embarrasing and tiring it can be. So, why go to DC on the Fourth... or at all, for that matter? I can't let fear keep me from living. You shouldn't either.

So I was alone in DC. I called people but no one could hear their phone above the roar of the crowd. I had to go alone. I followed the crowd, trying to keep as much space between me and the next guy as I could. I ended up at the wrong Metro station but it was okay because all the line are connected. I watched a train go by before I got up the courage to shove myself in with the crowd in that small car. It was horrifying how many people were touching me. I couldn't move and could barely breathe. I was trembling and sweating and my heart was racing and... everything. I wanted to scream and cry and leave but I couldn't. I can't describe a panic attack to you. It felt like that ride took forever and I had to shuffle through that wall of people to get off so I could get on to another similarly crowded train to get back home. I felt so out of control and so alone. I prayed most of the way home, stopping only to change trains and check stations.

By the time I got to the Metro station near the suites, I was completely drained of emotion and energy. I had to wait about ten minutes for the rest of my party to get in and when they did, my roommate tried to hug me. I pushed her away. We went back to the suites and I ate some sugary things, had two glasses of water, cried so hard my nose bled and tried to explain what happened.

I don't think people understand what it is really like. I don't think that they can truly visualize the experience without having experienced it on their own. Since then, I talked about the experience more and more to help me shake of the feelings, to laugh them off and to hopefully make someone understand. I don't think they do yet.

Sorry for rambling. Ttfn.

Weight loss tip of the day: It is ok to fall off the bandwagon as long as you get back on again. You can't expect yourself to be perfect all the time.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Thank Goodness it's Thursday

Today is my last working day for the week and I am excited to have such a busy day. As I mentioned before, I am working near DC on an internship and we get tomorrow off for the Fourth of July holiday since the 4th falls on a Saturday.

Today I have a meeting with the T-shirt committee and a seminar and a social. All of these events deal are sponsored by the program I am in.

But enough about that. Let's talk weddings!

From personal experience with other people's weddings (I'm only 20 and am not yet married), I know that planning a wedding can be extremely difficult. I think the way to avoid a lot of stress and heartache is to use a technique I learned while doing complicated chemical engineering homework: Start early and stay organized. So this week's wedding tip deals with being organized.

First, invest in a wedding planner binder. It doesn't have to be expensive but you should get one that is large enough. Also, you will want a calendar so either get a binder with a calendar or buy a calendar you can put in your binder.

Next, get some dividers to put in said binder. To keep yourself organized, break up the wedding into parts. For example, those parts could be guests (invites, rsvps, thank you notes), flowers (All things related to flowers including boutonnieres) , dresses and tuxes (Yours included) and contracts (cake, venue, minister).

Finally, USE IT. Keep things organized in the binder and write down all dates and appointments in the calendar. Don't just stick things in willy-nilly and write things down on random scrap paper.

I hope this helps you when you plan your wedding. Ttfn!

Weight loss tip: If you eat in moderation, nothing is off limits

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Take my own advise? Really?

Yesterday, I went to the mall with my suitemates after work instead of heading back to the suites to eat at social hour like we normally do. I was good with my main meal in that I had my new usual subway sandwich of turkey on wheat with light light light mayo, lettuce, cucumber and green peppers. I also got some baked lays. If I had stopped there, everything would have been great but did I? No...

This is why having an eating plan is key to losing weight (as Weightwatchers tells me and now I believe).

I had a delicious brownie batter blizzard at Dairy Queen. It was divine! It was chocolaty. It was everything I wanted right then.

It was 16 points.

My daily allowance is 27.

I think that I should stay away from Dairy Queen for awhile until I can control my impulses and buy something that WON'T make me gain ten pounds just by looking at it.

Yesterday I also went to Kk's bridal shower via webcam. That was interesting to say the least. But I got to see Kk and Stephen and my sister, Annie.

Well I guess that is all for this morning. Gotta go to work eventually. Ttfn!

Weight loss tip of the day : No, really, have a plan