Fitness Challenge and Family Pictures

Here is the status of the fitness challenge. Mostly it's not even started yet, we're starting tomorrow. Some people hadn't gotten back to me with their goals so I decided to delay it a bit. Things often don't go to plan, but I am still going to lose the weight so I don't care if other people need to procrastinate.

My progress thus far is pretty non-existent. I haven't worked out that many times, but I've been more mindful of my eating. During school I stopped buying lunches and started making them. This weekend I put some jeans on I haven't worn in months. I weigh the same, but I seem to be a bit thinner. I'll have to get on the ball if I want to lose some pounds.


Finding time to work out is really difficult. My schedule is ridiculous, but here is what I am trying to aim for:

Monday Evening
Tuesday Afternoon
Thursday Afternoon
Friday Afternoon


Then on the weekend do at least one physical activity with the family.
This weekend we're going to take Abby and go to a corn maze! It should
be awesome.

Last weekend we got some family pictures taken. I think they're a good way to gauge where I am and where I hope to be.

 

Progress

Yesterday was the beginning of the fitness challenge. I got up at 7 to run on the new treadmill, only to discover that I couldn't find my inhaler. For the first month or so that I'm getting in shape I need to use my inhaler about half an hour before working out. Not a great start to the challenge! My goal is to lose 30 lbs in 90 days. It will be hard and I already feel like I need to step it up. It's only been one day! I shouldn't be so hard on myself.

The new treadmill is great. When I got home from work last night I went downstairs. It was TOUGH to drag myself down there, I was so tired. I watched last week's episode of How I Met Your Mother while I ran, so I was plenty entertained, but passed out on the couch immediately after dinner.

I feel like I never get enough sleep. We sent Abby off to Nana and Papa's house for the weekend and got plenty of sleep, which oddly made us feel worse. Last night after working out I had a little nap, then got up and got ready for bed. I didn't get to sleep until 12:30 or so, then had to get up at 6:30 and get to class by 7. I hate morning classes. I'm tired, but I feel better than I normally do. Maybe the exercise helped?

Priorities

This week I had a bit of a nervous breakdown. I was hormonal from taking Clomid (which did not work on the first try, sadly) and feeling generally overwhelmed. Abigail is so amazing, I have a hard time imagining having another kid. I sort of love our little family just how it is, but I think another one would be great too. It’s just hard because with trouble ovulating, school, being over 30 (I know, I’m still young, but I worry. Do you know the odds of having a Downs baby after 30? Google it. It scares me.) and everything else going on I was just feeling very stressed. I talked to my husband about it and we decided that with my weight (nearly as high as it was when I delivered Abby) and stress levels I need to do something or I will be in trouble in the future. I have about fifty pounds to lose and all efforts to make positive changes have failed. I have great intentions, but a workout routine just never seems to materialize. If I can’t do it in law school, how am I supposed to do it when I’m an attorney? Not to mention that pregnancy will go a lot better if I’m not a) so out of shape any effort induces asthma symptoms and b) so fat that the baby is statistically more likely to be large and my chances of gestational diabetes go up. I’m actually having trouble sleeping at night due to my weight.

Recently, like within the last two months or so, my abdominal muscles gave up. I now have that Thing that fat people have. Up to now, I have managed to skate by with the weight distributed all over. This means I may be considered “obese” but because I’m tall with a small waist and big boobs I still look pretty damn good naked. Now, The Thing has appeared. You know The Thing. People at bargain basement stores in sweats driving around on little motorized shopping carts have it. People who’ve had multiple pregnancies (at once I mean) have it (provided they don’t get free tummy tucks like Kate Gosselin did, the lucky duck!). The Thing is what those 80 dollar Lane Bryant jeans are intended to hide. I really wish I had bought those instead of the 30 dollar equivalent at another store. The Thing is what you USED to grab onto when you were a skinny teenager and you relaxed your stomach muscles, because it was dramatic to pretend it was fat and not relaxed muscle and skin, and now I can grab it even when I’m flexing my hardest and standing up straight. It HANGS. I had gotten quite used to nothing HANGING. Are you disturbed? Because I am. Enough to do something about it. I just hope my body can recover, I’d hate to start selling myself in exchange for plastic surgery.

Today I bought a treadmill. I’m not sure if I have blogged about our last treadmill and how it tried to KILL every person in my family, but suffice it to say it got returned to the store. I felt defeated (and pissed) and decided I needed to go to a gym instead. I’m pretty sure that was almost two years ago now. This new treadmill is SO pretty. It has an iPod jack and built in speakers and it does interval training. Do you know what that is (and how awesome it is)? Basically, it makes you go slow/fast slow/fast over and over to help you build cardiovascular endurance. This is the best and quickest way to train your lungs and prevent asthma attacks. It helps you be able to suddenly do stairs without passing out. And, it’s great for weight loss. Just when you catch your breath, it’s time to run again. You don’t feel bored, because your pace changes every minute. Some people prefer incline intervals, but I like speed intervals. The point is, this is the kind of training I like. If I’m going to form a new habit, it needs to be something I like. Once I’m in good enough shape, we can talk about doing the kind I don’t like, but for now, I’m just going to set some goals. I would really like to run a mile without stopping. And then 2 miles, then 3, and so on.

I’ve been thinking of starting a Biggest Loser competition with my friends, only instead of competing for most amount lost, we just compete to meet our individual goals. If you meet your goal, you win. If you don’t, you lose. And then the winners divvy up the prizes. I’m worried about trademark though, anyone have a suggestion for a parody of the name? How about Biggest Schmoozer?
Anyway, that plus lots of law school is what is up with me.

Staying Firm on Decisions

Thanks to everyone who gave great advice on what to do with the living situation. We've decided to move, across the street! (The house with more bedrooms for an extra 200 a month.) It's just too great to pass up, and we really are strapped for space here. One of Abigail's favorite things is to rip paper up and destroy books, so having a room I can keep her out of will be very helpful.

Even better (and further evidence things work out for a reason) is that we found someone to finish out our lease and they are probably going to be our new best friends! They have a daughter not much older than Abby, and the two are already having fun playing together. The woman is a genetics fellow at the university (same as where Brian works in science as well) so we have that in common. The man stays home with the daughter while finishing his dissertation in music. They like board games and sports and have already asked if we were interested in playing games sometime. Heck yeah! We don't know any other parents in our area so this is awesome, plus since we'll be right across the street we know where to go for Abby to have a playdate. The relief of this is huge for me, because I know Abigail needs more socialization. Law school will be hard enough without constantly worrying about her.

A while back I read an article about things you should do if you go to law school. It originally came from here but I snagged it from here. One of the things in the advice was to get in shape before school starts because "law school is the land of coffee and pizza." I thought that was hilarious but I know it is true. When I toured the school the ambassador told me they often have free food there for one event or another so we'll never go hungry. I've been seriously miserable about how much weight I've gained since my brother-in-law died, and intent on losing it. I've joined a gym temporarily (the school has an excellent one just one building over from the law building) and so far I've already lost 3 pounds! Only about 30 more to go. Or 20. I'm not really sure how much to lose. I know my "normal" weight may be different than it used to be since I've had a baby, so I am not going to push it beyond what my body considers normal. As long as I'm maintaining and healthy, I am going to be happy.

Speaking of staying firm on decisions, I sure have read a lot of horribly negative blawgs lately about how no one should ever go to law school. They refer to bottom tier schools as "toilets" and say even those attending better schools are totally screwed. I'm new to the blawg world so I'm sure the whole "toilet" thing is probably normal and common, but it's all just SO negative. Half the ones I read are so bitter I don't get a good impression of the writer. It almost feels like they just couldn't hack it so they blame the "establishment." I've also read quite a few that explain my reaction to the bitterness as my own egotism. Yep, I think I'm better and smarter than all of them and therefore they can be as negative and bitter as they want and if it bugs me then well it's my own bloated ego driving me to feel that way.

I'm not ignorant or naive, I know the market sucks. I know there are hundreds of lawyers out there not practicing law or who are desperately trying to find a job and can't. However, I also know a lot of people in my area who are finding success. I know the market is coming back up and I am seeing an increase of job postings. I also know enough about myself to believe that by the time I graduate I WILL find a job. I've made good money in my career thus far, so I have something to go back to and a legal education could be a bonus, even if I'm paying for it.

Luckily, I have a deadly combination of in-state tuition and discounted tuition since Brian's an employee. I think that will help me borrow less, and maybe once I'm done if I don't have the ideal job I can get by easier knowing I have less to pay back. *sigh* We'll see, but I am determined to do this because I think I was born for it, bad economy or not.

One blawg pointed out how schools in Home State "heavily rely" on the local religious population to "fill seats." Not true, but they were right about the local religion's networking. They are tight knit, it's true and you can definitely use those connections. I am not part of the religion, but having been raised and worked in the community I do see an advantage. Maybe this will help me beat the "law school scam" too.

I hope so, because I don't want to be bitter too.

I've often commented on "technical" schools that you see ads for on TV. And massage therapy schools. And "medical professional" schools. And paralegal schools. All of these are saturating the market while simultaneously SCREWING their students with huge tuition and IN-HOUSE LENDING at ridiculous rates.

I plan on borrowing only federal low-rate (non-credit based) loans and avoiding private loans. I think I'm really lucky there too.

I feel bad for those who have come before me who've been screwed by lower-tier schools. Most Home State law grads do stay in Home State, so perhaps I'll get lucky and be able to avoid competing with all those "toilet" graduates.

The whole things sucks, and I am not trying to criticize the underground movement to change the system, it is just a bit of a shock to read it all. Plus it makes me feel bad to read that by not taking their advice (and running like hell) I'm just using my overly huge inflated head.

Thanks again to everyone, it's awesome to find more blawgers in various stages of the process.