Insanity week 2

I'm almost done with the second week of Insanity and I can tell a difference in my body already! My jeans are fitting better and I just feel better. I was telling a friend that I dread doing the workouts, feel like I'm going to die when I am doing it but afterwards I never regret doing it. Really, they arent that long, which is nice. That's one thing about Turbo Fire that is a good/bad thing. Sometimes the workouts are 15 minutes and others are 55, which makes it hard to find the right amount of time to do it. But these are around 40 minutes every time, and that is really really awesome!

So I'm on the "quarter break" or at least thats what they call it. So a few weeks ago I messaged my best friend, who I havent seen in a whole year (yeah life happens!) and we decided that my break would be a good time to visit because she has a kid and its hard for her to drive 6 hours with him in the car. And I dont blame her a bit. I'm in Jonesboro this "weekend" or at least until Saturday. I'm super excited. Last night we went to eat at a mexican restaurant and I had vegetarian fajitas! It was soooo good! This is the first time I've been able to eat fajitas since I started the vegetarian thing. There was way too much food. And last night was the first night that I havent woken up starving. So I think that the apple cider vinegar for my ulcer is working.

Today we are going to lunch with my old room mate Ben, and later tonight we are going to Zumba class that one of our friends from Arkansas State teaches. I hope she feels like doing it considering that I talked her (not very much though) into doing insanity with me. She said she liked it, but that it was hard.

So I have a crap load of pictures to show you from all the past three days of insanity. I did double up yesterday and do two days, thankfully one was the cardio recovery. Which was nice, but my legs are super sore from it.

     Day 9


      Day 10


  Day 11

  Day 12


Now we're up to date! I started writing this blog post this morning, but I got interrupted by the day and so I thought because today had gone so well I would just finish out the post.

So for lunch Mylie and I went to lunch at Panera Bread Co. I had part of a bread bowl with bean soup and a salad. It was excellent! Then we drove around town so I could see the changes that happened this past year. After that we walked around the mall. We found one of those crazy color coordinated accessory shops and played in there for about an hour.

I may not feel comfortable wearing clothes, but I DO love me some headbands! I think I tried most of them in the store on my head. It was super fun! Then we just walked around talked, and went to different stores. Those shoes are super tall and look like hooker shoes. Very sparkly. Not anything that I would ever wear! And some chick commented on them while I was trying them on and said they looked good! Ha! Too funny! 

Mylie had handbell practice tonight and couldnt go to the Zumba class our friend teaches. So I just went. After doing a morning of insanity. I looked at the bodybugg and I burned more calories doing Zumba than I did in insanity! I wonder if there are Zumba classes in Ruston... something to look into. It was a blast! And I totally felt the burn. I told her that I wished I lived up here so I could keep doing it with her! 

Ashleigh is adorable and has lost a ton of weight! She was already teeny but now she is even more teeny! I LOVE that I've been able to eat healthy and workout on this trip, because I was so scared that I wasnt going to be able to.

Maybe when I'm in Benton I can see if there are any Zumba classes going on there or even in Little Rock I loved it, it was so much more than the DVDs and the Wii game! I want to do it again.

All this exercising has given me a super amount of endorphins and I'm in a really good mood!

I also want to give a shout out to Hollie who I met at the class tonight! She said she wanted to read my blog which makes me happy. I dont know what her story is yet, but she looks fantastic and can Zumba with the best of them! Girl you rock and I'm glad to have met you!

No more classes

At least no more classes for the next 7 days. I'm super thrilled. I swear this quarter feels like it has been a million years. I'm ready to learn something new! I'm also more than ready for a break, one that doesnt mean I have to come back to the same thing.

I didn't work out this morning, but when I get home I'm going to eat some lunch and then this afternoon workout. I'm going to visit a friend for the next couple of days, and I'm scared I wont have a chance to do the insanity workouts. But I guess if I just tell her that I need to do it, then I will get it done. I'm also scared that going to visit someone that I wont have the kind of food available that I'm used to having and I'll eat horribly.  The last time I visited I didnt eat well at all.

So speaking of eating better, I just think I need to eat more vegetables. Lately all I've been eating is bean soup, mainly because I cooked a giant batch of it, but it gets really boring eating the same thing every meal!

Today I really just want a bag of chips and some ice cream to celebrate the end of school. I really dont want to workout. But I'm probably just going to have some bean soup and I'm going to exercise.

My stomach has been hurting a lot lately, and I think its the ulcer again. I have been waking up in the middle of the night with horrible stomach cramps. I feel like I need to eat. I ate something before bed, thinking that it would keep me from waking up again, but it didnt. I havent been drinking the apple cider vinegar, so I guess I need to keep going at it.

I think that this would probably be the time in the past that I would just fall off and stop working hard, when things get difficult I have a hard time following through. But I just cant quit. Despite the fact that I dont feel like anything is happening, my new (old) pants that I bought a while ago fit better, my old pants are big. I've lost 15 pounds. Its only been two months. Two months. I may have only lost one pound the past couple of weeks, but thats one pound of weight thats not on my body any more. I have a break coming up, and so I'm thinking that maybe instead of thinking of this as a time to laze about, I can go out and do something active with my free time.

Corey and I will both be back in town this weekend on Sunday (he is going to Huston with a friend) and maybe we can go climb a mountain or go on a hike if the weather is nice. I'm still going to do my insanity workouts, but maybe I can take the pup out and do something fun.

My mom sent me this in a text, and it just made me cry. Not because I'm sad, but because this is the end of weeks of stress and frustration. Maybe thats another reason I'm not losing weight, because I'm so stressed out. But really I'm sure its because I havent been eating right and exercising enough.

Yesterday I missed my workout because I was so incredibly tired and stressed out. I was thinking today as I watched The Biggest Loser, that maybe I can do two insanity workouts in one day. It would probably be a huge punishment and 100% hard and awful, but I've already decided that I'm going to try it. I mean the worst is that I wont be able to finish the workout. After I eat lunch I'm also going reactivate my bodybugg account. I've got the thing still, I just need to use it. Why not? Its only like 6 bucks a month, which is much cheaper than weight watchers, and they don't track your activity like the bodybugg does.

The End is in Sight

Two days until I can get the hell out of this town and go on spring break. I'm so ready for this quarter to be over with, there arent any words to convey how much I hate it right now. I'm just done.

I know I have been complaining a lot lately and I'm sorry about that. Its just that right now, things just suck! I would say that my first quarter in grad school was hard, but the second one was just as hard as the first, if not worse. But at least I knew what I coming.

I'm not losing weight. Not really I posted on Myfitnesspal that I had lost another pound, which I weighed on Saturday and I was down another one. But now why is it back up to 260 (4 pounds above where it was on Saturday)? Its just frustrating. I know my diet hasnt been that great this weekend. I mean we did workout, but we also ate out (cheaply!) and one time it was subway. I mean last week all I ate was bean soup and oatmeal. Some of my clothes are fitting better, but I'm not losing weight.

I have really given it some thought and I think that I may need to reactivate my bodybugg account. I dont like the calorie counter, but it is a lot more accurate when it comes to exercise than myfitnesspal because its right against your body. I hate wearing it though! Oh well. Something to think about because nothing is really working.  I didnt have time to exercise yesterday but I did on Saturday, and I just went ahead and called that the beginning of my new week. To be honest, mostly I just feel lucky at this point if I can fit any exercise in my day at all. I am running out of hours in the day to get things done. I'm hoping that I can do it this afternoon when I get out of class. I can do it, and still have time to be able to take a shower and get ready for my committee meeting tonight. Maybe. I just didnt get in bed last night in enough time to get up at 5:30.

Maybe I just need to totally rework what I eat in a day. *sigh* I thought I did that already, but maybe I'm still not eating the right things.

These are the 8 day pictures. I look pretty rough, but I felt that way too. It was hard to make it though and I was sweating buckets at the end. 

This is a picture of a cake I made this weekend. Today I'm going to toss it because I just dont want another piece of it. I made two, one to throw on the ground, and another to "pretend" to eat, which I had two pieces of last night. So as yummy as it is, its going to have to go. Because I cant afford to eat any more of this stuff! Which may be why I'm not losing weight, but I dont eat like this every day.

Insanity has ensued!

So the last time I posted was Monday, which seems like a year ago at this point! I told you about all the things I had to do and how crazy my schedule was trying to make up for the fact that I farted away my weekend...

I'm going to just start where I left off and tell you about the past three days.

Monday:
Monday night went like I thought it would. I worked on and pretty much finished my paper, started on the presentation, then edited photos during The Biggest Loser and after it was over I went to the school to print the photos. Well when I got there my favorite printer was taken so I took another one, but the one I took the color was clogged in the blue ink so I had to clean it and then it ran out of ink, when I finished the colors werent quite what I wanted, but then the guy on my fave printer moved! So I switched to that and then one of the filters went out on it, so I had to replace that! *sigh* So finally I got going and printed them and worked on my presentation more and then I left and tried to go to bed.

Tuesday:
Tuesday I was super tired, I couldnt get to sleep right away and I woke up around 2 and my stomach was in a horrible amount of pain! It was hungry so I went downstairs and got some saltine crackers and ate a few then when back to sleep. So when the alarm went off at 5:30 for me to wake up to workout I reset it for an hour later because I was still exhausted. I know I have to get sleep to lose weight but I go to bed at 10:45 and am usually asleep by 11. Thats the best I can do really, I could try to go to bed earlier, but sometimes I dont get home until 10 at night!

Anyway, so I got up at 6:30, did my normal schedule for the morning and got to work, where I put the finishing touches on my paper and presentation that I had finished Monday night. But I also had to think of a photograph to recreate because my prof wanted us to recreate a photograph from our book. I looked through the book and found one by Meatyard it wouldnt be bad to recreate, but I looked at it an where would I find masks in the middle of February? So that was just one of the extra things that I needed to do. My list was slowly mounting, finish paper, finish presentation, practice presentation, do insanity, make masks, get chalk for the numbers, buy deodorant!

So I was going to run home at lunch and scan the last pictures I needed into my computer at lunch, but one of my friends asked me if I wanted to go eat lunch with her an my professor Frank. I usually dont turn this kind of thing down because you get to know your friends and professors better, so I said yes. And we went to lunch and I got them to swing by my house so I could pick up the pictures I printed the night before, because I had thought I would be going home so I left them there. 

When I got back to school someone said something to me about us having the closing reception for the gallery show that night because the opening had been snowed (see No snow Snow Day post to read more about that) out and they wanted to do something for the gallery and I work the receptions. Thats my job, I put out the food, and then clean it all up in the end. I had to stay at the school from 5-7 because I had to work there. Which was 2 hours that I NEEDED to work and do things. I did get my paper finished and I had planned to do insanity when I got home. I got one of my friends to clean up for me and I ran home because I had run out of deodorant and I needed more printer ink for my printer at home and I still needed to scan in those pictures. 

I went to walmart and they were out of my deodorant AND the printer ink. I was just going to buy a new printer, but I thought that would be really wasteful so I didnt bother with it and on my way to the school to find a printer to print my presentation and paper I stopped at walgreens and got some deodorant.

So let me make this clear... this was only Tuesday!!

I got to the school and found a printer that would work and then hung around so my friend MC and I could practice going through our presentations in the class, and to see if either of them needed to be tweaked.

After that I FINALLY got home, and it was 10, there was no time to do insanity. I hadnt even had dinner, so I gobbled up some soup, let the dog run around the house (did I mention that he barfed on the pillow right next to me on the couch so I had to clean that up...?) and then we went to bed. But not before I just found the pictures I needed on the internet rather than scanning them in!

Wednesday: D-day

Day 6!

I usually get up at 5:30, but Wednesday is my day off from work, so I got up at 6:30 and even though it was my day off, I really needed to work, so I did insanity, ate breakfast and tried to read the rest of my photography chapter for the quiz we always have before history of photo (I had read a little of it Tuesday morning). I gave myself an hour to workout, an hour to read, an hour to make masks for my photograph, an hour to get ready and take a shower and eat a really early lunch, and an hour to make the tweaks I needed for the presentation because instead of having to be in class at 2 I had to go judge a art show at 11:30, then I was going to go to the school print everything off again and put my presentation on my prof's computer and be ready for class. And thankfully that's how it all went. 

Right up until I had to transfer my powerpoint to my flash drive from my laptop... it stopped working. It wouldnt move, it wouldnt open and I freaked out. I ran downstairs to my professor's office and asked him to fix it. He turned off my computer, and it worked... 

So we had the quiz, which I missed 2-3 questions because I was only able to read half the chapter because of time. We did presentations, and I was third, so thankfully I got to go yesterday and not on Monday which is the same day as our final. Then we did our picture recreations.

The original is top, mine is bottom, I think we did pretty good because he was going through them super fast and as soon as I got the numbers up, it started to sprinkle so we ran and got Frank (the professor) and we all sat there and I didnt have the photo with me because we were trying to get it done so fast and this is what we got, which is okay! Not bad for a recreation I would say!

Then we went out and drank margaritas. Yes thats how my day ended. Margaritas, beer, wine, darts and then I went to bed at 12. 

Yeah, at this point I was pretty drunk

So again I was so dang tired from the day before that I didnt workout, but I think at this point I need some rest or I'll kill myself. I slept till 6:45 and took a quick shower, quick breakfast, let the dog run around and took him outside, then I went to work.

I have some things I have to do this weekend, like study for my final, and get ready for my committee meeting on Monday, but then I'm good. Corey is coming this weekend! Sadly today is my long day so I wont have time to workout. And I have to do a video for monday and edit it. I'm just happy that all this mess is over with. It feels like a big weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

5 days of Insanity

*sigh*

Where to start. I am just feeling down today. For a number of reasons, which I will talk about.

This weekend we got the results for the Student Show, which is basically a gallery show that students at Tech submit art to, and its juried so someone picks work to go into it. I saw all day yesterday people on Facebook so excited about making the show, and I didnt get in. Everyone kept saying they got 2 pieces in the show. I know there is always next year, but its just frustrating. I dont feel like my work is very good right now, but still, it sucks to have someone confirm that.

I also feel like I wasted my weekend, I knew I had a lot of work to do, but did I do it? No. And now am I having to bust my proverbial balls to get it finished? Yes. Why do I procrastinate like this!? Its so frustrating! I should have worked on pictures this weekend as well as finished a paper and presentation and read a chapter of my history book and cooked dinner for this week. All I got done was a teeny bit of the presentation/paper, read part of the history book and cooked dinner. At least I did workout every day but yesterday. I should have done day 4, but it was a stretch day so I didnt do it. I now feel like I should do it tonight to make up for missing it, but I just dont have enough time.

My plan is to read the rest of my history chapter at lunch today, work on my paper right when I get out of class this afternoon right up until The Biggest Loser, then I'll work on my photos during the biggest loser and after thats over I'll go to the school to print them. Then I can go home and either work on my paper more, or depending on the time, go to bed. I have to get to bed at 11 to get enough rest to wake up at 5:30 to workout.

Tomorrow morning I have to work, but I plan (unless my boss has something for me to do) to work on my paper/presentation and finish it tomorrow night after I get out of class.

Also I gained a pound. I dont really have the heart to put it on Myfitnesspal, so its just going to stay at 15 pounds. Maybe it'll change tomorrow, I dont know. I do think my shirts are fitting better, so maybe I'm losing inches, who knows. I know that last week I didnt eat as well as I should, so I should be lucky that I didnt gain more than a pound. We'll see what the scale says tomorrow.

---

Now on to how Insanity is going. Like I said I didnt workout yesterday. I should have done the stretch workout, but I didnt. It was nice to give my aching muscles a day off. Wednesday is my break day and I might just do it then. That way I dont feel so guilty about skipping it completely.

Because of the workouts, all I wanted to do was sit on the couch and not move, which I know isnt good for sore muscles, but I was that sore. On Saturday after my workout I drank a ton of water to help with soreness and because I think I'm not getting enough water.

Today was called Pure Cardio, which has a long warm up, which you do 3 times, each time progressively faster and harder, then a stretch and then 20 minutes of the "real" exercising. Its hard. By the stretch, which is maybe 10 minutes in, I was dripping sweat off my face which hasnt happened so far. Bleh! It was dripping down my nose!

This is how I felt right after the workout and during!

I'm worried that I'm going to hurt myself. I'm much heavier than the people in the videos. I cant do all the jumping about and such because I dont want to hurt my knees. So I try to do as much low impact as I can. I know as I lose weight that it will be easier on my body to do all the hopping around. It just makes me angry that I cant do everything.

I know this morning I was thinking of everything I could to get out of doing the workout. Yesterday a can of condensed milk fell on my big toe, and its bruised so badly that its just red and hurts horribly. I'm sure it will turn black and blue later, but right now its red. I really didnt want to do it because of my toe, but I put my shoe on with thicker socks, and just did it anyway. That sounds like a seriously pitiful excuse to me.

I thought that doing the number of fingers for the day was a cool idea, too bad I didnt start on the first day! Not sure what I'll do after 5, because I hold the camera with my other hand. I'll figure it out. 

Day of Insanity 2

I often wonder with the blog that two people read, how much is over sharing. Do I tell you that one of my main complaints with working out is that the inside of my thighs chafe and feel horrible, or do I not bother because that might gross someone out?

Do I tell you that my crotch is still sore from biking this past weekend? Or that my inner thighs are super sore from Insanity yesterday and that it hurts to move and I think I waddle when I walk?

All these things might be over share but they are also true! I figure if you didnt want to read this stuff, you wouldn't bother coming back. So I'm just going to tell you about my chafing, crotch and my waddle. :)

Yesterday was really fun. We did tintypes for my photography class. If you dont know what that is, google it, because the short description I'm going to give you wont do it justice. Its an alternative photo process, we used a 4x5 (one of those old cameras that you have to put the black drape over your head to see through the camera) camera to take the pictures and we coat a 4x5 piece of metal (tin) with collodian, which makes the silver nitrate stick (thats the stuff that reacts to light and makes a picture show up), then we put it in a film holder, take it outside and set up the shot and expose it. Bring it back in, and put the chemicals on to expose the image, and then wash them off, and voila! an image will show up! Its really about the process, I dont think we are really all that creative, but its super fun to get to do such an old timie process. They used to call this the poor man's daguerreotype, which was the first type of photography.

I took this one, but the exposure and the developing were off!

Frank, my professor took this one of all of us

I did this one!

Jaime took this!

These next three are pictures of what it looked like taking the last tintype

Jaime setting up the camera

close up of the camera, that is Frank, our professor covered in weeds

Sorry to inundate you with pictures of my photo class! It was just too fun not to share!

---

On to today, so today I had to go to my seminar class, thankfully, it was at 9 at my professor's place! It was a potluck and we all brought food. I brought fruit salad, and croissants. I had a croissant before I left. When I got there, I had some of the fruit salad and a donut (yes I know, bad rachel!). It wasnt really as good as I thought it would be, the donut not the salad. The salad was amazing. I make great fruit salad! Fresh strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and a nectarine! With a little bit of honey, lemon juice and rum. Best fruit salad ever.

After that I went home, ate lunch and then had to go back to the school, not for work, but to help take down our MFA show and patch the walls. So I did that and came back home. It didnt take nearly as long as I thought, I thought at least a couple of hours, but I was there like half an hour at the most. So I got back home and read and took a nap. I was going to wait a couple of hours for lunch to settle before I did Insanity. I dont need no throwing up because my stomach is full. Bleh!

After all that I FINALLY got around to exercising, at around 4. Today was a cardio day. I watched the workout last night hoping that it would help me today, all it did was intimidate me. This aint no joke! I knew it would be hard. I knew I would have a hard time finishing it. Basically today was broken into 2 20 minute segments, with a warmup, a stretch in the middle and a cool down. The harder stuff was at the end, which was a lot of pushups and weird running things on the ground. They were going hard in the movie, but I just had to talk myself into doing a couple at a time because 1. I wasnt used to it, and 2. I didnt want to hurt myself and 3. I was so out of breath.

I did finish it, not very strongly, but I suffered through it. I figure I didnt die, and so I will do tomorrow's workout because I said I would. Plus I'm going to take pictures of my sweat everyday to share with you.

Lovely right? More like disgusting! Not the way I look, but that I look really tired. That's because I was. I dont know how many calories I burned, but it was a good and really hard workout. My back was much more sweaty, thankfully that's hard to take a picture of. I dont look like I was sweating a lot, but I assure you, it was dripping down my face. 

I have to workout this weekend! That bites, but I figure the more I exercise the fitter I get and the easier I will be able to do these things. I also need to drink more water. I know I havent been lately, and it will help with the soreness! I'm hoping tomorrow I dont wake up feeling like death from a creaking body!

Insanity Day 1

Yes as the title suggests I have gone insane, and this is the first day.

But really before I left Benton Corey and I talked in passing about doing Insanity and I asked him that if I started it, if he would too. Bigger people than us do it all the time, hell, the people on the biggest loser are bigger than us, and they do crazy workouts every day. So I dont see why I cant at least try this, and modify where needed, because I sure wont be able to do these things full out.

If you havent ever heard of Insanity, its a 60 day program where it does muscle confusion, you switch up workouts every week or two weeks (not totally sure) so you body never gets used to the workout and you continue to lose weight/ tone/ build muscle. The first day is a fit test, 25 minutes with a warmup and a cooldown and its just different exercises, you do each one for 1 minute, and then you record your results. I'm not kidding when I say its hard.

I started out okay, the warm up has you doing jumping jacks, and I was like "I can do this!" and then he got into the real test. I didnt bring my results with me to work, but I have to do this test again in two weeks, so when there is an improvement I'll be sure to record them here! I dont even remember the name of all the exercises he had me do!



Afterwards I was pumped but shaky and jittery, it felt like I had had a bunch of tea or coffee, but I knew eventually I would crash and feel really tired. I didnt leave Benton until 8ish last night and so I got back a little before 10, and had to do laundry (ran out of wearable clean clothes) and so I didnt get to sleep until a little after 12. Tonight I work late, but I have food already that I brought, and I have worked out, so I should be okay! Maybe I can get to bed earlier tonight, thats my goal anyway.

I havent exactly been eating 100% great, I cant eat as much as I used to, so that helps a lot. However, yesterday for lunch I had Indian food with Corey (it totally made me have to go to the bathroom so it cleaned me out!) and then for dinner before I left we had Mexican. All of it was vegetarian, because I am still doing that. I can now honestly say that I dont miss meat (well most of the time anyway). I sure dont want to eat it!

Today is Valentines day, which is cool! Corey and I did our celebrations this past weekend, so I'm very happy with that. Mary, the dean's assistant brought Vday cupcakes for the office, so I had one, really half of one. I wasnt very hungry when I got dont working out, probably because I was so tired, and I wasnt thinking about it. I packed some cereal and also some yogurt for breakfast at the office, and I was noshing on the cereal when she told me to take one, so I did, but it was sweet! Super adorable, but sweet. Maybe I just cant eat sweet like I used to, I dont know, but I couldnt finish it. I didnt really feel guilty eating it, because I knew I would record the calories for it in Myfitnesspal.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Beautiful Sunday

I had told you that Corey and I were going to get a bike for him (somehow) and go and ride on Saturday. Well, Satruday came and the warmest it got was around 46 and it was cloudy and rainy all day plus I wasnt feeling well enough to go riding around in such cold weather, so we just went out for dinner and nixed the idea of the bikes. Needless to say, I was really dissapointed but it just wasnt a good day for it.

I'm still not at 100% yet, which is 100% frustrating. I'm just ready to be over this! I'm currently at the coughing-up-nasty-stuff stage. I'm not coughing because my throat tickles or hurts, but because somthing needs to get out. Waking up in the morning is the worst because its all kinda disgusting!

Yesterday was beautiful. I woke up around 6 and took the dogs out, because if you get up in the morning and just look at them, they have to go out and you cant ignore them. I ate breakfast because my stomach was full of snot and was protesting all that ickyness. Then it started to storm and I went back to sleep! I woke up (for the second time!) and it was 50 something, partly sunny, and beautiful! When Corey got up, I told him that we needed to do our biking today because it was so gorgeous outside!

We got all our stuff together, and went to Target to get some sunglasses, water, and a tire pump, because my brother Phillip said that if I wanted to borrow his bike, that I would need a tire pump. So we picked all that up and headed over to his apartment. He was super nice to let us borrow his mountian bike. Originally Corey was going to take Phillip's bike and I would be on mine, but Phillip is a lot shorter than Corey (just few inches taller than me) and so his bike didnt really fit Corey. So I rode Phillip's bike and Corey was on mine, because the frame of mine is a lot taller, and I have the seat adjusted to be really tall. We got the bike, and the pump didnt work, it was a POS! So we decided to return it later, and used my teeny hand pump to pump the tires.

 

Finally, we got both bikes strapped into my bike rack and we were off to Little Rock to bike! Poor Corey hadnt biked in years, but I think he still had fun. It was a beautiful day, and there were loads of people out at the same time we were, guess we all had the same idea! Dont want to waste a beautiful day! So we had to dodge a lot of walkers, and runners, and other bikes had to go around us, because we werent going very fast.

This about sums us up, me happy and Corey suffering through pictures!

The problem with Phillip's bike (and there were several) was that it was still a little low for where I like to bike, so I didnt have the leverage that I'm used to on my bike to pedal fast. Another, was that my seat is made for a girl's butt! I got it especially for a girl because (and you dont have to read this part if you dont want to) it hurt my girly parts to ride for a long time! I got rid of the seat that came with my bike and replaced it with a memory foam seat with a hole cut out of the middle! haha! Needless to say Phillip's bike did not have this handy seat! Oh, and the last thing was that I think the ballence is off on his bike because it felt really bouncy and not smooth, so I'm not sure what that means, but it was like riding a horse!

Corey leaving me in the dust on my own bike!

We biked for almost an hour and forty minutes! We went 9 miles and it was great fun! Afterwards we were both starving, so we went to Big Orange for dinner (forgot to take a pic of it because we were so hungry!) they are a burger place, but they have vegetarian options, which I love! I had a falafel and lintel burger with saracha, taziki sauce, cucumber and fries (dont judge they were truffle oil fries SO GOOD!) Corey had some big burger with meat, and bacon and cheese, looked kinda gross, but we split the fries, and I couldnt finish my burger!

 

After dinner we wanted dessert, but we werent hungry at all. Period! So we decided to drop the bikes off in Benton, and then go back to Little Rock (its 15 minutes away, so not far at all) and find something sweet, hey, its our Valentines day! That's exactly what we did, dropped my bike off at the house, and then Phillip's off with him and were back on the road, and much less full by this point. We went to Cantina Laredo and I had a mexican apple pie and he had a mexican brownie. My pie is a piece of apple pie on a hot plate (like fajitas) and they pour this rum butter all over it, and its topped with cinnamon icecream! Corey's was the same, except with a brownie and vanilla icecream! So worth the cheat!

Also, I thought I would share that the puppy got a hair cut this weekend! Poor little guy was all matted up! He really needed some TLC, and they charged me for it! But he doesnt have any more mattes and is looking adorable! When he gets a hair cut all I see are legs and neck! He has long legs for such a little guy!

Axel, sleeping in my mom's lap! I think he gets cold easily now!

 

 

I weighed today, but I dont know if mom's scale and mine are the same so I'm going to wait to get back to Ruston to weigh for the week. It's my old scale, and it was on the fritz when I got the new one that I took with me to Ruston, so I'll just wait to record my weight!

What's Eating You?

I'm feeling better, not tons better, but some better. I've been sick for a whole 5 days now. Which consists of my whole school week. I missed two days of class, which sucks. But I'm on the mend, and thats what matters.

Last night was the Art Crawl in downtown Monroe. One of my classmates has a gallery/studio there and so every time there is a Crawl, she shows artwork for one night in her gallery. I showed up to work, and because I couldnt talk my boss sent me home. (So I went back to the house and went back to sleep. Yeah, sleep. I sleep better on my couch than I have at night. Last night all I did was swallow and cough up nastiness. I'm just ready to be well!) When I got up around 11, emailed my friend (who owns the gallery) and asked what we were doing for class. She said that we were going to help her getting the gallery ready for the Crawl. She said I didnt have to be there, but I was ready to get out of the house and do something other than lay around. 

I met one of my other class mates (the only other class mate!) and she drove us to Monroe. We got there about 2, and for the next 3 hours got the gallery ready to go. I mostly just sat and made signs and cards for the artwork. Which was fine with me. By the time the artist had given her talk, and the Crawl had really started going, I was way too tired to go see the other galleries. So we headed home and I laid back down on the couch! It was a long day, and I felt like maybe I pushed a little too hard yesterday. I sure didnt sleep well.

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Sometimes when I'm just walking around the house or doing something, I'm struck with ideas for this blog! My idea came today from the fact that I'm sick of eating! If I could get away right now with not eating anything I would. Last night because I got home and didnt feel like doing anything I ordered a cheese pizza, I had a couple of pieces, but the smell of it made me sick to my stomach. And at lunch, I was going to have a bocca burger, but it smelled too much like real meat when I heated it up, and I couldnt eat it. Maybe because I've been so tired, I havent much felt like cooking, and so I'm just tired of eating. 

Today for lunch I had hummus, carrots and then my raspberry smoothie (it has flax seeds, raspberries, almond butter, water and spinach) because I just didnt feel like eating anything, much less cooking! If I didnt get hungry I wouldnt eat.

Speaking of eating, it will be interesting to see what this weekend is going to be like, because of the Mardi Gras break I have Monday-Wednesday off, and I'm super excited about it. And I'm going home! We are going to do Valentines day this weekend rather than next weekend, because of me having so many days off in a row. Every year we trade off on Valentines day and our anniversary. But the annoying thing is that whoever did the anniversary last, has to do Valentines next, so you have to figure out two things in a row. So I did the anniversary and now I'm doing V-day. I want to do something fun. I dont want to go out to eat and get all dressed up. I wish we both had bikes, because we could go on this cool biking trail I found and have lunch out there. That would be fun. But, no such luck! Maybe I can rent a bike. That would be cool. I have a bike rack on my car that I left at my moms... Hmmmmm.... Well I hope Corey doesnt read this before Saturday!

I just want to do something active! No sitting around eating and getting fatter. Plus we havent done anything like this before. I know I can ride a bike, it would suck if he couldn't! But I'm pretty sure that he can. I just looked up a place to rent a bike, and its not that expensive! This should be fun. Now I'm excited about it. I just hope I feel up to it, and the weather holds out!

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So here is an old picture of me from December, and one of me today, on a side note, can you tell a difference yet? Thought I would include some kind of picture in my blog today!

I included the dog because I didnt have another picture to put in there! Hahahaha!

Sick sick sick

I despise being sick. I feel like my body has betrayed me. Monday morning I started coughing, by Monday night I had a fever and was achy, Tuesday I called into work. I tried to go to class, but made it about 30 minutes in before they told me to go home, and that they would tell Marie (the graduate coordinator) that I was really sick. I spent the rest of the day on the couch napping and feeling like total shit.

So now I'm not better, but I dont feel like I'm going to die. I'm going to go to class today because I cant stand missing it, plus I need to go to the graduate reviews (which is what I missed last night, and why they had to tell Marie I was ill). So I still have a fever, but not as bad, and I think with some ibuprofen I should be able to get through all of it.

I'm just ready for this week to be over with. I'm so dang tired. Thankfully I am off for the next couple of days because of Mardi Gras. Mainly Monday-Wednesday. So thats cool! Then all I have is the rest of the month to get through and I'll be done with the Winter Quarter. I signed up for classes on Monday and I'm taking three, which doesnt sound like a lot, but it is. Two classes I think means you'll be crazy busy as a grad student. I'm taking History of Communication Design, Conceptual Theory and Grad Seminar. So yeah, busy busy busy!

I am not having any further pain from the ulcer, which is great. I was drinking peppermint tea when I first got this sickness, and about 3-4 hours later I would wind up feeling like I was going to puke, and then I would run to the bathroom, fart and be sick. Yeah TMI, but I stopped drinking it after that. It only happened when I drank the tea.

I'm ready to be able to workout again, I havent all week because I have felt so awful. I'm not on a strict I have to do this even when I'm sick schedule, sometimes our bodies need to rest, and I think one of the reasons I got sick, is that I havent been giving myself the rest I need. Trying to fit everything into the day is so hard, but I havent been sleeping nearly enough and thats just not good for the body. When I get well, I'm going to have to rethink how I need to work through my schedule. Getting up at 5 to work out when I went to bed at 12 may not be the right thing to do. 

A Good Weekend

This weekend was great, well mostly. Corey came down, which was wonderful. I hate when he leaves! But that's how it goes. We had planned to watch the "Big Game" or Super Bowl or whatever you want to call it. And so, because both of us are trying to lose weight, we didnt want a lot of unhealthy food. So I decided to just cook dinner, and we could eat that, and then around halftime have a snack food, or dessert or something.

That was the plan, we got the stuff for tacos, I had bean, he had turkey. And we did tostadas and I did my low fat cheesecake, because we both love cheesecake! Well we had all the food ready to go and I was going to turn on the TV and then take the dog out. I dont have cable, because its expensive, so we have a digital signal, but with bunny ears. I turned on the TV and I couldnt get the channel!!! Talk about frustrating! We tried moving them, nothing worked. Finally Corey just set up his laptop and got it on the internet, and so we (he) hooked up the computer to the TV and we watched it on the big screen. The only problem was, we didnt get the good commercials, we had to choose them. Overall I would say that I didnt over eat, I only had one piece of cheesecake and it all went well when we finally figured out how to fix the TV.

The only other real problem with this weekend is that every time I eat, my stomach cramps and hurts so badly I want to cry. I talked to my mom, and then looked up ulcer symptoms online, and it sounded exactly what is wrong with me. I really really dont want to go to the doctor, so I looked up natural remedies and it said to drink 2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar, cyanne pepper, and glutamine with every meal. I started Saturday and I can only drink 1 tbsp of ACV in about 1/2 a cup of water and I have to shoot it because I cant draw it out. But the other two are pills, so thats better. I can tell a HUGE difference now. I can eat and not feel like I'm going to die, throw up, or curl into a ball and cry. Not sure how I did this to myself, but its not cool! I'm hoping that if I keep taking this, that it will go away.

This week is going to be crazy, and I'm hoping that I will be able to fit everything in, like exercise! Tonight I work for a friend from 8-12 because she is working for me on Thursday so I can go to the Art Crawl in Monroe. Tuesday and Wednesday we have 2nd year grad reviews, and they will take a while to get through. Thursday is the art crawl and Friday I'm going home. I'm ready for the weekend!