wednesday already!

happy hump to you all! this weeks seems to be flying by already. i mean come on its already wednesday!

i was feeling a little under the weather last night, but it gave me a chance to relax at home and spend some time catching up on homework while i stayed warm in some comfy clothes watching a little great gilmore girls. and it might of also gave me an excuse to order some chinese food :) dairy boy hasn't been a huge fan of chinese lately and since he was already back home in idaho sleeping away for the early morning milking today, i took advantage of my solo night to eat some not-so-good for me food.

the last thing i wanted to do this morning was exercise, but i pushed through it and headed to the fieldhouse anyway. i decided to do an elliptical workout and then call it good. this one came from one of my usual go to spots for workouts, PBFingers. it was a great workout! i mean 18 resistance and incline is crazy! i not only got a great leg workout, but arms as well. be prepared to sweat with this one. 

i've been working on-campus all afternoon and with not much of "work" to actually do, so i tackled some more homework and reading for school. i have so much going on the next week with school, including four exams! yep, four! i need to buckle down and stay on top of things for the next few days. in between all of my reading, studying, and tidbits of work to do i've desperately been searching pinterest for a fun, cute, and super delicious valentine's dessert slash birthday cake to make next week. 

    

                                      source.                     source.                        source.

i am thinking some version of a layered cookie cake with ice cream and fudge on top. we will see though. until happy hump day!

superbowl weekend, and a weigh-in

this morning was the first official weekly weigh-in and hey i actually lost weight! not much...at all, but still some. but first a recap of my weekend. below is me and the dairy boy after he decided to have his sister shave his head and keep sporting the beard he has currently. not too bad if you ask me. our weekend included milking cows, some great brisket from a local restaurant in preston, a tour of the very well managed taskmaster holstein in lewiston, utah, and a relaxing sunday evening watching some superbowl commercials and eating some bomb enchiladas that we made for his family (i should really post that recipe, because it is definitely a keeper). all in all a great weekend!

now to the good stuff. this morning i weighed in and lost a .4 of a pound. that's not even a solid half pound, but i am keeping my positive attitude that  i even lost any. so yay! slow and steady wins the race, right?

02.11.13 goals

• weight loss
• current: 162.2
• goal: 161
• drink more water every day
• exercise at least 6 times this week
• smart snacking only (no useless or boredom snacking)
• implement a morning/evening small workout/exercise for every day

there we have some spankin' new goals along with a couple of last weeks that i want to make sure i am sticking to strong before they disappear off the weekly list. they need to become habits for me. and i'm loving my new goals this week. i already got a strong workout in this morning which included a 41 minute treadmill program and a quick and dirty circuit exercise. 

the treadmill workout is one of my pinterest finds. it is from fitsugar website that has amazing tips, workouts, and so much more. just make sure you are ready for this fast paced workout, because it kicked my little butt and had my fellow gym mates wondering how hard and fast i was going to go before i was done. check out the treadmill workout here. and my quick workout circuit was an adaptation to this morning workout. 

i downsized it just a bit for me to ease into, and took out triceps lifts since i was in an area that couldn't accommodate as well for them. great workout this morning though, and then as i prepared the dairy boy and i's dinner tonight of slow cooker bbq pork ribs i ran out and grab more bbq sauce and grabbed myself a bolthouse farms smoothie. so good my friends! give them a try if you haven't!

i snacked on my smoothie, and some whole wheat toast with butter and jam during my family finance class. now it's time to get to the pile of reading and homework that i hear calling my name. have a great monday y'all!

And all before 7 a.m.

Today was day two of my new (and also my third) job. I am the newly hired "lab assistant  for the Animal, Dairy, Veterinary Science Department here at Utah State University. Now, it sounds like I am going to be a cool lab scientist  but actually I work out at the South Farm in Wellsville feeding beef calves for a research project. Yay me! 

Actually I quite like it because it gets me back to my roots of working on a farm with animals. I'm more of a dairy cow kind of girl but these 24 beef calves will just have to do for now. And the best part of this job is that I wake up 4:30 in the morning to feed them before my classes start for the day. Did I say best part? I actually mean the not-so-best part. This is just yet another responsibility to add to my very large list of things to accomplish every day. The real best part is that I only do it during the week. (I can still go to the great little town of Preston Idaho every weekend to see the dairy boy then! Yeah yeah!) 

Don't worry though I am not letting this wake-up-at-4:30-in-the-morning stop me though! Once I got back from the farm I made an out fit change and did a quick workout before I had to shower and head to class. And I decided upon this outdoor run circuit workout from Julie at Peanut Butter Fingers. She has a GREAT blog about being healthy that has become one of my daily reads these days. This was a great and quick workout I could get in for the day before all my classes, meetings, and work came. It wasn't the hardest work out I've ever done but it felt great to take action, sweat a bit, and all before seven in the morning! 

Source 

Dedication, Determination, and Motivation

I have now completed two posts about change. Have I actually changed though? 

Part of me thinks no not at all but the then again I kind of have. I am thinking about what I am eating, drinking, doing, or more importantly not doing! That's just it though...for the most part I have only been thinking about it.

I had a lovely (and I use the word lovely in some what of a sarcastic voice) conversation with my boyfriend, the dairy boy, about dedication. You see, he has recently lost an amazing 40 pounds! Woohoo! Way to go babe! So of course being healthy, eating right, and exercising are common topics for us these days. Now I know if I say "I'm fat" many people would shake their head at me with disagreement. And although I am not obese or showing more weight like crazy I have gained  some weight in the past year. I hate to admit that I have, but it is the truth.

Seeing the dairy boy's amazing results and seeing his dedication, determination and happiness that the healthy life change has brought him, I want it myself. I have been talking about doing it. Making changes in my life. Mainly eating better and exercising. I have talked of these changes for so long, too long. However, I have not had the dedication or determination to actually act and make the change reality. And in our "lovely" conversation about dedication, the dairy boy informed me of how I have had none, which is sadly so true! I have talked the talk now I need to walk the walk. So I decided to find some inspiration from Pinterest to get me going and find that determination, dedication and motivation that I oh so need! Enjoy!

No more fast food for me...kind of.

So I have made my decision. No fast food for me this summer, well kind of. I don't think I could ever give up all fast food forever, because I love food! (I mean how could I live in Indiana for three months and not eat at Steak'n'Shake!) I've decided to make some changes though to be healthier and get in shape and this is the next big decision I have made.

I am only going to allow myself to eat fast food once a month this summer. This seems like a feasible goal for me, although I know I'm going to want to break it multiple times, especially since I will be working in Columbus this summer where there are hundreds of choices. I should probably clarify that the "fast food" that I can only eat once month is what we would call the bad and unhealthy fast food. I thought about defining fast food as any eating place with a drive-thru window, but Subway and even some Panera Bread places have drive-thru windows, and I would not consider them unhealthy. So I am banning myself from the so-called unhealthy fast food places, which means no frostys from Wendy's, no pizza from Domino's but just once a month. Only one fast food meal all together each month this summer.

As I am putting this new stipulation into writing I am realizing the reality of it. And it's not making me very happy. I will definitely see the benefits though when I am training for the Top of Utah Marathon that is in September, and hopefully in my wallet as well. Not eating fast food all the time will help me to save my hard earned money this summer that I will desperately need for school this fall.

It all begins now. Hopefully I can have enough will power to stay strong, especially as I am driving across the country in two weeks back home to Indiana. Not eating fast food or only eating it once will be quite a challenge, but here I go. I can do this!