A Blue Day

Yesterday Heath and I rode the ski train from downtown Denver up to Winter Park and skied all day. I was feeling more comfortable since I had just skied the day before, so we skied greens in the morning, and after lunch we headed up to some blues. We went back to the Vasquez Ridge area, which is usually not busy because most people don't know how to get there. When Kelly and I went skiing, we did one blue back there called Stagecoach, so even though I thought that was really steep I decided to try it out. We talked to people at the lift who said that one was the easiest, so I felt okay. Then we got to the area where Stagecoach branches off...and it's closed. I thought that one was pretty hard, so I was a little worried. As it turns out, Stagecoach seemed to be the hardest of them all (or maybe I was just feeling more confident). It was so much fun...I'm now a blue skier! It opens up so much more of the mountain, and it's only a matter of time before I turn black!

Last night after skiing, my intramural volleyball team and some other friends went downtown to play pool. It was a lot of fun, and I had a revelation. I'm not ready to share that with the world yet, but it made me really happy and I haven't been able to stop smiling or thinking about it all day. This weekend has been one of those weekends...it has been full of fun and adventure, and it's made me feel like my life is going exactly the way it should be. So I'm so happy!! :-)

Gyms, again

I had a nice day of skiing today, and I thought I'd end it with going to the gym and meeting for the first time with my personal trainer. I'm not paying for one, I'm just getting the complimentary sessions for signing up. I know I'm not in the best shape, especially my upper body, but I thought he'd at least commend me for losing 30 pounds. Instead, I left feeling fat and helpless. The guy was nice, it wasn't really his fault. After I found out my body fat percentage and stuff, I felt like losing the 30 pounds did nothing. He kept telling me that I needed to do weights and stuff for my upper body, which I know and which is one of the main reasons why I joined. But he basically made it sound like no matter how much I try myself or have other people help me, I'm never going to get better unless I have a personal trainer. I think that's a bunch of crap. A coworker of mine has been working out for a long time and is pretty buff, and he said he'd help me. The trainer said I can't follow his routine or have him help me since he isn't certified, but it'll still help and it costs a lot less. So now I think I'm going to go to bed and wallow in self pity. The only good part that came out of it was that I apparently have pretty buff legs, even though I think they're still fat. Oh, well. The trainer must be right.

Gyms

I joined 24 hour fitness yesterday. I sent out a feeler at work to see if they offered us discounts and to see how much everyone else was paying. Most people said they paid less (a lot less, in most cases) than $30/month, and their initiation fee was waived. One person said that she joined just a couple months ago and they no longer offered us a disount and it was almost $40/month. So I went in last night with the intention on not spending any more than $30/month, and fighting with them until they gave me what I wanted. Well, I found out that indeed, the last girl was correct and they wouldn't offer me anything lower. So finally I just signed up for the four-day-a-week pass, which was still $27/month and I can only go Mon/Wed/Fri/Sun. That's probably better, anyway, because it'll give me a strict time when I can go, and then on the other days and the weekend I can go do stuff outside. Stupid big corporations...Grrr.

Saving Babies

Today is the 32nd Anniversary of Roe v. Wade. I participated in the National March for Life the last two years I was in college, and that was an awesome experience (so I guess I can say I protested something while in college, lol). Today Heath and I went downtown to commemorate the anniversary. We went to Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception at noon. I love that cathedral. I wish all churches were built that way, it's so beautiful and traditional and reverent. I also love how they use so much incense during Mass. Archbishop Charles Chaput celebrated Mass. He's so great, and he's always reaching out to the younger crowd. After Mass, we walked two blocks to the capitol building and attended the rally. It wasn't as nice or fired-up as the national one, but it was still good. We marched around a couple of the media places and ended up at the Knights of Columbus hall for hot chocolate and donuts. I hope next year I can go to the national one again. This year probably would have been bad anyway due to the weather! Hopefully, there won't be too many more of these. The sooner we stop killing innocent children in their mothers' wombs, the better our nation and the world will be.

Peanut Butter Cups

I think I found my weakness. Free Candy. Especially free Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. My boss has a cup of the mini ones sitting on his desk, so it's so easy to just go in his office to talk to him and grab a couple. Or three. Or four. Repeating this three or four or five times a day. Since they're free and small, they don't make me feel like I'm ingesting any calories at all. So for all of you out there who want to sabotage my diet, there's how to do it. :)

I went skiing again yesterday (I had a free pass to Copper). One of the people I skied with was a girl from Italy. She gave me a few pointers on how to turn and how to hold my poles, so I think I'm doing better now. I don't know when I'll go next, but I'm looking forward to practicing some more!

The next few weeks at work are going to be crazy. I'm hoping for major overtime so I can put enough money away for possible house repairs or a washer and dryer, but the downside is I won't be at home as much (or able to ski as much!!). So all you faithful readers, don't fret if I don't update this for a while. I should be able to do it at work during downtime, but you never know.

Another Semester

My second class, Rocket Propulsion, toward my master's started last week. I received the first CD of the class in the mail yesterday. Last semester I chose to get videos, but this year I wanted DVD's because they are smaller to store. Unfortunately, it is a CD instead of a DVD, so it won't play in my DVD player. I could have chosen to just watch the class online, but I wanted a DVD so I wouldn't be tempted to play on the internet while I was watching. So you can guess what I'm going right now.... I might have to call and get my media changed to VHS to avoid this. I'm hoping this class will be easy for me. I took rocket as an undergrad, so hopefully this will mainly be a refresher course.

My friend Kelly and I went skiing yesterday at Winter Park. It was so much fun! I actually went down some blues, too. The great thing was that there wasn't too many people there, so I could take my time going down. I'm probably going to take Monday off and go skiing with Heath and his family and friends at Copper. Oh, that reminds me, I need to look for my free Copper pass. After we got back from skiing, Kelly and I went and saw In Good Company. If anyone wants to see that movie, read no further!! Spoilers will exist! Anyway, we were all prepared to watch a nice romantic movie and go home depressed because men like Topher Grace's character don't exist. It was a really funny movie, and then the end happened. He didn't end up with the girl! True, she was like 18 and in college and he was 26, but still! They built us up for a happy ending and then it was just over with no resolution whatsoever! I hate movies like that. So instead of going home depressed because my life isn't like a movie, I went home depressed because I spent 10 bucks on a movie with a stupid ending. Grrr!!!!

Ok, I better get back to watching my lecture.

The Biggest Loser

The Biggest Loser finale was just on. I said in my last post that that show usually gets me motivated to work out. Today I worked over 12 hours, so I wasn't much in the mood, but I did get on my bike for 10 minutes and do some weights and crunches for another 10. Wow, I just looked back at my previous posts and saw that I talk about working out and losing weight a lot. I guess it's true that I think about it a lot. I started a "diet" last May, which was really just watching what I ate and working out, something I should do all the time. I started on a 1200 calorie a day diet, which quickly turned into about 1350. Eating only 1200 was hard!! But it worked, I lost 20 pounds in two months, before I leveled out. I'm currently down about 25 pounds total, so although I'm happy that I lost all that weight, I'm kind of mad at myself for not working harder during the last 6 months to keep that going. A friend at work started a diet, so that motivated me to pick it up again. I'm so competitive, which in this case is good. I'd like to lose another 20 pounds, but if I could just get in good shape and be healthy that would be good, too. It's too bad I lost the 25 pounds, now I can't be on The Biggest Loser II. :-) Or wait, I could gain it all back....hoho's, here I come!! :-)

Budgeting

I've decided to start budgeting. I'm not doing too bad now, but I want to be able to take out a larger mortage when I get a townhome and be able to afford it. I thought I was doing good, and then I realized I forgot my car payment. So now I'm making -9 dollars a month. But that's not including the money I'm taking out for savings, so I'm really ok. I'm going to have to keep track of the money that I spend on gas, groceries, etc. every month so I know the accurate numbers to put. Right now I'm just estimating. I'm trying to get Stacy on a budget, too, but it's not working too well. She's resisting my attempts. But never fear, soon she will be in my controlling grasp. :-)

It's snowing. That's good, I guess, because we need the moisture and the snow for skiing, but I don't particularly car to drive on it. That goes back to my childhood in Kansas when whenever it snowed we would be stuck at home for days. The snowplow doesn't typically go down gravel roads where only one family lives right away, that's not their priority. And even when they did, it was usually blowing so it filled in again anyway. Here they do a good job plowing, but that's because I live in the city. So it's not so bad.

The Biggest Loser was on tonight. That usually motivates me, and I usually ride my bike for the hour that it's on. Tonight I was talking on the phone too much, so I didn't get to do it. I feel bad, I'm supposed to be recording my workout hours for this thing I'm doing with a group at work, and the last few weeks have sucked - 15 minutes or less. But that's because I haven't been able to ski or hike much lately. It'll all change soon. And it's weird, I weighed myself tonight and I weigh less than I did this morning, without even working out. Hopefully I'll be able to handle picking up this diet again as well as being on a budget at the same time. No sweat! ;-)

First Post of New Year

I've been out of town for the last week, visiting family back in Kansas. My Christmas was good, except for the part where I got sick. On the Monday after Christmas I got a bad cold, and I'm still using an unusual amount of Puffs a day. But it's getting better, so I can't complain. I saw a lot of my family on both sides. On the Sunday after Christmas we got together on my mom's side, and on New Year's we got together on my dad's side. It was so nice back home, we took walks several times without needing a jacket. That doesn't make for a normal Christmas, though, so it didn't really feel like it. But I still enjoyed the break. And then I started off my new year driving back yesterday and getting my first ever speeding ticket. I wasn't speeding under normal circumstances, but apparently it was road construction and I wasn't paying much attention. Oh, well, at least it's not more than $150, so I don't have to report it to security!

Over break we tried on different bridesmaids dresses for my sister Bonnie's wedding, which will probably occur next August. I was expecting to have to pay around $100, but the ones Bonnie wants are $160-$180!! Plus, they're strapless, so now I'm going to have to get my arms in shape, and just get in shape in general so I don't look so gross. I guess since this is the time everyone makes their resolutions, I should join them about losing weight. The bad thing is, now the gyms are going to be packed and there won't be any good deals to join professional gyms, so I'll have to do it myself. I have an exercise bike, so I guess I should use it. If this resolution goes as good as the other one I made today, I'm going to be in trouble. This morning I walked into work with the intention of cutting back on pop. By 2 p.m., I was working on my third one. But I haven't had any since then, so I guess I can start by not drinking any at home.

I better get working on the Christmas pictures to post on the website. I haven't had any new ones in a while!