May 2012

April was a whirlwind. Continued incremental changes in diet, didn't get up to speed exercise wise. Made slow progress on home projects.

APRIL 
Nutrition: Managed to continue to cut out sources of lactose and have been having less attacks. Started going to Chipotle again more regularly, getting rice, black beans, meat, lettuce, this is much healthier option than our usual fast food.
Home: Started garden planning, continued to clean out Office so most of the clutter is now empty boxes!
Finance:  Started process of preparing for home refinance.
Family: Started craft time with Lydia with a fun mothers day project, learning to cut with kid scissors under supervision, and some of the usual play dogh and coloring time. Also started doing "homework" in a prepare for preschool book, Specifically wanted one geared to preparing for math concepts. Lydia gets a sticker after each page which she loves. Resumed using the chore chart with Lydia and hope to swap out some old tasks she is good at now (like potty) and add new ones, specifically ones that help with our house cleanliness.
Weight: I didn't write down what my weight was in early April, but I remember having maintained around 202 to 205.

MAY (plan)
Nutrition: Snacks more at work, less at home in the late evenings. Keep working in Subway, Pho Tai, and now Chipotle in as "healthier" options for lunch.
Mental: Sleep more! Wind down the end of each day with planning out the next day.
Home: Lots of projects we want to get done before appraisal for the home refinance.  Finish clutter busting in office and extend clutter busting to Kitchen, basement etc.
Finance: Clean up credit report. Pay down mortgage to be ready for refinance end of June.
Weight: May 1st was 202.5. Plan for May is Exercise! Choose some form of exercise every other day. Walk at work, walk with Lydia at night, cleaning for 1 hour, gardening for 1 hour, Exercise class at RAC.

March 2012

As of first of March weight is 202.5 lbs
Jeans size 18/20

Still not willing to move to a specific restrictive diet, i.e. anything that says don't eat XYZ. Been adding lots of black bean dishes the last week, and got a big batch of pre-cut fruit which worked great for meal accompaniments and for just a snack.

I found one 8:30 am class at my health club I want to try out, and one 5:30 PM class. Next week I hope to get there.

Mid February Update

Well friends, 3 changes made.

1. Started walking at work after lunch (30 min)
2. Eating about once a week at Subway instead of always fried fast food 
3. Alternating my daily coke with Diet Cherry Coke. 

What changes have you made? Next up for me is actually getting to the Gym I pay so dearly for. One morning a week and one evening a week is my goal.

Start 2012 with a whimper...

Is it possible to sustain interest and energy in changing our lives beyond Feb 1st or March 1st, I sure hope so because I intentionally started 2012 out with a whimper instead of a bang! In 2012 I'm looking to make incremental small improvements in EVERYTHING! Also a strong focus on keeping going, checking in monthly and recruiting others with similar goals to keep up motivation. January was focused on house improvements. Painting, organizing, getting the main living areas of our house to a more "visitor ready" state. These projects will continue long past January but my husband and I went from talking about changes to making them in January. Changes are focused on things that keep our existing supplies organized, and areas of the house that tend to be the dumping ground, like papers on the counter, craft boxes in the office and books on the stairs. I participated in a 2 week "boot camp" to organize my home, treating it like a self paced correspondence course rather than a day by day task. About at day 5 right now :) I also started reading Health at Every Size by Linda Bacon. February is working on my nutrition and exercise, starting with finding allies, both local and friends and family members from far away, hence starting up this blog again. I can't think of a better way to solicit and continue support across the miles, and at the convenience of the contributes time. The Mayo Clinic Diet was recommended to me by a friend who is currently reading it and trying to put its advice into practice, so I will read that next. What will the focus in March be? Career, Entrepreneurship, Travel, Spouse relationship?? Give me some suggestions!?!?

Hot and Healthy Out the Window

Fitness and nutrition have gone completely out the window the last year. Job uncertainty, lifestyle changes from starting a family and general "getting oldness" has been the norm for me the last 2 years. I need a mind shift from planning exercise into my life to planning my life around exercise and nutrition.

The Geek in Me

For the first time in my entire life I have a product in my hands before its publicly available. I feel an obligation as a geek to post something about it. The Samsung Google Chrome laptop becomes avail on Tuesday June 14th. I tried to get on their beta test list to get a free one in Dec 2010, however didn't make it. They did however give me the chance to order one early with an email last week!

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/11/stub-official-samsung-reveals-chrome-os-laptops/

I like it. Still working through some printing issues (seems to not like sending duplex jobs to my network attached printer), and will have to figure out how well it works with my current digital cameras and picture organization. Also some confusion on plug in's (doesn't view embedded windows media player file out of the box).

Power on time is really nice compared to my Thinkpad x60, and suspend/wake time is awesome. I look forward to trying out the 3G this weekend when we do some travel.

This laptop doesn't run windows, doesn't run linux, is just an environment running a super browser and it keys in to my extensive use of Google Applications. Because of this people will complain that the cost of $500 is too much, but I disagree. Its got a specific purpose and it does it well. ALSO in my personal use, web based content is 95% of what I need.

Pro's

• Camera/Mic/Speakers are serviceable
• Web browsing without the bloat of a zillion installed programs, virus scanners, task management
• Responsive and intuitive setup of wireless and login to access existing google information
• Multi SD card readers and USB 3.0 USB 2.0
  

Cons

• Duplex Printing to our printer seems not possible
• Heavier than I expected for the size of screen (mac books have ruined us all on this front)
• Won't be possible to store and manage even the last 3 months of my personal photo and video content

If you have not made any attempts to get into or understand "the cloud" this device combined with a google account would be a feasible place to start. If you already leverage google documents, contacts, calendar in your life this device will be GREAT!

Updated Goals

Friends,

Anyone have a change in goals for health or fitness? Mine were stale so I updated them today.

-Danielle