This week has been somewhat interesting I guess, nothing super spectacular has happened so I suspect this post won't be nearly as long as last weeks. I've just felt very, blah about everything. I feel like everything I am learning in my classes are becoming a big jumbled mess in my head that I can't really keep straight. I am going to have to do some serious organizing at some point today with my studies, because I don't want to end up getting stressed and worried. If college has taught me one thing, it's the importance of keeping calm and staying organized! Although I wish I hadn't waited until college to figure that out. My sleep schedule has been really off too, and I'm trying hard to get back into a regular routine again. I wasn't able to sleep until four in the morning last night. I know that has a lot to do with my disorganization and anxieties about getting all that I need to get done, done.
So this week I hit a huge marker on the road to becoming independent! I cooked my own food last night! I made quinoa salad and it was delicious, there is still some in my fridge and I can't wait to have more later tonight at some point. I do wish I had some olives, salt and pepper to add to the taste though. It's not the best thing I have ever eaten, but the fact that I know that if I didn't have a meal plan I could cook things for myself is exciting in it's own way! Woohoo!
I guess this week I don't really have much to say about life, but last week's post was really long so I think it's alright. This week I made it to the gym three times, and then I went for a run around campus a separate time. And speaking of running, the 5k I'm going to run is this weekend, and I'm scared! I haven't been able to make it more than a mile and a half without stopping, so I don't know how I will make 3.1 miles. I am going to do my best but it's scary. I planned on being so much farther ahead at this point then I am right now. I haven't weighed myself in a while either and I'm alittle worried about being discouraged when I do. I know that keeping track of that is a good way to stay motivated, but I'm conflicted about it, because I do want to lose weight but more importantly I want to be healthy. I'll just have to figure that out after I do my 5k on Saturday, it will be a fresh start!
This week the eating has gone superb, except for one slip up this week when the market was serving my favorite peanut butter cookies, but even then it wasn't too bad. I am definitely back on the right track even though I swerved off the road there for a little while. I find it hard sometimes to motivate myself to try harder, but I know that in the end I have come a long way, but continuing in that direction is the challenge.
As I was writing this, my friend Shannon just gave me the best present ever and I love her so much! But seriously, this girl is my role model. She makes me, and other's on campus to reach for their dreams and aspirations. She is so many people's biggest cheerleader and her ambition and determination inspires others to accomplish so much. This girl is going places, people! And she means a lot to me and so many other's on campus!
That's all I have for this week, but I'm sure I will have more next week, and I will have updates regarding my 5k! Again, thank you to everyone who reads and for all the encouragement I have recieved!
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Week 6: Spring Break Style
This last week, although stressful at times, was fantastic. This last week was my spring break, and although I didn't get to sleep in as much as I would have liked, I got to spend time with some of the people I love the most!
The first part of my spring break was spent in Tallahassee, which was busy busy busy! But, I got to spend time with my family and my friends. It is always so nice to spend time with my family especially after having gone so long without being with them. Those who know me well know that I love me some good quality family time! I spent a little more than a month away from home which is the longest I have gone without being in Tallahassee. I also got to see some of my closest friends, whose names I won't mention for privacy's sake, but they all know who they are. It was so cool to be able to catch up with my friends and see how far they have come in the past year and seeing all that they have accomplished, and getting some way overdue quality time with them. I love my friends!
One of the highlights of my Tallahassee time was going to Lincoln High School's FCA meeting on Thursday. Last year was a turning point for FCA, and God really grew the program on campus. It was so neat to see how God took the hearts of a few willing students, and grew the organization to what it was at the end of last year. To go back and see just how strong the FCA group still is on campus made me proud of my fellow former FCA leaders, and of the FCA leaders serving now. God is certainly with them, he is using them to change the campus, and it makes me so proud to see what they are doing today! I am so proud of all of them!
After going to Tallahassee, I went back to Pensacola to embark on a SROWtally awesome experience with my fellow OL's! The entire Orientation staff went to the Southern Regional Orientation Workshop to be educated in the art of Orientation Leading. I learned so much and had such a good time bonding with the staff, who I consider to be some of my closest friends! I learned so much while at SROW, but one of the things I learned that I will never forget, was actually taught to me by the University of New Orleans. The University of New Orleans had a workshop on servant leadership, which I had learned about in church multiple times, but this workshop put a different spin on it, specifically geared towards Orientation and things of that nature. The person putting on the workshop said that servant leadership was "leading so that others may lead." I had never heard it put that way before. I knew servant leadership was putting others before yourself, which is something I had always been taught, but I guess I had never thought of it in that way before. I will never forget that, and will try to apply this to many areas of my life, not just orientation.
Spending this past weekend with my Orientation family was so much fun, and I feel like I got to know each and every staff member so much better. It is so cool to see how our different talents mesh together, and see all the different things each person brings to the table. The keynote speaker at SROW said that he applied the philosophy of finding the rock star in every person that he meets, and let me just say that each person on staff has that inner rock star. They are all so amazing in different ways, and everyone is so unique! Sorry if this is getting cliche, but I can't help but love each and every one of them!
So anyways, onto the gym and fitness stuff. This past week has had it's good moments and bad moments. This week I didn't work out very much, but the amount of walking and dancing that I did at SROW was more than enough to count for daily workouts. There was only one day this week that I was actually out there running, and I made it to about half of a 5k without stopping. This makes me kind of nervous, because my 5k is only 11 days away, but it isn't going to stop me from trying. I am going to push myself to finish, but I am also going to be careful to listen to what my body may be telling me while I run at the same time. I don't want to end up hurting myself by pushing myself to hard, but I am going to try! So at some point today I am going to get out and run and see how far I make it. I have started to enjoy running outside versus inside, so it looks like some of y'all reading my be seeing me running around campus some these next few weeks!
My eating has still been not that great lately, I am allowing myself to cheat too much, and I am really going to have to focus on what I am putting in my body. I used to use my fitness pal to track what I eat so I don't overdo it, but I stopped using it when I got sick at the beginning of the semester, so it looks like I am going to start using it again because I can tell that I haven't been losing weight like I was in January. Which also means I am going to have to start running more often if I want to start losing again.
Something I want to reiterate is that I am not trying to lose weight because I don't love myself, I want to lose because I DO love myself. I was talking to my Mom recently about all of it, and I remember the night that I started to spiral out of control with my eating. I remember that one night before school, I packed my lunch and put it in my backpack, and took my back pack to my room with me. I remember being sad that night, and as I was reading my book I remember eating something out of my bag, and before I knew if, I had eaten the whole lunch I had prepared for the next day. For a long time after that, I would do that every night, and then in the mornings pack some more food for my lunch that day. I remember that when that started happening, I didn't see much value in myself, but now, I know that I have value. And that's why I am trying be healthier.
As far as my spiritual life goes, it has been going really well this past week. For those of you who know me well, you know that my faith is a big part of who I am. This past week I spent some time with one of my best friends Emily (who gave me permission to use her name in my blog) out at the green way back in Tallahassee. By the way, that is on fire for God! I learned about all of the things that she is doing around Tallahassee, and it is crazy to see what God is doing through her, and homegirl is only a junior in high school! I am so proud of how far she has come and of the person she is today! She made me realize what was keeping me from rekindling my relationship with God. I had lost sight of how much God loves me. I think as Christians it is so easy to see our relationship with God as a formula, if I do x amount of this, and y amount of this, then I can get my relationship with God back on the right track, and that's not how it works. I know for me I was trying to earn God's love, which was against everything I have ever been taught, which is why it surprised me when I realized that was what was wrong. Emily reminded me that no matter what I do God still loves me, and just because I began to stray away doesn't mean I have to earn his love back. I think that's another reason why Christians struggle in their faith too. On earth, their is no one who loves unconditionally. When we go through lulls in our spiritual life I think people think we have to climb back up the spiritual ladder. But the whole point of Christianity is that we don't have a ladder we have to climb up, God takes us as we are BECAUSE he loves us unconditionally. It took me aback when I realized I had forgotten one of the most important components of my relationship with God. I also realized that when I talked to God, I tried to bring my past with me. At Camp WorldLight this past summer, one of the thing we taught our campers was that we didn't have to carry around burdens from our past any more, and we had the campers carry around a bag that had a wooden block in it the whole night, and they weren't allowed to let go of it. Then after the activity was finished, we would take the wood block from them and give them a gift box with nothing inside of it, demonstrating that God takes our burdens and our past and our sins away so that we can be free from them, and that we don't have to carry them around anymore. And just this past week, 8 months after camp was over, here I was, carrying this bag around with me.Talk about not taking your own advice! So this past week has been all about God taking this block from me and giving me the gift of nothing in return, and it's going pretty swell so far.
So this blog was rrreeeaalllyyy long and at some parts cheesey, but I appreciate you bearing with me! See you next week!
The first part of my spring break was spent in Tallahassee, which was busy busy busy! But, I got to spend time with my family and my friends. It is always so nice to spend time with my family especially after having gone so long without being with them. Those who know me well know that I love me some good quality family time! I spent a little more than a month away from home which is the longest I have gone without being in Tallahassee. I also got to see some of my closest friends, whose names I won't mention for privacy's sake, but they all know who they are. It was so cool to be able to catch up with my friends and see how far they have come in the past year and seeing all that they have accomplished, and getting some way overdue quality time with them. I love my friends!
One of the highlights of my Tallahassee time was going to Lincoln High School's FCA meeting on Thursday. Last year was a turning point for FCA, and God really grew the program on campus. It was so neat to see how God took the hearts of a few willing students, and grew the organization to what it was at the end of last year. To go back and see just how strong the FCA group still is on campus made me proud of my fellow former FCA leaders, and of the FCA leaders serving now. God is certainly with them, he is using them to change the campus, and it makes me so proud to see what they are doing today! I am so proud of all of them!
After going to Tallahassee, I went back to Pensacola to embark on a SROWtally awesome experience with my fellow OL's! The entire Orientation staff went to the Southern Regional Orientation Workshop to be educated in the art of Orientation Leading. I learned so much and had such a good time bonding with the staff, who I consider to be some of my closest friends! I learned so much while at SROW, but one of the things I learned that I will never forget, was actually taught to me by the University of New Orleans. The University of New Orleans had a workshop on servant leadership, which I had learned about in church multiple times, but this workshop put a different spin on it, specifically geared towards Orientation and things of that nature. The person putting on the workshop said that servant leadership was "leading so that others may lead." I had never heard it put that way before. I knew servant leadership was putting others before yourself, which is something I had always been taught, but I guess I had never thought of it in that way before. I will never forget that, and will try to apply this to many areas of my life, not just orientation.
Spending this past weekend with my Orientation family was so much fun, and I feel like I got to know each and every staff member so much better. It is so cool to see how our different talents mesh together, and see all the different things each person brings to the table. The keynote speaker at SROW said that he applied the philosophy of finding the rock star in every person that he meets, and let me just say that each person on staff has that inner rock star. They are all so amazing in different ways, and everyone is so unique! Sorry if this is getting cliche, but I can't help but love each and every one of them!
So anyways, onto the gym and fitness stuff. This past week has had it's good moments and bad moments. This week I didn't work out very much, but the amount of walking and dancing that I did at SROW was more than enough to count for daily workouts. There was only one day this week that I was actually out there running, and I made it to about half of a 5k without stopping. This makes me kind of nervous, because my 5k is only 11 days away, but it isn't going to stop me from trying. I am going to push myself to finish, but I am also going to be careful to listen to what my body may be telling me while I run at the same time. I don't want to end up hurting myself by pushing myself to hard, but I am going to try! So at some point today I am going to get out and run and see how far I make it. I have started to enjoy running outside versus inside, so it looks like some of y'all reading my be seeing me running around campus some these next few weeks!
My eating has still been not that great lately, I am allowing myself to cheat too much, and I am really going to have to focus on what I am putting in my body. I used to use my fitness pal to track what I eat so I don't overdo it, but I stopped using it when I got sick at the beginning of the semester, so it looks like I am going to start using it again because I can tell that I haven't been losing weight like I was in January. Which also means I am going to have to start running more often if I want to start losing again.
Something I want to reiterate is that I am not trying to lose weight because I don't love myself, I want to lose because I DO love myself. I was talking to my Mom recently about all of it, and I remember the night that I started to spiral out of control with my eating. I remember that one night before school, I packed my lunch and put it in my backpack, and took my back pack to my room with me. I remember being sad that night, and as I was reading my book I remember eating something out of my bag, and before I knew if, I had eaten the whole lunch I had prepared for the next day. For a long time after that, I would do that every night, and then in the mornings pack some more food for my lunch that day. I remember that when that started happening, I didn't see much value in myself, but now, I know that I have value. And that's why I am trying be healthier.
As far as my spiritual life goes, it has been going really well this past week. For those of you who know me well, you know that my faith is a big part of who I am. This past week I spent some time with one of my best friends Emily (who gave me permission to use her name in my blog) out at the green way back in Tallahassee. By the way, that is on fire for God! I learned about all of the things that she is doing around Tallahassee, and it is crazy to see what God is doing through her, and homegirl is only a junior in high school! I am so proud of how far she has come and of the person she is today! She made me realize what was keeping me from rekindling my relationship with God. I had lost sight of how much God loves me. I think as Christians it is so easy to see our relationship with God as a formula, if I do x amount of this, and y amount of this, then I can get my relationship with God back on the right track, and that's not how it works. I know for me I was trying to earn God's love, which was against everything I have ever been taught, which is why it surprised me when I realized that was what was wrong. Emily reminded me that no matter what I do God still loves me, and just because I began to stray away doesn't mean I have to earn his love back. I think that's another reason why Christians struggle in their faith too. On earth, their is no one who loves unconditionally. When we go through lulls in our spiritual life I think people think we have to climb back up the spiritual ladder. But the whole point of Christianity is that we don't have a ladder we have to climb up, God takes us as we are BECAUSE he loves us unconditionally. It took me aback when I realized I had forgotten one of the most important components of my relationship with God. I also realized that when I talked to God, I tried to bring my past with me. At Camp WorldLight this past summer, one of the thing we taught our campers was that we didn't have to carry around burdens from our past any more, and we had the campers carry around a bag that had a wooden block in it the whole night, and they weren't allowed to let go of it. Then after the activity was finished, we would take the wood block from them and give them a gift box with nothing inside of it, demonstrating that God takes our burdens and our past and our sins away so that we can be free from them, and that we don't have to carry them around anymore. And just this past week, 8 months after camp was over, here I was, carrying this bag around with me.Talk about not taking your own advice! So this past week has been all about God taking this block from me and giving me the gift of nothing in return, and it's going pretty swell so far.
So this blog was rrreeeaalllyyy long and at some parts cheesey, but I appreciate you bearing with me! See you next week!
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Week 5
Hey guys! So yesterday I completely forgot to post so here I am updating it today. The spring break bug has officially bitten and I have been sleeping in until at least 10 every day this week and I'm loving it. I'm really enjoying spring break so far, I am here back in Tallahassee until tomorrow and it's always good to come home and see my family again. I miss them so much when I'm gone!
This last week has been great diet wise, but not so great in the exercise department. This past week, with the exception of some cake pops I made with me friend yesterday, my diet has been great again, lots of veggies, protein and water and less sugar! But as far as the exercise goes it has not been as good. This afternoon at some point I am planning on taking my dog Patch on a walk/jog with me later while I have him home with me. Then after my jog I am going to reward myself by watching Duck Dynasty and The Americans tonight.
This week is short but next weeks post I assure you will be lllooonnnggg! See ya then!
This last week has been great diet wise, but not so great in the exercise department. This past week, with the exception of some cake pops I made with me friend yesterday, my diet has been great again, lots of veggies, protein and water and less sugar! But as far as the exercise goes it has not been as good. This afternoon at some point I am planning on taking my dog Patch on a walk/jog with me later while I have him home with me. Then after my jog I am going to reward myself by watching Duck Dynasty and The Americans tonight.
This week is short but next weeks post I assure you will be lllooonnnggg! See ya then!
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Week 4
Hey y'all! So this week has been a bit crazy for sure. This is the part of the semester where everything starts to get hectic in preparation for Spring Break, and I have SO much to get done before I can start mine. With two exams coming up this week, I will probably spend the majority of my time in the library studying in between classes.
This past week hasn't been that great as far as eating healthy. Sunday and Monday definitely were not good, as I completely reverted back to my old habits of eating. I don't know what it was about Sunday and Monday but they were absolutely horrible as far as my eating went. I think I ate three candy bars on Sunday night, and its when I can't remember what I ate when I start to get concerned. When I can't remember what I ate, that probably means I ate too much. But this week is a new week, and I have been great about eating healthy today. So I am going to consider Sunday and Monday my cheat days for the last month, and move forward.
This week I was able to go to the gym three times. Each time was for about an hour and I also went to my Orientation dance practice for 3 hours so I count that a workout all on its own. Speaking of dance practice, I am super proud of my fellow Orientation Leaders, our dance looks great and I know that everyone is working hard to get prepared for SROW this next weekend. I couldn't be more proud of my fellow Argos!
I've noticed in these last 2 or 3 weeks that I have stopped losing, and I'm pretty sure it is because I have stopped going to the gym everyday. I still feel better but it is just much more encouraging to see the numbers on the scale. I'm still working towards my goal to run a 5K but I still cannot seem to run longer than a mile, it's like I'm going to be stuck at one mile forever! But I'm going to continue to work at it so I can run the bunny dash on March 30th. I signed up this last weekend so now I can't get out of it! Hopefully this next week though I will be able to get that number up.
As far as my faith goes this week not much has changed. I really need to get myself plugged back into the ministries here on campus again which I haven't been doing this semester. But we will see as the next few weeks come around. If I can get through these next two weeks I will be good to go and have my Thursdays free again to go to the BCM here on campus, which I'm super excited about!
So I know it's not much this week, but I have a lot of work to do to get ready for spring break, so hopefully next weeks post will be more exciting. See you on Tuesday!
This past week hasn't been that great as far as eating healthy. Sunday and Monday definitely were not good, as I completely reverted back to my old habits of eating. I don't know what it was about Sunday and Monday but they were absolutely horrible as far as my eating went. I think I ate three candy bars on Sunday night, and its when I can't remember what I ate when I start to get concerned. When I can't remember what I ate, that probably means I ate too much. But this week is a new week, and I have been great about eating healthy today. So I am going to consider Sunday and Monday my cheat days for the last month, and move forward.
This week I was able to go to the gym three times. Each time was for about an hour and I also went to my Orientation dance practice for 3 hours so I count that a workout all on its own. Speaking of dance practice, I am super proud of my fellow Orientation Leaders, our dance looks great and I know that everyone is working hard to get prepared for SROW this next weekend. I couldn't be more proud of my fellow Argos!
I've noticed in these last 2 or 3 weeks that I have stopped losing, and I'm pretty sure it is because I have stopped going to the gym everyday. I still feel better but it is just much more encouraging to see the numbers on the scale. I'm still working towards my goal to run a 5K but I still cannot seem to run longer than a mile, it's like I'm going to be stuck at one mile forever! But I'm going to continue to work at it so I can run the bunny dash on March 30th. I signed up this last weekend so now I can't get out of it! Hopefully this next week though I will be able to get that number up.
As far as my faith goes this week not much has changed. I really need to get myself plugged back into the ministries here on campus again which I haven't been doing this semester. But we will see as the next few weeks come around. If I can get through these next two weeks I will be good to go and have my Thursdays free again to go to the BCM here on campus, which I'm super excited about!
So I know it's not much this week, but I have a lot of work to do to get ready for spring break, so hopefully next weeks post will be more exciting. See you on Tuesday!
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