Busy Day

Today's weight: 165.6 pounds. My heaviest. And it's changing.

I got up at 7am and ran in place for 10 minutes as my cardio for the day. But don't worry. After my wonderful breakfast of Nutella french toast with strawberries and bananas, 2 scrambled eggs, some pineapple juice and some water, I headed to the Renaissance Festival with my parents. It's been a few years since we've been, and jeez....it's grown! We walked around for 5 hours today.....the longest we've ever stayed at the Festival. But we got to see a joust (and we even got to sit in the nobility section....so for a little while today, I got to be a part of King Henry VIII's court!), eat in a tea room, and buy our pirate outfits for the cruise!

Lunch was light--a fruit plate with caramel dipping sauce--mainly because it was so hot outside. Dinner was definitely not healthy: a hamburger and fries from Sonic. But, I'm not going to beat myself up over it. I'm refusing to cut foods out because I know that will backfire on me. Also, I didn't eat a lot today, so that hamburger and those fries aren't going to kill me. All the walking around (in the sun), and then coming home and running around a bit with my dogs wore me out! So it's been nice to spend these last few hours just relaxing.

Okay...enough boring stuff. Here are some pictures from today!

King Henry and Queen Anne :)

Time for the joust! We got a banner to wave for our knight and a cushion to use on the bench. The perks of being "noble."

The knight we cheered for: Sir Elgarod.

And he won the joust!

My lunch. :)

Where we had lunch.

I've Been Oh So Horrible at This

I know back in January I said I was going to blog here more. Well, that obviously did not work out as planned. However, I'm thinking that now I'm back here for good. I guess better late than never, right? Hehe. So what made me decide to start blogging regularly again? Well, I'm jumping back on the losing weight bandwagon. However, this time, I'm determined to stay with it and finally lose this weight once and for all.

I plan on updating at least multiple times a week about my progress. I'm hoping daily, but I'm not promising it this time. I'll also post other things as well, so this blog won't turn into strictly my weight loss journal. But I need motivation, and I think this is how I will get it. If I know people are keeping up with this and cheering me on, I'll be more likely to stay with it. But I also know that I have to motivate myself, so I can't rely solely on this blog to keep me going. But this will be a big help. :)

I'll post my starting weight tomorrow, since that's when I plan on starting all of this. But I know that to get back into my healthy range, I need to lose about 35-40 pounds. I'm going to set little goals for myself to keep me motivated and give me things to look forward to. I think for starters I'll give myself little rewards for every 5 pounds I lose. For instance, my first reward will be to buy a new song on iTunes--because I never buy music on iTunes...my entire music library is from all of the CDs I own. Now I can be thinking of what I song I really want in my library, and that will help me work towards losing those first 5 pounds. :)

I'm still working on all the logistics of this, but I think I have a basic exercise plan to follow. If you know me, you know that I absolutely hate doing things like running and going to the gym and all of that. It's mainly cardio work that I can't stand, but I know it is a necessary evil for me. However, I do enjoy working my arms, so I'm excited about getting my weights out and doing push-ups and such. And since I don't really care for working out all that much, I'm glad that I've found a plan that actually won't take up too much time. :) Here it is:

I found this on pinterest, but it originally came from this blog, MELAvonD, that I'm starting to love. It's totally doable for me, and I'm actually pretty excited about it. Especially since I only have to do 10 minutes of cardio tomorrow. :p

This is definitely going to take some getting used to, and it means that I have to make some major lifestyle changes. But I'm excited about getting control over my body back, and about feeling more confident in myself and in the fact that I won't have to worry as much about getting the diseases that run in my family. And, yes, I'm excited about looking a lot better in pictures--especially when I go on a cruise in September and go to Indy for a friend's wedding in October. :)

What I'm Reading Wednesday

So this is one of the changes I was talking about in my last post. I want to do little segments on here that make my blog a bit more interesting, and keep me motivated to update it regularly. This first segment I've come up with is What I'm Reading Wednesday. On Wednesdays, I'll talk about a book that I'm currently reading, or just finished. It'll essentially be a book review, and my opinion on whether or not you should read it. Now, that the boring stuff is out of the way, let's get on with the fun. :)

I'm currently reading The Lakota Way: Stories and Lessons for Living by Joseph M. Marshall III, a Lakota Indian. If you've kept up with this blog at all, then you know that I spent 10 days on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota back in May 2010. Pine Ridge is home to the Oglala Lakota Sioux Indians, and the author of this book is half Oglala (that's from his dad's side; he's also half Sicangu Lakota, most of whom live on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, also in South Dakota). My parents got me this book for Christmas, and I'm so glad they did. I've taken this book everywhere with me, and anytime I've had a spare moment, I've read it. That includes a trip to Walmart when lines at the checkout lanes were ridiculously long.

This book is full of Lakota stories that talk about the twelve virtues that the Lakota, and most other Native American tribes, hold fast to--humility, perseverance, respect, honor, love, sacrifice, truth, compassion, bravery, fortitude, generosity, and wisdom. Marshall also includes personal stories from his life in each chapter, as well as examples from Lakota history. He uses those examples to show how the Lakota have used the virtues to survive everything that the American government threw at them in the 1800s.

Ever since my trip to Pine Ridge, I've grown very fond of Native Americans, and I've wanted to learn more about them and their culture. I've got a special place in my heart for the Oglala Lakota, since that is the tribe I worked with. I am in awe of their quiet strength, and the way they have kept their culture despite the American government's efforts to rid them of it. They are such a strong and proud people, and I feel honored to have had the opportunity to spend time with them. I'm also glad I got this book. It has helped me learn a little more about a culture I love, and it's given me even more respect for the Lakota. I hope that I am able to take the lessons in this book and apply them to my own life now. The trip to the reservation changed my life, and I think this book will too.

In case you didn't get it, I highly recommend this book to everyone. Go read it and learn a little more about a group of people who are so amazing and worth knowing more about.

A New Year.....A New ST&FC

So, it has definitely been awhile since I've blogged here last. I've been busy with my Disney College Program, so I've been keeping up with that blog rather than this one (check it out here). While I will be staying in Orlando until at least May, I've decided that I need to get back to updating this blog. :)

I have a lot of ideas that I want to try to incorporate for this blog in the new year, and those ideas will hopefully transform this blog from something I occasionally write in into something that I do almost on a daily basis. I don't want to reveal those ideas just yet because I'm still in the planning stages for them, and nothing is set in stone yet. Just know that there are some pretty big changes coming. :)

I'm pretty excited about this new year. I have a feeling 2012 is going to be another big year for me, and I hope it's a big year for this blog as well. :)

Have a Happy New Year everyone! :)

Life's A Beach

So, the past couple of days, I've been thinking about my big move to Florida (4 days! Ah!), and not just in terms of my job at Disney. I've also been thinking about the fact that I will finally be an hour away from the beach. I have always loved the beach and beach life. It's so laid back and relaxing....completely opposite from my life now. There's something so therapeutic about sitting out on the sand and listening to the waves crash on the shore.

I've spent quite a bit of time (time I should be using to pack....but oh well) looking at beach pictures on tumblr. They just make me more excited about getting to be close to my piece of paradise.

Source: burningwithapassi00n

Source: Summer in Miami

Source: Brunette Summer

I need the sun, the sand, and the ocean now, please.

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee

Charles Eastman: Senator, please sit. Sir, if every individual were taken personally under your care, as was my good fortune, I admit, the outcome might be what you seek. But I am not the example you held up to The Friends of the Indian. I am the example of nothing. I simply do not see how placing each Indian man on a desolate, 160-acre parcel of land is going to lead his children to medical school.
Henry Dawes: It will, in time. But first, this must pass. Or I guarantee you, destitution is all the Sioux will ever know. I have many opponents, Charles, in the press, in Congress...
Charles Eastman: You have an opponent before you, sir.

First of all, if you haven't seen the movie Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, find it and watch it.  It's about the events leading up to the Wounded Knee Massacre; the U.S. government taking land and basically stripping the culture away from the Sioux Indians. The movie is based on the book of the same name by Dee Brown. I have the book, but I haven't read it yet. I think I will after seeing this movie now.

Anyway, the quote above is from the movie. The part that's bold is what really stuck out to me. Senator Dawes believed that by giving each Sioux family 160 acres of land, that it would make their lives better, even though the government was taking land away from them....and of course, they were taking the best land away.

The 160 acres was for the head of the household and his future generations. Think about that. The 160 acres was for the head of the household and his future generations. Most families have more than one kid. So, you even though 160 acres is a lot at first, you eventually have to divide that. And that means that after each generation, that 160 acres gets smaller and smaller and smaller. And the land  they were given was really poor. They couldn't farm it. Sitting Bull even pointed that out to both the Sioux and the white men who were there. That land was not going to sustain future generations.

Dawes said that if the Sioux would agree to sell their land and take these 160 acre parcels, then their lives would get better. They would not see their destruction. They would not see destitution. But I've been there. I've been to Pine Ridge, I've been to Wounded Knee. I spent 10 days living among and working with the Lakota Sioux of Pine Ridge, South Dakota. And Shannon County, South Dakota, where Pine Ridge is located, is the poorest county in the United States today. By selling their land, by taking the 160 acre parcels, by doing what the U.S. government said would benefit them, it made them destitute. It made them the very kind of people they were promised they would not become.

And watching this movie and seeing the massacre at Wounded Knee unfold.....it brought me to tears. I visited the mass grave where those who lost their lives in that massacre are buried. I thought it broke my heart then, but seeing the senseless massacre being depicted.....it really breaks my heart now. I'm still crying, and that part of the movie was over 10 minutes ago.

Despite everything that has happened to them, the Lakota are a proud people. They have not lost hope, they have not given up. And they have retained their sense of themselves, despite efforts to strip them of their identity and culture. I feel very blessed to have been able to go to South Dakota and meet some of these wonderful people and learn more about them. And even though in 1980 the U.S Supreme Court ruled that the taking of the Black Hills violated treaties signed with the Sioux, they refused to give the Black Hills, which is land that the Sioux consider sacred, back to them. They offered compensation instead. The Sioux have refused it. They still hold to their claim on the land, and even though the compensation is now worth over $600 million, they won't take it. I don't think they will ever take the money. Money is not what they want. They want the land that is rightfully theirs, land that was stolen from them. And I honestly can't blame them for wanting that.

Seeing this movie has definitely made me want to return to Pine Ridge at some point. I definitely want to take some more time to experience the culture and be around the Lakota again.

Shoes!!! :)

So, I have a big weakness. Shoes. I love shoes. I have over 30 pairs, and I don't know what I'm going to do when I have to move to Florida. I do know that my latest addition will be going with me. :)

These are the Women's AEO Knotted Sandal from American Eagle Outfitters. I saw these, and I fell in love. I have so many pairs of flip flops (and 2 more pairs have been ordered...), but no sandals. So, when I got a coupon (courtesy of Glamour magazine's Facebook page) for 30% off regular price footwear at AE, I had to take it. And then I saw these, and I fell in love! I ordered them last Friday, and they came today!!! Yay!!

Of course, the moment I got them, they had to be tried on.

Excuse my whiteness. I am completely aware that I need to tan. I will be working on that before Disney.

But anyway, I love the way these shoes fit! They're comfortable, and they fit so well. And they look great, too! I really didn't want to take them off.

Now I need to work on getting some blue jean shorts. These sandals would go great with blue jean shorts. :)