Weight Loss Wednesday

Start Date: 12/13/12
Today's Date: 12/19/12
Weight Lost Gained: +0.4

Week Successes:  Unfortunately, I need to look to elsewhere besides weight loss to have some successes for the week.  I took my American Music final last night and only got one question wrong.  I am now one final away from being DONE with my undergrad degree.  I cannot wait!

Week Struggles: I struggled a lot with the weekend.  It was graduation day on Saturday so I was not home for the majority of the day.  But that's no excuse to let my efforts to drink 8 glasses of water fall to the wayside.  Definitely something I need to work on because not only did I let the weekend get away from me I've been letting the poor weekend habits carry over to the week so far.

Lessons Learned: I think the lesson I learned this week is the weekends do matter.  I cannot slack on the weekend and expect to jump right back into it on Monday.  It just doesn't work like that.  And I can't expect it to work like that when right now the bad habits are stronger than the good ones.  I need to push for those good habits to be at the top of the list.

Goals for Next Week: I'm going to continue the goal from last week, drink at least 8 glasses of water every day.  I need to do this.  I feel better when I do this.  I found last week at work I was getting up more to use the bathroom but it actually made my legs and rear end feel better because otherwise I will just sit at my desk for hours.

So, to sum it all up the week was not a success in my opinion when it comes to weight loss.  But to look on the bright side of things, I did only show a gain of 0.4 of a pound, it could have been much worse.

28 Day Challenge Update: Today is day 7 of the 28 day challenge and as evident by the above recap of my week I'm a little bit further from my goal than I would like to be.  If I buckle down this week I think I can get back to where I started, and maybe a little closer to my goal.

Do you struggle with changing bad habits on the weekends?

I'm a Graduate!

Happy Sunday readers.  I hope you all have had an enjoyable weekend.  Can you believe we're already half way through December?!

My weekend was a good, no great, one!  Yesterday I graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point with my bachelors degree in business administration with a concentration in management.

Cody & I

My friend Cody and I were lucky enough to graduate on the same day so we had someone to hang out with the hour before the ceremony started.  There were a total of four of us graduating yesterday from the collaborative degree program (people I have had classes with).  A lot of our fellow classmates graduated in May, including Chelsea.

Holy crow, she did it!

I was lucky enough to be able to attend Chelsea's graduation ceremony so I had an idea of how the ceremony would go yesterday.  It lasted about two hours.  The most boring part was listening to them call names of fellow classmates that you don't know so you just sat there watching them walk across the stage and shake hands.

Unfortunately, it rained all day.  Yeah, it's December in Wisconsin and it's raining something is wrong if you ask me.  Raining means there were no nice outdoor pictures with family.  We did head outdoors under the overhang at the entrance so we didn't get wet but the background looks really dreary, nothing like in Chelsea's pictures.

After pictures were taken my family headed to Chili's for lunch.  As we were waiting for a table I opened gifts from my family.  My parents gave me a Pandora bracelet and three charms.  The top charm in the picture below is a zen charm to remind me to always do what makes me happy.  Next is the ice love, white heart charm which is to remind me of the love my parents have for me.  And the final charm from my parents is the graduation hat to remember the day by.  The next charm, red stepping stones, is from my aunt and uncle.  And the final charm, faith hope and love, is from my grandparents.  This charm has an anchor (hope), a cross (faith), and a heart (love) on it.

We enjoyed an awesome lunch together.  I had the Cajun pasta with grilled shrimp, my favorite item at Chili's.  We followed up with two chocolate lava cakes.  Sooooo good!

My parents and I stopped at the jewelry store on the way home to make sure the size of the bracelet was okay and to learn how to open the bracelet and add charms.  (We couldn't figure it out at Chili's!)

Once home after FaceTiming with Chelsea (sad she couldn't be at my graduation, or even in town for it) I slept all afternoon since I did not get a whole lot of sleep thanks to going out the night before unexpectedly.

Perfect graduation day in my opinion other than the poor weather.

Unfortunately, I am not completely finished with school yet.  I still have three finals to take, which I should have been studying for today but that didn't happen.  I spent my Sunday watching football (Packers beat the Bears!), decorating Christmas cookies (made some green and gold ones even!), and trying to enroll in benefits at my new job.  I ended up needing to email a human resource person because I had questions so that's still not complete.  (Frustrating...)  Being an adult sucks sometimes.

Stars, boots, Christmas trees, snowmen made with cows, and cow bells

Tomorrow marks the beginning of my last part-time work week at my new job.  I'm looking forward to going full-time and next year having PTO time and holiday time.  And hopefully once I really get into my job (I'm doing the very tip of the iceberg of what I'll be doing right now) I will enjoy it so working all day every day won't be a bad thing.  With that said, I'm off to bed to get back into my good sleeping routine!

Have a great night readers.  I'll leave you with some questions.  :)

Do you decorate Christmas cookies?  What kind of decorating tools do you use, colored sugar, or icing with decorating tools?

What was your favorite weekend event?

Weight Loss Wednesday errr Thursday

Just want to do a real quick Weight Loss Wednesday (Thursday) post before I have to finish getting ready for work.  Side note - I am LOVING not starting until 10am.  I can sleep until 7 and still have 2 hours to get ready and not feel rushed.  This lets me pack food and do my hair and stuff, something I used to not have enough time for because I would stay in bed long after I should have gotten up.  Anyways, back to WLW.

Start Date: 12/13/12
Today's Date: 12/13/12 - Day 1 of my 28 Day Challenge with Lex
Weight Lost: 0

Week Successes: I'm going to just focus on Monday through today (Thursday).  I have been successful in getting up when my alarm goes off and not using the snooze button.  This is something I definitely want to continue with, especially once I go full time and all I'm doing is work.  I don't want to be late ever, unless it's for some reason other than over sleeping that isn't really in my control.

Week Struggles: Right now I would say my struggle is not knowing how to handle lunch at my new job yet.  This is the second day now that I am packing snacks rather than an actual meal for lunch.  I'm definitely going to ask about how they do lunch today so I can plan ahead for next week.

Lessons Learned: Well what I've learned isn't really something new but I'll share it anyways because it is important.  Weight loss doesn't happen on its own!  I can't sit back and expect the pounds to come off while I'm not exercising or watching what I'm eating.  So, starting today that's changing!

Goals for Next Week: My goal for today through Wednesday (12/19/12) is to drink at least 8 glasses of water every day, even weekends (my weakness).  I would also like to see at least half a pound lost.  My first week back in the weight loss game so I'm setting a reasonable goal.  Ultimately my goal for every week will be to lose one pound.

Have a great Thursday peeps!  I'm off to finish getting ready for work and then heading in for my second day!

Weight Loss Wednesday: 28 Day Challenge

Remember when I posted about Holding for the Holidays?  Well, obviously since I left my job I won't be completing the Hold for the Holidays challenge.  Doesn't mean I won't still be working towards my weight loss goal and at least holding for the holidays.

My good friend Lex (who blogs at LifebyLex, check her out!) is trying out this new (I think) thing called Diet Bet where you pay in a set amount of money "betting" that you'll lose 4% of your body weight in 28 days.  She blogged about how she joined a Diet Bet challenge that starts the day after Christmas (read about it here).  I had left a comment wishing her luck and saying I just couldn't justify spending $25 (which is the entry "fee" for that particular challenge) when I've been spending my money a little crazily lately.

Tonight Lex emailed me about a Diet Bet challenge that starts tomorrow for only $10/entry. A much more reasonable price for me with my out of control spending.  But when I really thought about it I decided Diet Bet just isn't for me right now.  Mentally I'm not ready to put money down and have to lose 4% of my body weight in just 28 days.  It's a pretty lofty goal, like 2 pounds per week for me.  Granted, I'm at the start of my weight loss (again, ugh!) so maybe the pounds would fall off pretty quickly if I stuck to eating better and working out but there's just something mentally stopping me.

Luckily Lex is awesome and understands and offered me an alternative.  I'm just going to follow along with the challenge (while she really does it) and try my best to lose that 4% of my body weight in 28 days, starting tomorrow.  So, essentially Lex and I are in our own little game.

Since Chelsea moved to Maryland I've lost my workout buddy so I've been struggling to go to the gym.  Actually, I'll be honest.  I've been struggling for months, even before Chelsea moved.  Which means I've been paying for months of Y membership that I haven't been using.  This needs to stop!  Wasn't I just talking about how I'm out of control with my spending and here I am wasting a monthly membership fee by not even using it?!  Horrible I know.

Tomorrow begins my 28 day challenge with Lex.  Weigh-in tomorrow morning before work.  Healthy food and water to take to work and Friday I'm hitting the Y to get a work out in.

I'm also going to bring back the Weight Loss Wednesday weekly post that I failed at earlier this fall.  Here's the format I'll be following.  If I get the chance tomorrow I'll do an actual post on WLW (even though it will be Thursday).

Start Date:
Today's Date:
Weight Lost:

Week Successes:
Week Struggles:
Lessons Learned:
Goals for Next Week:

Support and encouragement are definitely welcome!

Frustrated with the USPS

October 29th, 6 weeks ago, I mailed a package to Chelsea in a Priority Mail box.  I was told when I picked the box up from the post office that it would only take a few days to arrive at its destination.  6 weeks is not a few days.

I mailed a picture frame with pictures of Chelsea and I inside and a card.  Unfortunately the glass was broken when Chelsea received the package yesterday.  Not the end of the world considering I thought she was never going to receive the package at all.  And other than that the contents were in good condition.

I tried to register a complaint with USPS last night but wouldn't you know it their site was slower than molasses/not working.  Thankfully I was able to register my complaint with them this morning.

Lucky for them they've already responded via email and are looking for additional information to help them research why my package took so long to arrive at its destination.  Once Chelsea is home from work she's going to provide me with the tracking number (internal since I didn't purchase any myself) and then I will be able to respond to them and hopefully get the ball rolling on figuring out what happened.

If only that package could talk...

Have you ever had problems with the USPS?

The End of a Chapter & Divergent

I have been busy busy this last week at work.  Found out Monday morning I would be training someone to take over my job duties (surprise!) so I spent all week training someone while trying to wrap things up before my last day Friday.  I did the best I could and had to just accept that I could not do it all with having to spend most of my day training.

Thursday my department had a food day to celebrate my upcoming graduation from college and to "drown their sorrows that I'm leaving them".  It was a Mexican themed food day so we had salsa chicken, beef taco meat, all the fixings for tacos, and some salsa & cheese dip which I used on my chicken taco.  My second plate was chicken nachos with the salsa & cheese dip since all of the soft shells were gone.  It was at lunch that I was presented with a card with some very sweet messages from my co-workers and a gift, a glass dish full of Jolly Ranchers and an Amazon gift card.

While I'm all set to start my new job tomorrow and I could not be more excited it also felt strange to realize I was walking out of the building I had worked the last 4+ years of my life.  But it is just the ending of a chapter in my life and tomorrow marks the beginning of a new one.  My clothes are picked out for tomorrow, and I have all of the documents necessary to set up direct deposit and prove that I am eligible to work in the United States.  All that's left to do is wait for 9am to roll around so I can hit the road.

Tonight, since I finished my homework already (shocking for me), I wanted to share with you a good book I read recently.  Thursday night I purchased Divergent by Veronica Roth for my Kindle with my Amazon gift card.

www.amazon.com

I decided to download this thanks to Sara who blogs over at The Foodie Diaries.  She had been tweeting about reading it on her way home from Thanksgiving in Florida with her family.  She liked it so much she even re-read it again since then already!

I had also heard about the book from Cely at Running of the Reeses.  If you want to see her thoughts on the book you can read it here (#3).

The book did not disappoint!  Here's the book description from Amazon.

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue--Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent).  On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives.  For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is--she can't have both.  So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made.  Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences.  as initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are--and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen.  but Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death.  And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves...or it might destroy her. 

 It reminded me of The Hunger Games a lot but yet was not The Hunger Games (if that makes sense).  I truly enjoyed the book and once I had the chance to really dive into it I could not put it down.  I finished it this morning.

Thanks to the gift card I purchased and downloaded Insurgent, the second book in the trilogy, right after finishing Divergent this morning.  I held off on getting too far into the book as I had to complete a final version of a paper I have been working on all semester to submit for peer reviews.  But now that homework is done I'm going to start reading while I watch the Packers take on the Lions in Sunday Night Football.

If you've read Divergent, what did you think?