Friday, November 19, 2010

Week Two Update for You :)

Well at least in terms of writing headlines/blog titles, I'm creative. Elsewhere, the creativity is about a big fat zero. Week two went a whole lot like week one...this is a trend that must stop in week three!

Fitness/Weight Loss
Next topic. Though, I did work out at least twice and look forward to working out at least twice between now and Monday (although that would count for week three).

Organization
I spent quite a bit of time organizing my office this week. At my previous job, we had a presentation on 'customer service' and how it related to higher education. In the presentation, the presenter had mentioned that our work space should be neat, organized and presentable. I remember the room filling with laughter. I put away files, organized my bookshelf and straightened out my desk drawers. It actually looks and feels like a grown-up office - minus those big, fake flowers sitting on my desk...and the pink picture boards...and the Pi Phi/Virginia Tech memorabilia...but you get the point :)

Savings
I am so proud of myself! I was paid this week and went through and paid the necessary bills. I then took out cash (yes, Mom, cash!) and put into individual envelopes: groceries, gas, spending money.

While I didn't stay perfectly within my range, I was able to put an extra bit of money into savings. I am at 5% towards my savings goal for the year and on a (hopefully) good track!

Education
I met with the graduate admissions counselor today. The biographical portion of my application is complete. Next will be to request transcripts, recommendation letters and to complete a personal essay. While the program I want to do won't have an actual new cohort until 2012, I can apply and hopefully be accepted to the program and take classes towards my concentration. So, if all goes right, I'll be taking classes in the fall of 2011.

Reading
Fail. Big fail. I didn't finish my first book yet, so I'm officially behind. I will finish my Dexter book this weekend and start either the fourth Dexter book or another book. I am waiting on a Jen Lancaster book to arrive; I thought it would have been here by now. Grr.

Book
Fail. Epic fail. I haven't written one flippin' word on that piece. Sigh...

Alright. So, sometimes it takes a bit of time to get started. Maybe I needed to (very) slowly build momentum so that I have a rockin' week three?

Friday, November 12, 2010

Weekly Update: Numero Uno

Well, my first week of 26-year-old-awesomeness wasn't exactly full of awesome or productivity.

While I have 10 goals, I've organized them based on themes for the purpose of my weekly updates.

Fitness/Weight Loss
I did work out twice this week - even ran 1.5 mi...at one time, woo hoo! I am almost halfway to my 5k distance! However, the scale was not my friend and it reflected a gain, not a loss. Boo.

Organization
In terms of organizing my life, I did start to organize my recipes and my office - yay! Hopefully I'll have most of my recipes organized by the end of this weekend, and I will clean out my expired coupons, cut new ones, etc. I am going to be putting together a lengthy shopping list for healthy foods for my grocery shopping trip on Monday.

Savings
I 'saved' a whole, whopping $5.10 this week bringing my total saved to $80.36. Yay? And honestly, that was only "saved" because of a program through my bank. It's cool because when I make a purchase, they automatically take the leftover-amount-to-equal-100 and deposit it into my savings account. For example, if I make a $4.50 purchase, they round the purchase to $5. They don't 'give' me the 50 cents, but they take it from my checking account and put it into my savings account. I enjoy it. On the bright side, I'm nearly 2% towards my goal. Ha. Oh well, I get paid Monday and through some savvy spending tips, I'm hoping to be 6 to 8% towards my goal by next Friday.

My savvy spending deal of the week came last night when I used three coupons for Wholly Guacamole products. Originally $3.99 and $4.99, the coupons were for $4.00 each product. I also had a coupon for a $1.00 of an air freshner that was on sale for .97 cents. Throw in a bag of tortilla chips and my whole purchase - originally nearly $18 - was purchased for $4.90. Win.

I also went to annualcreditreport.com and pulled up a credit report. Did you know you are allowed three, free credit reports per year - and I don't mean from the "free" credit report website. Annualcreditreport.com is an actually, legit website (from what I was told by a lawyer) and I pulled my report. I've had some, well, we'll just call them setbacks, over the past year - mainly due to the bright idea I had to buy a condo (not a bright idea...) and I am working to repair my credit. I did pay $7.95 to find out what my credit score is and while it's not very shiny and pretty, it's not totally atrocious. Mediocre.

Education
I printed out information for three different graduate programs: a dprof in organizational leadership, an educational doctorate (Ed.d) in administrative leadership and the requirements for an MBA. My first choice would be the dprof doctoral program; however, both the dprof and Ed.d programs may not be taking a fall co-hort. Cue MBA print outs. We'll see, we'll see...I am reliving conversations from a former grad school professor. I remember telling him MANY times that he was crazy and that I was absolutely, positively not getting another degree. I also told my husband we'd never, ever live in Michigan. Well, I am serious about another degree and we lived in Michigan for a year. Clearly I need to stop saying "100% no" to things :)

Reading
I am hoping to finish my first book of the 26 for the year this weekend. I will make a separate blog posting listing the book titles, once I finish book one :) Currently reading: Dexter in the Dark by Jeff Lindsay

Book
Oh my oh my am I WAY behind in my NaNoWriMo word count. By today, the 12th day of November, I should be at 20,000 words. Shamefully, I am a measly 5,921 words. And I haven't written since Sunday. And I don't like my plot. And I don't like my characters. Sigh...

And there you have it, the first week down - 51 to go!

Friday, November 5, 2010

How do you measure a year?

Twenty-six. Overweight. Broke.

Not exactly what I thought I'd have to show for the first quarter of my life, but I'm just thankful to be standing on my own two feet with the man of my dreams and an abundance of family and friends. I am happy, yet there are some very big changes I want to see happen over the course of the year. Therefore, I've decided to set a top-ten goals list for the next year.

1. Save $5,000.
Right now my savings account balances total $75.26. We want to buy a house sometime in the next five to ten years as well as think about starting a family in that same time frame (maybe). I desperately want a house but you need money to buy a house. So, my goal is to save $5000 this year. It's a huge goal, especially all of the expenses that I have, but with smart shopping and cutting out frivolous spending, it is totally doable!

2. Apply to a doctoral program.
Yikes. It's a huge commitment but one that I'm ready to explore. The university I currently work for offers a tremendous tuition credit and it would be crazy for me not to at least apply and take classes towards a doctoral program.

3. Read 26 books.
On my last birthday, I made a goal to read 25 books before 26 and I succeeded! Woo hoo! Time to start reading again for this year :)

4. Fully run a 5k.
I will train, building my endurance (and confidence) and run my 5k before age 27.

5. Get to my goal weight.
I know, I've said it before and I will keep saying it until it comes true. I will reach my goal weight, and I will reach it before I turn 27. I woke up this morning weighing 216.2 and by November 5, 2011 I will weigh 158 - which will be a total weight loss of 100 pounds when (not if) I reach my goal.

6. Make an additional $30 payment each month towards my student loans.
I have over $46,000 in student loans. It's a scary number. It sucks. But, it had to be done and I have two very beautifully-framed degrees to show for it. I know an extra $30 a month won't be much, but it's a start. Starting is the key theme of this year.

7. Make an additional $25 payment each month towards my car payment.
I am almost under $9,000 owed on my car - woo hoo! By paying an extra $25 a month, I will have lower payments in the future, and can hopefully pay my car off sooner.

8. De-clutter and organize my life at work and home.
Geez, I need more organization. I'm not totally disorganized, but I am too much clutter in my life. I will focus on various parts of my life and organize them along the way, such as: my recipe collection, coupons, the kitchen, clothing, files at work, etc.

9. Commit to working out NO LESS than twice a week.
There is no reason why I can't and shouldn't be working out AT LEAST twice a week. I should be working out more than that, and I know it. Thus, I commit to working out at least twice a week.

10. Write a book.
I've said it for so long that I wanted to write a book, I've started a handful of projects and never moved past the first couple of pages. I signed up for NaNoWriMo which is National Novel Writing Month. It is a challenge that asks you to write 50,000 words during the month of November. By starting with NaNoWriMo, I will have a book written before my next birthday. (Note: I didn't say PUBLISHED, I just said I wanted to write a book.)

To achieve my goals, stay on track - and honestly, to stay accountable - I will post a weekly blog (on Fridays) with updates.

Signed, sealed and delivered.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Liberating Myself From Food - That's Fit

Liberating Myself From Food - That's Fit

EEKS! i'm so excited - it's my first That's Fit Blogger post. Up. Live. NOW! WOO HOO!

(oh, p.s. click the link above to read the said blog, lol)

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

super exciting news! yay! (and no, i'm not pregnant)

side note: it's really annoying that once you are married and you have exciting news, you ALWAYS have to preface it with the it with "no, i'm not pregnant" because people automtically think that is your exciting news. anyways...

ahhhhhh! so, i entered a blog contest early in june from that's fit, a health and wellness website run by aol. i saw the contest come across on twitter (bless you, twitter. i'm sorry i almost didn't give you a chance).

the 'tweet' said the website was looking for the next 'that's fit' weight loss blogger. they want someone to post for their website every other week and detail the adventures of his or her weight loss journey - the good, the bad and the ugly. well, i found out yesterday that is officially official - i am going to be the next weight loss blogger!

my blog will run every other week. i will link to it, but in case you were wondering about their website ahead of time, here is the link: http://www.thatsfit.com/

WOO HOO! i'm super excited and i hope that y'all will read my blogs on the that's fit website :) yay yay yay!!!!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

cooking 101...

so, i'm not a cook. let's just be honest. i've never enjoyed cooking and i always just said, "i can't cook."

well, anyone can cook. if you can read and slightly follow a recipe, you are capable of preparing food. now, fancy complicated things? well no, us cooking-challenged folks can't do that, but things that are slightly easy? probably.

i've been updating my creations on facebook every now and then, so i'm going to try and post my little adventures.
peter and i have been trying to makes some huge lifestyle changes in terms of what we've been eating, so that has definitely given me the push i needed to experiment in the kitchen.

tonight's experiment:
black bean and brown rice cakes with a cilantro-lime-yogurt sauce and old-bay roasted sweet potatoes

recipe source - prevention magazine

difficulty level - this was one of the more challenging recipes i've tried so far

outcome - overall, i was pleasantly surprised. the cilantro-lime-yogurt sauce tasted super yummy with the black bean cakes! i will definitely make this again sometime. this was the first time i've used the spice 'cumin' which i really enjoyed. it was also the first time i've used a jalapeno pepper! because the pepper was seeded and finely chopped, the cakes had a small "kick" but they weren't spicy!

wanna try?

ingredients:
2 cans black beans
2 large scallions (i used a small bunch of green onions)
1 jalapeno seeded and chopped
1/4 tsp cumin
3/4 cup cooked brown rice
salt and pepper
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 tbsp cilantro
1 tbsp lime juice (i used half of a fresh lime)
*doesn't call for it, but i used a bit of garlic salt

directions:

preheat oven to 450

in food processor pulse half beans with scallions (or green onions), jalapeno and cumin (i used a bit of garlic salt too) a chunky paste forms. in a large bowl, combine bean puree with rice and remaining beans. season with salt and pepper. dive into eight patties.

brush baking sheet with oil. put in oven to heat for 5 minutes. place patties on hot sheet and bake until bottoms are golden brown - 10 to 12 minutes. let stand 5 minutes.

in a small bowl, combine yogurt, cilantro and lime juice. season with salt and pepper (i also seasoned with a little bit of garlic salt but no pepper). serve with patties.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

married!!!!!

hello! wow, i'm so overwhelmed (in a VERY good way) from all of the congratulatory messages and well wishes for peter and myself in regards to our very recent marriage. it came as a shock for a lot of people (probably just about everyone but peter and myself) so i thought i'd give y'all the details :)

peter and i met october 12, 2008 and started dating october 23, 2008. we were pretty much inseparable after meeting and we just fell in love quickly. we lived together in charlottesville, then moved to maryland and now we are starting another new chapter in michigan. we had planned on having a traditional wedding but with limited resources, we wouldn't be able to have the wedding that we wanted until at least 2011 if not later...

earlier this summer, we talked about getting a legal marriage (courthouse) sometime in the coming months and then having a wedding ceremony with friends and family later. we probably started having these discussions around may. fast forward to august...i interviewed and accepted a position as the director of residence life at madonna university. to live together, peter and i have to be married.

we had planned on peter living with his dad about 70 miles away until we could get married, like we had planned on anyways, and had even set the tentative date as october 23...which would have been exactly a year since we started dating.

we were excited about this plan and knew that we could make the couple months living apart work, but then we were talking monday night (aug. 24) and decided we wanted to get married before leaving maryland! we weren't sure if this would even be a possibility with such a short time frame, but we decided to look into it. i went tuesday the 25th and applied for the marriage license and we were able to schedule our marriage ceremony for thursday august 27th.

soooooooooo, we went and looked and picked out our beautiful rings on wednesday. wednesday is also the day we made some nerve-wracking phone calls. peter called my mother to ask her permission to marry me. after she said yes, we went on a walk and that's when peter officially asked me to marry him!!!! it was sweet and of course i cried. then, we called some more of our immediate family and let them know that we were getting married the next day.

had circumstances been different and we had the resources, we would have loved a medium sized wedding to share our love with those who mean the most to us, but since we couldn't do that at this time, we decided we wanted to share that moment privately. the only people there when we married were us (obvi) and the officiant.

was it a traditional fairtytale wedding? not quite, but it was romantic and special and absolutely wonderful for us. we are so ridiculously happy! after gettin' hitched, we went and picked out a nice cake at a local market, got a VERY tasty bottle of bubbly then went and walked around a pretty pond to just enjoy being husband and wife :) once we got home, we also shared a first dance to keith urban's "only you can love me this way."

that's our story. sometimes life takes us down paths we didn't even know existed.

OH, side note: some of you were asking how to pronounce my new last name. phonetically it is: wiz (like wiz kid or cheese wiz)
ness (like va-NESS-a)
key (like the they key you unlock the door with)
wiz-ness-key:) aka wisniewski

*love and hugs*