Diets of all Sorts

I have eaten SO much during the last month. So, here's my plan that I'm focusing on for the next two weeks...

• I'm swearing off all fried foods.
• I need to just eat less!
• Drink just water, UNsweetened tea or diet soda... but mainly water.
• Exercise!! Even if it's just 15 minutes...

I'm really contemplating trying Tim Ferriss' technique of how to lose 20 lbs. of fat in 30 days... Although I'd only do it for the 15 days... Anything to help!


On a total random side note... Well, actually, I guess it's not totally random. It's kind of like a financial diet! :-)

I've also been stressing about retirement funds lately. Probably an odd thing for a 33 year old to worry about, but for some reason I do. I get obsessed sometimes about being prepared enough for retirement, worried that I won't have enough saved.

I was obsessing on this earlier this week and lucky for me, I had the good fortune to sit next to a retired person on each of my flights. I picked their brains and turns out, both of them were government workers, so they have pensions coming from that along with saving other ways. One of them told me to just save, even if it was a little bit and do it with every paycheck. I do that, so I am satisfied with that, but I feel like there's more I can and should do. I guess in reality, there's nothing more I can do about retirement since I'm maxing everything out. What I need to do is focus on saving more outside of my retirement accounts.

Anyway, random thoughts about the money stuff, I don't have a firm plan on that just yet. I think the first part is just looking at all the income and expenses and see how much I could possibly save if I wanted to and see how feasible that is. Luckily, I think I can make the next couple trips out to see Greg without actually spending anything by using miles that I've accumulated over the last few years.

I wonder how many people have budgets? And how many people stick to them? I should give myself a challenge of doing that! Making a budget and seeing if I can stick to it. For now, I'll do the research to see how much I'm actually spending. To be honest, I really don't know how much I'm spending other than my fixed expenses. My guess is that I'd be shocked at how much I'm spending going out to eat each month. Probably traveling too! Getting paid monthly should make it easy to divvy everything up if I make a budget. First step... see how much I'm spending and what exactly I'm spending it on...

The View: Kill me now

I never really watch daytime or morning TV. If I do, it's because I'm sick and I'm usually watching "The Price Is Right," although Drew Carey ain't got NOTHIN' on Bob Barker and never will. His personality really falls flat.

That said, my roomie had "The View" turned on when I got out of the shower this morning. After about a minute, I asked her, "Women watch this show every day?! I've been listening to it for a minute and I'm ready to poke my ear drums out!!!!" Who watches that show? Wow. I figure it's gotta be women who are staying at home and don't have girlfriends to talk to? I don't get it. But then, I don't "get" women in general. I've been trying very hard to branch out and try to connect with women more. This morning I got up and went walking with some ladies here at Gulf Games. It was really fun.

Ultimate Frisbee

I know two people who play Ultimate and love it. I joined the Yahoo group for the LA Women's League sometime last year because it sounded like fun, but then never did anything about it because anytime they had beginner's clinics, they were on weekends I would be out of town.

Not so this year! There's a beginner's clinic on April 20th and I'm signed up and ready to go! I also signed up for the Women's League that is a whopping four weeks long! Four? But it'll be perfect for me because I'll get a chance to check it out and see if I like it or not. I guess at that point I can decide whether or not I want to sign-up for the co-ed summer league.

It's been a while since I tried something new, so this will be my new thing for the summer. And for bonuses, I'll get some exercise, get to meet new people AND it's played on the beach! So for four weeks, I will be at the beach for a few hours! I looooove the beach!

Short-term goals

Wow, at the beginning of the year, I had big ideas of making New Year's Resolutions... Well, it never really happened! I've been incredibly busy with work and it's really cut into my personal time. I am not happy about that, but that's just how it is right now.

So, my goals for the next two weeks are to be positive (about work and love) and get my 10,000 steps in a day. It's really pathetic how few steps I get if I'm not making an effort to do something about it. Today, I logged 10,672 steps. Of those, I had 8,100 aerobic steps, which were steps I took while walking for exercise. I walked on my two 15 minute breaks at work and then for 40 minutes after work. Without those conscious exercise-y steps, I would've clocked a measly 2,500 steps!!

Getting 10,000 steps in a day might not be realistic, but I need to make an effort to bump it up. I can tell I've put on a few pounds since New Year's and it's unacceptable!

Busy week

This week is going to be fairly busy, but good. I went walking last night with Erin & Chris. Then we went and got some free gelato that was delicious! I had the Cupido which was dark chocolate and hazelnuts. Yum, yum, yum!

Tonight - Taking Travis to the airport and then hiking
Wednesday - #5 is coming over to play Guitar Hero
Thursday - Laundry and hopefully more walking... woo-hoo! :-)
Friday - 80s Dancing with Ron & Shane
Saturday - Movie party with L&N
Sunday - Dumplings(?) and football, cleaning up the apartment.

The following weekend, I'll be seeing the mystery man (MM). So, the apartment must be cleaned since it will be his first time seeing it. So NEXT week is probably looking like this:

Monday - Cleaning, walking
Tuesday - Hiking
Wednesday - Cleaning & Games
Thursday - Dinner with MM at the beach
Friday - Dinner/Drinks with MM and friends

Somehow, sometime, over the next couple weeks, I need to squeeze in research on Paris and Germany. I've only picked out a few places to see while we're there. It's a little worrisome. And surprisingly, really, only a little. A couple years ago, I think I would've been much more stressed about not having more of an itinerary, but I guess I can take heart in that this won't be my last trip, so this might be just a fun, adventurous trip!

Weekend Recap

This weekend was fun without being crazy, which is so nice. I felt relaxed even though I was pretty busy most of the weekend.

Since it has really cooled down, I've been making a very strong effort to exercise more. I don't actually hate exercising, I just hate being overheated and when it's 90-100 degrees outside, I just can't bring myself to do it!

Friday night - Met Erin at the park after work and we walked for about 45 minutes. Then we headed back to my place and I thawed some chicken and made us dinner while she constructed a super-awesome house for our Sims to live in! I bought Sims2 for the PS2 last year and have hardly played it, so I thought it was about time to crack it open.

Saturday - Woke up, exercised for about 20 minutes then headed over to pick up sandwiches for my games day I held ALL day Saturday. We had a great time! Played games, Guitar Hero and met some new peeps! We played two good games of Werewolf. I moderated both and kind of screwed up the first one, but oh well. Live and learn. I'll make sure to be better about it in the future. The second game, the seer actually stayed alive and was the key to killing the final werewolf. It was great!!

Sunday - Shane and I went to the park to walk and then I walked the mile to meet Erin at a nearby theater that was hosting the Valley Film Festival. We saw a short called "My Wallet" (which I wasn't crazy about, but I'm not into slapstick-y type "humor") and "11 Minutes Ago" which I really really liked. It's a romance and I liked the story a lot. The actors were actually pretty decent too. Then Erin & I walked down to Pit Fire Pizza to meet up with Liz and enjoyed the beautiful weather we were having yesterday! Sunny, 70s with a slight breeze. We sat outside and chatted about knitting, shoes (Liz recommends Zappos.com which I'm going to peruse today during lunch) and movies. After that, I went home to eat a quick lunch myself and headed over to Chris' for a pretty fun afternoon of gaming. I managed to win Traumfabrik for the first time ever(!) and On the Underground. I came in hilariously DEAD last during Ticket to Ride 1910. The five player game is just cut-off city!! It was great! Lots of cursing, flipping off and for me, drawing of tickets just hoping to get something useful! At least I ended with a positive point value!! :-) Yes, that's how bad it was!!

Overall, a pretty fun and relaxing weekend!!

I have no plans this weekend!

As of this moment, I have zero plans to leave my house for any type of social engagement this weekend. I was enticed and invited, but I made no solid commitments to leaving my apartment for any reason! While technically, I have no plans to leave, I do have a lot of stuff I need/want to do. Namely:

• Clean up! I haven't really done any cleaning for about two weeks because I've been home relatively little time since then and when I have been home, I've been exhausted.
• Email couchsurfing people in Paris to try to find some couches to crash on for my trip next month. Wow, next month! I can't believe it!! It'll be here before I know it! Also...
• Look into booking a hotel for Essen - I have a room secured, but there might be a more economical room available, but I need to check.
  
• Mail in my jury duty notice. I "served" jury duty in August and I need to mail in my summons, which I've been putting off for a couple weeks now.
• Work on road rally clues - The road rally is at the end of the month, so I need to review to clues to remind myself where I left off and potentially finish them up.
• Exercise - Even if it's just for 15 minutes.
• Watch BSG - I have the second disc of eps from season 1! Can't wait to watch it!
• Go shopping - I need to buy a couple things from Macy's and they're having a big sale tomorrow. Plus, I have coupons. Need I say more?
  
• Blog - I feel like there was something to blog about... hmmm...
  
• Buy a new camera - My digital camera is dying. I got a recommendation of a camera to buy, but then I looked at Consumer Reports and that model isn't highly rated, so now I'm all torn. Should I just buy the one that was recommended by a pro photographer or one that has good ratings by CR? Decisions, decisions... I definitely want to take care of it though before I go on my trip!
  

May Goal

My friend Erin had a goal last month to watch 30 movies in 30 days. A little too time intensive for me, but it really was an inspiration to me. I've been faltering a bit on my New Year's goals, but a month? I could do something for a month, right? So, today I got up and did my 15 minute arm workout. My goal? To do my 15 minute workouts before work everyday. So far, so good!