Since I came to college I’ve a new dr.  Last year she wanted me to only have a cycle every 3 mon. and it didn’t really work out well.. kind of sporatically really.

So I went to see her last month and she has me going every 6 weeks now– I take 2 BC packs at once — all 2 weeks of week 1 pills, all of week 2, all of week 3 then 4 sugar pills.

Well about 1/2 way through ( about 1 month after my last cycle) I had spotted bleeding… I kept taking them like she instructed and am now on the “sugar pills” and pretty much have had light bleeding for 2 weeks now.  Like, seriously?  This is getting really irritating and now I’m getting annoying cramps (Which I NEVER had before going on BC) and its driving me up a  wall.  If I schedule an appointment w/ her it’ll be $100.  I could try emailing or calling but I feel like she’ll just want me to go in.

So to you all– do you think I should just switch back to doing 1 month doses like it’s intended? I’m not sure what to do here. :( 

Getting healthy.

Self Discovery

This journey is intense.  It’s about redefining everything we do, all that we are.  We’ve to change our habits of every hour of every day.  We need to change how we think, sleep, eat, do, in order to succeed and reach our goals.

For all of us we struggle with different things.  Some eating.  Some exercising.  Some emotionally.  Some everything.  I’ve been doing a lot of thinking (you know, now that I have time to do something other than school work ;)) and I’ve realized a lot of things I think are good to share, because they might help someone, and even if one person walks away with a new piece of this puzzle, a new trick to add to their repertoire, it’s all more than worth it, all my own struggles and set backs I’ve experienced in order to gain this wisdom.

1. It’s all about balance. 

Everything we do, is about finding that perfect equation that works for you.  People try to push themselves beyond the limits in a lot of ways.

First off, don’t hurt yourself.  Walking is enough for exercise, especially in the beginning.  We all see what Nancy and these other fantastic women on here do; it’s amazing.  But we’ve to be realistic– we can’t all exercise for 3 hours a day.

In terms of eating, nearly everything “unnatural” is bad for you.  Meat, milk, eggs, butter, blah, blah blah.  And for most there’s a “healthy alternative”.  Well, if you’re like me, some of them are good (Almond Breeze!) and some are not palatable at all  (soy milk!).  This is where you’ve to listen to yourself.  Don’t eat something you hate; it will inevitably lead to failure.  Find the balance of old and new foods that works for you.  For me, I like butter and olive oil depending.  So I use both, I don’t completely eliminate things I like.  Ice cream will always be on my menu at least once a month, but I can definitely do without candy, except in few and far between moments.

And then there’s the balance of combining the two: exercise and healthy eating.  You need to right amount of both to succeed.  If you exercise but don’t eat well, you’ll go no where except perhaps gaining some invisible muscle underneath your bulge.  If you eat without exercise you’ll lose weight, but inevitably be lumpy and saggy with no real definition and a body that is still weak.

2.  Treat others as you would like to be treated.  Now let’s alter this: Treat yourself as you would treat others.

We say things to our self we would never say to others.  “Look how fat I am!” is just the surface of that.  Why? Why are we our own worst critic?  As long as we have these attitudes we can’t progress.  This negativity is a sure fire way to kill any motivation that you have.  No, you need to be realistic, admit that you need to fix some issues, but still love and accept who you are– your weight is only one aspect of your person.

There’s another side of this.  We try to convince ourselves that things are okay.  “I can eat this ice cream, it has protein in it” and other illogical truths we tell ourselves.  When using this tactic as yourself, “would I tell my husband/daughter/etc this same thing?”  Most likely, no.  So be true to yourself.

3. Remember your loved ones.

This is two sided.  Most of us know someone else that’s in need of losing weight.  The next time you want that candy bar or want to skip a work out, act as if you’re doing this for them.  You’re working out FOR THEM, eating FOR THEM.  Will you still do it? Again, Most likely, no.

And then the reverse: when you want to skip, think of the people who want to help you.  They’d exercise, eat for you in a heat beat.  But the reality is, they can’t, you’ve to do it for yourself.

4. Last, but not least, Believe in yourself.

It all boils down to how much you can motivate yourself.  Believe that you can do it.  We all can, no matter our circumtances.  Don’t use all the classic excuses; follow Nike and Just Do It!

We’ll all be glad we did in the end.

I talked with him about it and told him a lot of what I’m going to do depends on what he’s going to do.  He was originally going to go back to school but has been working hard to progress in his job now (retail management).  As I said to him, architecture would be a high priority job, his is high priority.  IT’s hard to have a healthy family life in those kinds of conditions.

Likewise, with architecture I don’t think I’ll ever get my health in proper order since it is such an intense career, since I can’t even seem to balance it with school.  Health is big concern for me.  I don’t do well with a lot of stress and it will never really end with a career like that.

Basically, to me, architecture sounds great as a career– but in the grander view of life, not so much.

Tobey asked which do I Want more– a baby or to be an architect? Well my first thought “if we’ve the money, a baby”.   I’ve always been around babies and wanted one; some people just want to or are meant to be mothers, it happens, and I’m that type of person.  I want to be like everyone else in college but the facts are I’m my own person and I want different things than the “average” college student.

I always wanted to be a teacher until I got to high school and saw my peers, I thought “how could I ever put up with this as a teacher?” so I ran away from it.  Now, I think that was a bad idea.  I’m going to go back to this idea; I’m going to try to meet with someone by Friday about changing my major to Secondary Education with a concentration in English.

I think this is most conducive to what I want out of life.  I’ve been thinking solely about my career, but that’s not all there is– that’s one fraction of your total living, and in all honesty, it’s getting too much concentration.  To be happy with my family; hubby, future kids, parents, is my main goal– and I think this is best achieved with my intentions than my current situation.

I’d like to say that I’m an exception but I’m not. (more…)

Where did Sabrina go, Nicole, others???? We need to work to keep our groups close knit and supportive! I know I haven’t been here much but still– this is the worst I’ve seen it in the year and a half I’ve been on BS, and I’m worried!

Work to keep your buddies motivated– work to get new buddies interested!  Don’t know how to find new members? Go to Dr Marc’s page and click on one of his buddes– the newest are always at the top of his buddy list!   We need to make sure they connect and get active.  It’s intimidating especially with how well connected most of the groups are.  Welcome them, invite them into the community.

Send boosters to your buddies who are slipping, losing motivation. Talk and support them! If a friend is feeling down you don’t just hope they’ll work it out themselves or someone else will come along and cheer them up, do you??

This is a family, lets help keep it together!

I’m having a hard time right now trying to focus. There’s so much I need to be doing and it is a bit overwhelming. Basically, I’m needing to take a step back and re-focus in all aspects of my life.

I want to focus on school, I want to focus on me.  In that, of course, I need to focus on my home life, my husband.  Really, I don’t think it will be hard seeing as he is part of me, and I genuinely feel that.   Our biggest problem is communication (as it usually is with any couple).  Last night I had a dream my hubby left me because he didn’t like that I’d “changed”  What, I mean, really? He got to know me for who I am internally and not externally so there are some issues with how I act.  I’m very much an introvert and I want to be an extrovert, how strange is that? Anyways.. We get irritated with each other quickly, since we both have little patience.  I’m going to work on this, as well as trying to develop more of a written budget, and trying to convince him that we need to write it down and watch what’s being spent where (any tips on how to get him to agree on this, anyone? J).  Money is definitely getting tight with school, and I’m having to cut down on work.  Food is another big issue, since I’m away from home so much and our schedules don’t coincide well at all.  This means I’m probably going to have to take one day where I cook a lot of food for the whole week, not a big deal, just need to develop a routine.   Advice on cheap meals, diverse for a picky eater?

However, we then get into taking lunches, etc.  I’ve an issue with food during the day: I’ve no fridge, so I’ve to carry it with me from about 8 AM until when I eat around 12 or so.  I do have access to a microwave.  I’m thinking, canned soups? Not sure.  I hate having a lukewarm salad or sandwich.  Any advice here would be great as well.   

This unfortunately means focusing less on other areas of my life, like BS and work.  You all know I love and admire all of my buddies here, and I’m always going to be a member here, but my role is going to have to subside.  I’ve always been a heartbreaker and I hate to back away from it, but I’m really not contributing now and I feel it isn’t as beneficial as it could be for me, and something somewhere else could take more from the time I give to the team.  So, I’m going to back away for a while.  I wish you all the best but I don’t think the team is where I need to be right now.  If I’m going to be focusing more on me as an individual, that definitely isn’t a good team attitude.  Maybe once I’ve worked on other areas I’ll be able to come back, but right now I’m just trying to do too much at once.

I will remain in The Quest for Onederland and the Christmas Challenge… but I believe that’s all.  Those are fairly “low maintenance” If you will.  I hate to be doing this but, I do have to keep myself in the spotlight for a while if I wish to have any kind of success in the near future, school and otherwise. 

I’ll still be here on a regular basis, I’ll still be reading the forums, just not 5-6 x a day like before.. about half as much.  I know I probably need a lot of you now more than ever before, aswell, so again I’ll try to actually focus my buddyslim visits on strengthening my buddyslim ties.

I hope you all understand and I thank you for being there for me. 

I’m doing pretty well. Slowly getting back on the wagon. Woohoo! I’ve been positive for a while now so I think it might finally stick again.. we’ll see.

So, I wanted to ask you all a question. Our one year anniversary is coming up next weekend (wow already!) and I’m racking my brain to try to think of what to give Joshua. I don’t want to spend much money. I had offered to buy tickets to a concert he was interested in but he ho-hummed that. He keeps telling me not to spend any money, but of course I want to give him something. The question is really, what. A poem, letter, etc etc I will try… but it’ll be hard LOL especially with Mr English buff over here!!!

Basically I was looking for input and ideas.. maybe things you all did on a limited budget, etc etc. Any input is appreciated!!

Thanks all!!

Jamie, one of our HBRs came up with the wonderful idea of putting workotus onto notecards.  That way, when you find one you like in a magazine or such, you can just write it down on the card and have them all in one place.  I’m planning on doing this, and then picking them at random to determine my workouts.  I think it will be fun.  Here’s my list so far for my cards:

Cardio:

Workout DVD

Walking

Biking

Jump Rope

DDR

Wii Fit

Swimming

(when school starts back)

Treadmill

Elliptical

Stair Climber

Rowing Machine

Classes (depending on what’s available)

Strength:

Push ups

Crunches

Lunges

Squats

Leg lifts

Weights

Exercise ball workouts

Any other ideas?

…and a lot of us have always been over weight.  I was reading somewhere (a blog? Not sure) about gym classes… and running a mile (yeah I think someone’s blog)

It just got me thinking… do we really hate exercise, or is it a learned emotion?  What I’m saying here is, I know al ot of us faced the dreaded gym class as a chubby child.  We got mocked, made fun of, saw the teacher’s disappointment when we couldn’t do things.  So, I’m proposing that we really don’t hate it.  We all love it after we’ve done it… we’ve just learned to associate the thoughts of exercise and working out with negativity.   All our early experiences with it were negative– therefore, we now associate all experiences with it as negative. At least, I’m pretty sure that explains it for me.

There was one form of exercise I always loved –colorguard/winterguard. And you know what? My first instructor was the most encouraging, understanding woman I’d ever met.  I think she’s the reason I learned to love it so much–and not see it as exercise.

I think if we adjust our thinking about exercise (much like with everything else) it will come more easily, more naturally, and we’ll stop seeing it as a daunting task but rather something we can enjoy.

So all of you exercise haters, I challenge you to evaluate what it is you exactly hate about exercise, and learn to associate exercise with more positive thinking ..  and hopefully get the ball rolling like I hope to for me. :)e