bunchofheather

Category: Uncategorized

  • has it really been a year?

    I didn’t realize I’d never come back and posted again after the last update. ..

    So, to catch up my loyal readership  (lol, somebody might stumble on this blog by accident but I don’t think there are any regular readers)…  the husband is still alive, beating some amazing odds. He’s actually the healthiest sick person I know! He’s had 15 brain tumors treated and chemo for the lung. The chemo almost killed him, he stopped after three treatments but it seems to have done it’s job.

    My job is going awesome.  I’m applying for a promotion this week so, fingers crossed! And now, I have to get ready to go to said job…

    Hopefully it won’t be another year until the next update. 

  • Doing a happy dance

    Once I got past bonds, the rest of my Advanced Financial Accounting class fell into place. Passed my final, no  problem.  Took that with online proctoring. My next class, Management Communication, is relatively easy if you have a few years composing mature business communications. I did resent the portion of the book that said, essentially,  “this will really help you to communicate with the older people in your office… those over 30.” Really? And this following a chapter about not using discriminatory language. Scream. I did the two performance tasks for that class, finishing Monday. 

    Now I am in Advanced Managerial Accounting which has a reputation for being very difficult.  Luckily cost accounting is really one of my favorite areas.

    Off to walk a bit before getting ready for work.

  • More randomness

    School is going well. I really like being in charge of my progress and not being required to “post three times to the message board each week for a participation grade.”  I read the chapter, watch the course mentor’s video where he explains problems, do practice problems from the text book, then take the practice quiz.  I have supplemented some topics with videos from YouTube including a great video explaining derivatives involving rupees, cows, and mad cow disease.

    I started studying my first class mid February. As soon as orientation opens you can see all your classes and access the books, see the requirements, etc. You just can’t submit anything officially. So here at mid March I am almost finished with 12 of 14 chapters in my first course, Advanced Financial Accounting . I plan to work through the last chapters today then review back through the chapters again, take the pre-assessment and see where I’m truly at with being ready to take the assessment.  That is where WGU is different and in some ways harder than traditional classes at a in-person college or other online colleges. There is no padding of your grade with participation points or extra credit or points for doing homework.  You either know it and prove it or you don’t.

  • I guess I was wrong!

    So, in case you hadn’t noticed, I disappeared again.

    As part of my random kind of life: I’m going back to school.  I am getting a Masters in Accounting. From Western Governors University.  Orientation starts tomorrow.  I can’t promise routine check-ins but I’ll try to give my impressions, experience, etc every once in a while.

    So far, a couple little hiccups.  For example, the enrollment counselor said orientation would be available the 15th. Sunday morning I logged in, nothing.  I waited until noon, 10 am MT, and called student services only to find out that since the 15th was a Sunday and today a holiday, orientation would not be available until Tuesday.

    As long as tomorrow goes as planned!

  • I think I’m back…

    Wow, the weight comes back really quickly if you slack off…

    Sadly, I am almost completely back to where I was two years ago… almost 220.

    No excuses. It’s from eating too much and exercising too little… too many drive thru breakfasts instead of a protein shake with a banana, too many cafeteria lunches instead of soup& veggies, too many take out & convenience dinners instead of chicken & veggies or other homemade portion controlled choices, and lastly, too much ice cream after a day of poor choices…

    Back at it, tomorrow is a Monday and it’s the 1st of a month… what could be a better day to start over?

    First goal: 199
    Reward: manicure (and relief from daily heartburn I am sure!)

  • MIA!

    Well, I have neen quite neglectful of this blog!  Honestly, that was my fear when I started it… that I would be all “rah rah rah” and then lose interest.

    I haven’t lost interest completely, just took a minor break. Instead of working hard at getting an A in weight loss I have been more of a C stident in maintainence.

    I am at 180 so still 30 pounds from my main goal… i had hoped to reach it by my birthday in July. Still possible but it is going to take some serious work!

    A friend of mine at work came into my office yesterday to talk to me about running with her and training in prep for the Dirty Girl Mud Run that she & I are doing on June 14.  Woah! Wake up call! That’s less than 10 weeks away and my exercise for about two months has been just walking… I upped my daily step goal from 10 to 11 thousand but that isn’t enough to help!

    She and I are meeting this Saturday for our first training together…

    So tomorrow morning my ass will be on the treadmill to see what I can do and how far I have to go… I need to develop an upper body strength workout too. Added benefit, I might develop some muscles to firm up my flappy upper arms.

    Lose weight, gain strength. That’s my mantra.

  • Are they really all that? Quest Bars. Yum!

    So, I recently discovered Quest Bars… OMG!  bars

    My November Foodie Penpal sent me a Coconut Cashew bar.  I left it on the kitchen table at work and it disappeared so I didn’t try them then.

    They seem to have a cult following!  So I decided to stop at GNC and buy three to try.  First off, the nutrition makes my day… so much fiber and protein!  Since I track calories, protein, and fiber, these are great!  I’m going to review them in the order that I’ve tried them.

    Chocolate Peanut Butter.  160 calories, 20 grams protein, 17 grams fiber.  My first Quest Bar.  It was pretty tasty.  I would buy it again.  I was surprised at the softness of the bar, it is kind of malleable.

    Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.  190 calories, 21 grams protein, 17 grams fiber.  And this is the bar that made me into a cult follower too!  It was so good!

    Peanut Butter and Jelly. 200 calories, 20 grams protein, 17 grams fiber.  Nothing special, I wouldn’t buy this one again.  It was tasty but not that amazing to be worth 200 calories and almost $3.

    At this point, after three days, I was now out of my initial three bars that I purchased…  so no more for a few days.  Come the next week, I stopped into a Vitamin Shoppe on my way home and spent almost $30.

    As I continued on my drive home couldn’t resist breaking into the bag and I ate a package of Quest Cravings Peanut Butter Cups.

    pbcups_bar_vba_300_01_1

    Oh My!!! 240 calories, 20 grams protein, 17 grams fiber.  They are kind of an odd texture, they seem powdery and I found myself worried they would crumble away to dust but I really liked the taste.  Do they taste like a Reese’s Cup?  No, but they are good and I didn’t regret eating them 15 minutes afterward like I would have if I had eaten two Reese’s!!!  (I am so glad I bought two packages!  One is still in my cupboard for a later date)

    Lemon Cream Pie.  160 calories, 20 grams protein, 17 grams fiber.  Not my favorite.  When I first bit into it I thought “Lemon Pledge.”  The second bite tasted better, then by the time I finished it, I thought it was okay but I don’t think this would go on my buy again list…

    Cookies and Cream.  180 calories, 21 grams protein, 17 grams fiber.  Yum again!  Little chunks of things that taste like chocolate cookies.  Absolutely want this one again!

    Strawberry Cheesecake.  160 calories, 20 grams protein, 17 grams fiber.  Honestly, I don’t remember eating this one.  It was Thursday morning and that is an early day to get to work…  Mindful eating? Nope.

    Banana Nut Muffin.  170 calories, 20 grams protein, 16 grams fiber.  Pretty good.  Considering how many bananas I eat in general, I don’t think I’ll get this one again because really, more banana stuff?  No thanks!  But it isn’t going on the no list for taste.

    I still have five more bars and a pack of peanut butter cups in the cupboard.  Vanilla Almond Crunch, Cinnamon Roll, Chocolate Brownie, Double Chocolate Chunk, another bar of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, and one more pack of the Cravings Peanut Butter Cups.

    For sure these have entered my diet for now and the future.  I want to try all the flavors and then decide which ones I want to buy as boxes of 12.

    chocchipscncbarlargeimage_350_cpb_bar_1

    (Two posts, in one day?  Well, I started this one three days ago but didn’t finish it until tonight)

  • Guess what? It’s snowing again.

    This winter can’t be over soon enough!  Let’s see… what to ramble about, besides the weather?

    I won the two Dietbets that I was doing consecutively.  One I paid $30 and got back $40.62.  The other I paid $25 and got back $32.29.  So at the end of the month, my weight is down and I made $18.11.  Woo-hoo!!

    I am almost “overweight” rather than “obese” based on the BMI charts.  That really makes my day.  On my weight page I calculate my BMI for the first weigh-in of the month so as the first Monday of the month, that was today… 31.1

    I feel a little sick… just a runny nose and a sinus headache.  I hope it doesn’t get worse!  I went to visit a friend of mine in the hospital Friday.  She has pneumonia and H1N1 flu.  I put on a gown, gloves, and mask before I went into her room.  Washed my hands really well when leaving, took sani-wipes and wiped down things and used it to press buttons on the way back to my car… but virulent germs are scary!  She is diabetic and over 400 pounds so she has other health issues making her battle to health even harder.   She joined our biggest loser competition.  I am so proud of her for taking that step!  She wanted me to bring the scale to the hospital for her weigh-in but I told her to just focus on getting well and I’d take the hospital’s weight when she checked in as her week’s weigh-in.

    Well, off to exercise!

  • what to add for 2014?

    It is time to make a new change, to add something in to my health and fitness life.

    See, back at the beginning of 2013 I began counting calories.  In August I added in exercise (cardio) and quit smoking but quit counting calories.  Then, at the end of November I added back in counting calories.

    Now, I think it is time to add in some strength training!  Way back in the day, 1994-ish, I lifted.  I didn’t do cardio if I could avoid it but weights?  Loved it!  Time to re-embrace that feeling of power.  Back then I belonged to a great gym, even worked there for a while.  Currently a gym won’t be an option so I am starting to research bodyweight exercises.

    Not giving up my cardio though, turns out I enjoy it.

    Biggest loser update:  our team for the big challenge is at 6 people and our local competition group is 10 people.  People have until Friday to join and then weigh-in is by the end of the day on Monday.   I’m excited and plan on kicking ass again this year.  I maintained everything I lost in last year’s competition so I have happy hopes for this year’s!!!

  • sewing for exercise

    Oh, if only sewing really counted as exercise… I would easily be svelte!

    So this morning I achieved my plan of making new exercise gear.  Two new pairs of fancy pants:

    pants-dotspants-redblue

    Sadly, I didn’t have enough of the dots fabric to make a matching top.  I did have enough of the red/blue fabric on the right to do so.   And hair wraps as well from both though I only photographed the one.

    top-redbluehairwrap

    I wore the red/blue pants to walk this evening and had to change out of them after a mile and a half…  They are warm!  So, I can see them working well for those early cold mornings when the back room where the treadmill resides is chilly but today wasn’t a very cold day so they were a bit much.

    In between my sewing this morning and walking this evening we went and ate at the Chinese buffet then came home and napped.  All in all, a relaxing Saturday!  (With a bit of sadness in the day as well as I watched my motorcycle go off to its new home. We sold it yesterday and they came to get it today.  Maybe someday I will get another…)