Hello!

Hey everyone! It's been a while... it's been a whirlwind few weeks!

First of all, and I apologize if I announced this already here, but I have a new job!  I am very happy with my new team, and my position.  I work from home, which is difficult when you are a people person. So, the next announcement...

I'm moving!

That's right! I will be leaving the state that I have called home for 24 years... I will be moving south of the Mason-Dixon Line... I will be calling North Carolina my new home!

So, to my next topic... I have not been doing well with the weight-loss, as intended on my original list.  I took a long journey on the well-traveled path of junk food.  Right now, I am just resetting, and making a lifestyle change.  I have been reading this book:

My mother's friend wrote this book.  It's all about resetting your mindset about food, and how we feel about it.

I am looking forward to walk through the journey this book is offering for me, and how I can change my mindset about eating!

Vegetarian Update

Well, last week I told you I would update on Friday with the vegetarian recipes I made.  Sadly, I only made two of the recipes.

I'm sticking to being a vegetarian for May.  It's a fun challenge!  What I'm finding is this:  I buy too much food, and a lot of it goes to waste.

I am desperately trying to get back to how I was eating about a month and a half ago... to no avail.  I refuse to step on the scale and see the weight that I worked hard to take off only to be back on because I can't control myself when it comes to food.  So I am a little disappointed in myself.

I know that I am the only one who can make that change, but I am finding it so difficult to do.  What helped me before was using Weight Watchers Online... so I'm wondering if I should get back into using WW again.

I also have not been running as much as I used to.  As soon as I was laid off, I took a run... and then stopped.  I've pushed myself to run once a week.  This is not good because I have a 5K coming up in July.  However, I bought "Runner's World" which has practical advice for running your first 5K.  They even have a training schedule listed.  I have about 10 weeks until my 5K, which allows to to use that training schedule twice.

So, this post is more or less written to keep myself accountable.  Number 2: Loose 25 pounds by my 25 birthday.  I am going to do it because I said I would.

I have the power to make a change in my lifestyle, and I've done it before.  So, because I said I would, I am doing it again!

Here goes nothing!

Meatless May

On Monday I told you I would be doing another challenge this month.  This is a month long challenge for myself - I will be going Vegetarian for the month of May!

I have been talking about becoming a vegetarian for the last few months for health reasons - mainly to help with my anxiety.  I haven't been able to find much information online about the connection to animal meat and anxiety, but I read about this in the "Anxiety and Phobia Workbook."

... [I]t was mentioned that steroid hormone residues in red meat can exert an effect not unlike the body's own steroid hormones, activating natural defenses against stress and suppressing immunity.  Another reason, however, is that meat, poultry, dairy and cheese products, and eggs - along with sugar and refined flour products - are all acid-forming foods.  These foods are not necessarily acid in composition, but they leave an acid in the body after they are metabolized, making the body itself more acid. - Anxiety and Phobia Workbook

For the last few weeks, I've successfully cut out read meats from my diet.  Now I will be eliminating poultry. Cheese and dairy products won't be coming out of my diet for now - one step at a time! (Actually, I'm not sure if these will ever come out of my diet...)

Anyway, my plan is to cook during the week, and save the weekends for leftovers! Here are this weeks meals:

Mediterranean Quinoa Salad

Ratatouille

Greek Salad Sandwhich

Yum! I will post my results of each meal on Friday!

Disconnecting

I think I am going to challenge myself on Saturday... I think I am going to give up Facebook for the day, and see how much I really miss it.

When it really comes down to it, Facebook is just a time waste.  Yes, I update my status with "profound" thoughts and ideas.  But the majority of the time, I'm just looking up people, seeing who's married, who's had kids, what's going on in other people's lives.  Isn't this something I can do without the help of Facebook?  We have phone numbers for a reason...

Not only that, but the people I look up are people I know of, or I talked to years ago, and aren't really a part of my life now.  It's just an added worry, and honestly, gossip.

I'm not sure if I'm ready to give up Facebook completely, but last night, I deactivated my Twitter account.  I never used it anyway, and I found it to be a tool to look up people that I don't care so much about only to smile in their misery. (Horrible, I know, but it's what I did, and it's what I DON'T want to do.

Anywho, I will keep this blog, it's a great space for me to 'journal' about what's going on in my life.

I'll be back Wednesday with another fun challenge for the month of May!

Don't Burn Those Bridges!

I've been absent the last week and a half.  And a lot has happened in a week and a half...  Last week I was laid off from my job.  And to be honest, I was expecting this, and applied to several other jobs before the lay-off was mentioned.

Fortunately, it happened at an incredible time.  My Master's program holds a conference twice a year.  Companies come in, and present about topics in the Instructional Design world.  The graduating class does a presentation, which is the equivalent to defending your Master's thesis.  And on the final day, several companies send in recruiters to interview the students, or anyone who graduated from the program.  This conference happened the same week I was laid off.

Let me just say, I connected with people I didn't expect to help me at all, and I networked with others that I didn't think I would be seeing once I graduated.  And holy
moly, my job options have opened up, and taken me further than I could have done by myself.  And for that, I am grateful.

I guess what I am saying here is, don't burn those bridges you once built.  Don't close those doors, because you just never know who is going to walk through.

These people I connected with have helped me, supported me, and advocated for me, and the job opportunities are just pouring in.  It truly is incredible.

My Heart Aches Today

My heart just aches.  It always does when tragedies occur.  My heart and my prayers go out to the victims, the families, the heroes, the bystanders, the volunteers, and anyone else I did not mention.

It's upsetting that a tragedy like this is what causes me to send out prayers to those I don't know.  Tragedy occurs everywhere, everyday.

I've been praying for myself a lot lately. And for my family and friends.  Sometimes I get so caught up in what is going on around me, that I forget that others have it just as hard, or harder than I do.

So today, I will pray for myself, and my family, and my friends, as I do everyday.  But I will also pray for anyone affected by tragedies, even if it's their own personal tragedy.

And, because of these recent events (and my dad as well), I've been inspired to learn emergency response and first aid skills.  So, my list is 26 items long.  (As anticipated, this list is ever growing.)

26. Learn first aid skills

My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean...

I'm feeling rather uninspired today. So here's a picture of the pony I'm leasing!

Her name is Bonnie, by the way.