Weigh in #14

This will be a somewhat quick update since I'm a couple days late and I'm not sure what I'll be trying to fit into my day today. I took this picture on Thursday, so it was the day of the weigh-in. I'm down to 164.2 pounds this week, down .8 pounds since last week and 22.4 pounds since starting back in January. That's not bad for a week of starting a new job. A loss is a loss, you know, and I'm still at an average of 1.6 pounds lost a week.

How I Ate:

I ate an average of 1234.6 calories this week. It was a b0ring food week, what can I say?

How I Moved:

I made it to the gym twice this week for yoga, which was pretty good, and I also worked a couple days this weigh-in week, which involved a lot of standing and walking and a bit of lifting. If I can avoid eating or drinking while I work, I'll be in good shape to burn calories at work.

While I initially wanted to do cardio and Starting Strength/Practical Programming, I liked yoga and felt such an impact from it that I decided I'd try a month or so of just cardio and yoga (and perhaps pilates) to help develop my core strength. I feel like if I'm able to do leg press a huge amount and squat a small one, the legs aren't the problem, it's the fun little stabilizers in the back and abs, which get worked out in....yoga and pilates. Also, gosh, the feeling of calm after session of yoga is literally like nothing I've ever experienced. I realize that an actual yoga studio would be even better, but right now a big box gym is what I want for the variety of classes, free weights, and cardio equipment.

How I Felt:

Pretty good. This has been a busy week and I've had a lot of balls in the air. It's going to be a challenge to lose weight while working at a restaurant that serves delicious and borderline unhealthy food/portions, and it's also going to be hard to get exercise when I'm working. I've got a boyfriend to talk to every day and a family to spend time with. I expect the weight to be somewhat slower in coming off while making the transition to working. I built extra time into my goal to accommodate real life, and real life is happening. Honestly, I don't know how this next week is going to be, either, but even small movements on the scale like this week's are better than gaining.

I'm feeling good about my progress, though I sometimes wish I could push the fast forward button. There's a saying I ran across recently that I really grabbed on to: Most people don't want to lose weight, they want to have lost weight. I've been wanting to lose weight for a while and I'm starting to feel like, gosh, I've put in the time and effort, can't I just be at my goal yet? Can't I just have lost all the weight? I log every calorie I eat. I exercise. I cook for myself and my family so I'll know what we're eating. I don't call Kraft Macaroni and Chees, Hamburger Helper, an entire pound of ground beef in tortillas split between two people "dinner" like I used to. I learned to eat lettuce, spinach, celery, mangoes, Greek yogurt, dark chocolate, squash, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, eggplant. I don't eat out often, and I don't eat fast food alone like I used to four, five, six times a week. I had to be pretty bad for a while to get unhealthy. I've been really good for a while, can't I just be done with this? Can't I just switch to maintenance? Switch from focusing on the scale and the sizes I wear to focusing on a sport I love or what weight I can squat?

Nope. Not yet.

Late Again!

Again, life has been in the way of me being in a state of constantly updating this blog, and other things have taken precedence. This is okay.

I got a job! I got a job at a restaurant and I've trained two days so far and have training again tonight. I don't know my schedule beyond that, but I suspect it will be a number of lunch shifts and perhaps weekday nights.

The people are VERY nice at the restaurant, and I like it. The computer system is pretty easy though I expect it'll get harder when I'm at it on my own without my training waiter right there with me. The menu seems awfully long and there is a lot of overlap among dishes, so it seems kind of challenging to learn everything, but I'm going to keep going and a combination of studying and experience will make it happen, I'm sure.

Since I'm in training, I'm making minimum wage, but once I'm on my own, I'll be making a much lower minimum wage plus tips. I grabbed a mason jar for my change, but other than that I haven't really given much thought to how I want to handle money now that I'll have an income for the first time in, what, eight months?

I want to set some aside for savings, give some to Mom and Dad for room and board, and buy some things I've been wanting, like a phone and some kind of phone plan, but I'm okay with waiting a while for things. I just want to make a plan soon so I don't find myself three or four months in, $6.45 in my savings account and  wondering what I did with the money I made.

I imagine being on top of your finances has some similarities to being on top of your weight, except I hope it takes less time. I spend way too much time reading about and working on my fitness as it is, and I really don't need any new projects between family, the blog, exercise, cooking, the boyfriend, and more.

Weigh-In #13w

Hey look I bleached my socks!

Also I lost two pounds since last week. Woo hoo! That means I've lost over twenty pounds since kicking this fitness thing off in January. I'm halfway to my forty pounds of weight loss! I've lost an average of 1.66 pounds a week, and I've got something like four months to meet my weight-loss goals, which looks like it shouldn't be a problem at all at this pace. We'll see.

How I Ate:

My average daily calories for this week were 1143 a day, which is lower than I'd like. I'm not sure what's going on here. It's working out in terms of losing weight and I don't feel hungry, but I'd hate to see my body start acting like it's starving and make doing what I'm doing more difficult. Even on days when I have high-calorie meals, I'm not eating snacks or drinking any of my calories and find myself still falling right around or below my calorie goals for the day. A glass of milk, an extra hard-boiled egg, something extra a day should bump me up to my goal of 1300-1400 calories a day.

Also, I'm going to be getting my food scale in the mail soon since Chris shipped me a lot of my stuff this week, so my calorie counts will become more accurate, especially in regards to how man ounces of meat I'm eating. Honestly, I wouldn't stand a chance at estimating this kind of thing without having used my food scale for a few months before having to part with it. I had no idea what two, four, and six ounces of meat looked like before. Now I have a better guess, but I like knowing I'm dead on, so I'm excited to use my scale again.

How I Moved:

This week I hit my three workouts a week goal, two of which were a combination of  strength training, cardio, and yoga, and the third, which was spinning. These are the first group fitness classes I've ever taken, so they were quite an experience! I began a version of Starting Strength, so I was doing squats, bench and overhead presses, deadlifts, and (assisted!) pull-ups. Or chin-ups. I always mix them up. I haven't been running except on a treadmill at the gym, and I also did some stair climbing at the gym, which is like a tiny escalator to Hell and I love and hate it so much.

Now onto my classes. Yoga was great. I had two different instructors, one who filled her class with a bit of chatter and loud Eastern music and who treated it more like what I imagine other fitness classes were like. The second instructor was amazing and sounded passionate, invested, and extremely knowledgeable about yoga. The space was quiet and peaceful, and I felt a much better connection to her. I'd go to either class again, because I had a lot of fun and experienced good soreness in my abs, arms, and shoulders day after both of my classes. Now spinning was a whole other beast. It's fast, challenging, and horrible. Seriously, these people are masochists. But when I was done I felt awesome. Yes, I am sore in places I'd rather not discuss. Yes, I was only able to do about 1/3 of the position two and three things that everyone else in the class was doing. But I came away sweaty, happy, and kind of pumped. I' don't know if I'll be doing a lot of spinning in the future or not, but I like having it as a good cardio option for the future.

How I Felt:

Great. I felt really good. This week has been a high point of fitness motivation for me, though other things like jobs and family things haven't been hit as hard as they should have been. Between all the cooking shows my family watches, logging my calories, and working out, it sometimes seems like I'm obsessed with food and working it off. I want to get to a weight that makes me happy and comfortable and then find a fitness activity or two that really motivate me and that I enjoy, and just work on those.

I love the idea of maintaining my weight. I'm not there yet and won't be for a few months, but I look forward to a time when I want to be and just...improving where I am. I have goals of weight lifting not just to build calorie-burning muscle, but to increase my strength. For now everything's in the service of weight loss and a little bit of strength/cardio conditioning, but I want to bump it up once I achieve the size and move up to training like an athlete.

Lots of people getting in shape get involved in races, triathlons, sports, etc. I don't know if any of those are for me, but I'm keeping my eyes open for something that motivates me. Spinning classes twice a week for the rest of one's life is okay, but striving for something like the completion of a bike race or a victory in sports (maybe roller derby?) sounds more rewarding to me. I've always been unsure of and embarrassed by my body, so to even consider putting myself out there in highly physical activities is exciting and kind of scary. Getting in shape, getting a stronger, healthier body is really amazing. You just don't realize how much you gain by starting down this road until you've been on it a while.

No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training...what a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.

Socrates

Tinkering

I've been playing with the layout/background/colors of my blog. I know it's not a cooking blog per say, but I love the style of background and the colors (which I'm finding myself somewhat unsuccessful at repeating throughout my blog in links/titles/outlines) and I like the new style. I don't expect this will be the last change, as it's fun to play around, so don't be shocked if you check in and everything's changed all over again.


I still want to eventually launch a blog that I'll be dumping lots of time and effort into making as big as possible, but that's probably not on the menu for months at the least. In the meantime, I like to apply what I'm learning from places like Will Work for Followers and Problogger here to dip a toe in the water and maybe even figure some things out that will help me down the line.

I plan to keep this personal blog going as long as possible, as I love the opportunity to share my pictures, experiences, and ideas with anyone who wants to see them. I like writing and haven't made it important enough in my life for all its value. The chance to really reflect on things and puzzle over their deeper meanings has been a huge part of why I keep blogging. I'm not the best (but I can get better!) and I'm not the biggest (but I can still grow!), but it's fun. I think a part of the fun is actually learning things I want to use in the future, hopefully gaining mastery over designing a visually appealing blog, honing my writing and taking the time to make it as good as it can be, and providing new ways for readers to get involved and feel a sense of ownership in the blog. I don't know how engaged I'd be if this were just some journal of my weekly highs and lows, and what I weigh.

So stick around. It might not be a quick change, but I promise you'll see a transformation of this blog into the best it can be, and you'll be on the ground floor of my next one as soon as I set it up. Lucky you!

Falling Behind on Blogging

Sorry for not updating the Great Employment Experiment lately. I started it two days behind, then tried to catch up, had some busy days with the family that left me more behind, then felt kind of hopeless. Here's my abbreviated employment wrap-up just so I don't feel like I have to dig myself out of this ever-deepening hole and therefore psych myself out of posting at all.


Day 3:

On this day, I grabbed a pile of resumes, wrote the following on a small sheet of paper: the names and numbers of two references, the addresses of my former jobs, and the phone numbers of my former jobs. In retrospect I'd suggest writing down three references, and your pay rate from hire to leaving each job. I have no idea why places ask for your former rate of pay, but I never remember it and it always annoys the crap out of me, so write it down now

Then I drove around from 10am to 4pm. I picked up applications from places that weren't hiring and took the time to fill out applications for anyone who was, or who didn't immediately tell me they weren't. I asked to talk to managers when I handed in the apps, and if they weren't available asked when someone in charge of hiring would be in. I wrote everything in a notebook, including times managers would be in and their names. I found a lot of places weren't hiring, but I felt good about the time I put in.

Day 4:

Didn't work on job stuff due to hanging out with my Dad.

Day 5: I went to check on the application I'd put in for Sonny's and found that while they weren't hiring, they  would keep me on the top of their pile in case they need someone soon. The manager really liked me and I liked him and the restaurant, so it was disappointing that the timing didn't work out. I also did my first real day at the gym (warm-up, weights, cardio, then yoga) and my dad and I went to The Museum of Southern History. Kind of funny, kind of awkward, kind of informative, and kind of terrible. Worth the $3 admittance, though!

Day 6:

We went to the roller derby! No job search 'cause it was the weekend and I was lazy. I think I did my taxes that day, so that was some (eventual) money in my pocket.

Day 7:

Spent time with the family, worked out, watched some NHL playoffs with Dad. Dad spent the whole day tending to his grill, smoking beef back ribs, pork spare ribs, and a Boston butt. Lots and lots of red meat.

Day 8:

Today! This morning I filled out an online application for VyStar because when I visited them last week they told me all their hiring was done online and they didn't have physical applications nor did they even know if they were hiring. Knocked that out, shaved and dressed for a couple drop-by interviews at two Chili's locations, and tried my luck. At the first I had the same story as with Sonny's. I'm obviously great, they'd love to hire me, they don't need anyone now, they'll be in touch. Both managers in this position have said that no experience isn't a problem and is sometimes a good thing, as servers sometimes bring bad habits from their old employers. I thanked the manager and went to the Chili's a bit closer to home. The good news is that they were hiring, because the manager was in an interview. The bad news is that I couldn't stick around and meet up with the manager because I had to get the car back to Dad for his blood test. I left my resume a copy of my application from the previous Chili's since they'd run out of copies and couldn't print more and, oh look, I'm just so prepared.

The bad news is that when I called later in the evening, I spoke to someone who told me that if the manager liked my application, he would call me. Now, I have no faith in myself on paper. I could get a job at a hotel with this resume, but to show someone how great I am for this unrelated job, I need to see him or her in person. So I am going to be annoying and disregard that advice from the phone, dress up to apply and interview again tomorrow, and show them just how much they need me. Honestly, I hate to think of them wasting time on other, far less awesome applicants, heaven forbid they actually hire one of the losers. So I'm going to stick my neck out and do this. For them.

I'm kind of nervous about it, though. I know I shouldn't be. I'm also planning on applying to the Outback that's a bit farther away from the house, the Japanese restaurant on San Jose, and maybe Carrabba's. Yes, I know that last one is way out of my league, but I'm going to try everything, darn it.

I still have some applications I haven't followed up on, but they're not for jobs I'm particularly jazzed about. If they call, they call. At the moment I'm really not desperate enough to reach for something that doesn't excite me. the opportunity to learn more about banking/credit unions by working at VyStar is exciting. The chance to wait on people in a restaurant, running around and making cash every day is exciting. I'm not sure I want to risk my happiness on getting a paycheck just a week or two sooner than if I'd held out for something more enjoyable, and as I don't have any huge bills coming up, I'm not overly concerned. I do have to pay my student loan and gym bill, but they're less than $100 a month together.

That's one of the reasons this wasn't the best time to do The Great Employment Experiment, I guess. I'm not desperate. I'm not that hungry for it. I want and need a job, but if I slack I can get by for a bit. Sorry! I'm just not as motivated as I need to be to really tear it up like I usually do. I'll try to be helpful and continue this series anyway, and I appreciate everyone who's following along. ^_^

A Quick Reminder:

Thanks The Oatmeal for these!

Weigh-In #12

I've become aware that my socks are filthy and, despite receiving regular washings, need to be either bleached or burned. Thank you for not commenting on that in this picture.

What does that even say?

Okay, so it was a bad picture all around. It says 167.0, for anyone. That's down 2.8 pounds from last week and down 19.6 pounds since beginning my journey of weight loss on this blog. THIS IS AWESOME. My BMI's 27 down from 30.1 when I started. EXCELLENCE ALL AROUND.

How I Ate:

This week I had an average calorie intake of 1265 calories per day, right on track for my goals. I ate lots of good food I'm proud of, though I did have one night of fun and way too many calories with Curtis and Alexis. It was worth it, though!

This was a big week for barbecue! Dad and Mom showed me how to barbecue chicken leg quarters. We've had lots of barbecue at restaurants and made by my parents, but while I took up a lot of steaming, roasting, baking (chicken, not cakes!), and the like, I've been kind of intimidated by barbecue. It's fire! That's reasonable, right?

Curtis and Alexis did smoked ribs, barbecued chicken legs, and vegetable skewers when I went over to visit them. It was great! We played some Scene It? and went out to see Sucker Punch, and it was a lot of fun though quite a calorie splurge. I balanced it by eating well throughout the week, though, and clearly the calories all worked out, so it worked great.

I haven't even mentioned the yogurt-marinated lamb chops Dad grilled this week, have I? Oh man, those were great. Fun fact, though, lamb has a LOT of calories. Good thing I can't afford to eat it very often!

How I Moved:

I didn't have a great week for exercise, only running once, but I did do something exciting and I joined a gym yesterday! A real gym with classes and free weights and lots and lots of cardio equipment and showers and lockers and hair dryers and TRX straps and all kinds of wacky stuff! So now I'm a member of a gym. I am going to have to, you know, get a job soon since I'll have to be paying for it every month, but I'm feeling pretty confident about that.

How I Felt:

I've been pretty good all week, though today was a bit stressful as we waited to hear Dad's PET scan results. The news came in that the cancer has decreased in his bones, appears to be the same size but a lower activity level on his lung, and his brain spots are TBA by some new scan, perhaps CAT. Today I've been kind os unfocused, then I spent the day being mad at myself for not getting more done. Blah.

Tomorrow's a new day, though, and I'll be going to the gym to work out, follow up on some applications I put in, and hopefully going to the Museum of Southern History, something that dovetails nicely with my neverending reading of Gone with the Wind. Good news: the Yankees are almost at Atlanta, so, come on, we have to be wrapping up this book soon, right?

...Right?!

Well, that's all for now, but I'm looking forward to another awesome week, especially after signing up for a gym. I'll see you around!

The Great Employment Experiment - Day 2

Once I finished my resume, I spent a day driving around the area where I wanted to work. I recommend this seemingly not super important step to anyone out there. It gives you a chance to reacquaint yourself with your area, seeing the streets and strip malls around you as if for the first time. Pull in and drive right by stores, looking for "Now Hiring" signs, and make notes.

Remember that big box stores tend to have a LOT of employees, which means lots of turnover. Even if there's no hiring sign at Best Buy or Staples, they'll probably be looking for someone very soon.

I recommend this after you do your resume and get your clothes together, because signs go up and signs go down, so doing this before you even have your resume might cause you to get your hopes up for an opportunity that will be taken while you're busy rewriting your job experience into active voice.

I'm restricted to workplaces that are 5-15 minutes away from the house because I'll be using my parents' car and will be getting dropped off/picked up most of the time, so that's where I looked. I jotted down one page of hiring and another page of places I should check out anyway. It wasn't hard and it was kind of fun riding around, really seeing what was in the different shops I never really looked at before.

Conclusion:

This step is fun, and could combined with your next step if you're crunched for time, but I got really nervous on the first day I wanted to go applying and just drove around doing this instead. It gave me time to think about where I'd be applying and what route to take the next day, so I don't consider it a waste.

The Great Employment Experiment - Day 1

The first day of your job quest is kind of lame, I'll admit. This is the day to write your resume. If you've done this before, you can probably update your old one, but if you haven't, break out the word processor and get to typing. The last post in this series gave you a few resources for resume writing, but anyone could plug away at Google for a few minutes and you should have a pile of sample resumes to steal ideas from.

This took me a day and a half, one day of working on my "experience" section, putting what I was responsible for at each job into fancy resume words, and half a day stating my objective. I'm something of a perfectionist, what can I say? This is actually a good time to be a little obsessive, so I suggest you read, reread, and share your resume with your most critical friend. You'll be walking out after dropping it off at your dream job when you notice you mixed up some letters in a way your spellchecker didn't pick up.

Well, a day and a half later, I had a shiny new resume. I typed it up in Microsoft Word, but if you don't have that, OpenOffice is a free suite of office tools, from a word processor to other tools that do spreadsheets, presentations, and paint. I emailed the resume to myself and printed it from a computer hooked up to a printer. You could do this at a FedEx Office or a library, and then run 15 or so copies.

Conclusion:

This part is as hard as you make it. How intense you want to be is up to you, but I suggest you put a lot of time and effort into your resume, because when you can't get in there and talk to a manager, this is your business card. Do you want to regret little mistakes that make you look less qualified than you are?

I hate making my resume, but I love how I feel when I'm done with it. You can do this.

The Great Employment Experiment - Day O

Before I started looking for a job, I did a few things to help my chances of finding employment. They fall into two categories: getting my head ready and getting my appearance ready. I recommend these steps to anyone looking for a job, and they can take from just a couple hours to several weeks depending on your finances.

Getting My Head Ready

There are lots of job-getting resources online and in print. A mistake many jobseekers will make is not to spend a couple hours just poking around the internet looking up tips on job interviews, building a great resume, and dressing appropriately while looking for work. I've done this before but I still flipped through my (digital) copy of the Complete Idiot's Guide to the Perfect Resume before and while rewriting my resume, and browsed the About.com Job Searching portal.

I also like to ask myself possible interview questions when doing mundane tasks like washing dishes or showering, just to help finesse my answers and remind myself which subjects sound awful when you bring them up. It's better than finding out during an interview!

In addition to all this, I'm reminding myself of things that give me confidence. I can present myself well because I know how to speak to people and I have relevant experience.. Somewhere, some dummy is getting fired from my dream job. I can write a killer resume. People like me. I'm going to do great. It's just a job, there's no reason to freak out. If I like it, I'll quit it.

Resources:

SoYouWanna Ace a Job Interview?
Sample resumes from About.com
Job Application Guide from About.com
Seven Steps to Positive Self Talk
The best of Courage Wolf
20 Tips to Nail a Job Interview 
Download The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Perfect Resume
Download Great Resume: Get Noticed, Get Hired
Download Same Day Resume: Write an Effective Resume in an Hour
Download The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Perfect Interview
Download Nail the Job Interview!: 101 Dynamite Answers to Interview Questions
Download Winning The Interview Game: Everything You Need To Know To Land The Job


Getting my Appearance Ready

Alright, so I'm in the right headspace. I'm educated about what I need to do to get this job and Courage Wolf has me feeling super confident and only slightly homocidal. Let's do this, right?

Sort of. Now's the time to examine my closet. My clothes are pretty sparce because I've been losing weight and because I've moved twice in six months. Luckily I went on a bit of a shopping spree before I left Toronto and came away with a few pieces that will work for job interviews. My sister also gave me a couple awesome pieces from last season's Cabi collection that look great together or separate and are totally interview appropriate.

J does it well.

Putting together a handful of good interview outfits (I'd suggest a minimum of three) is important, because everything having to do with applying for a job should be done in an outfit you're not embarrassed to be seen in, just in case the manager happens to be in and you're able to do an interview on the spot. You may then be called back one or two times to interview with different managers/HR, and then have to go through training before the place has a uniform for you. This happens more often than you think!

The bad news is that with no job and no clothing fairy swooping in to wave her magic wand, you'll have to be creative. Do you have any money you can put toward this goal? Then I'd suggest hitting up the Goodwill and then some consignment stores for clothes. If you're broke as a joke, think about who has an interest in you getting a job. If you live with your parents or significant other, see if they can spot you some cash so you can go to the -you guessed it- Goodwill. If you have a roomate staring daggers at you while you read this, try them. Your success in this job hunt benefits them, and you'll pay them back out of your first paycheck, honest to goodness.

I love Goodwill and have found a lot of great clothes there. For women I'd say to look for neutral-colored pants or a skirt that you can pair with different shirts, and two or three dressy blouses. Dresses can be lovely, but unless you're creative*, they can only be worn one way. Shoes are important and are easy to forget, so make sure to find a nice boring pair that you can wear with everything. If you have simple and understated jewelry, wear it, but avoid stuff that's overly flashy. Find clothes that fit your body, look appropriate for your age or a bit conservative, and look like they cost more than four dollars.  No one has to know that they didn't.

The general rule I've read about job interview clothes is that you want to dress as well as someone working at the place to which you're applying or bit better. As my method of job-getting involves applying at a variety of places, I think about the classiest joint to which I'll be going and aim for that or higher. My uniform for job searching used to be black pants, long sleeved button-up shirts, and black loafers, but now I'm willing to go more feminine and season-appropriate in my clothing choices. I'll be wearing low black heels with this outfit and this dress, 

It's also important to take care of your hair, makeup if you wear it, nails, toenails if they're visible, facial or leg hair, etc. The basics. The same rules apply: go for classic and conservative, and make it look like you're a functioning member of society who's not going to pilfer from the cash register. There are lots of guides online depending on what you're looking for, so just google nail care/effective deoderant/how to undo dreadlocks as your needs call for it, alright?

Resources:
*How to wear a dress as a skirt, from a fantasic fashion blogger right here in the Jacksonville area
How to Dress for a Job Interview from CollegeFashion
Michelle Phan's natural makeup video tutorial
About.com's guide to job interview readiness for men, featuring advice on facial hair, outfits, and other things I didn't cover very well for men


Today's Conclusion:

It takes a bit of time to prepare for the job hunt. It's best to accomplish these things passively and at your leisure, reading about job interviews and building your closet gradually while working another job. If you don't have that kind of time and need a job NOW, dedicate a day to this. It's worth double the time you'd put in filling out online applications, so do it and get ready to see results.

The Great Employment Experiment

Do you know anyone looking for a job? That person who spends hours filling out online applications and cruising craigslist but, even with a willingness to take ANY entry-level job, never gets hired? I've known people like that and have tried to tell them how they can improve their job search, how filling out applications isn't enough and how craigslist and Monster and CareerBuilder are almost always a massive waste of time for basic, customer service jobs.

I think if you've got a degree and want to work within your field or you're trying to advance your career, yes, it may take a while to get hired. But when people my age and younger (people with no set career path who basically need to just pay their bills and buy food) say they're applying everywhere with no luck, I get annoyed. Then I try to give advice, it gets ignored, and I secretly call them terrible, terrible names.

Maybe people who don't listen to me think I have it easy. Maybe they think I live in an exceptional area with more jobs than qualified applicants. The unemployment in Jacksonville was actually 10.6% in March while the national unemployment rate was 8.8% in March, so it looks like we have it a bit worse off than some places.

My nonexistent knowledge of statistics and economics aside, I think we can all agree that Jacksonville isn't a breadbasket of jobs, but I have a secret that lets me believe that, in all but the smallest of towns, I will always be able to get a job. The secret?  

Every day in every place, people are being stupid. 

I told you.

Never underestimate the capacity for someone to shoot him or herself in the foot. Employed people are coming to work drunk, not showing up for their shifts because they decided to take a mini vacation with friends, or are doing any of the huge number of idiotic things employees do to get fired. Recession or economic boom, Obama or Reagan, Jacksonville or Tallahassee or Toronto, someone out there is screwing up a good thing.

Also, of course, people are always moving, people's job needs change, true, but I'm willing to bet on human stupidity above almost anything else, so that's what I count on.

The Conditions of my Job Hunt

I find myself without a job and back in a country where I can legally work, so I'm going to walk you through the process I go through to get jobs, each application and every interview.

I'm looking for entry-level service jobs, retail and waiting tables. My work experience is primarily within the realm of hospitality, as my last four jobs have been hotel front desk work. I graduated high school and have some college, and all the jobs in my official employment history are ones where I've worked at least nine months and have been adored by my bosses. Sure, you could say I'm starting off with an advantage, but how did I get my first, second, third jobs? Exactly how I'm going to get this one. Heck, I'm specifically looking to get out of the hotel biz for a while, so my experience doesn't directly translate into experience for what I'm applying, though there are similarities.

I have access to a car which gives me a leg-up on my search, but I'm confined pretty closely to this area since the car is Dad's. I'm trying to make my drive to work less than ten minutes so that whoever takes me to work only has a 20 minute round trip, saving gas and time. We have a good amount of strip malls and chain stores in the area, so that's where I'm going to focus my job hunt.

Who Should Care

What I'm going to suggest in this series of posts should be useful to anyone who can speak and write English well, has a high school degree or GED, doesn't have a shockingly bad job history or criminal past, can properly clean and groom him or herself, has a bit of cash to invest in running copies of a resume and an interview outfit or two, and who is looking for any entry-level customer service job they can get. Having the internet also appears important, because I'll post informative links to shed more light to topics, and to read them you'll have to have to be online. Then again, you found this blog, so you'll probably be alright.

Let's call this an experiment in putting my money where my mouth is, or, putting my reputation where my long-winded preaching is.

Weigh-In #11

Sorry to post my progress a day late, I forgot yesterday was a weigh-in day and ate breakfast. I felt like this was going to be a good week and didn't want to waste my scale picture on non-optimal conditions. Sorry! Anyway, here we go. I've officially been back in Jacksonville for over a week, and I'm starting to find effective ways to sync my fitness goals with my life here.

Today's really encouraging weigh in o f 169.8 pounds puts me down 2.4 pounds from last week and 16.8 pounds since I first weighed in on January 20th. I'm still maintaining an average weight loss of 1.5 pounds per week, which is perfect and exactly what I hoped for. I feel like in two weeks I should be halfway to my goal, in less than half my time allotted. That's exciting, and I can't wait to celebrate such a significant milestone on this blog. Alright, onto the breakdown!

How I Ate:

This week I returned to logging all my calories on MyFitnessPal. This week I averaged 1173 calories a day, which is low. I'm not doing strength training, though, so I'm not too concerned, and next week should be a bit higher in the calorie area. Also it's hard to count things precisely when eating out, so I may have consumed my regular 1300-1400 calories and just have logged it incompletely. Speaking of eating out, on Tuesday my parents and I went out for dim sum at Silver Star, which was great. We had tiny spare ribs, sesame balls, shrimp dumplings, leek dumplings, vegetable rice rolls, sticky rice in a lotus leaf, and more that I'm forgetting. It was a lot of fun, and I was so happy to see how much Mom and Dad liked it. I also had some food from Krystal on Monday when Dad had his chemo and Toby's on Friday, but you knew about that.

How I Moved:

This week was decent for exercise, not as good as previous weeks where I was using EA Sports Active 2 four times a week but better than recent weeks. Mom and I walked a couple days this week and did a short but grueling Biggest Loser workout video we found via OnDemand.

Yesterday I put my portable radio and running shoes to work and walked Lilly. We walked for .7 miles until we got to Old St. Augustine Rd. and then we alternated walking and running with each song on the radio. Then we did the same with the commercials that played. We did this for three miles, and while I was hot and tired by the end of it, I wasn't totally wiped out. I felt athletic and capable, and it made me want to run more. I know it's only going to get hotter here in Florida, but I feel like if I start forcing myself to work out in the weather now, I'll be more adjusted when the heat really hits.

 How I Felt:

Great! This has been a really good week for me and for my fitness goals. I loved the reception I got when I came home and everyone was telling me how much weight I'd lost, but I was kind of nervous about meshing my eating/moving style in with life at home, but it's been working out pretty well. I was able to wear some of my new clothes and I felt wonderful about how I look in them.

I realized that I eat better on days when I work out, so I want to work to do at least some of my exercising during the morning/early afternoon hours because then I want to keep up my healthy habits throughout the day. Also, I've noticed that if I have a heavy lunch or dinner I usually feel too full or down about what I've done to want to work out. It's illogical but true. I'd like to work on getting out of bed a bit earlier and running or doing an OnDemand workout before breakfast, before it gets too hot outside and before I get too hungry. I'll let you know how it works out!

Oh, here's a picture of me today. I look a little silly (yes, I'm flexing my bicep) but it's a good barometer of how my body looks at the moment. Not a ton of muscle, definitely smaller, and with a ways to go. Compared to this picture of me working out back in January, it shows obvious progress. I'm getting there!

Jacksonville Roller Derby!

Dad and I have been talking about going to the upcoming roller derby bout on April 16th, a double header pitting two of our Jacksonville teams against two Knoxville teams in the UNF Arena. I am thrilled because I left my last experience with roller derby itching for more. Dad's curious about it, to, and showed me a billboard he'd spotted on Roosevelt advertising this match.

The billboard looks just like this, only about 100 times bigger.

So we weren't on the fence about it, just taking our time buying tickets. It was such great luck then that I found out that Groupon's deal of the day in Jacksonville is two for one tickets. Tickets at the door are $12 a pop, tickets bought online are $10 per, and through this deal (which 120 people have already taken advantage of as of this writing), two tickets are $10 for two. I grabbed them, and if you're quick, you can hit this link and get some too before the deal runs out.

I'm so excited to watch roller derby again, and am going to try to be there right when doors open at 5:30 to get seats.

Lunch With Dad

Yesterday, Dad and I went to have lunch at Toby's, a barbecue restaurant. We were really disappointed when Toby's closed a year or so ago, but recently my dad found out that there was another location. It was a bit of a drive, but this location has a lot of character and the food is, of course, worth it.

The restaurant has a thing for pigs. Well, eating them.

The menu at this location has all of our favorite items.

Dad and I both had the pork sandwich with barbecue sauce on Texas toast, called the Toby Joe, and they were pretty delicious. I had mine with some green beans and coleslaw, which seemed a bit healthier than fries and baked beans, but not by much.

Dad had corn nuggets with his sandwich, which I was nice enough to help him out with them.

It was a fun trip and, though I went over on calories, it was a nice welcome back to Jacksonville food splurge.

Weigh-In #10

I've been so darn busy since I got back to Jacksonville. I'm just the most popular girl in the city right now, you know? Between spending time with my mom, dad, sister, niece, and boyfriend (via Skype), I just haven't had a lot of time to update. I don't have a personal routine down yet. I know my eating and exercise are scandalous and nonexistent respectively, so this coming week I have to make up for that.

So I'm weighing in at 172.2 pounds, which is down 14.4 pounds since starting and up 1.4 pounds from last week. That's not bad considering my zero exercise (beside some walking) and majorly off-plan eating this week. I haven't been working out or counting calories. Whoops. I will be cooking dinner tomorrow and trying to work in a walk if the weather permits, so hopefully I can get this new week of health consciousness off to a great start.

Honestly, I've eaten some good meals and made some god choices, but this has really been a week to focus on other things. I have to be honest, and this is me doing that. I'm in a different environment dealing with a kitchen with a lot of healthy and unhealthy things, time that isn't really mine to plan for now, and a family with some serious bad food habits. I'm part of that family. I had those habits for years. I have to make it clear to my parents (who are reading this!) that if they want me to help them eat healthier, they're going to have to be willing to throw away the massive bag of peanut M&Ms, even if it's -gasp- not yet empty. We'll see how this goes. I have to be understanding but firm, and starting this moment I'm going to start turning down food that I know is bad for me just because my family wants to make comfort food. Boneless skinless chicken breast with broccoli and brown rice is comfort enough for me. Watching my weight go down instead of up is my definition of comfort. It's going to be hard when Mom has dishes she makes so well that are bad for me and Dad bakes for fun.

I want to do this. I have to do this. I don't want to let myself down.

He's cardboard. That's the joke.