Sunday, March 20, 2016

Sunday 3.20.16

So, it's Sunday. I don't have a specific purpose for Sunday blogs, as in I do not have a hashtag for it, but I suppose I can tag this as #TheLatestThing!



Well, for some news, I quit my old gym. Planet Fitness, while judgement-free and serving my basic needs, just wasn't cutting it for me anymore. I hadn't gone in a few weeks, some of it has been scheduling issues, some of it has been my slacking off, some of it has been just the boring same-old thing that I just got tired of.

So, I went looking for a new gym. I didn't want to go back to Around the Clock Fitness, with it's free-weight section full of meat-heads and grunting idiots. I didn't want to go back to L.A. Fitness, because they are almost twice as much as any other gym I've been a member of. I know I can't do it on my own, not yet, as I still need the companionship of others around me to keep me motivated while I am there.

So, I went exploring. There is a "Wellness Center" at the hospital right by my house. It's the same hospital I volunteer at each Monday. I get a discount there, amenities like showers, steam room, changing stalls, a pool, heated hydrotherapy pool, plus there are many classes including group exercise, spin, and water aerobics classes!

I ended up joining. It's more than PF was per month, but not nearly as much as any of the previous gyms I've joined. The hours are alittle more limited, but they are still open enough for me to get there with my current work schedule. Mondays are too crowded, so I will use that day each week as a rest day.

I also plan on cardio 3x per week, and weights 3x per week. If I work out 5 days, then one of those days will be both cardio and weights.

I can also track my fitness routines online. The cool thing about the Wellness Center is they use FitLinxx in order to keep track of my routines, as well as overall health. It was set up with me by a personal fitness coach, and I can go to any coach in duty to have my range of motion reset, to adjust my base weight for each machine, as well as answer any questions I may have about my fitness routines or my target fitness goals.



As you can see, the 16th was an okay day for me. I came in, logged into my FitLinxx system, did 31 minutes of cardio on the treadmill, then did some weights, then finished it off with a total-body workout... laps in the pool!!
I ended up swimming 10 lengths (5 laps), for a total of 250 yards, which is just over 1/4th of a mile!

So, there you have it. The Latest Thing is that I joined a new gym; one that, for me, will be new and exciting for a while, and will allow me the fellowship I missed of group exercise classes, while also giving me new options like swimming and water aerobics!


Monday, March 14, 2016

Poem

So, I had a moment of hesitation tonight. I was in the hospital doing my Monday night volunteer thing, and I was curious about how much nurses make. My head nurse, I will call her H, told me she works four 12-hour days as her workweek, as do many of the other nurses. I looked up what a nurse in my area makes, on average. $60k. That's the average amount. Checking with CareerBuilder and the hospital's careers page directly, and they report close to the same numbers, about $27/28 per hour for Full-Time Nurses.

What if I'm in school for the wrong thing? What if I would make a great nurse, and have wasted so much time doing something else?

What if I hate my job?

What if I never get a job?

What if I never finished school?

Where is my summer tuition payment coming from?

....And so the spiral began. Into the deep dark hole of insecurity and uncertainty; of wanting to run away and leave everything behind; of feeling miserable about being my age and not having a definitive plan of action, or a clear course laid out.

But, instead of clamming up and losing my head, I decided to start writing... and I ended up with a poem.

Enjoy.



Sunday, March 13, 2016

Starting Again

It's 112 days until July 4th. A day in which I had planned on having a "bikini body" ready to debut. 

Obviously, that's not going to happen. I will be in a one-piece for sure. But, I'm okay with that.

Today is going to be a new day. 

I just haven't had the motivation to refocus myself and buckle back down. I say to myself that I just don't have the time, that I have too much on my plate, but in truth it's that I don't want to make the time. The pity party I have settled into is easy, comfortable, effortless.

But it's not good for me. It wouldn't be good for anyone! 

So, I'm going to take this one day at a time. Focus on what I can control, let go of what I can't control.

I have a calendar that I use to map out my homework for each week. I'm going to fill in my work schedule and my homework schedule, and then each day I'm going to find time to spend on myself. Running, weights, drawing, painting, I will spend time really focusing on myself and my overall health.

I've created a few new hashtags and images that I'll start using. I want to blog more often, and hopefully create something of these ramblings.

So, here's the newest hashtag/image....



I will use this when I have something new to share!

So.... here it is! It's the outline to my first Watercolor painting! It's the iconic character of Jack Torrance played by a great actor..... Jack Nicholson!Go to your blog list

(my outline - ready to move to watercolor paper)


(Reference shot)


I'll post more pics as the progress happens...!