Achievements and New Beginnings

It has been way too long since my last post.  Why?  I'm lazy.  Well, maybe not lazy, exactly; I was just recovering from a very, VERY stressful final semester at Kirkwood Community College.  That's right! Final.  I graduated.  Finally!  After 6 years, I am officially a college graduate... with an associates degree.  Ha!  But never mind that.  It felt good to finally achieve something.

A little update on myself since my last posting...

I completed what is called the ALPHA course with my church at the end of June.  During this course we went over many of the basics of Christianity and while I didn't really learn new information, I found myself falling back in love with what God can do in a church setting.  It was very healing and incredibly inspiring.  I'm back to being a regular at Hope and have even joined a small group Bible study!  Wow.  Crazy how life changes, huh?  But above all, I'm falling back in love with God.  It's wonderful.

I finished my first race on July 14th!  My youngest brother joined me and a handful of my coworkers as we took on the challenge of the Warrior Dash!  It was incredibly fun, and unfortunately incredibly hot.  Abe and I didn't originally plan to run as we had promised to walk with my coworkers.  However, when we were accidentally separated from the rest of the group we both decided to go for it and run!  Sadly, we only made it about a half mile before the sun beat us AND the rest of the runners down.  It was over 100 degrees and by the time we finished, we were all over-heated, dehydrated and many people were suffering from heat stroke.  But it was fun to say I did it!  I'm definitely planning on competing next year!  Bring it on!

Last Thursday marked the beginning of my journey to complete my bachelors degree with William Penn CWA.  I've got to say, the program is PERFECT for my situation; however I felt like I jumped head first into the middle of the semester.  It's going to be a LOT of work; but it will be over before I know it!

Health wise, I haven't gained anything!  But I haven't lost, either.  I've been pretty slow with my workouts due to the heat... and I'm not just making excuses, either!  With temperatures this high, I am very easily overheated and after an unpleasant experience the last time I tried to push myself in the heat (yeah... definitely blacked out), I've decided to take it easy.  Fortunately I think it's finally cooled off enough to jump back into my routines; but after taking a break the last few weeks, I'm a little nervous I've lost everything I've worked for!  But tomorrow marks the big day!  

Here's what I have planned:

The next two weeks I will be fasting from processed sugar and white flour in order to help myself jump start back into a healthy diet.  Once it's out of my system, I don't crave it or even enjoy it, so I have no worries about going back to old habits after these next couple of weeks!  (Side note:  I've done REALLY well despite my lack in exercise and motivation, though!  I just don't want to be tempted to eat junk when I'm trying to push myself through a grueling workout!)  

Now for the workout:

Monday/Wednesday/Friday

10 minutes jumping jacks

30 minutes running/walking (Couch to 5K program)

Tuesday

P90X - Back and Shoulders/Ab Ripper X

Thursday

P90X - Arms and Triceps/Ab Ripper X

Saturday

P90X - Legs and Back/Ab Ripper X

Sunday

P90X - Yoga

There you have it.  Keep me accountable!  I'm hoping to be down about 8 pounds by the end of August; but we'll see :)

Take care, world!  I'll see you next time!

Aly

A New Chapter

I can't explain how unbelievably giddy I am right now. I just received an email from Kirkwood outlining registration dates for the summer/fall semesters. It took me a second of skimming the dates and racking my brain to think of what other classes I may need to take before I finally remembered...

I won't be registering for anymore classes at Kirkwood. Ever. Period.

Funny how it only took me 6 years to complete this stage of life; but nonetheless, it's finally over. Well, it will be in 4 weeks, anyway. I finally filled out an application for William Penn University, submitted transcript requests and applied for financial aid. I'm a little slow on the go; but given my track record, this can be expected.

It's hard to believe that I will be moving on. That, aside from the few friends I have left in the area, my ties with Cedar Rapids will be no more. It's almost sad, but in a completely nostalgic way. I'm excited, too.

And now for the wait to hear back from William Penn and FAFSA! Oh yes, and deciding whether or not I'm going to participate in the Kirkwood graduation ceremony.......? We'll see.

Until next time, good night ya'lls!

Unsocially Social

This last week and a half has been such a strange mix of miserable and unbelievably freeing! While I crave sugar like the boogie man craves small children, I have no desire to eat it again. I feel great! Well, mostly great. I still feel like crud, but I do have more energy now than I've had in months... and I'm attributing that all to the lack of unnatural sugars in my system. However, it was everything I could do to keep myself from buying a bag of dark chocolate caramels after work today. I literally drove by Dollar General drooling because I knew behind those doors a bag of Riesen chocolates had my name on it. Ah well. I survived.

I think Facebook has been the worst part of the last couple of weeks. While I am excited about the overwhelming freedom I have to not be so attached to status updates and spying on my friends, I have felt stupidly lonely. If I come to understand anything out of these 40 days, it'll be this: I am unsocially social. I miss my Facebook friends. Sometimes it feels like they are the only friends I have! Funny, they are real friends; but there's a difference between cyber friendship and the real thing. I feel secluded, but that's only by my own doing. I realize now how negligent I have been in regards to my real social life. This must be remedied.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the next 29 days teaches me! Right now feels just a little unstable; but I'm sure God has something great to teach me by day 40.

Until next time...

Lent...?

I have never before practiced Lent; but I recently started attending a Lutheran church and I've been feeling convicted on a lot of things, particularly in regards to my priorities in life. With tomorrow being Ash Wednesday, I feel the timing is perfect. I am giving up two things that take a negative priority in my life: Sugar and Facebook.

That's 40 days folks. I'm excited, though. I spend so much time on Facebook, it's ridiculous. I think back to the days before social networking and wonder what the heck I did with all of my time! I'm looking forward to getting away from it for a while. Not only will it force me to find other, more productive ways to fill my day (like... homework), it'll remind me to focus more on God time.

I don't feel like I need to get into the sugar thing. Anyone reading this blog knows and fully understands my difficulties with sugar. My hopes are that by promising the Big Guy I'll stay away from sugar, I'll be more accountable; but one thing I'm praying for is to be healed of my unhealthy craving all together. I'll still eat fruit as natural sugars aren't where my problems lie, I just can't ever seem to control myself when candy, cakes, brownies and ice cream are around!

There you go. Now I'll be expecting each of you to hold me accountable! If you see activity on my Facebook between now and Easter Sunday, yell at me!

I'm cool now

That's right! I have an iPhone. This officially makes me cool!

:)

Just one...

There's a new rule in my life. It's called, "Just One." That's right. Just. One. Just one cup of coffee. Just one sugary treat. Just one serving of dinner. Just one round of Tetris. Just one random blog reading. Those two little words have taught me so much about myself and how simple it really is to limit myself while abiding by this rule. In fact, "Just One" has become so ingrained in my head this last week that I've been applying it to ALL aspects of my life!

In Just One week:

Just one workout. Just one God-date. Just one random act of kindness. Just one homework assignment. Just one full night of sleep. Just one financially responsible day. Just one day being mindful of my words/actions toward others. Just one selfless act toward my family. Just one. Just one. Just one.

Just.

One.

I need to fix this faulty rule.

Perseverance. It's a funny word.

Because it's Saturday night, my homework is complete and I'll be snowed-in in the morning anyway, I've decided to write a late-night blog :)

Today I started P90X...again. I love it. I really do. Except, my last bout produced a rather macho form of me and I had been pretty proud of my success. I'm still proud of my success; but the funny thing about succeeding is that a requires this minor detail called perseverance.

I keep an exercise journal to help me keep track of my progress. My last entry had me doing over 120 push-ups, about a million and twelve ab exercises and I could even make it a full 30 seconds on the wall squats ;) That was about four weeks ago. Today was a completely different story. I managed to force about 13 push-ups, and I could hardly make it through the ab workout. It's sad how quickly my body goes from macho to nacho.

I can't help but wonder where I would be in my weight loss/fitness goal had I stuck with the program and persevered over my lazy bouts! I'll betcha I wouldn't have gained four pounds back and I would be feeling about 79% better than I do at this present moment. My clothes would fit me better. I would be THAT MUCH closer to my goal.

If I don't start now, I bet four weeks from now I will wish I would have persevered passed today.

Ugh.

On a lighter note, I managed to fall in love with sweet alternatives to sugar, which has possibly saved my life. Haha! No really. Pancakes made from bananas, peanut butter and eggs, cookies sweetened with pureed fruit... I think I can handle this no-unnatural-sugar thing after all!