My real, long-term goal is 50 pounds (for health reasons), but I’m making this a baby, stepping goal to the 50 pounds. Can you still put time limits on goals? (It’s been awhile since I’ve been active here.) I want to lose 5 pounds by mid-October, and at least 10 pounds by the end of December. I think that’s realistic and feasible.
I was doing this over the summer – I was making it to the gym at least 6 times a week, for at least 30 minutes. Since school started, I’ve stopped, and I really want to get back into it.
The gym at school has discounted rates for personal training for students. I signed up about two weeks ago, and had my first session/assessment with the trainer. Basically, I found out I have a lot of reasons to exercise regularly – weight loss and looking better, yeah, but also I need to build up my endurance, strength, and flexibility. Also, health problems run in the family, so that’s incentive as well.
It looks like I’m going to be meeting with my trainer once a week. My initial goal is going to be to try to work out at the gym three times a week for 30 minutes. Then, I’ll up it to four and five and then six times a week, gradually. She said for healthy hearts, experts say to aim for five times a week, 45 minutes each workout, and for weight loss, six times a week, 60 minutes each workout. I’m hoping I can build up to that.
Currently up to 13…doesn’t look like I’m going to make it to 30 this year, considering all the schoolwork I’ve got this semester. Will try to shoot for 20 instead.
My least favorite household chore is washing the dishes, handsdown. I don’t own a dishwasher and I hate standing at the sink and sticking my hands in dirty water. My dishes tend to pile up and sit around for at least a week. If I wash my dishes daily though, it won’t be so gross (hopefully).
I’ve made cookies, brownies, and cupcakes before, but never a cake. I don’t even own a cake pan. So I’d have to buy one. At some point, if I get really good at making cakes, I’d like to tackle Italian cheesecake. But I’ve heard it’s difficult, so I’ll have to start with the basics.
This Thing is also important to me because at my school every year, there’s a baking competition between classes. I was going to enter this year but they sent out an e-mail saying it was for serious bakers – don’t just enter cookies (which is what I was going to make). I want to enter next year and I have an idea for a cake already, but first I need experience in baking cakes in general before I try to bring my own creation to the table.
If any of you have seen Google today, you may already know this, but I thought I’d share for the rest of you. Today, on Saturday, March 29, between 8 and 9 p.m., several cities across the world are sponsoring/participating in Earth Hour. This is an energy conservation effort created by the World Wildlife Fund to raise awareness about climate change. How can you help? Turn off your lights for one hour, between 8 and 9 p.m. today (your own local time).
I think most of us have heard complaints (and maybe even made some of them ourselves) about making changes in our lifestyles that will help the environment. I know I certainly have. But this is for one hour on one day. How small of an effort could this be? How much of a lifestyle change does this require?
The website for Earth Hour has suggestions for what to do in that one hour when your lights are off. So check those out! :)
I wrote a letter to my friend…I felt kind of bad though because I’ve been depressed lately and mainly all I did in my letter was talk about why I feel depressed. I didn’t want to send her such a downer letter but it’s all I can think about right now.
However, one good thing: I love my stationery. It sort of cheered me up, maybe it’ll brighten up her day too.
I have weeks where nearly all I eat is fruit and then other weeks where all my fruit goes bad. I’m trying to come up with a balance.
One trick for people who want to eat more fruit but need some creative ways to do it is a recommendation for Sensible Foods Crunch-Dried Snacks. They are made of fruits (apples, berries, mango, pineapple, etc., in different flavors) and absolutely nothing else – no preservatives, sugar, artificial flavorings, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE. They are fat free and gluten free (because they are simply, straight-up fruit). Each pouch is equal to 1/2 a cup of fresh fruit, and equal to 1 serving of fruit based on the daily recommended value (the pyramid). And they taste great.
For those watching calories, there are 85 (or less, some are 70) calories in a pouch and for those on Weight Watchers, each pouch is 1 point. If they aren’t sold anywhere near you, I’d recommend buying them online. You could try a pouch first and then buy a case, either from Amazon or the official website (Google search “Sensible Foods”). Seriously, I love these pouches – helps me get fruit while still getting a crunchy fun snack in (great replacement from chips and cookies).
Interesting reading:
http://www.healthbolt.net/2006/12/08/what-happens-to-your-body-if-you-drink-a-coke-right-now/
And:
http://www.healthbolt.net/2006/10/30/this-is-you-life-on-caffeine/
Caffeine makes me sleepy (I know, it’s weird, but true) so if I was going to ever get anything done, I had to give it up. First I gave up just caffeinated pop, then switched to all pop. That was three years ago, even now, I only have Sprite maybe once or twice a year, if I’m at a wedding or something. I didn’t have a problem giving up coffee, because I don’t like the taste of it.
The only thing I have a hard time giving up is hot chocolate..Mmm, it’s too good. I try to drink it only before bed though, so then I go to bed anyway.
My advice: switch to water, it is healthier and that is what your body needs anyway. And water fills you up and then you will be too full for caffeine.
One of my best friends went on vacation to a beach where they had a special service – you could buy a bottle, decorate it, write a message and stick it in, and then they mail it to whoever you want. So technically, my bottle came through the mails, but the message was in the bottle. It was cute, she stuck a small paper umbrella in, as well as sand and seashells, and the note was all about what she was up to that summer. It meant a lot because she’s usually terrible about keeping in touch.
To reduce my footprint, I pledge to do the following:
FOOD
1. Eat all of the food I buy.
2. Increase the unprocessed, unpackaged foods that I buy, as well as those that are organic and grown locally. I’m at about 50-50 now, I’d like to increase to at least 70%.
MOBILITY
3. Continue walking everywhere. (Don’t have much choice as a student.)
HOUSING
4. Get a dryer rack or figure out how to hang clothes up so that I can use air drying and reduce number of laundry loads.
5. Reduce the number of hours I use a computer or the TV every day from 6 to 3.
6. Reduce my shower time for each day from 15 minutes to 5-7 minutes.
If anyone needs help figuring out what their footprint is right now or wants ideas on how to reduce it, this is a helpful website.
Hello! I actually want to learn Urdu but a lot of people have told me that the grammar structure of Hindi and Urdu is basically the same. There seem to be more resources out there for learning Hindi than learning Urdu. But most of what I’ve come across so far doesn’t teach grammar – just phrases that you’re supposed to memorize.
Does anyone have any suggestions on textbooks, websites, or other resources that teach Hindi grammar and speaking skills (without reliance on reading the script)?
During college and when I was working, I ate pretty healthy on a regular basis. Now I’m back at school and the long hours and the stress and studying are getting to me, and I just reach for anything that’s quick.
My plan is to cook a few portions of veggie-heavy meals on the weekends so then I can refrigerate the leftovers and eat them during the week. The worst thing is when I’m at school. We don’t have a cafeteria at school and the closest thing are a bunch of restaurants. But it’s so cold outside these days, I don’t go out and just start eating various things out of the vending machines. I have to come up with some delicious yet healthy snacks to take to school with me – that way I can save my money and my health!
I used to be a hardcore reader, to the point where I would read 100+ books in just the three months of summer. But in the last couple years, life interfered. In 2006, I read only 12 books! Here’s hoping that that will the the low point of my reading life. Last year, I read 27, but I’m back in school now and it’s taking over and so I think that 30 is a good number to aim for. Not too high but also not too low – something I can aspire to.
I’ve finished two books this year (both in January). The review of the first is below, I will update soon with the review of the second:
A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle (the first books focusing on Sherlock Holmes)
*This edition contains two books in one, I’m counting this as one book, though.
Dr. Watson, a military surgeon recently returned from the Afghan War, is looking for a roommate to share costs of living. An acquaintance introduces him to the eccentric Sherlock Holmes and they move to 221B Baker Street. Watson is slightly irritated by Holmes’ displays of egotism but quickly becomes astonished when Holmes’ words that he can easily guess at the personalities and habits of people they meet on the street match up with his deductions.
I thought the first part was fascinating. I’ve heard about Sherlock Holmes through other sources – mainly through pop culture. But this was my first introduction to Holmes and Watson through Doyle’s writing. I loved Watson’s initial reactions to Holmes – the way he is puzzled by the fact that first, Holmes appears to have no useful occupation, and then second, that he considers himself a consulting detective who far outranks the likes of Scotland Yard inspectors and even Watson’s favorite fictional detectives. The other parts I liked were those in which Holmes explains his lines of reasoning. The second half of the story, told in a flashback that concerns the murder mystery, may come off as a bit offensive to Mormons. Doyle’s descriptions of the Mormon community are stereotypical and show his scanty knowledge of their society. However, the first part is well done.
The edition I read also contained The Sign of Four, Doyle’s second Sherlock Holmes book. This latter book has a similar structure to the first, with the first half devoted to Holmes and Watson’s investigation of the mystery, and the second half relating the backstory of the events of the mystery, this time taking place in colonial India rather than the wilderness of the American West. In reading this second story, I had more of an understanding of Holmes’ character and his approach to deductive reasoning. What I enjoyed most about the second book was not the mystery but Doyle’s descriptions of the interactions between Holmes and Watson, and the explanations of Holmes’ reasoning.
Four stars for both writing and enjoyment.
