All You Are

First off, I've failed at blogging for the last few months. Oh well, get over it. I have. :)

Yesterday I had the pleasure of having brunch with some wonderful ladies of Alpha Phi. Every other month our alumnae chapter gets together, and it's always a treasured experience. This one was extra special. Though it started with me not wanting to go anymore because I'd have to drive two hours to get there (I of course live the furthest away, and they all live pretty close together) and we were going to a place that was definitely going to cost far too much. But I sucked it up and went anyway. I am glad I did.

The food was expensive, but it was so amazing! The best part was the amazing women I get to spend time with. One of our sisters was diagnosed with brain cancer about 7 weeks ago. She has lived a long, beautiful life and decided to not pursue treatment. She was told that by not pursuing treatment she had about a month to live. That was over a month and a half ago. It is a blessing that she is here with us still. What's even better than that is that she is virtually symptom free. Her only symptom is weakness in the legs that makes standing up difficult. To look at her and talk to her is amazing because she is so full of life and so happy. It's a miracle, it really is. I cannot begin to explain how full of life she seems. You would never know she is sick. When we planned our next gathering (in February) she did not hesitate to add it to her calendar and tell us she'll be there.

I was so inspired by the radiance of this amazing sister. So I thought, what can I learn from her? Lately I've been struggling to run. The last 2-3 weeks I haven't been running because I've had no motivation. Running used to be a stress reliever for me, but it started to become a cause of stress. Seeing this sister so brilliantly full of life and happiness gave me a reason to run again. I have an amazing life and I need to stay in good health, both physically and mentally. So today after work (despite my lack of motivation) I went running. It felt like running used to feel. It relieved stress and it made me feel wonderful. I can't wait for tomorrow's run. I found my motivation and inspiration in the life of an amazing woman.

--

When you're afraid of what your heart says, you fall into place with your excuses

Don't say what you mean if you don't mean it

If you're gonna dream, why don't you dream it?

...to life, you come back to life

When you feel paralyzed and could not care

Well open your eyes and see what's there...

And you follow the light, your heart is strong

And make up the time that you have lost...

The song of the moment in my life:

College, Food, and Weight Loss

If you werent aware, I am in grad school. Almost finished though (28 days until graduation), and then I have no idea what will go on after that. Anyway, back to my point. I'm in grad school, and sometimes maintaining healthy eating habits can be tough. Especially when I live on campus and have a free meal plan. Campus food is good, but it's not always healthy and it's hard to figure out the nutritional value of the foods.

I am actively working towards getting back into shape and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. I've been going to the gym most days of the week, usually taking one or two days off each week. That's a benefit of being a college student - free gym access. The hours are great at the gym too; I can go early in the morning to get energized for the day, late at night to burn off stress from the day, or somewhere in between if my schedule allows it. I'm on Week 3 of Couch to 5k which is going really well for me. It's getting easier and easier to run for longer. I've even signed up for my first 5k as motivation - the Pensacola Sunset Run on May 11. I won't quite be finished with the Couch to 5k program, but I'm okay with that. My goal is basically to finish, preferably in under an hour and with as much running as possible. I may be leaving Pensacola sometime not too long after that, so I figured it would be a nice farewell to Pensacola run.

More info on the Sunset Run HERE 

To help with the eating habits I started doing Weight Watchers. In two weeks I've lost four pounds so it's obviously helping. It's tough though, and I think being in college makes it tougher. I can't get nutritional information for the food served on campus (except for Papa John's and Quiznos) so that makes it especially tough. I have to guess a lot (or I just stick to salad so I only have to guess at the dressing). Then there are other times that make it difficult as well.

Take for example yesterday: Festival on the Green during the day and a Blue Wahoos game at night. For lunch yesterday some coworkers and I got some Festival food: I had delicious fried fish, fried pickles, and corn on the cob. Well there went the majority of the days points.

Knowing I'd be at a baseball game that night I opted to eat a quick dinner before heading out. It was a very quick dinner as I had about 20 minutes in between work and leaving for the game. That was a great plan as all I got at the stadium was a diet soda. It's okay to splurge every now and then, and that's one thing I like about weight watchers.

Sadly the Wahoos lost, but we had a great time at the game. Today has been a nice, relaxing day of babysitting. I will hit the gym later and then chill with some friends tonight.

My goal is to keep up with this blog; talking about college and weight watchers and probably some job search stuff. I'll include some recipes from time to time of the delicious things I cook up.