Loving to Learn

Going into Week 5 of School
Weight Loss Goal: 142.8 #s
October 3^rd - March 23^rd 2012

     This past week we learned about Bioenergetics in Physiology, Fats in Nutrition, and the Pectoralis major and minor and the Serratus Anterior in Anatomy. School is going well. Just tonight I think I realized the true meaning of loving to learn. It’s a great feeling.

     To truly get on a roll with my weight loss goals this week I tried very hard to keep track of everything I ate. I was doing very well until Saturday. I lost my little notebook I was writing everything down in, so I’m going to get a new one. Also being Halloween weekend it made things a bit more tempting but I think I did really well. It’s nice not liking candy. Call me crazy, but I don’t.

I looked up some things like my recommended daily caloric intake for my weight loss goal and how many grams of protein per day I should have, etc. etc. I’m really excited to get back into tracking everything. I think it’s fun tracking it and seeing the progress.

     I weigh myself every Monday and am curious what tomorrow’s numbers will read. My teacher is constantly saying that weight is pretty much ridiculous. It is just a number and you’re the only person that really cares how much you weigh. Society and media are the only things that make you think otherwise. But in having my own weight loss goals, it’s what I like to do. So far I have lost something like .4 of a pound per week since school started. When I lost a bit of weight this summer I was losing 1 ½ - 2 pounds per week. With my current weight loss goal I only have to lose 1 pound per week. I’m hoping to exceed my goal, but I set my standards as low as I could while still pushing myself.

I thought of a tattoo I think I want to get and I’m also holding myself to my goal and using that as a reward. I think it’s great. I looked up a bunch of pictures and have been thinking about the tattoo a lot. If I still really like the idea and want to get it after thinking about it for five months I figure I’ll go through with it. I want a Great Blue Heron on my right shoulder in a landing position. His beak would run down my arm a little and his feet probably wrap under my armpit. The wings would be back (as if landing) spreading over my own shoulder. The shading would be pretty blue-purple-grays and I think I will have the beak open a bit so if I ever decide I want to add to it I can maybe have something in the beak. Great Blue Herons have always reminded me of home in Skagit Valley and I have wanted to get a tattoo of one for awhile. I just couldn’t think of what I wanted.

     Anyway I’m very hungry. I’ve been thinking about a PBJ and now I think I might indulge. Hope you all had a great weekend + Happy Halloween!

Super Chunk

 **Okay, so I made this soup and it sat in my fridge for a few days and all the flavors mixed together in a way that wasn't tasty. It's like they never stopped soaking into each other and soon the lemon was overpowering and the herbs just didn't taste good together...I'm not 100% positive how to prevent this next time, but it's all trial and error. I'm not used to making soups in crock-pots yet.**

All the colors are getting beautiful outside and I am constantly thinking I want to get my camera out and start taking pictures of all the gorgeousness around me (I say this every year, still have yet to do it). Fall is a good time for soups and with the idea from my roomies I have decided to start making soup every week for myself. It will last me the entire week and I will have it for any meal time, ready to go.

I started last night. I just threw a bunch of vegetables into the slow cooker for a few hours. It's super chunky (I'm going to call it my Super Chunk Veg Soup) and I didn't put in as many udon noodles I might next time. The celery is also very squeaky on the teeth so I would either cut that smaller or cook it longer next time too. I originally thought it came out pretty bland, but the more I sip it the better I think it tastes. Some might argue that it needs salt but I know there was a lot of sodium in the veg broth and I didn't want to add anymore.

Vegetables I used in this recipe (literally rough cut and thrown in):
-Celery
-Red and Yellow bell peppers
-Green onions
-Mushrooms
-Zucchini
-1/2 Lemon, squeezed (let soak in for awhile, take out later)

Herbs & Spices:
-Fresh Sage
-Dried Organic Oregon
-Dried Organic Basil
-Black Pepper
-Dash of Organic Curry Powder
-Fresh Garlic

Additional:
-Udon Noodles
-Organic Vegetable Stock
-Boiling Water

Digesting it all.

Yesterday was the last day at The Stafford. It was really odd leaving, I felt like I was forgetting something, but alas I cleaned my locker empty, I had all my hats, my water bottle, my cell phone. I said my goodbyes and I am truly moving on to a new chapter in my life now. I feel like it will all officially start to sink in come Monday of next week. School is building up really fast with lots of information. Every week now on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we have a quiz. Each of those days we also learn new material that we will be quizzed on the following week. Mondays are chapters from our “Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning” book, Tuesdays are nutrition and Wednesdays are anatomy. Thankfully I’m getting nutrition pretty easily, which is also exciting because nutrition is something I’ve been interested in continuing education in if it came to me easily. Anatomy isn’t too hard for me either. It’s the Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning stuff that I’m having the most trouble with. As I previously stated, this week we are learning about bioenergetics. It is quite above my head at this point, but I’m slowly digesting it. I will be reading/studying it the rest of the week, making flash cards and that really helped me with last weeks material. Science and math are my two worst subjects, plus I’m a bit dyslexic so that does not help. I understand that there is meaning behind everything my teacher is explaining to us and I desperately try to hold on to the meaning of those things as my teacher explains them,(he is a great teacher and breaks things down very well!) but as much as I want to learn it’s just so hard for me to keep my attention held. I find myself thinking about the most random things sometimes in class and when I catch myself I snap back and try to catch back up to where we are in the lecture, but usually find myself lost. I’m getting there though. I have confidence in myself. It’s going to take baby steps and I have 5 more months to learn it all. I’m just so happy/thankful I have finally found a schedule that allows me to have time to study and take in all this information and have time to digest it all. It is still extremely exciting and I hope it continues to be.

Week 4 of School

The family visit was quite successful and fun! The ravioli did not turn out but with a great idea from my mom I got bought jumbo pasta shells and stuffed them, poured my sauce over them and baked the in the oven with cheese, everyone liked it! The haunted house was awesome!! I hadn’t been to one since I’ve been ‘grown up’ so it was cool not being the scared little kid. I laughed the entire time. It’s fun because being older you realize the characters in there are people just like me, and they also can’t touch me, so it’s pretty much just all looks. The strobe lights were pretty intense though and at times I literally could not see.  Would do it again in a heartbeat though! It would especially be fun to work one of them. In the waiting line there was a small girl dressed in a pretty long, flowing gown, but her face was painted up so she looked like she had a gaping gash in her cheek. She’d just go up and standing behind people in line until they noticed her. Really freaked a lot of the kids out. Would’ve been fun just to play that role. It rained the whole time we were in Seattle. Makes me miss it so much! Something about that rain, it is only comfort.

I feel like I’ve got the busiest week coming up ahead of me. I really want to start exercising more outside of school but I just haven’t been able to find the time. This week I’m going to focus on sticking to eating healthy and regularly and next week start incorporating more exercise, as I will have more time starting next week.

The dad at the residence I nanny for is on a business trip the next two nights so I am staying over with the children. I also have quizzes in school Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I actually just took the first quiz and feel pretty confident about it. I blanked out on one part of an answer on one question but I think I made up for it…hopefully.

I believe tomorrow is my last day at The Stafford. I took PTO off for Wednesday and Thursday, but I wasn’t scheduled to work those days anyway. I know my boss really wants me to work this coming weekend but I’m not going to give in because I have already made plans for the entire weekend. It is Halloween after all. I’m making a trip south to Eugene, OR to visit a few friends of mine that go to school down there that I don’t get to see very often. I haven’t visited the school or anything yet so I’m super excited!!!

In between school and work this week I have a few errands I need to run. If I can find the time I need to run a diagnostic on my car, at least that’s what the guy at Oil Can Henry’s told me. I need to get my kitty in for a check-up at the vet because she hasn’t had one in two years. I have some clothes and a TV I need to drop off at a friend’s house, I need to go to the bank, etc. etc. Thankfully I’ve learned how to keep things in my life pretty tidy and organized and it makes things a lot less stressful for me. I like coming home to a clean bedroom and a clean house! There is nothing I love more than coming home from a weekend away to having a clean home to lounge around in! You don’t always get that when you have roommates, but it’s working out great for me so far J

Going to learn about Bioenergetics of Exercise and Training now in class. Don’t know a thing about that yet, but I guess I’m about to find out. I’m still so happy that I love this school so much more than I thought I would. It sounds so cheesy to say but it makes me feel ‘smart’. In the sense that I am doing and learning things that I would have never thought I would be remotely interested in. Funny how things change…

Second day of the nanny job, Last day of the 3rd week of school

I had Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off of work at The Stafford this week and on the schedule it’s the same next week. Potentially, my last day there could be next Tuesday, which I would not complain about. I did try for 4 days, 32 hours, PTO that I had built up. I left the slip on my boss’s desk. I’m hoping I get it but if not I will at least get 20 hours on my last paycheck. I’ve never had a job where I got PTO before, so it’s really exciting, feels like extra money, but I also don’t know entirely how it works. I’m figuring it out now though. 

This afternoon after school I have my beginning aerial arts (silk ropes and trapeze) class, after class I am leaving for Lynnwood, WA (~20 mins north of Seattle) to visit my family!!! I am so excited; I haven’t seen them for a while! It’s my mom, one of her sisters, her kid and grandkids…so my mom, aunts, and cousins! The fun and favorites when it comes to my mom’s side of the fam. I’m making them dinner on Friday and afterward we’re going to a haunted house put on by one of the major radio stations in the area (Kiss 106.1). I haven’t actually cooked a meal for my family yet so I’m looking forward to it. I decided that I wanted to do a sausage and sage ravioli in a roasted red pepper sauce, all made from scratch –including the ravioli. With my incredibly busy schedule right now I am somewhat regretting the ravioli decision, but I am still hoping it will work out. Last week I went to a friend’s house warming party and started making ravioli dough there, but I didn’t end up wanting to finish it, the dough wasn’t right, and I was having trouble with the pasta roller. Yesterday I decided to throw out that old dough (that had gotten pretty nasty by this point) and make some new stuff. This dough turned out better but I’m still having trouble with the stupid pasta roller. I called my mom, who loves cooking too, and she is going to come to my aunt’s early on Friday and help me get the ravioli made. It will be fun. I don’t remember the last time I cooked with her. It’s funny because my aunt does not like vegetables, pretty much at all, so I’m making her her own separate simple marinara sauce to go over her ravioli. I think I want to serve dinner with a nice salad and garlic bread also. I will buy the bread and garlic it myself, but I’m not making the bread from scratch. I have a fear that my family isn’t going to like the dinner that much, because they’re so damn picky and super honest, but if that becomes the case I will be happy to not cook dinner for them again J

The second day at the nanny job went well. The son spent the night with his mom so he was not there, but the dad left me with a couple cleaning projects and it was fine. I met the 3^rd of 4 cats that the family has (still waiting to see the 4^th one). I love cats so it’s awesome for me! Two of the cats just followed me around while I cleaned and I talked to them and petted them while I did my duties. I will be returning to the house Monday morning before school and staying the night Monday and Tuesday with the kids while the dad goes on a business trip. The family seems so friendly, relaxed, fun and even though I haven’t known them long at all, open-minded too. It’s going to work out great; I’ve just got a feeling about it. But if it ends up not, it’s okay, because that just means it wasn’t meant to be and something better will come along.

It’s lunch break now at school. I’ve got lots of studying to do this weekend. Monday = quiz on chapter 1, Tuesday = quiz on chapter 2 nutrition, Wednesday anatomy quiz on the lat muscles. Wish me luck, have a good weekend!

New Chapter

Week 3, Tuesday

I’m into my third week of school now and it’s getting to the point where I realize I need to study a lot more and start reading the chapters that we are covering in class. Thankfully I just found out this morning that I got the nanny job I really wanted and with starting that I will have much more time for studying and working out!

I put in my two-week notice at my current place of work yesterday. I didn’t know that I had the nanny job at that point but I was hoping for the best. I figured if I did not get the nanny position I would find something else and eventually it would all pan out. I just came to a realization at The Stafford that I was constantly annoyed, stressed and/or angry and that is not how I should feel at a place that I work 40 hours per week. I love the people there, half of them are my good friends anyway that I happened to be able to get jobs. But I can’t handle food constantly being looked over, to the point of rancidness. There are also a lot of weird things going on that I’m still very unsure of, but I can see them happening. The way my managers act towards the big boss and little whispers that I hear passed around. For example the Front of House manager (bless her heart, I love her, she’s from Costa Rica) ran into the walk-in after me yesterday and she shook me saying, “I can’t believe you’re leaving me! I envy you!” followed by how happy she is for me, etc. I will miss the place a lot. The residents are great and I know many of them are quite fond of me so it will somewhat sad leaving.

But I am oh so excited for this new chapter in my life! I have never been a nanny before, but I think I am going to get the swing of things right away! I’m one hundred percent confident about it. It is also taking a step towards working with people in their homes, which is something I am interested in. I have said that  I want to be a personal cook/personal trainer (2 in1) duo, but I also just want to let my paths steer me and see what opportunities arise as I walk upon them.

Time for practical part of class! Work-out time!