Oh, Hi there!

Hello there my darlings, I hope you hadn't given up on me. I've kind of been in a winter funk the last few weeks and thus haven't felt much like writing.

Well, that and I decided that writing about eating well and exercising isn't the same as actually eating well and exercising. So I took advantage of this long weekend to get my rumpus in gear. I signed up for a 2 year gym membership at Gville Heath and Fitness Center. I like this plan for a few reasons. One is it includes ALL classes and use of all THREE locations in town, 2ndly (that's science geek for secondly) I hate wasting money and therefore I will be wasting 50 dollars a month for 20 months and then 30 bucks a month after that if I don't go and lastly I like that this is a 2 year program because I'm not being a crazy January gym rat, I am making a change to my lifestyle.

I finally kicked my own butt out of the mopey, I live too far away from civilization, rut I've been in since about October once I came to the realization that this is probably the best time I will ever have to focus on myself. Aside from my all consuming job as a teacher, which I have a feeling will not change anytime in the next 5-10 years (or I hope so!), I have no other responsibilities- no boyfriend, obviously no children, no family obligations and heck, while I continue to live with M&D until the Abarnment is done- hopefully April!- I don't even have to cook most of the time or even feed the dog. I am lucky and now is the time more than ever to focus on myself. So I am.

I am also toying with signing up for the Disney Royal Family 5k with my co worker Elena which is the same weekend as the Princess Half, since I was already thinking about volunteering at. I think that would be a weekend well spent, no? I'm going to keep thinking about it this week. But I did my mile in 12.5 minutes today, so I know that I won't have to suffer the shame of being picked up by the golf cart (if you are less than a 16 min mile they pick you up and you DNF at this race). I'll keep you posted.

And about the eating. With the exception of some portion control weaknesses (oh and my HUGE love of beer) I'd been pretty content with my eating habits for the last year or so. But living at home again has been both a blessing and a curse. Since August I've been able to come home to a meal on the table pretty much 5 nights a week. But my parents don't cook or eat the way I do. I have been eating less and less meat over the past nearly year and 1/2, but here at the homefront beef or pork is what's for dinner. All the time. Occasionally chicken. Bleh.

To make matters worse I finally got the opportunity to see Food, Inc. last week. I didn't think I would be shocked since I had watched every trailer out there and read dozens of reviews, both by other bloggers and professional documentary critics but I really wasn't prepared for the the conditions of the slaughter houses and how the animals are treated. While I will never be able to label myself as a vegetarian or pescetarian, since I do enjoy a good turkey burger, the perfect roast chicken and of course my well known love of nearly all varieties of sausage I am greatly disturbed by the conditions under which most of our animals are "grown". I will be striving from now on to ensure that when I eat meat it is organic and free range.

Sadly my parents did not take this approach after watching the film with me and this is causing some tension in our house right now. Even though I am an adult and obvioulsy can cook my own meals, we are Irish/Italian and feelings get hurt when our lovingly prepared meals don't get eaten. Does anyone else have a split household on this issue? What do you do to smooth the tension?

In more "exciting" news, I finally transferred all my files over to Harvey, and reset both my ipod and external hard-drive to play nice with the Mac Platforms. Only took me 2.5 months to get around to this....honestly I was chicken, but it all went so smoothly and I was able to joyfully pack up "ol Shitty" my not so beloved desktop that has chugged along with me for over 5 years and actually have a semi-functional desk again.

Check it out:

Before

After

From a cutter zone of wires and 2 computers to a neat and cute workstation....so happy.

And now I'm off to finish grading papers, writing study guides and oh, planning my workout schedule. :)

Love to all,
~A gym membership toting, Jess