Green Smoothie Experiment!

So, in evaluating my diet, I came to the realization that I get practically no vegetables. I'm worse than most small children in that you can't bribe me to eat vegetables because if I want chocolate cake I'll just eat that for dinner and be done with it. But, in hopes of being healthier overall, I decided to look into alternate methods of getting veggies. And I know I'm late to this fad, but the green smoothie didn't seem like such a bad idea. You mix gross veggies with delicious things and drink a smoothie that tastes nothing like the veggies. So today I went out and bought all the necessary ingredients, and because I get up kind of early and Will didn't want me blending, I made one.

I combined 2 cups of spinach, 1 cup of strawberries, 3/4 of a banana, 1 cup of lowfat vanilla yogurt, and 3/4 cup of milk. When I blended it, it turned this awesome green color, but then into this horrible brownish-redish-green color when the strawberries hit it... It looked far from appetizing, and I was terrified to taste it because no way did I believe you could have that many vegetables in a smoothie without tasting them at all. But I did it, and it was amazing! I could not taste the spinach at all! It just tasted like a delicious strawberry banana smoothie.

So, for the next week, or until I run out of ingredients, I'm going to be having a green smoothie for breakfast every day to see if I feel healthier. Wish me luck, and stay tuned for more of my recipe attempts!

Zumba Update!

So, as of today I have had three Zumba classes. The first one was only 20 minutes long, and I felt like I was going to die. The second class, which was on Monday, was a full 50 minutes. It was exhausting! I was so sweaty by the end of it, sweatier than I think I've ever been. I also got a really bad cramp in my abdomen during it that didn't go away until we were finished. The day afterwards my shoulders and calves were really sore, and they were even sore today when I woke up. Class today was still exhausting and I was still really sweaty, but I felt like I was able to keep up for longer periods of time, and I didn't get a cramp this time! I think I really like Zumba, although there's no way I'd be willing to do it on my own. Hopefully as the class progresses I'll get even better at it.

The Second First Day of Class!

It's always a little weird starting college again, because you don't just have one first day of class. You have two, or maybe even three if you have a class that only meets once a week. To me it's a little challenging, because I get so stressed out about starting new things, that having two or three days of newness is stressful.

On Thursday I had only two classes, which was nice, even though later I'll have labs and whatnot to fill that time. First I had Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion. I don't think I'll really be interested in all in this class, but I need more credits outside of science, so this seemed like an easy A. I appreciate the teacher, because she knows most people are taking it for easy A's. A large part of the class is that we have to choose a TV show that has something to do with witches, and watch and write about it. We also have some "fieldwork" to do, which seems like a pain, but overall the class doesn't seem like it's going to be completely awful.

Next I had Quantum Mechanics, which I can already tell is going to be awful. I've had the professor before, and even though I love his excitement towards teaching, he doesn't understand how to best help his students. I am just hoping to survive this course.

Other than that I am just trying to keep everything balanced as the semester really begins and I have more and more work that starts to pile up. Wish me luck!

The Semester of No Excuses!

Class started today, and made me want to die. This whole getting up early, having to put on clothes, having to see people and use my brain thing doesn't work for me. I guess it wasn't that bad once I got there but still. Over the break I evaluated myself and decided that I make way too many excuses for myself. Of course I can't do dishes, I have homework to do... but I should really finish this TV show first... I realized that there's no good reason for me to do less than I would like, even if I am tired.

However, after the first day I do feel quite exhausted, and all I really want to do is take a nap and eat everything in the apartment. But I'm going to be at least a tiny bit productive in that I might do a load of dishes, or maybe organize my class binders.

The classes I had today were Second Semester General Biology, Fundamentals of Psychology, History of Women in America, and Zumba. ...So far, Zumba is my favorite. Biology seems fine. I don't particularly like biology, but I think that it will be better than last semester because it's less molecular and more big picture. My only major complaint is that because of the way the class is organized, unless you put a lot of extra work into the class, I don't think you can do extremely well. There's no way in hell I'm going to read labs for prelab quizzes, read the textbook, go to a weekly discussion outside of class, AND go to lecture. I may just be extremely lazy, but I think that that's a lot to ask of someone who has other classes.

Psychology is going to be an easy A. I'm absolutely positive of that. I am also absolutely positive that I will fall asleep during every lecture. I'm sorry, I respect psychology, but the fundamentals of psychology are basic... They're the FUNDAMENTALS. There's no need to spend half a lecture going over what makes psychology an actual science.

History seems like it will be interesting, but it's also a class filled with a bunch of liberal arts majors, who seem like they'll have opinions on women's issues... Which could make me hate the class. Other than that it seems fine, just a lot of reading.

Zumba was so HARD. We didn't even spend half the class doing actual dancing, but I was so sweaty and out of breath. I also looked like a complete fool trying to follow the instructor, but I'm excited to get better at cardio.

Expanding The Blog!

Well... I can wholeheartedly say that I have failed my diet. I think the main problem was that I was on break, and didn't have anything to keep myself busy. When I'm bored, instead of finding something productive to do, I prefer to eat everything in the house. I think that I was doing alright, except then I went to visit my parents, and of course I didn't diet or exercise while I was there.

Another factor was that while I was home I caught this nasty flu that is going around. I felt alright for the first few days, which allowed me to catch up on the workouts I missed while I was home. In one day I did something like 180 sit-ups, 80 push-ups, and over 4 minutes of planking. But after that the flu hit hard, and I was in bed for about five days. I have no intentions of catching up on the rest of the exercises, but will try to complete the daily ones once I am fully recovered from the flu.

So, since I've failed miserably at eating better and getting fit, I will not be focusing entirely on that. Instead I will be expanding to include various things that I find interesting and/or deem worthy of blogging. The first expansion: School! I start classes this Wednesday! I'm expecting it to be super stressful since I am taking 5 classes, a PE course, AND am taking a MCAT-prep class.

When classes start, I AM going to try to be better about exercising and eating right. I expect it to be easier because I'll have things keeping me out of the fridge. I don't know if I will continue to count calories, but I do expect to log what I eat. And I will be attempting to do the calendar exercises, as well as my PE course. I'll post small updates about my fitness levels/progress, but expect a lot more about school.

As a bonus, enjoy this adorable picture of yawning cat.

Days Nine, Ten, Eleven, and Twelve!

So, while my friends were visiting I made absolutely zero progress towards getting fit. I did not watch what I ate, although I don't think I went too crazy with food. I didn't exercise at all. In fact, most of the days were spent sitting on the couch watching all of the Harry Potter movies. The only thing that might have been beneficial is that I got the flu, and so I was drinking a lot of fluids (not water cause bleh). While I am still sick, I am going to try to get some exercise in, as long as I'm not horribly ill, because who knows how long this flu will last. Wish me luck!

Day Eight!

Day Eight didn't go well at all. My friends are visiting me for a few days, so of course we aren't going to diet and exercise. Yesterday I think I barely stayed under calories, but that's only because I only ate dinner. I didn't do my calendar workout, which I feel kind of bad about. The day they leave I plan on making up all of the days I miss... so that'll be quite the workout.