I can't believe it's already almost noon. I stayed up way too late last night watching Downton Abbey on Netflix, and daylight savings time just compounded the problem! Here's a few pictures of what I've been up to the last few days!
On Thursday night, Ben's dad was in town, so his sister made a really nice dinner and we played a couple games of Carcassonne. It was a lot of fun! Ben and I had never played before but we each won one game- gotta love beginner's luck!
I dragged my mom with me to Kohl's on Friday, with the intention of buying a new comforter for my bed...but I ended up thinking better of it. I only bought a couple of pairs of workout pants and a pizza pan. I've gotta save up some more money if I want to go on vacation again this winter!
Saturday night has
traditionally been date night for Ben and I, but neither of us is very
good at thinking of anything exciting to do! Usually we just end up
going out to eat and maybe renting a movie. Instead, we decided to take
Charlie to Petsmart in Ankeny. He's been stir crazy around the house
lately, and he's never been there before. He did pretty well
overall...although he did end up peeing a bit on the floor. They have
cleaning supplies at the ends of some of the aisles, though, so no big
deal. We got Milo a little kitty cave, and Charlie got a couple of
stuffed toys and a new collar. Charlie was zonked out for the rest of
the night- it must have been pretty overstimulating for him.
Time to check in for February. This month I only worked out 18/30 days (including Mar 1-2), so not a fantastic effort. I also managed to regain 2 of the lbs l lost last month. I don't want to spend time obsessing about it, though. This week was Eating Disorder Awareness Week, and I think it's a good exercise to spend a little time thinking about all that we can do/have done rather than imperfections we still want to fix. I'm at a fairly healthy weight, all of my body parts are operational, and I have become much stronger over the past year thanks to the exercise I've been doing. I have an awesome relationship with my family and boyfriend, plus my two pets at home. I'm fortunate enough to be continuing my education (paid for by my job no less!), and I'm doing pretty well in my classes. Several of days I didn't exercise were because I was caught up in my research at work. I love my job! I'm grateful to have access to food to allow me to gain those two lbs, considering the number of people that are extremely malnourished worldwide.
That being said, I am going to try something new this month. I HATE food journaling. It's such a pain in the butt! I think part of the reason I don't like it, though, is because it forces me to realize how many calories that treat I want has. I don't usually have time to preplan my meals or obsess over calorie counts, but I'm going to log food at least 5 days of the week. I've logged a few days this past week, and although I haven't always made good choices, it does make me cringe to see the calories some of my food has. Sometimes the thought of having to log it makes me change my mind! The MyFitnessPal app on my phone is fantastic for food journaling.
I also just downloaded an app called GymPact. Starting Monday, I will be paying $5 per workout out of my required 5 days per week that I don't do. However, if I do workout 5 days per week, I get a small amount of money, financed by the people who didn't make their "pact". It's a cool idea! All you have to do is check-in via GPS at your gym and workout for 30 min or more.
You also have the option to wear the phone in an armband and have it sense movement rather than using GPS if you want to go jogging, etc. It will definitely help me stay motivated to go to the gym- I don't have money to waste!
One last tool I'll mention. It's an app called Paprika that is AWESOME to organize recipes. It has a built in browser that is able to download recipes straight from websites- no writing anything down! Then you can put those recipes into a meal plan for the week and add ingredients to a shopping list that is organized by section of the grocery store. It's great! My problem is I plan to cook something and then forget to defrost meat or whatever....but I'm working on that. : P
Everyone, I'd like to introduce a new trend that will soon be sweeping the nation. My boyfriend, Ben, is an innovator. My friend (and neighbor) Katie and I are fond of wearing our bathrobes around the house as an extra layer of warmth. Yesterday after getting dinner, Ben and I went to Walmart and ended up with a camouflage printed fleece bathrobe. It is glorious. Ben calls it his "camono", and the best thing about it according to him is that when it gets too hot he can just stick an arm out! Here's some action shots. Notice our two little pizza-making helpers in the second one : P
On Saturday morning we got Dunkin Donuts and coffee and watched Matilda on Netflix. I haven't watched that movie in at least 8 years, and it was a fantastic morning (great movie too!).... Until we both got what we decided are donut hangovers- we both had headaches and weren't very hungry. I confess we did eat too many donuts...but the good news is we won't be wanting any more, probably ever!
I've been in biochemistry hell the last 24 hours, but it was my own fault. I hate biochem. so much I procrastinate by doing literally ANYTHING but studying. The class is online and there are no assignments, so I have to motivate myself to meet self-imposed deadlines. I had decided to take the exam today so that I can move on to unit 2 since I'm already behind. I watched the last two lectures Saturday, and on Sunday I didn't really get down to studying until I got home from Zumba around 8:30 pm...6 hours later I went to bed after analyzing all of my example tests. I studied after class this am for another 6 hours or so this afternoon and then went to take the exam...an essay test. It's hard enough to be able to recognize the names of enzymes and remember the steps of pathways enough to answer a multiple choice question, so essays are 100x worse. It wasn't my brightest idea...but I just wanted the stupid test over. The test didn't go very well, but as long as I beat out at least some of the people in my class I'll be fine grade-wise. I'm now officially braindead.
Silver linings of an otherwise crappy day:
1. I had the day off from work so it's like I got paid to study. Btw Happy Birthday George Washington!
2. I enjoyed pizza and a couple of episodes of Workaholics with my boyfriend.
3. I got the button attached onto my first knitting project- it's a pattern called calorimetry...it's sort of like a hat minus the top part so you can wear a ponytail with it!
I'm thinking at this point the photos 365 idea is probably a bust. It's a great idea, and I'll keep taking pictures...but chances are I'll only end up posting my favorites maybe once a week. Deal? : )
There's something really endearing about pets sleeping on pillows. I happened to catch both Charlie and Milo sleeping on them on the same day!
It's only Feb. 5 and I'm already behind. Woot woot!
Friday- no picture : ( I went to Oddfellows Burger Kitchen to celebrate my friend Courtney's birthday, so I really should have take a picture of that...but I didn't.
Saturday- Zumba master class in Des Moines with the super famous Zumba superstar Kass Martin! It was a blast, and I'm hoping she'll have another one when she comes back later this spring! This is some of the Ames Zumba crew that went!
Sunday- Not much excitement to be had. I bummed around the house, did a (very) small amount of homework, and watched the end of the puppy bowl! You probably can't see it, but I'm wearing a snuggie that has dogs printed on it. : P
Monday: This is Milo being SUPER helpful while I'm trying to print an article for class.
Today: I went to my friend Anna's apartment tonight to work on our statistics project and it's driven me to drink. The project is soooo unnecessary. We literally aren't learning anything about stats, we're just being guinea pigs for this woman's graduate thesis. So yay for extra homework that takes longer than the other two assignments for the week combined -.-
Back at the beginning of the month I said I was going to work harder at exercising everyday and cooking more often/eating healthy. In order to keep myself accountable, I figure I'll check in for the entire world to see at the end of the month!
This is the calendar I made to attempt to meal plan and track workouts. It works really well when I make time to do it. I drew a little star next to each workout I did. I worked out every day up until Sat. the 26th... I haven't worked out now for 6 days. I was out of town Sat, ice storm Sun, crazy busy at work Mon-Wed, and today I just plain didn't want to go. It's not the best way to end the month. Cooking hasn't happened whatsoever this week, either. This is that point in the semester where things start getting crazy and I have to be more determined to make everything work.
However, I'm confident I can get myself back on track. I did have some success this month. I lost four lbs, so I'm back to where I was before vacation and Christmas. I am pretty proud of my workout record up until this weekend, and I found some easy recipes that Ben and I both like to eat. Bring on February!
