Have I started a Callanetics experiment before? It sounds so totally familiar, but even if I did I am SURE I did not finish it as that would go against everything I believe in. Ha!
Callanetics is a form of deep-muscle exercise developed by Callan Pinckney way back in the 80s as a way to alleviate her severe knee and back pain. The exercises are rooted in ballet, but are actually very unique and INTENSE! She has a book that I read back in high school (so it must have just come out actually...see what a trendsetter I am?) called "Ten Years Younger in Ten Hours"...the routine takes about an hour to do, hence the name.
I have the book (I think I do anyway...will have to search the bedroom closet after hubby gets up) and three of the videos: Callanetics (which is based on the book), Quick Callanetics for Hips and Behind, and Quick Callanetics for Legs. I have started and stopped this routine several times, but I'm not sure why. Whenever I take body measurements after 3 or 4 sessions there is always a loss of inches. SO, I am going to STICK TO IT for 10 whole sessions over the course of the next 2.5-3 weeks and re-measure after I have completed by 10th session of the one-hour program (I'll count each Quick video as half a lesson).
The reason I am tracking this experiment on this blog is A) I'm bored and on summer vacation, and B) while there are a lot of snippets of Callanetics anecdotes out there, there isn't much in the way of following someone through their experience...and since that's what I was looking for, I thought I'd just do it myself. (Geez! Do I have to do EVERYTHING???) :-)
So, my recap for Session 1: I found that I was really glad the ab exercises are toward the beginning of the video, because I always dread those and they're over before you know it! I'll also have to FORCE myself to do the entire warm-up, but I can see how that could get skipped by someone if they are short on time. But, in the interest of being experiment-y, I will do the warmups. They're just kind of boring, but they must be there for a reason. By far the hardest things for me to do are the leg exercises...I can't do all the pelvic scoops without stopping several times and the pelvic rotations make me want to hurt someone.
All in all, I felt pretty good after the workout...though my legs were a wee bit wobbly. Today I feel slightly sore all over, but nothing horrendous that will keep me from popping in a Quick video for later tonight.
One down, nine to go! (And yes, i took measurements...SCARY STUFF, so I won't post it here)
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Still not studying...still cooking
I still haven't been able to force myself to study and why should I? I'm having too much fun making cupcakes! Who knew this would turn into a cooking blog when I was on break?
These little darlings are from the cookbook, "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World". I'm not a strict vegan or anything, it's just that when i cook I prefer to do it as animal-free as possible...plus I'm convinced it forces me to eat more veggies. Ok, I realize a cupcake is a not a veggie...sad but true.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Black Bean, Mushroom and Quinoa-stuffed Peppers
I cooked again! These are some yummy peppers I made (again from the VwaV cookbook). These little lovelies chime in at just under 300 calories each and are very satisfying! They get a tomato sauce before baking, but I took the picture prior to that because I thought they were so pretty! Ok, you may disagree...but it's my camera, I swear! They are YUM!!!
In other news, still haven't been able to force myself to study, but I did print out some study materials that were emailed to us a few weeks ago AND I got my fingerprinting done yesterday AND my 3rd HepB today. So, I'm doing stuff...just not studying!
Bon Appetit!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Black Bean, Mushroom and Quinoa-stuffed Peppers
I thought I was going to make a breakfast dish next, but then realized that would be about a week since it will take me that long to finish the batch of scrambled tofu I made.
So, for lunch today I made these yummy bell peppers from Vegan with a Vengeance! This is a picture of the peppers before I put the tomato sauce on top...they're so pretty!
The nutrition info is pretty, too! 294 calories per pepper, 11.4 g of Protein, NO cholesterol and a ton of Vitamin A and Vitamin C (62% and 232%).
I haven't tasted them yet, but I did sneak a bite of the filling before I put them in the oven, and I think we may have a home-run here!
So, for lunch today I made these yummy bell peppers from Vegan with a Vengeance! This is a picture of the peppers before I put the tomato sauce on top...they're so pretty!
The nutrition info is pretty, too! 294 calories per pepper, 11.4 g of Protein, NO cholesterol and a ton of Vitamin A and Vitamin C (62% and 232%).
I haven't tasted them yet, but I did sneak a bite of the filling before I put them in the oven, and I think we may have a home-run here!
Ahhhh....the delicious taste of summer.
Now that summer vacation is here in full force, I pretty much have time to do all the things I enjoy doing with none of that pesky studying getting in the way. One of my new projects is to cook my way through the Vegan with a Vengeance cookbook, so I started today with recipe #1, Tofu Scramble. It is super yummy, extremely healthy and pretty darn easy to make. It takes a while to make (mainly with all the chopping and cooking of the veggies), but if I make one whole batch I can eat on it all week long since my husband won't touch the stuff with a 10-foot pole...I guess cholesterol, saturated fat and factory farming are more appealing than healthy, cruelty-free food? Who knows...
So, keeping in mind that I'm not really a photographer, here is the scramble!
Next up is an Asparagus and Sun-dried Tomato Frittata!
So, keeping in mind that I'm not really a photographer, here is the scramble!
Next up is an Asparagus and Sun-dried Tomato Frittata!
Vegan Cooking Club
In the interest of celebrating health and vitality as I come to the tail-end of my 30s, I am starting a Vegan Cooking Club with a few friends (only few because I suspect some of the people I invited are teaming up and thinking of ways to avoid joining the club). Doesn't that sound totally fun?
Anyway, along those lines, I decided it would be a fun idea to cook my way through the Vegan with a Vengeance cookbook, otherwise I tend to prepare the same five recipes (kind of like when I go to Napa I go to the same ol' wineries every time...just call me Rut Girl). Anyway, I started this morning with recipe #1, Scrambled Tofu. It makes about 11 half-cup servings at 67 calories a serving...so even if you nosh out and go for a whole cup it's still a low-cal and high-protein, healthy-carb breakfast! Oh, did I mention the "no cholesterol" thing?
So, please bear in mind that I am not a professional photographer, but here is a picture of the completed scramble:
Next up: Asparagus and Sun-dried Tomato Frittata!!!!
Anyway, along those lines, I decided it would be a fun idea to cook my way through the Vegan with a Vengeance cookbook, otherwise I tend to prepare the same five recipes (kind of like when I go to Napa I go to the same ol' wineries every time...just call me Rut Girl). Anyway, I started this morning with recipe #1, Scrambled Tofu. It makes about 11 half-cup servings at 67 calories a serving...so even if you nosh out and go for a whole cup it's still a low-cal and high-protein, healthy-carb breakfast! Oh, did I mention the "no cholesterol" thing?
So, please bear in mind that I am not a professional photographer, but here is a picture of the completed scramble:
Next up: Asparagus and Sun-dried Tomato Frittata!!!!
Friday, June 19, 2009
Get yourself an Uncalendar!
For those of you who are trying to figure out how to organize yourselves for next semester...I present...the Uncalendar (http://uncalendar.com/). This awesome calendar may not be all cutesy like the time.mine calendars or the Franklin Covey planners or any of that stuff, but is is FUNCTIONAL and awesome and frankly...what else do you need? By the way, I use the Lifestyle Fullsize version which I recommend...there are so many tasks and due dates that I just don't think you can fit everything into one of those smaller planners unless you have really small handwriting and very keen eyesight.
The fantabulous thing about this calendar is that it's totally personalizable (is that even a word), and it has lots of space for lots of stuff! For instance, I would use one of the boxes to list "school to-do" items such as: buy scantrons, fill out the blue packet (whatever that was), print N-12 study questions...etc. Another box was a list of the gazillion quizzes we had to take (13 in one week). Another box was related to things to pack in my clinical bag and yet another was related to stuff I needed to do at home like pay bills and buy groceries. I could also plan out my week on the weekly calendar, which really helps me to determine how in the world I can get everything done. Making a list doesn't help me if the items on my list take 29 hours and there are only 24 hours in a day...filling out the weekly calendar helps me see that.
It also has a monthly calendar so you can look at The Big Picture, but I mainly used the weekly...let's be honest...in Nursing School you are rarely ever looking any farther forward than a few days, much less a whole month! But it's nice to see what big ticket items are coming up so you can incorporate study time.
Ok, that's my pitch for the best planner ever! And here is a picture of the inside weekly pages in case you are too busy to go to the website (if you click on it, it gets bigger so you can see the detail). There is also something called the Pro version, but that might be more for people with jobs? :-)
The fantabulous thing about this calendar is that it's totally personalizable (is that even a word), and it has lots of space for lots of stuff! For instance, I would use one of the boxes to list "school to-do" items such as: buy scantrons, fill out the blue packet (whatever that was), print N-12 study questions...etc. Another box was a list of the gazillion quizzes we had to take (13 in one week). Another box was related to things to pack in my clinical bag and yet another was related to stuff I needed to do at home like pay bills and buy groceries. I could also plan out my week on the weekly calendar, which really helps me to determine how in the world I can get everything done. Making a list doesn't help me if the items on my list take 29 hours and there are only 24 hours in a day...filling out the weekly calendar helps me see that.
It also has a monthly calendar so you can look at The Big Picture, but I mainly used the weekly...let's be honest...in Nursing School you are rarely ever looking any farther forward than a few days, much less a whole month! But it's nice to see what big ticket items are coming up so you can incorporate study time.
Ok, that's my pitch for the best planner ever! And here is a picture of the inside weekly pages in case you are too busy to go to the website (if you click on it, it gets bigger so you can see the detail). There is also something called the Pro version, but that might be more for people with jobs? :-)
Summer is here...I survived!!!!
Ok, I am the world's worst blogger...I suck at keeping up with this thing, but school sucked the life out of me and I'm just now getting back to feeling like a normal human being.
Whew!
Ok, so I left off with something called "Hell Week", which I don't even remember. Ha! I must have blocked it out of my memory! Since then we've had finals and all that bizz-ness, so here is where things stand: I got all A's...yippee skippee...I am mainly proud of this because my school doles out A-, so to that part of me that thought this wasn't possible...In Your Face!
So what are my first impressions of the first semester? For starters, it was insane and took over my life but I survived. Here's a quick rundown of the classes and how they went:
-Med/Surg 1...an intense class but not nearly as wackadoo as my A&P classes were. I think this is because I studied my tail off for A&P, so applying what I learned to the nursing implications wasn't too too bad. Of course, I was totally sweating it after I took the final, but in my defense, those NCLEX style questions are wacky! I actually screamed and jumped up and down when I saw that I got an A in the class. The final was worth so many points that failing was always a possibility (failing is below a 73%). Ouch.
-Intro to Professional Nursing...a theory class that was made far more difficult than it needed to be. 'Nuff said.
-Intro to Clinical Practice...this was a skills lab that was also made more difficult than it needed to be. The check-offs were fine and very straight-forward, but the darn tests and quizzes were tricksy! The nice thing about this class was that it was frontloaded and ended early. So even though we were hating life in the beginning, we were loving it toward the end of the semester.
-Physical Assessment of the Adult...by far the most straight-forward class of them all. Loved it!
-Therapeutic Communication...a complete waste of time.
Overall, I think I learned some organizational things that will help me conquer next semester and hope hope hope that I can have somewhat of a life (translation, "I hope that I don't sit around on my duff and get fatter"), but who knows..I've heard 2nd semester is almost as bad as the first. Here's what's in store for me:
Mondays: Med/Surg 2 (Nursing Families in Complex Illness). The nice thing about this class is that it's streamed online so if I don't feel like getting dressed, I don't have to! But, knowing me...I'll go to class anyway...I'm anal that way (at least for this class). This is also the day I will go to the hospital to select my patients for clinical. And we all know how much fun that is.
Tuesdays and Wednesdays: Clinical...yay! I actually like clinical and would like it more if it didn't entail a ton of homework. Ugh! Our semester is organized with us going to the hospital for Med/Surg clinical for 3 weeks, then mental health for 3 weeks, then M/S then MH. The nice thing about mental health is...no patient prep!!!!! I start off my M/S clinical in cardiology (I think so at least) and then go to mental health for 3 weeks. Then it's back to M/S with the MICU and PACU and something else in between. I have to be honest, I'm not stoked about the PACU. Can someone please tell me how exciting and fascinating it is so I don't totally dread it?
Thursdays: Gerontology. Plus, I have to meet with a mentally ill child for an hour. Yes, a whole hour. I have a hard enough time relating to healthy children...and I really don't feel as though I'm qualified to talk to anyone about anything at this point, so this should be a real scream. Kinda not looking forward to it.
Fridays: Mental Health lecture. Also streamed online. Do you think I'll be dragging my fanny to class or sitting here at home with a cuppa joe and a cat on my lap? Bingo!!!
Online class: Nursing research. I hear it's a bear, but I tend to like boring things like research so I'm hoping my interest in the subject will make it bearable.
Ok, so that's what's coming up. Until then I am enjoying summer break and trying to earn a few dollars. This whole not-working thing is really a strain! At some point I am going to have to start prepping for next semester, but I just don't hate myself enough to do it just yet. I might wait until July and then get back to it...there are a few things I would like to review prior to M/S part deux, namely the whole fluid/electrolyte thing, plus cardiac physiology and the endocrine system. I know people are starting to read ahead for next semester but I kinda feel like a review of the physiology will help me a lot so that I can understand the patho. Am I just cookoo or does this make sense?
As for other fun things going on this summer...I am riding my bike a lot and cooking! I have been making all sorts of yummy things including vegan Buffalo Wings and vegan Cornmeal Blueberry Muffins (yes I am into the animal-free thing, but am not strict enough to call myself a full-fledged vegan). Next week is my birthday (and I have to say, I don't feel as old as I am), and some friends and I are going out to a vegan raw restaurant...so stay tuned for that! Speaking of food, is anyone else addicted to food blogs? For some reason I love reading about people's recipes, the food they've cooked and whatnot. I would make a food blog if others weren't doing a better job of it already. Maybe I will...maybe that would motivate me to get creative in the kitchen...what do you think? Am I just a nerdy computer dork?
I will try to think of something interesting to write as I delve into the prep for next semester....I do have some great organization tips that I'll post eventually for future Nursing School victims! My next big project is to work on the garden (who wants to see pics of that? Raise your hands!) and work on my Bestseller! I call it a bestseller because I read "The Secret" and it says you have to believe it in order to make it happen!!! So, instead of calling it my book or my novel or my mystery story, it's my bestseller...and you all can say you knew me when...
:-)
Whew!
Ok, so I left off with something called "Hell Week", which I don't even remember. Ha! I must have blocked it out of my memory! Since then we've had finals and all that bizz-ness, so here is where things stand: I got all A's...yippee skippee...I am mainly proud of this because my school doles out A-, so to that part of me that thought this wasn't possible...In Your Face!
So what are my first impressions of the first semester? For starters, it was insane and took over my life but I survived. Here's a quick rundown of the classes and how they went:
-Med/Surg 1...an intense class but not nearly as wackadoo as my A&P classes were. I think this is because I studied my tail off for A&P, so applying what I learned to the nursing implications wasn't too too bad. Of course, I was totally sweating it after I took the final, but in my defense, those NCLEX style questions are wacky! I actually screamed and jumped up and down when I saw that I got an A in the class. The final was worth so many points that failing was always a possibility (failing is below a 73%). Ouch.
-Intro to Professional Nursing...a theory class that was made far more difficult than it needed to be. 'Nuff said.
-Intro to Clinical Practice...this was a skills lab that was also made more difficult than it needed to be. The check-offs were fine and very straight-forward, but the darn tests and quizzes were tricksy! The nice thing about this class was that it was frontloaded and ended early. So even though we were hating life in the beginning, we were loving it toward the end of the semester.
-Physical Assessment of the Adult...by far the most straight-forward class of them all. Loved it!
-Therapeutic Communication...a complete waste of time.
Overall, I think I learned some organizational things that will help me conquer next semester and hope hope hope that I can have somewhat of a life (translation, "I hope that I don't sit around on my duff and get fatter"), but who knows..I've heard 2nd semester is almost as bad as the first. Here's what's in store for me:
Mondays: Med/Surg 2 (Nursing Families in Complex Illness). The nice thing about this class is that it's streamed online so if I don't feel like getting dressed, I don't have to! But, knowing me...I'll go to class anyway...I'm anal that way (at least for this class). This is also the day I will go to the hospital to select my patients for clinical. And we all know how much fun that is.
Tuesdays and Wednesdays: Clinical...yay! I actually like clinical and would like it more if it didn't entail a ton of homework. Ugh! Our semester is organized with us going to the hospital for Med/Surg clinical for 3 weeks, then mental health for 3 weeks, then M/S then MH. The nice thing about mental health is...no patient prep!!!!! I start off my M/S clinical in cardiology (I think so at least) and then go to mental health for 3 weeks. Then it's back to M/S with the MICU and PACU and something else in between. I have to be honest, I'm not stoked about the PACU. Can someone please tell me how exciting and fascinating it is so I don't totally dread it?
Thursdays: Gerontology. Plus, I have to meet with a mentally ill child for an hour. Yes, a whole hour. I have a hard enough time relating to healthy children...and I really don't feel as though I'm qualified to talk to anyone about anything at this point, so this should be a real scream. Kinda not looking forward to it.
Fridays: Mental Health lecture. Also streamed online. Do you think I'll be dragging my fanny to class or sitting here at home with a cuppa joe and a cat on my lap? Bingo!!!
Online class: Nursing research. I hear it's a bear, but I tend to like boring things like research so I'm hoping my interest in the subject will make it bearable.
Ok, so that's what's coming up. Until then I am enjoying summer break and trying to earn a few dollars. This whole not-working thing is really a strain! At some point I am going to have to start prepping for next semester, but I just don't hate myself enough to do it just yet. I might wait until July and then get back to it...there are a few things I would like to review prior to M/S part deux, namely the whole fluid/electrolyte thing, plus cardiac physiology and the endocrine system. I know people are starting to read ahead for next semester but I kinda feel like a review of the physiology will help me a lot so that I can understand the patho. Am I just cookoo or does this make sense?
As for other fun things going on this summer...I am riding my bike a lot and cooking! I have been making all sorts of yummy things including vegan Buffalo Wings and vegan Cornmeal Blueberry Muffins (yes I am into the animal-free thing, but am not strict enough to call myself a full-fledged vegan). Next week is my birthday (and I have to say, I don't feel as old as I am), and some friends and I are going out to a vegan raw restaurant...so stay tuned for that! Speaking of food, is anyone else addicted to food blogs? For some reason I love reading about people's recipes, the food they've cooked and whatnot. I would make a food blog if others weren't doing a better job of it already. Maybe I will...maybe that would motivate me to get creative in the kitchen...what do you think? Am I just a nerdy computer dork?
I will try to think of something interesting to write as I delve into the prep for next semester....I do have some great organization tips that I'll post eventually for future Nursing School victims! My next big project is to work on the garden (who wants to see pics of that? Raise your hands!) and work on my Bestseller! I call it a bestseller because I read "The Secret" and it says you have to believe it in order to make it happen!!! So, instead of calling it my book or my novel or my mystery story, it's my bestseller...and you all can say you knew me when...
:-)
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