Week 26: Read More

Ok, so it has taken me half the week to figure out what week 26 should be and then it hit me last night! As I crawled in bed and began to read some of my book, (thanks to the sis's bf for the book light!!! ) I realized I want to do this more. So that is my resolution for this week, reading more during the week. Reading for fun too, not just the books or lesson plans that I've been reading all day to plan stuff. 

This week I also feel it would be appropriate to mention... THE YEAR IS HALF OVER!!!! I cannot quite say I have 26 resolutions so far, but I do have quite a few and they have become a part of my daily life. So, a recap of how each resolution is going for me... 

1. Give up Processed Sugar (again...) I've been cheating a little more this week. For the hike last weekend I bought some granola bars and tried to get the least sugar ones. But, between eating those up this week as breakfast or snacks, and the chocolate that has entered the house, I've been feeling like crap! No joke. I have felt nauseous for the last few days off and on and SO hungry. My roomie thinks it is from eating mixed veggies for lunch with fruit (was eating meat too, but too lazy to cook it the night before) but I wasn't hungry the first few days I was eating these meals. I'm going to blame the sugar. 

2. No More Plastic Bags! Almost rock star status on this one!!! I did slip up the other day and forgot that a lot of plate lunch places in Hawaii will give you your lunch, your silverware/chopstick, and napkin in a bag unless you warn them in plenty of time. We were running late to meet someone on the beach so I didn't try to give the bag back.

3. No More Take Out Conatiners Not counting plate lunches! This only counts if I go to a restaurant and want to take leftovers. Haven't really been out to eat lately so not a problem.

4. Portion Control Doing good on this one! I try to eat a more variety of things rather than eat a lot of one thing. And depending on how much water I've had, I'll make myself drink a glass of water or something before getting something else to eat. It also helps that I have a quick breakfast and then I pack my lunch so dinner is really the only time I can really over eat. 

5. New Recipe I've been slacking on keeping track of this, but I have been trying some new things. Mainly, mixing whatever I have on hand to make something out of it. 

6. Work Out 3 Times a Week Failed a long time ago. But, since the insanity resolution and being in Hawaii I have been working out or exercising in some way at least 3 times a week. Heck, last weekend we hiked about 5 miles and then went swimming in one day alone!!!!
 

7. Record Measurements Weekly Harder to do since I forgot a measuring tape and my scale is still at home. But I'm losing inches!!

8. Take out Contacts Regularly Doing AMAZING at this one! Speaking of, I need to get more of the hydrogen peroxide stuff that I use. I've just been using regular solution to put them in instead of the cleaner I've been using. And... I went to the eye doctor the other day and my eyes got better again!!!

9. Keeping My Mouth Shut More Umm... I think I've been doing this one. I really get put to the test living with the guy who left for work then texted us that the wine in the freezer opened the door and things were thawing but left the wine in the fridge! 

10.Take Vitamins Regularly Doing good with this one. Every morning when I go to make my shake for breakfast I pull out the shake mix and the vitamins then I have to take them before I put them away. But today I ran out of shake mix and don't plan on buying more yet. 

11. Water!!! Doing ok. The other day I forgot my water bottle and by the time I got home I felt horrible. When I work out I typically drink about 2 bottles then alone. 

12. (none)

13. Enjoy the Little Things I'm in Hawaii, how can I not??

14. (none-chicago)

15. Fish Oil Taking it daily with the vitamins. It seems to be ok. I really think I should have been more sore after doing the first week of insanity, but I wasn't.

16. Chap Stick Used it the other day once, but only for the sunscreen protection. I didn't think 5 miles plus tide pools would really be a smart trip without some sunscreen on my lips.

17. Abs Does insanity count???

18. Budget It is definitely a constant work in progress, but it helps a lot!

19. No More Fries I had my one cheat of garlic fries at Teddy's so I am good now. 

20. (skipped?)

21. (skipped?)

22. (skipped?)

23. No more bread, crackers, or pasta Cheated when eating hamburgers. BUT, found a cool thing on I Miss My Collar Bone and I think a lightly grilled pepper would make a nice bun.  Plus, since I stopped eating bread/pasta I have dropped inches!

24. Insanity workout program Slacked off for a week since I've been horribly low on sleep and not feeling great. But I picked it up the other day. Would have done it again this morning, but we had to be at school an hour earlier. 
 

25. No more potatoes Going great. Made me laugh yesterday though when one of the boys was in charge of dinner and wanted potato salad as a side but I looked at him. So, we went to the store and he was so proud of himself. He picked up some macaroni salad and informed me that there were not potatoes in it. Then I pointed to it and said "pasta"... he thought he had done good on picking out something I could eat.

26. Read More started last night.

Teaching

So, I have discovered that rather than teach a physics course over the summer with this summer program I want to be an assistant. There are some cool classes that are happening and sadly, I am not part of either. Today I skipped out on the drama class in the morning to go with one of the other classes on a walk to collect plants to make plant shirts.

The drama class is to the stage where all the students are needed and the only thing the other assistant and I do is get after kids who are talking or goofing off. Not really exciting and not necessary to have two of us. So the one teacher was going to take her kids and gather plants to paint and then make prints of on t-shirts. That sounded so much more exciting... so did their trip to a watercress farm, the hike to the waterfall, the hike to the top of the ridge, and the trip to the board of water supply. Mind you the one also made terrariums, and they are watching termites, and they caught crayfish. I'm jealous. Today I joined them and I have to say... my shirt is coming along very nicely! I am going to add more stuff to it.

So I sit in my class, the one that I can control and realize how boring it really is. And I feel horrible! These kids were signed up for this class, all of them have done the programs before and know how fun they can be, but mine is just boring kind of learning. So, I decided to look at what could be fun using what we already know, and possibly bring in things that we didn't cover yet. At the end of all the curriculum I am supposed to cover, there is a project to create a Rube Goldberg Machine. Why not do this now instead of maybe later? I say maybe later because there's more stuff to go through than we can fit in the 5 weeks. So, today we wrapped up our final investigation, we set 3 tables end to end, I rolled out a long sheet of paper, and they began designing. :) For an hour these 3 kids worked hard without breaks designing their project. No whining, no complaining, nothing. I think I did the right choice.

They must design a machine to pop a balloon and they cannot use fire or heat. Apparently I should have added explosions, but coke and mentos can't be too bad right? They plan on containing it in a tube to set off another reaction with alcaceltzer to fill a balloon over capacity. The problem I see? They think the coke will stop at the tablets to cause gasses to fill the balloon... it won't be a gas that fills the balloon, it will be the coke that fills it with the gas and causes an explosion. But, they will get to learn this on their own!

Week 25: Potatoes

I so cheated today on my no bread, no fries, and this week's no more taters. But, it was Teddy's Bigger Burger and if in Hawaii you HAVE TO eat it once. Amazing, hand pattied burgers. But otherwise, today I swear off potatoes. I've been avoiding them in general, but no more now.

I won't lie. The no bread/pasta thing kills me. It is just so cheap, filling, and lasts in the cupboard! But, alas, I have prevailed. Have I slipped up? yes, but I try my hardest to stick to it.

Speaking of cheap food. I saw a lady in the store today with a kid and a cart over flowing with food. Then I noticed she also had a binder and handful of coupons. I admire "extreme coupon-ers" and noticed most were printed out from online. Then I took notice of things in her cart. All what I consider "junk food". Tons of processed food, ice cream cones, boxes of fruit snacks packed with fake sugar, flavoring, and preservatives. Then I took notice of the people around me. And I have to say I have become slightly judgmental about people and what they buy. The people who are on their way to/from the gym yet buying chips and "diet" foods packed with fake stuff. What happened to real food? Why do we put so many unnecessary things in food now?

When we got home, one of the boys asked if I had tried the hot pockets with the pretzel bread yet. I told him no, they have sugar in them. He then started looking at everything as he put it away and most of the things contained sugars of some sort and not the natural kinds. It's in EVERYTHING! Rice Crispies are the one that kill me. They, by themselves are so bland, dull in flavor, and I could never eat them without adding a bunch of sugar to them. But yes, they actually do have sugar in them! Why? Plain Cherrios do too. It's sad, and depressing sometimes what we've added sugar to over the years and then we blame obese kids on the lack of PE in schools.

I get looks a lot and comments about how hard giving up sugar would be. Is it easy? No. But it is a choice I make and I won't lie, I cheat off and on in moderation for some things. Other things I've learned aren't worth it because they don't taste the same [oreos :( ] or because they make me horribly sick [ice cream]. But you know, if I get to my weight of extreme measures I would really crack down on what I was eating. And I don't care what diet you want to follow, I don't think foods which are heavily processed and using "fake" ingredients are in any way healthy or good for your body. So, next time you go shopping remember, it doesn't matter how many calories you burned at the gym today, eating some of the crap you want to eat is ingesting more than calories.

And now I step off my soap box and go to bed. I didn't do insanity yesterday because we went out dancing and I wanted to be able to dance without too much soreness. And today was just a really lazy day. Instead of staying up late and doing the workout, I will get up early and do it in the morning.

Reflection

Man, the weeks are flying by. It didn't help that last weekend was a holiday weekend for Hawaii (King Kamehameha Day) and so this was only a 4 day work week. It seems like yesterday I posted what this week's resolution was going to be and now I already have to figure out a new one?!?!

A lot has been going on and my postings have been short and not too detailed. I've been busy and last weekend really wore me out. I spent Saturday watching the first two seasons of Weeds. Not an amazing show, but I have seen it on Netflix a lot and decided to see what it was like. Then, they hook you with what crazy thing may happen next and two seasons later I finally got off the couch. I have been sticking to the workout though and took a break to do that.

Sunday was spent at the roomie's soccer game and then we went to Ewa Beach Park (Pronounced Eva as in for-eva lol). She had never been to Ewa Beach (the actual beach part) and so we went. In the 15 min we decided to sit and eat lunch before changing and putting on more sunscreen we both fried. It didn't show up until we were home though and yesterday I started peeling. No amount of aloe and lotions could stop it this time. I did take a "before" picture though! Even if it is still almost halfway (next week!) through the year. This is kind of an Insanity before photo.

6-10-12 Not fat, but needs some toning...

Ewa Beach looking towards Honolulu. Diamond head near the right side on the horizon.

Ewa Beach looking to Waianae direction

A view near the beginning of the hike. that is a storage shed. Lots of plants...

Monday being a holiday the roomie and I got with our other old roomie and did a hike. It was a short, tourist kind of hike to Manoa Falls. Of all the water falls on the island that I have seen, this one is the least interesting.

Left is a picture of one of 2 or 3 big Ficus trees that are on a little side trail surrounded by a bamboo forest. The picture is maybe a third of what I could see of the tree from the angle I was at. It is crazy to think that these are the cute little office trees that are so popular (and I kill all the time...).

P.S. If anyone knows where I can get panoramic prints for an ok price, let me know!

This week was spent with more teaching of course and I am loving it! Today I was really proud of myself too. I have a student who is epileptic. Because of this he has what I would call a processing delay. He is smart, but it takes time for him to connect things to previous knowledge, to recall information, and to verbalize what he is thinking. Most days I can tell he gives up and kind of shuts his brain off. Yesterday and today though I have been able to get him in on conversations and giving me answers with reasons to back them up based upon what we have done.

I also learned in the morning by watching the other aide that I have somehow gained all the patience my oldest sister has lost with kids. One kid drives everyone up the wall; teachers, aides, the other students, everyone! Apparently he is way better than in years past and that has to be saying a lot because he isn't that behaved this year. The other aide, a recent high school grad, gets so frustrated with him and demands instructions of him as I would have a few years ago. Instead, the one day he was really driving us nuts, I sat back and observed for a little bit. I realized something was bothering him and had been since he arrived that morning. After she got on to him about something he got more upset and within a few minutes kicked a chair so another student couldn't use it as a foot rest.

It's true that we told them not to use the chairs as foot rests, but the manner he went about it was not acceptable for me. One thing to be in a mood, another to take it out like that. So, I pulled him outside and asked what was wrong and what was going on. He said he was fine and was trying to let the other kid know not to put his feet on the chair. We talked about how kicking the chair is not an appropriate way to go about this. Something was still on his mind so I figured I'd either get him to talk about it or distract him from it. After talking to him about whatever came up from a few simple questions he was distracted and back to his usual talkative self. Just before sending him back in the room, I reminded him of some group participation rules and he was good the rest of class. I did have to remind him once or twice to focus and not goof off when working in the group, but he did fine. Apparently not in the afternoon which he spent most of in the office... not sure what happened. Since then, it has been the same. He's pretty good for us in the morning and horrible in the afternoon.

This weekends plans include a brunch with some of the roomies coworkers/classmates, country dancing!!!!, possible stand up paddling, and planning for next week.

In Colorado news, I officially have a teacher e-mail address, my contract was approved by the school board, and I GOT A PLACE TO LIVE!!! It is half of a duplex which the teacher assigned as my mentor is in the other half. It has a huge fenced yard which my dog will love and it is decently cheap! It is a 2 bedroom, one bath apartment. 2 story with the bottom level being at "garden level", or half buried. The kitchen and bathrooms are a little retro with the avocado green in the counters and linoleum, but I'm excited. It also has a wood fireplace (a must for Colorado lol) and deep window sills perfect for plants. I cannot wait! Oh, and the bedrooms are both 15'x10'... that's pretty big for bedrooms. One will be a sewing room/spare bedroom. The living room will probably end up being more an office/tv room. It is hard to judge the size of the living room from the pictures for what will fit and how in there.

Another good thing is that they are currently doing some repairs in it and they will be finishing up around mid to end of July. This means... no having to pay July rent just to hold the place! The drawback? Having to fork out a deposit equal to the rent and another $400. All refundable, but still! $200 utility deposit and $200 pet deposit. The way the utilities work is they are in the landlord's name, but I get a copy of the bill and pay them back for it. It'll be nice to be able to move in the night I get to town and not have to worry about electric, water, heat and all that. I'll post pictures when I get out there probably.

Working out is going good. I can make it most of the way through a workout now. I do have to take breaks during some of the moves. The ones with a lot of up and down movement make me dizzy quickly so those get hard, but otherwise I try to do everything. I may not do it at the pace on the video, but I do it! I'm starting week two of Insanity and I'm actually starting to feel improvements even if they are subtle... like finishing most of a workout, hiking a simple trail with no pain, no knee pain, etc.

Any ideas for this coming week's resolution?

And a cute green gecko to end the post. First green gecko I have ever seen here. Most are brown.

Week 24: Insanity

Alright, I did workout 3x a week as my resolution before and I failed. This week, I vow to finish the Insanity program no matter how long it takes! (It should only take 60)

Can't write a whole lot right now, I am hot, sweaty, and about to shower before bed. Tomorrow is a long day!

The Great Genocide

That's right, the other night there was a massive genocide. The ants have declared war in my room and so I brought in one of the boys (I live with my old roomie and two boys, she dates one and the other is a good friend) to come in and annihilate the ants with a can of Raid.

Now, I am against using chemicals and through my at home business thing they have some products that are safe and can take care of ants. But, the order would take a week to get here and after the towel incident and those bites I could have waited. When they attacked during my workout and I got bites everywhere was when I drew the line. Even when I went in to go to bed last night one crawled up my leg and bit me!!! These are tiny, tiny ants! I couldn't take it any more. A perimeter of raid was laid down and no ant has moved in the room since.  They didn't go down without a fight though, I think I have at least 25-30 bites at various places on my body and they all itch so bad!!!

The strangest part is my hair ties... I have a package of the clear rubber band like hair elastic things that I brought with me. After setting them on the counter the other day I noticed an ant on the package and thought to myself "what are they going to do with those" and went on. The next day, Thursday, I was curious and flipped over the package where I could see the clear plastic that is attached to the cardboard back... it was CRAWLING with ants. I washed them out with some soap, soaked them, and then let the elastics dry and smashed all the ants that hadn't been washed down the drain. Last night just before the genocide I noticed up on the counter back area where one elastic had fallen out, the ants were like worshiping this one elastic! They swarmed this thing and looked like they were trying to carry it off or something! No clue why they did such a thing, but they are all dead now.

I like to think I'm educated and know about food chains and ecosystems and as long as they aren't bothering me I'm ok letting ants live. They are important. But when they start attacking me and biting me and making me miserable, they gotta go. And went they did. Battle one goes to the can of Raid!

Otherwise, the workouts have been so hard to do! Today I got the hardcore workout boy in the house to do it with me and he was sweating like crazy after just the warm up. After about halfway through he was taking a lot of breaks too. My calves burned so badly today though that it felt like if I tried using them they would just rip in two. I kinda wish I would have packed a measuring tape to record my measurements...

Day 1 of Insanity

No, really... I started the Insanity workout program today!

My roomie got a copy from her sister and has been doing it for a month now. After my shopping spree the other day, I feel like I really should do something about that workout resolution. I also have died off on my measurements because I didn't bring my scale to HI with me and I think I forgot to pack a measuring tape too. :( So I started today and as a way to make sure I never loose my log of progress I'm starting a workout log on here more for my own use than your reading but you can read it if you like.

The shopping spree you ask? Well, I dropped into the mall really quick to talk to some people I used to work with and on my way out I decided to swing by Aeropostale. I know, not cheap! But.. when you're not tiny like all the Japanese tourist, jeans can be cheap! Turned out the whole store was at least 50% off too. I walked out with a pair of capris (orig. $44.50), a light pair of jeans (orig. $39.50) and two pair of dark jeans (orig $46.50 each) all for $33. Being poor I used to get my jeans from Wal-Mart and after paying $15 each and a year of wear, they would be wearing thin in the thighs and ripping. My two pair of Aeropostale jeans from at least two years ago are going strong (minus one belt loop on my favorite pair... it ripped.) That was my shopping spree. 4 pairs of pants for less than the price of one. Or, less than the price of 2 from Wal-mart now...

Week 23: Good bye Breads and Pastas

This week has been pretty big. I started my first teaching job!!! I am teaching summer school where I am a teacher assistant for a drama class in the morning and teach physics in the afternoon. I have 3 students... and one is gone for this week. I have to say it gets a little boring with just two kids. When there is more groups and the kids interact better it gets easier and more exciting.

I decided to do another big resolution this week. The Paleo kind of diet has really interested me a lot lately and seems to be popping up all over. This may be a sign that it is what I should be doing. So, rather than go cold turkey, I am going to try to work towards it. This week I am giving up bread, crackers [no more graham crackers :'( ] and pasta. Now, imagine how hard this is because what are the cheap foods that last in the cupboard? As a college student this is what I would normally go for. How easy is it to live off of peanut butter sandwiches, spaghetti, and ramen noodles? I am going to say that I will have a few cheats. First cheat is Ramen Noodles. Not necessarily out of choice, but I bought a pack of six before I decided on this and they are for my backup when I don't have food or time to cook. Plus, sometimes I just crave soup and noodles are easy and REALLY cheap. The other cheat is (Mac'n'Cheese)2 from the Yard House. MMMMMMMM!!!! Just one plate worth before I leave is all I ask.

So, I bought a lot of chicken, some green beans, some broccoli, and some salad fixings. The other day we grilled and I had the boys grill me up some of my chicken to eat on my salads for lunch. I began drinking a shake from my home business thing which is cheating since it contains dextrose, but it is oh so yummy and fills me up until lunch. Lunch is salads like I said with grilled chicken. For dinner I have been eating my bean soup that I made last weekend and my chicken. Tonight I broke down and bought rice. It is cheap, easy, filling, and can last awhile. I know it isn't ideal thing to fill up on, but I got five pounds of rice for just under five dollars.

Second morning and it has happened twice!

Ok, so one thing I find when living in Hawaii is how annoying phone calls can be. I'm not talking about chatting with friends, or the general idea of talking on the phone, but the fact that people on the mainland don't know and or don't care about the time difference.

Yesterday it was my sister. She felt she needed to call me at like 5:56am and wake me up. Why you ask? Because she couldn't find her dry wall tape and couldn't wait until I would be up to know if I had seen it around the house somewhere. Thanks sis.

Before that, at like 3 something in the morning the bf texted me wanting to know if I had made it ok and such since I had not texted him at like 2am his time to let him know I landed.

This morning I was woken up at 4:42am by a lady I called last week about a rental property in Colorado. Thanks for getting back to me...

Word to the wise, if you're calling someone in Hawaii, do it in your afternoon.


On a note about housing in Colorado, it looks like I am down to about 2 options. One is a small, one bedroom house. Recently updated, very cute from the pictures she sent, and well insulated (VERY important). It is also only 4 blocks from the school. I'm thinking that may be nice. That one will run me $525 a month + approximately $100 for electric + $55 for water/sewer + $15 for trash. So really about $695 a month. To me that is outrageous for a one bedroom, but it is newly redone... Downfalls are she is also trying to sell the house meaning I may be kicked out if she does, and it is available in July but I won't need it till August and she needs the rent for July.

My second option is a 4 bedroom double wide. Where I'm from, double wide means a few things. 1) It is a trailer. 2) They tend to be cheaply built. 3) The walls are thin and the insulation probably sucks. 4) Tornadoes sweep them away like a broom does dirt. (hopefully tornadoes are not a problem there) And the list continues with the majority being negatives instead of positives. I am trying to get pictures of it, but since the former science teacher sold his house, he is currently renting it and he hasn't gotten back to me about getting me pictures. So, I have no clue what this one looks like. But, it is also only $450 a month (utilities not included) and she wasn't sure on how much the bills run. Very important to know how much it will cost to heat when it is in the -40's.

Oh, and then the lady that called me today wants like $625 a month (not including utilities) for a 1 bedroom. I don't remember much after that since it was 4:42 am and after hearing the price it was ruled out.

My thinking is this. If I can rent a place month-to-month for the first few months, that would give me a place to live while all the seasonal people move out in September/October. Then, I can snatch up a better place, or stay where I am. I honestly think just to save money I'll go with the double wide just to suffice. It'll save me some money and hopefully I won't have to worry about heating it too much.