Well I'm on day 6 of being healthy jamie. It's going great... no troubles so far. I don't have a scale so I don't know if I've lost any weight but I know that just from dieting in my past, you usually lose a lot of water weight in the first 2 weeks. I don't really care about what a scale says anyway...it's going to be in my clothes that I'll be able to tell. The reason I feel great is because I'm learning how to only eat when I'm hungry. I haven't really done that in years..sounds funny but it's true. For the past 2 nights I've had the most tasty dinner ever and I wanted to share it with you. This is for those of you who like Tuna but are getting board with just a plain ol' tuna sandwhich. Also good if you're going low carb. You can omit the crackers if you want.
Jamie's Tuna Cakes 1 can of tuna, drained 1 egg (you can use just the egg white if you want to go low-fat) 1 tbs mayonnaise (I used fat free but whatever you have is fine) 1 tsp Dijon style mustard a squeeze of lemon juice (this adds a ton to it) Salt and Pepper 4 crackers crushed up into fine crumbs (I used Breton Whole Wheat low fat Crackers)
mix that all together, makes 4 patties. Roll them into a ball, about the size of an egg, then flatten them between your hands, like you would while making a hamburger. Lay down on hot frying pan. Do this to all of them, cook about 3-4 min on each side or until slightly browned.
Enjoy!
(not my photo but similar to what they should turn out like)
The past week my desire for losing weight and gaining control of my eating habits has increased dramatically. Though I often go through periods of dropping a few pounds and gaining it back (and then some), I feel that this time is different, for a couple reasons. I'm just in the beginning stages, but I think I found 2 resources that will really help me stay on track and I wanted to share it with the world wide web (or the 7 people that read my blog ;)
Anyway, you've all heard of The Secret, right? If not, take a gander around their website, it's kind of cool. I've mentioned it on my blog here a few months ago, but it's been talked about every where from Oprah to the news to Saturday Night Live (making fun of it obviously). Whether you think it's the greatest thing on earth or the most overrated thing on earth, either way it still has some good truths to it. Anyway, this post is not about The Secret.....it's about believing that something is actually possible. I seriously think that I have not lost this weight because deep down inside I don't think it's possible. I've always been on the heavy side for my height (being short sucks...healthy weight for 5ft is only 100-110 lbs) and I just got used to it and accepted that I'd always be fat. But I didn't really realize that I had done this until I heard on The Secret, about how we need to truly believe something can happen before it will happen... take that as you will, but I took it as unless I believe it's possible for me to be a healthy weight, it will never happen and I will continue to yo-yo diet forever. So I've been mulling it over the past couple weeks, and then I came across this 30 min "meditation" on weight loss. At first I did the typical "ooooh meditation...spirits..bad" thing but then I realized that it wasn't that at all. It's simply just stating that you can do this and the more I listen to it, the more I believe it. It helps me to visualize myself at a healthy weight...this was really hard for me to do at first.
The concept of losing weight by "hypnosis" or meditation first came up when I was watching one of those Oprah DVD's. One of her guests she had on the show had lost like 500 lbs without surgery, and he was saying that he was able to do it by changing the way he thought by hypnosis. As I read up on it, I learned that it's not the kind of hypnosis where you go to 'sleep' or walk around in a trance. It's just listening to a message and accepting it, and in this case the message is something to the effect of, "you have it in you to lose weight, eat only when you're hungry, not turn to food for comfort, etc". Judge me if you will, but I must admit I am feeling better than I have about losing weight in years. I feel that I can finally do it. (if you want more info on this tape, email me....)
The second thing I came across is this online community, called Spark People (why it's called that, I have no idea). Because not only do you need to believe that you can do it, but you need a community of people that will help you when you lose momentum. This is a free site which really surprised me, because there are a lot of these out there where you have to pay. Anyway, you sign up, and it helps you figure out your goals as far as losing weight, exercise, and the time frame you want to have. Then it creates a fitness plan for you. If you follow the plan, you will be at the weight you want by the time you need (it tells you if you're being unrealistic). It has a food plan, but if you don't want to use that you can put in your own food you're eating so you can track your calories. It also has a recommended exercise plan and helps you figure out if you're exercising enough to lose the pounds. There are message boards and groups (like facebook) so you have a community of people who are all going through it together. I think it's going to be great... Check it out and let me know what you think! www.sparkpeople.com
It's been a little while since I've posted, but really it's because I don't have a ton to say. My life is pretty routine now, which involves school from 9am-4pm, maybe going for a little bike ride, doing the dishes, making dinner, watching ER. Yes I've been watching the early seasons of ER and I am soo loving it. I started with season 4 last year because Mariska Hargitay was in it, but then I've just kept going and now I'm on season 7. It brings back memories because I was watching these seasons when they were on about 7 years ago.
Speaking of TV (one of my favorite things to speak about...) next week is one of the greatest weeks of the year - Premiere week!!! I seriously cannot wait.. I'm going to stick with a few of the old shows, like: Grey's Anatomy (of course... supposedly it's going to be a much 'happier' season this year) ER (This is going to be it's last season...so sad...but they're bringing back all the old stars like Carter and Doug and Carol etc) Brothers and Sisters (Congrats Sally Field for winning best actress, even though you did beat Mariska..) Law and Order:SVU (This season will hopefully be better than the last, the season premiere looks really good..it's about multiple personality disorder!) And for new shows this year I am going to give Private Practice a try, not only does it have Kate Walsh (from Grey's) but Amy Brenneman, whom I totally love from Judging Amy.
So everybody, make sure your tuning in because if you miss the first week you'll be totally out of the loop. Give a new show a try!
Today we went to church. It was actually a really great experience. The church, Bethany Community Church, is a bit bigger than what I'm used to (not nearly as big as Broadway in Vancouver though) and has 3 services, but after being at a smaller church last year I found that being in a bigger crowd actually felt a little more comfortable. For people like Craig and I, we seem to work better in extremely small groups (like one on one or no more than, say, 6?) or larger groups where you don't feel like "the new people". So this church was a good size for that. But, it's not impersonal in the least..there are so many different types of small groups and classes and all sorts of things. It has a little coffee shop in it, and takes mission trips, etc. So yeah, I think we'll keep going.
But anyway, you know how pastors sometimes do a little comedy routine type thing in the beginning of the sermon? Well, the one today was really funny and I thought I'd share. Not sure if it's true, but it sure is funny...
At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated:
"If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."
In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued this press release...
If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:
1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy anew car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver, such as a left turn, would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed an Illegal Operation" warning light.
7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced, car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.
we're not in Tomahawk high school spanish anymore...
This is the difference between high school and college... In high school Spanish class, we would have vocab every friday which consisted of no more than 15-20 words. Here is a picture of my vocab words just for the first week! Yikes... and they cheat too, cause it's not just single words but phrases...that shouldn't count as vocab!
I think I'm used to this place now...the newness is wearing off. I remember the first whole month in this house I felt so out of place.. like I couldn't remember where the bathroom was or something, or I guess it just felt like it wasn't 'my' bathroom..or 'my' bedroom. But now it's all normal. It's amazing how well humans can adjust to new places...homes especially. In the grand scheme of things, it really doesn't take that long. I remember on my outreach to Morocco when we'd travel to a different city each week, I felt nervous about leaving my little homey hotel room (even if it was infested with cockroaches) and starting over.
But that said, I still don't know a soul. Not that I'm surprised, as I haven't been any where or done anything that would allow me to meet someone. I need my brother to come up here and give me lessons on making friends. It's weird because when we were little, he was more the shy one..but in our adulthood it seems that we have switched places. Either that or my time in YWAM turned me anti-social. It can tend to do that to you, if you let it, and I think I let it. Not because it's bad but just because it's too easy to make friends with ywamers.
I think I'll go to church this sunday and see if anyone wants to be my friend ;)
Well it's day 2 of school and day 2 went waaayyy better than day 1...day 1 was a little stressful..a lot stressful. I haven't felt that much stress physically in a loong time... I had this weird heartburn all of sunday and monday. But today....ahh today everything went perfect, I got my spanish class up and running (main cause of stress yesterday - fatal errors and such...) and I'm ahead of the game now in all my classes. I like it so far - it's a lot of work but it's fun work (for the most part). I could ramble on about all the things I'm learning but I wouldn't want to bore you, so here are my top 2 new things I've learned:
#1. I learned how to make spanish letters on my keyboard! All you have to do is hold down alt and then 4 numbers, and bang - a spanish letter! Watch..... alt + 0241 = ñ super cool... ¿¡áéó
#2. This is a direct quote from my Sex and Gender: a Cross Cultural Perspective textbook:
The Vibrator, one of the first electrical appliances, was developed in the 1880's to aid doctors in external pelvic massage. At the time, stimulating a women's genitals was an accepted and well-established treatment for female hysteria and congestion of the genitalia, but was considered an uninteresting and time-consuming procedure. The vibrator produced wonderful results (efficient, practical, fast). Doctors reported that women were so satisfied with the improved massage, that some returned frequently enough to be called "cash cows." Vibrators were seen as so nonsexual that they were soon marketed for home use in respectable ladies journals. In 1918, Sears advertised vibrators as "Aids that every woman appreciates" (Lafont, 1).
Last night Craig and I went to Cambridge to help his parents out with an employee dinner they were hosting for Keith's work. We were the 'bar-tenders' but that really just meant opening beers for people...it went well and as always it's great to be able to see family to easily now! My friend Sarah had her third baby on Sept 5th - how cute is she? Her name is Freya Raine - Congrats to their family! I'm at that age where a lot of my friends and the people I went to school with are having kids. I think it's really neat!
School starts tomorrow....so today's my last day of freedom. I'm not sure what I want to do...maybe just lay around and watch TV or something! I'll let you know how it goes.
The last of my school books arrived today! I'm all set now to start classes on the 10th. Actually, my classes opened up yesterday so I've been able to read all my syllabuses (syllaby?) and find out the course schedules. Wow... pretty crazy. In my writing class it looks like I've got a different kind of paper due every 2 weeks, and in my Spanish book even the directions are written in Spanish! Yikes..!
Please take 58 seconds to watch and see this clip from Miss Teen 2007 South Carolina, as she gives her answer to the question, "Recent Polls have shown that a fifth of Americans can't locate The US on a world map. Why do you think this is?"
Name: jamie Home: St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada About Me: I am an American living in Ontario. I've just recently started going to school again for a BA in Human Services. I like mexican and indian food and watching tv way more than the average individual. I absolutely love talking to my parents on the phone and my brother is one of my best friends. I'm married to a great guy whose pretty much the exact opposite of me but he loves me and makes laugh and we have a lot of fun. I didn't always feel this way, but these days I'm feelin' pretty good. That's my life, welcome to chaos and order. See my complete profile
