The Newest Member of the Family

A week ago, I came home from work to find we had suddenly, erm, acquired a new pet. While at recess, a parakeet had flown down to the monkey bars near the kids and hung around while they played. Eventually, Mom got the kids to sit in a circle and the bird flew into the middle of it, walking to and from the different kids. Clearly it had some experience with humans and it was probably hungry, so Mom decided to steal it.

Okay, she'd argue that she "rescued" the bird, but she accomplished that by throwing a jacket on top of it and then taking it home in a basket, which sounds more like abduction than aid. Then again, I'd better watch what I say or I'll find out how she rescued me from a park one day, and surely my real mother wasn't any good or she would have kept a better eye on me.

The bird doesn't have a real name yet, though Mom and Dad insist on calling him Pretty Bird. So cliche, guys.

That evening, Mom and I picked up all kinds of bird stuff from Pet Supermarket, from this snazzy cage to food, millet, and bizarre bird-specific minerals. Since then we've been enjoying him daily as he sings along to the horn section on our Joe Cocker CDs, squawks whenever he hears rustling paper or running water, and the occasionally launches into a poorly planned flight around the house. Apparently you have to train them to trust you and jump on your finger before you let them take off. That was my mistake. At least we turned off the ceiling fans!

We rescued him...and then put him behind bars.

All in all, he's surprisingly enjoyable. I never thought I wanted a bird of any sort, but this little fella isn't overly loud and is actually very cute. We're working on spending time with our hands in the cage to encourage him to relax around us and eventually step on our fingers like a perch like we read on this super helpful website. Then we'll try letting him fly around the house again, confident that he'll actually come back.

Letting Go of Guilt

So I have this thing that's been a problem for me for just about forever, and it's happening again. First, I fall off the wagon with something I'm gung-ho about, or maybe forget to do something that was important. I don't call for someone's birthday or thank someone for a lovely Valentine's Day card or I kind of slip out of blogging. Then I realize that the window for gracefully doing these things is kind of past me. It's a week later and I really should have called or emailed or blogged and I just haven't. The longer I wait, the worse I feel and it just spirals into something that's self-sustaining and horrible.

I've got to get over this. It's caused too many problems for too long, and it gives me all the negative affects (people think I'm a jerk, I don't get things done) as if I was really careless about this stuff while caring, really caring, the whole darn time.

So let's do this.

Ashleigh, I'm sorry I haven't been a better friend. I had a lot going on when I first got to Jacksonville and I didn't make a priority of hanging out with you when I should have. You're a great friend and I want to be a better one to you.

Kristen, thanks for the Valentine's card. It was super sweet, had an awesome squirrel on it, and I should have thanked you right away but didn't. I'm sorry about that. We kept it on the kitchen table for a few weeks, though, because Chris and I both really liked it.

Readers of this blog, I'm sorry. I let other things get in the way and then every time I wanted to post I'd tell myself it wasn't interesting or I didn't have enough time, and then suddenly I've only posted four times in May! Ahh! So I'm going to try to be better. I'm going to make more of an effort to choose cool things that are going on in my life and share them with you, and if I don't have anything cool going on, maybe I'll take that as a sign to be more interesting.

I'm going to forgive myself for the weigh-ins I've missed, not telling you about the newest member of the Hansen household, and something I've accomplished that I'm really proud of, and hopefully this week I can get back on the wagon of being a dedicated blogger and share all that and more with you. Thanks for your understanding and taking the time to read this. I appreciate it.

#Winning

This week, I won two free tickets to go see Bridesmaids! How cool is that? The great thing is that it was so easy. All I did was google "Jacksonville radio stations," open all the stations' web sites in different tabs in my web browser, check out each station's "win" or "contests" page, and fill out a few forms. It probably took me less than ten minutes, and I won the same day I entered. I've never done this kind of thing before, but I'm kind of hooked and now I'm looking for new ways to win stuff with minimal effort. I don't want to be one of those crazy people who spends hours a day doing sweepstakes for waffle irons they don't even want, but some cute prizes might be fun. We'll see.

You can't win if you don't play, right?

Weigh-In #16

Sorry for the late post. I typed up the WHOLE thing and then Blogger stopped working. I left the tab with my post up in Firefox, but the whole post was lost when Microsoft automatically updated overnight.

The short of it, because I'm not typing everything up again:

• Sorry I missed last weigh in!
• I'm down 3.4 pounds in two weeks
• That's a total of 25.8 pounds lost, or 1.6 pounds a week
• I've got  35.5% of my goal left to complete and 55% of the total time of my goal left in which to complete it. This is awesome.
• I haven't been working out too much but I have been walking and running around while at work
• Food's been alright, a little wonky but mostly near my daily calorie goals.

That's it! I wish I could share my original post with you, but Blogger and Windows didn't want that to happen and are both horrible. That will in no way keep me from continue using their products, I just may complain about them.

Work

Today I return to the world of the employed after a blissful three day weekend. I'm only five days into it, and I'm still technically in training, but I thought I'd share a little bit about my new job.

Me in my work outfit.

First of all, I was hired at a Mexican restaurant. We have 50 indoor tables that seat from two to six guests, a small patio with a handful of four-tops (tables that seat four people), and a bar with about a dozen seats. It's somewhat upscale, not expensive on its own but more than I'm used to paying for Mexican food. The entrees hover at the $12-$16 mark for dinner, though you could do it cheaper off the a la carte menu or just by ordering an appetizer for a meal.

The restaurant is owned and staffed in part by one family. I was counting family members who are employees and I know of eight members of staff who are related, though they're primarly the managers and supervisors. A lot of the kitchen staff speaks limited English, and all the servers speak fluent or very good English, so there's always someone available to help me interact with the Spanish speakers if I need it. 

Our guests are of course all over the map, but everyone I've served has been on a scale from okay to great. No one too insufferable has made it to my sections yet, though I'm sure my day will come.

My job is to greet the guest, serve them their drinks, answer any questions they might have about the menu, get their food orders to the kitchen, keep their drinks full, make sure they have what they need to enjoy their meal, clear plates that are no longer needed, and process their payment for the meal. We have food runners who bring out the guests' meals, bartenders who pour the beer, wine, and mixed drinks, and bussers who clear tables and bring guests chips and salsa. I also keep an eye on the server's station from which I'm working and restock cups, ice, and tea if needed. At the end of my shift, I thoroughly wipe down my tables and chairs (and booths and benches), fill the salt, pepper, and sugars, sweep, and roll silverware.

When my sidework is done, I print out my server report and calculate 3% of my total food sales and 6% of my total alcohol sales and pay that amount out of my tips earned to the bussers and bartenders respectively. I have whatever server is closing the restaurant look over my section to make sure I've done everything I need to, have them sign my server report, then get the cash for whatever tips I made on credit cards. This is also the time to declare cash tips, something I understand is generally wildly under-reported by servers. Then I clock out and get my employee meal if I'm getting one that day.

Then I go home and roll around in stacks of one dollar bills.

Agree to Disagree

I thought for a while there that I had lost a friend for disliking something he liked. Turned out he'd lost a friend whereas I'd only lost someone who didn't really like me that much anyway. It still hurts, but I'm learning to let it go.

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!