On The Road To Healthy

If there’s one thing I believe most women can relate to, it’s issues regarding body image and its apparent (but unnecessary) ties to self-worth. I, like many women, have spent the better part of my life struggling with these issues and trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle while knowing that my self-worth is not determined by a number on the scale. However, it’s been a tough journey.

In high school, I was a tall, awkward 5’9″ and weighed in at a slim 110. A too slim 110, I might add. At the time, I was dating a boy who made constant comments about my weight and made snide little remarks about how I could stand to shed a few pounds. As a result, I was underweight and ate next to nothing most of the time.

When I finally wised up three years later (it’s always a little embarrassing to admit that I continued to date someone who belittled me for so long), I changed my eating habits drastically. So drastically, in fact, that I gained about 50 lbs after graduating from high school.

I remember crying the first time I saw stretch marks on my thighs where my skin couldn’t keep up with how quickly I was gaining weight. Even though I desperately needed some of the weight I was putting on, I put it on much too quickly and it was the result of entirely too much beer and junk food. My weight improved, but my health did not.

That phase of my life lasted for about five years. I was consistently eating junk food, drinking too much beer, and exercising almost never. And honestly, even though I wasn’t happy with the way I looked, I never once thought about doing something to change it. I was complacent and in no hurry to change my lifestyle.

It wasn’t until I was sitting on my couch one day that I realized I needed to make a change. I looked down at my belly and it was so perfectly round that it looked like I was a few months pregnant. That snapped me out of my complacency so quickly, I damn near got whiplash.

While it wasn’t easy to start changing the way I ate, it became easier the more often I did it. I swapped out candy bars for fruit and yogurt, I traded sodium-heavy snacks for vegetables, and I gave up frozen dinners for home-cooked ones. I drank more water and less beer. And, most importantly, I started running.

I can’t express how difficult the exercise was for me at the beginning. I hated running. I hated even thinking about running. I hated that I couldn’t seem to run for more than a few minutes without getting winded and feeling cramps in my side. But day by day, minute by minute, I got better. Running got easier, I got faster, I ran longer distances, and I actually started to enjoy the way I felt, both while I was running and after my workouts were over. It was incredible.

All of those changes took place two years ago. In the last two years, my personal life has undergone some drastic changes and it has been difficult to balance dealing with the emotions from those changes and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. So, in short, I just haven’t. I stopped exercising as often and I stopped caring about whether I was eating healthy or not.

But today, that changes. And I wanted to blog about it in an attempt to hold myself more accountable for these changes (and I hope you’ll hold me accountable, too).

I signed up for a beginner’s workout calendar with my favorite fitness blogger Cassey Ho of Blogilates. I ate a clean breakfast (oatmeal with strawberries and a cup of coffee). I’ve had 32 oz of water this morning. And I’m about to complete my first workout on the workout calendar.

I miss the energy I had when I was regularly exercising and eating healthier. I miss how well I slept when I wasn’t drinking beer every day. But mostly, I miss how strong I was when I was running and doing Pilates on a regular basis.

So, here it is. My challenge to myself – to rebuild my strength and maintain a healthy lifestyle. It’s time to eat clean, train mean, and stay that way!

Free Time?!

I’ve officially been out of school for a week now and I’ve noticed something interesting about my schedule.

For the first time in five months, I actually have some free time.

It’s a little odd; I’ve been working more hours at the store, and that keeps me plenty busy. But when I come home at night, I find myself at a loss. I have no homework, no reading, no nothing. So just what in the hell am I supposed to do with this free time?!

I guess I should explain that I’m an easily distracted person. Unless I’m fully committed to something (work, school, relationship, etc.), I get easily bored and am looking for something else to do. I have never had a hobby that has actually stuck with me for life. As much as it pains me to say it, that includes reading.

Don’t get me wrong – I’ve definitely been trying to read more in my three week break from school. During the semester, I have difficulties in finding time to actually read something I enjoy. I have noticed, though, that when I read during my free time, I get super bored super easily. And that’s a tad frustrating.

Additionally, I live close enough to my boyfriend that we often spend our free weeknights together. That occupies a decent chunk of my time, but we don’t spend every single waking moment together. So when I have absolutely, 100%, completely unscheduled free time…I have no freaking clue what to do with myself.

I’ve spent most of tonight trying to figure out some different things I could do, besides just reading or watching TV, when I find myself spending a night alone. I managed to come up with a few things that may help stave off the boredom I may face in the next few weeks before summer classes start.

• My Music Listography book.  I bought this book at Target quite a while ago, and when I first got it, I couldn’t wait to fill it out! It’s page after page of listing different bands and songs that have provided the soundtrack to my life – favorite songs, favorite bands, favorite music by decade, memorable moments in music, a song for every lover I’ve had, songs I would dedicate to my friends…this book is amazing. I had forgotten about it for quite a while, but I found it again after my recent move to my new apartment. I filled it out a little this afternoon, but I’d like to spend some more time with it tonight and perhaps rediscover some music I’ve forgotten.
• Paint my nails.  This is a huge one, and a little bit of a no-brainer. I have an extensive nail polish collection (too extensive for someone who doesn’t actually own a nail salon), and I love giving myself manicures at home. I will for sure be doing this tomorrow when I have the entire day off…after I do the next thing on my “stave off boredom” list.
• Clean the house.  As long as I can get myself started on cleaning, it takes almost no energy to clean my entire place. I haven’t done it as of yet because, frankly, I haven’t been home long enough in one day to actually do it. However, I happen to have a special guest coming over for a sleepover on Saturday, and I want my place to look nice and squeaky clean! Plus, let’s face it, who doesn’t feel better after spending a day just cleaning up and then relaxing in a clean house? Just me? Yeah, ok.
• Read more than one book at a time.  This might sound a little crazy, but I think this actually does help when it comes to not getting bored or easily distracted when reading just one book. If I am reading a couple of different books at once, I can switch back & forth between them if I need a break from one of them. I’m currently in the middle of Insurgent (but really, how good was Divergent?!), and I think I’d like to start up on an old classic that I’ve never read, like The Three Musketeers or Les Miserables. I guess we’ll see!
• Exercise.  I am sorry to say that I only thought of this after watching my roommate go out to complete her diligent daily running. I love to run, and I really miss it sometimes, but it is tough for me to exercise or go out for a run towards the end of the day. I should get back into the habit of doing it no matter what time of day it is, and especially if I find myself bored with nothing else for me to do.

So…that’s kind of all I came up with for tonight. If anyone else has any suggestions or things they like to do when they find themselves with all kinds of free time, feel free to leave some comments!

 

On Stress and Finals

Oy. Finals week. Aside from group projects, finals are the most stressful thing about the college experience.

“Wait,” you ask, “if it’s finals week, why are you wasting your time writing this post?”

Oh, well, thank you for asking. The simple answer is that if I have to look at one more question regarding the concept of drug addiction as a disease and how addicts can improve their recovery process, I will literally start pulling hairs out of my head.

Throughout my five years as a college student (super-senior ftw!), I have learned a few tricks when it comes to finals week. I intend to share them with you with the enormous disclaimer that it is entirely possible that these tricks don’t work for anyone who isn’t me.

1. Do not spend hours upon hours studying with no break. From a purely cognitive psych perspective, you are setting yourself up for failure if you study like this. Studying for that long with no breaks in between basically guarantees that you will not retain most of the knowledge you are attempting to soak in. On average, it’s best to study for about 15-20 minute increments with small breaks in between. You’re active enough to retain information, but not completely overloading the system.

2. Stress eating be damned – if you want the pizza, eat the pizza. Ok, this one likely doesn’t have any legitimate reason or research behind it, but this is a personal strategy of my own. I happen to be a horrible stress eater. During times of unusual stress, I find myself craving junk food. That actually does have a bit of science behind it, which deals with the release of cortisol and its effects on the parts of your brain that control hunger. However, because I typically eat pretty healthy, I always feel a little bit of guilt when I crave junk food like that. Except during finals week. Case in point: tonight, I wanted a pizza with pepperoni & jalapeno with a side of chicken wings. So I ordered it…and ate half the pizza. Does the fact that it was a small 10″ pizza help? No, but who cares? I fell a hell of a lot less stressed now.

3. At some point during your studying, take a longer than usual break to do something relaxing. This is important in order to avoid burnout. Burnout typically comes along with those marathon studying sessions, and it destroys any learning you’re trying to enhance. Take a walk, go for a run, do some yoga, meditate, take a bath, listen to some music, watch your favorite tv show – anything that does not involve you staring at a book or computer screen for 20-30 minutes.

4. Remember – finals will eventually end. This is something I constantly struggle with. While consumed with studying every single night for finals, it feels as though the levels of stress I’m under will never end. However, it’s important to remember that there is definitely a light at the end of the tunnel…and that light will be coming with some hot-ass days and beers on the patio. Score.

5. Drink plenty of water. I can see how this might seem silly because most of studying for finals involves sitting and not moving for extended periods of time. Because most of those study sessions are intense and focused, it’s easy to forget the simple things like staying hydrated. This will not only improve your focus and keep you more alert, but it will also help stave off illness once the stress & cortisol levels in your body drop off completely, leaving you vulnerable to illness.

I feel like there were more I wanted to include, but clearly, I have “finals brain”. Things are definitely not in 100% working order up there. To anyone else working on finals this week, the best of luck to you! Any other helpful tricks you would like to share for surviving finals week are welcome in the comment section below.

Happy studying!

Welcome, introductions, etc.

Oh, hi there. I’m Marie. Welcome to Twenty-Something – a blog in which I intend to chronicle my innermost thoughts and desires (they’re not that intense, I swear), my awkward life moments and hurdles (of which there are around a million), and just my everyday musings on the world I find myself attempting to survive in (something that proves difficult when you trip over nonexistent objects).

Here’s the thing: I’ve tried writing a music blog for an extended period of time within the last year, and I found it more difficult than I anticipated. Frankly, I don’t have a lot to write about in the realm of music. I enjoy the hell out of it but, in terms of technical stuff and being able to have opinions other than “That song is amazing” or “Fuck Coldplay” (that’s a true sentiment, for the record), I just don’t have a lot to say on the matter (that being said, I do intend to write about music from time to time).

I’ve also tried writing a personal blog in the past, which I absolutely loved. The nice thing about it was that I could write about absolutely anything I wanted to! Granted, I didn’t write about the nitty-gritty details of my life and I wasn’t in the business of airing my dirty laundry, but it was nice to have just an open-ended forum to write about whatever the hell I wanted.

Also, I love to write. Perhaps it’s less than modest, but aside from enjoying it, I’m also pretty damn good at it. So I’ve decided to give the “personal” blog another go.

Again, this is not a place to air my dirty laundry, nor do I intend to write long diatribes about my love life, family life, friend drama, etc. (though, I promise you, it’s all very interesting and saucy…usually). This is simply an outlet for me to do something I enjoy and to give my creativity a boost. In that area, I need all the help I can get.

So if you find yourself wanting to be along for the ride, again, welcome! I’m more than happy to have you here. I’ll start by sharing a few different hats that I wear.

The student: I am 6 months away from graduating college and I could not be any happier about that. College has simultaneously enriched my life and destroyed my soul. I love to learn, but I also love sleep. Maybe someday I can have both?

The football fan: I love college football, specifically the Nebraska Huskers. Go big red!

The friend: My friends are some of the most important people in my life. I intend to write more about them when the situation arises.

The girlfriend: My dating life has been somewhat of a mess in the last year – I dated the same person from the age of 20-25, and around 8 months ago, it became apparent that we were not meant for each other. Going through a break-up and moving out of the apartment we shared was an absolute nightmare, but I am happier now than I’ve been in years. Not to mention, I happen to be dating someone new. Someone who makes me feel like I’m walking around every day with little cartoon heart bubbles popping out of my head. We have what should be an illegal amount of fun together, we’re so compatible it scares me, and I am head over heels in love with him. It’s pretty awesome.

Phew, did it get a little serious in here? Perhaps that’s enough sharing for one day. We’ll start again soon with…well, whatever the hell I want! See you next time…