Apr 28, 2009

Back in Full Swing

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I was a little leery about weighing myself this morning since I had gained weight the previous two weeks.  However, my leeriness was unfounded because I lost 4.3 pounds this week! I’m ecstatic because I’m back on track.

My total weight loss is 16.8 pounds so I’m a little less than 10 pounds away from my first major benchmark.  I’m really excited to hit it!  I’m trying to decide between all the great ideas I got in the comments of my last weight-loss post to reward myself.  I like the idea of a new outfit or a book the best.  Jewelry would be nice, but jewelry has been irritating my skin lately so I don’t think I’ll add to that discomfort right now.

I’ve been a lot better with my exercise this week.  I’m getting up and walking on my treadmill before I go to work and I love it!  Even though I’m extremely tired in the morning, I feel so refreshed after I get done.  I feel more awake at work too.  I definitely need to keep up with this!

Filed Under: Getting Healthy, Weight Loss · 8 Comments
Apr 27, 2009

Meeting an Author

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As I stated in my review of Freshman for President, my friends and I invited Ally Condie to come to one of our parties.  Our party took place last Friday and it was a lot of fun!

My friends Debbie and Rachel planned the party and did a great job.  It was fun to have everything decked out in red, white, and blue.  We ate yummy baked potatoes and had ice cream (rainbow sherbet and frozen yogurt) for dessert.  (Rainbow sherbet makes a couple of appearances in the book.)

Ally was very sweet and funny.  We really enjoyed having her at our party.  We asked her a couple of questions about Freshman for President, but most of our questions dealt with the writing process and how she gets inspiration, etc.

After Ally left, we talked about other books we’ve read and gave recommendations to each other.  My “to read” list went from 731 books to 751 books!

Filed Under: Authors, Friends, Parties, SLTA · 2 Comments
Apr 23, 2009

Review: Freshman for President by Ally Condie

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Freshman for President CoverTitle: Freshman for President
Author: Ally Condie
Series: Stand-alone
Genre: Contemporary (YA)
Buy on Amazon · Add to Shelfari · Add to Goodreads

So what if Milo’s only fifteen years old, and that he’ll have to balance running a presidential election with school, his lawn mowing job, soccer practice, and trying to understand girls?  There are times in life when you just have to go for something, no matter how impossible, and this is one of those times. Not only does he have to redefine who Milo J. Wright really is, but he also has to decide what winning and losing really mean.

My friends and I decided to read this book because we met Ally when we went to the literacy symposium to meet Nancy Turner.  Ally was in one of the classes we attended and because she’s a local author, we thought it might be fun to read one of her books and have her come to one of our parties.  (It’s the first time we’re actually doing an actual book club gathering.)

I enjoyed Freshman for President a lot more than I thought I would.  I honestly thought I was going to hate it because I just wasn’t that interested in the topic.  Even though it’s not one of my favorite books, I think it’s well written, fun, original, and unique.

One of the reasons I do like the book is because it didn’t sugar coat real-life issues.  When I was younger, I read a few Jack Weyland books.  (For those of you who don’t know who Jack Weyland is, he’s an LDS author.)  The books always seemed too sappy and life’s issues were always solved in an unrealistic amount of time.  I stopped reading his stories because I was annoyed that the characters’ lives were suddenly happy with no more issues or problems.  Unfortunately, life isn’t like that.  Even in you solve a problem, it takes a long time to heal from a traumatic experience and you’ll always have more trials to deal with.

I know you’re probably asking why I love the Twilight Saga so much then.  Fantasy, science fiction, and romance books are different, in my opinion, because they don’t presume to be “real life” stories so you expect the unrealistic time frame or “happily ever after.”  Jack Weyland’s books, on the other hand, profess to be “real life” stories coupled with a moral and advice from religious principles to help you cope with life’s obstacles.  I’m not complaining about the coping methods; I’m complaining about the unrealistic time frame and the “happily ever after” once the trauma has been dealt with.

What does this have to do with Freshman for President?  Milo, his family, and his friends have to deal with a lot of “real life” experiences and problems in the midst of running this presidential campaign.  By the time the book’s over, they’re still going through some of the problems and they’re still healing from them.  There was no yeah-I-had-a-terrible-thing-happen-to-me-but-because-I-found-something-to-live-for-I’m-completely-back-to-my-normal-self-again crap.  The book gave me hope for those characters, but I knew they still had a rough time ahead and I found that refreshing.

Filed Under: Book Reviews ·  Tagged: , , · 2 Comments
Apr 21, 2009

What the Crap?

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I’m so frustrated today!  Last week, I didn’t post an update about my weight loss because I actually gained weight instead of losing weight.  It was only .6 pounds, but that’s beside the point.  The fact that it was up was the frustrating part.  Because it was only .6 pounds, I got over it quickly.

Today, however, I weighed myself and I’ve gained 1.5 pounds since last Tuesday.  That’s 2.1 pounds in two weeks.  I’m back to where I was four weeks ago! I’m so frustrated.  Even though I splurged a little for my birthday, my weekly average calorie intake was only 1532.71, which is still between my 1200-1700 calorie limit.  Technically, I shouldn’t have gained any weight last week or the week before.

I know weight loss isn’t an exact science and I know weight fluctuates.  I also know I may have gained weight because:

  • I may be retaining water from eating too much sodium
  • I was off my birth control pill for a week since I forgot to renew my prescription
  • I’m counting calories incorrectly
  • I’m losing inches rather than weight since muscle weighs more than fat
  • Even though I stayed within my calorie limit, I may have eaten foods with more fat content
  • Or, any number of other reasons

Ever since Daylight Saving Time started, my exercise/sleep schedule has been way off, which I know hasn’t helped. I also think I’ve kind of relaxed a bit on the goals I outlined in January (A New Plan).  I’m recommitting because I feel like I’m doing things half-assed again.  I’m also posting new goals, which are basically my old goals with a few tweaks:

  1. Each morning, I’m going to get up at 6:00 am, so I can exercise before I get in the shower and go to work.  Even if I don’t feel well or I’m too tired to get up, I’m still going to do it because I always feel better when I do and have more energy throughout the day.
  2. I’m going to go to bed at 9:45 pm each night so I can get close to a full eight hours of sleep.
  3. I’ll be on time (8:00 am) for work each day.  This is especially important because I have to answer the phones from 8:00 am to 10:15 am.
  4. I can only eat out once a week–no ifs, ands, or buts!
  5. I’m going to take measurements each week and go off the measurements rather than the scale.  I’ll still weigh myself once a week, but if my measurements are good, then I’ll know I’m still doing okay.

PS–I need to come up with a reward for when I reach my first major benchmark of losing 25 pounds.  I’m not sure what to do.  Any ideas?

Filed Under: Getting Healthy, Vents, Weight Loss · 7 Comments
Apr 20, 2009

Audiobook Folly

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I finished listening to the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban audiobook the other day.  I’m getting through each book fairly quickly and I’m very excited about it!

As I was listening to chapter 18 (“Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs”), I noticed that the chapter seemed to end rather abruptly.  In fact, once chapter 19 started, I felt like a huge piece of chapter 18 was missing.  I wasn’t completely positive, however.  I decided to get my book and check. The audio file was missing about half the chapter! For the time being, I decided just to read the rest of the chapter and then continue on with the audiobook.

Afterward, I checked the audiobook out from the library so I could get a complete recording of chapter 18.  It just so happens that chapter 18 starts at the end of disc 8 and ends in the same place the audio file I listened to did. I figured the rest of chapter 18 would be at the beginning of disc 9. To my surprise, however, disc 9 starts with Chapter 19. It seems the actual audiobook was processed incorrectly. (I wonder if the tapes have the same problem.)

I know this may not be a big deal to most people and may even be overlooked.  However, if no one complains, then it’ll never be fixed.  Also, Azakaban is my favorite book in the series and I want to be able to listen to all of it, especially during the climax of the story.  This morning, I decided to contact the publisher to find out if they know the audiobook is incomplete.  Hopefully, I’ll hear back from them soon and they’ll tell me a corrected version has already been released and let me know where I can purchase it.

Filed Under: Books, Harry Potter, Vents · 2 Comments
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