Wednesday, October 8, 2008

When it rains...

it really freakin pours.

My sister-in-law was nearing the end of her first trimester when she lost the baby yesterday. She's actually doing okay, but we're all really sad for her and my brother-in-law. They were so excited about it.

**You guys are in my prayers!**

I'll update later. Suffice it to say that I've been a little stressed the last week. I feel like I could just sit down and cry for days. Geez I need sleep.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Way to throw a wrench in everything!

So my husband was laid off today. It's stupid. I know we'll be okay, but damn. I guess life has been going entirely too well lately.

Weight is very slow to come off, but weightwatchers online is going pretty well.

My workouts have been random, but I'm trying.

Josh and I sat down this weekend and created a good schedule for our family to get on, but who knows what's going to happen now.

Oh well...we'll just roll with it like we normally do.

I'll try to get more in this weekend.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

This week's update

Just a quick update: Last week went okay. I was having a lot of "female" problems, so I didn't get to work out very much. But, I started Weight Watchers online, and that's going pretty well. Yesterday was horrible. I stayed up really late Sunday night studying for tests in both of my hard classes. Grrrrr, they were hard. I'll be lucky if I pass my income tax test and I'll be happy with a B on my accounting test. I really feel like I'm spreading myself too thin. I'm just really not sure what can get cut???? Anyhow, I've been gaining weight the last couple of weeks. I'm sure it's a combination of my sporadic exercising and lack of sleep and female crap. I'm up to freakin 253 :P

But, I'm starting off today trying to get back into "the swing of things." I'm going back to Wk 1 D 1 of couch to 5k and Wk 2 D 1 of pushups. We'll see how that goes.

Hope all is well with you guys.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Update

Man, I'm feeling good this morning. It's so great! :)

Just a quick update on where I'm at: Wk 1 Day 3 Couch to 5K; Week 2 Day 3 Hundred Pushups (ended w/7); Weight's still up a little, which I'm not happy about, but I'm doing what I can - 250 on the nose.

Hopefully I'll be hearing some updates from my accountability partners soon! ;) ;)

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Is the ocean blue because it reflects the sky? Or is it the other way around? I can never remember...

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. Things are really crazy in my life right now. So, here's my latest unloading:

Weight-loss: Slowly but surely. I've taken my fellow blogger's (Josh) advice and tried drinking instead of eating at night. It's been a really hard habit to break, but those sugar-free drink mixes have helped a lot. I was bad a couple of nights, but generally it's been going pretty well. Thanks to all of the water retention that comes with that "special" time of the month, I technically gained weight this week, but I'm okay because I know I'm working on it, and it'll come off in another week or so.

I've been reading a lot about the Couch-to-5K running program. I have had my reservations, because I just wasn't sure if I could handle it. But, I decided to try it this week. I actually did pretty well. My walking pace was around 3.2 mph, jogging around 4.7. I was able to make it through, and my legs could handle it just fine. My problem was cardiovascular. My lungs burned for two hours after I had finished my workout. I'm not sure why it was so bad. Maybe I haven't been working out correctly (or at least hard enough) until now. Oh well...at least I know my legs can take it. :) Hopefully this new running program will really help.

Work: Blah. I've been behind on things since around April, when I was getting sick a LOT and school was really crazy. Even when I took off the second summer semester and worked 40 hours a week, I still can't seem to get caught up. My boss has told me I can train the new girl to help me, but that takes more time than just doing it myself. I don't know what to do. I'm really at a loss, and I hate that our customers are depending on me to get things done. And it's not like I could be more productive. I get to work, and I generally don't take any breaks until I leave. My dad instilled in me a very strong work ethic...I'm getting paid to work, not talk or screw around. Hopefully something will change. (Yeah...I see that happening!)

School: Management class...a complete joke and waste of my time. Our first test is on Monday. I haven't even bought the book yet, because I suspect the test is going to be mostly common sense, since that's what the whole class has been so far. So, I'll know soon enough if this class is really as elementary as it seems.

Income tax class...it's actually really fun. I know, I'm weird...but, I did choose accounting for a reason! :) I'm learning a lot, and finding out that I might really want to go into government someday and do what I can to improve this country's tax code. It's SOOOOO screwed up!

Intermediate accounting...it's not the material that's hard...it's the pace. I'm not used to it, and it's nerve-wracking. I'm sure I'll be okay once test time rolls around. (This is what I imagined junior level classes to be like!) At least the prof's good. He's really trying to teach us "real life" stuff, not just read us the textbook.

Other stuff: Son...great (a brat, but great); husband...amazing (he recently switched from smoking to dipping, and quit dipping a couple of days ago, so he's been a little moody, but hey, he's trying!); my dad came to town this past weekend...I miss him SOOOO much...he's a wonderful man, and I will always seek his approval; other family is good, and Thomas (my son) is going to finally have a cousin! yay! I'm so happy for my brother- and sister-in-law!

One final note: my Cowboys beat Josh's (my husband) Browns on Sunday...OOOOOOOOH how sweet it is! :) As a result, I get to re-name his fantasy team. I have yet to approach that subject, what with the pain of his loss and the lack of nicotine in his system. Also, my fantasy team kicked the crap out of my opponent...I have a feeling it's going to be a GREAT football season! GO COWBOYS!

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

...

Well, Monday was not good. I was still having some stomach pain from my ulcer when I work out. And since my doctor said not to push it until I can't feel anything, I haven't done a good workout in like two weeks. I've done a little, but I'm ready to get back to actually improving. I also ate very poorly. :(

But, things have started to turn around since the holiday. I've started counting calories, and it's going pretty well. The biggest thing I need to work on is not eating after dinner. My biggest hurdle is the nighttime snack. I think I'm going to try to just start going to bed earlier, before that little "snack attack" happens. I could really use the extra sleep, too. So, I'm going to do that tonight.

The stomach pain was also pretty much non-existant today, so I'm really going to try and do a full cardio workout tomorrow. I did day 3 of week 1 of the pushups program and maxed out with 10. That's the most I've ever done at one time. At least there's improvement somewhere! :) The weight loss has been very slow the last couple of weeks, but I'm hoping with the calorie-counting and increased activity I'll see it start dropping again.

Just a footnote...school blows. My management class is a huge joke, I've been made a fool of in two of the three classes we've had in intermediate accounting, and my textbook for personal income tax is THE TAX CODE! That's great.

Monday, August 25, 2008

A Case of the Mondays

WARNING - Long post. I have a lot to unload.

I won't say that today was the worst Monday I've ever had...I'm sure there was one somewhere in my past that was worse...but today was pretty bad.

To start things off, last week I got a sinus infection that floored me. My doc said it wasn't a necessarily bad infection, but that my body was seriously drained from how hard I have been pushing my workouts. He basically told me that I need to loose weight in order to really loose weight. This blows. I have been doing really well with the workouts. I've actually begun to enjoy my workouts (something that is very new for me). My doc suggested I focus more on the diet side of loosing weight and lighten up on the intensity (and preferrably frequency) of my workouts. Food is my weakness. Not so much so in the amounts of the food (I really don't eat that much during the day), as it is the quality of the food I do eat. He suggested I bump up on the veggies. Blah. But the thing that sucks most about it is that I've known I need to change the way I eat for a looooooooong time. I was hoping to avoid that change with serious workouts. Guess not. :(

I digress...because my body couldn't handle a little sinus infection, before this morning I hadn't been able to work out since last Tuesday. When I stepped on the scale this morning...I had lost a WHOPPING 0 (yes, that is ZERO) pounds. The only marked improvement at all was -1" on my chest. Whoopdie freakin doo. Strike one for today.

I decided to start working on pushups with the one hundred pushups plan. I actually made it through day one and maxed out at 5 (girly pushups for now). Although, I'm sure my form was all screwed up because my damn stomach is too f-ing big. Good lord, this sucks. Strike two.

I managed 17 sit-ups. Better than I thought, but a lot of the work came from my legs and neck instead of the abs, where they're supposed to. Oh well. Strike three.

By the time I finished some serious stretching and some weight training, I was exhausted, but felt good since it was the first time in almost a week I had worked out. Except that on my way to work I realized that what I had mistaken for soreness in my abs was the beginnings of an ulcer. It is a very familiar feeling, so I know this is what it is, and I'm not happy. Strike four.

When I got to work, my boss pissed me off more than I have ever been in the last year and a half that I've been working there. She is a micro-managing control freak, and normally it doesn't bother me, because I'm a little bit like that. I have put up with a lot without bitching about it, but DAMN I wanted to just leave today. Strikes five and six. (This counts as two because I really cannot describe how PISSED OFF I was and how badly it made my ulcer flare up.)

The only reason I didn't blow up at work was I only worked a half day. The fall semester started today. One class - easy, one class - okay, third class - really really really time consuming and tedious. On any other day it probably wouldn't have been so bad, but I had had enough already. Strike seven.

After dinner (of which I ate very little because my ulcer was killing me), I decided to fix my fantasy football league. I am the commissioner and we had our draft yesterday. It went alright, but I'm new to the site we're using, so I wasn't quite sure how to make the changes I needed to. I ended up having to just delete everything and start over. What should have taken 15 mins took me an hour. And I'm still not 100% sure it's all fixed. Strike eight for this spectacular Monday.

Now...I am feeling a migraine coming on. It's either becaue today was the day from hell or because of "girly" things. Either way...strike NINE.

I really hope my headache is gone when I get up in the morning...I really NEED a good workout.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Baby steps toward a HUGE goal

Over the past six weeks, my working out and losing weight has been going well. The problem is that, although I know in six weeks I've gone from 265 lbs to 249 lbs, I have not created any kind of "measuring stick." Since there are certain marks I'm going to have to hit in order to make it to OCS, and because I need to break my overwhelmingly huge goal into smaller pieces, I created a goal worksheet.

I started out seeing how long it will take me to reach the maximum weight standard for my height (64") of 141 lbs (Army Weight Tables) if I consistently loose 2 lbs per week. It looks like SO FRIGGIN FAR AWAY!!!!! Holy crap...over a year! (Oh well...I know it will be worth it!) Then I started with the best possible score for a female in the 27-31 age range (although 26 now, I'll be 27 when I put in my packet) for push-ups and sit-ups (APFT Standards) and worked backwards. (I figure if I'm going to be working HARD at this for a whole year, I should be able to max out. Also, I've never been one to just do what's necessary...100% is ALWAYS my goal!)

I really have no idea what to use as reasonable progressions for the tested areas, but just getting something on paper helps. I'm not going to stress if I don't hit these goals exactly every week, but it's a starting point. I will alter things as necessary. The most important goal to hit is the weight standard. If I can meet that, everything else will follow.

Also, I had to estimate my starting point on everything. I am going to test myself in the morning for a better idea.

When I have more time, I'll figure out how to upload it.

Well...here's to baby steps! Hopefully now that I can put my progress on paper I'll be able to push even more. That's kind of been my mantra this week. When the workout really starts to suck, I just tell myself...PUSH! PUSH! PUSH!

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Greetings to anyone out there in the world's largest dumping ground...

I seriously doubt anyone will actually read my crazy rantings, but the purpose of this blog is not so much to inform, as it is to unload. I'm not sure there's anyone in the world who wouldn't understand someone's need to unload.

So, just to give a foundation to future thoughts, now a little about me:

My name is Sarah. I am 26 years old. I am married and have one 4-year-old son. I am currently seeking my BBA in Accounting. My current job title is "Administrative Assistant," but as most of you know, that's a very broad title. I work for a small, privately-owned company and do a wide variety of tasks.

I have had a lot of good experiences, and a lot of not-so-good ones. I have a colorful background, which has left a lot of thoughts about life scrambling around in my head, and I always sort through things better when I can just write them down. So, here I am. I'm now officially a part of the "blogging" world...