Oatmeal pudding

You know what happens if you put a little French Vanilla coffee creamer in instant oatmeal?  You can imagine you are actually eating bread pudding!  It's quite tasty. 

I completed my 24 day challenge Thursday and lost another three inches.  I also shaved some time off my mile.  Thursday night I had pizza and felt like complete crap all night after eating it.  It is amazing how I can feel such an impact depending on the different food I choose to eat.  

CFT

I signed up for the ISSA Certified Fitness Trainer program on July 9.  I didn't really share the information with many people.  I did a lot of research prior to signing up.  ISSA is one of the relatively cheaper certifications and is self-study.  I spoke to the owner of my gym and she has her certification from ISSA and told me as soon as I was done I could work there as much or as little as I wanted.  Some of the other courses are extremely expensive and while very in depth, were said to go over a lot of things that aren't necessarily "useful" in daily fitness training.  If I was going to spend the money and dedicate the time to studying I wanted to be studying what would actually help me.  I've always done research for fitness....running, weight lifting, dieting, macros, I'm always reading up on new things and watching YouTube for new ideas and topics.  I learned a lot from this certification.  The course guide is definitely something I will keep on hand for reference.  ISSA gives you 4 months to complete the course and exam.  I wanted it complete prior to my Hawaii trip.  I happily hit submit on my exam yesterday after working on the actual exam portion for about 3 weeks.  The multiple choice portion only took about an hour and a half.  The six essays and two case studies took a good 12 hours. I got the email last night that I passed and was super excited! 

Today I had to get CPR/AED certified in order to send in my certification and get my actual ISSA certificate mailed to me.  The cheapest CPR/AED course I could find was through the Fire District.  I showed up this morning to the fire district headquarters and pulled around to see all sorts of EMT and FEMA vehicles in the lot.  There were not many places left to park but I found one.  Many of you  know that I do not like parking next to anyone and will gladly park a mile away if necessary. I did not have that option today.  When I walked into the classroom area there was equipment and EMT personnel everywhere.  I found my classroom and was told by my instructors, Bryan and Shaun, that I was the only one in the class.  My first thought was "good, nobody else will park next to  me then."  Bryan told me all the EMT/FEMA people were there for a training drill.  I mentioned seeing all kinds of equipment and he said there was 2.5 MILLION dollars of equipment out in that hallway.  That is some serious training right there.  My CPR training consisted of using about $1,000 worth of equipment in the form of an AED machine.  I had been a bit nervous about the course but it went great.  Bryan asked me if I had taken CPR before and I said I thought so around ninth grade.  He responded "So about 5-6 years ago then."  Bryan we are going to get along just wonderfully. 

When Bryan first demonstrated compressions he made it look so easy.  I was all ready to go and it didn't go quite as easily as Bryan made it look.  He pointed out he weighs a bit more than I do.  I had to put quite a bit of weight into it.  Those compressions get exhausting quickly.  Also, since I had drank about 10 oz. of water prior to going in, every compression I did also delivered a sloshing sound of water in my stomach.  Not embarrassing at all. 

I got to put the pads on the dummy and yell clear and use the AED machine to deliver a shock. Bryan gave me his card and said if I ever have to use my new skills he expects a call to let him know how it went and how I feel.  He really impressed me.  As did Shaun as he was learning to teach the class/just me and he gave me several good tips.  I was pretty fascinated by all the medical photos and equipment laying around and wanted to ask Shaun a lot of questions but just asked him if he had to guess how many times he had done CPR what he would say.  He said he lost count a long time ago. 

My three hour course only took half the time and I got a face mask as a going away gift in case I ever need it. I hope to never have to use it.  I also hope that if I do, it isn't a use it or lose it skill that I learned today. 

So we will see where my new certification takes me.  I would love to do some training/online training and already have a connection that came up today with Gold's Gym.  So....who knows but the possibilities are exciting!

The secret tip to be more productive

Want to increase productivity?  Just schedule a vacation.  Suddenly you are inspired to get your to-do list and more completed.  A video I watched recently suggested treating every weekend like you were about to go on vacation.  That'll take some mental work for sure.  Luckily I have a week until vacation and am actually inspired to be quite productive before then! 

Saturday ramblings

So I officially found the best cookie dough protein bar.  Only eat half at a a time as I mentioned before but the cookie dough is perfect.  

My dogs....so lazy.  She can't even say good morning. 

Gotta run off to the gym so I can get back to Arrow Season 3 on Netflix. Getting that email this week from Netflix was the best part of my week. (It was a rough week).  But Arrow is the best and so far season 3 is awesome! 

Frugal tip

If any of you are a lotion fanatic like me...you may be wasting some.  A little frugal tip for you...when you can't get any more lotion to squeeze out of the tube cut the tube into thirds. 

You'll be shocked at just how many more uses you can get out of it!  I usually get at least 3 more!  If you consistently toss a good 3 applications of lotion away that really would add up to a lot of money over time.  I did it for years until finding out this trick myself.  Now I never throw a container away until it's all cut up!  :)

September Favorites

Spoiler Alert-an October favorite will likely be Hawaii. 

Have I talked about these before?  I don't think I have but currently too lazy to scroll back through some favorites posts.  The Purex Lavender Crystals make your laundry smell SO good.  They don't really smell like lavender to me...they just smell really good. 

You really need to go pick up at least two boxes of the Eggo Pumpkin Spice waffles right now.  Thank me later. 

I've replaced my Cream of Wheat with some Steel Cut Oatmeal...it's no Cream of Wheat but it's pretty tasty. 

These protein bars are basically a candy bar with a ton of protein.  Ok maybe that's slightly exaggerated but they are yum.  I can only eat half at a time...and they are close to 400 calories so half is better.  I just found the cookie dough one today so will be trying that soon. 

So today I discovered I have an "other" messages folder on Facebook?  I guess I can't see that on my phone but when I found it online I found messages from 2009.  Oops.  Those messages happen to be from the kid's bio dad so it worked out well that I didn't see them because they are idiotic.  Other messages were from last year and some earlier this year.  "Sorry I'm replying 4 months later but how are you?  I'm great.  I'm also technologically challenged."  Does that translate to old?  No.  I don't believe it does. 

When life gives you lemons...

So last night I let myself have my little pity party about the work issue I had.  Basically I lost 6 hours worth of work.  Then I told myself get over it.  After dreaming about Excel all night, I woke up at 4:30 am and told myself I'm going to make some damn good lemonade out of this one.  Yesterday I had lost 50 files that had taken me all day to do.  Today I had that many and more done by 10:00am.  A little determination and focus and I was back in the game.  

 

I had almost talked myself out of going to the gym today but I was really in the mood to go and I'm glad I did.  I had the place all to myself for quite a while.  It just happened to add to my week ending on a much better note. 

I came home to a sample pack of flavored peanut and almond butters in the mail.  I'm looking forward to trying them soon! 

So basically what I thought about my week-when life gives you lemons, don't just make lemonade.  Build a kick-ass lemonade stand, focus and work hard and watch what opportunities come your way. 

Day 11 check in

 I did my 11 day check in for my 24 day challenge and lost 5 pounds and a total of 8 inches overall.  That was awesome!  (To be fair remember I did have a weekend eating my way through Chicago prior to starting...that probably increased my starting weight) Started new supplements today and they had me full of energy.  Like I wanted to do squats while I work and talk really fast to myself and type quick, misspelled messages in IM and maybe throw in some jumping jacks, all at the same time energy. Around 2:30 it went downhill with some work related stress. Energy mood killer. I decompressed at the gym for a bit.  My next weigh and measure day isn't until the final day, day 24.  Back to no cravings but that could partially be because of my stress level.  Stress for me equals forget eating.  I am sure by Sunday Chinese food will be back on the brain. My dreams have been very strange....and some pretty bad.  Not sure if it's the program or the stress.  I am pretty tired now and ready to crash.  Hoping to only dream about good things tonight, like maybe Chinese food.