A Month in Review

Time flies doesn't it!

Highlights:
Trip to Norway
Finishing 3 audio books
A lot of gym time
Many changes to our plans

Norway - We went to Tromso Norway for a week to chase the Northern Lights. Wonderful opportunites and we were very lucky to see the lights. I'm stilll editing the pictures but links will be posted soon.

Gym Time - Within the last month I finally received a TENS Unit. It is a device that sends little electic shocks that disrupt nerve communication. For me it stops pain messages and allows me to be much more active. Thank goodness. There are pros and cans but I am happy for the technology.

Plans - As you may know, January DH was offered a transfer to New Jersey. No, not Snooki's territory, the pretty part. We dedabted and have decided to take the transfer! Preparing for the transfer has been, and will continue to be an adventure. It's a really good thing Heavenly Father is the one leading the way.

An Update

Quick Review -
Emotional - have not done journaling, need to
Mental - I was able to practice Italian in Norway but have not done so since
Physical - Gone to the gym twice already this week
Social - Joined a writer's group, found a workout buddy and called several family members
Spirtual - Reading scriptures is going well, need to beef up service

SO all in all still a work in progress. :)

Get Back to Where I Want to belong

An ongoing battle for me is consistency. Knowing me, you know this. Reading my blog, you know this. The question is what am I going to do about it? 

Break it down into smaller sections and try to work on it in small ways. I've broken life down into a five different sections into which just about everything can fall. Not in order they are: Emotional, Mental, Physical Social and Spiritual.

I'm working on a simple consistency goal(s) for each of them. Now it's time for the scary part, telling you what they are and updating you on how things progress. 

Emotional - Journaling at least twice a week. 

Mental - Study and practice italian. 2 hours each week.   

Physical - Get at least 5000 steps in a day. One hour of moderate activity five days a week. Also when accessible, go to gym 5 times a week, focusing on strength training.   

Social - I am very much a people person but it is so much easier for me to stay in my shell! My goal is to seek out social opportunities and use them. This could be calling, talking, skyping with friends or family. Getting to know new people or going to group activities. 

Spiritual - Keep reading scriptures everyday. Temple attendance or service once a week. 

 

Looking at these goals I am daunted. I just have to remember to get the big things in first. As life in the next 6 months is going to be full of changes, consistency is going to be an increasingly uphill battle. 

Time to get moving!  

Rough Day

So I trying this blog again. For me to keep a record. We'll see how it goes.

Today was a rough day. Yeah I know, I have sooo much to complain about.

Depression and pain reared their ugly heads fiercely today. I lost the battle most of the day. When I did make it to the gym, the first hour and a half seemed to go very well. Suddenly, I had intense double over and cry kind of pain. Hoping it would pass, I did my best to relax and tried assuage the pain. Didn't work so well. It was so bad I texted my husband saying he would need to come pick me up from the gym.

Eventually the pain calmed down and I was able to drive home. Ibuprofen and a nice Epsom salt soak helped. On a side note, the Bath and Body Works aromatherapy Warm Milk and Honey scent is nice and relaxing. It has a citrus like note to it too.

Time to prepare for tomorrow.

Chi Vuole Cotto, Chi Vuole Crudo

It basically means to each their own.

I was reading an article about one woman's views on what she is happy to pay full price for. I agreed with some of her points. Then, with others, I would think I would never spend the extra money on that. e.g. designer handbag. It got me thinking because everyone has a different set of acceptable splurges. Here are a few of mine -


Athletic shoes - Quality is important and if you take care of your feet, they'll take care of you. Not just any pricey pair is going to do the trick. A person needs to understand how they run/walk and what their needs are. This guide is a good starting point.




Wardrobe Staples - Sensible shoes, pant suit, slacks, jeans, etc. These need to fit well, and be of good quality. Not to sale that these can't or shouldn't be bought on sale or on clearance, just stick with quality.

It's easy to change things up with an inexpensive tops or accessories. Personally, Burlington Coat Factory, Target, JC Penny's and Goodwill have been great places to find fillers.
Bras are another thing worth the price. Again, I try to wait for sales, but women just need good bras. I think if a woman is a C cup or above the cheap bras sadly just don't cut it.




Insurance/Safety - Car, home, health, dental, renter's, etc. After my experiences NEVER skimp on insurance. There are many types of insurance and what each person needs depends on their life situation. It's so important to evaluate and make sure there is enough coverage AND it's being used. If you're not using your flex spending, why have it? Which leads to another problem of having too much insurance. It's all about looking at individual situations and figuring out what's best. Agents can help and there are many articles online to read as well.
Safety is huge! Not everything can be prevented but let's do what we can. It's worth it to invest in a good helmet, reflectors, hydration method, and gloves if someone is getting series about cycling. It doesn't guarantee anything but it does reduce risks.



Home/Personal Care - 
Good Vacuum - clean floors, keeps carpets in better conditions, so many reasons
Razors - it's just not worth the nicks, and I've learned the men's razors are so much better than women's
DO - Yes we all need some DO for our BO. It's important to buy what works for a person.

Soaps - Some soaps. This is all relative. We buy the inexpensive hand soap that works well. I also learned to make homemade liquid laundry soap that is super cheap and works really well. Though I've found that some lower cost body soaps don't do as well.


These are some of my thoughts. What about you?? I'm so curious.

Please post on what's important to you and why - even if you disagree with me.

Circuits, treadmills and weights, Oh my!!!

Working part time has meant an increase in my gym time! When my work ends, I have a few hours before I can pick up Hubby. I could goof around but mostly I end up at a branch of my gym down the street from work.

It’s given me more time to work out - at my body’s pace. Even now I can’t say my pace because I don’t want to own it. (I can’t/don’t to admit to being that slow and weak!)

To stave off boredom, I've found/developed different circuit and weight routines online. Another must is switching machines. (As much as I love the sliptical.) I tried having a 'rule' that I couldn't use the same cardio machine two days in a row. The unraveling of this rule came from only having three options: treadmill, elipitical and recline bike. I settled into a pattern very quickly, which isn't good for my cardio workouts right now.

I'm back to the drawing board for cardio workout 'rules'. Have any good ones you care to share?

It’s an uphill path but I am happy to say I can say, I feel I am making some very, very small bits of progress. I can use the machines for a little bit longer and on some weight lifting exercises I can do another set.

It feels like I spend a large part of my day at the gym but it will be worth the effort.

At least that's what I'm hoping for.

En-ie min-ie mine-ie mo, to which gym shall we go?

New place is GREAT. It doesn’t come with a gym room, so we had to search for somewhere else to work out.

Yes, I did try the work out at home. It doesn’t work for me. One video yes that’s fine but to really get the workout I need, I need the social atmosphere and pressure. My hubby would be just fine working out at home but is being encouraging by coming to the gym with me after work.

There was a lengthy search and comparison of local gyms. Here’s a few of the options we found.

Option A – 45 $ a month per person year long contract

Pros - Shiny new facility, lap pool, classes, racquet ball courts, decent amount of weights and cardio, clean locker rooms, kind of close to home and even has a Jacuzzi.

Cons – 90 $ a month on the gym, are you kidding me!? Oh and you’re not going to waive the pricey start up fees?!

Plus they didn’t have personal tvs on each cardio machine. Not required just nice. Lets take a look around. Hmmm most of the people, I mean almost all men, doing weights look like they live there or were juicing.

Option B – 10 $ a month no start up fee month to month

Really cheap, only ten dollars a month. Now we know for only ten dollars a month we would not be getting all the extras but that's fine, we don't need racquet ball courts or jacuzzis.

Online it looked like it had everything we needed. The real world experience was made me want to take a shower. The stale smell of gym socks and latent sweat assaulted us when we walked in the ‘gym’.

It was a converted warehouse which lacked ventilation and had a women’s locker room straight from a creepy slasher movie. The machines were old and in disrepair. We got out of there as fast as we could because it was clear that was not the gym for us.

Option C – 20 $ a month, 30 $ start up fee, yr long contract, 40 $ yearly fee

Pros – 1 person can by the pass and always bring a guest, in fact the gym encourages it. Use of multiple gyms. One is on the way home for us, another is down the street from my work. Personal TV’s on cardio machines. Clean gyms and locker rooms.

Cons – No classes, year long contract, yearly maintenance fee and no pool.

Option D – 10 or 15 $ each, yr long contract, 30 $ start up fee

An ok gym with 2 branches. It had classes but they wouldn’t work with our schedule or we would have to pay even more for them. It had personal TV’s but wasn’t well ventilated, had below par locker rooms, no pool and was out of our way on the way home. It was pretty cheap but overall not worth it.

In the end we went with Option C. I can work out after work because I work part time and we stop into the gym right on our way home. Also the gym by my work was waiving the start up fee, so we saved 30 dollars. We’ve had the membership for almost three weeks and we’re happy with our choice. It’s been worth our money and time.

Thrifting

As we are increasing our workouts, we need more workout clothes. The thing is, I’m picky about my pants. The ones I like are usually around 20 dollars at Costco and much more anywhere else.

I’d like to have a set of workout clothes for Mon – Fri to make the work week less stress full. Adding laundry to an already Wednesday, yeah I’d like to avoid that.

Anyway, the cost of getting all new work out clothes was too much for this penny pincher. Lucky for me there is a Goodwill store near work and a few college campuses.

I was able to find 4 pairs of work out pants that I like plus a new work out T shirt for the cost of buying one pair of new work out pants. All my new workout pants are in great condition and now I have enough to get through the work week without needing to do laundry.

Employment Update

I am now working part time for the same education research company I was temping for, and have been working here since I started temping. I am hoping to get hired onto another project so I can be working full time but for now I spend more time in the gym. (more on that later.) The hubby is liking his job and he is working full time.

I have the best job, for now anyway

Seriously I very much enjoy my job! Through an temp agency, I have been placed in a wonderful company.

My main tasks center around being a secretary, which is not too demanding but keeps me busy. The great things about my job are that I am get to stay up to date on educational issues and I have had time to learn the new NVivo program. Through work I have found many educational issue blogs that offer a wealth of information about the common core project, research to identify bullies, congress's action to make for profit colleges more accountable for placing their graduates so they can pay for their degree (a very good thing), Secretary Duncan's attempt to learn student's perspective on education as well as the competition for race to the top funding. If you haven't read up on them, I say do it!

This stuff is fascinating and soo far reaching. These choices impact education for millions of people. During our commute home, my loving husband listens to me ramble on about what I learned that day, when I have time to read up on things that is. I have been debating posts about these kinds of issues, so you will probably see some.

I also get to take time to learn the new features of NVivo - a wonderful program that has countless applications but most often used in qualitative research. The new edition includes the ability to code pictures and videos as well as increased usability for survey research. All of which are far different then going through word documents to look for themes. It has taken many tutorials to learn some new features, but well worth it. I have also been able to give a little input on using this program because it's relatively new to people in this company.

Sadly, the person's who place I took is coming back from leave. Sad because she went through something just horrible. She is taking some time to recover a little and then she'll be back. I'm hoping to find a permanent place here but noting is set in stone yet. I'll keep you updated on how things progress.

Memorial Day Bliss

In a nice twist, we both had the day off and got to enjoy the day together. It consisted of sleeping in late, going to the gym and relaxing on the beach. Sleeping in was a treat and we both enjoyed a nice work out. In the afternoon, we took off to Nahant to take in the wonderful beaches we had heard were there. After some searching, we found a parking spot kind of close to the beach and grabbed out stuff from the trunk. This included beach towels, more sun screen, cards, a sand castle bucket and water.

We left the bag on the sand and headed towards the water. I was a little nervous about it being too cold so I carefully waded into the water. My husband was much more adventurous, went out deeper into the water and sat down to get acclimated... Luckily for me the water wasn't too cold. We waded out until the water same to our waist and enjoyed the little waves and took in the scenes. There were kids of all ages enjoying the water, sun and sand. Out much farther many boats were parked with fishermen. There was also lots of glorious sunshine!!!

After coming out of the water we attempted to build a sand castle. It didn't work out his time because the sand was too wet, but hopefully another time this summer we'll make a good one. Only next time I hope to avoid hermit crabs. On this beach they were all very small and very populous. I would be digging in the sand only to feel something wiggle beneath my finger tips. Shuddered again at the thought of that feeling.

Abandoning our pitiful sand castle, we explored the attractive shells and fascinating rocks. We found many exciting examples and decided to take some home. (We want to make an arrangement with them, and when we do I'll post a pic.)

To finish off our beach trip we played uno and soaked up some rays. Overall it was a wonderful day and relaxing break.

What have you been up to lately?

Visual Motivational

Spark People has wonderful ideas on staying motivated and being healthy.

Most recently, I created a 'Vision Collage' and am quite happy with the results.

It hangs on the back of our door, so I see it often when we are at home and every time we leave.

On it I have pasted pictures of things I want to do, reasons I want to change, and various motivational things. For example I have a picture of someone kayaking, which I want to do! A great pair of red heels and if you know me you know I love heels. Right now I can't wear them but hopefully in time... There is also a great quote saying the important things in exercise are to do it and to continue to do it. Seeing these things helps me remember why this is important to me and a reminder to get to the gym.

If I stop noticing it, I can move it somewhere else. If you are looking for motivation on something, try a visual reminder.

A link to description.

http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/vision_collage.asp

What are you wanting to do?

Bugging Out!

Another joy of our current apartment is the bugs! Since the weather became more pleasant they have begun their descent into our apartment. I have squashed giant spiders, creepy crawly things with a million legs and many more I don't want to know what they are!!! It's making me paranoid.

In order to prevent their entrance I have begun cleaning up immediately after we finish a meal, leaving nothing they might want out, cleaning, cleaning and cleaning. We have put tape around the bottom of the patio door to catch them as they squeeze through the crack. Though disgusting to change all I think is HAHA suckers!!!!!

Also yesterday my husband and I went for a nice walk only to come back with TICKS!!! EWWWW Luckily, he discovered them before they attached but we both had to strip down, check for any more, throw our clothes in the washer and scrub, scrub, scrub.

Maybe I'm going overboard. Though I don't think so. Bugs do not belong in my house end of story. Yet another reason we are happy to move. We will have a second floor place with proper seals around windows and doors.

Whew so much happening!!

WORK

About a month ago I accepted a temp position, that lasts until August, with an education research company in Cambridge! I love my job!!! I work with great people and am involved in research education. It is also very nice to be working full time. I, of course, hope that this results in a long term position but only the time will tell. One of my job responsibilities is to stay current on educational matters. As a result I will be posting on these topics. You’ve been warned.

I am such a nerd. :) I have been asked a couple of times to look over surveys, and I had fun doing it.

SUMMER READING

In having more tome and less stress from job searching, I've been able to get in some reading for fun. Due to the wonderful library system I was downloaded a few ebooks and gave them a try. The first one was a little difficult to get into so I gave that one up. The second book was 'Silent if the Grave' by Deanna Raybourn. It was a fun read and I have finished the second book. The third arrived to the library today!! I'm so excited to read the third book. They start off a little slow but there are so many key details in the beginning.

WORKOUTS

This has been a little tough. It's the same song and dance with pain and not being able to do much. Oh well, just have to keep trying.

South Beach Phase One

Hey there everybody!

So my husband and I have been trying an experiment. We started Phase One of the South Beach Diet. I'm here to give you an update and run down.

Basically, it is full of lean meats and veggies. For the first two weeks, there's no fruit or real starches. Which is hard because I like my fruit and bread. For the first two weeks it was hard for me. I felt so drained of energy, but eventually adjusted.

Some people say that a person stops craving sweets, but that didn't happen to me. I still wanted my sweets, just not as much.

Though my craving for vegetables have greatly increased. We went out to dinner for our anniversary and instead of wanting to get the mashed potatoes with cheese, I thought finally a menu with veggies!

I recommend this diet. Overall I wasn't hungry all the time and eat things that are good for me. I've learned a lot of tasty new recipes too. (I'm gonna do a special post about that!)

If you're looking for something new r a diet to try I say go for it!!!

My Husband is AMAZING!!!!!!!!

About a year ago I switched service providers and got a new phone, a nice little Samsung. It worked well and thanks to the industrial strength phone protector evaded injury and scratches for a whole year (not a small feat). However, recently the touch screen experienced long delays and it finally gave up the ghost.

With my screen dead I could not call or txt, very frustrating because I was still looking for work at the time. We called our phone company only to find out they could do nothing. We could buy a new phone (which is a lot even for the simplest ones) or send it to them for repairs at a VERY high cost. I was stuck between an expensive rock and a more expensive hard place.

My husband began searching the internet for other phones and more info. As it turns out this little Samsung model now has a very high incident of the touch screens, or digitizers going kaput. I had a lemon….

The upside was that nifty techy people had posted many a you tube video with instructions for replacing the broken pieces. Good news, even better news was that they were cheap compared to buying a new phone. We ended up getting a new digitizer and touch screen from an online supply place.

The incredible man then set about fixing my poor broken phone. In he process the antenna wire was damaged. It turns out you can not order them offline, but you can find someone on craigslist who is selling their old broken phone for cheap! So he managed to figure out how to fix the phone and saved us a chunk of money

Finally it works again!!!

Now I just need everyone’s phone number again….

Spring is here… Maybe…

The trees, bushes and flowers are starting to send forth signs of life! It’s so nice to see the beginning of leaves, some flowers, more blossoms, and more life out and about! Such a rejuvenation

We are starting to make plans on what we would like to do/see this summer. I’ll give you a few selections from the current list:

Build a sandcastle – neither of us have ever made one and we have a beach nearby!!

Kayaking – there are a ton of places around here! For those of you who remember my first escapade, the waters here are much calmer and I really did LOVE kayaking and being on the water, so I’m gonna try it again!

Some hiking – nothing too intense but it is impressive out here, plus New Hampshire and Vermont are a short drive away!

4^th of July – specifics aren’t in stone, but we are looking forward to enjoying the local fourth of July fare here – grilled lobster!!!

I’ll keep you updated on what we’ll be up to, I just wanted to shout and celebrate spring being here!!

MOVING!!!!! YAY!!!

In an effort to avoid another cave we began the hunt for our next place. We had a few criterion - washer dryer in the apartment, dishwasher, NOT first floor and within our price range. Since we were looking months in advance, we got a great one!!! With the lease signed I feel like I can shout the news with joy!

It’s a nice second floor apartment that was an in-law suite.

It is bigger than our current place and 200 dollars cheaper!

The kitchen is really big.

There is storage space.

There are a ton of triple paned windows, and excellent insulation!

Plus we have an outside deck and screened in porch!!

We move in July 1^st and couldn’t be more excited!

I'll post pictures when I can!

New recipes

A new twist on marinara! It adds more fiber and protein in with veggie goodness.

Take one can of white beans, rinse and puree in blender/food processor.

Heat olive oil on medium, add lots of fresh garlic and lots of onions to sautee, then oregano or basil to taste.

Add one to two cans of diced tomatoes. Cook down and reduce a little.

Add salt and pepper to taste. (it does need salt!)

The result is a wonderfully creamy and flavorful tomato sauce. I, of course, think it's great. However, the true measure is that my husband likes it!

No I am not ignoring you

My phone is in repair. Hopefully it will be back up and running soon.