Eschewing pie with a firm hand

Today, I said no to pie. I feel bad wasting food, but I don't feel bad about  waiting around for a better, hot piece of pie with a vanilla ice-creamy accompaniment. 

Gettin' it

FINALLY!

Gah! I made fitness goals in my weight training class, one of which was to reduce my stomach fat by doing more cardio (2x/week actually). I started off doing that, happily! Then, I found time to do my homework when I should have been running/jumping/skipping/cycling on the elliptical. Well, no more! Thanksgiving is coming, along with the other fattening holidays. I am making a choice to start my sugar-cut, cardio-upping now. It seems like it wouldn't be the best time for my willpower, what with all these comforting, heavy, sweet/super salty foods coming my way. But, I am getting some of the biggest projects and presentations of the semester finished BEFORE Thanksgiving break, so I should have ample time to rest and exercise. I'm planning on it.

Today was the first day of getting back on track. I just went out in the 40 degree weather and ran. It was so nice!!! Except my earbuds kept falling out in the first few minutes, so I wrapped up my phone. Then, my sinuses went into overdrive trying to protect me and everything. Mucus and tears starting welling up in my facial cavities. Mmhmm, that's the good stuff. I used my shirt as my sleeve and kept going. I had a hard time breathing, so I walked a lot, but the point is that in spite of all of these lil obstacles, I finished my run-walk of 2.5 miles! :)

Now that it's all over I'm still a well of mucus, but I feel like my insides have been cleaned out. I FEEL SO GOOD! It was painful, but the sweetness of the shower afterward, this mug of green tea, and cuddling up under my blanket for these 40 minutes until class starts are all made sweeter by that 2.5 miles of butt-busting...or should I say visceral fat busting? What's up!!!

Sure did! :)

Crisis Over

Since I can't afford much of anything now, I think I'm going to take time off to work and save money, then go to graduate school. I like the sound of that more and more every time I say it. I plan on saving money to travel as well since I've had wanderlust basically since I came back from the South Pacific eight years ago...

I'm still a little shaken up thinking about the future, but having a concrete plan (which is still hardening) makes me feel much better.

Regarding the very near future: FALL IS HERE! HOMECOMING IS APPROACHING! I'm super stoked. To me, these things represent:
-cold weather (great for running- WAHOO!)
-brisk, crisp air
-seeing my smoky breath (Yes, I'm very easily amused)
-hot beverages
-cuddling season (wish I had a dog, or that my cat was friendlier)
-"Hocus Pocus" - my favorite Halloween movie from childhood
-ALL the scary movies coming into theaters - I stinkin love horror movies. Suspense, real life stuff>gore, torture, gratuitous sex
-holiday season (Thanksgiving, Christmas)
-pecan, chocolate, chess/buttermilk PIE (nom nom nom)
-community :)

Mid-semester Crisis

Wah wah.

I'm smack dab in the middle of the graduate school application process. It's messing with my head. I think I know what I want to do, but completing the many requirements for each school AND staying on top of my academic/employment/extracurricular activities is proving to be almost too hard. It's also all so expensive, I'm wondering if this is worth it...if this is what I'm really supposed to do.

The idea of taking a year off to work, because the job I have now basically pays in love and free food, sounds like a great plan. Continuing on to a grad school program I love and praying for an assistantship/a nice part-time job doesn't sound bad either. Whatever I choose, life is expensive, so I really can't base my decision on finances.

I've talked with a few women I consider wise and they've suggested being introspective to find out what I need to do.

what in the world?

I'm hardly an adult! How am I supposed to know what I need to do for the next 1-5 years? Alright, I have some ideas, but all of this responsibility is awful [great most of the time, actually]. It's times like this when a lot of money is riding that it feels awful.

Time to find some answers I suppose...

Day One

We made goals in my weightlifting class a few days ago. Normally, I smash a pint of ice cream in one sitting, and usually have sweets once a day. Since my grade is resting on it, I'm determined to make them happen. I'm already a pretty active person already, my diet is a big part of my transformation. 

On that note, I have great news! I made it all day without eating sugar!!! Well, I had to grab breakfast after weightlifting so my body wouldn't start eating my newly developing muscles. I grabbed oatmeal from Starbucks. Then, I poured all the stuff they gave me to go on it, on top, and that included some brown sugar. 

What's amazing is that I didn't have cookies/cake/a pint of ice cream as usual. Now I just need to keep enough good for me foods around to avoid binging when Sugar comes temptingly shimmying in my face...

Intro Post

Dear World,

I am so excited! I don't know what to say! Haha. This is really telling. I am an extremely passionate, excitable person. I get energized about everything...from the mundane: Yay! I'm going to a party! to the strange: OMG! BED! I'm going to sleep. Woop! So, it makes sense that I am super stoked about starting a blog. Something else that contributes to this excitement is my personal favoritism in communicating through writing over speaking. I consider myself good at communicating, although I often find myself struggling for the right word to use. I also tend to mess up grammar and commas. (Sorry grammarians)!

Since this is an intro post, I'll tell a little bit about myself. I am planning on graduating college soon, then moving on to big bad graduate school (dun dun duuuuun)! I am terrified. I know I'm smart enough. I mean, I've made it this far in college. Grad school, I've heard, is a whole 'nother beast. Ulp. I guess I consider myself academic. I genuinely enjoy studying, really learning in general. I do well in school now, but my first few years of college were rough. I had to learn "how" to study for me, personally. (Tactile learner - yeah)! I also started off pre-med. I found out I don't enjoy science. Sadly, it showed in my GPA. I started working my freshman year, which actually improved my study habits.

The next major component of my personality which negatively contributed to my studies is my love for people. My strengths on Strengths Finder are Activator, Developer, Individualization, Positivity, and Woo. Friends say those are "people" strengths. It's true. I have the spiritual gift of prophecy. If you don't know what that is, or don't believe in spiritual giftings, it's basically the power to see potential in others and encourage them. Sometimes, I wish I could be a professional encourager...not a cheerleader per se, but one who walks alongside people in life and objectively helps them sort through what's going on their life. (I want to go into counseling, yes).

I'm kind of getting tired of writing now. *cutting to the chase* I loooooove to work out, and God blessed me with love for fruits and veggies (and unfortunately sweets). This translates to a passion for exercise (hooray)!, a large consumption of the healthy stuff, but also frequent noshing or pounding of sweets. The lattermost is becoming a problem. There's nothing wrong with enjoying sweets, but there is when I enjoy sweets en masse, frequently. As a result, I'll probably talk about those types of things a lot. Yay for accountability!

Oh! Last thing: I'm taking Latin, and it's the closest thing I have to the bane of my existence. 1. it's tough. 2. my first prof for that class was awful (poorly laid foundation. boo). 3. it takes a long time to prepare for as a result of my confusion in the middle two Latin classes. But, huzzah! I am in my final semester of it...with a bunch of classics majors who basically speak the language. Poop. Meanwhile, I'm in the corner quite literally sitting in my Latin dictionary trying to keep up. In spite of these negatives, we are all advanced enough to work through literature. I do enjoy that aspect of it. Translating broken up sentences about war and truth isn't  nearly as much fun as working through the great church father Augustine. I LOVE Augustine. He's so down to earth and funny. He would be one of the people I would bring to dinner if I could invite X number of famous people to dinner. (Surely you've been asked that question before?) Anyway, yadda yadda yadda, I am making it through the class because his book Confessions changed the way I think about God and His grace when I read it three years ago. Now, I get to experience his work all over again, with a fresh, Latin-y perspective.

Okay, I'm finished now.
Nice to meet you!

Earnestly,
Tyler