One Month of the gym
05 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
in Hooping, Weight Loss Tags: excercising, Health, Hooping, hula hooping, Weight loss, working out, workout, YMCA
Today is the day that I have been working out at the gym for one full month. I have notice I have a bit more energy than usual and I do not feel quite as tired after class as when I first started. I have only missed two days of going to the gym from being sick and on one of the days our class was cancelled anyway from the instructors being sick.
I have been paying more attention to what I am eating and cut back on some of the things I eat that are high in calorie. Yesterday I was craving sweets so bad but to distract myself I ended up cleaning the house a bit. It helped that there was no sweet stuff at the ready so I would have either had to cooks something (I kept eying the box of brownie mix in the pantry) or drive to the store. I did neither.
In hoop class on Thursday I took a piece of my hoop out to make it a bit smaller, which makes it harder. I did it for a few minutes before I put it back in. I’m not quite ready for that yet, but I’m getting closer. I’ll be doing some hooping at home today as soon as I make room to do it.
With all that said, today on my one month mark, I weighed myself like I do every Sunday. I am now down a total of 13lbs! If I stay at this same pace then I should hit my goal weight by October or so. I’m going to work hard at getting myself in shape so maybe I won’t be afraid to put on a swimsuit this summer.
Thank you to all who have been supporting me. It has really made a difference and makes me feel like I am fighting a losing battle. I know I can do this now and refuse to give up.
Sick weekend = Crafty time!
30 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Crafts, crochet, Destashing, Handmade, knitting Tags: craft, hairpin lace, knit bag, knit hat, knit scarf, knitting, Knitting and Crochet, loom, scarf, stash busting, stashbusting, yarn
So I wound up with a cold on Thursday and because my breathing became a pain, I did not go to the gym for a few days. Instead, I stayed home bundled up under the covers and worked on some projects.
I had been planning on making a shawl in hairpin lace, but I was not paying too much attention to what I was doing since I was teaching myself. Instead, I attached all the pieces I had together and made it into a long scarf.
This is a washcloth that I started knitting last year but got distracted by something else and never finished. Now it is all done. It is using Sugar n’ Cream cotton yarn.
I used up two skeins of Caron Simply Soft (Eco) yarn to make this bag. It is good-sized, could hold a pair of shoes and other stuff since it will stretch. I have no idea what I’ll use it for though.
I then made myself a hat to match the scarf I made a couple of months ago and with the remaining yarn I was able to make a skinny scarf. I love this yarn it is so soft! It is Merino 50 by Lang Yarn.
I have a few other projects in progress but that is nothing new here. I’m back to going to the gym since I can breathe a bit better now so my crafting time is down a bit. I am going to work hard on using as much stuff from my stash as possible and only buy things if I need them to finish a current project.
….famous last words? Probably.
End of week three at the gym
29 Jan 2012 1 Comment
in Weight Loss Tags: Active, circut, Gym, Health, Hooping, Weight loss, wights, YMCA
Just a little update of non-craftiness.
I have been at the gym now for three weeks and a down seven pounds. It is not a lot but it is much better than gaining weight. I am going to continue working hard to lose this weight and get into shape and be healthy again. I have had a cold since Thursday so I have not been to the gym since Wed. but hopefully I’ll be able to breathe tomorrow and can go after work.
I am still loving the hooping class and am getting better at Active. My mother and I had one of the trainers show us how to use the circuit equipment and now we do that on days we don’t have a class. I hate the last machine so much. It really really hurts me just sitting in it since it is not designed for womens bodies at all and can only have the seat moved higher or lower which does not fix the problem. By the time I get off of that, I am in lots of pain that lasts a couple days. I am not going to use that one until I get into shape a bit more. I get my crunches in in the Active class.
Let us see how week four goes. It does not feel like it has been that long already, almost a month!
The Weight Loss Challenge
13 Jan 2012 2 Comments
in Hooping, Weight Loss Tags: aerobics, Health, hoop dancing, Hooping, losing weight, step aerobics, step class, weight challenge, Weight loss, work out, workout, YMCA, Zumba
On Saturday January 7th my mother and I signed up at the YMCA. I have been slowly gaining weight since I have been out of school (back in ’03!) and I am to the point where I am disgusted with my body. I decided I was ready to start doing something before my weight got out of hand and I started getting bad heath problems.
My stats:
Age: 26
Height: 5’5
Weight: 245lbs *cringe*
Goal weight: 150/160. I need to lose 85-95lbs eek.
I will be weighing myself every Sunday and taking progress pictures at the start of each month.
I have signed up on a site called Lose It and it helps you keep track of what you eat and your weight. There is a form as well to get help, ideas and motivation from other people who are also trying to lose weight. It is all free.
This past Sunday (Jan 8th) was the first day my mother and I went and worked out. We did a step aerobic class but it was very fast and difficult for beginners. Unfortunantly, there are no beginner level things. There is a different step aerobic that we are going to try out instead that is part step, part cardio and part weights. This should be a bit easier, or so we have been told by people who do both classes.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays we are doing Hooping class. We have only gone twice since we first signed up at the beginning of the week, but I am already in love with it. Next week I will be buying my own hoop so I can practice at home. I have been researching hooping since Tuesday and have signed up on two sites to learn more things and hopefully meet more people. Hooping.org and Hoop City. I have also started looking for upbeat music to hoop to.
As I get more used to becoming active, I will be trying out Zumba as well as two different water aerobic classes. In the future I will be looking into learning Poi but that is not offered at the Y. I have a friend who apparently has done it before so at least I’ll have someone to talk to about that.
On Monday an instructor will be showing us how to use the different types of equipment since neither myself or my mother know how to use all of them.
I really hope that I can keep at this and get down to the weight I should be. I will be thrilled if I can fit into size 12 pants again! It helps having someone else go with you, and helps even more when you have classes with such friendly people. I feel really welcome at the Y and hope it stays that way.
Trying something new – Hairpin Lace
04 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Crafts, crochet, Destashing Tags: crochet, crochet loom, hairpin, hairpin lace, handmade, lace, loom, shawl, yarn
A few months ago at a fall festival I stopped by a church that was having a huge tag sale. I found a tin full of thread and some odd-looking pins and I thought it might be for tatting, since it was tatting thread with it. After doing some poking around, I found out that it was not tatting but something called Hairpin Lace which is a type of crocheting. What I had in the tin was small, black U-shaped pins and one of which had something in progress. After finding out what it was, I went to YouTube to look up videos on it. I found that in most of the videos the people were using larger looms that looked different but it was for the same purpose. This is the video I used to get myself going.
Wanting to try it out, I went to Michael’s and purchased a Hairpin Loom for around $4 or so and headed home. I had plenty of yarn to work with, all mostly worsted weight, so I tried it out. I thought it would be best to learn with bigger yarn that to try it with the thread.
It turns out that this is something that is very easy to do because you only need to know how to single crochet! I only know two stitches in crochet and even I had no trouble with this at all. I should have taken a picture of the work on the loom but did not think of it then. I’ll be sure to do so tonight if I remember.
With this, I am making a bunch of strips which I will then join together to make a shawl. This is part of my project to get rid of more of my stash, or ‘destashing’ as those of us in the crafty world call it. It also goes towards my 50 Projects for 2012. One down, 49 to go!
Busy Weekend
13 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in Crafts, Destashing, Handmade, Jewelry, Resin, Sculpey Tags: christmas, gifts, glossy accents, handmade, pendants, resin, Sculpey
Now that November has come and gone and I am no longer writing frantically for NaNoWriMo, I am able to get to other things. I finally got to crafting up some things I had thought of while writing and was happy I could get to it. I had ordered some molds for resin casting on cyber Monday through Joanns and they arrived on Saturday. Saturday night I threw some things together and waited for the resin to set. The pieces are still very flexible but they turned out better than I thought.
Waiting for resin to set. The green piece is something I made a few months ago for my first attempt at resin. I coated the sticky part with some glaze. The resin I am using is Easy Cast by Castin’ Craft that you can find in most craft stores. I got mine from Michaels. It is very easy to use as long as you measure correctly. It is 1:1 but I did not measure quite right this time.
The finished pieces are clear and very smooth, the opposite of attempt number one. They are very very flexible though so I don’t think I added in quite enough of the hardener. I added in a small amount of embossing powder to give the pieces some color as well as some seed beads.
While waiting for the resin to cure (which took two days) I pulled out some clay and made up some bases for pendants. I stuck some fancy stickers on them and coated with a product called Glossy Accents that I really like.
I need to coat the backs and add a loop so I can use them. I may add a second coating to the top but have not decided yet. I have a few ideas with these pendants for Christmas gifts, maybe use them as tags and have them be key chains. I realized after I used the gloss that I should have made holes in the clay first. If I tried now, the gloss would crack and ruin the piece. I already cracked one (one of the ones with the paper on it), but I’ll find something to use it with.
Once the holiday is over, I plan on trying out a lot more ideas that I have with the resin. There is one thing I have had in mind for ages so I hope I can get around to trying it.
The NaNoWriMo word count post – WINNER!
28 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
in Writing Tags: Book Writing, fiction, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, never give up, novel, winner, Word count, writing
I will be updating this post as NaNo progresses. This way I can keep track of how I’m doing in more than one place.
Day 1: 3, 400 (If I can keep this pace up, I’ll be thrilled!)
Day 3: 10,244 (total)
Day 5: 3,284 written (13,508 total)
Day 7: 3,548 written (17,056 total) It’s early but my mind is wandering too much to do anymore tonight.
I have been a bit bad at updating this! I have written a little bit every day except for two days were I was too busy and distracted.
Day 14: 25,065! I have now hit the halfway mark to the 50k goal!
Day 15: 27,336
Day 16: 29,060
Day 27: 47,301. Yikes, I missed updating a lot. The end is in sight and I would have finished tonight but it is already 11:30pm and I need to work in the morning. I will finish tomorrow!
Day 28: I have validated my novel and won with a total of 50,138! My novel is far from finished and then I get to edit, edit, edit!
As you can see from my graph, I started out strong and then slowed down. There were a few days where I did not write and a few where I wrote only a few hundred so it’s not very visible with the bars. All that matters is that I kept writing and that is what allowed me to win.
I worked on getting my ideas down and writing what I had floating around in my head without worrying over every little detail at the time. When I finish, I can go back and edit and add in the thinks I skipped over or was not sure about at the time. Either way I a enjoying writing this story and hope to finish it and maybe even take the next step and take it to a real editor!
Haha, I guess we’ll see on that last one. Sometimes I procrastinate a lot so I’ll work on finishing writing the story first and then the next steps when the time comes.
