Goals: Starting Off Small in the Hopes of Big Success

February 1, 2013January 9, 2013 ~ K ~ 2 Comments

I joined Weight Watchers online and find my points incredibly restrictive and rather tough to stick to. I made the mistake of blowing my daily AND weekly points on one meal. Not even salads are guaranteed to be all right if it’s got protein.

And I guess that’s my problem with Weight Watchers—I feel like I’m sometimes penalized for eating meat. I’m not giving up Weight Watchers because I’ve been on it before and successfully lost 10 pounds on the plan so I hope for a triumphant recurrence of that. Can you believe a Lean Cuisine is 7 points? A Lean Cuisine for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and I’ve only got 7 points left over for another Lean Cuisine of 2 snacks. Managing my points is difficult because I have so few. You’d think I don’t have much weight to lose but I’d like to lose a good 40 pounds. (Honestly, I used to shoot for 70 pounds but I don’t think that’s realistic anymore.) I know I won’t be able to keep that kind of weight off without exercise. So my plan is to go to the gym (Planet Fitness) on the weekends and do at least a half-hour of cardio with one strength training session per week (using a Jackie Warner video). This is me starting out small so I don’t get overwhelmed by some impossible goal of attempting to exercise 5 days a week when realistically I’m lucky if I exercise 1 day a week.

I guess that’s one of the important things about goals:

Start off small.

I’m using Health Month to help me make a difference in my physical and spiritual life. I set up “rules” that I must adhere to a certain number of times per week or else I lose points. It’s been a rather effective way of helping me to develop new habits such as exercising one a week, getting to the gym (that I’m paying for) once a week, and reading my Bible and praying at least 4 times a week. It’s free to join and set up 3 rules. More than 3 rules and you’d have to pay a month-to-month or yearly plan.

Weight Watchers Mobile, in combination with My Fitness Pal, is another tool in my arsenal of dieting weapons. It’s a shame that Weight Watchers Mobile is sorely lacking where My Fitness Pal (a free app) shines like gold. My biggest complaint about Weight Watchers Mobile is that the database is only searchable with personal user data and the data Weight Watchers selects. If another user inputs data, that information isn’t searchable by anyone else except that particular user. The great thing about My Fitness Pal is that users from all over the United States put in nutritional information about products and anyone can access that information. It’s a shame My Fitness Pal has this feature for free whereas a premium site like Weight Watchers has kind of put the kibosh on such sharing of information through their database.

Another dumb thing about Weight Watchers Mobile is that their bar code scanner is a completely separate application while My Fitness Pal has the bar code scanner built into its app. In My Fitness Pal, the bar code scanner is functional and easy to use. Why am I on Weight Watchers, you might ask, since I seem to be pissing and moaning about the plan and its mobile apps?

The plan works. It has worked for me in the past. I have yet to lose any weight using My Fitness Pal. (In fact, I’ve gained weight!)

YouVersion is my go-to app for all things spiritual. It has a variety of Bible reading plans I can choose from, but I choose to go at my own pace, which is slower than reading the Bible in a year. I love the fact that certain translations are downloadable for offline use so that even when I don’t have an Internet connection (or possess a crappy one), that no longer hampers my ability to read the Bible anywhere. I most frequently use the English Standard Version (ESV) with the New American Standard Bible (NASB) coming up as a close second.

So Health Month, Weight Watchers Mobile, My Fitness Pal, and YouVersion are a few tools that I am using to stay on track physically and spiritually.

Overcoming Writer’s Block: 300 Words a Day

December 13, 2012December 13, 2012 ~ K ~ Leave a comment

Reading Anne Lamott makes me want to write. Is that the mark of a good writer? One who encourages other writers to write?

I am reading Bird by Bird, her book on writing and life. To overcome writer’s block, she encourages her readers (who are writers) to write 300 words a day.

Three hundred words a day. I can do that. Right?

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I have a memory book that I’m writing. In it all are the memories that I can possibly remember. Believe it or not, I don’t remember much. Only about 20 pages’ worth of memories in a small journal out of who knows how many pages possible. 200? Although I have 20 years of journals to sort through and read to remind myself of all the horrible things that have happened to me. Because, of course, I am notorious for recording the negative events in my life rather than the positive ones.

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Perhaps the following really belongs on my depression introspection blog, but I’ve had a really great year. Since my father died 11 years ago, 2012 has been the best year I’ve had mentally. Physically, I’m still dealing with chronic mono, but I hope that 2013 will bring a year of renewed mindfulness and energy. Normally, the fall and winter months (especially the Christmas season) bring with it sadness and depression, but thank the LORD, it’s been at bay this year. I’m finally accepting my father’s death and doing my best to move forward. I’ve accepted the fact that another year has gone by that I’m not a mother, and that’s okay. Forward. It was President Obama’s slogan during his re-election campaign, but it holds so much meaning for me. I will not let a political campaign co-opt a word that describes how I need to look toward the future.

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I am trying to read a Bible chapter daily and pray daily. I am using Health Month to do this. I still have not succeeded in exercising. I do not know that I will ever succeed in exercising. I start then stop, in fits, like traffic on the congested Belt Parkway. I do not know that I have grown closer to God. But I am walking by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). I am reading about the Old Testament God—the Heavenly Father who was all wrath and anger and appeasement by animal sacrifice. I like the New Testament God—Jesus, the Incarnation, who is all love and human and emotional. Reading about God through Genesis makes me so glad for Jesus in the four Gospels.

“Whose god then is God? They all want jurisdiction. In the Book of Earth, whose god spread fear? Spread love?” —Tori Amos

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I fear that my Mac is not long for this world. It is one of the discontinued 13″ white Macbooks (I almost wrote Powerbook—whew!). I don’t use it for anything anymore except to play music and to sync my iPhone to. It was playing music when the song came upon a discordant note and the note kept playing over and over and over and… well, you get the point. It was like a CD permanently skipping. I had to force restart my Mac by holding down the Power button. But unlike the devotees of Mac, I simply cannot afford to buy a new Mac laptop of any sort. It is much too much expensive. But then again, I haven’t been sucked into the cult of Mac when it comes to computers. If I really loved Macs, I’d spend the money. But I don’t. I’d rather plunk down the cash and get a touchscreen Windows laptop for maybe as much money (or a fraction of the cost—I’m not sure how much touchscreen laptops run these days).

I am definitely an “i” girl. I use iTunes, love my iPhone, own an iPod Shuffle and and iPod Touch, and would like an iPad. Apple has won me over in the mobile department. But I figure I can make things work on Windows if need be. I would plunk down the money for an iPad. I just haven’t yet.

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Look at that. More than 700 words. And the goal was simply to write 300. Can I keep this up? I need to whether it’s through blogging, article writing, or fiction creation. I won’t get better as a writer otherwise.

2012 Goals

January 1, 2012 ~ K ~ 3 Comments

Happy New Year! Since it’s the first of the year, it’s time to post this year’s goals! I’ve set reminders so that I can do a mid-year and end-of-year check-in. Nothing special here; just a straightforward list of my goals.

1. Schedule a blog post for each week
2. Go to the gym on Tuesdays for at least 15 minutes
3. Strength train Mondays and Thursdays a week for at least 15 minutes
4. Put aside $25 per paycheck ($50/month) for website redesign in March 2012 (before website expiration in April)
5. Combat discontent by listing 3 things every day that I’m grateful for
6. Relax 2 times a month on the Sabbath (a day off, not necessarily Sunday) by reading, listening to music, dancing, napping, meditating, watching a movie (something fun) for most of the day
7. Read a book for at least 15 minutes 3 times a week
8. Read 36 books (3 books a month) by December 31
9. Complete half of manuscript rewrite by June 2012 (Work on 10 pages once a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, or Saturdays for 2 hours)
10. Complete rewrite of manuscript by December 2012
11. Edit for 1 new client this year

Helpful tools assisting me this year:

Blogging: WordPress

Gym of choice: Planet Fitness

Strength training guru: Personal Training with Jackie Warner: Power Circuit Training

Saving money: PNC’s Virtual Wallet

Tracking habits-in-the-making: Health Month

Reading books: Goodreads

Organizing novel structure: Scrivener

Tracking time, cost, and billing of clients: Time Master + Billing