Sh-Boom! Life Could Be a Dream

 

The title is inspired by the track that is playing in the background as I write this post.  I am such a lucky person.  Gainfully employed, completing my degree, happily in love and married, and about to buy my own home…. what’s not to love?  Life really could be a dream.

This morning when I came to work, my mom was approaching my desk with a gift for me:  It’s a binder with copies of execises that she’s collected from her experience at the gym.  There are BOSU workouts, bootcamp style interval workouts, etc.  And on the cover: a Post-it note that says “Because you are loved!!”

I told Mom how I’m getting back into fitness and ready to really hit it hard, and this is her way to encourage me.  🙂 I definitely have the warm fuzzies at this point.

Yesterday, I signed up for The Academy with Nerd Fitness:

 

The premise seems to be that it will guide me back into the fitness lifestyle by enticing me with the opportunity to level up my real life person instead of a digital character.  It plays like an RPG, except you get experience by doing things in real life.  The quest lines that you see there (General, Academy, Warrior, etc.) correlate to the type of training that you want to be doing.  I want to get started with the basics, so I’ll pursue the general quests first, then progress to The Academy and eventually start tackling some of the Ranger class quests.

I got 25 exp points for taking my ‘before’ photos, and I’ll get 25 more for taking my measurements.  The general quests start with small, easily accomplished goals and then work up to more challenging ones.  It’s just the inspiration that I need to get going without diving into the deep end and getting injured again.

We move in 2 weeks (if I’m lucky) and I have been dreaming about setting up a basement gym.  I’ve got images of rubberized flooring, inspirational posters, and blaring music dancing in my head.  Jeff wants to burst my bubble by reminding me that we have low ceilings, but then I remember that I’m short and go back to dreaming 😉

Can I have it? Pretty please?

So that’s what we’re up to 🙂 I’ll be sure to keep you posted.  Stay classy!

Things I’m Digging

1. Albacore Chunk White Tuna in water.

Sometimes, you  just have to eat tuna.  One of my resolutions was to eat lunches and dinners from home more often and today I ended up eating tuna sandwiches–twice.  It’s probably not the healthiest option for every meal, but when you’re already running late (another resolution I’m working on), it’s super easy to just grab the can, grab a couple pieces of bread, and go to work.  My cafeteria has condiments readily available so I just mixed it with low fat mayo, pickle relish, and call it good.  Luckily this morning, I was also able to grab an apple and a pepper to munch on, and I had some apple sauce, almonds, and cheese sticks already at work.  Tonight–I was not so ravenous, but we were still hangry and ended up making tuna sandwiches for dinner too.

Ugh. I might not be digging chunk white tuna much longer, though.. when looking for an image to spice this one up, I learned that adults are only supposed to eat chunk white tuna (not the same as chunk light tuna) 3x/month or risk elevated exposure to methylmercury.  Great. 😦

2. Guild Wars 2

This may be where the list ends because, really, that’s what I’ve been focusing on, lately.  I love to play with my guild mates and the game just offers so much variety and challenges.  The game helps to meet some of my social needs because I can link up to play with real life friends, too.  Depending on the mood, we can go exploring, questing, seek dynamic events, fight dragons, raid dungeons, or compete in player vs player action.  Here are some screen shots I wanted to share with you:

My character, Aminarra Westin, sporting 3 versions of armor

This ice crystal shows just how detailed this game can be..

This is what ‘stealth’ looks like in this game… Go ahead, click the link to make the image bigger.

This is the boss at the end of Twilight Arbor… and this dude is nuts! The sound files of the creaking wood overwhelm the audio and lend to the magnitude of this foe.

This weekend, I’m going to think about some prerequisites and goals surrounding gaming because this one  turns into a time-suck pretty quickly.  It’s so engaging and entertaining that hours can fly by and I barely notice.  One Saturday, I had a piece of toast for breakfast and did not get the urge to eat until 8 hours later.  I guess that’s one way to lose weight 😉 j/k

 

 

Jeff’s Birthday Weekend – In Pictures

This weekend has been pretty fun.  I have been spending time with Jeff to celebrate his 29th birthday and we’re getting ready to throw a party for my 7 year old niece, too. I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

Cat Toys in a Jar

Jeff and Taz Hug

Toby hanging out on the cat tower

Yep. I gave Jeff a flying “f” for his birthday lol… it’s a riot.  You can find them on http://www.thinkgeek.com