Insanity Baby

So last summer I purchased the dvd workout system called Insanity. Usually I find those things to be ridiculous. Lose 10 lbs in the first week blah blah. Insanity never made that claim, but they did say at the end of the 60 days, if you worked your heart out you would see results. I bought it because I wanted something new to do instead of the walking, running, elliptical and strength training I typically did. However, I made it through like 2 days last year. I'm not sure why I stopped probably because I was weak. Insanity also indicates you should be an intermediate/advanced exerciser. Last time I barely workedout prior. I decided to whip out the ol' Insanity dvds and give it a second try. I had been doing a variety of workouts before hand: walking, kettleball, taebo, zumba and another dvd called Ripped, which is taught by a Canadian woman. Its basically strength training intervals with shots of cardio mixed in. I love doing that and hope to get some more of her dvd's. So I've been getting a variety of cardio and muscular work done prior to restarting Insanity. As indicated above I only made it 2 days the last time I tried. I currently jsut finished the day 5 workout. Tomorrow I do day 6 and then Saturday is my day of rest. I can honestly say, I have never pushed my body harder than I do with this. I try not to take that many breaks, because I know your body won't change if you don't push it. I still need a few breaks here and there to catch my breath, even the dude who runs the show, Shaun T, has to stop. I haven't noticed a ton of difference with weight, but i do feel stronger and each day that passes I take less and less breaks which I find to be a good thing! :) There is a mix of cardio and plyometrics and some strength training. So even though, I'm still the same weight I was when I started 5 days ago, I think I'm just gaining muscle. (Let's hope so, cuz I've been eating exactly what I should.) Also the workouts are about 35-40 mins in length and I feels like I only work out for 10 mins by the time its done. It's crazy, but I'm hoping it shows results. I will try to update once at the end of every week to see where I'm at.

Setbacks, a Part of Life

I have said many times in posts before about how I'm going to be finished with school come August of this year. Everything seemed like it was going down that road. Well, yesterday I found out one of the classes I'm taking during the summer got cancelled. Great! It's offered twice during the fall, but I don't want to stay here for one class. Then I was told to screw the summer classes and just take those classes during fall and take the summer off. Honestly, I don't want to wait any longer than I have to do. I'm meeting with my advisor tomorrow and hopefully he can tell me that this class is offered online elsewhere, or if I can do something else in place of it, or get it waived. This is the same advisor that underestimated my ability to do anything. He didn't think I could handle an independent study...well I've proved thus far that I can. So until I meet with my advisor tomorrow I can't say which way this is going to go. I'm hoping in my favor. It just seems that nothing as of recent has come easy for me. I keep stumbling upon these setbacks. So far I've been able to get around them, but not without working at them first. I know setbacks are a part of life, but I look around and everyone seems to be so successful and don't have to go through these issues. It's just one class! Why do they do this? I've been told that setbacks make you stronger. If thats the case I will be the strongest person I know. I'm afraid that I will have wasted all this time and energy I will have nothing left to fight for anything else. I want to graduate so bad! It's what I'm fighting for right now and I'm not going to give up!

Miles for Causes

Ok, so people do specific races to raise money for specific causes like diabetes, cancer, etc. I've been doing lots of thinking, well some thinking anyways about how I could put my everyday walking/running to good use. I enjoy exercising, but sometimes it becomes monotonus and I try to mix things up. Sure I do strength training and taebo some zumba among others. But there is nothing like getting outside and enjoying the fresh air and taking a walk or a run. Why can't what I do everyday, such as walking be put to good use? Why should we wait for a special marathon to raise money? Ok granted it would get really expensive really quick depending on how I figure it out, especially on my salary. I first thought of for every mile I walked/ran I would donate a dollar to a chosen fund. Then I started to think, you know how many miles I could log in a day and then in week? I might sound a little selfish if I don't give that much, but I also need to live too! Then I thought maybe a dollar for every 5 miles I walk/run. This seems rather reasonable to me. I'm not sure what fund I would give money to. Perhaps every 2 wks I would accumulate miles and money and send it off to one cause and keep rotating between places. This would also continue to be an encourager for me to keep working out everyday knowing I have something else to workout for. I still haven't figured out all the logistics of it, but I don't think it could be too complicated. Then one day I will walk/run/bike across the USofA and raise money along the way for the cause of my choice, but thats along way off yet. I would also like some people to accompany me on that eventual journey! Peace and Love!

SpRiNg BrEaK

I just got back to school after a nice relaxing spring break. I was not like every other college student who goes far away on vacation to get a nice tan and get drunk. I went down to Florida to visit my parents. I didn't do a whole lot mainly caught up on some reading and watched lots of crap on TV. I was going to do homework and I should have so now I'm going to have a really rough first week back trying to get it all done. Here is a quick review of what I did this week. Saturday I traveled 7 hrs to Florida. I met my parents at this podunk little town because they wanted to go to a chocolate festival. Low and behold there was no chocolate at the chocolate festival. That was very disappointing. So we ate at a local diner and drove another hr to get back home. On Monday I went to the allergist to see if they could give me something to stop my nose from running. That was an epic fail. The doctor prescribed more asthma medications, well that isn't going to help my nose and my horrible allergies. Hopefully by next year I will be in a place where my allergies won't be so bad. I also went out to dinner with my aunt and uncle that night. On Tuesday my dad and I went to see the movie Rango. Which was a pretty good movie. I liked the western themed music. All week I helped my aunt and uncle by taking there 3 dogs outside and playing with them while they were at work. I got paid pretty good for my work! :) Finally my last day was St. Patty's day and my mom, a friend of hers and I went out to a piano bar. I drank a few Guiness' in honor of the Irish. Pretty much the best beer ever created. Everyone was decked out in their green clothes and hats and beads. It was a fun night! Then yesterday I returned to S. Carolina after a long drive, or so it seemed. Having plenty of beers and not enough sleep the night before didn't help my cause. Lesson learned I suppose. That is about it. Back to school on Monday, finishing the semester, final homestretch!

Almost, but not quite

I don't follow much of my college's sports teams mainly because they all stink. I also don't have time to go to games as I'm busy working and trying to keep up with school work. Today CCU's mens basketball team had a chance to be the first team to make it into the NCAA basketball tourney. They were ranked number 1 in their conference, but fell short today against UNC Asheville. Not once during the game did they have a lead and the closest they got was within 2 points and at times were behind by 10pts. In the end it wasn't enough. This is the second year they have lost in the conference championship and unable to clinch a ticket to the big dance. It makes me wonder what could have been if they had their 2 star players playing. One was injured a few games ago and the other was suspended at the beginning of this year. The basketball team has also been under investigation for illegal recruiting which seems to be a problem across many campuses. I wonder if this had any impact on their play as well.

A Lost Child

I don't mean that literally. So I have told you before about my babysitting job. I don't intend to share much about that because its not my place to get into someone else's personal life. However, this little 3 year old boy is already beginning to lose his way. It's not him doing it but his parents. It seems to me that this is a growing trend across the United States. Parents fail to discipline their children. With no discipline the child learns no boundaries and feels they can get away with anything. They are spoiled and are manipulators later in life. I am afraid to say that this little boy doesn't get disciplined except by me. His mother came home last night after work and took a quick shower and left to go out with some friends and while I do understand her want to go out does she need to? What about her son? Of course the boy had a tantrum and didn't want her to leave and rightly so he never sees her. She threatened to put him in a timeout if he didnt stop. How many times did she say that? More than enough and never put him in timeout. She said to me, "I'm so horrible. I threaten but never follow through. I'm just a softie." I don't think thats an excuse. I'm teaching him the word no and what a timeout is. If he misbehaves he gets a warning if he does it again he sits in timeout. But I feel that its a wasted effort since I don't live with him or raise him. Poor kid! And unfortunately he's not the only child who goes through this.

Its been awhile

I can't believe its been nearly a month since I was last on here. I guess in a way that means I am busy and getting things done. Or I suppose I have nothing to blog about. The first is more true however. I can't believe in 2 and a half months I will be done with my 2nd to last semester of college. Then I'm on to taking a few summer courses and if all holds I should be done mid August. These next few weeks are going to fly by so fast with projects and tests and midterms coming up. Today was relaxing for a little bit. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. 80 degrees and sunny for February isn't bad. Tonight I get to babysit for a little while and then I get to come back and just lay down and perhaps go to sleep early. I have off the entire weekend and don't quite know what to do with myself. I was thinking cleaning, depending on the weather and perhaps getting a head start on some homework that is due in the distant future. That is all for now and I hope soon some interesting things will happen so I may share them with you!