I’ve been writing about all the steps I’ve been doing with my pedometer.  I’m not sure if I mentioned that my mom and dad also wear their pedometers everyday.  My dad just called home to get me to read off my mother’s steps and miles.  Now, it is recommended that adults put in 10,000 steps a day, or rougly 5 miles.  Now, here are my mom’s steps from last week:

Monday - 4609, 1.89 miles

Tuesday - 10,997, 4.68 miles

Wednesday - 8,619, 3.67 miles

Thursday - 13,364, 5.69 miles

Friday - 3,762, 1.60 miles

Saturday - 3,674 - 1.54 miles

Sunday - 3,336 - 1.42 miles

And here are my numbers:

Monday - (my pedometer only goes back one week)

Tuesday -10,438, 5.27 miles

Wednesday - 12,379, 6.25 miles

Thursday - 16947, 8.55 miles

Friday - 11,643 5.88 miles

Saturday - 10,501, 5.30 miles

Sunday - 10.852 , 5.48 miles

So…. I don’t allow myself to go under 10,000.  That’s my daily goal, to do at LEAST 10,000.  Clearly, my mom doesn’t have a similar goal.  That makes me sad, because she doesn’t care about fitness at all.  She doesn’t lift weights, she doesn’t take aspirin for her heart, and she barely takes vitamins. I understand that some things are more important to people than others, but this is HEALTH.  Everyone says “10,000 steps is the goal”, it’s not like I just made up this crazy goal for myself.  I’m not asking her to run, to do join a gym or anything like that (actually, I do want her to join a gym… but I know she doesn’t want to).  But come on!  Make it to the freaking 10,000 steps!  I’ve read that you can just work to increase your goal weekly.  There were some days when she didn’t even make it to 5,000!!!  So set the goal at 5,000.  Then, the next weekm try to do 5,500.  Then, 6,000 and so on.

Oh, and they’re also working on a team to beat some other team.  That alone should be inspiration to do as many steps as possible!!!!

In my 2007 - 2008 school agenda, I kept notes on the very last page of things I needed to look up, or books professors talked about (that maybe I will add to my professional library).  Before I can throw away the old agenda, I need to copy down all the things I wrote in it.

So here’s the list verbatim:

Counseling Gay Men &  Lesbians:  A Practicle primer - Barre and Logan

Traits of a Healthy Family - Dolores Curran

Too Loud, Too Bright, Too Fast, Too Tight

The Evolution and Treatment of Marital Conflict

A Guide to Rational Thoughts - Ellis, Albert and Harper

Boys into Men - Judy Boyd Franklin

Dinosaurs Divorced - book for kids on divorce

Good Luck Chuck - Steph’s movie

“Complications” - book

Seductive Poison - Deborah Layton

Autism the Musical

As Nature Made Him

“Madness” Hornbacher

“Bitch in the house and the bastard on the couch”

Second Shift - book on working mothers

Deborah Tanner - a womanly John Gray

“Shift Happens” YouTube video

Chevy Chase, MD - outside of Washington, DC

Mom and I walked to Marshall Farm today to get some steps in! I guess it’s not owned by the Marshall family anymore, it’s owned by the Bitchy family. The woman who waited on us was a super bitch. She didn’t smile once, and she was just not nice. But we got some apples and some vegetables for dinner tomorrow.
And it was a nice walk!

Lance got locked (something jammed the lock) in his office Friday night. This is the two guys trying to get him about. It was pretty hilarious and he was stuck for about ten minutes!

I just recently read this article on  Boston.com about a woman who saved $12,000 by never spending her $5 bills.  At first, I was thinking she got one of those huge Poland Springs plastic jugs and just shoved her fives in that, but that would be very dangerous if someone broke into her house.  So I read on.

Turns out she put the fives in a special part of her wallet, and when she had $50 in fives, she put it in a special part of her savings account.  (In my bank account, I have four little sub accounts.  My savings, my checking, my “other” savings, and my CD).  Then, when she got $2,000, she would get a CD with it.

I think that is a GREAT idea.  Being a waitress, I get cash ALL the time.  When I bought my laptop yesterday, I brought all the cash I had made over the weekend, so I wouldn’t have to put the whole amount on my credit card.  It was an epiphany I had late at night, but it was a great idea.  I was able to pay $400 in cash, and only had to put $329 on my credit card.  Now I won’t be hit as hard when my bill comes.  Anywho, I know I have at LEAST $50 right now up stairs in my room.  Tons and tons of fives.

I’m definitely going to start doing this, and I will make my “other” savings acount my $5 account.  I won’t touch it, it will be savings only.  I use my other savings account to pay off my credit card and my tuition and stuff, so it’s not really savings.  Its just “money in the bank.”‘

Megan (my sister) has been telling me for years that I shouldn’t be using an antiperspirant.  I know that this is true, but I just haven’t felt comfortable just using a regular deodorant, cause I don’t want to sweat, and more importantly, I don’t want to smell!!!!  But I already have a predisposition to cancer, and I’ve heard that the aluminum in antiperspirants might lead to breast cancer, so I really should switch.

I was reading my RSS feed (which I absolutely love, and am constantly looking for new things to add to it), and got to this post by Crunchy Chicken on a deodorant called The Crystal. She uses the dry stick, but it has to be wetted before it can be applied.  I like the roll-on one better, because it doesn’t have to be wetted, and can just be applied right away.  I’ve also read that it needs to be applied on clean skin, so it’s not a deodorant you can put on if you haven’t showered.  I’ve read that it doesn’t work as affectively if you do that.  But I’m seriously interested in this, and need to look at Roots Natural Food Store to see if they carry it.

I did my 10,000 steps today!  It was 10 at night, and I decided I just couldn’t go to bed not having 10,000.  So I put on my walking shoes, went to mapmyrun.com, and found that if I walked down to Fitchburg State’s Rec Center and back, that would be 1.3 miles, just about enough to get my 10,000 steps.  I grabbed my iPhone, called my friend Rob, and he kept me company the entire time.  It took me just about a half hour, but when I got to the porch after my walk, I was at 10,541!!!  My mom said that I must have OCD, but I just knew that I would be disappointed if I didn’t do it.

And so I’m back, I’m safe (after walking alone at night), and I am very happy with myself.  Yay!

I got a new computer today!!!!  They didn’t have the one that I was originally going to get, so it took a super long time at Circuit City.  I was there with my mom for about 2 hours.  She sat down and read a book, and she got through 140 pages.  Ridiculous.

Here’s the one I got.

Because of the super long trip to New Hampshire (to save on sales tax, and I did the math, I saved $27), plus that I got up super late, cause we were at Destare until 4am celebrating Alysha’s birthday, I did not have time to exercise, nor did I get to my 10,000 steps.  We didn’t get home until 5pm, then we went to Ixtapa, and then didn’t get home until 7pm.  Then, we got home and the power was off!!!  I went for a walk in the dark, which was good, I did something.  But I’m disappointed in myself for not making it to 10,000.  I wasn’t planning on running anyway, cause my legs are sore from doing squats yesterday.  But I am VERY disappointed that I didn’t make it to 10,000.  I’d go for another walk, but its already 10pm, and I’m afraid to walk in the dark.  Haha.

So I got my computer in time for buy nothing October.  My mom mentioned that we’re going to Florida for a weekend for my cousin’s wedding, and she said “Do you really want to buy nothing while you’re down there?”  And I said “Well, maybe I’ll make a vacation exception.”  But I’m not really sure.

I need a new computer.  I got my very first computer when I had just graduated high school, the summer before college, in 2002.  That PC has since been sitting on my desk in my room, struck ill with the Blue Screen of Death.  Its been pretty much unusable for 3 years or so.  Luckily, my sister bought a new laptop (after her’s broke), and took the new one with her to England.  My dad was able to fix her old laptop, and I had been using that as my computer to write papers with.  I always used the computer while sitting on the couch with my legs up, because I liked being in the living room with my family, rather than sitting alone in my room.  I had rested my computer on the couch (like I always did), and one unfortunate day, my brother knocked it onto the floor.  The battery became unlodged from the computer, and the electric pronges inside the machine became damaged, and the battery no longer fits correctly.  The computer works fine if it is plugged in, but the minute that the cord moves the wrong way, the computer loses all power, and just shuts down.  That is not very handy when I’m in the middle of writing a paper.
My father brought home a replacement laptop, one that he had hanging around work that no one used.  That worked for about a month, but all of a sudden, some keys on the keyboard stopped working.  There is no longer a T,Y, left shift, TAB, or backspace button.  That also makes it pretty impossible to write a paper.  And so, I was left using the main family computer in the family room.  I know that I need a new computer, but my dad said “Do you really NEED a computer?”  And I thought about it, and figured that, no, it wasn’t absolutely necessary.  I can use the family computer whenever I need, and it will be fine.  But then, yesterday, I was using the computer when my dad came home early from work, and he said he came home to “get some stuff done on the computer.” 

Problem.  I was using the computer.

And so, I think we’ve decided that I DO need a new computer.  My dad basically said “Well, people usually need a new computer every four years.   So you can either buy it now, or buy it later.  But you are going to have to buy one.  You might as well go out and get that good deal.”  Circuit City has a GREAT deal on a 17″ widescreen laptop, with 250 gig hard drive, and everything else I could possibly need to write papers, hold my music and photos, and surf the Internet.  It’s only $700.  Which, sure, is a lot, but for what this computer has, it’s a great deal, and I haven’t seen anything much cheaper. 

My dad also said “When you’re weighing the cost of the laptop, don’t forget to weigh the cost of NOT having your own computer.”  It will definitely make things a lot easier with our iPhones.  I have my iPhone set up with my GMail contacts, and recently, my dad synched his phone with his outlook express contacts.  But somehow (even though we did research on how to avoid this), all of my contacts went into his phone, and all of his contacts went into my phone.  Having my own computer will separate all of our music, and our info, and will definitely make my dad happy, because he hates when my crappy music gets onto his phone.

And so, I’m bummed that I have to get a new computer, but realistically, I haven’t had to purchase a new one in six years, and that’s pretty good.  My family usually gets a new PC every two years or so (my father and brother work with computers with their work/school), so six years is GREAT compared to them.

And since October is “buy nothing month,”  I need to go out and buy it before then!

Ok, so here’s what I’m thinking for challenges.

October will be buy nothing month.  Which I’m kinda concerned about…. but we’ll see how that goes, and I will think more about it later when I have time to actually sit down and plan what I want it to be like.

Then, starting this Sunday, I’m going to try to spend a week REALLY focusing on what I’m eating.  I want to drink nothing but water, except for my morning OJ and my morning milk in my cereal.  I’m allowed seltzer, but I can’t put juice in it, only lime or lemon wedges.

For food, I’m only going to snack on fruits and vegetables, and other “good for you” snacks.  Air popped popcorn is okay, and I also bought those small 100 calorie bags of popcorn that I can bring babysitting with me.  I’ve looked, and they don’t have popcorn, so I’m going to bring my own.  (I tried popping it and bringing it, but it was too big and bulky to fit in my bag, and I looked a little dorky carrying around pop corn.  Non-fat plain yogurt is also okay, because I add fresh fruit to it, and a little organic granola.  But I’m going to start measuing out the granloa so I make sure that I don’t over-do it, cause granola is pretty high in calories, and also sometimes sugar.  So fresh fruit in the yogurt with no granola would be ideal.  I’ve also decided that nacho chips and salsa are an okay snack, cause salsa is good for you, and is very low in calories.  2 table spoons is only 10 calories!  I read a suggestion that said you grab only about 10 chips, and just load on the salsa!  Then you fill up on the salsa which is good for you, and is low in calories.

The main reason I want to focus on all of this stuff is cause when I went on vacation, I gained about 7 pounds, and even though I’ve been home for close to a month, I can’t seem to drop it, no matter how much I exercise, or how well I eat.  So clearly, I must not be eating as well as I think I am, and I am secretely snacking on things that are adding up.  Cause I run at LEAST two miles a day, and do strength training a good two times a week.  So I don’t know what my deal is, and I need to focus on my healthy eating!!!  And stop snacking on things like trail mix, dry cereal, and stuff like that.