Gotta get the word out!

another Sunday night of studying in full swing...yet, here i sit...clickity keying away! but hey, my brain has to take breaks every now & then from note card writing & brightly Hi-lighter highlighting...my orange one has almost ran out cuz i tend to use it more often..yes, i neglect the other colors sometimes but don't call me a racist!

i'm down 3lbs this week so that puts me at 250...which might only be attributed to the fact that i couldn't eat much last week thanks to the aftermath of dehydration. as much as i wanted to, the nausea lingered all week but i think i'm finally back on track...dang those electrolytes getting so depleted & outta whack!

ok....so reason for this week's update: thanks to a switch-a-roo with a classmate, i can now officially do the MS-150 on September 26th & 27th. I am horrible at asking for money for things..even if its asking my parents to help pay my bills in order to survive! However, this charity ride is for a great cause...raising money for multiple sclerosis. Maybe you don't donate to causes like this because you don't know anyone with MS so it doesn't hit close to home. But maybe one day it will. I've learned that as i get older, i've come to know more & more people therefore my world gets smaller everyday. the likelihood of someone we know coming down with MS or another incurable disease is greater each day. If i can help advance science just a smidgen by riding my bike 150 miles with friends over a nice autumn weekend, i'm gonna do it! probably with lots of blood, sweat & tears but that's ok...slow & steady!

I haven't gotten married yet & i'm certainly not having any kids any time soon so therefore, i HAVE NOT asked ANY of you to buy me ANYTHING for a shower or housewarming gift of any kind!! (your welcome!) I'm a cheap friend & am only going to ask each of you to donate at least $10 towards me riding my bike for 2 days...even if you don't think i can do it (and why don't you think i can do it, friend?!?!), the money will still go to a great cause. If enough of you have faith in me that i can do the entire 150 miles, it will help encourage me greatly along the ride. Sure, I don't wanna let you down but mostly i don't wanna let down the people who suffer from MS. I'm lucky enough to have the ability to ride a bike. So on that note: if you could please Click here to get to my personal page & you can make a secure, online donation or you can pay me in person if you want. I know economic times are tough but at least we're all alive & well for the most part...we are the lucky ones! If you can't contribute, i completely understand but at least send positive thoughts my way that weekend in September...i will need it!

I don't usually ask for this kind of help from the people i know! and I feel the need to tell you don't feel obligated to help in this request. Just know when it comes down to it, help where you can..that's all that matters! hopefully someday down the line someone will pay it forward. Maybe you'll be part of this or maybe you'll choose not to. Clearly, I'm a horrible sales person so i'm not going to guilt any one into giving up a few minutes of their time or forking over money they don't or can not part with. That's not my style!

stay hydrated...or die

i'm not really in the mood to blog right now so this won't be a long post because frankly i'm exhausted & still have to go read up on pigs & other farm animals! i start working with baby pigs at school tomorrow...let's hope they don't squeal too much!

last week was kind of a bust as far as bike riding was concerned. Every time i wanted to go for a ride, mother natured told me otherwise & literally rained on my parade. so i didn't really get a good ride in until Saturday. i did 30 miles. it was nice to ride by myself & see if i could actually motivate myself to go the full 15 down & back on a back road. i went into it thinking i'd do at least 10 down & back but once i got to 10, i knew i had to keep going to 15. those last 5 were the hardest but i did it! I also met a nice Mexican guy before i started my ride...we had a good conversation about biking. i don't know his actual name but let's just call him Guillermo.

I thought i drank enough water after my ride knowing very well that's what you need to do...but apparently i didn't drink enough. after a night out with friends i woke up the next morning sick as a dog! i thought i'd get better as the day went on but i just got worse & by 6pm i had to leave my nieces 1st birthday party & go home & rest. good thing my mom is nurse because she came & took care of my dying self. ok so i wasn't really dying but i sure felt like it. i spent half the night trying to break a fever & chills...i finally did. but tonight it came back so i'm back on the all liquid lifestyle of H2O, Gatorade & Sprite. being dehydrated is for the birds...i don't recommend it. i haven't been able to eat much the past couple days for fear it would reappear including my shakes so there goes that! candid i know, but oh so true.

however, i did measure today & lost 4 inches from last week. so that's a plus...i'll weigh in tomorrow.

its still up in the air on whether i'll be able to ride in the MS-150 this year...i have my large animal kennel rotation the same weekend as the ride but i might have found someone to switch with me. if not, its ok...i'm not sure i've really had the time to properly train for it this year especially now since school has started. but we'll just have to wait & see what tomorrow brings...literally i know tomorrow.

that's all i have...sorry this wasn't very entertaining but my brain isn't functioning like it should right now. so just consider this post a PSA about "Hydration."...the more you know...bing bang boom.

a good investment

every week i try to come up with something insightful to write about for you all...literally, i go thru out my days racking my brain for something i could write about...i make mental notes thinking "oh that's good, i'll remember to write about that". then it comes time to start typing & this cranium goes as blank as a new VHS tape...yea i said VHS. hopefully the youth of today has a clue what that contraption is! just imagine snowy static across the screen...that's what it becomes!

i'm not sure i'm drinking enough water. that's probably another reason i'm not losing weight as fast as i was before. Mostly because when i'm at work, i completely forget to drink it! sure, i take a my big green water bottle to work every day but don't really drink from it until mid afternoon. Doh! on an upside, i haven't been drinking coffee as much. i only drank it in the mornings to begin with but now i don't even depend on that to wake me up anymore!

today i noticed i don't have the usual aches & pains i used to have before i started IsAgenix. i've had a bad left knee since i was a kid..no idea what really caused but its probably from falling off my bike a lot growing up...sidenote: Mom, i swear i'm more careful now & i wear a helmet! i also have a bad right shoulder from falling off a chair in college (i was completely sober)..i had surgery to fix it but it still bothers me every now & then. also i think i have a heel spur in my right foot from all the standing i've done in the jobs i've had in retail in the past. but in all honesty, i'm not feeling any of those pains nearly as often lately...weird?! yes it is but i'm ok with that!

welp, right now i should be finishing up my journal for my vet tech preceptorship so i can turn it in this week when i go back to school but let's face it, i'm behind on it...again!! i have good intentions but if its just intentions, what good is it really unless i follow thru! i'm starting my 2nd year of vet tech school on Tuesday...i'm not mentally prepared...i'm having a bit of a freak out moment where i swear i've forgotten all the little trivial things i know i'll be quizzed over & tested on in an unruly fashion over the next 10mnths. rightfully so, its my future i'm studying for so i should retain as much as i possible can! but this brain is full of random stuff that will never be on a state board exam like the entire scene from Ace Ventura where he's in the dolphin's tank mocking Star Trek. yes i can recite it...why? probably cuz i learned it when i was 12 & that's the kind of stuff a 12 yr old should remember... not algebra schmalgebra!

so i was rather frustrated with bike riding for a couple days last week....i would even venture to say i over-reacted on my frustration but i had to get it outta my system! anyhoo...i was borrowing an old bike from the Ebberts who were nice enough to take it in & have it checked out & cleaned up before passing it on to me. the bike had a few glitches i was willing to deal with & over look. after all it was a free bike so i should be grateful, right? well at first i was, but the more i rode it, it's like the bike turned against me! it tried shifting gears on its own & then not allowing me to shift down into an easier gear...which never bodes well when you encounter hills...especially stuck in 5th gear!! anyhoo, like my buddy Mark said, the bike was like Stephen King's "Christine" & i just couldn't handle it any more. so i went out & got a new one...yup impulse buy! i went to a couple different places & weighed my options, first. But thanks to the folks at Epic Bike store, they hooked me up with the perfect bike for me! its lighter which makes it faster & it only changes gears when i want it to! due to the color it's been dubbed "The Silver Bullet"...rightfully so...i can pass Kristin on a straight away now!

so after all is said & done, i've realized both IsAgenix & buying a new bike have been a good investment for yours truly...and yes i am truly yours...jk that phrase has never made sense to me! So i'd recommend one or the other..IsAgenix or a new bike...or both! i have no major weight loss to announce & only 3 inches lost this week but i feel good & right now that's satisfactory enough for me. Tomorrow i'll try harder to drink more water & be more consistent at eating healthier food. granted we all stray a little bit..i have! but when you bike 20 miles & burn a few hundred extra calories than normal, you need to replace them with something!

20 lb club!! whoop whoop

yea i know it doesn't sound like much but 20 lbs down since i started a month ago is not too freakin' shabby, Right?! let's do the math together...ok...divide by 30...carry the 1...aw yes, the average amount of lbs lost per day is 0.666 lbs...wait what?! uh oh...dude, i swear i'm not the devil! i was kinda hitting a plateau in my weight loss & inches but i was told to try the IsaProtein. basically, i add a scoop of that to my shakes to help with stubborn weight loss....fyi, it has no taste so it makes the shakes gross unless you add something else to it like fruit. i had to add bananas because i think i was starting to have a lack of potassium in my diet...i could feel a charley horse coming on! yes even after a girls night of drunken bowling, i still lost a total of 5 lbs this past week...i give kudos to the IsaPro.

so today was one of those days at work where you are hit in the face with reality & are not completely ready for what's in store. by the time i got off work tonight, all i wanted to do was go home & eat some comforting pasta & drink something to calm my nerves. rest assure, i ate no pasta but i will say my nerves are calmer now =) i witnessed a life end today. yes it was a dog's & that happens fairly often especially in the field i'm in, but not as often in the way i experienced it. (excuse me while i vent about my job a lil bit.) i wasn't in the door less than 14 minutes minutes this morning, when a poodle mix came in after being attacked by a larger dog. we took x-rays...its back & ribs were broken so we rush him to surgery. lungs were punctured & other internal things were going on. i was put on breathing duty for him...it was up to me to make sure he was breathing whether he wanted to or not & make sure he didn't turn blue. long story short, we were an hour & 1/2 into surgery when he crashed...thanks to our doctor & his calm nature & knowledge, we were able to bring him back. but minutes later, he crashed again....unfortunately he didn't make it this time....a black cloud lingered over me the rest of the day. its one of those cases i will never forget & hope to never encounter again...but i know i will & hopefully it will help me be more prepared to deal with it a little better.

i apologize...enough with that dreariness of my life, right?! so...there is a whole separate business side of this IsAgenix program where you can make some extra dough but i'm not doing this whole thing for the money cuz that's not my bag, by any means. i'm only in it to get healthy & if by chance that helps promote the products of IsAgenix then so be it. But i'm not gonna lie to you, dear readers of "Awkwardly Shaped"....i am starting to make a profit from all this only because so many other friends are starting to try it out & i hope they are being as successful as i am! pyramid scheme, schmeramid scheme! that's not how we roll. slow & steady wins the race, my friends...slow & steady! instant results are not what any successful weight loss program is all about...it will take a little while for your body to realize what's up & to start losing the weight & inches on its own time if you are consistent! keep with it! sidenote: this was me preaching to the choir...so i just "duly noted" that last sentence.

i've come to realize that there are people reading this blog that i have no idea about...i don't know you & that's totally fine! if i just think the people reading this are the ones who are actually "following" me, it makes it a little easier (all 14 of you!) cuz i know you all & i'll continue to be honest & use my normal random humor when writing it. if i bore you when i go on random rants, i apologize. but thanks for reading anyways, right?! green...

extra energy

i've forgotten to take my Ionix Supreme couple times the past month so i had some extra at the start of this 2nd month. I consider it a liquid vitamin that you take every morning however it doesn't taste all that awesome! Since i had extra i took 2oz this morning instead of the usual 1oz...holy free holy! i had crazy energy for a Monday & even a day after i did a 30 mile bike ride! i'm starting to wonder if that stuff is laced with crack or something...hmmm..jk! It says you can take 1-2oz of the Ionix Supreme once a day so for those of you also trying out any of the Isagenix programs, if you know you're gonna have a long day at work or are gonna need some extra energy that day i say double it up to 2oz just to give ya an extra jolt!

welp, my weight is staying about the same this week. i'm at about 257lb but it fluctuates, of course. however i've lost another 5 inches! i know that i am turning the fat into muscle which is good but very deceiving to the scale! argh! oh well..i'm feeling better & its always nice when my scrubs fit looser at work...rock on! tomorrow is a cleanse day which works since i'm off work & it'll be raining! so i won't feel too guilty doing nothing all day! perfect for slumber & watching a movie!

memory loss, roller bladdes & tour de airport

so another week down! i'll post measurements & weight tomorrow..cuz i forgot to do both today..my bad! i did get up & ride 8 miles twice by myself this past week...i'm NOT a morning person so this is quite a feet for me!

it's been a rather crazy weekend...i had every intention of going for a long ride on Saturday afternoon even after Tasha had to bail on me. in fact, i was getting ready to walk out the door to go on my ride when my phone rang at approx 2:03pm & it was someone from the radio station asking where i was with the station van for the remote i was assigned to that was taking place from 2-4pm...oh snap!! so i said a few choice words children shouldn't hear & hopped in my car & flew down town. then i hopped in the station van & floored it to the Legends. this trip, if driven at a legal speed would normally take a little over an hour...i made it there in 45min. so maybe i didn't get any cardio done on my bike but my heart sure was pumping as i avoided the law on the interstate in a company van with logo & a huge mast antenna attached on top! this would only happen to me.

this morning i ventured out to meet up with folks for a long ride around the downtown air port. but as i was leaving my neighborhood, i stopped at a stop sign & let a truck turn then proceeded to pull out...but was quickly thrown off when a woman on roller blades started yelling at me, telling me i had a stop sign & should obey it! clearly she was in my blind spot & i yelled "so sorry!" but she couldn't hear me because she was angry with head phones on. all i could think was i must have gone back to the future cuz i didn't think anyone roller bladed anymore...what is this 1992?!

so that was a good wake up call for the morning. the longest i've ridden in one sitting is 12 miles...well, at least since i was a kid. we ended up riding almost 30miles today around the downtown airport...it was about 8 times around to get 30 miles in. we had all the bumps & cracks in the road memorized by the end & plus the pot hole that had hair in it..random. a few planes flew over me & Kristin as we were riding & i'm pretty sure if i hadn't ducked, one of them would have hit me with their landing gear...good thing i had my helmet on! the only hard part of the ride was the freaking wind! riding against it makes it about 10 times harder! but i didn't even stop once thru out the whole thing..thanks, Kristin, for falling back from the group & staying with me! i'm pretty sure half way thru my legs were just on auto pilot. who cares that i was lapped on a few occasions & i couldn't seem to catch up to a wheelchair rider...hey he had strong arms!! but at least i was going fast enough to pass some runners! i know to some people and other bike riders, 30 miles isn't a lot but its kind of a big deal for me so i'm just gonna enjoy the satisfaction of accomplishing this task for at least another day or two!

so that's my random weekend not completely related to the normal topic at hand but it's just another random blurp from my life so just be entertained by the fact that none of this happened to any of you in a 48 hr period!

good night & have a pleasant tomorrow.