Getting Healthy - Writing Challenge, Day 2

This year has held so many ups for me...there honestly haven't been a whole lot of downs.  Sometimes my downs in the past haven't been things other people really knew about - they weren't necessarily big, life-changing events, so much as my own frame of mind and how I felt about myself or where I was going (or not going) in my life.

This year, I've felt good.  Sure, there are moments when I doubt myself.  There are days that I just feel like I'm in a funk, and I can't easily shake it.  I think everyone has those days.  But so far this year, I've had so many less down days than in the past, and it's been great.

Part of that has been because I've taken better care of myself.  I don't remember having to go to the doctor even once this year.  I usually hold off as much as possible at any given time when it comes to going to a doctor anyway, but I truly haven't had anything that I wasn't able to kick on my own this year.  Most of the year I focused on eating healthier.  I focused on moving more.  I wouldn't say I was hitting the gym or doing home workouts - I did a few times, but the thing I stuck with the most was just movement in general.


I bought a Fitbit in February (click the picture above to see the one I have), which made it very easy to track how active I'd been at any point in the day.  I didn't just focus on steps though.  I also focused on my heart rate - since I have IST (inappropriate sinus tachycardia), my heart rate can randomly jump when I'm just sitting at my desk at work, making me feel dizzy and nauseous.  If it gets high enough, it can make me pass out.  It's not happened at work before, but it's happened at other times over the years, long before I actually knew what was causing it.  So, when I decided to get a Fitbit, I was pretty adamant that whatever I got had to not only measure steps; it had to also measure heart rate.  I don't have these attacks very often at all; I can sometimes go years without one.  But if something were to happen, I'd like to be able to document it, and since I have a history of my heart rate now when I'm wearing the Fitbit, I have that.

I started tracking my meals, snacks, anything I put into my body, with the Fitbit app.  I utilized the whole package.  Because I'm tracking what I'm eating, I'm tracking calories in.  And since my Fitbit tracks heart rate, it's more accurate with how many calories I burn.  So not only am I keeping track of my heart health, it's much easier to track my calories in vs. calories out.  I need to lose weight, not just because I want to look better, but because there are a lot of health issues that run in my family, and being overweight helps none of them.

I also track how much water I drink each day.  My goals is to drink 80 oz. per day on a normal day.  I'm not always great at hitting that.  The past couple of months I've seriously slacked on tracking everything, honestly.  I'm working on that.

But the water part is something that affects my IST, too.  The doctor who diagnosed me explained that there isn't a cure for it.  It's a problem with the sinus node that controls the rhythm and pace of your heart; sometimes it just gets temporarily out of whack and increases my heart rate.  Staying hydrated lessens the risk of having an episode.  That, along with knowing the signs of an episode coming on (sudden dizziness, nausea, tunnel vision - all usually within a couple seconds), are really the only things I can do to help it.

Like I said, it doesn't happen often, but staying hydrated helps prevent it.  And if one were to happen anyway, I just have sit down wherever I am so that if I do faint, I don't hurt myself - that's what led to getting checked out in the first place and learning all of this.  One thing I've found that helps when I'm in the middle of an episode and feel like I'm going to faint is focusing on my breathing.  Deep, slow breaths.  It doesn't always prevent the fainting spell, but it has kept it at bay in the past.  I don't know if it just naturally forces my heart to slow back down, but it does seem to help.

The Fitbit I have also tracks my sleep stages.  It does seem to be pretty accurate from what I can tell, so it's cool to see that and compare it to how I feel and function the next day.

So, with the help of Fitbit, I've been working on getting healthier throughout the year.  I've gone through a slight hiatus of logging food but have still been watching what/how much I eat for the most part, and I haven't walked as much recently - it's been so hot most of the time I just haven't been able to talk myself into it - but I've definitely still been able to tell a difference.

Healthy Living

I'm turning my life around, in more ways than one.  



1) Doing things that I love.


          a) I moved Orion closer so that I can finally see him and do things with him on a regular basis.  He's less than ten minutes from where I live now.  


          b) Proofreading.  I've always loved to read, and I've always loved to write.  While I'm still working on writing more, I've taken up proofreading on Fiverr.com.  It's time consuming, but this is what I get out of it: I get to read new stuff almost every day.  I'm reading a lot, something I haven't done since I was in high school or younger.  I'm making a body of work better.  I hate coming across stuff in books that I read that is just wrong and thinking that I could have written or edited that so much better...now I am.  I love the feeling of knowing that, while it's still the author's work, the book, document, etc. is going out into the world with my mark on it as well.


          c) Reading.  In addition to proofreading, I've decided to take advantage of this extra free year before I start grad school.  I'm reading every book I can get my hands on (and I can get my hands on a lot because I have a TON that I've collected since college started that I just never had the time to read. Add to that the ones that have come out recently that are sequels to or by the same authors as books I've read in the past, and it's quite a long list.  Maybe I'll post it sometime.)


          d) Spending time outdoors.  This.  It's true that I can spend time outdoors anywhere, but there are specific places that I want to go, and very soon, it will possible for me to go to them whether anyone wants to go/can go with me or not.  


          e) Writing.  I love it.  Blogging and writing fiction are two of my favorite things in the world.  While I don't want it to be my career, I do want to keep this a prominent hobby for as long as it holds my interest and brings me this much happiness.  And when (not if) I finally do publish some of my stuff, it will be nice to potentially make a little money by doing something I love, as well as to know that what I wrote might be bringing someone, somewhere, some joy and entertainment.  That's one thing that I hope happens with this blog, aside from it being my chronicle of my life for me to look back on from time to time.  I hope that it helps people in some way, whether it's with a problem they have or just by putting a smile on their face.



2) Speaking of why I can do all of that traveling very soon without help: I have a car.  Until I broke my collarbone, the plan was to go test for my driver's license for the first time in my life two weeks ago.  Now I have to wait, but having a car gives me (and everyone involved in helping me get there) so much more incentive to get on the ball and do it.  I can't wait to be able to go where I want, when I want.  Feeling restless and nothing to do at home?  No problem.  Hop in the car and go to the barn....to a friend's....just for a drive in general...  I. Can't. Wait.



3) Applying to grad school. (Hold on tight; this is a long one!) Seriously, this is something I have struggled with since my freshmen year of college.  Not the application, but the decision of what I want to do.  Not long after my program lost its accreditation my freshmen year, I realized that my future plan was really someone else's.  Yes, I was very interested in the field of health care.  Yes, I love science, and the human body interests me.  But suddenly I realized that being a PA just didn't feel like the right fit to me anymore.  I think I kind of fell in love with the idea of going to AB for that program, going back to the town that I grew up in and loved so much, and going into  PA school made my family really happy.  Next to going to med school, it was the next best thing.  I just got swept up in it and convinced myself that it's what I wanted, when really, I didn't know what I wanted.  It ended up being a really long road figuring that out.  Along the way I considered med school, vet school (specializing as an equine veterinarian - surprise surprise!), nursing school, something in environmental science, something in GIS, and now, finally physical therapy.  And thank God, I think I've finally got it.  I have finally found something that feels right, I'm extremely interested in, and in all honesty, has pretty much been under my nose the whole time.  I was just too focused on other ideas, or the idea that I just didn't know what I wanted, to see it.  So the only thing left to be done is to take my GRE (very soon), finish my applications, send them on their way, and wait.  



4) Eating healthier.  This has actually been going on for a while, so I'm not going to dwell on it, but it's something that I've been trying to concentrate on for the past year, off and on (but mostly on - there have only been a couple of times that I slipped up for a while - the rest of the time, which is most of it, I've been doing fairly well).

5) Exercising.  I have a home workout plan that I was starting before I broke my collarbone.  A lot of it isn't really possible right now because since it's a home plan, a lot of it involves exercises that use your own body weight (think of push-ups as an example), and obviously that's not going to work right now.  However, I do plan to start hiking.  I love running, and I hope that once I'm in better shape and have lost more weight, I can take that up again, but right now, it kills me.  I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's not enjoyable.  So instead, I want to hike.  I want to get outdoors more; the trees and other plants in the woods (and this is WV, so really everywhere) are the most gorgeous green right now (we've had a bit of rain recently).  I really just want to get out and enjoy that, take it all in, and get some good pictures.  Hiking is conducive to all of that, plus I'm getting a good workout in while I do it.  I have the Endomondo Sports Tracker app on my phone and my iPod, so I can track my hikes with GPS the same way I try to track any long horseback rides that I do.  There are places on my grandpa's farm that I can go, but even more than that, as far as this town goes anyway, I'm excited about going on the trails at the new stable (more on that here).  



6) Looking for a new job.  I like the job I have right now.  I don't completely love it, but I like it.  I've been there for going on 6 years now, and all things considered, I have it good as supervisor, safety manager, and restaurant manager, but with everything else I have going on, I just don't really feel it anymore.  It was never meant to be a career, which my bosses know and understand (none of this is a shock to them; I've already discussed it with them).  I really never meant to stay as long as I have, but with this extra year before grad school tacked on, that I didn't anticipate originally, I really want something that will mirror what my class schedule will be like (i.e. day time instead of late evening/night shifts - 12am).  There's also the matter of going into a health care job such as physical therapy - while I'm not qualified to actually work as a physical therapist right now, I would like to get some sort of job in a hospital, preferrably the one here since I'm trying to establish myself here for the next few years, just so that I have some experience in that area since all I have right now are volunteer hours.  There's nothing wrong with volunteer hours, but I just feel that working at the hospital in some way would benefit me in addition to those volunteer hours.  



So there it is.  That's pretty much my life right now, in a long, rambling nutshell.  I'm happy with what I have and what I'm working towards.  The only thing I have not mentioned here is getting my own place.  Since I now have a bunch of medical bills to pay in addition to my car payments and car insurance, I'm thinking about staying with my grandpa a little while longer until I have some of that taken care of.  However, as soon as I have the money saved up and can swing it, I plan to get my own place around here somewhere.  I'm more than ready for it.  It's been overdue for a long time now.

Fitness!

So technically it's "wordless Wednesday", but I have a chance to write while I'm waiting on ArcMap software to load on my computer, so here I am!

(Don't worry, you still get a picture of this cutie.  She's finally big enough to jump on top of her house and did it for the first time last night.  What a racket she made, wheeking and singing and hopping all over the place in happiness afterward....right as I was going to bed. -_-  She's too cute to annoy me though.  I just went picture crazy instead.)

So, as of late, I've been trying to get healthy. I get on a healthy kick every once in a while, and it usually tapers off. This time I feel like it's different though.  I truly want to. I'm tired of being exhausted and feeling crappy all the time, and there's just no time for all of that.  I have too much stuff on my plate to deal with feeling like that.

I've been eating healthy stuff and cooking for myself more often.  And don't get me wrong, I'm still eating what I want...if I'm actually hungry.  And if I am hungry and what I wanted isn't something super healthy, I allow myself to have it - just in a small portion.  And then if I'm still hungry, I find myself something else healthier to fill me the rest of the way up.  But the bottom line is, I'm only eating when my stomach actually feels hunger - not when I'm craving whatever and I'm not actually hungry.

It took about a week (I'm halfway through my second week of this), and my cravings have pretty much stopped. I actually look forward to working out, which I've been doing almost every day.  I've started running again (in smallish amounts - I downloaded the C25K (Couch to 5K) app to my phone and have completed the first week + repeated one of the first week runs (4 runs total) so far).  I haven't done any week 2 runs yet because I have absolutely HORRIBLE shin splints that are killing me at the moment.  Instead of running like I wanted to yesterday, I went for a hike instead.  It still hurt, but at the same time it felt good to be moving around and outside and just doing something.  

It's good that I'm living where I am at the moment.  My grandpa has a treadmill I can use if the weather is bad.  There is plenty of open space where I can go to run outside when the weather is decent.  I have access to a full kitchen with every possible cooking tool imaginable (my grandma was an amazing cook and cooked all the time, so she had everything).  I'll eventually be moving back home for a while and will still have the kitchen part, but not a treadmill, so as far as getting started, I'm glad I'm at my grandpa's, at least to establish some good habits.  They'll be easier to keep up once they're drilled into me.

So far, I've lost 3 lbs since last week and a couple of inches from my waist.  I didn't think I'd be seeing progress this soon, so I'm super excited.

I'll keep updating when there's time!  I hope you're all doing well!

Workin' on My Fitness

Taken from Pinterest. :)

I'm working on this New Year's resolution of getting in shape.  So far this week, I have concentrated on getting back into good eating habits. It started out slow, but I've been doing well for the past few days.  No slips ups since after the first day. :)  

I did part of a cardio yoga workout on Tuesday.  It was 50 minutes, and I did maybe 20 of it before my partner in crime and I decided that if we did another downward dog position we were going to end up on our heads because our arms felt so weak.

Thursday I did the easy workout on my Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred DVD. And let me tell you, it's not labeled 'easy' because it's actually easy.  It's only easy in relation to the other two workouts on the DVD.  Although, I have to say, I didn't have as much trouble with it as I did when I did the same workout religiously for a couple of weeks a couple years ago when I first got it.  I powered through and didn't die...though in the ten minutes or so after my cool down, my arms felt like jelly, my legs felt weak, and my back was so tired I didn't think I could sit up straight for very much longer.  JM knows what she's doing! Crazy!

Last night I only did a short workout. I worked for four-and-a-half hours (which really didn't involve that much work because the cafe was dead, but it did involve standing the whole time), so I was pretty beat by the time I got back to the dorm.  Plus, since I thought I was going to die after my JM workout the night before, I thought I'd give my muscles a slight break until today.  I did 30 lunges (15 on each leg). 35 regular crunches, 35 reverse crunches, and 45 bicycle crunches.  Then one minute of jumping jacks for cardio.  The "cardio" probably didn't amount to much because it was super late by the time I finally decided to do anything, and I was afraid of waking up the people under me, so I didn't do it for very long.  I'll get back into it today and do some Zumba or another JM and then probably some yoga too.  

Eating on Friday didn't go as well as could be hoped, simply because I was fairly rushed the last half of the day.  Dinner wasn't exactly healthy because by the time I got off of work, the cafeteria was closed (no salad *sad face*), and the only option I had was the Cave/E.J. & Emma's (I still can't get used to calling it that since they changed the name...The Cave is what it will always be to me).  I had a small order of fries. :(  And it really was small.  I actually think I got a little jipped, but I won't complain because I really would have preferred something different anyway.  Their choice in yogurt last night didn't appeal to me, and the last couple times I got the grilled chicken sandwich...well, let's just say it wasn't great.  I went with fries.  Today will be different.  I'm getting back on track.  This getting in shape business is intense.

I've been using my It Works wraps too, and I can see a little bit of a difference a day and a half after the second one. I'm not expecting miracles right away, but common sense tells me that as long as I try to maintain a healthy diet - as much as is possible on a college campus, this campus especially - and work out, my results should happen even quicker.  Yay!  Muscle-building will happen at the same rate it always does, but the wraps and such should help the extra unwanted pounds come off a little faster.

By the way, I'm selling It Works now (see It Works Distributor badge to the top left!).  If I remember right, I set the badge up so that when you click it, it takes you to my website.  So if you're curious about it, check it out, and email me with any questions!

That's all for now, folks! :D