on to Week 2

So I in fact accomplished my goals from last week! Go me :) As you can see I posted more than once, I also kept track of all my calories, and I wasn't allowed to work out, so I didn't do that. I also cooked for almost all my meals, so that's good. Hooray for accomplishing goals! I think as a reward I will find a workout video I want and buy it.

I did have a bit of a bad day on Saturday and ate about twice my allotment of calories, but I recorded them. I also discovered that Lose It switches to to the next day at midnight and you can't adjust the previous day after that, so that's a good tidbit, or at least I couldn't figure out how to.

I did weigh in this morning and was 163.0lbs, so that's down 1.2lbs, pretty good start :)

I guess on to goals for this week:

1) Track calories

2) Stay within 250 calories of the total week goal (1350 each day)

3) Cook for almost all meals this week (or make a sandwich whatever)

4) Do daily crunches

5) Post twice more this week

Since I'm still not sure how to work out with out killing my knee we'll start with crunches and I'll see what else I figure out how to do. Have a good week everyone!

Knee Issues

Well my knee still hurts (although a bit less) and I went to the doctor today. He said, it sound like you strained your medial collateral ligament.... I said Huh? Apparently the muscles connecting the tibia and fibia are called that. So basically there's nothign much wrong with me I just have somehow repetitively tweaked those and it hurts now. So I'm supposed to rest it, avoid stairs, and ice it at night until it goes away... really helpful. He gave me a couple knee exercises, so I guess I'll do those, but no exercising for me for a little bit, which kinda sucks.

Just wanted to update, I'm doing well with my cooking and calorie counting :)

New Building Woes

So we moved our lab.... and it was only a month and a half after our original move date. However it did manage to be right before Christmas and therefore caused some issues with my vacation plans (which were resolved by me pointing out to The Boss that I had actually informed him of my vacation plans well before the move date was set, to which he had no response, and let me keep my flight as planned). So we were the 3rd group to move in, which is all well and good, but let me tell you, working is difficult in this building for the following reasons:

1) The cold room doesn't work- so all our cold stuff is still one building over and 4 floors down (anyone seeing a problem here?)

2) DI water is still being cleaned-we work with really small concentrations of metals, so DeIONized water is kinda key

3) No natural gas hook ups-biology=sterile things, hard to do without bunsen burners

Those are the major problems, besides not knowing where we stored anything and general other issues. I would however like to give a shout-out to Midwest Movers, who totally rocked. Didn't break anything, including the boxes full of crappy glassware which we were hoping to break, and are sooooo crazy efficient it took them 1.5 days to move everything (we were afraid our 3 days wouldn't be enough). Also, Steve and the connection guys, who made everything work magically and are still hooking things up for us. You guys rock!

P.S. If you're reading this and choosing a grad school, don't pick one where they're going to make you move the lab to a new building. Just a hint....

New Year, New Start

Hi all, it's a new year!

So as many people have, I'm sure, I've recommitted to getting healthy. I got an iPod Touch for Christmas and have been using the Lose It app to keep track of my calories. So far I am a big fan. I started using it on Sunday just to test it, but have been following pretty closely since Monday. Aiming for 1350 calories a day, it says that's what I need to loose 1.5lbs per week, which seems reasonable. I started at 164.2lbs on Monday, so at that rate I would make it to 125 by mid July. Of course, I'm sure there will be many set backs, but at least I have a plan.

The other part of my plan was to start working out this week. However, I've had a bit of a set back there. My knee hurts like hell and as far as I can remember I didn't do anything to it. I thought it might just go away but it's been 3+ days now, so I have a doctor's appt tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed that it's nothing too bad!

Oh I also decided to do the Pound for Pound Challenge, so you all should too, it doesn't cost anything and it helps feed people in need!

I also watched the premier of Biggest Loser last night! I'll start doing summaries again next week, but the people are really big this season. They inspire me to start before I let myself get to the point where I'm like that. Plus if they can do it, I can too!

So goals for the rest of the week:

1) Blog at least one more time

2) Keep track of alllll calories on my Lose It app

3) If the doctor gives the go ahead, exercise once

4) Continue to cook good food/bring lunch

Sounds like a good start, I also have been thinking about buying a couple workout videos for the weekend when I don't want to come all the way to the gym, so I'll look into that.

Happy New Year! and good luck with any resolutions you've made!

Getting back on the wagon

So if anyone has been watching weather forecasts for around the country they may have noticed that in Chicago for the last few days it's been ugly. Between snow, sleet, rain, and wind chills of -15 or so, it's been bad. Welcome to winter in Chicago. I knew it would happen, but man, I wished it wouldn't be quite so nasty.

Which brings me to something actually related to the topics of my blog. I got on the scale for the first time since Thanksgiving and it said 163.8... nasty. Ok, well really it's not so bad, especially considering I haven't been to the gym in weeks, I haven't cooked in weeks and I've been generally stressed out about grad school. Now I know that New Years is coming up, and generally people make New Years resolutions, but I have several misgivings about that practice.

1) Most people don't keep them.- Sad, but true. I know I've made plenty that I haven't kept, and I'm sure anyone who's reading this has at least not kept one of their resolutions.

2) Why wait?- I mean what's the big deal about the new year? Why shouldn't I decide to make the change and do it now, not tomorrow, not on the magic day in 2.5 weeks, but now? Anybody? That's what I thought.

3) It's cliche.- Not that good a reason, but I really prefer to do my own thing.

So after this little rant, the point is: I'm making the commitment. And now the room echos back... again? Yes, again. I'm not perfect. I fell off the wagon, well I'll get back on.

And on that note, just two goals for the rest of this week, start slow I say.

1) Exercise at least once- baby steps are the way to go

2) Buy groceries for next week

I'd also like to try doing push-ups and crunches everyday, but I want to set goals I can meet to give myself some confidence before Monday, so bonus points if I start doing those too.

I've been remiss

I apologize to anyone who has been waiting for an exciting post from me and really to myself as well. Blogging has just not seemed appealing lately and neither has weight loss or grad school work to be honest. I've been spending a lot of time just trying to get my work done. And you know what I found out... work is hard.

I know this doesn't sound like a revelation, but getting stuff done and trying to really focus is entirely too difficult. I know everyone does it, everyone has to do it (except for the indepandently wealthy), but man, it's such a pain. So as I attempt to do lots of work preceding this looming meeting I have with my boss, I've been discovering things about how I work and how to get myself to work. I've discovered (although haven't mastered) that moderation is key. Get this thing done, take a break, get something else done, take a break etc. If I try to go full out all day, sure I get that done, but then tomorrow and maybe the next day, nothing gets done. So moderation is key.

That said, moderation should really be the theme of all our lives. It works with work, should work with weight loss, probably helps with family and friends and other activities. A little bit of this and a little bit of that, helps us lead a balanced life. Now, don't get me wrong, the fact that I figured this out, doesn't mean I have it down. Not even close, but I'm trying.

Just think balance (goes for blogging too).

Stressssssed

Hi all, sorry I've been missing, but I'm trying to cram in some results before we have to move our lab (more to come on that later). Unfortunately my 3 days of hard work went completely down the drain in about 5 minutes last night, so I get to start over! How exciting.... Needless to say I've been having a bit of a rough time.

Lab is so finnicky, yesterday morning things were going really well. Something that hadn't worked in 3 months, finally worked, the glove box was fixed, life was good. Then it all disappeared. Do other grad students feel like they should never get excited because it will just completely back fire on them? That's how I feel.

Also as a side note, 161.4 on monday and Tracey is gone!! (that's for the Biggest Loser fans).

So sorry for the absence, I'll try to get back to blogging, if just to keep my sanity alive.