...and here we are. Contrary to everything I had hoped for this week being predictable, it was everything but. Thankfully, I have one class tomorrow and then it's onto the next week of preparations!
To repeat a sentiment you have heard on this blog a lot in the past few weeks, I'm still settling in to life as a grad student. For some reason I didn't think this was going to be the most difficult of transitions, but it really has surprised me. I want so much to do well, and to imbibe as much of the information being communicated to me as I can, and so I've been spending most of my waking moments reading or otherwise doing graduate school related things.
And, as much as I hate to admit it, the transition to living on my own in my first apartment has been a significant change as well. It necessitates commuting to campus (and everywhere else I might need to go), dealing with tardy public transportation, learning how to work tricky locks, cleaning, cooking, and in general simply creating and environment for myself in which I want to live. These are simple, everyday tasks that, each in its own turn, I can deal with fairly well. But for some reason, when they all hit me at once I'm totally knocked out.
In a lot of ways, I feel like I'm rebuilding my healthy lifestyle from scratch. This is especially frustrating because over the summer I got into such a groove at IU. Of course, I was juggling much less; aside from my study of Polish and quest for fun and food in Bloomington, thinking about and creating a healthy life was kind of all I had going for me. Luckily, it was a learning experience and I'm hoping to apply some of those lessons a little more as I finally, officially get settled in in D.C.
That being said, I think I'm making progress... little by little.
The workout plan I decided on last week didn't totally get crushed by my lack of routine or lack of settling in this week.
Monday I stuck to my guns and did a strength workout at the gym, with 10 minutes on the elliptical as a warm up. My roommate came along and we did abs together, which made it so much more fun.
Tuesday I had my first marathon day of class. I rested.
Wednesday I did another strength workout, and concentrated mostly on my arms this time around, even though a random built dude walked away with just ONE of the 7.5 lb dumbells I use for tricep work...
Thursday I wanted to run, but unfortunately IT HAD RAINED ALL WEEK LONG and I hadn't made a contingency plan to head to the gym, and since I had a meeting on the other side of town at 11, had to skip my morning workout. I felt pretty gross about myself, and tired.
Friday it FINALLY STOPPED RAINING and I went for my first ever evening run, which totally freaked me out. I don't like not being able to see bugs, people, or animals on my sidewalk and think I will stick to the daytime in the future.
Saturday and Sunday was my best friend's bachelorette party in New York City! Basically all health and exercise bets were off, but honestly, what better occasion? We had a total blast going to see Awesome 80s Prom and dressing up, and it was awesome to see a bunch of our friends.
I obviously didn't get to my blog goals again this week. Eventually this concept of a schedule will come back to me, I promise.
And, as for a return to calorie counting, I tracked about 50% of my intake. The sad truth is that it just takes so much time away from things that seem more important, especially considering that my estimates are generally pretty good.
Moving forward, I'm going to try to set more specific goals to meet each week, since I feel like I'm sufficiently settled in to expect more from myself!
Work it Out, Mark it Down
Eating: Slowly pare down my sweets intake, allowing myself one treat per day by the end of September. Generally (that is, before I moved) I never ate a lot of sweets, Now, since there are Joe Joe's and other cookies on my counter, I find myself thinking "yum, I wish I had something sweet." Those calories could be better spent.
Exercise: I feel like I really need to set my eyes on the prize regarding my 5k coming up TWO MONTHS FROM TODAY (!!!). I've been a little lax about stopping to walk on my training runs recently and I feel like I just need to start training harder and more frequently in order to meet my goals (finish in under 30 minutes and without walking). In order to reach this goal, I'm going to train at least four times per week and increase my mileage by .1 mile every week, with only 45 second of stoppage time to be used throughout the course of the run. By the time the race rolls around, I'll be running about 3.5 miles, so hopefully a 5k won't feel like much in comparison.
Blogging: All of that exposition brings me to a grand experiment for this blog. In order to encourage the meeting of my goals I'm going to be adopting a more frequent posting policy for the blog. From now until Lauren's wedding (September 24) I'm going to post EVERY DAY. Each post will include:
To repeat a sentiment you have heard on this blog a lot in the past few weeks, I'm still settling in to life as a grad student. For some reason I didn't think this was going to be the most difficult of transitions, but it really has surprised me. I want so much to do well, and to imbibe as much of the information being communicated to me as I can, and so I've been spending most of my waking moments reading or otherwise doing graduate school related things.
And, as much as I hate to admit it, the transition to living on my own in my first apartment has been a significant change as well. It necessitates commuting to campus (and everywhere else I might need to go), dealing with tardy public transportation, learning how to work tricky locks, cleaning, cooking, and in general simply creating and environment for myself in which I want to live. These are simple, everyday tasks that, each in its own turn, I can deal with fairly well. But for some reason, when they all hit me at once I'm totally knocked out.
In a lot of ways, I feel like I'm rebuilding my healthy lifestyle from scratch. This is especially frustrating because over the summer I got into such a groove at IU. Of course, I was juggling much less; aside from my study of Polish and quest for fun and food in Bloomington, thinking about and creating a healthy life was kind of all I had going for me. Luckily, it was a learning experience and I'm hoping to apply some of those lessons a little more as I finally, officially get settled in in D.C.
That being said, I think I'm making progress... little by little.
The workout plan I decided on last week didn't totally get crushed by my lack of routine or lack of settling in this week.
Monday I stuck to my guns and did a strength workout at the gym, with 10 minutes on the elliptical as a warm up. My roommate came along and we did abs together, which made it so much more fun.
Tuesday I had my first marathon day of class. I rested.
Wednesday I did another strength workout, and concentrated mostly on my arms this time around, even though a random built dude walked away with just ONE of the 7.5 lb dumbells I use for tricep work...
Thursday I wanted to run, but unfortunately IT HAD RAINED ALL WEEK LONG and I hadn't made a contingency plan to head to the gym, and since I had a meeting on the other side of town at 11, had to skip my morning workout. I felt pretty gross about myself, and tired.
Friday it FINALLY STOPPED RAINING and I went for my first ever evening run, which totally freaked me out. I don't like not being able to see bugs, people, or animals on my sidewalk and think I will stick to the daytime in the future.
Saturday and Sunday was my best friend's bachelorette party in New York City! Basically all health and exercise bets were off, but honestly, what better occasion? We had a total blast going to see Awesome 80s Prom and dressing up, and it was awesome to see a bunch of our friends.
 |
| After Lauren got her Bachelorette Swag before the show. Note my awesome dress/side pony. |
And, as for a return to calorie counting, I tracked about 50% of my intake. The sad truth is that it just takes so much time away from things that seem more important, especially considering that my estimates are generally pretty good.
Moving forward, I'm going to try to set more specific goals to meet each week, since I feel like I'm sufficiently settled in to expect more from myself!
Work it Out, Mark it Down
Eating: Slowly pare down my sweets intake, allowing myself one treat per day by the end of September. Generally (that is, before I moved) I never ate a lot of sweets, Now, since there are Joe Joe's and other cookies on my counter, I find myself thinking "yum, I wish I had something sweet." Those calories could be better spent.
Exercise: I feel like I really need to set my eyes on the prize regarding my 5k coming up TWO MONTHS FROM TODAY (!!!). I've been a little lax about stopping to walk on my training runs recently and I feel like I just need to start training harder and more frequently in order to meet my goals (finish in under 30 minutes and without walking). In order to reach this goal, I'm going to train at least four times per week and increase my mileage by .1 mile every week, with only 45 second of stoppage time to be used throughout the course of the run. By the time the race rolls around, I'll be running about 3.5 miles, so hopefully a 5k won't feel like much in comparison.
Blogging: All of that exposition brings me to a grand experiment for this blog. In order to encourage the meeting of my goals I'm going to be adopting a more frequent posting policy for the blog. From now until Lauren's wedding (September 24) I'm going to post EVERY DAY. Each post will include:
- Pictures of each meal (snacks not necessary), pictures of important event of the day (if applicable)
- The workout (in detail) that I completed that day
- A link to a recent post that I enjoyed from another blogger.
Once a week, I will touch on a broader topic in addition to all of the above. My hope is that it will help me schedule blogging back into my life (hopefully each night before I go to bed, giving me time to wind down) and carve out some more "me" time in my schedule.
Let the experiment begin!
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