A girl can dream!

Well, my vacation has officially began.  Ankles are still throbbing.  I was lucky enough to be picked up from work by my daddy, which made life so much better.  I don’t think I could’ve handled standing in the rain/snow and waiting for the T.  I was in the labs all day at work taking photos for my boss.  The students were learning how to cast and splint patients.  They were having so much fun; it was cool to watch. 

Anyways, over the past couple months I have been ripping pages out of bridal magazines of things/ideas that interest me.  Here are three dresses that I fell in love with.

The top two are from Casablanca Bridals and the last is from Emerald Couturiers.  I’m sure the 3 are out of my price range, but I can dream, can’t I?  I like the way the first one has the last on top and plain on the bottom.  I like the colors of the second one, not really wild about all the details, but it’s nice.  And I like the ruffles and simplicity of the the third.  I’m not very big on lace or beads.  Of course for all three I’d have to lose about 60lbs.  I’m really going to push myself once these damn ankles are healed up.  And definitely going to do more once I’ve finished my exams.  It’s really hard to focus on losing weight and studying at the same time.  The studying takes up a good bulk of my time.  I’m closing in on the test dates and don’t really have a ton of time to study.  Once I’m done with those, I can really buckle down and start exercising more, and it will also be warming up so I can start walking outside. 

That’s about everything that I had to say.  Life has been boring.  Next big event is my niece’s 13th birthday on Tuesday.  I feel so old.  I can remember changing her diapers and giving her baths.  Pretty soon she’ll be driving and graduating high school.  Ugh, it makes me so sick how quickly she grew up.

Holy Ouch!

Ankle is still doing this whole hurting thing.  I’m making do by hobbling around, but I’m hurting.  Can’t really do the whole stairs thing.  Up is okay, down is an issue.  That being said, I think I might be missing the gym all week, which upsets me.  I’m off from work next week and won’t be able to get to the gym.  Wii Active better continue to kick my booty!

Last night I crashed super early.  I was asleep by 7pm and I didn’t really wake up until about 5 this morning.  I did get up at about 9pm to get some ice for my ankle, but other than that I was out cold.  I really wanted to get some studying done last night, but I was in no condition to focus.

Chapter 11, you will be done today!  I think I might move onto the Advanced Organizational Management next.  That book seems to be the most boring and will give me the worst time getting through it.  If I conquer it next, I’ll only have a book and a half to finish!  By May 7th.  Ugh.

Tonight, Adam and I are going to look at one of our reception site choices, the Nahant Country Club.  By next Monday we will have visited our top 3 choices and will hopefully be able to make a decision.  Yay!

Almost Springtime!

Ah, March 1st is finally upon us!! Only 19 more days until Spring.  I am completely ecstatic!  I’m so sick of snow, shoveling, cold, and ice.  Bring on the warm weather!!

So I am feeling quite a bit better than I was on Friday.  Saturday, my fiance and I went to the Macaroni Grill for dinner.  For some reason, the charge is coming up as $0.72 on my bank account.  I’m wondering if they messed up.  I’d feel horrible if they did.  I’ll wait til it clears and see what happens and then call if it’s still $0.72.  I know, I’m crazy, but I’m honest.  After dinner, we went to my friend’s Dan and Renee’s house for Renee’s birthday party. 

We didn’t stay too long, I wasn’t feeling well still and knew it was probably best to go home and stay by the bathroom.  It was good to see her and Dan though.  Haven’t seen them in  quite a while.  January, I think. 

Sunday morning, Adam and I went to Over Easy for breakfast.  I was starving for some reason, so I got a bacon,egg, and cheese on an english muffin, side of home fries, and 2 blueberry pancakes.  I ate most of it, which Adam claims I did out of spite.  Afterwards, I took a little nap and by little I mean 2 hours.  We watched USA lose to Canada. 

I decided to do my wii Active workout and man, was I sweating!  We worked on the upper body.  Lots of shoulder presses and bicep curls.  Did some jumping lunges too.  I’m not a jumper, so those didn’t go over so hot.  I did a little studying after that and then went to bed.  I did not, however, fall asleep right away.  I was up until 11pm.  Way too late for me. 

I got up at 4am and did another workout.  More jumping lunges.  My ankle was (and still is) killing me.  It’s like a throbbing pain and it hurts to walk.  Not sure what I did, but it wasn’t good.  Anyways, I did the workout to the best of my ability.  Couldn’t run, but I walked pretty fast.

Well, now I’m at work and the day is halfway through.  Will have to go food shopping after work, but I’m looking forward to relaxing when I get home.   Hope you all enjoy your day.

Sucktastic day

Yes, it was.  After my post this morning, I went to the gym.  I did about 40 mins on the treadmill and some ab crunches and hip abductions.  Work was crazy, insane busy today.  I kept screwing up too, not purposely of course.  I didn’t have much time to prepare an exam for the kids and as a result some of the tests had to be thrown out because they were missing a page.  It bummed me out a lot.  I don’t like doing things in a rush and having them be wrong.  Things were just very disorganized and the Virgo in me hated it.  There was nothing I could do though, I tried to make things right, but it would’ve taken too much time. 

I was incredibly frustrated about that, then I left work at about 4:00pm and got the train stop at about 4:02pm.  It was raining, of course.  I need to get to North Station by 4:30pm to make the train, but of course there was no train in sight by 4:10pm, but alas! there was a bus!  So I just about ran to the bus stop and got on.  It was jammed packed to the point that I’m sure that it was illegal.  I was getting so aggravated being bumped into and I’ve been exhausted all day.  I decided to get off the next stop and walk to the 5 – 10 mins to the subway stop.  I didn’t get on that train until 4:22pm, but then I knew I was never going to make the train I wanted so I called my fiance and told him I’d catch the 5:10 train.  It was such a nightmare!! I had this incredibly obese woman practically sit on top of me.  Thank God I wasn’t going far!!

Anyways, I’m home now with my amazing fiance and will be heading to bed soon. I wanted to jump on and share this screenshot with everyone.

In case you can’t read it, it says I did 145% of my goal today!! 14,492!! I don’t really know what that red dot under the 2pm means, but I’ll find out.  Well, there we go!  I’m exhausted so I’ll catch ya’ll in the morning

Very EARLY workout!

Good morning everyone!  It’s about 3am and I’ve been up for a good 3 hours.  I wasn’t feeling any better when I got home (and I’m still not), so I actually went to bed at 7:00pm.  Didn’t accomplish any of the things I wanted to when I got home.  Boo!  I woke up at around midnight when Adam came to bed, and I’ve been up every since.  I tried to go back to sleep, really I did, but it just wasn’t happening.  How do you cope with insomnia?

I wanted to review another new toy I got yesterday. 

 

EA Sports Active for the Wii.  For $50 you get the game, the resistance band and the leg band for the nunchuck.  I’ll be honest, the WiiFit software doesn’t really give me much of a work out, so I was a little hesitant about this one. 

When you first load the software, you create a profile and it starts you out on this 30-day challenge.  For the first day (today), it was going to target a lot of muscles.  It set a goal of 146 calories to burn.  Let me tell you I totally surpassed it and burned 179!!  Holy cow, I was dripping, no POURING sweat at the end.  Not sure if I’ve ever done that much of a workout before in my entire life!!

Started me out with a nice walk/run.  I don’t run, at all.  So I was a bit wheezy towards the end of the first run, but I kept up with it.  After it had me do some squats, inline skating, side lunges, bicep curls, bent rows, shoulder presses, and heavy punching bag.  (I may be forgetting one, but I don’t think I am.)  It alternates between each and has you do 15 exercises.  I had a bit of difficulty with the side lunges because I’m totally not used to bending that way.  By the ending exercise (more running and a walk cool down), I was definitely feeling that burn.  I was doing better with the running as well.  (You may be thinking, how do you run with the Wii!  Well, you slip the nunchuck into the leg band and run/walk in place.  Simple!) 

The leg band fits pretty well and is good about staying in place.  Only slipped off of me once, but the resistance band is a little cheap.  I feel like if I keep using it, it may snap, so I might invest in a better quality one.  I give it a two thumbs up and recommend it to anyone looking for a nice workout!!

But now I’m sitting here, nauseous (which I guess may be a sign of a good workout).  I’ll rest/relax for about 1.5 hours until I get ready to go to the gym.  (Yep, still going despite the awesome workout!!) 

I didn’t quite hit my step goal yesterday.  Ah, who am I kidding, I was way off!! Only did about 3,000, but I wasn’t feeling well and my head was pounding.  Wasn’t going to do much good.   I’m hoping today will be a better day though.  Perhaps on the way home I will stop and buy some workout shorts.  I’ve been wearing long pants, but I feel like they keep getting in the way.  I’d try some tighter one, but hey, I’m fat!  At least if I wear shorts the cellulite isn’t amplified!

Right?  Well, I’ll update again mid-day!  Enjoy your morning!

Sleepy and sick

What a dreary day in Boston it is!!  Rainy and gloomy; I don’t like it! At least it’s not the snow that Wocester and New Hampshire are getting!  Ah well!

Exciting news! I hit my goal yesterday! I actually went above my goal.  I did 10,215 steps, which was 102%!  I ended up going back to the gym after work and doing another 25 minutes on the treadmill.  After that, I decided to do a little shopping and went across the street to Marshall’s and then to Filene’s Basement and then to Border’s.  I ended up buying two cookbooks: one for pasta dishes, and the other for chicken dishes (the two things Adam and I eat the most of!)  I also bought a book of sudoku puzzles. 

I then walked to the train station and holy cow! I was dripping sweat!  I had about 3 layers on and I had my heavy gym bag, and my work bag, and my bag from Borders.  I got a nice workout!  Anyways, I wasn’t really feeling too fantastic yesterday.  Was starting to get a sore throat and my head was pounding.  I could feel my sinuses blocking up.  Terrible!  I decided to stay home from going to dinner at Adam’s mom’s.  No sense in infecting everyone!

For dinner I had a sandwich (Whole wheat sandwich thin, turkey, provolone cheese, some tomato, and black olives with some hummus).  It was really good!  I tried to accomplish a little bit of studying but my body was so physically exhausted that I ended up going to bed at 7:00.  Barely woke up throughout the night, and decided it would be a good idea to forgo the gym this morning and get a little extra sleep. 

So now I’m at work, and I’m still feeling absolutely miserable.  My head is a mess!! I don’t think I’ll be able to hit my goal today, but I’ll try.  Only up to 1,182 right now.  Maybe I’ll do laps around the floor. haha.

Yummy in my Tummy!

hey all you bloggers out there!  Thought I would update you all while I enjoy my mid-morning snack.  I am absolutely in love with the Ready Pac Ready Snax!  They were on sale yesterday at Stop and Shop 2 for $4.00.  So I bought 2 of the “Taste of Tuscany”, one of the crackers with cheese and meat (can’t remember, but I think it was turkey) and 1 of the vegetables and hummus.  I am having the “Taste of Tuscany” right now, and it’s delicious.  Comes with a bruschetta type mix, some parmesan cheese, and some mini crisps.  It was fantastic.  I can’t wait to try the other two.  They do offer ones with fruit, etc, but I only need four for the week.  Perhaps next week I’ll try those ones, but I highly recommend them.  You can find them in the produce aisle.

Anyways, it’s mid-morning and I’ve already logged 4015 steps, burned 270 calories, and have walked almost 3 miles.  I think I might go back to the gym after work.  I wanted to do more this morning, but I caught the later train and experimented a bit.  Decided to switch to the Green line and take it to Arlington and then walk from there.  It was dark out and I got a bit confused.  Instead of going down Boylston, I ended up going down St. James.  Finally got there about 10 minutes later.  I did about 20 mins on the treadmill since I had already gotten a good 10 minute brisk walk in, and some more ab crunches and hip abductions.  Would like to do another 2o – 30 mins on the treadmill.  I’ll wait and see what the weather is like though.

Well, I’m going to go continue on with my work.  Wish me luck on breaking 10,000!

New toy!

Well, I’ve been a busy little bee.

Saturday I spent the day studying and cleaning.  Actually, I did more studying than cleaning, but I needed to catch up on it.  I also got my new toy on Friday!  I ordered this:

It’s the Omron Walking Style Pedometer.  It’s pretty sweet.  It can store up to 7 days of steps, shows you steps and aerobic steps, how many calories and fat grams I’ve burned, and how many miles I’ve walked.  It also came with software that allows me to download the data and it keeps track of a whole mess of stuff.  Here’s a screenshot:

As you can see, I almost hit my goal of 10,000 steps.  Did 8,846.  Also did 2040 aerobic steps (whatever that means), did 20 mins of walking time, burned 574 calories, walked 6.14 miles, and burned 32.7 grams of  fat.   The graph at the bottom calculates when I did my most walking.  I did my most walking at 6am (which is when I was at the gym on the treadmill) and 10 am (I was walking between buildings a lot).  There’s weekly, monthly, yearly and total graphs.  I can go back and forth between days too.  I’m excited.  Omron also puts out a blood pressure monitor which I’m contemplating getting.  Not that I have super high blood pressure, but it’s a little high and I normally have a high pulse.  Maybe in a few months.

On Sunday, my fiance, sister and two neices and I went to a bridal show at the Danversport Yacht Club.  Didn’t win anything, but did set up a meeting to go talk to them and also, talked to some photobooth people!   Got some more ideas about what I want and don’t want.  After the bridal show, we met up with my mother at Friendly’s for dinner to celebrate my neice’s 7th birthday.  The service was terrible, but it was also the last day of vacation for the kids.  It was to be expected.  After dinner, we went back to my mom’s for cake and presents.  My mom made my neice 2 cute scrapbooks that my sister just has to add pictures to.  Wish she’d make me some because I am so lazy with my scrapbooking.  I have a ton of pictures to be scrapbooked and I haven’t done ANYTHING with them!!  Oh well.  Maybe she’ll make one for the wedding. 

This morning I got up bright and early and headed to the gym despite the heavy contemplating of sleeping  in.  I got to the gym and did about 20 mins of treadmill.  It was about all I could take, the pain in my legs was getting to be a bit much.  After I did about 100 crunches on the abdominal machine, and 100 hip abductions.  I didn’t realize how late it was getting so I went to shower.  Of course this woman was using the locker next to mine, so I couldn’t get into it.  I figured if I stood there she’d hurry up, but she didn’t.  So I showered and went to grab the bus.  Got to work at quarter past 7. 

Work was so busy today.  I was running around a lot and before I knew it it was time to go.  I really don’t feel like I accomplished much, but I know I did.  So, after work Adam and I went food shopping.  I cooked dinner when we got home.  I didn’t each much today because I was so busy.  All I had was a Special K bar.  My eyes were a lot bigger than my stomach.

Baked chicken with gravy, stuffing, four cheese potatoes, and cranberry sauce.  There was also some bread, but it’s not in the picture.  I ate about half of that, and put the rest in a container for lunch.  It def. hit the spot though!  So good!

Well, it’s been awhile

Sorry for the delay in update.  I’ve been super busy, not just at work but at home too. 

Haven’t gotten to the gym this week.  I’ll blame Tuesday and Wednesday on the snow storm and today on the shoveling that I did during said snow storm.  My lower back was in so much pain.  I couldn’t even bend over.  Even now it hurts to bend or really move.  I did do some WiiFit last night.  Unlocked the “free step”.  I did 976 steps in 10 mins.  Might have done more if I wore sneakers or pants that fit.  I kept stopping to pull my pants up and I kept slipping off the balance board.  I don’t like that you can only go a certain speed; there is a maximum pace that you can set it to.  Ah well.  I’ll probably do it again when I get home.  I did some Wii snowboarding too!  Man am I off balance! 

Adam made this delicious chicken in the crock pot yesterday.  He took chicken breast and diced it up and then mixed chicken gravy and sundried tomato marinade.  Sounds gross, right? NO!  It was really good! Kudos to him.  Brought the leftovers to work. 

Speaking of work, it’s time for a complaint.  Normally I don’t complain because I really do like my job and I love our students.  But this morning I had to make some handouts for a lecture and someone from another department was like “you make copies for your kids?  That’s nuts! I wouldn’t do that! Let them make copies themselves!” and I said “Well, our kids like to take notes and this system works for them.” and she was like “so what!?”  I was getting aggravated because I knew despite the fact that she was already making 10,000 copies of nothing on one copier she wanted to use my copier to make more.  That really irked me.  You can’t sit there and complain about the copies I’m making when you’re using two copiers to make copies for your kids!  Rotten people!!

Hello, Monday, my old friend.

Well, the weekend is over and we are back to Monday.  However, I have the day off for a doctor’s appointment.  This weekend just flew by.  Saturday, no lie, I spent most of the day in bed prepping myself for a night with my neices.  The older one (going on 13) likes to stay up late.  When the got here, Adam went and got some McDonald’s for dinner.  It was already 7:30pm, so there was no sense in cooking.  Then we hung out and watched Secret Crush weekend on Nickelodeon.  My sister had told me earlier in the day that my brother-in-law had let my younger neice (going on 7) take a 2 hour nap, so I was expecting her to be off the walls.  Shockingly, both kids were fast asleep by 9:30pm!! I took full advantage of this and went back to sleep.

Around 3:30am I woke up hearing some banging noises.  It was odd; there were 8 bangs in a row, then silence, then 3 more.  I was freaking out in my head, so I got up and checked on the kids.  Checked the kitchen.  Checked the bathroom.  Nothing.  I went back to bed and laid there for like an hour.  Finally fell back asleep and got up at 7:30am.  The kids were already up and hungry, so I started making breakfast.  Made some turkey bacon.  I’m not really sure about it, because the package said 8 – 9 minutes, turning frequently, which I was doing, but somehow it kept burning.  Anyways, also made eggs and toast.  Breakfast done.  My sister wasn’t coming to get them until 11:00am (which turned into 10:30am).  We decided to watch Casper, the one from MY childhood with Bill Pullman and Christina Ricci.  I remember I used to totally swoon over Devon Sawa at the end.  He was too cute. 

After the kids left, Adam and I went back to sleep until 1:30pm.  Adam wanted to go the mall to get some new sneakers and shoes, but they didn’t have any that he liked.  I ended up buying Adam’s Valentine’s gift there.  I bought him this:

The Transformers: Matrix of Leadership DVD set.  It’s the entire Transformers series.  I’m like the best girlfriend ever.  I would’ve been even more awesome getting it for $50 on Amazon, but it wasn’t going to ship until Feb.21 – Mar. 11.  I wasn’t going to wait that long.  So I just bought it at Best Buy.  I gave it to him yesterday so that we could watch it.  He loved it.  

Well that concludes my weekend.  Today, I’m going to bake a cake.  I’ve been craving cake for some reason.  Hopefully the doctor’s will go smoothly and I can get some studying done today.  I haven’t done any for 2 weeks!!  I’ll get back on track and finish this book up soon though.  Watch for an update later.